Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...

It's so nice when you can combine business with pleasure!
Porters very generously chipped in on my very brief visit to kin in Portland and Marysville before I had to check into the showroom. I was able to fly to Portland, take the Max and then be picked up by Keira and a very cute little Zach to be whisked away to her house where Tia and children ( I assume that was them since they had had the audacity to grow to great heights in my absence!) waited. We then bonded by crafting Keira's day-camp flags...moi providing revised artwork for such. Kiera and I then completed the bonding process by going to the good Goodwill where we did not embarrass ourselves by wrassling over a 1915 novel with a provocative first line. We did say Hi to Russell ( their Goodwill furniture hook-up man) though, before Keira ably whisked me back into Portland to board the Cascade line train... “


"Railway termini are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas! we return." - E. M.Forster

I have to say that train travel is my most favorite yet. I arrived so very relaxed in Everett which is in stark contrast to my usual mood caused by traversing Seattle and Tacoma by car...the expletives were deleted!
Debbie and I had a great couple of days that included forays into beading, idyllic lunching at fashionable restaurants on the wharf ( with sunshine no less!) and a trip to Details (a must in Marysville!). I traveled back to Portland on Tuesday, again by train...Wandering around Portland's Chinatown until I found the Max again and traveled Tia's way. Dinner and games were great, then off to the hotel to collapse a little. Wednesday was all work ( we finished close to 8:30 pm) and then to a hotel with 3 ( count'em 3!) large queen beds in one room. I've never seen that before. It's too bad we were too tired to bounce from bed to bed. Our flight out was booked for 6:35 am and we ( and the rest of Portland, my goodness there were a lot of people there!) made it! A 5 hour layover in Boise gave us time for a working break and then home to my HSH! I wasn't sure it was my house at first since Wynn pulled a Debbie and put down laminate flooring in the living room in my abscence! What a guy!

Family feasts

I know the family resemblance is uncanny so I couldn't resist.
We've had a couple days of family and fun, tag team dinners, and grandkids a go go ( and I do mean go go!). Tasha was even present for one of the meals since we've discovered the true allure of homemade mashed potatoes and gravy. Porks have been roasted, pasta has been baked, Gaby used her magic touch to make a memorable salad ( I don't know why it tastes better when she does it, but it does!) and apple pies ( Maria made...yum!) devoured.
I just can't wait for Thanksgiving!

Hammerheads

I am often astonished at the laxity of our family in doing those things that are truly important...
like electing a family mascot. Every state has state birds, trees, bushes, and probably an animal.
I think our family probably could soon match the population of a small (but key!) state(...and thus provide that all important "swing" vote Keira).
Therefore to make sure we are recognized as a force to be reckoned with, should we become a state, I think we ought to adopt the Hammerhead Shark as our mascot.
There are several reasons for this:

• One- it has the word hammer in its name and very few families as a whole recognize how integral and important a hammer is...even to the creation of a great deal of the human world! ( a pause here while we consider this)

• Two- some of us are hammerheads in fact. I, for one, became one last Friday while hanging pictures and moving a ladder where said hammer was resting...briefly. Then it rested even more briefly on my skull ( the lump is magnificent!) before proceeding south to my foot, but hammerfoot just doesn't have the same ring to it.

• Three- it blends well with our family motto ( as told to me by our Patriarch himself)"If there is water, we swim in it." Short, succinct, and not latin.
  

Feedback? Suggestions for other family "things"?