hi

hi

Thursday, June 19, 2008

crooks

Our mailboxes were stolen! We had them, not assembled, in their boxes at the crook in our driveway. They are huge boxes and need a fork lift or several large burly men to lift. Only someone who has been up our driveway would know that they are there. It is a lot of effort and they were stolen! We called all the people(on our driveway to pay to fund that was used to buy the mailboxes) to find out if they moved it and none had. Mum got mad and sad about the steal. About an hour after all the calling and pondering and bewilderment of WHY anyone would steal HEAVY BOXES WITH A SIGN SAYING THEY ARE MAILBOXES we got a call informing us of the location of our boxes.

They had indeed been stolen and dumped way up on Larson lane. Why? I don't know. Mom, dad, and Bill went and retrieved them.

After some minor disputes about where and when and how to get it, mom and I did the first part of renewing my passport; that is to get photos and the forms.

The photos were done at Costco and they turned out really cute. My hair is so long now. We bought a lot of juice and drinks of all sorts. I got a hot dog. Mom went to Curves and worked out. We picked up the D5-11 forms. Need to fill them out still, but I have till Tuesday to do it.

I bought my return to Portland tickets. I leave Tuesday at 3:00pm.

Tomorrow I am going to Seattle and I won't be back till Sunday morning. I'll be hanging with Llyw, Jeanette, Caleb, and Liam. Maybe some other people as well. Fun times ahead!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

meaty day

For lunch dad made burgers. They were scrumptious. It was a perfect meal with chips and pickles and some juice. Lovely. For dinner it was steak, mashed potatoes and beans. I was part of the clean plate club. Delicious. I've not been eating well lately so it was nice to consume something that wasn't ramen.

I did the laundry today. Folded it nice and neat and put some of it away. I tried to show dad the super fast way of folding shirts but I guess you just can't teach and old Joe new tricks.

Watched a series of puppeted/acted documentaries about the mating lives of various animals. It is by Isabella Rossellini and is hilarious. Also watched St. Trinians (I feel like I liked it way more that I rightly should have) and the pilot of Fringe. Fringe seems cool, I think I'll keep with it. Also So You Think You Can Dance was on tonight. A couple spectacular bits but I think most of it will be forgotten by the morning.

Need to do art. Apathy. Making me apathetic.

ood and odd

Spent a lot of time today sitting in bed on the computer. Now I really need to do some art work. I get so apathetic when I visit, don't know why.

Celia came by for a brief visit. We hugged. I gave her a necklace I got for her in Waterlooplein and some chocolate. Showed her my photos. We talked. Hugged some more and then she was off to get her fixed car and make dinner for the grandparents. I haven't seen her nearly enough since I got back.

I ate a Lean Cuisine for lunch. And then some chicken nuggets because Lean Cuisines are not filling at all. Then I didn't feel too good. Guess it wasn't a good combination.

Mum, dad and I watched Back to the Future after dinner. Tomorrow is So You Think You Can Dance night. Yaaay! And I think we will be having steak. Double yaaay!


I didn't get a good night sleep. Very restless. Odd as this bed is very comfortable and it is very quiet around here. My mind is just occupied I guess.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

David Delivered...possibly

David Sedaris is doing a mini-tour right now with free readings. He is in Seattle the 25th I think. His fall tour is mainly ticketed events. There is one in Tacoma on October 30th, and one in Portland on Halloween. I got a ticket as soon as I saw that they were available. I'll see him! For real this time!

After the tickets I went over to visit my friend Chris. We went to see The Incredible Hulk. It was okay. Good action, good music, good Edward Norton, whimpery Liv Tyler, mixed accent Tim Roth, and yet another Stan Lee cameo. It was a set up for the Avengers movie. The visuals were good but would be just as awesome on TV as in the theatre.

I showed him my photos from Amsterdam and Brussels, we watched American Gladiators, Futurama, Daily Show, Colbert Report, and an assortment of other things. We joked about what we watched, talked about school, and just had a good time hanging out. We both have changed a great deal since our friendship first began about six years ago but fundamentally we are the sort of the same. It's nice to have long lasting friendships. The day went by too quick though.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

B&theBx2

Mom, Dad, Nathan, Rubie and I all went to the Mountaineer's Theatre to see Beauty and the Beast. The theatre had a long line when we drove up. Mum fetched me a hot dog while we waited in line. Rubie had never gone to the theatre before. Great place. It is open air and down in the Kitsap woods.

Even with a large crowd we got pretty sweet seats.

I enjoyed the play. Some of the singing voices were not up to the challenge. The costumes were great. It had some nice choreography. They had wall costumes so the sets were interactive, that was a clever idea. I liked it, not a perfect performance but it was fun.

After we went home Dad and Nathan played a game of Khet using dads beam splitters that he bought in Amsterdam. Dad accidentally knocked out his own Pharoh and lost. We all hung out for a bit and then Nathan left to drive Rubie to her parents. Mum worked in the garden, dad was put to manual labor, I fiddled around on the Internet, Nathan returned, we had dinner, and we watched the Beauty and the Beast Disney movie. Ha. Just to compare, you know?

eight am

Another day, another crawl into bed the instant I get home.

Yesterday:

Mom's big day! Graduation! She got her Master's degree! Go mom!

The Grandparent's Spencer arrived right on time and we gathered into their van and zoomed off towards Seattle. When we picked up Rubie and Nathan in Tacoma and made our way to Seattle Center with minimal traffic. We gave Nate and Rubie the marzipan we bought for them in Belgium and we cracked open a Kinder Egg. Grandma brought me a container filled with chocolate covered raisins. MMMM she knows what I like.

We got into the stadium(the graduation was held at Key Arena) with time to spare. Mom put on her robes and struggled with her sash thing. We got our seats which ended up being fairly far back but there was a giant screen that showed what was going on. Mom left our little group to find her group of people and we settled in and waited for the show to start. Nathan and I played Worms on Rubie's new PSP. Time went by quick.

The speakers I found to be a little insulting. They talked about how awesome and privileged the people getting degrees were and how much better lives they would lead. There were probably lots of people in the audience without degrees, how did they feel?

We saw mom as she moved to her seat and we waved and she stopped and waved back. She wasn't paying attention and had to catch up with her line. Hee hee.

The ceremony went really quick. The program for the show listed thousands of people graduating, but only a fraction were there so it went fast. Degrees were handed out. Names were read. People hooted. Some had little clackers to make noise, others had air horns. Mom said she didn't hear our wooing but we wooed.

Celia and Grandma Pedersen were there. They showed up just in the knick of time for mom to walk.

After the ceremony we met up with mom and we all went for a picnic down by the Ballard locks. People were taking graduation photos all over the place (including in front of the doors where people were exiting, what?) but once we were free from the throngs it was easy to get back to the van.

Brynne and Dan had made us a picnic in celebration. There was a huge balloon to mark the spot. A regular gourmet feast was made. Chicken marinated in delicious, huge cookies, orzo pasta salad, and some store bought stuff to round off the lunch. I grabbed a drumstick and we walked down to the locks to spy on Ben (who works there now). He was on a break and I offered him a bite of the chicken. He looked all professional in his gear. Later on in the day we hooted at him as he was doing his job. He snuck into our picnic after and bragged a piece of chicken, a cookie, and something else. He was gone before we could say, "hey!"

The grandmas, grandpa Spencer, Celia, Brynne, Mum, Nathan, Rubie, Dad, Dan, and I all gathered round the picnic cloths and ate to our hearts content. So much food. I don't know how Brynne can keep it up. She is amazing, and is going to France for a few weeks. Can't wait to hear the stories and see the photos. Its a European summer all around.

The sun started to go down (well it became shady, not really dark) and jet lag started to catch up to me. We packed up the picnic, and we went our separate ways. We packed everything into real picnic baskets, not just boxes and coolers. Nate and I played a few more rounds of Worms and then we dropped them off. I fell asleep shortly after and the rest of the trip was a dream. Mom, before I went to sleep, said, "aww the baby's asleep". I heard that!

Awoke when we got home, said my goodbyes, crawled into bed, and slept.