Author: Rachel

So, this whole leaf thing is getting ridiculous. I go to upload my pictures for the day and it’s just leaves after more leaves. Maybe tomorrow I’ll purposely put it in my task list to do something different.

In other news, I am turning into a hermit. And sooper-sekritly relishing it. To further hermitude, I came home and fired up a 1969 British documentary on Western Civilization (ahem, called Civilisation) for background noise.

Traca led us through the ID this afternoon. We started at Kau Kau for the crispy and bbq pork, then walked through Maynard Alley over to Duk Li for dim sum. I was game to try the chicken feet but I started to bite into one, realized I was at a knuckle and said, uuummm ok, that’s all! Yep. I chickened out.

At Duk Li, my favorite dishes were the pork humbow and the garlic & ginger stuffed rolls. At Kau Kau, I was in love with the garlic shrimp.

Overall, an excellent afternoon — got to meet up with people I’ve dined with before and met a few new adventuresome folk.

Strangely, no pictures yesterday. Which is too bad, as I had a great photo-worthy evening with Amy in the Georgetown neighborhood, with patrons in weird hats and random pugs jumping onto my bench inside the restaurant. We’d met up at Jules Mae’s to discuss a book we both read and this turned into five hours of talking which ended only after we’d both been standing for two more hours outside of our cars. It was great to catch up.

Today, I ran errands in Snohomish County and grabbed more leaf pictures. Here in evergreen land, fall colors aren’t typically exceptionally vibrant. Not so this year. I hear our luck is due to cooler temps and less rain for October. I’ll take it. This is my favorite part of Fall.

I have a few days off and spent some time today in the backyard — this is the neighbor’s. I love the red leaves amidst the green.

Tonight, I met up with Mr. T and his colleagues at the Fremont Ballroom. I asked his boss (a fellow Francophile) about the status of their Paris office. Darnitall, not quite ready for expansion in the land of cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

Tonight was another bowling adventure. I scored 109, aw yeah. Any time I break 100 is a good night.

Next door to the alley is the Seattle Temple. Once upon a time in another life, I went to church in the affiliated building right behind it, when I was living in Issaquah, the next I-90 exit over.

I had an early college roommate whose Dad was this temple’s president, always a prestigious appointment. Thanks to her father having been a former mission prez in Switzerland, she was fluent in French. She helped me keep up mah skillz. She was one of the first people I knew well from the Pacific Northwest and the first Seattle diehard ambassador I’d met. Except she was really from Tacoma, but it’s all the same neighborhood. Right? Just like this temple in Bellevue’s the official Seattle one.

I wish I could remember Susan’s last name as the last I knew of her, she was married with a little girl & doing French grad work at UBC-Victoria. I bet she’s still kickin it around here.

Tonight, we caught up with trivia again. Truth be told, it was ridiculous. It was good to see Carey, Kate, and moto again, though. And to meet a few folks.

We still placed 2nd out of maybe 10 teams? Or more? The place was busy.

…has arrived in Fremont.

I first noticed him walking up 34th near Phinney the other day, looming over by the Canal. While wandering the hood, I also noticed that that new-ish Fremont party venue west of Phinney on 35th is having some sort of Boo Extravaganza on Halloween night.
This is the view on the corner of Brouwer’s:

I’ve been fence-sitting about which picture to post: flowers? the yard? I went with the leveled garden. Mr. T does all things properly and here is more evidence. He removed all the remnants of Summer this afternoon and planted seed to replenish nutrients. But not before I harvest this on Saturday:

This is only about a quarter of the green tomatoes, which we’d left on the vine for as long as possible. Tonight, I made a Green Tomato & Zucchini Feta Gratin from a Seattle Times article. The caramelized onions make the dish.

The ol’ gang gathered at Celeste & Ian’s for the housewarming-birthday party. We played live-action Clue, with a brief intermission by a barbershop quartet to serenade Celeste.

I didn’t go in with a competitive spirit to solve the mystery of who killed Celeste, but about 15 minutes before the end while I lounged on the chaise with moto, Ian asked me, “So you’ve solved it right?” Surprised, I replied, “Whot? What would make you think that?” He flipped back, “I’ve met you.” Yeah, we used to live together back in one of my heydays (and still consider him a big brother), so yeah, he has a good read despite my best attempts to suppress Type A tendencies. I decided to deliver to meet expectations and knew I was close. I ran upstairs to accuse and won, barely beating out Jeremy. (It was Summer in the Powder Room with Blue Cheese.)

This is later, post-Clue. I can’t remember what the inspiration was here for our resident Alien’s anger, but I imagine someone suggested that a Republican might win on November 4. (Moto’s bday — take note!)

More from the party here.

I seem to be into the totes lately. And I don’t even carry one to the grocery. (Don’t rat me out to the local granolas s.v.p.) This is Celeste’s latest.

Motomotoyama and I met up with Celeste and Ian at Luisa’s while they ate dinner, I indulged in churros, and moto had margaritas. We retired to C&I’s house where we madlibbed for a few hours. Tomorrow’s the big housewarming/birthday party!

As I heard of friends overseas receiving ballots weeks ago, I wondered when we’d get ours here at home. Honestly, I was getting worried and wondered what the procedure would be to vote if it never arrived. I’m relieved.

While running errands on Queen Anne in early evening, I decided to pause long enough to catch the tree that caught my eye.

For dinner, we had our first soup of the Fall — Creamy Potato. Mr. T is a fan of the spud and had had a long day with the house project situation. Sidebar: If you feel the urge to paint newly-reconstructed eaves, call me!

Our roof is still not done. Shoot me now.

For bookclub, we met on the Eastside this month at Phil’s — we had a full house. I wanted to visit more with friends after the discussion as moto and I normally do, but dems da breaks with carpooling. Next time. I’d also been pushing to extend it into some sort of game night and move it to Saturday. In the end, we stuck with the Sunday tradition.

Months ago, someone suggested Twilight for bookclub. I’d never heard of Stephanie Meyer. That night, someone else took the book home and read all ~500 pages in a day or so. Then others jumped on the bandwagon and along came the big PR push of late summer for Meyer’s 4th novel in the series. All of a sudden Twilight was everywhere.

I predict this will be my only Meyer read. I wasn’t outright apathetic, but I wasn’t spurred on to finish until the deadline, AKA 3 AM Saturday night. Sure, we might read the second a few months down the line, but I’ll peruse wikipedia for plot synopsis and discussion highlights. It wasn’t bad. I’m envious if you found it a page-turner. I want one o’ them for myself.

This afternoon, I hit up Target. I seem to have no self-control with that place lately. In the Halloween section, I decided I needed a seasonal tote, for I don’t know what. One that lights up when you hit the button, or shift the contents inside. Fun! I brought it home. It’s so understated bedazzley, non?

We also watched Superbad tonight. Ugh. Kids these days.

Y’all I am just exhausted this week, despite sleeping plenty.

I took this on my way home. I planned to lay around and do much of nothing all night, but motomotoyama called me with conspiracy to stalk her sister, Ian & co, until she gained admittance so we could all hang out at their place where the XBox and gear’s all set up already. Then we would descend to play Rock Band 2. I signed onto the plan which panned out. Good times.

Today, we learned a two-day job was going to turn into at least three and a half due to some unforeseen discoveries. And that, my friends, is why I said “no fixer-uppers” when we were house-hunting two years ago. Every house comes with its own projects as it is. Old houses stayed in the running as long as someone else started and mostly finished. AND GOT THE PERMITS. (I was gonna start on a rant here regarding the DIY trend of recent years and what I think it will entail, but I’ll spare you.) I got enough going on, I don’t want to project manage my living space.

We lucked out with competent contractors for this project.

Two years after we move in, we got our house-hunting wishlist item: the 2nd bathroom! I keeeed, I keeed.. The roof guys arrived today and tore off the old roof. Maybe two roofs, I do not know the progress report. I believe this means tomorrow is Happy New Roof Day.

This reminds me, I’m going to have to start prioritizing my snapshotting earlier in the day, what with these earlier sunsets.

Mr. T and I get to spend a whole lot of cash money this week on a new roof. They start tomorrow. Tonight, while I was attending to other obligations, he took down all our pictures. The walls, so bare.

I realized later today that all that anxiety from the week subsided as we met up with the entourage in Portland yesterday. So glad they were there. You’ll see a lot of those Real Runners using marathons as a metaphor for life and most essential of their platitudes is to have your own cheering section. Indeed. Special shout-outs to those who came along — sprizee, her dude, Mr./Mrs. Toad, Celeste & Ian, and my Mr. T. Your presence was priceless. I cannot thank you enough.

In the weeks before, I got countless crazy looks with comments along the lines of “I have never had that urge.” Never say that to a first-timer. You’re not helping. I mostly understand as I’ve thought that once upon a time myself. What led me to such a crazy idea of 26.2 miles? Well, about 8 years ago, I lost nearly a third of my body weight, partially due to running. I’d never run a full mile, even as a child, until I was 23. A year or two in, my motivation waned. I have never considered myself an athletic person. It’s a means to an end. I noticed if I signed up for 5K races, and later half-marathons, I’d practice and the rest fell into place. I also didn’t have to go hungry nearly as much. This is essential. I see her all the time; my inner fat girl is DYING to get out and take over the eating situations. Yes, I identified with Monica on Friends.

In April, I ran my 3rd half-marathon with a gaggle of pals on Whidbey. That was a great time, but the ending felt incomplete despite that fun finish with Uncle Tom cheering me to the end like a maniac. I knew it was time to step it up, but I had an upcoming surgery. For a month, I couldn’t work out under doctor’s orders and was stunned at the anxiety issues that surfaced. When the waiting period was up, I began training for the marathon. Signing up mentally, following a prescribed plan — that gets me out the door. It’ll get me up at 6 AM to run for 5 solid hours after I pay $100 for the privilege.

This morning, I was in the lobby at a quarter to start time where Mr. and Mrs. Toad saw me off before they headed back for Seattle. It took less than five minutes to get to the starting line. I stayed remarkably calm, despite the fact that waiting gives me time to think about what’s ahead, which = anxiety. Who needs to think? I’d rather just plug into the Shuffle, sing along with Walk Like an Egyptian (thanks, Debi!!) and maybe some Livin on a Prayer, then put one foot in front of the other until the end.

I started with the 4:30 group as there was some weird crowding near the 5:00 wave. We crossed the start 10 minutes after the gun after waiting for the faster groups to move ahead. I ran with 4:30 til nearly mile 18. Impressive, considering I thought it could take as long as 6 hours to finish, given my final practice run. It also rained HARD for an hour, despite the announcer saying in 20+ years, the most rain they had was scant. He paraphrased, “Let’s hope in this case, history is prologue.”

At the expo yesterday, I’d picked up a 5:00 pacing wristband and told the guy it was overly optimistic. I was thrilled I was hitting marks with time to spare. My energy was great through mile 13 and I was buoyed by my unexpected speed through the teens. Then, mile 17 hit with its big incline to St. John’s Bridge. I ran most of it, singing along silently to ol’ Eminem, and know people were bemoaning the hill, but I couldn’t hear much over my music in the solid rain. Somewhere between 18-20, my hands started swelling up. Real bad. I twittered, “Hey dr. Google why are my hands swelling Mile 21.” Ask and ye shall receive the advice to drink more. I did and it worked. Miles 23-26 were decidedly more upbeat than 19-22. The texts during those later miles were a boost, too.

I saw my people two blocks from the finish, yay. I crossed as U2’s In God’s Country started. I love that song. I finished in a little over 5 hours. Then I wandered the finishers area dazedly, navigating that final gauntlet of medal, pin, fruit section (took a pass), Creamsicle (NomNomNom), tree sapling (this is hippie-land Left Coast, after all), Finisher shirt, then the reunion area where my people awaited. I skipped the official portrait with my sapling as the lines were long and I figured I could ask sprizee if I really wanted it later. 🙂

Celeste and Ian offered to get me a pedi-cab, but I thought the wind-down walk to the hotel would be good. I was halfheartedly wishing for it in the final block.

We lunched at Kenny and Zuke’s Deli (NomNomNom – squared). I realized I’d die if I walked much more, so we drove home. I napped til Seattle. It was delicious.