Doings

We had a pretty big weekend. Aeron, Mera, and Jaime (my buddies from the unschooling conference) came over to spend the night Saturday night. Late that night, we were joined by MJ, Madelyn (16), Marty (18), and Conor (17), who had been hanging with each other since the conference, with time spent both in Corvallis and on Whidbey Island. They crashed at our place after spending a long evening in Seattle. We didn't get to see much of them, unfortunately, because Madelyn and Marty got up about 8 to head back to the island, and I dropped Conor at the train station so he could ride back to Oregon.

Sunday morning, Frank left very early to help some people move their new boat from Blaine to Bellingham. It was a rather ill-fated trip, involving low wind (despite there being big wind seemingly everywhere else in the region), engine trouble, a long and expensive tow, and a certain lack of provisions for what turned out to be more than 12 hours on the water. He didn't make it home until nearly midnight, tired and sunburned but fairly philosophical about it all.

Their misadventure put something of a kink in our plans to host a party for a group of sailing/cruising families. I ended up hosting alone, and all but one of the families ended up bailing (no pun intended). So, it was a much smaller party than we expected; we'll be eating spaghetti until the end of time. But it was still a nice enough gathering.

The kids, their parents, and I drove down to the waterfront to watch the kiteboarders playing off Jetty Island. Did you know that Everett is one of the premier destinations in the world for kiteboarders? It is always really fun and sort of fishtank-soothing to watch them, with their colorful kites doing sky ballet. It seems miraculous that they never have collisions, or at least not often enough that I've ever witnessed one.

Last night, we got to visit briefly with my mom and Tom who are, at long last, back from their latest southwest tour. We've missed them, and the girls are really looking forward to a renewal of our regular beach visits. And Angelo the dog is thrilled to be home; he ran around like a crazy thing when he realized where he was.

Today has been a quiet one. Frank worked, then he and MJ went to volleyball practice. Chloe did Chloe things and, to my not-so-secret relief, put off our planned session of amateur hair dyeing. (She's going to try cinnamon-red this time.) I did some party cleanup and checked my email regularly, because I'm waiting for word on my return to work. I'm hoping to set things up so I can take May off, too, with a nice, cushy job with my old team ready for me in June. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

We've finished off the day with a Heroes mini-marathon. MJ had to get caught up because she missed last week, then we watched tonight's very exciting episode. Only three episodes left in the season! Ack! I predict a cliffhanger...