i had friends in town. which was awesome. also, we got out and did stuff while they were here, which is even more awesome. a reason to not spend the evening dinking around on the internet has got to be a plus.
i went hiking out at griffiths priday state park. it's got standard woods and dunes and such, as well as a creek, a dead end road at the edge of a cliff that eroded all away, and my favorite cold-weather beach ever. i tromped around in dune grass, built a slide out of logs to get down a cliff to the beach, felt the wind (and felt amazing) at the beach, tromped around in sitka pine woods, saw a baldy, followed the copalis river for a while, and then tromped around in what turned out to be a sulphur marsh. eewwwwwww! good thing my asics, socks, and pants below the knee are washable!
i went to the pacific science center in seattle center. the current special exhibit is all about star wars! they made sure to tell us ahead of time that there is no re-entry to the exhibit. also that there are no bathrooms in the exhibit. did i think about much else besides potty while i was in the exhibit? yes, by sheer willpower. also the star wars stuff was cool. i got my picture taken with darth vader and built a magnet-lego car that didn't slide along its track as well as most of the small children's magnet-lego cars. after star wars, and a visit to the coolest public restroom i have ever seen (complete with bright, colorful cartoons and random entertaining urine/feces facts posted on the walls), i went to the fake dinosaur exhibit. the fake dinosaurs roar and electronically jerk about fakely. i noted that the "apatosaurus" is finally admitting that it is "also referred to as brontosaurus" since that was the ORIGINAL FREAKING NAME!! seriously! for some reason, at this point i was introduced to charlie the unicorn. also, the fake dinosaurs were scaled down significantly - horse to elephant sized instead of real sized. one of the features of the exhibit was the fake dinosaur skin that patrons were allowed to feel - so we would know just what fake dinosaur skin might have felt like if people had any idea what it was really like. after the dinosaurs i went around the rest of the science center and participated in multiple random science thingies: i turned on a lightbulb by pedaling a bicycle, demonstrated how tides work by dumping ink into the water in a topographical-ish 3-d map, watched naked mole rats burrow around in plastic tunnels, made a silhouette on a shadow wall, found out that my eyesight is, indeed, horrible - by reading the E and the next line below it on a sight chart... and more cool stuff like that. made me wish i could do fifth grade (or 6th form) again. then i got cotton candy as we left the science center.
while in seattle, i indulged and got INDAN FOOD! it's been about two and a half years since i've had real, non-pre-frozen indian food, and goodness, it was wonderful! now i'm craving more, despite the frozen version i ate yesterday and today.
i went to astoria and visited a bunch of goonies sites. the houses are real, and currently inhabited, so they don't have tours. the residents are pretty good sports about it. there was a guy pruning his yard at mikey and brand's house. he ignored us, but i'm sure he's used to random tourists in pirate garb photographing his house. yes, we dressed up as pirates. arrrrgh! i broke my first fake cutlass on the... um, the air while i was prepping for the trip. so i got another cutlass on the way out of town. i went to the county jail, which is now a film museum, the bowling alley, mikey's dad's museum... and haystack rock, which, despite being depicted as close to astoria in the movie, is really about 15 miles away. teddy and mister had gone along on this day trip, so they got to go out to haystack rock and explore the beach and tide pools with me. mister got lots of funny looks. i don't think people are used to seeing a chihuahua running around at the beach.
a different day, i flew a kite on the beach, for the first time since i moved to the home of the national kite people champion-thingies. guess i should have tried it earlier. my kite flew for a total of about 43 seconds all together, in between multiple repairs and reinforcings. i probably should have gotten it somewhere other than the dollar tree, what with the winds gusting at ridiculous speeds that day and all. also, it was raining. some park rangers stopped by and suggested, as my kite whimpered along the ground like an injured stingray, that today might not be the best day for kite-flying. i agreed that it was stupid, but said thanks and i'd stick to it anyway becuase it was fun. i think they think i'm retarded.
speaking of which, i had had dinner with the park rangers the previous night. lots of people didn't show up to a spaghetti and game night, so the rangers got invited over for food. they did not stay to play uno.
that was april first - the same day i masterminded the best april fool's day prank ever: my coworkers and i prepped a dummy medical chart, told the vet that she was going to check a dog's ears, and sent her in to an exam room where she found waiting... the state park's mascot: Eager Beaver! he got his annual exam, and we took pictures for the local paper. there was much laughter.
another thing i did: i purchased new laundry bags in flourescent colors that say things like "grimy" on them. i didn't notice until i was emptying a bag into the washer that the bags' tags say they are to be hand washed only. yes, the grimy bag from the dollar store is just that delicate.
i made amish friendship bread a few times. every 10 days the bag of starter goop quadruples, so i have to pawn the goop off on other people. i'm running low on people i hang out with who want goop any more. some random clients and church ladies have taken some. next victims: volunteers at the spay/neuter clinic tomorrow. there are 31 patients lined up. here's hoping they all show!
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