Sleepless in Seattle

[2010 note: It's surprisingly painful to work on this entry now, so soon after Diane's death]

Well, I don’t have my computer up and working (actually, I haven’t tried plugging it in this evening), but Diane has hers working now, so I’m just writing this in Microsoft Works and will do a cut and paste and get something put up. This, children, is why you learn HTML before going to a wysiwyg program! (except I can't figure out why the pictures don't show up on here!) Peggy didn't like the first crack at this journal entry, so I'm now expanding it.

So we arrived yesterday, were met by Diane and returned here to her house in Edmonds.


It's absolutely gorgeous around here, with the trees turning color and the landscape a vivid patchwork of yellow, red and orange.

Diane and Peggy hit it off right away, so things have gone quite well. We spent yesterday afternoon--for too many hours!--at CompUSA, spending Diane’s money buying a computer, monitor, printer and scanner. Lemme tell you, if you want to get a bargain, take this Aussie dame with you. Diane saved about $400 on the system just from Peggy’s wheeling and dealing. We had dinner out while the computer was being upgraded and then brought it all home, littering the house with boxes, plastic wrappers, books, and twistie ties. But after some machinations, we finally had it up and running and to test the sound system, we played the Steve CD.

Today we spent most of the morning doing “computer stuff” and then took off to do sightseeing. We went down to the waterfront, did some meandering around the shops (where Peggy picked up a few things), and stopped at a cafe to have some lunch (delicious New England clam chowder!). Diane was learning how to use Peggy‘s digital camera and we had a good time taking pictures of each other.


Peggy has been quite long-suffering. Diane and I do not have the grace of gazelles and she's been taking care of both of us. She refuses to let me in shops while I'm holding parcels, because she's afraid I'm going to bring some display crashing down (I think she's not afraid of the crash, but of the embarrassment of admitting to knowing me). Diane left her purse on a bench (containing a significant sum of money she'd just liberated from the credit union) and Peggy was able to sprint back to get it. Diane also has difficulty getting in and out of parking lots in the correct lane. I know Peggy is going to be very happy to be finished with the responsibility of having to manage both of us.

Then we went to Pike Place Market and walked around looking at the beautiful displays of food


After we'd gone through the food/stalls section of the market, Diane was pooped, so we parked her in a french bakery with some coffee and an almond roll and Peggy and I went looking at other shops (I had to admit to Peggy that a month ago, I would have stayed behind with Diane, so I guess all this exercise and walking jazz is really paying off now). We found some mildly interesting shops, but then we hit pay dirt with a dog shop. This is a shop where all the merchandise pertains to breed-specific dogs. Thank god German short hair pointers are apparently not a very popular breed otherwise I don't know how I would have been able to drag Peggy out of the shop. As it was we came away with a huge sack full of GSP-related merchandise.

We hit the freeway at rush hour, but were able to use the expressway, so weren’t too delayed. We stopped back at CompUSA to exchange the printer we got the previous night for a better one. I’m sure they cringed when they saw us come back in the door because our prior dealings had been so horrendously complicated. We discovered that the clerk who'd waited on us had been reprimanded. And, since he wasn't around (while all the other ones we dealt with were), we are wondering if he got the sack over this deal.

We went to a lovely restaurant here in Edmonds. I'd been there before with the CompuServe group and remember having some of the best crab cakes ever. This time around they were as good. And then we came home to check the pictures we had taken thru the day and plan our itinerary for the next couple of days (Vancouver tomorrow, probably overnight, so I won’t have a computer until we get back here), and then home on Monday afternoon.

(change of plans from original writing--it's pouring rain and we've decided to stay home instead of going to Vancouver. We'll work today on getting Diane's system completely set up and making sure she knows how to use it)

It seems like it’s almost over and we just got here!!