Alpacas are adorable.

They hum constantly to their young to keep them close and safe. Not loudly to create a racket but enough to hear them if you stand nearby. They can catch disease from humans so you can't pet them. They're expensive, $25,000 for a female. They live to be about 20. They're native to the Andes. They're raised for fiber, not food or milk.

I learned this all from a 10 year-old girl. She and her best friend (who were both dressed in matching fluorescent dresses) were in charge of handing out flyers and talking to tourists who stopped by the alpaca farm in Skagit County. I fed a pair of alpacas and bought some soft white yarn.

On Saturday I went up to Skagit County for the Annual Tulip Fest. Brian had to study so I he missed out on the country fun. It's about an hour north of Seattle along I-5. Skagit Valley a fertile valley with the Cascades to the east and the Puget Sound to the west. The Skagit river, one of the cleanest in the state, runs through the valley. I saw a bald eagle near the river while I was driving! There are fields and fields of flowers, not just tulips.

I drove around the countryside and stopped at one of the larger tulip farms. There are two main tulip farms and they're total tourist traps. But they have beautiful fields. And huge gift stores...

The local Kiwanis club does a salmon bake every day of the festival in a wooden lodge in the main city park. Awesome! Cannot recommend it enough. $11 for a huge piece of salmon, coleslaw, bread, potato, ice cream, lemonade, and coffee. All run by kind old men. They cook the salmon right outside the lodge on a grill with alderwood.

I stopped at a farm stand for veggies. I asked if they had eggs and the woman went back to the hen house to check. I got 7 still warm eggs. We had them for breakfast today and they were so orange and flavorful. Yummm.

Not much new to report. We're planning an Easter potluck at our place on Sat night. Brian took a belay class on Sunday and he'll come with me to the gym to belay for real on Friday. Um, what else?

Oh, I locked myself out of the house today. I haven't done that in a long time. See, I take my two house keys (outside door key and key to our apartment) off of my ginormous key chain when I go running. Then I put the two little keys in my pocket or on my shoelaces. And put them back on the key chain when I'm done.

You see where this is going.

This morning I gathered my stuff, grabbed my keys and walked out the door. As I left, I turned to close the deadbolt, only to realize that the key chain did not have the house keys on it. And the door had already locked behind me. Arrrgh...

Happily, Brian had remembered his keys and I met him on campus to get his keys.

Crazy day at UW today. I heard the helicopters from my office but didn't know what was going on until Brian called me.

UW staffer killed

Here's the photo of Brian's grey hat.

Knitting

I've been knitting more with a group of friends at a coffeeshop (aka Stitch 'n Bitch). Her are some of my finished projects.
A wool scarf that is super-warm but way too big to wear.
My first hat worn by Brian. Not so much a hat. More of a beanie. Only smaller.
And a grey, wool hat (seen on Brian in Olympic photos!). Oh, I'm getting better!

We went to Olympic National Park last weekend! Until we put some comments, here are some pictures to enjoy.

CORRECTION

From Running- The Blaine St. stairs have 292 steps, not 270 as previously reported. I counted today.

Yum.

I made bread today. Easy peasy. Only takes 5 minutes to prep and an hour to cook. Here's the recipe for Whole Wheat Beer Bread. I used an old can of Pabst. I'm trying not to eat it all before Brian comes home.

And it seems like it's easy to change. What about trying stout? Or putting in rosemary and garlic? Or cider and raisins?

Let me know if you think of or do any other variations!

Thanks to Melissa!

I have a new favorite website. It's www.walkjogrun.net.

It calculates distances in cities for you! You type in your zip code and get some pre-mapped out routes (mainly created by runners and bikers). Or you can create your own. It's fairly user friendly and you can save your routes. It doesn't count elevation.

Our house to grocery- .3 miles all uphill!
Our house to my office-2.8 miles
My office to UW gym-1.3 miles
From the UW bus stop to the gym- .5 miles
Our house to bus stop- also .3 miles all uphill!

How far is it from your house to the grocery store? To work? To the park?