Old Friends

I met Marianne about ten years ago when we both worked for Holiday, a timeshare reseller.  She was gone in a year or so and I stayed for a total of 8.  But we remained friends, went to Mexico together a few times. She showed me around Cancun and the area all around there. She and I drove a little convertible VW bug all over Cacun, Tulum, Playa del Carmen, Puerto  Moreles, and much more. We drove to Chichen Itza and walked around the ruins, had lunch and drove home that night.

We thought we had plenty of gas but we ran out in the dark, on a freeway where there were no cars, stores, gas stations or ANYTHING!  We were in a top down Bug so we grabbed our stuff and started walking.  And walking. A bus stopped to pick us up finally and left us off on the exit to Cancun where we walked once again, to the policia station.  They drove us to where we had rented our car and they went with us to put gas in our bug.  The gas guage was obviously not working properly.

If that happened today it would be VERY dangerous.  I'm sure it was then too. But we really weren't that freaked out.  Marianne is much taller and stronger than I. I felt safe with her.

Marianne and me

We had a blast the whole trip and I also went to Puerto Vallarta with her to see a friend of ours from work get married.

She now lives on a sailboat with her boyfriend of many years and invited me and many of her friends to see her son who is home with his wife and twin daughters to visit. He went to Puerto Rico to study and work and he met a woman and married her 6 yrs ago and has twin daughters who will be 6 in a few months.

Andy with his wife Shelly and daughters Sheilly and Leilani...these girls are IDENTICAL

I had never met Shelly before.  I also met many of Marianne's friends who she worked with after she left Holiday, at Providence Hospital. Andy and his family fly home tonight. I had not seen Andy since he went to Puerto Rico.

Andy and Marianne

I met a little boy who was 4 and his mom and grandma was there. I showed him a pic on my phone of Lucy telling him she was the same age. He went "ooooohooo!"  This boy is FOUR! 

Everyone brought great food, the ribs were amazing! (That word from the Bachelor again).

Summer so far... Wanta buy a house?

I have reconnected with an old friend from 25 yrs ago or so, Leta.  She lives in her mom's house now that her mom is gone (as in deceased).  I live in Kirkland now too and it is about 3 miles to her house so it is easy and fun to get together with her.  I was invited to her place for the 4th and met her daughter, son in law and granddaughter Ava, who is also 4, born the same month as Lucy in January.  Hard to believe, but I had never met Leta's daughter before and still have not met her sister.  They did not live in the area when we knew each other in the mid 80's. 
Unfortunately Leta is moving to Wichita, Kansas as soon as she sells the house she is in now. She has already bought a house in Wichita so too late to talk her out of it. I do know that you can buy much more house in Kansas than you can here for the same amount of money.   She said she will have me over when she moves. Not the same as being able to see each other once or twice a week but that's life.

The house in Kirkland is up for sale. Anyone wanna buy a beautiful house? It has a gorgeous view of the mountains over the trees and you can even see Mt. Rainier when the mist clears.  Also a hot tub was on the downstairs deck which is covered.

The partially covered deck which held a hot tub until Leta took it out

Better view of covered hot tub area

LOOOONG deck all around back of house.

Mount Rainier on a clear day

The back of her home

Deck with reflections in window

I wish she would stay but I think she will at least be here for summer so I can love visiting her and her house for now.

Here are some pics of my time with my precious grandchildren Max, Lucy and Joseph.

Max loving his ride

Love that joyful smile!

Lucy on my laptop as usual on  "dress-up" sites

I got her to look up for a second, had to take a quick pic so blurry

A sweet smile from Joe (also blurry, no excuse)

I am reading Game of Thrones which is the first book in The Song of Fire and Ice series by George RR Martin. Game of Thrones is on HBO and all ten episodes have been aired. It is very good and very  addictive so if you can, check it out. There are 5 books, the last one, called Dance With Dragons, to be released very soon. So there will be 5 seasons of this HBO show at least. 

I was so glad to see Big Brother come back for the summer and it is looking like one of if not THE best Big Brother ever.  Evel Dick however is rumored to be leaving tonight and it will change the dynamics of the game hugely. I hate to see him go, he is a master at the game.  But I was so glad to see BB come back since I am so sick of the Bachelorette.

I seriously don't think Ashley who is the Bachelorette knows any of these men who are left well enough to take home to mama.  This is the home visits when the men introduce her to their families. Usually at this point you feel the Bachelor/ette knows the men well enough you can see a possible engagement. But on this season Ashley spent 4 or 5 weeks in the beginning obsessed with a guy who led her on but who had no interest in her whatsoever and made cruel comments about her on camera but out of her hearing.  It was painful to watch and she had only known him two weeks so we the viewing public could not understand how she could be so gone on this guy in such a short time. And why oh why could she not see what we did? 

Well, it is my view that any woman who has dated much at all has fallen for a guy who did not fall for her but led her on. It is a VERY painful experience but we did not have to experience it in front of several million people.   So I was sympathetic to Ashley but frustrated with the producers of the show who would let this go on and on and not show her the video clips of what this guy had said about her. They say they warned her but showing her would have got this nastiness all over with quickly, turning her swooning love into anger. 
As it turned out they gave this guy a free trip to Hong Kong and she got to question him and he was still very vague but she got the picture. Well, then she spent the week getting over that.  It takes longer than that to get over an emotionally painful breakup but she soldiered on.  And now we have a woman who really doesn't know any of these men very well yet is going home to meet their famlies. 
Well, let me say that this has been the worst Bachelorette season ever, the least satisfying. I don't see any possibility of her finding love at this point. But I wish her the best.

The host, Chris Harrison, interviewed the last woman who "won" the engagement on the last Bachelor, Emily.  Emily is a beautiful southern blonde and Chris asked her questions about why she and the Bachelor Brad had broken up....."What happened?"  Her answers were very vague non answers. We still have no clue why they broke up. She says they still love each other, still text each other often, so why can't they get it together? We have no clue. 
Could she be the next Bachelorette? Well, in my opinion she is not ready to move on yet. Maybe in a few months but she is obviously still involved emotionally with Brad.

Torchwood Miracle Day Season 4 is "amazing" (picked up this much overused word on the Bachelor yrs ago) although one of the new American cast members, Mehki Pfifer who plays a CIA guy who gets shot and does not die overacts a bit IMHO.  But Gwen Cooper kicks A$$ still and Captain Jack is still gorgeously handsome and comes to the rescue just in time.

Gwen is shooting a helicopter with her babe in arms. Granted this does not sound like a safe thing to do but she is inside her house shooting out the window.  Probably still not safe. But I have decided Gwen is my favorite hero in this show, sorry Capt Jack.

 True Blood is delivering too. I love So You Think You Can Dance, which Joe used to watch with me when he was younger.  So I am happy with summer TV mostly.

What have you been doing and watching this summer?