So, I experienced again last night the realization that I’m N-O-T an experienced webmaster. More likely somewhere between webcraft journeyman and proficient figure-outer. Which still leaves plenty of room for the occasional catastrophic blunder. (Sorry, Nancy, for the abrupt awakening last night to my wee-hours richly-worded frustrations.)
Here’s the lesson learned: it’s all well and good to load your website’s Media Library with a plethora of potential blog images, but you MUST remember that once an image is actually published, the only way the wonderful WorldWide Web can show that image on your blog is to access it from that Library. Makes perfect sense, right?

Sooooo, come tidy-up your website day - you know, the day you think you’re doing the right thing by wading through your Media Library’s vast array of images to make everything less cluttered and more navigable - well, remember that ANY and ALL images deleted from the library will no longer be accessible to the Web. As in permanently deleted.
In a matter of mere minutes, I completely stripped my blog of half its images. @#$%&!
Luckily, most of them were still in the Cloud, so I was able to recover with only my pride damaged. But it took me a few hours.
In the meantime - and in sharp contrast to that unfortunate hiccup - we’re absolutely loving our “nomad life”. It didn’t feel very nomadic at first, seeing as we’re enjoying familiar stomping grounds and visiting best friends and family. But then Nancy reminded me we’re living above a stranger’s garage and rummaging around suitcases for half our clothes. You know, like the way nomads might live.
Fantastic AirBnB, by the way. All the necessary amenities. And a perfect location: a 3-minute drive or 11-minute walk to the always popular Kirkland Marina Park, where we tend to finish every evening, sitting on one of the benches, spooning bites of Sirena Gelato, and watching people be people. For 25 years we dreamed of living in Kirkland, but the crazy price of homes here always made it undoable. This feels like the next best thing. (That’s the Carillon Point Marina in the photo above, another 2 miles south along Lake Washington.)

Okay, a few highlights of our first 18 days of nomad life:
• In contrast to Baja Sur, it's insanely GREEN here, and on our regular 4-5 mile walks it actually feels like the air is hyper-vegetation oxygenated. Yeah, I know . . . but it still feels that way.
• As we expected, there are so many great eateries within a 7-minute drive that our vow to cook in a bit has been tough to realize. A few of our favorites so far are Rock Creek Seafood & Spirits, Isarn Thai Soul Kitchen, Bottle and Bull, and Vovina wine bar. Oh, and Nancy enjoyed her first true smash burger at the local Shake Shack. Like a true smash burger, where with each bite little crusty crumbles drop off the edges into your lap. Sooo good!
• We met up with good friends Matt and Lisa at their recommended Sparrow restaurant for delicious food and live music. We’d seen Joshua Red Uttech at a Big Block Brewery event a year ago, and were thrilled to watch him play again. And we also enjoyed making fun of Lisa drinking her cocktail from the tail feathers of a glass bird. They call that a Fancy Feather, in case you decide to try one. And here's a quick video of Joshua's latest song. (You'll need to up your volume.)

The biggest joys of our time here have been watching grandkids Jaxon and Ava in their District and State track championships, Jaxon in the 300 meter hurdles, Ava in the shot put, and both in their 4x400 meter relays. Congrats to Ava on her relay taking 4th place, and Jax was oh so close to making the finals in both his events.


And then, of course, Jaxon’s graduation from Cle Elum-Roslyn High School. We could not be any prouder of the young man he’s become, as proven by the many honors, accolades, and scholarships he was awarded, including his senior class Warrior (Student) of the Year. He’s such an awesome kid! And we’re excited for him to join us next summer for a segment of our nomad life travels, probably in Budapest for the World Athletics Ultimate Track & Field Championships. But that’s up to him. We’ve given him anywhere in the world from which to choose.

Okay, that's it for this go 'round and it's late. We're meeting friends Bryan and Crystal for breakfast in the A.M., and I need my brain fresh for Big Block trivia tomorrow night. The reunion last Wednesday of the We Drink and We Know Things team won the night. Woot woot! And we're hoping for a repeat.
We'll be in touch.




















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