Raincharm’s Weblog

I had a long weekend. It was grey almost the entire time, and raining for much of the time. To be clear, it only rained some of the time, the rest of the time it was a nice Seattle drizzle.

Friday I got to join Carl at his job. Dean and I joined Carl at the zoo. We saw the penguins, and a play area, and a food court area where we were the only non-workers in the place, and the workers were busy transforming it into a fundraising event. Not much zoo sights.

In more holiday news, we did lights. On the house and along walks. A wander through Candy Cane Lane, and the Green Lake Luminaria. Most of these walks were damp.

And a few new baby pictures.

Did anyone else notice that any pictures with Corwin crying also include Rey?

I had my yearly grapefruit for breakfast this morning.

We don’t buy them because Carl can’t eat them due to medication interactions. But a consultant from work normally has a box delivered and I take one of those home. I do enjoy the grapefruit, but feel like I should have a splashguard! Always have to clean my glasses afterwards. Maybe when I’m rich I will hire someone to prepare my fruit. Peel me a grapefruit, Charles.

And in other news, Corwin continues to be amazingly cute.

Happy first birthday as a mother.

Have a wonderful, happy day.

Carl is enough over his cold to take a bit of a walk. We had signed up for a holo-lens experience, so the 3 mile walk to Mohai fit the bill. Things were generally good, chilly but dry.

And full of detours. There is a major road renovation including a bridge, so changing the route was required. And the re-route was to a road with even more construction. So crossing back and forth the road occurred. We wonder if someone has a game going to figure how many detours will be followed before the people revolt.

Bonus of the detour was following some routes we hadn’t traveled before.

Art work on a Fred Hutchinson Center hill climb

I think the i-beams in the road are part of the bridge reconstruction.

And because I have them, some new pictures.

After a layoff of several weeks for a myriad of reasons, we are carpooling again, at least for a few days. The normal schedule differences will still be with us, but we’re all in the same city. The seasonal darkness also seems to play with traffic, so having an opportunity to use a carpool lane can pay benefits.

That said, I will be returning to Seattle from work on my own today. My big project of the last two years is hitting one of the final milestones, going through a committee at the county, that will recommend the County Council approve our Water Comprehensive Plan, my big project. I don’t expect anything major to come up this afternoon, although I did have to provide one last piece for them last week. I have managed about 7 other plans through this process over the last 30+ years. This committee meeting has not always been a fun experience. There were grilling sessions, and confrontational moments. This time nothing is expected. Better plans, a committee that is not trying to overstep their jurisdiction, and the person currently in charge does a great job.

On the home front, we are starting to think about Thanksgiving. We don’t know whether we are on our own, or having 2 to 5 house guests. And traditional or non-traditional main course. My only concern is the food shopping. I am considering the farmer’s market, so I need to know the lay of the land before Saturday morning.

Dream of the day night.

Carl goes into a coffee shop. He then realizes he has his CPAP mask on. And Max Scherzer and his family were also in the coffee shop. Carl then gets into the Scherzer’s huge van, with all of the Scherzer brood. And Rey is driving. They leave, and for some reason, have to keep avoiding accidents.

My anaylsis of the dream is sleep deprivation, baseball and family, larger families.

And from that analysis, I am going to share a few pictures from a newly larger, sleep deprived family, who occassionally attend baseball games.

A sort of amusing start to the day.

I am working today, and so is Carl (schools are off). As I approached the freeway I glanced at the speedometer and realized I was going over 70! Many thoughts simultaneously: Slow down, traffic is lighter than usual, everyone is driving fast, merge safely. This was followed quickly by the realization that the speedometer was in km/hr, not mph! At that moment brief panic. Very brief, because I know that 60 mph is about 100 km/hr, and I can work off of that fact (thank you driving a fair amount in Canada). And just drive with the rest of the traffic, follow their lead. And as the sky brightened, I was finally able to see where the button was to change back to mph.

A brief, and in the end, amusing interlude.

Seattle Sounders are the 2019 MLS champions. Almost 70,000 fans were in the stadium.And more were downtown. We has our own veiwing party at home.It was fun, nail-biting at times, and satisfying in the end.And for the picture of my day, Rey and Corwin

Arriving almost a month early, but looking awesome

Corwin!

Of course, when the news was trying to be spread, I was sequestered in a windowless, locked room, looking at 29 year old files. And I didn’t tell anybody where I was going. So, Ashlan got to hear the news first.

In my defense, I don’t normally carry my phone around with me at work. Only if I am expecting a call. And I wasn’t expecting because they weren’t supposed to be expecting for another month.

So happy! I actually found out from Carl, who assumed I already knew.

The Huskies were in town yesterday and the sun was shining, so we took a wander that carried us past the stadium.

The crowd

We heard a touchdown being scored while we encountered the various modes of transportation used to reach the venue.

The buses

The boats

I didn’t get a picture of all of the bicycles, or the crowd control set up for the light rail. In the end the Huskies lost, and we got a 5 mile walk.

We did not repeat the venture with today’s Seahawks game. They won in overtime. Instead we puttered around the house with a very short outing.

Next weekend it will be the Sounders turn to fill a stadium for theMLS final against Toronto. They are expecting almost 70,000 for the game. encourage winning, we will not be in attendance, but will be hosting a viewing party.

In honor of the fall we also revived a favorite recipe from last year, delicata squash with madras lentils. And it was really good, even though we forgot the parmesan cheese.