aw, how cute! our little sister has a ‘blog! check it out — portland.metblogs.com.

My three year old is obsessed with dinosaurs and robots. Dinobots are even better. If a dino-tank-bot was offered it would be his favorite. He’s not too concerned where we buy them but since your average toy-store dino-bot is upwards of $20 (sorry, @19.95) we have taken to hitting the thrift stores.

Herewith: The Best Place to Buy Used DinosaurTankoBots in (my parts) of Seattle.

1)Value Village – Capitol Hill. This used to be the best place to find quality used toys. We call it The Broken Car Shop because we’ve bought so many HotWheels cars there. Some months back they re-organized and while the toys may be the same we seem to find fewer real glories. Perhaps it’s because they are better displayed and so more people get to pick through them rather than having to dig and delve and fight the undertoad to find the treasures. Regardless, there are still wonderful dinosaurs to be found here, including Carnegie Collection Dipolodocus and Stegasauros.

2) Value Village – Lake City Way. This is now our most frequent stop for a dinobot fix. The prices are still reasonable (you can get some good toys for under $2) and if a price tag is missing they tend to guess low rather than high. This is a good guide! Someone recently donated a large collection of Godzillas and we made off with a few.

3) Goodwill on Dearborn downtown. This is the megamall of thrift stores. Its worth going simply to get something you don’t really need really cheap and to come back with your hands smelling musty. I find I need to strap my son in at Goodwill as it has a kind of warehouse atmosphere – carts are overloaded, shelves sometimes topple over and there are just way too many people and space to let a three-year old roam. And its kind of gloomy, like you are walking around in the twilight while a light rain chills the pigeons who are shi**ing on your car. Sometimes you find great stuff, of course, but its best for Toy-r-US castoffs rather than independent toystore stuff. Very little wood or stuff that lasts. Dinosaurs are thin on the ground here but if you get that urge, and you’re eating dim sum somewhere local, go for it.

If this all fails then there are a few in Ballard:

4) Value Village on 15th NW (the parking is often difficult) – a good toy selection but also very busy. My son seldom finds toy-treasures but always enjoys the visit.

5) The NEW Goodwill on 8th in Ballard. I like this place but its new and smaller than it looks from the outside and perhaps it feels not fully crammed with stuff (yet). The toys are all higgeldy piggeldy on shelves, not hooked up in bags like the T-stores with the best toys. It gets to be a real mess once a few kids have poked through them and pulled half onto the floor. We enjoyed our visit but I bought something for the sake of it rather than being really pleased with what we found. I mean, I think we got a plastic tank with the top missing: one of those toys I will have to disappear before the $1.49 tag rubs off.

Ok, that’s all I have to offer for now. I would love to hear about other good thrift stores.

The good folks at Molbak’s are holding their 29th Annual Festival of Poinsettias between now and December 24th. There’s free Danish Kringle and coffee. Their display is a sea of reds and creams and pinks settled into only a small corner of their astonishingly large lot. There’s free Danish Kringle and coffee. The sheer beauty will lift the spirit of the most heartsick and weary of the holiday season. Oh, and did I mention the free Danish Kringle, and coffee?

Below, a few different takes on poinsettias, starting with a traditionalist’s favorite: a poinsettia tree.

Molbak’s loves us photographers. They love us so much that they set up a few benches by their astonishing poinsettia trees for families to come by and pose in front of, for holiday pictures.

Some different leaf shapes for those of you who are bored by the traditional look: there was a lovely spiky one that I personally think fits my personality perfectly. Shown above, a cute little poinsettia where the blooms resemble those little rosette ribbons that you put on top of presents.

Can’t stand red OR cream? Here’s a whole display of differently-colored blooms, with sparkly glitter on top for good measure.

My friend K organized a sketch crawl for Sunday that quickly shifted focus once the others in the group learned of our quirky habit of scrawling “octopus” in chalk along sidewalks and other surfaces. We handed out chalk and everyone joined in, chalking the word octopus and octopus images all along the front of SCCC.

After a stop into the new Broadway QFC (it’s a very lovely store but do you really get to call yourself “upscale” when you don’t have such amenities as easily accessible bathrooms?) to replenish chalk supplies, we picked the corner of Broadway and John by the Rite Aid to put in some serious chalking.

Reactions from passerbys varied: some simply smiled and walked on, some shouted out encouragement, some actually accepted the offer of chalk and joined in the drawing and a few shook their heads and kept on moving, muttering something about “those crazy kids”.

One bitter old lady accused us of vandalism, but life’s both far too short and far too wonderful to be upset by the bitter so we moved on down the road happily, chalking as we went.

Passing 8 Limbs Yoga seemed oddly appropriate.

Considering what a good time was held by all, further chalking events will be held, with word posted to anyone interested in taking part.

I’m still looking for a group to do some organized sketching, too.

Chow Foods has expanded its Mini-Empire into yet another neighborhood of Seattle, this time taking over the old Ballard Firehouse space to create their newest restaurant, The Hi-Life.

The Hi-Life is a gorgeous, homey space. We enjoyed a leisurely Saturday brunch there this past weekend, and took in our surroundings while sipping freshly brewed Caffe Vita coffee. Exposed brick walls, high ceilings, long windows that let in the morning sunlight; none of this is new to previous patrons of the Ballard Firehouse. But Chow has done up the place with lovely vintage lights, just the right balance of seating and open space, a great mix of eclectic chairs and tables, high backed booths along the southern wall, and plusher booths lining the remainder of the dining room. A full bar is installed in the northern third of the space, tasteful and elegant (non-judgeable on a Saturday morning at 11 AM). I sat facing the open kitchen, complete with a wood oven and a clean and happy seeming crew, preparing what creates the heart of any Chow endeavor; the meal.

The Hi-Life’s menu is larger than its Wallingford cousin Jitterbug, and more eclectic than Queen Anne’s 5 Spot. The breakfast menu offered up 3 “rumbles” and 3 omelettes, all served with fantastically herbed grilled potatoes and Essential toast. Highlighted dishes included scrambles with root vegetables, a delicious, enormous helping of french toast, and other typical-with-a-twist brunch fare. While heavy on the “pig” items, the menu for both breakfast and lunch offers plenty of vegetarian and vegan options. For lunch, wood-fired pizzas are offered, as well as a list of sandwiches. A roasted beet salad looked interesting, and our neighbors were digging into a french onion soup that I could practically taste from two tables away.

My dining pal and I shared a rumble with italian sausage, those divine potatoes, and the fabulous French Toast. I’ve never had french toast like this before; four huge slices served up with a big slop of espresso marscapone and sugared hazelnuts. Syrup was served, but absolutely not necessary. Sweet, rich, heavenly.

The service is friendly, typical for a Chow joint. We were offered a glimpse at the dinner menu which never materialized. Our food was served on big glossy black plates, which matched the retro black and white menus. What will make the ambiance of The Hi-Life will be the clientele, and the restaurant is primed to accept hordes of Ballard natives who are in desparate need of moderately priced, yummy food served up in a classy place by fine folks. Bon Appetit.

Dear guys who were swimming on the Kirkland side of Lake Washington today,

Our entire Argosy cruise group was watching you take turns to dive, swim around, climb out of the water, and dive again. We wondered if you had checked the weather today, as the high was supposed to be around 47 degrees fahrenheit. At least three passengers caught pneumonia just contemplating your bold act.

In case you didn’t know, at this time of the year (November) and these sorts of temperatures, it’s perfectly acceptable to don clothing such as long trousers, long-sleeved shirts, and warm sweaters in the Pacific Northwest. And yes, all three together are desirable.

(Those darn tourists from Colorado; you always have to be ready to give them pointers otherwise they’ll be out there wearing shorts in a blizzard, and making everyone else feel like a pansy…)

on my way home from work, I passed a elderly-looking man waiting by the bus stop. Not at all an uncommon sight. About five minutes later I was nearly run over by said man on his unicycle. Peddling like mad, and not riding much faster than I was walking, this was clearly a man on a mission.

Has anyone else spotted this mystery unicycler around the Lake Union/QA/Fremont area? (And this was not the same young guy I’ve seen on many occasions riding around downtown.)