mrs-roboto's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How Much Further To The Lake Now? The weather in Seattle has been warmer than normal, which means it's broke the 80 degree mark several days in a row, which ultimately means people have been freaking out around town and planning for the apocalypse. Every where you turn, someone is complaining "it's soooooo hot I am dying." According to the local news, air conditioner sales quadrupled this weekend. My boss even purchased one. This will be incredibly useless in two days when temperatures dip back into the seventies with evening lows in the fifties. Nonetheless, I have to admit I've gotten in on the ranting. When Kaymess emailed me that she was rearranging furniture at her new flat, I sent back an immediate reply begging her to cease and desist before she passed out from heat exhaustion. But honestly, I know how good we have it. You want to feel hot? Try NYC in August with temperatures in the 90's and unbearable humidity. Hell, Seattle don't know from humidity. But if everyone keeps complaining I am going to go out in front of my house an open the fire hydrant and run through it in my underwear (ah Brooklyn, these fond memories you have given me) because my neighbors don't think I am ghetto fabulous enough already. Speaking of my neighbors, Bee's poodle ran out in the street last Thursday and was hit by a car. I'd feel horribly (especially since I did wish a pox on her whole family following our last discourse) except that this is not the first time time the dog has wandered out into the street and gotten creamed. The last time it set Bee back $10,000.00. You think this would make Bee put the pup on a leash. Alas, poor Rover is hospitalized with a concussion and water on the brain but Bee is confident he'll pull through and as she says "perhaps he'll learn to stay out of the street now." Um, Bee it's a dog. They have brains the size of peas. They may be able to do a few tricks but long term lessons are not their strong points. Maybe you should learn to contain the poor thing in your yard out of harms way. I think a bill for $10,000.00 in doggie repairs would teach you that but then again you probably also have a brain the size of a pea. Let's see now, it was a busy weekend for the Robotos. Friday evening we had Kaymess and AB over for a little BBQ with Earl. I used the extreme temperatures (the actual high that day was 86 degrees) as an excuse to consume as much hefeweizen with lemon as I could. There was wonderful food including the best grilled salmon ever and the tastiest dessert known to man. Oh and we totally tracked down our six degrees of separation which happen to be linked by a fairly well know rock star although my connection is like five degrees away from the famed musician. But I once had a pizza delivered at a friends house by Evan Seinfeld bassist of the hardcore band Biohazard and star of the HBO TV series OZ. There's no connection there or anything. I just thought I'd mention it. AB and Kaymess live just two blocks from our house which fits perfectly into my plan to scale back the amount of time I spend outside the 'hood. I was mentioning the other night that I am putting a moratorium on making friends outside the Greater Seattle Metropolitan Area. The ones I already have, I am keeping but I cannot make anymore because the cost of gas is too high and I cannot afford to visit them (the exception to the rule is Monkeybar who always makes the extra effort to come into town to play). The more friends I have within walking distance, the better although Kaymess is so great that I'd be her friend even if she lived in Federal Way. Other interesting items we share in common with Kaymess and AB include a complete lack of cell phones and that we all purchased our wedding attire at the same second hand store in Fremont. Anyway, we are totally happy to have them living close by. Speaking of people who live close by (and you really can't get closer than across the backyard fence), we woke up early on Saturday to go on a camping trip with Judy and Jiri. Our plan was to get on the road by 8:00 AM, arrive at the trailhead for Snoqualmie Lake by 9:00, and make it up to the campsite by noon. We got started roughly a half hour late which isn't bad considering we had to load four backpacks, two dogs and four people into a single vehicle. We didn't arrive at the trailhead till about 9:45 PM and we didn't start hiking till ten but still, that should have only put us back like an hour, right? Well obviously we underestimated the trail and over estimated our hiking prowess because it took us almost four and a half hours to arrive at the lake not including a half hour lunch break we took. I have to say the effort was well worth it though. The lake was spectacular and the site we had was ideal. It was right next to the water and had a huge rock you could lay out on in the sun. The first thing we all did was jump in that lake and wash the heavy coating of sweat and dirt off of us. The next thing we all did was nap and then some time later there was fishing and a fire and marshmallow roasting. I have to say, we didn't do our best job investigating this trip. For some reason we all thought that this trail was *only* 7.5 miles long and was low on the difficulty rating. As it turns out it is closer to ten miles and is described as "more difficult." Anyway, it's probably a good thing we thought the distance was less. Somehow, the idea of carrying a twenty pound pack on my back for ten miles would intimidate me into staying home and watching a Real World marathon while munching on Bon Bons. Now at least, I know I can conquer such a challenge. I am woman, hear me roar. After a night of fairly sound sleep, we rose, made coffee and hiked another two miles up to Deer Lake where we again dipped our sweaty assed selves in the water. Then we headed back to camp, packed back up and began the descent to the parking lot. On the way down, Judy sang a chorus of "Up, Up and Away" by the Fifth Dimension. You know, the song that goes "Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon......Up, up and away.........My beautiful, my beautiful balloon...." This tune is still stuck in my head and now you're probably singing it as well. Sorry. Every once in a while, one of us would comment that this felt like it was a lot longer than 7.5 miles or that scaling over down trees and wading through creek beds did not seem like a moderate hike. That would be because it wasn't. Somehow we made it back to the vehicle but by then even the dogs were dragging and when I let Desi out this morning he hobbled into the yard like an old man. That's something considering he's about the highest energy pup I've ever encountered. All in all, it was a beautiful weekend. The week ahead holds promises of girly drinks to celebrate L's new job, more quality time with Earl, and cooler weather and rain showers just in time for the big Roboto barbecue. Stay tuned to learn how I squeeze 30 people into my 1100 square foot house when it begins to pour in my yard. 12:34 p.m. - 2004-06-21 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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