What a weekend!

On Friday, at midnight, book #7 of Harry Potter was released. I was out at a fabric shop picking out material with Suzi for CarnEvil and was too tired to head to a release party - my last chance. I received the first Harry Potter while I was in the Peace Corps. I couldn't understand why my friend, who worked at the Borders where I had worked, sent me a book for 8th graders. My French friends wanted a "simple" English book to read. I have them Harry Potter. They gave it back a month later and said "we didn't understand a thing." So I opened it up to read it and explain it to them... I stayed up all night reading it. When I go back to the States, #2 had been released. I read stayed up all night reading it and would go to bed when my dad was going to work. (His comment was "you need a job Michelle.) #3 came out during my travels across the Midwest. And I've been thrilled to get single book. JK Rowling has grown as a writer with each book, the characters are stronger, they grow up, the plot is complex and dark and with millions of other people across the world, I'm relishing this last book - so sad that it's going to be coming to an end. What a journey.

Today, I finally, finished my rain barrel project for my P-Patch. Up extremely early this morning, I read as much Harry Potter as I could before decided I absolutely had to finish it. I started it at the beginning of the month and didn't have a chance to get back to it - plus I was lacking motivation for reasons that need their own blog posting. Two trips to Home Depot and a lot of help from Lara (both my knees were up in ice last night), my community P-Patch has a rain water barrel system fit for kings - or for very granola crunchy Ballard gardeners.

But all of this is just icing on the cake - for all of these other wonderful things stood in the shawdow of Jet City Rollergirls Expo Season, bout 2! Last night, with relatively few snags, we turned the Everett Skate Deck, once again, into a venue that held hundreds people to watch some fantastic roller derby! My team kicked butt! We had come such a long way since our last expo bout two months ago. I was so proud of all of them, thrilled to be part of such a movement and excited about the future of our league. So many friends who hadn't seen me bout with my team came out and were surprised! There were so many other surprises and though CarnEvil didn't win either game, we had a great time and worked so hard. I even got into a brawl with the Pink Pistols co-captain. We have a great schtick and our fans love us. I managed to jack both of my knees (the left one on Thursday and the right on Friday.)

One comment I truly appreciated last night was "Your team's tenacity will pay off Michelle."

Oh, you bet it will.

Flying Fez, flying flags...

I won the bet with myself - Fez was the first one to fall off the balcony. I came home from practice last night and was on the phone when Fez jump onto the balcony from somewhere - but where? I watched him for a minute and then he jumped off the balcony onto the window ledge of one of my kitchen windows. Of course Fez found a way to get further and higher - that's his nature. I called his name, he jumped back onto the balcony but because he was thrilled and crazy (like cats are) he turned and jumped right back to the ledge, did a triple pirouette (show off) but misjudged his landing and feel off the ledge, three floors, into the bushes below. I got off the phone and went running downstairs where I met my neighbors below (we just saw a cat fall from the sky). He was poofy tailed and shaken but mostly disappointed in his landing. Friday and Monkey came to the edge of the balcony and meowed to him below as he cried and cried... most likely because of his damaged pride.

We need an American flag for our bout this weekend and I just happen to have one - the one used at my grandfather's funeral, folded nicely in a triangle, collecting dust on top of my bookshelf. It's a very nice flag, well made, thick and it means a lot to me because my grandfather meant a lot to me. He served in WWII - 5 years - two campaigns. He was part of intelligence (and if you heard his stories, he was sometimes the only intelligent one.) Played pranks on his buddies, got in trouble with everyone, had something to do with the liberation of Buchenwald, was part of the Battle of the Bulge, had a thousand stories and could make me laugh harder than any other person I've ever known. I wrote an award (small award) winning play about him. He was the best. And I have his flag. And I'm thinking he would LOVE it if I used it during our roller derby bout for the national anthem...

Burnt Grass, Burnt triathalons

The lawns around Seattle have faded to brown, as they do every summer. The great thing about Seattle is the lawns die and come back later - it turns out most lawn die and come back. I'm glad to live in a city whose residents' priorities do no include watering lawns - because it's HOT. Hot for Seattle seeing that it's going to reach a whopping 90 degrees tomorrow. Not Midwest hot but definitely Seattle hot.

And in the heat of the summer, drinks after work (when not at practice), sunsets at Golden Gardens, roller skating outside, walks around Greenlake, and the occasional work meeting, I've done nothing for my triathlon training except run after skating practice. With 6 weeks left, a trip to Boston and Vegas and a hundred other things that are far more interesting to do (like read the new Harry Potter book!), the triathlon has become a donation to breast cancer. It wasn't a lifetime goal and I don't like doing things half-assed. I don't feel bad for bailing on it - I'll do it next year when I actually make it a priority - or not. Like the lawns.

You should be dancin' - Yeah!

Saturday night after a BBQ with my team, a group of derby gals, with a at least one other thing in common, went out dancing. It was Juice - world music themed - benefiting Darfur at the Baltic Room. It started off a bit slow with the DJ just not quite spinning the right combination and only a few people on the floor willing to brave what came next. The crowd kept coming and eventually a new DJ took the table and I found myself dancing to samba mixed with hip-hop, electronica with a touch of Middle East pop, crowds of people mashed on the dance floor and it was hot - but so much fun - to be out dancin! I loved it and I missed it. In a conversation on my way out close to 1 a.m. a guy said to me when I explained that Juice happened once a month - You only come out once a month? - which I would like to have said - no - I come out every weekend. But I can't quit say that just yet...

Happy 231st birthday!

I participated in my first 4th of July parade as the Jet City Rollergirls rolled down Colby, shouting "Happy 4th" and cheering for the fans, (who were cheering for us.) It was super fun to be with such a passionate group of gals. The parade was short - barely a mile - but long enough for me to get oddly shaped sunburns through the elbow pads on my arms.

I went back home to Seattle, took a few laps around Greenlake before heading back up to Edmonds for a tiki BBQ at my friend Sassy's house whose backyard had been tikified and all of her friends were part of the rockabilly crowd. After some tasty Mai Tais, dips, pies, tiny kee-bobs, and watching a bigger small dog try to snack on a mini-small dog, we headed back to Seattle to pick of my friend Christy - who I knew as a volunteer at Planned Parenthood in Cleveland. She had emailed me periodically over the years to tell me of her many adventures and recently she said she would be landing in Seattle. I told her to call and she did!

We picked her up and dashed off to another BBQ on Dexter, where the grill ran out of gas (but just as my brats were done grilling), overlooking Lake Union where one of the best fireworks show in the city was. It was like having a seat in the center row of the auditorium. We got to see it all. (Fantastic!) Traffic took forever (taking Christy back to her rented room in Capitol Hill) and I crashed out having had one of the best 4th of Julys in a very long time.