Free Painting, 10 Dollars.

The next door neighbor stopped by on Monday to ask if he could use some of our parking because he was having people over.  Dawne said that he was more than welcome to use the parking, but that Lucas also was having people over.

Neighbor: We should coordinate better.

Dawne: Yeah, especially because Lucas has four bands coming over.

Neighbor: Oh! Live music!

Dawne: Oh no, this is going to be terrible music.  I’ll be surprised if the police don’t show up.

Such a supportive mom! But seriously though, it was LOUD and sometimes obnoxious, think white noise.  It was also wicked hot, and the party was somewhat interrupted by a rare thunderstorm.  I’m not sure what upset Casper more, the “music” or the thunderclaps, but either way, he was not as cool, calm and collected as Mr. Perseverance.

I think I may have mentioned that a couple of us have been doing this “365 Grateful” photostream thing.  I mostly remember to post something because Laina is always on top of it.  It’s a struggle though because while I have a lot to be grateful for, I don’t always take a picture it.  While Laina’s been on her honeymoon, I’ve gone a long time not updating and then posting 6 in a row.  Jen suggested that we all just decide to quit, and my first reaction was, “NOOOO!” I’m really appalled by the idea of not finishing something that I’ve started.  Or breaking a patterned action that I said was going to do.  Like going to trivia on Thursday’s and Family dinners on Wednesday. Or writing update every week. :P  Maureen said we get it from my parents.  It’s probably also why both of us HATE being late.  Mo said the only way she can be late for something is if she actively plans to be late, and even then, it’s stressful.  I haven’t asked Sean yet, but I think I know him well enough to know he’s in the same boat.  Either way, quitting doesn’t seem to be an option. 

D, J & Z all left for Gen Con on Tuesday.  I know there are a lot of people whom I have not seen in many many years, but I can’t say I was sad about not attending.  Especially the mad dash to get everything done before you leave, and the incredibly long hours working the booth. 

I think it was Wednesday when I asked Ally, the little girl down the street, to come over and walk Percy and Nala while Casper was at Marymoor.  She came over, and Lucas handed her Percy to look for Nala.  Aly put Percy down, with the door open, and he ran off.  So then they couldn’t find Percy or Nala.  I got a call from Lucas over and hour later saying that they couldn’t find Percy, even though Lucas and Uncle Ray had been walking the neighborhood.  I came home, walked in the door and called Nala to check on her and both Nala and Percy came running out of my room.  Later, Uncle Ray would say to Percy, “I’m not talking to you b/c you wouldn’t talk to me today!” That’s tellin’ him!

Lucas: I know that little girl is young…

Me: Yeah, she’s really young.

Lucas: But if she’s going to be in the dog business, she might want to learn to secure the dogs while the door is closed.

Me: Yup.

Lucas: Also, while we were looking for the dogs, she kept looking at me weird.  That’s when I noticed what shirt I was wearing.  I immediately put on a sweatshirt even though it was 95 degrees out. 

I’m going to miss gems like this around the house.  Entitled: Free Painting, 10 Dollars.  Although, it looks more like $9.99 to me.

I want to give a shout out to Mo.  While teaching summer school, she guided a student to go from a 13 on his Regence, to a 76!  The other teachers told her she was an over achiever because kids only need a 55 to pass.  Can’t argue with that. J

We named our team at Trivia, “Beat Me in St. Louis.”  Only the MC was amused.  I had spent the week reading every single article and video on Robin Williams, which is why I was super disappointed when one of the categories was “name every RW movie you can think of” and we only though of 17.  Still it was a record high score of 22.5!

Lucas’ friends had one last show on Friday.  Because of the amount of bands that his BFF Arda was in, they called they show, “Arda Fest.” Here’s a picture of the flyer, and why yes.  That is Arda’s head on artichokes.

The moment that we’ve all been waiting for.  Scratch that, the moment that Lucas has been waiting for all summer long, the DECOLONIZER arrived!  I don’t know if you can tell here, but it’s almost 4 ft tall and 3 feet wide.   Which of course he brought to school with him.  He thought about taking just the cab, to save space.

Me: Can you use the cab without the speaker.

Lucas: No.

Me: So you are planning on taking a cab without the speaker, and records without a record player?

Lucas: Yes.

“Luckily,” the decolonizer fit into the car, and the records (still no way to play them), skateboard, and I *think* he brought a guitar, but honestly, I didn’t have a visual of it.  When I handed him a Tiffany & Co. bag filled with quarters he said, “FOR PINBALL!” Or laundry, b/c he only brought 4 pairs of socks.  I guess he had to make room for that amp. 

Honestly, it was a bit of a whirlwind week (and summer for that matter.)  Mariana took vacation, and spent most of it helping Lucas clean up his room, pack and get last minute stuff done.  D&J were in indy for Gen Con (I hear Jordan and Raymond had really great shows.)  Dawne came back early on Friday night at Midnight, which was about the same time that Lucas walked in from the show.  Then, we all got up early so that Lucas could run over for the second part of his TB shot, a friend stopped by to say adios, and they ran off to Bella’s Bat Mitzvah.  I went to the park with Kelly, and made a reservation for D&L at the beginning of the redwoods.  I also made 4 dozen cookies for the road, and put together a little road trip bag.  Before I knew it, the car was packed they were gone.  I was sadder than I thought I would be, not gonna lie to you.   As I was straightening up the house, I did notice that Lucas had left me something from Monday’s party – proof we should never order salad. 

Kelly came over that night so she could watch HP for the first time.  She also showed me how well Piper does “place.”  Really impressive.  I’ve been trying to have Percy do it too, but I don’t have the same kind of patience that Kelly does.  After about 3 minutes, I’m all, “Break! I want to play with you now.” 

Then the pups let me sleep in, and can’t remember how the rest of the weekend ended! I do know that Casper and Nala know how to keep their distance while still being curious as to what Percy is up to.

And then they take a 360 approach to their lookout. 

Although sometimes, Casper is still sleepy in the morning.  Don’t we all wish we should sleep sitting up.

  

All Shall Be Revealed

Technically, I'm adding Sunday 8/3 to this update, but only b/c the last one seemed to go on forever. :)  On Sunday, D, J, Lucas and I took the pups over to Ballard to check out the farmers market and in general enjoy the sun.  Mind you, I prefer to soak in the sun while soaking in the pool, but our time with Lucas is quickly passing so we were willing to do whatever he wanted to.  We marveled at the donut machine and how we definitely needed one of those when we went into the donut business. We had lunch outside at this Puerto Rican place, which was seriously yummy.  Stopped at Archie McPhees for all the college "necessities."  You know, the usual.   Lucas has been asking for his mother to shave his head all summer, and finally she caved/found the time to do it.

Dawne: I've cut it pretty close, are you sure you want to do this.

Lucas: I've already made the leap in my mind.  There's not going back.

Dawne: Do you want to at least look in the mirror now?

Lucas: You don't have to be attached to the worldly self, Mom!

Dawne: Did you know that you have a mole right here on the top of your head?

Lucas: Really?! We're learning more about my body!  I've never been bald, I even had hair when I was born.  It was just time!

Jordan: Zach do you want to be next?

Zach: We don't have time.

Tristen: When I had to shave my head for the military, I always worried that I would be walking and get a gash on my head.  But I was fine.

Jordan: Apparently, the protective nature of hair is not that much.

Zach: The novelty of this has already worn off.

When we finished watching the transformation, Lucas went to a show and we all headed over to see Guardians of the Galaxy.  Soooo good.

My sister was asking if there are certain dog breeds that like to dig.   I'm not sure about that, but I do know Percy is a big fan.

 He's also not a huge fan of when I leave him with Aunt Pat in the morning.  This is him staring me down as I leave.

Jordan has been making a lot of terrain for the Golem Arcana debut at Gen Con.  We were sitting at the table when him when we noticed his recent piece.

Dawne: Why did you make it like that?

Jordan: I was bored.

Dawne: But honey you won't be able to stand on it that way.

Jordan: That's the same kind of comment Frank Lloyd Wright's wife used to make.

Oooh! On Tuesday, Laina and Mo got a new kitten.  They named him Tom Selleck.  Laina, "And he's black and white, just like us!"

Pretty random, but I forgot to add this awesome pic of my mom and brother dancing at the tenth anniversary of Morgan's birthday party. So cute!

Wednesday night we had some of the fam over for dinner.  Dawne and I got Harper to crawl (possibly for the first time) by using a dog toy as incentive.  Dawne is a super awesome niece isn't she?! 

I gotta be honest, Thursday was awesome.  I worked from home in the morning, which meant that I got to hung out a little bit with Lucas watching a documentary on Harry Nilsson.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756727/ 

After that, I went to the company picnic which was Hawaiian Luau themed.  After a lovely time there, I went home to work for a little bit more before heading over to Fremont for a little shopping with Dawne and the pups.  Anders met us at around 7 at Norm's where we had dinner and waited for Trivia to begin... HARRY POTTER TRIVIA.  Okay, so there were only like 14 questions on HP, and Dr. Rach missed the majority of them. Stupid work - but still it was the very best we've ever done at trivia. 

Saturday, I did some shopping, and then when I got back to the house, I left a gift for Lucas in return for him digitizing a tape of my grandparents telling some stories. It was really cool to hear their voices again. Zach stopped by to get a haircut at salon mom. Then, Matty, Dawne and I went on a little hike followed by lunch where Matty got us all up to date on his life. Then we went for a little swim before I had to buckle down and get some work done.  Unfortunately, I missed the party at Marc's which I heard was super fun.  Sunday was also pretty chill.  We went out on the boat some, swam in the lake, and then swam in the pool.  Then I got some more work done while D&J headed to a wedding.   While we were chatting with Marc and Lynn, we started going over some all-purpose phrases to wrap up a conversation.

My brother is a big fan of "It is what it is."  I used to think this was a terrible thing to say, but now I kind of love it.  Marc said he knew this guy who would say, "Damn ____" after anyone talked to him.  If they were talking about their kids, "Damn Kids."  Or "Damn Government" or "Damn Cars."  A slightly more negative approach, but still useful.  He also thought the biggest screw you, would be to say, "And there it is."  I hadn't heard that one, so it was hard to get upset about it.  My favorite though, and you'll probably hear it a lot more from me is, "All shall be revealed."

I hope you all had a great week!

Mo and Laina’s Big Fat Interracial Wedding!

Finally, update for 7/28 - 8/3

I'm smiling just thinking about writing to you about this week. :)  Okay, we started out the week having dinner at Red Robin.  Lucas was ruminating about how he wanted to go skateboarding with his cousin Ashley, and then dreaming about all the awesome skateboarding he'll be doing in California.

Uncle Ray: You won't have time for that when you're spending all of your time getting straight A's.

Lucas: That's what I was thinking.

Me: Is that what you were thinking?

Lucas: No, but I'm saying that that is what I'm thinking so we don't have to talk about it.

The following day, Lucas was working really hard on getting all of his Thank You's done because Dawne said she wasn't sending a gift to his friend until he finished them.  He thought he was done, but found out that a friend of a friend had given all of the boys gifts.  Lucas was struggling with the note because he didn't know this person and t each of his letters were so personal.  He finally finished when his mother said, "his name is Dan not Dave." Unable to deal with it, Lucas said he would finish it later.

Dawne: Fine, I won't send your friend a gift until later, plus 2 months.

Lucas: Okay! You think he cares when he gets it? And do you really think he'd EVER write a thank you?

Me: You could just finish the last one.

Lucas: I would be finished if only that guy's name was Dave!

None the less, I got my letter, which Lucas asked me to read out loud.  When I got to the misspelled "career" I lol'd and asked Lucas if he did that on purpose.  When he said no, I demanded a pen so I could edit; he brought one over immediately.  :)

So much happened on Wednesday.  Dawne had a world renowned dog trainer come to the house to help train Casper.  Upon ringing the bell, Dawne held back Casper and the two littles, before opening the door.  Percy escaped her embargo and immediately bit the guy’s ankle.  Super.  The trainer proceeded to point out all the things that we were doing wrong like leaving to the food out (which we don't always do, but we did on Wednesday.)  He sits down, and Percy hopped up on beside him.  The trainer then tells Dawne that dogs should NEVER be allowed on the couch or bed so that you can always show dominance.   The doorbell rang and Casper literally leaped over the couch and the other two scrambled for the door to bark.  Once everyone was settled back on the couch, the guy continued to talk about how ill trained the dogs were, which Dawne wasn't going to argue because that's kind of why she was paying the guy.  And that's when Percy jumped up on the top of the couch and peed on the trainers shoulder.  He ran off, and they guy pointed at Nala blaming her.  Dawne, embarrassed as all get out, explained that it was actually Percy.  Man, he has NEVER done that before, ever.  Think maybe, just maybe Percy was trying to communicate how he felt about the trainer's comments?

Family night happened again, this time with pool action.  When I got out of the pool I had received this awesome note from my brother Sean.  It would be awesome if you could support him!

http://www.501auctions.com/shave4acure/item/54204

Selfish.  Shallow.  Ignorant.

​Ashamed. 

​​MOVED.  Inspired.  Fortunate.  Eager.

Last year my newest partners, Liam O’Neil and James Beale asked me join them in shaving my head to help bring greater attention and actually help children who were fighting cancer.  My answer was an immediate ‘No’. I said to myself (and maybe even out loud) “I would look horrible bald”.  And then I joined them at the actual shaving event, and that is when the fore mentioned emotions hit me. I met the parents.  I saw the videos of the kids.  I witnessed their bravery.  And I felt selfish, shallow and blatantly ignorant.  As I fought back tears, I was ashamed of myself.  And then I decided that I would not experience these emotions in 2014.  I have been so fortunate with respect to my own children’s health and I am eager to help others.

This year’s “Shave’ will be held on the floor of the NYSE, which truly is a very special place to me.  As many of you know, I will always consider the NYSE home, and there is no more appropriate place for me to share this experience.  I hope that you, and your friends, will join me and the rest of my friends in working toward a cure for the children.  This promises to be a very special night.

I’m really excited to be going to Trivia night at Norm’s (the bar and restaurant that allows dogs.)  Dawne and Matty went on Thursday, and even though we did not do well as far as trivia goes, it was still super fun.  At one point, the guy next to us slid over to whisper to us. 

Guy: We’re European. The strait between Portugal and Spain is the Iberian Strait.

Matty: He clearly knew that they didn't teach that to us in the US.

I left work early on Friday for the wedding rehearsal for Mo and Laina.  The walk through went very well, and the party afterwards was super fun.  They had it on the Virginia which was docked by the MOHAI.  What was really nice about Mo and Laina’s wedding events was that I got to meet so many of Laina’s friends – many of which I had heard so much about that before I was even introduced I was able to ask them real questions about their lives as if we had known each other for years.  Everyone was fun, and genuine which made for an incredibly great weekend for all involved. 

I was talking to this one group of guys about officiating the wedding (they immediately started calling me “The Vicar.”) When this guy Eric asks me a question. I didn’t hear him, so I said, “What?” After he repeated the question for the second time, I just stood there awkward and silent, looking back and forth between the three gentlemen, hoping that one of them would move the conversation along.  When they didn’t, I made up some reason to depart.  When I saw this guy the following day, I apologized for the horribly awkward moment, and all three of the guys had no recollection that it had happened at all.  Turns out that Eric is always a little weird, and silence often occurs around him.  Super!

I walked into a conversation about having babies, and whether or not one should have one.  I said that sometimes they aren’t planned, before I thought about the fact that I was talking to two gay men.  I tried to fix my faux pas by saying that sometimes you just see cute kid and have to steal them.  This lead to a greater discussion of stealing street urchins and the return policy if you didn’t like them.  We’re not good people. 

I arrived at Laina’s around noon and amazingly, like ten people got their hair and makeup done in under three hours. 

Laina: First person to see the shuttles pull up, let me know.  Okay, Alex, you just tell me. 

(This is only funny because Alex is legally blind. And because we thought it was funny, I’m going to refer back to, “We’re not good people.”)

The guys arrived and Chad walked up to Sasha getting her make up done and said, “I can help with that.”

After the bridal party left for pictures, Shana’s parents and I straightened up a bit before heading to the bar (because why not, right?)  The ceremony went well, (but then again I was the “vicar,” so of course I would say that.)  I thought the highlights were:

Welcome to Mo and Laina’s big fat interracial wedding!

(a stolen quote from friends)

It is a love based on giving, and receiving, as well as having and sharing. And the love that they give, and have, is shared, and received.  And through this having, and giving, and sharing, and receiving, we too can share, and love, and have, and receive.

(Mo whispered to me here, “We got through it [without laughing]” and that’s when I went into the second paragraph.)

When I think of the love that these two givers and receivers share, I cannot help but envy the lifetime ahead of having, and loving, and giving, and receiving.

And when Dr. Rach did a dramatic reading “from the immortal words of Henry Samuel” AKA Seal’s Kiss from a Rose.  Brill.

Jen’s daughter Lily also did an amazing job as the “Bling Bearer” (official title in the program.)

I was super excited about my table, which unofficially was the “Doctor Table” because there were 5 doctors in attendance.

Brett (who has a doctorate in the music field): We could totally save someone’s life if there was an emergency! I can heal their souls with the song in my heart!

Brett: You left your coach purse on the candle and I saved it.

Maybe I was a little tipsy at this point, b/c I giggled a lot at this.

Alex: My suit is very boxy. One might say it leaves everything to the imagination.

The sleeves stopped half way down his forearm and they were puffy, like a pirate.  He kept trying to fold them under his arms to get some shape.  This was increasingly humorous when his bf kept showing off how good he looked in his tailored attire.  And to top it all off, hours later while we were dancing…

Dr. Rach: I think Alex just split his pants.

Me: Imma go check it out. 

And he had.  When he came back wearing shorts and a t-shirt, he also did a standing back flip on the dance floor.  Ah, the powers of wearing clothing that fit!

The toasts were amazing.  Chad started telling some stories that would have totally embarrassed Laina, but to her great relief, didn’t give us any details.  My favorite line was, “I could describe the mole that Laina has [gesturing to his hind quarters] just kidding.  Contrary to popular belief, Laina and I have never dated.  In fact if you ask Laina she’ll say, “Ew. No. Chad is gross.”

And then Mo’s mom gave this amazingly lovely speech.  She told us about how hard it was for her when she thought Mo was at one stage, but then he would say or do something and he’d actually be in another stage that she wasn’t ready for.  She call these times “jumps.”  Like when his first trip on public transportation.  Mo got on the bus, to go ten blocks to school, and his mom jumped in a cab and said, “FOLLOW THAT BUS!” Or when he was 11 and admitted that he was in love with his friend’s 16 year old sister.  His mother turned to Laina and said, “I guess he was always into older women.” One of the harder jumps was when he moved away and joined the service.  But this jump into marriage, the biggest jump that he has made yet, she wasn’t worried.  His mom said, she was not only worried, but over joyed because he was making this jump with Laina by his side.  So sweet!

Brett: What kind of cake is it?

Me: No one has told me anything, but I would bet you that one layer is coconut peanut butter. 

First time in the photo booth.  Nailed it. 

A great time had by all!

Drive In Double Billing From Hell

Update 7/21 - 7/27

One of the many things that go wrong when I fall behind is that I totally forget things.  One of those things, was GOATALYMPICS.  Have you ever heard of such a thing? Yeah, me neither, but it totally exists.  Pretty cool right?

http://www.goatalympics.org/

I also just found out about this movement, Cascadia (http://cascadianow.org/cascadian-independence/) because my boy Mucas got his first patches in the mail.

Random quote from Cristi from FB that amused me:

I was pulled from lovely sleep by awful music playing. "Who are those jerks playing music at this hour??" (5:00 am) "Who wakes up to Maroon 5 blasting??"

The Kitten Crate is empty. She got out, stood on the radio until it turned on and went through stations and now I can't find her.

Let the Kitten Hunt begin. Wish me luck, People of Facebook.

With an equally random picture of Percy looking for a specific toy:

We started our weekly Gilmore Girl’s style, family dinners on Wednesday.  It was kinda great.  But mostly, I was preoccupied this week and then before I knew it, it was the weekend! 

We went to the dog park early on Saturday, then I got a brand new phone, followed by an impromptu trip to Port Townsend.  I called ahead of time to try to find a place to stay, and after being scolded by the tourist bureau, I found a 4 bedroom officers house at Fort Warden.  

We took two ferries over there, and while we were waiting for one of them, I took Percy for a little walk by the water.  It was so pretty out, I decided to take a picture of Percy on the awesome backdrop. As I was asking him to pose while all he wanted to do was run around in the water the guy started making comments.

Stranger: Teaching him how to take good selfies seems like a hard trick when he's already doing his primary trick of looking adorable all the time.

While I appreciate the sentiment, the first trick I taught him was to pose nicely for a picture - you know, so I could capture the adorable.

We got to Port Townsend just in time to check into our lodging and run over to the drive in movies.  After I posted this pic on FB.

Scott: That's a double bill from hell!

Jordan: Yes, but it's a drive in double bill from hell.

Percy didn't mind though, he was super psyched for Transformers to begin!

The next day, we woke up in our historical officer’s home at the break of dawn, and Dawne, the pups and I went out on the expansive lawn and let the dogs just run and run and run.  And then I said, "That's enough.  We're going back to bed." 

When we did end up leaving the house, we grabbed some b-fast and coffee at the main building, or "Two Non-Fat Wannabee Latte's" as they were served to us. 

The next stop was the main event: the Olympic Game Farm! I was a little worried about driving through with Stella, given that the bison we were about to encounter weigh more than a Fiat, but I took the plunge anyway.   I think the big highlights were when I threw multiple pieces of bread from the driver’s seat, through the passenger window and into the bear’s mouth’s.  Finally found my sport!  Percy growled when one of the bison puts its head into my window, and luckily, he bison quickly withdrew.  You win this round, Perseverance.  Then there was a lot of huge animals hanging around D&J’s jeep, followed by me quickly feeding animals and driving past so that I didn’t get overwhelmed by gigantic beasties.   (Also Emu’s are terrifying.)

We followed this adventure up with some lunch outside a 50’s themed diner, and then we found a little off leash Dog Park. 

Our ride home was relatively uneventful.  Though, when a tiny bit of traffic popped up around the Tacoma dome, Jordan immediately got off the highway and started heading in the opposite direction.  I don’t know what it is about my internal clock, but if I plan a trip, I’m totally cool with how ever long we need to drive, but if that trip extends past what I was planning, I instantly get agitated.  This is why, when D&J said that they were going to drive down to Mt. Rainer, I declined the invitation.  Happily, I took an alternate route, with zero traffic.  Which meant I got home in time to do some laundry and get my work done all before D&J got home. 

Post by Kaine Rosado.

And that’s why I didn’t get this written on time. J

First Time Climb

Update 7/14 - 7/20

I forgot to mention that while I was in the pool in 95 degree weather, Matty was biking his way from Seattle to Portland, like a champion.  All in one day no-less!

Monday started with the Harry Potter collection!  Now when winter comes along and it's rainy and grey, I can spend 45 hours in the wizarding world.  I like to plan ahead. And speaking of planning, Kelly, Zach and I had a little planning meeting ourselves.  Not a terribly successful planning meeting, but I know a little bit more about geography which is nice right?  

Lucas walked into the tail end of our planning meeting.  I hadn't seen him in a couple of days because he had gone up to Raymond's cabin with his friends to record some jams and take some pretty cool hikes.  He would be home for that evening only, and then leave for another week long camping trip (this time with food!)  He was telling us about the trip the cabin, and then we all told him he needed to call Raymond right away.  Raymond didn't pick up but Lucas did leave the following message.

"Hi Uncle Ray.  Arda had to poop at the cabin and he clogged the toilet and we couldn't fix it.  Sorry! Bye."

A couple of days later I asked Matty if he had heard the story and he replied, "Yeah, I heard he said he felt really sh*tty about it."

Sorry for the FB updates, but I saw this post from my cousin Bre with her daughter, and I laughed real hard.  Eva & Debina might remember when we were in high school we went this county fair in IL and there was a little girl who was holding a pet chicken.  We asked her what the chickens name was, and when she didn't have a name, we suggested "Cacciatore" or "Marsala."

On Tuesday, Shana, the DJ and I all went over to Casa LaMo for a wedding planning session.  Oh, and to eat really amazing ribs, but I think that was secondary.  We went through a copious amount of music, and then spent 5 minutes looking at the ceremony.  This is also when I learned that Mo had originally requested that the wedding invitations be made of wood - which I totally would have supported in theory, but not in the postage department. 

Laina: Pay attention, we're talking about desserts.

Mo: I don't care about that, whatever you want.

Laina: You do care.

Mo: No... well, actually...

And then proceeded to ask Shana to make around 20 different, overly specific treats - like peanut butter macaroons and Brookies with frosting and sprinkles (not regular sprinkles though, the flat round kind of sprinkles.)  But you know, he was indifferent to the dessert question. 

On Thursday morning, I walked into the kitchen and Dawne told me that we were going on a boat ride.  Basically, Jordan's friend had called him to say that a mutual friend was in town from Chicago, and they were about to go kayaking on our lake.  As the mutual friend didn't know Jordan lived on the lake, we thought it would be fun to take the boat out and ride up behind them with coffee and Danish, as if it was a regular thing we did.  It was a super big surprise, we (including the pups) loved the morning boat ride, and we got to see old friends.  Oh, and all this happened, and I still left the house on time for work. 

On Friday, I got the answer to our selling the house problem with St. Joseph arrived!  And, I hung out Zach and Kelly at the Malt and Vine, one of my favorite ways to end the week!

I finally caved, and went to Stone Garden's with Zach.  We made it a mini TNTC meeting.  I thought it was pretty fun. Except every time I got even a little bit off the ground I started to get really scared, panic, and then came right back down.   I got tiny bit higher in the kiddie section, though.  After the climbing we went to brunch, and then to Kirkland Uncorked. 

We all went to Wenatchee WA on Sunday for some river rafting.  The water was glacial, which is probably why everyone else (but me) wore wet suits.  The trip was awesome, and so was tid bit that I learned: there is a huge pipe that runs from Wenatchee to the other side of the mountains filled with apple juice!  I'm pretty sure that Zach was dreaming of how he could tap into that. 

After the trip down the river, we grabbed dinner. 

Kate: Can I try your root beer?

Zach: No, but you can have Marc's!

Okay, on second thought, Zach'll probably want that to pass on that unknown pipe of juice. 

Tristen and Jordan got this burger that also had corned beef, and ham and a dozen other toppings. 

Tristen: The more you put on the burger the better.

Jordan: and least that is Zach's theory... especially in relation to MOD pizza.

Zach: It's the same principle.  The toppings are the free part!

Tristen:  I think the guy at the bargain market was trying to get us to invest in a pyramid scheme.

Zach: I can't be certain but he has too jobs including the bargin market.

Tristen: He did try to sell it as charitable work.

Zach: and used the term multi-tier marketing.

Dawne: Yep.  I think you pegged him about right.

More until next time.