Jeff Billimek’s Journal

I woke up at 5:15am. I know what time it was by listening to the grandfather clock. I think grandfather clocks are pretty cool because you can tell what time it is simply by listening. Jen wants to have a pool at some point - I’d like to have a grandfather clock.

After Jen and I woke up I pulled out my laptop and did some web browsing via my cell phone again. It works quite nicely out here on Whidbey Island. I also read my book which has gotten quite riveting.

Sandy made us all some tasty breakfast consisting of some ‘steel rolled‘ oatmeal. It was different than traditional oatmeal and I liked it. The weather outside today was a bit overcast and dreary.

After breakfast we lounged around for a bit and then Jen and I each took a shower and got dressed for the day. I wore a lot of layers. We went downstairs to the frame shop that Chuck and Sandy run. Jen and I looked around and I also assisted Chuck with the computer system in the office.

I helped him with the backup of the custom software they run for the business. I promised to write down all of the steps so that he can repeat them whenever he wants.

Next, I looked at the computer at the front of the store. They were having problem getting it to print to the inkjet printer connected to the computer at the back of the store.

It took me a lot of time to wrestle with the nuances of the specialized POS software that they run in the shop. The application looked to be very customized and in my humble opinion, pretty hacked-together.

They had some issues with the receipt printer printing double-spaced but I was unable to fix that.

After a while Jen and I headed out and drove north towards the Deception Pass area. It was an overcast and slightly cold day out today. At least it wasn’t raining.

(The deception pass bridge)

Jen and I hiked around the park for a while. The bridge was an impressive sight and the river/inlet running underneath were cool to see too.

(Jen looking out over the river)

(Closeup of Jen)

Because it was a cold & overcast day in the pacific northwest, we didn’t remain outside too long. It also began to rain so we decided to leave.

(Jen took this portrait of me)

Jen and I were on the other side of the island so we continued across the bridge and re-joined the mainland. I wanted to see if the weather was better inland. It was not. We turned around headed back to the island.

We were hungry for lunch and wanted to stop in one of the little towns to get a bite to eat. We were unable to find anything and decided to just go back to Coupeville. Jen knew of a good café that we could go to instead.

It was a little tiny place on the bay and they boasted really good baked bread. Now I’m normally not a big bread lover so this wasn’t too appealing to me. However I’ve been craving a good homemade pie for a while and this place advertised that they have pie, so I was pretty excited about that.

Jen had some soup and a sandwich and I also had soup and a sandwich. I don’t remember what type of sandwich I had but it had thickly-sliced bread. I normally don’t like thick bread, but this bread was incredible! I’ve honestly never had better bread than this. It was so incredibly delicious.

For desert I had a very tasty slice of the boysenberry pie with ice cream on top. It was also very good - but not quite as good as Katie’s or Jen’s mother’s blackberry pie.

After lunch we walked around town some and then headed over to Aunt Sandy & Uncle Chuck’s place. They were still working in the shop and so Jen and I relaxed for the rest of the afternoon until it was early evening.

We all got cleaned up and went out to dinner tonight. Jen and I wanted to treat them since they were letting us stay at their place. We went literally across the street to one of the nicer restaurants in Coupeville.

After getting seated and ordering a bottle of wine, we ordered our food and had a nice time at dinner.