seattle, sat morning

Greetings family! Ata, loved your account of your trip -- you should think about taking up travel writing as a hobby! Of course, that would mean you would have to travel more, and maybe you're ready for a break, but there are definitely other interesting places in the world that would fascinate you (everyone really needs to get to Cambodia to the Angor Wat area) and while they have their fair share of tourist-plying locals, I don't think it's nearly as bad as Egypt sounds. (By the way, do you have your flight info yet for your trip to seattle?)
It's another Sat morning and once again I can't sleep with all the sunshine coming through the windows -- it drives me crazy! What do I have to do? Get black curtains? (Did anyone else see that movie entitled "Insomnia" with Al Pacino as a murder investigator? It takes place in Alaska during the height of summer when the light is present 24-hrs a day; I always think of him bleary-eyed and delirious, trying to put aluminum foil or something on his windows to block the light.) So I've been up since 5am and Ian's still snoozing. We are usually very go-go-go but this weekend we were expecting to be in Spokane so we didn't make any other plans, and now we're not going there so we have a whole weekend to do whatever we want! Crazy! It will most likely involve gardening. There's an old camelia shrub/bush right outside our front door and it's gotta go. It only blooms INSIDE the shrub where no one can see them. It doesn't make any sense. So it's out. We're thinking of putting in a small Japanese maple in its place. I know you're all fascinated.
Anywho, we're also finalizing plans to come to the east coast from June 2-11. Ian has a conference in DC over the second weekend, so we thought we'd frolic a little in NYC then visit Beth and Anna (and families) in Raleigh before inviting ourselves to stay with Jaki. :) (We invited ourselves to stay with B&A too, so don't feel badly!) We have tickets to see a play (called Festen -- anyone heard of it? It's about a dysfunctional family -- I'll take notes and let you know how the Okorns compare), and I'm trying to priceline a 4-star hotel. They (priceline) keep telling me that my bids are too low, so we both (the computer and I) are going to take a break and come back together to talk about it when we're feeling more reasonable about compromise. (or Ian and I can stay at the bus terminal or something)
That's all for now... Mom, have a wonderful Mother's Day! I'm sorry that you're all by yourself, but know that we're thinking of you and of all that you've done for us (...and to us) -- just kidding! you know I love you more than anyone (just don't tell Ian)...