Paperback Goldmine

So Hattie and I ventured to the children's books section at Barnes & Noble today. I was growing more discontented with every shelf we passed. I saw far too many books written by celebrities or politicians. Jenna Bush and the other one "wrote" a book; there was another one called "John McCain: My Dad" or some crap like that. Finally I decided to just ask the lady to help me. Here is the exchange. Nana Kay will find this particularly amusing.

Hattie's Mom: " Excuse me, can you help me find the Stephen Cosgrove books?"

Book Lady: "Are you looking for 'Serendipity?'"

HM (disapointed): "Is that the only one you have?"

BL (matter-of-factly): "I keep trying to get more copies, but they sell out immediately and I can hardly get them to send me more."

HM: "Oh, I thought I could just walk in and buy them."

BL (incredulously): "Are you kidding? All of his books- even Serendipity- are extremely hard to find!"

HM (coming to realization): "Oh gee, I guess I'm lucky. I have the entire collection in paperback."

BL (also coming to a realization): "You don't know how lucky you are!!!"

Thank you Nana Kay!

A life lived well

Thank you.

A Sausage Fest in Time...

Certain pleasures in life are a comfort because they are reliable. Take Sausage Fest, Christ the King's annual fundraiser. It's a big deal here, whether you are Catholic, Protestant, or...other! I was stoked to finally go after many years, and relieved to find that, besides the addition of a Bavarian-styled Espresso hut, most of this event has stayed exactly the same.

I was thrilled to attend this spectacle with 4-month-old Hattie Jane not only because having a family instantly qualifies you to enjoy "family festivals," but because after nearly 20 years of vegetarianism, I was going to sin and sin big time: I ate a Rider's sausage. With sauerkraut, no less! And then I had a funnel cake. And later, a pretzel. Weight Watcher's Bun Lady be damned! This one is for you.



Matt and Amy indulged as well. He had onion rings. He was fairly disappointed.



Then, of course, there was Daddy, Traveling Festival Food Critic. Last but not least, the Incomparable Hattie Jane, finally wearing one her Etsy hats I bought for her before she was born.


God Bless You, Sausage Fest!! And Godspeed!

Rootin' Scootin' Hattie

Daddy finished the Vespa and plans to ride it in this weekend's upcoming Bacchus Raucous! Hattie couldn't resist posing when her "Super"-proud dad.

It's an autumn Saturday

Bumbo love

Hattie Jane wants to sit up and see the world. Constantly. So her Daddy bought her a chair: the Bumbo. The perfect gift for our big, 14-pound girl who got shots today.

Waiting for the pumpkins

On Saturday, we went on what I like to call a grocery shopping field trip to the Country Mercantile in Pasco. I was hoping to get a jump-start on some cute "Hattie meets a pumpkin" photos, but we have to wait a little while longer for the pumpkins to be ready. I love pumpkins. I have a fetish. When the pumpkins are displayed in bins outside the stores, I can't resist hugging the biggest one I can find.

Hattie rolled in the stoller with bags of groceries above her head. See? Here she is outside with her Daddy.

Hattie: Four months old!

Hattie had the best weekend ever at Bumbershoot. And thankfully, she doesn't have the nasty stomach flu that Mommy got. Although, she is pretty wiped. Daddy and I found her sleeping on her side today. Happy four months to you, big strong cutie girl!

"We're just a coupla high rollers from the Tri-Cities."

Remember in my earlier post when I alluded to Agent Cooper?

A handful of viewers may remember the David Lynch TV series, "Twin Peaks," starring Yakima's most famous native son, Kyle MacLachan, as FBI Special Agent Cooper. He is sent to a small logging town in Washington to investigate the murder of the town's homecoming queen, Laura Palmer. Scenes were filmed in Snoqualmie Pass and North Bend. I was crazy about that show- I even fashioned a Laura Palmer Halloween costume out of mattress sheeting once! (She was found wrapped in plastic and twine.)

After the mortifying directions incident with the cop, Daddy and I found Twede's Cafe, which used to be called the Mar-T Cafe, part of the reason why I couldn't remember it! This is the place where Agent Cooper fell in love with the cherry pie and "damn fine cup of coffee." They are still banking on that. The hallway to the bathroom is lined with Twin Peaks photos.

Daddy, Hattie, and I enjoyed a late lunch and some cherry pie and coffee.

"Can you tell me where the Double R Diner is?"

Saturday night after Bumbershoot, I was sick. The really, really bad kind of sick where you throw up so hard, you get purple spots around your eyes from broken blood vessels. I knew it was coming on, but I was determined to not ruin everyone's fun. Thankfully, we packed up and left on Sunday morning. We headed for IKEA in search of a bed frame that we didn't buy after all. With so much time in our day, and nothing to do but drive, Daddy asked me if I wanted to stop anywhere. I said I wanted to go to Twin Peaks.

So we pulled off the road in Snoqualmie Falls, drove too far, got lost, drove back toward the Salish Lodge, and finally came across some cops. John slowed down to ask for directions. "No!" I protested, "Don't! Oh my God I am so embarrassed!" The cop rolled down his window. "Excuse me," John said, "We're looking for the Double R Diner." "Never heard of it," said the cop.

Now, this is hilarious on so many levels. Most importantly, because I FORGOT the real name of the diner and could only remember "The Double R." Secondly, because you know this cop has heard this a thousand times and he's pretending to have no idea what we're talking about. So finally, Mommy had to chime in, "You know, it's the diner in Twin Peaks, you know, cherry pie and coffee?"

Oh, of course! The cop gave us flawless directions to the cafe in North Bend. Duh. It was in the next town. I have lost a lot of brain cells in the nearly 20 years since the debut of Twin Peaks.

Our little Bumber-family

After Lucinda, we strolled and rolled in search for vegetarian vittles and other hippie goodies. We wanted a Bumbershoot onesie for Hattie; sadly, there were none. We wanted to find some extreme left"commie-pinko" propaganda signs for Nana's lawn to surprise her with, but we were doubly disappointed to find none. Maybe we didn't look hard enough, or maybe we were just tired from fighting the crowds with our spaceship of a stroller. We didn't see the usual sideshow freaks that make Bumbershoot so fun. It was pretty tame.

We sought repose on the lawn outside the beer garden with some other tired Mommies and Daddies. Here we are under the Space Needle.

Finally, Mommy gets her Lucinda fix

I desperately wanted to see Lucinda Williams. Lucinda's double live album was the soundtrack playing when Daddy and I fell in luuuuuvvvv. I'll spare you the details. Anyway, Eddie and Randy have seen her perform before, and I must say, she rocked and was totally awesome, but would have 100% better with a beer. And to say I "saw" Lucinda isn't exactly accurate, either. I saw a female figure on a large stage from where I was sitting with my 4-month old, who absolutely refused to wear her expensive headphones. Luckily, Hattie did consent to wearing a sun hat, and didn't mind rockin' out with her goofy mom at the time, though surely will object to seeing these photos when she's 17.

I wasn't the only old mom dancing and singing to Lucinda while swinging my kid around. Daddy got some sweet video of the other old moms dancing with their kids. And some sweet video of other weirdos that he's saving and sending straight to Randy. (Saggy bikini top lady? Oh yeah.)

A trip to Bumbershoot, continued

Our first stop on Saturday morning would be the famed 5-Spot cafe in Queen Anne. We met up with JD Kindle and at least one of the Eastern Oregon Playboys, Peter, and friend Strand, for breakfast. My apologies for the lack of photos, but at this point, not only was the battery in my camera dead, my throat was hurtin' and I was starting to feel pretty icky.

Ah, Bumbershoot. We paid $30 for a parking spot across the street and we considered that to be pretty lucky. After loading up the stroller with a blanket, camera(s), formula, bottles, baby sunscreen, baby sun hat, and tons of other necessities, we rolled over to the entrance where we luckily ran into Dave, also known as "Knitting Hubby" of Guerilla Scooter Association buddy Susan of KitKatKnits. How cool that we walked in the door and already found our friends!

After being ushered through the super-special "stroller" (and wheelchair) entrance, we met up with Karen, Randy, Don, and Eddie. Hello friends! I grabbed a badly-needed latte and then we settled in to wait for Daddy's heartthrob, Neko Case.

So, being the safety-conscious parents that we are, we purchased special noise-blocking headphones to protect Hattie's delicate ear drums. They lasted for about 3 intermittent minutes. After a few songs, Daddy and I gave up and strolled to higher ground where the music wasn't quite that loud. Neko Case was great, by the way.

A trip to Bumbershoot

Hattie, Daddy and I, along with a large constituency of Eastern Oregon and Washington friends, made the pilgrimage to Bumbershoot, Seattle's annual art and music festival. We headed out on Friday afternoon. Our first stop was the Yakima Sportscenter for lunch. Daddy's band played here with West Valley Highway a few years ago, which was a ton of fun. The Sportscenter folks were awesome, and Daddy and I have been back for their great food. I didn't manage to get a picture, but they had two autographed photos of Kyle Maclachlan on their wall. He is Yakima's most famous native son, and many of you might remember him from such roles as Charlotte's impotent husband Trey on "Sex and the City," but he'll always be Agent Cooper to me. This tidbit will factor into our trip later, I promise.

Anyway, we departed for Black Diamond, Washington, where we would be staying at the gracious estate of Uncle Jimmy and Auntie Jessica. Here's a picture of their family room. What a beautiful house.