Hey, where ya been?

Yes, as Linda astutely pointed out in her comment on my last entry, it has been a while since I posted anything. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks, but most of it has been uninteresting, so I haven’t felt compelled to post anything about it. Well, I’ll post a few things about it now and let you be the judge.

Spring is burgeoning here in Seattle. There are a half-dozen plum trees along the sidewalk a block south of our apartment building and they've all exploded into blossoms. During the past few weeks we've had some very nice weather, although this weekend it’s turned chilly and rainy again. A couple of Fridays ago, David and I had what I have been calling our “Spring Fever Lunch” — we met at Wild Ginger, a popular high-end Thai restaurant on 3rd Avenue downtown, and feasted on asparagus, vegetable curry, and even wine (a Columbia Valley Riesling with the amusing name of “Kung Fu Girl”). I remember this from living in Minnesota — after the darkness of winter, the return of the light makes it necessary to do things like take long lunches with your honey and drink wine and toy with the idea of not going back to work. (It was Leap Day, so it felt like it should be a freebie anyway.)

The following week, David was in Washington, D.C. to attend a couple of conferences. While he was there, he got a chance to visit with our old friends Andy and Silvia and their daughters Mia and Hailey. He got back on Friday the 7th, then I turned around on Monday and took off for Las Vegas for my division’s National Product and Sales Conference the 10th through the 12th. By the time my plane landed at Sea-Tac, David was already en route to Neah Bay, a town in the Makah tribal nation, where he had to give a presentation the next day. The Makah Nation is out on the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula — in fact, it’s the northwesternmost point in the contiguous United States. Getting there involved a ferry ride from downtown Seattle to Bainbridge Island, and then a very long drive west, west, and still further west on progressively smaller roads until there was no more land.

We were finally reunited on Thursday night, and fortunately neither of us has to go anywhere for the next four weeks.

Here is an amusing contrast. This is the hotel where I stayed in Las Vegas for my conference, the Red Rock Resort and Spa.

...And here is where David stayed in Neah Bay.