Bree heads to Emerald City Comic Con 2023, with Angela as chaperone. The last ECCC was in August 2022, but this year it’s happening in March. Bree’s been working on a new cosplay for the convention, but for the first day opts for her default mushroom girl cosplay. The event is the first convention to be held in the new Summit Building of the Washington State Convention Center, and it’s much nicer than the old building.
Angela and Bree wear their matching cosplay outfits from the manga series Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama. The series features a young girl, Coco, who studies witchcraft under the tutelage of an instructor named Qifrey. For their cosplays, it’s Bree who plays as the instructor and Angela is the student.
Bree as Qifrey again, with her friend Marina as San from Princess Mononoke. Jan plays chaperone today, and sees both Bree and Marina constantly stopped for pictures. Marina’s San cosplay is a particular crowd favorite owing to the huge popularity of the Studio Ghibli movies. But a fair number of in-the-know event attendees — including some of the comic artists hawking merchandise — recognize and appreciate Bree’s handicraft.
Yesterday Liya returned home for Spring Break. Today all the oranges have little faces on them. Coincidence? No.
Liya’s college friend, Koray, comes to Seattle to stay with us for part of Spring Break. It’s always fun to have visitors — they remind us that we live in a pretty and interesting place!
We take Koray for a beautiful day of spring skiing at Crystal Mountain.
When Liya’s back at home she enjoys visiting as many good restaurants as she can. Yesterday we (including Koray) all went out to eat at Chinook’s at Fisherman’s Terminal; tonight we eat at Din Tai Fung in University Village.
Clowning around at Madison Park Beach.
On Sunday mornings this month, Jan’s been getting up early to go on bike rides. He’s preparing for a week-long bike trip in The Netherlands that’s coming up in May. His favorite ride is a loop over I-90 to the Eastside and back over 520.
Lyn gets positive results on a cognitive assessment test. She still has amnesia as a side-effect of her surgery last June, although there are moments where she recalls something: the name of the place where she’d eaten earlier in the day, or the name of a friend she’d seen the day before.
These recollections have seemed to happen slightly more often of late — a fact borne out by today’s assessment. The results show substantial improvement over an identical test administered six months ago. She’s particularly improved in being able to recall events given a prompt: she might not initially remember what she ate for lunch, but if reminded the name of the place where she ate, details of the meal may come back to her.
For the first time, both Evan and Liya have to file a federal tax return. Evan received an obscure form for the English tutoring he did last summer, and part of Liya’s fellowship to study in Taiwan is considered a form of income. Jan does his best to help them fill out the necessary forms.
Evan’s spending his Spring Break on the East Coast. He flew to the D.C. area to spend time with his Chen grandparents, and today takes the train up to New Haven to spend a night with Liya at Yale.