Construction Junction

I'm having a hard time getting any good super secret spy photos anymore since they fenced off the parking lot across the street and started tearing down the building. Living right off of Broadway I do see a lot of people that would be perfect for my purposes, but I usually don't have my camera on me. And they might get pissed if I randomly took their photos. Although come on, if you are going to wear some crazy get up and walk all over Capitol Hill, you are obviously trying to attract attention. You aren't fooling anybody. We know you just want to be looked at.

Anyhow, they fenced it all off across the street as you can see in the first photo. And last weekend there was a slew of firefighters who were conducting training and spent all day Saturday and Sunday on the roof cutting holes with chainsaws wearing all that gear. Keep in mind it was sunny and in the 70s. Ugh. Finally we got some action this week with the heavy equipment! The last two pictures show how they are tearing the building apart. It still is only halfway down. No action today. I guess they don't work on weekends.

It is sort of fun to watch people walk by and look at the building all torn apart. I'm sure I'm not alone in having memories of shopping there when it was QFC. And it is interesting watching the demolition guys use the huge, um, machine-thingies to tear the building apart and then sort the pieces so that they have a pile of twisted metal, a pile of crumbled concrete, a pile of wire bits, and a pile of mish-mash including wood, ceiling tiles, insulation, etc.

Beware of Thrift Stores

I'm so behind on posting stuff. Finally downloaded the pictures from my camera and rediscovered this picture above. I had gone out to Yakima to visit family a couple weeks ago and THAT PAINTING was living in the basement. As in, they had specifically seen it at a thrift store, purchased it, and then walked home with it because it was too big to fit in the car. It reminds me of a sweatshirt that my friend Kate had in the fifth grade--white, with a grey airbrushed-looking cat on it. Click on it to see it larger, although nothing can quite convey the impact of seeing it live.

Wow.

It's pretty special.

Cry Me a River

In regards to a conversation I had yesterday with Snotty and Adrian while we were roaming the Olympic Sculpture Park, one of the topics of conversation was the "crying Indian" commercial that played in the 1970's for the Keep America Beautiful campaign.

I remembered that the actor wasn't actually Native American at all, and had to go back and look up the info on him. He was "Iron Eyes" Cody but Wikipedia tells more of the story:

"Cody was born Espera de Corti, a son of Antonio de Corti and his wife Francesca Salpietra, immigrants from Sicily. In some of his earliest acting credits Cody was listed as Tony de Corti. He would soon change his name and claim to be part Cherokee and part Cree.
In 1996, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported his Sicilian heritage, but Cody denied it at the time because he was "ashamed" of his Italian heritage. Cody and his wife Bertha adopted several children, all Native Americans."

Perhaps he actually was part Native American. But it sure doesn't sound like it. He died in 1999 at the age of 94.

tappity tappity tap tap tap

Been busy like a bee inputting resources into the Native Eyes Reference Finder today, which was a side job I picked up a few months ago and have been too busy to work on what with school and all. Things need to be input by the end of the month however, so I'm frantically (well, not really frantically) adding books, chapters, websites, and articles. When possible, I try to put images of the books that I swipe from Amazon in the listings too. Above are a few examples.

Yes, this is how fabulous my life is now. It is Friday night and I'm doing database entry for an academic side job. Whoohoo! But seriously, I don't mind.

Ketchup Head

Today is going fine, but for some reason I feel kind of like pouring ketchup on my head. Credit for the lovely image goes to the Illustrator Denise VanLeuwen (sp!?) from the Netherlands. Nothing awful is going on, it just seems appropriate. And a hot dog sounds tasty too, with ketchup and relish!

Back to Kent...

I keep thinking about things to write about here that I end up spacing out on. Or being too tired to write when I sit in front of the computer.

On the snack front, Bryn followed up his cherries jubilee evening with pumpkin pancakes the next morning. I think I'll keep him. He also introduced me to the joys of Chambord over vanilla ice cream. Tasty!

I had driven to Kent yesterday to visit with a family member and was struck by the change of scenery between being in the city versus being out there. It's only about 20-30 minutes away but definitely feels different. And I will admit, I did used to live there too! I don't know if I would ever choose to live in the suburbs again. I know I could do it. But still.

Traffic was pretty bad too. Spent a big portion of the trip thinking back on the past self who used to live out there and used to have such different priorities. I remember being 21 and really self-identifying so strongly with the type of car I drove. I was obsessed with it. And obsessed with everyone else's cars too. Thank God I got over that phase of my life. I still really like things, but I don't let them run my life (mostly). I'd rather put my energy towards relationships with people or experiences than focus on gathering a bunch of stuff, no matter how nice the stuff may be.

Snacks Aflame!

(Note to self: Don't forget that you have an awesome boyfriend.)

No, he didn't buy me a My Little Pony. But he did make cherries jubilee for us tonight for dessert randomly! You know. . . cherries jubilee. . . which is, coincidentally, the name of the pony shown above. Basically if you make me a dessert that you can light on fire, you had me at the word dessert. The fire is just bonus.