This entry is this weblog’s 1000th post. Actually, I am rewriting this entry because I had a computer fritz and lost the previous one.
Amanda, although she is supposed to be off, is as usual working. She was charting this morning and now is at work meeting up with the new crop of residents. Then she will probably continue charting and calling people and whatnot.
Armando is sleeping on the desk in front of me. I am glad I do not have to wash my hands after touching him nowadays (he was always very filthy in his previous stray cat life). Piglet is lying out in the front yard looking disgruntled. It has cooled down considerably and looks like it might rain. Lonan Kai is at school. He was very pleased that I got him there in time for his second bfast.
Amy, the woman who is helping us with front yard stuff, came over this morning. She will be putting in a small patio and raised bed today and tomorrow. If it does not rain heavily. She advised not putting any new plants in until the fall; it will be easier to visualize things when the patio and whatnot are in.
I have been very bad in updating the weblog the past few weeks. Maybe I’ll write up another entry, but now it is time for lunch.
Armando just knocked more stuff off the desk. Good for him.

I had started another entry covering the past couple weeks, but let’s forget that now and talk about today in order to not fall completely behind in weblog updating.

Tammie, an old friend from Ithaca, was in the area this weekend. She was primarily here for a wedding outside of Portland, and she and her mother spent the weekend seeing the sights between Seattle and Oregon. She had worked with Amanda at a daycare in Ithaca (this was after Amanda had graduated from Cornell but before she started medical school). Around the time Amanda started med school, Tammie moved down to Washington, DC to become a paralegal; we had not seen her since then. Now she is married, about to have a kid of her own, and is attending law school while still working full-time.

We met up with her this afternoon. We picked her up outside of Pike Place Market, walked around the Seattle Center, went up the Space Needle, went to the Olympic Sculpture Park, had dinner at Mioposto, visited the garden, and relaxed at home. Amanda is taking her to the airport right now for her redeye flight back to the East Coast. It was great to catch up with her.

Here is a picture of Tammie and Amanda from the winter of 2001. The view is looking west from the highest point on the Abbot Loop in Danby State Forest.

Amanda is observing me dictate this weblog entry. How technologically advanced we are. Lonan Kai is sick again; he has thrown up six times in the last five hours… How unpleasant. Amanda is impatient and wants to play with the dictation software. Back to Lonan Kai — I managed to avoid all the unpleasant vomit, but Amanda was not so fortunate.
Lonan Kai is sleeping now. Amanda is eating ice cream. I guess the soy ice cream is in the past now.
I don’t know where Piglet is; that makes me nervous. I don’t know where Armando is either, but I am not nervous about that. Amanda is still disturbed by the cat apartheid in the house.
“Why can’t all cats be loved equally?” she cries.
Time to hand over the microphone. Maybe I’ll dictate a real weblog entry later.

I seem to have lost a weekend. As for last weekend:
12 JUN 2009 : FRIDAY
Laima was sorta in town on her way to a Lithuanian festival in Roslyn. We made plans to meet up in the International district before she drove over the Cascades. I took the 7 down to the ID and stopped at the Seattle Indian Health Board to visit Amanda. I finally went inside to see where she has worked for almost a year now.
I was going to meet Laima and her friend Julija at Malay Satay Hut, but it was mysteriously closed. After a quick call to Laima, who was on her way, we met instead at the nearby Tamarind Tree.
It was great to see Laima and her friend. I had a big bowl of fish, noodles, and a tomato broth which was rather tasty. And warm, which was good since we ate outside and although the sun was out it was a bit chilly.
Laima would be flying out on Sunday after the festival, and it was unlikely that I would see her again before then. Alas she could not see Amanda and met the progeny. I had not seen her since we stopped by Boulder for a couple of days when we drove out to Seattle.
13 JUN 2009 : SATURDAY
It was the SIHB annual (?) fundraiser event thing at the Seattle Center, so we got up early and headed out. Mainly for the “spirit walk” where we walk from the center, down by the Olympic Sculpture Park to the waterfront, and along the waterfront through Myrtle Edwards Park and back.
We had originally thought it would be a minor walk, but it ended up being quite a hike. We brought a stroller, but I ended up carrying Mr. Kai most of the time.
Back at the center, we at a “free” (included with the donation) lunch of hot dogs and pasta salad (for the veggies) and listening to drumming and dancing. We took off around 12:30 as Mr. Kai had been up since 6 or 6:30 and definitely needed a nap. He was very genial through the morning, though.
Amanda and her Mom took a nap as well. I worked in the garden for a couple of hours until they all woke up.
I think they then went out to the park with Mr. Kai while I made dinner.
14 JUN 2009 : SUNDAY
Amanda went grocery shopping with Ann (I think Mandy was either out of town or asleep).
Later we had a playdate with Ann, Michael, and Connor at their house. Connor had just fallen completely down their stairs and had a noticable bump on his head, but he seemed none the worse for wear. We later took a walk along Lake Washington and dropped by Jackie, Jeff, and Calvin’s. I did not see Jeff or Calvin as they were in their dinner/sleep routine, but we talked with Jackie for a bit.

Amanda’s 30th (!) birthday was last Wednesday. We are now in the same decade again, which has not happened in a while. She had to work in the morning, but we went out for a rare celebratory dinner in the evening. I picked up Amanda’s mom earlier in the day from the airport; she is in town visiting for a few weeks plus take her nursing boards.

After considering various options, I made reservations for La Medusa mainly because it is very close by and it is good to support businesses in the neighborhood. I believe we went there last year for her birthday as well, but I don’t think I mentioned it in the weblog. Before dinner, Amanda had a “renewal experience” with her mom at the student Aveda place in Capitol Hill. I met up with them and Lonan Kai at the Farmer’s market. Lonan Kai and his grandmother went home while Amanda and I walked to La Medusa.

Amanda had the prixe fixe Market Menu, which is a three course deal made with stuff from the nearby farmer’s market. It was a asparagus and other things salad, a pasta with a garlicky white wine sauce (the ear-type pasta), and strawberry shortcake. I got their salt cod fritters (yummy) and the fish-of-the-day which turned out to be halibut with a clam and wine sauce and some other veggies that I am forgetting. They were both very good and things I would completely not make at home. I actually had Amanda’s strawberry shortcake for dessert and she ordered some chocolate-y thing.

And we had wine. A couple of carafes of their house red.
Dinner was lovely. I did not take any pictures, but here is one from last year:

It looks like we got some olives and almonds. Hmm, maybe we got them this year as well. And an actual bottle of wine. I am wearing a MEC sweater so it was a lot cooler then.

Otherwise, life has been as the usual. Gardening, running about with Lonan Kai, etc. We had record breaking temperatures last week in the low 90s, but it was cooled off to more normal 70s now. We have been eating a lot of asparagus from the market and lettuce and spinach from our garden.