I still told Kurt he oughta shoot the IT-men. ;o)
Yesterday was rather eventful. Kurt had told me the ship would pull in in the late afternoon, and since it takes an hour and a half to get there from here (what with waiting for the ferry, taking the ferry, and getting north to the base), I figured taking the 4:30pm ferry would be a good idea.
So much for my thinking.
The problem with a 4:30 ferry is it puts me smack-dab in the middle of Friday afternoon Seattle get-north-out-of-the-city traffic. From where I disembark the ferry is probably 20 miles north of Seattle. But still, traffic all the way to the base (another 25 miles north of the ferry terminal) was stop and go. It took me an hour and a half to get to the base after I left the ferry. That was really frustrating.
Also if we had chosen to go home right away, we wouldn't have had any traffic going south towards the city, but the ferries are always backed up on a nice, summertime Friday afternoon. It would have been at least a two-hour wait for the next ferry. So we decided to make the most of getting stuck over on the other side and had dinner and went to the mall.
That's the only thing I don't like about living over on this side. It's so rural that the shopping is not good. Most people are so used to going to Seattle to shop that they don't mind the ferries at all, but with ferry tolls going up and up and up and up (it's now up to $14.10 for car & driver each way, and then an additional $6.50 per passenger on the western routes -- plus they're thinking of raising it another 20% to nearly $17 due to high diesel costs), I'm getting priced out of going shopping! By the time I pay the ferry tolls, I've spent my shopping money.
I went to the handbag section of Nordstrom's and drooled over the new Coach bags. I want a denim patch Coach bag so bad I can taste it. However, I'm unwilling to pay $428 just for a handbag, so I'll have to learn to live without it. But they're still gorgeous. I love my holiday patch Coach bag; don't get me wrong. But there isn't a spare inch of space in it, seeing as I also use it for my diaper bag.
Of course, a trip to Sephora was also necessary, but I managed to restrain myself to two liquid eyeliners (metallic purple and metallic green) and some eyeshadow primer. I was quite proud of myself!
Kurt had brought Gracie a monkey backpack from San Diego, and she wore it all over the mall last night. Of course, everyone mentioned how cute she is with the backpack! Everyone wanted to know where Kurt got it. It is pretty cute, plus very practical since it is large enough for her toys and her water bottle. And she's not likely to lose it, like she is with her purse.
We didn't manage to get home till 11:30 or so last night, and of course we had to do a bit of talking. We had so much to tell each other, what with not having communication for a full week. It was after 1:30am by the time the poor man got to sleep... only to have to wake up at 4:15am to go back to work.
Which is where he still is. He was really hoping to get off work by noon, but since it's already after 2pm that's definitely not happening. Oh well. At least we have a full day tomorrow before he gets underway all next week again.
Such are the joys of a Navy wife! ;o)