Ben came and visited us this weekend!  Since Ben used to live with us back in Anaheim, having him around really made it feel like we were back at home.

We did a lot, thanks to some fantastic weather- ate some awesome meals, caught up with some old friends and wandered around in the sunshine.  Ben is one of the owners of Hibbleton, a really fantastic art gallery back home that he runs with some friends (Mike’s brother Tony is one of the Hibbleton honchos too), so we made sure to make time to check out the SAM (Seattle Art Museum) while he was here.

The SAM was better than I expected.  They had a nice mix of modern and more classical pieces, but mostly I was surprised at how much I liked the featured exhibit.  Based on the name, I had kind of written it off.

If you have a chance, definitely check it out.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to take many pictures thanks to the standard museum “no-photo” rule.  Boo.  Luckily for us, the most entertaining thing we found in the entire museum wasn’t part of any official collection and therefore could be photographed freely.

As you leave the museum, you walk by a tiny room dedicated to the SAM’s 75th birthday.  They have some pictures of the museum over time and some notes about some of its greatest exhibits.  Standard stuff.  But then we struck gold- in the middle of the room was a guest book where people could sign their name and wish the SAM a happy birthday.  Some people simply signed while otheres wrote deep philosophical notes about the nature of art itself.

And then there were these random ass entries:

Obviously some kid who really likes Transformers wandered away from a tour group.  I love this kid.

Awesome.

No words.

Day = made.

Hi kids, I’m back.  Nice to see you all (aka like the 7 people who read this) again.  Sorry for the absence- and no, I didn’t suddenly become disillusioned with the act of blogging or run off and become a professional peanut butter sandwhich maker.  Rather, I got a new laptop this week (no, I didn’t drop mine again.  Mike sold it, allowing me to get a smaller, cuter 14″ model) and it took me this long to remember the url to our blog dashboard was while I wait for Mike to import my old bookmarks and data to the new computer.  Yeah, I know that is kind of pathetic.

Anyhow, the last week has been busy, as usual, but the upside of that is that I get some good subject matter to work with.  Today, I finally get to tell you how we spent last weekend- by riding our bikes around the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

Poor Mike- he’s a good sport for putting up with me dragging him around on stupid couples’ activities whenever I get the chance.  So when I came home from knitting one night telling him about this amazing bike ride through the tulips that my friend Barrie was planning, he agreed to go, mostly because it involved riding bikes.

Here is Barrie, the mastermind behind our adventure, looking really excited to get on her bike:

We joined a tour that Barrie found.  Our group was a little bigger than I would have liked- there were about 15 people total, all of different skill levels- but it was a fun way to spend a sunny day.  I mean, there were a lot of flowers.

I like flowers with stripes.

I would actually like to come do this again next year, but maybe skip the tour itself and just ride around on our own.  Even I was a little tuliped out by the time we hit the 4th tulip field.  And the lunch that was provided didn’t exactly make my tummy sing with joy:

I think Barrie looks really excited here because she just convinced the tour guide to buy us apples- the offerings were a bit heavy in the deep fried department for our delicate digestive systems.  This was best represented by the “Veggie Basket”:

If you’re having trouble seeing any vegetables in the “Veggie Basket,” that’s because it consisted of eggrolls, green beans, french fries, corn cakes and carrots- all breaded and deep fried.  Seriously, WTF?  I was so happy that there was a sample that I could document.

In summary: flowers are awesome, tours with too many slow bicyclists who spend too much time in actual flower fields are not awesome, sunny days spent riding bikes are awesome and deep fried everything is not awesome.  While I didn’t love this particular tour, our guide did mention that they offer a “Berries and Dairy” tour during the summer that involved riding to berry farms and artisan creameries in the area for some fruit and cheese tasting, and I could easily be talked into that tour.  As long as there isn’t a deep fried green bean anywhere in my eyesight.

This is a post about a sandwich.

PBS = Peanut Butter and Strawberries = PBJ upgraded.  Oh my god, this sandwich is so good.

I was working from home (yay!) on Monday.  When my tumbly got all rumbly around noonish, I started to go for my recent lunchtime standard- cottage cheese and Trader Joe’s peanut butter pretzels.  (I eat a lot of cottage cheese.  Coworkers both old and new mock me, but if I bring cottage cheese with me, I’m a lot less likely to pig out on total crap during lunch.  As long as I don’t start doctoring it up with Splenda and sugar-free jello like my mom, I’m considering myself sane.  And yes, I DO hate most white food, but growing up vegetarian you kind of have to get used to cottage cheese.  Mixing something savory- it has to be savory, i hate fruit in my cottage cheese- in it breaks up the nasty white color.)

Um, anyway, now that I’m done with justifying weird food habits, I was reaching for the peanut butter filled pretzels when I remembered that I had gotten some freaking amazing organic strawberries at the market the day before.  Then I had a stroke of genius- instead of sugary jelly, I could make a peanut butter sandwhich with actual strawberries instead of jelly.  Following my logic, the formerly fatty PBJ is now roughly the nutritional equivalent of alfalfa sprouts.  Even better, I had a new loaf of Dave’s Killer Bread, which is the BEST FREAKING BREAD IN THE WHOLE FREAKING WORLD OH MY GOD to spread the goodness on. (Seriously, it is amazing.  It’s expensive but totally worth it.  If you don’t live somewhere where it’s sold, you should get it shipped to you.)

Seriously, this sandwhich is so good that it makes my heart sing.  I wanted to call somebody to tell them how awesome it was, but I hate calling people, so I sent Mike a text message about it.  He ignored me.  But he also thinks he doesn’t like strawberries, which obviously can’t be true- I think he is just used to crappy grocery store strawberries that somebody bought in November.  One day I’ll convince him to eat a really amazing in-season strawberry grown 14 feet from where he’s standing and he’ll change his mind.

Anyway, that’s the big news for the day- I invented an awesome sandwhich and I’m really proud of myself.  You should try it.

Saturday morning I made a kickass breakfast- home fries sizzling in the cast iron skillet and a big “clean out the fridge” scramble with zucchini, parmesan, asparagus, cheddar and lots of fresh herbs, and toast and fruit.  I should have taken a picture, but we ate everything before I thought of it.  It probably tasted better than it looked.

I spent the afternoon running at Seward Park while Mike logged hours.  Seward Park is fantastic- It juts out into Lake Washington so you get really pretty water views the whole time you run around the 2.5 mile loop that acts as the perimeter of the park.  It was a great place to run to get ready for Beat the Bridge.  Now if I could only run faster.

That night I finally relented and agreed to go watch Fast and Furious with Mike.  Obviously, this isn’t my type of movie, but when you love somebody, sometimes you just have to suck it up and do things they enjoy, like watch movies about modified cars that star Vin Diesel.  As expected, it was terrible.  Thank god that I can knit in the dark.  Sadly, Mike had innocently been hoping that it would be as amazing and kept talking about how disappointed he was for the rest of the night.

The movie was the first epic fail.  The second one happened while we were leaving the theater- I had left the actual theater, in which we had sat pretty much dead center, and was in the lobby when I felt a sudden tug on my purse.  Confused and tired, I turned around and saw 5 teenagers laughing at me and holding some gray yarn.  Evidently I had left the ball of yarn in the seat.  Mike turned around, realized what happened and rolled his eyes at me while I had to gather my yarn, all the way back to our seats, in the face of snickers from 4 more groups of people leaving the theater.

Thankfully Sunday was free of any embarrassing moments.  It was, however, full of rain.  Well, at least it’s starting to get a bit warmer, kind of.  At least it’s starting to LOOK like spring, thanks to the garden behind our house getting all bloomy again:

Yay for green things!

Since it was Easter, we figured the Ballard Farmer’s Market wouldn’t be as crowded as usual, so we decided to make a produce run and stocked up on some of the last apples of the season.  I got a free breakfast thanks to all of the delicious fruit and cheese samples that I devoured- I am totally that person who goes for seconds on free samples.  It’s embarrassing and I’m sure that all artisan cheesemakers in Washington hate me for it, but seriously, what kind of person passes up free cheese?

Mike had breakfast at the market too, but not in the form of free samples.  Instead, he started the morning off with a hot dog with cream cheese, ketchup and onions from Dante’s Infernal Dogs.  Dante’s is famous for offering cream cheese as a condiment.  Mike was hesitant, but decided to be brave.  This turned out to be a good decision, because right after he wolfed down the hot dog, he went back to try their sausage dog.

(um, I took a picture of Mike and the hot dog but he hated it so much that he told me he’d buy me something at anthropolgie.com if I didn’t post it.  So I’m getting a new sweater instead.)

Yeah, he ate 2 hot dogs in 10 minutes.  Then he texted some of his friends back home to tell them how awesome hot dogs are with cream cheese.  He gets really excited about new hot dog discoveries.

Back home, Mike spent more time working and I spent most of the day cooking.  I’ve been fairly successful in making food that is more leftover friendly lately, so in trying to keep to that trend, I’ve been trying to make food on the weekends that can double as dinners and lunches during the rest of the week.  Today I made a giant crock pot full of Mango Chicken Curry.  I have no idea how it tastes because it’s still cooking, but it smells delicious.  For tonight’s dinner, I got brave and tried to make some Vietnamese food- Tom Rim, which is basically shrimp stir-fried with shallots, garlic, chili peppers and a sauce made of caramel and fish sauce.  It sounds weird but it is freaking delicious- all salty and sweet and spicy and happy. Again, I should have taken a picture, but I forgot.

So that was our Easter.  Not very Easter-like at all- we went to a farmer’s markets and ate hot dogs instead of going to church and hunting for eggs- but a nice Sunday nonetheless.

I wish dishes did themselves.
I wish the “heatwave” wasn’t going away tonight.
I wish I could pull of wearing high waisted wide-leg linen pants with a tucked-in summery blouse and a big straw hat and giant gold aviator sunglasses and look “breezy” instead of “costume.”
I wish I could wear high waisted pants period. (Short torso + high-waisted pants = not cute.)
I wish there was a fancy tea place that specialized in ICED tea. Iced tea is awesome and too-often ignored by the tea world.
I wish I had the time and follow through to decorate my cube at work.
I wish I was really good at wrapping gifts.
I wish I could get the full range of motion back on my left wrist so that I could do yoga again.
I wish I could eat carbs freely without gaining massive amounts of weight. I’m not even saying that I want giant bowls of pasta every night- I just want to be able to eat as much brown rice and dried fruit as my heart desires.
I wish we had a barbeque.
I wish I could write and draw very neatly on white boards.

i would do stuff like this all day:

It’s probably a good thing that I don’t have one.

When I walked to the bus stop on Tuesday morning, there was ice on the windshields of every car I passed by.  I was wearing gloves, a hat, a puffy jacket and Mike’s snowboarding socks.  After a glorious 80 degree weekend in California, I kind of wanted to cry.

Today, I looked like this:

Yeah, that’s right- I went sleeveless. As proof that some higher power exists, some warm weather finally hit Seattle, so Mike and I did everything in our power to take advantage of it.

Now, the day didn’t start off too well.  I had passed up a chance to go to Alpacapalooza with my knitting friends because my bff was scheduled to be in town filming a story.  Her plans changed at the last minute though and she ended up not coming, and it was too late to get a ride to the fiber fest by then.  So I had to spend the day with my husband.  Eh, I guess that’s not the worst thing in the world.

The temperature actually hit 71 degrees today.  While I was a little horrified that I heard two weather reports refer to it as a “heatwave,” I was incredibly thankful for the reprieve from the tundra-esque conditions we’ve had for the past few months.

In order to celebrate, we decided to go to West Seattle, home of the only beach in Seattle.

So it’s not exactly Laguna Beach in June, but it’s something.  Also, to clarify, I am pretty sure that there are even more “beach-esque” parts of West Seattle, but since people here actually appreciate nice weather and therefore flock to wherever they can best take advantage of it, there was a ton of traffic and we decided to focus finding a parking spot where we could get the most important thing done possible- Mike’s eternal quest to find the greatest Fish and Chips in the world.

Rather than endlessly researching yelp and urbanspoon, which is my usual tactic, Mike followed his instincts and simply drove down Harbor Avenue and stopped at the first place that struck his fancy.  His fancy generally looks kind of grungy.

Alki Crab and Fish Co isn’t fancy.  It’s right next to the Elliot Bay Water Taxi terminal, giving it a beautiful view of the cityscape across the water, but what it boasts in scenery, it lacks in certain other categories, like bathrooms.  The only bathroom nearby is the public beach restroom, complete with the metal toilets and general ickiness.

Thankfully, the food is really good.  While we waited in line, I neurotically checked yelp on my phone, where I happily learned that it had an average rating of 4 stars.  Score!

The service is simple- you get in line, order your food, and get a number.  I ordered the blacked halibut Ceasar salad (halibut season officially started last week- yay fresh delicious halibut!) and Mike ordered a combo platter of prawns and fish and chips.

We got our number and grabbed a table outside.  Mike seemed worried that his meal wouldn’t meet his expecations.

Finally, the food came.  He timidly took the first bite:

The result?  The best fish and chips he’s had in Seattle.  Score!  (This is about the most excited Mike ever looks.)

Yay!  He was satisfied.  He was even more intrigued when he read that Alki Fish and Crab Co. has an all you can eat night on Thursdays.  We’ll definitely have to make a return trip with somebody else who appreciates fried seafood as much as Mike.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the waterfront basking in the sunshine.  You have no idea how happy I was to be wearing sandals again.  Well, the fact that I took a picture of my feet in said sandals may give you an idea.

Yeah, my feet are that white.  At least I got a pedicure in LA last weekend- thank you Derrick for recommending the best $20 mani/pedi EVER!  My fingernails have gone an entire week without chipping!

We finished the day off in the best possible way- with yogurt:

Dear god I love warm weather.

I love my parents.  I really do.  But whenever I spend more than 7 minutes with them, I am immediately reminded that they are crazy.  Usually I laugh.  Then I remember that this is probably a sign that one day I’ll be crazy too.  I mean, come on, I’m pretty sure that most people who know me will tell you I’m already halfway there.

First off, I’m always telling my dad that he needs a hobby.  The good news is that it seems like he’s found one and is taking it pretty seriously.  The bad news is that it consists of hording toiletries.

Now don’t go and get all worried that my dad is wasting his retirement on toothpaste and razors.  The whole point of this hobby is that everything you see here was completely free.  You see, he recently discovered this site and has been making the rounds at local CVS drugstores, combining coupons and collecting script he receives for certain purchases and amassing this half of a walk-in closet full of stuff.

The scariest thing is that he only started this 7 weeks ago.  Every Sunday morning he prints out a shopping list, clips coupons out of the newspaper and then makes the rounds to 4 different stores to collect his booty.

::sigh::

My mom, on the other hand, is just as crazy in her own right.  On Saturday afternoon she joined me for a hike in one of my favorite places in Southern California- Peter’s Canyon.

Peters Canyon is a great place for an easy hike if you live in Orange County.  It’s never crowded and has a couple of different trails ranging from three to seven miles.  It’s hiker and mountain bike friendly.  And it’s really pretty.  On a gorgeous day like Saturday, it made me really happy.

See the little dog at the bottom of the picture?  That’s Lucy, my parents’ Maltepoo, and definitely their favorite child.  We couldn’t go hiking without bringing Lucy, but bringing her out into the wilderness (which butts up to a fair share of McMansions) definitely showcases the fact that my mom may be a little TOO worried about her dog.

Not only is my mom carrying Lucy in this picture, she was also strategically positioning her hat to make sure that she didn’t get sunburnt.  Huh?  My mom carried her about 2 miles of our 4 mile hike because she was worried she might be tired.

The other weird thing about Lucy is that even though she’s a girl, she went through a phase where she would pee like a male dog- leg up style.  This concerned my mother so much that she tried to “train” Lucy to pee like a girl.  It didn’t quite work, but it definitely changed something:

Yeah, now she pees like she is doing an Eagle pose in yoga or something.  It’s bizarre.  Almost as bizarre as the fact that my mom tried to teach her the right way to pee.

I shouldn’t really judge weird peeing habits though.  This is a picture my mom took right after I went to pop a squat behind a storage building while we were hiking.  Hey, when you gotta go you gotta go.

If nothing else, I’m a lady.  A lady who one day will hoard freebies and worry about my dog getting sunburnt.  The upside of this scenario is that by then I will have a dog.