Fun, full, fabulous Fourth of July weekend.

On Friday all four of us packed ourselves into ramonarjona's minivan and schlepped on down to Tacoma for the Tall Ships Festival. Our girls were faaaaaairly well-behaved, but their stamina cannot compare to that of Ramon's daughter, who is five, so we all left a bit earlier than they might have liked if left to themselves. But on the bright side, there were pictures of the two older girls standing inside a cedar canoe.


Awesome.

Our whole family packed up mid-day today and schlepped on down to Seattle's Folklife Festival, in the company of aawhitewood. There we rendezvoused with ramonarjona and daughter, and spent a fun yet exhausting few hours rediscovering what music is all about.

Apparently it is about battling HORDES OF PEOPLE just to walk ten feet. Seriously, there were so many people there. I didn't even know Seattle has that many people.

The hypermuffin kept trying to run, but there was no room. All the vast, wide open swards of green, and the walkways and the fountains and the boulevards and the verges, were covered, every inch, with people. She and aawhitewood headed off on their own for an hour or so, and he later reported that by the end, she just looked so beaten down by her inability to vent off steam the way she needed to. (But she did home in on cotton candy and demand that he buy her some. Where did she hear about cotton candy? We've never given it to her before. Did she get this from one of her children's books? See, this is the problem with reading! :-)

So then ramonarjona brought us into the Seattle Children's Museum (thanks!), and all of a sudden, the hypermuffin could RUN. She proceeded to work herself up into an absolute froth of activity: activity the likes of which I have never really seen from her, and if you know her, you will know that is saying something. She was bright red from exertion and sticky with sweat, even in the air conditioning, as she karoomed back and forth from wall to wall like an electron excited beyond the bounds of the laws of physics. I caught her a few times and tried to hold her still and calm her down, but she was vibrating too fast to even hear me, I think -- like in old episodes of "Star Trek" where half the cast is out of phase with the others and so they can't even communicate. That's how far gone she was. It was truly amazing and not a little scary.

I saw her go down a slide face-first so quickly that she almost flipped herself forward and vaulted over her own chin. That's one of the times I grabbed her to try to slow her down.

While all this was going on, the wren, loosed at last from the prison of the stroller, was happily (and peacefully!) exploring all the fun educational toys. I can't wait until she's old enough to help me look after her older sister. :-|

There was something of a meltdown when it came time to leave, but finally we managed to get everyone home. (Except Andrew, of course, who had walked to work from the Seattle Center for his usual Saturday night shift.) Amazingly, neither girl napped for me -- they both bulled straight through to bedtime. This kind of thing is why I have gray hairs now.

After they were both finally down for the night, I headed down to the basement to take part in tatterdamelion's "Valeland" game. This session had only three players: me, aawhitewood, and limbsmith. I almost fell asleep, but large amounts of coffee -- and a climactic battle -- kept me (mostly) awake. The shots of Kahlua and Bailey's in my coffee, however, have now helped me decide that yes, it really is time to sleep. Past time.

I look forward to future years when I will be able to attend festivals to actually listen to music.

I did get introduced to a new band, however: "Bad Mitten." I even have a cute little CD of theirs in a smooth cardboard sleeve with a pretty picture on the front, so I can keep the Folklife feeling going for the next few weeks.

And if I want to really remember what Folklife was like this year, I can always rev the hypermuffin up on cotton candy, crack, speed, meth, and ecstacy all at once, then put her between the tines of a giant tuning fork and hit it repeatedly until she is quivering with such rapidity that she heats up the air around her, and then let her loose inside a frictionless room, and see if she can actually break the sound barrier all by herself. 

Andrew took yesterday off work, and aawhitewood and Tom came over last night to babysit so that we could go out and have dinner on our fifth anniversary.

Five years! It seems to have gone by extremely quickly -- probably because of the two Special Projects that have been taking up all our time recently.

aawhitewood came over today and babysat BOTH girls for SIX hours, which totals up to approximately 12,000 karma points, give or take a few. (Side note: Why don't you switch to username "councillour"? I bet more people would look for you under that nom de plume.)

I dressed up more than might be strictly appropriate for a Sunday brunch date with my very own husband. Sometimes it's fun to dress up in pretty swirly dresses and nice shoes!

A busy weekend, filled with food, friends, and fun!

Friday night was Andrew's "Harmonium" game, which was seriously short on players -- still, the three people who showed up kicked some major butt in a big battle, and no one died (well, no good guys died, anyway).

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tatterdamelion babysat for me last night, allowing me to go out and enjoy a truly amazing time at The Can-Can's second anniversary bash. The Can-Can is a dinner theater / burlesque experience tucked away down a short flight of stairs from the flower shop at the corner of 1st and Pike downtown.

The opening act was Vince Mira, formerly known as "Juanny Cash," a 15-year old prodigy. To look at, he's a young kid with a guitar. To listen to, he is Johnny Cash. He treated us to 6 or 7 Cash songs and one of his own, and my jaw remained ajar through pretty much the entire set, because he is amazing.

Then it was time for The Castaways, a six-person troupe of dancers and aerialists. I've seen precisely one show of this kind before, at Teatro Zinzanni several years ago, and at that, I was seated pretty far away from the stage. Last night, I was seated mere feet from the stage; close enough to worry that if one of the aerialists lost control while swinging around with immense, controlled kinetic energy, he or she would crush me like an overripe grape.

I feel unable to summarize the experience, except to say that it was freaking amazing and I'm so happy I got to go. :-)

Last night, ramonarjona and I went to the last-ever qualifying Seattle Spelling Bee at the Re-bar before the final contest in April. He provided moral support (and beer) as I attempted to spell my way to glory.

I choked early on "propagate," believe it or not -- I blame stage fright. By the next round I had a beer in me and was much happier to get up and spell "knickknack" (I asked if there was a punctuation mark in there, because my instinct is to hyphenate that, but they said no), and then "chirr." Easy!

Round three was my undoing. First they hit me with a Gaelic word: something like "uiquiseagh" -- I remember it started with a "u" and there was a "q" in there as well. Improbably, I got the first part right, but failed to divine the magical "eagh" ending from the pronunciation. Curse you, Gaels!

Then they followed it up with "desinence," which I got wrong by one letter, thus striking out and retreating to my table in ignominious shame. (I-G-N-O-M-I-N-I-O-U-S, ignominious. Why couldn't they have given me that one??)

Some of the words in the later tie-breaking round were crazy-hard. As I looked around the room at lots and lots of people with glasses, wearing sensible plaid shirts and polar fleeces, or even a suit in one case, many sporting graying hair, I realized that what I like to do for fun may be a bit... outré. (O-U-T-R-E, outré.)

Still, I enjoyed trying to spell my way out of a wet paper bag. :-)

Another long stint of babysitting from aawhitewood today, allowing Andrew and me to go bowling at the Sunset Bowl with ramonarjona and his family and friends... some of them, anyway. I really enjoyed myself, and it's too bad the Sunset is closing and being turned into condos. Or apartments. It hardly matters -- bowling will be gone and I hate that.

One nice thing about this activity, as a getting-to-know-you type of thing, is that everyone's name is up there on the screen. So useful when meeting 10 new people at once!

I had a beer, even though it was only 11 AM, and bowled all of my frames and also all of Andrew's, because he is nice that way. As "myself" I scored 105 and got one strike, of which I am unreasonably proud, and as "Andrew" (or should I say, polytrypos) I scored 96.* Pretty good for someone who bowled once last October (hi autumnbottom! hi scifisy! And yes, at this point I am just trying to see how many LJ usernames I can work into the post, because they are pretty and blue and bold!), but before that stopped bowling 12 or 13 years ago. :-)

* OK, honesty compels me to admit that we were using gutter guards. Sigh.

Then pizza at Zeek's, then shopping at Gary's Games, where Andrew bought many used $5 books which he had originally passed over when they were $35 or $40. Then he read me ridiculously pretentious quotations from "Immortal" as we drove to Northgate. Then we walked around Northgate talking about important things like Life and Kids getting a phone that can send text messages. Then I dropped him at work, and came home and compared experiences with aawhitewood (his babysitting experience this time apparently included a distressing amount of poop from both the wren and the hypermuffin. Ha, another LJ username!).

Life. Am. Good!

aawhitewood came over and babysat tonight, allowing me to go out amuse myself. Hooray! I don't get to to this nearly often enough -- although aawhitewood is planning to rectify that.


A night out by myself every so often: Just what the doctor ordered.

Lots and lots of fun the past two nights at various par-tays.

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This morning so far: Baked French Toast, bacon and eggs and coffee.

And now I hear the girls waking up, so it's time to put on my mom hat.

FACT 1: My company Christmas party is this Thursday at the Lake Union Crew Rowing Club. I don't believe we'll be, you know, rowing or anything. I think we'll be wearing nice clothes and milling around enjoying canapes and the open bar.

Two years ago I stunned everyone by showing up looking greater than they'd ever thought I could look. A sad testament to the usual drabness of my office attire, I fear. Still, I enjoyed the glamourous feeling so much that I am tempted to try to outdo myself this year.

I have a red plaid party dress I bought over the summer that I have never worn, but I have no shoes to go with it. Sadness!

I'm not at the level of some people at our company, who have been worrying about what to wear for awhile and who were apparently considering all showing up in matching colors. Yeesh. Still, I would like to put my best foot forward, just to prove that even a 30-something mom of two can look smokin' when she feels like it. ;-)

FACT 2: Some friends are hosting a Yule vigil, starting at sundown on Friday and going all night, until the sun comes up Saturday. I am seriously considering swinging by for a few hours after the girls go to bed Friday night; Andrew will be running his "Harmonium" game, but I can duck out of that without much trauma.

People who hold Yule vigils are, as a rule, non-conformist and anti-establishment and just interesting to hang out with. More materially, they almost always have extensive liquor collections, and it's pretty much my sworn duty to go investigate that to the full extent of my investigatory ability.

I turn to you for help, O Internets! What should I weeeeeeeeeeear to my various functions???

Poll #1107243 Help Catherine Look Fab
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

What should Catherine wear to the company party?

OK, now what should Catherine wear for the Yule thingie?

OK. So today was the day I would feel Pretty and Pampered, courtesy of the lovely, gracious, and far-more-experienced-in-the-ways-of-glamour autumnbottom. She came over to pick me up, and spontaneously volunteered to help assemble the wren's "new" crib upstairs (oddly enough she and scifisy had set it up for me the first time, back in June of 2005!). And then, flushed with accomplishment (or maybe that was just me), we betook ourselves to the nearest Vietnamese nail salon.

This place was very authentic. Cheesy, fingernail-centric photographs adorned the walls -- including one amazingly cheesy picture of someone's be-taloned hands holding -- I kid you not -- a submachine gun. Because nothing says "tough as nails" like a woman with 6-inch long claws and a Kalishnikov.

There was a little mini-shrine by the front door, offering the resident gods of prosperity the usual offerings -- whole heads of sprouting garlic, whole persimmons and apples, sticks of incense (unlit), five little cups of water all in a row, someone's half-finished iced latte (really! -- the gods must like coffee!), and what appeared to be a little to-go cup of tartar sauce. The gods must also like fish sticks, I guess? I almost went into Comparative Religion, so I eat that stuff up with a spoon. (And coincidentally, a plastic spoon was still sitting in the plastic cup of leftover iced latte.)

And for a time, all was well.

Andrew's uncle Phil, Phil's daughter Meredith, and her two children are all up visiting Seattle. This morning they came by our house for "the tour" and photos on the couch (which can be seen here). Then we all headed down to Mae's Phinney Ridge Cafe, directly south of us, for a filling and delicious breakfast (thanks to autumnbottom for the tip!). We were served by Mae herself, and I believe that Meredith even got some pictures of her before they left (I was outside with a fussing baby). 

To burn off the kids' energy, we walked north a few blocks to a small, fenced-in playground attached to the Phinney Neighborhood Association. hypermuffin ran around like crazy and went up and down the slides so quickly the rest of us could barely keep track of her, while Meredith's kids practiced cartwheels and I attempted to remember the rules to hopscotch. (It's been awhile, OK?)

We went our separate ways before my girls melted down completely. The "word on the street" is that the four guests to our fair city then went on to visit Woodland Park Zoo, and then headed downtown to the REI flagship store, home of one of the world's largest indoor rock climbing facilities. Tomorrow night they'll be staying at Edward and Charlotte's palatial compound, Roe Landing, near Silverdale.

Jen took my entire "team" out to lunch -- paid for by the company, no less -- to celebrate what amazing work we did in October. She chose Andaluca, a rather posh place in downtown Seattle.

One thing about working with computers all day is that you never know when another e-mail will come in, and so you end up at your desk constantly, feeling that if you step away for even one! second!, you will miss responding to some vital issue. This symbiosis with one's computer fosters twitchiness, an over-reliance on coffee, and a vastly inflated sense of the importance of the average business e-mail. It also makes it so difficult to step away from the desk and get out and do something, like have lunch. Usually I eat lunch at the desk, hunched over the keyboard, obsessively toggling between my 5 applications and monitoring e-mails as they come in. The average e-mail lasts only a few seconds in my inbox before it is deleted or flagged for later response. Good grief -- that's no way to live.

At Andaluca, they don't huddle over computer monitors, eating substandard food without really tasting it. No, at Andaluca they know how to live -- or at least, they know how to feed you, which is practically the same thing.



The food was simply amazing, and the experienced lasted a long, long time. Our reservation was at 11:30, and we only got back to the office at 1:40 or so -- just long enough for me to start twitching as I tore through all my e-mails before leaving at 2:00.

Last night, I met up with some of the other moms from my old PEPS group for a "girls' night out."


It's nice to do this kind of thing once in awhile! :-)

(No, it's not a new version of "Rock, Paper, Scissors...")

Last night I ate a bowl of chili WITH BEANS IN IT. The sheer stupidity of doing this boggles my mind even now. WHAT was I THINKING?? The gassy bits of the beans are no problem for me, with my grown-up system, but they pass directly through my milk to the wren. Who proceeded to wake up, crying in pain, EVERY HOUR last night.

Andrew's going to have to eat the rest of that chili. It's good, but not worth waking up at 11. And 12. And 1:30, and 2:30, and 3:30, and 4:00, and 5:00, and 6:00. I actually started crying at 6 AM as I realized I had to get up for work in half an hour anyway...

So at work today I was a walking zombie, despite vast amounts of caffeine. Nikki and Jen convinced me to stop staring at my screen with dead eyes and actually leave the office to have lunch in the International District. We ate at the Uwajimaya Food Court, and Nikki bought a green coconut and some weird lychee-like fruits, and Pocky. There was much, much Pocky bought -- "Men's Pocky," chocolate mousse Pocky (huh?), almond-coated Pocky, dark chocolate Pocky.

Mmmm. Pocky.

(Side note: I saw a purse in an International District shop window with the Pocky logo as its pattern. I don't have the type of wardrobe that would make such a purse work... nevertheless, I so wanted it!!!)

And tomorrow, we're going to pack up the girls and go to the Japanese Gardens at the Seattle Arboretum (affectionately nicknamed "The Arb"), again with Nikki and Jen. I'm really looking forward to it. I was at the Japanese Gardens once, I think, just after we moved to Seattle, but I was by myself and lonely at the time. It will be great to go again with two daughters and a husband and a couple of friends. Definitely won't be lonely this time.

And now... to bed.

Last night, Andrew and I took the wren and went out to dinner for my birthday at Anthony's Home Port (the Shilshole Bay location).

Neither one of us had ever been there before; it was recommended by autumnbottom. Not terribly coincidentally, she and scifisy came over to babysit the hypermuffin while we were out carousing. (Thanks again!)

The location, right on the water, is stunning, and the food was really excellent. It's strawberry season right now, and there's a huge bowl of fresh, locally grown strawberries in the lobby area, small and tender, and so ripe they're almost falling apart. Just picking one up stains your fingers a luscious red.

I'm pretty sure that every seat in the whole place has a stunning view. While watching the boats sailing by, the mountains peeking through the clouds, and the sun glittering off the water, I enjoyed:

I bet I am the only person who has ever had dinner at Anthony's while nursing a newborn AND wearing a tiara. (g)

Last night Andrew and I went out to dinner for our fourth anniversary. Technically our anniversary is tomorrow, but we're busy tomorrow with different things, so we celebrated early.

aawhitewood graciously agreed to babysit while we were gone, despite such minor inconveniences as the weather turning bizarrely cold, me not telling him what time to show up, and the very real danger that the hypermuffin would be a complete and total poopy mess. (A fear which, sadly, was more than realized.)

After much hesitation and many recommendations from friends, and much eyeing of the weather to see if we might want to walk around part of Greenlake beforehand (answer: No), we ended up at Kasbah Authentic Moroccan Restaurant. This is a smallish brick building with no windows. When you walk in, you see shimmering gauze veils draped from the ceiling beneath colorful pendant lights, ornately carved screens and "doo-hickeys" (it's a technical term), patterned hangings on the walls, and other pieces of ambience.

We were seated at a "table" which was really a very large round brass dish placed on a set of four wooden legs and flanked by a cushioned seat and a big poofy cylinder-shaped beanbag on the other side. Andrew tried the beanbag at first, but was quickly told that he would be more comfortable sitting next to me on the actual seat. :-)  It's definitely only big enough for two people if those two people are OK with eating the meal in close proximity to each other... which we were.

The waiters "took charge," telling us things like "Now we wash our hands" as they poured warm water out of a big brass water-pourer-out-of thingie into a smaller brass thingie. They also directed us to drape large towels over our laps, because eating with fingers would be messy.

We got to choose our entree, but the other four courses were pre-set...

We're having autumnbottom and scifisy over for dinner and fun tonight, and then hosting Andrew's game tomorrow night. April, here we come!

Tonight Andrew and I are having a big night on the town before the baby comes in June... we're going out to see "Camelot" at the Fifth Avenue Theater.

I'll drive down there and meet Andrew at his office, and then we'll go to that fancy sushi / seafood place "Todai" for dinner -- we already have reservations. (Yes, I know pregnant women can't eat raw fish, but they have cooked fish there too!)

Then we'll head to the theater, which is this gorgeous, overwrought, baroque tribute to a 1920s idea of Chinese decoration. (http://www.5thavenue.org/)

This is the first time he and I have done anything quite this fancy. We're dressing up. We even splurged and bought middle-tier tickets. *shock*

(Now I just have to figure out what to wear...)

Vivian is pretty much back to normal -- yesterday she was running, jumping, climbing, and playing, and didn't need any Tylenol. Her appetite is normal and she doesn't have any problem pooping, that's for sure. :-/   So we feel that it'll be fine to leave her with our friend aawhitewood while we go out to disport ourselves amidst the nightlife of downtown Seattle.