Golf Surprise – 79
I’ve been playing pretty good golf especially given the wet course conditions this time of year. After a satisfying 81 yesterday I decided to sneak out this morning ahead of the forecast rain. Following a unimpressive bogey-par-bogey start things really picked up. A birdie on number 4 and a tap-in pars on holes 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12 left me at just four over par with six holes to play. With a double bogey on 16 I still had a chance to break 80 facing an eight-foot putt on 18. Which I made for a very nice 79. A great score this early in the season.
Cavalia – Odysseo
Posted by nbdog in Entertainment on 5-Mar-2014
For the second year in a row, we ignored the spring downpour and ventured off to Marymoor Park to see the Cavalia show. This production, titled Odysseo, was indeed spectacular although the fantastic staging and acrobats overshadowed in some ways the magnificent horses. Still, it was a breathtaking evening and those horses are just so beautiful. And I’m always amazed by the logistics of this endeavor: 66 horses, 52 performers, a 125-foot high tent, a lake that forms during the closing scenes. All very wondrous.
Mallards Finished
Posted by nbdog in Entertainment, jigsaw puzzles on 5-Mar-2014
We completed the 1,000-piece Mallards puzzle rather quickly… except for the final 250 pieces or so of sky: all subtle shades of blue, white, beige, and gray.
Chilly Start to March
Kind of a nasty morning for the birds…, and for people too. Freezing rain.
Crazy Weather
Not like most of the rest of the country but bizarre enough for Seattle. We had a delightful stretch of days to end February: I played golf Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Friday was especially nice–almost short-sleeve weather with temperature in the mid 50’s by the time I finished my morning round. I took this picture of the Meadowbrook Slough along Mt. Si’s hole number 11.
Saturday was cold and wet with the temperature twenty degrees colder than Friday afternoon. It began to snow late in the evening and today (Sunday) we woke up to a shallow coating of frozen snow and rain. That didn’t stop us from making a trip into Issaquah to have breakfast at the Barnes & Noble Starbucks where we were treated to a unique, Northwest-only scene. The Starbucks café overlooks a large, nicely landscaped pond and perched on the pedestrian bridge was a magnificent eagle, eyeing it seemed, the mallards cruising nearby. I grabbed my camera from the car but Mr. Eagle departed before I could capture him digitally.
Tough Lie
My regular golf buddy, Ron Hillis, and I fought the persistent winds to take advantage of a rare dry and partially sunny day at Mt. Si. In spite of this bizarre lie on number 12, I still managed a respectable 83 even after the double bogey on this hole.
Celtic Evening
Posted by nbdog in Entertainment on 22-Feb-2014
A lively performance of traditional Scottish music is a great tonic for the dreary Seattle winter weather. Tonight we attended a concert by the Tannahill Weavers at the cozy Kirkland Performance Center. The band began performing in 1968(!) and we previously saw them in Ann Arbor around 1993, I think. They were as good as I remember and very energetic given this was their seventh show in eight days.
Stamp Collection Status
I’ve spent a lot of time doing the normal winter-months housekeeping of my stamp collection: tidying up the database, looking for good deals on Ebay, etc. With a few recent acquisitions I now have over 5,000 unique U.S. stamps and over 13,000 items total when I add up the new and used U.S. and Spanish pieces. The oldest stamp in the albums is this nondescript 3-cent George Washington item from 1851. It’s in pretty good condition for a stamp that was hand-cancelled and went through the mail 163 years ago.
Wolves Puzzle
Posted by nbdog in Entertainment, jigsaw puzzles on 19-Feb-2014
We liked this one. This thousand-piece puzzle had lots of great color and some interesting vegetation surrounding the featured wolves.
Hungry Squirrel
This little guy has been with us for several seasons now; one winter he even nested in Trisha’s flower pots behind the garage. Now he seems to reside in the neighbor’s yard but makes daily visits to the peanut feeder. He is adorably tiny and totally unintimidated by the much larger gray squirrels that also feed on the patio.
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