What a weekend it’s been already, and there are still two more whole days left.

I drove straight to Seattle after work on Friday, and had the easiest drive ever. I somehow managed to bypass all the traffic in Portland, and I-5 was moving along nicely the entire way up. I got to Seattle in record time, and after a bit of circling the block, got the best parking spot ever, right across from the movie theater.

“Paprika” was amazing. I was expecting a lot from it, and it totally delivered. If it plays in a theater anywhere else nearby, I’m going to see it again, and it will certainly be one to buy on DVD when it comes out. Jaw-dropping animation with plenty of surprises, a trippy mystery story with lots of twists and turns, and even a super-catchy theme song.

From there I went to stay up at LittleBrother’s house in Snohomish. It was midnight when I rolled in, but he heard me arrive, so he came down and we talked and played a couple of games of pool on their new pool table. We finally went to bed around 1:45.

At 6:45, I was awakened by Niece. She was already going a hundred miles an hour, which meant that resistance on my part was futile, so I got up and played with her and LitteBrother while BabyNephew was awakened and fed by Brother’sWife. Before they left for Yakima that morning, they each gave me a huge hug and said, “You’ve sure had a tough time lately. Hang in there. We’re really proud of you.” That just about made me cry.

Then, after feeling sick to my stomach all morning, I started to take a turn for the worse, so I went in and had a nice bout of. . .um. . .diarrhea. (Well? I did.) After that, I felt extremely weak, and after such an early morning of playing with Niece, I decided it was time for a little nap.

After said nap, I headed down to Seattle to meet my friend RoMo, who used to live here in Portland. We walked around in her neighborhood of Fremont for a long time and caught up on each other’s lives as we walked along the canal. Then we walked back up to my car and drove to the Ballard neighborhood, where we ate lunch at a sushi restaurant, where I had exactly one little bowl of miso soup and one piece of maguro nigiri before having to stop because my stomach was feeling so strange. She finished her sushi and beer and then we headed out. I coughed and said, “Wow. . .I barely kept everything down when I coughed just now.” She looked concerned and said, “Really? Do you need to go to the drug store across the street?” “I don’t think I’ll make it there,” I said, and walked into the alley behind the sushi restaurant, at which point the contents of my stomach erupted into the bushes three times.

We walked across to the drug store and I got some FamousPinkLiquid, which made the rest of the afternoon’s activities possible.

We explored a bit more in Ballard, then drove down to the Ballard Locks, a busy shipping canal, dam and fish ladder. It was all really beautiful and interesting. It’s easy to see that you could spend all day watching the different activities that go on there, plus the gardens and grounds are really beautiful too. In fact, we saw a wedding ceremony happening in a different section of the park.

So it’s already been quite a weekend, with an awesome movie, seeing family and a good friend for the first time in months, not to mention a whole bunch of cool sights and even some stomach difficulties to make for an eventful weekend.

Tomorrow, Crystin and I start work on the song for the movie soundtrack, and my neighbor and tango-band-mastermind Susan is leaving for Australia for three weeks. Right now I’m going to bed.