The guest train keeps on truckin’.  I LOVE friends and family coming up to visit us, but it does create one slight problem: when we have guests for 3 weeks straight, the definitely cuts down on my blogging time.  Thus this delayed recap.  But here I am, back and better than ever.

Anne came up last week for some grand explorations in the Pacific Northwest.  She spent Thursday and Friday exploring the city, unfortunately, mostly on her own during the day because I had to work.  Bah! to work.  However, we did get to get some good times in- Anne was able to explore some local yarn shops, meet my super awesome knitting group (or at least the girls who made it that night), meet me for lunch at The Other Coast (by the way, I am stupidly in love with their new extra small sandwhiches, which, for $5 are a total rip-off – a regular 6″ would only be $2 more for twice the sandwhich, but I don’t have the self control to save the other half, PLUS small food is cuter), wander around the Market Friday afternoon and then go to Black Bottle with Mike, where we had some good wine and THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE IN THE WHOLE FREAKING WORLD OMFG, which was even weirder because MIKE picked it out.  (Mike hates chocolate and cake but highly recommended this choice, and dear god was he right.)

Saturday morning(ish) we left for a weekend in Portland.  Portland is basically the knitting capitol of the universe, so we had to make sure to check it out.  We stayed at the Ace Hotel, which is basically a fancy hostel- I was a little wary of the shared bathroom idea but my fears were quickly alleviated.  Everything was so clean that I think my mom would be comfortable wandering around the showers barefoot.

During our trip, we visited some fabulous yarn stores, including Twisted, which was highly recommended by my friend Kate, and Knit/Purl, which houses the amazing Sandy of ShiBui Yarns.  We spent nearly two hours with Sandy catching up on the latest knitting gossip and news.  I am totally bummed that we forgot to take a picture with her- I basically want to be her when I grow up.

We also hung out with Anne’s friend Sherri, who acted as our tour guide and took us to some really cool restaurants and events.  We started out the night with cocktails, where I introduced Anne and Sherri to the liquid glory that is sparkling sake, and then checked out a Fashion Show featuring some really cool independent designers followed by Steven Adler’s long lost cousin’s band.  Ok, the lead singer was of no relation to Steven Adler, but he had that same 1987 style shaggy ‘do and he was way the freak too skinny with bulgy veins.  And he wore bedazzled jeans.  This was by far the whitest show I’ve been to in a LONG time (yeah, totally whiter than when we saw the Stars with Amy and Derek), and I realized that I had completely forgotten that white crowds don’t dance.  At all.  Ever.  I really don’t get it.

At least the lights made funny pictures.

The next day Sherri invited us to a special crab boil dinner at Kenny & Zuke’s.  Attending it meant that we wouldn’t get home til midnight and I had to be up early the next morning for work, but I am totally happy to sacrifice sleep for crab.

Yeah, you would give up sleep for that big bowl o’ goodness too.  Anne was particularly enthusiastic:

Much to my delight, the dinner proved to be pretty healthy, but only because of my mayo-phobia.  Thank god the crab was so fresh and sweet that it was good enough to eat on my own, because here were the accompaniments :

A giant tub of coleslaw swimming in mayo and a gallon of mayo-based dipping sauces.  UGH mayo.  And normally I don’t shy away from butter, but looking at that much of it kind of took some of the joy away.

Don’t worry- I didn’t go away hungry.  Between the pounds of crab, the yummy grilled asparagus, some fantastic clam chowder and the free-flowing wine, I was definitely a happy camper.  Well, specifically, I was a happy camper sucking down chowder and wearing a bib:

All in all, it was a good, but exhausting, weekend.  It was definitely good times to see Anne and embark on a mini roadtrip adventure.

So, I was really torn over the whole glasses issue.  Mostly because I hate making decisions.  Honestly, for somebody as opinionated as I am, I’m very slow on comitting to anything.  I guess I’m a paradox.  A very useless paradox.

Anyways, I finally decided on which frames to go with:

Recognize them?

Yeah, that’s because these weren’t actually included in the earlier choices.  When we went to pick up Mike’s glasses, I randomly put his old ones on (mostly just to remind myself how lucky I am not to have terrible vision like Mike) and he actually said he liked them.  Yeah, that’s right- a compliment from my husband.  It’s a rare and beautiful thing.

Even better than the fact that Mike didn’t make fun of me as soon as I put them on, Eyes on Fremont is the best place in the world to go if you want to put lenses in old frames.  Besides having an awesome selection of frames themselves, they are super friendly and have really reasonable prices on lenses.  Once I figured out that if I used Mike’s old frames my glasses were going to be 100% free thanks to our fabulous insurance kickback, the decision was pretty much made for me.

In the end, these ones look pretty close to choice #2, which was the overall winner (by a one vote margin).

Yay for free glasses!  Hopefully SaraH will still talk to me.

Tomorrow I’ll fill you in on my super fun, very busy weekend with Anne and our adventures in Portland, which involved communal bathrooms, seeing Steven Adler’s long lost cousin in concert, plenty of yarn and LOTS of crab.

Oh, and if you happen to be in the market for eyewear, I just came across this awesome blog post yesterday that tells you how to get some insanely cheap glasses.

Derek just sent me this video, and I have to share:

I thought I was going to die during most of January.  Mostly because it was cold.  Way too cold for my thin skin.  The idea of running outside was a joke.  I had to wear my Northface jacket EVERY DAY, except for when I was washing it, when I had to bust out the parka.  It snowed a couple of times.  My toes would get numb walking to work.  To make matters worse, it was pitch black outside when I left the office at 4:00 pm.

Then in February, something started to change.  Sure, it’s not like I woke up and the weather was downright balmy- it did snow again one morning last week- but it started to get a little better.  There is still light outside until 5:30 pm.  I don’t think I’m in danger of frostbite by the time I get to my office.  I’ve been able to go for walks outside at night with Barrie and Brooke.  I even wore a non-insulated jacket on Tuesday- it’s kind of a miracle.  People keep telling me that spring will be here before I know it and soon I’ll see little flowers sprouting up again everywhere.

Well, I haven’t seen any flowers, but all of a sudden we do have a sudden explosion of visitors.  Maybe Seattle has thawed out enough for Californians to actually be able to brave the trip up.  Whatever it is, I love visitors, even if it does mean I have to wash the sheets a lot more often.

Last weekend, with 4 hours notice, Jimmy showed up.  He went home on Monday.  Then yesterday, I got a surprise text from my BFF Mary, who flew up for the night to cover a story up here!  Yay for best friend bonding!  We met for a late dinner and some wine by my house.

Yeah, it’s blurry.  It was dark and I didn’t have time to charge my camera.

Then tonight, I’m picking up Anne from the airport!  She’s coming to spend some time poking around Seattle and then joining me on a “research trip” to Portland this weekend, where we are going to hang out with some celebrity knitters and check out the “Underground Yarn Scene.”  (Yeah, I know how crazy that sounds, but I’m stoked!)  I’m so excited about our adventure that I even took my car in today to get the flat tire fixed (yay: no more bike pump!; boo: i had to buy a new tire).

Then next weekend, we just found out that Mike’s bff (though he would never use that term), An, is coming up.  An is a little insane, but I’m really happy to be seeing him- we definitely owe him a celebratory dinner because he just passed his nursing exams.  Yay for passing!

Finally, the next weekend, my mom may be coming up.  Awww, I miss my mom.  Hopefully we’ll be able to spend a weekend doing lame mother-daughter stuff, like shopping and drinking Diet Coke.  I’ll be sure to try and take a picture of her holding onto her purse for dear life any time she passes a bum downtown.

Ok, I have to and finish cleaning in anticipation of Anne’s arrival.  I’m a little giddy at the thought of having friends and family around so much over the next few weeks!

I freaking love it when people comment on my posts.  Seriously, even on days when I don’t have the energy or inspiration to post, I still check to see if people have commented at least 4 times a day.  Sometimes the posts are helpful (like the great glasses poll- which, don’t worry, the surprise results are coming soon.  Don’t worry SaraH, we can still talk), sometimes they are funny, and sometimes they are just plain educational.  For example, this is the comment my darling mother made after I posted the picture of Mike and I on the stretching measurement thing at the museum yesterday:

“Aubs, I’m glad you can stretch so far, I must have taught you that while you were growing up. Maybe I forgot to teach you about germs. Can you imagine how many weird people were sitting on that same bench in shorts & trying to stetch and their mouths were touching the same red bar that your mouth was touching when you took this picture. Oh well, now you know! Love you, me.”

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I’m crazy.  Mike is constantly mocking me for my bizarre germophobia, which is especially odd if you know me and therefore know that I’m a total slob when it comes to any sense of organization or order.  I am incapable of making our living room look orderly, but heaven forbid if I don’t microwave the dish sponge for one minute to kill germs after it touches any kind of germ-containing food.  (Seriously, I nuke it an average of 3 times during a dishwashing session.)  I use straight bleach in the bathroom once a week and I take a shower as soon as I get home when I take the bus.  I refrigerate my peanut butter sandwiches when I get to work because they have butter on them (by the way, it’s also my mom’s fault that I have to put butter on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  I know you’re gagging, but try it, it’s SO good.  Just butter one slice of bread before you smear on peanut butter- it makes a huge difference.  Mmmmm, now I’m hungry.)  I wear surgical gloves when I cut or cook any kind of meat.

But now you know why I am the way I am- it’s because my mom made me that way.  Which means that one day, probably in the near future, I’m going to wake up and be a ridiculously perky hypochondriac neatfreak who forcefeeds her children butter but only eats cottage cheese and Splenda herself.  Well, maybe I’ll be a little better.  I’ll use Truvia.

Some people get chocolates and flowers for Valentines.  I got a visit from the youngest member of the Bach clan instead.  Which is a good thing, because Jimmy doesn’t make me fat or make Mike’s allergies act up.

In case you were wondering why I hadn’t been blogging excitedly about Jimmy’s upcoming visit, it’s because I didn’t know about it.  The Bachs aren’t planners.  Jimmy is no exception.  He called me at 11:30 AM on Thursday asking me what airline had the cheapest tickets to Seattle.  I told him to check out the awesome deals available on Jet Blue.  Then he texted me at 3:30 pm to tell me that his flight came in at 10:30 that night.  I rushed home after work to clean.

When I mentioned this last minute trip to friends and co-workers, most people pretty much looked at me with a mixture of pity and horror.  A lot of concerns revolved around the fact that it was Valentine’s Day weekend.  This was not a big concern for me, and it was probably a relief for Mike.  I know it sounds sad and depressing, but we just don’t do Valentines.  It just doesn’t work from us.  Maybe it was that first cursed Valentines Day getaway 9 years ago that ended up in me crying in a dank motel room in Salinas while Mike tried to convince me that the bars on the window were there as an added safety feature (long story), but we just are not very good at the normal Valentines stuff. (Hence I get Silverlight applications instead of Hallmark cards.  Bah, I can’t complain, that totally made me smile).  So we spent Valentine’s night eating clam chowder with Jimmy, and it was conisderably better than if we had tried to throw together a fancy dinner at the last minute.

Besides fish and chips, we did plenty of other stuff with Jim-Jim, including a surprisingly enjoyable trip to the Pacific Science Center, where we were entertained for hours by giant furniture.

We took awesome pictures of butterflies in the amazing Butterfly Room.  (Rita, you were right.  I freaking love this place.)

And finally, when I found out that the physiology exhibit had a place where you could test your flexibility, I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to show off my bizarre flexibility and make fun of Mike.  This was basically like the stretch test that you do as part of the Physical Fitness Test in elementary school.  For individuals our age, the average length to stretch was 12″-13″.

I got 22″ because I am badass.

Mike got 6.8″.  He is not badass.  At stretching.

Jimmy’s visit was suprisingly well-timed.  We got to eat some good food, spend some time exploring the city and catch up on all the goings on in SoCal.  As much as the Bach family can be a bizarre circus in the background of my life, I am ridiculously attached to my brothers and sister-in-law, and it always feels good to have people around who really know us.

I know I haven’t had a chance to put our wedding photos up since we moved, but this is a start! Happy Valentine’s day, with love from your sometimes forgetful, absent-minded husband. Love, Michael

Click Me!

OMG, you guys totally rock my socks off re: enthusiastically voting for my glasses.  So far, option 2 is in the lead, but it only has one more vote than option 3.  I’ll figure it out this weekend when Mike’s glasses are ready.  Leaving decisions like this is up to blog readers is way better than making decisions in real life.  I will start doing this more often.  Be prepared to start deciding what I eat for dinner, if we should ever have kids, and what color shoes I should wear.

Meanwhile, this week just feels like one of those weeks when I can’t get anything finished.  Or started.  Just as I got over my god-awful cold, Mike came down with one, so he’s needed attention and caretaking.  I need to do laundry and wash dishes and update Handicraft stuff, but then I get stuck late at work or we get pelted by another epic snowstorm (ok, total exaggeration, it snowed for a day and none of it stuck.  But still, I’m over snow) or I actually do get something done but then find out I did it wrong and have to start over.  Bah.

There is some semi-interesting news in my life though:

• Barrie talked me into signing up to walk a half marathon at the end of March.  We’ve been walk-training.  It’s epic.
• I started giving my friend Miles swim lessons so that we can do a triathlon this summer.  And this time I’ll break down and buy a wetsuit.
• Mike spent several days last week insisting that he likes leftovers so much that he can eat them every day.  To test him, I made a huge vat of turkey chili on Sunday, and he’s been eating it for dinner and lunch ever since.  And he’s still not sick of it.
• I finally got a haircut on Sunday.  I’ll post a picture later this week.  I’m not in love with it- it’s too dark, which is my fault, and I don’t love the cut, but it’s a lot better than the drowned-rat look I was sporting before.  Then again, I don’t think I’ve EVER had a haircut that I really really loved.  Or, more likely, I’ve never learned how to do my own hair.

::Sigh:: That’s it for now folks.

Yesterday, Mike and I went to get new glasses.  Most people have seen Mike wear glasses because he’s basically blind, but not many people ever see me wear glasses.  This may have something to do with the fact that I lost my last pair about 3 years ago and never got around to getting new ones.  Technically, I am supposed to wear them when I drive, but some quick thinking during my last license renewal allowed me to memorize the eye chart before they tested me.  I really only need them to see read street signs, but honestly, how necessary is that?  However, now that we have fancy-schmancy insurance that will pay for part of them, I decided to finally give in and get a pair.

Except that I didn’t, because I can’t make a decision for the life of me.  This really says something about how pathetic I am, because even Mike was able to make a decision in a matter of minutes.  Here are the ones he ended up with:

Me, on the other hand, I just couldn’t decide.  So I decided to do what I do best- leave it up to others to make a decision for me.  Here are the choices- if you can please tell me which one you like best, I’ll love you forever.  And I won’t crash my car into yours while I’m trying to figure out which street I’m supposed to be turning on.

Option #1:

Option #2:

Option #3:

Option #4:

(Haha, I’m so funny.  All answers insisting on #4 will be voided.  Mary, that means I’ll ignore you when you vote for these 36 times.)

I’m sure there is a way to put a poll on this, but I’m lazy and Mike is still in bed (yeah, it’s past noon), so I’ll just go by whatever people comment below.  Yay for democracy!

I was having a good day.  It was still light outside after 5:00 pm, my new shoes were proving surprisingly comfortable (we went outlet shopping this weekend and I scored a sweet pair of spike heel Kenneth Cole booties for $40!) and I was looking forward to walking around Green Lake with Brooke and Barrie after work.

Then I saw this sign, and I was completely overcome with annoyance that verged and raw anger:

Seriously?  bLunch?  Idiots.  How dare you mess with my precious brunch and try to bastardize the word into something new.  First of all, it doesn’t even make sense- 10-2 is classic BRUNCH time.  I could at least understand the effort a little bit if they were trying to serve brunch until 5:00 or something, but this makes no sense.  Second, bLunch doesn’t even sound good.  “Brunch” rolls off the tounge like a soft breeze that whispers the promise of mimosas in your ear.  “bLunch” sounds like the noise I make when I burp and gag at the same time.  Say them both aloud- see what I mean?  Ugh.

In short: do not invite me out to bLunch, or I will cut you.