Day 83

Came into work early and left early.

Watched an episode of Big Love.

Tidied up a bit. Realized that some heavy duty cleaning is needed for the weekend.

Read some comics and finally gave up on Dragon Sea. I usually try to power through to the end, but having to face Dragon Sea and the World Without Us was putting me off of reading. I started The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox, which I've been told is quite good.

Spoke with Paul, Steve, and Burke.

Day 82

Got into the office at a bit before 6:30am so I cut out early to buy new cell phone.

Dropped by the library to see Dawn and pick up some holds.

Had dinner with Monica, Gordy, & Randy (G's friend from HS) at the Green Lake.

Met up with Jennifer, Andrew, Andy, and two of Jennifer's friends at the Stube.

Read a few comics and watched some Big Love.

Day 81

Had breakfast with Andy. We were both kind of dragging between Saturday's drinking and the time change.

Visited with Bonnie & Jeff and looked at wedding pics.

Had dinner at Sparta's with the entire family (minus James and Kyler) to celebrate Brad & Grandma's birthdays. Went back to Brad's for cake & presents. Brad & I watched the first disk of The Ruth Rendell's Mysteries. It was pretty good.

Today was my last day on contract with Verizon. (Hooray!)

Spoke with Mebbie, Steve, Paul and Monica, who called to tell me Gordy proposed Friday and she accepted.

Today would have been better if Saturday had been less fun....

Day 80

Watched cartoons all morning.

Got a pedicure with Czabrina, and Angie & her niece. Did some shopping and bought a few more things.

Went to dinner at Hi-Life with Andy, Shawn and his girlfriend (whose name I've already forgotten), Chris, and Leigh. Then joined a larger group for cocktails at the Bal-Mar. Very fun.

Spoke with Grammy.

Today was pretty awesome.

Day 79

Went to see Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters) at the Egyptian with Nick C. and his friends Tom & Audry. It was fantastic in every way.

Stopped by Zao for tea and fried tofu.

Spoke with Steve, Czabrina, and Grandma.

Day 78

Tutoring kid canceled on me so I spent time being girly and beautifying myself.

Steve stopped by for cookies.

Read some comics.

Spoke with Mom, Steve, Addy, Mebbie, and Czabrina.

Day 77

Had sushi and hung out with Jim at The Stop.

Went to book club. Discussed Kabul Beauty School and dating. It was really fun.

Watched Men in Trees and read more Dragon Sea.

Day 76

Went grocery shopping.

Tidied, cooked dinner and (get this) took a bath. Weird. It gave me a nice opportunity to use sugar scrub and now my legs are ridiculously soft. This is making me ridiculously gleeful.

Watched the last half of New Amsterdam and can't decide if I liked it at all.

Read a little more Dragon Seas.

Spoke with Steve, Jim, and Bonnie.

Day 75

My computer was on the fritz at work today.

Went to the Stube with Chris & Andy.

Came home early and fell immediately asleep.

Spoke with Steve, Paul, Grandma, and Amber.

Day 74

Had breakfast with the fam and ran out with Mel for a brief shopping trip. She and I need to hang out more. She got a new car... but so did Jess. Consequently, I decided that it would be more prudent to skip Family Sunday Dinner this week. So I went to Discovery Park with Andy. The weather was fantastic and I have never found so much beach glass. Too much really.

Had dinner at Rositas and watched Persuasion with Andy. Who snickered the whole time, but didn't turn the channel thus showing that he secretly enjoyed it.

Did not sleep well at all- I don't know what the deal is.

Spoke with Czabrina.

Day 73

Got up early and watched cartoons. Made pancakes and bacon for Sean and Kim.

Caught Charlie Bartlet, which was wonderful. I loved it.

Took a field trip to Uwajimaya for Samurai Noodles and cream puffs. Samurai Noodles is very good; the best ramen I've had in a long time.

Came home and listened to/attempted to translate Jpop with Kim until Brad & Cynthia returned home.

Read more Dragon Sea.

Dodged phone call from unwanted gentleman caller. BLECH.

Day 72

Went to Happy Hour at Lynn & Michael's with Diane, Nancy C., Angie, and Lenni. Had a nice time.

Made dinner for Sean and Paul. Angie, Jim, and Kim joined us and we watched Turok and Monster Squad. It is important for Sean's development to understand that Wolfman has nards.

Let Sean stay up very late. I am a rebel.

Started Dragon Sea by Frank Pope. It is about archaeologists fight to recover artifacts from a 15th century sunken Vietnamese trade ship. It is slow going so far, but it sounds interesting.

Spoke with Burke.

Today was great!

Day 71

Went to Ballard with Grandma for Special Grandma & Quiana Day. We shopped and had lunch... and then dessert twice. Cupcake Royal and MooBerry yogurt. It was really fun. I found a cookie cutter in the shape of the Enterprise and drooled all over it, but it was too expensive for a cookie cutter.

I'm Sean/dogs/house sitting for Brad. Had to run to Mel's to let her dogs out as Jess' car is not working. I just got my car back (hooray!).

Then I almost forgot to turn my alarm clock off and had to run down to Seattle in the middle of the night.

Spoke with Jess, Mel, Paul, Megan, and Steve (who is quite ill).

Today was exhausting but awesome!

Day 70

Moved car from Jeff's to Andy's.

Had Sparta's at Brad's, just the 4 of us for Brad's birthday. Gave him The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

Finished The Man Who Smiled. It was great; I might check out more mysteries by the same author.

Spoke with Grandma.

Day 69

Spent the morning trying to get my car into a shop. Jeff's Auto on 99 was able to take me and let me know that I had a number of small things wrong, plus I am due for some routine maintenance so I let them go ahead with that. Luckily one of the parts was still under warranty ($400 saved) from my other shop (Andy's), so they will fix that for free when Jeff's gets done with the other things tomorrow.

Jeff's figured out the problem with my car hesitating before shifting gears and I am super excited to drive around in a working vehicle... even if it costs me another $500. If I can stall buying a new car until January of 2011 I can have all my student loans paid off, as well as my 30th birthday trip, and have a good down payment saved up. I think that can be done since my car has 125,000 miles on it currently and on average this vehicle runs to over 200,000. So if I drive about 15,000 miles a year, which is average, this whole scheme may pan out.

Had dinner with Michael and Lynn and attended the second NG Live! lecture of the year with Robert Ballard, an underwater explorer and generally awesome guy. He discovered ship wrecks in the oxygen-deprived waters of the Black Sea that were 1500 years old and you can still see the tool marks in the wood. Amazing.

Afterwards, Lynn & Michael dropped me off at Brad and Cynthia's and I borrowed one of their cars.

Almost finished with The Man Who Smiled, but was exhausted and needed to go to sleep.

I didn't call anyone today.

Day 68

Worked a very long day full of meetings with clients etc. On my way home a mysterious light in the shape of a battery came on in my car and all I could think was 'now what'. My car sounded Cuisinarty, so that's no good.

Scarfed dinner and mooched a ride to the Stube with Andy. Chris showed late, and then Jennifer and her spouse showed up with their friend James(?) who either has no English or is super super shy. Had a nice time.

Read more of the Man Who Smiled, I hope to finish it soon and move onto the HUGE stack on my bookshelf.

Spoke with Amber, Czabrina, and Bonnie.

Day 67

Grandma called at 9 am to make sure I was alive. Apparently she called me ten times yesterday, but didn't leave a voicemail and was convinced I was mouldering somewhere.

Watched Batman Beyond disk one until Andy reminded me that it was sunny. Had cupcakes with Andy at the lake.

Went with Brad, Cynthia and Sean to Hawaiian Breeze for dinner. Afterwards Brad and I watched Invasion. It was just ok. I think it could have been better written.

Spoke with Grandma & Steve.

Day 66

Watched Viva Pinata and Skunk Fu.

Paul picked me up and we watched all 5 Best Picture nominated movies in a row in Kent. It was awesome, but I was exhausted when I got home.

Day 65

Picked up the soundtrack to Once. Now I'm all new-cd-boke. (New cd crazy!). It is fantastic.

Had a date. You can put that guy on the official Not Going to Happen List.

Made bacon muffins with Steve and listened to CD's and watched Skittles commercials on Youtube.

Read more of The Man Who Smiled. Finished last month's NG.

Spoke with Melody, Amber, & Paul.

Day 64

Worked late again. Then my tutoring student stood me up.

My usual gas station "filled" my tank with just over 15 gallons of gas, which would be fine, except my car only holds 15 gallons and was a quarter full when I pulled up. Tomorrow I have to call the manager and complain. Yippee.

Picked up Mike Doughty's new CD, Golden Delicious. It was pretty good, but I'm not in love with it immediately. Less guitar and rock and more electronic than his last.

Cut my hand open pretty bad on some junk mail. Set off my smoke detector. And went to bed early to prevent any further incidents.

Spoke with Mom and Steve.

Read a nice chunk of The Man Who Smiled and I like it better every day.