It was freaky hot last week. Thursday I actually bailed out of the house and took the light rail downtown so that I could soak up free air conditioning at the Central Library. I had a nice falafel lunch at the Westlake Center. The library was nice as always. There were a lot of people (more than normal I would say, even though I had not been to the main branch in quite a while). I had to queue up cell phone conversations outside as one is not supposed to yak on them in the library.
Amanda was on call last weekend, and as is turned out she was gone from 8-10pm on Saturday (approximately) and perhaps 8-1230 on Sunday. Plus more time Sunday evening. Normally her weekends also include Friday night, but she split this weekend’s schedule up with her coworker Peter.
Saturday morning I took Lonan Kai to the garden to help Marie harvest vegetables out of the food bank plot. Normally Amanda would have done this job, but of course she was on call and the harvest waits for no one.
We picked and cleaned a lot of lettuce, swiss chard, bush beans, and tomatoes. Some large squashes were not ready yet. There were quite a lot of tomatoes; I was slightly surprised that garden thieves did not make off with them. I guess stealing from the food bank is too much even for them (there is a big sign on the plot stating its purpose).
Marie did most of the work as I had to keep constant watch on Mr. Kai. All of this took perhaps three-and-a-half hours, and I eventually got Mr. Kai back home for a quick lunch and nap.
Larry came by on his way to party nearby and to watch the Blue Angels. The party was at Neil Stepenson’s house who apparently lives a few blocks from me in a house overlooking Lake Washington. Larry suggested I come with him to the party, but I had to stay and watch over Lonan Kai. We made tentative plans to meet up again later in the afternoon.
The roar of the fighter jets woke up the Kai of Kais, so I had to lie down beside him to calm him down. After he feel asleep again, I talked to Amanda on the phone and made plans to take the light rail downtown and walk up First Hill to Swedish to meet her for dinner in the hospital, but after I had gotten Mr. Kai ready after he woke up and was out the door she called back and told me to stay at home. Evidently, a woman in labor whom she was babysitting was about to start pushing and she may be back home soon (but as we know already she got trapped there until 10pm).
While I entertained Mr. Kai at home, Heather and Andrew dropped by for a visit and to pick blackberries for jam; there are tons of blackberries across the street from us. They had just recently come back from a trip to the Canadian Rockies. I talked to Heather while she picked and occassionally ran off after Mr. Kai as constant vigilance is our parenting mantra. Andrew rather quickly disappeared, and we wondered what became of him. He apparently was a bit unenthused about the picking process, but eventually his competitive instincts took over as he would have to pick more than Heather. I guess he found a treasure trove of berries somewhere.
They are only in town for perhaps another month before they head down to New Mexico where Heather is taking a position with the Indian service.
The evening consisted of me creating a sumptuous dinner for Mr. Kai (tofu and veggies and rice) which he threw mostly on the floor. Throwing stuff on the floor was the theme for the weekend for Mr. Kai as the house is rather filthy. I did not see Larry again as the party petered off early and he ended up giving a person there a ride home to Bellevue.
After Mr. Kai’s bath and putting him down for the evening, I wrote a lot of random code because I’m like that.
Sunday Amanda had to go in in the morning to round on patients, and she ended up staying there until the afternoon. I woke up with a temperature and sore throat and immediately blames Mr. Kai who had been sporting a runny nose the previous day. Regardless, I spent the morning in the garden again planting lettuce, kale, and mustard greens. It might be too hot for the mustard greens, but I guess we will see how they do.
It took a long long time to plant as I had to corral Lonan Kai most of the time. I kept him amused by continuously refilling a water can for him to water the pathway. He later found an open kale seed packet and spread them around which could have been annoying but instead I was flattered that he was copying what I was doing. I don’t know about me being an example to anyone.
Mr. Kai really likes the black russian cheery tomatoes that are now ripening. He slurped up some and only picked a few green ones by mistake. I can attest they are quite good.
He was soaked, so he immediately got changed before lunch (grilled cheese for him and nada for me).
Amanda managed to get away from work right after I put him down to sleep. Though she still worked at home. The Blue Angels woke Mr. Kai up again and I lay down beside him again, but he did not really go back to sleep. Amanda took him to Ann and Mike and Connor’s for a visit while I stayed at home. I spent the time in the garden weeding and whatnot; most garden time recently has been taken up my merely watering.
All of a sudden many of our tomatoes are ripening. I decided to pick a lot to prevent them from getting stolen. They probably would have been awesome if I left them on for a couple more days, but that would be very risky. They probably are still better than store bought tomatoes. I am less worried at the heirloom tomatoes getting taken, but I do have a few more traditional red varieties. I will have to pick more tomorrow, too.
Amanda called and dropped off the Kai as she got called in again. It took her a long time to get back from Ann and Mike’s house (only a mile or perhaps less away) due to the horrendous Seafair traffic around Genessee Park. I made Lonan Kai another grilled cheese variant (which he again ejected onto the floor). He did eat a lot of frozen peas, though. I had chips and salsa. As usual, bath and bed followed. I do not recall when Amanda came back (8:30? 9?) but it was after the Kai was asleep.
I did have to make an emergency run to the store to get Mr Kai. tofu for lunch the next day.
We watched a really cool nature documentary on sea life in the very deep parts of the ocean. Amanda fell asleep, so perhaps we will watch it again tonight. I reread a book, Millenium, for fun, as I could not sleep.