And the Adventure Begins

Easter vacation ended with little fanfare.  We arrived home for the Troll Stroll, then spent Sunday recovering.

Monday was the night for the guild meeting, so after picking up the kiddos, I headed North.  I had a Geocache trackable that wanted to go on a cruise, so I found a larger cache to put it into near the cruise terminal.  It supposedly had several trackables in it already, so I thought I'd take them out and help them travel on.  However, when I got there it was virtually empty--only the log book and a little trinket.  I hoped that the cache isn't being routinely robbed, and dropped it in.  I found one other cache a couple blocks away at the waterfront, under the careful watch of a couple of...what would you call them?  Non-participants?  The couple was sitting on a nearby bench, enjoying a couple glasses of wine, watching the water and enjoying the rare spring sunshine, and throwing a tennis ball for their golden retriever.  I couldn't exactly search without being noticed since their bench was at Ground Zero...so I said, "Not to look suspicious or creepy, but I'm looking for a geocache.  There's one near here."  They helped look for a couple minutes, but eventually settled back into the bench and drank their wine.  After a few minutes, I tracked it down in the rocks and they celebrated with me as I signed the log and replaced it in the rock.

I met Sharon for dinner and she told me all about her recent issues at work with an incompetent coworker, some of the crazy politics going on, and her hopes for her career.  Since I really can't post any details, let's just say she's working with another government and isn't getting the credit that is due.

At the meeting, I received a few more friendship blocks, bought some raffle tickets, and got to see a bunch of friends.  Then I won one of the raffle bags!  It included almost 6 yards of Hawaiian-style bark cloth (not sure if it's *real* bark cloth, or a rayon blend) and a beauty kit--nail clippers, nail files, nail polish and remover, and a pumice stone.  When I got home, I set the beauty kit aside...then realized that Emma would probably like it!  I handed it to her and she happily painted her nails with a single coat, and it appears it's a good quality paint!

Tuesday was our twice-monthly Girl Scout meeting.  We decided to take the girls to one of the ceramic painting places and allow them to pick out one $10 piece...then we increased it to $12 to give a few more options.  The girls spent almost two hours painting their pieces.  I started a little bit late, but got the beginnings of the piece painted.  I took it home with me, and two days later, took it back to finish.  After almost 3 hours, it STILL wasn't done!  I have to go back one more time to finish it up.  Can you believe that?!  It's gonna be so freaking cool, though!  I need to fix some of the knotwork stuff--I got some of the overs and unders mixed up, but a little scraping with dental tools and painting over the goofs will fix it right up!

Tuesday night, Kelly came home with an announcement--he was going on a business trip.  I said, "Sure you are.  You've been saying that for a couple years now.  I'll believe it when I see the itinerary."  The next day he emails the itinerary.  So...I get to be a single mom for two weeks.  Ugh.  The up side is that he's not anywhere interesting...not Vegas or LA or London...he's in Kansas.  Seriously.  Wichita.  Tornado Alley in the high season.

Wednesday Karate!  The kids are doing really well.  They're learning a lot, they're focused and getting ready for earning the next belt.  I'm so excited that they're getting closer and closer to earning not just the purple belts, but the honor of wearing the black gi.  At this studio, only purple belts and higher can wear the black uniform.

Thursday, Kelly flew out and made it safely to Kansas.  It was good to know.  Then he sent me an email link of the damage that a tornado did to the plant where he's at...spectacular images, but not terribly reassuring.

Emma's school requires some 21 hours of community service, but she delayed all year and by the deadline had only completed 3.  Now she has about 10 days to do 18 more hours, so we found a place for her to volunteer with developmentally delayed students after school.  She will be spending two hours a day for the next couple of weeks.  Hopefully she'll be able to get all the hours done before the deadline.  She should be able to get 12 hours done by next Friday, and I'm hoping that if a Girl Scout event counts, I will arrange an outing that requires a teen assistant.  If not, then maybe they'll give her an extra week (although she's already a couple weeks past the deadline).  We stopped by to make introductions and see if she needed to fill out any paperwork, then raced over to Ben's speech therapy.  While he was there, Emma and I went to get a snack, then she went to the library to read manga and I did some walking around seeking out geocaches (found three!).

I made a cool discovery while walking around.  A new McMenamin's pub will be opening in Bothell in the end of summer of next year.  This is the former Anderson school in Bothell, which the Portland-based chain is going to turn into a restaurant-winery-brewery-hotel.  I'm hoping that some parts of it will be open before then--maybe the restaurant and brewery part, and the hotel part to be worked on later.

We went back home after where Bekah was waiting for us with hot pizza and Cammie was helping out in the kitchen and doing homework.  We had dinner and watched a special that I've been taking in, The Tales from the Green Valley.  It's a 12 part reality series about a group of anthropologists who re-create a 17th century farm and live there for a year, experiencing life as it was back then.  This was from several years ago, and it was followed by a series about a Victorian farm, and Edwardian farm, and the Wartime Farm (WWII).  Great stuff!

Friday will bring more volunteering, perhaps some Geocaching with the little guys, and wrap up the day with burgers.  Hopefully we'll have a quiet weekend and be ready for a new school week.

Oh, and maybe get an appointment to get my brakes looked at while I have a second car to use.