The End of The Week of One AM Text Messages

Mug O Crayons - sure sign of a good breakfast

So, there's a whole post about last night, but I'm not ready for that yet. 8:45 PM is pretty late to be up on New Year's Day, so I'm thinking we'll just give you the shorter story. The day-after story.

I was sort-of, um, joy-filled today. I didn't really expect that. I didn't think it would be a bad day, but I've been a little ... difficult lately. Crabby. Reclusive. Mopey. Probably some other things too, definitely some other things, but we won't dwell on all that.

Because today was just fun. Have you ever been to the Original Pancake House in Ballard? Yeah, it's that place that sort-of looks like it's in a strip mall, up the street from Showgirls. Bobby wanted to have breakfast at Showgirls, but I told him "Noooo!" He was skeptical about the OP House, until I told him that the nice food critic lady on NPR said it was good. He's easy that way.

I felt a lot better than Bobby did this morning

Now, it is true that "Cops" was on the TV for a good portion of the time we were there, even though there were a lot of perfectly good football games on, and it didn't have the unadultered 70s flair of Cindy's, it was kind-of more Kountry Kitchenish, all laminated looking wood, but this morning, that place was a well-oiled machine. Mmmm... thin, lovely Swedish pancakes with lingonberries, scrambled eggs with ham and cheddar cheese, eggs not overcooked, as they so often are in these situations. Sourdough toast, good jam, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice... I was happy.

First latte of the New Year

But you didn't think I drank the coffee there, did you? Fiore was closed, none of those kids would agree to open the day after the big night, but Bobby always has an idea for where to go for coffee, so we visited the cute girls at Fremont Coffee Company. Quite tasty.

Then we took off. Hit the road. It was such a beautiful day in Seattle. Mountains everywhere, all snow-capped. And maybe this is just the thing about being bummed lately, but it seemed sort-of funny and miraculous that they strike us all as something beautiful, that we all get pleasure from looking at them somehow.

So, we drove out to West Seattle, tooled around the neighborhoods there, drove along Alki, and then zipped out 90 towards Snoqualmie Falls.

Where we just about froze to death. It was so windy there today! But driving out there was a nice adventure and it made me really want a piece of cherry pie. New Year's resolution numero uno - lots of field trips, even if they have to be a little more local this year.

Final stop of the day on this field trip? Back to the hood for late lunch. I've always had this theory about the Dick's Deluxe. I thought that in order to truly appreciate this fine $2.20 burger, you had to grow up on them, hang out at whichever drive-in was affiliated with your high school, all that good stuff. Eh, I was wrong. Even Bobby likes em.

After burgers with Bobby, I went to see my girl Susan. There was knitting, and googling and girl talk and a little Tivo. Sometimes it just doesn't take a lot to be happy. Today felt like one of those days.