Dancing on the wall

Today was a beautiful day EXCEPT from 6:00-7:00 which was about when I was running haha. We had a big thunderstorm. It felt tropical though because it was warm and the rain drops were large. I felt bad for a lot of bike groups who were just starting biking when it started to rain. I ran into an old friend from Calvin on my run. She used to run mid distance and was a couple years older than me. I saw the most amazing show on my way back from my run. On one of the skyscrapers there was a group of 4 dancers dancing on the wall….sideways. They were harnessing to the top perpendicular to the wall. It just felt so weird- like the world was tipped 90 degrees. I talked to Jeff on my way home and he was excited that he got his pager today.

Accident on the El and bible study

Today when I got out of work it was pouring. Absolutely pouring! I decided to take the el home. It was pretty full so we were all kind of pushing to get people to move in. The lady next to me all of a sudden fell! There is a small hole between the el train and the platform and her leg was jammed in. I was panicked. I tried to pull her out but she was a large lady and her leg was swelling up from the pressure. That was a bad first response of mine. Everyone started screaming to the driver to stop. We finally got her out buy having her lay down and then we pulled her pants out and then were able to twist her leg out. I am sure she is going to be hurting tomorrow. How scary! When I got home I ate and then the rain had passed. I went on a run and the air felt so refreshing from the rain. I resurrected my Garmin that I hadn’t used in a couple of years. When I got back I realized that I had a phone message from Paul saying traffic was bad so it would be better if I could take the El to bible study. This was fine but meant that I had to leave right away I quick showered and then ran to the el stop. I was just 10 minutes late to bible study which wasn’t bad. Mark led bible study. We started bible study by splitting up and having the guys right down what they expected from women and the girls what they expected from men. It was interesting to hear the different perceptions. I think the biggest perception that the guys disagreed with is that they aren’t emotional. We decided that guys and girls experience the same emotions just sometime the outlet is sometimes different. We talked about Psalm 139. It is finals week for the people in grad school. I sure don’t miss that!
I went home and got to talk to Jeff briefly. Sounds like 3rd year is going to be busy but he is excited. He was fitted for some sort of gas mask yesterday and has been thrilled with the free breakfasts and lunches he gets in orientation. We also talked about our plans this weekend. We are having a cook-out with seven friends so we wanted to make sure we had the food we needed. Should be fun!

catching up on life and work

Last morning of vacation

Today we went to went to the west Seattle waterfront and ran. It was so calm and peaceful. It felt like vacation because we realized that everyone was at work except us! We stopped by REI on our way home. After that it was straight to the airport. The flight went smoothly but we got stuck on the el for awhile. It was kind of frustrating just because we were so close to home and had been traveling for so long.

making the most of the sunshine

Today we woke up and it was nice and sunny. It was supposed to rain. We ate breakfast and then I suggested that we bike to Church to take advantage of the weather. We biked to church and then after church it was still nice weather so we biked home. Then my dad rollerbladed as we ran to I90 and back. It was bicycle Sunday so Lake Washington Blvd was closed to cars. A lot of people were out enjoying the day. It was really fun. Then I went to Seward Park where my mom was working for WEI. They were walking around the park to gain awareness to the amount of time women in Kenya spend walking to get water and also to raise money for rain catching jugs (http://eventful.com/seattle/events/weis-walk-water-/E0-001-020574838-4). I wanted to go to the park to see a friend of my mom and I: Mary. It was nice to see her briefly. When I got back Jeff was helping my dad with yard work. I had to pry him away from the yard because I wanted to go downtown. We drove down town and had fun at Pike Place. We bought some asparagus and bread to go with halibut for dinner. We also had some tasty samples. We then went to Gap and AE to look around. Jeff ended up getting 2 nice shirts. We left downtown and helped with dinner. My dad was in charge of the fish. My mom broke her hand so she was in charge of telling us how to do stuff. Jeff set the table and cut the bread. I made the salad and asparagus. My mom made a really good rhubarb crisp one handed. Jeff invited his cousin and her boyfriend over and I invited my high school friend Ally. We all had a great dinner together. So much fun!

Arboretum, Art Museums, Relaxing

This morning we headed to the Arboretum after breakfast. My dad went with us and took some pictures of all the pretty flowers. It was Opening Day for the boating season so there were a lot of people down by the Cut. We had fun running down Azalea lane and through all the Rhododendrons. This is a picture of Jeff and I enjoying the smell of the skunk cabbage : ) After our nice run we headed back to shower. We then went to Tacoma with my mom and dad. We ate at this great place called Indochine. It was Thai Fusion food I believe. I loved it. It had a pool of water in the middle of it and pretty wood tables. But the restaurant was not as pretty as our food! Wow! Quite a great display when they brought it out. I had more Ahi tuna than I could eat, great huge shrimp with lots of fresh veggies and more. After our great lunch we went to the Glass Museum. It was fun to watch them blow and work the glass. After that we went to the Tacoma Art Museum. They had a neat exhibit on the Author of the “How things work” books. Jeff and my dad loved the human body illustrations. I did also. He really showed things in a fresh light. I could tell the guy was brilliant.
After that we went home. Jeff and I turned on the fire and did some reading. My parents had dinner plans with their friends. Jeff and I made a pizza together. It was quite a challenge. We tried to roll the dough and throw the dough but it kept contracting. I tried clamping the dough to the edge of the pizza pan with chip clips to get it to stay stretched. Finally we got it to be the size of the pan (we did have to patch up some holes haha). The pizza actually ended up great. It was a spinach and chicken pizza and it was delicious. We watched a couple detective shows on TV as we relaxed and ate our pizza. Another great day.

Northwest Trek, Trail Running, and the Stones

We woke up at 7AM because we were still on Central Time. We had a good breakfast and headed to Northwest Trek. It was about an hour drive. On our way there we passed a Great Harvest Bread which is my favorite so we had to stop for samples. We ended up getting a little cinnamon chip roll. When we arrived at Northwest Track we had a great time. I really can’t go through everything that we saw/did so I will have to give some highlights. 1. Learning taht a barn owl's "satellite dish" face helps pick up noise hundreds of feet away. One ear is positioned higher than the other as part of a cool 3D hearing system. 2. having the Elk come right up to Jeff’s window on the Tram . He was practically looking Jeff in the eye and licking his camera. 3. Seeing the baby Bisen. 4. Learning that a Moose eats 23,000 calories a day along with a ton of other interesting facts. 5. Having the grizzly bear snort at us whenever we raised a camera. 6. seeing a bunch of hilarious kids who were loving seeing the animals. 7. feeling like I was on vacation and had no where and nothing I needed to do!
We were at the Trek for 4 hours. We had a picnic lunch in the sun at the park. On our way home we stopped in a town called Orting and where there was a trail that ran along the river. It was a beautiful run. We were pretty hot and thursty when we finished though. We stopped for icecream on the way home and it hit the spot. We had leftovers for dinner with my family. After dinner we plugged Jeff’s camera into the TV and showed our pictures. Then my dad put in his movie of the Rolling Stones that he rented. My mom and I fell asleep and the guy watched the movie. Another great day in Seattle! (pictures to come)