A boy's paradise

This week Chuck decided he really didn't have the time to devote to the dirt bike he and Sean bought from a Craig's List post. The thing didn't run, and they had big ideas of finding the problem and fixing it. They worked on it one afternoon, but summer will be winding down soon, so Chuck decided to look for another one that would provide some immediate enjoyment.

Watch out. Here comes trouble and his sidekick,
Emma.

They found another one on Craig's List and we drove about an hour to get it. The man said his son had no interest in it, and it sounded like he was not real comfortable riding it. He said the boy wouldn't go fast enough on it to keep the front wheel steady. Chuck looked at me and said, "I'm afraid we'll have the opposite problem."

It was late in the evening when we got it home, and they were ready to take off on it. They didn't get far. Sean came back into the house, shoulders slumped, and said, "Needs a tube." I wasn't sure what that meant. He explained the back tire tube was bad. He was pretty disappointed. Chuck had to work the next day, which meant a possible 24 hours of sitting and staring at this newer motorcycle and not being able to ride it.

I agreed to take Sean to the nearest motorcycle store the next day to get a new tube, and Chuck said he would try to come by on a break and get it trail ready.
Once we had the new tube, Sean immediately called Chuck to let him know we were on our way home and he should meet us there to install this new tube. I think he texted him a couple of times, too. He was so anxious to try it out.

Chuck stopped by on a break and they put the
new tire tube in, pumped it up and it was
ready to go.

This property is perfect for it. His feet barely touch the ground, and it's a pretty heavy bike for him, but he was rarin' to go. He hasn't had it out of first gear yet, but he's pushing first gear.

His toes just touch the ground, but he's not afraid.

He's getting the feel for it, and each time he gets on he learns more about it. He's dumped it a few times, but seems to know how to let it go and hop out of the way of it.

Chuck is having a good time watching Sean enjoy it.

I can't even describe how this kid loves this motorcycle, and this property. He has always loved being outside. He loves being here, and there's plenty to keep him busy.

Here he goes through the gate to the lower property.

After Chuck went back to work, and Sean had ridden around a bit, we came back up to the house and I talked to him about privilege and responsibility. I explained that he is fortunate to have a nice home, a room filled with the toys he loves, and now this motorcycle. With that comes the responsibility to act like a gentleman, with a good attitude of being thankful for all that he has, and good manners. We talked about how important it is to behave well, and to be a role model for others. I don't want him to get to a point of feeling entitled to things.

I'm happy for him to have fun things, and I'm so thankful for Chuck. He's so very good to both of us.

Peace, love and ice cream

= Ben & Jerry's.
We finally had some warm days here. Two in a row, I think. I was loving it but the natives tend to get the vapors, as we call it in the South. We had been in the car a while and Sean was suffering and had a headache. I suggested a stop at Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream.
We got the Fish Food flavor. It has chocolate ice cream, marshmallow and little chunks of fair trade chocolate in fish shapes. It was sooo good. I don't usually like stuff in my ice cream. I find it odd to be chewing on something so cold that it hurts my teeth while I'm really trying to enjoy something smooth and creamy. But the chocolate fishies were not freezing cold, and they were delicious.
They aren't paying me to say any of this. We didn't even see Ben or Jerry anywhere.
I realize it does sound like a pitch, but honestly, we just really liked it.

Fish Food ice cream and a cup of ice water.
It was exactly what we needed.

I've been to the Ben & Jerry's in San Fran, but the Gig Harbor B&J is pretty cool. They have a foto booth that takes a few frames of photos and uploads to Facebook. If you become a fan of them on FB, you can share your pics with your FB friends. We enjoyed goofing off with that for a few minutes.
I didn't get a picture this time of the cows outside, but they are big, and black and white. I was hoping this car outside was a VW van, but we had to settle for an old VW Bug. Still fun.

Sean liked the peace sign spray
painted on the hood. We had a '74
VW Bug when I was a kid. I drove
it when I was old enough. Ah, them
was the days...

Yesterday was about 82 degrees here and I guess God realized these natives just can't handle that kind of heat. Today it's gray and currently 59 degrees. (Some people say cloudy, but I say gray. Cloudy means you see patches of blue sky between clouds. There is no blue. It's just gray.)
High of 72 expected today. Whoo hoo. Summertime in western Washington.
Hope you get some peace, love and ice cream wherever you are today.

Date Night continued

On Saturday we got to be very grown up and attend a fun party. Stephanie and Rick hosted a backyard party complete with lots of food, lots of beverages, a big fire in the fire pit, two live bands, and a bunch of great people. There was a mix of age groups and backgrounds. It was so much fun. We stayed out late and slept in a little bit on Sunday.
Chuck reported for duty as a judge at our community's charity croquet tournament. It was the second year for the event, and the judges were all local celebrities of one type or another. Some were elected representatives in state or local offices.
I stopped by and took a few photos.

Derek Kilmer, a state senator, and Terry Lee.
Lee used to represent our district on the
county council. They were having a great time.

The angels came to play dirty.

Not sure how I did it, but I neglected to take any of Chuck. Probably trying to avoid favoritism for the paper, but now I wish I had one for my own archives.
The judges were all dressed in striped ref shirts and nice tan visors, and they all carried clip boards. An unscrupulous lot, they all were easily bribed with croquet money. Missed a shot, no problem. Give the judge a $5 croquet bill and all is OK.
All of the money went to a local Communities in Schools program this year.
The teams came dressed in all manner of costumes, and these were some of my favorites.

This guy was on the Mad Hatters team. Love
his bow and that huge drink glass.

I don't know the name of this team,
but they came in plaid and had huge mallets.
I snapped this shot just as this guy was thumbing
his nose at someone on the opposing team.

There were some others great moments, but I didn't get good pics of them.
It was our last horrah before welcoming the kids back. Sean arrived Monday, and Lilly got back yesterday afternoon.
This week has been work, work, work. I expect the weekend will prove to be very full of work as well. Tomorrow we will welcome Chuck's nephew Charlie, who is coming from Nevada for a music school at a local university for a week.

Date Night

A night without kids is rare for us. We always have one, and sometimes both of them with us. This week was our week. Sean is on vacation with his dad, and Lilly is spending the week with her mom.
I'll cut right to the good stuff, but I'll leave something to the imagination.

Wednesday was our only night free of obligations and work, so I suggested that we go out to eat someplace nice and also go see a movie that we wouldn't take the kids to see.

After working all day here moving things around, at around 3 p.m. we started painting a room. We had one wall left when I asked what time it was, and it was 5:30. We left that last wall, which was going to be a different color anyway, and I checked for movies and show times.

There weren't as many choices as I had hoped. I wasn't really in the mood for something serious, but we considered "Buck," a documentary showing at The Grand. I looked at the local theater listing and came up empty. We both wanted a comedy.

There are plenty of restaurants we haven't tried yet. A Thai restaurant, some Chinese, and I had heard good things about a local Japanese restaurant. We chose the Japanese and were not disappointed.

Our tea cups were filled with warm green tea. Mmm.

I had teriyaki salmon and chicken with rice, and Chuck had tempora vegetables and shrimp with salmon.
We used chop sticks for as long as possible, but resorted to the forks eventually.

Our Thursday morning was going to start really early, because we were attending a Chamber breakfast at 7:30 a.m., but we wanted to continue our date with the movie. We chose "Bridesmaids." I had heard good things about it. Parts of it were hilarious. It was kind of predictable in some places, but we had a good time.

We're enjoying the quiet. Last night we had a quiet dinner at home after a day of work and meetings. The tranquility will turn to chaos next week when the kids return. It will be a full week of running around and work deadlines. We love them, and really love having a family, but it sure is nice to have some time to bond and grow together.

Abloom

The flowers are in bloom, and I love to fill the house with pretty bouquets of whatever is available from the yard. Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure.

I love the puffy, full blooms of these roses. I filled this little vase

as full as I could, and the pink one in the middle is open now.

Don't you just love fresh flowers in the bathroom? 

And the kitchen.

And of course on the dining table.

Don't Look Down

We're pretty proud of our two bridge spans around here. The bridge we take to Tacoma has a toll, but we don't have to pay on the one that brings us home. I especially like the fact that the state takes care of them. We see workers painting and checking them often. I saw these guys out recently and thought I'd share.

Those guys are brave. They work to keep the old
bridge sound and looking nice. 

This looks scary enough, but you should see the drop below.
Puget Sound churns underneath. Some of the largest
ocotpodes in the world live there.

Back in the day, when we only had the one bridge, we used to have to plan carefully if we were going  to Tacoma. Both going and coming home could be snarly and add a lot of time, stress and distress to the day. I remember getting a bug to go somewhere, but I'd look at the clock and realize it was a really bad idea. There were times we would spend a couple of hours just trying to make it over the bridge and home in the evening traffic. A trip to Tacoma was usually an all-day event.

The commute is easy peasy now.  I still have to plan for some traffic at peak times, but I've found that during the time of day I have to use either bridge the traffic moves pretty quickly.

In the beginning it was weird to drive on the old one because they opened up all of the lanes to go one direction. When it was our only bridge, there were two lanes in each direction. I found it difficult to use those left lanes for fear of a head-on collision the first few times I drove in them.

Having the new bridge is great, but it's an added expense we didn't have before, especially because I make a lot of trips over those bridges each week. We've adjusted. Oh, and you don't want to get a ticket. If you're not paying attention and slip through those cameras without that Good to Go transponder sticker on your windshield you'll get a little piece of mail with a picture of your car and license plate and a hefty bill for $52.

Raising the toll is a constant topic. With high gas prices and few jobs it is a serious concern for a lot of people who live on this side. Our cars have transponders, which makes our toll price $2.75. Those without a transponder pay $4.
There's a lot more (bad news) I'm not telling you, but if you're interested you can always Google it. Lots of unhappy people when the new contractor took over. New transponders not working, etc.

And if you want a bit of history about the bridge you can read about that here.

Desert feet

Lilly's Pug and a glimpse of my pedi.

I'm not trying to freak anyone out, or make anyone sick, but my heels were so dry from being in the desert air that I was picking at them. Nasty, I know.

Just having one of my heels brush against my inner thigh was like being poked with a thorn. My feet were so dry it was changing the way I was doing everything. I couldn't sit the way I wanted in the car, and in all situations I tried to make sure my feet didn't come in contact with any part of Chuck's body.

As I was riding, looking at the scenery from the passenger window, I would pick at my heels. I caught myself a couple of times and decided the pedicure had to be scheduled asap upon our return home.

Lilly likes all things girly, and I figured a pedicure would be a nice thing for us to do together.
We went to a place in Gig Harbor called Julep last weekend. It was great. A bit pricey, but it's all non-toxic, eco and green and all of that, and we felt like it was very clean and we got a great pedicure. The most important thing for me was smoothing all the rough edges, but I'm enjoying the nice color on my toes.

We got the full treatment.

Lilly's new toes.

Ah, it sure is nice to have smooth feet. I'm sure Chuck appreciates it.