photo by Ballard Avenue

But now you drive a Honda Odyssey mini-van. That's OK. There's nothing sillier than a forty-something punk. Enjoy the memories. They'll help you get through the PTA meeting.

photo by Ballard Avenue

No time for the paparazzi today.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Thorvald down at the dock said ,"Don' vorry, I can take yer radiological device over ta Poulsbo. I been takin' de lutefisk back n fort' all dese years, y'know. Dis can't be enny more dang'rous dan dat."

photo by Ballard Avenue

It was some time back that we were featuring businesses with "Ballard" in their names, and there's no time like the present to start doing that again. Ballard Transfer has been transferring stuff around Ballard and the world since 1905. Hey, they even transferred my stuff to a new house in Ballard twice!

photo by Ballard Avenue

It's been clear and cold this week, but if you do like this cat and stay out in the sun you'll be all right.

It's kind of busy around here and there aren't any pictures in the can, so here's a livelier little waltz from our shy accordionist. Patience, friends. Regular posting will resume soon.

I love amateur accordion video. Somehow it makes my own accordion hacking sound better. This is a lovely little waltz played by someone terribly shy.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Our Sudokuist is sometimes forced to extreme measures. You see, we cut out the crossword puzzles to work on over the course of the day. But the Seattle Times insisted on printing the sudoku on the back of the crosswords. They didn't even align them so cutting out the puzzles didn't dismember the sudoku. What were they thinking?

But as you can see, the extreme situation didn't distract Our Sudokuist. Another A+!

photo by Ballard Avenue

We return to Hawaii for today's cat. This youngster, one of Hawaii's approximately 42 million feral cats, hangs out at Queen Liliuokalani Park in Hilo.

Six years of college but I never learned this. Learned a lot of other things, though...

Partial as we are to tall Swedes with lovely voices, here is Anne Sofie von Otter singing "Glück, das mir verblieb" from Erich Korngold's opera Die todt Stadt. This arrangement for string quartet and piano is the work of her long-time collaborator, Bengt Forsberg, whom we have tickling the ivories here.

Joy, that near to me remains,
Come to me, my true love.
Night sinks into the grove
You are my light and day.
Anxiously beats heart on heart
Hope itself soars heavenward.

How true, a sad song.
The song of true love,
that must die.

I know the song.
I heard it often in younger,
in better days.
It has yet another verse--
Do I know it still?

Though sorrow becomes dark,
Come to me, my true love.
Lean (to me) your pale face
Death will not separate us.
If you must leave me one day,
Believe, there is an afterlife.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Callie's pretty jazzed about the new year.