Viking Days in Ballard

There are Vikings battling at the Nordic Heritage Museum. And Goodwives doing fingerknitting. And the lightest most delicious Swedish Pancakes in Ballard at the Pancake Breakfast Sunday 9-12 during Ballard Viking Days. Swedish meatballs, Norwegian lefse, Danish æbleskiver, and a variety of Finnish and Icelandic goodies are served during Viking Days, Saturday and Sunday the 11th and 12th. With assorted Scandanavian entertainment, foods, arts, and craft merchants, as well as real live Vikings with swords, battle axes, and round shields fighting - to the death! - before a strikingly real dragon-prowed ship, an actual historical ship over 200 years old (although not nearly as old as if real Vikings had used it in their raids on the coasts of Brittan in olden times.

There is a Taste of Scandinavia which features fare from all five Nordic countries and including such treats as Swedish meatballs, Norwegian lefse, Danish æbleskiver, and Finnish and Icelandic baked goods. The Ravensted Vikings will have a special small encampment at which visitors can see life as it happened in the Viking old days. Viking arts and crafts such as weaving, spinning, woodcarving and cooking are being demonstrated, taking the visitor back to an earlier time. There will also be Viking-led discussions about aspects of Viking life. The Viking warriors escalate into full battle twice during the Festival Day, once in the morning at 11-11:15, and again in the afternoon. Admission to Viking Days and to the museum is free for all ages! Not to be missed.

by Edy Kizaki

Realtor, Team Leader

friends are gold

As always, meeting a friend is the best thing that can happen in a day.

A Green Seattle (St. Paddy's Day Parade Tomorrow!)

This is the thing, everybody's Irish on St. Patrick's Day. So from wherever you may find yourself there is just one thing to do this Saturday morning. Come down to 4th Avenue and Jefferson Street in Downtown Seattle at 12:30 p.m. That is Saturday, March 15, for the St. Patrick's Day Parade! The parade will travel north on 4th Avenue to the reviewing stand at Westlake Park (that is 5 minutes from our office!) and it officially ends at 2 p.m. at Seattle Center. With Formalities! Closing Ceremony! What might you encounter if you make your way down?

http://www.irishclub.org/parade.htm

This link will take you to a site which has all the details, and not only that but photos from last year's parade! Which includes a wonderful photo of what is undoubtedly The REAL St. Patrick! Since he was at the parade last year, there is no reason to believe he will not be there again. In fact, I am counting on it.

Something else that sounds worth attending...a St. Patrick's Day Mass for Peace. Details are on that same site.

And there is an Irish Week Festival Noon-6 p.m. Sunday at Seattle Center. The excitement includes "booths selling Irish and Celtic products, Irish food and libations, Irish music, singing, dancing, an Irish Film Festival, workshops, lectures, cultural displays, children's contests and activities, etc. For more detailed information, call 206-223-3608."

More! Everett's Irish Cabaret Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Historic Everett Theatre, 2911 Colby Ave (at Hewitt), downtown Everett. It's an old fashioned Irish event with humour, dancing, music, and singing, MC'd by an Irish Storyteller and an Irish Singer. Gotta be there!

For the fast (preferably not furious) among us, there is the St. Patrick's Day Dash Sunday (Mar. 16) at 9 a.m. It goes downhill from T S McHugh's near the Space Needle to F X McRory's near Safeco Field! It's nearly 4 miles, and last year over 15,000 runners participated. You have to register PRIOR to the day, go to this website for details: http://www.stpatsdash.com/.

And on the day itself, more Irish Week Festival at Seattle Center, noon - 4 p.m.

Something a bit more bouncy where you can down a pint or two and tap your toes to great Irish music? On March 17, St. Patrick's Day, $5 joint cover gets you into both Molly Maguires (610 NW 65th St in Ballard) with music from 1 p.m. to closing and into the Ould Triangle (9736 Greenwood Ave N) with The Raybourne Experience performing all day. Click on this link to hear some of the promised music:

http://www.myspace.com/ouldtriangle

See you all there!

Splashes of Sun, our Seattle Valentine

I can report three gorgeous sunny days in a row and everyone saying winter has turned the corner...I even drove down to Richmond Beach yesterday after a showing and just sat on a driftwood log for an hour staring at the waves and watching people walking, running with their dogs, building things with driftwood and stones, and of course taking pictures of each other doing it...since it is Puget Sound, and not really the Pacific, the breakers don't get as big as they do out around the actual ocean shores, but it is still the Pacific Northwest. That means when you are staring out where the sun is going down over the water, you know that past the snowcapped Olympics standing up seemingly out of the waves to the west, is nothing for a very long time, and then ... the Far East. It really does feel like the edge of the world.

Also, regrettably I am now 5 pounds fatter than I hoped to be going into spring, which is the fault of my daughter who gave me a huge box of the loveliest truffles I've ever had for Valentine's Day! (Thank you, dear Mia!) In Seattle when this happens, the traditional thing is to call up all your friends and make numerous dates to walk around Green Lake, both catching up with all the important people in your life and shedding the five pounds in a couple of weeks. As long as I stay away from the truffles.

Snow Day! And Rates Fall!

Wow, we woke up and the world was coverd with white fluffy stuff. There is no school, it's an official Snow Day. Sorry, grownup world, but this is wonderful...and as a grownup, I have to go to the airport to pick up a guest from Japan so I will take my camera and see what the city looks like. Meanwhile, got a message from one of my most trusted loan officers, Jack de Cook (IndyMac Bank, Bellingham, his website below) which gave the following information (Thank you Jack!!!!):

Last Week in the News

Following a plunge in global financial markets, the Federal Reserve slashed the federal funds rate on January 22 by three-quarters of a percentage point to 3.5%, the biggest interest rate cut in 18 years. The federal funds rate is the interest that banks charge one another on overnight loans.

On the same day, the Fed also lowered its discount rate to 4% from 4.75%. The discount rate is the rate at which banks can borrow directly from the Federal Reserve. The Fed's twin cuts are designed to keep financial institutions lending money to businesses and consumers, rather than fuel an economic downturn by limiting credit.

For the week ending January 17, rates on 30-year fixed-rates fell to their lowest level since July 2005, Freddie Mac reported January 24.

Falling mortgage rates helped boost mortgage application volume by 8.3% over the same week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said January 24. Applications were 63.7% higher than during the same week in 2007. Refinancing accounted for 66% of mortgage applications compared to 62.7% a week earlier.

The news was tonic to a housing market that saw existing home sales fall 2.2% in December, closing out a year in which sales of single-family homes swooned 13%, the largest amount in 25 years, the National Association of REALTORS® said January 24. The median price for a single-family home dropped 1.8% to $217,000, the first annual price decline dating to 1968 records.

This week look for updates on new home sales on January 28.

Economic data compiled from government reports and news services msnbc.com, cnbc.com, cnn.money.com and Yahoo Economic Calendar.

Click here to visit my website and apply online:
http://www.jdecook.imbhomelending.com/

Mostly Sunny

Although there's still ice on some of the side streets from the heavy snow we had a couple days ago (which all melted off the next day) I checked the 10-day weather report and it looks like mostly sunny, with a few showers. Tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy/rainy though. More later!

Happy New Year in Seattle

Three things for today, first are the photos of the Fireworks at the Space Needle on New Year's Eve at Midnight! These are a bit blurry, taken in the middle of the night, but hopefully you'll get the (ooooo! ahhhhhhh!) sense of it...Second, I have finished the VT of Olympic Sculpture Park. And third, I have been promising to get up the tour of Pike Place Market that I took about 2 months ago. Hope you enjoy these!

OK, about New Year's Eve on the Mound in Gasworks Park, watching the fireworks.

Last night around 11:30 p.m. we arrived at Gasworks Park. There were cars everywhere parked nearby, but turning toward the water we discovered the whole parking lot behind the park was empty. But we boldly parked there anyway, and 10 minutes later so did about 15 other people, it just took one car and the whole place filled up! I had never been to Gasworks Park, which is just at the north end of Lake Union, after dark. It is right down the street from my office and famous for a great kite-flying location (there is even a kite shop just down the street from us!) but there is also a great view of the Space Needle and downtown, and there were I would say over 1,000 people sitting on the hillside facing the Lake and the Space Needle.

We only got there 15 minutes before midnight, but was my rear ever cold in those 15 minutes. Next time remind me to bring a blanket or at least a square of cardboard to sit on!! But it was wonderful, a bright black night with lighted boats crusing the lake and the space needle with it's little pointed Christmas tree on top standing up right across the lake from us. The people around us were in high spirits laughing and joking and calling out to the crowd, and one guy kept saying, if they don't do the fireworks pretty soon, then definitely the aliens are going to arrive...it really did look like the scenes in movies where people gather at the top of a mountain and raise up their arms to the sky waiting for the aliens to show up. My son started calling out "We come in peace!"

My camera, not on a tripod, did not get any real crisp photos of the fireworks, so what I have to share here are some blurry, impresionistic images of the lake, night, the lights on Queen Anne Hill and the Space Needle spouting fire and glory...it was definitely the place to be and the thing to be doing, I doubt I will ever be anywhere else ever again on New Year's Eve. If Fremont is the Center of the Universe, then Gasworks Park must be the Center of the New Year in Seattle. We watched 2008 being born on the Pacific Rim, in the dark and the crisp air among a crowd of joyful people who had no intention of letting the joyful event go by unnoticed! May 2008 bear out the promise this celebration brought into life, and bring you all to Seattle to enjoy it with us!