photo by Ballard Avenue

One of the lanterns at the Chinese Garden shines onto a very wet bench. Don't sit down!

Happy New Year to you all. May 2006 be prosperous and happy and see the restoration of the rule of law in the United States.

photo by Ballard Avenue

One of the many neat things about Vancouver is the Secret Lantern Festival. On the longest night of the year, people carrying lanterns form processions and walk through the city to various gathering points. We stumbled upon the Chinatown gathering last year and made it a point to see the whole thing this time.

Our group gathered in the rain at the Science World museum. Some had drums, others had lanterns, and we all walked to the Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden. We even had a police escort!

photo by Ballard Avenue

While we're sure there are cats in Canada, we didn't get any pictures of them on this last trip. So, to fulfill the contractual obligation of a cat every Friday, we return to Ballard for this picture of Frida. She's never entirely comfortable outdoors.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Continuing the theme of girls doing odd things to inanimate objects, we see here a statue honoring the employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway that were killed in both world wars. We were transfixed by the Brünnhilde-carrying-the-fallen-warriors-to-Valhalla image when this girl and her photographer showed up for a photo shoot that had nothing to do with Wagner or the CPR.

photo by Ballard Avenue

The downtown Hyatt Hotel sponsored a gingerbread house display featuring the World's Largest Gingerbread Man, as certified the Guiness Book of World Records. You see here 168 kg of gingerbread man and two girls planning something best not pictured in this family publication.

photo by Ballard Avenue

We visited the Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden and saw this heron channeling his inner Nixon atop the pagoda.

photo by Ballard Avenue

We decided to leave Ballard last week and head north to visit our Canadian friends. We rode the excellent Amtrak Cascades service. All was well until we were done wrong by the railroad dispatcher. At Bellingham we found ourselves stuck behind a slow-moving freight train. We trundled north at a mere 20 mph. To add insult to injury, we had to stop as we approached the junction with the Canadian National Railway line south of Vancouver, BC. We watched Canada's longest freight train pass before us. To add more insult to injury, we had to wait even longer as a Canadian Pacific Railway train then passed by. Normally we don't mind watching trains go by but this was a little much.

illustration by Ballard Avenue

We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!

Good tidings we bring
to you and your kin
We wish you a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!

photo by Ballard Avenue

The other day a hundred or so Santas were parading down Market Street. One was carrying a bottle of Santa's Little Helper.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Emma's favorite window overlooks the front door of her house, so she likes to sit there and watch everyone come and go.

She's internationally famous now, as you can see from visiting this site: Endless Good Time.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Four apartments, four satellite dishes. There must be over 400 channels of TV in that building and still, there's nothing on worth watching.

photo by Ballard Avenue
Hey, I'm walkin' here.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Fennel. A controversial plant around here. We used to get a box of organic produce each week. The farmer liked her fennel a bit too much for us. So, how many fennel bulbs can you eat in a week? Well, around here it's not many, as in none. Nada. No mas, señora, por favor.

We agree that the bulbs should be left in the ground as compost, but the seeds are another matter. Some of us here like fennel seed. It adds a certain something to tomato sauce. Some call it substance. Others call it skank. There will be peace in the Middle East before this dispute is resolved.

photo by Ballard Avenue

The Nordic Heritage Museum, sponsor of Jülfest, is located in the old Daniel Webster elementary school. It's not an ideal space for a museum but it's certainly set up well for the language classes. Here the Norwegian classroom serves as the beer garden. Note the native costume on the fellow in the audience: cap, vest, and beer-in-hand.

The band, Skandia Kapell, plays around town for Scandinavian dances and events. You can hear them here.

photo by Ballard Avenue

She loved the musicians at Jülfest even more than I did.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Poor thing, she must have spent too much time watching Fox News Channel.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Remember this couple? We last saw them at Tivoli in July. Here they're playing at the Kaffestua at the Jülfest held at the Nordic Heritage Museum. Proving that we're no more competent reporters now than then, we still don't know who they are. We just like their music.