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My cousin Andy and his fiancé Mark flew into Seattle from Montreal to visit. 🙂 Happy us.

They spent the early part of the day in Woodinville tasting wine, and then came over midafternoon. Such a treat. They were the first family on my side after my parents to see our new house. We worked our way through several cheeses before a yummy dinner out on the patio of salmon and CSA squash on the grill, with a strawberry salad.

Nine hours, and no pauses in the conversation. 🙂 This is the second photo I took – the first came out terribly because everyone was mid-sentence.

Major merriment. (Andy’s even blurry, he’s laughing so hard.)

Any other family considering a trip to Seattle? 🙂

Yesterday, we got home and commenced a flurry of house cleaning and catch-up. Within four hours of being home, all of the laundry was clean, folded and put back, the suitcases were away, the lawn was mowed, the fishtank had gotten an hour of cleaning and TLC, and we were feeling organized and happy to be home. 🙂 Nice.

Larry had been our fish sitter, and he went above and beyond, keeping our dudes cool and happy despite the 90+ temps (very rare for Seattle). He also saved a pump by stopping by an extra day – we got an evening phone call from him and could hear the pump screeching away in the background – he said it sounded like it was about to take off. He also took great care of the plants and they grew like mad while we were gone:

I’ll have to buy cages for the tomatoes this week!! Last year it was Amanda and Brian, now Larry. I think my new tomato strategy is to plant them then leave town for at least a week – they seem to thrive under the care of friends. 🙂

I spent the afternoon finally tackling the grout in the shower. Apparently eight days of vacation can give you courage for daunting housework. We’ve been halfheartedly scrubbing at it every few weeks, but what worked in a tub with attached vinyl walls just doesn’t do it for grout. A toothbrush and laundry detergent with bleach did the trick, though it took a few hours. Shiny, pretty grout:

Of all the things to post about, right? But it’s so attractive now, I feel entitled to share. I can’t wait to shower tomorrow. 🙂

The mountains were out like mad today, and I was cut off on the way home by a teeny little car with 5 kids in it and all the windows open and all I could think is “the interns are back!” Zooming around like mad people in their rental cars, heading home to their subsidized apartments with friends in tow. It makes me smile. Hope they like it here as much as I do.

And, as you can see from the buds, there are more to come!
We have almost 20 other guys leafing out, but this is the only one that has even put buds up so far – we’ll see!

Our friends Shawn and Sanna left their puppy, William with us when they went (to Shawn’s) home in Alabama for Christmas. They brought us back a great BBQ sauce, which we’ve been saving for grilling season. The weather is inching towards consistent, so we had a rib roast. They brought potato salad and delicious, marinated farmers market asparagus, and Larry brought wonderful wine.

Right before they arrived, I found a whole new 10′ tract of mint in the garden, so I pulled it up by the roots and we made mojitos.

The BBQ duo and their dog:

Don’t the ribs look amazing? William was in his element – munching sticks and pinecones, and acting like a happy dog in a yard with lots of birds and squirrels. The party went late, and I didn’t manage to get a shot until the shade had taken over (around 7 pm! Love June!)

The evening concluded with amazing strawberry rhubarb pie, again from Shawn and Sanna. 🙂 What a great, low-speed, delicious afternoon. 🙂

Kevin, at home on Saturday while I was at the WA Democratic District Caucus, managed to catch the thief in the act…

We hung a bird feeder about two months ago, and while the birds have been happy to pick up the seeds under the feeder, we’ve never seen one on the feeder. Possibly the wrong time of year, but still a mystery. This explains a lot. Kevin threw a pinecone at the thing right after he took the photo and the squirrel (apparently used to the numerous aggravating neighbours who feed them peanuts) scampered up. Kevin got a close shot.

I was all up in arms until a male/female duo turned up – our first birds that we’ve seen actually eating from the feeder. So exciting! I wanted to get a picture, but I more wanted them to stay (and it seemed like opening the door was a likely way to scare them away). They were teeny (slightly bigger than chickadees), and the male had a brown body with a bright red head — the beak shape and the tuft of feathers on the head looked like a cardinal to me. Kevin’s family gave me a bird book for Christmas, and it looks like what I was seeing was a either a pair of Purple Finches or House Finches. They were so pretty – I hope they decide to become regulars! And then I can get a photo and determine for good what they might be.

We’re still enjoying the Christmas tree. I think it was a great spot, because it’s not in the way (especially helpful with puppies and babies), but you can see it from a surprising number of vantage points. For example, here, from the kitchen doorway, twinkling away.

Pretty!

And an ornament closeup.

I know that the new year is going to bring new things – my job sounds like it will be changing a good bit, some friends are leaving Seattle while others are returning, we have half a million house projects on the horizon – but I’m so sad to see 2007 go. And, for that matter, I still miss 2006. The last two years have seen a new career path for me, two new jobs for Kevin, one fishtank redesign, one fishtank move, a proposal, a wedding, a honeymoon, 6 trips to the east coast, 1 roadtrip to Wyoming, 4 visits by family, a slew of wonderful wedding gifts, two friends’ weddings, 3 house inspections, 2 offers, and 1 new home, a finished quilt, uncounted finished knitting projects, 4 babies born to friends and family, and many, many bunches of farmers market flowers. I’m reasonably confident that the new year will not jinx this fantastic roll, but it still makes me sad to bid farewell to 2007. I feel like there probably aren’t so many years in life that are this happy.

I don’t think I have any resolutions. There are certainly plans (to walk and bike to work instead of driving, to quilt, to plan the weeks’ worth of dinners on Sunday, to attend our 5th-year college reunions, to finish painting, to redo the kitchen in the fall, to replace windows, to replace light fixtures, …). But for the most part, I am happy and settled, and my projects don’t count as resolutions. I suppose if there’s anything to focus on, it’s taking time to mellow: to read fiction, to not be tied to the endless to-do list.

Here’s hoping that 2008 continues the trend of 2007.

Kevin’s family left, and then our good friends (who are moving to CA and needed a place to stay for a few days) came the next morning. Their baby and “our” puppy required 2-adult supervision. Neither was innocent: William kept knocking her over and getting way too excited, and just when we were about to side with the baby, she’d throw tupperware or toys at his head. I think they both genuinely liked each other, they just couldn’t figure out how to interact. Easiest when separated but still able to see each other!

William left today, which makes everything much, much easier.

Now we’re down to one cute little creature underfoot. Luckily, she’s mostly kept her distance from the fishtank and the tree, and is good about listening when it comes to staying out of cupboards full of glass jars or cleaning supplies. The pasta, can, and tupperware cabinets were deemed good play areas, though, and she’s been quite methodical about emptying them and handing off the contents to whoever else is nearby. Lots of “can you bring the bulger to Kevin?” or “ooh, a bag clip!”

Very cute and so fun to have them here.

Our friends Shawn and Sanna (the ones who helped us move all of our furniture) were headed back to the east coast for Christmas, and so we got to puppy-sit their six month old cockapoo, William Wallace. He was surprisingly little work (especially while Kevin’s parents and sister were here to play with him, bring him outside, wipe off his feet, give him treats, etc…!), and though we had to remove the tinsel from the bottom branches of the tree, and listen to him cry when we wouldn’t let him help with the tree work, he’s been a great visitor.

He’s been very vigilant about chasing the wildlife outside. We have lots of flocks of tiny little birds (chickadees? Sparrows? I just got a bird book, so hopefully I’ll have a better report soon.), plus some enormous, fat squirrels. He didn’t bark, but you’d see him pointing at the door when he wanted to go out and run. Usually, whatever it was would scatter, and then he’d be stuck milling about, waiting for the next interesting creature.

He was all thwarted by the squirrels and their fence- and tree-climbing.

I don’t know which breed this comes from, but he’s an amazing jumper and pouncer. Any time we threw a toy for him, he’d conclude his run with an adorable, funny pounce. And we kept looking out into the back yard to see him running crazy puppy circles in which he’d clear the japanese maple (about a yard high and a yard and a half wide), or launch himself off of the top of the rockwork. Funny little dog!

(And since everyone has asked, we’re not getting a dog. We’re both dog people, but even when we were on vacation he was a bit much for the two of us. Adorable and wonderful to have sleeping on our feet, but early-rising, mud-footed, and frquently eating inappropriate things. I can’t imagine adding our work schedules to that as well… Better for a different stage of life than the current one.)