Have you seen my car?

The day started out quite well with the eldest and I beginning our "girl day" at King's Books' Wayzgoose. But then we headed to the land of Tar-zjay for a few things and walked out to find our car gone. (For the record, the Tar-zjay employees, security folk and the Tacoma Police were beyond phenomenal and kind in helping me navigate reporting my stolen car in my bit of a shaken state. I don't think I could have asked for better response and service other than them perhaps pointing out that I'd just walked past my car 10 times in the 20 minutes I searched for it ... which I did not. It's really gone.)

So if you happen to see a 1989 blue Toyota Camry, license plate 459 WSO ... please call the police and report it. It's a very old car. Very faded on top. There is rust at the bottom of the passenger side door. The driver's side door lock doesn't work. There's an old bumper sticker that says "MARRIAGE = (then a faded out heart)". It's full of trash, a car seat, water bottles, trash, my Wayzgoose goods, a craft book I bought at King's Books, and more trash. Oh, and my eldest's way-too-small rain coat that she just would NOT give up these past four years. And perhaps a Tully's cup or two. Crap -- and some meeting notes I had not yet transcribed.

Now, the funny thing is, they stole my car, but the most valuable stuff they got were those notes, the craft book and my Wayzgoose stuff. I'd rather like them back. And maybe the deodorant that was in the glove box. It was new. Ehh ... nevermind, they can keep the deodorant ... if I get the car back, I can't be confident as to where it's been.

And I think we're going to have to beg the owner of Guinea Pig Press if she'll let us buy another card, as the eldest really, really liked those cards ... and now it's gone. Sitting lonely in the back seat of our car ... somewhere. I'm still optimistic that perhaps we'll get it back ... but not expecting it, either.

VIDEO: Recent musical addiction

I've recently become a fan of Kate Nash's stuff, so had to share. :)

Mouthwash


Foundations

Help! Who do you call when your appliances break?

For the first time in awhile we have a major appliance that is new enough it needs fixing, not replacing, even though it's not under warranty. But who do you call? So far one place we tried calling has a list two weeks out. And the next place we called was supposed to come today, but they just sent us a "thank you for rescheduling" e-mail, only we didn't reschedule and they can't tell us why we were rescheduled for NEXT THURSDAY.

Someone please help. My 3-year-old front-load washing machine is broken and I have three kids and a spare grownup in the house. That's six people's laundry we're potentially going to have to haul to the laundry place at this rate. We thought we were getting fixed today, so it's already been a few days. I really don't want to wait nearly another week until Thursday. The towel supply alone is nearly gone. I think I'd have to fill the van to get everything taken care of. That's a lot of time at the laundromat.

Help! Who do YOU call? Please say someone out there knows a good appliance place ...

Tacoma Must-Sees & Standbys: Part I

I'm in the mood to reflect upon a few "must sees" for those who call Tacoma home ... or for those returning or visiting or anything in between. Sadly, some I have not been to, or not been to in awhile. These are in no particular order, and do not necessarily encompass the best of Tacoma, and I may change my list tomorrow, but on this oddity of leap-days, 10 things that leap to my mind as "must sees" or "must dos" in Tacoma include:

Stadium High School. It's where my grandma went to high school and where many, many folks call alma mater. As featured in "10 Things I Hate About You," starring Julia Stiles and the died-way-too-young Heath Ledger. This place really is a castle ... it was almost a luxury hotel, but the developer ran out of money once upon a time and it almost got demolished, only to be rescued and finished by the Tacoma School District. More recently it's turned 100 and been remodeled. It's a place I take any visitor I take on tour, because when you stand on the hill on the other side of the Stadium Bowl from the high school and look at the school and the bay on a clear day, the view is fantabulous. Take a peek at this outtake from 10 Things and you'll see what I mean about the view ....




Frisko Freeze. Duh. Don't expect veggies on your burger, but to some folks that's a good thing. The shakes are yummy, and the experience is totally nostalgic. Not quite a T-Town Dick's, but it's our own T-town slice of the '50s drive-in burger place. And it keeps on kickin'. If you haven't tried Frisko yet, you gotta try it just to say you did. And you might just keep comin' back.

Museum of Glass. It's one of the newer items on my list for sure, and it's been mocked as much as it's been celebrated. I choose to celebrate it. It helped bring the Foss waterfront to life. We now have the Bridge of Glass, which, love it or hate it, it's an incredible thing. I do miss the mass amounts of other outdoor art that inhabited the esplande when the museum first open, and I dream that more art (so miss the glass apples and the little red house, the wicker pitchers and the Reman Hall exhibit) will rejoin the ached-for Water Forest when it someday(?) returns. It's a place I take visitors and returnees, and it's a place my eldest daughter is obsessed with. Whenever we have a "girls' day," guess where she wants to go. And the hot shop there, where you can watch glass artists in action, is enough to win over even most tough critics.

The Spar. One half coffee shop, one half fabulous bar. The food is great, the beer well-brewed, the Americanos thick and tasty, the bands occasionally playing, and the fish and chips? They're fantabulous. I especially love the fact that parents with small children can sit in the coffee shop side and be well tended to. There are kid toys and coloring books, and you can still order all the bar food, including the beer. Plus, when my kids were small and obsessed with trains, we could hear 'em a comin' and run out to watch them between bites, whenever they came by. Plus, you're a hop, skip and a jump from the Ruston Way waterfront and all its pleasures.

The Grand. Tacoma's fabulous indie theater. Sigh. I have not yet been there. My husband has seen both "Fahrenheit 911" and "Fast Food Nation" there. I hold out hope to still catch "Juno" there, but my joke of the moment with all the telemarketers who call hoping to survey me on movies I've seen in the last year is, well, I just laugh. Because it's not funny. I haven't been in a theater since "Shrek 3" at the Blue Mouse. And that sucked. The Blue Mouse rocked (it was my first time there), but Shrek 3 sucked. We did it for the kids, but the first two were oh so much more grownup friendly, too. This one just sucked. I had no problem following an ancy 2-year-old into the lobby. But I'm looking forward to an adult-only trek to the Grand. It's sad enough I haven't seen ANY of the Oscar nominees this year. I want to see "Juno." Badly.

My favorite coffee shops: 'Nuff said.

• Satellite Coffee
• Black Water Cafe
• Cavanaugh's Coffee
• Commencement Bay Coffee Company
• Mandolin Cafe
• Northern Pacific Coffee Company (ok, this one's NEAR Tacoma)

Freighthouse Square. Not only is this place home to Peggy's Cinnamon Rolls, but also more than a dozen restaurants and a plethora of shops ... none of them big box. This place has been here for decades, and yet I still encounter so many people who have no idea what I'm talking about. If you haven't wandered through Freighthouse Square yet, do. It's a great starting place for a Saturday out on the downtown ... head to Tosta Caffe for a cinnamon roll and some coffee, wander the many fabulous shops, then hop on the FREE Link light rail and head up and down through downtown. You can meander through the museums, around the University of Washington Tacoma, through the Theatre District, around the Convention Center ... it's all on the Link. It can be your cheapest or spendiest night on the town depending on how you play your cards. You can window shop and brown bag it, or shop 'till you drop and dine at the Melting Pot or El Gaucho, or anything in between. The sky's the limit, and there's every reason to drive yourself to Freighthouse Square and get to wandering about town without your car.

The Eastside. Wha-at? You might be sayin' that. But here are things on the Eastside. Way back when, when my husband and I first met, we had our first date at Stanley & Seafort's, which sits on the edge of the East Side overlooking Tacoma, the Puget Sound and the beautiful mountain range. It's just one small testament to the fact that the East Side is a very diverse place. Recent additions like Top of Tacoma are just the beginning of much to come.

Point Defiance Park. Need I really say more? Have you really not been? Sigh. I know you Point Defiance virgins are out there, and it scares me. So I'll just a list a few, say five, reasons to go. There are more.

• Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
• Five Mile Drive
• Owen Beach
• The Rhododendron Garden
• The Japanese Pagoda & Rose Gardens

Wright Park. There are so many great things about this inner-city park it's hard to mention them all, especially since it's a park in the midst of a revitalization. But it's worth a visit, whether for the inner-park playground, the lawn bowling, the botanical conservatory, the duck pond, and so much more.

Ok, there's more, but I'll start with that.

[to be continued]

What are your Tacoma must-sees and standbys?

VIDEOS: A trip down musical memory lane

A decade later and I'm still a ska addict. And during my stint in Ireland, I couldn't help but become a "Come on Eileen" addict, as it's the song my lovely frat boy flat mates were addicted to, broke plates to, and generally ran amok to. So here's a video that caught my eye this evening:



On a bright side, my flatmates' addiction led me to meet and befriend a wonderful gal named "Eileen," who, while she lives in Florida, is still a friend a decade-plus later. Even if only via e-mail. The last time we saw each other in person was on THAT September 11th when she was in Seattle for a conference, was several months pregnant, and called from her hotel needing to be away from the twin Westin towers after the planes hit back east, as she wondered how her brothers in NY were doing. We'd planned to visit anyway, but not under these circumstances. She couldn't have been further away from; she was pregnant; and she had to take a train for days to get home. So I guess there's my "where were you when tale." But in memory of the boys who created the joke that caused us to be friends, "the two engaged girls" among the many study abroad students ... well, here's Dexy with the song ... not that I need to listen to it. It's frat-boy-style ingrained in my head.

Something in the water?

I think it's the sun. You see, while walking to my car from work, it's like the world had finally woken up on the right side of the bed and everyone had their friendly faces on. People were saying hello. Random stranger (but not strange) people. I saw shop owners; congenial shop owners closing up for the day were inviting me to come back and take a peek one of these days. And I came home to a household of happy people, no schedule for the night, a mortgage refi that had funded and sent us checks today, a neighbor bringing us homemade fresh crab cakes and ...

I just kinda want to dance in the streets. No singing in the rain, just happy dancing in the street.

Sneak peek

Izenmania had a fantabulous post on the Go Local or Die event this week, which is inspiring me to post the following picture with no real explanation other than to say you might be seeing this image around a little bit more in the coming months ... tee hee.



I know, I know ... lips sealed is not something I'm known for. :P

p.s. If you like the above graphic (whatEVER it might be ...) you can tell Elle she does good work.