Today was kind of eh.  I had my eyes checked and the doctor used some weird yellow eyedrops to numb my eyes, but because my eyes water like crazy, I immediately teared up and had to walk 10 blocks home with bright yellow streaks running down my face.  not so cute.  Also, the dinner I made tonight was really bad.  As in, “so bad that we were both really thankful to have leftover pizza in the fridge” bad.

Like I said, eh.

So I’m focusing on bigger and better things.  In preparation for our upcoming visitors, I recently asked some of my knitting friends for some advice on “must dos, must sees and must eats” in Seattle.  They had a ton of awesome suggestions, including things that I had no idea ever even existed here.  I realized that not only do I need to know what I want to do when guests are in town, I need find out all of the cool things that I want to do in general in and around the city.  As we learned this summer, you never know how long you are going to be in one place, so I figure we should make an effort to explore as many things as possible while we are here, however long or short that may be.  When you live somewhere, it’s easy to feel lame seeing the really touristy things, but I think it would be even lamer if I ended up living here for 4 years and never went up the Space Needle.

So, without further ado, I present to you my official “List of things I want to do while I’m in Seattle in no particular order.” Keep in mind that this is the beta “We’ve only been here for 2 months so there are probably 1000 other cool things to do that I don’t even know about yet” version.

• See the salmon splash around in the Ballard Locks.
• Check out the Seattle Graffiti Wall.
• Take the free tour of Theo Chocolates and eat free samples.
• Compare Cupcake Royale to Sprinkles and see who wins, even if cupcakes are so 2007.
• Attend one of the “underground dining experiences” that I always read about up here, though I fear my red-meataphobia may keep me banned.
• Ride the whole Burke-Gilman trail.  (Though I fear Justin may beat me to the punch on this one next week.)
• Kayak in some body of water here.  Preferably with Mike.  Extra preferably, with Mike at least pretending to not hate it or get seasick.
• Do the Underground Tour and the Ghost Tour of Pike’s Place Market.  These, I definitely need visitors for so I can project all tourist guilt on them.  (Actually, we might do the Ghost Tour when Amy and Derek are in town next weekend.  Score!)
• Eat Mac and Cheese at Beecher’s.
• Go on one of the Savor Seattle tours.  Or both.  Preferably with somebody who really loves food.  (Scott, are you there?  Come visit me!)
• Stick my toes in the sand at Alki Beach.
• Figure out why there are so many Thai restaurants in this city but not a huge Thai population (that we’ve come across).
• Spend an afternoon in an arboretum.  There seem to be about 374 in the city.
• Be able to figure out what body of water I am crossing or looking at no matter where I am in the city.
• Explore the islands around here- Orca, San Juan, Mercer, and all the other ones I can’t think of offhand.
• Visit Mt. Ranier.
• Spend a day doing all the stuff at the Seattle Center, especially because it’s only about a mile from my house and our friend Allen gave us free tickets to the EMP.
• Take funny pictures in the Sculpture Park.
• Climb to the top of the tower at Volunteer Park.
• Cook a piece of fish that was bought the same day at a seafood market.
• Drive to Olympic National Park and hike Hurricane Ridge.
• Fly a kite at Gasworks Park.
• Spend a weekend in Vancouver.
• Visit Portland.
• Sit in a natural hot spring, preferably while it’s raining.
• Learn how to make a really good seared scallop.
• Make friends with at least one of my neighbors.
• Look for Bruce Lee’s gravestone in the cemetary near Volunteer Park.
• Make friends with the Fremont Troll.
• Eat a Walla Walla onion in Walla Walla, Washington.
• Tour some Washington wineries.  Drink lots of big, juicy Syrahs.
• Hike Mt. Si.
• Eat a geoduck clam.
• Figure out if Tom Douglas is really worth all the hype.
• Learn to drive in the rain, even if other people can’t.
• Figure out this whole public transportation thing.
• Do the whole Space Needle thing.

So that is my list, at least so far.  If you don’t live here and you want to do any of these things with me, come visit!  If you do live here and you want to do any of them, call me!

This weekend, Mike and I realized that we are going to be hosting guests soon, and therefore, we should probably finish making our house look finished.  While most of the big things were in place, we were still missing a few key items- a place to put (some) of our books, a desk for me, a coffee table, and a dining table.  (Until now, we’d been using a filing cabinet and two metal shelves as a coffee table/dining table.  Shut up.)

So on Sunday, it was time for another Ikea run.  Ugh.  I hate Ikea.  But it’s cheap.

First, in order to balance out our planned gross consumerism, we stopped by the Sustainable Ballard Fair, where we learned how to save the Earth and saw stuff like this:

An actual Bag Lady

A booth that taught you how to make “Trash Art”

And a dog wearing vegetables.

After wandering and checking out the booths, we hopped in the Mini and drove to Ikea, where we proceded to stuff the Mini with particle board goodness:

I freaking love my car.

When we got home, we started putting stuff together.  I was super excited to finally have a desk- originally I had said I would “share” the one desk we already had with Mike so that we could get a fold-out couch to put upstairs, but after 6 weeks our couch had become my desk, and that is just not comfortable.  So, sorry folks, no fold out couch for you, but we still have our regular couch downstairs and a pretty spiffy air mattress.

Once my desk and bookcases were set up, I ran down to get my camera while Mike brought up the office chair we had scored in the as-is section for half the regular price.  However, when I came back to the office, Mike was laughing at me.  “Your corner looks like an American flag,” he told me.

Ugh.  I had been so excited about the as-is chair that neither of us had noticed that I would now be sporting this look:

Ugh again.  Thankfully, Mike had a black chair, so we decided to switch:

Better.

This is very exciting.  We now have a semi-organized, though still rather bare, room.

We didn’t find a dining table though.  At least the coffee table is an upgrade from the filing cabinet.

I had great plans for this weekend.  Unfortunately, none of what I planned happened.  It was a nice weekend nonetheless.

We didn’t go to Wordcamp.  Mike wasn’t feelilng too hot on Friday, and on Saturday was not up to waking up to leave the house at 5:30 AM to go to Portland.  Instead, we slept in and decided to use the day to run a few errands, but generally chill.  I think Mike actually felt a little guilty because I was actually really excited to go to WordCamp, so he agreed to go to brunch with me.  That’s right, brunch- his most hated word/meal.

Our errand run took us downtown, so we had brunch at Etta’s right by Pike’s Peak.  I had their “breakfast polenta,” which was sooooo good and covered with fresh, sweet blackberries.  I don’t know why it’s never occurred to me that polenta would make a great breakfast food- it’s basically the same thing as eating grits, except not drowned in butter and cheese and other weird crap my Southern family members put on it.  Next time my bff Mary and I host a “breakfast party” I’ll have to try making it myself.  Mike had fish and chips and actually enjoyed his food.  It made for a really nice meal.

The fact that it was a BEAUTIFUL day made it even better:

We walked around a little, but visiting the Market on the weekend scares me.

The rest of the day was nice and quiet, as it should be.  The big accomplishment of the day was that I finished the scarf I’d been working on.  Here it is being blocked on our outside stair case:

And here is a close-up of my “oh crap where are my blocking pins and how am I going to give this thing a shape” technique:

Yeah, those are bobby pins holding it to our staircase.  Only knitters will really appreciate the humor in this, but I really think it complements my habit of having various scarves and yarn trailing out of my purse and car rather frequently.

The sun came out today, making it a beautiful day for some photos with the other wife. Oh boy does she have a beautiful derriere. Sexy, athletic, smart, well-mannered and not afraid to wear a white dress. What more can you ask for?

She smiles with purpose and poise. It feels real, genuine and unpretentious. This is as real as it gets.

This week has been crazy, even for me and my supposedly “leisurely” lifestyle.  So I’m resorting to bullet points today.  Sorry.

• Mike has been working like a crazy maniac.  His team has a big product launch next week, so they’ve all been putting in ridiculous hours.  It is extra challenging because he is still so new to the company and the corporate lifestyle, but he’s slogging through (and surprisingly, working all day instead of all night).  Send us good juju.  Hopefully things will normalize a bit next week.
• The Handicraft Cafe blog is going live next week.  I trust that all of our faithful readers will add it to their Google Readers and then quickly be inspired to buy yarn, or at least you’ll learn something cool about the wonderful world of fiber arts.
• The weather is definitely turning.  It was mostly gray this week and a little rainy.  Being the giant weather wuss that I am, I’m a little scared.  At least it’s an excuse to buy cute winter clothes.
• I made granola.  So easy, so yummy:

• We’re going to Portland this weekend!  Mike is attending WordCamp for work, and I’m tagging along because a) I want to see Portland, and b) I am committed to creating a better blog for the 4 people who actually read this.  We won’t have much time to play, but I’m sure I’ll post about it.
• Tonight we watched our first episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” as official Seattle-ites.  I feel like this is some sort of milestone.
• JIM FINALLY PROPOSED TO PAM! I freaking love Jim Halbert.  I know it’s a TV show and not real life, but I still got teary.  Then I reached over and punched Mike in the arm for not being as romantic as Jim is.  Mike tried to point out that his proposal in the parking lot of Houston’s was not sooooo different than Jim proposing at a gas station.  I guess that is kind of right.  Still, Jim is better.

Between the two of us, Mike and I have really struck the jackpot on mutual family madness.  To keep it short and mildly inoffensive, you can say that our families both contain more than their fair share of interesting characters.  Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming, but at least we know that we will always have plenty of entertaining stories to fall back on.

However, even I know when my story-telling abilities are no match for the real thing.  So, without further ado, I present you with this, starring my baby brother-in-law, Jimmy:

Words just don’t do it justice.

Finally, this is the last post recapping our weekend home.  Thankfully, these recaps seem to be getting progressively less wordy, something I’m sure anybody reading will appreciate.

Sunday morning, I met one of my oldest friends, Elizabeth, and her boyfriend, Chris, for brunch at The Filling Station in Old Towne Orange.

Mike didn’t join us because a) he had already planned on meeting another friend for breakfast, and b) he has an unnatural hatred for the word “brunch” and will generally avoid any meal that I call brunch out of spite.  We, on the other hand, had an excellant brunch without him and his negative “brunch” energy.  I got caught up on the goings on in Elizabeth and Chris’ lives, and I filled them in on the latest and greatest schemes in our world.

After brunch, we strolled around Orange Circle a bit and popped into a local bike shop where Chris demonstrated his balancing skills while testing out a novelty low-rider bike:

Around noon, we bid adieu and I met Mike at his mom’s house to get in a little Bach bonding time before we flew out.  My flight was at 4:00 PM out of LAX, and my parents had graciously offered to drive us to the airport, but because my dad is neurotic about being early for flights, he had reccomended that we leave Anaheim at 1:30.  We successfully delayed departure as much as humanly possible, but thanks to my dad’s complusiveness, we were going through security by 2:30 PM.

Since we were once again flying different airlines, we waited seperately in different terminals.  Mike had a direct flight on Virgin where he passed the time working on his computer and watching 4 episodes of Entourage.  I flew on Southwest and had a 2 hour layover in Oakland AND had accidentally packed my laptop’s charging cord and my headphones in Mike’s backpack, so I enjoyed 5 hours with nothing to distract me except my knitting.  You know that lace scarf that I had started a week and a half ago?  It is now 5 1/2 feet long.  I may finish it this weekend.  (You have to find the silver lining somewhere).

And with that, we were back in Seattle, exhausted from the weekend, and ready to sleep.

Ironically, my very busy Saturday began with me flaking out on plans I had made with my friend and business partner, Anne.  We had planned on making an early morning trip to the Huntington Beach Swap Meet, but my late night discovery of Castle Crashers led to me making a groggy phone call at 7:30 AM to tell her that I wouldn’t be making it.  Thankfully, Anne sounded just as sleepy as me due to her (in)famous insomnia.  We made plans to meet up later and I immediately went back to sleep.

Eventually I woke up though and indulged in some retail therapy with my mom.  In a mere 2 hours, we successfully navigated through Nordstroms (yay triple rewards points weekend!) and were able to find a super cute dress for her to wear to a Quinceanera that afternoon.  Awww, look how adorable my mom is:

Ugh, and look how awesome those boots are in the background.  ::sigh::

After my mom found her dress, I scored the world’s greatest cardigan and then made my way to my old workplace, where I showed up just in time to join my two favorite scrub techs for an awesome sushi lunch at Fish in a Bottle in Placentia.

Evidently, everybody wants to be a knitwear model now:

(Sadly, besides demonstrating how well Kris can pose for the camera, this photo also captures some of Warren’s last minutes with his iPhone.  On the way to the restaurant, Warren left his phone on top of his car and drove off.  Needless to say, the iPhone didn’t survive the accident.  I am trying to convince him that it’s a sign that he should become an early adopter of the new Android phone.)

Even though he was sad about his phone, Warren still entertained me during lunch:

After lunch, we said good-bye and took self portraits:

Best way to top off a good meal.

After leaving POMC, I met Mike at the frat house, where Ben and An were engaged in a serious game

An, in his signature shirtless modus operandi…

Ben, wearing the best shirt ever (it reads “McCain is Insane”).

After all that excercise, Ben proceded to eat more cake than I’ve ever seen anybody eat all at once, ever:

Just before I left, Jimmy came home, and I made him model the hat that I knit for Tony.  Seriously, I am so lucky to have such a wealth of professional models:

Isn’t my baby brother in law adorable?

After spending most of the day with boys, I needed some estrogen, so I met up with Anne and another knitting friend, Kim, for a 100% vegetarian dinner at Happy Veggie Garden in Rowland Heights.  Dinner was good, but dessert was even better- crepes at Genki Living!

Anne and Kim seemed a little overwhelmed when it came to deciding what to put in their crepes:

I immediately went for Nutella, ice cream, strawberries and Japanese cheesecake (which, I found out, is way better than regular cheesecake.  I am tempted to try and make one of these at home).

A good end to a good day.

Sunday summary coming tomorrow.  I promise it won’t be as long.

(Disclaimer: I hate picture-less posts, but this is one.  I suck.)

This weekend was quickly devoured by a last-minute trip to Orange County.  It was a bit hectic, but even a hectic trip that involves seeing some of my favorite people in the world is one of my favorite ways to spend a weekend.

Since everything was so last minute, there were a couple things that I didn’t end up accomplishing.  I had planned on spending most of Friday baking some goodies for a bake sale organized by the Capitol Hill Knitting Group here in Seattle to benefit the Obama Campaign, but packing and cleaning devoured my day and I ended up just donating napkins and trashbags.  Definately not as delicious, but useful nonetheless.  (For those wondering, the bake sale was a success!  The group raised over $400!)

The trip didn’t start off great.  We had different flights on different airlines: Mike was flying on Virgin America while I was on Southwest.  Needless to say, I was jealous.  It turned out that I didn’t need to be though, because his flight ended up getting delayed over an hour AND the RED system crashed as soon as the plane took off, so he didn’t even get to take advantage of the free TV, movies and games.  Boo.

Eventually, he landed, we met up, and our friend Justin was kind enough to pick us up, even though we had flown into LAX at 11:30 PM.  Thank you Justin!  We can’t wait til you come up to visit in a few weeks!

Even though we were tired, we decided to stop by our old house to say hi to our friends/best tenants ever, Derek, Ben and Jimmy, who share the house along with Justin.  Seriously, our house could not be left in better hands.  What was supposed to be a quick hello turned into us staying til 1:30 AM playing Castle Crashers with Ben.  If you have XBox Live, you should download this immediately.  Pure cartoon-y princess-saving bliss.

Eventually though, we were completely exhausted, so we headed to my parents’ house, where we stayed for the weekend, and passed out immediately.  It was a tiring but entertaining start to an equally exhausting but good-to-be-home trip.  I’ll continue with more entertaining recaps of Saturday and Sunday tomorrow, when I’m a bit more well-rested.

Hi kids!

I just found out that we’re making a surprise trip to SoCal (not aocal like I typed on facebook earlier today.  ugh.)  Mike has some work stuff to do in Orange County, and my AWESOME father gifted me with some of his 10 billion frequent flier miles so that I could come down too.  So if you are my friend, call me and let’s play!

Yay!  It’s starting to get cloudy and gray here anyways.  Sunshine is good.  Seeing friends and family is good.  You know what else is good?

I really like the new Microsoft ads.  Not just because I’m suddenly “rah rah MS” thanks to Mike’s new job, but because I think that they are smart and refreshing.  MUCH better than the last try.  What do you think?  Comment below, because Mike has to discuss with some folks about perception in the “blogosphere” with the marketing forks. He likes input.

Til then, see you in SoCal (hopefully)!  We fly out tomorrow evening, so I get to spend all day tomorrow packing, cleaning the house, and baking 6 dozen cookies that I promised to donate to a “Knitters for Obama” Bake Sale here in Seattle on Saturday!  (God, I sound so domestic).