I might normally have wanted to include more detail about today in this post, but it turned out to be a pretty long day, helping Danielle celebrate her 48th birthday.
We didn't actually meet up until 1:00. But, my morning was packed, with sleeping in a bit later than usual after being up until 12:30 last night between writing
my review of Alien: Romulus and processing
yesterday's photos; then this morning spending time on
my blog post about yesterday's Wilcox Family Farms tour, which got interrupted by phone calls with Danielle, a phone call with Gabriel, and then needing to go to Hau Hau Market with Shobhit to get a few last minute produce supplies for what we will bring to the Family Vacation on the coast this Sunday.
Once all that was squared away, and also after getting ready in the morning, I was actually barely done with the blog post—posted at 12:12—when Danielle texted that she was picking up her mom, and she and Rylee (and, it turned out, a friend of Rylee's) would be joined by Gail to come up to Spokane, and get to Flatstick Pub at about 1:00. Shobhit figured that with parking constraints downtown we should walk, and that meant we had to leave in, like, the next five minutes.
So, we spent just under two hours playing miniature golf and a similar game called Duffleboard—most of us did two rounds of the miniature golf, and one round of the Duffleboard. It was $10 per person for one round of golf, and $14 per person for both combined and you could play as many times as you wanted, so we wound up going or the latter option.
This was the place we went to for a department "social"
back in 2019, so I had done this before. It's a fun place. Shobhit had been ambivalent about going, and Danielle was openly bummed when he briefly said he would skip it, but he wound up coming anyway, and I think he had fun as well. He also bought himself and me a slice of cheese pizza (I paid for him and me for the games). He had to start a work shift at 5:00, though, and Gail had to start a work shift at 6:00, so we knew this would be an afternoon thing. Shobhit left around 3:00 and walked back home, before driving to work.
Danielle had one cocktail and then two and a half beers. When we left at about 3:15, apparently Danielle had said either Gail or I would be her designated driver, and Gail is very unusused to driving in the city—her job at Lowe's is in Tukwila—which she finds too crowded. And by this point, Danielle and I had made further plans so that I would go back to Renton with her, and then take the bus home. Hence the aforementioned long day.
Danielle seemed barely buzzed, if at all, but I still drove everyone in her van back to Renton. Danielle got a little into the side-seat driving thing and that was a tad off putting, but we made it through it. We dropped Gail off in Tukwila, right at Lowe's in fact, even though it was two hours before her shift was to start. We also dropped off Rylee's friend Courtney, and then I drove Danielle and Rylee back to their house in Renton.
We chilled at the house for just a few minutes, just long enough or Danielle to
spread the frosting on the birthday cake she had baked for herself in the morning. She wasn't ready to eat it yet, though, and we then went to Santa Fe Mexican Grill, just for their delicious Santa Fe Margarita, which I had discovered when having Happy Hour there with Laney last year when she was still living in Renton (they don't officially have a Happy Hour, and this cocktail is like eighteen bucks, but still a good value because they give you
what's left in the mixer and it basically becomes three cocktails as you can refill your margarita glass with it).
While we were at Santa Fe Mexican Grill, Danielle and I talked a lot about our sex lives. Mostly about her sex life. Very illuminating stuff.
We very nearly got a third margarita to share, but then the service was getting too slow as the restaurant was getting busy, so we got our check and were on our way. We went back to the house, where Rylee put the Beecher's macaraooni & cheese in the oven for us, so it was ready soon after we got home. A delicious dinner, that was. Insanely high in calories but whatever. We had the cake shortly after, and Danielle and I spelled out a "48" in the icing with candy pieces from a tray of, amusingly, nothing but ghost and skeleton, Halloween-themed candy pieces. Another year closer to death, I guess!
Danielle drove me to the Renton Transit Center so I could catch the 8:56 bus back to downtown Seattle. I edited photos as best I could on my phone while on that bus ride, and in the end today yielded
a photo album with 39 shots in it. When I got to my stop at the Seattle Convention Center, Shobhit was merely blocks away on his way home from work, so it could not have been timed more perfectly: he picked me up and we drove the rest of the way home together. I then proceeded to upload my photos, write this post, and now I need to go to bed.
[posted 11:06 pm]
