Pemco Insurance: The fly on our wall

I love these commercials – mostly because they are absolutely spot-on in pegging us Pacific Northwesterners.

I wish this radio ad had visuals for you, dear reader… but we Seattleites don’t even need visuals because we know exactly what this looks like:

Here are some more “a lot like you… a little different” Pemco ads. If you don’t get them, that’s OK. You kinda have to live in the Pacific Northwest to really understand.

And some more radio ads that are worth imagining… if you CAN!

And if you need some visual assistance, you can get it here.

If you’re shaking your head, insisting you just don’t get it… well, head-shaking-clueless-about-Pacific-Northwesterners guy, you’re definitely not one of us.

But because we’re from the Pacific Northwest, we love you anyway.

One woman’s nuttin’ is another woman’s sumpin’ (Huff-puff)

So I ran today for the first time in (gulp) years.

I didn’t run far and I certainly didn’t run fast, but I ran.

Considering that just over a year ago I took my first steps a full 13 weeks after breaking my ankle (remember this?)…

…running today was kinda sorta an achievement for l’il ol’ me!

We can either blame or credit Elisabeth for my achievement, since she absolutely insisted that I run part of the way around Green Lake today – and she insisted that I do it twice! I whined and begged and cried, but she was ruthless and unrelenting, meanie daughter that she is!

So here’s where I ran:

According to Trails.com, that’s .537 miles! On Thursday, Elisabeth will make me run three times! She seems to believe that by the time the Seattle Danskin Triathlon comes around in August, I’ll be able to easily run the whole 3 miles around Green Lake – and the whole 3-point-something miles in the triathlon. Today I can’t even imagine that, but perhaps by next week I’ll think (and feel) differently.

Tomorrow morning it’s back to yoga class, where I make a total fool of myself. Seriously, who can put their ankle into their groin and stand like that, still as a tree, for two frikkin’ minutes?! I can’t even stand on one foot (especially my injured foot) without just about falling over! And yet, I will subject myself to another hour of yoga tomorrow…

My husband has a sheddish

Remember this gorgeous writer’s retreat

workshop/shed that Tom made for me himself?

The one that he doted on lovingly for a year, that finally looked like this:

(If I knew where to submit it, I’d enter this gorgeous “man cave” into a contest of architecturally beautiful out-houses!  Got any suggestions?)

Well, lest you think he’s finished, look how he spent his weekend:

(The words that come to mind: “Hansel and Gretel” and “breadcrumbs”… don’t ask me why!)

  

Gorgeous is never good enough for this man!  Next, he’ll put a weather vane on top of it or sumpin’!

Lest you think I never got my writer’s retreat…

OK, so it’s more of a garden shed, but it’s been come to be known around here as “Carol’s shed” – probably so as to make the distinction between it and “Tom’s shed – which is his man cave and is not to be cleaned, tampered with, or project managed, so help you God.” 

We also call this pre-fabricated garden shed “the ugly shed,” though I have to say that, as sheds go, it’s not all that ugly… except in comparison to The Master’s Castle over there. 

My shed inspires me to throw on my IPod Shuffle and weed plots of land previously strangled by large, foreboding dandelions and tall, invasive grasses…

…and to clean patio furniture, sweep the deck, and welcome Spring to Seattle.

Oh wait – it’s not the pre-fabricated plastic shed that did that; it’s the warm, glowing orb that has occupied the sky as of late!  Happy Spring!

Searching for Search

Last Thursday I became my own person (or blogger, anyway) by switching domains to www.northwestladyybug.com (instead of a “blogspot” URL).  It’s been great, except for one thing: I can no longer find ANYTHING on my blog via search, which is a tool I use a lot when referencing previous posts.

Now I get this, every time I search for something I know is on my blog:

Can anyone help me?  Blogger help has been no help at all…

My 2.5 seconds of fame

I’m all a’twitter over Pioneer Woman’s mention of our little mishap that occurred last week at her Seattle book signing!  This little screenshot…

…is from her blog.  Swooooon!

I had to set her straight, though, on the details of the story, since she blamed herself for something that was totally my own fault.

So other than my appearance as a contestant on Press Your Luck way back in 1984 (my opponent was Dr. Bill Dorfman who won the windsurfer I was trying so desperately to win for Tom… and then went on to fame and fortune on ABC’s Extreme Makeover), this is as close as I’ve come to fame.

Well, maybe there were a few other times, as I blogged about here, but this one has special meaning because… well, because this is Pioneer Woman!

A walk around Seattle’s Green Lake

This walk will (so help me) become part of my regimen as I prepare for the Danskin Triathlon this summer – especially because my personal training sessions are over and there’s no way I can pay another $75o for another 6 weeks. Elisabeth lives just a few blocks from Green Lake so at least twice a week we’ll meet at her house after work and do this 3 mile walk. Eventually (she says once I stop snapping pictures constantly), we should be pretty quick, especially if when we (gasp) start running, but right now it’s taking us just under an hour. It’s not a bad work-out because… well, because of this:

(I know! How cute is he?!)

Dream house alert! This house is directly across the street from the lake. Swoooon!

“C’mon, Mom! You’re supposed to be exercising your whole body, not just your shutter finger!”

Fly fishing lessons!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Seattle and the Pacific Northwest?

All grown up!

No worries – everything should still be the same for you.  If anything’s wonky, just note that I went from northwestladybug.blogspot.com to www.northwestladybug.com. 

I feel so… grown up and independent!

3 ingredient, 3 minute (but all day) German-style pork roast

Pork.  It’s what’s for dinner.

We’re not eating much red meat these days, but I found a nice cut of pork on sale and decided it was time for a good German-style pork roast for dinner.  Ironically, I had to avoid a day when Elisabeth or Kat might be home, as neither of them eat pork.  Peter, on the other hand, loves the stuff and especially loves sauerkraut (good German that he is), so Peter, if you’re reading this, feel free to hop in the car and drive five hours.  Dinner will be at around 7:00 and we’d love to see you!  And Aleks?  Well, shed no tears for Aleks (that was last week, when he was stuck in the Milan train station… he finally found a series of trains that got him home to Prague– though it took over 24 hours) because Aleks is in Budapest right now, eating deliciousness that I’m sure far exceeds his mama’s pork roast.

So here’s the simplest recipe on earth – except PB&J, that’s pretty dang simple.

Snip a few fresh herbs from the mini herb garden you planted last week and can’t believe is still alive…

Place a bunch of (that’s as specific as I’m gonna get here, folks!) small red or white potatoes in the bottom of a crock pot.  Place a pork roast on top of them and then top meat with the fresh herbs from your oh-my-god-they’re-still-alive kitchen widow sill garden.  Salt and pepper the roast.  Then take a jar of sauerkraut and pour it all – liquid included – around…

…and on top of the meat.

Sprinkle caraway seeds on top the the whole beautiful mess.  Cover.

Then go to work.  Work, work, work.  (Still adoring your new job…)

After work, walk around Green Lake with one of your daughters who doesn’t like pork, but who was home yesterday and with whom you cooked yummy vegetable lasagna. 

(The distance around Green Lake is almost exactly the same as the distance you’ll be walking/running in August when you participate in the Seattle Danskin Triathlon, so this is a must.  Do not decide that you are too tired to walk around Green Lake and you’d rather just get home to your beloved pot roast.)

Take pictures on your walk around Green Lake today when it’s forecasted to be sunny because the pictures you took on your Green Lake walk on Tuesday, when it was cloudy and yukky, are not blog-worthy.

(By the way, I lied about three ingredients… IF you consider herbs, salt, pepper and caraway seeds ingredients.  OK, fine! Change the title to 6-or-7 ingredient, 6-or-7 hour German Style Pork Roast.)

Call it what you want.  Just enjoy it.