19 NOV 2004 FRDAIY
woke up way early and did some final preparations for trip to seattle. went to work. bailed out slightly early and went back home for more preparations and to hug the babypiglet.

on the way to syracuse, i had gobs of messages from natalie on my cell phone. apparently, the corolla blew a back tire due to a very large embedded bolt. she had various problems getting the the equipment to change the tire and whatnot and was unsure what to do but eventually got the spare on and took it to a place to get a couple new tires (amanda had driven on one that was flat a while back and it definitely was squirrelly, tho i was going to take care of it after thanksgiving). i guess i should have checked my cell phone messages at work. regardless, i got in contact with her and all should be well.

i was running behind schedule, but got to the airport in time (barely). the tsa guys seached my bags, but it looked like they were doing everyone. i got to the gate right when they were boarding.
the flight to pitt was uneventful, although it was made slightly more exciting as i was riding a plane i had never been on. i forget the name now, but it was a regional jet that carried 50 people (and we were full) with basically one seat on the left and two on the right of the aisle. it wobbled a lot during the flight, but the weather was a bit bad.

i had an almost three hour layover in pitt, so i had dinner and wandered about. i finally got the chance to utilize the free wireless access in the food court (rather than paying for it in the usair club areas). they should have power outlets there, tho.

the flight to seattle was long long long, but perhaps that was because i had a middle seat. the plane was full again, too.

amanda had gotten a ride to the airport with mike (a college friend of susan’s who is in grad school here), so she was waiting for me. we collected my bags and went off to budget for our rental car. they let me add amanda as an additional driver for free since we were married, which was good. they gave us a chevy cavelier (a cadavalier according to traian), which was bad. i had specifically rented from budget to not get a cadavelier, too. it was also an ugly brunt rust/oranage color, which was way bad. however, it ran, and amanda managed to get us back to the house where she was renting a room even tho she had never driven anywhere in the week she had been in town.

it was late (eastern time anyway), i was beat, so it was time for sleep.

20 NOV 2004 SATURDAY
after a bfast at ihop, we decided to go to mt rainier as it would give us time to check out a wider area around seattle. the weather was also sunny, which was unusual. rainier is instantly visible, but it took a couple of hours to get to the main visitor’s center. i did not really realize that rainier was a volcano; it was a bit funny to see it sticking up from the surrounding countryside with no other comparable peaks near it. it was very snowy up at the visitor center, and we had to be careful driving the rental car in the snow and ice. we did not do much hiking about the countryside as we were not really dressed for the occasion, but it was a fun trip nonetheless.
our rental car revealed more badness when we realize the right mirror was loose, probably due to something hitting it. ah, well.

i started feeling ill on the way back, perhaps due to some bug caught on the airplane, so we stopped in tacoma at a mcdonalds for ice cream and drinks. i felt better after that, but amanda drove back to seattle. it was actually rather late by then, so we headed out to look for a suitable dinner place. we ended up eating at a mexican restaurant where i got a head sized veggie burrito and amanda got various things at their buffet. amanda was tired, so we called it a night.

21 NOV 2004 SUNDAY
we drove up to the capital hill area to meet up with mike. we walked to a nearby place to bfast and shot the shit and whatnot. mike had to do some work before the holidays, so we bid farewell to him and walked downtown to do some exploring. we checked out the public market and the fish places and thought about going to the aquarium but really just walked around. amanda decided she needed a scarf since she left hers in brooktondale, so we eventually located one with a matching hat (since her current one apparently gives her bad memories). we decompressed before leaving downtown in a barnes and noble. we also located where amanda had to go for work the next day.

back at the house, we considered what to do for the thankgiving holidays, and research various possibilities, but we did not come to any conclusions. instead, since it was dinner time, we went to a vegetarian thai place for dinner, got for supplies at the nearby walgreens, and watched foodtv back at home. amanda finished up some laundry and perpared for work.

22 NOV 2004 MONDAY
i drove amanda to her new workplace in the morning. she obviously worked all day, while i tried to get work done as well. i had to take a 3+ hour nap in the middle of the day for some reason; perhaps it is because i am not getting my 6+ daily cups of tea here. regardless, the work day passed, and i picked up amanda in the evening. we bought some groceries and had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. i remarked that we had the same thing in the hostel in east glacier park years ago. we did not have to boil the water this time around. we played with oliver, the house dog, a very relaxed golden retriever. we talked with our landlady (is that the right term?) for a while about random stuff. amanda folded her laundry and complained to back pain (she had it yesterday, too), so she rested and fell asleep. i watched a bit of tv and wrote out this weblog entry. i also bunch of pictures to the photo gallery. i am not happy with the gallery’s current organization, but i will fix that “later”. time for bed.