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Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
Posted by Donna @ 10:28:04 pm
Ok so picture this. Sitting on my couch, giving my baby a bottle, and watching kid shows with my four year old. When suddenly there's an extra noise in the house that doesn't belong. Oh lord, not again! I muted the tv, adjusted the baby for proper carrying, and calmed my daughter. What is that? I followed this unusual noise. I get to my bathroom when it stops. As I push open the door my bathroom is covered in water. What happened? My daughter was with me. My husband is at work. I was on the couch. Slightly panicked I put down the baby, calm my freaked out daughter, and investigated. This looked like spray not overflow. So I immediately thought, "Oh No! Sewer back up!" I run to the basement and it is clean. No sewage, I am safe. As I am in the basement I hear the noise again. I run upstairs my daughter has her ears covered and OMG the toilet is spraying everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE!! Then it stops. I think, "Call the water department". There was a low flow issue last week maybe something is wrong again. Nope, no low flow. I am put on hold while the lady asks around. While I am on hold I watch the toilet water sway back and forth until suddenly the sway is rapid. Then BOOM eruptus. There it goes again!(Screams) "I'm hit! I'm hit!" panick again "Hello take me off hold, it's doing it again" as I am on hold I am thinking no one is going to believe me. I run and grab my camera and turn it onto video. I manage to record action and hang up my phone as I am still on hold. I redial and she answers, "It's doing it again...." She suggested that my daughter flushed a toy down the toilet. Yeah right! I wasn't buying that. After many calls and referrals I finally was told to contact the sewer department. It was their doing. They were jetting the sewers and used alittle too much pressure. Which in turn gave my bathroom a toilet water shower. Afterwards there are few hours of cleaning and replacing items that I will never dare use again. I went through the emotions of panick, anger, bawling, and laughter. I mean come on there is toilet water spraying everywhere! Panick. There is pressurized sewer air blowing into my bathroom. Anger. There is toilet water and sewer air blowing into my bathroom while both kids are crying. Bawling. There is sewer air and pee pee water blowing into my bathroom. I got it on video. My daughter is freaked. My toilet looks like a over cranked bidet. Laughter. Toilet Blowing
Categories: General
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Posted by Oneal J. McGowan @ 09:02:42 pm
Snow, rain, sunshine, fog, life bubbling around me and I found myself just tightening up during the last few weeks... Huckabee... McCaine... Obama... Clinton... and the whole world twisting and turning in ways far beyond my understanding I felt as I was my insides were boiling like an egg in hot water  It is a wonder, though, with a little quiet sleep and a change of heart can do as the weather starts promising to kiss one with new life  I thought of the wonderful image of Mary Magdalene that appears on trinity stores. com website. Thank you Brother Robert Lenz, Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans) for giving us such wonderful works as Mary Magdalene here... holding the egg in her hand as a sign of rebirth  Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
Posted by Lorraine Hart @ 01:43:11 pm
FULL MOON OF DANCING CLOUDS in the full
Categories: General
• 4 comments
Posted by V W @ 12:31:48 pm
All things must come to an end and Commie dictators, despite what they might want you to think, are no exception. Fidel is 81 years old and he is either dead, or he has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. The other night, Granma, the Cuban Commie newspaper of record reported that Castro took a Sherman and said "I neither will aspire to, nor will I accept, the position of president of the Council of State and commander-in-chief.” The king is dead. Long live the king! One wonders if he isn’t already dead and Raul is trying to make it look like his brother will keep his pledge to outlive the Bush Administration. Needless to say, it wouldn’t surprise me to know that the old Commie is already chilling out in a cryo-freezer waiting for January 21st, 2009. Commie dictators can’t even tell the truth when they are dead. What is Cuba’s immediate future is anyone’s guess. Raul is no softie and was the administrative cog that kept the Cuban jalopy sputtering along. Fidel wasn’t exactly the executive type and relied on his brother to take care of the more mundane details of actually running the country. Fidel was the orator, the personality, the leader, but management wasn’t exactly his forte. And while Raul is the administrator, he doesn’t have his brother’s flare for the flamboyant. At this point in time, there are more questions than real answers. Since any news that comes out of a Commie dictatorship is spun like a dreidel on Hanukkah, it’s doubtful we’ll have a good read for the near future on what all this means. I tend to think not much will change. Raul may lighten things up a bit economically, but he really can’t afford to lose too much of a grip on things. The real question at this point is who is on deck in Raul’s game. It’s one thing to leave the store to your brother, but it’s another thing entirely when your brother is ready to So, I figure Raul has maybe five to ten years, give or take a few. In that time, he needs to watch his back like never before. There will be opportunists who are thirsting to take on the mantle and title of El Presidente and with Fidel out of the way, I’m sure someone will hear opportunity pounding. And after Raul, it’s anyone’s call. VW
Categories: General
Posted by Patty @ 08:52:36 am
A recent blog on the Grit City Blog regarding the movie "I Love You To Death" which was filmed in Tacoma got me to thinking . . . Let's get more Hollywood Filmmakers here to Tacoma to film another movie! I worked as a stand in on this film and it was a blast! I met Tracey Ullman, Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates. The latest movie filmed here was "The 10 Things I Hate About You" back in 1996. It would be great to have another movie filmed here with the name "Tacoma" in the film verses the Seattle name! Who else remembers when Stockard Channing was here in the mid 70s filming "Sweet Revenge?" My parents took me downtown early one evening to watch Stockard walk down St Helens Avenue several times while they filmed her. If I ever met her I would tell her that story! Oh, and what a terrific actress she is - I would tell her that as well!
Categories: General
• 3 comments
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
Posted by Oneal J. McGowan @ 06:48:16 pm
I would like to thank Allan Y for leading us in prayer with this poem Tuesday evening... thank you  Fast from judging others; feast on the Spirit indwelling in them.  Fast from anger; feast on patience. 
Posted by Lorraine Hart @ 09:38:06 am
While it may look like the Neighbourhood Blog overdosed on love and candy after February 14th, let me assure you that the regular writers are alive and well despite the seeming inactivity here. The Trib is making changes and there's some confusion about where to post and when the change will be complete. On behalf of the writers I'd like to apologize for what seems like another hiccup in our neighbourhood conversations. The new format looks great and is a lot easier for us 'last century folk' to post pictures and videos. We can't wait to get back into the groove but we're as out-of-the-loop as you, dear readers, on the timing of moving day. We are a little twixt and tween! Stephanie is on the road again, having a birthday adventure with some girlfriends. I'm sure she'll include us in the party when she comes back home. Kim is soaking her spirit in her 'other' home, Hawaii, and I know she will bring stories back to the Grit City in her suitcase, so that we will feel as if we've been on holiday too. Sorry but no, a tan won't come with them! Oneal has just finished classes and, hopefully, will be walking again with his camera soon, asking the larger questions within the everyday. Mizu has been making beautiful art and uncovering more history to share with us. VW is heading back to Canada (I think he misses the food!) and a whole mess of deep snow. Tracy is fulfilling civic duty and staying connected to the trails, ready to take us on other wonderful hikes...in other words...there are lots of posts to come and conversations to be had in the neighbourhood. We hope you'll keep stopping by for visits and neighbourly chats. It's almost spring in the South Sound...change and renewal is coming.
Categories: General
• 2 comments
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
Posted by Oneal J. McGowan @ 07:53:20 pm
 I would like to thank all my friends for offering me sweets today... I deeply appreciate the sweet, sweet way you offered the goodies and I thank the sweet, sweet Lord for giving me the strength to smile graciously, leave quietly, and, as soon as my friends couldn't see me, run as far away from those goodies as fast as I could... every time I get near sweets these days, my lips start smacking but my imagination brings clearly to my attention the sweet, sweet smile of my doctor, and my hands tremble, my heart beats faster, beads of sweat start streaming down my face and I head for the door... I made it all day, My friends, Jp and G, gave me this card last night. I appreciate the close friendship we have developed through thick and thin, tears and laughter, bickering and blessing... thanks Jp and G... I have so many friends to thank.. and I hope my friends on the blog are basking in L-O-V-E tonight (and every day and every night) 
Categories: General
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Posted by Stephanie @ 10:16:27 pm
Sentimental journeys seem to be the theme of my month. I’ve already written about two that I have planned and Sunday I got to take another, this one to Bellevue. My husband and I were raised in Bellevue during the post WWII ‘50s & ‘60s. It was a big deal when Fredrick & Nelson opened a store in the downtown square. Of course, Bellevue now holds few similarities to the Bellevue of my youth. Some people never left and so it was that Sunday I took deviled eggs and cake to visit with childhood friends.
Categories: General
• 3 comments
Posted by Oneal J. McGowan @ 09:10:12 pm
News and Notes, a program that looks at the latest from the African American perspective airs Monday through Friday on KXOT FM at eleven. But I miss having a local voice that really gets it on... but, internetting, I can get N and N earlier and I did that today, and there was Farai Chideya, N and N's hostess, stretching this poor male way way beyond his comfort zone... here's a picture of journalist, Farai Chideya  Her interview with former winner of the swimsuit contest in the Miss America contest, Nancy Amanda Redd, about her best selling book, Body Drama, got my mind's attention and my my whole body blushing.. Check it out on either NPR, News and Notes, Tuesday, 2/12 or KXOT (go to KUOW website, then KXOT, 2/12, or catch the show tonight at 11 pm) I thought to myself it's about time that women started talking to other women about the beauty of the female figure... White-Yellow-Black-Red-Brown, sizes 6-???, and just celebrating the wonderful fact that in their bodies are creativity and power and intelligence and compassion
Categories: General
• 2 comments
Posted by Stephanie @ 08:54:08 am
Many of us have to Rob Peter to Pay Paul, but I guess I’m a cockeyed optimist to wish that the government would be better able to handle the nation’s money than I am mine. To make this tax refund effective to the economy we are all supposed to go out and buy something we otherwise would have put off with the rising cost of everything, especially gas. What will you be spending your rebate on? If the government isn’t going to work on paying down out national debt, my husband figures we should ours. Rather than spending the money frivolously, he’d rather use it to pay down our own debts.
Categories: General
• 5 comments
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Posted by Patty @ 07:40:54 pm
While driving down Martin Luther King Jr Way and past the City of Tacoma Police Substation today; I noticed their reader board which said: “Have A Safe Valentine’s Day”. This got me to thinking. Is there such a way you can have an unsafe Valentine’s Day? Here are my thoughts for having an unsafe Valentine’s Day in Tacoma: 1) Walk with your lover near the gigantic new J shaped sculpture in front of the Hotel Murano. Lean on the sculpture to kiss your lover and see if the sculpture is securely in place. YIKES! 2) Dine with your lover at Anthony’s restaurant. Then walk on the promenade and slip on the wet boardwalk and fall into Commencement Bay! 3) Gain a job at the Russell Company; receive a hefty paycheck, great benefits, lots of praise from your new boss and soon lose your job as the company moves out of Tacoma!
Categories: General
• 3 comments
Posted by Mizu Sugimura @ 03:54:58 pm
(Author's note: This article is being posted in connection with my earlier blog of today "Saluting My Good Neighbors - Here & In Other Places.) about the link between my neighbors Henry R. (Hank) Fenbert of Federal Way, WA and his friend Charles W. (Chuck) Hummer, Jr. of Seminole, Florida and Akira Aoyama, the only Japanese engineer to work on the Panama Canal.)  Above: My granduncle, Japanese civil engineer Akira Aoyama (with mustache) and his family. In 1903 my granduncle, Akira Aoyama, a Japanese national and native of Shizuoka-ken in Japan, entered the United States through the Port of Tacoma, WA on the Ryojun Maru with the purpose of making a connection with Professor William Hubert Burr, of Cornell University who was putting together a group of engineers to form a field survey team and travel to Panama. For those who are interested, here's address with a short description about Professor Burr: http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Burr,+William+Hubert Aoyama, a devout Christian and recent civil engineering graduate of Japan’s Imperial University would spend several months in Tacoma working various odd jobs and studying his English waiting for the call to join the rest of the men prior to the team's departure for Panama in June 1904.
Categories: General
• 2 comments
Posted by Mizu Sugimura @ 02:45:24 pm
 Above: Federal Way residents Hank Fenbert (top far right) and his wife (second row, far right) poses with (from left to right) Elsie Dennis, Mary Ehlis and Mizu Sugimura at the City of Federal Way Art's Alive Juried Show in October 2007. Photo copyright 2008 by Mizu Sugimura. Henry R. (Hank) Fenbert doesn’t live on my street, but he’s one of my good neighbors in Federal Way. He’s been one of those people whom you keep running into as you go about your business, who make living in one of the ten largest cities in the state less cold and unfamiliar.
Categories: General
• 2 comments
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
Posted by Stephanie @ 06:38:16 pm
Oneal posted an interesting blog discussing voting patterns and interests. After attending yesterday’s Democratic Caucus at Kopachuck Middle School here in Gig Harbor, I’d say that all the old chestnuts about how various people vote are crumbling and we are witnessing what the American way of life could be—human interests being the focus. When my children and I pulled up to the school I knew this was going to different than four years ago. Cars were parking along the edge of the drive and out on the street. I dropped them and Gabriel, who was Dracula yesterday, off in front and parked the car. I walked in with a woman roughly my age, another Baby Boomer, and commented on the number of cars compared to four years ago. We decided that we had not felt so optimistic, so fired up, since the 1968 election. There was a sense in the air that history is being made.
Categories: General
• 6 comments
Posted by Stephanie @ 06:11:42 pm
 My daughter-in-law, Ana, says I posted the wrong crockpot oatmeal recipe! It’s chilly out and the wind has been blowing here for two days so here’s the overnight oatmeal recipe Ana says is the best. You can play with the fruit as you suits your taste. Ana says that cooking the banana in the oatmeal is far superior to slicing it on top. 1 C. oats
Categories: General
• 2 comments
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Posted by Oneal J. McGowan @ 10:40:54 am
 CNN asked this morning in one of its news reports, given the fact that 5 percent of the Asian American population in the US lives in American, for whom should the different Asian communities be expected to vote. Looking back at Super Tuesday, Edward Luce, writer for the Financial Times-London, had written "if you were poor, female, Hispanic, Asian or elderly, the overwhelming chances were that you voted for Mrs. Clinton, particularly in her stronghod in the Northeast, where she not held on to her state of New York but also won Massachusetts and New Jersey. Likewise, if you were wealthy, educated, African-American, a registered independent or young then Mr. Obama probably got your vote, helping him sweep almost all the Midwest and capture southern states such as Georgia and Alabama. Feb. 7, 2008 
Categories: General
• 18 comments
Posted by Stephanie @ 07:14:33 am
“Sentimental Journey” is one of my favorite songs; up there with “Amazing Grace” (which has been done by an array of artists and which my daughter-in-law filled a CD with for me—another story). I’m packing my bags for my own sentimental journey.
Categories: General
• 4 comments
Friday, February 8th, 2008
Posted by Stephanie @ 01:08:29 pm
 Think there’s nothing to do in Gig Harbor on a Friday night? The bowling alley collapsed long ago and the new movie theater won’t open until the 17th. Well, come see rock stars, teachers Ehren Gossler and Chris Coovert, the Pete Moss Band, the Farrow Brothers and special guest the Billy Shew Band, live tonight at Erick Hastings Cancer Benefit Rock Show. Show will start at 6:00pm in the GHHS Auxiliary Gym. The cost is $3 with the proceeds going to Montana Crosby’s Cancer Foundation. So come support the cause and see a rock show of legendary status. 
Posted by Stephanie @ 09:04:45 am
 To piggyback on Oneal’s post I’d like to tell you about some other terrific young people. This week Gig Harbor High School’s ecology club, GHECO, recycled 2,000 bottles! Next Wednesday at 2:00 the school will complete their waste audit. GHECO, with support from Pierce County, will be counting every piece of trash (including food) produced by the school in one day. The students are being encouraged to help with the audit at 2:00 in the commons Wednesday February 13, s Valentine for the Earth. If they have enough people it will take 1 hour to complete. This school year Gig Harbor High School has recycled more pounds of plastic and paper than any school in Pierce County. Naturally, one would like the students to drink fewer Gator Aides (pop having been eliminated from vending machines two years ago) and bring re-useable water bottles, but these young people are attempting to make a difference in the world and the environment under the leadership of science teacher and club advisor JoAnne Moore.
Categories: General
• 2 comments
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In Your Neighborhood
What is this blog? The quick answer: A place for neighbors. It’s a place to get up to date on what’s going on around you, to tell a story, to share an idea or a bit of yourself. South Sounders created all the content on this page and you can contribute, too. Contact Joseph Montes at joseph.montes@thenewstribune.com or 253-552-7091. He’ll get you set up with a login, password and everything you need to know. If you'd like to see archive posts from February 2007 to August 2007, please click here. Calendar
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