Chi-blogo...

the title sounds like "dr. zhivago," but not...

well. so it probably isn't a big deal, and many of you have already heard, but i got laid off from work last friday. luckily i did all the footwork last winter, scrambling here and there to find work, so i knew where to call and got most of the things set up i needed to in the last 2 days. now all i can really do is wait...

on another note, my birthday was on the 3rd and i flew back to illinois and spent time there with family and friends from the 5th through the 12th. i sorely needed the break.

a friend of mine drove up this way on her way to montana and stayed with me saturday night. we were going to go to a neato island by my town, but we ended up going to another nearby town, poulsbo, because i told her it has some neat shops and it is a norwegian village, my friend being of scandinavian descent and all might find that interesting, right? they happened to be having the viking arts & crafts festival that day, so there was a heap of food and a few live bands on the main street. we jumped into the poulsbo bakery. i think if i had the cash i would have bought everything there. i loooooooove bread. is it part of the 5 food groups? if not, it needs to be. give me a good loaf of bready things, a slab of excellent cheese (the stinkier the better), and i'm happy.

after the lay-off and everything, it was sure nice to just forget about everything and take in the atmosphere of this small and sleepy port town, the smell of the dead fishy water, the strains of bad country music in the background, having marines letting us park in a no-parking area by the main street because of my disability... sometimes it's ok being gimpy... :))

the next day, after church, we went to seattle. my friend had never been there before and it was a stunning day. so we took her car onto the ferry, made the hour ferry ride to seattle, and hung out at seattle's wonderful pike place market all afternoon. there are so many smells, sights, and sumptuous foods there. quite delightful. i've been there a million times, and i used to live three walking minutes away. but it's much better, fresher, when you see it through a first-timer's eyes. later we said our goodbyes and i hopped on the ferry while she drove off to spokane and montana...

as you might know, it's been incredibly hot here. just before i left for chicago we spent a week or so with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees fahrenheit (37.8 Celcius, for my european friends...), breaking a 100-year-old record. i thought it would be cooler when i returned from illinois, but it really hasn't been. it's been around 80 (26.7 C) each day. i know that's pretty normal for most places, but not here...

this is quite unusual for western washington. it is usually around 70 (21 C) every summer, with occasional rain. i LIKE that!!! but this summer has been pretty brutal, and last winter was terrible for this area. when it was so cold last winter and we had tons of (unusual) snow for weeks and everything shut down for a period of time, everyone was saying "OH I WISH IT WAS WARM!!!" now that it's been so hot everyone is saying "I WISH IT WASN'T SO HOT!!" make up your minds already!! i think, since most people here got what they wanted and now it's hot, they need to SHUT UP this winter :))))) i mean, i have a friend visiting africa, and i'm sure that's HOT. i have other friends living in scandanavia, and i'm sure that's COLDER. to anyone living in the northwest who doesn't like the heat/cold we've been experiencing, MOVE TO THOSE COUNTRIES :D a big reason i moved back out here from illinois was the weather. i dare you frail northwesterners to spend a winter/summer in the midwest. dare ya. it can be quite brutal. so we don't know how good we have it here in the NW...:)

i FINALLY have some pictures to post from my time in illinois, and i'll post them. but I DON'T KNOW HOW TO POST PHOTOS ON A BLOG, so bear with me...

stay out of the heat, and drink them there fluids...