Welcome Mari!

May was an eventful month for our family...


A new granddaughter...


a vacation...



and a nasty virus (I'm better now!).

Seattle Beer Week is coming!

The first ever Seattle Beer Week is scheduled for the 7th through the 17th of May - a ten day week! It will highlight the best of what Seattle and the Northwest beer community has to offer - from the numerous award winning breweries and world class pubs to a community of beer lovers like no other. Seattle Beer Week is 10 days of bubbly fun at over 100 different events all around the greater Seattle area. The schedule is filled with brewer dinners, mini-beer festivals, and special limited edition brews made just for the event.

The kick off event is May 7th from 5-7 pm at Pike Brewing in the lower level of Pike Place Market. They will release a never seen or tasted before Double IPA as the inaugural commemorative brew.

But wait! There's more!

You know the night can't possibly end at 7 pm...that's inconceivable! (Vizzini, The Princess Bride) Both before and after the kick off there are numerous places to enjoy a tasty beverage or three.

• The Pub at Pipers Creek is featuring a Boulder Beer Happy Hour with a release of the new India Brown Anniversary Ale (4-6 pm)
• Beveridge Place Pub is featuring a full night of Cask beer
• Bottleworks is having an Iron Horse Brewing tasting.
• The Park Pub is holding a Boulder Beer Brewers night (just in case you missed the one at Pipers Creek) featuring great beers, swag, and the release of the new India Brown Anniversary Ale (7-10 pm)

For more information, here's a great calendar of events and here's the official Seattle Beer Week web site.

Burp...

Play the Google Search Game

Here's a fun time waster you can share with your friends and family. It's sort of like the popular fill-in-the-blank travel game, Mad-Libs. Some of the answers you find online may be a bit risque, so you'll have to be your own "appropriateness police" if you want to share it with your kids.

In the Google Search bar, add your name and the additional word or words (remember to include the quotation marks) and click 'search' or press 'enter.' Make sure to use the featured text from the first link that comes up...otherwise it's cheating!!!

1) "[your name] needs"
2) "[your name] looks like"
3) "[your name] says"
4) "[your name] wants"
5) "[your name] does"
6) "[your name] hates"
7) "[your name] asks"
8) "[your name] likes"
9) "[your name] eats"
10) "[your name] wears"
11) "[your name] was arrested for"
12) "[your name] loves"

Here's my answers:

1) Catriona needs to lend me her boobs.
2) Catriona looks like she is flying.
3) Catriona says "It's a fair question."
4) Catriona wants Daisy healed.
5) Catriona does not have any public playlists.
6) Catriona hates the alcoholic former good-time girl who was the antithesis of the good mother.
7) Catriona asks Dave if he could write her a reference she could show to future employers.
8) Catriona likes that Mathew Wilder song I have on my iPod.
9) Catriona eats up her breakfast.
10) Catriona wears a special uniform hat.
11) Catriona was arrested for treason.
12) Catriona loves braids.

Hogmanay (New Year) Blessings

I got this in an e-mail and thought I'd pass it on to all of you, too...LOL!

2009 Friendship Contract

After serious and careful consideration, your 2009 contract of friendship has been renewed. It was a very hard decision to make, so try not to screw it up!!!

Modern Hogmanay Blessing

May peace break into your house and thieves come to steal your debts.
May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet of $100 bills.
May love stick to your face like Vaseline and laughter assault your lips!
May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy.
May your clothes smell of success and the problems you had forget your home address.
May 2009 be the very best year of your life!!!!

And my response...to be said on the evening of 31 December at midnight (or earlier if you just can't stay up). ;-)

Auld Celtic Hogmanay Blessing

May the Gods grant their blessing upon this dwelling,
And upon each stone and beam and stave of it.
And upon all the food and drink,
And the furnishings and clothing.
May the family and the animals
Enjoy the fullness of health
And prosperity, for now and always.

Slainte!

Fun with Food: TwinkHenge!

Gentle Ladies, Good Sirs, and Druids...presenting TwinkHenge! This most mystical of all cream-filled spongecake constructions is a "trifle" small, but historians believe TwinkHenge to possess unknown supernatural powers. The well known properties of the construction materials will certainly enable it to last for centuries.

The 75th anniversary of the Twinkie happened in April of 2005 and the company asked people to contribute their recipes and stories and photographs. They even published a book with the recipes (available on Amazon.com).

TwinkHenge was possibly created in 2004 (the earliest known siting on a blog so far) and possibly in Portland since the original photo was found on a Portland based website: www.nightswimming.com/pics/TwinkHenge.jpg. There is no true history available on its creation that I can find. If any of you know more about it, please post a comment!

If you're curious about Twinkies and how well they stand the test of time (and man), visit the T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project web site.

Facebook has a lot of digi-designers and shops on it. it also has a lot of silly, but fun (and free!) virtual collecting and gifting applications. One of them is called Hatchlings where you collect colored eggs year-round. They have created special holiday eggs, too...I just got one that hatched into a reindeer!


If you're on Facebook and would like to play along and collect an egg or two, click on the basket below.


If you're not on Facebook yet...what the heck are you waiting for?
Click here: http://www.facebook.com/ and when you get signed up (it's free!), send me a 'friend' request!