I drive because I have so much money to burn.

Not really, but sometimes it seems that way. This week NPR ran a story about how Tucson AZ has the lowest gas prices in the country. Meanwhile, the Pac NW seems to have some of the highest.

But here I am, throwing caution and money to the wind! Not only do I commute by car 2 hours every day to and from work, but I also drive on my weekends! I'm a wild woman! Not really.

Last Monday I had the day off, which is rare, so Nico and I drove up to Seattle for a few hours to do some regular touristy things. We went on the Space Needle, which was the second time for me and the first time for him.



Mmmm, Seattle...



And we also went on the monorail. Being on the monorail is, of course, being in the future. The monorail is the TRANSPORTATION! OF! THE! FUTURE!!! Srsly, in the future we will allllll be on the monorail. Sigh. The monorail in Seattle goes for only 1 mile. And it's been there since the 1960's, so they've had plenty of time to expand. This does not bode well for the future, my friends.

So, here's us being very happy on the monorail:



And then we walked around the Pike Place market, bought some wine jelly, ate lunch, walked around again, and went home. It was ver' nice.

Today we'll drive down to Portland because some friends just got a new house and we must see it! Yayyy! Housey.

Also, my pepper plants have a little pepper growing! Whee!

AAAAAAUUGHH!!!!

Because it is an election year, because our country is at war and because it is the 4th of July, my plan had been to have today's post be thoughtful and political. And just so you'd know I wasn't too stuck up, I was going to start the whole thing off with a Morrissey quote.

But plans have changed. When I woke up this morning and stood in the kitchen drinking a glass of water I noticed my cat crouched at the back door, making little cat grunts. I followed her gaze and saw a bunny sitting out in the grass, rapidly inhaling some dandelions. And then I notice something else...

This:



And this:



And this:



Something ate my pepper plants! Gah! And they were ALL flowering or JUST ABOUT to flower! They were getting so tall, and just last night Nico had commented that the peppers were exploding with growth. And now they're stubby and it will take them forever to recover.

What creature was the culprit? Was it rabbits? We've seen deer walk past outside, was it a deer? An ambitious squirrel? Something else? Was it the hand of God reaching down to pluck the flowered crowns off my beloved plants? Who knows.

I'm very sad.

So far, the 4 peppers that are in the ground rather than in pots are still there...



I have to cover them up with something so they'll be safe. Sigh. I'm not used to this.

One Year

One year ago today I started work at the library feeling nervous, enthusiastic and relieved. A year ago last week Nico and I drove into Washington state from Arizona, happy to be away from the heat and somewhere green and cool.

One year, but it seems like more.

Some parts didn't take long at all. Falling in love with Portland and Seattle took less than a day, each. Driving to the ocean took 30 minutes. Learning that a six pack of Guinness costs more here than we're willing to pay on a regular basis took about 5 seconds. And coming to the full realization that we lived in an ostensibly rural area, with all that encompasses, took a couple of months, three at the most. This fact might have been immediately obvious to others, but I'll admit I was a little slow on the uptake. I've been called a Pollyanna by a couple of my coworkers.

Other things took a lot longer. It took 8 months for Nico to find a job that paid a living wage. It took 4 months before we found a restaurant we really liked within a half hour's drive, 4 months before I found anyone who could qualify as a friend outside of work. It took a little longer than that to realize that the town we lived in was a hole, that we could never make it work for us in even a temporary way no matter how hard we tried. It took us 10 months before we were able to move someplace else.

And some things that I expected to happen still haven't, whether through chance or my own lack of action.

I still haven't driven the loop of the Olympic Peninsula...


I haven't visited the Hoh Rainforest...


And I STILL haven't seen a banana slug! Damn! That was the one thing I expected for sure to see.