Lately

This past week was a busy one for us. Besides swim class, a doctor appointment, work and school I got to see an old friend and connect with co-workers - some of which I'd never seen face to face before.

To start, on Wednesday, my friend (and her family) and I (and Riley) connected at a local park. Ryann and I met many years ago working at Christos and hit it off right away. Eventually she moved to Seattle for school (art and photography) and that is were she met her husband and then had a daughter. The last time I saw her was when her daughter was about 6 months old so that was about 9 years ago. Way too long ago.

Recently, I've seen her on Facebook more so I've felt a little more connected, but for the most part we haven't talked in those 9 years. Even though we only spent about an hour and a half hanging out it felt just as comfortable as it did many years ago. Totally reminded me why we were friends in the first place. Her husband and daughter are great too and it made me wish we lived way closer.

I've never actually been to Washington, which seems like a complete shame, so this is a good excuse to put it on our five year plan (we are currently working on a 5 year travel plan - too many places, not enough time or money, of course). Riley and I got to the park early so she let me take a couple pictures of her before she played.

On Thursday, my work team had our quarterly event. Sometimes we go for appetizers and sometimes we participate in an activity as we did this time - mini golf at the Walker Art center. It's been almost two years since I started working from home and during the first year I went into work on several occasions, but I think it's been a year since I've been in the office. There has been a bunch of turn over so it was weird to be meeting half of my team for the first time face to face.

After mini golf, a little chatting and a team picture, a few of us walked over to the Walker to get a drink. We wandered past art and finally arrived near the top to discover the restaurant was closed for a private event.

My boss photo shopped in teammates that weren't there.

The art in general was really weird. Also, why does it look like this guy doesn't have a butt crack?
Did the artist think that they should "fuzz" it out for decency sake? I don't get it and neither does Marne.

We walked all the way back down and decided to get some gourmet hot dogs and wine right next to the mini golf area. I'd pass on the hot dogs in the future - overpriced and not that good, but it was a nice spot to get a drink and hang out with friends. Plus, if we didn't go back to that area I might have missed running into an old friend from high school.

This entire week was employee recognition week at my work and it culminated in a visit to the State Fair on Friday. I decided to work in the office during the morning and then hopped on a bus and headed over to the State Fair where I hung out with Lisa for the afternoon. Lisa used to work on my team and started at the same time as me, but broke free and moved to another department over a year ago.

We were given $10.00 worth of food coupons, but they were only redeemable at certain places. Without a map of where they were it made it hard to actually use them. I ended up giving mine away at the end of the day and just purchasing food when I saw what I wanted. First stop of the day was a corn dog since I was starving. Later I got a root beer float because I was hot and thirsty. Neither of these items were probably that spectacular, but due to my hunger/heat they were absolutely fantastic.

Lisa isn't one for pictures, but I noted that if Riley were with us we'd have to stop for a picture of each of these cutout thingy's. The funny part is that a few years ago, after spending too much time on Google, Lisa thought she had a bed bug infestation. She didn't have bed bugs, but based on her great fear of the bed bug this picture is quite surprising.

Cool picture

So. Many. People.

Apparently, a woman at my company is responsible for this seed art. I'm quite impressed.

Lisa and I didn't really have a good plan for the day. I've mentioned before that I'm not a huge fan of the State Fair or of crowds, although I will say that last year wasn't so bad. It was partly because I went during the week early in the morning and was out of there by 1:00, but also because I brought Riley and it was so fun to see the fair through her eyes. I sort of feel bad not bringing her this year, but there was no way I was going to go on the weekend (Jesse refuses to go).

Even. More. People

I took far better pictures of this woman, but I like how it looks like she and the sheep are trying to make the same face.
Sorry lady. Rest assured, I have a very flattering picture of you saved on my computer somewhere.

It was at about this point that we decided that we needed something cold. We grabbed our root beer floats and sat on a curb nearby. It had only been a couple hours, but my back felt like it was going to crack in half. So next time I am determine to plan out my food purchases in advance and do more sitting and people watching. I have to say that it may have been my favorite part of the fair just sitting on that curb.

We were getting pretty tuckered out so we decided to walk a loop around the midway, find Lisa some corn on the cob and then catch a bus back.

Next time I am totally going on one of these.

The day was supposed to be cooler with a chance of rain, but it ended up being sunny and hot for part of the time. We were there for about 3 hours and barely ran into anyone from work (I'm guessing they were all at the beer garden). I definitely wasn't won over by the fair this year, but I am determined to give it another try next year. With a little more prep I think I could learn to enjoy this even a little more, but at minimum I had fun taking pictures.