I usually spend Thursday nights sitting in El Diablo Coffee Company with the Queen Anne Knitter’s Group doing what normal knitting groups do- namely, we sit, we knit, we talk, we eat, we drink.  Last night was a little different though.  We did sit, and knit, and talk, and eat, and drink, but in a slightly different location.

I’ve said this before, but when I found out about the debut party for Baconnaise, I sent it to my friend Barrie as a joke because of our mutual hatred of mayo.  But Barrie, who is obviously not as squeamish as me, and is the queen of organizing events and outings, immediately posted it on our knitting group’s message board and turned it into a group outing.  Not one to want to feel left out, I went along

It was definitely an interesting experience.  We didn’t actually stick around to watch the wrestling in mayo main event (we decided we were all a little too old and sober to sit through the opening acts), but we did get to take in some interesting sights:

As soon as we arrived at the venue, we realized it was a real Bacon-fest:

The featured drink of the night was a Mitch Morgan.  Yes, that is a real slice of bacon in the drink.

In addition to drinks, there was a BLT bar

There was this guy, whose job was basically to hang out wearing a bacon costume.

We whipped out our knitting while we waited for the wrestling to start.

Barrie modeled Ange’s Fetching gauntlets.

We didn’t manage to stay around to watch any mayo wrestling, (which I was secretly thankful for), but I don’t think they had much of a problem keeping a crowd:

I did get to snap a picture of the wrestling pit, pre-mayo:

And I managed to make it out of there with plenty of bacon-themed swag:

Ironically, when I got home, Mike had a craving for brinner (breakfast-for-dinner).  So what did I do?

I made bacon.

This week seems to be so full of minutia- is anybody else feeling that way?  Tony is here, I’m desperately trying to think of ways to entertain him and still trying to do all the little things that make up my day, even though I technically have more free time than ever before in my life.  But, things that made me smile-

• Mary’s story aired on CBS yesterday!  Check it out if you haven’t yet.  It is chronicling how families use technology to stay in touch, and it’s extra awesome because I helped her find the family (*cough* and she got to come visit me, which was obviously the highlight of her week, *cough*).
• I made a really kickass dinner last night- Captain Crunch Chicken (Zona gave me the inspiration) with THREE dipping sauces to placate Mike’s absurd love of sauce, the easiest homemade Mac and Cheese ever, Potato Salad with Goat Cheese (no mayo!) and biscuits (lame, I know, Mike requested them).  Tony contributed a really good bottle of wine, so I was a happy camper.
• I started physical therapy on my wrist today!  And the doctor took a new x-ray and said the bones are completely healed, it’s just a matter of regaining the entire range of motion.  Such a relief.
• My friend Scott sent me a picture of his Halloween costume, and I dare say it may be the greatest costume ever.  I wish I could post a pic but I don’t want to ruin the surprise.
• Speaking of Scott, and therefore speaking of bacon, my knitting group is going to see Bacon wrestle Mayonnaise in a death match to promote the release of Baconnaise.  My darling Nugget brought the existence of Bacconaise to my attention, Scott pointed out that the debut party was in Seattle, and I shared the link with my knitting group as a joke.  They promptly organized a field trip.  I’m really going to try not to puke.  I really really hate mayonnaise.  I hope it loses.  As somebody who was a vegetarian for 12 years and has never eaten red meat, I’m totally rooting for bacon.

Whenever people ask me how I am doing adjusting to Seattle, I tell them it’s been pretty easy and I haven’t been hit by any major cases of the “I just want to go back to SoCal and see all my friends and family right NOW”s.  I think that one of the major reasons for this is the fact that every time i get a little homesick, somebody from back home seems to pop up.  Today, it was Tony!!

Tony, Mike’s middle brother, arrived up here at about 1 pm with is friend Daniel, who is en route to his family in Spokane.  Before Daniel took off we slurped up some lunch at Pho Viet Anh.  What better way to spend your afternoon than having noodle soup with cute asian boys in really tight jeans?  Even though I had been planning on making an awesome dinner at home (maccaroni and cheese + Captain Crunch chicken strips- trust me, it’s supposed to be great), we decided we’d cash in our Ivar’s gift cards instead.  I’ll update y’all on the Ivar’s 2.0 experience tomorrow.

Yeah, I got totally pwned today.  It was me vs. our garbage disposal.  And the garbage disposal not only managed to win, but it also publicly humiliated me.

Our garbage disposal went on the fritz Tuesday night, while I was peeling carrots to make carrot fries.  I am usually pretty anal about what goes down a garbage disposal– I developed a bit of a complex after Mike broke one in our first apartment together by putting sand and coins down the drain and then telling the plumber it must have been his “dumb girlfriend who never listens”– but it is possible that a few peelings slipped down the drain and clogged everything up.  I was frustrated, but I left a message with our property manager and figured it would be fixed pretty quickly.

Well, after several long conversations with our property manager, a visit from our aspiring-screenwriter handyman, and two bottles of Drain-O, the garbage disposal still wasn’t working and there was now a cesspool of toxic liquid in half of my sink.  So this morning, a plumber finally showed up with a brand new garbage disposal in hand, and asked me to show him what was happening when I turned the garbage disposal on.  I delivered a long and slightly dramatic monologue on the horrors that I had faced over the last three days, and with a flourish, reached over to turn on the garbage disposal.

At which point it decided to quickly, quietly and efficiently start to work properly.

The plumber stared at me like an idiot.  I apologized about 34 times and swore up and down that I had NOT been lying about it being broken in the first place in some bizarre attempt to get a new garbage disposal.  He gave me a polite smile, reviewed the “on/off” switch with me one more time, and was on his way.  As soon as the door shut I heard Mike, who had quietly been working upstairs throughout the whole ordeal, start to laugh at me.  Loudly.

UGH.  At least Celebrity Rehab starts tonight!  Watching that show (usually with a glass of wine in hand), always makes me feel better about myself.

**UPDATE**: It’s 2:45 PM, I’m alone in the house, I just tried to use the garbage disposal again, and guess what?  It’s not working.  I may be going for that glass of wine earlier than I thought.

Nothing especially exciting happened today, but a few moments stood out.

• The handyman who services our complex came today to look at our broken garbage disposal, and friendly conversation prompted him to ask me to read and edit his screenplay.  Evidently his passion project is writing a sitcom about a schlubby guy in his mid-fifties with three pet talking pomeranians.
• Yesterday’s post inspired my friend Scott to write me a particularly kind and supportive email encouraging me to eat more pork.  He enthusiastically wrote “As for the bacon…ROCK ON AUBS! I think you should slowly start eating little nibbles of pork because honestly…pork is the best food on the planet. By the time I come to visit Seattle, I will take you on a pork belly/bacon excursion so that you can finally experience life to the fullest.”  He’s dead serious.  He also said that he’s planning on making a bacon apple pie this weekend.
• My friend Kate came over today to drop off a hat she test-knit for me and for some help with WordPress, and after she left, Mike actually said that he would possibly want to be “couple friends” with her and her fiance.  I am not making this up.

Life is good.  Happy Wednesday!

My very BFF in the whole big universe made her first trip to Seattle since we moved here this past Sunday.  She was here for work, so we were admittedly a bit rushed, but really, is there anything better in the world than seeing your best friend?

Mary arrived Sunday evening, so Mike and I did what we always seem to do when people come to town- we took her out for Thai food!  Thai Kitchen, around the corner from our house, is rapidly becoming our go to place.  We ate lots of curry, took home lots of leftovers, and then Mary and I went to meet a college friend of hers (who is also now one of Mike’s bosses) for drinks at Black Bottle in Belltown.  Thank you Brian for introducing us to such a great place and for treating us to wine and dessert!

In between filming the next day, I met up with Mary again to go have lunch with our friend Derrick’s sister Lizzie and her brand new baby Bella.  I’m admittedly not one to usually coo over babies, but Bella is a definite exception- she has way more personality than a normal 3 month old.  I WONDER where she got that from, Uncle D?

Lizzie holding Bella- yes, she always looks that gorgeous puttering around the house with a newborn.

Lizzie actually let me hold Bella.  Note the look of abject horror in the baby’s eyes.

Mary, who immediately had Bella dancing, and then began planning her career as a star swimmer and violin player.

After Mary finished shooting her story (she even let me be her “assistant” for part of it), we had dinner at Quinn’s, a gastro-pub with a menu that is so meat-intensive that it features “marrow” as an entree.  Oye.  Even I couldn’t resist the siren song of pork during this meal, and inadvertantly swalled a couple of bites of bacon in my seared scallops with pumpkin risotto and bacon.  The evidence:

I can’t help it, I’m a sucker for pumpkin.  I feel like I’m walking down a very slippery slope here.

I really can’t emphasize how happy I was to see Mary!  Hopefully next time she comes we’ll be able to spend an entire day together, but still, I’ll take a few hours wherever I can get them.

Well, they weren’t exactly in space, but I did see a pumpkin fly this weekend.

On Sunday morning I joined my friend Barrie (knitter) and her friend Miles (non-knitter, but still super-nice) for a hike!  Hiking is definitely on my must-do in Seattle list, and while this particular hike wasn’t exactly scaling Mt. Ranier, it was ridiculously pretty and had a very “Toto, I don’t think we’re in California anymore” vibe to it.

First, there was a suspension bridge.  I immediately felt like I was on Tom Sawyer’s Island.  (Sorry, I grew up in Anaheim, so I must make the occasional Disneyland reference.)

If you can’t tell from that picture, the morning was a little foggy:

Seasons really do exist, as evidenced by the multitude of leaves:

Miles promptly began to kick the leaves.  I am a big fan of anybody who gets giddy easily:

We didn’t really reach the end of the trail- it was more like we reached some place where the river decided to eat part of the trail alive.  Wanting to stay dry, we meandered around a little longer and then headed back to the car to go look at pumpkins!

There are a ton of pumpkin patches on the East side.  We passed 3 looking for our choice, Jubilee Farms.  What made Jubilee Farms stand out amongst the rest? I’ll show you:

They have a trebuchet!  Several times a day they load up their medieval seige device with a pumpkin and set it flying.  Who can pass up the chance to see a pumpkin fly and crash?  Not me.

In summary,suspension bridges + flying pumpkins = a good Sunday.  Hope your weekend was just as entertaining!

Yesterday, I was feeling kind of sick, so Mike took me to get the one food that cures just about everything: pho.  And we didn’t go to just any pho restaurant, we went to the pho restaurant with the best name ever.

Taking a picture of the sign was totally worth the drive to the East Side.  And I feel much better today.  In fact, I daresay I feel pho-bulous.

If you ever read our comments, you probably noticed that Bonnie, a representative from Ivar’s Salmon House, found my “food is good” blog entry and my not-so-rave review of her restaurant, and offered to send us a full refund for our meal AND gift certificates for the same amount so that we could give them another chance.  I was obviously a little skeptical at first, since this sounded too good to be true, but I emailed her back and voila, we received the refund and the gift cards on Monday, 10/13/08.

We haven’t had a chance to try out the restaurant again yet, but I feel like i MUST comment on what a stellar example of customer service this is.  First, I think that this is an absolute genius move for any small to medium sized business- in the long run, this isn’t a big expense for Ivar’s, but it has made a world of difference in the way that I view the company and how I will think about their restaurants in the future.  This makes me feel like the company really cares about its customers and its brand, which is important to me.  I also think it’s a great example of a business that takes advantage of easily accessible web technology, like something as simple as Google Alerts, to go the extra mile to keep their brand recognition on non-traditional media sources, like this silly little blog about my unimportant life.  As a result, I will go back and try their food.  And when I’m craving a big Diet Coke straight from the fountain, I’ll make it a point to go to a Kidd Valley location (a local fast food chain that is owned by the same company that owns Ivar’s) instead of McDonalds or 7-11, because I know that I’m supporting a company that actually gives a damn.

I’ll post when we have the chance to use our gift certificates.  This whole experience has kind of intrigued me about customer service and the internet and blogs in general- has anybody else ever had an experience like this?

Last Monday, while Mike and Justin went out to eat… yeah, you guessed it, Thai Food, I ditched the boys to attend a Soup Swap organized by my friend Barrie.

I’d heard of Cookie Swaps before, usually around the holidays, but the idea of a Soup Swap was totally new to me.  Basically, everybody shows up at somebody’s house with 6 containers of homemade soup that has been frozen in disposable containers (or at least containers you don’t care about ever getting back).  You make tags for each of your sou containers, throw them in a hat, and pass them around.  Voila!  Everybody suddenly has a whole array of soups to take home.

My soup booty:

I took home Vegan Tom Ka, Portugese Bean, Matzo Ball, Chicken Tortilla, Acron Butternut Sqash and Cheesy Cauliflower.  I had brought Chicken Tortilla as my donation, it was the only repeat in the bunch.

A Soup Swap is way better than a Cookie Swap!  I’ve never actually swapped cookies, but I still think soup wins because a) I’m admittedly not a great baker, b) soup is usually healthier than cookies, and c) it’s cold here and i need things to keep me warm.  (Don’t mock- it is 52 degrees outside as I type.  To me, that is cold.)

I know I’m late in posting about this, but it’s been a busy couple of weeks.  However, in the spirit of soupy goodness, I’m enjoying a bowl of Matzo Ball Soup as I type.

Cheers!