Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for March 18, 2013

Every day is beautiful when you have a theatrical set designer for a husband !

So tall, and such pointed peaks!

I have a view of real mountains out of my kitchen window. I have to look above the rail yard.

Subtle ! LOL

Aha! Maybe that’s why the Bermans spotted Herman making his way through the back of those empty lots on East Ballard last Tuesday!

They said he was carrying a small shovel…. and a large pail.

I think now that he was collecting a few molehills, which he planted in his back yard….from which extend the stakes….to build some mountains for Gladys.

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11:30pm on St. Patrick’s day, at the west end of Ballard County…

I’m still away from my Santa Rosa home, and using an ancient computer…. (owned by a relatively ancient lady) but I can get back and forth to the Tiki, at least.

I expected the joint to be jumping…. but it seems the festivities have put everyone to sleep!

Elvis is doing a wonderful job, ferrying me wherever I need to go….

Thank you again, StelBel!I’d give him a corned yak rib, as a reward…. but really, dog car treats are so much better for him….they have the proper balance of protein, grain, fuel, and engine additives.

I can’t stay up very late tonight…. I’m being kept busy here…. but I’ll be back at my own computer before the next turn of the comics.

I do have time to hang around for a little while…anybody here for a drink or ???

BTW…. Bri — that sounds great.

Oh…. Red….as ever…. I’m a few minutes too late!

I was taking my break, so I wandered a bit in the comics neighborhood…..

But I keep peeking in the windows at the Tiki…never know when someone will show up…or Fenton will need help.

Dogsniff!

OK…. it’s a long drive back to the west coast….See you all when I get back….Oh… before I go…..Bev…. could you use these?

Did you ever meet up with a word that you read wrong…and keep reading wrong? All week-end, I kept reading CORNERED Yak Rib, instead of CORNED Yak Rib!….maybe because “corned” is just supposed to go with “beef brisket” and NOT with Yak ribs. So, this is what’s been in my head for the last couple of days:

CORNERED YAK RIB

If you’re going to have theater sets in your yard……well, you might as well go all out and add the stage and the cast and the music, too!!!

( I wonder if Julie Andrews would still be available……? )

I miss Montana!

I love walking around wooded mountains.

The family vacation. A dollar 95.It’s like going to the Grand Canyon. “OH look a big hole. (Nod Nod Nod) Okay Okay lets move on!!!My idea of a vacation is going to the Galleria or North Park Mall in Dallas. Tiring out the wife so she goes to bed early and playing COD Black Ops II online till 3am. Cold beer and chips on the side. After a while its just toss grenades and run around shooting everything and everyone. To Hell with the points!!!!!

i’ ll take a gallon of whatever she’s drinking!

I have a lovely view of real mountains down the street in my front yard, and when garden in back is trimmed, from the pool deck, too. I have fake ones of foam board on top of the kitchen cabinets that I cut from 4′×8′ strips to hide the continuous flourescent lights that reflect from the high sloping ceiling (goes from 8’ on the exterior wall to 16’ in the center of the house- just like the livingroom). I did some creative design when I revised the lighting here. The backlighting above the cabinets highlights all the items that live up there (birds and pegasus etc).

Last time I went to our Grand Canyon was with 2 of my grandkids and their parents. We spent another hot summer day up at SnoBoll. Riding on the ski lifts @ around 70 F was nice on a day when Phoenix (and Fort Worth where they now live) were well over 100 F.

My lover and I saw her in her later years on stage in Victor, Victoria (singing was great even though the male dancers had to push a dolly to get her around the stage in a dramatic way). I love that he takes me to operas and stage productions (like some men want to see sporting events). He says he played plenty of that when he was young; watching something artistic is more fun – perfect for me!

I found out that today is International Bus Driver Appreciation Day.I didn’t know that there was such a thing.I have Mondays off, so I’ll miss the festivities.

@Vet,1998 was when I moved out here. I’ve since worked at many different consulting firms (in HVAC design and drafting). Never found one where I fit as well as the last place out in Evanston, IL. I was back there to visit in January and they have continued to grow and would still “be able to use me” if I decide to move back there. Much as it would be great to have a real job and paycheck instead of SSA and my various IRAs, I just HATE Chicago weather and would lose a lot if I sold this house. I LOVE having flowers just about year-round and YES – even when the weather here is HOT (that means over 110 F) it just means it will be hot enough to swim after dark (with underwater color cycling, FUN).

I have to remember to moisturize. I was Skyping with my youngest boy last night and he mentioned that my neck looked a little crepy. Then I saw this ’TOON today: from SIX CHIX

@Red,With my mountains, you don’t see the back side (I just used them so tall people would not see the lighting strips). I chopped up a few pics here to show parts of them (actually on 3 walls) and there are (6)4’ lights, one cool and one warm on each wall, on separate switches.The left side shows lit and unlit of the low wall (where it is only 8’ high) and the other shows the continuation as it rounds the corner from the sink (where I put (2)2’ strips downward hidden by the valence swags) and the slope of the ceiling upward.

My stained glass O’Keefe poppy is in the back bay window which faces the front door and shows my pool and waterfall, so blinds are never closed there and above the cabinets on the S wall are hanging 3 ceramic plates with some of my cockatoo designs (other ceramics are the pink parrot canasters at the far left).

Brings a new meaning off Run to the Mountains, Boys………watch out for splinters.BUSCH (Nasty tasting beer. It even sounds like bad gas, I though Olympia was bad. Shaffer. Schlitz, Black Label (Oh Mabel, Black Label the champagne of bottled beers) Michelob took them out (or was it over?), ANY beer from China (drank some overseas, yuk), Billy beer (remember Jimmy Carters bro)The best beer ever?First one with my dad. (It was Black Label, I did choke it downMy first one after we got the drinking age lowered to 18.(Legal, however I had just turned 20)(They were killing us in Nam and we could not buy a beer at home)Coming back from a mission where we lost 3 out of 15. 8 wounded. I was unscratched and alive. Just dirty and had to change my shorts ASAP.(Warm Budweiser in a steel can. Opened it with my bayonet. Lost the opener. Later remembered I had killed a guy with that bayonet that mission. More beer was needed and procured)

Nothing says good morning like a hot cup of coffee. Nothing says good day like a stellar view of he mountains. Nothing says I love you like bringing the majesty of nature into their back yard. What started out with a bird bath; transitioned into a lovely fountain with running water; next a small duck pond to which Stan added a small paddle boat; not to be outdone by the Rose Bowl Parade, Stan built a two block view of Venice complete with canals and gondolas. Then a miniature model of the I-40 bridge over the Mississippi River complete with tug boats and barges which lead to his most challenging project of all times, a 1/72 scale model of Niagara Falls. But these days as a retired field engineer, on a pensioner’s budget, Stan has chosen more modest expressions of love and creativity. Shirley, although not as impressed as once before, still greets each new venture with optimistic support. Life is good.

I’m kind of fond of the pond in my back yard…

Hi gang, I’m ho…ome…..

yooo hoooo….

Just dropping stuff off at the salon, giving Elvis a snack, and putting him to bed.(He’s been driven an awful lot since Saturday.)

Then I’ll walk down to the Tiki….is everybody ready to jump into tomorrow?

Tuesday here we come!

Bev…. btw…. until it’s all done, I think.

Cleo is a dog after all…

https://cleoandcompany.net/march-17-2023/

Good morning Balladeers and Tigressy!

Yet another fine puzzle.

https://cleoandcompany.net/march-18-2023/

Good Saturday morning Balladeers and Tigressy!