Kingfisher Cove

Oh! Tears!

Several months ago (last spring?) I hauled a bagful of old VHS tapes to Costco to transfer over to DVD that my dad had taken of Nate when he was a baby and toddler. We haven’t had a VCR in ages, so it had been ages since I’d looked at any of these tapes. They were taken on one of those first camcorders that were HUGE and had to rest on your shoulder when you recorded (remember?) Those cameras were also REALLY expensive as I recall. Like, $1200 or so, which was a whole helluva lot in 1986! The first grandchild warranted it in my dad’s eyes, and for the first few years of his life, Nate probably associated his Papa with that appendage on his shoulder. He was rarely without it!

The company that Costco sends the tapes out to for transferring sent me an email some time ago that they were unable to transfer my tapes to DVD. I was just heartsick. Yes, they’d been sitting around for nearly three decades, but they were in cases that were stored in a bookcase cabinet (that had a door). WTH? I was so disappointed that I pretty much put it out of my mind and neglected to go back to Costco to pick up my old VHS tapes. I knew I would eventually, but I wondered what the hell I would do with them, not having a VCR (and would I even be able to view them if I had one? Or if I could even get one…)

Today we went to Costco and picked them up, and it turns out that most of them DID transfer over! (Why would they have told me that they couldn’t?) There were only 2 or 3 that didn’t, but honestly, the most critical ones DID!

I’ve been sitting here watching the first DVD on my laptop with tears streaming! There’s my mom (at only 50 years old!) and her conversational voice.  My old cats, Megan, Nikko, and Rhody! My ex-husband (Nate’s dad, who was a great dad until he wasn’t, but is back to being a decent one again). And there is baby Nate at about 5 months old, captured in snippets of every day life. These are a few screen grabs from the DVD:

I’m beside myself with joy! And…shock at how much time has passed. It is other-worldly to see everyone in action, just living life, focused on this baby and getting him to smile or roll over or dance his twinkle-toes in his jumper.

And to think that baby is now a husband. Mind blowing.

I swear, I could smell and feel his babyness as I watched through my tears.

Slowly Recovering

The flowers from the party still look pretty good after a week + 2 days (when I bought them). Oh, the petals are starting to drop here and there, but overall they’re still quite perky:

These were just grocery store flowers (complete with those little powdery packs that really work at keeping them fresh) and I’ve been happy with them. Boy are those Stargazer lilies fragrant!

The day after the party, I didn’t even get dressed! Just lounged all day in my sweats! Nate went to the Seahawks game that day with his dad, and Sandra joined friends and family and hung out with them. (Nate was here for three Seahawks games, since they also played Thursday night—and finally won). Then they left Monday for their mini-honeymoon road trip up the Olympic peninsula where they really took in some of the awesome Pacific Northwest sites and activities. They stayed at a nice bed & breakfast near Port Angeles and from there went kayaking, hiking, shopping, and eating out. Here are a few of their photos from the trip:

I think they had a great time! Relaxing and beautiful! They arrived back here at Harstine in time for that Thursday night Seahawks game and lasagna, then they were out of here at the butt crack of dawn yesterday morning to head to the airport for their flight back to San Diego. I miss them!

We’ve been gradually getting back to normal throughout the week—taking down the tables, cleaning, putting stuff away. I have to say it’s nice to be able to do it at a leisurely pace. I’m not sure why that party took so much out of me—I think mostly anticipation and some worry about everything going OK. It was absolutely doable with having it catered (gosh, that was so great), and it honestly wasn’t grueling. In fact, it was a tremendous amount of fun.

When I get so laser-focused on events like this, I  have this habit of not thinking beyond them. The holidays are coming! I haven’t given them a single thought! I suppose I should now. Feeling sad that the kids won’t be here.

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Finally, finally, FINALLY…the Des Moines house closed! I lost track of how many extensions there were. I mostly attribute it to the lame-o mortgage, title, and escrow companies involved. It took a lot longer than it was supposed to, but it’s done. Bubye, Des Moines. We are now HOME and UNBURDENED with two mortgages! What a huge relief.

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I kept waiting on (digital) library books to be released from hold and finally gave up and ordered a book on Amazon, which I’ve been reading (and enjoying). And of course yesterday two library books were released from hold! Argh! I have 21 days and counting to read both of them. I hate when this happens (which is often) because the book I bought has to go on hiatus so I can focus on those library books. Irritating.

What am I reading? The book on hiatus (sigh) is the 4th book in the John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series (I highly recommend this series—very character-driven science fiction extremely well done) called “The Human Division.” The library book is “The Girl With All the Gifts.” It’s good, too, although I’m not too far into it yet. It’s a dystopian future book that has well over 1,000 positive reviews on Amazon, so I had to check it out!

WHAT A SHINDIG!!!

Success! Ahhhh! (I’m finally blogging about it after needing a good day to recover…)

Nate and Sandra’s wedding reception was simply amazing! What a wonderful houseful of fun people, yummy food, great times. It’s hard to describe just how perfect everything was! Yeah, the weather could have been better, but it is October after all, and ultimately we got lucky. It rained in the morning, and there were a few sprinkles throughout the day (and some strong-ish breezes), but most of the deck is covered and John put up the awning to create even more dry space. And the sun even peaked through a few times.

I think pictures will tell the story best of all. Be sure to click to embiggen!

As you can see, the day before was gorgeous while we were setting up the deck:

A little grayer the morning of, but dry beneath the dormers:

Sangria? Still needs 7-Up, but check!

Caterer? Check! (She was WONDERFUL!!!)

Cheese board? Check!

And finally the guests arrive!

These are Nate’s good friends from high school:

And here are the couple-of-honor! (Note Bailey the photo-bomber):

Nate and his mama:

A few more candids:

It was maaahhhvelous!

Kiddos!

We’re slowly gearing up to {{{hit it}}} with the reception preparations, but there really is no sense in starting too early. All the cleaning will happen Thursday and Friday (so it doesn’t have to be done again—the clean floor only stays that way for minutes, after all…)

It’s fun to have the kiddos here. They’ve been doing a lot of running around and they picked up all the fixings for their sangria. Last night we assembled the favors, which are so cute! Little birdseed hearts!

 

We’ve had a few pretty late nights staying up yapping! (That will soon change—I need my sleep!) And they’ve been trying really hard to catch a salmon, which is something our neighbor does quite regularly (so it’s definitely possible). They’ve been putting in some hours out there, getting bites and nudges, but so far no luck.

 

Such a cute couple!

Ready for Da Kids!

Heh heh. I remember when my grandparents referred to my parents as “the kids” and I always thought that was weird.

So, Nate and Sandra arrive late tonight—their plane doesn’t land until after 10:00 p.m., then they pick up their rental car and drive all the way down here. I’m going to *try* to stay up and I think I can! I typically don’t go to bed until 11:30 anyway, and this shouldn’t be all that much later than that. Fallon or Colbert can keep me company.

I’ve got groceries for some nummy dinners this upcoming week, and I’ve done a fair amount of cleaning, knowing I get to do it again later next week to prepare for the reception.

(Which is a week from tomorrow!!) 

Mostly, I’m stewing about the weather. I’m really counting on it being DRY so most people can eat on the deck, because otherwise I’m really not sure how we’re going to handle it! And I’m also worried about the driveway because people really cannot use it (they’ll get stuck) plus somehow we’ll need to transport the older folks up and down it in my 4WD Subaru as they arrive/leave. I so hoped the driveway would be done by then, but it’s not gonna be. (Dontcha hate worrying about things you have no control over? Gah!)

John’s been working on the pretty block wall at the base of the driveway and used our neighbor’s rental excavator to backfill behind it and the [ugly] concrete wall.

Behind this wall is now fully backfilled, and it’s going to be a GREAT place for planting pretty STUFF! Also, the plan is to eventually (?) paint the concrete wall. It likely wouldn’t match the block, but hopefully something neutral that would complement it OK. Lots more to come up the driveway hill, including lighting! But it’ll be a slow go, especially this time of year.

I suspect (and hope) that the level of dirt and dust and pebbles and sand that are tracked inside the house will greatly reduce once the driveway is PAVED. Someday.

Watching (Fretting) the Seahawks Game

Monday Night Football! (Yeah, I miss those ol’ announcers—Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford, et al). They gave it some festivity and gravitas, not that we don’t have it now (sorta), but I would MUCH prefer to listen to our own Steve Raible’s play-by-play. He’s so good! (And of course, pro-Seahawks!) “TOUCHDOWN SEAHAWKS! HOLY CATFISH!”

So, we’re currently up 13-3. Aside from a couple of amazing plays, I’m pretty much eating my nails because our offensive line isn’t protecting Russell Wilson very well and he needs to be protected! I think of how far ahead we’d be right now if he’d been protected better and had the time to throw some passes instead of being sacked (or doing the rushing himself…) I worry that he’ll be injured. Plus, Beastmode is out of the game with an injury.

I get really emotionally involved in these games. Including veddy colorful language.

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Nate and Sandra arrive (late!) this coming Friday night! I haven’t seen them since New Year’s so I’m pretty much beside myself. The RSVPs have been pouring in and I sense that we’re going to have a houseful for their reception! And we’ll get to meet Sandra’s family, too! (Plus, Nate’s dad’s side of the family will be here, which I’m fine with and accustomed to after all of these years. And I LIKE them).

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Crap. The Seahawks score is now 13-10. Crap.

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John’s been working his ass off on the block retaining wall, and I do mean his ass. Jeeze. Each of these blocks weighs 70+ lbs. and he’s had to lift each and every one of them at least twice. Some involve saw-cutting, so the laundry from the dust has been daunting…

It’ll be a total of 7 rows, and it sure looks nice. Backfilling behind the walls will happen later this week.

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We took a nice sunset beach walk yesterday. (We’ve been having lovely weather!) Holy moly I hope we do a week from this coming weekend when we have the kids’ reception. I hope so bad!

A Man And His Cat: (click the pics to embiggen!)

Mojo walking the beach like a lion in the setting sun:

The snow on the Olympics has been basically absent for a long time. Will this year be different?

Beach pebbles, sand, and weird (spooky) driftwood):

Ahhhh, paradise!

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Seahawks won 13-10. It was a nail-biter, we played (mostly) like crap, and barely avoided a loss with a crazy (and now controversial) defensive play in the end zone that would have meant a touchdown for the Lions. Jeeze. But, we’ll take it.

THIS!

Ups and Downs

One of the tried-and-true platitudes of the right whenever yet another gun massacre happens (over and over and over again…) is to zero in on mental illness as the “reason.” (Not guns, that pesky common denominator, of course). Which is interesting because when someone of color commits a multi-victim crime, that never enters into their conversation. Then, it’s “terrorism.”

I agree that mental illness can be a factor, but aside from aggressively scrutinizing every single person in the country and figuring out a method of mind-reading, how could we possibly round up everyone who appears to be on the fringe that *might* do something heinous? And then what the hell would we do with them without crushing the constitution? Any effort to provide expanded medical services for mental illness has been constantly nixed by the republicans.

Quite honestly, the way I feel this week after this massacre in Roseburg, Oregon, every  republican politician should be monitored for mental illness. And I’d feel so much better if they were locked away. Jeb! Bush says, “Stuff happens.” Really? Is it that difficult for them to imagine what it would feel like if their child or loved one was shot dead? Are people who align with that party missing that ability?

Yeah, I’m beyond furious.

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I have a new oven! (And yes, it was an ordeal…) Naturally, the opening that housed the shitty oven was smaller and had to be enlarged to accommodate the new one, which meant trimming the cabinetry and spewing gobs of sawdust every-damned-where.

It goes fine with the rest of the appliances. And it has a few extra features, which I may find convenient. Mostly, I just want 350° or 400° (or whatever°) to actually MEAN those degrees! And STAY THERE.

It’s being tested as we speak. Cooking a roast and roasting some spuds in pesto and spices.

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Yesterday was our 16th wedding anniversary! wOOt! No, we didn’t do anything special, aside from appease Tonya with a new oven, so there’s that (and I’ll take it!) I also cleaned out the inside of my car, which was a JOB with all the dog hair woven throughout every square millimeter of the upholstery. Jeeze. (I sure do miss my ol’ Bug’s leather seats). NO DOGS ALLOWED! I have a hunch my car will be the “shuttle” vehicle for transporting some of the older folks down to the house for Nate and Sandra’s reception, and I knew that I had to get as much of that dog hair out of there as I possibly could. It was something else. Now the outside needs to be seriously washed, but I’ll wait for the weather to improve and take it through the carwash when I do my next grocery-go-getting.

And here’s the driveway’s lower retaining wall with the forms removed (kinda ugly, as concrete tends to be, but someday maybe it’ll eventually be shrouded in grapes or wisteria or something?)

That gap (below) will be backfilled, which will widen the driveway quite a bit.

Today, the block for the pretty parts of the retaining wall was delivered:

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One of the cats puked on one of the new area rugs, can you believe it? This week, the animals are just about in the same category at the republicans!