we spent this weekend in seattle. i cancelled my teaching on friday - the kids were all off from school anyway for veteran's day, so they got a break from violin too. j took the day off and we drove up & stayed at the w hotel. nice place. it was a nice change of pace, and it reinforced the belief that i love portland. the drive up was absolutely awful - very low visibility due to heavy rain & wind, and it seemed like there were more trucks on the road than usual. we passed at least 3 of those "wide load" house things. when i passed them, it was pretty much a black out (water-out, i should say). not much fun. saturday the rain went away, and we even had a couple rare sunny moments. the yucky rain returned on our drive home halfway to portland. after we stopped for gas, j switched places with me. i'm happy to be back home with the kittens.