Well, this is it. I'm about 90 mins away from departing for the African continent. This means I will not be blogging until the first week in May. After that, I assure you, there will be LOTS of stuff for me to talk about.

Till then.

Haven't seen these in a while. As a reminder, when i sit on my living room couch, this is what I see.

Occasionally, particularly in the Spring, when you ski in Washington, you will get a clear, "bluebird" day. When this happens, not only are you guaranteed to get a "goggle" tan, but you are also treated to some spectacular views that are so clear, you can see as far as Mt. St. Helens and Mt Adams, which are nearly in Oregon. Here is a close up of Mt. Adams:




Here is a close up of Mt. Rainier:



And when there is sun, there are shadows, which are a rarity in these parts:

Recently I've been going out on what I like to call "warmup" photo sessions for Africa. I hear the sunsets are pretty spectacular, so I've worked on those:



I also went looking for some wildlife - but only found kids and dogs. Still worthy subjects though. What I didn't expect, were the kids' reactions to my tripod. Almost every single one thought it was a great thing to stand or walk under. They did this as if I wasn't standing there. I finally got one of these beach urchins to pose:

I believe that I've already blogged about Seattle's obsession with triva. This was something that was totally foreign to me when I got here. In all my years of living on the East Coast, I don't think I ever saw a single trivia night advertisement at any bar/pub ever. Here, it is the norm for any self respecting bar to have a weekly trivia night. Since moving here, I've become hooked.

Now, that doesn't mean that I'm any good. I'd like to say that my knowledge and skills have improved, but it doesn't work that way. The more you play, doesn't translate into you becoming a better player, unfortunately. But this does not deter me, no siree.

Last week I discovered a new trivia night at a pizza place that served slices that are at least double the size of your head. They are so yummy that I actually applaud when I finish my last bite. I didn't have a team and unfortunately trivia is really best played with a team. I tried to recruit one, but everyone was busy. True to form, I went anyway, figuring somebody will take pity on me and let me join their team.

Now previous trivia exerience dictates that you must be there at least 30-60 mins prior to game time in order to assure yourself a seat. I dutifully stuck to the formula and asked the bartender the scoop.

"They sit over there. But they aren't here yet."
"How do you know who is here for trivia?"
"Oh, you'll know."

I was now envisioning masses of MIT student types arriving, and an hour later, I was not disappointed.

I decided to pull out my "damoiselle in distress/slightly ignorant but not totally stupid blond act" to see how it would work on this crowd, which was predominantly male. I approach the smallest team amassed so far (all men) and by far the most geeky of the lot. I found myself trying to think of some sort of Star Trek opening line I could use, but didn't have the guts to try it.

Try as I did to hint around that I needed to be adopted, these three just didn't get it. To be perfectly honest, they couldn't even make eye contact with me I made them so nervous. I checked my blouse to make sure I wasn't scaring them with a wardrobe malfunction. Nope. All clear.

Again, I was not deterred, I was there already, might as well play, if they let me. I approach the Caller.

"Hi. I want to play, but I don't have a team."
"No problem, you can give us your team name later. We'll just call you 'TBD#2'"
"Actually, I don't have a TEAM at all. It is just me. Can I still play? I mean, with just me, I'm gonna suck."
"No worries, we give out bottles of wine to those who come in last. Here is your answer sheet for Round 1 and the Photo Round sheet."

(I saw that the Photo round sheet required me to identify the make and model of 15cars.)

"Excellent. Might as well hand over that bottle to me now."

As expected, I came in dead last, mostly thanks to the Photo Round. Considering there was a team of two people who got the same score I did, I felt like I did better than expected. And hey, I did win some free wine. And free, as I like to say, is good.

The PNW at the moment is having issues with ushering in the next season.  There has been something like 11 feet of snow that has fallen in the mountains since March 1.  Now, coming from the East Coast, I am used to having late snowfalls result in serious delays of spring.  Not here.  The trees are blooming and the rain forests are green and lush right through the snow.  This dichotomy is really fun to see.  It is as if mother nature is having a bit of an identity crisis.