Friday, August 20, 2004

Friends, Friends, Friends

This one takes a bit of set up. I graduated from The Lakeside School in Seattle. This past year, one of the administrators at Lakeside retired and the person who replaced her is the husband of a (now) former colleague of mine at Head-Royce in Oakland. Jennifer N. (aka The N), sadly, left Head-Royce in July and moved to Seattle with her husband Darryl and son Darius.





Jennifer N. (Darryl was at work and Darius was napping)


Lakeside is housing them in a house across the street from the entrance from the school. Here's a look at their house (these next two pictures are SOLELY for a certain blog reader that would hold me accountable for depriving said reader were I not to include pictures such as these)>





The N. new home






The view out their living room window is the main Lakeside School entrance


Jennifer and I spent an hour rehashing things, gossiping and making sure that she is getting a good lay of the landscape in Seattle. After Darius woke up, we took a stroll on the Lakeside campus and I schmoozed with the administrators, who although not the same ones that were there when I was a student, all know me from when I tutored Lakeside students during my year of recovery in Seattle. Just keeping the lines of communication open in case I ever desire to return to the Pacific Northwest.

I left Seattle Thursday morning August 20th. Before I hit the road for California, I went to visit my friends John and Kari G.. John and I were roommates in McMahon Hall at the University of Washington back in 1988-89 the year I went to the UW. John, like my sister, is an architect. He has been self-employed but is now working for a small firm. Now, John (and Kari) has always amazed me with his ability to design and build things. About five or six years ago, John and Kari purchased some land on Bainbridge Island, in Puget Sound.





The ferry that runs from Seattle to Bainbridge Island with Safeco Field in the background


They build their own house. Amazing!!!





The G. in front of their self-constructed home


John has always had some amazing ideas and there are some really cool design elements that I think are awesome. One is that instead of having one large refrigerator, they have a bank of four waist level college dorm room refrigerators. One for drinks, vegetables, etc. It's a pretty cool idea. I expect nothing less than totally neat things from John.





Kari, John (holding 6 week old Evan), Julia and Duke the dog






Ernie and John (it's been 16 years since Freshman year)


It's always great to catch up with Kari and John and we do it way to infrequently, but I appreciate the couple hours every couple of years nonetheless.

Leaving the Puget Sound region, I drove south along I-5 into Oregon. My best friend from high school, Dean K., is a travelling salesman and in talking with him we discovered that we were going to intersect each other on I-5. I was driving south and he north. We decided to meet at the Seven Feathers Casino at milepost 99 in southern Oregon.





The Seven Feathers Casino


I love playing blackjack, but it's always just much more fun with Dean because I taught him how to play and I love watching him play "correctly". He's learned well, plus he is just so animated and fun at the table he makes the experience more fun for everyone at the table. I put $50 on the table and an hour and a half later I walked away from the table with $225.

Dean and I then partook of the buffet, which was fine, but our server was a kick. Sandi was OUT OF CONTROL. Let's just say, we hit it off and she took home a large tip.





Dean and Ernie with our server Sandi


We arrived at the casino at 6:30PM and left at 9:00PM. What fun it is to have some great friends!!!

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