Goat box, heh heh

OK, wrapping up my visit to the Pacific Northwest:

Focus your eyeballs on this particular gem. I purchased it from a super cool outfit called Bossy's Feltworks, which has a table at a weekly Saturday farmer's market. The eponymous sheep Bossy is "the matron of the Lum flock" according to the Bossy site and she apparently loves apples, which I suppose is not surprising. If I met her, I'd probably feel a little starstruck.



The woman who made this would probably pish-posh about me considering this an awesome work of art, but I do, and not only because I admire the craftsmanship. I also can't imagine ever getting tired of staring at it. I mean, couldn't you marvel over this tableau forever, wondering who these goats are and what they're doing? Are they friends, one talking the other off a literal ledge? Romantically involved in a Romeo-and-Juliet situation? A couple brothers just horsing around? Maybe the brown one has a lumber business and the gray goat is being future-minded and has come to stock up a little bit for the upcoming winter.



And here's a license plate I'd have, if I had a car, and felt the need to express myself via my license plate.

Fear! Architecture! Oysters! Family! Alpacas!

Walking and driving around Seattle for a couple days was really fun.



I'm particularly envious of the aforementioned Seattle library designed by Rem Koolhaas. You can take the elevator to the highest floor of the building, the 10th, and walk down in a spiral, noticing how on each floor people are enjoying the space: reading, hanging out, listening to their headphones. One guy was working on a compelling-looking needlepoint art project. Somewhere around the 5th floor the stairway turns into a super saturated, bright red realm that's like a big open mouth. Kids who grow up using this library are going to remember this aspect of it, boy!



Here I am wondering why more architecture isn't as fun, inventive, and useful as Rem Koolhaas'.



Then we took off for the island to visit my sister and the kids. We brought them all presents, including some Japanese eraser characters with removable heads. Don't these guys look like I stopped them in the middle of their adventure so I could take their picture?



From what I could tell, Hazy is always in the midst of an art project. She created this mixed media masterpiece one afternoon while we were there.



We also visited some recently shaved alpacas one afternoon. Alpacas just throw themselves on the ground and fall asleep in a heap, like the one there in the middle ground.



For most of the visit we stayed at a hippie-zen-yoga-hot tubby resort on a gorgeous waterfront location. It felt, in a great way, like summer camp for grownups. A music festival was going on during the last 2 days of our visit and all these music lovers from Seattle (a place teeming with music lovers) showed up and pitched tents on the grass in front of our cabin and in the woods around us.



We sat on our porch and I squeezed (3 small drops on each!) lemon on the 500th big batch of oysters P had just shucked for us. I probably don't need to tell you oysters are where it's at.

Hooray for getting out of town!

Spacey needle

P and I spent a quick couple days in Seattle before heading off to Orcas island last weekend. I have never drunk so much espresso or eaten so many fresh oysters in all my life. I had to pull P away from ogling all the organic vegetables in the Pike Place market and he had to pull me away from swooning over the awesome Rem Koolhaas-designed public library and damn, I am a new fan of Mirror Pond pale ale on tap, the most delicious beer ever in my opinion. I have a feeling I'll be posting more about this trip so stay tuned if you're so inclined.

Rained-on fox