what awaits to trip you...

...as you stumble toward the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Originally published June 2012
Edited May 2013 to include the latest scariness, intrepidly snapped by my daughter:

Mmrrwwwaarr

a beautiful moment, worth recording

I've walked through my share of foggy mornings. Let me tell you! As a Seattleite, nothing could be more prevalent. But this morning had a semi-unique kind of fog, following our week of achingly beautiful, summer-like weather.

Have you ever noticed the kind of fog that is like walking through raindrops so tiny and fine that they aren't falling to the ground? It's "heavy", yet it's not thick. And every once in a while, a drop has condensed enough mass that you'll feel a little 'ping!' sensation on your skin as you walk heedlessly into it? This morning was full of 'pings!'

Not too chilly, just calm and surreal, with unexpected little sensations as I stroll toward the bus stop for my morning commute.

television show review: castle

Castle  (2009)

Currently in Season 5 on ABC

Creator:  Andrew W. Marlowe

Starring: Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog), Stana Katic, Molly C. Quinn

Synopsis, found here:

After a serial killer imitates the plots of his novels, successful mystery novelist Richard "Rick" Castle gets permission from the Mayor of New York City to tag along with an NYPD homicide investigation team for research purposes. A "guy's guy", he proves popular with the male team members, but immediately offends the sensibilities of the team leader, Detective Kate Beckett. Though she'll never admit it, he slowly wins her over with his innovative approach to crime solving. He brings to the table skills the others don't have: contacts in Manhattan high society, free-form creative thinking, and years of developing believable fictional characters that have inadvertently molded him into a natural criminal profiler. But life is not all crime fighting adventure for this wealthy playboy: his relationship with Beckett becomes even more strained when he unveils a new series of detective novels featuring a racy character based on her, and his home life is dominated by his mother (a fading Broadway diva) and his whip-smart teen-aged daughter.

I've never been a fan of "cop shows". Actually, "never been a fan" is a euphemism for sneering disgust. It isn't pretty.  I admit I gave Castle a shot only because 1.) my husband was begging me (don't TELL me I never do anything for you!), and 2.) Nathan Fillion was in it. Since I loved Nathan in Firefly by Joss Whedon, and loved to hate him in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog, also by Joss Whedon, giving Castle a small chance to impress me didn't exactly cause a brain rupture... despite my over-exaggerated, exasperated sigh as I reluctantly plopped myself down. But I was already hooked by the end of episode one. 



The story is great, the plot pacing is perfect, and the characters are really fun. While I still find the character of Beckett one-dimensional (she's all about the job, even in Season 5), Castle's life and the story are fleshed out and entertaining enough that I can shrug it off. More importantly, this is a "cop show" that, as a modern woman of reasonable self-respect, I can watch without being overcome with rage and bitterness about the way women are treated, talked about or acting. They managed to make a cop show with a convincingly tough female homicide detective as the ranking officer, without making it dirty, disgusting, sexist and all the other shitty things I have come to expect from "cop shows". What a relief.

I find that Nathan's character, Richard Castle, has the earnestness of his character Mal in Firefly, and the ego of his character Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible.It's an interesting mixture. I've also found that the producers of Castle aren't shy about milking Nathan's past successes with Joss Whedon in a very tongue-in-cheek fashion. I've laughed out loud at a couple of their ploys.

And to crown it all, I just found and downloaded the mystery novel by Richard Castle from my library. The whole mystery series by this fictional writer is available at my local library. I read the first one, Heat Wave, and despite not being a big mystery novel fan, I enjoyed it quite a bit. And not just because of the "thank you" from the "author" at the end of the book, written from Richard Castle's perspective. It was full of hilarious takes off the TV series. Well done.

oh my goooooorsh

A love letter to me from my sister.... :D :D

I Admit I Bit You, It Was A "Thing" (An I Love You Letter To My Sister)

considering columbariums

Tiffy's death anniversary approaches again, and I'm wishing we had a space we could visit when we are thinking about her, maybe want to talk to her. I always envision something like a columbarium, such as this one, but one that isn't sealed. Something we can add pieces of, memories of, Tiffy as we are able. I don't think this is what they're used for, though.

I don't know why I continue to be bothered by this. I don't like the usual standard American fare of memorials or funerals. So what do I want?

Closure, obviously.
Not gonna happen in this family, though.

japanese salaryman style karaoke

According to the website, Seattle's "Rock Box" (located off Pine Street in Capital Hill) offers the experience of "Rocking like a salary-man".  Well, this salary-woman had seen enough Japanese and Korean TV shows where a group of people sing really bad karaoke in a private room -- slamming back drinks and appetizers --  that she really wanted to try it, too.

And since it was my birthday, and everyone had to do what I wanted, it was done. And I loved it!

Anyone who's read my blog for any amount of time knows that my family is not just big into music, but also musical (unfortunately, that doesn't include me...)  With a 10+ year age range difference in attendees, we had a pretty eclectic mix of tunes blasting, including:

• Queen
• Frank Sinatra
• Phantom of the Opera
• Bonnie Tyler
• The Lonely Island
• Dean Martin
• Air Supply
• David Bowie
• Morrisey
• Fun.

There was more, but three drinks in three hours have pushed them from my mind.  Some of the raps I never knew in the first place, but that's alright.  I actually got roped into singing a couple duets myself, which I never thought would happen.

It turned out to be surprisingly affordable, despite appetizers, multiple drinks all around and a private room for 7 people. I'd definitely recommend it.

[More pictures to come.]

that one's mine, hehehehe

Johnny finally started a blog, and one of the perks (besides another look into what's going on in his head when I'm stuck at work all day and sometimes all night) is that he's adding some of his songs, live. Here's the first:



More here.

I'm coming to terms with being a groupie. It's a little embarrassing, but inevitable. :)