Transplanting a Seattleite

I had two sitters today. I walked with M. in the afternoon (Thursday morning she has another regular activity). I got a long walk as well. I had a lovely phone conversation with J. I wasn't expecting this -- it's going to be tricky during the summer because of kids, but so far, so good.

A. had play therapy. Her new Lammily doll and a few outfits had arrived, so I sent them with her and the sitter to play therapy. Everyone likes the new doll, and apparently that (and another smaller doll) enabled some really good conversations about power, jealousy and control, as well as travel and things like when will her body start changing. Who knew dolls could be so empowering!

Generally speaking, I think criticisms of Barbie tend to miss all the wonderful things that Barbie brought to little girls over the decades: an ability to imagine oneself in any number of careers, vs. the preceding toy (baby doll) which firmly invoked "get married and have babies and nurture". However, Lammily doll in hand, I now feel a lot of what I _wasn't_ letting myself feel about the awful proportions of Barbie that set people off (honestly, I do not care about all the pink. A. loves pink. I'm not prepared to argue). I had not felt that way when encountering other Barbie doll replacements, but Lammily is _very_ satisfying. So, yay! Hopefully it will thrive in the world of commerce and kids' toys, which is a very challenging arena.

Once a year, we have a photographer (the same photographer for 8 years now, I think) come to the house and take pictures of the kids. She came and took pictures, which is always fun, and I'm looking forward to sharing those pictures as we do annually at the holidays.

It was a busy day and I was quite tired at the end of it, having cleaned the kitchen, run roomba in most of the downstairs, and cleaned three bathrooms. None of it done particularly well, nevertheless, it was a lot of work on top of everything else.

ETA: T. went to see Transformers: the Last Knight and is now pronouncing all of his vowels really weird, probably because he is attempting to sound like Anthony Hopkins. He is not succeeding, altho it is a little humorous.

A. went to Nara in the morning and early afternoon.

We drove home from Hershey. We stopped in Easton to go to Crayola Experience, which R.'s brother-in-law J. had suggested. The kids had fun. It is sort of a highly-branded, inexpensive, craft oriented children's museum. If you could convince your kids to NOT always want ice cream or the more expensive things in the shop, it'd be a kind of cool place to take a preschooler. There are water tables, coloring places, modeling clay stations, painting, little climbing structures, etc. My kids are a little old for it, but had a good time.

We had lunch at the McDonald's in Easton. I tried the "signature" recipe with beef, pico and guac. I had to send the first one back to get it without cheese and ranch (I told them -- but it doesn't show up right on the ticket and I don't know if the young man at the register did it wrong or if they haven't figured out how to accommodate on this item or what). It was tasty. The pico makes a nice replacement for the usual onion etc., and I love guac.

Once we got to Massachusetts, the thunderstorms hit in earnest, so we stopped for dinner in Auburn to try to wait out some of the worst of the storms + Worcester rush hour traffic. When we got home, unpacking went super fast. T. was incredibly helpful and didn't do anything to interrupt getting through that task. We got some of the laundry done; the sheets and towels can wait for tomorrow.

ETA: T. pulled a canine out in the van on the trip home. I wrapped it up in a piece of paper and stored it in the little display case when we got home. Not too many more of those to go for him. He warned us it was about to happen and then he told me when it had, so he could hand me the tooth for safekeeping. What a difference a few years make.

It was a really fun trip. Getting to see family was especially nice. I had been sure we would hang out with my sister and her family (this was a Cape Cod replacement and we've done this trip before) but I was less sure of the NJ side trip and as long as that wasn't scheduled I'd been reluctant to make plans with R.'s aunt in Harrisburg. Nevertheless, it all worked out.

On Sunday, we were going to go to Laff Trakks during the first hour, but they only open Founders Way and the Hollow and Laff Trakks is way deep in Midway. Oh well. We rode the Comet several times and had a ton of fun. Then we lined up for Laff Trakks and rode it a couple times. After that, we split up (all 8 of us went on Laff Trakks, altho T. and R. went on Skyrush while the rest of us did Comet -- even my sister rode once!).

My sister's family and I had lunch at Subway and La Famiglia. They got a pizza and some subs. I got A. a cheese sub and bacon, and I had a veggie delite. She didn't eat her roll so I wound up having it later in the cabin with pb & j because a 6 inch veggie delite with no cheese is a little light on calories even if you have mayo.

Since R.'s family went to the water park, we did not go swimming.

A.'s food obsession of the day was a cookie s'more. Those things are enormous. She didn't even eat a fifth of it, but I did manage to get the rest back to the cabin fridge for later.

I bought A. and my nieces the $19 game voucher booklet. A. played many different midway type games. Obviously, these are mostly unwinnable (except the ones that give crap prizes that you then trade up for slightly better crap prizes). But I mostly was focused on having her play, lose, say thank you and walk away with the knowledge that she'd get to play LOTS of different games during the day. I did NOT want to reinforce an already terrible cycle she's in with arcades and her sitter where she throws temper tantrums if she can't stay long enough to accumulate tickets for a crap prize that I could have bought on Amazon for a lot less money. I am reasonably certain that this is actually a huge emotional regulation task I've taken on, but given the problems some adults have with gambling addiction, I think it is worth it. Probably.

A. and I went to Chocolate World when we were feeling the sun and did the tour. There was a really long line, but it was okay.

R.'s aunt came up from Harrisburg to visit. She had come up in 2014 as well. It's always a pleasure to see her. She got a divinity degree a while back, and officiated at our wedding, which was really sweet.

R. (my sister) did taco night. This turned out to work really well, since we'd debugged the food issues ahead of time. Three of the kids had quesadillas. R. (husband) had some of the costco rotisserie chicken. I brought cilantro, fresh tomatoes and a can of Bush's black beans (low sodium). My sister had guacamole and two kinds of salsa. And we had a ton of fresh romaine. So the person with gluten issues had a salad. My husband got to avoid allium. I easily avoided milk products (there is some whey in the taco seasoning my sister uses so I had the chicken and beans). There were even gluten free corn chips -- I had brought flour tortillas so that was no go for the gluten free person. Since tacos are assembled one at a time, it was easy enough for people to get what they wanted and avoid what they shouldn't be eating. No one went hungry. Burgers would have been trickier for gluten free, but we probably would have just put together a salad and chicken plate for my husband's aunt and it would have been fine. Again, last minute on family visit planning but it worked out great.

Friday New Jersey McDonald's applebees arrive after dark

On Friday, we drove to New Jersey. We stopped at a McDonald's in Connecticut for lunch. I think we've stopped at that same McDonald's on a few previous trips -- it's in a mall in Southbury, IIRC. Then we drove to New Jersey, where we visited R.'s sister, brother-in-law, niece (who just graduated. Congratulations!), nephew (who just finished 8th grade, also Congratulations!) and mother. The kids swam in the pool. We all hung out and chatted and had a pleasant time. Because we are on very different dinner schedules (we eat early at 5 and they eat very late), we left to go to Applebee's in Union before continuing on to Hershey Campingresort. We haven't been to Hershey for 3 years. Once again, we met my sister and her family. It's a much shorter driver for her. We did this in lieu of a trip to Cape Cod this year, because of other planned travel and not wanting to have a completely overwhelming summer.

We got in after dark, but my sister had already checked us into our cabin, so we just unloaded, made beds and slept in them.

Today was T.'s half day. I did the long walk by myself. I did the short walk with M. I ate lunch at home (chicken salad -- still eating the leftovers, but they are going to need to be finished soon or they will go bad). We stopped at Starbucks, where T. is now getting an apple juice box instead of hot chocolate and I am getting iced tea. We went to gymnastics -- next lesson will be the last one before the break, which might be short or might be long. T. wants to do some day camps there rather than try to continue his lesson in the summer which often doesn't work out anyway.

I had a great phone call with my sister while doing the long walk a second time. So I got 7 miles on the road today! To be clear: I don't run. I walk. And not very fast. But it was nice to have a not too hot, not buggy, not too humid day.

I had a cold for a couple days, and have been rereading some books I first read about 20 years ago. I reread _Say No to Joe_ (just about the only Foster I reread any more, altho sometimes I reread _Jamie_ after rereading this one) every year or so. It's difficult to explain why. The book is by no means perfect -- there are a bunch of sections I desperately want to edit. It's the first in the Visitation series and it crosses two characters -- Joe and Luna -- over from the Winston brothers series. Obviously, I love the sense of humor. Foster's humor can be somewhat erratic, but it feels exactly right to me in this book. But I think the real reason I love this book is because it feels a lot like a Heyer novel: a heroine with some dependents who are not her biological children, the man she asks to help her out, and the relationship they all build together.

Thinking about other books I liked a lot from this point in my reading history, I decided I'd take another look at Dara Joy, but not the Matrix of Destiny books (and not _Ritual of Proof_. Or at least, not just yet.). _High Energy_ is very much _not_ a Heyer like novel; it turns out to be a really weird take on a JAK novel. Heroine is a journalist for a small paper (screams JAK, doesn't it?) run by a family member (grandfather, here; in JAK it would be a non-biological relative who takes on a familial/mentor like role for the heroine) who is trying to keep the kooky heroine out of trouble that the heroine is determined to dig into. There's a meet-cute (that's not very JAK like), and then the hero uses We're Working On This Project Together as an excuse to accelerate the relationship while the heroine persists in deluding herself that it isn't really a relationship. Basically, he enables her denial for his own purposes.

Like a JAK novel, they share a bunch of interests/preferences. Unlike a JAK novel, those preferences include terrible old horror/sf movies.

Not sure what I'll be reading next. _High Energy_ is set in Western Massachusetts, which let me tell you is a drastically different experience after living out here for a decade plus. I hadn't moved here yet when I read it the first time, and none of the place names meant much to me then.

ETA: I got _High Energy_ through kindleUnlimited; I may poke around and see what other blasts from the past I might find there. I forgot to mention. There's an interesting thread going on over at Dear Author about romance novels and security, as an explanation for numerous trends in romance novels but especially tycoon/millionaire/billionaire novels over the years. Argument comes down to, it's over the top rich now maybe as a result of income inequality increasing, but romance novels have always offered security in one form or another, it's just that the more middle class manifestations aren't very compelling any more. _High Energy_ is a really good example of Wealthy Hero offering security in numerous forms to the heroine: financial security, physical security, emotional security. He's depicted as nurturing her while she is ill, giving her orgasms for the first time in her life (yeah, this was a Thing back in the day. Also showed up in some JAK -- fortunately, this is a much more rare Thing in romance now), and then the climax of the book is him protecting her against the con artist they've been investigating. Sort of.

I used yesterday's roasted chicken to make chicken salad sandwiches. Yum.

I had a lovely phone convo, possibly the last regular one for a while, with J. Our kids are all getting out of school and thus schedule will be very disrupted for a while.

A. had a playdate. They girls all swam in the pool for about an hour. A. really didn't want to leave.

After that, we returned to the house, for play therapy. A. wanted to make a cake, so I got out a box. It turned out okay, altho not as good as what I make. What do you expect from an allergy friendly cake, tho, especially one trying to remove milk AND eggs?

The sitter took A. away after that, and R. and I had dinner at Rapscallion. I had the mussels app and the hummous plate app. He had the salmon, which had a couscous side with, unfortunately for him, entirely too many red onions.

Dutch was canceled due to feeling under the weather (not me). I stepped out for a walk at 9 a.m. and ran into my neighbor R. I had been about to do the long walk, but we did the short walk together instead.

At 10 a.m. I did the same walk again with M. and then we had snack and hung out.

I had lunch at home, then went to Whole Foods to go grocery shopping.

T. had a sitter; A. and I are hanging out. She participated in helping me set up the Light Phone which arrived today. It's not quite working perfectly -- I can't seem to get anything into the speed dial. But I'm not sure how much I care. Maybe it'll work later. It is fine for receiving calls and I can dial out manually.

On Sunday, I took T. to track. I waited in the car, and when it got a little warm and the clouds went away, I moved to the passenger seat in the shade and put my umbrella up in the driver's seat to keep the sun out. It was still basically pleasant, but I was happy I wasn't the one running. T. was fine tho. He gets red in the face, but otherwise suffers no obvious ill effect from the heat or sun. I did remember to put sunblock on him, tho.

Then we went to a Joanne Fabric to look for the studs or whatever you call replaceable buttons like on tuxedo shirts. I want to use them to make DIY jibbitz. But they didn't have them either. Oh well. I noticed an H Mart, so we bought some fortune cookies for A., some ginger candy for R., some red bean mochi for R. and me. That was fun, but we couldn't buy the good stuff because it was hot and I didn't have a cooler.

Next up was Applebee's. While we were having lunch, R. texted me saying the horse for T. had been canceled due to heat.

The kitchen floor was irritatingly dirty, so after dinner later on, R. and I cleaned up and put the chairs up so we could run roomba. He even got the beacons out so I didn't have to improvise a bunch of barricades to keep roomba in the kitchen.

R. and I got out of the house pretty quick to go to Tiles Plus More in Natick. We picked out some tile for the shower renovation that, in theory, will start in the middle of July. I don't really believe contractor timelines, but we've never worked with this one before so you never really know. Figured we should probably at least have all the materials available. Sometimes another job develops a hiccup that allows things to move up and I'd sure hate to be the reason for delay.

As with pretty much every major decision (where to live, how many kids to have, house to buy, decorating that house, etc.) we had no major disagreements. He had stronger opinions than me, and I was happy with what he picked out. Fingers crossed it will look good with the rest of the bathroom, because there's no reason to be redoing anything but the shower.

M. and I headed out for a walk at 2, just in time for the only rain of the day to dump on us. Oh well. We made it to the top of the hill on Tuttle, turned around and scuttled back to my house.

We had two sitters and tickets to see the Reverend Horton Heat (with Flat Duo Jets playing a very short but excellent initial set, and Agent Orange doing a solid set after them). R. staked out a spot by the speakers to the left of the stage (stage right, to be confusing). I hung out for part of the first set, found a chair on the side for Agent Orange (they are the definition of Not Danceable), and then rejoined him right after they left the stage to stand through the set up and tune time and for all but the last song of the encore of the Rev. I had to remove one woman who attempted to perky herself in between R. and me, and I wound up having to bodily move a second woman who was tall enough to think that wasn't going to work on her. Women in particular really underestimate how committed I will be to retaining my location in a crowd. No moshing to speak of, and the few times people got excited it was enough to just reposition so they bounced off me. I didn't even wear appropriate footwear and I never took my glasses off. We're all old and even the drunk and/or younger people just aren't as prone to physical assault as we were back in the 90s. Truly, it's a better world.

The Rev limited himself to one major story, the tale of how they wound up in Seattle playing their first gig their at the Vogue, and Jimbo bleeding all over himself and getting signed by Subpop. I would say those were the days, but I wasn't going to clubs yet at that point in time so I don't feel I have a right. It really is a pleasure hearing him spin a yarn, however.

We bailed out during the encore and walked out as the encore was ending. We wound up parking not too far from where we had parked for dinner, because you really cannot park on Highland Ave anymore, and you haven't been able to park on the side streets for a long time. Dinner (before the show) was at Tony Maws Kirkland Tap and Trotter. That is a _very_ dairy-allergy friendly menu. We got the crispy fried ribs, the chicken thigh kebab, the sweet potato. Bread (three slices and it was good). Two drinks (he had the Scottish Ale; I had a rye manhattan and they do have Luxardo's; Overholt for the whisky). And we even had dessert: olive oil chocolate mousse with cocoa nibs on top. Yum. It wasn't very much food (3 ribs, a single thigh, probably one potato) but it was satisfying -- we were not hungry when we got home, altho we did each get a drink at Once.

A while back we got the tasting dinner at Craigie on Main. Tap and Trotter is really different, but equally good. The servers at Trotter are now using Toast supplied tablets / IT, so the place has been basically de-papered (the order is placed by the server on the device, and they run your card on the device, and then hand it to you to add tip and sign -- and they have good button defaults for the tip, which go up to 25%). As with other stores that let you pay on device, you have the option of an emailed receipt.

The AJR album is out and it is fine.