It was a long weekend, but aren’t they all when you work for yourself and your spouse is on vacation for the month? Too bad I did not make any money the previous week, although I did get paid for stuff I had done the weeks before.

I think we did something exciting on Saturday, but now I don’t remember what it was. Perhaps it was not that exciting. Hmm, actually I finally got around to getting the car into the shop for some scheduled maintenance (ok, not that exciting). It apparently is in superb condition after three years, which is good. Dorking around with the car took a lot of time because I had to take the bus too and fro.

Jane came to visit Amanda and to drop off a crazy knit sweater for Lonan Kai, so that was exciting, but I was in transit and spending some time downtown before picking the car back up. I finally got the battery replaced in my pocketwatch; it’s been dead for over a year. I could never figure out how to get the back open and since it was an expensive present from Amanda I did not want to experiment. I took it to Macy’s watch and jewelry repair place. It took a while because there was a line of people getting their watches fixed. Who would’ve thought? Clearly not me.

While waiting, I went to the Nordstrom Rack to look for cheap clothes. The downtown one is always a zoo and everything is extremely pawed over. I did get a couple of shirts at 75% off.

I had an odd encounter while checking out. The cashier woman asked me if I had Philippine blood, and I said yes. She then said that there used to be many of Philippine descent working there, but currently there was only one. “They all found better jobs!” I am still unsure what this conversation says about me or her or Nordstrom Rack or the world in general.

Sunday Mandy and Amanda went grocery shopping. I had thought there was a work party for the P-Patch but it is next week instead, so I spent some time talking to Bryan who was there pulling weeds.

We did a mega amount for laundry because Amanda thinks we have fleas in the house. I am reasonably convinced as well, but we have not actually seen them. Unfortunately for Amanda, they seem to have taking a liking to her; apparently the fleas agree that she is sweeter than I. It is unclear how they got in (we treated Armando when we first let him inside), but Piglet is the most likely vector.

We ventured out to look for flea stuff and found some of the stuff that you apply then vaccuum up out in Factoria. We thought it was premature to bomb the house as we have not seen them yet. And that probably is not good for, say, infants.

We had dinner with Eve and Karl. It was good to see them as always and perhaps we can get together more now that their wedding is done and Lonan Kai is more agreeable to traveling about. We went to a bar/pub type place called “Circa” near their house. They will be leaving on their hunnymoon later in September.
On Labor Day Amanda went off with Mandy again to pick up some canning supplies and do some other errands. I entertained Lonan Kai.

Later I took off the flowers from our tomato plants in hopes that will hasten the ripening of the rest of the tomatoes; it has been getting pretty cool here.
Carrie came over to knit with Amanda. She had been on a “Seattle date” thing with Eric all weekend and had been doing tourist stuff like going to the Market and Riding the Ducks.

Today is Amanda first day at her new job and the rest of her life. We were joking with Eve that now is when you think: “Is this all there is with life? Just go to work day after day?” Most people get this after graduating from high school or college, but Amanda’s feeling of life angst has been delayed seven or so years. I am sure she is excited about the new job. She is brilliant after all.

I picked up another DVD of the Mummy the other day; we had one before, but we lost it during our trip to San Francisco before Amanda started residency. And, just like old times, we have been watching it constantly… the movie and all the commentary… with the little piglet. And just like old times, Amanda always falls asleep.

Lonan Kai has been a bit sick (he did get his six month vaccinations last Friday). Sick in the sense that he gets congested at night. One might not think that is so bad, but he then has to start breathing through his mouth which then wakes him up and confuses and pains him which then causes him to scream. Alas. No more sleeping through the night for him. We can clear his sinuses and whatnot temporarily with a bulb aspirator thing but he hates that (and it probably does hurt)… he already screams (louder) when he sees it. It does clear his nasal passages enough for him to fall asleep and stay asleep, though.

As usual, I probably won’t get around to recapping all the weeks in August that I never wrote about… one of the ironies of my weblogging: when there is a lot to write about I don’t have the time to do so. Here though is a picture from Eve and Karl’s wedding (I did not really take many):

I finally finished our taxes for FY2007. Fortunately, I managed to estimate our taxes owed rather accurately in April, so we will have a slight refund as opposed to, say, paying fines. Maybe now we will get our daycare-oops-I-mean-stimulus payment from the government.

OK, not an informative entry, but Diet Pepsi products and Pringles are 10 for $10 at Safeway!

Lots of stuff has happened since the last weblog entry…. Eve and Karl’s wedding, Armando being found FeLV positive, triathlon, out of town visitors, etc.. We are about to leave town for a few days with Amanda’s parents to “camp” in a couple yurts. Camping perhaps is not the right word. Maybe I’ll bring the computer along (since modern day yurts have electrical outlets) to write up what has been going on.

A couple Wednesdays ago (30 JUL), we had our parenting meeting at Pam and Gary’s place. They have a nice apartment right by Pike Place Market. There was no topic really, we just socialized.
Last Friday (01 AUG) was Amanda’s last day of residency. Woot! Although technically her last day was the 5th or something but she had no work to do those days. She made reservations to Nishino (as a reward for me?) for dinner. I was wary of taking LK there, but the hostperson said “no problem!”. Unfortunately, I had just come back from the gym before we left, and sushi is not the most cost effective food in such a situation. As it turned out, I ate four times the dollar amount Amanda did. I probably drank four times the amount of sake as well. Slurp. We stopped by Madison Park Beach before heading back home.
Sunday, we met up with Ann and Mike from our parenting group. Larry and Martha also came over; they were originally going to go to a Cornell alumni event, but then decided to hang out with us. We basically just walked about the shores of Lake Washington and looked at the Seafair happenings. We also took in the last Blue Angels show; the area a bit south of Lakewood Marina is a great place the watch them… better than I90.
Monday, Lonan Kai had his first day of daycare. We are doing half days this week to get him used to the new place. Amanda and I took the opportunity to run a lot of errands… mainly down south in Tukwila visiting IKEA and Target and the like.
Tuesday, I spent much time organizing the office. Since I had been watching LK it had turned into a dumping ground of papers and miscellaneous crap. I also did a bunch of rewiring. We also did mega amounts of cleaning. Like bleaching the floor of the garage where Armando has been ensconced.
Wednesday, we hosted the parenting group again. There was more cleaning beforehand. We had a speaker on baby sign language, but she had problems finding our house. She as also way to infomercial-like, so I personally would not be inclined to buy anything from her or take her classes.
Today, Amanda tried to take Armando to the vet to get tested for feline leukemia, but mysteriously they have started only taking appointments instead of being first-come first-served. She is now having lunch with Carrie. I am working on taxes yet again in the newly organized office. The afternoon will bring more taxes, the gym, and some serious worm bin maintenance.