Salty Swim

I really enjoyed my swim at The Seattle Athletic Club this morning. At 5 am, there's not a lot of traffic and a whole lot of on street parking spots. Easy breasy. And the front door people are so nice and bright and cheery and look you right in the eye like it matters to them that you are there. It's not a big thing but it really puts a lovely color on the whole experience.

The only great thing about the pool is that it is salt water. It's 5 yards shorter than my pool and really that 5 yards is kind of important. I felt like all I did was touch the wall and turn, touch the wall and turn ... And the pebble pool surround is not skin friendly.

But, it was not freezing cold and I did have a really nice swim. The locker room is where this gym shines. It is so clean! And full of everything you could want, even q-tips. And so peacefully quiet. (LA Fitness always has annoying ads going over the speakers and sometimes the TV's are on, too - so musak with ads AND TV sound. At the same time. NOT even remotely fun.)

Coming home there still was no traffic. I got 15 minutes extra swim in the same amount of time. Way more fun to swim than sit in traffic.

If that pool was 5 yards longer, I'd seriously consider buying one of those pricey memberships.

Today is house cleaner day and so I'm hitting the road.ljtourist and I are going to check out the new IKEA and then 'do' lunch at the Popeye's near there. Plus hit up an international grocery near the Popeye's. It's an adventure!

But I have a couple of hours before time to leave so I think I'll go do something :)

Here's a bear that got finished last night.

What a fun day!!

I left home before the house cleaner got here and picked up ljtourist and we headed out to IKEA. I did check on the house cleaner one time to make sure she got here and then again to make sure she was done. Otherwise it was heaven to get home to a totally clean house.

The new IKEA is two floors and quite a bit more roomy feeling than the old one. Also it feels like less walking but that may have been my imagination. It was a fun visit and I bought a spatula and a thermos and didn't see anything else I couldn't live without. The do have a new kind of Dyson hand dryers in the ladies room.

I love the old kind where you stick your hands down into the blower. With the new one you just wave your hands in front of it. Not too effective. Nor as much fun.

From IKEA we went to Popeye's for lunch. Seriously, I just love Popeye's fried chicken so much it is ridiculous. I brought some home. It's also great the next day and the next day. And then we went to DK Market which is this enormous warehouse of mostly food from other lands. The Universal Yum people would have a heart attack if they could see all of it. I recognized and/or could guess at what maybe 20% of it was. I came home with a bag full of fun stuff to try.

We wound up the adventure with a stop at a cupcake shop in downtown Renton that I've wanted to try for a while. The joint lived up to it's reputation. Delicious cupcakes and good coffee.

Then we came back here so Frank could check out my nugget ice maker and my air fryer. And then I took him home. It was a really fun day. My feet feel like they've been beat up but my fitness tracker is all 'Hey!! Look at me!! I rock and am beating every one else on your friends list!!!

I called the gym to find out about the pool and ... no fix yet. The guy said they tried one fix today but it didn't work. They have another guy coming ... on Friday. He said to call back then. I did stop to thank him for giving me a straight answer unlike what we got in December. He allowed as how they were bending over backwards to NOT repeat December in either pool fixing or communications. I do appreciate that. Looks like I'll be headed over to Ballard to the LA Fitness there at least tomorrow and Friday. Could be worse. At least there probably won't be much traffic at 5 when I leave and, hopefully not much at 6:30 when I come home.

Right now I am stuffed and whipped and delighted by having a great adventure.