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 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 Tidepools

I did a lot of chatting on Wednesday -- with one of my high school friends in the morning, watching the second half of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl with Laurie and Cel in the afternoon, and with Daniel at 10 pm when he got home from work tonight. So I will be brief! 

Kay told me to watch My Brilliant Career on Netflix, and I remember that I liked the movie a million years ago when I saw it though I barely remember it, so we're doing that now that the Orioles have won (not the Red Sox, but given the week in celebrity tragedies, that's a small thing). 

I've spent much of the night fighting to send my records to my new ophthalmologist. Here are some of the creatures we saw at Wingaersheek Beach; one of the crabs was in a clear bucket where it had been placed by kids, but the mussels, snails, swimming isopod, and barnacles were all around the tidepools:

Greetings from Wingaersheek Beach

We went out early Tuesday to drop a package off at the post office and to pick up bagels (plus I got Pokemon into four showcases, three of which I won). Then I folded and put away laundry and did some other chores, we ate lunch, I did some reading, and then I got a package containing the Oracolor deck Illuminated Paths so I read with that for a while. It was another gorgeous not-too-hot day, so perfect for walking and seeing bunnies. 

My DS9 group watched "Shakaar" (Kai Winn! Lupaza! Bajoran politics! And, fine, Shakaar, though he and Kira bother me less together since I know it doesn't last). Then we watched the end of the extra-innings Red Sox-Marlins game (grand slam!) and a bit of coverage of the Orioles blowout of the Cardinals (13-1!) before the new episode of Futurama (Taylor Swift?!). A gull and her very hungry child we met at Wingaersheek Beach seeking potato chips:

Greetings from Gloucester

We spent Saturday in Gloucester, about an hour and a half from Worcester, starting with a trip to Wingaersheek Beach at low tide so we could see the tidepools. They aren't as dramatic as the Alki Beach tidepools on the west coast -- no 10-inch sea stars -- but there are snails, barnacles, little swimming crabs and isopods, schools of fish, and many seagulls trying to eat all of the above, plus whatever they can beg or steal from people's lunches. It was overcast and cool; the water felt the same temperature as the air, and we could see the Annisquam Harbor Light. 

We brought a picnic for the beach (I had a young gull date while I ate), and after we finished, we drove to the Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial, where we met my friend Marty from high school, though we haven't seen each other since except on Facebook and in Pokemon Go (it was a raid day, but I only caught one remote Starmie). He took us on a walking tour of the western harbor to Stage Fort Park and Half Moon Beach, then we drove together to Eastern Point Lighthouse and walked out on the Dog Bar Breakwater, where we saw ducks, ships, and a grey seal. 

 

We stopped at Panera for dinner on the way home, arriving in time for the end of both the Orioles and Red Sox games which both ended with walk-off victories. We're watching another episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender while I upload photos and post this.

Greetings from Revere Beach

I spent Tuesday morning working on my photos and organizing some clothing, then ate a bagel with cats supervising my use of cream cheese and did some reading. In the afternoon, I talked to Chris, took a walk to see bunnies, and watched a little post-trade deadline baseball. Paul ordered Papa Gino's pizza for dinner, always a good choice. 

My DS9 group watched "The Die Is Cast" -- Garak! Tain! Odo! Eddington! So much of consequence for the rest of the series! -- and we've spent the rest of the evening after the Orioles and Red Sox victories watching the final season of The Bear, which is intense but I don't feel like it really digs deep into the characters. Gulls of the delightful Revere Beach: