I'm pleased to report that the rains have not entered our house. Tito, however, is firmly protesting the continual downpour by refusing to pee in the wet. Thinking better of holding him over the toilet, we've struck a bargain with Tito: we carry him down the basement stairs and let him out the door there, so that he can do his thing under the eave of the house.
I missed a weekend of pissing rain in Seattle for the fairer weather of Minneapolis/St. Paul, visiting JoAnna. JoAnna and I have been friends since we were four and--shame on me--this was my first time visiting her since she settled there with husband Tom more than three years ago. Karen--a friend since the old age of 13--came out from DC.
I was seriously surprised at how cool the Twin Cities are. Highlights:
Another Halloween, another legendary gathering. So many good costumes. Many hours of lost sleep and a massive clean-up effort, all worth it. And so many fake spider webs! -- thanks to Anna and Michael who held with set-up and keg acquisition.
The memories keep surfacing...here's the running list:
After spending almost every day of the past 3 weeks working on one script (Saturdays saw no work--I can't say the same for Sundays), I can now add fundraising script writer to my resume.
This morning my work held one of our two big annual fundraisers to support our work with the school district. It felt great to see my words go up (and be embellished) by various dignitaries and our emcee, a local TV news reporter.
Nearly every moment went off as planned--and the unscripted moments made the program better. Of course parts could be improved upon. But I am content knowing how much I've learned since starting here in May, and doing work that I love (writing) with incredible people (the fundraising staff here) on an issue that I care very deeply about (public schools).
John and Kim's dogs, Caddis and Bacon, had puppies early Monday morning! Kim embraced the puppy birthing process and was all set up to see the delivery through at home. Part of her prepartion was being ready for complications. After Caddis had been in labor for a couple of hours, the puppies were not showing signs of emerging. Kim determined that one of the puppies was breach.
Caddis had a C-setion at the emergency vet hospital. Mother and puppies are doing great! Three pups were expected, but five came out! Three boys and two girls. Bacon left no doubt that he is the father.
John and I are standing firm not to take one of the puppies. We are happy with our lives they way they are. But man, are they cute!We got to see the puppies last night and learned a lot about caring for newborn pups. Caddis seems in good spirits and is taking well to motherhood. View the pics.
I've been a terrible blogger lately and I have no excuse.
When faced with friends (and husband) ragging about how terrible customer service is in Seattle, I often come to the defense of our city's wait staff and retailers. Unfortunately I was exposed to crappy service all around this weekend. Did it have to be the weekend my parents were here? Oi.
Sitka & Spruce was the most egregious offender. I have had no service issues there in the past. But this time was a different story. We arrived at 7 and were told the wait would be fifty minutes. We were given the OK to wait at the Zoo, a bar across the street. We spoke to S&S by phone at 7:50 and they asked us to come back over from the Zoo and get our table at 8, which we did. We then waited for an additional 30 to 40 minutes. Why not call us when our table was actually ready? That's question number one.
I understand that they can't predict when people will vacate their tables -- so after 30 minutes of us waiting, how about acknowledgment of the situation? That's question number two. Nobody said anything to us. The apology we got after pointing out the situation felt completely lacking in sincerity. There was really no message about "we could have handled this better," it was more like "sorry, that's how it goes."
My wrath at S&S aside, the weekend was fantastic and I was very sad to see my parents go.
After two weekends away it felt great to be at home this weekend, sleeping in, cooking, chilling, and seeing a movie (in the theater!). John and I cooked our hearts out Friday, roasting a chicken and gearing up for lasagna night on Saturday. The basement was back in full force and for the first time, maybe, ever?, I revisited my vinyl collection from growing up. My records had been gathering dust with some albums I scored from my parents, which have been in my possession since mom and dad vacated my childhood home.
I love my friends; rather than ridicule my collection, they got totally into it, rooting through the albums and digging out Toto, Stevie Wonder, Duran Duran and the like.
This past weekend's trip to Vancouver, B.C. might be the most memorable yet. Not finding the energy we (me and some of the girls) were really looking for in Yaletown and some god-awful warehouse party, we ended up at The Camby. The Camby is an enormous bar in Gastown below a youth hostel of the same name. Finally, we found a place with a pulse. Who cares if we were the oldest people in the bar.
Last call rang and I found myself chasing down some new friends on the street to tell them, yes, we would accept their invitation to go to their house in the East Van. I trust my instincts, but to boil it down, this is how I knew they weren't psycho-rapists:
A fifteen-minute van ride later put us at their house in the East Van. It was, shall we say, college-style. We begged for music and with no music to be heard in the living room, we were invited upstairs to The Studio.
The Studio was Zach's bedroom. He played us some stellar hip-hop tracks. Produced by him on his computer, in The Studio. If he's full of it, I'll get him now, I thought. Where's your microphone?...I asked, seeing none. It's in the closet, he said. There in this wood-paneled closet was a microphone--one of those oldstyle ones, with cords going out to the computer. Tucked into the molding on the wall we're 2 or 3 sheets of lyrics.
Love the East Van.
Still in a post-Burning Man state of euphoria, I visited burningmanseattle.com and found this line of copy at the top of the home page:
We're just as cool as all those people in San Francisco. Really.
Hah!!
It's Labor Day and I am feeling the post-burn glow right now, happy and a little foggy. John and I are cleaning up Playa dust from everything we brought to Black Rock City. Posting pics seems a lot easier than writing. Also now posted: pics from our most recent SF trip, featuring the white trash rafting extravaganza at Cache Creek. And pics from Beth's boat party here in Seattle.
Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash
This is one of those books that since reading, I find references to it everywhere. If you've heard of Second Life, this is where the idea came from. (****)
Ruth Reichl: Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
A really fun memoir by a former New York Times restaurant critic. Difficult to read when hungry. (****)
