In my last post, I wrote about the barbeque last Saturday at Kevin’s place for Lainey’s 20th birthday. Her birthday was actually Sunday, June 30th, so we had another celebration the following day. It was a fine day with sunshine and temperatures in the upper 70s. We drove up to Burlington in Alana’s car where everyone met up for dinner at Sakura. Sakura is a Japanese restaurant with hibachi-style table-top cooking as well as a great sushi bar.

We had two tables as Alana’s friend since childhood, Carly, joined with her two kids, Kevin’s boys – Kevin had to work – and Lainey’s friend Maryn joined our family for the dinner. We had a chef for each table and they were great. I can’t remember the name of our chef, but he was quite the entertainer. Everyone at our table ordered meals cooked at the table except for Donna and I – we ordered from the sushi bar and it was excellent fare. Although the chef wasn’t cooking for us, I tipped him for the fine show he put on while preparing the dinner plates for the other six people at our table.

The lighting was poor for photography, but I managed a couple of images. Did I mention the food was great?

Monday was another fine, sunny day with the afternoon temperature in the upper 70s. Donna and I took a joyride in Midget-San. We traveled west on highway 530, then northwest on Pioneer Highway. This took us along the farm country of the lower Stillaguamish Valley through the village of Silvana and to the town of Stanwood. From there, we crossed the bridge to Camano Island and took a leisurely lap of the island. It’s beautiful there but the shame is the lack of public beach access. There are the Cama Beach State Park and the Camano Island State Park, but they have a $10 entry fee. I wasn’t willing to pay $10 for a couple of photo ops. The drive was pleasant nonetheless.

Back at Alana’s house, Donna grilled ribeye steaks on the Weber Q and served it with sauteed portabella mushrooms, crispy cauliflower bites with sriracha dipping sauce and roasted sweet potatoes. Just right!

Tuesday was cool and cloudy with drizzle and a few showers. I didn’t do much. On Wednesday, it was a little warmer but overcast with intermittent showers. I managed to get one item off my “to do” list. One of our basement compartment doors wasn’t opening correctly. The gas spring which operates as a strut to hold the compartment door open was blown – it didn’t provide any spring pressure. The spring pressure is necessary for proper door operation. Due to the geometry of the mount, it not only holds the door in the fully open position, but also once the door is lowered in the last couple of inches of travel, it provides closing pressure.

The original gas springs were supplied by a company called SPD. These are the industry standard. I found replacement gas springs online at Maxum Hardware for a much lower price than SPD, but you had to buy them in pairs. I didn’t mind getting a pair as having a spare on hand is a good idea. But the thing was, Maxum charged over $20 for shipping! Next time I’ll buy two pair to average the shipping cost down.

I also installed new seals on this compartment to keep the road grime out – it was getting dusty in this compartment.

Donna’s been busy helping Alana and Gabi do some decluttering. She just published a blog post about what they’ve been up to.

We had nicer weather on the Fourth of July. It was overcast most of the day, but warmer and it cleared to partly cloudy by the afternoon. We saw several hot rods stopping by the neighbor’s house. Apparently, everyone had their cars out for Fourth of July parades. A neighbor had a ’57 Chevy Bel Air and a ’55 Chevy stop by, but my favorite was a 1930 Ford Model A with a flat-head V8 and dual carburetors. This was a true old-school hot rod straight out of the 1950s.

We enjoyed a fireworks display from the deck at Kevin’s house as his two boys, Nick and Kyle, carefully lit off some nice rocket-based fireworks.

After a late night, we woke up later than usual on Friday. I had my usual bowl of cereal and cup of coffee, but wasn’t feeling quite right. At first, I attributed it to too much IPA the night before. But it was more than that. I went back to bed and spent about 18 of the next 24 hours sleeping. This morning I’m still a little off, but feeling much better.

It’s overcast this morning, but it’s supposed to clear up in the afternoon. The week ahead looks to be more of the same – overcast with some passing showers and a few periods of sunshine.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!