August

Yet again, I'm having trouble uploading photos to Blogger. Hope to get them up soon.

We had a wonderful time in Glacier National Park. We hiked, took pictures and ate (which is always the best part about camping).

After we left the park, we headed down to Missoula to visit our friends Christina and Steve. We wound up staying a couple nights and didn't want to leave when it was time to go. There's something about their house that's so comforting -- I'm sure it's mostly that they live there and they are kind, caring, funny and fun people.

Christina's mom was in town too, so they had planned some touristy activities. We went sapphire mining (really cleaning a bunch of dirt off rocks and looking for sparkly things), to a very fun candy shop and a minor league baseball game. We also cooked and ate delicious things.

Christina entered a cherry cobbler in the fair while we were there. It was fabulous and she won second place with it. And second is better than first in this case because all the first place winners have to publish their recipes in a cookbook. Who wants to part with such secrets and risk having someone make the same thing for next year's fair?

When we got home, we tried to not do very much. It was vacation afterall. I can't actually remember anything that we did, but know it was enjoyable and relaxing.

That Saturday Megan and Shahv (Hart's sister and brother-in-law) came to visit. We ate our way through Seattle and visited some of the required spots -- the locks, to see Lake Union, Archie McPhee.

Sarah, Hart's mom, arrived from Phoenix the day after Megan and Shahv went home. The week was great. We ate out a lot, drank a fancy coffee (and ate vegan doughnuts) and went to The Container Store (Sarah has containeritis). The highlight was a trip to a wholesale plant nursery about 45 minutes northeast of here.

Killing the grass has been our objective for the last year. We were finally ready to plant and needed lots of plants. We spent three hours at the nursery and had the car filled to capacity. It was much like seeing all the clowns pile into a VW beetle. The packer was amazing.

After Sarah left, we had a day to relax and then my dad came for a few days. He only visits if there's work for him to do and the yard needed plenty of attention. In two and a half days, we planted 52 new plants and transplanted 11. It looks very different without looking like much at all. Once the plants started to grow in, we won't be able to believe how bare it was when we started.

My dad left last Thursday and we spent the weekend at Bumbershoot, a long-standing Seattle music festival. Every band we listened to was good (really quite a feat) and we'd even buy CDs from several of them. We capped off a perfect weekend with a funk band that was awesome. You just can't not dance to it.

This week the agenda holds the usual stuff. We have a handyman here to fix the sliding door to the pantry, which has been a pain in the butt since we moved in. It's not so exciting to read about, but we're thrilled. We'll also finesse the system of soaker hoses that we've set up around the plants.

On Saturday we leave for a trip to Phoenix. I'm having my nerve stimulator removed on September 12 (yea!) and we'll turn the rest of the trip into a visit with friends and family. My neurosurgeon said that this is "the easiest surgery ever" and it's not too involved, so I'm not worried about it. I also don't think the recovery time will be very long, but I could be wrong.

Then back home to a normal life. It's been great having all these visitors, but tiring too. We are both looking to fall so we can cuddle up and hibernate. Even though it's in the 80s, our maple tree and smoke bush are starting to change colors, letting us know that fall is near.