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Happy birthday, Matt

My good friend Matt celebrates a birthday today.

Damn! I’ve now known him for almost half his life!

“Arugula” is a funny word

“Arugula” is a funny word
Flickr: Don NunnOven-roasted tomato, fontina, arugula flatbread at Silver City Restaurant & Brewery.

Hello beers!

Hello beers!
Flickr: Don NunnSunday afternoon lunch at Silver City Restaurant & Brewery before a stop at Julie Anne’s brother Dave’s to drop off a birthday gift.

Spectacular!

Spectacular!
Flickr: Don NunnSliver of the south end of Lake Union on an absurdly beautiful day.

My chemical friend

My chemical friend
Flickr: Don NunnTwenty-foot range is perfect for laying waste to the buzzing nasties when you inadvertently mow over their nest!

Lake Washington sunset

Lake Washington sunset
Flickr: Don NunnOur home star sinking over Seattle across the lake from Kirkland.

We are 12

We are 12
Flickr: Don NunnHappy hour on the deck at Yarrow Bay Beach Cafe in Kirkland. Beautiful day!

One of the few times my Google ads have ever actually matched the content

One of the few times my Google ads have ever actually matched the content
Flickr: Don NunnNot only is it immediately following a mention of the Seattle Mariners, but about half the post involves a trip to Reno I’d taken a few days previously.

Amazing!

Ride-share sunset

Ride-share sunset
Flickr: Don NunnCrossing the 520 bridge in a Jetta.

Section 111

Section 111
Flickr: Don Nunn*Past* our ticket section and the Mariners still suck, argh

Section 122

Section 122
Flickr: Don NunnGetting closer to our actual Section 116....

Game-time view

Game-time view
Flickr: Don NunnNot actually our seats. We’re standing behind section 134 on our slow way toward section 116. :-D

Game day!

Game day!
Flickr: Don NunnYou know there’s a game because that’s Safeco Field behind the Pyramid umbrellas.

A few things, a few times over

Went to Salt Lake City and Reno for a (combined) week starting Thu 05/01. I remember the Salt Lake portion of the trip very well, the Reno part not so much. This is because I caught what seemed to be a mild cold at the beginning of the trip, but by Sun 05/04, the day we drove from SLC to Reno, the cold had exploded into a lovely sinus pressure / fever / coughing / woe is me thing that left me reeling that day and the next, and stumbling in a fog the third day.

Fog in the desert. Go figure.

The SLC trip was for the hell of it—I loves me a road trip, who needs a reason?—but also to help with, and by extension attend, Julie Anne’s brother Jimmy’s 30th birthday party. The party was scheduled for Sat 05/03, so we drove down Thu 05/01 and ran errands Fri 05/02 and most of Sat and enjoyed the party by working our asses off in the kitchen all night. Lasagna, Caesar salad, and garlic bread for 60 people, coming right up!

Julie Anne had also prepared a 10-minute slideshow of photos scanned from Jimmy’s entire life, childhood all the way to 19:30 a week ago Tuesday. Show was a big hit, particularly the lingering shot of Jimmy astride an absurdly large cannon barrel (total "Dr. Freud, Dr. Freud, please call the hospital operator” moment—Big Laffs!) and the other photo depicting Jimmy in drag that vaguely resembled the Wendy’s logo if she were a hamburger-slingin’ ballet dancer.

The party ended about 22:00 and we finished cleaning up a week later, it seemed. Good thing my car knew the way back to the hotel because I sure as hell don’t remember actually making that drive, and even better it knew the way Sunday morning to Squatters where we met my mom for brunch before our drive to Reno.

I should actually say “Julie Anne’s drive, my ride to Reno,” because that’s the segment where my brain started to forget things like how to make me breathe correctly, and how to regulate my body’s temperature. Short version: I coughed our way across Nevada in between spates of almost death-like sleep while my temperature bounced gaily up and down like those little dots that track the song lyrics in karaoke bars.

Julie Anne was ever the trooper, however, and got us to Nevada in record time, despite her deep-seated need to follow rules which manifests itself most regularly by scrupulous observance of speed limits. This day, however, she threw caution to the wind. Our trip through Wendover to Elko, Winnemucca, and into Reno happened mostly at 85 mph or better, and I may be imagining this but I’m pretty sure she threw the finger to several large truckers (and their big trucks) and possibly a cop or two along the way.

But I was feverish, who knows.

We were in Reno because Julie Anne had a trade show to attend, and I had to be sick there. She was In Charge of the show, by which I mean she handled the show arrangements for her company’s product display there, and she kicked ass and took names and generally owned the world for the four hours of the show’s existence Tuesday morning. I know this to be true because she told me so; I was lying in bed squirming and moaning and coughing and trying to take a single full breath but my brain was still forgetting how to do that, though by then it had a fine command for inducing cramps in all 10 toes and one side of my jaw, I think from all the writhing I had done Sunday night and all day Monday and into Tuesday morning.

It’s an odd thing when you’ve slept for 43 of the previous 48 hours but you’re utterly EXHAUSTED and all you want to do is sleep more, except you can’t get comfortable because every time you move, every time an air molecule even TOUCHES you—and trust me, you can feel EVERY FUCKING MOLECULE touching you—some part of you cramps up.

Damned physiology.

By Tuesday midday I was back among the living, and it was time to wrap things up in Reno and drive back to Seattle, which we did over two days. We drove from Reno through Susanville, CA, and around the south face of Mt. Shasta on CA-89 to I-5 northbound, where we had to watch for cops because the damned road is PAVED with CHP cars, Jesus!, and stopped in Medford, OR. We got a blisteringly early start Wednesday, shaking out of our hotel room for breakfast at about ten minutes before 10:00 sharp, and we were home by about 18:30.

The rest of the week involved unpacking my suitcase, which actually took about 20 minutes Wednesday night but somehow feels like it will NEVER be finished, and then going to work for the two remaining days of the week. This morning was laundry, the usual routine of getting up and meeting Julie Anne at 07:15 to be at the laundromat at 07:30 sharp so we can beat the operator to her job, but today we were half an hour early because it turns out while we were gone, they changed their hours to 08:00 daily. Bastards. I could’ve slept another 30 minutes, got up at 6:45 instead of 06:15, but they didn’t bother to tell US they’d changed their hours.

So we got coffee and bagels while we waited, and we still finished our laundry faster than in weeks previous. MOUNTAINS of laundry, I swear we summited Mount Purex a dozen times over, which would be funnier if either of us used that brand but I needed something with two syllables.

And tonight I’m going to the Seattle Mariners game versus the Chicago White Sox (it was important to say “Chicago” there, to differentiate them from the famed Bristol White Sox) at Safeco Field, where I fully expect the Mariners to get trounced in their usual fashion, thereby maintaining their place at or near the bottom of the AL West. Only San Diego is doing worse than the Mariners right now, so let’s go, Seattle! You can do better!

Have a good weekend. :-)

Turn turn turn

Turn turn turn
Originally uploaded by Don NunnSpeedy spin cycle. Blankets are one giant blob inside.