BARRY MANILOW 4th of July

Security lines were off the hook to get into the Capitol Fourth celebration on the Mall. So Eric and I sat on the grass by the Capitol Building. At least got to hear Aretha Franklin sing the American National Anthem. Barry Manilow opened the show with "It's A Miracle". Here's a YouTube clip from his show in Vegas.

EASTERN MARKET RE-OPENS

Capitol Hill's famous Eastern Market re-opened June 26th 2-years after a fire gutted its interior and destroyed much of its 19th c. exterior detailing. The fire forced the hand (finally) of the city, market management and local residents to renovate and restore the building. The renovation is sensitive and maintains it's identity as a neighborhood market.

In other words, it has not been turned into a "Whole Foods" or "Dean and De Luca". Like Gaul, the market is divided into three parts: the South Hall (market stalls), the Central Hall (service area) and the North Hall (meeting room/reception hall). Posted by Eric

SOUTHWEST DC AT NIGHT

SW Living: Flashback to the 60's & the glory of post-war modernism.
Posted by Eric

YOUNG JENKINS

I was asked to offer some thoughts on the retirement of Professor Karl DuPuy from the University of Maryland. The presentation began with the story of how I met with Karl just after my acceptance into the architecture program. In this first advising meeting Karl grilled me on my class schedule, career plans, grades, etc. On my way out of his office I must have no longer resembled the student in the above 1984 university I.D. for standing outside Karl's office was a veteran architecture student (who was a whole year ahead of me). The veteran grinned and said "Welcome to Architecture..." This got a few laughs. (posted by Eric)

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

Tweet for Trees - World Environment Day & Twitter
Today is World Environment Day. Follow UNEP on Twitter & the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP will plant one tree for every twitterer who follows @UNEPandYou by Friday June 5th, World Environment Day. Find out more here.

"Portraits de planteurs" © Patrick Wallet / Yves Rocher
United Nations Environment Programme

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A MONTH MAKES

Here are before and after shots of our garden...taken about 6 weeks apart. The perennials have filled in the blank spots. Our garden theme this summer: "Garden of the Misfit Plants".


Our annual window box & tropical container plantings are dried out rejects, were saved (with the garden center owner's blessing) from the "to be tossed" pile or germinated from old seed packet samples. I am also transplanting tree seedlings--I found a bevy of Ginkgo tree seedlings (literally with seeds attached) underneath our community's elderly trees. (Update by Farmer Eric)

SUSAN BOYLE ELAINE PAIGE

O.K. Mama-san, you're usually a good judge of talent. Have you seen this video yet? What do you think? Eric brought it to my attention. Martin -- your fellow Brit is amazing. Click here then feel free to leave a comment in the guest comments at the bottom of that page.

Image Sources:
Susan Boyle, susan-boyle.com
Elaine Paige, broadwayworld.com

JOHNSON'S GARDEN CENTER

I started a new job at one of the premiere nurseries in the Washington, DC area to buy annuals for Johnson's Florist and Garden Centers which has been in business for over 77 years. Johnson's got its start as a small grocery store in the 1930s, later selling a few geraniums then in the 1950s dropping the grocery store and becoming a florist. Later plants, trees and shrubs were added to become one of the area's most beloved and thriving garden centers in D.C.

TENNIS BALL MACHINES FOR DOGS

Automatic Tennis Ball Launchers for Dogs

Over 2 million people have viewed this video of Jerry the tennis ball chasing dog who loves his automatic tennis ball throwing contraption. The University of Victoria built something similar to assist a wheelchair bound client who still wanted to play fetch with his dog. Click on the link above for the video and story I filed.

DEEPEST SNOW IN YEARS

Storm Drops Most Snow Area Has Seen in Years

"We finally received our long overdue Washington snowstorm!"

Only 5-8 inches - a mere pittance compared to the 18 inches we experienced this past winter in Vancouver.

Image Source: Bill O'Leary-The Washington Post

FIRST DAY OF WORK

Washington, D.C. Monday Morning at 4:30 am

Since we've been back in D.C. we really have had nothing like the exceptional snow we experienced this past winter in Vancouver. Today's my first day back at work at the garden center. I look out our back patio onto the parking lot and look at what greets me.

KITTY YOGA

BENTO BREAK

Eric suggested we take a break from writing & have lunch at the Korean grocery emporium. Took a ride to Virginia & stocked up on oriental cookin' supplies. Doesn't even come close to Fujiya's.

Oishi! What's left of my Pork Tonkatsu lunch.


I've been busy writing about music for a website called Squidoo...

Did That Pregnant Lady From The Grammys Have Her Baby Yet?
2009 Grammy Videos

Rap Pack vs. Rat Pack. Who's The Epitome of Cool?

BACK TO WORK

#1 - GETTING READY FOR SPRING

Went into Home Depot last week to confirm I'll be returning in the Spring to do garden merchandising. So at home I've got about 3 weeks to file a backlog of mail, get started on '08 taxes, work on our finances to check we're saving enough for retirement, schedule appointments for the doctor and dentist and try to meet with friends and ex-colleagues before the season gets underway.

#2 - NEW YEAR'S PICTURES ARE IN THE MAIL

Mom - Sent you on CD all the Bowlerama, Xmas, New Year's & Oye cousins get together pictures from Eric's camera and my camera. I copied everything unedited so included are tons of snow pictures & fuzzy camera shots.

#3 - RECIPE FOR AUNTIE MAY FOR BAKE SALES

Trailer Trash Toffee

Tracey - Your Mom wanted a recipe for the Trailer Trash Toffee I made for New Year's. Just click on the link above. She should use the one that says EASY version - This is the One I Use.

Picture of Betty and Jinx with Father Jason From Jinx's Retirement Party in 2008.

#4 - BUSY CHECKING IN ON ERIC'S MOM

Eric's Dad has been relocated to a nursing home and we've been busy spending time with Eric's Mom who's been unable to visit Jinx because of her pelvic fracture. Normally a whirlwind of energy, Betty is frustrated because doctors have relegated her to complete bed rest. She is trying to adjust to doing nothing while in the care of Eric's brother Mark and his wife Denise. Betty just finished reading Marley & Me, is working on Grisham & developing an appreciation for Manolo Blahnik shoes through Sex & the City DVDs.

#5 - WRITING, WRITING, WRITING

With only a few weeks left before I start work again, it's been great to have this time with Eric who's on sabbatical this semester. So we're both at home writing and eating. From this point on, besides what's going on with Eric, me and the cats, I'll be keeping the blog updated with links to some of the online writing I'm working on. I get paid when people read my articles, so please do click on the links which also help to raise money for charity.

My latest piece is about the auditions they're holding for the open casting call in Vancouver for New Moon, the Twilight sequel -- you know, that vampire movie and book series tweens and teenagers are mad about. So if you know any First Nations or Aboriginal teenagers between 15-24, send them this link. It's too bad my cousins Ian and Chris were not younger as they often get mistaken for First Nations.

New Moon Twilight Auditions Vancouver Kelowna Victoria FAQs

OBAMA INAUGURATION

Slide Show Of Photos From Our Day On the Mall at the Inauguration

On the bottom left hand corner is a white beige building,
The National Museum of the American Indian.
Eric and I are standing on the diagonal street right beside it.
This is an aerial image of the inauguration taken at 11:19 a.m.

GeoEye Satellite Image originally posted on washingtonpost.com

INAUGURATION PREVIEW

Weren't planning on going down to the Inauguration but we at least went down to the Mall and visited on Martin Luther King Day.

1) Here's an article I wrote about walking around

Obama Inauguration Preview: Mood on the Mall

2) Here's a slideshow of pictures Eric and I took

Barack Obama Inauguration Preview Pictures

3) Here is why I probably won't go down to the inauguration

7 Reasons Why I'm Not Going To Obama's Inauguration

SNOWMAGEDON

SNOW, SNOW, GO AWAY. It was fun 3 weeks ago. Good exercise and quaint to shovel. Yesterday was the first day it started to rain. But like ice slowly melting in a fridge, it's still pretty slow in dissipating. With students from Langara college parking across the street from us, you can hear frustrated drivers unaccustomed to parking in ice and snow, futilely spinning their wheels taking them more than an hour to dig themselves out.

MOM HITCHHIKED HOME! Mom was caught snowbound working Sunday night. It was so bad that after waiting half an hour, with no buses coming, Mom even hitched a ride from a passing motorist. But then cars got stuck on the snowy streets so that prevented the buses from being able to get past them. She was eventually dropped off on a main street about a 20-30 minute walk home and she trudged about 2 hours after she left the mall.

MY BROTHER'S CAR GOT STUCK FOR 2 HOURS. Then after my Dad had retired for the evening, my brother ended up getting stuck for 2 hours in the alley down the street and they worked tirelessly using a combination of sand, chains and digging to get my brother's car unstuck otherwise he'd be blocking the alley.

SO MUCH SNOW WE COULDN'T VISIT MOM. Today Eric and I took the car out to run errands and headed to Mom's for a visit but their roads were still so terrible that we had to head back home. Tire tracks on their side streets were melting snow but the middle of the road was filled with at least a foot of snow which was scraping perilously against the muffler.

SNOW PARKING TERRITORY GRABS. We did a couple of passes on major streets close by to see if we could park but there were no available parking spaces just cars heaped with snow from snow plows. Like the game Risk where territories are marked by plastic pieces, any cleared parking spaces were occupied by empty plastic five gallon buckets and plastic garbage cans. Remove at risk of the owner's wrath.

Image Source: daylife.com

MERRY CHRISTMAS

VANCOUVER RECORD SNOWFALL

Why Did Vancouver Get So Much Snow?
The EJ Factor - Blame the American

Most Vancouverites will wake up Christmas morning to over a foot and a half of snow - the most it's snowed in Vancouver since 1964. But if you ask my Mom, she seems to remember it being pretty snowy the following year when I was born when Dad got up on the roof to clear the snow. But most Vancouverites are oblivious to the true facts of why we got so much snow this past week.

Forget blaming Vancouver's record snowfall on global warming, according to my relatives, my husband is to blame. Their evidence points to the fact that he's an American from back East and by all karmic meterological accounts, he has brought the snow with him.

Plus you know when you go vacation somewhere sunny and you kind of take a secret delight when the weather is terrible back home. I'm not suggesting that the friends we're house sitting for are enjoying a Schadenfreude-esque vacation retreat, while they are drinking Mai Tais with umbrellas on some beach in Thailand. But isn't it oh so convenient for them that of all the years for them to choose to go away, they chose the one with the most back breaking snowfall in over 40 years.

SNOWBOUND

Stuck Inside...

Eating...

...Working Off the Calories

VANCOUVER FIRST SNOW

ERIC METEROLOGIST WASHINGTON POST

Many people may not be aware of Eric's found art collection of parking meter notes. Eric spent a morning with Washington Post columnist, John Kelly on the prowl for these urban pleas of mercy which resulted in an article in today's Washington Post called "Seeking Justice (and Mercy) From the Meter Reader." Be sure to click on the video as well "Meterologist Analyzes Parking Woes."

Other Washington Post Articles by John Kelly Featuring Eric Jenkins:
"Always Something to Feed the Longing", September 1, 2008
"Make a Meal of the City Around You", November 15, 2006

FALL COLORS

Our house at River Park is a three story townhouse with a beautiful rounded barrel roof and floor to ceiling windows which celebrate light. Here's the view from the upstairs bedroom. Trees laden with crimson orange colored leaves decorate the parking lot and just behind it is a stately, mature juniper, now close to over 40 years old providing much appreciated shade cover and eco-friendly cooling for our abode.

JINX & TOMMY

Submitted by Tom Jenkins. Photo Credit Annette Jenkins.

COUNTDOWN

Have spent the last three weeks getting back into the groove of things here in D.C. swaddled in the warmth and affection of my two kitty cats & EJ.

Returned to flower benches bursting full of colorful mums and pansies as I returned to Bell Nursery. My supervisor is going back to school so I got her gig keeping the flowers in order. Today was the first day of fall with pleasant sunny weather to match, a relief from the hot humid days which initially welcomed me back.

Also pinned down travel plans to return to Vancouver. Thanks to our friends Martin & Jennifer who are taking an extended trip to Asia, Eric and I have the opportunity to house sit and write from November through January. I'll be staying the entire time while Eric has plans to drop in for a couple of weeks in early December.

I booked my flight the day after the Election, just in time to flee the country should the results be undesirable. So the countdown clock I posted on the right hand side also conveniently counts down the days until I return to Vancouver.

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER

Political Photo Collage Commentary Contributed by EJ

BEFORE YOU DIE

Kind of sad, Dave Freeman, the co-author of "100 Things to Do Before You Die" passed away. Ironically, this daredevil did not die surfing or running with the bulls but from a head injury at home. Apparently he at least got half way through the list.

Does thinking about death bring your life into greater focus?
The rise of 'before you dieism', BBC News, August 27, 2008

DAD RESUME

Dad is like a walking billboard of every place I've ever worked in radio. It's my resume in sweatshirts. This must be over 20 years old, dating back to 1988 when I was a DJ at rock station K97 in Kamloops. His other well worn favorite is one from All Hit 1040 Kicks - a sweatshirt commemorating when I last took part in the PNE parade marching through the West End in downtown Vancouver.

DIFFERENT P.O.V.

LOOKING AT THINGS DIFFERENTLY. There's a street artist on site at the PNE who doesn't say anything. He just starts painting. Large crowds gather just watching him make bold paint strokes trying to figure out what he's painting. Then at the end with great flourish he turns his canvass upside down to reveal his final creation.

RICKETY ROLLERCOASTER

50 YEARS YOUNG.
Looks like someone threw together some 2 x 4s all willy-nilly.

Part of this coaster's charm is the anticipation, the imagined.
Listen to its rickety whirr sounding like it could fall apart any minute.

BLING IT ON

I love this job. What's not to adore about co-workers decked out in spangly rhinestone kerchiefs and sparkly dog collars and owners with shiny gold or silver lame jackets? Since the Superdogs show is on the way to the office, I get to enjoy their show everyday. It's the best. Every show is slightly different to keep the dogs motivated and I don't ever seem to tire of watching them.