Excuse Me!!!

Saturday morning, I went to the bakery to pick up coffee and treats for Carrie and myself. If you've ever been to Columbia City Bakery, you'll know that after 9 or so on the weekends the place is packed. The line for coffee and treats was almost going out the door, and all of the tables were full.


So, you would think that people, being cognizant of the fact that space was at a premium, would behave accordingly and not expect the sea of people to automagically part at their merest approach, wouldn't you?


Into the pictrure comes stereotypical passive-aggressive bearded slacker Seattle guy. He's taking his order of coffee and scones to the high-top where his generously smiling girlfriend is waiting for him. He is about to pass in front of the couple who are in line ahead of me. Does he utter those magical words that have served as the sociospatial lubricant for generations - "Excuse me"? NO! He simply waves his food in the general direction of the table, and, not even looking at the people that he's pushing his way past, proceeds to - push his way past the people whose mere existence he can't be bothered to acknowledge.


Time passes. The couple ahead of me is served. My order is taken. I stand to the side to wait for coffee. Meanwhile, Mr.Stereotypical passive-aggressive bearded slacker Seattle guy, along with his girlfriend, Ms. I'm obviously the better socially adjusted of the two of us, finish their meal. He, avoiding my gaze, pushes his way past me and seems genuinely puzzled as to both why he is tripping over my unmoving size 13 foot and why he needs to exert something other than a cursory amount of force to make his way past my mostly unyielding elbow. She, for her part, smiles as if to say “Yes, I am with him, please don’t hold it too much against me”, gives me a quick and quiet “Excuse me” as she works her way by, and I gladly stand back to accommodate her passing. He glares at me, as if mad that I dare to accede to her spoken request whilst not doing the same for his unspoken one.


So - they leave. But if you think that’s the end of the story- fear not! For here comes Ms. Stereotypical passive-aggressive I live in a trendy gentrified neighborhood and you are just a visitor here Seattle older woman! C’mon – didn’t you know that there’s a table open, and this gal has to eat? Sure, I may be 6’0 and 230 pounds, but be sure that she will make sure that all 5’6, 140 lbs of her will somehow find a way to attempt to violate the first law of physics with your self before she even thinks about giving you a dirty look.


*Sigh*


Since when did saying “Excuse me” become passé? Is it because saying those two little words could be considered being tantamount to admitting that you are not in total control of the space around you,? Or have people just become that damn lazy and inconsiderate? Okay, okay – I’ll not tar all of humanity with the same brush – it just seemed to me, on that day in Columbia City, that certain individuals were going out of their way to be rude.


At least that didn’t color my entire weekend. Since Carrie wanted to clean the house in preparation for my parents’ visit, I elected to take los Gemelos out for a ride. When I came back two hours later, the house was sparkling clean, and the mama was beaming, happy with her progress. Sunday, I went for a run around Green Lake (2.8 miles in 27 minutes 6 seconds), and then, meeting a friend for the Top Pot 5k, walked for 3.1 miles around the same body of water. I came home, tired, but feeling otherwise pretty good, and spent the rest of the day as a pretty quiet day with Carrie and the kids.


Two more days to go!

Almost 34

One day passes and we're closer to 34 weeks. At this point, we're thinking that each day that passes with the kids in the womb means perhaps 2-3 days that they won't have to spend in the NICU of they are born before 38 weeks. Of course, if they make it that far, then we might not have to worry about the NICU thing - and be able to take both of our beautiful boys home with us.

Yeah, that's us being greedy :)

Of course, Carrie is going through a lot of stress right now. Her blood pressure is yo-yo'ing like crazy, she has headaches, and the physical pressures of having two human beings in her can be too much to bear at some point. We both realize that, in seeing the benefits to her health, the decision to induce could be made and enacted sooner than later.

Still, we can hope. We both have faith that our sons will come out and be just fine in the end.

I stayed with Carrie again last night at the hospital. Before making my way home, I went on my longest run / walk ever. I'll not say how long this took me. On the other hand - maybe I will. 66.5 minutes really isn't too bad for this distance, seeing as how I actually ran up all the hills and walked four times after each of those sprints.

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This run took me from First Hill to Capitol Hill to Belltown (skirting along lower Queen Anne in the process) to Pioneer Square to Downtown Seattle to Cascade. I tripped once and ruined my running gloves catching myself. But I made it in the end :)

Here's hoping for 33!

There was a scare n Friday morning concerning both the length of time between and duration / severity of Carrie’s contractions. Things had gotten to the point to where the doctors put her on the drug of last resort –Magnesium Sulfate. The side effects were tolerable for a little while, but after a few hours, she started to really notice her own wooziness and lightheadedness, and experienced some shortness of breath during the night.

Right now, we are thinking that it’s a matter of days, not weeks. We’re hoping to make it one more day to her 33 week mark; it would be really great if she could make it to 34 weeks. But that’s really out of our hands, at this point.

I’ve been staying at the hospital during the nights; poor Axia has had to pretty much fend for herself these days. I’m really grateful to our friends and neighbors for pitching in and helping us out.

Cascina Spinasse

Carrie and I went out last night - both to celebrate her birthday (and the other piece of good news that we had just recieved a few hours before), and to get out of the rather oppressive heat that still lingers about in our house. We elected to go to Cascina Spinasse, a new Italian resturant that is taking the place of a rather sad vegan place that I had the misfortune of going to once.

This place is not cheap; however, the portion sizes for the primo and secondi piatti are sufficient enough for two people to share and not feel too full if they are having a more traditional multi-course dinner. The excellent quality of the food more than compensates for the reduced quantity. My wife and I were *very* satisfied with both the meal and the price we paid for it.

For starters, we had sliced cold poached veal with mayonnaise of house cured local tuna, capers, and lemon; and a tomato trio with olive oil dipping sauce. We really liked the richness of the tuna mayonnaise when paired with the thinly sliced veal; the tomatoes were only so-so; although the sauce was excellent, the heirloom tomato wasn't at its best, and the others – one halved yellow tomato and one halved cherry, tasted fine.

For the first plate, we shared hand cut egg pasta with ragu – an excellent choice. The pasta was thin and expertly cooked and oiled ( a step many places tend to forget), while the ragu itself was perfectly seasoned, and cut and portioned so as to serve as a perfect balance to the pasta. For our second plate, we had the roast rabbit with braised radishes – another perfect dish. The rabbit was tender and juicy, and the sauce complimented it nicely, while the radishes were braised just enough to bring out their natural flavours without being overpowering.

Our waitress was cheery, friendly, just a (perfect) tad sassy, very attentive, and extremely helpful, making some very sage suggestions throughout our meal, which we were glad we took. All in all, we had a very relaxing and delisiously prepared meal, after which we went to Molly Moon Ice Cream, where I had the Vanilla Bean and Carrie had the Birthday Cake. We both agreed that, the heat notwithstanding, it was pretty much the perfect evening out.

Table 219

Table 219 is Geraldine's, but replace the homespun staff and genuine patronage with equal amounts of Capitol Hill Attitude, tempered somewhat on the staff's side with a genuine desire of customer service. If I weren't willing to drive to Columbia City to Geraldine's or walk to Madison Park to Flora, I'd happily voyage over to Table 219. I had the Lamb Burger with Tatziki, my wife had the Bacon, Egg & Arugula Sandwich. The Sandwich was a virtual clone of the one at the Counter, meaning that the owners / chef knows a bit about reproducibility and consistency. The Lamb Burger was Excellent, needing no seasoning whatsoever on my part; the sweet potato french fries were a welcome delight for me and an equally pleasent surprise for my wife, who was skeptical of the concept.