November Doings

I'm going to go ahead and call last weekend relaxing, despite the fact that we spent it with a four year-old whose sole purpose in life seems to be to express his disapproval of everything (be it an idea, an object, a person, an observation, a song, or a snack) that crosses his path.

On Saturday we cast a critical eye about the house, rearranging some furniture and making plans for what we'd like to change in the future if large piles of money happen to fall unexpectedly into our laps. In what passes for quality family time around these parts, we spent Saturday evening watching TV. Shaun and I watched the Ducks play Arizona (an incredible game) while the boys watched Star Wars on the portable dvd player within easy fast-forwarding reach.

That was our final evening of laying about on our giant squishy sectional sofa, the suburban denim equivalent of a black hole. On Sunday we sold it on craigslist to a very nice family who live in a restored chicken coop. And we sold our old dining chairs to a girl in North Portland who already had the fabric picked out to recover them. We would have liked to be friends with all the people who bought our stuff. It almost made it worth dealing with all the flaky losers who kept saying they wanted to come see our things but then never did. Ah, craigslist.

If weekends can have opposites, then the weekend before last was indeed last weekend's opposite. Shaun's parents watched the boys while Shaun and I went to Seattle. We stayed at the Red Lion Inn downtown. We had some good cocktails, some dismal cocktails, and lots and lots of frites. We also got our hairs cut at Rudy's Barbershop. I should mention that that was THE FIRST TIME SHAUN HAD HIS HAIR CUT AT A BARBERSHOP. EVER. So that was fun.

We mostly walked around (we could see Pike's Place Market from our hotel room window) and ate, but we did venture out (and venture was the word!) to a little non-profit movie "theater" in the University District to see a newly restored version of Leave Her To Heaven. I give the experience two thumbs up.

We enjoyed our tiny taste of big-city life (it's not every day you watch a drunk guy chuck a can at a passing car and then get immediately swooped in on by the police) but it sure made us appreciate the quiet little beauty of our day-to-day life.

In between the weekends we had the Dennis family over for dinner. They are, in fact, a good deal more fun than a barrel of monkeys. Joy brought two delicious apple pies. The kids (well, at least the six youngest) put on every variation of every hat and costume we own and ran around having a whooping good time. Leo even found the time to draw a most winsome seascape:

So there's a taste of our November so far. I expect the rest to be grand as well.