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.