The weather here this year seems to be a bit out of sorts.  You already know about the crazy weather we were having in November & December, along with the storms, power outages, snow, ice, etc.

There’s been all this talk about spring, I see the bulbs flowering, but lately the weather’s just been all over the map.  One Saturday it was sunny and in the 60’s, the weather gods seem to always switch the weather on a day we’re going to Greenlake, thus the next day it was in the 40’s with rain & wind.  No matter which way I was walking, I seemed to always be walking directly into the bitter cold wind and the rain (cold water too). 

Yesterday was very clear, but quite cool, I’d say mid 40’s.  A few minutes ago, I was going to head outside for something I’d left in the car and would you believe it’s snowing?!

Today was the day of the Chilly Hilly ride on Bainbridge Island.  The weather forecast was somewhat skeptical for today, so we were hoping and preparing for the best and had back up plans for the worst.  After endless amounts of shopping yesterday for various doo-dads for today’s event, it was time!  The alarm went off at 3:45am.  Keven was up and rolling and out the door to Steve & Denise’s at some ungodly hour that still seemed like the middle of the night.

Squid and I were committed to cheering everyone on at the finish line, so we were up reasonably early, but nothing compared to Keven!!  Yikes!  We made it out of the house at a decent pace and were on the freeway when it started to sprinkle.  I was really hoping it was nicer on the island!  We made pretty good time to the ferry terminal and were directed to the front of the carpool lane.  I was like “YES!” because I was worried about making the 7:55 ferry and it took a little longer to get down there than I’d anticipated.  We were trying to time it so that we’d be able to cheer them on at the end of the ride, but didn’t know how long they’d be, so a bit of it was a toss-up. The lane next to us was allowed on the ferry and then it was done.  We’d made it, but not early enough.

The next ferry was scheduled for 8:45 and the weather was turning sour.  There were a few stragglers on bikes, but it wasn’t looking good for turnout either.  Shortly after, we went from a handful of bikers, to 50 or 60, then all of a sudden, there was a swarm…I’m guessing maybe a thousand or more…probably way more.  I’ve never seen so much black, yellow and blue in one place.  The bikers’ numbers ranged from the 100’s to 5,000’s, the highest I saw was in the 5,600’s.  Quite an impressive turnout in spite of the rain…and cold. Squid and I met a guy from Vancouver, BC, who’s clothing said “John Henry The Bike Man”, so I asked his name and no, he was not John Henry but rides on his team.  Squid and I decided to check things out on deck and on the way saw where all the bikes were parked…they were laying on their sides on the wing of the ferry.  We were a few of the people in civilian clothes and people were looking at us like we were wearing our underwear on the outside of our clothes or something. 

After a half hour or so, we arrived on Bainbridge and there were bikes everywhere we looked, going every which way.  We saw a group of women and asked where the end point was…2 were riders and the other two were going to checkpoints along the way to waive the others on, so we joked that we were the “woohoo” cheerleaders at the end.

We found the endpoint, got a decent parking spot and went in search of breakfast.  Since we didn’t have definite timeframe and the weather was horrific, hanging out at the endpoint was not a realistic option.  We went and checked things out, no sign of Keven, Steve or Denise, so we walked up to a cool little cafe on the corner of Winslow & Madison.  It was called Nola’s Cafe and our waiter looked like a 20-something Hailey Joel Osmet. They had a small, funky menu…with an impressively extensive bloody menu.  Breakfast included things like green eggs & ham (was quite tasty.  The “green” was pesto mixed into scrambled eggs), 3 different options for eggs benedict (Squid inhaled hers, which says a lot since she’s the world’s slowest eater),  caramel & something french toast, and some various lunch items.    The bloody menu included the classic bloody mary, the Bainbridge Bloody, the virgin bloody, bloody caesar, something called the red snapper, the bloody maria (made with Tequila), the bloody bull and the bloody bulls eye.  I opted for the spicy mary and it was one of the better ones I’ve ever had.  Apparently our timing was right on target.  Keven called while we were paying the check and they were hanging at this little cool bakery about a half-block away.  Squid loudly announced upon arrival how starving she was (lol) and we went in and bought all of the recommendations.  After that, Steve & Denise took off.  They were doing the chilly hilly again (it’s only 35 miles) and in tandem!  That was quite cool.  So we grabbed Keven and headed homeward.  The weather was still crappy and cold.  Even in my clothes I felt soggy and soaked to the bone, and the bikers looked fairly miserable.  Keven didn’t say anything but it was obvious he was a bit uncomfortable and tired.

When we got home, I ran a hot bath with salts for Keven while he unpacked all of his gear and then we followed that with a long nap.  Would you believe after all that, after the nap, the sun was out and stayed out showing off for the remainder of the afternoon!  We had dinner at LaPalmera during which the weather reverted back and it monsooned.

Side Note:  I took a fair number of pictures. Once I figure out how to upload them will post ’em.  If you want to see them before then, let me know and I will email them to you. 

If you know me and talk to me on a somewhat regular basis, then you know about all of the fun I’ve had with my car. 

The car I had prior to this one was American made, and although it was a young car, was constantly in the shop.  My payment was reasonably steep and I was regularly spending a chunks of change at the mechanic.  So I scraped together the money to get a new car, thinking I’d just gotten my hands on a piece of crap lemon. 

I hate to say it, but I am now convinced it wasn’t the car, but quality, or lack thereof, of good old American  workmanship.  American car companies make these very stylish cars with all kinds of awesome bells and whistles, but they use cheap parts that break or break down unnecessarily or considerably earlier than they should.  And often they are things you can’t, in any reasonable sort of way, blame on mileage…ie: power window motors, radio knobs, windshield wipers, etc.  They also have things wired in such a way that if the little teeny connector that plugs into your rear view mirror (with the night vision dimmer) isn’t plugged in all the way, the car owner (aka me) will spend endless amounts of time at the dealership, while the mechanics are scratching their heads at why the electrical system for the entire car is having problems.

Ok, so in the summer of ‘03, I very excitedly purchased my first generation (extremely hugely bad, bad, bad mistake I will never repeat again) ‘04 Chrysler Pacifica.  Three days after I bought it, it was in the shop for a month.  The dealership didn’t have the defective part’s replacment on hand and had to order it in.  Then they had to order in the tools to replace the part.  It’s been consistently downhill ever since.   And seeing that somehow I must be related to Murphy of Murphy’s Law, the problems have been so varied that the lemon law doesn’t apply.  You wouldn’t believe that a new car would have the problems of what you’d expect from an old car! And in spite of all the problems, Chrysler is more than happy to bombard me with various materials and endless phone calls to buy a new car through them, however they won’t do anything to help me with the one I currently have.

The car was towed in 2 weeks ago in need of a new battery to replace the one I bought in ‘05 to replace the one that came with the car.  Now I’m waiting for a replacement part  for and extender thingy that broke on the hatch.  To add to my fun & excitement, now the horn and alarm system have decided to add their two cents worth.  Friday, as I was stopping to do an errand on the way to the mechanic, I locked the car. Rather than doing it’s usual single beep, it beeped twice, waited about 5 seconds, beeped twice again, and kept doing it until I reentered the car and drove on.  Since I was at the dealership anyway, I mentioned it to them.  They thought maybe the remote button got stuck. No big deal.  Later in the afternoon it did it again, then randomly stopped.  Everything was quiet until last night.  I was parked in Keven’s driveway, the neighborhood was nice and quiet, although lightly raining, and I wanted to get inside quickly.  I was juggling my usual over-handful of stuff, including an “empty” coffee cup, my phone, a bag of clothes, my purse, jacket, etc.  I pushed the button to lock the car, and as I was walking away, the alarm went off and wouldn’t respond to the usual disarming button. So as I was trying to get into my purse for the spare, I dropped the phone, the coffee cup fell into my bag of clothes, my purse ended up upside down, and still the alarm won’t stop.  Now I’m swearing, have dropped everything to the ground, walk right up to the car and am about to stick my key in it (ha! You thought I was going to say something else, didn’t you?!   when it finally stopped.

Earlier this morning I was sitting in my toasty sweatshirt smelling something similar to maple syrup.  Neither of us had cooked anything and I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.  Keven was conviced I’d lost my mind, when it came to me.  Apparently a few drops of the caffe medici I had “to go” last night, thanks to my new addiction inflicted by Steve & Denise, had spilled onto my shirt when it fell into the bag of clothes during the whole fiasco.  As the pieces were coming together and I’m relaying my delightful story to Keven, he just figures it’s all part of the “Chrysler Magic”…

From now on, It’s Japanese, baby! 

PS:  If you’re ever in Bothell, there’s a little coffee place called Caffe Lagro.  Stop and get yourself a caffe medici.  It’s to die for.  Thanks for the introduction, Steve & Denise!! It is “so the bomb”!! 

It was my birthday on Wednesday.  Seems like a long time ago already!  I was going to play hooky but Kim , my usual partner in birthday crime, and who is usually relatively free on Wednesdays, was filling in for someone at work, and Keven’s been super busy at work, so he couldn’t play hooky either…everyone else had to work, so there wasn’t really much point.  Keven’s mom did suggest going to Todai in Redmond for lunch since I love Sushi and on your birthday it’s free!  Woohoo baby, I’m all over that!!  So Keven called the usual lunch suspects and wasn’t able to reach anyone, so we toddled down there ourselves.  When we arrived we were all excited because Todai has this incredible sushi buffet.  It is a bit on the pricey side, $14 for lunch, $25 for dinner, however it has a good reputation and the spread was quite impressive.  Typical of my luck, after the juices started flowing and we were in agreement that this was the place, we saw the sign.  As of January 1st, to receive the birthday lunch, you have to be accompanied by 3+ paying adults.  2nd option is to receive a voucher that must be used within 30 or 60 days (I don’t remember exactly).  As you can imagine, that put the kabosh on things, so we went around the corner to a little Thai place called Thai Ginger, spent about the same for that meal for 2 as we would’ve for 1 at Todai, and the food was quite tasty.  Nice atmosphere too.  All in all, that worked out fine.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful, although I came home from work to a nice, pleasant, very cheerful teenager.  If it hadn’t been my birthday I would’ve been very nervous and suspicious.  She was just jazzed because she’d helped Kim and Keven plan my birthday party (which gave her an excuse not to do chores or homework.  Score!) and the anticipation and stress from keeping the secret, was killing her. 

The party was at Beppo’s in Lynnwood, which is this very cool Italian restaurant that has various theme rooms and you eat family style.  We had a very cool room with a huge round table.  Everyone was seated when we arrived, so we felt a bit “deer in headlights”.  Keven’s people were on one side, mine on the other.  I was surprised that almost everyone was able to make it considering it was the middle of the week, right after work and all.  The food was very good, we’d ordered tons of food, but the cake Kim’s dad made really stole the show.  There were quite a few of us who went in for seconds, including Steve, who’s on a pretty strict diet…granted, his pieces were the smallest slivers, while mine, I can assure you, weren’t!!

Since pretty much everyone made it to the dinner,  the usual week long celebration of individual birthday dinners with friends and family was wrapped in one, which may be why it seems like it went so fast.  Usually by the end of the week longs, I’m ready to be done. (I have the same feeling with Alyssa’s birthday too).  Apparently there’s more to come though, still have a girls’ night out with Kim upcoming and she and Squid went in on a pedicure at our usual spa, so I have that to look forward to as well!!

Kim found great humor in the fact that when Squid had asked her how old I was turning, she had to pull out a calculator to do the math!!  I guess the whole losing track of time and our age (we are the same age, or at least will be when her birthday rolls around) is a whole other subject I will save for another time.

Thank you Kim and Keven for planning such a fun evening!! And thank you, Jean, for such an extremely good cake!