redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
( Apr. 19th, 2021 04:19 pm)
I went to Mount Auburn Hospital this afternoon, to have my hands x-rayed--Carmen wants to see how bad the arthritis is, and I think also check whether there's something else going on. I had one hand X-rayed there in 2018, so they will compare the two sets of films.

Now that I'm fully vaccinated and just going places isn't irresponsible, I took a side trip up Mount Auburn Street on the way home. I now have baklava and doner kebab meat from Sevan's bakery, and a few chocolate truffles from Fastachi, a chocolatier I hadn't previously been to. If we like them, I'll go back and maybe try more things.

I looked at the bus times this afternoon, and decided to walk over to the 73, rather than wait 20 minutes for a 71 to go three stops, and then another 15 for the 73. That was a nice bit of wander along streets I hadn't been down before, because there was no specific reason to. But not only can exploring be fun, someone suggested that literal new places will be useful brain exercise after a year of staying home because of the pandemic. That may or may not be true, but I saw various flowers, and one rabbit.

I am getting my teeth cleaned in Watertown Square on Wednesday, and have notes about a bakery to try there, but I forgot about the bakery until just now. We may be over-supplied with sweets.

ETA: Based on what they emailed me, the X-rays show nothing surprising. Left hand is worse than right, and the right hand is doing a bit worse now than three years ago.

I'm expecting an ice cream delivery in fifteen minutes. We will probably be over-supplied with sweets.
redbird: a male cardinal in flight (cardinal)
( Apr. 13th, 2014 07:35 pm)
We took the bus over to Seattle and spent a couple of hours wandering around the UW arboretum, starting at the north end of a waterside trail (271 to Montlake Freeway Station, if locals want to try to visualize this). Nice long walk along and above Lake Washington, including some rather muddy bits that need more wood chips scattered, and then some floating footbridges, one of which was slightly below the surface for a few meters. I looked at it, decided I could deal with the wet metal surface and no handrail, and went through. (Temperature around 70F/21C, so I figured wet feet would be all right.) We saw a few ducks, some cormorants, water lily pads, but to our surprise no turtles.

Then we walked through some of the drier parts of the arboretum, with more grass and shrubs and spreading trees (and fewer ferns and moss). Some of the trees there are actually labeled, though a few of the labels felt mostly like a starting point for googling. (I thought I had a picture of the one that identified a tree as being a cross between two species I didn't recognize, at least not by Linnaean binomial, and added that this cross had been created at the Arboretum. If I can get it off my phone, I will update this point, for my reference.) There were lots of cherry and azalea and the other usual suspects; and the first we've seen in Washington of a tiny purple wildflower I don't have a name for that was always one of the first signs of spring back in Inwood. We saw some periwinkles of an unusual shade of purple, but I think that was before we got to the Arboretum. We stopped in at the visitor's center to use the bathroom, then walked out along Azalea Way and caught a 43 bus downtown and the usual 550 bus home.

It was a gorgeous clear day: we got excellent views of the nearby Cascades, the Olympics, and then Mount Rainier on the way home, the latter clear enough that [livejournal.com profile] cattitude pointed out that he could see two peaks, the lower one on the north side of the mountain as well as the usual fine glaciated cone that stars in all the photos.

I hadn't been to the arboretum in more than a decade, and this was Cattitude's first visit, though we've been living out here for a year. Next time we may try coming in from the other side and visiting the Japanese Garden.
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
( Jan. 18th, 2014 03:26 pm)
I went up to Northgate this morning to take a proofreading test, for a company that is looking to hire a proofreader, with possible promotion to an editorial position after a 3-month training period.

I'm not sure how well I did on the test—they said I'll find out sometime next week—but it's worth a try. The ad asked candidates to bring a resume, so I gave it to them with my completed test. I'm guessing that if they like those they will want an interview, but I know I test better than I interview, so doing the test first improves my chances. The office is in a nice-looking residential neighborhood (of the sort where I'd expect to brown-bag my lunch every day, and maybe keep a stash of nuts in my desk or daypack in case I forget). The bus trip was a little over an hour, which is not ideal (especially since I can't comfortably read on a moving bus) but I think tolerable.

After the proofreading test, [livejournal.com profile] cattitude and I met in the U District for lunch (he took the bus into Seattle with me, partly in order to investigate a cheese shop, and waited for me to call him after the proofreading test). This is the first time I've gone to the U District, rather than just changing buses there. We had cream puffs and pho at Than Brothers, then strolled through the farmers' market. We got there late, and hadn't brought bags with us, so all we bought was a half gallon of pear cider, which I carried by the jug handle. (I didn't have any sort of shopping bag because I was trying to look somewhat business-like; Cattitude just hadn't thought to bring one.)
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (me drinking tea)
( Apr. 29th, 2013 04:13 pm)
[livejournal.com profile] cattitude and I have been exploring the area around our new home, slowly, sometimes just wandering and sometimes as part of running errands. For example, on the bus to work he noticed a large Asian/international grocery; it's inconvenient for walking, but a fairly easy bus ride. On my way back from the Department of Licensing (for my state ID card) last week, I stopped in there, and got spices and some other useful things. Yesterday we went to the Pike Place Market in search of cheese, which we found, along with some early peas.

Today I went for a local walk, partly in search of a bakery I'd found listed on Yelp, Belle Pastry. I brought home a raspberry napoleon, which was tasty, on the custard end of the custard—whipped cream spectrum, and with properly flaky pastry. It's on a bit of Main Street that seems to be doing the "renovate the older shops/slightly fancy shopping" thing, and I also saw two chocolatiers, a selection of restaurants, and a Title Nine shop. I think it's time to go buy some new sports bras. Also, one of the restaurants looked promising in a not at all fancy way: there's a neon sign saying "Matzo Ball Soup." Unfortunately, I'd already had lunch.
On Sunday I wandered out to Staten Island, in order to give [livejournal.com profile] cattitude a bit of time and space to himself. I had been curious about the Staten Island Railroad, a piece of the city transit system I'd never been on, which turns up under "subways" when I go to the MTA website for maps, information about schedule changes, and the like. It seemed like a not-too-strenuous outing, on a warm enough day that the ferry ride across the harbor was also appealing.

details, transit-fan geeky )
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