GimletBlog

Is it really the end of the year already?  To paraphrase another blogger, 2011 has been a year never to be forgotten and we hope never repeated.

Since we last posted in mid-October, the Gimlet and his employer parted ways just before Halloween, and the Things’ great-grandmother (whose 90th birthday was celebrated in grand fashion) passed away Thanksgiving Day, exactly six months to the day after Bopa died.   With so much sorrow and uncertainty occurring in a short space of time it’s been challenging to think positively and move forward, and we’re so grateful for the support of family, friends and our church community during this difficult year.  We’ve especially taken to heart some advice given to the Gimlet to focus on the abundance in our lives:  not just the good things we currently enjoy, but the great potential for future success:

• “The Liturgy of Abundance” by Dr. Walter Brueggemann (from religion-online.org)
• “Living the Abundant Life” by President Thomas S. Monson, January 2012 Ensign

We’ve had a genuinely happy holiday season, with plenty of delicious food, lively conversation, and continuation of the traditions from years past as we remember our loved ones who are no longer with us.  We agree it has been the sort of season they would have wanted us to have.  While we dropped the ball on blogging, our newest family blogger, Hå, has been busily recording all of the past months’ events in great detail.  (That is why she is the unofficial family historian!)  Just remember: it’s not shamelessly harvesting all of her hard-written content if we call it outsourcing.  Visit her blog and read all about our November and December there:

• We love Yulefest at the Nordic Heritage Museum
• Remembering great-grandma
• Thanksgiving 2011
• A day trip to Lynden, WA would not be complete without watusi cattle, caramel apple pie from the Dutch bakery, and a sedated angry cat in the back seat of the car.  Well, we could do just fine without the cat next time.
• Santa’s annual visit
• Christmas Eve dinner party

To provide our readers with a little original content, here are a few photos from a Christmas shopping visit to the Pike Place Market.

We had fresh Dungeness crab for Christmas Eve, but we buy ours at a neighborhood fish market much closer to home.

Seattle-native uncles will find it heartwarming to learn that Thing One discovered one of their favorite Market haunts (and a must-stop for any geek tourist):  Golden Age Collectibles.   Meanwhile, Thing Two keeps an eye out for more Daleks.

Several adventures are already in store for the coming year and will be revealed in good time … until then, best wishes to you and your families for an abundant 2012!

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All of us, and Thing Two especially, had a lot of fun playing with his cousins while they were here.  They live on the other side of the country, so we don’t get to see them very often.

Visits to the many neighborhood parks were always an easy way to have fun.  In this park, the kids were able to tour a community garden and explore a walking path as well as play on the playground.

The children almost enjoyed the play areas at the zoo more than the animals.  Zoomazium, with its treehouse and mountain, were a big hit.  In the exhibits, we were able to see the mother ocelot teaching her new baby how to catch and eat prey; fed birds at the Willawong Station, and the penguins, bears, and otters provided a lot of entertainment as well.

They returned to the zoo a couple of times during their stay, but we were only able to join them once.

The group photo is blurry, but that’s as close as we could get to taking a picture of five excited kids (six, including the baby in the stroller).

Speaking of group photos:  Smile, you’re at a funeral!

To be sure, a family gathering of this size is unrepeatable, so we all accepted the necessity of commemorating the event with a picture, but probably only the children were excited about having their picture taken.  As for the memorial service, we all agreed that Bopa would have approved of and enjoyed the blend of happy and poignant memories which were shared, as well as the lovely performance of Bach’s Prelude to Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major.

Our family gatherings also involve plenty of food, and preferably fresh, local seafood.  For Sunday dinner, the Gimlet grilled Copper River sockeye salmon to perfection, and Uncle Q baked three pies.  Our final family meal together was a Dungeness crab feed.  Upon inspecting the “bone bowl” for missed tidbits, Uncle Q claimed to be rendered speechless by the amount of leftover crab he discovered.  For all his claims that words failed him, he seemed to have plenty to say on the matter. (And he did recover about a plateful; not too shabby.)  Here he lectures on the proper extraction technique:

Another blurry photo, because high dudgeon moves nearly as quickly as excited children.

Monday morning the GrandGimlets packed up and returned home; Tuesday morning Uncle Q, Auntie Lou, and all the cousins did the same.  It’s been a mostly fun, always busy week.  On one hand, it feels good to put away all the folding chairs, extra dishes, bedding and towels and take a break from preparing large-scale dinners (and cleaning up after them!) — at times these past several days have felt like Bilbo Baggins’ unexpected party from The Hobbit, as we marveled at how many people we could seat and feed in our little house. But it’s sad to recognize that all the work has ended because our family is no longer with us.

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A steady stream of out-of-town family members arrived throughout the week to attend Bopa’s memorial service last Thursday, and several are staying through the weekend.  Saturday we took Grandma and Grandpa Gimlet to Ebey’s Landing National Historial Reserve on Whidbey Island.  Grandma Gimlet had never ridden on a ferry before, so we had to remedy that.  Then, as we drove across the island, we were surprised to see about ten bald eagles circling, then landing, in a field.

The day began a little overcast, but by the time we arrived at the beach, the sun was out, and warm enough to temper the ocean breeze.

Thing One has a reputation for being a polar bear, but even Thing Two didn’t need to wear a jacket as he ran up and down the shoreline, throwing rocks in the water.

The GrandGimlets also found plenty of interesting rocks and a nearly complete crab shell.

The last time we went to Ebey’s Landing, Thing Two was very fearful of the waves, but today he wasn’t scared and was able to relax and have fun.

Has it really been almost two years ago since our last visit?  Next time we won’t stay away so long.

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One of our friends coordinates a visit to a local fire station to bring them holiday treats and thank them for their service in the community.  This year, Thing Two and Your Humble Narrator were able to go.

When we arrived the fire engine was away assisting with a traffic accident, but we didn’t have to wait long before they arrived, followed by the ladder truck!  The ladder truck is based at a different station but it was driving around the neighborhood today so its new crew could get used to operating the truck.

The firemen put on a wonderful presentation for the children.  We saw how the infrared camera works to help the firemen see in smoke filled buildings, and one fireman put on his gear, explaining to the children how each piece protected firefighters or helped them do their work.

Then, they were invited to climb aboard the fire engine and explore it.

Thing Two and the other children (and their parents) had a wonderful time!  It was a fun morning.

Team Gimlet has two firemen in their family history:  Great-Grandpa Gimlet was a fire chief in the town of Logan, Utah, and one of the Things’ great-great grandfathers was one of the early firefighters in Seattle’s history.  When we returned home, a call to Hå was in order, and she soon found and emailed some pictures.

Based on what we know about this great-great grandfather’s careers in both the fire and police departments, we believe these photos were taken around 1900, and judging from what can be seen of the building we think this is probably Fire Station #3.  Great-Great Grandpa is fourth from the left in the back row, the clean-shaven gentleman wearing a vest.  Love the dog!  It looks like the dog owned by these great-great grandparents; perhaps theirs was a puppy or grandpuppy from the firehouse dog?  We don’t know, but it’s fun to wonder.

Isn’t this a great action shot?  Look at those horses go!

And here are the great-great grandparents; Great-great grandpa is wearing his fireman uniform.

One of our neighborhood firemen suggested that we visit the Fire Department Museum downtown.  We would like to get a better look at the apparatus the horses are pulling (a hose carriage?), hopefully identify some of the other men in our group picture, and learn more about what it was like to be a fireman over one hundred years ago.  Sounds like a good field trip for the upcoming school holiday break!

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Part the Third: In which, mayhem and mystery having been sufficiently discussed, muslin is all that remains.   Fans of Mrs. Allen may say we saved the best for last.

As eager as we are to get to the ball, (you knew this was coming) that is getting ahead of the story just a little.  First, we would be remiss if we failed to show off the stunning display of costume and fashion in the Milsom Street Emporium, all designed and executed by Susan Pasco.   Everything was so beautiful.

It was such a treat to examine gowns, hats, and other accessories up close and marvel at the care and detail that went into making them.

This richly embroidered Georgian gown was my favorite:

Many thanks to Susan for generously sharing her collection with the AGM attendees!

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Part the Second: In which Team Tilney Explains It All, including the mystery guest mentioned in Part the First.  Mojo, voodoo, mist and magic abound!

Friday morning Team Tilney met in the hotel ballroom, instructed our Extraordinary Gentlemen to bar the doors, and rehearsed in earnest with our mysterious guest panelist:  a local Portland actor we hired to play Henry Tilney.    During a brainstorming session, the idea was tossed around to have a “real” Henry join our panel.  Team member Lynn Marie got in touch with her Portland theater contacts, and in short order we had our Henry on board and familiarizing himself with our presentation.

As he would be sitting in the audience prior to his introduction, Maggie warned him that as a young man in costume at the AGM, he would be an unusual sight and the other attendees would be drawn to him. (“They will come up and pet you.”) But despite this, and despite overhearing at least one very shocking assessment of his charms, what followed after the presentation was a surprise even to Team Tilney.  But that is getting ahead of the story just a little.

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Part the First: In which our heroine has a most distressing adventure, but all ends happily, if wearily.

This year the Things had several must-attend activities scheduled at the same time that Your Humble Narrator absolutely had to be in Portland, so Team Gimlet divided and conquered:  I rode the train down to Portland Thursday afternoon, and when the evening’s events were done, The Gimlet loaded up the barouche and drove south, arriving in Portland at 1:30 in the morning.  After the stress and bustle of preparations, the train ride was relaxed and scenic, and had I but known it, Laurel Ann of Austenprose was riding the same train!  We did not discover this until we were introduced in the hotel lobby.  But that is getting ahead of the story just a little.

A Northanger Abbey-inspired journey would not be complete without a Gothic kidnapping of the incompetent heroine, and so it happened that when I found the MAX light rail station, I very stupidly got on the wrong train, which promptly whisked me away from downtown Portland and over the Willamette River.  However, rather than scream or faint (although the inclination was there, as I watched downtown disappear into the distance at an alarming speed), I managed to ask a Local Young Person for directions, and she very kindly helped this Befuddled Older Person to the correct MAX station.

I was then hopeful that the return trip would be uneventful, but I had forgotten about the possibility of banditti, another popular Gothic motif.  After a conversation with a potentially aggressive panhandler, and the concern that I might miss my stop again, I decided that a walk was in order.  Happily my chosen point of disembarkation was not too far from my final destination, and soon I was within the welcoming walls of the hotel and met by old friends and online acquaintances (who feel like old friends even if this was our first face-to-face meeting).

The first of many visits to the Milsom Street Emporium was in order, and not because the rigors of the journey demanded retail therapy.  Rather, the Antique Fashionista and her husband (also known as Aunt M and Uncle C) had secured a booth in the Emporium and I wanted to meet up and find out how the day had been for them.  The Antique Fashionista was hard at work, as she would be for the next three days, stepping away from her booth only when it was absolutely necessary.  The Fashionista Dogsbody had already been sent on several errands to procure nourishment and art supplies (an excellent shop just happened to be close by).  Team Fashionista was fatigued from travel and their labors, but were happy to report that sales were brisk, even at this early pre-AGM stage.

I was a member of a group of ladies called Team Tilney, which would be presenting a panel discussion Friday morning, before the official opening of the AGM.  We had planned to rehearse our presentation Thursday afternoon, but all of us, including our top secret mysterious guest panelist, arrived late for one reason or another.  When we finally assembled, we had less than an hour to work, but the first run-through went well.  After rehearsal we adjourned for a much needed dinner at the Heathman Restaurant.    The food was exquisite (the desserts were especially heavenly) and the conversation delightful.  Even when jet-lagged and travel-worn, Janeites are the best sort of company.  My evening was far from over as I had to wait up for The Gimlet to arrive, and when he finally did, we were both glad to get a few hours’ sleep before the big day.

Next:  Mystery

Visit the Gimlet Gallery to see more photos from the AGM.

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The 2010 AGM is almost here!  JASNA’s annual meeting will be held in Portland, Oregon over Halloween weekend.  The theme is “Jane Austen and the Abbey:  Mystery, Mayhem, and Muslin in Portland”.   I’m looking forward to a reunion with fellow Gothic Gotham fangirl Kelley and my partner in mayhem and muslin from the Vancouver AGM, Maggie.  Aunt M, the Antique Fashionista, will have a booth at the Milsom Street Emporium where people can watch her working on her beautiful watercolors, then purchase one to take home as a souvenir.  Meanwhile, The Gimlet has plans to sample the local donut scene and see if it lives up to the hype.

Of course there has to be a new dress for the Bal Masque, and Tamara has graciously agreed to design another amazing creation.  No pictures to share yet, but think crushed red velvet, black lace, and especially think Gothic.  Wretched Mathildas and Emily St. Auberts, all of whom swoon at the drop of a hat, would surely swoon for such a gown.

It promises to be a weekend of great fun.  We hope to see you there!

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