Another one of those days when at the end of the day I cannot really remember what happened. Amanda is on call all weekend and she had to go into the hospital and round. I watched the Kai scoot around on his new kick scooter while keeping Baby Jae from killing herself in some gruesome baby accident. The Kai was having trouble stopping from a large speed; he typically either dragged a foot or simply jumped off and allowed the scootter to crash into things. I showed him how to use the rear fender to brake, and he learned quickly.

Amanda eventually returned. LK wanted to go to a two hour kiddie ceramics class (he had been to the place before and plainted a plate). Evidently, one can drop one’s kid off, so Amanda dropped him off and then went to crossfit. I stayed at home and got the baby to sleep and cleaned and whatnot.

I was going to go running after they returned, but I had forgotten that Amanda was on call, and if she did get called in it would be bad if I was not around. She could call me, of course, but I tend to not be able to hear or feel my cell phone ringing, and it would be even more difficult when it is in my running pounch thing.

We just bundled everyone up and went to Safeway to get supplies for dinner. SDK and two graduate compadres were flying in tonight for a conference in Vancouver. They would only stop at our place for dinner, and then would continue on to Canada. We decided to just make pizza and salad. Our purchases at Safeway were typical, though; we ony by stuff that is bad for us there. This included soda, ice cream, potatoe chips, candy, etc. etc. etc.. I guess we did get some red peppers, too.

We made dinnier, SDK and friends arrived, and dinner was consumed. I gave them all of our canadian money in case they had an emergency before they could find an ATM. I only had a few paper bills and loonies and toonies, but I did have a lot of smaller change. Amanda just put that in a ziploc bag for them.

They took off after dinner, but will return next Wednesday and then stay in Seattle until the weekend. Or one of them is; I think another person will be flying into the conference and coming back with them and they all will be leaving at different times.

Everyone is asleep. My stomach is paining me. I need to take some magic pills.

It is Friday, so I gave Armando some wet cat food in remembrance of Ate Piglet. He has not liked the continuous diet of dry Costco food and slurped it down.

We had two more contractor guys come over to discuss our plans and take a closer look at the house. I found them very agreeable and there rough estimate was in line with what we thought and the first guy thought. They will get us a better, but still prelimary estimate, and we can talk more about it. I definitely found these guy more personally agreeable than the first guy, but I guess we will see how the estimates turn out. We also will be seeing another guy next week.

I was majorly tired yet again today, and I even used CPAP last night. It always seems to take a few days to affect me in a positive way. It seems that the next day after using it after a long absence I always feel worse. I think I may also be feeling the effects of huge caffeine intake as I have been sucking down a lot of diet Dr. Pepper in the past couple of weeks. I have not been consuming as much in the past couple of days, but that is only because I only have been running out and have been rationing the cans that I have left. Now there us only one left and things could get ugly. I better obtain more tomorrow, although I guess I can switch to tea.

Seattle University’s Project Day was today. It is hard to believe it has been a year since I did my final presentation there. Time flies when there is a new infant around.

We had dinner at Amanda’s mom’s place. We watch Lonan play his lego star wars game. He is quite good at it. I found the game to be outrageously violent… perhaps even more so than the “mature” games I play except that there are only lego pieces flying around.

There was only one egg from Comet today. Rock is taking another extended laying vacation, while who knows what Brulee is thinking. Those sex-links are egg laying machines. One of the contractor guys has chickens and he agrees.

Rosie, one of our neighbor’s dogs in missing. Sad. Rosie tended to run off and not listen and come back, and I guess she has been gone a couple or more days. That is not a good sign.

I finally managed to get away and get Amanda a birthday present. In some ways, it was easy to decide what to get her; the only problem was actually getting the time and ability to do so. The obvious gift was a replacement set of earrings. The Bonasaurus had yankked off at least one of Amanda’s dragonfly earrings that I had gotten her, and it was lost. I never actually asked how that happened, as yanking off an earring seems like it would hurt. A lot.

I also went to REI and got a shade shelter for those times shade is needed. Like when we are at Jefferson Park which has no shade, at least until all the trees grow up. Or when we are car camping somewhere. Since we will be off camping for a couple of weeks in Oregon, we will see how it works out.

Lonan’s kick scooter came in today. While it was mostly fully assembled, a few things still had to be put together… mainly connecting the handlebars to the base. That was a bit annoying since one needs to make sure it is lined up properly but there is no way to keep things steady while attaching and tightening things. Unless one has a bicycle stand.

The scooter itself is pretty fun. I am almost tempted to get one myself, although I would not really use it a lot. The model I got him can basically last his netire life as it is rated for six years olds+ and 220 pounds in weight. I could have gotten him one made for specifically for kiddies, but why bother.

Lonan loved it and immediately wanted to go to the skate park instead of eating dinner. He learned how to ride it very quickly, although he never really used the brake and instead just used his feet to stop. He basically went around in circles in the driveway as I told him to not try going down the steep entry to the driveway since I doubted his ability to stop.

He did wipe out a bunch of times and said “That’s OK. That’s how you learn”. The scooter is already scraped up, but it is definitely pretty sturdy.

My elbow cracked earlier today and now it hurts like a @!%^$%#$. I had to take a random over-the-counter medicine (naproxen it turns out) to see if that helped. After thirty minutes I can say no.

I made a pasta with alfredo sauce and asparagus and peas for dinner. Alfredo sauce is great when you make it with heavy cream. I almost put butter in it as well, but in the end I decided it would be too much.

It was a hot day again, at least for the pacific northwest, and I wanted more sangria. I did have leftovers from yesterday, so I went and bought some orange juice concentrate and club soda to augment it. The orange concentrate is a definite must have, and the club soda, while not critical, was very nice. The hot weather is making drink a lot more booze. Yeah, I blame the hot weather.

We met a contractor today to do a walkthrough and discuss our plans. He seemed nice and competent enough. He would really put out a serious estimate, which I would not call an estimate but actual project plans. He did give us a ballpark estimate just by looking at things; he thought it would be around xxx dollars to do the downstairs and another yyy to do the upstairs (xxx and yyy are large numbers). That was just an educated guess, as he would have to work things out to come up with a better target. I am not surprised it is that much; I dunno if we should be spending that kind of $$$, especially since we don’t have that kind of $$$ lying around right now and may have to borrow it, but I guess we will see. But perhaps the Bonasaurus will appreciate later in life that we paid for her education instead of remodeling our house.

It is farmer’s market day in Columbia City, so I took the Bonasarus down there and met up with Amanda and Lonan. It was a nice day… eighty degrees and party / mostly sunny… so there were a lot of people there. There were long lines at the various prepared food places and gobs of families in Columbia Park. Obviously they were families; I had discussed with various people before that the farmer’s market is really just a huge social event for families. Single and/or child-free people go to the market, but they tend to go there, get what they want, and leave. Families hang out.

I actually prefer to go when the weather sucks, because I feel all the vendors appreciate it more.

Amanda and the Kai got ice cream before I arrived. We ended up getting goat cheese with garlic and herbs (ok price-wise, but not cheap), a couple of pounds of asparagus (ok), and a baguette from Columbia City Bakery (a serious luxery item now). The baguettes went up in price from four dollars to five! And they were expensive at four. I could get three perfectly fine baguettes from Paris Bakery and Deli for that price. Of course, they are different types of things, and the Columbia City Bakery baguette is very tasty in a more unique (for Seattle) way.

Kai also really wanted apple granita (expensive), so Amanda made him by it from his allowance as she only gets him one treat (ice cream this time) per visit to the market.

Amanda actually went to the credit union and withdrew enough five dollow bills (52 I guess) for the Kai’s allowance for the year. She asked if they had that many easily available, and the teller said that the can just process such requests thru some machine in the back that spits out whatever is desired. The teller remembers us as the people with the kids with Cool Names. Funny.

It was hot and I was thristy so I made sangria to have with dinner. I did consult recipes on the internet, but basically just made one up since sangria is wine, fruit, maybe fruit juice, suger, and water or some carbonated mixer. I found it funny that almost all the recipes recommended using a bottle of cheap red wine which seems obvious. I used the box wine we get from Trader Joes.

It was tasty enough and might be dangerous for me if the summer stays hot. Amanda sensed the danger admonished me to “stop drinking” because she did not want me to fall asleep early after dinner and leave her with the kiddies. As if I would be so irresponsible. I do think that sangria needs orange juice; I did not have any and used lemons and limes and it felt like something was missing.

I bought the electronic version of the first four books of A Song and Ice and Fire. Since the Game of Thrones television series has become such a cultural phenomenom, I decided I should go ahead and read it especially since it is a fantasty series. I only read a bit of it last night, and it seemed a easy enough read. I guess we will see if I am wowed by it.

It is National Hug Your Cat Day. Unfortunately, I cannot hug Haley Piglet, and I am still very sad. I did try to give Armando a hug, but he was evasive. I do still have to finish writing up Ate Piglet’s final story, but I am not feeling like it.

I had lunch at Cedars on Broadway today. I remember the first time I went there (perhaps a year ago?) I thought the fries were truly horrendous, which is hard to doe with french fries. The falafel was mediocre as well. Since there aren’t many places within quick walking distance of Amanda’s clinic, I have been back to Cedar’s many times. The fries have gotten much much better, and they give you a humongous portion… probably the equivalent for two or more times the largest size fry at a national fast food chain. Most people who patronize the place realize this, and I have found that most people do not get a combo meal (sandwich, fries, and a can of soda) simply to avoid the fry. Today, no one else but me got a combo meal; people usually just got a sandwich and drink, or, more rarely, one of the entrees (which are too expensive in my opinion).

Their falafel is still kilnda meh, but it is growing on me. It would be better if it were spicier with hot sauce or chilis, but they do not have hat sauce available, though sometimes they can give chilis. Perhaps I should bring some sriracha next time.

After a lot of research, I ordered a kick scooter for Lonan Kai… a Razor A4. He had been lusting after them during visits to Jefferson Park. Then again, he is five, so he tends to lust after a lot of things. Lust probably is not an appropriate word to use for a five year old’s emotions. Something more like “want want want want want” would be more suitable.

I think he will love it. It is also the kind of things that is easily transportable, like when we go camping later this month.

I made a stir fry for dinner. Excitement.