Greetings from Home

Whole day of unpacking, laundry, getting the key back from the cat-sitter, and other post-trip chores after jet-lag oversleeping and convincing the cats we did not abandon them, of which only treats seem to convince them. 

We managed a quick walk before dinner, then my DS9 group watched "The Way of the Warrior" -- the double-episode season four premiere with Worf and many Klingons (these days I can laugh about the Kira-Dax holodeck storyline but I hated it originally). 

We caught up on last Friday's excellent Dark Matter and now we're watching last Thursday's Strange New Worlds -- I like the Kirk family history but Pike kind of feels like a guest star on his own show. Pics from yesterday in Washington:

Greetings from the Massachusetts Turnpike

Attempting to post from the car driving home from Logan Airport, where we landed just before midnight Eastern time. We had a nice morning -- went with Daniel to Seahurst Park and walked on the beach before going to the airport, from which he took an Uber to work downtown and where we ate Great State Burgers and got Seattle Chocolate before boarding our plane. I spent most of the flight reading Hild. Here is a Theo lookalike we met by Puget Sound in the morning!

Greetings from Edmonds

We woke up to Seattle rain on Sunday, but it cleared up by mid-morning, when we headed to Edmonds to meet Cahaya's parents for brunch at Salt & Iron in Edmonds. After excellent food and some catching up, they headed out for weekend work and we walked down to the water, where the tide was coming in but we still managed to see lots of anemones and a few hungry gulls; then we walked around some of the shops, bought looseleaf tea and kitchen stuff, and headed back to Daniel's house mid-afternoon.

After feeding the dogs, we put them in the car and took them to Washington Park Arboretum, where we had a good long walk and successfully prevented them from chasing squirrels and bunnies. We dropped them back off at the house and walked to Zagol, one of four Ethiopian restaurants on one strip in Central District, and ate excellent shiro wot, lentils, and various meat dishes for those who eat meat. We got back to the house around 9 p.m., played Chai, and had to start getting our packing organized.

Greetings from Redmond

Spent another lovely nostalgic day in Redmond and Seattle, starting with breakfast in our hotel, after which we checked out and brought our things to Daniel's house. From there we drove to Redmond, where we met our former next door neighbors for lunch at Kitanda and a walk on the dock in our old neighborhood; we got to see one of the eagles, a great blue heron, some Canada geese, wood ducks, and grebes. 

Then we met Daniel and Cahaya at Marymoor Park with their huskies, who encountered several other huskies in the dog park. Cahaya had some stops to make on the way home, so we went to Idylwood Park to walk by the beach where we walked almost every day when we lived in Redmond. We also drove past the leaves changing color along West Lake Sammamish Parkway and the new light rail along the highway. 

In the late afternoon we drove to Seattle Center to get dinner at the Armory. Cahaya couldn't get anything she wanted, so she went to find sushi and the rest of us had Mod Pizza, then went to Chihuly Garden and Glass, which is sometimes open to the public at night when there isn't a wedding or special event. We'd never seen the gardens lit up before, and they're just as spectacular in the dark!

Greetings from Alki and Ballard

Quick sleepy post! Had a great day with Daniel and Cahaya: went over to their house after breakfast, went to Alki at low tide, saw lots of tidepool animals on Constellation Beach (sea stars, sea cucumbers, crabs, anemones, waterfowl), walked to Cactus for lunch. Drove back to their house to pick up the dogs, went to Ballard Locks, saw many seals and a couple of sea lions catching salmon, watched dogs dream of chasing Canada geese. 

Drove back through Seattle to Daniel's house, hung out for a while, walked to Bistro Turkuaz for dinner (I had hummus and grape leaves; others had kabobs) followed by Molly Moon's for ice cream (they were out of the apples and honey flavor for Rosh Hashanah at the location we were at, but the melted chocolate is amazing). Now back at the hotel half-watching the Boston College-Rutgers game and sorting photos of a lovely nautical day. Happy New Year!

Greetings from Seattle

Quick post after long travel day! We got up at 6 a.m. to drive from Worcester to the airport in Boston, where we had an uneventful flight (I was dozing and reading Hild around snacks and lunch), then a ridiculously long wait to pick up a rental car, which we drove to a hotel in downtown Seattle where Daniel met us on his way home from work. 

After helping me fight with the hotel wifi, he went with us to his new house, where we played with the dogs and hung out with Cahaya who's on call for work this weekend, then we went to dinner at Naam Thai and walked a bit in the nearby Madrona neighborhood. Now we're back at the hotel and I'm very sleepy even though it's not even 10 p.m. here! More tomorrow!

Greetings from Volunteer Park

We thought about going out to a maple sugar festival on Saturday, but ended up spending the entire day working on the shelves while we were both around to put shelves together and carry boxes. Now at least the entire living room isn't covered in boxes, though the shelves are pretty chaotic and some DVD binders are AWOL. 

It was dark by the time we stopped, so we ate leftover vegan brisket and watched the last episode of Young Sherlock. Then we had to reset the Roku to load our channels, which took longer than you'd think. It's still wintery outside here, so have some photos from Volunteer Park Conservatory's cactus garden a few weeks ago:

Poem for Tuesday and Wolf Haven

The summer I lived as a wolf 

By Pippa Little 

I knew the names of stones at the river mouth,

crossed giving thanks to their uneasy spirits.

I heard killings in the shadows, knew to turn keen and quick,

travel in the presence of  thunder, leave no scent or spoor behind.

Preferring the high places closest to the moon

where the wind ran with me, I practiced abandon,

my spine a scimitar, star-whetted, flayed old disguises

into strands and rips, underneath I was sleek, open:

my muzzle carved air into four queendoms and I knew them all

as they knew me, tooth, soul, tatterdemalion heart,

and I flew, I think, in that time, when nobody needed

or shamed me and I was always hungry, bloody-tongued

but louche and free and supple, perfumed in pine and ashes.

-------- 

The moving van is supposed to arrive with all our stuff on Wednesday *crosses fingers* so I spent most of Tuesday doing chores in anticipation of that -- breaking down the boxes for things we've bought since we arrived, moving everything in the garage and basement into corners to make room for shelves and boxes, rolling up carpet remnants and things left by previous owners and rearranging a rug in front of the basement sliding doors. I also chatted with my DS9 watch group and we watched "The Jem'Hadar" -- the season two finale. 

In ridiculous news, Niantic accepted a Pokestop I submitted at the gazebo down the street, which was very important because we had no Pokestops reachable via sidewalk within walking distance, and still no gyms. At least I can still play! We watched some spring training baseball (Orioles have been audio-only, so it's been Seahawks and Red Sox) and now we're (re)watching Song Sung Blue because it's on Peacock and delightful. My local pics are all still snow, so here are the Wolf Haven residents in the rain a few weeks ago: