Month: June 2007

The birds and squirrels have been eating us out of house and home. Henrik fills the bird feeder every single day. The suet goes in two or three days. We’re trying to attract as many varieties as we can but so far as have hummingbirds, finches, starlings, crows, stellar jays, flickers, and probably other birds I don’t know the names of. We have some regular squirrels, too. They sit on the flower pots and lawn furniture and window sills and work their clairvoyance until we feed them. And we found some food that the dog and cat REALLY like. It’s called Evo and it’s made by Innova. And it ain’t cheap. But Henrik said, “We can eat beans and rice every day so they can get the good food.” Well, we’re not eating beans and rice EVERY day but we’re getting short drips at Tully’s now instead of the chais and lattes. I’m telling you, the critters got it good at our house.

I really like this new website. GOOD JOB, HENRIK! There are benefits hooking up with a techie. But really, this WordPress service is much easier to use than Joomla that we were using before. My sweetie is a genius.

Henrik and I have been going to the West Seattle Farmers Market every Sunday morning. It’s a goofy little outing we look forward to now every week. We give ourselves $20 and search out the odd and bizarre. It’s amazing how much stuff you can buy for only $20. I added a Farmers Market article in my Seattle Avenue e-newsletter.

On May 15 we lost Kiwi. She unexpectedly graduated to wings. I really miss her and still say her name by mistake when I’m talking to Kula. It’s really quiet around here without her constant licking and bumping into things. Our house is peaceful now but the peace accentuates the loud loss of her good spirit. She was a real trooper. A hero dog.

  

No, I’m not talking about getting married. We already did that. And we had a very nice wedding night as well, so that’s not it either.

No, I’m talking about taking out boat out sailing. We originally had asked Mark to come along (but he was nowhere to be found) and have a look at the engine, because I suspected that it wouldn’t just work. And I was right. My guess is water in the carburettor, because it starts good and runs fine until you try to put it in idle, even after some warm-up time. Long  before it hits idle it just dies. A bit of throttle and a pull on the starter rope has it going again, but it makes it so difficult to get the gears in when you have to do it at above idle.

Just when we were about to give up one of our boat neighbors, Greg, asked if we needed to borrow an engine. He had two extra, one 2 hp and one 8 hp. Although the 8 was more equal to what we have I opted for the 2 hp, simply because the weight. Greg brought it over in his dinghy, and we were ready to go.

Denice turned out to be a great sailor, although this was her first outing with a sailboat. The rather small engine meant that we set sails pretty early, and she turned out to be a natural at the helm. Probably better than me. We only sailed out to Hat Island and then turned around, but that ws still a few hours under sail. It was a great feeling.

 I found a ripped seam in the foresail that need to get fixed, and the engine needs to be repaired as well, but the first week-end of summer we were on the water. Yay!