But wouldn’t you know it: our host didn’t show up!  After most of us were there (I was third to arrive), we phoned Bill.  He apparently exhausted himself and didn’t get up in time.  He profusely apologized (even in e-mail a couple days later), but we had to brunch without him.

     One of the things that tickled my fancy was the selection of jams and jellies.  To start with, this was the first place I’ve seen that carried either raspberry jam (a personal favorite) or peanut butter.  Curioser and curiouser, though: the raspberry jam had raspberries on the packet, the strawberry jam had strawberries, and the grape jelly had grapes.  So why, then, did the peanut butter have bears?!  What does this imply?  (But it was smooth and creamy!)

     After brunch — and a couple more photos out on the sidewalk with Clark and Iain (who had showed up too late for the brunch photos we had taken earlier; and alas, the sidewalk photo of them didn’t come out), I headed south.  This time, there was no wait at the Richmond Tunnel.  I also stopped along the way and picked up two boxes of Claritin, an allergy medicine which is prescription only in the States, but available over-the-counter in Canada.  (Codeine is the same way.)  It’s still expensive compared to the big jars of chlorophenaramine (Chlor-Trimeton) I usually use, but the buy-one-get-one-free coupon they had there made it much more palatable.

     (I had never tried Claritin before.  Indeed, chlorophenaramine is about all I’ve taken for 20 years, except for some Allerest early on and a short dose of prescription something or other in early 1991.  I’ve wondered about its continued efficacy, so I figured I would try this out.  It seems to do the job pretty well during the day — no worse than what I’m used to, but maybe no better — but I don’t quite buy the "24 Hours" listed on the boxes I got.  When I take it in the morning, by the time I’m done with dinner, I start having some allergy-type problems.  Once I finish this first box, I’ll go back to what I’m used to and try to track the differences for am month, and then I’ll use the other box and then go back to chlorophenaramine again.  If I do seem to see an overall improvement, I’ll talk to a doctor about getting a formal prescription.)

     While there wasn’t a wait for the tunnel this time, there sure as heck was for the border.  Sunday afternoon near the end of ski season, and with great weather: it all adds up to a mind-numbing wait of over an hour, creeping forward a car at a time.  (Travel hint: get in the far left lane.  It is three lanes all the way to about 100 yards from the border crossing, and then a fourth lane open up on the left.  It’s not your imagination: the leftmost lane does move faster.)  At the border, the guy asked me the usual suite of questions, including the "Do you have anything to declare?" one.  (Let’s see: two boxes of allergy drugs, half a bottle of green tea, a second-hand rubber collar, the receipt for a piece opf clothing to be mailed later.  No, nothing really worth declaring.  [Although I was supposed to stop at some place — the duty free shop? — before getting in this interminably long line to recover the $21 GST (or is it PST) on the latext suit, but to heck with that at this point.])  For whatever reason, the guy’s superior came over and it looked like he was going to start to give me the second degree — visions of another drug search ran through my head, this time with questions about the Claritin — but he passed me on through.

     From there, it was a fairly quick and painless drive back to Seattle.  I stopped of at Zanadu Comics just before they closed, but managed to buy nothing.  Then it was back to Capitol Hill, but before going to the Bacon Mansion, I went over on the Lake Washington side of the Hill and drove around, just looking at houses.  There are some nice places there, I tell you.  One of these days, I’ll probably be moving back up to Washington State.

     I then went back to the B&B, unloaded the car, and headed up Broadway to find something to eat.  I was kind of in the mood for Pasta Ya Gatcha, but they were closed.  (I swear, that place has some of the least accessible hours around, exceeded only by Peet’s Coffee in the Castro, which ignores the massive walk-around clientele it could have if it stayed open until 11:00.)  I settled for a simple burrito from World Wraps.

     Back to the B&B for a clothes change, and I headed off to The Cuff for the Sunday night beer bust.  As ever, a good crowd, and I ran into a couple of friends (Hi, Lowell.  Hi, Adam), but I didn’t get laid.  (Curses!)