the rain relents and the blooming begins

Hello everyone!

I had a pretty mellow weekend. Friday night I met up with Gina & John at the T&P on NW 23rd, the same place as last Friday. They played pool and harassed each other endlessly, good-naturedly I should add. Around 10pm Gina & I both were yawning much too much and had some coffee. We watched a very long incident involving a drunkard who refused/was unable to leave. He was finally deposited on one of the picnic tables just outside. I wonder what he's doing right now? Gina and John played a zillion games of pool until none of us could take it anymore. We left around midnight. It was a stormy drive home and I was happy to find my bed and sleep sleep sleep.

Saturday morning I woke up and did my Pilates dvd. I cleaned the house some then Camille & I watched a short movie/documentary called Microcosmos. It was really amazing macro cinematography of bugs and plants and other assorted creatures. How'd they do that? I read for a awhile and listened to music. It was rather odd to be listening to the Scheherazade, open up a book of poetry (Crush by Richard Siken) I had randomly checked out from the library and find the first poem entitled "Scheherazade". hmmmm I also discovered that the poems of Rainier Maria Rilke don't really do it for me as I only really liked two out of the whole collection. hmmmm

I took a shower and took some photographs then went over to Elaine's house. She'd been cooking up a storm to prepare for Dave's mom's birthday party. She made me a little plate of the hummus, baba ganouche & tabouleh she had made to take to the party. yummmmmm! Later that night I met Mark at his friend Mike & Eva's house. From there we all drove to the Horse Brass Pub on Belmont for some food & beers. We had planned on playing darts but the joint was packed so we left after a few beers and went to the Clinton Street Bar. I later found out that one of Elaine's uncles used to own it and she would hang out there all the time. For a Saturday night they were playing some real low-key woe-is-me depressive music. Mark went to put some money in the juke box to choose something more rockin only to discover there was no juke box and the music was the bartender's choice. sheesh! We decided to cross the street to go to Dot's where we magically scored the big kidney bean table which we promptly filled as more & more friends showed up. I had a great time talking with Mark's friends and we stayed until just after 1 am.

Sunday I passed on an early morning round of frisbee golf in favor of more sleep. We woke up to the sun (omigod!) and blue skies. It's supposed to be dry all week which is a welcome relief from our weeks and weeks and weeks of rain. We walked to the Stepping Stone Cafe a few blocks from Mark's house and had a great breakfast. While walking I saw the first blooming daffodils of the season. yeah! I've also seen the early pink rhododendrons blooming! yeah! Back at his house we hung out, read the paper, watched basketball and lounged. I dropped him off at his friend's house for a Super Bowl gathering and I went home for a bit before going to Elaine & Gina's. Elaine prepared a huge batch of taco dip. We also ate the leftover hummus, baba ganouche & tabouleh she had made the night before. We watched the game and yelled and groaned as the Seahawks were soundly defeated by the Steelers. bah! I went home and read before going to sleep early. So that was my weekend. Please let me know how you are and what you're up to!

xoxo,
carolyn