We had crazy social Saturday.

I look LK to gymnastics class in the morning, then later picked up the rest of the family and dropped them off at SGA as I had to leave to pick up my cousin AL who had been in town for a conference. She was really busy, so we would only see her for a couple of hours from the end of the conference to when I took her to the airport. I was waiting for her in the loading zone at the convention center but after a while parked at Pacific Place at walked back to the conference. She had been delayed at the end as she was judging undergrad research posters. We then went to back top her hotel to grab her stuff (a couple minutes past the checkout time), and then met up with the rest of the family at Geraldine’s Counter for brunch.

After a brief stop back home to give her one of J’s birth announcements that I got printed by never sent out, LK and I drove her to the airport. On the way there, we saw an accident on northbound I5 followed by a massive traffic backup, so we took a roundabout way back.

It was LC’s birthday, and he was having a party at SGA, so LK and I just went back to the gym for his second dose of gymnastics. Actually, LC’s birthday was at the beginning of October, but the party was today. LK probably had more fun since the party was basically unstructured gymnastics time as opposed to his normal classes. I had not seen the AC-MC clan in a while.

I talked with NC, one of the coaches who was making sure the kiddies didn’t kill themselves, and found out she was a chemical engineering major at UW (which she finished a couple of years ago). She never used her degree either and instead has taught gymnastics. Apparently she would want to use her knowledge to start a distillery, which does sound cool.

Amanda and J were still at home, and since she was asleep, I did not pick them up and take them to the party. J did wake up, but it was raining, so they did not walk down, and by that time it would not really be worth it to pick them up anyway.

After the birthday party, I went back home to pick Amanda and J up and we want to west seattle for another party a EP and KK’s place. It was good to see them as always; I had not seen them since LK’s birthday party seven months ago. KK, who is now working at Starbucks, told me exactly how crazy his previous job was (which he had alluded to in the past).

Quite a social day, to be sure… perhaps a few weeks worth of normal life.

Random comment: it is finally raining after many many months of unusual dry and sunny weather. Sigh. The plants appreciate the rain, though.

Random comment #2: Brulee is molting, which seems unfortunate to her now that it is starting to get wet and cold. She has noticeable patches missing and only has a single sad tail feather left.

So here is another attempt to jumpstart my poor weblog. I actually tweet more nowadays, and still need to hook them up to my weblog, but I have not gotten around to it. I want to find someone who has already written one that works how I like rather than me writing one, but perhaps that will not happen. Perhaps I should port the old connector I wrote for the previous incarnation of the weblog).

Saturday was National Gymnastics Day. Everyone was supposed to do a handstand at 1030 in order to “flip the world” or somesuch. I was at the Kai’s gymnastics lesson at SGA, and all the kiddies tried anyway. I myself did not succeed. Of course, it seemed all the coaches had no problems.

SGA had a open house later in the afternoon with free food and whatnot, so we eventually returned and met up with the AC-MC family. I actually took Baby J out for a walk around Columbia City and forced her to watch me eat a Salted Caramel Sundae from Full Tilt. I briefly considered playing a violent shooting game while holding her and having the ice cream guy take our picture for the benefit of Amanda, but decided not to.

SGA was severely mobbed. I guess it was a successful publicity event for them.

Sunday we had pancakes at PKF and GF’s place. GF definitely made some great pancake, but he was pained all morning with some back weirdness.

I later took the Kai down south to Target to get clothes for him and some jigsaw puzzles.

We had tomato pasta for dinner. We have been eating a lot of tomatoes because they are finally ripening in our garden. I have also been drying them.

I miss writing in my weblog. There are too many things to do nowadays.

Right now I am sitting in the living room with baby Jaelithe who I am trying to keep asleep as long as possible.

zzzz

It was a record for heat today in Seattle… 93 degrees. It did not seem crazy hot to me, but that probably is because it does not get all that humid here. Baby Jaelithe is not pleased with the heat and neither washer big brother, although he is better able to deal with it.

We had bfast at Geraldine’s Counter and risked pertussis infection for Baby Jaelithe. She made it through, tho.

We went up to Jefferson Park so that the Kai could run about the water features. We could also see the Blue Angels fly about, although we could not really see their actual air show. The fountains were not working when we got there, and all the children were sad. However, someone was working on it and did get them working again, much to the delight of all.

Unfortunately for sun-challenged people like Amanda, Jefferson Park (at least its current incarnation) is very new, and there aren’t really any shelters and the trees are still very small, so there is little shade or protection from the sun. We put our blanket by one small tree, but Amanda had to keep moving it to stay in what little shade was available. She slathered herself in sunblock, but still got a little burnt.

I did end up getting a lot of pictures of the Blue Angels as they flew to and from Lake Washington. Jefferson Park is a good place to see them fly about, although one can’t really see all the maneuvers that they do in their shows.

I was annoyed by a group of people who basically camped out in the lookout point on top of the new hill play area… they had blanked down inside and all their coolers and food and whatnot there covering most of the area. It is a public viewing area after all. That did not stop me from walking over their stuff to look around. Perhaps that is why one of the women there was completely obnoxious to me and the Kai as we were waiting to use one of the zip lines.

In order to get out of the heat, we ate dinner at Blue C Sushi at the request of my mom as she knows the Kai likes it. It was nice to be in the air conditioning. Baby Jaelithe again escaped the pertussis scourge, at least we hope.

So, ya, a lot has been happening, but mostly relating to raising baby Jaelithe.

• my mom is currently visiting
• the Blue Angels are here for Seafair
• we went to the zoo today
• I had lost 15 pounds with my new lifestyle changes, but our scale broke and who knows how much I have gained back
• GF, PKF and family came over for dinner
• I bought a whole copper river sockeye from Mutual Fish because I want to eat more fish and it is cheaper to get a whole one
• henhouse is getting oh so close to being done; only functional things left before they cane move in is putting in a door for the pop hole and putting up perches for the nesting boxes. Plus final caulking and painting. Still have to enclose the bottom and make a door there.
• had a delayed anniversary dinner at Crush. Tasting menu and wine pairing. I think it was the best meal I have had here in Seattle.
• ya, a couple of months ago I got my Masters at Seattle University. woot.
• it’s hot. high 80s and 90s hot. good tomato weather.