Seattle Patriot

Here’s another gem that Ben alerted me to – The Oregon Trail! This is a GREAT way to spend a reminiscent hour. Plus it brings back all kinds of good stories from childhood and discussions like “what was your hunting strategy?” Em and I used to buy a wagon full of bullets, and hunt for weeks. We’d stand in the middle of the screen and just spin. Instead of landmarks, we judged our progress by the type of game that would emerge at different parts. Ahhhh, the good old days!

Remember when the hardest decisions were which names to put down for your wagon? How you can tell that animals are dead because they flip over? Waiting for the river to go down? Taking 6 days to rest, and having people get more sick?? Oh yes, there are these memories and so many more awaiting you!

Get ready to be blasted back to 1990: Go Play The Oregon Trail!

Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m done. HUGE HUGE HUGE “thank you!” to everyone who was incredibly supportive of my over the past 7 weeks (not to mention the past 3 years). It took about 3 full days for me to recover, but I guess that makes sense for a 3 day test, and by Monday of this week I was finally feeling myself again. Now that I’m back in action, I have 5 weeks before I start work, and I plan to use every second of them!

Thursday we had a great time catching up with Alex, who was in town with his lovely girlfriend, Elizabeth. We ate at a great place, to which we all agreed we would return soon…if it weren’t in Burien. Friday I finally got to spend some time with the family, and it was great to catch up on everything that’s been going on during my absence. Ben is deeply ensconsed in his new work at Aquent, and despite the fact that it sounds incredibly challenging, he is rising to the occassion as always. Emily went to present at a conference for college speakers, so she was gone for part of the weekend, but back on Sunday! I went to Jessica’s musical (she’s amazing!), and would recommend you all go, except it closed on Saturday.

Although I missed the whole softball season this summer (thanks a lot, WSBA), I got to see Dad play in the tournament on Sunday. Despite a heart-stopping collision, he must have batted about .750 and pitched 7 great innings. We’re all in agreement it was a far superior tournament than the Cunninghams/Cresseys had last summer, with a family trip to the emergency room.

Monday we had a great good-bye dinner for Alex at Piatti – the only thing missing was Alex… The weather has been beautiful, and I’m SO GLAD I can finally take advantage of it, so I’m getting outside every moment I can! Yesterday Ciara and I resumed working out together (and when we’re back on evenings, Jess can join us too since she’s finally done with rehearsals!) and I had almost forgotten how nice it is to workout OUTSIDE for a change, rather than sitting on a recumbant bike reading through notes. BLECH! Last night we made Happy Hour at McCormick & Shmick where we could each get a cider/beer and half pound hamburger for $5. FANTASTIC deal. I hear they have one across the street from my firm, so you know I’ll be enjoying that more soon. We headed out to Safeco to see the Mariners lose in a spectacular show of zero offense and near zero defense (was the final score 0-8?) – they’d already hit two home runs before Jess and I even made it to the seats! Still, a beautiful 75 degree evening and a great day for baseball. (And we poured out some Kettle Corn in your honor, Trace!)

There are still 5 full weeks to go, so stay tuned for more fun, and let me know if you have any bright ideas. In the works is berry picking, croquet, picnics, more karaoke, book club (Ciara!), Culinary Club coming up on the 12th, Volleyball (I go on Mondays if anyone wants to join me), and much much more! Looking forward to spending more time with everyone SOON!