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.