Well, it's once again *squints at calendar* Tuesday, which means attempting to recall, with as much precision as I can muster, the events of the previous week.

What I've Been Up To

The week began with a visit to Heather's1 place to watch East of Eden with her and Eli! I had finished like 96% of the book before this so I felt prepared to watch the show on Netflix. I brought my Eden tea, but since it was caffeinated, only me and Camen drank any, smh at these sleep enthusiasts. It was so fun! Carmen complained that we talked the whole time, oops. When we were leaving, we encountered the cutest little black cat in the hallway.

black cat peeking out from behind a wall over a "hello" placemat

Throughout the rest of the week, Carmen and I finished East of Eden2. After being completely engrossed in Steinbeck's beautiful book, I found myself a little bit disappointed with the show. I'm not sure this could have been avoided, but it just felt like it missed a lot of the nuances that made the book so beautiful. The show definitely did cover the main points of the book, though, and at some points was pretty visually stunning, so I'd rate it like a:

3.5 stars out of 5, last star and a half don't look too happy

Tuesday was a great food day for girlgoose and I. We went to westman's bagels in the morning for the first time and I tried their bacon egg and cheese. Afterwards we went out to get coffee at Anchorhead, one of my favorite cafes, where I got another pumpkin spice latte after being inspired by Heather's appearance on the Citycast Podcast. At the end of the day, we went to Artusi, since she heard they have good happy hour prices. And yes! If you choose carefully, there is a great deal to be had at Artusi for happy hour. For instance, the olive plate is a mere $3 and contains some of the best olives I've ever had, and the pasta of the day is $14. Unfortunately, we did kind of blow our budget on a $10 bottle of sparkling water.

westmans bagels pegboard with a sign reading "NYC-style bagels, seattle morning"
everything bagel sandwich with bacon egg and cheese
anchorhead coffee cup with a rosetta latte art in it
dish of brown ravioli with fried shallots and cheese sprinkled on top
dish of red ravioli with cheese on top, they look and taste rather suspiciously like chef boyardee

Friday, and I had an in-person work day, so we grabbed coffee at Gloom Coffee and headed to , where we spent some time working on before I had to run home to pack for my Port Townsend trip.

Public market sign with a large green ferry in the background
wooden bar with two coffees, one an intricately decorated latte and one iced coffee

Annoyingly, before leaving, I discovered that my Anker charger / power bank had gone full "spicy pillow" mode overnight, breaking open its case and making me worry that it could burn my apartment down at any moment. If you happen to have one of these, you might want to make sure it's in good shape, especially given the rest of the line got recalled in 2025.

anker 733 powerbank cracked open with a visibly swollen battery protruding from the bottom

It was a beautiful night to catch the fast ferry to Kingston, we got there. a bit early and ate ice cream before watching the sunset as the fast ferry pulled up. After a long, dull bus ride in the dark3, we finally made it to Port Townsend.

sunset photo of small orange ferry boat chugging across the water
neon white and red "ICE CREAM" sign mounted on a silhoutted building, with the moon hanging lazily to the right
ferry boat pulling up to a dock at sunset
ferry terminal gates silhouetted against the last rays of daylight, a sky ranging from drab orange to deep blue
seattle skyline reflecting the dying sunset against a dark blue sky
somewhat grainy picture of the large bainbridge ferry reflecting the dainty pink of a seattle sunset as the sun dips below the mountains
heavily backlit fast ferry sitting in front of flaming pink wispy clouds
seagulls skimming the orange and blue water
silhouetted bird flying among the sunset clouds
kitsap express bus at night with a person walking directly in front of it
entirely black photo with some string lights barely visible

We got dinner at the Siren's Pub in Port Townsend, which was a reasonably okay restaurant that had some nice live music playing and a great waterfront view. A shocking an unexpected feature of the restaurant was a barred owl sitting very calmly on the corner of the balcony. The entire time we were eating, it just sat there slowly blinking despite dozens of people going up to photograph it.

owl sitting on a wooden balcony looking off to the right, a large lit-up boat floating in the background

Saturday was big walk day. We wandered around town for a while, including a trip to a hilariously named Better Living Through Coffee. We took the bus to Fort Worden State Park and walked around for a while, and then, after Uber offered some fake ride options, ended up walking all the way back to town, probably about a 40 minute walk at least. A tiring day, but it was certainly beautiful.

three seagulls on a shit-covered brown roof looking content, powerful even
red bell tower against a blue sky
sizeable white and brick house upon a rocky bluff surrounded by trees.
colorful sailboat heeling over in a vast body of water with rocky bluffs in the background
little white house with a small lighthouse protruding from its corner
green mahonia bush just barely speckled with red fall color.
large gunship drifting across the water beyond silhouetted foliage and a handrail
old abandoned concrete fort cracking with age, it's hand rails rusted through.
close up photo of dainty lavender-colored flowers on a bush with fleshy oval leaves.
extraordinarily large tree standing out against a blue sky splotched with cottony clouds
three small colorful-headed ducks sitting on a blue expanse of water
merganser swimming in the ocean, with a confused looking seagull floating inin the background
footprint in the sand
sunny photo of a tree-covered shoreline

Sunday was a more relaxed day, we had to leave at around three to catch the bus to the other bus to the boat to the train. It was a long trip back to Seattle, and girlgoose and I celebrated by getting Chipotle for dinner.4

photo of a bunch of seagulls resting on a dock
crow looking away from the camera with a mouth full of what looks like cheetos
photo that looks right out of a 50s diner with a pink table with a jukebox song picker, a napkin dispenser, ketchup and mustard
side of a building with faded text reading "Rose Theatre: Shows Daily, Fresh Popcorn". next to the building are trees displaying fall colors ranging from green to bright red.
town square containing trees in all fall colors, from dark deep red to bright flaming orange, yellow, and deep green.
brown tree, leafless but for a few brown stragglers against a dull blue sky

I Saw the Signs

Sign that reads "jessica" is this what you consider being "busy" go find your own friends. You aren't invited back
Sign reading "Pardon my blooper!" An album of radio and TV's most hilarious boners"
poster adverising "dome home for rent"
trail sign with a number of arrows advertising "peace mile trail", "artillery hill", "interpretive trail" and "To chinese gardens (historical site, no gardens)"
framed sign that says "i will send you a little piece of art every month!" with a qr code to sign up for snail mail.
window sign reading "presidents are temporary wu-tang is forever"
Cute hand-illustrated sign advertising draw the block presents "night of the starving artists" halloween from 12-6pm 104 17th ave S. Workshops, panels, artist alley, contest and more!
Big sign on a pole reading "Got no mail? Want sum?" with a big qr code and arrows pointing to it that say "send me your address!"
Sign ripped in half on a pole. What you can read is "Get to know your neighbors" on top, then "ing alienated?" "to meet your neighbors?" "250 micr-grant to eighborhood group opic of your choice" "do good have fun"
Have you seen this person? sign with a bunch of pictures of a guy in a hat and a bunch of information on a man in a hat, described as "the oddly dressed man", claiming he is wanted for questioning by the FBI
"discount girlfriend" sign at the vera project 10/5 at 7pm. somebody has scrawled "FREE" on the poster.
Poster advertising "get a $250 micro-grant to start a neighborhood group around something you love"
Painting of a mcdonalds poster with a depiction of Stalin, translating the russian text reads: LIFE HAS BECOME BETTER, LIFE HAS BECOME MORE FUN, AND WHEN LIFE IS FUN, WORK ARGUES.
Storefront with a crazy looking person with a head full of bottles, the sign reads "La bottle me"
Storefront sign reading "All about Escrow with FRONTIER TITLE"
The Triangle Business Square sign with an icon of a blue triangle being overlapped by a smaller red square.

What's Coming Up

Looking at my calendars, this week looking kind of like a dud. Probably a lot of people avoiding scheduling things because of halloween parties.

Best of the Net

It's been a fun week! See you in the next one!