I got up before Jet, which is very unusual. I was all dressed and off to the restrooms to put myself together, when I got back, Jet was just up and getting into his clothing. We had a cold cereal breakfast, and gradually put more and more stuff into the van and ended up with nothing in the camp site and everything packed up and ready to go.

We went out the south entrance, through the Grand Tetons, and then headed on a diagonal down to 80. Somewhere in the middle of somewhere, we found a Dairyland burger and ice cream joint with "cheesewheels", which, amazingly enough, were cheeseburger patties that were breaded and deep fried! Ee! We just had hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes, which were very good. It's been a long time since I had a hot fudge milk shake small enough to not make me feel like I was killing myself to drink it all. Jet enjoyed his lemonade and grilled cheese sandwich.

I did some of the driving, and had no more two-lane road adventures, though I did pass a few folks. I did, however, see one example of an insane Californian who passed everyone and everything even on double yellows who nearly head-on'ed into someone and then kept up the insanity. I was glad they were well away from me so quickly.

When I wasn't driving I worked on John's sun/moon sweater. I actually worked on the dark sleeve and finished it and started the cuff of the yellow sleeve while John drove. I-80 proved smooth enough, and I-25 was insanely congested, but straight and smooth, so it was easy for me to knit while Jet watched Finding Nemo and the extras for it and for The Incredibles. We got into some thunderstorms in Montana and then in Colorado, again.

Much of our route was through the Painted Valleys which were beautiful, all the colors I normally associate with the Southwest or with Utah were all here, which was a very different view of Montana than I normally got when driving through it. It was a wonderful alternative to the wasteland approach by I-25 and I-90.

We got home late, around 7:30, and stopped at the Souper Salad for dinner, and closed the place down at 8. We had a good dinner, though, as we knew there was nothing at home. When we got home, John turned on the water heater, and the house was so hot it was crazy. It wasn't much cooler outside, but we opened up all the windows, turned on the attic fan and let it go. Everyone had a shower and cooled off by drying off and running around in our underwear as we gradually unpacked the stuff we were using the most.

It was good to be home. So good that Jet was exploring the mountain of mail, his room, the basement, and everything else. He was so happy just sitting and poking at His Stuff. He got a Lego catalog and wanted, immediately, to buy something out of it, but after counting his money, he needed four more stamps, so he thought of all the ways he could get them. I was happy, too. Happy to finally be where things were ours and just to be still again. The garden had survived and thrived quite nicely, on the most part, and there was a spillage of the Green Zebra plants onto a bench, which I was sad to see; but everything seemed remarkably alive and happy, though. I was impressed by that. The hanging cherry tomato seemed a bit thin; but all the dead stuff had been pulled out of it, which was really nice, and there were ripe cherry tomatoes all over it. Some had been, clearly, picked, which was great. The zucchini plant had one medium sized squash on it, but, clearly, folks had been eating off it, too, which was cool. I love supplying the neighbors when they were doing a lot of the work.

I'm so glad we're home. I'll see if I can sleep tonight, as it's just so hot. Whoof. I'm also completely amazed at the Sheer Amount of stuff we bought home with us. Lots of great food from the Northwest, and I'm going to have fun enjoying it.

The night was far colder than I'd expected it to be. I ended up snuggled up against John and stealing heat. Jet enjoyed the coolness, too, but was up when John was up. I slept a bit more by myself as the sun started to warm up the van, but by 8:30 it was too warm, so I got up. John had made pancakes, and they were eating them happily in a near-empty campsite. All the families had headed out early. I guess the van had insulated us, very well, from all the noises outside.

I was unambitious, even after having my coffee. Jet wanted to see geysers. The West Thumb was near us, with just hot pools and paint pots. But there was a lot of beautiful stuff there, and it was close. So we went and did the half a mile and quarter mile loops looking at all the hot springs of all colors, blue, brown, black, and deep. Jet liked it well enough, but asked if every spot was a geyser. *grin* There was one Fishing Pot, where the guides used to catch fish, dip it into the pot to cook it and then serve it to you for more money. Hee.

The paint pots were good and active, so Jet enjoyed those quite a bit more than the still, steaming hot springs. Even when the springs were a deep turquoise blue and so clear it seemed like looking down into forever when gazing down into the Abyss hot spring. Mmm...

The lake was interesting, along with the display that showed that the lake had probably resulted from volcanic activity that pushed up the edges and left thin pockets along the inside, where the hot springs and paint pots pushed through. The depth of the lake at that point was far deeper, too, so it's likely that whole floor just dropped into the mouth of that volcano.

By the time we were done, we were hot and hungry, so we stopped and had lunch at the picnic area right there. There was a table near the shade, which we moved into the shade. Crackers and cheese, carrots and fruit were very yummy with plenty of fizzy water, Kool-Aid, and tracking chipmunks through the forest floor. It was good.

I asked Jet, "Do you want to see one geyser that we're pretty sure will 'explode' or go out to a field where there are lots of geysers which are likely to go off, but we don't know if they will and when they will."
"I want to see the sure one."

So we went to Old Faithful. John hadn't remembered the three huge parking lots before the lodge itself. I had. I remembered that they had been empty when we'd come through in May seven years ago. Completely empty, along with all the grandstands around Old Faithful. This time, we had an hour before it was likely to go off, so we took some time to shop, find propane for our stove, and get a couple of ice cream sandwiches and bars for a cooling snack. When we went back all the stands were mostly full. By the time the geyser started to slosh and steam, the stands were packed, and there were three layers of people beyond them. John estimated it at nearly 5000 people just for the single instance.

That was astonishing, compared to it just being four people standing out in the rain back in that May so long ago. Back when the park was newly burned and so thoroughly, the baby trees had been inches tall, and the earth all the way down to the Lodge blackened and scarred with fire. Now it was all green again, the trees gangly youngsters with thick foliage, hiding the forest floor that had been so stark before.

And, this time, Old Faithful was faithful and went off right in the range of time given, which it hadn't that early spring evening. Jet got to see a geyser erupt. It sloshed around a few times, more and more frequently, and then higher and higher and then a constant stream a good hundred feet high. Then it went gradually lower and lower and took a long time to end. Folks had already gotten up and left by the time it was half its size, which was kind of sad. We sat through to the end.

Then folks started splashing around in the streams that resulted from the eruption, which was sad and stupid, as they didn't know what was in that water. Though some tested it to see the temperature, I was glad when the ranger finally chased them out of the area. Sigh.

From there we decided to just head back to the campsite and go swimming in the lake. Or at least go and throw rocks in the lake. It was great fun, but a bit too sunny. We all used a lot of sun screen, but it was still too hot. The lake was shallow enough around the edges that the water was very warm. Jet loved going into the lake to find rocks, and we threw them in happily for him to find. I brought along my knitting and knit a bit. John swam for a while, which was good, too. After a while, we got tired of the sun, and went for a walk around the lake in the shade of the trees. Then, to my surprise, a couple of mosquitoes attacked me! The first time since we'd been at the lake, there were a few mosquitoes! From there, we headed back to the camp ground, and the dust and stuff chased off the mosquitoes, but the biting flies were still around. Those flies bit hard, and left welts that itched, darn it.

Dinner was spaghetti with vodka sauce. Jet had it with just a three cheese mix we'd found at the grocery store and ate a whole plate of spaghetti with it. All the walking really helped up the appetite. We had a great fire after that, and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. Yummy. By that time, it was dark and we headed to bed. Jet liked spending his second night "sleeping in a volcano." This time I remembered to pull out a shirt for when it got too cold and my sweater as an extra blanket for later, too. That worked out great.

We didn't get up early, but we did get out of Chelan pretty quickly once we were up. We just stopped for some espresso and muffins and headed out along a road that wasn't on our maps but was something that the lady in charge of the Apple Inn knew well. She did us two good turns, the first in getting us to the Apple Cup diner and on getting us onto the right road to Grand Coulee Dam.

( Read more... )

We spent most of today just wandering around to see more of town and more areas just to see what there was around.

( Read more... )

I learned how to actually, physically shuck an oyster! Woohoo!! I knew, conceptally, that one sticks a shucking knife into the joint, push it through and then detach the main muscle from the upper shell. But the conceptual description is nothing on the actual physical sensation of trying to basically put a knife into my hand and just not being able to do it until I figured out what it felt like to have the hinge finally give way.

( The rest of the evening. )

It was sad to leave Isabel and George. We'd been making their house our home for the last week and a half, so it was a bit like packing up and leaving home again. It was hard to do, too, as there was so much stuff spread out all around the house. I was amazed.

We brought things out to the car from about 8 am through to 11. There was just so much of it and most of it was packed up into modular bundles, but some of it was not. Jet got into the van nearly an hour before we left, and the grandparents climbed in with him and talked and fed him something of a snack for lunch. That was pretty cool.

Leaving time was around 11:30, and everyone got hugs and promises to see each other again, and we got everyone and everything in and buckled down and doors closed. We drove down the hill and my celphone rang. It was Isabel. We'd forgotten Jet's Hawaiian suits hung up in the closet. So we went back and got them from her. Then we went to Trader Joe's to fulfill our neighbor's requests and then to Uajamiya to fulfill mine. :-) The Takahashi Gold and the stuff they make that still has the germ but not the hull was really good. So I bought big bags of both. We'll eat them happily.

Then we headed north. The side trip we made was instead of hitting the 99 market in Lynnwood and the Trader Joe's up there. So we just went north, stopped at Mount Vernon for gas, and then kept going. That's when I realized I had a message on my celphone. It was Isabel, we'd left the three bottles of teriyaki sauce AND a cold pack in the freezer. I figure we should be able to have them priority mail them to us when we get home and it should stay "cool enough" with the cold pack.

*sigh*

So we got to David's and got to see all the kids and Mary and we had a gorgeous dinner of locally caught fish with ginger and garlic and scallions and cilantro and plenty of light soy and teriyaki sauce! :-) That was funny. It was accompanied by roasted potatoes and green beans with much onion and garlic goodness and a salad. So we ate well. Jet had his own macaroni and cheese and some bread. He loved it and happily bantered with the Big Kids when they ate.

When it was bedtime, Jet insisted on sleeping on the rock-hard wooden floor without a cushion. Huh. But he did it and only thumped around a few times while we were asleep, which was loud, but didn't seem to wake him up at all. We stayed up to talk with Mary and David for a while and that was very nice indeed. It's good to have other parents to talk to, especially since they're so far ahead of us in some ways.

The four days out at the Oregon coast were wonderful, mostly overcast, one brilliant day, and we ended with a real soaker, which was exactly the right time for it. We camped with John's parents, whom I was very impressed with, and his brother and his wife, whom I've always admired. It was a lot of fun to be with them, and Walt's cooking made me fascinated with Dutch ovens. The rainy day was good in that we could pack up, tour the Tillamook plant, have ice cream, and just go home, get everything hung up to dry, and have a wonderful dinner at Yeh's Wok.

The only problem is that, during camping, my Visor spazzed when I put new batteries in it, so I've now lost contact information for just about everyone. Also, given how full John's made our social calender until we leave on Sunday, I'm not likely to get to visit with any more folks, realistically. *sigh*. Sorry about that, Kirby and others. I apologize for spazzing on that.

Yesterday John and I wandered the new Bellevue Square and Lincoln Square and then got to see Pirates 2. ARRGH! I say, "ARRGH!" It's great but there's another movie coming, which should be great. I'm really looking forward to the next one.

Then I lost my voice as we went to the old Rosehill Ale House (which is something else now) and celebrated the retirement of someone that had joined Data I/O a year before John had. And, consequently, met up with nearly 30 people that we haven't seen for nearly a decade. It was astonishing. The pub was, as usual, quite loud, so I pretty much lost my voice trying to talk with far too many people.

It was odd, though, in some ways. Meeting and greeting folks that I hadn't seen for that long. I felt distanced, but also like I *should* know how to act with them, but also knowing that that really wasn't the case. It was very cool, though, to see Patricia Blair, the wife of Nello, whom we used to work with. she's now Mrs. Washington! Hee. She won a beauty pageant!! And is now the traveling Mrs. Washington with engagements, parties, and doing judging at beauty contests herself. Lots of charity work in there, too, which is making her very happy. That's very cool.

I had enough voice left, when I got back and had a mug of tea, to read Jet his good night books, and that was very good indeed.

My God. It was actually out and out and completely sunny today. Unexpectedly, gloriously, completely sunny today. Hot and amazing and beautifully sunny.

It even started that way after a pretty cuttingly cold night, the humidity in the air made it far colder than I thought it would be, but the blankets were enough to get by. But when I finally awakened, after ignoring my bladder for longer than I thought I could, I got dressed and put together and Waltr was out making cinnamon rolls for everyone. Wow. I trotted off on the long trip to the bathroom and then came back to orange flavored cinnamon rolls out of the Dutch oven and coffee. Coffee that John had made in the vacuum flask with our drip maker. Hee. Yay!

That was a fantastic way to start the day. I'll admit that the hard cushions of our van bed really made their impression on my hips and back, it wasn't that great, but with a bit of food and plenty of stretching I was okay for the day, which involved, mostly, going out to the beach and digging in the sand. :-)

Cathie had had to leave in the early pre-dawn morning to go to work. She wouldn't be back until Tuesday and we missed her.

Jet and John and I mostly just went out on the beach and dug all day. I built a bunch of stuff.

Jet found brine shrimp in the sand, thousands of them. There was a section of sand at the right depth or something, and when the waves came in the brine shrimp would leap up from the sand, swim around in the water while it lasted. Jet could see them all in the water and catch them on his hand and gently show them to me. When he or the waves deposited them high and dry on the sand, they would burrow in under the surface.

I found that if I stepped on the sand they were buried under, the sand would wiggle under my feet, and my feet would sink into the sand. When I lifted my foot, there would be a brief puddle, and the shrimp would come up into the water for the brief moment it was there, and then bury themselves back into the sand as the water drained away. It was odd to see them flash up like that and then down again. Jet loved seeing them and digging for them and picking them up only to put them back into the surf.

We stopped for lunch for a while and put lots of sunscreen on as half our crew was sunburnt from just the morning. Jet said he wasn't hungry but then devoured the food we put in front of him. Then we all went out again, picked a different spot and dug in deep.

I'd gotten braver and thought a bit about what I wanted to do and build a high tower with curved walls to either side circling in from the arched entry way. It was fun to see it happen. Then I remembered something in the book and wondered if it would work.

I swirled the sand and water until it was all flowing, got a double handful and started passing it from hand to hand. When it had drained a little, I added half handfuls of dry sand at a time to the outside of the handful and, eventually, I had a sand ball. It was dense, heavy and solid, and Jet yelled, "CANNONBALL!" when I handed him one and he launched it in the direction of the waves. I made several more, set some of them on the sand to dry and harden and drain a bit from its contact with the sand, and eventually I topped the tower with a series of sandballs that looked unnatural. :-) One doesn't think of sand staying in the shape of a snowball the way snow does.

A family with three girls came up to look at the castle and admire it, and Jet said it was the ice cream castle. I liked that name. I asked them if they wanted a sand ball and they nodded shyly. So I handed them one. John made another one and Jet another for them, so they had a set. Jet took to shaping them so naturally it surprised me, but he got good ones, too.

Jet happily put a bunch of balls into the sea, too. Ones that were set aside for him. He felt that he could knock over the castle too, but John did his level best to persuade him to not to while I went to get a camera before Hurricane Jet did it's destructive best.

I got pictures. But by then Jet was uninterested in knocking it down, he was far more interested in flinging handfuls of sand into the sea.

Eventually, I took Jet to the showers and got him cleaned up and all the uncomfortable sand washed away. That was very useful indeed. :-) He cleaned up nice and warm from the hot water, and I dried him off, dressed him and when we got back there was a taco dinner underway. Jet ate four shells with cream cheese and furikake. The rest of us had, essentially, taco salad in shells. There was lots of good salad and some refried beans and taco seasoned beef.

While dinner was being served, I thought I'd try out my Visor for journal entries, and when it complained about low batteries, I took out the old batteries and put in new and the darn thing spazzed on me. This new one keeps spazzing out whenever I replace the batteries, unlike my old, faithful, original Visor which never complained about a voltage change of any kind. So I may well just go back to my rubber baby buggy of a Visor and at least HAVE all my data when I need it.

I now have no contact data other than what was in my cellphone. I am unhappy about that.

When dinner was done and the hot chocolate came out the mosquitos came out, too. John slathered Jet while I slathered myself with the non-DEET stuff that's now out. But by the time Jet wanted to go to bed the stuff had decayed enough that it wasn't working anymore. So the mosquitoes, after the warm day, swarmed us. Jet got five big bites on his face, neck, behind the ears, and in the van one landed on his cheek while he was whimpering at it, and got him there. Thank goodness West Nile hasn't made it this far. Sigh. I was upset. Jet was upset. John tried to calm us down without making us more upset. We finally cleared the van of all the bugs and John read to Jet.

Then I nursed him and he fell asleep, but when we tried to put him up, even as tired as he was, he cried and cried. This time I explained to him that he had to help us put him into the sleeping bag when he was done, and that worked well enough in his near term memory that when he realized we were putting him in again, he tried to help and he fell deeply asleep in his sack.

This night was unbelievably cold for me, and I ended up on John's half of the van, nearly on top of him as he was actually a heat source. I was amazed that it got that cold even in our insulated space, and Jet didn't notice a thing and said that he slept really well, woke up once, turned over and went back to sleep. He said that the sleeping bag made it so that he could sleep all night long. Yay for all night!!

Got up this morning and had the odd job of taking a subset of all the things we'd brought on the trip an packing it up in order to go traveling some more in a different situation. We are going camping, out on the Oregon coast and from everything John was saying it was going to be cold and wet and not that happy making. Still, there was only so much warm stuff I'd packed, and I really didn't want to bring everything I'd brought to entertain myself, so I just took some stuff.

Most of the knitting bag went, minus a good deal of the sock yarn, and adding the sleeves of the sun and moon sweater. That was good. I then emptied a few things form my messenger bag and my computer bag into it as well. I didn't bring any computer other than my Visor and the keyboard that goes with it, and that would have to do me for the extent of electronics.

I heard Jet packing at Isabel's urging, and was told later that he'd just put all his clothing drawer contents into his bag. That was a boon in later respect. But that made his packing job very, very fast, and he was in the car with Seltzer in nothing flat. There was a good thirty minutes or so until anyone else made it to sit in the car, and then I sat in the car for a good twenty minutes before anyone else was all set and done. Of course, John and Isabel also packed nearly all the kitchen and food stuffs, and I helped load some of it into the car, but mostly I stayed out of their way. :-)

They'd gone shopping at Costco last night, so they got a mountain of good food, and we packed it all away as well as we could. With the roof rack and the whole back side of the van we managed to get everything in with very little room to spare. Four bikes went on the bike rack and it did just fine, packing sponges and all.

Isabel and I were in back with Jet. But I'll admit that I mostly just slept on the way there. Jet was chattering like a blue jay and talking or singing or making noise of some kind nearly the whole way. Just as we were about to get into Oregon, we stopped at the Astoria Maritime Museum, which had a Coast Guard cutter on display for tours and an older ship along with a HUGE anchor, a deep-sea buoy and a museum of some size. The best, though, was just eating lunch in the sea air. It was bright out and sunny, but the wind was cutting and I was pretty cold in it. At first, I hid behind the giant anchor and then I finally got out and was a wind break for Jet for a while as we ate sandwiches, carrots and chips.

We then walked out on the dock to take a gander at the ships, but a huge freighter came in, and it was nearly empty as the red hull was mostly above water. It was impressive coming in under the bridge as it barely fit.

I loved the huge ship's ropes hanging there to dry, too, as one could see the mending on it as well as the sheer size of the weave. Beautiful.

From there we headed into Oregon and found a Fred Meyer's with cheaper gas than we'd seen anywhere in Washington. The only catch was that you couldn't pump it yourself. John got out of the car and the guy said, "I'll get to you when I can, sir." *giggles*

From there we took the winding 6 out to Longview State Park.

It was the same state park the three of us had stayed at two years ago, with the yurts and forest and beach. Cathie and Walt had arrived before us and found a site that was out of the woods and out by the beach. The old site still had some pretty obvious damp spots and lots of overhanging trees and given that the weather was gray and nigh on drizzling when we got there, we preferred the open spot. Plus, I figured there would be fewer mosquitoes that far out from the woods. And, on the most part, I was right.

It was great to see Walt and Cathie again. I look up to them in a lot of ways as they're seven years our senior and they have definitely made their lives their own. I admire their choices and what they do as they're both involved in making working lives a lot safer for a lot of people. That's very cool.

I also like their sense of humor and taste in food. :-)

We arrived, sat in the uncertain sun for a while and caught up. Then John said, "This is the best it's going to be, so we better go out on the beach while we can, the next couple of days aren't going to be better than this."

So Jet got into his swimming trunks and kept his shirt and I wore my shorts and shirt and my L.L. Bean sweater and we went out onto the beach. The sun really, really tried, but it never really broke out until it set. So under the cloudy sky we enjoyed the beach anyway.

Jet demanded that his shirt come off NOW when we reached the sand. I was okay with that as it wasn't actually too cold, and it went, dry, into John's pocket. Jet cheerfully stuck with digging in the sand, though we persuaded him to move a little bit up the beach and not dig right at the entrance. Walt brought an Army surplus shovel and dug exactly where Jet wanted him to dig. I dug a little further as I wanted the water to come up.

Remember that sand castle book I borrowed a few months back? Yeah, the one next to the knitting book. Hee. I remembered that book and I have been dying to try the techniques out of it on a real beach. It was harder than I'd thought, in some ways, as I couldn't get my hands around the 'plops' to get them to jiggle into a good settle. I could, however, jiggle them from the top with the palm of my hand. Weird, but it worked, and I was able to build several towers and an arch of sorts. Jet liked that, and immediately knocked some of it down to prove he liked it. :-)

I loved how the sand flowed through my hands and how the water allowed it to flow and fill areas that I directed it towards. The walls that I built were far tougher than I thought they could be, and so I experimented with walls to and from the towers and then stairs cut into the tops and then along the sides. I was impressed with how the sand carved, and built a lighthouse with gabled roof and four sides to the sea. Jet supplied 'rocks' for the bottom of the tower, and we carved a staircase around the tower.

That was a lot of fun.

Jet loved the pit that I pulled sand out of. I finally figured out how to do a two-handed digger scoop of flowing wet sand. It took a bit of experience to just figure out how to do the things that were in the figures and what they felt like rather than just how they looked.

Jet also found that the ocean water was, in his words, "Cold! Cold! Cold!!" And he danced away from the waves, and ran when they tried to get him. He loved sitting in the relatively warmer water of the 'pit' I was digging out of. When he announced, however, that water was leaking out of his pants, I decided I was done with sand castle building and I went into the surf to wash off.

It was cold. It was very, very cold. Pacific cold. Beautiful, gloriously cold on feet and stinging on sanded knees, as I'd definitely gotten down to the sand level to try and carve things with a shovel point and my own hands.

The weather was good enough, though. Good enough.

We went back to the camp and Jet got hosed down from the back of Walter and Cathie's van, as they had a shower built into the back. It was good enough to get all the sand off of him, and we dried him with towels and put his warmest clothes on. Then John handed him a steel skewer with a hot dog strung on it, and asked him to help with cooking dinner. Hee. He was happy to help and sat by the warm fire with the hot dog dangling over the coals. It eventually hit the coals, so he asked who wanted to eat it, and I thought it would be a fine thing to have a dinner cooked by my son. :-) So I ate his "dirty hot dog" and he had one of John's which were nicely toasted.

There were also carrots, sugar snap peas, potato salad, chips and plenty of condiments, so we all munched away happily. I was hungry and had two hot dogs from all the digging and sand slogging. That was great.

Jet loved the fire. But when it actually got dark it was nearly ten, so he was more than ready to go to sleep. He and I went to the bathroom and did potty stuff and then brushed teeth. He then went back to the van and got flossed and into his pajamas and we read stories, nursed, and when it was time to get up into his bed he woke up enough to help get into his sleeping bag up on top of the van. The wind up there was whistling softly and I could hear the surf pounding away at the beach, much more closely than within the confines of the van itself.

But Jet was in his blanket pajamas with a good, thick sleeping bag, so I wasn't too worried. He crawled deeply in, asked for Seltzer to hold, and then snuggled in with his new pal and went to sleep.

We soon followed as it has been a very busy day.

This morning I even got up early and took a good shower. I had heard Jet up a while before I did, but it seemed that the grandparents had him well in hand. I also got up before John did, which is unusual, but by the time I was done with my ablations, he was in the bathroom with me and getting ready to go.

Jet was all ready to go. So we headed out and realized just a few blocks away that we'd forgotten the directions we'd printed out to get to ross_teneyck's house. He'd been kind enough to write them into an email for me, and George's print system had been kind enough to print it out beautifully for us, so we went back to the house, and Isabel had found them and had them ready for us. I took them back to the van and John had no troubles following them exactly to Ross' house. That was great.

From there we headed to a local Marie Calender's for breakfast! I hadn't known that they did breakfast, and the strawberry banana cream pie was awfully tempting in the lobby as we were shown into the nearly empty dining room. I guess folks didn't know that it was for breakfast, either. Or else we were just far, far too early for the usual breakfast crowd on a Saturday.

The breakfast was really good, too. Jet got French Toast and he did his best to eat it just like normal toast once I got the butter slathered on thickly enough. He just picked up the pieces and ate them out of hand. "It is toast." said John. I got the bacon quiche, and with it came fruit and a muffin. The muffin was a work of art in and of itself. For a restaurant that prides itself in its baked goods, the banana muffin lived up to the reputation, it was covered in sugar crystals and crisp pecans and the muffin body was buttery and tender. It did not need the pats of butter sitting next to it. Jet devoured as much of the sugary top he could without touching a single nut. I ate most of the nuts and a good deal of the muffin as well while waiting for my quiche.

The quiche was exactly what I wanted. That buttery, extremely short Marie Calendar crust filled with and extremely rich filling, cheddar cheese, chopped spinach, and plenty of crisply rendered bacon bits. Wow. It was just as rich as I expected any Marie Calendar savory pie to be and then some, as the custard seemed to be made from more cream than milk. Yow. It was well worth my trying and probably added another layer to all my arteries at once.

The fruit was not up to snuff. Just green grapes, watermelon chucks, and very bruised, brown edged honeydew chunks. As well. The coffee was good enough, but not great, and the service was pretty prompt on everything but John's coffee.

Jet ate three of his four pieces of French toast, and then ducked behind me for his post-food shy period. An elderly man complimented him on his dragon outfit and Jet just hid. The three of us got to talk quite a bit, which was good.

Ross' house brought Jet out more as there was much to intrigue him. After all those house tours we did for fun, Jet was all into seeing all the rooms a house had to offer, and cheerfully charged about exclaiming at the things he found, everything from "library" to "POTTY! Here is the potty, Mom!" He loved the punching bag in the backyard, the light saber collection, and the collection of tiny, trading card ships that Ross had collected. Ross was very kind and gave Jet one of the tiny ships and Jet has carried it about with him all day and put it in the same place as the tiny Christmas tree and glass turtle that Isabel gave him. He loves it.

When he saw the light sabers (and other real swords that Ross has), he launched into a convoluted explanation of the Lego Star Wars game that Ross was mostly able to follow (though the bit about putting the cut off hand in his pocket for later was a bit unfathomable) and join in on. That connected pretty well.

I was happy to catch up with Ross after more than a decade of not knowing exactly what had happened to him after he'd lived with us for a while. It was really nice to know that he had been doing quite well and has followed several paths that he is enjoying and which have worked out quite well for him. It was great to see him and just talk. We'll have to do it again before a decade plays out again. :-)

From there we headed towards the Fremont Troll. We found out that there was the Fremont Street Fair setting up right in the way of our way to blackwingedboy's lair. So John went off the main roads and up through the roundabouts and I called him to tell him we were coming. He didn't answer, which seemed odd, but then my cellphone rang a bare moment later. He showed himself when we arrived, and hopped into the van to a fairly raucous greeting.

I had to go to World Spice while I was in Seattle. Just HAD to. So we did. Kind of the long way by parking around Wall and 2nd and then walking in. Jet did some walking, but eventually asked to be carried, so I did, on my shoulders, and we went through the "Pick up Labor" area which was very odd, especially with demonstrators there who were against illegal immigrants. blackwingedboy was nice to us and decided to just keep walking. *grin* We then headed to the lower part of the market, though we could see the throngs in the upper bits, and found World Spice. I then besieged the counter lady, and got a few ounces of a dozen things.

I really don't like keeping tea or spices for more than six months. I like just getting enough for me to get through a season or year, and then buying more when I need it, so getting a few ounces of this and of that is the only way I can get through it all while it's still viable. So we did everything from peppermint tea to licorice root to smoky BBQ rub to roasted chai mix, plus a bit of pu-erh for blackwingedboy just so he could say that he had poo........... erh in his pocket for the rest of the day. They also had glass gaiwan there for just $12, so I had to get one of those, too, though I could tell John was bemused as it was exactly the same shape and function as my jade one. *grin* But it's glass, I say. He takes me at my word, and John and Jet play checkers while the lady measures, labels, seals, and then charges me for everything. I get away for less than thirty dollars and consider my morning very, very well spent.

From there we head into the press of the main Market so that John can get a good pound of smoked salmon. I ask to go to the crumpet shop and instead of buying a bag of them that will go stale before we can even eat them, I ask for one honey crumpet to go, and get called "Butter crumpet" by the boys to a reaction of low growls and a bemused look from the counter lady.

We then head back to the car and Jet's flagging from lack of food. John stops at a very extremely local coffee and drinks shop and Jet gets lemon-aide while we all pick up some kind of espresso drink. We get happy and do the walk back to the car before the parking time runs out. Yay! Jet walks nearly the whole distance and dances some of it while singing about his drink. I hold his hand during the parts that are scary for me, and he is oblivious and that is all to the good.

From there we head to Lake Union and the I Heart Sushi on the banks of that esteemed body of water. We all eat far too much great sushi for lunch and Jet asks for a bowl of rice and polishes it off neatly, all the while asking if he can go out on a kayak, as the kayak rental is a bare ten feet from our glassed-in patio table. I deeply enjoy the over the top Tropical roll with salmon and mango on the outside, flying fish roe and tuna on the inside, and a blueberry soy and wasabi mayonnaise on the bottom. Wow. Just Wow. Not everyone's fruity, savory, creamy, chewy, crunchy delight, but it certainly was mine. Happy sigh. Along with a bit of spider roll and some plain raw salmon, it made for quite the meal.

blackwingedboy's Catapillar Roll intrigued Jet with its antenna and googly-eyed salmon egg eyes. I enjoyed a piece of the eel and avocado richness. It might all have offset breakfast, but I'm not at all sure.

We talked and ate and enjoyed the sunshine and warmth. Then John and Jet got life vests and then hopped into a two-person kayak together. Jet even got a set of paddles and he was very, very intent as he paddled out into the mildly choppy lake water with John stroking strongly and quietly behind him. They were soon well out along the shore, peering at the moored boats and following the geese.

blackwingedboy and I sat on a shaded bench and just talked about life and how he'd gotten back to Seattle after going out to Washington D.C. after we'd left the Northwet in 1998. Quite the adventure. It was good to catch up with him, too, and while it hasn't been quite a decade for us, like with Ross, the relationship and friendship kind of just kept going from where we'd stopped. Just picked up as comfortably as it had left off so long ago even though we're different and now have more experiences under our belt, but the interaction patterns somewhat the same. Lots of questions on our part, too, just to understand what had happened and who they are now. That was very nice.

John and Jet headed back to the floating platform. John thought about taking me out for a bit, too, but it was too late by the time we got there, and that was okay with me. I was in my Costco skirt and didn't really want to go out on the water. John, blackwingedboy, and I then found plastic chairs to sit on in the shade while Jet played in the sunshine on a climbing structure with plenty of sand underneath it for him to carry to the top of the structure. He worked really hard at it, and when other kids arrived, he happily said, "I have friends!" and played with them very well. We happily sat in the shade and talked. It was good.

A good while later, John asked Jet, "How you doing?"

"Good. I am sweaty, though."

"Five more minutes?"

"Sure."

And Jet worked away industriously. When the five minutes were up he cheerfully shouted, "Goodbye" to the kids and their mom. The mom grinned and said, "Good-bye." back which got Jet to smile, and we were off again.

Jet inhaled the rest of his lemonade and we were off to drop the candid corvid back off at his lair. we did try to see the Troll on the way back, but an extremely active and not too good production of Romeo and Juliet was wending its violent way at the foot of the Troll. So Jet just got to see the concrete critter while trying to peer at "the fighting boys" as well.

We then headed home and I plied all the yarn on my spindle while John and Isabel bought food for half the camping trip and George and Jet tried to put together a puzzle. George was great with Jet, patient, encouraging, and very verbal about the decision process on how to do the puzzle. Jet responded at first, but later, since he was quite tired, started getting a little destructive. By then I'd finished plying, so I went over, and put him in my lap and he nearly fell asleep; but then discovered that he could put lots of pieces in. Woot! So he got interested again, and between the three of us we finished the puzzle in pretty short order. Then George had to work on Isabel's bike, so Jet and I played Uno. He won the first two games and was cheering and dancing in his usual fashion, but then I won the next three.

Then Jet started acting like he was sniffling and crying. He'd sniffle three times and then both of us would crack up and giggle like mad. It was really funny for both of us, he loved doing the sniffling routine and cracked up every single time. Hee. I loved it as he was actually being an excellent sport about the whole thing. Of course, he crowed whenever he gave me a "Draw Two" card, even when he forgot that he didn't have a card of the same color and by his rules, he drew more cards than I did. *giggles*. But for that last game, I had nearly twenty cards by the time he won. He was very proud of that. *grin*

By the time we were done with our last game, John and Isabel came home, and Isabel started making dinner. I started working on the last four rows of the Sun/Moon sweater body. Jet wandered about a bit until Isabel asked him to set the table. He carefully counted out all the silverware, got the napkins out, and then asked everyone what drinks they wanted, and reported everything back to Isabel when he was done. He was happy to do the work and I think he felt important and good about having done it well, to Isabel's praises. That was really cool.

Dinner was fun. Jet ate his usual rice with salt and pepper, as he'd learned at niherlas's house, and then ate a ton of raspberries with Dream Whip. We had a lovely turkey salad and a curried apple salad along with a bit of rice salad and cranberry sauce. Yum. Jet had put me in the direct sun, but a hat took care of the worst of it, and by later in the evening the shadows had gotten long enough for me to hide in them. After Colorado I don't spent any more time in direct sun than I have to; but sometimes it's good to be good and warm.

I got to eat my Greek honey yogurt from Trader Joe's with my raspberries. Wow that stuff is good. It's made with cream as well as milk and it's good and thick from, I think, a combination of the cultures and dried milk that's added to the mix. It's nearly like ice cream as far as I'm concerned and it was a wonderful way to eat raspberries. George and John tasted it and commented happily. George studied the carton and the fat content certainly is higher than his nonfat yogurt. I guess it's just my Fat Day today.

After dinner I finished the last of the body panels for the Sun/Moon sweater. The body is now reasonable in size even for me, so I'm mildly less worried about there being enough yarn for the shoulder seams. Still, I did the top row of the body in yellow as I still have more of that than I do the purple, and it seems prudent to do the shoulder seams in the yarn I have more of. I think using the purple in my left hand for most of the first half really did use more of it more quickly as I'm just looser knitting with my left hand. The body looks great, even with the steek bunching up the top of the front. Now I get to do the sleeves.

I also packed the stuff for the next four camping days out on the beach/shores of Oregon. It's supposed to be pretty cool out there, sixties and windy. We'll see, and it'll be interesting to try and do sandcastles in that kind of weather. It'll be great to see Walt and Cathie again.

After the long, hot (max 85° F), and long walking day, I decided to just do a short shower and then sit down and write this while I remember it. I'm going to take my Visor with me for the camping trip and I'll see if I can't download those entries when I get back. I'll admit that I should have found a wireless place for all these backdated entries already, but I haven't, and I'll try again when I get back to civilization.

I'm finally on vacation.

I took half an hour this morning to lay to rest all the anxiety that I'd built up last night and this morning, and finally all the work beast is finally at rest. John spent a while getting my laptop to acknowledge the Mother Ship, and from there on I was able to do, slowly, everything that needed to be done in order to have one last phone call with someone at work.

It laid to rest the ghost of the unnamed co-worker, and armed my report with something concrete to work with, so that was all to the good. Plus I probably made my boss' day by delivering something before his deadline. So that was all good.

Plus I was done in just half an hour after the Appointed Hour.

So I was able to join the rest of the gang in a walk/ride down to Sunset School. Yee haw! I was so happy I could have busted as I walked down the steep hill holding Jet's little bike in one hand and a bottle of Talking Rain in the other. It was good to be free and just talk with Isabel while John and Jet trotted ahead of us, and to watched Jet cheerful pedal on the sidewalk and patiently wait up for the rest of us as John jogged on ahead and, eventually, George jogged up from behind us as he finished a phone called he'd waited on until after my fated meeting.

It was sunny. After the first days of gloom and chill, today was gorgeously arrayed in nothing but clear skies and sunshine. It felt so much better for the contrast. And we enjoyed every minute of being outdoors as we walked to the school, meandered past the freshly painted lines of the parking lot and then down to the playground. Isabel and I sat on a bench in the sunshine and talked about gardens and gardening and plants and care while the boys all ducked, ran, climbed, and played all over the equipment.

A good hour later, Jet happily tired from having explored all the possibilities, climbed the steep hill back to his bike and then biked the whole way back the house, even up the steep hill that i'd carried his bike up.

I was impressed.

He was pretty tired when we arrived, and a little cranky about eating things. He finally did eat all this cheese out of his sandwich, but he kept trying to sneak chips in addition to those that were in his sandwich. The rest of us built tuna fish sandwiches and ate.

After lunch we headed into Issaquah and the 1pm showings of Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Sadly, Pirates was sold out. George, Isabel, and Jet went to Cars, and we decided to just hang out, which proved to be harder on my feet and legs than I'd originally planned.

First stop was the Trader Joe's just across the parking lot, where I filled a hand basket to the point where I asked John to get me a cart. Hee. Then we carried all that back to the car. And then headed off to the Barnes and Nobles, were I tried to find Whistle! and Iron Wok Jan manga issues, but they were a bit too limited in their selections. But I did get some Pratchett I hadn't read, yet. Yay! We dumped those at the car, and then drove it over to the Costco and for the first time in decades, we sat in a line at the gas station. The Costco prices were well below $3 when most of the area is well over, which explains the lines. But it was relatively quick moving even with the place solid with cars, and John was quick in filling the tank.

We then found very empty spots in front of the Puget Co-op (PCC) and we wandered about. I bought the Dagoba Xocolat for camping with and some soft drinks for the heat. John found a few magazines he wanted to buy and so he did. Then we went back towards the theater and only after stopping for a ped did we gather enough good karma to deserve an excellent parking spot. We parked. We then went in the theater and just sat and talked for a good half hour before the movie let out. A lady coming out said that she hadn't seen a movie that good in a long time, she said that the kids all applauded when it ended, she seemed mildly stunned. She also said that some folks were staying for the animation during the credits, and I could just imagine Jet demanding that they stay until the very dead end and the bit there.

Hee.

When they did come out, we left the car where it was, and walked back to Costco, the long way, across the lake and around the business complex. Jet finally asked for a shoulder ride, and he was pretty tired from the morning. So that was okay. We then got a treat. The outdoor concessions sell huge glasses of soft-serve nonfat frozen yogurt. They were big enough that we all got plenty to eat from just two $2 servings. Hee. George loved the bargain, and we just sat at a table and ate our cold treat in the shade and were very content.

We then walked all the way back to the car, and headed home. Isabel has been cooking every evening, so John and I offered to do dinner. My feet were sore by now, but we ended up going to the QFC, and I gingerly walked about to find the whole wheat spaghetti and the wild-caught Sockeye salmon and Yoshida's Original Sauce for half the price we find it at home. I bought it quite happily and we took it home. I cleaned and dried the fish and put it on foil on a cookie sheet, and then slathered it with teriyaki. Then i set the oven on low broil and set the fish under it.

I started a pot of water to boil. Then I mixed up the peanut sauce and cut cucumbers and sweet peppers for it and the salad. By then the salmon was more done than I expected, so I called John to get him to make the salad, and told folks that it was the five minute warning. The spaghetti finished cooking and I pulled Jet's first, and then rinsed the rest with cold water and then added it to the sauce and the cucumbers and we had cold peanut noodles with teriyaki salmon and salad. Just enough of it, too, as we had just the pound of fish. The ice cream had filled everyone up a bit, so the lighter dinner was appreciated by all. Raspberries made a great dessert, and then we were set for the evening.

John and I cleaned up and then I just sat and spun for a while. It was relaxing to do so when i was relaxed after finally finishing work. George and Isabel liked watching me work with the easily transportable spindle, and it was lots of fun to do it and just make yarn the way I wanted to. It's still a bit heavy for the superwash merino. I need to try it with the other fibers I bought in Spokane. Luckily, the spindle will fit easily in a bag with the other fibers and should be able to go camping, easily.

My feet are pretty sore from the 16,000+ steps I took today. It's fun having the pikachu count for me and now I know why I am so sore.

A good day, today. I started by finally doing the last bit of work I had to do and I called a report to finish off the focal review period of last year. That was very useful. I also sent back my signed review to my manager, who needed it by the middle of the month, anyway. So all was good.

I was finally, really, truly on vacation. Given that I'd had a hard time sleeping last night due to this last meeting, I am feeling a lot better. It was a great conversation and covered enough that I can rest easy, now.

I finished in half an hour, which was good as the rest of the gang decided to go to a local school playground while I was busy. I was out of the office just in time to join the leading troops and carry Jet's bike down the really steep bits of Somerset road so that we could cross the busy street and then head down to the school. Jet walked, ran, and talked the whole way. John cheerfully kept up. Isabel caught up a little ways into it and George arrived at a steady jog that he continued up to where Jet was riding his bike merrily along the straight and level ways.

The playground at Sunset Elementary is enormous and updated and the three boys had a blast going through it and playing on and with nearly everything. John cheerfully pushed through everything Jet got through, and got up and down nearly every setup that Jet did. That was very good indeed.

And after two days of cold and gloom, the weather broke and we finally got the July weather we're used to here. 70's and sunny, 60's in the shade. Hee. I am still amazed. Isabel and I sat in the sun for a while and talked about gardening and vegetables and all kinds of other growing things. It was great to just talk about anything and everything.

Eventually the sun got too hot so we moved to the shade, but there were no good places to sit. The boys eventually got hot, too, and we headed back. Jet rode back, up hills and over dales, and even up the steep slope of Somerset Blvd. That was impressive. When he was done he was mildly subdued. But a good lunch later, and he was singing again and very, very impatient to take Granny and Grampa to see Cars.

Yes, it was his fourth time. Pirates was completely sold out, so John and I decided to just wander around the shopping complex. We hit Trader Joe's called our neighbor to ask him what he wanted us to bring back for him. Then we went to Barnes and Nobel and I bought a few Pratchett novels I haven't read, yet. It's a wonderful thing that he's so prolific. They had a limited manga selection so I couldn't pick up the latest Whistle! or Iron Wok Jan. Ah well. From there, we went back to the car and, for the first time in decades, we got in line to get gas. Costco's gas lines were pretty amazing, though the prices were pretty good, too. We often get a ten cent a gallon discount at King Soopers and this was just a bit better than even that. So that was excellent.

We got our gas and then found great parking in front of PCC, the Puget Sound co-op from a long time ago. They've upgraded to a new Whole Foods experience, and I was mildly put off by the high prices, but we got cold drinks, a few whole Earth magazines, and I bought a cannister of the Dagoba Xocolatl, thinking it would be a perfect camping drink for the adults of the group. Not your kids' cocoa packet.

From there we had to go back and hunt down another parking space remotely close to the theater. It was only after John stopped for a pedestrian that a car backed out in front of us. Good karma, that. So we parked, went into the theater and waited another twenty minutes or so and saw the first group out of the theater. We knew that Jet would have made them stay for the very final bit, as we've stayed for the final bit the last three times, and so they did. When they came out, Jet was glowing and Granny and Grampa said that, yes, indeed, it was a good move.
Then we walked across a business park and lake to go back to the Costco to get frozen nonfat yogurt from the concession stand outside. Hee. George loves that he can get two HUGE cups of ice cream for $2. We got two and shared among the five of us and that was plenty for everyone. Yum. It was especially good after the hot walk.

Then Jet asked for a ride on my shoulders, and we walked back to the car. By now, my feet were aching a bit.

When we got home, I decided we might as well make dinner for once, as Isabel had been cooking for us pretty steadily for a few days. So we talked with her about doing that, and John and I then went to QFC and bought some sockeye salmon. We also got a package of whole wheat noodles for Jet and ourselves, and some teriyaki sauce. The Yoshida's original, which is far cheaper here than in Colorado, surprisingly. I was bemused by that additional bit of difference.

So we broiled teriyaki salmon, cooked spaghetti and mixed it with the usual peanut sauce and I added cucumber and a bit of sweet pepper. John made a salad and we all ate. It wasn't a huge dinner, but everyone seemed very happy and full enough, especially after the ice cream interlude. Yay! John and I did dishes and Isabel and Jet and George played quite happily together. I thought I'd take a few minutes out for this and then I'll likely go back do doing either spinning or knitting or playing Uno with my cut-throat son.

Yay! Vacation!!

Today Jet got to play with a lot of other kids, and he really loved being able to play with them again. It was neat to have the kid visits all happen together, but he will have a day, on Saturday, where all the visits will be with big people, but hopefully over something he'll like doing anyway.

In the morning, John and I wandered around the Eastside trying to look at houses and what kinds of houses were available in what kind of ranges. That was really depressing, especially in the midst of the very new, very trending upscale Kirkland. Other points were mildly less depressing, but we were mostly looking at older houses with older trees and more character, which was nicer at least. There's something just wrong about a house development looking exactly the same in Washington as it might look in Colorado.

We got back just in time to pile everyone into the van, along with all our swimming gear and head into Redmond and the Redmond swimming pool on 104th. There we met anitar and her grandson and we had a blast swimming with them. anitar knew were all the good toys were, and the boys interacted really well as they both swam like fish and had a great time just going where they wanted to go. The grandson showed Jet how to stand on the floats, and Jet decided that balancing on them was like balancing on a log, and he started dancing on them. He was able to accommodate some very large direction changes, and then he started trying to stand on the smaller floats.

At one point Jet said, "Mom! Mom! Look, I'm dancing on a duck!" Hee.

It was great to talk with anitar again and see her grandson and talk a bit about some of the challenges and cool things about dealing with small kids. She got to meet the rest of my family as well. That was neat. The pool soon filled up, and by nearly 1 it was time to get out. Swimming classes were coming in anyway and I showered in a room filled with little girls all giggling at everything.

John pulled the van up to the front of the swimming building, so I gave anitar a big hug good-bye and a band-aid for the little tyke who was pretty tired from having had a class and a long swim. It was great to see them and it felt a little abrupt to leave that way, but there were so few parking spots it was hard to figure out how to find the time.

From there we headed down to the Tombo in Redmond, which used to be run by an old couple who had a love of their food and service and the menu had been absolutely excellent and executed in a delightfully short time. But when we got there we found that the shop had been chopped in half, the paper screens broken by some idle diner, a very young woman behind the cash register who spoke in Chinese-accented English, and the place filled with angry people who had waited more than half an hour for their chicken teriyaki. Opps.

It was not the place we knew.

But we decided to give it a try anyway. There was no chicken teriyaki and no tonkatsu to be had, so John and I settled on the short ribs, George had tofu stir fry, and Isabel had the beef teriyaki. Jet got a big plate of rice nearly immediately and he finished off the whole thing with teriyaki sauce, salt, and pepper. He also drank a big glass of water flavored with lemon and then asked for more, so he was pretty hungry and thirsty. The food took a while, but not nearly half an hour, and about ten minutes after we settled into our table, the angry mob got all their food and only a few asked for refunds.

George got his first. It was pretty obvious that the cooks behind the line were much happier wielding a wok than the grill. But when we got our short ribs they were deeply flavored, tender as anything, crisped just enough by the grill, and good and hot to go with the steaming rice. The salad was crisp and fresh and utterly green. It was good. It was nearly great, but for the sad shabbiness of the place itself. Everyone actually enjoyed their food, so that was nice.

We headed back to the house, and I really got going on palinade's socks. I worked though to the cuff and knowing she wanted short cuffs, I bound them off with just two inch cuffs. There were still the heels to go, but by then we had to leave to get to palinade and niherlas's house in time. So we did. And I finished the socks while listening to Nathan and Jet giggle like mad and cheerfully argue over toys and things. It was great. The boys got a good time to interact and play and do fun things while we just talked about stuff when we wanted to. I got to pull apart the afterthought part of the heel and then put needles into it and work up a heel. palinade tried to try on a sock as I asked her to, but without the heel in place it was pretty much impossible. I hadn't thought of that.

So I put a heel in and then the sock magically fit her exactly! Yay! Yay for the Sock It To Me list of lengths and my own understanding of how the human foot's proportions work. The card only gives lengths and no estimates on the width. It's pretty terrible, actually, for someone who hasn't made a few dozen pairs for people with really disparate feet. But I took the usual proportions and tried it out and it worked, wonder of wonders.

It turns out that the smaller a foot is, usually, the most like the length the girth of the foot is. For a kid with a 5" long foot, sometimes the foot is nearly 5 1/2" in girth (measured around the foot). For a woman's foot, often the girth is anywhere from a quarter inch to a full inch shorter than the length. For men's feet, the girth can be inches off the length. But knowing that it's kind of a sliding scale, I was able to get a pretty good estimate on the girth of her foot! I was pretty proud of that.

They then served us and the kids an excellent dinner. I was amazed to see Jet polish off three fish sticks and half a plate of rice with salt and pepper. :-) He loved it and liked watching Nathan eat as well. They talked and goofed off at each other. Then the two of them went to play and to let the adults talk for a while amongst themselves. They enjoyed that way too much and ended up doing Hide and Sneak. Then the ice cream came out and they ate much of that and then danced around and jumped about until we were all done.

After dinner we played some MarioSmash and the cart racing game. Jet's actually getting to be pretty good at the games, he won a few of the fights in MarioSmash, and he even gets all the way around the race track. I was impressed. He was pretty impressed by the games, too, and now wants one. Oops. :-)

In the midst of the games palinade made Jet and I some pretty magnificent gifts from her on-line store. She gave us some of her cards, and made a gift of "Seltzer" the magnificent Stuffy to Jet. Jet's now carrying Seltzer everywhere and won't go to sleep without it with him. He really loves the critter and the fact that he got to choose it from a bunch of others. Wow. I then cheerfully measured Nathan's foot, too. That should be fun.

By that time it was nigh on melt-down time as it was well past bed times. But good-byes were well said and hugs were given and we were thoroughly waved out of the driveway.

So it was a great day for all of us, and Jet said that he'd enjoyed it thoroughly. He proved it by going to sleep nearly instantaneously once he was through his bedtime ritual. Yay!

I was kind of depressed today. Not because of the weather. It was gray and cloudy and chilly, which is exactly what I wanted.

But I think I'm just tired, today, and we spent a lot of time driving out in the Eastside and saw a ton of houses that... quite frankly, we couldn't afford at all. My eyes suck at the moment, as they're kind of in that in between state where they can't really wear contacts all day and the eyeglasses are making my ears and head ache. Bleh.

Plus I'm worried about a meeting I have to do for work on Friday and it's wearing at me in ways I don't want it to, but it still happens.

Plus, I can't find my Hero 329 and I suspect that I left it back a the last hotel or, even, at the Paradise fiber place and I'm grumpy about not having my favorite fountain pen to do post cards, letters, and other things with. That is making me sad. I might have to order a new one in order to really enjoy the bottle of ink I brought with me for the trip.

Finally, I had a hard time getting contact with any of the people I wanted to meet while we were here in the Northwet and it's really hard to call a lot of people and not get an answer as soon as I want.

The last is something of an introvert thing, I think. I am just finding the problem unbounded, I'm not writing down everything and everybody I want to visit so I'm not seeing the kind of progress I want to make. John pointed that out, so I'm filling in cards, now, just to see things get done.

Other than that things are great. :-) Isabel and George couldn't be better hosts. Jet loves his Miss Spider Uno game that I bought. He's winning a lot and dancing quite happily every time he wins. So he loves it, and it's a lot of fun playing with him now that he's figured out some of the basic strategies.

The meals here have been great, and I got to eat a deep fried bean and beef burrito, no problem. It was very satisfying.

Jet also got to pick raspberries, something he was looking forward to for quite some time, and Isabel and he got to go out and find the raspberries on the plants. Given how much he loved finding the peas on the vines yesterday, I think he'll like doing this. George got pictures of them, quite happily, as they picked.

My bed is comfortable, I have everything I need. Now I just need to settle into the fact that I don't have to get anywhere, and that, pretty soon, I'm going to be completely on vacation... hey! And I'm finally getting into real contact with folks. This will be better than I fear. I'll get less crazy, I hope.

After breakfast, John and I had a little time for us to just putz around in. So we went to The Green Car Company in Kirkland and tried out one of their tiny ForTwo Smart Cars. Yes, the same kind of car that a bus ran into and got stuck on the bumper and the bus carried it a few exits before his dispatcher radioed him to tell him there was a car stuck to his bumper. He thought it was just a speed bump.

They are *tiny*, get about 50mph, and are sold in Europe by Chrystler and only just started getting distributed in the US. They are very cute. They are just a two-seater, and have a pretty good safety cage, air bags, and crash test results eventhough they're so small. The panel construction means that you can get them in nearly any color.

We got to drive a convertable in 50 degree weather. It was noisier because of the cloth top, but the turning radius was astonishingly small, we could do u-turns between the rows of cars in a parking lot. The drive was clumsey and clunky, the electronic transimission was hesitant and rough on the down shift. We also kept bumping shoulders, which was mildly expected. The odd sensation of a car being right ON me from behind was exaserbated by some cars merging nearly on me when they couldn't see me. I would probably pick safety, neon green if I were to get one.

For more money than a Mini, though, I don't see us getting one. Especially since the front passanger seat air bag cannot be disabled (as is automatically done by the Mini) so that Jet could safely sit in the front seat. I was annoyed by that last bit. You'd think for an actual two-seater they would have thought that it might be a parent shuttling a kid around.

So there were just too many negatives to the whole thing for me to really be comfortable, any more, thinking about buying one of those. The surprising thing was finding that the Golf TDI running on biodiesel is considered the greenest car, since they also take into account the battery pollution problems when creating and replacing the batteries of electric cars, plus the pollutents when creating electricity. It's interesting to see how the comparisons were made.

Best thing was making off with a list of biodiesel stations in the area. Next best was hitting a Taco Time for crisp burritos (actually flautas), in typically Americanized Mexican style. I miss their take on them. So we had to have them.