More Snow!!??

5 a.m., Thursday Morning; South King County --

When Grumpy roused out of bed this morning, what to his wondering eyes should appear but -- NO, not "eight tiny reindeer and a sleigh .... " -- more snow! Of course the TV weatherman had "mentioned" something about the possibility of snow in "the lowlands" ["the lowlands": Seattle weather-ese for "right down here at Sea Level!"]. But Grumpy has become accustomed to disbelief in the utterances of the local weather-prognosticators. Too frequently they give misleading or downright deceptive forecasts, such as "partly sunny tomorrow with periods of showers" (translation: rain all day), or, "partly cloudy and warmer" (translation: the sun may peek out sometime during the day and the temperature may get all the way up to 50 degrees!).

So, you can imagine Grumpy's surprise to venture out this morning to pick up his morning paper and find a scene of white before him! A small set of tracks broke the flat, white pattern of the 3 to 4 inch covering. Grumpy guessed that it was one of the neighborhood cats that had left the trail. Wanting to get photographic evidence, Grumpy took this photo and was shocked, when he previewed it to find it filled with white blotches all over, obscuring the tracks he thought to capture!

Pondering what could have caused these spots, Grumpy rolled over the following possibilities in his still-sleepy mind: 1) Condensate on the inner lenses or objective sensor of the 600 camera (oh no!!), or, 2) Dirt on the lenses or sensor (bigger "oh no!!"), or (finally), 3) Snow still falling (oh yes!!) -- I'll be darned!!

So Grumpy took this next picture (above), still attesting to the falling snow, but better showing the indentations of the cat prints in the new-fallen snow. Later, Grumpy took another picture (see right) after another animal had used -- and enlarged -- the previous tracks to make his (or her) way up the driveway and on out into the morning for its own adventure of the day. Grumpy thinks the fresher, larger tracks belong to one of the local racoons.

Still later, Grumpy found even larger tracks in the snow! (see left) Now who could have made these? Here is a hint:Grumpy has reason to believe it is the same Grandson who talks the Grand Mother into baking him his favorite lemon "gooshie" pie which he is shown here eating with gusto. [Grumpy has tried in vain to convince Ramiro to ask for Lemon Meringue Pie, which he has assured Ramiro that Grumpy would help him eat.]

A Micro-mini-Reunion

Wednesday, 25 February 2009; SeaTac WA --

Breakfast this Wednesday morning found Jack and Grumpy "pigging out" on "High Fiber" pancakes and link sausages at an old favorite hangout, with Jack's son, John, and two of John's high school classmates of yesteryear.

A purpose of this early-morning get-together was to provide to John some photographs taken by Grumpy of the progress in construction of Jack's new home being built to replace the one lost to a fire over a year ago. But every meeting of old friends can be justified by other purposes as well. This meeting was no exception.

Jack was a classmate, back in 1938-40, of Grumpy's older brother and sister at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (SDSM&T). Subsequently, when Grumpy was enrolled at SDSM&T as a student in Mechanical Engineering, Jack was one of his professors! Still later at Boeing, Jack lured Grumpy into transferring from the BOMARC tooling engineering department (where Grumpy was technically frustrated!) to the Automatic Controls group -- also part of the BOMARC project -- where Grumpy's very satisfying career as a Controls Engineer began.

Being a Mechanical Engineer (as well as a graduate Electrical Engineer) one would expect him to be completely adept at deciphering the intricacies of a digital camera. Here, on the right, one can perceive Jack's frustration and amazement at how complicated the designers and manufacturers manage to make these new-fangled cameras. To Jack's credit, this camera was brand-new to him this morning, having been purchased recently by son John as a replacement to Jack's previous camera that had worn out. Being Jack, he soon had it figured out!

Valentine's Day 2009 -- Dinner at Ivar's

Valentine's Day 2009; Ivar's Mukilteo Landing --

Two Sea gull's "begging for a handout" at Ivar's!

This evening, 54 years 16 hours after our youngest birth-daughter's birth, we met Ruth and Paul at Ivar's Mukilteo Landing Restaurant for dinner. Ruth promised that Mother would find something "besides fish" to eat!

This also happened to exactly 61 years after Grumpy presented Elynor with her 1/4 carat diamond ring (the one that about 58 years later became "too small" and was subsequently supplanted by a 3/4 carat diamond -- and larger diameter ring --), the symbol of their mutual commitment to engagement almost 62 years ago. So, with plenty of reasons to celebrate, Mother and Grumpy drove North to Mukilteo to meet the Brandal's.


The choices for dinner were: Cedar-Planked Sockeye Salmon with polenta and string beans for Ruth, Paul and Grumpy; and for Mother, Filet Mignon with saute'd baked-potato fingers and asparagus spears. All meals were declared "delicious", fulfilling expectations at this restaurant bearing the name and reputation of Ivar Haglund, that late, but immortalized curmudgeon of Seattle's "Acres of Clams" fame.

Prior to ordering our choices of desserts, our waitress presented us with a five-question "test", promising that if we got any three correct answers, we would receive a "surprise" reward. Each question was "multiple choice" and should have been "aced" by any trivial pursuits afficianado. Since none us fell into that category, we "flunked" the test, getting only two of the answers correct. However, we vehemently objected to the waitress' labelling our answer to the last question as "wrong"; the last question was, "Clam Nectar is considered an aphrodesiac; what is the limit of Clam Nectars that are permitted for a married man at Ivar's without his wife's permission?" The choice of answers were: "1, 2, 3, or 4".

We chose "1".

The waitress said, "The correct answer is three! I'm sorry, but all of you got it wrong!"
We argued: "But we are quite sure the correct answer is only one!"
"Nope!" replied the waitress. "It is three!!"
To which Ruth vehemently retorted: "Not at OUR house!!"

We all roared with laughter; the waitress nearly doubled over with laughter!!
Obviously a good time was had by all.

Valentine's Day Lunch with Susan

Valentine's Day Lunch at the Olive Garden --

Our oldest daughter, Susan, ventured down from "Snoose" County to join us for lunch at the Olive Garden. We each had the Olive Garden's inimitable "bottomless" bowl of soup, although the Grand Mother demurred on having the delicious clam chowder enjoyed by our oldest daughter and Grumpy. Besides lunch, we enjoyed a long visit and update on the lives of the Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren of the North.

The Grand Mother (a.k.a., First Wife) also obliquely praised Grumpy to our daughter, for having made a custom Valentine's Day card. He presented this card to her with a steaming cup of morning coffee, accompanied by singing/whistling a "special" song of which both the words and music were written by Grumpy.

Ask Grumpy to sing this special song for you sometime.

Cousins; Cute Little Dickens(on's)

Saturday, 6 February 2009; Kirkland WA --

The Grand Mother and Grumpy drove to Kirkland on this day to celebrate the life of Paul's Mother's life. Martha Brandal passed away this past week after a short but painful illness. But this post is more about a happy time during the reception afterwards, when three little cousins were observed in some not-so-quiet moments.

Here, the three (Malachi 4 1/2, Gracie-Mae 2 and Amos 3) were noticed sitting on the fireplace hearth sharing some of the goodies served at the reception. First Malachi tempts Gracie-Mae with a morsel with Amos observing (or turning away in disgust?!?), then Amos takes a turn at trying to give Gracie-Mae a bite; finally (below), the two brothers appear to just give up on trying to feed their little girl cousin.

Later, the three came over to sit at the table with the adults and Malachi started the following conversation:

Gracie-Mae just slobbers on her food!

She just slobbers on her food? Is that right!

Uh huh!! She just slobbers on her food! And then she wants me to eat it -- Ye-e-uckk!!

(Pause ...)

But Amos likes it!!

The above photos of the participants were taken by their Aunt Ruth and no children were permanently harmed in the making of this posting.