Daryll Hall & Elvis Costello

Today's notable occurrence was heading to Remlinger Farms out in Carnation, WA to see a show. This is a pretty new venue and I think as a result they've been giving out a lot of free promotional tickets. I like free stuff very much. The acts today were pretty exciting too: Daryll Hall (of Hall and Oates) & Elvis Costello.

Remlinger was so chill that we just sauntered up to the fence and stood right next to the guy while he played. It was really cool.

Costco Encounter

The three of us were shopping at Costco for large packages of stuff we don't need when a man wearing a surgical mask riding an electric shopping scooter cart thing passed by. He put it in reverse and stopped near us and said something like "let me ask you a question". This rarely leads to a pleasant conversation in my experience but I decided to give him a few seconds for his elevator pitch. He said "the VA told me I'm dying" and said something like "I'm using the time I have left to make children happier". He pulled out a think manilla envelope like what you'd wrap a bribe in. Sadly he did not have a stack of cash for us. He then asked what sorts of animals Ernie likes. We listed a few and when we got to "ducks" the guy pulled out a thick stack of photos and shuffled through to the duck section. We picked one and gave it to Ernie. Ernie likes pictures and so was impressed. I was glad that he handled it gently... it would have been mortifying for him to take a big slobbery bite out of it while the poor man watched. He then said goodbye and motored away. I gave everyone a big hug as I was reminded of my own mortality. I also felt guilty that I had no words for this nice man when he told us he was dying. It's not a conversation I have a lot of practice with and the moment was gone too quickly for me to formulate anything. I hope that man enjoys the rest of the time he has left. Really I can think of a lot worse ways to spend my twilight than zooming around Costco eating free samples and entertaining children. I guess it's not really that much different than what I do now.

Ern woke up in the middle of the night and did some screeching for someone to come comfort him. He was standing up but as soon as he saw me enter his room he laid down on his tummy so that I could pat his back and he went back to sleep. I think his new daycare has trained him to do this but it seems to work out for everyone so I'm down with it. 

A Very Tacoy Play Date

Today we met up with Gabby and Derek and their kids at PlayDate SEA in Seattle. It was sort of like a big McDonald's play place with a bar attached. I think the concept was nice but we were sort of meh about the execution. The staff was kind of rough around the edges. I think one of them lightly accused of us not having paid to get in.

 Tonight after Ernie went to sleep I looked at pictures of him. I do this a lot.

I was stressed by the play place thing today. I don't really know how to deal with other kids messing with Ernie and I'm annoyed that I essentially have to become this other kid's parent while they terrorize strangers. Kids that are way older than they should be playing in baby spaces is a common and very annoying occurrence.

Afterwards we headed a few doors down and had some tacos at Flair Taco Taqueria.

We found the maracas.

Swimming and Escaping

Today Ern and Lydia did a swimming lesson at Bellevue Family YMCA. We weren't really enthused about this program. The pool was too cold, the teachers weren't very good, and the teacher kept changing so they never developed any sort of relationship with the kids. I think it ended up being more of a lifeguard that was closer to you, as they didn't have much of a standard program or any sort of game plan it seemed.

Ern has fun at them though so definitely not a total loss.

Later that night we got Ern a sitter and did an escape room with our friends Sumit and Shubhra. 

I think this was my first time doing an escape room with this Locurio company. We chose The Storykeeper one this time. Man, I can't recommend this one enough. It an introduction by a live actor which is very rare and also really makes the whole thing feel much more immersive. There was some other smaller actor interactions as time went on as well. Another amazingly done thing here was the hint mechanism. Often in these rooms you can press button or have some other way of asking the staff for hints. In this one there was a fancy Kindle e-reader type of book that would "turn pages" and give you hints but in a storybook flavor. So it felt very organic and in line with the story theme. I don't recall ever really even having to ask like maybe they were watching so closely they sort of knew when you were stuck without having to signal them. It was very cool and I can't wait to try their other stuff.

This was just the waiting room. I kept it classy and didn't take any pics of the actual adventure.

Tot Lot Park

If I asked you to guess how many playgrounds are near our house you would say the wrong answer because there are infinity playgrounds. The limit does not exist.

Tot Lot Park is kind of cool because it has cars and other toys.

Somebody attacked my refrigerator magnets.