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Sorry, long time, no posts….let’s just say I’ve been busy and life’s been crazy, but mostly in a good way. Today warrants a special blahg post! Seester Kelly has returned to work @  CBP Port of Portland!

Many congrats, Officer Kelly - I hope you have plenty of decades ahead of you taking a bite out of customs and border protection crime! Here’s to hoping you get to shoot your gun up in the air and go "ARRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHH" as often as you like!!

There’s no way you could perpetrate that amount of carnage and mayhem and not incur a considerable amount of paperwork!

Hugs and love Miss Kelly…I’m so proud of you!

Andy and I have had the joy of discovering some interesting restaurant names over the last year. And with the way things are going right now, I’m sure everyone wants an edge in the marketplace. Here are two of our favorite sightings:

Naan Stop indian Food….excellent pun factor. This little "dahl" was spotted on our recent trip down to Santa Barbara, CA - more specifically the UCSB (our alma mater) college town of Isla Vista. It was amazing to see some serious changes on campus, and in town - especially how much cleaner the place looked (and smelled). We didn’t have a chance to stop in and sample the fares because we had just stuffed ourselves at Woodstock’s, but hat’s off to the owner for coming up with such a catchy name.

Get Bento! I’m pretty sure I was in a foul mood when we first spotted this former gas-station gone bento joint in Portland, OR. Having spotted this gem sure did cheer me up. It must be fun to work there and answer the phones and tell every caller "Good afternoon, Get Bent….O!"

The last restaurant we don’t have a photo of just yet. It’s in Bellevue, WA and we have yet to go back up there and snap a good picture. But it’s for a tiny Vietnamese restaurant called "What the Pho". That tops my list, and it must also be nice to answer the phones there as well. For those of you who don’t know. Pho is pronounced "Fuh" and is a Vietnamese noodle-soup. And if I had to explain it to you, it’s probably not that funny anymore…

Can you see a Hummer Stretch Limo parked at a Smart Car Dealership.

We’ve been doing our best to "go green" as much as possible. We’ve always recycled, and enjoy composting through our trash collector. Someday we will start our own pile so our own yard can benefit free of charge. We’ve finally bought reusable bags to pack our groceries in and have been slowly switching to green personal care and cleaning products. Organic foods have always been big in our house - so nothing new there.

I refuse to switch to compact fluorescent bulbs simply because they contain mercury, the light they produce is dismal at best, and I think that there are better options out there emerging and we’ll see improvements in white LED and efficient incandescent bulbs here in a few years.

Green and Hybrid cars have come under fire for so many reasons I can’t even go into. Carbon offsets are also coming under fire as ways for people and corporations to feel better while still polluting and not changing their behaviors.

So, what the bleep are we all supposed to do?

Well, I think this guy has an interesting idea…Michael Reynolds, self-proclaimed Garbage Warrior and architect (who’s had his professional license stripped from him, and has since been reinstated) has been building truly green homes with his team of cohorts for decades. They are homes and communities that are made from trash, recyclables, earth filled tires, and utilize the building site and location for temperature control. They are truly off the grid, and drastically different from what you and I would consider normal.

The film is a little strange at first, Michael is no clean cut architect or business man, but he is a man with a vision - and that is what will truly win you over.

What is perhaps the most crazy aspect of the film is watching him attempt to win over New Mexico State Legislators by simply asking to have a piece of land granted as an experimental green building zone. Since 100% of what this guy does is considered NOT up to code, he’s been to hell and back trying to get architects, builders, and developers to pull their heads out of their asses and look at alternative ways to create a home and sustain life.

So - check out the film Garbage Warrior, and Michael’s company Earthship Biotecture.

Also - other neat and inspiring programs that we’ve enjoyed recently were Modern Marvels episodes Environmental Tech and Environmental Tech II on The History Channel. They showcased some very cool earth friendly technology in the forms of compressed air cars, biofuels created from algae, wind power generation that could feasibly take place in your own backyard or on your roof.

So, who knew opening a business could be so exhausting? Last week was a literal sweat storm of manic madness…but the new Abundant Health Acupuncture location in Tacoma opened on Monday, May 5th.

Many thanks to all who participated to help get the space up and running - and if you couldn’t be there…thanks for your good vibes!

At Dim Sum a few weekends ago, someone pointed out that the new location was opening on Cinco de Mayo, and I’m sure I looked rather stupefied as I don’t even think the thought had really crossed my mind.

Honestly, the "stars" were consulted for when the best time to open a business would be, and it turns out that new moons are excellent "energetic" times to open a new business…so far so good is all I have to say. 3 new clients for my massage practice in the two days we’ve been open.

One particular person, who shall remain nameless, had the humor to say he wished we had plenty of flan for the grand opening day, as he was sure it was the perfect TCM treat…I now have him to thank for the Rice a Roni jingle being stuck in my head. But at least I have a smile on my face. Alas, no margaritas were to be had on Monday, exhaustion alone sufficed for a drunken state of mind.

So - here is perhaps the most current picture of my massage room. It’s hard to get a good "overall" picture of the room with my camera, and if that happens, I’ll be sure to post it.

Landscape style so you can see the door trim. More fine work from Carlos Taylor-Swanson of Madera Fine Decorative Furnishings and Gallery (if you haven’t read previous posts, he also did all of the AMAZING free-standing cabinets in each of the 5 rooms at the practice).

My room (early on in the setup process -it looks a little different now) but you get the idea, at least of my coppery orange "metal" wall.

More detail of that wonderful cabinetry!

IF I remember correctly (and that’s a big IF right now) my cabinet was made from whorled maple and trimmed/cased out with cherry…super sweet!

Word on the street is that these cabinets go for a nice round, healthy amount…so if you’re interested, start saving, and give Carlos a call for an estimate. Size, type of wood, and finish will all add to the cost. Carlos does plenty of other excellent work, and has a gallery in the front of his shop with new work constantly being displayed by various artists!

The next two pictures are from last week. I haven’t had a chance yet to get good pics of the reception area and other treatment rooms, but will post some soon, I hope.

This is the view of reception from the front door. Yep - you guessed it - Carlos made the desk too! Pictures have been hung now, and the space has been cleaned up - so forgive the clutter, please!

View of reception from the front desk - again from a week ago, so it’s changed since then.

That’s the bulk of all I have right now…hopefully in the next week the remaining baseboard trim and other small, fine touches will be completed. I know we will all be laughing in a few weeks when the wheels are churning and it’s business as usual. But oh, what I wouldn’t give for a few days off, a massage, some acupuncture…

Woo hoo! The new space in Tacoma is almost ready to move into and Linda will be moving her massage therapy practice to this location! Here is the view from the street. The  entrance to the practice is a door just to the right of this window.

This is the view from reception down the hallway.

The view in reverse….standing down the hallway looking out to reception.

View from the very back of the building, the countertop is where herb preparation will take place - and there will be herb storage along the back wall on the right.

Picture of the same area but taken from a different direction. This area is located just to the right of my treatment room.

My room….

The alcove in my room where custom cabinetry will be placed for storage - as well as looks!

Custom Cabinetry under construction by Carlos Taylor-Swanson of Madera Fine Decorative Furnishings. His wife, Lisa owns Abundant Health Acupuncture, who I’ll be leasing my treatment room from.

Each set of cabinets in the 5 treatment rooms will be made from different types of wood - I can’t wait to see what he comes up with to put in my treatment room!

There is still a great deal of work to do, but I know it will all come together in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more pictures…I’ll be sure to post pictures of the space when we’ve opened!

I don’t even want to tell you what I paid at the pump yesterday - and it’s not even summer gas gouging season yet. This should give you an idea though.

Converting to an HD Receiver from our sat provider necessitated it, but I miss the peanut. 

I have, in recent years, made it known that I am a number of things, one of them being a Tivo whore. There, I said it.

However, with our recent upgrade of boob tube equipment, we also needed an HD receiver in order to, lo and behold, receive HD TV….

Unfortunately, the easiest thing for us to do was use the DVR our sat provider currently uses, which is FAR FROM TIVO. Close, but they just don’t cut it when it comes to speed, functionality, and quite frankly, cuteness. After just a few weeks, I’ve gotten used to the new tech, and have piped down about being an old dog having to learn new tricks.

But, the new tech has also been persnickety (or perhaps it is I who am persnickety - do people even use this word anymore?). It has been slow when it comes to fast-forwarding of all things, and especially playing audio right after the fast-fowarding stops. So, you stop fast forwarding, have no audio for five seconds, then have to rewind for 10 seconds, just so you can get audio back at the appropriate time.

The one truly amusing thing about the new DVR is the "donk" noise it makes when you hit a button on the remote that does not compute. It’s right out of late 70’s, early 80’s PONG from those great Atari VCS and Atari 2600 stations. Have I told you lately that I feel old?

I have also recently discovered how entirely vain I am. Watching HD broadcasts can be highly entertaining, especially when it comes to the close ups. Holy cow, she has bad skin, look at all those bumps! There must be 30 layers of foundation on that to try and cover that up! It’s particularly amazing to be able to see the difference just by going up one channel to the non-HD broadcast. I have to admit though, it is nice to know that some of these superstars have acne, bags under their eyes, and can look tired as well….it’s made them much more human to me.

If you’ve seen Meet the Fockers, you know what I’m talking about…

Andy and I were cleaning up our respective stacks of bills, mail, and other general "stuff" on Sunday, when he turned to me with a chuckle, put a piece of paper in my hand and asked, "Do you want to keep this?"

Our ensuing quotes of  - So have a chimichaaaanga….BEEEEEEEP! ensued in our best Barbara Streisand voices and kept us giggling for a few minutes while shredding a stack of junk mail.

For Christmas 2006, I received a 2007 Word Origin Calendar, one of those daily calendars that make for great scrap paper for shopping lists, and if you’re lucky, some amusement each day as well.

The first 8 months or so of the calendar did prove to be rather exciting and full of very common words in the lexicon, but for the remainder of the year, nothing much peaked our interests when it came to fascinating word origins. Oh well.

However, July 12, 2007 proved to be amusing enough for us to hold onto.

CHIMICHANGA: A common feature on  menus in Mexican restaurants, a chimichanga is a deep-fried burrito (whose name, strangely, means "little burro"). In the Spanish of the US - Mexico borderlands, chimichanga means something like "whatchamacallit" or "thingamabob", which describes the food pretty well.

So have a chimichaaaaanga….BEEEEEEP!

Hopefully you didn’t ingest any green beer folks, b/c that just is NOT Irish - and I’m sure your liver wouldn’t like the double whammy of alcohol and green dye…

Since we’re discussing alcohol - Andy and I made a trip to 99 Bottles on Sunday while we were out running other errands. We were quite happy when this shop opened up a few miles away from our home. Having lived in Portland, we got used to some of the local microbrews in the area. Thankfully, the Seattle/Tacoma area doesn’t disappoint either.  Since this shop opened up, we’ve had an easier time locating some of our favorites (Rogue, Chimay), and finding new ones from around the world (Erdinger).

After backing out of our parking spot with beer secure in our possession…I watched 2 grown women, one with a child in tow, meander on down past the shop and into the Sushi Roll a few doors down. One of them had shoes….which were completely inexplicable, so I just blurted out to Andy, "LOOK AT THOSE WHORESHOES!!!!"

After a bit of laughing and shouting of lyrics from an old Arrested Development song, Tennessee, "A game of horseshoes" - has now evolved into "A game of WHORE SHOES!!!" I turned to Andy and said - God I feel old. Not only are we singing random lyrics from the 90s, but I’m guffawing over slutty shoes in public, and telling people to cover their mouths when they cough and sneeze now….

Just in case you needed the reminder…cover your mouth and nose - and STAY HOME WHEN YOU’RE SICK!

It’s all down hill from here…but hopefully you all had a great St. Patrick’s Day, and had some beer, preferably the good kind, and NOT green!