The Most Treacherous Aria Ever Written

That's how a music professor decsribed this in college - from the Mozart opera The Magic Flute. Using a whistle voice and reaching F6, this ain't for amateurs. Here, Diana Damrau performs exquisitely. Treacherous indeed. Don't try this at home, kids.

July 12 of 12

Hi there. Nice to see you again. My name's Matt. No, no ... don't feel bad. I don't blame you for not remembering me. I've been away for quite a while.

One thing I swore I'd always do was at least do a 12 of 12 post. I missed last month. I know. Shhh ... there, there. It's okay. I'm back.

In the interest of being ... umm, interesting (slightly), I wanted to do something other than the usual workday awful and boring pictures. A friend (hi Stan!) suggested taking pictures of doors. Great idea ... but I didn't follow it very well. I got pictures of doors, and entryways, and a lot of pictures while driving (no officer, I wasn't taking pictures!). But, hopefully you'll bear with me.

Let's get on with it, shall we?

All pictures were taken on Tuesday, July 12, 2011 in Seattle, Washington.

The door to Joe, my Jetta. He has a special place in my heart, having not owned a car for seven or so years before I got him. My first, and sometimes I fear last, new car. He's taken good care of me and I regularly trust him with my life.

Coming up the stairs from the parking garage, the door to my office floor. This place has been pretty good to me with all its ups and downs, and I'm having an opportunity to impress the top brass this year. This is an opening to me every morning.

Of course, I love this view, the door to the parking garage where Joe meets me and takes me home every day. Very important, too.

On the way home ... the awning and entrance to an apartment building on First Hill. I used to live not far from here (years ago), and knew someone who lived here at the time. A cool older building, it just always had such an elegant facade.

The local home of Gilda's Club, a support system for women with cancer founded by Gilda Radner. I've always loved her. Unfortunately this is in an area that gets graffitied a lot, but they always clean it up and keep it looking nice. It just seems like you're entering someplace important. Which you are.

About two blocks away. The owners have a sense of humor ... but the title seems to match the building. Still, I smile when I drive by every day.

A few blocks from home. Something about this view fascinates me. New built into and on top of old, a weird mix of apartments and house and business and bus stop and kinda all over the place. There are a lot of entrances here.

Down the street from our house. This place tries to be open and welcoming, despite the bars and gates and constant overflow of people who are from many walks of life and ... ahem, occupations. We've never gone in, sadly. Just haven't decided if we'd be welcome or, quite honestly sometimes, safe.

The house across the street. Two women lived here for decades until recently. Lots of history and stories about the neighborhood. They're both in their eighties and one at a time have moved to nursing homes, yet still own the house. They would tend to the rose bushes and grow tomatoes. We'd bring them potted geraniums and poinsettias and Christmas wreaths. We grabbed some fellow neighbors and ran to the hardware store and spent the day scrubbing off nasty graffiti when the house was tagged. We miss them.

Our front door. One of the best sites to come home to. Lots of happy inside.

The back door, from the kitchen leading to the back yard. The pond and gardens and dogs (well, Kali at least). The door is dirty and the window screen is ripped from Kali pawing at it wanting to come inside. Kinda the epitome of our house. Humble, needs some work, but in a cool and lived-in condition.

The side door from the basement steps. Nothing fancy. But I like the dog leashes hanging by it. We still have three. We can't seem to imagine getting rid of Kitty's leash.

The upstairs door leading to the balcony. Sunny but still not hot summer weather, so the screen is covering the door ... but the birds in the aviary love the sun and so do we. It's an opening to a cool world. We're very close to getting the deck and balcony replaced, and then more of our pictures will be past this screen. But it's nice to look forward to something ...

That's it. Thanks for hanging in there with me this month. Happy 12!