Technology is an amazing thing...when it's working, when you don't forget it somewhere. Sitting at my computer, IMing back and forth with Saamanta, we were agoniz
ing over the fact that 3 o'clock wasn't coming as fast as we liked. We had big plans to drive to Seattle and 'paint the town' as they say, or used to anyway. Margaret's company likes to send her places and this week happened to be within driving distance of yours truly! Saamanta wanted to visit her sister and friends in the area so we found ourselves squirming in our seats biting the bit wanting to hit the road before Friday rush hour clogs the road from Mexico to Canada. Throwing what I could in a bag, Saamanta waiting on my porch, we finally hit the road. Hitting the carpool lane, we sped past the parking lot through Portland and Van
couver, stories flew by like the country side. I straightened my hair, we stopped for gas and a Mocha Perk, with visions of pizza and beer to come...then we hit Tacoma. SCREECH!!! putt putt putt, 5 mph, we are NEVER going to get there!!! We were both so glad we were stuck in traffic together instead of by ourselves. We found some good tunes on her ipod and enjoyed the unique city scape. First stop, Stellar Pizza with her friends in an ol
d industrial section of town. It was a birthday party for a girl named JoJo. I met a bunch of people and remembered maybe 4 names. Margaret got off work around 7pm and called me for the address, plugged it in her garmen and promptly got lost. She called me to get unlost and said, "the lady is telling me to go straight but there is a fence!" I handed her to a person with an iPhone who knows the area better. LOL!!! After a bit of back and forth, I eventually stood on the side walk, just in case and there she was! We were both very excited. After some REALLY good cheesy garlic bread and salad, Margaret gave us a key to her room and directions and went home to bed. Saamanta's friends were a lot of fun and it made me miss my girlfriends back home. There was a lot of reminiscing and catching up and giggling over old antics. We crawled into Margaret's King size bed around 2am.
Good morning sunny Seattle!!! Saamanta and I woke up LATE! She had a hair appointment so off she went and I struck out to find black gold. It was a chilly beautiful morning, I enjoyed a bit of coffee and Pride and Prejudice before the day got started. A
fterwards, Saamanta and I (and her hair dresser) walked down to Pikes Place for lunch and met up with Margaret and her senior Jennifer. We had just ordered some Russian pies when Margaret ran past me down the street with her camera up trying to catch a picture of a mounted policeman...it was hilarious!!! Wait, do I know her? Do I want to know her? After introductions and a farewell to the hairdresser, we went into pikes for the best fish and chips EVER. Saamanta took off to meet up with a friend and the rest of us perused the isles of colorful produce, and artisan crafts. I showed them the layers of shops below and the infamous post alley gum wall. We walked back to the hotel, stopping at Ross, for a "quick" shopping detour. They were raising money for the heart association and all over the store with each transaction announced another dollar raised, please yell 'whoo! hoo!' Jennifer was trying
to reserve and orchestrate a dinner at the space needle fo
r all the KMPG Alaskans in the Seattle area that evening. It was hilarious! Eventually we made it back to the hotel for a short nap=get ready for a night out. we ordered a cab and went to the top where the spinning restaurant gave us a 360 degree of the city at night. Margaret and I shared a salad, shrimp cocktail and the king crab. 4 of her co-workers met us there for dinner, one of them being a cute guy from Montana named Collin. After dinner we went to the top of the space needle o
nly to find out that Jennifer was scared of heights and Amy had fallen 300 ft higher than the
space needle with a defunct parachute during a stint in the military and was there to tell us all about it...after we were on the ground of course for Jennifer's sake! We wanted to go out for after dinner cocktails but Amy and Mark insisted on walking
up to Capitol Hill (unbeknown to us, lacking in bars but full of gay clubs). Margaret and Jennifer caught a taxi home. I remember some snogging and loosing my credit card but lets just skip to Sunday...
Found my car
d!!!! I had left it at the space needle when paying the bill. We started with crepes from Pikes Place (fantastic!) They are huge, if you can share, DO! Then we walked back to the space needle to recover my card. Found a photo booth and after passing the second one figured it was a sign so we all crammed in and took some photos. We also found a rail car that ta
kes you from the space needle to down town 2 blocks from our hotel for two bucks! Arriving down town I discovered I had left my purse in the photo booth with my camera and phone in it! two bucks to get back and voila! It was still there! With everything in it! two bucks to get back and my feet still love
me. Margaret and I spent most of the rest of the day
shopping while the others watched the super bowl. We found some cute clothes and hot boots. Margaret totally made out but then come to find out her boots were two different sizes! Saamanta met back up with us and showed us some cool spots like in the Fremont area the troll under the bridge as seen in the movie 10 Things I Hate About You, and a park that overlooks Seattle at sunset. We went to pick up my bag and drop Moe off and back to Portland we went.
It almost felt surreal, like we had never even left. We found ourselves back at our computers, IMing each other, chatting about different events of the weekend, wondering when the next adventure would be...
m my parents. God's perfect timing. Every morning dad got up and took Buddy for a walk exploring the area, and mom put more and more clothes on. Saturday we went on my trek for the best waffles ever and mostly just enjoyed the sun. I had lots of plans and trashed them all because it was so nice and sunny we spent three days pulling ivy and black berry bushes, burning brush, rearranging flower beds and cleaning up the yard. We hung my lights and now I have a lit
tle bit of Italy in my back yard. I really wish it was just as warm! Dad re-vamped my bbq, mom showed me where plants were coming up. There was a pile of brush from last spring and we added just as much to the pile. Being a city I googled the rules for burning in ci
ty limits...you can't. But you can have a 2'x3' fire in a fire bowl with a fire extinquisher near by, Alaskan-Speak for go ahead!...so mom and dad got me one for my birthday and dad started chopping up the pile into little pieces and burned almost the entire thing!!! Now I have a beautiful yard to play and entertain in. Garretts and Verheydens and Nana came over Sunday to break it in. We had 
a fire pit, took walks, bbqed lunch, made home made ice cream, played Apples to Apples and had a grand ol time. Brenna made Uncle Paul an amazing brownie cake decorated with pansies for his birthday. I ignored my phone for 4 days and got a lot of rest and physically worked my body to permanent state of sorness! I'm ready, come what may...
