A Date!
Lisa and I finally got to go out for a few hours last night. The babysitter was 35 minutes late though and we thought we weren't going to get to go. By the time we reached the Ram Restaurant and Brewery, it was 7:30...primetime for dinner...and it was packed. The wait was 1/2-hour but it went by quickly (we shared a calamari appetizer at the bar. Since we rarely eat dinner after 5:30, we were famished). We both had salmon - mine blackened...Lisa's crusted... It was excellent. After dinner, we strolled around Kent for awhile. We cut the walk short because we were stuffed... We stopped at a local watering hole for a nightcap and were home by 10:00. It was a very enjoyable evening...except for the heartburn at 3:00am...
It's been a crazy-busy week. 12-hour workdays and much of my personal time doing work research or studying. I haven't even had a chance to look at the pics I took at the zoo last weekend...Hopfully, I'll post a few sometime today... My online gaming habit is taking a backseat too (average 1 round of Battlefield2 per night = 20-minutes...).
Yesterday evening, I did get a chance to spend time with the family (although I was preoccupied with work occasionally...). I crashed before 9pm last night but was up at 5:30am this morning. I have a lot of work-related activities to do this weekend too...But I plan to have some fun with the family too...
Family Weekend...
We took the kids to
Woodland Park Zoo this morning. We have our yearly passes to the
Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium but we wanted to try something else. Now we have yearly passes to the Woodland Park Zoo as well... The zoo was definitely bigger and had some different animals than the other one. We met up with Sean (from work) and his family and checked out some of the animals and the zoomazium (play area for the kids - Sean has 2 toddlers and another on the way...). The kids had a good time but we had to leave after only seeing half of the animals. We might need to head back next weekend...the carousel opens on the 22nd too...
Although we really liked the Woodland Park Zoo, we'll probably split time between the two. We'll also have to check out
The Seattle Aquarium too...
Yesterday...
Saturday morning, we're lounging around when Aly hops around yelling "I saw a frog...I saw a frog...". Lisa replies, "not a real frog...". Aly keeps hopping and yelling. Lisa gets up and looks out back and, sure enough, there's a fairly good sized frog hopping around on the deck. She asks me to move it so the dogs don't get it. I'm not so fond of grabbing big slimy animals and insects so I chase it off the deck. Lisa was appalled that I wouldn't just pick it up so she struts over...see's how big it is...and asks for a bucket to scoop it up. Luckily, she didn't have to touch it as it hopped under the deck... Out of site, out of mind....
My favorite thing to listen to on Wednesday...
...even though it's Thursday....almost Friday.
A local radio station -
103.7 The Mountain - has a daily segment called the 5:20 funnies. During the 5:20 funnies, they play clips of comedians to wind everyone down after a hard day's work... On Wednesday, they play a tune called
Business Time by a New Zealand group called Flight of the Conchords. I'm usually in a pretty good mood after listening to the funnies and
Business Time...take a
listen...
WOOHOO...!!!
Mitch
finally went to the bathroom on the toilet. I thought for sure he wouldn't get into Harvard because he was still in diapers. Now, he gets to pick out a present....and, hopefully, is fully potty trained within the next two months (when he starts pre-school)...
OH....NO.....Time to call the Mole Lady again. The newest one(s) is tearing up the back yard....and not sticking next to the retaining wall or the deck... Hopefully, it's just one. At $60 a pop...I can't afford a large family....
The day after the 4th...
...should be an official day off. After all, the 'thing' to do on the 4th is barbeque and celebrate...
Many of the residents in our cul de sac get together on the 4th for a summer party. Everyone barbeques some meat and brings a side dish or two. Some of the former residents (including the prior owners of our house) come by also. There were around 30-50 people partying. We had steak, ribs (2 kinds), chicken (several recipes), pork chops, hot dogs, hamburgers, hot links....salads, mac-n-cheese, fruit, etc. And...tons of desserts. Oh, yeah...and 2 blenders set up for margaritas... We set up the tables across the street...
And what Seattle 4th of July would be complete without...RAIN. Yep...right in the middle of dinner we had a good 10-minute downpour. Since we were the newbies, all the neighbors told us that the rain was typical for the 4th and it was our official welcoming...
After dinner, we chatted with the neighbors as Aly and Mitch ran around celebrating the fact that they got to stay up late. At around 9:00-ish the small fireworks started coming out. The kids enjoyed them but at 9:30, we took them in the house and put them to bed. Lisa has been sick for the past couple of days so she went right to bed too. I went back out for the festivities...
Washington doesn't have the same restrictions on fireworks that we had in California. And this group knew where to get the good ones. As soon as it got dark, the neighbors went full-on with the fireworks. I'm not exaggerating that this little block party show was more impressive than the typical fireworks show at Community Park in Davis. They had they typical sparkling, spinning, colorful ground fireworks. Roman candles, bottle rockets, ladyfingers, M80s (yep)... But it was the ones that Hartley (neighbor) and Ralston (former owner of our house) brought that stole the show. They looked like the ones that you'd see at a fireworks show....only you're right there underneath... I looked around and it appeared that others in the neighborhood were doing the same thing. Very cool. I was slightly worried because all the houses have cedar shake roofs and there are trees all around where we live...I guess the brief downpour was useful after all...
I snuck inside at about 11:00 as things were dying down... I could still hear fireworks going off for awhile after I hit the sack... I got up at 5:00 dead tired and with terrible heartburn...and I had a meeting with the Bobs at 3:30... Lisa woke up feeling terrible. She skipped her workout (now you know she was sick) and went back to sleep.
Today should have been a day off...
Happy 4th!
Happy Birthday Adam Nathan, Jr.
Baby Bricker turned 1 yesterday!!!
I wish I could have arranged for us - or, at least Lisa - to go down to celebrate his first birthday...
