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Last night Shobhit and I drove to Issaquah to go out for dinner with Alexia—actually, it was mostly to finally give her the
Mary's Chocolaterie gift box of chocolates we got for her in Brussels; we purchased that on August 5, so we've been waiting to give it to her for three weeks.
Also, I was specifically the one who drove; Shobhit forgot that we had made this plan with Alexia, on the one day this week she could easily do it, before she heads to Boise for a week this coming weekend, and he double booked with a board meeting with Tasveer. So, the compromise was for me to drive while Shobhit talked to the video chat meeting on his phone, his laptop open on his lap in the passenger seat. I had pushed the plan out to 6:30 with Alexia, which meant Shobhit and I needed to leave at 6:00, which was the start of his scheduled meeting. I actually listened to his meeting with moderate interest, even though it was about financial issues that were none of my business.
He stayed in the car when we arrived at Alexia's apartment building, and probably stayed on another half an hour, until about 7:00. So I brought the box in with me, inside the gift bag with the same kind of design; I wish I had gotten a photo of the bag too but I didn't. I do remember there were several gift box options at Mary's Chocolaterie, but I was insistent that we use this one, with the blue background and the silver-lined drawings of canal houses. Alexia was beyond delighted when she saw it, and I think she loved the design almost as much as she loved the look of the chocolates inside when she immediately removed the lid on the box to look.
When Shobhit later came in, and we were later heading back out her door to walk to dinner, he suggested maybe Alexia would like to take them with her to Boise to share with her cousins. (She's going to Boise to take care of logistics needed to see whether or how she can sell her rental property, but she does also have cousins who live there.) Alexia replied, "I'm not sharing that. These are mine!"
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So then we walked to dinner, and Alexia had given us a choice between a Thai restaurant and a Mexican restaurant, both downtown Issaquah and within walking distance, and somewhat to my surprise, Shobhit seemed less inclined toward Mexican since he had eaten all the tortilla chips left from what he had bought for Jennifer's visit last weekend, and although he usually complains about the high Weight Watchers points in Thai restaurant dishes, he did not resist that as much as usual. So, I voted for Thai, and that's where we went, to a place called
Coconut Thai.
The place was totally empty when we arrived, which Shobhit commented on no fewer than three times, including asking the server directly why no one was there, which I thought was a little ridiculous and rude. He thought it must mean they weren't that good a place, a wild conclusion to jump to; he finally realized it was a Monday and restaurants as a rule are not busy on Mondays—maybe of them aren't even open Mondays for this very reason. I looked them up on Yelp for him as I knew it would sway his suspicions:
4.2 out of 5 stars averaged from 405 reviews, a glowing reflection indeed. And guess what? My pad thai was delicious, and Shobhit quite liked his cashew stir fry, as did Alexia her Thai sukiyaki noodle.
Alexia had led us through Cybil Madeline Park to Coconut Thai, but after dinner we walked through the city center on our way back. We passed the Mexican restaurant we did not go to but maybe can try next time, and Shobhit and I left in the car without going back into the apartment; it was already past 8:30 and we know Alexia goes to bed early.
I do have multiple things planned with Alexia the week after next, all of them in Seattle: she'll come to our place on Labor Day, Monday September 7, both to view a slide show of photos from The Netherlands and Belgium that I still need to put together, similar to what we did to share with her after we got back from Yellowstone National Park in 2018; and to help us start putting together the
Sunflowers puzzle I bought at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. After that, she'll come to Seattle the following Saturday, September 12, to do a Seattle Architecture Tour, which we haven't done in a long time; and then the very day after that she'll come again, for a double feature of the original
Practical Magic on the Braeburn Condos theater and then
Practical Magic 2 in a regular theater.
After planning all of that, and then agreeing on August 24 for giving her her gift from Brussels so we didn't have to keep waiting another two weeks to give it to her, it seemed only fair that we drive to Issaquah last night.
Side note: socializing with Laney has completely dropped off the calendar, for a couple of weeks now and for the foreseeable future, due to the state of her back, which is reportedly improving but very, very slowly. It sounds like she's taking it a day at a time, basically, and still staying with Jessica in Bremerton. I had proposed going to visit her there sometime, but that's not something we can set in stone for a multitude of reasons, including both my own calendar otherwise as well as her state of recovery. I do miss hanging out with her, especially after a few years of seeing her nearly as often as I did Barbara when she lived in Seattle in the 2000s, but, such is life. Stuff happens. I should try and find time to see both Gabriel and Danielle again sometime sooner than later but they're both whole other stories unto themselves. I'm hoping to get Danielle to consider coming to Seattle for the First Thursday Art Walk on September 3 but I don't even know yet if she has that day off. I need to find out.
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[posted 12:34pm]
