MeFites on DW

TL;DR My friends came. They loved Timber Ridge. We shopped and shopped and shopped and shopped. And had a great visit. My feet are broken. I have an appointment with a new (to me) podiatrist on Tuesday. The Pride monsters were a huge hit and now it's back to dolls. My new window shades have a fatal error. Regular life resumes this afternoon.

The details.

Julie and Scott live on the South Island of New Zealand in a beautiful tiny town. They have been all over the United States in all the big cities. This tour - two months - is driving around - first Canada and then the western United States (except California).

Even in the biggest town in New Zealand, they shopping opportunities are not what they are here in the US. They just don't have the selection and they have the add on of 'shipped to small island far away' tax. So here, particularly Julie, wallows in all the choices available. The last time they were here, two years ago, they wanted to shop and, for some reason, we ended up down in Federal Way where we discovered chain shop heaven. Lovely stores of Old Navy, Skeechers, Walmart, Target, etc.

This time they wanted to go back to all those places plus they found North Bend Outlets on Google and wanted to go there.

So we started at North Bend which is not too far up the road. And a lovely drive. But the outlet mall there is a bust and a half. The stores were sparse and empty. But, they drive was lovely. And we saw other stuff.

So we came back here and toured Timber Ridge and Issaquah. They are pretty impressed with Timber Ridge. and Issaquah always presents nicely.

Tuesday we went back to Federal Way and did not miss any stores. Julie had a ball and Scott got new shoes and it was a huge hit. Wednesday, there was more shopping and we found the Issaquah troll which was way more impressive than I expected.

Yesterday, Thursday, it was into Bellevue to that huge, lovely, downtown mall. And then to the conveyor belt sushi place for lunch. Fun and delicious.

In between, we've been enjoying Timber Ridge. We've eaten in all the dining rooms and tried all the various serving options except lunch. All have been pretty impressive.

Today they leave. They are taking the next few weeks to drive from here via Salt Lake City and Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore to Chicago where they will fly to San Francisco and then home. It's such a wonderful trip.

Meanwhile, my feet are just screaming at me. Finally, on Wednesday, I sent a note to my doctor asking for referral to a podiatrist or any other suggestion. She got right back to me with a couple of podiatrist options and I was able to get an appointment here in Issaquah for this coming Tuesday! Yeah.

Oh and it's window washing time at Timber Ridge. I have a panel of three windows. The middle one opens. They use it to hang out and wash the outside of all three panels. It's a good system. Except. When the shade guy designed and the installer guy installed, none of us realized that the scheme will completely bar me from ever opening that window again. So no cleaning. Ever. I have now sent him a note asking what he can do about it. I'm guessing nothing. And it's not fatal. But they should not have been installed that way. Weird and a little annoying.

Today is the Timber Ridge Pride parade which is just about the same time Scott and Julie were planning on leaving and will block in their car. I suspect it will be a short parade and not interrupt the leaving for long.

And now I think I'm caught up. I should get dressed and ready. They will text me when they are up and we'll meet in the dining room for breakfast.

Feet first. No pain last night. Whew. I discovered that my Merrells, the clogs, are ok to walk in if I wear socks so that's what I did yesterday. We didn't walk a lot but some and it was fine. I didn't get the sharp pains in my feet. I have now bought what feels like a million pairs of shoes online. I will, likely, return most of them, but, hopefully, I'll find one or two that don't hurt and aren't butt ugly. I did find a couple of possibles that looked very promising but their return policy either sucked or looked suspicious, so, no. Oddly, Zappos had nothing.

Today we'll be going to at least two shoe stores, so that might yield something.

Scott and Julie arrived yesterday in fine form. The Timber Ridge guest suite situation worked fine. There are two guest rooms on this side of the complex. My brother stayed in one that was nice and roomy. The other one, turns out, is not and that's the one Scott and Julie are in. It's a small room that is perfectly adequate and, since they haven't seen the other one, they are quite happy there. But, note to self, get 1301 and not 1300 next time.

We went to downtown Issaquah last night and ate at Jak's Steak House. Reddit says that it is not nearly as good as it used to be and, to be fair, a lot of people never thought it was good but I sure did. And, judging by the crowds and our experience, it has not deteriorated one bit. We got a lovely table by the big windows so they could watch the goings on in town. Our food was really good and there was lots of it and there was not even the tiniest bit to take home as leftovers.

Then we walked two blocks over and took Julie to her first ever Dollar Tree visit. She was entranced. It was fun.

Today, they want to go to North Bend. I love how they now get on the internet and scope out their choices. Scott wants pants from Columbia, they both want shoes from Skechers and the ride to North Bend is so pretty. We'll be back here in time for dinner, if not earlier.

They are the easiest people in the world to be around. I love having them here. They brought me THREE jigsaw puzzles! And wonderful high end hand cream - 3 different kinds.

Now I need to pop into the shower. We're meeting for breakfast before our adventures.

I have vivid memories of my cousin falling into a big chair moaning 'my dogs are barkin'!! For some reason I thought that expression was just hilarious. Today my feet are not laughing. I've been wearing questionable shoes. Shoes that might not have enough support but a are cute (and cheap). And my feet are suffering. One of them kept me awake part of last night. There's a sharp pain in the middle of my feet near my toes. It was just constant last night. They were ok during volleyball but then mostly that are just lightly touching the ground during play. I'm held up by the water.

But I just walked downstairs to get the mail and I could barely get back home and I'm wearing my best shoes with arch supports and socks. And still they really hurt when I got up here.

At the mailbox, I got a check for $250 - the escrow from my condo closing. I sat down here, deposited the check, and then used Gemini to find shoes without laces for seniors with arch support and a big toe box. I have to say that Gemini did a good job. I proceeded to buy 3 pair - one from Orthofeet, one from Kuru and one from Vivonic. I may not keep any or I may keep all of them. I gotta do something. Cause my dogs are barkin'!

This was Friday's entry.... which... again... I forgot to hit 'post'!

Today's menus are of greater importance than usual. There's the looming meal allowance. This week, they have a pork chop at dinner that is soooooo good. Ordinarily, I'd order a couple of extras for the freezer. BUT if next week's menu looks very good, then maybe not. Scott and Julie will arrive Sunday and stay until Thursday so we will be using up the meal allowance that way if the menu is good. If it sucks, then I might pile on the pork chops and the three of us will go out.

Of course, it does not matter one bit if I go over and (did I mention this last week) they now have a new thing where you can donate any spare meal money you have left over to the Issaquah Food Bank.

But, still, to me, menus matter and I want to see next week's. They put it out (in the mail room cubbies) about now so I can go get mine any time. They also put the menus online but, frustratingly, not until Sunday or next week.

Hazel came over last night to chat. When John is down or cabby about something, she really wants/needs conversation with other people. I know Joan always wants company so I'm not sure why I get picked. She's a lovely sweet person, Hazel but not at all interesting. 95% of the stuff she says, I have heard before and didn't care about them either. Anyway John did come home from the hospital Wednesday and now he has a back issue and they are going to the doctor tomorrow.

I listen politely and offer nothing, I learned my lesson on Myrna. I am not their care giver and they are not my responsibility.

I treated myself to a nice set of covered bowls last week. When they arrived, I loved them! Yesterday, I used several to make pickles and another salad. And then I popped them into the dishwasher. Now they are not so much bowls as sculptures. I went back to Amazon to carefully read the web page. It says nothing about dishwasher. Nothing - not in the reviews, not in the questions, not in the texts. Fuck. So. I found another set of nice, covered bowls which were clearly labeled safe for dishwasher. And now, it's back to UPS for the 4th time this week. Sigh.

But it is a lovely cloudy day so no fighting the sun and an easy trip.

I have yarn for about 4 more Pride monsters/robots and then it will be back to dolls. If the inventory holds up a bit, I might work up some Halloween prototypes. Martha is all over Halloween so she's agreed to judge. I'm aiming for one - like the bunnies - that I'll make a bunch of. But then for sure back to the dolls. I do have enough inventory to hold me over for the days Scott and Julie are here.

Ok, time to get dressed and get on with the day.

I was wrong yesterday so today I'm not speculating. Hazel came in about 9 and asked if I'd take her to the hospital again. Turns out her son and his wife were not making her happy 'they are telling me what to do and it's not what I want'. It was fine. She told me to drop her off at the door and go. I quizzed her a million times about what she was going to do when she got inside the door and she had it figured out. Plus, she said, that with her walker and her visitor badge, if she stopped for so much as a second, someone swooped in and begged her to let them help her. She felt perfectly safe and unafraid so I left her at the door.

When I opened my apartment door to go pick up dinner, there was a sticky that said 'safely home. thank you!' I have no idea if it's just her or both of them. I know she'll come back if she needs anything so it's not on me to worry about what I should be doing for her. So I don't.

I stumbled on the perfect jacket on Women Within. Normally, when I find something there, I order it through Amazon but this jacket wasn't on Amazon and I wanted it and I had some coupons. It was $58 total (tax, shipping, dealer prep, whatever). For some reason, the order was invisible. It's still not listed on my order history. I never got an order number. They use caterpillars for shipping so it takes forfreakinever to get stuff. But it finally arrived yesterday and it's even better than I thought it would be. Love the look, love the weight, nice details... except. It's 2 sizes too big. I mean really really too big. It looks like I stole a lady linebacker's jacket. So I got onto their chat and after some frustrating back and forth, I finally was able to get them to find the order without the order number. They don't do exchanges. You send it back and they issue you a store credit and then you buy the size you want. EXCEPT the jacket is now listed for $95. The CSR said they would charge me the same as I paid before. We shall see. At least the return is Happy Returns which is easy peasy - my UPS store and a QR code. Happily, I have no use for the jacket until Fall which is probably when I will get it.

Meanwhile, I bet Google Maps would tell me but I'm guessing I've made more trips that UPS store in the year and a half that I've lived here than to the Timber Ridge mailroom. They are lovely people and do not mock me for being in there every day but still. I'll go back there today.

For about a month or more, both my ankles were swollen like a fat old lady (which, of course, I am). And, also, my feet got fatter. Not longer, just fatter. No reason. But, the other day, I noticed they were back to normal size. And they've stayed that way. So weird. Just a bout of swollen, I guess.

Oh and I got a letter yesterday. The last of my Seattle doctors has flown the coop. My doctors were part of a kind of medical coop called The Polyclinic. Which, in its heyday was fabulous. They were very patient oriented and it showed all over the place. One time they fucked up my flue shot and I sent a note to the head patient person explaining the issue and OMG, I finally had to tell them to stop calling to apologize. All was forgiven.

Then they got bought out by Big Medical and the walls started crumbling. My eye doctor went first. She was replaced by a guy who routinely pissed me off. Then my lung doctor went. But he left a nurse practitioner who was fabulous. Then she left. The next lung doctor was fine. My doctor of record was wonderful. I was quite fond of him for all of the dozen years we met annually. He left this past month. And now the new lung doctor has gone. Also, I think they are even changing the name. A new era. Without me.

Ok. Time to get dressed and hang a bit to see if Hazel needs me, then off to UPS for my now daily visit.