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Sunday Funday

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News that will surprise nobody: I went to Spencer Island this morning. I go there most Sundays, mainly because it's very stressful to merge on the highway to come back on weekdays. Just for something different, I took the freeway between here and the closest exit to the start of that highway at the North end of town.





It was a gorgeous morning, and a little bit of pink light poked through the cloud cover when I arrived.

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While walking on the new, elevated trail, I found a memorial for a group of friends who died in an auto accident on my 16th birthday.

Memorial on Spencer Island



Was in the mood for lots of flower photos today.

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Eventually the sky divided into a blue section and a grey section. Check out the 360-degree photo I made, I'm so glad they render properly on flickr. Of course it got a little wonky on the fences.

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Spotted another Honey Bucket for the contest at the water treatment plant.

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Today"s awesome walk, 6.7 miles in 2:35, 15,984 steps
6.7 miles in 2:35, 15,984 steps

I'm bummed that the hunting trail is really overgrown right now, but I guess it worked out fine, because I was already pretty hungry by the time I left, and 6.7 miles is nothing to sneeze at.



Sam and Steve were being super cute when I got home.

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I noticed in my Snapchat videos that my beard was really out of control. Unfortunately, I greatly underestimated just how close my clippers can get on the closest setting, and now my beard's a van dyke for the first time since 2008. My barber is closed Mondays, but she told me she's usually around her shop anyway and I should check with her if I want a Monday haircut, so I texted her this picture. I think shorter hair will help a lot. I also told her I'd bring her one of those hanging air plant vases on the right in the photo.

Had a bit of an accident.

We went to Harvey's for an awesome breakfast.

Chicken fried steak at Harvey"s

Now we're just watching the SeaFair coverage. Garrett reminded me this morning that his annual air show trip is in five days, so I've put in a request for a pretty neat AirBnB that I'm waiting to hear back about. And as I was typing this, my reservation was confirmed! I'll go hiking at Mt. Baker before I drive home. Fun!

Food, farms, and fun

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I don't talk much about food on here because guaparella started a great food and cooking group on Facebook that I really like, but I'm kind of proud of last night's dinner. I recently added Thai basil to our indoor herb garden when one of the original ones wasn't doing so well, and decided to add some to a small chicken caesar salad I had for lunch last week. It tasted great, and the wheels started turning. If I had to choose a favorite dish, it'd be bun, the Vietnamese vermicelli salad bowl, and I figured it'd be really good to make one with a caesar salad. Instead of making everything myself, I picked up some grilled pork and some egg rolls at a local restaurant on Friday when I bought my lunch. I also hoped to incorporate some of what I ordered for that day's lunch as the noodle portion of the bowl, but it wasn't what I expected. It was called "crispy pho" but the noodles they fried up were wide, thick, and chewy. Tasty stuff, but not what I was looking for. That's fine, I had some vermicelli onhand, and also picked up a carrot, which I shredded and pickled, plus an English cucumber.

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I liked it a lot! I think I liked it more than Garrett did, though.



Got my hour in at the pool this morning and managed to get another entry for the contest at the petting zoo our neighborhood park has every year before fair season starts.

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And even though she's not officially open, my barber confirmed that she'd be around today and I was her first customer. I'll be happier when my beard's back, but the shorter hair helps a lot.

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And now we wait

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The weather has cooled way off, and I was surprised to see when I drove out of the garage this morning that the streets were wet, too. It didn't seem like there was too much rain, though, so I went ahead and drove down to Japanese Gulch.

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I'm glad yesterday was a pretty slow day for me on Snapchat because I was in the mood to export my story as a video today, and it currently won't do that if your story has more than 20 videos. And as far as I can tell, photos count as videos due to how they're displayed. But today I came in under and was able to do it. And I left in a couple of the snaps from yesterday.



It was really quite dark when I got those time and temperature shots, I'm surprised you can see so much in the video. The phone's pretty powerful when it wants to be. Today was more about exploring, as you'll see on the map, so I only stopped for a couple of photos.

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Today"s awesome walk, 4 miles in 1:53, 10,867 steps, 419ft gain
4 miles in 1:53, 10,867 steps, 419ft gain

As I mentioned in the video, I'm trying to really familiarize myself with the trails and the landmarks I can use to recognize them. You might see some more weird maps like today's soon.

I was supposed to have a meeting at 11:30 and it got pushed to 2:30. Glad I didn't make any afternoon plans.

Squads old and new

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It's funny, with my scapula pain not going away I decided to contact my doctor via her web form and ask if that and the lingering inner elbow soreness since my massage that I got to address it were something to be concerned about. When she replied yesterday, she didn't confirm or deny, but suggested weekly massage as well as yoga. I messaged her back to ask about insurance coverage for massages with a referral and am waiting to hear back, so of course today the pain in my shoulder came roaring back maybe worse than it's been so far. I hoped to get a last-minute session at a clinic here in the neighborhood, but they were booked up with no cancellations, so I'll be seeing them tomorrow afternoon. The pain came back as I left a screening of Suicide Squad, so my guess is that the movie theater seat is even less ideal for my situation than my desk chair. At least I got home without hitting any major traffic and with a nice video.



Yeah, that's some sort of circus tent in the mall parking lot. I haven't heard anything about it.

Someone talking about Suicide Squad mentioned an animated one made a couple of years ago and I watched that this morning while watching my work inbox. It was ok. The movie out in theaters now is actually pretty good, at least compared to the low expectations I had from all the talk about it. Jared Leto was definitely not the best part about it and the decision to cut most of his scenes was a good one.

My Friday/Saturday plan is coming together nicely. I found a restaurant to go to about 20 miles from my rental (which is quite far from everything) to enjoy a fancy dinner. I've agreed to bring my work laptop with me to check on work stuff since my boss has the whole day off, and since it'll be with there, I can watch a movie in bed if I feel like it. I'm not planning on staying up very late at all, though, because I'd like to start my hike Saturday as early as possible. But the rental comes with stuff to make a country breakfast and I'm certainly not going to leave without enjoying that.

One site says the place I'm planning to hike is 8 miles, while another says 5.5. I can handle either, but I'm curious about the discrepancy. I'll look on MapMyRun for people's routes to see what those say. And I'm glad I read the reviews, because it's a loop, and now I know which direction to go in order to get all the climbing done first thing. That's the kind of intel I really appreciate.

I still have a couple of choices to make about Friday. Mainly, if I do a walk in the morning, I need to get home and get everything I'm wearing into the laundry so I can pack clean gear. I could wash everything tomorrow and swim instead. We'll see. Either way, I need to get my CPAP cleaned, dry, and packed that morning. No way I'm going without it.

Dance like no one is watching (unless they have goggles)

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I got so distracted by my shoulder that I completely forgot to talk about my swim this morning. Today's soundtrack was Lip Locked 378, and that was a particularly good episode. Hearing it got me thinking about how I never go out dancing any more. It's a night activity for the most part, and I'm just not a night person any more. Or even close to one. Concerts are a slog now and even those are usually done before anyone's dancing. Even if I really wanted to, there aren't exactly lots of choices around here. In fact, looking at Yelp I really only see the single option I thought of off the top of my head, which is the lone gay bar we have here. If anything can gauge how different my life is, it's that. I used to live just a few blocks from an intersection that had dance clubs on three of the four corners and still has them on two. Back in the day, there were so many choices and a lot of people liked to go from one to the next, though I was more of a shift dancer: stay at the first place until closing time, move on to after hours, then on to after after hours. Funnily enough, if I had the same options now, I'd probably just get up at my normal time and go straight to first call at 6am after after-after.

But I doubt the scene in Seattle is anywhere near as fun anyway, and I don't feel like going down there for that.

So now I dance in the water for an hour, twice a week. You wouldn't know it unless you were under water and watching for a while, but I follow the music as I tread water, drifting around while I kick and turn.

It's funny how important the music is. I really don't like to swim or even walk without it. I think most people probably listen to music while they do most exercises, but I've never seen anyone else with headphones at either of the pools I go to. A lot of swimmers I see aren't even there very long and I wonder, would they do the whole hour I do if they had the right soundtrack?

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Thursday!

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I hate taking out the garbage and recycling on Thursdays, but they're pretty good days in spite of that.



Especially ones like today where I happen to catch a really amazing sunrise.



Tilt your monitor if you can't see, there are distinct shadows in the early stages of this sunrise, I guess from hills or something off in the distance. So cool.

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The tide was nice and low so I was able to go really far down the beach.

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And I managed to catch a couple of cool moments with the ferries.

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Not sure why I've walked near this so many times without noticing it.

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There's a small beach near the hotel and restaurants by the ferry terminal and it never occurred to me before today to check it out during low tide. During high tide it disappears completely, so it was cool to see it.

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A small preview of what was to come on the way to the last beach.

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And then it just got better. There are lots more pictures if you click over.

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Today"s awesome walk, 5.72 miles in 2:20, 14,137 steps, 265ft gain
5.72 miles in 2:20, 14,137 steps, 265ft gain

I rarely buy physical books any more, but when I saw they actually published this, I had to get one.

I love that they published this.

And here's a laugh from the place where I got a massage today.

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CATURDAY

Whew

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It's been a very eventful three days and I'm not in the mood to rush through posting about them tonight, so until tomorrow, here's a cute video of Bella grooming and being silly.

What a weekend

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Last year around this time, Garrett went to the Abbottsford Air Show and I decided to spend the night in a boat in Port Angeles and try to find a neon Zima sign badrobot68 showed me from Instagram. I'd already tried calling around the antique shops there, but wasn't having any luck. I found it in the first stall in the first antique mall I went to, and it wasn't even for sale. How rude. I didn't realize until about a week ago that it was time for the air show again, and figured I'd have another adventure. A hike somewhere that's a bit far to drive in the morning of a hike, plus a place nearby to sleep, and maybe a nice dinner the night before. And of course it had to be a bit of a misadventure, I guess that's the tradition.



Friday was a bit rushed because the plan was to leave home around noon, get lunch somewhere North of here, and arrive at the tiny house I rented at 3pm. And because I didn't want to pack stinky clothes, I'd need to do laundry in the morning after my walk. Plus take my CPAP apart and wipe everything off and pack it up. I normally bathe my air plants on Friday and decided I'd push that back a day.

There was a nice surprise when I arrived at the river for my walk. Fog!

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A portapotty caught my eye up ahead on the trail and I was of course ready to get another selfie for the contest, but it was for a different company. It was next to a few huge piles of gravel and some heavy equipment, and just beyond all that was a new clearing.

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That area's been very overgrown and there was lots of evidence of camping. I didn't really realize the extent of it, though.

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I figured it might have been cleared out for utility work, but then I came around the corner and saw this:

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I can't believe they finally started building houses here! They broke ground for that development ages ago and I never thought the day would come. I found a perfect spot near the entrance to take a photo each time I go over there to track the progress.

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The walk back to the car was even neater because of the sunrise in the fog.

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It's funny, it never occurred to me to look beyond the boat launch at the very end of the trail. It's muddy though and you can't really explore it.

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Friday"s awesome walk, 4.83 miles in 1:47, 11,249 steps
4.83 miles in 1:47, 11,249 steps

That clearing I explored is the little part where the 1-mile mark was.

I went ahead and left the house at 11:30 and got on the highway. The first stop was going to be Burlington because I decided to eat lunch at the Trainwreck Bar after seeing someone check in there on Facebook the week before. I had an elk burger and it was quite good.

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Afterward, I stopped by the Burlington Mall for a moment because Ross Mathews grew up in Mt. Vernon and had lots of stories in his book about working there. Unfortunately the McDonald's Express where he worked, plus the Lane Bryant he got caught shoplifting from were both gone. But at least I was able to send him a photo on Twitter.

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I was to meet my host at her property at 3pm and was amazed that I killed just enough time at the mall that I arrived exactly on time. I rang her doorbell and didn't get an answer, but it was fine, because the tiny house across the driveway from her house was waiting unlocked for me.

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I didn't specifically want a tiny house, just somewhere private. There are lots of AirBnB listings that are rooms inside people's homes, and that doesn't particularly interest me. I'm fine with something separate on the same property or even a mother-in-law as long as there's a private entrance. There weren't tons of options due to my scheduling less than a week in advance, and the tiny house won because it comes stocked with food for a country breakfast.

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I wasn't exactly hungry for dinner yet because lunch was so big, but it was a really hot day and I didn't feel like hanging around until later on when it cooled off a bit, so I got in the car and headed to Bellingham. A wedge salad and halibut at Fork was delicious, but it was also a bit warm in the restaurant, so I didn't linger.

Wedge salad, halibut

I managed to kill another 90 minutes or so driving out to a casino, losing money on slot machines, then driving back to the tiny house. At some point I was just over the border from the air show and saw some planes fly in formation. Tons of people were parked on the side of the road watching, and I laughed because my phone started giving directions in kilometers.

It was still pretty warm when I got back, so I changed into the shorts I'd be wearing the next morning and read my Kindle while drinking wine in the sleeping compartment in the back of the house. There was a larger bed up in the loft, but I didn't feel like carrying my CPAP up and down a ladder. It wasn't the greatest night of sleep, but I was excited to get up and cook some fresh eggs.

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Cooking and cleaning up in a tiny house is quite challenging, mainly due to the size of the sink. You can wash one dish at a time, and you have to dry it and put it away before moving on to the next dirty one.

It was a beautiful morning and this was the first time I was out on the property without being approached by chickens and giant turkey while horses looked on.

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I had to pull over just before I got to the main road because the sunrise was amazing.

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I wasn't originally planning to make any dashcam video so I could save the battery for navigation and recording my hike, but the sunrise was cool enough that I had to run it for a while. It was nearly an hour to the trailhead, though, so I stopped it pretty soon.



I was surprised by the size of the parking lot and by how many people were there.

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The plan was to hike the Chain Lakes Loop, and the advice I'd read was to go counterclockwise on the trail to get the climbing part finished first. And that's great advice if you actually follow it. I came to a fork in the trail and saw the sign for Table Mountain and the trail goes directly up, so I thought that's what they were talking about. I was wrong. This led to a pretty strenuous hike that I wouldn't have done otherwise, but I kept pressing on because I thought if I kept going, it'd get easier. That was completely incorrect. It actually got harder and harder until I reached the end. Thankfully two women were hanging around at the top and confirmed that I wasn't where I thought I was. Unfortunately, I had to turn back, and I knew it would be even harder to go down that it was to go up. But at least I knew I was past the halfway point.

Even though it was a very stressful hike, the scenery was really stunning.

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There are some pretty flippant reviews about this trail and I think it's because people think this is the end.

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That's incorrect. I would have thought so as well, but I didn't think I'd see the an end to the trail, so I pressed on. To get up, I climbed the rocks (yellow highlight) and later on I came down via a weird muddy waterfall thing (red line) that thankfully had tons of roots.

How I got past this part

So without meaning to, I climbed all the way to the top of Table Mountain, and I will never ever do it again.

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Today"s awesome hike, 3.31 miles in 3:29, 7,109 steps, 614ft gain
3.31 miles in 3:29, 7,109 steps, 614ft gain

To get an idea how hard this hike really was for me, note that I was only able to go a mile an hour. That's a third of my typical speed. The scariest parts of the hike are ones I was definitely not going to get any photos of because I was climbing up scary switchbacks, holding onto the wall. Awful.

I'd say I don't need to go back at all, but I want to actually do the trail I meant to do sometime. There's a condo to rent that I have my eye on that's a lot closer, and close to the last bar/restaurant on the road that leads out there, so I could probably have a much nicer time without so much driving around.

At least I got another selfie for the contest in Kendall on my way back.

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I was originally going to follow Highway 9 all the way back to Everett once I got on it because I've been up and down I-5 so many times. It was scenic and fun for a while, but it took longer than I thought it would, so when I saw a sign for a road over to I-5, I took it. And groaned when I saw it was still another 29 miles to Everett.

It was a very hot day so I really just wanted to get a pizza at White Buffalo to bring home and have a couple of drinks while they made it, but their parking lot was completely full. Turns out a football game was on, and even our neighborhood joint (the Clubhouse) was packed. I got a spot at the bar, though, and had a burger and fries off their special game day menu. I also ordered teriyaki chicken wings, thinking I'd be able to eat everything, but the wings came home with me.

Exhausted, I spent the rest of the day sitting in front of the air conditioner watching TV and drinking Fresquilas. Garrett wasn't due home until the next day, so I missed him, but otherwise it was so great to be back.

Sunday I had my first epsom salt bath ever, and also took the first bath anyone's had in this house in over two years. We had breakfast with Bev and Dennis, then my old friend Paul came over and we took him for lunch at the Clubhouse, then downtown to see the AIDS memorial next to city hall. He's a longtime activist and his current gig is helping make a new memorial happen, and he wanted to see Everett's. We also went to the Chuck Close exhibit at Schack Art Center, which was absolutely amazing. Like, worth a drive up to Everett if you live in Seattle amazing.

The obligatory picture of Bella from Sunday at breakfast.

Hi Bella

Shuffle on

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Not too much to say about yesterday. Zoey was at the seating area by the front desk making sure everything was running smoothly.

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I did my hour treading water, then spent a long time in the hot tub, which I don't normally do. I was pretty sore from Saturday's hike and it felt great. I might have stayed in even longer than I did, but it started to cool down. Not just from heat escaping, but I could actually feel colder water coming into the hot tub. Guess the thermostat is pretty strtict.



Here's a cool picture from Sunday. We were by the county courthouse to see the AIDS memorial in the background, but in the same courtyard is this memorial for workers who have died in the workplace.

Workers Memorial

Sam was sitting in the right spot to pose with me, but was of course an uncooperative model.



This morning I decided to go to the beach instead of the gulch because I wasn't in the mood for any climbing yet. The sky was really interesting because there was just enough space below the cloud cover to see a bit of the sunrise.

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I was a little bummed because my mp3 player played one song, then died. Turns out when I stopped using it on my way down the mountain Saturday, I didn't turn it off. It kept playing until the battery died, and when I turned it on today, there was just enough juice to play one track. So I downloaded Pandora, signed in, and played the Information Society radio station. It was weird to hear commercials during my walk. It's also weird that the music didn't show up in my Snapchat videos, since streaming music is supposed to if you play it while you snap. I also worried the whole time about dropping my phone since I had to take the case off for the earbuds to fit into the jack. No such disasters occurred, though.

Seeing this made me sort of wish I'd done the climb after all, since it may have been foggy up there. But then again, sometimes fog can't really penetrate the woods.

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Really cool branches twisting through the fence at the train station.

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Not sure if this is USS John C. Stennis but I know that one has been around here recently. I've never seen an aircraft carrier from this beach before.

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More awesome partial sunrise views.

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I guess since we don't have a lot of rocks suitable for stacking, the thing to do at this beach is build stuff out of driftwood.

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Lots of heron sightings this morning.

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And I got to see a seagull dropping a clam or something to smash it open!



Today"s awesome walk, 5.43 miles in 2 hours, 11,684 steps
5.43 miles in 2 hours, 11,684 steps

I wasn't able to go as far South as I have been lately due to the higher tide, but that's fine because I got to see more of the sunrise. Currently I'm just hoping that our new chest freezer is delivered soon, because I'd like to go out for lunch and go to the grocery store, but don't want to leave until it gets here.

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What a day

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Went to WinCo after my swim with big plans, because of this beauty.

New chest freezer

I've been wanting an extra freezer basically forever. It would have been really handy back when I was making half my meals vegan and low sodium and freezing 5-7 portions of everything I made. There's just two of us here so leftovers are always in play. And I'd love to be able to take more advantages of deals I find, and cut down on trips for things I buy all the time. Today, for example, I bought 24 bagels to slice and freeze. I also blended up two bunches of cilantro in olive oil to freeze for use later, plus a jar of chopped ginger to make into cubes. These aren't ingredients I use often, so getting some to have in the freezer will be nice. I had a jar of ginger in the fridge I barely made a dent in before it got moldy.

And now for the gross part of the day.



Normally I put the cats upstairs while I'm down here in the morning. Sam was here when I started the Roomba, and I was going to let him stay, but he kept pushing the curtain open and letting the sunlight in. I took him upstairs. He got revenge.

Roomba vs. cat poop

It's funny that articles about Roombas making a mess of pet poop were making the rounds this week and it finally happened to us. That spot is between two chairs upstairs and just beyond is a pretty big area of light carpet that somehow stayed quite poop-free even though it's clear Rhonda (the Roomba) went all over the room. She's not even supposed to clean in there, but that gap is too far from the electronic wall that we use to keep her out. There's normally a stool there that we use as a makeshift table and overflow seating, but I've been using that to stop Rhonda from getting stuck under the chair on the left. A TV tray blocks the one on the right. And now I need a third thing to help keep her out of the room. Anyway, there's just one small spot in the corner across the room with a second poop smear and I can't believe it.

The rest of the stuff I had to clean got progressively harder. Carpet's not easy, but cleaning the entry by hand and then mopping it was even worse.

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And then of course is Rhonda herself.

Roomba vs. cat poop

I took the rollers out and washed those, along with the dust catcher and filter. I may have ruined the dust catcher as I noticed after I got started that it has an electric motor, but it needed the washing, so be it. I'll replace it if I have to. The rest got a good initial scrubbing and is sitting out on the deck airing out. I looked at some instructions online for taking a Roomba apart completely for cleaning and am not sure if I'm willing to do that. Last time I tried anything like that was when I attempted to replace the keyboard on my phone because it was reflective and hard to read, and I ended up destroying the phone.

I ended up eating lunch pretty late because I wanted to finish cleaning up the poop mess, then shower. Trust me, I wasn't super hungry.

EDIT: I'd like to amend this post to acknowledge the very real possibility that Sam used the litter box and had a hard time, leading to some trailing behind him on the way out, which he would have removed by scooting on the floor. He's old and it's been known to happen from time to time.

Gulch groove

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Today was my first walk with a climb since the big hike on Saturday. Seemed smart to give myself a break and ease into it, so I did a pretty simple climb up, along the tracks like I started doing when the center trail got too muddy last winter. From the top, I entered the Eastern trail and followed it just far enough to exit via the access roads. That took me by this pond. Thankfully there didn't seem to be a mosquito issue.

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Instead of immediately cutting over to the next access road via the steep trail I usually follow, I decided to walk up the hill next to it. I couldn't get too far due to spiky vines, but at least I got to see this.

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The light was really stunning as I arrived at the long access road.

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Just beyond the end of that is where the Paine Field runway lights start, and I can't believe I never noticed until today that you can just walk right up to them and climb up. I didn't do that. I'll certainly wander around somewhere too early and stuff like that, but I won't climb something when it's clear I wouldn't be allowed. It's strange, though, stuff like that usually has a fence with a locked gate.

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I was surprised to see the creek was completely dry in the upper area. I stood in it to take this picture in a spot I've never seen without at least a couple of millimeters of water.

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I was about to walk up to the scary swing near there, when I noticed I had company.



He came down the hill toward me and I didn't care to see whether he was friendly.

Today"s awesome walk, 4.14 miles in 1:44, 10,424 steps, 402ft gain
4.14 miles in 1:44, 10,424 steps, 402ft gain

I'm happy to report that I got a really big order in my shop today. Someone wanted all this!

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I only had one terrarium assembled so I had to make another. Then I decided to be smart and assemble the rest I had onhand so I could choose the best two to send. Plus there's always the chance the glue wouldn't work well, and if one were to come apart tomorrow when I check them, I'll have backups. Shortly after, I had an inquiry about my hanging vases, but she was interested in using them for bridesmaid bouquets, so I sent her the link to buy just the vases if she doesn't want air plants as well.


SchadenFriday

Well, that was interesting

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I pulled up to the dock this morning to pick Melissa up for a walk. It'd been a while since I'd done a Grand Avenue/Waterfront loop, so I figured I may as well show her another nice walk available to her that she doesn't even need a car for. Although I like to start at the park up the hill. After a couple of minutes without seeing her, I texted. She replied saying she was in a pickle, because there was a seal on the dock that didn't want her coming close, so she couldn't get past. Here's the photo she texted me.

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I was sitting in a no-parking area and Port staff pulled up to see what I was doing. I explained the situation and he had me pull my car over, then opened the dock gate for me.

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This poor woman on the right was almost two hours late because the seal just wouldn't budge.

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Melissa called the port to ask for assistance, but said I should go ahead and leave since there was no saying how long it would take. The guy came up just as I left, and I realized it might be taken care of pretty quickly at that point, so I turned the car around to come back. I hadn't brought my mp3 player and didn't want to walk alone without the music. And I was right! Melissa and the other woman emerged just before I pulled up, so Melissa joined me after all.

We managed to spot four entries for the selfie contest!

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They announced today that there's only two weeks left in the contest , and I'm a little relieved.

Today"s awesome walk, 5.28 miles in 1:38, 11,057 steps, 199ft gain
5.28 miles in 1:38, 11,057 steps, 199ft gain

It's air plant bath day! I've shipped out a dozen and two died, so there aren't nearly as many right now. But that's fine, I ordered 25 more.

Bath day! I"ve shipped a dozen since the last photo and a couple died, but that"s ok. 25 more are on the way.

Today was a good day for a Snapchat export and thankfully I was under 20 snaps and was able to.


CATURDAY

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RIP Azrael, 1998-2016







































































































































































BONUS Saturdogs


























Janet taunts Steve

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This went on longer than you see here. I didn't save and convert the three middle Snapchat videos where Janet rolls around mocking Steve relentlessly.


Sunday surprise

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The sky was mostly clear as I pulled up to the island today, except for a few cloudy stripes that kind of looked like smoke from a distant fire. I was really surprised to find fog rolling in from the East, and clouds everywhere by the time I left. There were more people there than I've seen in a long time, too; four guys on bikes, one of whom parked his for a loop around the island on foot, a guy walking three dogs, and two groups of people launching boats. Oh and two people went by on kayaks. Crazy! When I was on the new, elevated trail, the guy who walked the loop came by on his bike and mentioned there was an article about the work being done in the area, but it looks like everything it mentions is North of where we were, and that the new elevated trail is just to reduce the likelihood of flooding.



I took far too many to show them all here, go over to flickr if you'd like to see more.

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upload

Today"s awesome walk, 6.73 miles in 2:31, 15,811 steps
6.73 miles in 2:31, 15,811 steps

Also got two more photos for the contest.

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And I'm happy to report that green onions really do grow back if you put the roots in some water.

Regrowing green onions












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