On the Hunt

DRAGON PURSUIT: This past week, CJ started his latest and final quarter at South Seattle College. The first week of the quarter is always a bit much. It's learning the expectations of the new professor, figuring out what's due when, and so on. So that has kept CJ busy, along with those of us who are trying to help him navigate it all. 

This weekend, we worked hard, Hard, HARD around the house and yard. So many projects. Come Saturday afternoon, we were ready for a break. Going on a dragon hunt seemed like a nice diversion.

Renton, the city just a few blocks to our southeast, is the home of Dungeons & Dragons, a wildly popular game, first published by Wizards of the West Coast. 

Three years ago, a big ol' dragon was installed atop a building downtown to mark the city's tie to dragon lore. This weekend marked the three-year anniversary of that installation, and the city hosted a dragon spotting hunt in conjunction with that anniversary. 

We parked in the city's parking garage and followed dragon footprints painted on downtown sidewalks in hopes of spying at least 10 dragons.  It didn't take us long to spot our first. 

We had scorecards upon which to write down dragon's names. We were a bit surprised (and, frankly, disappointed) that the dragon's names weren't creative or cutesy. They were just a couple of letters and numbers. Oh well. It didn't interfere with the hunting fun. 

Some dragons were hidden among foliage. Others were saddled up to public art.

Some were on street signs, and others were in business windows. 

We found a dozen dragons within about a half hour. (Ten were needed to enter a drawing for fabulous dragon prizes.)

We made sure to go say "Hi" to Erasmus, the rooftop dragon.

We noticed a number of other people on the hunt, so I'd guess the event was a success. It drew a number of people to downtown Renton who wouldn't have otherwise been there on Saturday afternoon.

SPRINGY: Our springtime campus beautification efforts continue. Some of the beauty comes easy, like these tulips that offer themselves up every spring. 

Other projects take a LOT more work, like planting three dozen or so tomato and tomatillo starts around the yard today, which included loading in 32 cubic feet of soil to help our efforts. 

Most all of the starts went into pots all over the property. We'll see what blooms and grows. ... 

RESTOCKED:  Last weekend we finished our kitchen/pantry floor. After Christian and Annabelle took off for Bend, I spent a couple of days putting our pantry back together. It was a *lot* of work, but it was well worth it. 

Now, we're working on getting the south cabinets reconfigured and that countertop finished. It's starting to feel like the longest kitchen remodel in the history of the world. Hopefully it will be worth it!