Alex has returned to school now too. He and I made the trip out there again this weekend, and it gets faster and easier every year. We flew out of Indy again, which is so much easier. It was a 6:30 pm flight on a Friday, so I took a half day off and we headed out in the afternoon. Once again, we left in plenty of time for traffic jams and long lines, so there were neither, and we had a couple hours to kill once we got through security at the airport. An uneventful flight to SeaTac had us there at about 9 or so, and we caught a shuttle to a motel. Alex had plans on Saturday morning, there is a video game convention (Pax-west, whatever that means) that he goes to every year and he wanted to make sure he got to it, which is why we got the flight time we did. We just stayed in the motel room and got delivery for dinner, and in the morning I caught a shuttle back to the airport to get the rental. I hadn't wanted to pick it up last night so I could save the expense of another day. Anyway, I woke up in the morning and left Alex asleep as I headed to the airport, and it never really occurred to me that a) it was super dark out, b) there was practically no traffic, and c) there was hardly anybody around anywhere at the airport until I got to the car rental place and realized that it wasn't 7:30 am, it was 4:30 am. Pacific time. And the rental center was going to be closed for the next couple hours. I would up walking a mile or so back to the motel, unsure of how safe it was to do so, and going back to bed for a while. I got the shuttle from the motel back to the airport again a couple hours later and this time successfully got a rental car (minivan), and Alex and I headed to downtown Seattle. I dropped him off near the convention center and found a place to park, then I went walking through Pike Place Market and surrounding area for a while. I talked to Beth and the girls who were in Michigan for Julia's wedding, bought some salmon to ship home, and took a ride on the giant ferris wheel by the waterfront. Found a cool antique/junk shop right around there too. Alex was done with the convention by around 2:30, so we met up and headed towards Redmond to get him moved in. No drama with moving in this year, we knew for a long time where he was going to be. No Scott this time either, as he had some family issues to deal with and was away. Anyway, since I rented the minivan we got everything out of the storage unit pretty easily, although he's on the third floor of an apartment building so we had to schlep everything up three flights. And his bedroom is pretty small, so we had to be creative in where exactly we put things. We went to Target and Fred Meyer to pick up some things he needed for the apartment and get his groceries stocked for a bit, got dinner, and then I left him and headed back to the motel at the airport for a Sunday morning 8:00 flight back home. I had to stop and change planes in Chicago...and the flight to IND is really pretty short. After getting back to Indy, I met PJ at a brewpub restaurant for dinner. That was a great time... I knew I had to leave to get home before the middle of the night, but literally it was like I looked at my watch and it was 9:00, and then I looked again and it was 10:00. I did make it home by around 1:30 or so. Good thing it's Labor Day and I don't have to go to work. I did go running though. 

In the evening, Beth and I went to see "Twisters." I'd been looking forward to it. "Twister" is a movie that is so dumb but I love it so much. Watch it pretty much every time it comes on TV somewhere. And I wasn't disappointed with the new movie. 

A week ago Saturday, when I was on a group bike ride out south of town on a nice morning, I mentioned to Nate (the group leader) that I was thinking about maybe getting a new and better bike. He works at the Trailhouse and said they had a used bike there that would be pretty good for me and I should take a look. I got a text from him a bit later that there was another used bike that he didn't know they had. A 2020 Specialized Roubaix, full carbon frame, hydraulic brakes, thru axles, very clean, very nice, only about 140 miles on it. I went to look at it and test ride it, and asked them to hold it for a day or so. Asked Trey about it, and after he looked at it his advice was "buy it buy it buy it" so I got it. It's a $2000 bike, I got it for $900. Picked it up Tuesday, rode it all through Winona on the way home. It felt like I was flying even though my average speed wasn't any more than normal :)