A Photo from Arizona

You would think since hubby is a photographer, I would get first dibs at the photos he takes when we travel. I had to snag the one below from someone else....lol.:

This was taken at our new friend's house (Max). I am in the 2nd row, far right. This is actually a photo that I don't think I look completely awful in. Hubby is in the 2nd row - far left...lol...and no, not sure why we did not stand together. Wow....hubby and I are short. OC down in front does not count.

To Where You Are....

My mother died of a form of cancer called Multiple Myeloma 7 years ago today here at home....right in this room, which is now my office. She was only 7o when she passed. She found out only a few months before that she had cancer.

The title of my subject is actually the title of a song that I first heard near the end of 2001. I was watching the television show 'Ally McBeal' and saw then newcomer Josh Groban singing this song:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2e20l_ally-mc-beal-josh-groban-to-where-y_music

I thought of my mom when I heard it and now my father too.

My parents on their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1999

Random Thoughts...

Ok...I should be in bed. I woke up at 7:13 am on Thursday morning and I leave for work at 7:15am!

We are still trying to nail down a guest speaker for our Seahawks booster club event next weekend. I am not sure why this is such an issue this year. After the fiasco last year (that will be another post some day) we would have hoped that our problems were solved this year with our group staying at the team hotel and having the party there. Nope!

Ok....off to bed....I think.....lol.

Madeira Heritage Day

Back in June, I blogged about having a booth at the Dia de Portugal Festival. Thru that festival, I found a group called the San Pedro Association. They are a group near Sacramento, Calfornia who is dedicated to the preservation of the Madeiran Portuguese culture and history. Since both of my parents were born in Madeira, I knew I had to join. A lot of the Portuguese groups and festas here in the Bay Area are centered around those with ties to the Azores Islands (where hubby's family is from), so it was nice to find a group with heritage from Madeira. I was with my peeps! lol

Today they had Madeiran Heritage Day, which they hold every other year at a small park they Association owns called San Pedro Park - a small park located on a residential street.

Here are some photos of the chapel in the park:

Today we took a slight detour from the shakes and ate some Carne de Espeto (cubes of top-grade beef spiced with coarse salt, bay leaves and garlic and grilled over a pit. Here is a photo of two of the cooks tending to the meat:

A view of the pit afterwards:

There were also folcloric dancers performing dances representing various parts of Portugal.

The striped skirt costumes represent Madeira. Ever since I was a child I recognized those costumes from photos and my trip there when I was 12 years old. My parents took me there for 3 weeks that summer. I still want those boots....lol.

This is a group posing by the Santana house. Does it look familiar? It's my 'house' from the Dia de Portugal Festival. Hubby's dad made it from my father's 90th birthday in 2005. The director's of the Association requested that I bring it. Glad we did!

This is a photo of the leaves off of a huge bay leaf tree/bush in the park. A lot of Portuguese recipes used bay leaves. I remember my mother had a lot of this in the cupboard!

There was also silent and live auctions of gift baskets and other items. I donated a Madeira ornament that I sell on http://www.celestial-creations.com for the live auction. The woman who won the bid is also going to buy more as Christmas gifts!

I really had fun today and I hope to be able to participate in more of their events. I only wish my parents were both still here to have found this club!

Family Reunion 2008

Hubby and I belong to an online Seahawks fan forum where we call each other Family. Each year a Family Reunion weekend is planned on the weekend of a home game - usually the home opener. This year's Reunion was last weekend in Seattle - with the game vs. the SF Forty Niners.

On the Friday night, we met at King Street Bar and Oven for a Kick-Off Party, where our friend's band, Soulfish, played. This was our final weekend of "regular" food before the Cleanse started on Tuesday so I decided to have my blue drinks. But there are 2 types of blue drinks - the evil blue drink and the not-so-evil blue drink. I prefer the second one which is the Blue Hawaiian. The first one is called the Hawk Island Iced Tea - think Long Island but with 'stuff' to make it blue. I think I tried one last year and could not make it thru one! There was also the yearly rendition of "Sweet Caroline" played for yours truly.

On Saturday we went to the races! We went to Emerald Downs in Auburn, WA. Our group had part of a banquet-type room reserved, where we were able to have a buffet lunch and enjoy a view of the races. Hubby placed a couple of $2 bets and I think we won 50 cents! Someone in our group won $80 on a $5 bet.

View of the track from our area

Horse walking by

View of Mt. Rainier

We stayed there until about 6:00 pm and then headed back to our hotel in Seattle.

Sunday was Game Day! We headed to the King Street bar and Oven at 8:30 am (yes - AM) and hung out there with our friends for a while. Qwest Field does not have much for tailgating at the Stadium - pretty much a no-no. A couple of us headed over to the Team Store and looked for goodies. After that, we went around the corner to The Hawks Nest - a new bar and grille that just opened up by a friend of ours. It was packed! I am so happy for her - her dream of a Seahawks-only bar/grille had become a reality.

The game was a good one - was decided in OT by a field goal.....and we were not the winners...sigh. The worst part is that the loss was to the Niners and we had to come back home to Niner-land and hear all about it....lol.

Irish Heritage

I just realized I have not blogged about our trip to the Giants game. On Tuesday, August 19, we went to see the SF Giants play.

We had a fun time - despite the home team losing. Andy (our friend from Edmonton), Hubby and I took the train (BART for those of you who know the Bay Area) to San Francisco and met Mike, his buddy, Vance, his wife and children and Darcey at the game. We all became friends thru the years because of the Seahawks.

That week, the SF Giants were having Heritage Week with a different theme each night. It was Irish Heritage Night for our game - Hubby and I were the token leprechauns....lol.

Hubby, Andy and Mike before the game - the hats were the giveaway for having tickets in the Irish Heritage section.

We could not pass up a photo op with our 12th Man Flag!

Even the former mayor of NYC was in attendance.

The view from our seats - The Cove in the background.

Back from SoCal

Hubby and I returned yesterday from our long weekend in the San Diego area for the Seahawks vs. Chargers pre-season game.

We stayed with our good friend, Dana, in Oceanside. Also staying at Casa Dana were our friends, Rich from Colorado and Andy from Edmonton, Canada.

The rest of Saturday was spent unpacking and resting at Dana's while we figured out what to do for the rest of the day. Andy was able to get on our flight as he was here in our area on business and was able to fit the Seahawks game into his schedule. Rich was flying into San Diego from Denver and he was arriving a bit after us.

On Sunday, Andy wanted to swim in the Pacific Ocean. For the past couple of years, Dana has been telling me about the fish tacos at the Brigantine restaurants in the and beach San Diego area. So, we were going to go there for lunch and then to the harbor in Oceanside.

After lunch, we headed to the beach. The "boys' headed to the sand and Dana and I visited the shops. The shops probably took us 10 minutes to visit so she and I ended up at Rockin' Baja Lobster for margaritas...lol. We did have to stop there anyway so we could make dinner reservations for later in the evening. She and I then headed to the beach to meet up with the guys. Andy was able to swim in the ocean and enjoy the SoCal weather.

We went to dinner at Rockin' Baja Lobster and Dana's boyfriend, Tony, met us there. After drinking more margaritas and just enjoying each other's company.

Monday was game day! The game started at 5:00 but we arrived at parking lot section J3 of Qualcomm around 1:00pm to start the tailgating. We met Seahawks fans from all over Southern California, Las Vegas and Washington.

Here is a picture of Dana (#8) and I before the game:

We headed in to the game and hiked up to our seats. We were second row from the top. Since we have great seats for our home games, our away game seats are usually 'nosebleeds'. The game was a tribute to the military. At half time, a few troops were introduced. They were injured in the Middle East. I was just about in tears. Also, during the game, they showed video messages on the jumbotron of Chargers fans stationed overseas with messages to their family and their team.

Well, the Seahawks lost to the Chargers but it was a fun time - just to hang out with my peeps!!

I went back to work today - that was hard, but knowing that we have a three day weekend made it better!