"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

9/4/08

A Weekend in Seattle

Hi folks. I'm back. I had a wonderful trip. It's been several years since I've been to the land of my birth and childhood. I'd forgotten how incredibly green and lush it is there. Of course, it also reminded me of why I'm glad I don't live there anymore despite the green lushness (can you say "TOO MANY PEOPLE"?).

On Sunday, we acted like tourists. Doug, Ruth, Sarah, Frank, and I went to the Seattle Center, where we parked the car and took the Monorail downtown. We visited Pikes Place Market and wandered around a few of the interesting little shops in the area. It sure has changed a lot. Wow! It's 2 bucks to ride the Monorail 1 way. I remember when it was a dime. But, the market was the same as always. Exciting!

I found a bead shop in Pikes Place Market. It was a disappointment though. Hardly any beads. It was mostly jewelry for sale. All the good beads had been used up for that I think. They didn't have any seed beads or crystals that I could see, or anything unique and unusual either. I'd have thought it would be better than that, considering it's location.

After strolling around downtown, we caught the Monorail back to the Seattle Center and visited the Science Center. I love the Science Center. It's chock full of interesting things.

To be honest, on that day, I wasn't feeling well. The hernia was giving me quite a bit of pain, so when we got to the Science Center I spent most of my time trying out various benches and chairs, watching the rest of the patrons while my family walked around enjoying the various displays. The little kids were especially fun to watch. Their little faces so full of surprise and joy at the interesting things they were learning. It was quite entertaining.

At one bench, there was a chin-up bar near me. It was supposed to measure your endurance, or something like that. This really buff muscular young man, with a diamond in his ear, and a very cute chick on his arm, saw it and came over. He said to his girl "Watch this!" Then he proceeds to do several extremely impressive chin ups. He turns around, beaming, and says, "look what I did!?" to his girl. I, sitting on the bench wishing I was 20 years younger, smiled and said "Enjoy it while you can, kid!" He started laughing......

The highlight of the Science Center, for me, was the Butterfly House. You go inside a large room with tropical plants growing everywhere, and hundreds of beautiful butterflies of all shapes, sizes, and colors, flapping around you. It was so....awesome! They would actually land on me. One landed on Sweet Hubby and rode his shirt sleeve for a good 20 minutes. I spent almost an hour in there, and would have stayed longer if I could have.

We also had a family party the night before, to introduce us to the brides family. The nephew was worried that we would overwhelm them, being such a large and boisterous group and all, and her coming from a small quiet family. Not to worry. I talked to the brides father a bit. He thought it was all wonderful.

My nephew's wedding was very nice. I enjoyed it immensely. Of course there was the reception, which was awesome. There was a DJ who played a fantastic variety of music, and taught us all the basics of Swing dancing. It was so much fun! I also have to say, anyone who would hand out individual little perfect to-die-for-they-were-so-good cheesecakes instead of slices of wedding cake is okay in my book!


My nephew has found a wonderful girl to marry. She brings out the absolute best in him, which I think is amazing. We are all very glad to welcome her into the arms of this crazy family.

I did get a tiny bit of knitting done on my Bayerische sock #1. Here it is.


Got the results of my blood tests back. I got 2 surprises.

1) My cholesterol is down, to healthy levels. A battle I've been waging for 2 years, and I've finally WON! (Doin' the happy dance!)

2) I'm extremely anemic. Well, no wonder I haven't had any energy of late. They are worried that my hernia is leaking blood into the digestive track, so today I took another test to determine if that's the case or not. Personally, I don't think it's the case. I've been anemic before. I'm prone to it. So, back on the prescription iron supplements I go.

Tomorrow I meet with the surgeon, Dr. Holman, for the first time. I'm a bit nervous. Sweet Hubby has offered to go with me if I want. I think I want.

Have a nice evening.

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