Can we talk about how much I truly love this photo? I mean, I have countless photos with Laney that I love; I even have a "Best Shots" photo album just specific to Happy Hours with her. (This photo was put into five different photo album, in fact; all of them Happy--Hour-with-Laney-related: "Happy Hour with Laney" (all photos of all Happy Hours, since starting them in 2014); "Happy Hour with Laney: 2022"; "Happy Hour with Laney: at Parks"; "Happy Hour with Laney: City Views"; and "Best Shots: Happy Hours with Laney.") This shot, though, would qualify for an all-time Hall of Fame, whether it had to do with Happy Hour or not. I even put a "favorite" tag on it, which I rarely do. I've got all of seven shots tagged with both "laney" and "favorite," and I've known Laney for 22 years. We've only been close for 18 years, but, that's still a lot! In any case, this is the kind of shot that I would use, like, at her memorial service or something. Not that I expect her to die any time soon! Thank god her parents lived to be very old—her father well into his nineties—so I have potentially another thirty years of friendship with her where she still has all her faculties.

I mean, if climate change doesn't kill us all first. Fun!

— पांच हजार दो सौ साठ-एक —

So. This weekend. Let's go over it!

I actually hung out with Laney twice, the first day being Friday after work. For a hot minute I was thinking I would ride my bike to work, then ride it to the West Seattle Water Taxi, now that I've seen how easy it is to take bikes on it, and how much fun riding along the shores of West Seattle looks. I suggested to Laney that we meet at Alki Beach Park so that I could do it this way, but then she said she liked the view of the Seattle skyline so much from our last West Seattle Happy Hour in Don Armeni Park that I was like, all right let's do that. I saw no sense in riding without there being time for any bike ride actually in West Seattle, so I took the bus to work Friday morning, left work at 4:00 and walked down to Pier 50 just like I did the last time we did this.

Because I am getting old and I finally figured out that my shoulder bag being overly weighed down while riding my bike is what fucks up my shoulder (not my pillow, which was what I literally thought for a year or two), I took Shobhit's backpack instead. I really need to buy a backpack of my own, preferably a smaller one that can still hold all the stuff I need. Shobhit's is kind of too big for my commuting needs. It does have nice pocket options, including tall side pockets with zippers into which I carried my tumbler bottle of a pre-prepared margarita on one side and my spray sunscreen on the other. On the inside of the backpack I carried the last of the samosas from the previous Friday's dough and potato filling supply (Shobhit made more with it a couple of days later); our margarita salt; a mason jar I swiped from work so I'd have a glass I could salt the rim of; and my library book.

It's kind of fascinating how I've really started frequenting the passenger ferries. So far this summer I've taken Kitsap Transit passenger ferry round trips twice, and West Seattle Water Taxi round trips three times. That's five passenger-ferry round trips thus far this summer, and Laney and I already decided we'll meet in West Seattle at least twice more, in September during her next stint pet sitting over there. I have truly never taken passenger ferries with this kind of frequency before. It's just because I have two friends who are either permanently or frequently in places where that's the most convenient way for me to get there: Claudia in Port Orchard and Laney in West Seattle.

Laney's really established a nice network of people she pet sits for. She recently officially moved out of her rental situation where she was subletting from a woman for a fixed number of months. She had long been planning on going back on the road in September, but already had a set schedule between now and then, mostly staying at places where she'll be pet sitting. She's staying a couple of nights at her daughter's this week. If I remember right Jessica currently lives in Bremerton. She works for Washington State Ferries and is often on one of the ferries that passes by that we can see from West Seattle. She was on Friday.

Anyway. I usually try to get our official "Happy Hour photo" (for posting to social media) soon after we meet, and I got the idea for the above photo as soon as I got there and saw that bench. We actually only sat on the bench for the photo, then moved back to the nearby picnic table a few years further from the shore. Laney always brings to folding chairs and lets me use one, so we really just used the picnic table to set our stuff on, and sat in the chairs, which have backs, next to it, facing the water and the city. While we were still taking the photo, and I had my phone propped up on her folding foot stool she uses and using the self-timer, these two guys were walking by and one of them offered to take our photo. I was happy to accept if the shot I got with the time wasn't great—but, as you can see, it absolutely was.

By later in the evening, the water taxi only leaves every hour on the hour. 7:00 is too soon and 9:00 is later than I want, so I go for the 8:00 ferry. That park is an easy walk, less than ten minutes (Google Maps estimates it at seven minutes), and when Laney realized she had too much stuff on her passenger seat in her van, I was perfectly happy just to walk back, like I had also walked there to meet her—arriving a minute before she did, which surprised me.

I had gotten there at maybe ten after 5:00, so that gave us nearly three hours of hanging out, which is great. I love it when we hang out even longer, like four hours, but getting home after that much time in, say, Volunteer Park is a lot easier than coming home, particularly on public transit, from West Seattle. And three hours is plenty of time. It was quite lovely, except that dusk is happening a bit earlier now, and that brings out the fucking bugs. Laney had some bug spray, and only after I sprayed it all over myself did we both marvel at all the warnings on the bottle about the toxins it contains. It was effective, at least! I did need to wash myself down in the shower before going to bed that night, though.

Side note: as I had told Eddie, the guy from San Francisco who rented out our guest room for six nights last month, we have a lot more public transit options in Seattle than a lot of people realize. Not only do we technically have four rail systems to choose from (Light Rail; Seattle Streetcar; the Monorail although admittedly that's all of a one-mile track—but it can be a very convenient shortcut in its directions and I can use my Orca Card on it—and Sound Commuter Rail although that only runs at peak commuter times on weekdays, with occasional exceptions for special events around the region on weekends), but we also have three ferry systems to choose from (Washington State Ferries for vehicles; King County Water Taxis from Seattle to West Seattle or to Vashon Island; and Kitsap Transit Fast Ferries to Bremerton, Kingston and Southworth). All of this is in addition to our bus system. People have long bitched about the sorry state of our public transit in Seattle, largely justified, but we do have a lot more options than many think. Granted, in all these cases the options are mostly accessible to people in and around the city center.

— पांच हजार दो सौ साठ-एक —

Taking the ferry back at 8:00 was fun because, as I noted, it was dusk. I got some very nice views of the sunset beyond the Olympic Mountains, beyond the Puget Sound, from the boat. And then later, when I got home, Sachin was over, which I was actually glad of because it meant Shobhit had some company while I was out with Laney. Although Sachin had suggested they go up to the building's rooftop deck to look at the sunset, and when I arrived they were enmeshed in an argument, largely made ridiculous by Shobhit. Shobhit has this habit of turning debates into arguments and veering them into ridiculousness territory, then getting super defensive when called on it, which Sachin always does. Sometimes I think they're only still friends because they've been friends for twenty years. I mean, Sachin himself can get understandably frustrating when he speaks as though he's an authority on something he clearly isn't, but Shobhit does that too.

Shobhit's kind of a master at "moving the goalposts" in arguments. He should maybe look that up and study it a bit. In any case, often by the time Sachin goes home, Shobhit's attitude is sort of like "Fine, go home then." Conversely, Shobhit clearly cares about Sachin, in a way neither of them ever directly talk about. Sachin is prone to drinking—like, a lot—and Shobhit is forever trying to convince Sachin either to stay long enough for him to sober up before he drives, or having him stay overnight because he's too drunk. And selfishly, I am forever rooting for Sachin to drive himself home just so I don't have to wash the guest room sheets yet again. I'm happy to wash them after we have planned guests, but these spontaneous overnights just because of inebriation get under my skin a bit.

I really should note that Shobhit and I have been getting along pretty great lately. That'll change, it's a deeply reliable fact, but it's nice for the moment. I honestly think the thing I need to work on is refusing to engage with Shobhit when he's irrationally angry, which is one of his problems. And one of mine is somehow trying to convince myself that he can be reached when he takes one of his trips into crazytown. I have seen other couples navigate shit like this, because the one still living in reality knows how to handle it. That is a craft I have not mastered.

— पांच हजार दो सौ साठ-एक —

— पांच हजार दो सौ साठ-एक —

Shobhit had a work shift on Saturday, and although we were going to go shopping at Amazon Fresh to use our $20 off $40 coupon in the afternoon, we totally spaced it while we watched TV instead. But in the evening, we met up with Lynn and Zephyr for dinner and it was quite nice.

It was our first time meeting them a second time inside a single calendar year since before the pandemic. In the Before Times, if nothing else, we pretty reliably would attend a birthday party at their favorite Everett tavern (which closed over the pandemic) for Lynn's birthday in January, and then we would get together in one way or another during my Birth Week. I'm going to guess Lynn will finally have another birthday gathering of some sort again in January next year. In the meantime, they went to a tattoo expo at Seattle Center on Saturday, and since they would be in Seattle proper they suggested we get together for dinner.

At first the plan was to meet somewhere near Seattle Center. Then Lynn messaged me on Saturday to say Zephyr was getting anxious about being in Seattle proper all day and then also for dinner, and asked if we could meet for dinner in Northgate instead. I was perfectly fine with that, and too strongly associating "Northgate" with the mall, I suggested Azeteca, because I had initially suggested Mexican food on Lower Queen Anne. But, when I mentioned it to Shobhit, he suggested we go to Saffron Grill—oh right, duh! We had even talked about this previously, meeting for dinner sometime at Saffron Grill, which had catered our wedding in 2013 and I believe Lynn and Zephyr had never eaten at their actual location.

They both noted more than once how the food there was better than Azteca would have been. Hell, it was better than Azteca, its being perfectly fine notwithstanding, could ever hope to be. The difference is that Azteca would have been fine; Saffron Grill is excellent. And, true to form, their manager Prospero comped us a shared dessert of gulab jamun, which was delicious.

I usually want shahi paneer there, but since I had just eaten a bunch of that which Shobhit made for dinner Friday the previous weekend, we both agreed on sharing something else. It was still paneer based in a red sauce, but had a bunch of sauteed chopped vegetables in it too. It was very tasty. Shobhit ordered spice level 3, which was practically nothing to him and was just short of being too spicy for me. I can't remember what it was called. Shahi Korma, maybe? It had been one of the several dishes we shared when going to Saffron Grill with Alexia and Ivan on the actual day of my birthday (and also Ivan's), and I had really liked it.

I just realized this past Saturday was the third time I've eaten at Saffron Grill this year, which may be a record. It would have been more, as last year we had a standing agreement to go every couple of months with Alexia and Ivan, but we went in both July and November and then the Omicron covid wave happened, after which we didn’t go again until April 30. I then met Scott and Elin for lunch there in May, and now we had dinner with Lynn and Zephyr on Saturday. If by any chance I go back again before the end of the year, it will definitely be a record. There's no more going with Ivan, who moved out on May 1, but I'm sure Alexia would be thrilled to go again. I should bring it up with her in another month or two.

Of course, who the fuck knows what kinds of transmission rates and what covid variants we'll be dealing with this fall. Between pandemics and an ongoing climate crisis, it's always one thing or another.

Anyway, the visit with Lynn and Zephyr on Saturday was quite nice, and more than just because of the great food. Lynn had done a four-hour session on her current, in-progress tattoo of a dragon that's basically wrapped all around her body; this one focused on filling in the green color of the dragon's head on her back. So of course we discussed that for a bit, but we visited and chatted about all manner of things for a couple of hours.

And then, after we chatted for quite a while standing outside and then finally said our goodbyes, Shobhit and I drove down to Amazon Fresh on South Jackson Street to get that shopping done.

— पांच हजार दो सौ साठ-एक —

And yesterday, Laney came over, for our latest (and, for now, final) movie watch. I spent all of two bucks to rent Knives Out on Prime Video. Laney had never seen it, but she remembered Jessica telling her back in 2019 that she needed to see it.

Clearly I really like this movie: this was my fourth time seeing it. I saw it upon its initial release in late November 2019; having gone to see it with Evan. I knew Shobhit would enjoy it though, and that I would love a second viewing, so he and I went to see it in January 2020. I watched it a third time during pandemic lockdown later in 2020, virtually with Danielle in June. Danielle fell asleep. Whatever.

So, I did see it three times within the space of the first seven months after it was first released. Yesterday, I hadn't seen it in over two years, which was clearly what made it easy to enjoy just as much as when I saw it the first time. I laughed a lot. So did both Shobhit and Laney, actually.

Shobhit had a bunch of food made yesterday, including the "kale paneer" dish he was so happy with, and Laney accepted the offer of some. Shobhit made himself and me some parathas to have with it (which Laney declined because they contain wheat) and it made for a delicious lunch to eat during the movie.

Because of the number of times we had to pause it for bathroom breaks or a couple of brief conversation breaks, it took a good three hours for us to finish the movie, around 4:00. It was closer to 5:00 by the time Laney left, which was fine. That gave us time to decide we'd do an extra Happy Hour while she's in West Seattle again next month, one of which will be on the outdoor patio at Marination Ma Kai—something we first did five years ago (another great shot!). It was the only time she ever took the water taxi. Now, though, she's always got her van, and I'm only going there when she's already in West Seattle pet sitting. So, I'll next see her in the late afternoon on Labor Day, exactly two weeks from today. We're going to meet at the park again that day, and to Marination Ma Kai the following Friday, the 9th, or regularly scheduled monthly Happy Hour.

Not long after that, Shobhit and I were very excited to get to see the series premiere of House of the Dragon on HBO Max. It's too early to make a real judgment, but at least it wasn't bad by any measure; I have a feeling we'll get easily sucked into this series just as we did the original Game of Thrones.

— पांच हजार दो सौ साठ-एक —

[posted 12:33 pm]