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.

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!

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.

… a SUPAH-STAH…

My friend Anne is a total crafty superstar in general, but today she made her official high-profile debut by getting a pattern published in Knitty, the world’s best free online knitting magazine.

Anne designed Morgan, an English driving cap.  I seriously cannot describe how excited I am for her and how proud I am to be her friend and business partner (she is the creative spark behind Handicraft Cafe.  Go buy our yarn!)

Anne modeling her creation:

Here are some other pictures that we shot of Morgan, courtesy of some very talented knitwear models:

Seriously, this is just the beginning of Anne’s knitwear design career.  She really is one of the most talented people I’ve ever known.  And now she’s FAMOUS!