Kingfisher Cove

Absolutely Wonderful

I’m still beaming!

The kids left late morning yesterday to hop a ferry and then trek up to Everett to check it out for a couple of days. So, our time together was a whirlwind, but what a sweet whirlwind it was!

Here they are on the Seattle-to-Bremerton ferry on their way to our place to shock the crap out of me:

We had beautiful (but cold!) weather, and we took Quinn down to the beach. He’s accustomed to San Diego weather (of course), and so he wasn’t too jazzed about wearing a coat. Also, he was hell-bent on “wading” in the water. Thankfully that didn’t happen, but it took quite a bit of effort and distraction!

I was so surprised to see that the Olympics had no snow! Usually by now at least the peaks are frosty.

(You can see our house in the background).

Nate and Sandra found a BUNCH of beach agates (I thought I did pretty well finding 4!)

We had some down times and goofy times!

And our Thanksgiving feast was out of the park. Small lobster tails (sort of as an appetizer), a big bowl of cold cracked crab, broccoli drizzled with hot olive oil infused with garlic and lemon juice, and seasoned roasted mini-potatoes. The crab was the star of the show.

(Plating skills leave a lot to be desired…)

And finally, a short video of Quinn “helping” Papa with his jigsaw puzzle. He was so adorable. He spent a lot of time hanging out and “talking” about everything under the sun. “PAPA!”

 

Holy cow, what a joy it was. Did I mention that I’m still beaming?

Floor Day. Heh.

Subtitle: GOBSMACKED

I’ve been attacking the house since the weekend, a little at a time. Besides desperately needing cleaning, I was expecting Helen to come visit on Saturday, plus I wanted a clean foundation for decking the halls on Friday. Cleaning bathrooms. Dusting. Tucking away glass items on the coffee tables, etc. to make room for Christmas stuff. Cleaning the guest bedroom, cleaning the pantry. Today was floor day, the day I dread most, when John vacuums and I mop. It’s a big job for both of us. I also planned on cleaning the kitchen, which is another big job.

After John vacuumed, I was waiting for him to take his daily nap with the dog so that they’d be out of my hair off the floor so I could mop uninterrupted. And then the doorbell rang. John answered it, called out it was for me (a package to sign for?) and I was feeling a little cringy because since it was FLOOR DAY I hadn’t taken a shower and I looked like shit warmed over.

IT WAS NATE AND SANDRA AND QUINN!!!!!!

They had flown up here this morning, rented a car, took the ferry from Seattle to Bremerton, and then drove on down to Harstine, something they’d planned a month ago and John was completely in on. I had absolutely no idea. None. Gobsmacked doesn’t come close to covering it. I am STILL in shock, all these hours later. I can’t BELIEVE they are here!!!

(Still rather cringy because: no shower, filthy kitchen, godawful floors—but thankfully they are vacuumed!)

For Thanksgiving we will be having seafood! Lobster tails were the plan for John and I anyway, and because he knew about the kids coming, he’d picked up extra tails PLUS crab, totally unbeknownst by me. Plus snacks and Pull-Ups for Quinn, and pizza for dinner tonight! He hid all this stuff, and I find it rather scary how successfully sneaky he has been! Wow! And, hmm!

It’s just wonderful having them here, and I am over the moon. Quinn IMMEDIATELY hollered, “Nonna! Papa!” He knew us. He was comfortable and not a bit shy and joyfully toured the house and discovered that Nikki existed and then was on a mission to find her because she was hiding. He’d grab “Papa’s” finger (“Papa, cat!”) and bring him along to help out on his quest. He is hilarious. He was also fascinated with Bailey and was gentle with her old self. (And Bailey was a saint).

The kids will head to Everett on Friday to check out the lay of the land. They still don’t have housing secured for when they move up here in mid-December, nor childcare established. I hope they can learn something! They’re on waiting lists (have been since last spring!) and nothing has shaken loose for them. They’ll stay in a hotel up there and then fly out on Sunday.

Have I mentioned that I’m over the moon?

I'm not sure who is more entertaining in this video—my boy or his boy! Lol

 

 

A Fine Day

I drove up to Poulsbo today (listening to the impeachment hearings on NPR the whole way there and back) and met up with my wonderful Retired Lady Friends. Margaret and I have known each other since the 7th grade, but we met Carol and Lynn through blogging and Facebook and have now known each other for years. We try to meet up every couple of months or so for lunch and yapping and we always have so much to talk about! We ate at a yummy Italian restaurant and wandered around a few of the shops afterward, in the sunshine! It’s been a while since we’ve seen that shiny ball in the sky.

Margaret in yellow, me hiding behind her, Lynn in the corner, and Carol in the sunlight

We are similar in many ways, divergent in others, and quite like-minded. The walls reverberate with our voices!

Nikki keeps growing (daily, I swear) and she continues to be a holy terror. There are toys strewn everywhere, and she even hauled a fuzzy ball into John’s sink in the bathroom! The countertops are her monkey bars, the walls are her trampoline. She and Wylie continue to be…antagonistic.

Of course, she is also a sweetie (sometimes…).  I have intense trepidation about putting up the Christmas tree.

Just a quick post tonight (tomorrow is another butt-crack morning to get up for the impeachment hearings), but I just HAD to share this short video of Quinn. Joyful little things!

 

What a Week.

I have been immersed in the impeachment hearings, rolling out of bed at wee hours I haven’t seen the likes of since 2015 when I’d have to face my nightmarish commute to work. In this case, I was still in my P.J.’s, mainlining coffee, vaguely aware of the pitch dark outside (and shivering a bit because the heat hadn’t yet kicked on).

And I was riveted.

We saw the testimonies of two impressive career diplomats assigned to Ukraine and we learned about how this sordid story has unfolded. Their growing sense of alarm as the irregular diplomatic channel led by Rudy Giuliani with the focus to manufacture dirt on trump’s possible presidential political opponent (hmm, I see a common thread here…); the push of the debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine was responsible for the 2016 election interference instead of Russia (Russia did it, and there is no question about it. Ukraine/Crowdstrike was a conspiracy theory initiated by Manafort via his pro-Putin oligarch buddy, Konstantin Kilimnik); the pressure for Ukraine to publicly announce that they would be investigating these things; and the extortion of trump withholding congressional-authorized security funds to Ukraine to help defend themselves against Russia to only be released if the new Ukrainian president abided by Trump’s corrupt demands.

Yesterday we heard from our highly regarded Ambassador to Ukraine who Giuliani and trump smeared, bullied, and threatened and then pulled her from her post last spring with no explanation, shattering her 33-year exemplary career. Fox News smeared her. Trump’s son smeared her. Corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs working in concert with trump and Giuliani smeared her. They knew her anti-corruption campaign would hinder their mission to conduct corrupt acts, and so she had to be moved out of the way. And then, the *President of the United States SMEAR-TWEETED her while she was testifying before Congress. Looks like another Article of Impeachment—witness intimidation.

The impeachment hearings have enraged trump and enraged the republicans. Hmm…

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“You can’t promote principled anti-corruption action without pissing off corrupted people.” – George Kent

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I just can’t understand how anybody supports this boorish, ignorant, reckless, callous monster that was installed as *president. We all know who and what he is! How can any of this be acceptable to anyone? 

• “Grab em’ by the pussy.”
• $25 million fine for his fraudulent “Trump University.”
• $2 million fine and court-ordered shutdown of his fraudulent “Trump Foundation Charity.”
• Mocked a physically disabled journalist.
• Bashed John McCain for “getting captured” when he was a POW.
• At least 17 credible accusations of sexual assault and rape.
• Paid off porn stars to keep them silent about his extra-marital affairs with them.
• 13,435 false or misleading claims (lies) over 993 days.
• Claimed—and pushed hard— that President Obama wasn’t a U.S. citizen.
• Nazis/white supremacists marching in Charlottesville and murdering a young woman were “very fine people.”
• Called women “pigs,” “dogs,” “fat,” “ugly,” and referred to Megyn Kelly as “bleeding from her wherever.”
• First order of his *presidency: Muslim ban.
• Separates immigrant children from their parents, locks immigrants in cages.
• Eagerly supports dictators from Russia, No. Korea, Turkey, Brazil, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and China; disparages our NATO allies.

And then! The sixth (SIXTH!) trump cohort who worked with him to corrupt the 2016 presidential election is now a felon! In the midst of yesterday’s impeachment testimony, we learned that Roger Stone was convicted on seven counts of lying to congress and witness tampering. Everyone connected to trump is a criminal.

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“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. .. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie.” - Joseph Goebbels

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Do I feel some glee about these impeachment proceedings? Not really. It sickens me that we are here, that we have such an amoral, vindictive, cruel man in the White House, intent on taking down our country. And that the spineless republicans who enable him have no virtue, no human integrity, no self respect, no courage, and no moral compass. I’m gravely worried. For him:

But I will say this about the impeachment hearings: I finally have a little hope.

Color and Light

Truckin’ along into November (my least favorite month), but I have to say that so far, it has been pretty darned stellar. Beautiful sunshine after some morning marine fog, and not frigid. Chilly, but not frigid. We’re dark early now after setting the clocks back (grrr), but at least there have been stunning sunsets.

And then here’s one from our neighbor, Rich!

Just wow!

Also, feeling some light at the end of the dark, dark tunnel with the glaring evidence emerging from the impeachment inquiry. I knew from Day One how corrupt this *president was and would be—extraordinarily corrupt combined with power is a toxic mix and we are finally viewing the truth beneath his haze of deceit. A friend of mine said, “It’s mortifying that this country elected such a low IQ individual. It’s depressing that we elected someone with no moral compass.” Well, the tides are changing.

Remember this?

Here it was ready to contour fuse:

And then a close-up of how it looked after that contour fuse. You can see that the edges had softened and rounded, but it still retained much of the texture:

Then it was time to place it on a bowl mold to slump. My mold is kind of organic and wavy, and I was hoping that it would add some character from a typical round bowl. And here is how it turned out. There were some little issues (lessons learned for next time), but I am honestly very happy with it.

This was a fun one.

I actually have most of my Christmas shopping done! Yay me! The next couple of months will be BUSY, and I needed to get a grip on some of it so I could reduce stress levels. I still don’t know when Nate, Sandra, and Quinn will be moving up here (all I know is still “mid-December”) or what their plans are—if they plan to stay here for a bit as a “base” while they sort out housing and childcare in Everett. But I want to be ready for whatever. And for the first time in a while, I’m excited about Christmas. I plan to start decorating the day after Thanksgiving! (I don’t think I’ve ever done that before). But I’m also hosting Book Club in early-ish December and I want the house decorated for it. And, the plan is for Helen to come in possibly even earlier December to celebrate her birthday and bake some fun Christmas schtuff (some of which I really want to serve for Book Club!) So I felt the need to get a move on, at least with Christmas shopping.

Nikki really wants to befriend Wylie, but Wylie isn’t onboard. She is more tolerant than she used to be, though.

I’ll leave you with a cute pic of my favorite family!

AND…a (short) video of Quinn feeling the moves at a festival in San Diego!