The Laursonian Institute

Snoqualmie Falls

Woke up this morning with a cold, for sure. I always seem to catch one when I’m traveling, though I’ve always blamed it on planes before. Oh well! Acquired some cold medicine this evening and I’m sure everything will be fine.

We spent most of the day hanging around the Snoqualmie Falls, which I haven’t been to in ages. It’s even better than I remembered! We got there fairly early, so it wasn’t as crowded as I was worried it would be for a gloriously sunny Sunday. We went and saw the falls from the observation deck, and had a very nice snuggle looking at the beautiful water and thinking about how this was my choice of location for a Seattle-area wedding. From the deck you could also see some folks down on the river bed, so we decided to grab lunch and then head down the path to the lower viewing deck and river walk.

Lunch was outstanding. We splurged and ate at the falls-adjacent Salish Lodge where we got a window seat at their bistro. I had salmon chowder, and Lewis had a mighty feast of local fruits, cheese, honey, berries, and nuts. I took a few pictures of that gourmet plate which I hopefully can put up later. Feeling full of nutritious goodies, we took the all-downhill trail to the riverbed and admired all the lovely forest plants and smells and sounds along the way. At the bottom there was a very silly crowd of college kids getting into two very unseaworthy-looking flotation devices which everyone sort of stared at for a bit. We did go down to the other observation deck, but it was a bit silly since it was so crowded and mostly people were just jumping the railing and heading out to the rocks we could see from above.

I wasn’t much feeling like clandestine rock jumping, so we headed back to the first beach spot and stuck our toes in the water for a bit. My goodness those mountain rivers are cold! After that was the all-up-hill climb back up, but it certainly seemed shorter than the other direction. Got to see lots more nice plants and forest things, and get ourselves the requisite silly magnet souvenirs at the gift shop before heading home via Snoqualmie proper and North Bend. Our route took us past a really gorgeous view of Mt. Si (I think) which I now have the itch to go visit again. I recall climbing up part of that mountain as a kid to visit a lookout deck (actually a fire tower) the forest service lets you climb up on. Maybe next trip. There’s also a great looking diner in North Bend we should hit up.

Came back to Lisa’s just in time for some delicious navy bean soup and salad and a really tasty home made carrot cake. My sister is an excellent cook, and all that smooth creaminess is just what my sore nose and throat wanted at the end of the day. As if that weren’t enough, Zen gave me a shoulder massage as part of his massage school practice hours and loosened up some of the massive knots I’ve been unable to get rid of since working at Ask. Feeling much better, and much relaxed after that!

Tomorrow, health depending, I’m headed down to Orting with Cerise to visit an old teacher of ours, and then we’re having dinner with Steeny. Should be another wonderful day! I’ve never had a Seattle trip so successful as this one. Yay!

September 7th, 2008 | Tags: hike, massage, river, sick, snoqualmie, vacation, waterfall | Category: life | Comments Off

Flowers at the Bellevue Botanical Garden

You can tell my vacation is going well when every post seems to start with a “Yay!”

Today was very chilled out, and we did lots of stuff I had never done before! We started out our day stopping by my sister’s to have a wee sconey breakfast before heading out to lunch with Valdito. Lisa was looking mighty tired, and seemed rather stressed out. It’s hard to know what you can say that will make her feel any better, but I hope she enjoyed having us over this morning, and that her day picked up from there. All this tea shop business can get a little trying and she’s such a trooper it’s always hard when you can see it’s finally starting to get to her.

Anyway, the lunch with Val was a bit awkward at first. I’ve never spent enough time with her husband to get to know him and the times I’ve met him over the years he’s always made a bad impression on me. This was by far the most time I’ve ever spent in close contact with him and I think it really paid off. By the end of our long day today he seemed to be loosening up and not being nearly so combative as when we first hang out. I think perhaps new people or old friends make him nervous; I know I am especially self-conscious when meeting Lewis’ old-timey friends.

So we kicked it off by going to a nice restaurant in cute downtown Issaquah, and then Val took us home to show off their wedding photos. It looks like they had a lovely time in Hawaii, and a lovely wedding, and I was definitely a bit sad that I didn’t have the opportunity to participate. But Val’s life is just how she wants it, and apparently how she wanted it was with only Kelly and her father by her side. I do wish them the best, retrospectively.

After that we took off for the Bellevue Botanical Gardens, which I had never been to. This surprises me a bit, given the field-trip-happy elementary school I went to fairly nearby, and the naturalist-type parents I had at the time. At any rate, the gardens are lovely, like a weensy Northwesty version of the Berkeley Botanical Gardens, and it was a very nice afternoon. I think we may have walked the whole park, and it took us through several wooded and open plains, and they seemed to have tons of fuchsia and hydrangea varieties.

I tried to follow Val’s directions to Lynnwood thereafter so we could go to P.F. Chang’s (where she had a mighty gift certificate to). I got supremely lost, but it turns out I got lost right at the mall. Lewis and I made three or four about-faces and ended up right at the point where we had decided we were lost in the first place. After eventually arriving at the Alderwood Mall we checked out the movie schedule and headed to dinner. Never ended up seeing the movie as I was hoping to get back to our hotel before it got too late so we could finally get some good sleep. And here we are – it’s 11:00 and I’m already back! Many sleeps to come.

All in all it was a relaxing and reassuring day. There were moments in there I was worried I’d never be able to enjoying seeing Val without Brian getting on my nerves, but that fear has abated. I also panicked about ever finding Lynnwood, but we made it there as well! A day of tiny triumphs, and entertaining experiences, and good company for sure.

September 6th, 2008 | Tags: bellevue, friends, gardens, issaquah, lynnwood, sister, vacation | Category: life | Comments Off

Lewis at Saltwater State Park

Another fantastic day in beautiful Seattle.

Got up fairly early (9ish) compared to our late evening last night. Went out to breakfast at an excellent spot my sister suggested to us in Ballard and had tasty pancakes. Both were sort of strange types – mine flat and crepe-like, but not crepe-y, and Lewis’ thick and fluffy sourdough! Mucho bueno. We also somehow ended up with enough breakfast for four people, so we’ve got some chilling in the fridge waiting for our next quiet morning. Not tomorrow though – we’re having breakfast at my sister’s!

After packing away some pancakes we headed over to Laura Bee to see if the bag that won my heart yesterday would fit my laptop. Unfortunately not, but in the end I’m sure it’s all for the best since I didn’t really need to be spending that money right now. Though I do want pretty much one of everything she sells. Then we put a little time in at the shop with Lisa and watched the beehive of activity that is her staff in stocking mode. It’s rather intimidating!

Since we were gonna spend the night watching movies with Steeny in Federal Way, we made our way down the south end before it got too late. We had a few hours to kill, so I took Lewis to Saltwater State Park, which was a blast! We did all the great Saltwater things – we picked blackberries, walked to the big cliff, poked around the tiny bit of tidal flats, flipped over rocks, caught tiny crabs, skipped rocks and even floated sticks in the stream! I was really pleased that my little crab beach was even more crab-iful than I remembered. We even found a few that were big enough I was scared to pick them up because I thought they might pinch me hard! There was one of those crabs with the one huge pincer (and one tiny one) as well – I hadn’t seen one of those on a Washington beach before. Very neat!

Movie night was as great as always. We did a little Will Farrell themed night – Anchorman and Talladega Nights, followed by a few shorts from his Best of SNL DVD. Mostly Steeny and I just caught up on folks we know, and the usual stuff. It’s always so heartwarming to chat with my Steen! Sounds like we’ll have a few chances to hang out again before I go home, and that’s great. Might even go to the zoo or the fair! What fun! But first, another great day planned tomorrow – meeting Val in Issaquah for lunch, and maybe blueberry picking before hand. Num.

September 5th, 2008 | Tags: ballard, crabs, federal way, friends, kent, pancakes, parks, seattle, vacation | Category: life | Comments Off

Gasworks Park

It’s been a few days since I’ve gotten to update, partially owing to our train having been old school enough to have no outlets to compute at, and also our days being rather travelly-long. Today was our first full day in Seattle, and it was most excellent!

We started off hanging out with my sister for a bit and trying out new baked goods she’s thinking of carrying in the store. We also got to see her new space! I’m really excited for her to work her magic on this, and to move in and all. I think with all the plans they have in mind, it’s going to be really beautiful when they’re done, and Lisa will have something to be really proud of. I sort of wish we had come up two months later to see all the finished product! It’ll certainly be a treat for next time, at any rate.

The afternoon was our pilgrimage to Ballard, since that’s where we needed to be to pick up our car anyway. After a very calm, very easy trip to Enterprise, we headed to main street Ballard and had some times. I love going to Sonic Boom here, since they have records I’ve been looking for in California with little to no success. It’s strange how productive the local scene can be here, and how distinct from elsewhere. I always feel a little like perhaps I’m crazy when I’m looking for stuff like “the band the 764-HERO guys were in before that band” when even Amoeba records doesn’t have a section for 764-HERO. Then I can walk into Sonic Boom and they’ve not only got a proper section (and signed 764-HERO poster on the wall!) but their info card tells me the names of the other bands with the same members in them, and even those bands have sections! Needless to say I’ve made a point now of coming to Sonic Boom every time I’m in town and going through the entire rock section by hand from A to Z. I bought several lovelies I’m very excited to check out!

We also went to Cupcake Royale and got a nice selection of comestibles to share with Lisa back at the store. On our way back to LIsa’s house we passed by Gasworks, which I suddenly realized I had to show Lewis!  We spent a few minutes walking about and it was wonderful as always.

Crashed a bit after that, so we ended up ordering delicious Chinese food in at her place before Lewis and I headed off to the Built to Spill show at the Showbox! It was really awesome to be back at the Showbox since it’s probably been five or six years since I last got a chance to go – and that was to see Elliott Smith, I think. Anyway, it’s always great to show Lewis another piece of my old life and live a little bit like I’m still in my glory days. Did see a few folks I recognized at the show, not to mention meeting up with Cerise! Cerise is the best. The show totally rocked, despite the crap-tastic second opening band (the first was alright), and I had an awesome time. Yay!

Now it’s almost 2 am and time for me to go to bed. I’ve got silly movies & pizza plans with Steeny tomorrow night, and before that Lewis and I are either going to head down to the Nisqually valley for a little nature walk, or we’ll go blueberry picking in Bellevue. Seattle! So great!

September 4th, 2008 | Tags: ballard, built to spill, concert, cupcakes, seattle, sonic boom, vacation | Category: life | Comments Off

Stalwart Elmside

Didn’t sleep well last night, the wind here was really howling. We have a very nice house for wind storms. Wind (and storms, together and separate) always keep me up at night. In LA it was never an issue for whatever reason. Cambridge had quite a lot of blustery nights, and being in an old creaky house surrounded by huge old trees (see illustration at right… trees not pictured).  I used to stay up all night listening to our house groan and those trees swaying and creaking.  The one solice I had there was that those trees were so old and our house had obviously been there long enough that it felt like nothing could really go that wrong or it would have done so long before we got there.

In El Cerrito we also had a fair amount of windy nights, and we were also in a bit of an old house.  The windows never sealed particularly well, so when the wind would come in off the Bay it would slip right through our West-facing window and rattle our blinds.  That was a surefire way to keep me up, but the plus side of both places was that we never really had any thunderstorms, and at worst we had wind blowing rain onto our windowpanes.  The new house seems to bypass all these problems.  New construction, well sealing windows, few tall trees.  So the wind blew pretty hard here tonight, and the worst we seem to get is that Davis has a lot of trees, generally speaking.  It’s loud, but not creaky.  And I’m not concerned anything is going to crash through the roof.  Though even then, we have quite an extensive attic, which makes me feel like we’ve got some cushion.  We do have one rather large palm tree on the side of our living room, but the landlords are having that chopped down fairly soon, so I don’t even really have that to bother about.

Anyway,  bad sleep always screws my day up, so I spent all day trying to catch up to myself it felt.  Did get a few things done;  we went to the Co-op and got the last of our supplies, and we also hit up the bookstore next door for some train reading.  The wind blew pretty steady all day as well – I couldn’t even top 9 mph on my bike going downhill off the overpass because we had such a serious headwind.  It was only 85 or so today though, which was a really nice break from the steady over-90 we’ve had since we moved here.  I don’t expect anything different from Davis, but a breath of relatively cool air is always welcome.  Oh, and I got laundry done!  It’s pretty fantastic to be able to do laundry while doing other stuff as well so it feels like I’m not wasting my day, even though it takes me at least twice as long as going to the laundromat.

Tomorrow all we’ve got to do is pack and get this place ready for Ben, who is really nicely going to house-sit for us.  May mow the lawn as well.  At any rate, I don’t expect the train until midnight-ish, so we’ve got plenty of time to get ourselves sorted tomorrow.  I really am looking forward to the trip, though I feel like I’m only seeing dollar signs at the moment.  Anyway, the trip is going to be great and I’ll remember all the excellent times I’m sure to have, and not so much how much my hotel and rental car cost.   I hope I can keep up on the blog while we’re out.  I’m bringing the lappy, but who knows about the posting possibilities.

Woot.

September 1st, 2008 | Tags: sleeplessness, trains, travel, weather, wind | Category: home, life | Comments Off

Another “too tired to post” post. Too tired to post. Tummy full of meat. Had a wonderful day with birthday Lewis! Got up and made french toast from yesterday’s tea sandwich leftovers. Then went to downtown Sac to go to the train museum but got waylaid by a historically reenacted good time (and tasty comestables) at the “Sacramento County National Historic Day” (not sure what the deal is with a national day for a county, but I’m not complaining). Went thereafter back to the Lawyers’ for presents and then off to Winters to finish off at the Buckhorn. Very tasty. Very tired!

August 31st, 2008 | Tags: birthday | Category: life | Comments Off

Much to tired to post a proper post. But let it suffice to say our housewarming was a total success, and our friends are all so lovely! I’m full to the brim with satisfaction in so many ways. Also… how on earth did we all manage to eat so much? A question for the ages.

August 30th, 2008 | Tags: party | Category: home | Comments Off

It’s been a tumultuous day.  Got up late, again, which is something that I’d like to stop doing.  The Olympics really threw my schedule off and now that I don’t need to stay up to midnight or later I’d like to get back in the habit of getting up early.  It’s especially nice to be up in the wee hours in Davis cause you get more time during the not-so-hot parts of the day.  I think it was 105 today.  Blech.   Anyway.

I’ve been on a smoothie kick ever since moving here.  I’m not sure if it’s because fresh fruit is the one thing we always seem to have at hand, or if it’s because Davis weather is really conducive to cold liquid refreshment.  Either way, I see no end in sight.  So I started my day with a smoothie, per usual.  Didn’t have any big plans (also a poor way to start the day when you’re as plan-centric as I am) so I wandered around for a while deciding what to do with myself and decided I’d set up my workstation in the garage.  I’ve been wanting to build a Craft-style workspace where I can do dirty DIY things in my garage and make silly stuff. So I’ve got a spot all picked out, and I’m going to use our old prep table from El Cerrito… but the garage has been too messy to do it so far. I moved a few pieces of furniture today, but by then it was already hot out and hanging out in the garage seemed less fun than planned. I mowed the lawn instead.

That was pretty much the height of my day. Made lunch after that (shout out to Annie’s mac & cheese should probably go here) and then spent a significant portion of my afternoon finishing up my CD project. Think I’ve got all the pertinent cds in my computer now! Not sure how I lost a few of them in the first place, but all these multi-computer file transfers (of 7000 files no less) just always seem to spring leaks. Anyway, crisis averted, Pearl Jam collection restored, duplicates erased, and all is well. Even got several albums ripped that I had been meaning to do for some time. Sons of the Pioneers, here I come!

After that I sank a bit, feeling despondent about our impending housewarming party. I’ve been too tired and too uninspired to do anything to prepare, but after Lewis and I talked it out I think I’m back on the horse. Gonna make a bunch of tasty tea sandwiches and minimuffins. Num. So I spent the last few hours going over recipes and preparing for a grocery trip tomorrow. It’s kind of nice to be at the Co-op every other day or every three or so. But it does make me feel like I’m just shoving money in my mouth all day. Where does all this food go? (Answer: smoothies).

Anyway, I’m trying to make it to be before midnight so I’d better cut myself off here. Lots of chores to do tomorrow — going to UCD to sign more paperwork and finally finish signing up for classes! And then shopping, prepping, cleaning, all that. Good stuff. Hopefully getting up early will put me on the right side of the bed this time!

August 28th, 2008 | Tags: diy, grumpy, party, smoothies | Category: home, life | Comments Off

Yay, thanks UC Davis!

Went to campus this morning to go over my TA paperwork and get some questions about classes straightened out.  Turns out, I was completely retardedly going about trying to figure out what classes I should take.  Turns out universities publish “course catalogs” that have “prerequisite information” and “descriptions” about the classes.  Golly gee!  Also it turns out that the department has a “website” with “documents” that might list the “degree requirements”.  I’m on a whole new track of study here.  And I’ve jettisoned all my undergradute-level classes!  Woot!

Also the department took pity on me and is letting me register for a full class since it’s in my requirements.  I’m actually getting two requirements out of the way!  I’ve only got four classes I’m required to take, and the rest are in-department and free electives.  I think I’m gonna take those electives as neuroscience courses, which should be really awesome, though a little scary!  Just need to get started on the right foot there.

Anyway, today was much great success!  Now I just have to make it through dinner and waiting for this weather to cool off and we’ll be golden!  Weather says it’s 102 out… and it’s going to be hotter tomorrow!   Good day to stay inside and unpack some more boxes.

August 27th, 2008 | Tags: heat, registration, school | Category: life, school | Comments Off