Elvis Knows, Man. He KNOWS.

Every year about a week before Christmas my daughter and I take a trip into downtown Seattle to check out all the holiday sights and finish our Christmas shopping. It is our tradition. And it never gets old. Sometimes other family members tag along, and other times it’s just the two of us, and it's fine either way - we have fun no matter what!

I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember. My parents used to take me into the city to visit Santa at Frederick & Nelson and to ride the monorail and the Seattle Center “Bubbleator” which looked like this eleven months out of the year….


….but for Christmas they’d dress it up to look like a snowman. No, I’m not kidding.

*snicker*

I can never find a picture of it dressed like a snowman though, and that’s one thing I really wish I had! Oh well.

The Bubbleator is now gone. As are the uber cool Nutcracker March statues I told you about last year….


But make no mistake, Seattle still welcomes Santa with style! We went on Saturday, and here’s a sampling of what we did:

We brazenly ignored the fact it was raining cats puppies and dogs despite the lying weatherman’s promises that it would be sunny. *growl*….


We introduced my nephew to The Gum Wall….














And, yes, my daughter’s gum creation from last time was still there in all its icky sicky grody glory….




We had our horoscopes read by Elvis….


Yep. Elvis told me, “I see a great deal of happiness in the near future for you. A difficult time is passing.” :-) And Elvis told my nephew he will find treasure in the future. Thus, my nephew has decided he no longer wants to be a policeman when he grows up, now he wants a career in piracy. ARRRRRGH!

We went on the holiday carousel….










And, of course, we capped the whole thing off with yummy hot chocolate….
.

.
Cheers!

© Love Letters By Cora

And so it begins…. (Again.)

I attempted Project 365 once a couple years ago, but I heartlessly abandoned it when life got too chaotic to care about taking a picture every day. This year I am trying it again—only differently.

I am adjusting the rules a little bit, making it more user-friendly. This time, if I screw it up and forget to take a picture for a day or two will the whole project be dead to me and ditched like a dirty diaper because it’s hopelessly ruined? Heck no! This time if life gets in the way and I forget to do a photo—*light bulb moment*—I’ll just take two the next day.

(I don’t know why I didn’t think of that last time—duh.)

(And, please, I’ve already had to bend the rules twice in the last 19 days, so I think I can say with confidence that making it user-friendly is a nifty plan.)

(Clearly.)

(Ahem.)

And, hey, it’s not like the Project 365 Fairies are going to go postal if I contort the rules a wee little bit, right? I mean, really, I’m pretty sure they have bigger things to worry about…. like the fact that there are 366 days this year, not 365. (D’oh!)

Anyway, here is what I have accomplished in this year’s Project 365 so far.


DAY 1 (2012-01-01) ~ Visiting Seattle for the holidays. I had forgotten how thick the moss is out there. The trees all looked like Oscar the Grouch!




DAY 2 (2012-01-02) ~ My friend Callista's uber-cute dog.




DAY 3 (2012-01-03) ~ I found this on a wall near the Pike Place Market in Seattle. Bizarre. I have no words.




DAY 4 (2012-01-04) ~ Okay. Fine. I cheated, okay? I forgot to take a picture on January 4 because I was busy with family stuff (Bad Cora! Bad!) So, I'm posting a second picture from January 3 to make up for it. It's the Gum Wall in Seattle.




DAY 5 (2012-01-05) ~ Taking a walk around Gene Coulon Park in Renton, WA.




DAY 6 (2012-01-06) ~ Again, call me a cheater. I was too busy to do a picture on Januray 6 (read: family stuff) so I'm posting a second picture from the 5th in its place. This was taken on my walk around Gene Coulon Park in Renton, WA.




DAY 7 (2012-01-07) ~ Flying home to Chicago. This was the view of Washington from above. Soooooooooo beautiful!




DAY 8 (2012-01-08) ~ A strange, wavy building in Chicago.




DAY 9 (2012-01-09) ~ The sunrise at Welles Park in Chicago.




DAY 10 (2012-01-10) ~ Mmmmmmmmm.




DAY 11 (2012-01-11) ~ My first bokeh attempt using Christmas tree lights. I'm not sure if it qualifies as good bokeh or not, but I kind of like it.




DAY 12 (2012-01-12) ~ Winter has FINALLY arrived in Chicago!




DAY 13 (2012-01-13) ~ A snowy day in the garden.




DAY 14 (2012-01-14) ~ Snow, snow, snow.




DAY 15 (2012-01-15) ~ Another bokeh attempt with Christmas tree lights.




DAY 16 (2012-01-16) ~ An adorable little birdhouse in the snow.




DAY 17 (2012-01-17) ~ My precious.




DAY 18 (2012-01-18) ~ Painting with an LED flashlight.




DAY 19 (2012-01-19) ~ What it looks like when you combine oil, water and food coloring all in one bowl. CooOOooOOool!




And that is what I have so far. Now that we are all caught up, I (hopefully!) will be posting my Project 365 pictures on a more regular basis in smaller posts. I will be using different cameras and trying different things. Some will be good, some won’t, but I hope you enjoy the journey with me.

© Coracabana

Like a bewildered, cranky groundhog being yanked from its den, I am emerging from The Holidaze. Hi, how ya doin’?

Alrighty, let’s just jump right in here. Our Christmases were fantastic, yet mind-bogglingly busy and time-sucking. Frankly, I’m still disoriented and wandering ditzily around in a blind, stupid stupor from it all. I’m going to assume you are too.

And, yes, I said Christmases.

Christmas #1 was spent with Scope’s parents in Kewanee, IL, where we channeled our inner Guy Fieri and played Minute To Win It (Scope’s sister’s idea) and, among other impossible hijinks, attempted to migrate Oreo’s from our foreheads into our mouths using only our facial muscles.



(Not easy, people. Not. Easy.)

(That’s Scope’s sister and nephew pictured above, by the way. *snicker*)

Christmas #2 was just the three of us in our home in Chicago, where my hubby gave me a fragment of Voldemort’s soul (aka a horcrux locket) that I had been eyeing for many a moon (wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!) and Santa visited and noshed himself into an uncomfortable food coma on all the candy-ified cookies we baked for him.



And Christmas #3 was with my family back in Seattle, where we visited the Pike Place Market, left our grody mark on the Gum Wall, hung out with Callista, and celebrated New Year’s Eve AND Christmas all in one night. *whew!*




Of course, Fernando Von Bakonstein was with us the entire time and he enjoyed himself, having lunch with Wednesday and my nephew….



….and having a mondo throw down with Simon from The Chipmunks….



….and hobnobbing with other porcine folk he met in the Pike Place Market….



….and slurping hot chocolate at Seattle’s Best Coffee….



….and, most especially, making faces with Wednesday at poor Scope as he slept on the flight back home.



(Tee hee hee.)

So far 2012 has been little more than a blur, honestly. (It’s the 19th already?! Really?!) I went whole hog and made several resolutions, instead of just one, which I intend to keep this year. My resolutions?:

1. To Eat Healthier Foods. So far so good on that effort! In fact, in the past 19 days I have not only tolerated oatmeal every morning (which I have utterly loathed my entire existence) but I have actually grown to love the stuff. I know! Me liking mushy slop?! No way! But—taa-daa!—it’s happened.

2. To Build Muscle Mass. I have been trying and failing to lose weight since moving to Chicago a year and a half ago. After beating myself up over it all this time, I finally realized what the problem probably is: loss of muscle mass. Back in Seattle I was a nanny, hoisting hefty kids around every day. Sure, it was murder on my back, but it was great for my rear! So, this year, I vow to get strong again. In fact, I filled a suitcase full of hardback books which I have been working out with and toting around almost daily. *whew!* A stronger Cora is in the making! (And hopefully a stronger Cora will fit back into all of Nanny Cora’s cute, teeny former clothes. *fingers crossed*)

3. To Speak The Truth And Not Sugar Coat Things In A Misguided Effort To Try To Keep The Jerks Of The World Calm. This doormat is done playing nicely now. *pounding my fist into my hand*

4. To Take A Picture Each And Every Day In My Second Attempt At Project 365. You may recall I attempted Project 365 back in 2009/2010, but I abandoned it because life got too crazy what with my tonsillectomy, the wedding, and the cross-country move. With everything that was going on, taking a daily picture just fell right off of my list of priorities. I kind of regret that though. I wish I had kept the project up because I would love to have photos documenting my old Seattle house going from bustling home to bare rooms filled with packing boxes, but the sad fact is that I didn’t do it. I felt like I didn’t have time to take a picture every day. (But, really, how much time would it have taken?) Of course, there will be days I screw up and forget to do a picture, inevitably, but when that happens this time I won’t just drop the whole project and walk away, I’ll just take two pictures the next day to even it all out. (See? Thinking!) So far it’s been going splendiferously! I will be posting the project’s pictures here starting with my next post. I hope you guys enjoy seeing them as much as I’m loving taking them.

5. To Get My Bloggy Groove Back And Blog More Often. I figure Project 365 will help with that, right? :-)

So, anyway, Happy New Year!



Up next: Project 365. Stay tuned!

© Coracabana

Meet The Scopes

Well, we did it. That’s right. Saturday, July 3rd, Scope and I gathered our families and friends together; said a few magical tingle-inducing little words to each other; swapped rings; wriggled; giggled; grinned until our faces were sore; and ~*BOOYA!*~ now we are (….drum roll please….) married!!!!


*le sigh*

But wait—*needle scratching across a record*—first things first: let’s take a step back to how we got here….

Scope and I met right here on this very blog back in 2008. Yep. I was a nanny and brand new to Blogaritaville and I whipped up a bloggy letter to Santa, inquiring about a stripper pole (for exercise purposes) (of course) (perv), and Scope piqued my interest, curiosity, and laugh-until-you-can’t-breathe-iosity, by commenting that what he wanted for Christmas was a nanny cam.

Because I was a nanny.

With a stripper pole.

*wink wink nudge nudge say no more*

A-ha.

Did I know back then that I had just crossed paths with my future husband? Heck no. But I knew I’d just run into someone who would be verrrrrrry fun to blog with, so I scurried on over to Scope’s blog…. and I never left.

Blogging turned into facebooking, which morphed into emailing, which evolved into phone calls, and in April 2009 we finally met face-to-face. And the sparks flew immediately. And they’ve never stopped flying.

And now *TAA-DAA* I am Mrs. Scope!!!! :-)

*SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!*

Whoddathunkit? I mean, when I started up this dorky little blog I never really thought someone might actually want to read it (puh-leeze)…. or that I’d make real life friends because of it (c’mon)…. or that I’d meet my future husband on it (shaddap ya face)….. but that’s life, right? You’re minding your own business one second and then *BAM* suddenly there’s a funny man from Chicago wanting to put a camera in your house the next!

But anyway….

I’ll be writing a more detailed wedding post soon. Ish. Or whenever I’m done sorting through the sixty-two trillion photos I took that day. Whatevs. Until then though, here’s a little snippet of what we did leading up to the wedding:

Scope flew in four days before the big day and we spent that time finishing up all things weddingy…. and rounding up our relatives, trying to meld everyone’s mess of conflicting plans, schedules, expectations and requests into one well-oiled, functioning machine.

Or at least a somewhat less messy blob of some kind….


(Criminy! You wouldn’t believe the flaming hoops I had to jump through to get that tiny handful of people together there for dinner that night at the insistence of two of them. About two hours before that picture was taken I was curled in a ball on my bedroom floor, crying my eyes out because of it all! Gah! But it was worth it in the end; everyone had a good time…. I think. And if not, I soooooooooo don’t wanna know about it. Just shhhhhhhh, don’t tell me.)

(No, really.)

Friday, the day before our wedding, Scope and I took 25 members of his family and friends into downtown Seattle to go sightseeing.

This may not have been the brightest idea we’ve ever had.

Ever tried to herd 25 over-stimulated, distracted, excited people in the same direction at once? No? I have…. when I was a Kindergarten teacher and we went on a field trip to the zoo. But, frankly, that was easier because kids on a field trip know to hold hands and follow the leader. Sightseeing adults? Yeah, not so much. I spent so much time counting heads, running back and forth looking for wandering group members, and juggling questions, that I was utterly exhausted by lunchtime. Like serious zombified exhaustion.

*whimper*

Scope rescued me and snuck me away for a private lunch, just the two of us, for a much needed break before rejoining the group. (All together now: awwwwwwwwwwww.) When we rejoined the group it was to find that half of them had decided to go off on their own and do the Underground Tour, which made the rest of our sightseeing a bit more manageable.

We saw the Pike Place Market….


….and the Gum Wall….


….and the Space Needle….


….and other Seattleish sights….


And then before we knew it, we were running alarmingly late and racing out of the city in a panic to the Fairwood Golf & Country Club for our wedding rehearsal. We speed-changed our clothes in a public bathroom and burst onto the scene at the FG&CC only a mere minute late. Score!

The rehearsal went fantastically….


….and afterwards we went to the rehearsal dinner, where Scope gave a simultaneously side-splitting and touching speech (he’ll be posting it over on his blog soon), where I did—uhhhhhhhhh—whatever it is that I do….


….and where I got a call from Scope’s relatives who had stayed behind in Seattle to do the Underground Tour. Remember them? They got lost on their way back out of Seattle and wanted a local Seattleite (that would be me) to talk them back onto the right road:

Them: “We don’t know where we are. I think we took a wrong turn somewhere. How do we get back to the expressway?”

Me: “Well, I need to know where you are first. Are there any landmarks or buildings near you?”

Them: “Yes! Starbucks!”

*crickets*

;-)

Aaaaaaaaaaaand on that note, I’m going to pause this tale. Next time, I’ll tell you all about our wedding day, swearsies, but while you’re waiting for me to get my act together on that, go check out our fabulous photographer Rachel Rausch Johnson’s special sneak peek blog post about our day! (CLICK HERE) The pictures are FANTASTIC! You’ll love them! I do!

© Coracabana