Greetings from North of Boston

I had a great maritime Saturday in Salem and Revere north of Boston, seeing ships and at the beach! The Salem Maritime National Historical Park was having its Heritage Days festival, with people demonstrating historic crafts like aspects of shipbuilding, lace-making, furniture carving, and traditional cooking, plus there was a band singing sea shanties and a Cardboard Boat Regatta which I'd thought meant people tossing models into the water but was actually cardboard boats crewed by several people in a race. 

There were food trucks (Paul got fried Twinkies) and since Salem's tall ship the Friendship is being restored, Pride of Baltimore II was visiting and letting people tour the deck. We had brought a picnic and ate it at a table behind the Custom House, which was also open for tours and had an actor dressed as Nathaniel Hawthorne talking about his work there. We got to see the scales and measuring equipment, the public stores for items no one could pay duties on, and the original wooden eagle that adorned the roof. 

Since we were in Salem, we also visited several of the witch shops -- lots of Tarot, crystals, herbs, crafts, and statues, though I didn't buy any -- and walked through the downtown before driving in the late afternoon to Revere Beach. The water was much warmer than I expected and there were clam shells, mussels, and some snails, plus many seagulls and a few pigeons looking for dinner. We were at the nearly empty north end of the beach and I got so much sand in my toes that I rode the rest of the way home barefoot.

 

We ate cheesesteaks for dinner and watched part of the terrible horrible Orioles game against the Phillies before giving up and putting on the start of the second season of A Good Girl's Guide To Murder, which is pretty well written and acted but very dark. And we discovered that the rain last week stained one of our windowsills, so we cleaned that up. Now I must sleep after a really nice day!

Greetings from Saint Spyridon

Saturday was a beautiful not-too-warm day. At lunchtime we went to the Greek festival at Saint Spyridon Greek Orthodox Cathedral next to Elm Park, where we ate saganaki, walked through the marketplace, and saw some of the afternoon World Cup action projected on the food tent (we had baklava latte, which was amazing). Then we walked in the park, where I caught lots of Frigibax for Pokemon Community Day, evolved some Baxcalibur, and saw many baby squirrels, some waterfowl, and a whole bunch of turtles.

 

We went to Home Depot to look at storm doors before we came home, where Paul made Swedish meatballs for dinner for midsummer and we watched the end of the Nationals game. Afterward, we watched Now You See Me: Now You Don't, which had the most ridiculous of all the plots and wasn't quite as much fun without Evil Daniel Radcliffe, but I like the three actresses playing magicians and the story moved along quickly. Now the Orioles are once again leading the Dodgers -- let's hope it ends better than last night!

Greetings from Marysville

We're spending at least part of the longest night of the year watching Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (I can't stand Josh O'Connor but I'm overlooking that to watch Daniel Craig, Josh Brolin, and Glenn Close enjoy themselves being over the top) after a very nice solstice day that started with cooking, cleaning up, and packing latkes, sufganiyot, and dreidels into a cooler. Then we headed to Funko HQ in Everett, where we looked at the holiday-decorated Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and Disney oversize Pops (they were sadly sold out of Huntrix figures). 

From Everett we drove to Cahaya's parents' house, where her aunt and uncle were visiting (along with their dog, which brought the total in the house to four even though Daniel and Cahaya had left their two at home). Everyone had brought charcuterie and appetizers including hummus, tofu, lots of meats and cheeses, and various desserts along with our potato pancakes, so we snacked while watching the unhappy end of the Lions-Steelers game (and the Ravens blew it to the Patriots later, so their playoff chances are pretty much nil). But it was a lovely first day of winter otherwise!

Greetings from Kirkland

Sunday was cooler and more overcast than Saturday, but all the rain happened overnight, so it ended up being a nice day to be out. After we ate lunch, we went to Kirkland, where the Mabon PNW Witches' Market was taking place, so we shopped around the Tarot readers and crystal sellers, plus we walked along the waterfront to see the boats and ducks in Lake Washington. We stopped in Fortunato to get cacao nibs for our acai bowls. It was also a Pokemon Community Day, so I caught a bunch of Flabébés -- including yellow, white, and orange shinies -- before we headed to Redmond Town Center, where we got drinks in Starbucks and I evolved them into Florges.

 

It was a busy sports day. We watched most of the Seahawks game in the morning since they were in Pittsburgh on East Coast time, while keeping tabs on the Ravens victory, occasionally checking in with the Orioles who did not have a good day, around a phone call with my parents and sister. We didn't see any of the Mariners game, but Cal Raleigh tied Mickey Mantle's record for homers in a season by a switch hitter with 54. This evening we switched between the Emmy Awards and the Falcons-Vikings game until too many people said stupid political things at the former. (I like Michael Penix Jr. but not Atlanta.) Now we're watching more Miss Scarlet.

Greetings from Kirkland

We had a quiet Sunday morning watching baseball and reading, then we had acai bowls for lunch and headed to Kirkland. The Lammas-Lughnasadh PNW Witches' Market was taking place there, and we knew that odds were good that we'd be able to see the Blue Angels flying over Seattle across Lake Washington in the afternoon. So we shopped a bit and listened to music in the market, then got caramel popcorn and fresh lemonade from one of the vendors and hung out by the lake until the planes appeared. It was cooler than predicted because of wildfire haze.

 

We stopped at Safeway on the way home for supplies for the week, watched the end of the day's baseball as the Phillies beat the Tigers -- the Orioles had lost in a ninth inning heartbreaker but the Mariners won -- then we ate dinner and watched The Gilded Age (that's one way to shut up George Russell but oh Peggy why didn't you tell him) and now we're watching How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, the Bee Gees documentary that also explores the racism and homophobia in the anti-disco movement that sidelined their careers in the late '70s.

Greetings from Long Franchises

I had a quiet Friday morning getting laundry and paperwork done in gorgeous weather, then in the afternoon we went to see Thunderbolts*, which I enjoyed a lot. It has a good sense of humor, particularly the dynamic between Yelena and Alexei, which really makes the movie -- Pugh and Harbour are perfect together, a really nice balance of embarrassing dad jokes and the fact that when it comes to planning, she's the adult. I wish we got a little more character development for Ghost, whom we don't know more about than we did in the Ant-Man movies, but I was happy to have her here, and the fact that John Walker really wants Bucky Barnes to like him in spite of everything is delightful. The ending gets a little heavy-handed in Marvel comic style but the post-credits scene are really fun. 

We stopped at QFC to get food to bring to the house concert tomorrow and to grab some things for dinner and next week. Then we came home and watched the last four episodes of House, whose larger arc I've known about since before I started watching the show. I expected to be more emotional about them than I was, partly because I've read the theories about whether the last scenes are House's dying fantasy, Wilson's dying fantasy, straightforwardly true, or part of an elaborate ruse in which Wilson's cancer is in remission from the chemo and House knew the only way they could be happy together was a complete break from the hospital so he lied. I'm agnostic on which of these is the most House-Wilson (or the most Holmes-Watson)! The lovely PNW Witches' Market on the Kirkland waterfront: 

Greetings from Kirkland Marina Park

Sunday was cooler and more overcast than Saturday but still a perfect day to be outdoors, and since it wasn't too warm, I got to wear my Hocus Pocus velvet cape that goes with my Hocus Pocus velour shirt to the Beltane PNW Witches' Market, this time at the marina beach park in Kirkland. This was a big market, lots of tents; I had worn a felt bycocket hat that the wind kept trying to blow off, and one of the first craftspeople I visited was Dainty Jane's Handmades, who had a heavier suede bycocket (with a matching belt pouch made from scraps that she sold me for $10). So I had an adorable outfit as I looked at crystals and walked along the waterfront to see the boats and waterfowl.

 

We went to Redmond Town Center in the late afternoon so I could catch Vanillites for Pokemon Community Day, sitting in Starbucks drinking hot chocolate and listening to teenagers gossip at the table next to us, plus we stopped at Safeway for food for the week. When we got home, we went out on the dock to look for the frog (spotted) and raccoon (had appeared earlier in one of the trees, but moved on) as well as the eagles (hiding in leaves). The Orioles had lost and Mariners won earlier, but we saw the end of the Phillies-Cubs long game before Suits L.A. (really just another mediocre lawyer show, I'm about done with it) and House (better than the former even in its not-great final season).