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BONUS Saturdogs

Many thanks to:
Animals Being Dicks
Señor Gif
k00l 4 k@+z
Almost Famous Cats
Cats, Beavers & Ducks
Derpy Cats
FAT CATS
FUCKYEAHFELINES!
CHEEZburger
Every Day is Caturday
Cats and Dogs
And everyone else who happened to put a cat or dog where I ended up seeing it this week!

For the last few years, our July 4th party has been pretty stressful because the Arlington Fly-in is always the weekend after the 4th of July. Garrett's always very busy with that, so devoting a few days to a party has a huge impact. And it really does take a few days. The day before is cooking and cleaning, the day of is the setup and the party itself, and the day after is cleanup and recovery. I've been asking to move our party ever since the first one. Almost everyone has July 4th plans anyway, so in addition to it being less stressful for us, it made it possible for more people to come.

August 4th happened to be a Saturday this year, and a perfect theme fell into my lap.

Of course, I took a few liberties. It basically became a Jeff Goldblum party with a few aliens. Here's this year's prize table. I added a small fondue set that wasn't taken last year after I took this, but nobody took it this year either!

Detail of the bigger framed art, the first prizes to be snatched up. My coworker who lives about a mile from here has two daughters who are obsessed with Jeff Goldblum right now.

I originally planned to completely cover our spinning lawn decor with Jeff and alien heads, but decided one row of flower petals on one was enough, mainly because I couldn't find the box of paper clips I bought to attach them with. That left a lot of extra heads, which came in handy when I noticed a bunch of cat claw marks on the wall below the bathroom window. You know how cats push away from the wall as they come down to make some room for their back legs? Yeah.

The lighting above the mirror got the same treatment.

Strangely enough, one of the Fly-in volunteers who came to the party knows a friend of mine from high school and college! I of course had to take a photo to send to her.

The inspirational message I left on both bathroom mirrors.

A poster I made with The Rasterbator for outside.

And finally, my outfit. I love putting together a terrible outfit to wear exactly once for a party. This year's was pretty expensive, so I'm sending this and a few other things to a friend who's a cosplayer and can make good use of it.

I wanted to draw some attention to Fuego Cocktail Lounge because it's a nice little bar in downtown Everett and as far as I know is currently the only place to dance at all now that the gay bar is gone. They posted about this hot wing challenge on their Facebook and I thought that'd make a great episode of Live in Everett TV.

We did it a few weeks ago, but they're a couple of weeks ahead in their production schedule, so it came out Monday.

That was quite an experience. Thankfully it wasn't a crying-while-nose-runs kind of hot, but I certainly felt as though time was speeding up and that I might not make it. One of those scary "am I about to have a coughing fit?" moments made a nice new profile picture.

And of course I had to get a screenshot of this.

Live in Everett is now on Patreon and I'm an upper-level patron, of course. Please consider throwing a few dollars a month their way if you use Patreon!

Garrett goes to the Abbotsford Airshow every year and a few years ago I realized I should also do stuff that same weekend. Two years ago, I rented a tiny house and attempted to hike the Chain Lakes Loop trail at Mt. Baker.

By "attempted" I mean I took a wrong turn and accidentally climbed Table Mountain instead. Still a great hike and still awesome views, but I pressed on much further than I would have if I knew where I was. Since I thought I was on the loop, I thought I should keep going, so I kept climbing until the end.

Last year I got a tiny condo much closer to Mt. Baker. In fact, it was across the parking lot from the last restaurant on the road that leads there. That time, I found the trail, but didn't last too long thanks to wildfire smoke.

Managed to at least get a nice time lapse from a spot at the parking lot without the camera getting swiped.

That brings us to this year and this week. My only walk since Thursday was yesterday and my right ankle is very sore and stiff now.

I can never resist posing with stuff like this.

I don't know if I'll walk tomorrow, but I have an early physical therapy appointment in the morning, and leave for my condo on Friday. This time I rented it for two nights because I always have hated having to go straight home after a hike because I'd already checked out. The plan this time was to enjoy the pool and hot tub for a while and then go out to dinner because I have another full night. But now, I'm not attempting the Chain Lakes Loop. It's eight miles and I haven't come anywhere close to that in a while, and a remote mountain trail definitely isn't the place to push it.

There's a short little hike I can try near my condo so I'll bring my stuff, but I think I'll do that really early and spend some time exploring the area. I've been looking at real estate listings up there for a while and have been amazed at the opportunities, but photos online can only show so much. I'll probably also pop by a casino and check out some restaurants. It's a little disappointing that I can't do what I originally set out to, but at least I've got the weekend to enjoy and have some fun.

BONUS Saturdogs

Many thanks to:
Animals Being Dicks
Señor Gif
k00l 4 k@+z
Almost Famous Cats
Cats, Beavers & Ducks
Derpy Cats
FAT CATS
FUCKYEAHFELINES!
CHEEZburger
Every Day is Caturday
Cats and Dogs
And everyone else who happened to put a cat or dog where I ended up seeing it this week!

If there's one thing a cat owner can count on, it's someone getting in the way when they try to pack for a trip.

I like to jump on the road as soon as I can wrap work up and eat lunch somewhere I've never been. This year it was Nutty's Junkyard Grill. I didn't read up much about it and wouldn't have gone on such a hot day if I knew it was an open air establishment. Friday's weather definitely called for air conditioning. It was hinted that I should write about them, so I'll definitely go back some time when I feel like doing something up North and it's nicer out. At least I got to see an awesome penny floor in their bathroom.

Moviepass is pissing me off. While it was my choice to see the new Mission: Impossible movie in 3D on Thursday because the time worked for me and 3D is never offered, they're really screwing around with what's available. On Thursday, I ended up doing that because they decided not to offer any of the first showings of the day for all theaters in Marysville, Everett, and Lynnwood. On Friday, I needed to kill time before checking in to the condo so I wanted to see The Spy Who Dumped Me in Bellingham. I unfortunately didn't turn off Highway 9 as soon as I should have and the next way over made me arrive at 3:09 for a 3:00 show. No longer in the app since it was past the start time, which we all know is 20 minutes before the movie really starts. So I paid full price for that one as well as The Meg the next day, because only a couple of movies at a 16-screen theater were in the app. Slender Man on two screens and I think Eighth Grade several hours later than I wanted.

If I hadn't paid for a year in advance I'd cancel my membership now. Since it's prepaid, I guess I'll see what happens.

After The Spy Who Dumped Me (which is great!) I drove straight out to Snowater. When the receptionist at the front office mentioned the heat, I finally realized that I did it to myself again. I'm always traveling in August to places with no air conditioning! It was hot in the condo but not unbearably so. Thankfully I found a box fan in the bedroom closet and with that on a chair pointed at me in bed, I slept fine later on.

Once I got settled in and knew what I needed (something for dinner and creamer for my morning coffee) I drove back out to one of the markets up the road. It was tempting to go out to eat, but I knew I'd be spending a lot of time in the car and a lot of money the rest of the weekend, so I just picked up a frozen sandwich, a bag of salad, a bottle of wine, and some mini peanut butter cups. Bagged salads can be split up as long as you don't toss the whole thing all at once.

The complex has two pools, and the one at the clubhouse is adults only from 8pm-10pm, so I headed over a little after 8:00. That rule is on the website but isn't posted anywhere at the building, so it ended up being me and a family of 3. I wasn't about to tell them they couldn't be there, and it worked out anyway because another rule that's not on the website but is on the wall is that nobody is supposed to swim or use the jacuzzi alone. If it weren't for them being there, I'd be SOL.

It was nice to be in a pool deep enough to tread water for the first time since I joined the Y, but it was also very late, so I didn't stay too long. I wanted a real swim the next morning, so I got up and headed to the Bellingham YMCA. I don't feel like retyping, so here's what I said about that in an email.

The trip to the Y was a silly adventure. The dude who processed my "away membership" forgot to give me the little thing that you scan to get into the men's locker room and forgot to tell me about it at all. But there were some changing rooms by the pool and I figured I'd just swim and head out until I started noticing people appearing from a back stairwell. So after I was done I went up there but could only find a women's room, a boys' locker room, and a girls' locker room, plus a carpeted hallway. So I asked the lifeguard what was up and he told me there's a big locker room with sauna and steam upstairs and to stop by the front desk for the key to that.

The Bellingham Y is in an old hotel and they ended up having to build a maze to get everything to fit. It was nice to be in a deep pool for the first time in a couple of months, though.

After that, I went to the casino to kill time playing slots and then had lunch at an amazing restaurant I spotted on the drive to the casino. Vietnamese pizza!

Bellingham is gorgeous but I was in the car most of the time. Here's the view from a park where I stopped for a few minutes waiting for the restaurant to open.

After browsing through a large antique mall across the street, I went back to Glacier, got another sandwich to go with the other half of the salad, and spent the evening watching DVDs from the rental's library. The TV was an old, small TV/DVD combo with no remote control, so I watched things I've already seen like American Beauty and parts of Reality Bites and Singles.

Seeing Singles again was a little heavy. I was obsessed with Seattle from the first time I saw it, moved there as soon as I could, and went through a lot in my 15 years there. Now I pretty much don't care if I ever go back, so it's weird to see one of the many artifacts that started me on the journey. Nostalgia's a bitch.

True to form, I woke up Sunday at 4:05 with no alarm. I decided if there was a vending machine for park passes I'd get a day pass and do some of the small, easy trail up the road. There was, so I did!

I did 2.3 miles total and my feet felt really great afterward. I've been pretty consistent with the PT but I think the main contributor to the overall good state was the terrain. There were hills, and I don't do much uphill or downhill lately. That great feeling continued through yesterday, which is when my last PT appointment was. I walked out with a couple of new exercises to progress to, as well as the last color of resistance band to complete my collection. Blue, the highest level.

My physical therapist said my calves had never felt so good, but that was because the last part of my little vacation was a body scrub and massage at the Korean spa. I cut it quite close, calling them to make an appointment from Arlington and learning I had pretty much exactly the same amount of time to get there as what it would take to get there. I normally wouldn't have taken the freeway the whole way, but there was no time to spare. They want you there half an hour beforehand so you can soak first, and I only had 20 minutes of soak time so I spent it in the hottest of the tubs.

My right foot's a little stiff after this morning's walk at the marina, but that's not the reason I wish I didn't go. The wildfire smoke is terrible today and I'm not feeling so great now. At least I got some eerie pictures.

BONUS Saturdogs

Many thanks to:
Animals Being Dicks
Señor Gif
k00l 4 k@+z
Almost Famous Cats
Cats, Beavers & Ducks
Derpy Cats
FAT CATS
FUCKYEAHFELINES!
CHEEZburger
Every Day is Caturday
Cats and Dogs
And everyone else who happened to put a cat or dog where I ended up seeing it this week!

Yesterday was so great! My old friend Traci came to see a concert in Seattle tonight and is staying with my other friend Lisa, her half sister. They came to Everett first thing yesterday and I drove us all to Langus Riverfront Park and Spencer Island, where we walked five miles in the fog. And thankfully it was actually fog, as the air quality has been so bad that it was my first walk since Monday. While we were there I discovered that the center area they've been digging out to become a salmon habitat is now flooded! It was weird to see water where roads used to be, and it'll be interesting to see if it stays flooded year round. If so, I'll definitely miss the land, it was a lot of fun exploring it this year.

Traci and Lisa got a treat, there were tons of really neat spiderwebs made visible by the fog.

Lots of heron sightings, too.

One of the oddest pieces of litter I've found. I picked it up to throw away. Of course, I forgot it in my hoodie pocket and carried it around for way too long.

After the walk, I drove them around a bit on the way home. Howarth Park beach, the site where our new airport will be, Mukilteo, Forest Park, and then finally back home. They caught up with Garrett while I showered and then we all went for brunch. After that, we tried to stop by the Funko block party, but all we really wanted to do there was see the store, and the line to get in was way too long. So, back to the car, and off to the Fresh Paint arts festival with a stop at Bluewater Organic Distillery on the way. Both were very nice.

I definitely like when a busy day like that is on Saturday, it's pretty great to still have all day Sunday to hang out at home.

BONUS Saturdogs

Many thanks to:
Animals Being Dicks
Señor Gif
k00l 4 k@+z
Almost Famous Cats
Cats, Beavers & Ducks
Derpy Cats
FAT CATS
FUCKYEAHFELINES!
CHEEZburger
Every Day is Caturday
Cats and Dogs
And everyone else who happened to put a cat or dog where I ended up seeing it this week!

I may have mentioned that the timing of yesterday's tattoo appointment couldn't have worked out any better as my local Y branch is closed for eight days starting Monday. It'll take at least that long before my back is healed and I can go back in the water. Hopefully we'll get some good air quality days during the week so I can get out and walk.

I missed my last chance to go before the closure because I decided to check out the one in Mill Creek yesterday on my way down to Mountlake Terrace to feed my friend Mike's dogs and let them out into the back yard for a bit. I've now been to five of my six Snohomish County YMCAs as well as the one in Bellingham, and of all those, Mill Creek is my least favorite. It's another one with a three-foot-deep pool, the hot tub was barely warm, and there's no sauna or steam. The locker room and showers were quite small as well.

It's all a bit surprising because of all these places, Mill Creek is the fanciest and most expensive. One would think their Y would reflect the local economy a bit more. But maybe that's exactly the issue. The membership rates are expensive because the money is used to fund programs for less fortunate people, so maybe they didn't invest much because there are fewer of those people to serve there.

Yesterday's tattoo session was a lot better than my last one. I brought pillows in case he wanted me laying down face down again, but instead he had me sit on the table. I had to lean way forward while he worked on my lower back so the skin was stretched tight, and the pillow definitely helped with that. It's a good thing I'm able to sit with my legs completely horizontal, one on top of the other, or else the circulation issues would have impacted me way more than they did.

I don't have a photo I'm ready to share yet, but I'm happy to report that we added the outline of a DeLorean at the small of my back which will be the lowest part of the piece. We also filled in the black parts between the stripes of the sun between the keytars, as well as the silhouettes of the palm trees in front of it. Heavy blackwork is pretty brutal to heal, so we decided to stop there rather than color in the sun. The next session will be to do those colors and perhaps color in the car.

A new thing I'm doing is surrounding myself with representations of expensive things I'd like to have but don't really need. I love DeLoreans but I don't really see the point in owning one, so why not get a tattoo? I also miss having a full-size Tron arcade game, but I don't see the point in owning an arcade cabinet for one game any more, so I got a big refrigerator magnet shaped like one.

And the central part of my back tattoo will represent the theme bar I'd love to run but have always said I wouldn't start unless I win the lottery. And let's be honest, if I actually won, would I still want to start and run a business? I might change my tune pretty quickly about all that hard work if I never actually had to work again.

Maybe I'd just hire really great managers and impose my creative control over the place while they do all the real work.

I noticed BreezoMeter was listing "moderate air quality" for a bit yesterday morning so I geared up and made a run for the marina. It was nice to get out.

https://instagram.com/p/BnBzeWNAzVk

I got an email recently from Live in Everett asking what I thought about several ideas they had for me to write about, and ended up with a couple of assignments. One's food related, just have to make the trip out there to check the place out. I was completely prepared for the other, a series of pieces about places to walk and hike around Everett! I chose Japanese Gulch first, which should come as no surprise.

It was really quite easy to sit and write that piece the same day, since all I had to do was type out a lot of the things I think about when I'm there. The harder part was choosing which photos to share from my huge album.

I told them it's a lot easier for me to write stuff than it is to decide what to write about, so I'm glad to be tasked with a series that'll net me several pieces.

BONUS Saturdogs

Many thanks to:
Animals Being Dicks
Señor Gif
k00l 4 k@+z
Almost Famous Cats
Cats, Beavers & Ducks
Derpy Cats
FAT CATS
FUCKYEAHFELINES!
CHEEZburger
Every Day is Caturday
Cats and Dogs
And everyone else who happened to put a cat or dog where I ended up seeing it this week!

The air quality was only "moderate" according to the app yesterday, but I needed to get out, so I did a quick 4.3 miles at Edgewater. In addition to the normal stuff, I also got to see a pair of swimming corgis, and even met them when I went in the car to retrieve the time lapse camera and stretch.

The best part, though, was getting rained on a little bit. It hasn't rained nearly enough lately.

Plus later on, I noticed that the Japanese Gulch Group saw my post about the gulch and shared it on their Facebook and Twitter. That was cool.

https://instagram.com/p/BnKNXoIgdWs

I love a holiday weekend with just enough stuff to do.

We had plans for a party on Saturday and thankfully when my brother's daughter who came for a visit suggested getting together, the host said it was ok to invite them along. The party even happened to be about halfway between our respective homes! My pinwheels were a hit. I think everyone should make signs when they bring stuff for a potluck.

A rare photo of my brother and quick video of Teddy the dog from the party.

https://instagram.com/p/BnNBl85AMg4

Sunday morning was gorgeous out at Langus. Versions of some of these photos got a lot of attention on the cloud group I'm ad admin of.

https://instagram.com/p/BnOvG11APVD

Monday was a nice walk at Japanese Gulch. I didn't take a lot of photos but the time lapse with the view of the Boeing plant is pretty neat. I also started experimenting with overhead panoramas, which are extremely difficult.

https://instagram.com/p/BnRT2m3gW3U

It's sure hard to find a brunch on a Monday holiday. The only places to go are the ones that do breakfast food every day, and we didn't feel like any of those, so we settled on lunch at Scuttlebutt. Garrett had a craving for oyster crackers, so I took him on his first trip to a Cash & Carry, which if you aren't familiar, is a restaurant supply store. They're fun, but of course the quantities are large and you can't really buy most of the stuff unless you're obsessed with it or actually own a restaurant. We won't run out of oyster crackers for a while.

BONUS Saturdogs

Many thanks to:
Animals Being Dicks
Señor Gif
k00l 4 k@+z
Almost Famous Cats
Cats, Beavers & Ducks
Derpy Cats
FAT CATS
FUCKYEAHFELINES!
CHEEZburger
Every Day is Caturday
Cats and Dogs
And everyone else who happened to put a cat or dog where I ended up seeing it this week!

The first really dark walk at any destination each year is always weird. It happens every year, of course, but there's just no preparing for the sudden onset. Especially this year because as I pulled into the park on Sunday, a car was pulling out, and two more were parked between my parking spot and the place where the trail heading North splits from the main road. I still didn't run into anyone during the walk, but the entire time on the way heading out, I felt like I might.

I recently mentioned that the large loop trail around the area they've been digging out to be a salmon spawning habitat was getting smaller. The West side of the loop got a fence with a No Trespassing sign, and this trip out I was shocked to find the East end of the road is now gone. That's not an exaggeration at all. There were two backhoes on the road and they'd been recently used to dig out the road. I quit sharing the maps ages ago, but here's an easy way to show what's become of the large loop.

You used to be able to walk all the way up to the slough, plus explore all the land in the middle. I used to think I was going there too much, but now I'm glad I explored all of that while I could!

The good thing with this change is all the beautiful reflections on the new bodies of water.

And it remains the best spot for pictures of the sky.

https://instagram.com/p/Bngw3omARQK

We went to Harvey's for breakfast after and were delighted to find a new build-your-own bloody Mary bar! My favorite part was the hard boiled eggs in vinegar. I joked that one could easily skip ordering breakfast as there's plenty of food to put in your drinks.

New build-your-own bloody Mary bar at Harvey's

I did a lot last Friday that I haven't blogged about yet, because I wanted the Live in Everett blog post about it to come out first. If you know the way I write and you've been paying attention to actual events, you might spot immediately that the intro was edited quite heavily. I suppose that's always an issue when you're writing for another publication. Even though I've come to expect it since the latest editor took over, it's still a bit of a bummer, mainly because whenever anyone tells me they like what I write, they always say it's because of my simple style and personal stories. When my comic failures as a hiker get cut out and I sound better at it than I really am, it just feels like a little bit of that gets lost.

The bright side is that the next piece I need to write isn't one I connected with very much, but now I don't feel as obligated to try to start off with that, so that makes it a little easier to plan.