It is definitely a blustery day, as Winnie the Pooh would say. The wind has been blowing really hard today, which is unusual for this area. It's not raining too hard today, but the wind is whipping the rain around. It's one of those days that an umbrella would be completely useless.
(Completely random aside: When I was a kid, I used to love to read books of a slightly fantastical nature, in which normal, everyday people would find themselves transported to a slightly different parallel universe or some such. One book that I loved was called The Hunky-Dory Dairy by Anne Lindbergh. It described a group of people living near Washington, DC, locked in a time warp from 1880. One little phrase from that book that has stuck with me since I read it 20 years ago was the statement that sometimes umbrellas are useless in the Washington, DC, area, as the rain tends to bounce up from the pavement and soak you from beneath anyhow. It's true!)
Surprisingly enough, it doesn't rain as much as people assume it does here in Seattle. It's not so much the amount of rain as it is the frequency of rain. Sure, it'll rain six days out of seven, but usually that only adds up to an inch of rain. During a bad summer storm in Virginia, we'll get an inch of rain in 20 minutes.
This month has made me a liar, however, when I tell people it doesn't rain much in Seattle. It's rained nearly every day this month, and we've already gotten almost 14 inches of rain for the month. Our average for the month is more like 8 inches, and we're on pace to thoroughly break the record rainfall for one month.
Hence my frequent statement that I need to start building my ark.
There is very good news attached to this miserable weather. Last night one of Kurt's shipmates called to tell him that the underway period for today and tomorrow has been canceled, due to sustained winds of 35mph in the Puget Sound.
I let out a whoop so loud that the caller heard me on the other end.
Originally Kurt was to be underway today to run drills, and then the ship would pull in on Thursday to pick up the family members who wanted to go on the family day cruise. I wasn't going to be able to go, since Grace isn't old enough (the kids have to be old enough to clamber up and down the ladders without assistance, usually around 10 or 12 years old), and it also meant that it would probably be a fairly late working day for Kurt on that day. Now the ship has decided simply to have an open house tomorrow, which I will be able to go to.
I still don't see how Kurt is able to climb up and down the ladders of the ship with Gracie in his arms. I have problems enough when I am not carrying anything! I guess it's years of practice.
Last night we were supposed to keep an eye on J's daughter (long story) while J and her husband actually went on a dinner date together! Kurt also needed to make a run to Costco for the Chiefs' Mess, so I told J we would simply take S with us. I was just about to call J back to ask if it was okay to take S to a Chinese buffet for dinner when she called me first. She'd had the brilliant idea of having S babysit Grace while Kurt and I went out to dinner by ourselves and then on to Costco! And since we were doing a favor to her by allowing S to stay at our home while J was out, I wouldn't even have to pay for the babysitting! SCORE!!!
So Kurt and I went to this little bistro in historic downtown that we had never been to before, simply because we thought it was a bit too ritzy for us. I am so glad we went last night!! The decor was really cool in there. The walls were painted this lovely sage green (one of my favorite colors), and the ceiling was a gorgeous dark rust. It doesn't sound like it matches, but it did! The owners had decorated the walls with old photos of their grandmothers from the 1940s, and they'd colorized just one element of each photo. There was one photo of their grandparents standing outside their first home in Seattle, and the only part of the photo in color was the grandmother's bright red dress. Another photo showed two young ladies lounging on the grass, and the grass was a vibrant green. It was a really cool effect.
The meal was amazing. We got an appetizer featuring artisan-crafted meats and cheeses (ha ha, none for you, Michele! Just teasing), which was just yummy. Kurt ordered the pork scallopini, which was really quite good, although I don't normally like pork. I got the lobster ravioli, served in a tarragon-butter sauce. I cannot even begin to describe how good it was. Every bite sent me to heaven! I was chair-dancing, it was so good! For dessert, Kurt and I shared a mint chocolate-chip brownie with butter pecan ice cream, but the brownie was more like a lava cake. Not that I minded -- it was awesome!
Unfortunately the bistro isn't really a place that we can take Grace, so we probably won't be able to get back to that place until Kurt returns from his deployment. I'm kicking myself that we never tried it in the three and a half years I've lived here.
And now, since my power has flickered a few times since I've been writing this (I bet a gust of wind will take out a power line -- again), I shall hit "done!" and hope it posts! Have a great one!