Greetings from Salem

Another quick post, tonight from Salem, Oregon, where we're visiting Paul's youngest brother Jon, his wife Brooke, and their sons and dogs. Daniel, Cahaya, and their dogs are here too, having arrived in Oregon yesterday, so we spent the afternoon with three huskies and lots of snacks after a lovely drive down, past Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood, with nice views of the Columbia River and the Portland Aerial Tram plus a stop for lunch at Burger King. 

We went out to dinner with one of our nephews at a local Mexican restaurant where I ate too much, and now we're at a hotel where the only thing we could tune in on the TV that wasn't local basketball is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which I'm sorry to report is still enjoyable despite how much I hate JKR's rhetoric and funding of a hate movement. Hey, I loved this week's pro-Zionist Starfleet Academy, so I'm probably canceled too.

Greetings from Woodlawn Hall

Quick post after most of the day packing, then noodles at Gao Lhao and a short walk to Woodlawn Hall in Green Lake to see Caitlin Canty (whom we last saw live in 2015)! Local musician Eli West opened for her and played a few songs with her at the end, and she played several of my older favorites ("Get Up", "Motel") and several songs off her new CD, plus a Jeffrey Foucault song. But the most fun part of the evening was that we stopped at the PCC between dinner and the show to pick up chocolate, and I walked right into her picking up her own dinner -- she was surprised that anyone recognized her and thanked me for making her feel famous.

Greetings from Juanita Beach

My Thursday was mostly about packing, though during a trip to Home Depot to get more book-size boxes (they're cheaper there than from the moving company), we stopped at Blazing Bagels for the first time in a while and got some excellent bagels though we also discovered that they no longer make bagel dogs, vegan or otherwise! We also walked to the beach in the rain and waded through a large flock of geese enjoying the wet grass at the park. 

After Thursday night chat, Cheryl and I watched The Pitt together. When it was over, I wasn't much in the mood for New Klingons, and instead started the fourth season of Bridgerton, which is beautiful despite its flaws (and while I'm rooting for Sophie, I really don't want Benedict turning into a completely different person for her). Since I posted zoo birds yesterday, here's some of the variety of birds we saw at Juanita Bay last weekend:

Greetings from the Zoo Bird Houses

Despite packing, I got to have a fairly social Wednesday starting with chat with 2/3 of my high school group in the morning. Then I did some packing, ate lunch, did some more packing, and watched some Rings of Power with Kristen and Laurie. After that, Paul and I took a walk to the beach and saw a large murder of crows making a racket in the trees by the lake, plus the eagle pair and a flock of annoyed honking geese. 

We watched the last three episodes of Wonder Man with Cheryl, which were extremely enjoyable (they even called it a bromance!). Then I was in the mood to remember how Trevor ended up there, so after dinner and TMNT night on The Masked Singer -- we ordered from Kanishka, since we had a coupon it would have been a shame to waste -- we watched Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Birds at the Woodland Park Zoo:

Greetings from Alki Beach

I packed a big chunk of the second bedroom on Tuesday (books, games, some collectibles and decorative items), and that was most of my day. My shoulders are sore but I did track down some more custom boxes for glass dice, Hallmark ornaments, and little carvings. In the afternoon we walked to the park, talked to the ducks, and took pictures of the pair of eagles in the tree over the beach. 

My DS9 group watched "Crossover" (Mirror Universe! Intendant!), after which we ate (veggie) ham and cheese pie while we watched the first half of Marvel's Wonder Man, which is both funnier and more serious than I expected; its focus is as much Hollywood as superheroes, and it has great cameos (even characters played by the actor playing a supporting character). Now we're watching Lower Decks. Alki Beach crabs: 

Greetings from Zoo Lights

Poetry posts may be erratic until I move. I spent most of Monday packing -- first little collectibles that came in their own padded boxes, which we'd had saved in our storage unit and retrieved on Saturday, then games and oversized books, which have to be fit like jigsaw pieces so they don't slide around in medium boxes. We're letting the moving company pack the breakables so they're all covered in case of disaster, but I can manage the books and boxes. Anyone know how to keep built Lego sets intact in transit? 

We walked to the park in the late afternoon and were surprised to see prunus blossoms already -- hot pink ones! -- along with many ducks. Then we came home, ate leftover Indian food for dinner, and watched a few episodes of History of the World Part II, which is pretty ridiculous rather than clever satire but that suits my mood at the moment. Now we're watching F1, which is...fine? There are cars and men who drive them, don't ask me more. Wild Lanterns at the zoo, glowing at night and over for the season in daylight: 

Greetings from Seahawks

On Sunday we went back to the Woodland Park Zoo in daylight, where the Wild Lanterns show was being dismantled for the season but the animals were mostly awake. We got to see the new family of Mexican gray wolves (the baby lion cubs aren't visible to the public yet) and lots of other animals -- even the bears, who have a camera in their den while they're in torpor for the winter. The penguins were honking loudly and their enclosure had been decorated inside and out with Seahawks pennants and footballs. We brought lunch and ate it in one of the zoo restaurant enclosures.

 

New England had already beaten Denver by the time we got home. We watched Seattle beat L.A. while eating leftover pizza and trying to keep the cats warm (there were some dicey moments with dumb penalties, but they led all game). Then we watched this week's episode of The Night Manager, which definitely needs more of those two characters discussing whether they dream about each other, and speaking of dreams we saw Train Dreams afterward, which is superbly filmed and acted but a lot of it is about grief -- personal, social, and the ways racism and sexism intersect historical memory.