Friday the 24th and Saturday the 25th

Friday was spent painting the fence and me painting more on the containing wall. Washington actually seems to be going through a heat wave. It's been 80 nearly 90 degrees for the past few days. Nearly finished. Next we went to Artco for some more paint for me to use on the wall. I also bought some yarn. Green and a multi-color with tan white and yellow-green. I'm going to make a hat.

For supper Meagan, Abby and I walked down to a local place and ordered pizza, and then to the store where they buy their produce. Home grown vegitables and fruit of many kinds. Peachs, Plums, rasberries, black berries, blue berries, apples oranges. Everything. Inside the store there are cuts of meat, all free range.

I finished the hat that night. I'll put a picture up soon.

Saturday, much like Friday, was spent painting. Except first meagan took us down to the Ethnic festival in Wright Park for a while. Like at eh Pike Place market there were all sorts of vendors. Tents devoted to Africa, Jamaca, India, Pcific Islands. Abby and I ate some yakisoba (fried noodles and veggies) from a food stand. There was even a mini Renaissance area in the coner. In the middle of the tents there was a roped off square where there were knights fighting. Sadly they didn't let me join in. So we all stood in the shade and watched the guys beat the crap out of each other. To our surprise one by one a squire came up to each of us with a flower token from a knight. Except Abby her's was from the Baroness.

Here then are beating the crap out of each other.

All of us with our roses.

We went back to the house and finished the fence later, and I added another layer to the mural on the containing wall. More Supernatural tonight. All of the crafts at the Ethnic fair are making all of us feel creative. So we sit watching, Abby crocheting, Meagan beading, and me drawing.

Thursday, July 23rd

The day started out with Sparkle, Meagan's cat. She looked so cute lying in one of the living room chairs. Today we headed out early for a day trip into Seattle. First stop breakfast.

I caught Meagan!
We stopped for coffee at a local place called Cutter's Point. Very nice coffee at a very good price. Then down the street to what I thought was an impossible store called Hello, Cupcake. A store devoted entirely to cupcakes. Abby was five kinds of excited. I got the carrot cake one. It was very good.

We picked up Meagan's friend at the University Villiage. Like an out door shopping plaza. There was this fountain down one of the walks. A bunch of frogs and turtles. All spouting water. Meagan wouldn't let me play in it. Sad face.

Then we went down to the pier. We ate lunch at Ivars, THE fish place. Very nice Fish & Chips, which is what I got. We ate inside because the breeze coming off the water was a bit too cold for comfort eating. That and I was scared at the thought of being attacked by seagulls for out food.

After food we walked next door to a shop called Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe. and it was. Standard tourists goodies, but add in a few stuffed animals and shrunken heads. Pretty curious. Then we made our way to Pike Place Market. Vendors of every variety, selling everything you can think of. We passed by a stand selling hand made ocarinas. And (I didn't get a picture) I found The Ocarina of Time...five of them. The vendor played the song of time and the market theme on one for me. It was really cool. There were tons of fresh cut flowers and produce lining the walk as well. Which leads me too one of the high lights of the day. The fish market. Where the salesmen throw the fish from clerk to clerk untill it reaches the buyer. One time the cerk caught this huge fish just in time, but the fish juice flew past and onto this woman in the crowd. She was so disgusted, it was hilarious. ...here's an octopuss.

And this is quite possibly the ugliest thing that I have ever seen in my entire 19 years. It's called a Monk Fish. They have a string tied to the bottom lip. There were these two little girls crowding around it. A guy behind the counter pulled the string. Both of the girls screamed and started crying. I felt bad, but it was funny.

Last but not least we went to Uwajimaya, the asian market! Asian food every where, and it was so cheap!

Attatched to the market was a book store that had both lots of japanese, and chinese things in english, and things in just straight Japanese. Again, AWESOME! This is an entire table dedicated to Domo-kun. No one is really sure who or what Domo-kun is, but he is really popular.

I bought this at the market. Read Gureepu Mashomaro. Grape Marshmallow. marshmallow with a grape jelly center.

Another thing I bought, and soft drink called Ramune. I got melon and stawberry, for 99 cents each! I also got a pair of chopsticks, and Manga in its original japanese. I strive to learn who to read it all.

Back at the house I have gotten Meagan hooked on Supernatural, and The 12 Kingdoms. Muwahahaha. We watch some over peanut butter ice cream and hot fudge.

Wensday, July 22

Now I'm all caught up! Today we met a friend of Meagan's named Tess. All of us walked down to the Puget Sound. Which is an inlet of water from the ocean. Don't particularly know why its called the Puget Sound, but it was beautiful.

And there were geese. Strangely calm yet agressive and scary geese. Now I can see more why Shaunna is scared of them.

All over the shore were crab shells. The crabs molted so that they could grow bigger. There were open clams, scalops, and barnicles every where. Alot of it blended in with the rocks, because the shore was made up of pebbles, rock really.

Tess said that years ago some of the dock became unstable...so the city blew them up. The wreakage was left. I guessit has historical value of the city. I think it looks pretty cool. There was a warf area to walk around and see it all.

It's Abby by one of the docks. She was actually telling me off because I didn't want to walk all the way down to the stairs to get to the shore, so I climbed down the 8 feet worth of rock that was piled up against a wall. She went and found a 'safer' way down. Lol.It was a fun day...except the walk(hike) back to the house. A feared and hated street called 29th. It is much, much more hilly here than it is in Iowa. Kicked my butt, this hill did. But it was okay because there was Ginger chicken and corn waiting for us back at the house. It was weired the corn didn't taste like corn, and we all got into a conversation about corn. All corn to them is sweet corn to them.

Tomorrow. Seattle.

Bus + One + Two

Since I don't want to keep e-mailing seven different people the same message I have decided that this would be much easier....that and yahoo was crapping out on sending my pictures. The bus ride went slowly, but not too boring. Needless to say by the middle of the third day Abby and I were tired of the bus. We were so glad when Meagan and her mom picked us up from the Seattle bus station so that we didn't have to get on another bus to Tacoma.

After three days on the bus we were so glad to have ten extra minutes to change clothes and brush our teeth before they got there to pick us up. Got to their house not too long afterwards, went on a walk around the neighbor hood, and came back to pizza. I nearly cried out of hapiness. (there were no real opportunities for real food on the bus) I think that last time I appreciated a shower that much was after Philmont. Where I hiked for eleven days and had two showers...that a lot of people wouldn't consider a a real shower. After that wecrashed. We slept until 12:30 the next day!

It was then that I realized that Meagan is going to spoil me with all of her fancy, wonderful Washington coffee...and then I have to come to my folgers and non-dairy creamer. I cried myself to sleep. I'll get over it, but for now I'll bask in it. While I was basking I have noticed that there is not apart of her house that isn't colored or decorated in some way. I love it. The first full day was pretty un eventful. Meagan's mom was giving us time to recover before she put us to work.

Day two we started working.

This is the room in the basement where Abby and I are staying. Switching off every few nights who has the bed and who has the floor.

As a part of my work I'm going to paint a mural on this wall. I guess I'm technically working on commission now.

We're going to paint this fence, and the garage barely in the picture. Turns out it was in the mid- 80s all day. So after a day of sweating and putting base coats on the wall and the first part of the fence Abby and I took showers. Tacos made with buffalo meet for supper. They were amazing. I'd never had buffalo before. Then the three of us went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! Which, like the tacos, was amazing! There were many times that I was the only person laughing in the audience. After that, crash.

Here, just for Mom. Meagan's yard is full of flowers!