This last weekend I took a whirlwind road trip with Scout.  We drove to Seattle, to the Athena Trial, and home.   
It was nice after spending half the week emerged in raw sewage (BOISE sewage, BY THE WAY, not GREENLEAF sewage….my Greenleaf Estate actually features a 'drain field', whatever that means…I picture a vast swirling shitstorm if it ever backs up, probably including furniture and animals and maybe even missing relatives…A Brown Hole, if you will, of the sewage universe…but I digress…I can wax all scientific on my potty physics another time); it was nice getting out of town. 

Thursday night I spent in Seattle and drank my weight in Lemon Drop martinis at the Virginian with Cienna.  We ate the best fresh mozarella salad and 'pork belly' ever. (Hearts hearts hearts…I love that place.) I bought Cienna new shoes, one of which she promptly lost downtown….and we spent 2 hours inquiring in every shop near her house to no avail.  In the future I think she should paint her feet and build up callouses.  Like I (said I) did when I was her age.  With those final words of Mother Wisdom, Scout and Idrove on.

Friday and Saturday night I slept in my mobile home (Subaru Outback) at the Athena trial.

Highlights:
Amy Raymond's sense of humor.  She is pretty deadpan and dry with her wit. I love that.  She is the kind of strong personality who could watch all variety of bad shit go down and find something to laugh about.  Issue some dry little comment that would sum it all up amusingly.  She lives out in the middle of Don Quixote's delirium; windmills and wheat and miles and miles of everyone else's expectations. It's incredibly beautiful but harsh.  At her age I would have lasted 3 weeks.  Maybe.  That was before the internets, though, and books through the mail.  I could make it 6 weeks now.  I'd learn to taxidermy and make Dianne a new coat.  (JUST KIDDING, DIANNE, THAT THING IS AWESOME! I think we should embroider some dice on it…)

Walla Walla – We walked around WW on Saturday afternoon.  Mary (Hamilton) gave us the tour of wine and cheese shops.  It's a great midsized town. I'd say a better downtown than Boise. I'd like to go back and swim through it more slowly next time.    

The Trial – A fun event.  (I was, again, just a spectator. I could have run Scout, I suppose…or a man in a kilt…but I didn't. Next time.)  Small field, ridiculous set out.  The runs were quick (Five minutes, four for Novice).  Everyone I know did well. Dianne ran Fame (pronounced 'FAAWM) for the first time and it was very nice.  Amy and Nikki did really well.  Jaenne and Mo – Awesome.  Jodi will say she didn't do well, but most of us saw something different. SUSAN AND VANGIE WON the first day in PRO-NOVICE* (which really was better than Open at this trial on that day), Mary and Ford won the second day.  I wish I could tell you the scores, but I was fending off a Steve's Smokeshack digestive coma for much of it, so mostly I just sort of yawped and clapped like a crazed seal, often at the appropriate time. I'm not a detail person.  

That's the update for now. Today I have my own gubment windmills to tilt at.

*Changed as per Susan's correction