Author: Susan

Kevin brought home tulips after getting groceries on Sunday (wonderful guy), and as always with these flowers I’ve been having fun watching them grow and bend in the light.

Here they are, new, before they started drinking:

And then last night, straight up and at least six inches taller:

And then this morning right after snipping the stems, working on standing up straight again:

So pretty, especially now that the Seattle sunshine is back!

The skies today looked like this:

So the kayaks looked like this:

Bummer. I was almost tempted to brave it, but cold and very windy in a kayak just isn’t as fun as sunny and calm, so we’ll wait. The great thing about where we live is that it’s a two block walk down to the Lake Washington and a park with boat ramps. With twilight lasting until almost nine, there’s plenty of time to get home from work and go out for a paddle. No need to get blown down the lake. 🙂

Today was the opening day of boating season in Seattle. I’ve heard (in an entirely non-primary-source way) that about one in five Seattle residents own boats. A very generous handful of that population was camped out by the UW stadium to tailgate and watch the crew races when we were driving across the 520 bridge this morning. (You can see the weather was cooperating. Such a pity after a week of gorgeous, sunny weather in the 70’s.)

That picture shows about a tenth of the boats out there. It was neat to see — especially the yachts bigger than our apartment.

Why were we crossing the bridge? To head to the REI store in Seattle to buy kayaks! Now that I have my new job and know that I’ll be in the area for a while, I’ve been wishing for one. REI is having their huge sale, with boats 15% off, and car carriers 20% off, and accessories 10% off if you buy a boat, so it seemed to more or less be a sign. 🙂

I don’t know how many of you have been to their Seattle store, but it’s an amazing experience. The construction is one part ski lodge, one part tech company, and one part temple to overpriced sporting gadgetry. I took a picture of part of the entrance with the surrounding evergreen forest and waterfall. Sadly, it’s backlit so you can’t see the loving, willing look on Kevin’s face as he realized I was taking a picture of the store for the blog.

This was the third REI visit in under 24 hours, so we had everything chosen out and just needed to collect and pay for it. Kevin got the Perception Pacifica 12 and I ended up with the Necky Manitou. I was planning to get the Pacifica as well, but the Necky boat fits me perfectly — I couldn’t not get it. Paddles were trickier because they’re so expensive. I’ve had one for years that I love which is a one-piece, aluminum paddle, but I couldn’t find anything even close to similar. We both ended up with 230 cm Aqua-Bound Manta Ray paddles, which were the sturdiest of the “cheap” two piece paddles (which I have to concede will store well). The jury’s still out on these but they felt great at the store. (Knitting aside: I’m thinking about making a second yoga-mat bag to make them easier to carry.) We got spray skirts, cockpit seals (to keep out the enormous spiders that have recently started lurking on our deck and infiltrating the house), and very cool lifejackets.

We also got a car carrier! This was very new territory for me, but I’m pleased with the combination we decided on. For those who haven’t had the fun, you buy a base of bars and towers, and then you buy accessories to attach to those based on what you want to lug. For kayaks, you have the option of laying them flat (like they would be in the water) or tilting them on their side. My car is supposed to hold a 48″ bar, and the kayaks are 26″ each, so lying both flat wasn’t an option. The advantage of the flat, though, is that you can put a saddle in front and rollers in back, and then you only need one (strong) person to load a kayak onto it, so that if one of us wanted to go out by ourselves it would be an option. The guy I talked to yesterday suggested getting a wider bar and then attaching tennis balls to the end so no one took their head out. Kevin (smart kid) suggested that we use the proper bar and a mismatched pair of accessories so that one boat would lie flat and one tilt up. I was impressed at his thinking outside the box. 🙂

We spent an hour and a half in the REI garage assembling the rack. Luckily the first wave of shoppers had left and the mid-afternoon crowd didn’t start arriving until we were almost done, so the top level was almost empty and we could spread out over three spaces. Before:

and, yay!, after (worst photo ever):

We then went to pick up the boats. The loading dock guy was impressed at our resourcefulness with the mismatched setup, and very amused when we asked him to take a picture with the us and the boats “for insurance reasons.” The drive home was pretty sink or swim — five blocks of city streets and then two highways, neither of which had shoulders and one of which crosses a major bridge. The boats were amazingly steady. I’m aspiring to be the sort of nonchalant person who hoists their boat on their car and goes driving off to wilderness adventures, but for the moment the car rack concept makes me very nervous. Practice reduces panic? We’ll see.

Do you ever have times when you realize you’ve just fulfilled a vision of yourself? When I was out on my Microsoft internship four years ago, zipping around in the red Pontiac Vibe that they rented for me, I was completely sold on the area and the ethos. I remember thinking that I wanted to be working full time for Microsoft, driving a Matrix (same car as the Vibe, but built by Toyota) with a kayak strapped to the roof. I’d just met Kevin, and everything here just seemed so *possible*. And last night, as we were driving back from REI visit #2, it made me laugh that I would be driving in my Matrix, next to Kevin, with two kayaks strapped to the roof on my weekends off from Microsoft. 🙂 I feel like the 20 year old me would be delighted.

I’m slowly winding down the first ball, and it’s looking like I may actually be done with it this week! About time!

I’ve been enjoying the colors more as they get diluted in the larger work. I’ve decided that the dark actually has its uses — it makes a beautiful foil for the burst of bright (peacock?) blue:

And I made it a few unravels past the original tip over the weekend, which feels like major progress. I’d been very worried that this would end up being too wide and not nearly long enough, but I’d forgotten that each unraveled row adds length to the scarf in addition to width. I think the end length will be perfect — the jury’s still out on the width, though.

One last texture photo:

I was working on the reverse side and enjoying the furrows from the unraveled rows compared to the spiraling columns on the top of the work. The camera has trouble with the shiny silk in bright sunlight, so you’ll have to try to sub in the turquoises and blues from the photo above. So lovely.

Right, so my senior year of college, fall semester, I took an AmCiv course on American Bioregionalism. It was a literature-based foray into the ways that the geographical features of the United States shaped the religion, mindsets, and regional differences of the people who have lived here. We went from Puritans to Mormons, from Thoreau and the Transcendentalists to Edward Abbey. The professor was amazing, the course was extremely well put together, and it had a major impact on the way I think about ecology, identity, and activism. (The discussion about regional attitudes and the physical terrain are particularly interesting, by the way, now that I’ve left New England for the Pacific Northwest.) One of the most thought-provoking books was the Book of Yaak by Rick Bass. I recommend it highly. In addition to writing wonderful books, he also sends out a constant stream of letters to lawmakers, pleading for rational and sustainable environmental policies and for the preservation of corridors of wilderness. He is truly an advocate. It was after reading this book that I started regularly writing my lawmakers and papers about policies that matter to me.

I try not to veer into the political on this blog — I don’t have any relevant photos, and I feel like many others write well and effectively on the subject so there’s no need to add another voice to the debate. But, something comes along that’s easy to agree on, and it seems that this act is one of those. (See this and this if you want a bit of background, or this if you really enjoy reading Senate bills for yourself.) Take a look, and sign the petition, write your senator if you’re into that sort of thing, and then we can all go back to our fish and knitting. 🙂

Believe it or not, I planned to post knitting progress, but I woke up to dismal grey instead of the sunny brightness I’ve been becoming accustomed to, and decided that the photos wouldn’t turn out. (I’d also planned to post quilting progress, but didn’t make any, so that plan was also out the window.) That leaves only plants and the fishtank of the topics my posts seem to fall into, so, by process of elimination since I don’t have any interesting plant pictures, let’s see the fishtank Yay!

You may have seen this in the tang pictures from the weekend, but our xenia has been having issues. You may remember, from way back before we moved the tanks, that the xenia used to be a massively growing, medusa-like mess, to the point that we kept having to remove bits of it. Here’s a sample picture from September:

I loved our free spirited xenia. Well, we took the top glass off the tank (which dramatically increased the light), moved to the new tank, added some new corals, and changed our circulation, and since then the xenia’s been tiny and under control. It still pulses, but the seven inch arms have completely disappeared.

See what I mean? I have no idea which of the variables effected the change, but it’s hard not to miss the amazingness crawling off the rock and up the back wall.

And now, aside from its well-mannered smallness, it’s being pushed around by the bubble algae. As you can see in the far right, that thing started growing, then gradually separated the xenia from the rock until it reached this point, where it’s nearly two inches away. The xenia doesn’t seem to mind, but I always feel sort of precarious when I look at it.

Our other xenia is doing well. This picture has a blue cast from the lights, but it’s really a shell pink. I love how the feathered the hands look as they pulse.

We put the volunteer xenia (love that) and the last xenia frag down in the refugium. Apparently, they’re as talented at nutrient removal as all of our macroalgae. I’m hoping that with the lower light the xenia takes off like its wilder relatives. 🙂

Notice anything different?

The sump is set up, the sump/refugium circulation is flowing, the tang is in the main tank, and the green bin and the quarantine tank are broken down! There was one more trip to Lowe’s for a PVC piece to replace the soft pipe return from the sump to the refugium, since the soft pipe is very gurgly, but we’re actually in good shape tank-wise!

The tang, after an initial panic that lasted about fifteen minutes, and a shy period of a few hours, seems to be adjusting readily to the new home. He’s pretty freaked out by the shrimp, but seems to find the clowns captivating. They’re a bit less overt in their affections. (Kevin and I were thinking of ways to describe the relationship. Most apt seemed the krill in Finding Nemo: “Run away!”) The tang swims everywhere in the tank, which is new for us. The clowns are usually tied to the left third of the tank, venturing away every few months. The gramma also likes the rock on the left, and sleeps in a rock on the right side, but rarely visits the far right of the tank or lingers much while swimming between the two spots. The tang swims everywhere, even high above the rocks, but still seems a bit leery of the front glass.

Some pictures of his interactions with the clowns in the mid-afternoon (sorry about the daylight reflections off the glass):
Following them around and around the big rock…

… then around the back again…

… then a surprise visit from above after a quick food break for the tang.

By the evening, the tang was looking a lot calmer. He’s found his reflection in the glass on the far right side, so he spent a lot of the evening showing off for himself. The clowns also relaxed a bit and stopped swimming side by side.
The tang is showing a marked preference for Clack, though, and follows him about. Clack is letting him get a lot closer (an inch or two) before turning to flee, so they’re making progress. They’re both pretty amiable fish, so with luck they’ll be good company for each other and we won’t have a personality clash.

The clowns look even wrigglier than usual compared to the sleek and speedy tang.

The gramma, true to form, hasn’t made an appearance since the tang showed up… I’m hoping that they’re OK tomorrow while we’re at work. Fingers crossed.

First of all, have you all seen the website of the people who decided to crochet a reef? How cool! It may even beat the endless procession of knitted food.

Since we’re already talking about reefs, perhaps you’d like a plumbing update? 🙂 The checkout woman at Lowe’s laughed and laughed when I showed up at her register and plunked down a single 78¢ piece of PVC. Clearly, she is not dealing with fishtank piping and still has her sense of humour.

After the last “fix” for the tank, which involved flexible tubing and dumped water all over the floor at an astounding rate until I could unplug the pump, I’ve been working on a rigid PVC solution. The problem, roughly, was that I had to find a way of moving water from a 1.125” hole in the bottom of our overflow box over 26” and down 5” to the 2”+ hole in the side of the sump I made, so that it could be skimmed and routed into the refugium. In theory, this really isn’t a hard problem except that PVC is the devil, and the options for elbows and bulkheads and slip versus threaded bushings mean that inevitably I got home with one missing piece and one unnecessary fitting. The most recent trip to Lowes was the (hopefully) final one in a series of nine. (PVC is cheap, and I’m reasonably smart, so the idea was that a DIY solution wouldn’t be too hard and would save a lot of money. Hard to say exactly where the logic went wrong, but this is the ultimate unending project.)

So the missing link, featured at left:

was incorporated into this tiny, simple PVC structure (both the part attached to the sump, and the part, partly obscured by the fan, sitting on the floor. These attach via a union, so that we can easily unhook the sump from the overflow if needed):

The whole thing is held together by the extremely noxious Purple Primer and PVC Cement. Hopefully they will live up to their rave reviews, and after having the rest of this week to dry the whole thing can have a trial run on the tank on Saturday. At this point, I’m feeling quite successful, because all of the parts fit together. Keep your fingers crossed that the measurements were spot-on and that all goes as hoped. It’s so close…

This picture may give you a sense of why I feel that this whole project is unending. The main tank and refugium are in the foreground (the sump will go on top of the cabinet at right when it’s hooked up), the huge green tub holding the temporary sump is on the floor in the midground, and our quarantine tank with the tang is on the kitchen counter.

It’s an awful lot of tanks and accessories and it’s looked like this for a good six months — time to condense it all a bit! (I also have hopes that the new system will cut down on noise a bit, but at this point I’m willing to settle for something that just does the job without leaking.)

Spring is *definitely* here. The weather isn’t much warmer, and we’ve had flowers up for ages, but the piece that finally tipped the balance in my mind is the lovely light. Sunset isn’t until after eight! On Monday night, after the first day of Kevin’s new job (yay!!), we went out for a walk/jog on the hills, then came home and grilled for the first time this year:

(Love that facial expression: “Ahh, lighter fluid. All is right with the world.”)

While we were waiting for the grill to heat and the flames to subside, I was delighted to find a bud on my chives!

This is the poor plant that was infested with aphids last summer, and got relegated to outdoors, then stayed there looking dead all winter. In the last few weeks, it’s been growing hard, and now it looks like it may flower! I know that chives sport purple flowers, but I’ve never seen them. Very cool.