Sometimes I feel like I have gotten 'lost' in Olympia. I forget to check my email. I forget to write to friends. I seem to be 'involved' in something here that takes up my time, but I have not figured out what it is, other than living day to day, and enjoying it. I do feel bad, though, that I seem to have been out of touch with all the friends we have around the country. I also don't seem to have 'time' to write in my blog every day...so I have to do these catch-ups.
So, the last time I was here it was Mark's birthday. We did not go out to dinner that night because he was in meetings all day, and someone had sent out for pizza for lunch and then someone else brought in brownies and ice cream...so he wasn't hungry. We went out on Friday, instead.
The day after his birthday I woke up with a screamer of a migraine. I went to work at Weight Watchers, but fortunately was able to come home early. I spent the day in the dark and then went to bed early. Friday proved even more fun -- I woke up with my 15th or maybe 20th bout of cellulitis; I've lost count now. I went to work, though, and then to the lymphedema therapist, and then she got me in to see the doctor. Back on antibiotics for ten days. Whoo-hoo. Thanks to the cancer support groups I'm going to now, I am handling these late-term effects better, I think. Well, at least I'm getting angry about them now, openly wishing they would just go away and leave me alone.
On Oct. 6 we went to a fundraiser for Wolf Haven. It was a very nice evening of local wine tastings and hors d'ouvres. We bought some raffle tickets and actually won a huge (1 gal.) custom engraved bottle of old vine zinfandel from a winery in California. The ventnor and his daughter were at the fundraiser (she goes to school here at Evergreen State College), so we got to meet and talk with him. He made us promise to drink the wine and not just hold onto it, so we will. We probably will have the folks who work with Mark and sold us the tickets to the fundraiser over for a big spaghetti dinner and have the wine then. That would be fun.
Mark got in a round of golf the next day, and the way the weather has turned lately, it may have been his last round for a while. We definitely are experiencing 'typical' Pacific Northwest weather right now. That evening our friend Susan came over for dinner and we had a really good time, as always.
Mark's sisters, Mary Kay and Ann Lynn, came over on Monday to spend a few days with us. All four of us were supposed to go on Wednesday to Seattle to meet up with our nephew, Kristian, and go see the King Tut exhibit. Unfortunately, Mark had to work, so he didn't get to go. MK, AL and I left at 7:30 a.m. and decided to follow the directions provided by MK's Garmin GPS. What a mistake! It took us almost three hours to get to Bellvue to pick up Kristian, and we went on some really roundabout ways. Nice scenery, though. We laughed, and had a good time, but it was crazy. At one point we were going 2.8 mph in a 60 mph zone. Instead of having a nice brunch, we ate at a McDonald's and then headed to the exhibit. The exhibit was really good, but the highlight for me was getting to see naked mole-rats again!!! I didn't know there were were NMRs at the Seattle Science Center, but I sure was glad to see them. They make me laugh so hard, they are so funny! Then Kristian took us out for an incredible seafood dinner at Seastar in Bellvue. It was amazingly declicious. The ride home was fast and uneventlful -- we made it in about an hour and a half. The only excitement was just south of Tacoma when nine police cars went whizzing by in the opposite direction. Something major was going on, but we never found out what it was.
On Thursday MK and AL went shopping at the giant Joanne's store here, and I stayed home and worked on stuff around the house. That night we went to this terrific little hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant downtown called Trinacria (it's the word used for the three corners of Sicily). The chef doesn't speak much English, but boy, can he cook! We each had a different dish, all tomato based, and not a hint of any dish tasting remotely like another. Very unique flavors. Quite, quite good.
After dinner we did our birthdays celebration thing (Mark the 3rd, me the 12th, Mary Kay the 21st). Mark gave me a Samsung Gallaxy II tablet! Yea! I still haven't opened it; maybe tomorrow. I need to have time to sit down and read the instructions, because I am so technically illiterate/challenged that I know it's going to take me quite a while to figure out how to use it.
MK and AL took off Friday morning, so I just ran errands and did stuff I hadn't done all week, so just sort of my basic day -- except for the fact that it was my 62nd birthday (I almost forgot that part; sheesh). We ate at home because we'd been eating out so much lately. We grilled shrimp along with fresh veggies from our neighbors' garden.
I'm trying to remember what we did Saturday -- I think Mark went shopping for his upcoming trip to Montana and I worked around the house trying to catch up.
Sunday our friend Des stopped by for a couple of hours on his way from Snohomish to Eugene. It was fun; we watched the Seahawks game on fast forward (yea! no commercials!). After he left, Mark and I went and looked at cafe tables for the eating area in the kitchen/family room. Then we came home and Mark tried a new 'grilling' method for steaks (it was a recipe from the wine guy we met at the Wolf Haven fundraiser). The steaks turned out amazing! First you heat up a cast iron skillet in a 500 degree oven, then you put the skillet on high heat on the stove, throw the steaks on for 1-2 minutes each side, then put them into the oven for another 2-3 minutes and voila! Perfect steaks. Oh yeah, first you let them marinate in Kosher salt for an hour... They really were more than delicious. We're pretty sure we won't be regular grilling steaks anymore.
And that brings me up to today! I went out and did my errand-running, as usual. I bought a table and chairs for the kitchen/family room. We got Mark's truck back, but the cruise control still doesn't work. We ate dinner at Nisqually Bar and Grill, again. It wasn't crowded tonight like it was two weeks ago when the Seahawks were playing on Monday Night Football and we were dropping the truck off to get fixed. And, as always, I am hoping to get my act together this week...we shall see.
And that's it for now.
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