Lost Time

MAKING UP: Yeah, so, we're still kicking here at MPA. 

Apologies for being rather terrible about keeping up-to-date here. We've been a bit busy.

For instance, last Thursday night we went to a Mariners' game. 

It was a gorgeous night for baseball, on and off the field. The Ms won 4-1, and we got to see some great pitching and defensive gems.

Oh, and dogs. We got to see some dogs. Many, MANY dogs.  It was "Bark at the Park" night, and a special ticket let you bring your four-legged friend out to the old ball game.

Our dogs stayed home, because we actually wanted to watch the game.

This weekend we were busy with a number of activities. A bright spot on the 'to do' list was a cocktail party Saturday afternoon for Christian and me at a friend's beautiful home. So fancy!

Meanwhile, the kids spent a couple of hours at Seattle Center, mostly at MoPop, but they also checked out the International Fountain, a Polish festival, and the food court in the Armory.

Saturday night we packed and packed and packed, as Sunday morning the kids and Christian left for a camping excursion along the Dorena Reservoir. 

They were in one packed to the rafters (and beyond) car, let me tell you!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I began a little paint project.

 As in, painting our home exterior.

I'm two days in now and making OK progress. The painting is fun. The cleaning, prep, moving millions of things around, notsomuch.

One quick side story about paint. ... Sunday morning, I was at the local hardware/paint store bright and early, the only one at the paint counter when I arrived. 

While my paint was being mixed, a man came in carrying an ornament from a concrete fountain. He asked the people at the counter to color match it, and they said their scanner wouldn't work on it and told him to go find the color on his own from the wall of samples.

He looked over at the wall with hundreds upon hundreds of different swatches and his expression was absolutely crestfallen. Rather than try to find the right color himself, he started to leave the store instead. 

I quickly called after him, "Wait, let's go look and see if we can find a match!" Immediately, I started pulling brown sample paper swatches from the wall, and holding them next to his object. Quickly, I eliminated most all of the samples. "Nope, too purple. ... Nope too gray .. Nope, too yellow," I was saying aloud. He was bewildered and said, "What do you mean, 'too purple' - it's brown. They're all brown. Why are you talking about purple and gray? How can you tell the difference?"

I explained that I paint a LOT and am used to looking for the perfect color. And I told him that based on his example, he should look for what looks like chocolate to him. That seemed to make him feel it was manageable, and he pulled a couple of examples. I pulled a few, and we found four decent contenders. However, then I told him not to order one until he went out into the sunlight to see what it really looked like, because you should never choose a color based on bad hardware store lighting. 

Anyway, long story long, I was happy to help him. I love looking at colors and trying to find the perfect fit, but seriously, the paint counter people should have offered to do what I did. I was their only customer when he walked up, and there were two of them standing behind the counter. For all they knew, the guy was colorblind. They shouldn't have just sent him over there, unassisted.