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 the Mystic River

I had a pretty chatty Wednesday after a quiet morning mostly reading and fighting with antisemitic DSA morons online. After lunch I talked to Kay and Linda, then I did a bunch of filing, then I watched the second half of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim with Cel and Laurie. 

We ate dinner when the movie finished, so it was cool in the early evening when we took a walk. Then we watched most of the unfortunate Red Sox game before this week's Lucky (I love the scenes with her father, who deserves whatever happens) and more Kevin Can F*** Himself. Boats in Mystic:

Greetings from the Spiderverse

Paul finished work at 2 on Friday so we could go see Spider-Man: Brand New Day at the Showcase Cinemas in Blackstone Valley. It was great; I really don't want to say too much because I walked in unspoiled for anything not in the trailer, not even via internet gossip, and I was really glad I didn't know where certain things were going apart from a couple of predictable things based on Things That Happen In Spider-Man Movies. I will say that the first hour in particular really reminded me of the Tobey Maguire movies in the best way. 

We decided to have dinner at Panera since it's in the same shopping center and we stopped in Barnes & Noble walking back to the car. Then we came home, watched most of the Orioles win over the Phillies, and and I watched The Devil Wears Prada 2 together on Disney+ (we'd seen it together in the theater but there's lots of fun stuff in it, particularly the music). Some more of the boats we saw at Mystic Seaport -- I can't wait to go back and see the rest during the Mystic Arts Festival in a couple of weeks!

Greetings from Mystic

Sunday was another gorgeous day and we spent most of it at Mystic Seaport at the Sea Glass Festival, where we met Kristen, admired the sea glass, bought some small jewelry, and ate lunch under one of the festival tents. We also walked around the seaport and its museums -- boarded the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, talked to the shopkeeper in the nautical instruments shop about celestial navigation and the first grandfather clock, looked at the carvings and figureheads on exhibit, saw jellyfish in the river, admired the ships! 

 

We drove home from Connecticut in the late afternoon, had baked potatoes for dinner because they had those at Mystic Seaport so we got in the mood for them, and watched the rest of Pompeii: Out of Time, which has a lot of the flaws of all the National Geographic historical recreation shows but is interesting despite the clunkiness. Now we're watching the first episode of How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, which is alternately very funny and extremely creepy, like an Irish comic I Know What You Did Last Summer with great acting.

Poem for Thursday and Gas Works Park

Fast Gas 

By Dorianne Laux 

for Richard 

Before the days of self service,

when you never had to pump your own gas,

I was the one who did it for you, the girl

who stepped out at the sound of a bell

with a blue rag in my hand, my hair pulled back

in a straight, unlovely ponytail.

This was before automatic shut-offs

and vapor seals, and once, while filling a tank,

I hit a bubble of trapped air and the gas

backed up, came arcing out of the hole

in a bright gold wave and soaked me—face, breasts,

belly and legs. And I had to hurry

back to the booth, the small employee bathroom

with the broken lock, to change my uniform,

peel the gas-soaked cloth from my skin

and wash myself in the sink.

Light-headed, scrubbed raw, I felt

pure and amazed—the way the amber gas

glazed my flesh, the searing,

subterranean pain of it, how my skin

shimmered and ached, glowed

like rainbowed oil on the pavement.

I was twenty. In a few weeks I would fall,

for the first time, in love, that man waiting

patiently in my future like a red leaf

on the sidewalk, the kind of beauty

that asks to be noticed. How was I to know

it would begin this way: every cell of my body

burning with a dangerous beauty, the air around me

a nimbus of light that would carry me

through the days, how when he found me,

weeks later, he would find me like that,

an ordinary woman who could rise

in flame, all he would have to do

is come close and touch me.

-------- 

I had a quiet Thursday morning doing some online work. Our downstairs neighbors and their two dogs moved today to the Bay Area, so we chatted with them for a while, and we walked to the beach, where we saw lots of ducks and a couple of eagles and enjoyed the lovely cool weather. 

We've been bingeing The Pitt all evening around leftover pizza and my Thursday night chat group. It remains absolutely superlative, acting and pacing both. Here are some photos of Gas Works Park, site of the former Seattle Gas Light Company plant in sight of Lake Union and the Space Needle:

Poem for Sunday and Kirkland Waterside

Brewerytown 

By Iain Haley Pollock 

This morning, the lovers—

who last night were slurring and stumbling

and when I looked out, each gripping

the other’s taut throat in a clench of callous

and nail—sit on their front steps. The woman

smokes an idle cigarette. The man lounges

two steps down from her and leans his head

into her lap. Beer cans and husks of blue crab

from their cookout scuttle by in languid breeze.

The woman flicks the stub of her cigarette

into the street and kisses her man on his forehead.

In the kitchen behind me, Naomi

turns on the coffee grinder. I look back at her

but don’t bother to complain about the racket

this time. I’m more interested in the lovers.

Or, I was—they’re boring me now.

I liked them better when the radio was pumping

from their open window, and they were clawing out,

under the streetlight, the terms of their love.

-------- 

We had brunch on Sunday with our next door neighbors/catsitters at a gorgeous restaurant in Kirkland right on Lake Washington, Le Grand Bistro Americain, where I had eggs and potatoes with hollandaise and their excellent bread. Our table was in a window, so we could see the boats and ducks, but we'd hoped to go walk along the water while we were in Kirkland to try to see the swans, but it started to rain hard before we finished eating, so instead we went to Safeway and had an otherwise quiet afternoon watching the 49ers beat the Eagles.

 

I needed a break from football in the evening, so we ate pizza while watching the Golden Globes. I was ready to turn them off as soon as last year's raging antisemitism raised its head, but weirdly enough (by which I mean not at all surprisingly) all the extremist antizionists were entirely silent about the Middle East, lest they should be asked to support a nascent Iranian revolution by people who hate Hamas more than they hate Israel. Now we're watching the start of the new season of All Creatures Great and Small for some dog fun.

Greetings from Snohomish

We spent Saturday afternoon in Snohomish with Chris, having lunch at First and Union (eggs, their fabulous skillet potatoes, and their even more fabulous cinnamon raisin bread), then walking along the river and by the parks and farm that a couple of weeks ago were under water when the rivers jumped their banks. It was a gorgeous cool day, we stopped in a couple of stores, and saw lots of birds and some cows.

 

When we got home, we watched the Packers-Bears in the playoffs, took a break when it looked like Green Bay was going to win by a lot to see the top six men at the US Figure Skating Championships while we ate dinner, then turned the football game back on and watched Chicago come from behind and win. After that, we watched Roofman, which is funny, charming, and surprisingly sweet for a movie about a criminal.

Greetings from Hanover

Quickie, got back late after a busy day with more friends and family that started with a drive to Pennsylvania after hotel breakfast with Adam, Haley, and Pepper. We stopped to pick up Blue Koi Asian fusion (went to Red Barn Boutique while waiting for it), then went to visit Paul's father in Hanover for lunch and video calls with Daniel and both of Paul's brothers. 

We drove back into Maryland through Frederick so we could see Sailing Through the Winter Solstice -- the parade of lighted mini boats in Carroll Creek Park -- on the way to Kay and Chris's house. We brought in dinner there from Sasuns and had a lovely evening hanging out with them while Pepper tried to persuade each of us in turn to give her food. A few photos: