27 JANUARY 2007 : SATURDAY
Amanda had a “golden weekend”… both days off, but we did not make any concrete plans to do anything major. We considered going xcountry skiing, but it was unclear how things were up I90 (where we would be skiing). My body hurt from a recent running binge, so I was also a little weary.
But anyway, we had bunch with Heather and Andrew at El Greco in Capitol Hill. It is owned by the same people who own Geraldine’s Counter near us in Columbia City, so it has a few of the same dishes. But as one might infer from the name, they have a lot of Greek inspired things, too. It was fine, but I prefer Geraldine’s. Heather and Andrew are going to Fiji soon… good for them.
Heather and Amanda went off to get a pedicure in a place nearby, Andrew took off for home, and I wandered about Broadway waiting until Amanda was finished. I spent most of the time at Everyday Music looking through their used CDs. I bought a couple: Sting’s Dream of the Blue Turtles (I used to have it on record) and The Stone Roses self-titled album. Cheap! The woman at the register said the Stone Roses’ album was one of her favorites of all time. I’m glad to be so fashionable.
I meandered down to Twice Sold Tales and looked at used books. The one in Capitol Hill has many cats inside; I always wonder if they have territories and preferred beds and/or sleeping areas. They were all heavy-lidded when I was there.
After a trip back home, we returned to Capitol Hill to go to a baby shower for Christine and Jeff. It was actually quite a challenge to get to the party. First, Capitol Hill is a major pain to park in especially below Broadway. Second, we did not know the people who were actually throwing the baby shower, so we got to their apartment building and could not get inside because the callbox only had last names, and we only had their first names and apartment number. Amanda tried various things like calling Jeff (he left his cell phone at home!) and pushing all the numbers (um, not really nice), but she eventually called her mom to check her email for clues to the person’s last name. We did eventually get in, and it was fun.
28 JANUARY 2007 : SUNDAY
We went downtown to the newly opened Olympic Sculpture Park. For some reason, I did not anticipate parking to be such a big deal, but it was, perhaps due to the absurdly great weather and the recently opened Park. We ended up parking by the Seattle Center, but it wasn’t that far of a walk. Amanda was unhappy during the walk, however, as she wanted a latte and there were none to be found (in Seattle of all places).
The Park was freakin mobbed with people. I think it would be a cooler environment if the people density was lower. Amanda did finally get here latte at the Park’s cafe, though.
We had read in the paper about how people touching the artwork was a big problem. They had put up all these signs saying approximately “Don’t Touch!” I dunno what they expected with public art sitting around in a public park with no barriers of any kind. Some official said that they weren’t so naive that they did not expect people to touch the sculptures, but then what is their problem?
Anyways, the new park was nice, even with the scads of people. Some of it, maybe a third, was not really completed; it was the side right on the water. I am sure we’ll get back sometime.
Afterwards, we went off to get piglet more food (which is why we drove instead of taking the bus). Amanda wanted to get Haley a new variety of foods, whilst I preferred getting more of the things we already knew she would eat. So we got her a new variety.