Wednesday, it was Amanda’s turn to look after LK during the PEPS group while I and the other father-types went off. It was at Mel and Bethany’s place on Beacon Hill. The only father-types were Micheal, Mel, Ethan, and myself, though.
We wasted a lot of time considering where to go (East to Columbia City or West to Georgetown?), but eventually decided to go to Columbia City and walk about and find someplace.
We eventually decided to go to the Columbia City Ale House. Mel then thought we should just grab a beer there and then go get pizza in Georgetown, which everyone agreed to, but we ended up talking too much and decided to just eat there.
Micheal apparently goes to the Ale House a lot for lunch as he works at the VA Hospital on Beacon Hill. He always was slightly dissatisfied, but never knew why because the food was fine. I told him it was because it seems like everything on the menu should be at least $2 cheaper, and he found that hilarious. And true.
We talked about lots of stuff: architecture, real estate, and a long discussion on the Seattle public school system.
I ended up just walking home (Mel had driven us all down). Amanda had called me up earlier and had to leave the meeting a bit early due to Lonan Kai fussiness.
Thursday evening we went up to Denny Blaine so that Amanda could practice some open water swimming in preparation for her triathlon in August. We met some other medical-types there. Amanda then became paranoid about “duck itch” because a bunch of other people had instantly got it after a training swim at Seward Park earlier. After the swim she thought everything itched. Funny.
Back home, Armando was in the front yard, and I noticed he was limping. After feeding him (twice! he can really pack the food in), we caught him and put him in the garage. We were fearful he would not last the night. Amanda set up a litter box and I put down some food and water.
He was very keen on escaping the house, though. Even with three legs he was much quicker than the piglet one. She is not pleased with the situation as one might expect.
Later we checked up on him and he seemed okay. He was resting on the wool blanket Amanda had set out for him. Hopefully he won’t infest the garage with fleas; Amanda did catch him last week to apply some flea medication on him.
We also got into a day care today. I did not really think we would make it this year. I think the one we got in was $1300+ a month (!!!!) … but average for Seattle. We are going on a tour tomorrow.

Amanda again bemoaned the fact that she could not eat milk proteins. I sympathized again. So did Ethan and Michael.
I did eat an apple-tayberry mini-pie in front of her at the farmer’s market, though. Evil!

19 JUL 2008 : SATURDAY
Amanda bemoaned the fact that she could not eat milk proteins. I sympathized; that would really suck.
We went to a P-Patch work party in the morning. Scott managed to get someone to donate a lot of composting bins and equipment, so we worked on getting them set up. They also had a later model worm bin that I coveted.
Lonan Kai predictably started getting fussy, so Amanda took him back home for a nap.
Since we will get getting beehives, we also had to clear out the area where they will be situated. One of our two old compost bins was there, so we dismantled it and sifted the compost (which still had a lot of woody stuff it in) for later use. Or immediate use, as we just dumped it in our plots. One person who had not planted their plot got evicted, so we also cleaned up that plot (it was choked with weeds), and topped it off with compost.
There was also a lot more general cleanup done. Amanda eventually came back when LK woke up so that we could run some errands.
We then went to a birth/baby place in Madison Valley to pick up an Ergo baby carrier as I do not think the Moby wrap is all that useful now that LK is huge. Lonan Kai did not like the new carrier, but he has no choice but to like it. It does seem a little difficult to put on by oneself, though.
I wanted to go to the nearby City Peoples to get a few bamboo poles to stake tomatoes with, but parking was problematic and LK seemed close to a meltdown.
Later, we went over to Eve and Karl’s for a cookout. We had salad and grilled portobello mushrooms burgers and corn and wine and passionfruit and mango sorbet. It was fun.
20 JUL 2008 : SUNDAY
Amanda again bemoaned the fact that she could not eat milk proteins. I sympathized again.
Amanda went off for her usual grocery run with Mandy in the morning. With the exception, of course, that she was getting nothing with milk in it. Alas for her.
I steam cleaned the rug on the second floor and the office because they were soaked in vomit. Pleasant really. I wanted to do the sofa, too, but that will have to wait until later.
In the afternoon we went over to Freddie’s (an attending at Harborview) and Michelle’s house. He just recently had another child Theo who is now maybe ten weeks old. He does have another child Chelsea who is three. Unfortunately for him, he had forgotten how little sleep he would be getting.
Amanda and Michelle took a walk to University Village, while Freddy and I retired to his “man cave” in the basement and played video games. Mostly we played Rock Band which was a blast. It’s kinda like a rock band simulator with fake instruments. I have to get it, although I may wait until its sequel comes out in a couple of months. Amanda was dubious, although she took the vocal part on “Wanted Dead or Alive” before she left on her walk. We also played a bit of Halo; I don’t think I had played it since LK was born.
Amanda was bummed out about dinner choices, so I went out and got Thai food as it doesn’t really have any dairy.

Lonan Kai had a medical appointment Wednesday, so his sleeping was all mucked up. Bad for all of us. While we were there, Dr. Reitz took my blood pressure, and it is again creeping up to the higher side. Alas. As for LK, the upshot of the visit is that Amanda is going to not eat dairy products for a while. She’s going to enjoy that I am sure.
I missed both the gym and the farmer’s market, but we did make it to our PEPS group. This week, all the mothers went out to a gallery and then to dinner at La Spiga, while the fathers had a regular meeting. Although only Chris and Michael were there with me; most people weren’t there for whatever reason. LK was remarkably well behaved considering how little sleep he had, but he eventually broke down. We did not really have a meeting; we just talked about random stuff. Next week I get to have dinner/go to a bar/do whatever.
I forgot to put the trash out this morning. Unfortunate, as we generate a lot more trash with LK around. We won’t be able to fit everything in our can for next week.

On the last fill-up, the scooter got 112 mpg… up from 93. Sweet!