little black journal

This was a fabulous weekend.  Nothing super-special took place, but a lot of little things came together to make this a really good, really productive couple of days.  I kicked off Saturday with a 5-mile run along Lake Washington – it was a gray morning, but I always feel like I’m energized by being near the water, so I was able to pull through at a pretty steady jog.  And I’m finally getting into a groove where these runs don’t take everything out of me, so I was left with enough energy to check off a couple of errands, pick up some groceries, and shampoo our carpets.  It’s embarrassing to admit just how much I really enjoyed giving our carpets a thorough cleaning, but man, it was satisfying to dump bucket after bucket of dirty water down the drain.  Well worth the $25 rental fee we paid to split the ‘Rug Doctor’ machine rental with our neighbors.  And I have to credit Shane with having the better carpet cleaning technique between the two of us – he was able to turn those corners with impressive tightness.  What a man…  We spent Saturday night with some of our most favorite Seattle peeps, celebrating a friend’s birthday and recent return from a 10-week stint in India.  It had been awhile since we’d sat around a table with these people, and we reveled in the joy of sipping our cocktails, stuffing our faces with pineapple cake, and laughing uncontrollably as we all tried on the fake mustaches that were a birthday gift for J.  Weird, yes, but there is in fact a story behind the mustache joke that I won’t go into here…  I think my eyes are closed in this photo, as I was trying not to sneeze – I spent the rest of the evening trying to blow gray fur out of my nose.

Today was a much more mellow day – we went to church this morning, and then I spent a few hours at the office, which is not how I prefer to spend a Sunday afternoon, but it did relieve some of my anxiety about the mid-week deadlines I have coming up.  Another short jog, a dinner of pork loin and corn on the cob straight off the grill, and I was ready to settle in for the night with my fleece blanket and cup of ginger peach tea.  I definitely earned my “veggin’-out” time tonight, so we are cozy-ing up to watch the latest Mad Men episode before we call this weekend a wrap.

This has been a fabulous weekend, full of so much eating, playing, laughing, and lounging with friends and family.  Thursday we celebrated one friend’s 30th birthday with pizza, wine, and gelato; Friday we celebrated another 30th birthday with Korean barbeque, beer, and wiffle ball.  Good times.

Friday evening we headed down toward Enumclaw to hang out with Shane’s aunt, uncle, and cousins, who recently returned to Washington after a three-year stint in the Midwest.  I am thrilled to have family near us once again.  They are living in a beautiful house out in the country, on several acres of land.  Shane’s aunt and I were enjoying a drink out on the back porch when Shane came barreling around the corner in this:

Looks pretty good, don’t you think?  I’m trying to talk him into a pair of Wranglers and a sexy Stetson hat, but he’s pretty attached to his flip-flops and Giants cap.  The view of Rainier from down there was beautiful.  Shane and I have several friends who are climbing this mountain this weekend and I was struck with what a feat this is as I looked at the steep, snowy peak from a distance.  Impressive!

Yesterday we rang in the Fourth of July in our backyard with friends and neighbors.  Shane stepped up as grill-master and we all feasted on burgers and hot dogs.  And Jack’s super-fantastic special Sangria.

It was a perfect afternoon – I felt blessed to be spending the day with so many close neighbors and friends.  We really have developed and grown our own little community here in Seattle.

And apparently, the Fourth isn’t really the Fourth with out a watergun fight.  Shane was quick to grab a super-soaker to take part in the craziness.  This man shows no mercy.  Shane was definitely wet by the time the fight was over, but the neighborhood kids were soaked to the bone.

I’m thinking three-day weekends should become the new standard, no?

This weekend was proof that summertime is just around the corner, as I enjoyed: slicing into a perfectly juicy watermelon; taking in a Sunday afternoon baseball game; seeing our little front yard garden grow by the hour; drinking several glasses of chilled white wine; jogging along sparkling Lake Washington; barbecuing in the backyard with neighbors; waking up each morning and opening all the windows in the house; wearing tank tops and flip flops; reveling in the feel of sunshine on my shoulders.  ‘Tis the season for all these warm weather pleasures.

Unfortunately, ’tis also the season for busy-ness, with long hours at work and weekends spent preparing for my next licensing exam.  But I will certainly be taking time to stop and smell the spider mums…  (Flowers courtesy of Shane.)

Shane and I were in need of a date, and the weather today lent itself perfectly to an outdoor rendez-vous.  Yes, that’s right, the sun shone in Seattle today!  A January miracle…  We thought the west-facing view from Lincoln Park in West Seattle would be ideal for sunset-watching, and so we hopped in the car and made the quick drive over there.  Man, it felt good to be enjoying the outdoors after so many days of being cooped up inside.  Rejuvenating.

Today could not have been more beautiful.  We knew that we had to take advantage that of the last bits warm sunshine that summer is bestowing upon us, and so we rented a canoe and spent the afternoon paddling around Lake Washington.  We weaved our way back into the arboretum and found ourselves in a wonderfully green, perfectly serene, little corner of the world.  There was a point when Shane turned back and said to me, “Don’t you feel like we’re in Lord of the Rings?”  Yes, I did!  The beauty of it all was almost surreal.  On days like this, my love for Seattle is so strongly reaffirmed.  Lovely.

We’ve had a wonderful weekend – it’s been a good mix of having fun and getting stuff done. We had an errand to run in Tacoma yesterday and decided to check out Point Defiance while we were down there. This turned out to be the perfect perfect-weather getaway – a park with a nice variety of beach, garden, and forest.

It felt so good to aimlessly wander for a couple of hours, without having any reason to rush back home for anything. More and more, Shane and I are seeing the value in getting out of the house and enjoying each other; this is so much more important than having a clean home or catching the basketball game on TV. However, that said, after our day of fun yesterday, we did decide to spend a good part of today on housework. 4 loads of laundry done; 3 boxes of stuff pulled out of closets and put in the Goodwill pile; 4,000 computer/TV/video cables sorted and neatly coiled (this is a bit of an exaggeration, but anyone who is married to an IT guy will know what I’m talking about…); 3 bedrooms vacuumed and dusted; 2 toilets scrubbed; and something like 100 weeds pulled from our yard. It was a full day – we definitely earned the bottle of wine that we enjoyed out in the early evening sunshine of our backyard. The best part of this weekend? The fact that it’s not over yet! Looking forward to our Monday off!

This weekend got off to a rocky start, but has turned out to be a fantastic couple of days…

friday night: sat on the couch and cried for awhile due to fatigue (it was a long, draining week at work) and nervousness about the licensing test I was to take the following day.

saturday morning: things looked up a little – the sun was shining and Shane and I got to spend some time out in the yard, weeding our garden and reveling in the arrival of Spring.

saturday at 1 pm: the highlight of the whole weekend – I got a call from my brother announcing the arrival of my healthy new niece: Elise Wynne Jarrell was born on March 22nd at 9 am. I can’t wait to meet her…

saturday afternoon: took my second architectural licensing test and whizzed through it – I walked out of the testing center feeling like all my preparation had really paid off (though I won’t know the official results for another 8 weeks).

saturday evening: enjoyed some time over at our neighbor’s house, watching basketball, playing with the kids, eating good food, sharing good stories.

saturday night: movie night at home, which we haven’t done in awhile. Atonement and caramel-vanilla ice cream. mmm…

sunday morning: brunch with our small group from church. Jack and LaVerne went all out once again: french toast, procioutto-wrapped asparagus, fritatta, bacon, sausage, yum… it was raining outside, and it felt so good to be holed up in a warm home, sharing food and conversation with such good friends.

sunday afternoon: completed a couple of small home-improvement projects I’ve been meaning to get done. checking things off my to-do list is always fun.

sunday evening: an excellent service at church. taking communion was especially powerful for me tonight. He is risen indeed.