Tuesday, July 16: leaving Harstine Island and party at Dee’s house

He was up just after 7:30. I was still resting in bed due to my cold, but doing pretty good, considering. When I got up I was in the kitchen. Cherie asked if he wanted any of her yogurt. He said he was full, but then immediately saw my cereal and got excited for the sugary Cheerios, with soy milk. Made his yummy noises. He had a bowl of that, then was playing with Colin. In the bedroom he sang about a CD cover and random lines like “Star Wars is just Star Wars…”

I prepared snacks and helped clean out the cupboards. He and Colin and Vivian were doing a great job of playing and letting the adults pack up. At one point he tried to take Colin’s water gun away, as he thought that Colin would spray it in the house, but I was able to convince him to give it back. August also had me do the ball maze thing, which we had done so much of last year, for a awhile. He was singing a song with lines like “That’s the glorious end of the treasure…”

We all got packed up and everyone was leaving within a few minutes of each other. we left just after 10. He watched Inspector Gadget. We had some snacks, and he got a Q cracker. He said “Q. The best letter in the world.” That made me happy. He asked what ‘zowzers’ meant. A word of the day. He had a little Brother and Bar game where Brother is stealing tooth fairy money from kids and he is caught by Bar using security cameras. I think Inspector Gadget influenced.

We met Brenda and Matt in Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill. We walked over to Rancho Bravo Tacos. I took August to the bathroom. We ordered some tacos and sat outside. We talked, and when August was done we did some Brother game (a girl with laser fingers, which they used to break into Sister’s diary), and he also swung around a post and climbed on the fence. August told them about My Planet, although a little reluctantly: “And that’s all I’m going to say about it.” He had seen an M&Ms machine inside, so Carly gave us a quarter and we went and got a handful.

While we were sitting outside I pointed to the Oddfellow Cafe across the street and told August that was where I saw my first concert (D.O.A. and Alcohol Funnycar).

We walked back through and around Cal Anderson Park to see all of the construction over the finished light rail station. Would have liked to walk up to the north end to see the actual station, but we were short on time (we also parked across from the new Richard Hugo house, which I would have liked to see). We got back to the car and said goodbye to them at 1:50. As I got him into the car he told me a joke: “A triangle was walking in the park: ‘Aaaagh! Trapezoid.’”

We stopped at Haggen’s and I ran in to get a selection of Kona beers. We got to the house at 3. We saw Dee’s flamingos (her friends had surprised her with own ornaments for her birthday) and the hamza from us hanging by their door. August got his finger pinched in the screen door.

There was a lot of talk about calculus, and August showed Paul the graphing calculator and the coordinate numbers. He asked Paul what they meant, and when he explained August went and grabbed Carly and brought her over so she could learn too. I’ve started to explain them before, but he really listened to Paul. After that, we were figuring out how to plot individual points and simple equations.

Cailen and Clover showed up, then Darrin and his girlfriend Julie. First time I’ve met her. We went outside to eat. There were beef burgers, lamb burgers, and hot dogs. I had lamb. There was also a really good pesto pasta.

August had an audience and was really performing. Julie has two older boys and seemed to handle him well. When August was eating Doritos but licking his fingers they put some on a plate for him. He talked about some food being his favorite, then turned to Carly and said “ And my second favorite…you…I love you chocolate mama.” And he told everyone to eat faster as he wanted dessert. He didn’t know for sure that there was dessert, but said he expected it. He asked me “What’s Junior scouts? What’s a ‘code?’” We discussed those, and he also was asking things like “Where’s great great great great great…grandma?” Carly said something about ‘serfs’ so another word of the day. Darrin mentioned a great-great-great grandfather who had drunk himself to death and August heard that and asked about it later.

Dee brought out a big cake for all of our birthdays. Rather an important year, as Darrin just turned 50 and Carly is turning 40. We took photos with the cake, then August had a big corner piece. He randomly asked “Do you know what I do with bones when archeologists don’t want them any more?” Mom then brought out birthday presents for Dee. August helped her a bit as he was getting the things to pop. He was pretty much drunk on cake. He would wander over to the cake and say “Look at that glorious cake.” He popped bubble wrap. Paul helped him with the smaller stuff that needed to be twisted. He kept saying “Don’t push it, dude.” Which is from Elephant and Piggie.

Dee had bought a couple of big bubble things, and Carly and August did those. A bit later he asked Dad to do them. August was saying things like “Come to papa.” “You’re a bubble making machine.” And earlier, when I was sitting on the picnic table, he sat on my lap and I was a rotating chair machine. At the height of his cake drunkenness he said “Where’s a semicolon cookie…I’m really into the word semicolon right now. It’s satisfying to say.”

I think it was a little past 7 that I suggested it was time to go. I had handled it pretty well, but my cold was making me really tired. Out at the car Mom, I think it was, spotted a bald eagle sitting in a tree at the end of the road. Crows were yelling at it. We had a great view of it as we drove by.

At the house I basically went straight to bed. August played with a cool clock toy they have that helps you learn how to tell time (you turn the hands of the clock and the digital time changes, and it also quizzes you). He watched the Inspector Gadget episode where he’s sick. And he told me “Don’t breathe on me.” They went to bed sometime after 9.

Odd and even: