— छह हज़ार अड़तालीस —
I updated daily over the weekend, a rare thing indeed: but it was because I always like to make an annual cultural event like the Fremont Solstice Parade and Fair
its own post, which I wrote up and shared on Saturday evening, after Ivan and I went to it together.
What I posted yesterday was not a regular update for the day, but a quarterly one: in the morning I shared the
Spring 2026 Social Review, in which Laney was amazingly knocked down to #4 in the rankings—displaced by both Ivan and Alexia. Even though all three of them tied with 9 Social Review points each (I give one per day in which I engaged in social activity with someone), I spent entire days with both Ivan and Alexia in ways I did not with Laney. One such day was the Tulip Festival, and it was fun to have great shots each of Shobhit, Ivan, and Alexia among the tulips to use in the top 3 spots.
Now, even though I usually fold Shobhit in with the Social Review points just for days Ivan is with us when he's staying over, I opted not to this time for either Friday or Saturday—Shobhit already handily made it to #1, with nearly
four times as many points as any of the next three ranked after him, and even more than that among anyone else. Plus, on both Friday and Saturday, Ivan and I went out together and Shobhit did not join us, which made it make more sense for just Ivan to get the point.
Yesterday itself is a bit different, however. Ivan never went out with us, but he did hang out with us for a while before he headed back to Edmonds in the afternoon. Shobhit took part in a chili cookout at CC's, and we all had some of it before Shobhit and I took his huge amount of food over there. So, I'd say we all had lunch together. Points all around!
Side note, this is a rather different scenario with Ivan in town than it's been in many years. Not since before he lived in our guest room the second time, from late 2016 to early 2018, has he lived in or around Seattle but not lived
with us. So indeed, this hasn't happened since 2016; when he came back to Seattle again for a job in 2021, he just lived with us again, which he did for nine and a half months.
What's actually different about his circumstance this time from any other circumstance before, is he is not living in Seattle
proper—he took a job in Edmonds, so he basically lives up there. Although he just rents AirBnBs, which has to be far more expensive than subletting a room, but whatever. He also confirmed when he left yesterday that, although he is going back to the AirBnB he was staying at in Edmonds before, he still took all of the stuff he takes with him anywhere (this includes one large backpack and another smaller bag) when staying two nights with us, since it saved him the cost of staying in Edmonds. He apparently only works three 12-hour night shifts a week, and travels to other areas in the region on his days off a lot. He was in Seattle last Monday, when he was texting me his disgust with all the World Cup fans in town; and he recently spent several nights in Tacoma.
I honestly don't know how he lives like this, but he's been doing it for years and years. He'll regularly go back to his parents' house in Lancaster when between jobs, so presumably he has possessions stored there. But otherwise, he only keeps what he can literally carry with him from place to place. He even told me right before he left yesterday afternoon that it was more than he even really needed. I did notice he wore the exact same outfit every day he was with us. Shobhit totally expected him to do laundry while he was here, which would not have surprised me either as he did the last time he stayed with us, but he didn't.
Anyway, his placing at #2 on the Social Review is clearly a byproduct of his current proximity—we don't do stuff nearly as frequently as we might if he actually lived with us; but we're obviously hanging out way more than when he's doing nursing jobs elsewhere in the country. Plus, the fact that he's stayed anywhere from one to three nights each of the times he's come down from Edmonds to visit (that's
four times alone since he moved to Edmonds in March) actually pads his numbers so they are comparable to when he
did live with us, but we did stuff together on more scattered days than clustered together like they have been this year.
This year, he came for the day trip to Whidbey Island with Shobhit and Alexia and me in March; for the day trip to the Tulip Festival, again with Shobhit and Alexia and me, in April; again in April for our shared birthday when he actually took the initiative himself for the first time to suggest he participate in one of my Birth Week activities; and now for the Fremont Solstice Parade in June. I have no clue when we'll hang out again, but it will probably involve another overnight visit, and we'll figure it out. I'm always delighted to have him visit.
— छह हज़ार अड़तालीस —
— छह हज़ार अड़तालीस —
So, about that chili cookoff, it was actually called "
Seattle Leather Daddy's Chili Cookoff," so of course they had to hold it on Father's Day. Seattle Men in Leather, of which Shobhit is a member, was the organization putting it on; but CC's was the host venue.
There were supposed to be five competing chilis, but one of them didn't show, so there were only four. I guess this is an annual event, but the first one Shobhit tried
his hand in—even though his was predictably the only vegetarian one, and most people want meat in their chili, so it was honestly not a huge shock that his didn't win. Plus, he had never made such a high volume of one dish before either, which posed its own challenges, not least of which was mixing all the ingredients between three different pots on the stove; transferring them to portable tin containers; and actually walking to Pacific Supply Hardware Store to get a food thermometer because it was required to be at least 145° upon arrival. (Shobhit knew this was a meat consideration more than anything, but he still went to get a food thermometer anyway.)
Ivan had actually expressed a surprise amount of interest on Saturday, in comning with us to this cookoff, as he watched Shobhit work on prep the entire time Ivan was here. But, once he'd had some of it early yesterday afternoon, he later indicated he wasn't going to come. I have a hard time imagining Ivan hanging out at a gay bar anyway. I did go and I spent the whole time basically being a wallflower, and I still would have looked like a social butterfly compared to Ivan, I'm guessing.
Anyway, the event was officially from 3 to 7 p.m., and chili participants were told they could drop their dishes off at 2:30. Shobhit and I carefully loaded the car with four flat tin dishes, three of them set on their side inside the large insulated tote that we have, and one of them just wrapped in a towel. All of them were stacked in the trunk, and Shobhit asked me to drive, which made this my first time driving since the weekend after my accident, when driving really fucked up my back. I was fine yesterday though.
Shobhit had forgotten to double check that email with the details, and we got there shortly after 2:00. They quite strictly did not open their doors until 2:30, shortly before which I drove the car back home so as not to deal with parking. Ivan was just packing up when I returned at that point; when Shobhit and I first left, I was still under the impression that Ivan might come with us. He had gone out for a walk so I even texted him when we left; he told me when he responded that he was working out in our gym on the ground floor.
Then, Shobhit had forgotten to print out his ingredient list, and when I took his laptop to the printer in the West Building I could not get the printer to come online. In the end I emailed the document to him and he was able to print it out at CC's. This distracted me from Ivan for a bit, but then when I took the laptop back upstairs, that was when he was all ready to go and he hugged me goodbye and thanked me for having him.
I used the bathroom, and then was out the door myself within minutes, to walk back to CC's. I thought maybe I would even catch up with Ivan on his way to the Light Rail station, but no such luck. I then got to CC's at maybe 3:30 or a bit before, and was there for a good three hours, largely kind of twiddling my thumbs waiting for the contest results. They only announced the 2nd and 1st place chilis, which happened at about 6:00. We finally left after that.
I did buy my own chili bowl, though; I only had Shobhit's, but I had the $10 order that
included a bag of Fritos. This was chili I had plenty of at home, so really I paid $10 for a bag of Frito's and some shredded cheese and chopped fresh onion to top the chili with. It was super tasty like that, though. Shobhit and I both had seconds of the chili with some French fries he bought on our way home, which was a mistake in terms of weight maintenance. Between the extra helping of chili
and the pint of Molly Moon's ice cream we bought—we finally saw Alexia's son Bram in there, he's been the manager there for a while, and he even gave us his employee discount (I honestly wasn't even thinking about that)—I was up another pound and a half this morning. It probably didn't help that we also bought waffle cones. But damn, was that Blueberry Pie ice cream cone delicious!
We spent the rest of the evening watching TV. Season 3 premiere of
House of the Dragon, which was very exciting;
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, which this week was about feral hogs, of all things.
— छह हज़ार अड़तालीस —
[posted 12:33pm]
