I’m totally behind on blogging- total failure.  The past week (and the upcoming one) have just been WAY too freaking busy.  I need a nap.

Saturday was beautiful.  All I wanted to do was lie in the grass somewhere and soak up the sun for the entire day.  Unfortunately, we had 10,000 errands to run, and spent most of the day checking off our to-do list.  Somehow though we ended up in downtown Kirkland around lunchtime and grabbed some really fan-freaking-tastic Greek food at a little cash-only hole in the wall place called Santorini’s.  So yum!  So cute!  So virile:

We did have time to enjoy some sunshine so we got the food to go and wandered to a waterfront park nearby to eat.  It was only about 65 degrees outside, but it sure looked like summer:

Now, if you look closely at this picture, you may find what was one of the highlights of Mike’s day- somebody was wearing the Kanye sneakers:

He was so happy that I even got him to agree to a self-portrait.  My heart soared:

Of course, he only agreed to one, so that’s why you get the slightly emo, windswept hair and terrible contrast picture.  But I still kind of like it.

The highlight of MY day was the fact that there was a Ce Fiore down the street:

Yay yogurt!

The rest of the day was filled with a trip to Uwajimaya, the greatest Asian grocery store ever, and a screening of Notorious to celebrate our friends Barrie and Dominic moving into their new place.  I almost stayed awake through the whole movie!

Sunday was slightly less awesome.  I went on my last long run before Beat the Bridge next week, and I totally sucked it up.  I am kind of chalking it up to the fact that I didn’t drink nearly enough water the day before and I kind of feel like I’m coming down with something, but neither excuse is boosting my confidence for the actual race.  Eh, at least Mary will be there to comisserate with me.

The day was improved a bit by the fact that I made a really awesome Vietnamese curry for dinner tonight- Mike actually said that it tasted exactly like the kind his mom made.  That may be the nicest thing he’s ever said about my cooking.  Victory!

Oh, and if you’re curious, none of the plants I got last weekend have died yet!

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.

We just got back from a whirlwind tour of our friends and family back home in Southern California.  It was quick, but it was actually one of the least stressful trips back that I could imagine.  The weather, for the most part, was glorious.  GLORIOUS.  Friday and Saturday were both warm- high seventies to low eighties- and sunny.  After months of living in the arctic tundra up here in Seattle, I cannot tell you how good the warm sun felt on my skin.  And this coming from an honorary albino.  I’m not dumb- I loaded up on sunscreen- but I most certainly appreciated the warmth more than ever.

The first day back basically consisted of me being reminded of how incredibly random our lives our.  For starters, what started out as my typical morning run turned into a dog rescue.

Poor thing!  Just a few blocks from my parents house, I found this pathetic little dog running around in the middle of the street, almost getting run over by multiple cars.  He had a leash but no tags.  I didn’t know what to do really, so I grabbed his leash and rang the doorbells of some houses near me to see if they recognized him.  Sadly, nobody knew who he belonged to, so I took him home and found a no-kill shelter who would come take him.

After that little adventure, my mom took Mike and I down to city hall to take care of some paperwork on our house.  My dad got all excited when he saw Tom Daly, the Couny Recorder, in the office, so he came up with some excuse to go make smalltalk.

Yeah, my dad is a major dork.  Who knows what their county recorder looks like?  Who thinks it’s exciting to talk to them?  Who tells their daughter to post a picture of them talking to the county recorder on their blog?

After the joy that is beaurocracy we went to have lunch with Mike’s mom.  Of course, lunch with Mike’s mom is never your typical lunch.  Mike ended up getting solicitations for business advice regarding her latest idea, which somehow combines a health expo with a bikini contest (don’t ask), while she shared her newest skin cream with me.  Of course, she only told me the secret ingredient AFTER she had me rub it all over my arms and hands.  And the secret ingredient was fish sperm.  Awesome.

After chatting with my old co-workers and saying good-bye to Mike’s mom, Mike and I parted ways so that I could go get my hair done.  A little random, but my old hair girl had an opening and my roots were way out of control.

Hawt.  Too bad I forgot to take an after picture.  But it’s much redder than before.  It’s gloomy in Seattle- I need something bright to combat the grey.

That evening, my parents offered to barbeque for us.  A couple of our friends came over to feast on grilled chicken, carne asada, and lots of sides to make Mike happy.  The ability to cook and eat outside all year is definitely one of SoCal’s greatest virtues.

An recounted stories for us.  Mary was super interested.

Part of the meal included a huge platter of grilled veggies, which prompted Derek to eat zucchini for the first time ever.  After he thought about it for a while, he decided he liked the “burned vegetables.”

There was plenty of delicious food, which the boys dug into.

Mary and I dug into the wine.  (See the red hair?)

As the night wound down, my parents decided to really get the party started and tried to put their karaoke machine to use.  Yeah, my parents have a karaoke machine.  No wonder I married an Asian guy.

Thankfully, they couldn’t get the machine working, so we took the opportunity to take off before any singing started and went to the movies.  We saw I Love You Man.  It was eh.  But Friday was good.

Dude, today is a good day.

First, Mike comes home today.  Actually, in any minute, and I miss the stupid nerd, so I’m happy about that.  We have no obligations at all tonight and will do nothing but lay around and watch TV and eat something delicious that doesn’t involve me doing dishes afterwards.

Second, I just found out one of my knitters is preggo and she’s absolutely ecstatic about it!  Seriously, I’m not even a baby person, but I’m excited for her.  Yay for babies to knit for!

Third, I left work a bit early today and that always makes me happy.  Next week I’ll be completely slammed, so lord knows I’ll pay for it then.

Fourth, I’m walking a half marathon on Sunday, which means I have a total excuse to eat carbs on Saturday and then indulge in a kickass brunch Sunday afternoon.  Seriously, is there anything better than a mimosa after walking 13 miles?  I think not.

Fifth, we’re going to California next weekend!  We’ll be in town Friday-Sunday, so if you want to hang out, so do I.  It better be warm.  If there is a freak cold spell I WILL cry.

Finally, the Battlestar Galactica series finale is on tonight.  I know, I’m a complete nerd for loving this show, but I’m ok with that.  I’m sad to see the show end, but it has been SO good lately it’s ridiculous.

Seriously, I’ve had a major case of the Mondays:

• I woke up late this morning, incredibly grumpy and hungry because I only got 5 hours of sleep last night and only had a protein bar for dinner thanks to Mike’s work project having completely taken over both of our lives.
• I forgot to bring Truvia to work and therefore had to drink my yerba mate, which I got over the weekend and was super excited about, unsweetened.  I can drink coffee black but I like mate sweet, like caffeinated dessert.  (Since switching to Truvia, I’ve developed a complete paranoia with regards to other fake sweeteners.  I’m believing that it’s natural for now- it’s just brand name stevia.  And Liz, I looked at xylitol, but it has some calories and can contribute to rhea and bloating.  I already eat too much fiber.)
• This evening when I changed into my gym clothes, I realized that I’d forgotten a t-shirt to work out in.  I was already there and had an appointment, so I was the idiot at the gym in workout pants and a puffy sleeved sweater.  Hawt.

So far it’s been a banner day.  But on a happy note, Mike leaves for Mix tomorrow in Vegas, where he will kick all kinds of ass and his product will launch and I can actually get my husband back.  Which means somebody will vaccuum again.  Yay!

I made a cake!

December is kind of gluttonous for me- between my birthday and Christmas, I get a fair share of presents.  Yay presents!  This year, one of the best was the KitchenAid Stand Mixer that my parents got me- thanks Mom and Dad!

I made a carrot cake because a) it has vegetables and is therefore healthy, and b) it’s the only cake Mike could think of that he likes.  And I think he did- he ate almost a whole piece, which is pretty fantabulous for him in terms of the consumption of baked goods.  I used Alton Brown’s recipe, partly because I’m obsessed with him thanks to having seen every episode of Good Eats ever, and partly because he only uses weight meausrements in his baking recipes.  Mike got me a kitchen scale for my birthday and I wanted to use it.

Overall I was pretty impressed with myself.  It was edible.  The frosting was frosting-y.  I definitely need to do something about presentation, but it was a good first attempt.

My main obstacle is that we don’t eat a lot of baked treats- I would weigh at least several hundred pounds more if we did.  I need to do some research, but can you make anything healthy in a stand mixer?

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!

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.

When you are 7, it’s easy to make friends.  All you have to do is walk up to somebody and ask them if they want to go on the slide or make a sandcastle, and BAM!  You’ve got a best friend for life.  Or at least for the next couple of hours.  Life is good.

When you are 27, it’s a little bit harder.  You don’t meet people as often.  Strangers look at you like you’re crazy if you wander up to them and ask them to partake in the joy of playground equipment.  Since Mike and I just moved to a new city, we find ourselves totally stripped of our old, wonderful, comfortable circle of friends.  You can make friends at work (not that I’m employed at the moment), but it’s always a bit tricky to figure out how much you can mix work and friendship.  So at this advanced age, I think that the best way to at least try and make new friends is to try and rely on hobbies.

As everybody who knows me knows, my hobby is knitting.  Admittedly, I’m a bit obsessed- check out my passion project at www.handicraftcafe.com!  (And buy something!  Our yarn is awesome!)  So in an effort to further my obsession and to meet some new friends, yesterday I joined some awesome girls that I met on Ravelry to go on a trip to Churchmouse Yarns, a cute yarn shop on Bainbridge Island.

To get there, we met up at the dock and took the ferry.  The yarn and needles came out almost immediately:

The shop itself was cute.  I picked up some Malabrigo Laceweight merino yarn because a) it’s a line we are considering carrying in our store, and b) it feels like butter.  I also picked up some teas- earl grey lavendar and ginger.  Yum.

After perusing the store, we grabbed lunch and had some good conversation.  It was nice to spend some time with girls again. We wandered around the island a bit to walk off lunch and take in the beautiful day spent on the island:

I was definatley fully and sleepy on the ferry ride home, but I did get a gorgeous shot of Mt. Ranier thanks to the ridiculously beautiful weather:

Knitters definately made my day.