Late September to early October is my favorite time of the year in Seattle. The weather cools a little but the rains have not returned. I can take my laptop and work in the back yard.

The mother-in-law's radiation treatment has gone well. It will be a while before her next scan and if her cancer was killed.

Mother-in-law has started her radiation treatment this week. The whole process is short but intense. Every day, for four days, she will receive targeted radiation. That's it. '

Monday's shot went well, though she said she was tired afterward.

Things are quiet this week. The husband is away for leadership training (at Westpoint!) our roommate is dog sitting. No-one at home but me and my dog.

I try to play fetch with the dog. It's good exercise for her. She has her own rules to fetch. She has trained us as much as we have trained her.

1. The dog decides where the ball is thrown and returned. If I throw the ball from an unacceptable spot, she will return the ball to the correct spot. It's then my obligation to walk to that spot and start throwing from there.

2. The dog decides the direction and the distance for the ball to be thrown. As I start to throw the ball, she'll start running. If I don't throw the ball a bit ahead of her, she'll give up on chasing the ball, then turn around and glare.

3. The dog decides how often the ball is to be thrown. At some point, she'll stop returning the ball. She'll just lay down and chew on the ball. She will show no interest if I walk over and take the ball away from her.

I understand what happened with the cousin's plan. In England, they purchased a U.S. package for their cell phone. Once in America, they discovered that their phone won't actually work on a U.S. network. The cell company can't fix this.

To get full access to their bank account, they need to receive a code from the bank by text message... and that phone can't work here.

The cousins traveled to the US with a very limited credit card and a very flakey cell phone. They do have tablets that can connect to wifi. 

Their bank has a branch near us. They are traveling to it this afternoon to see what they can do about accessing more of their money.

Yesterday they took the mother-in-law on a nice roadtrip to Leavenworth, WA. A little tourist destination that's about two hours away from us.

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The mother-in-law has started her radiation treatment. She should be done with it within a month. 

The cousins are still here. The husband and I have been discussing their rather open ended travel plans. They will probably stay till Monday. They think they will come back at the end of October for a week, or maybe two.

Now, the cousins are clean and quiet people. It's easy to have interesting conversation with them. They are still strangers in our house. They bring small impositions. Who buys the food? Do we cook for them each night?  Who gets to choose what we watch on TV? When we have company over, do we invite the cousins as well? Do we shoo them away? Small impositions, none the less, they are impositions. 

Of course, we want to spend time at their place when we travel to England. And of course, they are good people, so we still want to have a strong relationship with them. 

The husband is going to talk to them about their travel plans. Maybe if they bought food and cooked it would be better. We shall see.

It's been a busy labour day weekend for us. 

The husband's cousins are here. They are a wonderful retired couple who do a lot of traveling. This is their first trip to the U.S. since before the pandemic. 

They arrived a few days ago and are staying for the next week. After that they will head off on a roadtrip and visit their friends and see the sights up and down the coast.

Friday I helped move C2 to his new apartment. He moved down one floor and to the other side of the building. The new apartment should be a bit more quiet. The move was straightforward. He moved all the small stuff the previous day. All we had to do was to move a sofa, mattress and table.

Saturday, we drove the cousins to visit the mother-in-law. The cousins and the brother-in-law went to a Husky's football game.

Sunday we had a BBQ for the husband's family.

Monday, the brother-in-law hosted a small party for a friends at his rowing club.

We had a great time in Whistler BC. We spent the time with our friends G&J, and their kids. We hiked. We did the touristy things-- zip lining, bob sledding, ATVing, after dark light shows. 

And we ate too much ice cream