Kingfisher Cove

The Day Went a Little Sideways

We had noble intentions! We got up (on this gorgeous last day of February* (after a few dreary/rainy days in a row) and aimed toward Des Moines to do some packing and hauling. We stopped at a number of furniture stores along the way, still on the hunt for a new master bedroom set. Jeeze, we just haven’t had any luck.

John and I both have similar tastes, which means we’re rather picky. Neither of us like “frou frou,” nor are we enamored with storage beds (with drawers in them), or sleigh beds. We don’t like rustic, but we do like wood (heh, ya think?) We kind of like some of the “mission” style beds we’ve seen (you know, with the slats), but ultimately my preference was to not go that route. (I could have probably been swayed if we could have found a decent matching dresser and nightstand, but they were just too austere). Then when we DID see something that we liked, we kept experiencing sticker shock.

One of our (many) stops today was The Old Cannery, and we both had lots of hope! I love that place, and have had some good luck there in the past, plus that place is huge! We figured we’d have a ton of bedroom sets to choose from. Well, not so much. They just…didn’t.

So, we went back to the furniture store up on Pac Highway where we’d purchased the bedroom furniture for the guest bedroom. We’d been back there a couple of times since then when we were on the hunt for the dining table, and we had also looked at master bedroom furniture, too. I really didn’t hold out much hope, but it turned out they had some new inventory since our last visit. And, they were having a decent sale from the Seattle Home Show, plus no sales tax! (Which really adds up in King County). But again, sticker shock! Furniture is just killer expensive! Ugh. But, I’ve been saving up over the last several years just for this purpose, and we did find a set that we really like (manufactured by a local furniture maker, too). It’s cherry and well-made and we decided to go for it, even if it exceeded the budget a bit. It would have been totally out of reach if it hadn’t been for the sale and no sales tax, so we will have a nice quality set. As I pretty much figured, it’ll be about 6 weeks before we get it, which is another reason why it was TIME to find a bedroom set!

At least by that time, the master bathroom should will be finished. (The tiling in there has been quite a slog). We *may* start sleeping in the guest room for the interim so we can start getting the studio in shape (and make room for the shelves, kilns, etc.)

The  “sideways” part? All of the furniture shopping took a gigantic chunk out of the day [plus it was exhausting] so we didn’t get to the Des Moines house until well after 2:00 p.m. Our plans to pack a bunch and hopefully load a bookcase just didn’t happen. We did pack a few things (I brought down the rest of my dishes and some other kitchen items, and John loaded up a bunch of old electronics that we’ll take to the recycler down here in Shelton). But it was kind of a bust. We need to get back there soon and seriously hit it. There is so much to do.

Oh, but it was so nice to head back HOME!

  

Such a gorgeous day! Cherry trees in bloom everywhere!

*It’s officially our warmest February on record. And three of the past five months have been the warmest month on record.

Productive!

Probably a little boring, so I’ll make these short & sweet bullets:

• Saw the “sights” of Shelton today because…
• John renewed his tabs for his Solstice (half price from King County!), and
• We arranged for change of address at the post office (actually did that online, but had to stop at the post office anyway to pick up a package), then
• We went to the DMV and changed our addresses on our driver’s licenses (I also renewed mine since it’s up for renewal in June), and
• At the same time changed our voters registrations to the new address, then
• Checked out a furniture store downtown but still haven’t had luck finding a bedroom set, and finally
• Did some pretty major grocery shopping.

This past weekend I’d ordered a “pantry box” from Amazon (items I selected to fit in the box) and it arrived today. Pretty cool! We have Amazon Prime so it’s a benefit with that program and shipping (for a BIG BOX!) was only $5.99. It was delivered in front of our garage and it makes it nice for big awkward packages of toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, pet food, etc. Pretty cool! The prices were reasonable, too. We may not have to traipse to Costco all that often after all—which is an hour away. At-home delivery is awesomesauce!

It was kind of nice to get out and about for a while today, but I actually wasn’t feeling all that great. Borderline nauseous/dizzy. Who knows why? I do know that I’ve been experiencing some nasty allergy symptoms, so maybe it was related to that? Feeling better this evening, though.

And…it’s so incredibly NICE to get home! Pulling up to the house and then entering it, is such a joy.

Particularly on a Thursday afternoon.

A *Tuesday* Beach Walk

Since the weather is going to turn wet for the next few days, we hot-tailed it to the beach on this sunny February day (Happy Birthday, Brother Dave!) and took a fairly long walk down beyond the (empty) Teamsters’ park. Normally we turn around once we approach the park because it’s “teaming” (heh) with people that makes Peanut very very nervous, but not on this February Tuesday. We had the entire beach to ourselves and the dogs were in heaven (and no barking!) It was really pleasant except for the fact that my nose was running like a marathoner and I’d forgotten to stuff tissue in my pocket. (Grrr). (Needless to say, I immediately tossed my sweatshirt in the wash as soon as we got back, because, you know, snotty sleeves…)

John and I found several agates (him especially) and a huge highlight of our walk was hearing and then seeing two Bald Eagles swirling above us, possibly twitterpated. I suspect this unseasonably warm weather is confusing to the wildlife!

There is hardly any snow in the mountains, which will be an issue this summer with no snow pack to feed the rivers for our low-land drinking water and the east side’s irrigation. Here was today’s view of the Olympics:

And here is how they typically look this time of year:

With the rain coming the next few days, it’s possible the mountains will get some snow, but I doubt it’ll be enough. The ski season has been a complete bust this year.

Oh, the mornings have been so gorgeous! And some nice sunsets, too.

When Diane was here yesterday, she took some pictures of the house that were fun to see on Facebook, including this one (an angle I’d never taken before):

And this one turned out pretty good, too!

Since When Are Mondays So Enjoyable?

Holy moly, this weather! It is SPRING! I keep thinking it’s just a tease and that we’re in for some nasty arctic push or something (like much of the rest of the country) before “real” spring arrives. But February is waning and there is just no sign of that. What an odd and warm winter for us. (And a severe winter for the east coast and the midwest).

I received a text message from my long-time friend, Diane (I’ve known her for as long as I’ve known Helen—since 2nd grade! In fact, I believe we were together in the same “reading group” when our teacher was informed by another teacher that President Kennedy had been shot.) Her parents live not far from the Harstine bridge on the mainland and she was going to be there today, wondering if we were going to be around. We were! So she came to visit this afternoon. It was the first time she’d seen the house and it was so great to see her! We gave her the grand tour. (Fun to do, to again see everything through the eyes of someone who hasn’t seen it before). (As usual, click the photos to embiggen).

We had such a nice visit and I picked her brain a bit about entertaining. She is a master of that! She has a very creative mind (and abilities) and one of her many talents is laying a fantastic spread for large groups of people. Décor, organization, class on a budget, and nummy cooking. (I still have many more tips to glean from her!) Part of which, “how do you keep yourself from getting frazzled?” She just seems so calm. Like, “Yeah, we might be hosting a wedding at our place this summer.” ZOMG!! I mean, I’m already stewing a bit about us hosting our neighborhood potluck/road committee meeting in September! She will be my go-to resource, and we’ll likely “experiment” on her and her husband. Heh!

Actually, Helen is really good at this, too. But she also gets a whole lot of help from her husband (who is quite a cook himself) and I’m not so sure that’ll be the case for me? I know that for me, when it comes to cooking, I always feel that I need about 4 more hands/arms! Evolution needs to step up there!

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The weekend for me was major cleaning (yeah, those floors again…) and John ventured up north with buddies to meet up with a fellow “gold prospector” to try their hand at capturing some gold! It was also the first “real” test of John’s highbanker/dredge/sluice contraption. They went up to the Index/Goldbar area at the north fork of the Skykomish River on a gorgeous sunny day (that started out butt-cold but transitioned to uber-mild once the the sun rose above the trees). They had a blast. The area is also known for garnets and they found a bunch of those! It wasn’t until they had brought home the fine sands to process through the blue bowl that they knew if they’d found any gold. They figured not much, since it wasn’t apparent on-site, and it’s true that it wasn’t a haul or anything, but they did get some!

 

As you can see, traversing those ROCKS was KILLER!

I’ve Been “Cocooning”

WOW do the days fly. It’s been a whole WEEK since liberty from Day Jail! There were times on Monday that my mind “went there” and wondered to what degree Chucklehead was f*cking up the proposal I’d handed off to him, but since then, I honestly haven’t given it a thought. It just all seems…distant. I’ve been off and on busy in between immersing myself in a HUGE book (1,000+ pages) that I finished today. It’s been…blissful!

Hearing the dire traffic reports on the news makes me grin. And get this: Sections of the Viaduct (my nemesis) will be CLOSED throughout March, which would have been horrific for me. The dread and worry and angst that I would have lived trying to figure out the solution…man, did I ever dodge a bullet. Because there really is no solution, other than traversing downtown Seattle surface streets. (I-5? Fuggetaboudit!) And surface streets are no solution with 100,000 others trying to do the same. Jeeze. Shudder.

We did head to Des Moines yesterday (in my car) with the main purpose of John driving his Solstice back to Harstine. (We now have TWO CARS parked in the garage!) We weren’t there all that long, but we did pack up a few things to take down with us. There wasn’t all that much room between our cars (with the dogs, plus the need to get groceries), but we zeroed in on some necessary items. We hustled out of there to avoid commuter traffic and once again my drive to Harstine was pleasant. (Bad heading to Des Moines, though, with torrential rain; thankfully it abated on our drive back). We’ll need to start spending some serious time up there in the coming weeks to fling, donate, and pack. It’s a huge elephant that will require a helluva lot of bites.

John’s been slogging away on the master shower tile. (It’s extremely labor intensive with LOTS of cutting and precision fitting). Tomorrow he is heading up to the Index area (above Monroe-Sultan-Goldbar) with some buddies to do some serious testing of his gold sluice/highbanker/dredge. I’ll explain more afterward, and I’m intrigued with the possibilities! He’s so excited! It’ll be a long day—he’ll be up and out of here around 4:30 a.m!

While he’s gone, I’ll be attacking these floors! They are in dire need!

And probably start another book.

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I’m so excited about this! My most favorite art piece ever (one of the “necessary” items I grabbed yesterday to bring down with us) that John moved heaven and earth to give to me for Christmas many years ago, is now hung at Harstine!

 Here is the story about THAT!

It took a while to decide where I wanted the picture hung, but this is perfect because I can see it from the kitchen!

First Day!

I know it was a holiday for some people, but it never has been for me. So today was my FIRST day of retirement! That horrible commute, the disturbing traffic reports on the radio, dealing with awful and inconvenient construction all around that office building, Chucklehead, and that stupid proposal—to be honest, I hardly gave any of it an ounce of thought until now as I’m writing this. It’s all in my rear view mirror. (Although there might be some PTSD).

Not to say I wasn’t busy today. Did some cleaning  and organizing, then made lasagna from scratch—chilled it afterward and just now stuck it in the oven. What’s nice is that “busy” is a relative term. I can take a break whenever I want to. And yet progress happens! (Progress is a relative term, too!) John worked on tile—slogging away on the master shower. Priorities are getting the master bath done, plus the master closet, and also finding/ordering our master bedroom furniture! This will free up the glass studio (our temporary bedroom) so that we can empty out shelving at Des Moines and haul it down so there we can unpack and organize the glass studio! A million things need to happen before the next million things can happen, down the line. 

We’re probably stupid for just not using the guest bedroom in the interim, but the dogs sleep with us and I just don’t want dog (or cat) hair all over the the bed spread in the there. It’s for guests! However, we have taken over the guest bedroom closet and chest of drawers for storing our clothes. Temporarily.

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Captured this photo of Nate and Sandra from Facebook. I’m not *notified* of details, but from what I can determine, they went to Arizona to meet up with a bunch of her dad’s side of the family and they were waiting to be seated at a restaurant. Sandra got her hair cut! Cute!

 

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Tonight’s sunset:

Nice.

Settling In

Not really! (There is a whole lot to do to get to that point). But, yeah, what a glorious weekend—and so wonderful to not feel that dread I always do on Sundays when we have to head “home” to face another week of Day Jail.

And looky here!

They had been in the “dungeon” in Des Moines (three flights of stairs down from the master bedroom), so they were mighty grungy. Once John unloaded them off the truck into the garage, I did some major scrubbing up there and they actually look almost new! Then came the fun part: getting them down into the house and hooked up. The dryer wasn’t horrible because it’s pretty much a hollow maw, but the washer was a whole different story. Killer heavy and awkward. John’s excellent hand truck (the secret to it is the bigger wheels plus heavy-duty ratcheting straps) made it doable, although he was certainly beat after carefully wheeling it down the steps and into the house. I spent a good part of yesterday DOING LAUNDRY! John had quite a pile of dirty clothes and the bedding was in dire need. It’s wonderful to have that convenience HERE!

Yesterday was so incredibly nice out (another 60°+ day and sunny (in such contrast to much of the rest of the country in sub-zero temperatures and buried in feet of snow). We took a beach walk. We encountered other people, one who warned us that there was a dead seal up the beach so we opted to turn around to prevent Bailey from likely wanting to roll in it check it out. But we found several agates and actually got sweaty in our sweatshirts! (You know the drill—click the pics to embiggen!)

Today is nice, too. John headed up to a creek near Olympia to do some gold panning.  

I’m going to crank up the tunes and do some cleaning and put stuff away that we brought down with us. Mundane, maybe, but definitely low stress.

I’ll take it.

{{{FREE AT LAST!!!!}}}

Finally! I am outa there! Officially “retired,” at least from that place. Who knows what might happen down the road, but for now I’m DONE. I can already feel the stress beginning to recede, although I suspect it won’t really hit me until Monday morning when I don’t have to wake to the alarm (no, I don’t think I’ve ever had President’s Day off). For the next several days, we’re basically going to relish this new chapter. THEN, it’ll be time to hit it, to get the Des Moines house emptied out. It’ll be a daunting task, but we’ll eat that elephant one bite at a time.

I only worked for about 2-1/2 hours today. Cleaned up my space and had one final meeting with Chucklehead to transition the proposal I’ve been working on over to him. (Heh). Then he said, “Feel free to go if you’d like.” The only good thing he’s ever said to me. Walking down to my car in 60° sunshine was surreal! And so wonderful! John came home pretty early this morning and I was tickled (and blown away) that he was able to load up our washer and dryer into the truck! Then we packed up a bunch of clothes and stuff and loaded it all into my car, gathered up the critters, and headed down to Harstine in separate vehicles. I really enjoyed the drive! It was shortly after noon and traffic was very decent (and actually marvelous in some spots). My car is not accustomed to going the speed limit (or above…!)

Unloading the washer and dryer hasn’t happened yet, and that could end up being a weeeee bit more difficult than loading it. Especially getting them inside the house. But John does have this hoist thingy and an awesome “appliance” dolly with large wheels that has saved his bacon with a number of uber-heavy items. It will be so amazing to be able to wash clothes here! Huge milestone!

So, Wylie will never cuddle with me in bed at the Des Moines house ever again. She’s now a Harstine cat (Mojo has been since last summer). I sure hope the two of them start getting along better. (I think Mojo has been feeling pretty territorial down here; he’ll now have to “share” full time).

We even had a fire on the deck tonight. It was a little short-lived because a breeze kicked up (a change in the weather is coming—back to wet), but it was still so nice! Pretty rare thing for this time of year.

Onward!

Too. Much. Food.

Aside from some (ahem) discomfort, I really can’t complain because THE FOOD WAS SUBLIME. Both yesterday and today I was taken out to lunch! Yesterday was just me and the office manager who sits kitty-corner to me and we’ve become buddies—we went to this eclectic BBQ place up by Lake Union and it was to die for. And I’m really not a huge BBQ fan (mostly because it’s always so messy), but this was out of this world. And part of what made it so was that we had their “BBQ Sundae” which comes served in a big-ass sundae goblet with BBQ’d beef brisket topped with creamy coleslaw (she also had baked beans in the mix) so that you can eat it with a fork instead of having everything dripping out of your sandwich onto your lap. It also came with excellent fresh corn bread. It was a lot of food and a lot of flavor and we both kept moaning as we ate and yapped. Mmmm.

Then today, she and I plus my favorite guy that I work with on Boeing proposals (plus Chucklehead) went to Palisade. I love that place so much I want to marry it. I’ve been there once before and it’s just fancy and pretty (kind of art deco) with an interior bridge that crosses over a huge fish pond. Plus, it’s at the marina and has a view across the water of the Space Needle and the Seattle skyscrapers. But, more importantly, they have GREAT FOOD!! Top Chef type stuff, rich, beautifully presented without being “pretentious,” and a decent value (for special occasions when you want to stuff yourself and/or take home a doggy bag). In spite of Chucklehead being there, we really had a fun time. I enjoy the Boeing guy a lot (he has a great sense of humor, and I will miss him the most) and having him with us made having Chucklehead with us doable. (I could NOT believe how fast C.H. scarfed down his food! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody EVER eat as fast as he did! It was…eye-widening).

The rest of my day was hectic, though. I keep plugging away on this asinine proposal as if I will be the one to see it out the door, and I keep getting my panties in a wad about all the typical things—and then step back and realize, I really don’t have to worry about this! It’s a strange place to be.

1.5 days left. Yep, I’ll be outa there no later than noon on Friday! wOOt!

Final Crappy Monday

And man, was it ever crappy. Had a nearly 3-hour lame-brain meeting regarding a proposal I’m working on (or at least starting…) that involved Chucklehead plus the misogynist engineer. PAINFUL. I have to at least pretend that I give a rat’s ass for the next few days and I keep getting too wrapped up in this stupid thing that they shouldn’t even be pursuing. “Well, we probably won’t win it, but at least we’ll get our name in front of them.” That is the No. 1 fatal mistake of all engineering firms, is thinking along those lines. It is Marketing 101. They. Are. Clueless.

I’m aware of a really big proposal coming up next month that is pretty much a shoe-in (if the proposal isn’t lame) and Chucklehead asked if I would be willing to work on a contract basis to get it out the door. Uhm, no. I may be open to some remote contract work down the road a ways if need be, but not that one, and not that soon. He needs some “education” about what goes into these things, because he does not know. He needs to feel the panic. It’ll be good for him.

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A few bullets:

• Haven’t heard back from that HR recruiter about that job I applied for (and left a return voice mail for). If I don’t tomorrow morning, I will call again.
• I also applied for another job over the weekend that would be much CLOSER. I’m a wee bit excited about it because it would be part time and also for a lumber/door company who bought out the company that my dad worked for throughout my childhood (I even worked for them briefly as my very first job). It’s even in their marketing department.
• My acrylic nails (that I’ve had for eons) keep popping off, something I’ve never dealt with before. I wonder if I should just give them up and *try* to deal with my own nails? Hmm. Something to contemplate.
• Have NOT been happy with my curls lately. Probably due to all of this torrential rain/humidity/dew point. They just wilt like mad. I’ve been trying (too many) products to try to combat it all, so far to no avail. Not a happy camper.