Looking Up Old Friends

When I get bored or curious, I do a little online investigation of old friends. Some of these turn up some interesting stories, others don't go anywhere at all. My friend from high school, whom I feel I have talked about before (but maybe not, I can't find her anywhere) has almost no online presence. Just an address and phone number in the online white pages--the same one she had when I last saw her 8 years or so ago.

I just did a search on another friend, actually an old flame, just to see what he was up to. He was a really good guy, although I don't think we were right for each other. I didn't get to find that out for sure, due to some weird circumstances--I will tell this story at a later date, look for the Persian. I looked him up today and was happy to find that he has opened a rug shop in Bellingham. It sounds like a really nice place, sort of a social hang out as well as a business place. Of course, the problem with the internet is things could have happened since the place was mentioned, but there is a blog entry with pictures of him (how else could I have known for sure it was him???) in May 2009. It makes me happy to know he is doing well. I think he might be married as well. Don't ask me how I do my voodoo. I just do.

*****

Remember that I planted a pumpkin in my garden? I have been really confused, because my pumpkins just keep getting bigger and greener. I ate a few of them like zucchini when they were small, because there were so many. Well, it turns out that because of cross-pollination, they are zucchini. No wondrous orange globes for me this year. Time for zucchini bread.

The 11ish O'Clock Ride

This was the mantra I kept saying to myself so I wouldn't forget to post about my ride home from sandpoint at 11pm the other night:

Sepia tones

detour

boom!

around the corner and across the bridge

Don't I know you?

Fremont, a blue light

lots of bikers without lights...

into ballard

boom at FM

seafood fest, no buses!

Abby rentals setting up tables

rode up 24th :(

Home!

Can't you just see the moving pictures in your head? No?

I stayed at my friend's house for about 3 hours longer than I had planned. It was obviously full on dark when I left and the section of the Burke Gilman Trail near their house is unlit. I took another route, down Sandpoint way (the street lights gave everything a sepia tone wash) and planned to cut accross the UW parking lot to meet up with the trail further down. There was some sort of construction going on at the entrance to the parking lot, so I detoured down a sandy road, which came out in yet another parking lot. There were some people gathered around a muscle car at the far end of the lot letting off fireworks (boom!). I kept going and eventually crossed the pedestrian bridge near Hec Ed Pavilion. I rode down the trail from there and saw a patron I know from the library who was carrying multiple shopping bags. I nodded, but I don't think he noticed. I passed through Fremont, thoroughly enjoying the canal way, as usual, and noted the blue light on the bridge, which I would suppose warns boats not to run into it. I also noticed in the relatively unlit portion after Fremont, that there were quite a few bikers that had no lights--I did and was glad for it. As I rode into Ballard past Fred Meyer's, there were more booms from a car parked near the docking bay. I am not sure what the cause of the noises, since they didn't quite sound like fireworks. As I rode up Leary to avoid Shilshole, I considered taking a bus the rest of the way and stopped to peruse a schedule. There was a sign taped over it saying that service had been detoured due to the Seafood Festival happening the next day. Darn it! As I rode past Market and 22nd, there were people from Abby Rentals setting up tables for the next day's revelries. It was odd to see them out so late. I rode all the way up 24th (a long slow hill, although not terribly steep) and was very happy when I made it home.

I worked all weekend and now I have today off. So far I have accomplished...putting on my pj's, watering my outside plants, spending too much time on Facebook and writing this blog post. My goal is to clean up the rest of the camping stuff and do the dishes. Wish me luck...laziness is worming its way in.

Keeping me entertained

I have been a bad post-er and it is starting to show. Facebook has taken over my life. My addictions on the internet don't usually last too long because I end up getting bored or the medium doesn't live up to my standards, but Facebook is ever changing; sometimes for the better and occasionally for the worse. The downside is that I post here less often because my attention span has shrunk to the size of a status update.

I have made notes twice for a blog post, which I don't usually do. It must be my guilt over neglecting my blog. So here I am, getting to it.

The Boy and I went camping after his diabetes camp last week. We went to Sun Lakes and baked in the sun, played cards and explored a bit. It was beautiful, but hot and The Boy was being a teenager part of the time--just wanting to sit around, complain of being bored and listen to music. It was too hot to make him go hiking and he didn't want to swim, even when we found this great place called Steamboat Rock. The water was so beautiful!

We had a raccoon that would visit us at night. I didn't leave any food out, having had the experience of wildlife taking off with it in my early days of camping, but the raccoon seemed very intent on seeing what was in my green tub of supplies. I probably wouldn't have cared, since it was the middle of the night and there was nothing he could hurt, but my neighbor kept flashing his light into my tent and telling me about the bugger, so finally I got up and put the tub in the car. Maybe the noise was bothering my neighbor, but I think it was more concern that Mr. Raccoon was going to get something good out of his rummaging. Anywho...

The next night I had two new neighbors; a small family and a bunch of young kids, probably in college. I warned them both about the raccoon. The Boy and I were still up watching the fire when another group of girls joined the college bunch. They unpacked, then left somewhere. Soon The Boy and I could hear some rustling from their camping area--they had left several food items on their table. The raccoon made off with a bag of hotdog buns and was sitting fairly close to the camp, taking out each one with its little hands and munching on them. We trained the light on him and he didn't care, he just sat there and ate his dinner, then he went off. The girls came back and exclaimed over their loss and put the rest of their food away.

The next morning, the same girls came back from driving somewhere and when they got out of their car, one of them had a hookah. I did a double take and the girl said "oh, it's not a bong!" and laughed. I told her I knew it was a hookah, but in my mind it seemed really weird for an 18 year old girl to bee carrying one around. She and her friends spent the morning taking hits off of it and I could tell it was tobacco from the smell, not maryjane. They got some looks from other neighbors and I could tell they were curious as hell. The Boy and I left fairly early that day, so we didn't get to see any more of their antics. I think they could have had their own reality show ;)

Good Weekend, Ready for the Next One

The bachelorette party was a blast. Neighbors was the perfect cap to our night. The pictures are up on Facebook and that is where they will stay. No reason to draw attention to the incriminating evidence. I was good! Mostly...

The shower also went off very well. We made Sister M fill her mouth with bubble gum and wrapped up Grandma in toilet paper and they both smiled about it. Sister M was inundated with sexy lingerie and kitchen appliances, only the happy couple will know if they use them together. The families got to meet each other and everyone had a grand time.

I got back on the bike yesterday after a week off. I actually don't remember which day I rode last, so it might have been longer. I had so many errands to run last week, I just couldn't swing it. The first ride back was not hard. In fact I felt stronger on the hills than I have in the past. I made it up my goliath without stopping, which I couldn't do for the first couple of weeks I rode.

I am leaving on Friday to pick up The Boy from diabetes camp. I am staying the night in Spokane and picking him up in the morning. Then we will stay in Spokane for the night and go camping for a few days on the way back. I am looking forward to a few days away from work. And a few days with The Boy. This is only the second time I have seen him this summer--busy teenagers...

Plant a Seed

Tonight is the bachelorette party and tomorrow is the shower. I thought I was done with everything, but ended up running a last minute errand on my break today. God I hope this goes well--I feel like I am putting on a program, instead of hoping that people come, I hope they have a good time. That is one nice thing about RSVP's.

I went to see Robin at the University District Farmer's Market today, where she was the chef at the "Ask a Chef" booth. She is on season 6 of Top Chef, so make sure you watch (Bravo)! I am so proud of her. Some of you know that I was a waitress in another life and she was the owner/chef at Crave on Capitol Hill. That was during my unemployment days and she gave me a job when I had never waitressed before. I was going to barista for her--that I have a lot of experience at--but when the restaurant went to open she was down a server and there I was. I was there for about 2 years, waiting tables and adding up payroll. So I stopped in to see her and heard her give great advice on how to cook squash flowers, which makes me want to go home and try the same with my pumpkin flowers since I have so many starts on there. The garden is really chalk full right now--the corn is past my waist, the snap peas are almost over--I think I will replace them with beans that were offered by a neighboring p-patcher--I just planted a few more lettuce seeds for the next harvest and the potatoes and pumpkin plant (grown from a seed from last year's plant) look wonderful! I will post pictures later--I have been a bad picture taker this year.

Ask and you shall receive!

It works out sometimes. My boss called today and offered me a 2-6 on Friday. Sold! And during the conversation I fit in that there is a family dinner on Wednesday night and since I am an extra body couldn't I work the early shift? Yes?! Score!

To celebrate I went to VV to drop off some undesirables in the fight to get the house more livable (isn't this how you celebrate? No? Well aren't you weird) and I got a cool jar to make brandy in. I still need several more, but this one will be pretty and multi-functional.

In the picture, you can see my pretty new jar, my new sunglasses and the darned sun tea jar I decided to use for the peach brandy. It is leaking like a mother. My sis is saving me a big jar from her work, which will work much better. My latest attempt to stop the leak was to put plastic wrap around the nozzle and try to push it into the seal with dental floss. We shall see. The new jar will house cherry brandy. I hope it all works or what a waste of good fruit!

But then, since I have 20 lbs of cherries, a pound or so won't be missed. I spent a couple of hours last night watching a movie and pitting cherries, and now the creases around my fingernails are black. It is fading already, but since I have a ton more to go you might catch me purple handed yet.

Almost Crazy, Almost There...

Once again, too long between posts.

Planning wedding showers and bachelorette parties is time consuming! I am done with everything (crossing my fingers) except food. Usually I go all out with cooking and yumminess, but I have to work. My 4 hour shift this Friday miraculously turned into an 8 hour and I get to work on Saturday too, and suddenly I have little time for shopping, let alone cooking. Amazon Fresh, take me away! Maybe the miracle will reverse itself. Wish me luck.

The 4th was fun, although we saw few fireworks. We went down to some of Dr. T's friends' for a bbq. The food was amazing--some had been on the bbq for 2 days! Yum, so good. We stopped at the dollar store on the way home and had fun scouring the aisles for useless and useful times, the first to poke fun at the second to make use of. That place looked like a mob had hit though; there was stuff all over the floor in all the aisles. What amazed me was the freezer section. Red Baron Pizza....

Today was wonderful! I met up with a friend and walked down to Fremont. We perused the Sunday Market, I got some new sunglasses--let me tell you about this in a moment--and had thai for lunch. We also stopped in a couple of really cute boutiques and I think I got someone a very sweet something. That's all I can say...

Sunglasses...I have been holding onto a pair for YEARS that were non-prescription for gods knows why, until I could finally use them now that I have contacts. YEARS. I have been using them for several months and aside from a scratch, they have been great. I wear them biking even. Well, not anymore. I accidentally set off the alarm at work the other day, partially due to my bike gloved fingers refusing to press the right buttons and my bike being unmanageable in the scuffle to turn the alarm off. Somehow (or just my usual me-ness) I set the sunglasses down in the water fountain and left them there. I didn't notice until it was time to leave. And of course they were gone. I wouldn't even have known where I left them except that a co-worker mentioned having seen them there. I hope some &*^%$ person is enjoying the hell out of them.

The Boy's basketball camp was successful--if successful means "kicked his ass everyday and made him want to go back for more." He came home and his ass was in bed except for dinner--but then he got up every morning, got himself ready and caught the bus to SPU on time. It is the most responsible I have seen him in...well...ever. He had good stories about his games and his teams got a couple of awards: 3 on 3 champions and Shooting league champions. This one might be a keeper.