photo by Ballard Avenue

Continuing our tour of Scandinavia, we see a Danish maid churning butter. And look, there's the Little Mermaid on a rock in the harbor!

photo by Ballard Avenue

We have wandered a bit from our stated mission of bringing to you the best of Ballard, or at least the best of a bit of Ballard. Sorry. Won't happen again.

The Nordic Heritage Museum had a retaining wall. Ballard schoolkids needed something to do. Hence, we have a mural running along 30th Avenue NW illustrating the Scandinavian experience in America. That is, after all, the museum's stated mission and they do it well. Here we see Iceland, and over the next few days we'll see more...

photo by Frances

Today we say goodbye to our friend Jered, who died last month at the age of 57. He has, at last, found the peace he never had while alive, but we have lost a friend who brought much fun and happiness to our lives. The pity is that he couldn't find a way to accept those joys in his own. Goodbye, Jered; you could never imagine how you'll be missed.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Tonight I went out armed with the Fab Fuji looking for flash photo subjects. Problem is, when it's dark it's hard to identify any photo subject, let along one that will look good under mug shot-style direct flash. So I settled for this snap of the front porch. In case you're wondering, we leave the Christmas lights up until Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Winter's dark here in the north. We like the light.

photo from Fuji USA.

What a chore it was to find a replacement for the fab Sony. To my dismay, the new Sonys weren't so fab. Well, the $349 Sony was mighty fab but that's not a fab price. After days of electronics store hell, I found this fab Fuji F650 (that's "F" for fab) for the fab price of $179 with a $39 memory card included. Now, that's—you guessed it—fab!

photo by kayvaan

Fish gotta swim, you know, especially when there's some of that good fish lovin' ahead. These salmon are swimming up the fish ladder at the Ballard Locks on their way to the spawning grounds in the Cedar River.

As is our usual New Year's custom, we got together with Barb, Beta, Rose, Steve, and Barb C for dinner, a movie (Sweet Land), and the Space Needle fireworks. You can see the fireworks on this YouTube video. It was the best New Year's ever!