North By Northwest

Our plane leaves to come back to the hot and humid east coast in 4 hrs. It has been downright chilly here all week, with temps barely reaching 75, and plummeting into the upper 40s at night. Next time I’m bringing more than one long sleeve.

In brief, this week we:
Went to the space needle, took the monorail, schlepped around Pike’s Place Market, walked the Seattle waterfront, met up with Jen’s friend Jessa, ate a bunch of dinner, talked shop on weddings, registered at Bed Bath and Beyond (which may be the only place that we end up registering), drove to Mt St Helens (and didn’t see it, as she was cloudy), went to Multonoma Falls, walked the rose gardens in Portland, had sushi with Jen’s friend Libby’s parents, stayed with Libby’s parents, took the scenic route to Eugene, ate at Cafe Yumm, went on a walking tour of campus, visited Jen’s friend Terri (and family), went out to McSomethingOrOther for beer and tater tots, watched my brother run at US Nationals (more later), drove back to Albany, OR to stay the night, drove back to Eugene for breakfast with Jen’s friends Mike and Stephanie (and their son and granddaughter), met my parents at the legendary Saturday market, met up with Jen’s friend Dave, drove him to Portland, went to Powell’s gigantic bookstore in Portland, got back to Tacoma, watched a bunch of 24, had a party with 20 of Jen’s relatives, swung in a hammock for a couple of hours, played with some semi-tame cats, took some pictures, went on a couple of runs, saw family friends Pauline and 94 year old Opal (who is quite the poet theologian), went out to Katie Downes for some Mack and Jack and pizza, watched some more 24 and got packed to go. I managed three straight 8+ hours of sleep nights though – that’s about as much as I can ever ask for. Only a two day work week this week!

As for Steve’s race, they compressed the two heats (of which he was in the slow heat) into one heat an hour before the race. That heat went out fast, with Steve coming through the 1600 in 4:18. He, though still feeling in control, backed off a little since the pace was faster than he thought he should be running and ended up in no-man’s land. Since he’s stronger than most everyone, he proceeded to pick off everyone else in no man’s land, winning the no-man’s land championship, finishing 11th (ahead of everyone from his original heat) though finishing 15 seconds behind 10th. There were a few silver linings, and he learned a lesson or two – not bad all told.

I think Jenny’s done powdering her nose, so I’m headed back upstairs.

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