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9月6日 Summer 2008 in PhotosThis summer was the busiest of my life and the most eventful, too.
June
We rented goats! The yard was scarily overgrown and we dreamed up the idea of renting goats while sitting on the deck one late night/early morning.
I arranged a bachelorette party for Beth in Portland. In this photo, we were either about to or just had gone to a club where Beth danced in a cage and then we all did lots of shots.
July
Our house was broken into and we got caught up in a media blitz! Our story was featured on the evening news two nights in a row! We also made it into the paper and were mentioned as part of a morning news radio broadcast.) Inside Edition called our house. It was the most surreal two days of my life.
I hosted a bridal shower for Beth at our house, taking full advantage of the newly furnished deck. (Photo courtesy of Sarah, seeing as to how our camera had been stolen.)
The next night, we hosted Beth and Mark's rehearsal dinner BBQ. They hired the people from Armadillo Barbeque. (Photo below taken from their website.)
The day after that, Peter and I participated in Beth and Mark's wedding at the DAR's Rainier Chapter House.
We hosted five houseguests that weekend!
After all this, because we were finally done working on the house in preparation for the wedding festivities, I worked my ass off at work the rest of July. And all of August.
August
However, we found time to celebrate six years of marriage/together-foreverness...
We spent a Saturday in West Seattle, picknicking on sweets from Sugar Bakery and mayo-heavy sandwiches from George's (a Polish deli), and meandering along the waterfront with the dogs. Oh, I also learned how to ride a skateboard! Sort of.
The next day, we drove to Fort Dent State Park to ride our bikes on a desolate and bucolic trail.
That night, we indulged in nine courses of decadent goodness at The Herbfarm. (None of the food photos do the meal any justice, so you get these instead.)
We hosted Peter's brother Bill for several days, and did our best to showcase the Pacific Northwest so that he might move here. The guys went on a road trip along the Olympic Peninsula while I slaved away at the office. When they got back, we explored the city together.
I went to my first PAWMA camp, where I spent six hours a day engaged in various martial arts. I am now obsessed with using Poekoelan and Aikido techniques to do takedowns! No pictures, not even of the bruises, but perhaps I'll take some next year.
We drove with the pups to and from the ranch for Labor Day. While there, Peter taught me how to ride a motorbike!
September
After the most extreme weeks of sleeplessness I've ever experienced, my boss finally returned from five months of maternity leave and I went back to working just "one" job. I subsequently had the best review of my life thus far and, more importantly, major kudos from our VP and our new GM! Since then, I've been walking on air. I've reacquainted myself with my husband, slept, baked cookies, made two batches of ice cream, finally got a haircut, saw my friends, returned to kung fu, and woke up drunk on a Friday morning. September is shaping up to be a lovely change of pace and I still have nearly two weeks of comp time in my back pocket to use whenever and however I see fit. Boo yah! 5月13日 Wave/Crinkle-Cut of MutilationWatching "Top Chef" cost me a quarter-inch from the middle finger on my right hand. Sunday morning, after watching a back episode of the aforementioned show, I set out to cook something simple and relatively healthy for breakfast, but I challenged myself to elevate the dish by making it particularly pretty. After a survey of ingredients, I decided to make a cold Japanese soup with cucumber, ham, egg, and purple buckwheat soba. Since I had radishes on hand, I thought I'd give my noodle dish a twist and add more color and texture by incorporating slices of crispy pink and white. With more to prep, I figured I might as well bust out my rarely-used mandoline to make quick work of the vegetables.
I share my mom's perfectionism in the kitchen. With her, it's always important for food to look as good as it tastes. She chops and dices everything uniformly and so do I. In teaching myself how to do so, I've gotten pretty adept at using a knife. I can use a sharp knife to produce paper-thin slices of beef, cucumber, radish or whatever, but I'm not terribly fast and not every slice comes out perfectly. If you're careful in how you use them, mandolines can make up for your lack. If you're not careful, you can look forward to spending a couple hours in the emergency room holding the tip of your finger on to the rest of your finger with a bloody paper towel.
They said it was a very clean cut. (Of course! Mandoline blades are very, very sharp.) Still, because my fingertip had been detached completely, they wouldn't bother sewing it back on. They didn't think it was likely that the tip would reattach. They couldn't just "glue" it on either. (I was pretty sore about this because I had gone to the trouble of putting my fingertip back on exactly as it was and had figured that, because I'd been pressing on it the whole time I waited for the doctor, the capillaries would find each other and begin to rejoin.) They didn't think my fingertip would grow back to look normal again, either.
The dressing they put on my finger after they cauterized the wound is huge. It's not only cumbersome, it's really loose, so I've had to attach it more securely with, variously, a rubberband, Scotch tape, and a wire twist-tie. When I write or type, it looks like I'm flipping you off. I remove the dressing and wrap plastic wrap around my finger before I get in the shower. My finger throbs and itches at the same time! It's maddening! It sucks that I can't just ignore the fact that I disfigured myself. When I look at the scabby end of my finger, I can't quite imagine how it's going to look when it finally heals. Weird, I think, but hopefully not too apparently so. I guess I'm grateful that it wasn't worse and that at least it happened to the ugliest of all my fingers... 11月27日 The Perfect SaturdayI hope everyone had as good a Thanksgiving weekend as we did. Every single one of our four days off was excellent, but Saturday was perfect. We had lazy time, active time, and crazy fun times!
I woke up late and ate a huge plate of Thanksgiving leftovers. I would have been content to sleep the rest of the day, but we did a lot of that on Friday and on Sunday. Instead, we were ambitious and embarked on the bike ride that we'd meant to take on Friday.
Peter and I drove our bikes to Marymoor Park in Redmond. We hopped on the Sammamish River Trail and rode all the way home. We'd previously gotten a taste of the Burke-Gilman on a ride with Mark and Beth. It's flatness compared to all the rest of Seattle that I've experienced by bike prompted me to declare it a perfectly doable ride to work. When I'm in a good mood, I'm exuberant! As it turns out, riding the long way to work might not be so practical or efficient.
Taking the Sammamish River Trail from Marymoor and then up north to where it connects to the Burke-Gilman Trail and then back down south through Seattle was extremely easy because it was flat, but it took much longer to ride than I anticipated. We made about three short stops along the way. At our leisurely pace, the ride took exactly 2 hours and 45 minutes from start to finish, including stops. The ride we made two weekends ago across I-90 to Peter's office in the Eastgate neighborhood of Bellevue took approximately 3 hours. We made fewer stops on that ride, but I'm still shocked that 25 miles on a flat surface can take nearly the same amount of time as 22 miles (round-trip) on a very hilly route. There's something to be said about not sweating at all, but I wonder if the extra time is worth it should I actually consider riding to and from work...
Our route:
When we got home, we called Mark and Beth to see if they wanted to hang out again this weekend. Lucky for us, they don't seem to mind that we're always hanging on their jocks. Not yet, anyway. They gamely agreed to meet up for drinks, dinner, and a movie. Over cocktails at our house, we staged an impromptu photo shoot.
Evidence:
Lubricated by the libations and craving good food, we called Quinn's to see how long we'd have to wait if we dropped by. At 5:45pm, the wait wasn't very long, even on a post-holiday Saturday. (Last Tuesday, Peter and I lucked out on a table and had a near life-changing experience there; we knew we had to get our friends in there somehow. We'd already tried twice to get Mark and Beth to try the place out and I was afraid they'd all but given up on the idea.) Dinner was good but the experience was not as mind-blowing. How do you beat duck rillettes and bone marrow and oxtail gnocchi, though? (I'll be posting a review somewhere sometime soon, if you're interested. Probably on Chowhound if not here.)
Our post-dinner plans involved going to The Big Picture to get more drinks and to watch "American Gangster," but Peter and Mark came up with a new itinerary that required us to drive over the 520 bridge instead. The reason we headed to the Eastside was to check out the karaoke at Mama San. We recently discussed karaoke with our sushi chef and he urged us to check out the restaurant and karaoke business at Mama San. I can only hope their sushi is better than their karaoke. It was most definitely the least satisfying karaoke experience any of us have ever had. Jae works too much and surely doesn't know good karaoke. You can bet he's going to get an earful.
After an awkward round of drinks, a margarita glass full of GORP, and three songs at Mama San, we grudgingly parted with $35 plus tax and relocated to Maple Leaf. Did I mention that $1.50 of that tab was for the songs?? The cultural experience at Mama San was not one we'll soon forget, but I'm glad we traded up. From the moment we walked into Mama San, Mark assured us we could head to Maple Leaf next and that Maple Leaf would deliver.
Maple Leaf's karaoke bar had a similar vibe to Taster's Wok, the karaoke bar in Lynnwood we went to for Gina's birthday this past year. As curious as Taster's Wok was, the overall experience at Maple Leaf was even more surreal in the best possible way. Some guy even sat down at our table with the full intention of picking a fight! The bartendress got weird about drinks. I realized later that I broke my nearly year-long commitment to no more than four drinks per night, but I don't think I would have enjoyed the hardcore metal version of "Like A Prayer" nearly as much. Heck, I probably wouldn't have head-banged, broke a piece off my glass bracelet, or "sang" along quite so heartily. We spent much of the evening speculating about anything and everything that could possibly break out in the bar. In the end, we beat a hasty exit, talking breathlessly about guns, knives, and not getting shot! I think we all knew we weren't in any real danger, but it was funny to think we might get to throw down or at least watch some kind of showdown! "Funny" is not the right word, but "scary" doesn't quite sum it up either...
I'm still shaking my head at our Saturday. It's not often you get that kind of exercise on and then also get your party on! 8月6日 Activities ending in -ING (none of which begin with BLOG)What I have been doing (in the period between June 29th, the date of my last post, and August 6th, today):
Pointing/Shooting - We bought a new camera right before we left on our trip. It's the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TMZ and holy crap, it's got settings specifically for FOOD! And pets! I'll post pictures of the Australia trip and more very soon.
Traveling - We went to Australia for ten days in the middle part of July. (I still owe everyone a post about our Paris trip, but I may just do the Australia one first...) Right up until the trip, I was working hard and not thinking about what to pack for two vastly different climates. Tropical sun and outdoor fun in Litchfield National Park and Kakadu. "Chilly" city time in Sydney. In the end, it didn't much matter. In the outback, we didn't do as much hiking as I had anticipated, so my flip-flops were more useful than those heavy boots. In the city, I felt like a country mouse next to all those hip Sydneysiders. Working - Things were pretty crazy around here for awhile because we were buttoning up work on our latest product, which finally RTM'd July 27th! Traveling during the end of the product cycle only compounded the work I had to do before I left.
Crafting - I needed to mail all the invitations to the baby shower I am hosting for my friend Gina before we left for Australia. This meant all my free moments in June and early July were spent designing, cutting, and gluing paper and ribbon. They turned out better than I could have hoped and were apparently well-received so it was time very well spent. I also made a stuffed kiwi bird for another pregnant friend, Emily, for a baby shower that took place the weekend right after we got back from Australia. It's for the little half-Kiwi she's got coming in a short six weeks! I've been wanting to try making stuffed animals for a long time, but this was my first. Despite the fact that I had to sew it by hand, it ended up being pretty cute and fairly sturdy. I have a feeling it won't be the last stuffed animal I make.
Digging - Our VP gave our business group a free week off from work last week as a reward for shipping. I spent two of those days digging in the hot sun. The first day of my Gabe-cation, I dug up the flower beds in front of the house. There were old juniper roots, grasses, moonflower, sweet peas, and myriad other weeds. It took FOREVER. I hate digging and I hate weeding, but what're you gonna do? The next day, I dug three and a half hole of the six holes we'll need for the footings/posts on the deck we are putting on the back of the house. They were not as big or deep as I was afraid they'd need to be, but not having a wheelbarrow really slowed me down. Again, I really hate digging.
Painting - I finally painted the trim around the front door we had installed, oh, about 18 months ago. I also touched up the trim in the foyer with the leftover paint. It was quick and easy, but I had been putting off the project because my least favorite part of painting is washing the paintbrushes afterwards.
Cooking - During my week off, I did lots of cooking, including making beef vindaloo for the first time. When I have the time, I love tackling time-intensive recipes that aren't easy to pull off during the week or on busy weekends. My Indian cookbooks are full of bookmarks for these types of recipes. Beef vindaloo isn't actually difficult and doesn't require any overnight marinating or anything like that, but you do have to grind a bunch of spices, turn those spices into a paste, and then cook the meat in the paste for at least an hour. I had everything on hand, so I actually made it after I woke from an afternoon nap one day late in the week. It was soooo good. I made it with tri-tip, which I'm sure had a lot to do with how good the vindaloo turned out.
Celebrating - Peter and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary this past weekend. We had considered going out of town to celebrate, but that would have been too complicated for him to negotiate with work since we'd just gotten back from Australia the week prior. Instead, we had dinner at Union on Friday. I love that place. Very uncomplicated, but as a result, comes through with clear, winning flavors. I especially loved that chef Ethan Stowell serves his snow peas Michel Richard-style like I do! Also, roasted pork belly = party in my mouth. The squab I had at Union was better than the squab I had at Quay in Sydney and it was cooked medium instead of rare. I realized, however, with two squab dinners so close together, that I don't like squab as much as I wish I did. Saturday, we went to see the first matinee for The Bourne Ultimatum (which was excellent, at least as good as the other two in the series), then walked around Pike Place Market and had lunch al fresco at The Pink Door. It may be that their old chef recently returned or it may have been the effect of the dappled afternoon sun, but lunch was particularly good. Sunday, we walked to Banya 5 in the South Lake Union neighborhood, relaxed in the tubs and parilka (best, hottest sauna ever) and got salt scrubs better than any massage.
Studying and Spelling - Tonight, I compete in the finals of the Seattle Spelling Bee. I forgot to study all last week, so I crammed last night. Wish me luck! 6月25日 Loco-motionToday, I walked 10.91 miles.
When Peter called from Vail to tell me he'd arrived safely, we chatted and he asked about my plans for the day. The rain was clearing up just then, so I told him I was going to walk the dogs and then walk to Uwajimaya down in the I-District. I'd been meaning to pick up some new ear scoops all week and walking there seemed like a lot more fun than driving to Costco. After Uwajimaya, I caught the bus and rode to the U-District. (I'd also been meaning all week to pick up some beads to work on a necklace I've been dreaming up in my head.)
I walked from where the bus dropped me off, at NE 55th St and University Way NE over to Alexander's Bead Bazaar on Roosevelt and NE 63rd. I spent a lot of time mulling over beads. It was sunny when I walked in, but as I got ready to leave, it started raining buckets. Then, it hailed for a few minutes. When the rain turned back into drizzle, I walked from the bead store over to Bartell's to buy an umbrella. From Bartell's, I headed towards home. It was only after I had crossed University Bridge did I realize I was about to embark on the trip home the long way. It didn't seem worth it, at that point, to turn around, so I entered Montlake and contemplated the clouds looming ominously overhead. Luckily, the sprinkling never got too serious. By the time I hit 23rd, it had stopped altogether, so I never did have to use my new umbrella at all. When I got home, I found out that last part of the trip was 6 miles alone! When I got home, I also found out that my feet were absolutely filthy. (My trusty flip-flops provided plenty of cushioning, but offered no protection from the elements.) I literally had to scrub the tops and bottoms of my feet to get all the dirt off.
The other 2.13 miles were expended dog walking. My last walk of the day was supposed to be a long loop with the pups down to the lake and back up via Madrona Dr (a challenging, but rewarding course that Peter introduced me to one morning a couple weeks ago). After all the walking I'd done on my own, I felt like I owed the pups a much longer walk than I'd given them in the morning. I decided against a long walk when it turned out my ankles were a little sore from the day's abuse, so I only took them up to Madison, over into Madrona, and then back.
In totalling up the miles from Friday (down to Cactus for dinner and then back), Saturday (downtown and back via Pine)--3.74 miles and 4.37 miles, respectively)--and Sunday, I can credit myself 19.02 miles! In calories, that probably ends up being a measly Happy Meal, but at least I spent all that time walking instead of eating French fries.
I've been feeling mighty pleased with myself, but something tells me I'm going to be pretty sore in the morning.
** ADDENDUM: Turns out I feel great this morning! Those two Aleve did me right. I even seem to have finally knocked all those kinks out of my body from my Thursday workout. 4月6日 Spring FeverWe've been uncharacteristically social lately. I'm sure of it because our queue on the DVR went from 8% this past Sunday to 93% last night. Normaly, we (gladly) suffer from this disease called Having No Life, but this week, Peter started a new job. It seems to have had a profound effect on him, much like the spring weather's been having on everyone else here in Seattle. Peter has emerged from his cocoon transformed into a (social) butterfly.
Monday, we were supposed to pick up Beth and Mark from the airport, but they missed their flight and we had an opportunity to go back to the Seattle Spelling Bee after missing the finals from last season and the first two meets for the second season. There are lots of places in Seattle that we visit more frequently than Re-bar, but for some reason, the moment we stepped through that door, it was like coming home. Everyone recognized us, remembered our names, and seemed genuinely happy to see us. And we were genuinely happy to see them. I felt so warm and fuzzy that night. Once again, neither one of us qualified for the finals, but we learned a lot of interesting vocab words. I also renewed my vow to seriously consider and visualize alternate spellings instead of just spelling the first thing that comes to mind (cursed "pelerine"!).
Tuesday, we compelled Mark and Beth to come out with us even though they were sleep-deprived from traveling. We took them to The Bottleneck Lounge, a cute and cozy bar that opened up near our house whose adorably gimmicky dog-themed drinks we had enjoyed just days before. Although the owners of The Bottleneck Lounge built a huge bar, they nonetheless seem to have increased the size of the place by threefold. (The Fargonian, which preceded it, was a five-seat cafe that served crepes and, literally, had five seats total.) After drinks and dinner at The Bottleneck Lounge, we decided to go for a drive in Peter's new car. Because we wanted to maximize time in the car, we discussed going to either Sunset Bowl or Skyway. Although far, Skyway is pretty easy to get to and from. (We've made our feelings about Ballard well-known. We really only go out there for our thrice-yearly trip to Ray's.)
Skyway Bowl is a bit of a hike down south, but it's a pretty swanky casino/bowling alley. They've got a separate kids' bowling area, two bars (one fancy and one divey), a billiards room, four banquet rooms, an area reserved for karaoke nights, a pizza/burger restaurant, a place that serves dollar-Chinese style food (their egg rolls were calling to me all night), and regular lanes all in the same building! There must be something lucky about the place because I bowled an astonishing 148 in my second game and I didn't get shot. Risk of shooting or stabbing notwithstanding, I will totally go to Skyway again.
Wednesday, we were invited over to Mark and Beth's to close out our viewing sessions of season 1 of "So You Think You Can Dance". There were some shocking developments and some good dances in the last three episodes and, hence, plenty of clapping and squealing. This time, instead of showing off dance moves stolen from the show, Peter entertained us with impressions of "excited Tina". Super cute and spot on.
Thursday, we went out to dinner with Gabe and Diane at Via Tribunali before going back to our place to watch "The Office". Despite our many sojourns to Tutta Bella, we'd never given Via Tribunali a go even though we'd heard it was even better and it had been on my list of places to eat since it opened. It's hard to say if it was better. There are a couple pizzas at Tutta Bella that I absolutely adore. Plus, Tutta Bella's way cheaper. We were mostly pleased with the restaurant and the food at Via Tribunali, though. The misto salumi plate was generous, offered nice variety, and was beautifully presented. I hadn't noticed that the platter included cheese, but the chunks of grana padano were like icing on a deliciously salty cake. The caprese, however, was totally bland. I don't know why anyone even bothers with caprese when their tomatoes aren't top-notch.
The three pizzas that came for dinner made up for the lackluster tomatoes and mozzarella. Ordering the pizzas reminded me of ordering pizza in Brazil. The menus (http://www.viatribunali.com/menu.asp) were in Italian and there were lots of words we didn't know. Also like Brazil, tonno (tuna) appeared on the ingredient list for a surprising number of pizzas. We ended up with the white Salsiccia e Provola pizza, the Quattro Stagioni pizza (which had a curious distribution of toppings, but maybe stagioni means sections?), and the Primavera pizza which had fresh arugula sprinkled on top. All were really tasty. There were so many variations on the menu that I'm anxious to go back and try the rest. It was pretty cool to be surrounded by so many Guidos, too.
Tonight, we're going to be mall-rats and have dinner at Johnny Rocket's before stepping inside the AMC at Pacific Place to watch "300" with Roger and Gina. There are few things I enjoy more than malteds, an obsession that began when I got them once a week at my high school student-run restaurant, and I've been craving a juicy burger like nobody's business.
This weekend isn't yet fully booked, but we do have Easter brunch on Sunday over at Roger and Gina's. No Easter dinner plans, thankfully. Luckily, Saturday is still up in the air, so we'll have time to catch up on shows, finish up the painting and grouting for the fireplace, and configure our egg racers for Sunday!
I usually beg off going out so much in one week's time, but I feel so energized that I'm jazzed about connecting with even more people in the coming weeks. We've got offers out to several people for quality time and quite a few more to make! I am loving entertaining at our good-as-done house, whether it's for a full-blown meal, dessert, or just some time in front of the TV. I think this is what they call Spring Fever... 3月26日 Staccato MissiveGot much much sicker after my last post. Jinxed myself, probably, talking up the herbs. Been sick for over a week now and lazy as a result. Can't even write full sentences. Didn't go in to the office twice last week. Didn't tile the fireplace hearth. Didn't go to the neighborhood cleanup party. Didn't even wake up for t'ai ch'i this morning.
Ate a lot once I got my appetite back, though. Truly feasted at Osteria La Spiga, our new favorite Italian place. Improvised chicken and rice soup for my sick husband. Made ma po tofu with extra ginger and extra garlic. So good and so satisfying as a midnight snack. Made hotpot using Mom's recipe. Yummy! Also ate lazyman's apple pie that I made last night with six, count 'em, six kinds of apples. (Another midnight project spurred by wakefulness as a result of napping during the day.) Should have chopped, not sliced, said apples. Similarly yummy.
Watched Stranger Than Fiction. Well-cast. Tread a tricky line between Will Ferrell as comic actor and Will Ferrell as serious actor. Watched Miami Vice. So unlike the show. Bafflingly bad. Completely unintelligible in so many ways. Gong Li was a mixed bag. Her English "with a Cuban accent? Really bad call. Impossible to understand. But she's still pretty, still a stunner at 41!
(I still can't speak two words without coughing, so I figured I may as well write this the same way I've been forced to talk!) 3月18日 Tetanus, Tea, and Some Naughty-Looking HerbsEarlier this week, I was pretty sure that I might have contracted tetanus. I somehow managed to step on the blade from a utility knife and it cut a hole directly through the sole of my boot, my sock, and into my foot. Yeah, I don't get it either. It wasn't like I stepped on the knife itself. The blade had to have been standing straight up in order to pierce a hole in my boot the way it did. I broke off part of the blade while wresting it out using a pair of pliers. (From my shoe, not my foot.) Even so, what was left of the blade was probably a half inch long. I ended up more pissed about the incursion on my new boot than I was about the minor wound in my tough as nails foot.
The next morning, though, the sore throat and the muscle aches I'd started to feel the day before seemed that much worse. Naturally, I looked up the symptoms for tetanus. In the car, I felt a little feverish, but it was probably just the sun. I didn't feel any worse by day's end, but the next morning my throat felt sore again and my body stiffer. I gave in and took some of the Fervex that's been sitting untouched in my medicine cabinet since my mom picked some up in France last summer and mailed it to us. Unimpressed by the packaging, I was pretty sure it would taste like hell, maybe even worse than Theraflu. It actually tasted great, loads better than Theraflu, mostly because you can mix it with water froide ou chaude and I went with cold.
Thursday morning, I felt no worse than I had the day before, maybe even slightly better. So, I took some more Fervex that night. At work, I felt really feverish. It gets so hot in my office sometimes and the sun was out in full force that day. I thought about taking my sweater off, but before I could get to it, I realized that the sweat felt kind of good. That afternoon, I had a meeting in someone else's office and it was like an oven in there, an interior office with two bodies, probably eight machines between them and the door closed all day. It was intense, but again, the sweat felt kind of good. I got to thinking about sweating the toxins out and remembered how my parents would give me steam baths with Chinese herbs whenever I'd get really sick as a kid. I thought I might be able to achieve the same effect if I went to the gym and sat in the sauna, but I never did make it either Thursday or Friday.
By Friday, my throat was really bothering me so I was coughing intermittently. At this point, I was pretty sure I had a cold or the flu. I'd lost my appetite and was onto my third packet of Fervex. I took the last one with the remains of an open can of club soda.
This morning, the memory of the herbal steam bath was still with me and for good reason. The Fervex had worn off by the time I woke up and I felt like crap. Saturday here at long last, I succumbed to the cold and wallowed in bed reading a chapter on sugar and honey in On Food and Cooking, reasoning that bedrest might do me good. By the time it was nearly eleven, I had to get up. Peter and Robert needed me to weigh in on the fireplace and I needed to find a Chinese medicine shop and quick. When Robert left on a table saw reconnaissance mission, Peter and I left the house in search of Chinese herbs. I warned him the place might smell oppressive, but he wanted to go anyway.
I found "An Dong Thuoc Bac" by searching online. It had an address indicating it was at 12th and Jackson. The name was familiar. I could see a yellow sign with red writing in my mind, but I couldn't remember which side of the street the store was on. As it turns out, it's directly underneath Seven Stars Pepper, our favorite Chinese place. We walked into the shop and I headed straight back to the medicine counter. The guy at the counter looked Chinese and greeted me in English. Not sure I could explain what I needed in English, I bet on the name of the place and took a chance. I asked, "Do you speak Vietnamese?" He said, "Yeah." I asked him to sell me "mot goi la xong", amounting to "one packet of steam bath herbs". They had them ready-packed at the front counter. I had them in hand and paid for well before Peter was done looking at the tea and cold beverages.
Although I would have liked to get started with the steam bath right away, Robert would be back at the house and I didn't think it was all that nice to ask him to work on a Saturday and put up with the smell of Chinese herbs on the stove. So, we made several detours instead of heading straight home. We were dangerously low on t.p. and paper towels so we made a quick Costco run.
On the way back from Costco, Peter suggested I make my inaugural visit to Big John's P.F.I., which I've been wanting to check out since I found out about it last summer. I wasn't able to come along when he'd recently gone there for two cases of Bibi Caffe (an Italian sparkling espresso drink and one of his healthier and more recent beverage indulgences), but he'd come back triumphant, proclaiming the store a place I'd love. He was right.
I had envisioned the place as some big warehouse with a loading dock and full of Mediterranean oldsters, maybe a nonno or young guido behind the cheese counter, but it wasn't like that at all. It was full of foodies. Middle-aged couples calling out to each other, "Look! They have apple tea!" and "Honey, do you want to get some preserved lemons?" The store was great but it made me hate myself a little bit in the usual way. Big John's isn't quite a warehouse, but it certainly isn't Cost Plus either. I made my way down every aisle, but we only went home with a few things. We got two pounds of relatively tame cheese (a pepper-encrusted knob of stilton and a hunk of mahon), Darjeeling tea, and Italian coffee because I've actually already got pomegranate molasses, quince paste, more spices than you can season a whole cow with, and I'd just learned how to fake preserved lemons besides. I'm going to go back and dip into those lovely white buckets of bulk spices one day, though.
After Big John's, we decided we'd also stop at Essential Baking Company for fresh loaves of bread and All the Best Pet Care for calming pheremones for the dogs (long story).
Robert stuck around for a little while longer to finish up the fireplace and then to discuss what we wanted to do about building bookshelves in the media room. He didn't actually leave until four thirty. By then, I'd had two slices of sour white bread with the stilton cheese and two cups of tea for lunch. By the time he walked out the door, I was giddy with anticipation. I put on a large pot of water to boil. I sniffed and admired the herbs. Had my dad not warned me about the white powder/flour included the paper sack of herbs, I might have dumped it and the plastic baggie it came in right into the pot. The powder wasn't so much a powder. It looked more like a misshapen lump of white sugar and it smelled like mentholatum, camphor, and eucalyptus. I didn't need to go digging up my own Tiger Balm-type oil after all.
The mix of herbs was fascinating. It wasn't as strong-smelling as I remembered, just a little "woodsy" until I dumped it into the pot of water. I couldn't tell what any of it was, but there were several different things in the mix: twigs, bark, leaves, something with a still pretty clearly defined cellular structure. It was hard to tell if any of it was lemongrass, but I was pretty sure that's one of the things my parents always included in the steam bath mix.
Prepping for the steam bath was fun. I drew on old memories to help me prepare. I pulled out a cotton camisole and some running shorts to wear during. I pulled out flannel pajama bottoms, a comfortable t-shirt, and a knit zip-up hoodie to wear after. I got together a couple towels: a folded one to sit on, one to put under the hot pads for the pot, and two to wipe the sweat off my body. I decided to use two sets of flannel sheets doubled-up on each other to use as my "tent". They'd be thick enough to trap the heat and steam, but easy enough to wash afterward. I also grabbed the kitchen spoon I'd used to stir up the herbs on the stove. I forgot a hairtie and a flashlight, which proved essential after I dipped one end of one of the towels into the hot water and then burned myself retrieving it from the pot and splashing water onto my thigh in the process. I kept the hot pads I'd used to transfer the pot from the kitchen to the floor of the office close by so I could adjust the amount of steam escaping from the pot, slipping the lid off the pot more and more as it cooled.
The steam bath wasn't as hot or oppressive as I remembered, but then again, I've been in a number of saunas and steam baths since I'd last done this. The air under the blankets (in my own personal "sweat lodge") was pretty thick, though, and it felt good to suck the menthol-laden moisture into my lungs. Like I did when I was a kid, I imagined myself sweating the poisons out my pores and wiped the toxins from my face, neck, arms and legs with appropriate vigor. Mostly, though, I think it's important to do this to keep yourself from getting cold. I stayed under the blankets with the steaming pot of herbs for about a half hour. I was still able to get a decent amount of steam from the pot by stirring it, but after a half hour my back kind of hurt and I was bored, wishing I could maybe read a book or something. And so, I declared it a done deal and threw off the blankets.
I emerged feeling lots better and felt pretty good for awhile after. I had more tea with honey and stayed bundled up in blankets. Now, though, my throat hurts again. The main difference is that I don't feel so congested and my body aches seem gone. I still could probably use a good old-fashioned cao gio ("coining"). I think I just might take a chance trying to explain to Peter how to do it with the edge of a spoon and some Vick's Vapo-Rub later. For now though, I'll just have to put a Salonpas on my throat, drink some more Fervex and call it a night. 3月7日 What Have I Been Up To?I've been busy, so sorry for the lack of posts.
I hosted my mom for a couple days. While she was here, we ate a lot. I learned how to make lau (Vietnamese seafood hot pot), xoi (steamed sweet sticky rice), and cai chua (preserved sour mustard greens). Now that I have a 5-quart jar of it on my counter, I finally feel like a genuine Vietnamese.
I've been cooking other things too. Most recently, I made a pastilla/b'steya (Moroccan chicken and almond pie). It looked gorgeous and tasted pretty good, even if a little dry from overcooking and a little underseasoned for my taste.
I sent Tina off on her European vacation! Ideally, she'll stay on vacation for as long as she planned and not come back because she's worried about getting a job and a mortgage like all us schmoes back here...
A week after Tina left, Peter and I painted her room a lovely chocolate mousse color. I think Peter agreed to the color only because I agreed to paint one of the walls a color called "Fudgecicle", but even he likes the way the color turned out. And to think, we spent all of thirty seconds in the paint department before committing to the colors.
I've also been working. A lot. A big project at work fully eclipsed my mental facilities. In other words, I took on too much and refused to admit it. I turned in something on Monday that I'm not altogether happy with, but at least it's in. Everyone reminds me it's a first draft, but still.
Also, I bought a microphone. Thanks, Gabe. Now you know what I'll be doing for the next few weeks... 1月7日 The Holidays. End Scene.I wonder what percentage of blog entries written during the last and first week of each year are about New Year's resolutions. I wanted to buck the trend by writing about something else, but it's been so long since I last posted that I feel like I should get back into the flow by writing an easy post summing up the past few weeks. I figure this will naturally lead into what I'm planning for the next year.
It was a busy, but restful holiday season. I got a free week off and Peter took some vacation days that same week. It was the same week that Peter's parents came to stay with us this Christmas. They usually like for us to put them up in a hotel downtown, but this time they opted to try out our new guest room. The verdict is that it's a little cramped with a big Labrador sharing the space, but we do have three chests of drawers and a queen-size sleeper sofa in there. I should also mention that Modoc's dog bed was nearly the size of the moon.
It was interesting to have parents around for the holidays. We've spent Christmas at home each year since we got married and this was the first time anyone came from out of town to share it with us. We don't really have a ton of Christmas rituals and I was thinking that they would, but they didn't. We didn't even get around to making that Buche de Noel. Instead, we spent THREE hours opening presents Christmas morning and then the rest of the day eating brunch, cleaning up the house, cooking, and then hosting a small cocktail party. I keep thinking about that cake, but since then, we've been nibbling on the chocolate peanut brittle, peppermint bark, and almond bark. (I made the first two and bought the third from Trader Joe's.)
We paid visits to a couple of our usual haunts (Ray's and Saint-Germain) while the in-laws were in town and revisited one we haven't been to in a long time (Voila). My interest in Voila was renewed. They're not tres authentique, but I'm still thinking about their Moules au Bleu de Gex (mussels in blue cheese cream sauce) nonetheless. We wanted to take the parents to our new favorite sushi place (Shun), too, but didn't find the time. Instead, I got my sushi fix there at lunch the afternoon of the day that they left. I wanted to order the chuwanmushi, a custardy seafood dish, but they apparently only have it on their dinner menu. So, I decided to order the same fish (sablefish in sake kasu) that I'd had the night before at Ray's. I hate to say it, but the $9 preparation at Shun was superior to the $24 one at Ray's. The marinade at Ray's was too sweet and the skin of the fish not charred enough for my tastes.
In the days leading up to New Year's Eve, we hemmed and hawed in e-mail about where to go and what to do. Our top picks included The Alibi Room and School House Rawk. In the end, I was thankful we settled on the familiar and comfortable Twilight Exit. To add to the fun, it was Sunday night and, therefore, Karaoke Night. It was a perfect time. I didn't drink too much and when we showed up around 11, everyone was already there. Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin had Cheers. We have The Twilight.
What closes out the holiday season for me every year is my birthday. Last night, at 8:12pm, I officially turned 28. My mom called me at that exact time to wish me a happy birthday and to reminisce that, on the day of my birth, she was unusually hungry. The afternoon of January 6th, 1979, she was craving McDonald's so she went and ate a "giant" meal of a Big Mac, fries, and a Coke. I wouldn't consider that a particularly big meal, but you should know that my mom was/is a tiny little thing and probably barely made the minimum weight class for boxing even though she was 5'5" and very pregnant with me. Not that she was doing a lot of boxing those days... She'd never told me this story before. I found the story particularly cute, touching, and funny, especially considering that she mostly craved crab legs while she was pregnant with me.
This year, Tina tricked me into revealing what I wanted to do for my birthday. She asked me, ever so casually, what plans I had. At the time, my plans were nebulous at best. "I dunno. I was thinking of just inviting a couple people over so I could cook them dinner. Something easy, but fun. Fondue, maybe." Next thing I know, I've got an evite in my inbox and the party's on. Though Tina commandeered the kitchen, I did my best to insert myself into the party prep.
I was gone most of the day. In the morning, I woke up with a pounding headache from the night before (when we spent our friend Joey's birthday at The Capitol Club). I didn't have any more to drink than usual, but we did stay out until 2am. I had some Excedrin and then opened presents from Peter. Best birthday presents ever: shape-cutters for crafting, a Fisheye circle cutter for our Fisheye lomo camera, Sew U: The Built by Wendy Guide to Making Your Own Wardrobe, Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-shirt, a red print shirtdress, an Xbox 360 wireless controller and controller charging station (to go with the Xbox 360 package I bought him for Christmas), and a brown Zune!
After I opened presents, Peter revealed the day's plans. The goal was to keep me out of the house while Tina got everything ready for the party. First, we would go see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit at The Museum of Flight. I've mentioned it a couple times since the show opened in October, but I never thought anyone was paying any attention! Then, we would loop back to pick up some stuff from the tailor. (I'd scheduled the pickup last weekend.) I used the tailor's proximity to Da Pino to make a special request lunch stop. Then, we'd go to Mutual Fish and pick up sea scallops and Lousiana jumbo prawns for the fondue. If there was time (there wasn't), we'd then go see "Babel".
When we got back, I devised a menu of dipping sauces for the oil fondue and then went to the grocery store for ingredients. Tina planned an elaborate menu (couscous salad, French onion soup, cheese fondue with apples, grapes, and French bread; oil fondue with sirloin, scallops, prawns, and vegetables; chocolate fondue with pound cake, mini cream puffs, and pineapple; and coffee creme brulee), so we had barely gotten everything prepped and assembled come 7pm. Our friends showed up at 7 with five fondue pots between them. We got down to the serious business of eating and drinking soon after. Everything was so good, I thought I was going to explode from all that goodness.
This morning, I slept in really, really late and then laid in bed reading my new sewing book... Which brings me to my New Year's resolutions. Most of all, I want to spend more time this year making things. I spent every night last week making cards and postcards, so I'm off to a good start. I recently bought some yarn and have some credit at Hilltop Yarn, so I want to knit some stuff, too. First up, two neckwarmers that my mom requested awhile back. I also want to sew more. I know some sewing basics, but I've only ever constructed some really jay-vee articles of clothing and pillows. I would love to make my own clothes so I don't spend so much time and money buying clothes that aren't exactly what I want.
I also want to spend a lot of time getting a handle of my worldly possessions. I've got many and I'm starting to feel burdened by them. To start, I'm going to get rid of my extras in the kitchen. During the remodel, I packed up two large casserole dishes that I didn't even know I had. They were two of THREE that are the same size... I've also got lots of clothes that I keep around but never wear. I want to see if I can pare down to the items that I actually want to wear all the time. Then, there's the copious paperwork. I am saddened by all the teasing I get about the useless paperwork I keep. I loathe going through my mail, so I tend to just grab the pile, sift out the pertinent bills, and then set the rest aside for "later". I'm sick of thinking about the tubs in storage that contain reams of college essays, account statements, receipts, and yes, even junk mail.
Finally, I want to go back to kung fu and get in shape in general. We took a long hiatus mid-year because we were so discombobulated by the remodel and haven't been back regularly since. We still do t'ai ch'i on Sundays, but that's not exactly kung fu nor is it cardio exercise. It's also time I admit that I never did run that half-marathon. I got derailed when I injured myself on a six-mile run and then went to Jamaica a week later. When I got home from that island vacation, I guess I brought some of that laid-back island "riddim" with me. I pushed the half-marathon out to November and then let that date come and go too. I enjoyed the swimming we did in Jamaica and would like to incorporate some of that into my gym routine. Which, I guess, means I need to start up a gym routine again. The plan is to quit the Y and somehow accept that I am finally a member of the Pro Club (gag) six and a half years after I first became eligible for a free membership. While I first made of fun of its over-the-topness, I think I'll actually come to like their cardio theater, overwhelming number of weight machines, pools, and the whirlpools, sauna, and steam room in the locker room. The atmosphere and clientele, though? Not so much. Not ever. I resolve to never be yuppie scum. A yuppie? Yes; that seems unavoidable. But being one doesn't mean I automatically have to wear skimpy, coordinated outfits to the gym or sneer and scowl at anyone who doesn't drive a Porsche to the gym. 10月30日 Ghosts of Halloween (Past, Present, and Future)One Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge was visited by three apparitions that taught him some very important life lessons. Although it would have been appropriate, I had no ghostly visitors this Halloween. I did, nonetheless, learn a thing or two.
First - paper beats rock and rock beats scissors, but safety pins and foil beat sewing and clay any day.
I fancy myself a bit of a MacGyver, but my grand ideas almost always far surpass my ability to execute on them. My best invention to date has been duct tape as flypaper-in-a-jiffy. I came up with the idea, but the good people over at Johnson & Johnson did most of the heavy lifting on that one. Failed inventions aside, I still turn my nose up at the idea of buying a kit costume at Halloween. This year, I could have easily purchased any number of kits to instantly transform me into "Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile" but half the fun is in researching, brainstorming, and then putting all the pieces together myself.
I've sewn a few articles of clothing from scratch. Namely: one swingy white New Year's Eve dress and one zebra-print shift for graduation from college. If I could be better at anything, I think it'd be immensely useful to be a better seamstress. I have a hard enough time finding exactly what I want in everyday clothing items that when it comes to finding exactly the right thing for Halloween, I tend to think that making something myself is still easier than losing my shit driving to one store a day everyday in the month of October.
This year, I came up with a design and then verified online that some factory in Taiwan hadn't already turned out the same thing, and then I went to the storage unit to get my sewing machine. It was nowhere to be found. I reconsidered my design and then decided to tackle it anyway. Instead of sewing, I'd artfully drape and then use safety pins and pretty ribbon or rope of some kind. I didn't actually dare to take scissors to the five yards of spinner's cotton until Saturday morning, but it turned out great; better, probably, than it would have if I'd butchered it with a sewing machine.
More important than Cleopatra's dress, though, are her defining headpieces. I saw a Cleopatra headpiece in the display case at the costume shop and almost bought it when I caved and bought my beaded Egyptian necklace and some fake gold bangles. I like to bead, but I make maybe one pair of earrings a year and this necklace was exactly right. The headpiece, though, was both too chintzy and too expensive. Besides, I had done my research and most accounts say that she had a three-headed uraeus. I thought, "Modeling clay. I'll sculpt something to fit my head perfectly and then I'll spray it gold. Piece of cake." Sort of.
The modeling clay was not as easy to work with as I thought it would be. Somehow, I managed to get the cobra head exactly the way I wanted it on my first try, but the part of the headpiece that was supposed to go around my head was much harder to make. I was prepared to explain away its rough-hewn look by saying, "It's thousands of years old, okay?" I started the headpiece Friday afternoon. By Saturday afternoon, it was not quite dry, so Peter aimed a hairdryer at it while I made food for the party.
As night fell, the headpiece started to look dry enough. I gingerly picked it up. It did not slump or otherwise change shape in my heads. So far, so good. I marched toward the bathroom. As I got to the door, I started to place it on my head, ready to admire my handiwork in the mirror. The uraeus I'd worked so hard on promptly shattered into a million pieces. The band on the crown was pretty thin and as it came to rest on my head, the weight distribution was all wrong. I figure that it split at the many weak points. I screamed as it all fell to the ground, but before I even finished absorbing the shock of the moment, I shifted into MacGyver mode. The cobra head and the heads of the two smaller snakes had not been damaged in the fall. Life would still go on. I considered a headband, a sweatband, even the handles on a shopping bag and a section of speaker cable. As I was removing the cobra head from the sweatband, though, it fell. This time, a piece broke off. I quickly made a slip with the clay and vinegar and reattached the piece, but I knew the clay wasn't meant to be.
Peter got dressed and headed to the costume shop on East Pike to look for a new headpiece for me. Meanwhile, I rummaged in the kitchen and came up with foil. It took me about thirty minutes to construct a whole new headpiece. Without the clay cobra head as armature for the foil one, though, I never would have gotten it to work. The foil was lightweight and easy enough to shape. The snakes weren't as well-defined as they had been in clay form, but when my uraeus fell off during the party, I couldn't have cared less.
Second - Nothing is more wasteful than making finger sandwiches with oddly-shaped cookie cutters.
I hate being wasteful. I was one of those kids that thought not eating the crust on your sandwich was a direct affront to those poor, starving children in Africa. That said, I had talked up a storm about the Halloween and fall-themed cookie cutters I got at Target's Dollar Spot, so I decided to make finger sandwiches in the shape of bats, cats, acorns and Frankenstein heads. I went through two loaves of bread. The detritus filled a large mixing bowl. I vowed to eat the unsightly stuff for lunch all this week. Then, I went to the party without putting the sandwich bits full of cream cheese and mayo in the fridge, among other things, in the fridge. I cannot tell you how relieved I was to have a legitimate reason to throw it all out.
Third - At the end of the night, when you're thirsty because you've been into the tequila, beer is not the answer.
I do not normally drink tequila, but when I unpacked the contents of Hoosier during the remodel, I found that we had four bottles of the stuff, three of them half-full. I took some to karaoke last week and then more of it to the party last night. There was only one bottle of J.D., so I decided to start with a margarita. Then, I had another. Then, when I was ready for whiskey, it was all gone. So, I poured myself a Diet Coke. You know, to pace myself. But I set it down for a second and then it was gone. So, I poured myself another, but while I was at the bar, the tequila caught my eye. I thought, "Hey! I bet tequila would taste okay with Diet Coke!" Unfortunately, it did. So I had two (doubles). Later that night, my throat was too dry to sing karaoke, but my song was up, so I quickly swallowed some beer. It helped a little, but the real problem was that I'd kind of lost my voice. No matter, the beer had helped during my song, so I had more. When I got home, I stood outside with the dogs for a few minutes. It was so nice and warm that I went back inside and told Peter that I really, really wanted to sleep on the deck. Could we please? He wisely suggested we not. Then, I got sick. Five minutes later, there was a torrential downpour. Sunday, I was utterly useless.
If you learned something this Halloween, please share so we can all be sure to change our ways and have very pleasant Halloween Futures. 9月6日 Dave and Lauren are married.This weekend, when not performing back-breaking labor at the Kitchen Cabinet Factory of Death, we were busy with wedding festivities for our good friends Dave and Lauren. Friday night, Beth hosted a bridal shower for Lauren. Since it started at 7, I had to beat an early retreat from work. Thankfully, traffic was light because of the holiday weekend. Unfortunately, I still got there later than I had intended because of last-minute shopping. First, I had to make a last-minute stop at Larry's Market for wonton wrappers, orzo, peas, and sundried tomatoes. Then, I stopped in at Cost Plus for mini-muffin pans and a pastry brush. Yes, I still shop there for most things. There's a strong lingering sense of loyalty from the years that I gave to that place; ringing up customers, counting up daily receipts, and cleaning the bathrooms. Yes, folks. If you're ever considering a job as a cashier/bookkeeper at Cost Plus, keep in mind that it's your responsibility as the bookkeeper to clean the bathrooms. Terrible things happen in public bathrooms. Things that will haunt you for the rest of your life... But, where was I?
Ah, yes. Shopping. Lateness. The usual trifles. Anyway, the same party planning crew that pulled off Lauren's bachelorette bacchanalia came together again and helped put the finishing touches on the bridal shower menu. The time I spent at Mark and Beth's the night before was well worth it. I would have had to scrap more than one dish from the menu had I not sliced and diced everything and assembled as much as I could ahead of time. Had I planned better, the orzo would have been assembled, seasoned, and cooling off in the fridge too, and we wouldn't have had to lose anything, but it was a last-minute addition.
Although I'd already shopped and prepped a full menu, I decided the day of, as I am wont to do, that there simply wouldn't be enough food. I especially didn't like that there wasn't anything that seemed like a main dish. All I'd put together were salad and finger foods. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided that wasn't enough. Still, I always want to give everyone lots of options, especially the vegetarians. (I'm a people-pleaser. I'll cook you all the food in the world or "dance" for your amusement. Pick your poison.) The only thing on the buffet table that wasn't vegetarian was the bowl of salami that the carnivores could add to their orzo.
The mango salsa in wonton cups and goat cheese and sundried tomato tartines went over well. Little did I know that tartines are suddenly all the rage on the Seattle restaurant scene. And by all the rage, I mean that Dinette, Saint-Germain, and Sitka & Spruce are featuring them on their menus. Fully without intending to be trendy, I had included two tartine-type items in the spread! The other one was my recurring favorite: fig and gorgonzola crostinis. Expect to see that again when I host book club in October!
I'm sad that I didn't get to make the Stilton, scallion, and "bacon" gougeres I was so curious about, but Beth got to have her own adventure with the cheese mixture I left behind at her place. I thought it was pretty ingenious of me to substitute Bac-o bits for the bacon, but now we'll never know how that would have turned out...
Anyway, the bridal shower was a huge success. Gina put together a marvelous game of Bridal Pictionary, complete with pre-printed cards and her ever-present giant Post-it easel. It's not a party if Gina doesn't show up with those huge sheets of paper... Beth and Gina came up with a very fun edition of the Spice Game. Basically, they put ten different spices and spice mixes from Beth's kitchen into identical containers. We passed the numbered tubes around and tried to guess what each spice was. I didn't expect to do very well, but I guess I use my nose more in the kitchen than I thought I did because I won! (For whatever reason, I don't ever taste-test while I cook so I must be relying on my sense of smell quite a bit.) I got eight of them right, only guessing wrong on basil (I took a stab in the dark and said parsley) and...another one, whichever came directly below it on the list. I wanted Lauren or someone who was not me to win because lord knows I'm not the only one of us who likes to cook!
The bridal shower gave us all an opportunity to get a "major grandma crush" on Lauren's grandma. I also got to meet Lauren's sister and Dave's mom. Dave's mom seemed quiet, but then she really broke the ice when she said, "I couldn't wait to meet you, Beth. Dave told me, 'Beth is crazy.'" Beth later went on to scream, "Self-banging!" apropos of nothing. Actually, I guess it made sense in context, but I no longer remember what that context was. Still funny, though. Not quite as funny, however, as when Lauren's grandma asked during the Spice Game, "Is one of these marijuana?" If the answer had been yes, would she have smoked it? I should have asked. Something tells me she wouldn't have been offended by that question.
The next day, Dave and Lauren hosted a dinner at their house. At least half the wedding attendees were there. I was surprised that they would host that many people the day before their wedding, but they did it in style. There were huge containers of Thai food and cute little pony kegs of beer. I was bitten by some huge mosquitoes on their patio, but for once, I didn't care all that much. Instead, I enjoyed getting to know a bunch of their friends from Terra at Stanford and meeting more of their family members as well as getting to know some of their other friends from Seattle.
The next day, we made it to wedding on time even though we were struggling with the kitchen cabinets back at home right up until 4:30 pm. I had to "iron" my cotton dress by wetting my fingers under our new kitchen faucet and smoothing them over the wrinkles in the fabric, but we still managed to drive down there and find a primo parking spot two blocks down Post Alley from the Library Bistro/Alexis Hotel. I tell ya, there's plenty of parking downtown on a Sunday afternoon. Had we been characteristically late, we might have missed the whole ceremony altogether and I would have missed my opportunity to cry me a river. The tears started flowing pretty much immediately after we sat down and Dave entered the room in rock star style. Lauren was gorgeous. She walked down the aisle too fast for us to snap pictures, but we got to enjoy her the rest of the evening. She had downplayed her dress, but it was beautiful. She looked amazing and just glowed all night. I especially loved the way that the calla lilies in her hair matched the sash's unexpected redness against the purplish brown of the dress.
The wedding was So. Much. Fun. Do the words "open bar" mean anything to you? Champagne and whiskey flowed all night, right into my mouth. Got to be the bartenders even knew I preferred the Clan MacGregor to the Jim Beam whenever I got to the bar. The food was to die for. I am recreating that wild mushroom and potato thing the next chance I get. There was so much food that I never even got to the seafood or prime rib or turkey OR cake because I filled up so early on with the passed hors d'oeuvres and the appetizer platters. I think a lot of people were under the impression they'd be lining their stomachs with only pita and almonds. We were all shocked when the waiters came by and announced the prime rib and turkey. It was like, "Did I just hear you right?? I just ate a half pound of pita bread!"
Dave and Lauren's families are both adorable and total party animals. I never would have expected, but I guess Dave and Lauren had to have gotten it from somewhere. Even Grandma Ritchie from Dave's side was at the reception until midnight!
For the reception, Dave and Lauren indulged the group hobby and rented the karaoke system from SBK. Family and friends alike loved the karaoke, dancing and singing even more enthusiastically than they had with the pre-recorded music. There was the core group of singers and the usual set, including Roger and Gina's best rendition yet of "My Humps". I even saw Dave's sister Allison bouncing and singing along to that as she exited the dance floor. Lots of people were brave and took the mic, including Dave's nephew Alex. I did my best publicizing to everyone who cared to listen that you'd never find a more receptive and supportive crowd if you were going to do karaoke. Even so, I still had to ask Mark to put in "Time After Time" for Meena or she wouldn't have done it herself. Lots of happy slow-dancers to that one, so I'm quite proud of myself for having done it and even prouder of Meena for getting up there! Both sets of parents got up and sang Sonny and Cher together at the end of the night even though Lauren's brother-in-law had told me he'd never heard either one of her parents sing despite the fact that they're a very musical family! The karaoke was infectious! Lauren's parents danced to almost every song, even my first public rendition of "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac. I'm not so sure they danced to "Toxic," though.
I was slap-happy all night. I even danced! A lot! We went to the after-party at the Alibi Room, but not the after-after party because I was no longer drunk by last call. (Also, the music at the bar had gotten me feeling a bit disoriented and overwhelmed.) The reason I was no longer drunk enough to insist that Peter and I go to the after-after party is because the whiskey diet I ordered tasted like garbage whiskey with a splash of Diet Pepsi. Yuck all around. Meena offered me sips of her tequila, but I decided that would be a mistake. She's quite a woman, that one. Vodka martinis all night, followed by tequila shot nightcaps! As we waited outside the bar, Mike also pointed out that we should probably let Dave and Lauren retire for the evening, seeing as to how it was their wedding night and all. They were game to host in their ginormous suite, though, so we headed back to the hotel. On the walk back, Peter and I reached our car and just got in. We knew the Cabinet Factory would be open for business bright and early the next morning and well into the evening, so we bid everyone goodnight and went on our way amid jeers, boos, and hisses.
We didn't make it to the brunch the next morning, but I'm sure we'll be seeing more of the new Mr. and Mrs. soon enough. 8月22日 Houseboat in my HeartThrow together 11 friends who are basically family, more alcohol than you could possibly hold in a bathtub (including three 1.75 liter bottles of Jim Beam), and more delicious food than you could safely eat in a month (including no fewer than three types of sea salt) and what do you have? Houseboat Heaven, I tell ya.
The pre-houseboat hype was incredible. After last year's inaugural trip, we knew what to expect and prepped for weeks beforehand, divvying up the items off the long list we had put together while the trip was fresh in our minds. Bean-o. More Absinthe. Personal koozies. Energy drinks. Emergen-C. Something for the flies. We don't mess around. We tried to be orderly about supplies so we wouldn't come together and find ourselves with no sliced bread, five gallons of olive oil, too much PBR, and not nearly enough hard liquor. So, instead of repeating last year, this year we erred a little heavily on the side of caution. Drinks and food everywhere. Half the kitchen counter was obscured at all times by fruit. I don't think we even ate all four cantaloupes. Snacks spilled out of cabinets. There were TWO shelves devoted to spices.
Needless to say, Houseboat 2006 lived up to the hype and then some. Highlights:
* Water bar complete with floating seats and cooler courtesy of Tina
* Wading pool-cum-multiperson float courtesy of Mike and Emily
* Pentathlon (Team Kobra vs. The Warriors) courtesy of Mike and Emily
* Auxiliary watercraft - a kayak, canoe, and baidarka provided plenty of opportunities for day trips away from the boat
* Slave chains and anklets courtesy of Dirty Old Man Roger
* Temporary tattoos, including my "waffle iron" tattoo, courtesy of Mark and Roger
* Personalized houseboat wifebeaters courtesy of Emily and Gina
* Hardcore gourmet meals, with a special shout-out to Lauren and Dave
* Judy, houseboat sex slave/mascot, courtesy of Mark and Beth
* Jolly Roger courtesy of Mark and Beth
* A surreal trip to the winery, obscure religious lesson included
* Meteor Rave
* Sponge Palace
* do-rags, do-rags, do-rags
What're we supposed to do next year to top this? Hire a masseuse? Maybe a house(boat) band?
My personal favorite days were when we formed the Snow Crash flotilla and when we did the Decathlon even though I had already had one too many bourbon and Diet Cokes and not nearly enough swim practice by the time the competition started. I also liked wearing a do-rag. It just feels right. It must be the ghetto in me. Maybe I can work them into my wardrobe.
I asked for a houseboat to the moon. By all accounts, I'd say I got it. That and some serious butter brain.
Here are some photos of Team Kobra. Thanks to Mike for taking the photos and being our very own Jeff Probst. (We all look pretty good in do-rags, if you ask me).
8月21日 I'm not dead...But I almost wished I was this morning.
I've been on vacation since last Saturday and that's why I've been MIA.
This past Friday morning, I woke up on a houseboat minutes from the Canadian border and six hours from Seattle. That same afternoon, I was on the runway at Sea-Tac, on a plane headed to LAX. Several hours after that, I was cruising down the 405 in a convertible with the top down. I will probably never feel more like a rock star than I did that day.
Eight days of boozing and I'm ready for a vacation from vacation. I'd also like to write some long entries about my sun-soaked and whiskey-laced adventures, but first, sleep. While I do that, you can take a look at some pictures. 6月2日 Camp Lotsa FunLast weekend, we took advantage of the three-day weekend by going camping. It was spectacular. You'd think that our spirits would be dampened by the constant downpour, but they were not. I had so much fun that I can't wait to go camping again.
We all drove out to Twin Harbors State Park early on Friday. Most of us got on the road pretty early and encountered only a little traffic around Tacoma. Not bad considering it was a holiday weekend. Seattleites love skipping town on holidays.
The drive was relatively quick. As we approached Westport, it got sunny and we started to dismiss the forecasts of rain. It being Seattle and all, the rains came. I teased him about bringing it along, but Peter had the foresight to buy a "gazebo" (aka glorified tarp with poles) for $24.99 from TOP Foods. Dave and Lauren also showed up with a gazebo! As such, we were able to construct our very own Tent City! Were it not for Tent City, there wouldn't have been too many happy campers at Camp Lotsa Fun.
We spent nearly all our time under the tent, making only brief forays onto the beach for dog walks, strolls and bike rides around the asphalt loop that connected all the campsites, and short bouts of throwing around the Beam-o. Sadly, no kites were flown due to the rain. We kept a fire going practically the entire time. It produced many smoke monsters, though, so we enjoyed the fire from far away, under the tarps, when necessary. Despite the fact that it was mostly rainy, there was a half hour period there when it was downright hot and we all started stripping off layers. I sat in a camp chair and fiddled with Peter's backpacker guitar while Gina studied for her blue belt test. Dave, Lauren, Mark, and Roger played with the Beam-o. I think Beth rode the bike. And Peter...he was probably fussing with the gazebo, lashing them together more securely, or training/shushing the dogs! After that, it started to rain again.
Everyone brought enough food to feed everyone else. The redundancy was a good thing, too, because Mark and Beth were hit with Encyclopedia Brown's Case of the Missing Cooler Saturday morning. (We all suspected the teenage hooligans in the corner camp, but there was no solid proof aside from their bad attitudes and mad dog stares when Gina tooled past their camp on her bike later that morning.)
We feasted all weekend on beer, Maker's Mark, burgers, hot dogs and cheddar wurst, baked beans in a multitude of "styles", Spaghetti-Os, mushroom couscous, fire-baked potatoes, grilled sweet peppers, shish kebabs (with zucchini, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, crimini mushrooms, yellow onions, beef, and tofu), egg and black bean breakfast burritos, camp potatoes, blueberry pancakes, angel food cake with chocolate frosting and strawberries. In the pseudo-breaks between meals, we snacked on pretzels (peanut butter-filled, honey mustard and onion, and hot buffalo wing-flavored), chips (potato and tortilla), s'mores, Mike & Ikes, Triscuits, Fig Newtons, beef jerky, and even fruit. When I packed a basket of fruit the night before the trip, I declared, "This is how I know I'm a grown-up now. Instead of packing a fruit basket full of chips, I packed a bunch of fruit!" (Smart-ass that he is, Peter replied, "If you had, it would have been a chip basket full of chips...") There was so much food that we never touched half of it, including the well-intentioned instant oatmeal.
Now that we all have loads of gear (new gazebos, camp stoves with 50,000 BTUs, fancy grills) and have perfected our tarp setups, there's going to be a lot of camping this summer. The SUC (sport-utility Civic) is fully equipped for car-camping, but I also want to do some hike-in camping if anyone's up for it. Maybe somewhere in eastern Washington, next time. Camp Lotsa Fun will be renovating: now with more sun, less rain. 5月22日 Another Indulgent WeekIt was a somewhat busy week so I haven't had the time to write it all up as it unfolded. All for the best because I can now provide just one week in review instead of a lot of individual entries.
Last Sunday, Woody invited us to the Seattle Cheese Festival which, in my opinion, is the very best kind of festival. Curiously enough, I had first read about the cheese fest in the in-flight magazine on the way down to Orange County. There's apparently more to those magazines than the crossword and David Spade's top 10 must-sees in Phoenix, Arizona.
Cheese Fest took place on one of those perfect Seattle weekends. It was sunny and hot. It was a bit of a zoo, but we did a good job of sampling as many cheeses as we could reach with our trusty toothpicks. There was the Ewephoria Aged gouda that tasted like the red wine in which it had been soaked, but surprised me with a texture and finish almost like crushed rock candy. Then, there was the Tomme Corse Ottavi cheese made from raw sheep and goat milk that had a pretty mottled rind. It was also partly crystallized, but was saltier, and had a nutty aftertaste. There were countless goat cheese logs, but my favorite was the buttery, melt-in-your-mouth Bûche Maître Seguin from Sevre et Belle. There was also a Stilton from Borough Market Foods so "robust" that I underlined it five times. We took home only a few items that seemed sturdy enough to withstand the heat: the Baby Bella Mushroom jack cheese from Sierra Nevada Organics, a jar of Sweet & Salt from Casina Rossa, and a free Forelle or Comice pear from the Slow Food Seattle table. In the wine garden, I fell in love with the Barnard Griffin Rosé of Sangiovese and had no less than three "tastes".
Peter and I finally returned to kung fu and were extremely happy about the class we chose for our reinitiation. It was a small class (us, two white belts, and two new teen students) and Sifu taught! We worked basics to warm up and then Sifu re-taught us Pinyon 3. The hour passed more quickly than I thought it would.
We meant to come back to class the next day but weren't able to make it home in time. So, instead, I went to the gym, did some BFL-approved weight training and intervals on the treadmill.
When I wasn't at the gym or at kung fu, I was, as I too often am, wrapped up in my stories. It was the second week in a row of season finales for my long list of shows: "The Amazing Race 9", "America's Next Top Model (Cycle 6)", "CSI" and "Without a Trace". Last week's finales were: "Veronica Mars", "Smallville", and "The Office". Still to come: "Lost". Takeaways: I'm glad that the "Frat Boys" didn't win TAR. I'm overjoyed that Danielle won ANTM. I didn't particularly care for either "CSI" or "Without a Trace", although CSI's ending was at least titillating because it was at once totally unexpected/unlikely and predictable. WAT had major flaws throughout and a cop-out ending. It was at least amusing to see an overweight and middle-aged Brandon Walsh. Last week was better. I'm still struck by what an amazing actress Kristen Bell is and how clever the writers of VMars are. Now that Lex has finally turned, the 6th season of "Smallville" should be pretty interesting. "The Office" hinted at a number of possible plot twists that it ultimately didn't take, but did follow through on the one you would expect, ending in a way that leaves it wide open to speculation about what happens next. "Lost" followed through on those expository narratives that the producers promised viewers via EWeekly and looks to end with still more. About friggin' time.
With most all our stories behind us, Peter and I finally got through two of our Netflix, "Raising Arizona" ("I love him SO much!") and "Kangaroo Jack" (...don't ask). "Raising Arizona" is one of those movies that everyone else has seen but which Peter and I both somehow managed to miss during college. Holly Hunter is comic genius and Nicolas Cage is oddly appealing with that bleached out, flyaway hair... Prevailing observations about Kangaroo Jack were: yes, the guy from "My Secret Identity" is banging Rebecca Romijn; Estella Warren looks puffy, and the CGI kangaroo's not half-bad. The movie was altogether perplexing. Why, for example, do they play a hip-hop riff whenever the title "character" comes onscreen? And why did they market a movie about two guys engaged in their own murder-for-hire as a kids' movie? Last of all, why does Beth's dad like this movie? Actually, I can see how Beth's dad might like this movie.
Tonight's attempt to watch "In America" was foiled by a badly scratched DVD. I'll still get to return all three discs like I had hoped to do, but it sucks that one we get in return will be one that we've already let sit so long. Actually, all three had been sitting around for months as we lingered over the TV line-up. This time of year, we usually careen right through our Netflix queue, as I'm sure the rest of America also does. I'm pretty sure that Netflix makes most of their money during those slow months when everyone's dutifully paying their monthly dues while still glued to their TV programs and renting no new DVDs.
Today was full of highly caloric diversions. After an especially good t'ai ch'i class, Peter and I joined Beth and Mark at lunch. We meant to have brunch at Geraldine's, but couldn't handle the wait so we ate at Columbia City Ale House. I was really pleased with my Reuben. Peter was less enthused about his chile verde tostadas, but took comfort in the last few bites of my sandwich. Sloppy stew's got nothing on cheesy bread and shaved meat.
Not long after we got home, the ladies got gussied up and went to afternoon tea at Hotel Sorrento. It was a fun, unusual, and highly caloric diversion. We each got to choose one pot of tea which we all took with cream. I thoroughly enjoyed sniffing the bottles of dried tea leaves and was miffed that we couldn't actually sample a variety of teas. We did however, get to nibble on three towers of treats (two to a tower). Decorating the top tier were miniature sweets: peanut butter cookies with an actual dollop of peanut butter on top, fluffy madeleines, bittersweet chocolate cookies dusted in powdered sugar, chocolate and lemon "truffle" cookies, lemon-glazed shortbread, berry tartlets, and profiteroles. In the middle, savory mini pie crusts with salmon, ham, and curried chicken and apple salads and a cucumber cup with some sort of celery slaw. All were good, but the curried chicken was the best. Lauren got a vegetarian blue cheese and grape one that sounded really good. Anchoring the tower, quite literally, were giant cherry and walnut scones. Those things must have weighed a half pound apiece. They was just the right texture, though, and pure decadence dressed with strawberry jam and Devonshire cream. I felt like I was carrying a stone around in my stomach afterward, but taking tea is not something I expect to do often, so I'm glad I indulged.
If anything, it's at least made me look forward to getting back on my pseudo-BFL and EFL routine. There's nothing quite like a meal that's two-thirds cream to make you crave fresh vegetables and protein. Now, if only I could find something that would make me crave going to the gym...
We spent the rest of the week prepping for our camping trip. Against our better judgment, we're bringing the dogs. Hopefully, they prefer romping on the beach to tussling with the other dogs or barking at other campers. Whatever happens with the dogs, we'll be traveling and camping in style. Peter took out the back seat to his hatchback and created a carpeted, flat space that we'll use to transport our gear (We recovered from the storage unit: never-before-used tent, camp chairs, chest cooler, and the beloved Beam-o) and the dogs. Peter also got a trailer hitch installed so that we can bring bikes!
Tonight, we set up the tent and found that it took up a good deal of the livingroom. It's no palace, but it could definitely sleep four very good friends in a pinch. It was an idiot-proof setup, too. We even went so far as to inflate the Aero-Bed inside and confirmed that there's more than enough room for me to sleep next to the Aero-Bed on a Thermarest should I so choose. I'm neither fond of the weird pockets on inflatable mattresses nor am I fond of waking up with an achy, sweaty shoulder because the damn mattress deflated in the night. I LOVE sleeping bags and would much rather just sleep in one on a more solid, less slippery surface. I'm pretty excited about this camping trip and will probably spend the rest of the week dreaming up more and more things to bring along. I'd prefer to sleep, but I did drink about two gallons of tea today. (One-and-a-half at teatime, and another half at dinner...) 1月31日 Weekend of DiscoveryI didn't think it could be done, but we had a weekend without a moment's rest and we never had to get too manic to achieve all that fun. We got an early start, what with Peter's birthday being on Thursday and all.
The two of us had a mini-Bataan Death Dinner (TM) at Rover's on the day of, but we also got together with friends on Friday. When Peter described his ideal bar (full bar, music that's not too loud, and no smoking), Mike recommended 611 Supreme. It was perfect. You'd think that this kind of bar is easy to find, but we never seem to go to any like that, so this was a revelation... We'd been there for crepes, but had no idea they also hosted a bar. The bar is pretty small, but Mike and Peter were eagle-eyed scouts and scored us two nice corner tables over the course of the evening.
Saturday, I woke up unusually chipper and excited about the day. I had just tossed some pates chauds in the oven, when we got a call from Gina inviting us over for brunch, our first meal at their new house! While waiting for the meat pastries to be done, we watched an episode of Arrested Development, our television series du jour. I can't believe we're just now watching this brilliant show...
Brunch was a veritable feast. I don't even know if any of our brunches back in the El Cerrito days were that big. Roger and Gina had leftovers from the lamb roast they made the night before and Gina had the genius idea of cutting it up and putting it into omelettes. I can't believe I've discovered that my favorite kind of omelette is one stuffed with roast lamb and onion; that's not something one is likely to have very often. In addition to the hefty omelettes, Gina made French toast with challah bread, baked up some Crispy Crowns, and halved some juicy grapefruits. This meal sustained me all day. I didn't eat again until FPH that night.
We spent the whole afternoon checking, re-checking, and groaning about the dismal weather on the traffic cams. The sky was ominous and the roads seemed nearly deserted because of all the snow up in the mountains. We were pretty sure that John and Woody would call off that evening's snow-tubin' trip because the road conditions were so bad. At 3, though, we got word that the event was a go and we scrambled to get home and find some snow-appropriate gear.
As it turns out, snow-tubing is the best snow "sport" ever! Thank you John and Woody for celebrating your birthday in a way that was possibly even more fun for your guests than it was for you! I'm not into snow sports (they're expensive hobbies to get into), but I could commit to snow-tubing every day. At the end of the night, I thought I had tubed all the different ways you could possibly tube, but people kept pointing out other ways, giving me all the more reason to go back.
I was completely giddy. It didn't matter that the snow was at times like hail and pelted my cheeks so hard down the slope that I got a little wind-burnt. It mattered more that I was sweating like a pig. I'm rarely cold, so I don't know why I dressed so warmly. I had on six layers, not counting underwear! I looked pretty ridiculous with my top three layers (snow/ski jacket, puffy vest, and track jacket) unzipped. After tubing, a bunch of us went to FPH before continuing on to the after-party at the Roper Ranch. I had my usual chicken fried steak. I can't help it. I love steaks of dubious quality that are breaded and cooked like fried chicken and then smothered in gravy. I don't know why I'm so obsessed with chicken fried steak lately.
On Sunday, we went over to Roger and Gina's (again!). Peter needed to help Roger build some gates and I decided to use the time to walk the Seward Park loop with the dogs. As I was walking back towards the house, or rather, was being jerked uphill by the pups, I ran into Gina. She had picked up lunch for everyone: paninis, pasta salad, and croissants from Remo Borracchini's!
The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the food we've had at Roger and Gina's is a sly form of bribery... I've been moaning a lot about how far they are from us now: 5.8 miles! At the same time, we've been over to their house more since they moved than we did when they were just a mile away. The discoveries in this case are that the pitifully long drive is worth it when you have such good friends at the end, that cruising along the lake is mood-enhancing, and that we get to eat like royalty when we see them.
Lunch wasn't the same production that brunch was the day before, but we barely had time to recover before going over to Brian and Juanita's for dinner. This was the third day in a row that we'd be seeing them! It's been really nice to have them back in town again.
To inaugurate their new dining chairs, Juanita treated us to a wonderful meal. She's in culinary school and it shows. The meal was well-plated, coordinated, decorated with couli and all. The main dish was a pan-seared filet mignon served with blue cheese and a balsamic glaze. Steamed baby carrots dressed in a light honey/brown sugar sauce, broiled green beans, and a romaine salad with slivered roasted almonds, dried cranberries, blue cheese, and a red wine vinaigrette perfectly complemented the meat. Dessert, however, was the piece de resistance: Meyer lemon tarts with a pine nut crust and raspberry couli. The tarts were mindbogglingly good. The entire meal was made with ingredients from Pioneer Organics. I basically went and signed up with them this morning without giving it a second thought. I give everything a second thought. I can't wait to see if this produce delivery thing works out for us.
I wish it was always the weekend and that every weekend could be this nice. 12月19日 In need of a liver transplantI haven't been a regular at-home drinker since we moved from Montlake. Thank goodness. In those days, we used to kill a bottle (magnum?) of wine between the two of us on a nightly basis. Since then, I don't drink as much, but I have made the switch to the "harder" stuff for when I do drink.
I have this tendency to forget that I should not drink whiskey like it's water UNLESS I've been practicing. For me, the holiday season is a crash course. This weekend, I attended parties on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. On top of that, Peter and I stayed out until 3am on two of those occasions!
I started the weekend off early and with a bang. I didn't plan to drink much because this was a subdued affair at Peter's boss's house, but I ended up having several very full glasses of whiskey eyeballed by my hosts. An after-party run to McDonald's saved my ass.
Mark and I rallied for Mike's birthday on Thursday while Peter and Beth did the smart thing and left before everyone headed over to the second venue of the night. I woke up later that morning to hurl the previous evening's dinner of butterscotch cookies, martinis, and whiskey diets. If I had eaten something more substantial, I probably would have been okay because I know I had more to drink on Wednesday night.
Then, Friday, was Peter's big work holiday party, traditionally a night of serious bacchanalia. Ever since drink tickets were implemented, though, we've scaled back. (Frankly, it's better that way because I'm no longer sobbing or otherwise having bizarre, uncontrollable emotions at the end of the evening. Aren't you glad? I know I am.) Drink tickets be damned, though, because I still had four glasses of Courvoisier. It was hard to pass up because no one else seemed to be drinking it (except for Roger). With all the practice earlier in the week, I managed to not get drunk. It used to be that I would consider that something of a failure, but I've learned that it's important to drink enough to be energized enough to go out to karaoke afterward!
After all this, Saturday was really the day for which we'd all been waiting. Everyone was excited about witnessing Beth's fabled 110%. We hydrated and caffeinated with Roger and Gina at Seven Stars Peppers before heading out. Against my worse judgment, I stuck to whiskey diets all night. As much as I like whiskey over ice with just a little club soda, drinking like that puts a hurting on me the next day. I'm proud to say that I even stopped drinking after last call and felt great at Tai Chi the next morning!
In the days leading up to the big New Year's Eve party, my liver would like a mini-break. But, just so I don't get out of practice, I think I'll pull from the book my Secret Santa gave me and enjoy some fruity, easy drinking before I make friends with the champagne fountain and Bond Girls bartender the Saturday after next. Oof. I'm a little bit scared just thinking about it. 10月10日 What the weekend left in its wake...A surprising amount of crap still in the basement. We had a garage sale, but didn't prepare with the same intensity and focus we had intended. So, a lot of stuff that should have been in the sale was left out, especially in the beginning, when garage sales are most frenzied. I see another garage sale in our future.
I didn't fully keep my promise that everything that didn't sell would never re-enter the house, but I didn't fully break it either. There were items that I had planned to sell on consignment or on eBay that I really thought I could at least make a little money on. I snuck that handful of items back in. Also, we had some VHS tapes that didn't sell that I'm going to ship off to the ranch. The TV, futon, and oak dining table also came back in for repurposing later.
Money! Peter and I made $188 at the garage sale! After you account for the cost of the moving truck rental, it doesn't seem like a lot of money, but it's more than we make on a typical Sunday! When you factor in the amount of money we save by not renting an additional storage unit (no small sum), we'll be making virtual money off this garage sale for years to come!
Tina and Dave and Lauren did better overall, considering the relatively small quantity of items they put out. (34.50 and 74.50, respectively.) I surmised after the fact that we probably could have made more if we had implemented a blanket policy of "everything for a dollar" and then had people buying in larger quantities. We ended up hauling a lot of loot to Goodwill.
Myriad aches and pains. I have injuries that I can't account for. My left hand currently doesn't close or pick up things properly. The source of the pain seems to be my middle finger, but I can't tell if I sprained it or bruised it. All I know is that the base of the finger hurts, all the way into the palm of my hand. I also have small cuts on my right arm and a deep soreness along the underside of that forearm. I have a blister on one of my toes and achy feet in general. It begs the question: why am I wearing the same shoes again today?
Food baby. Saturday was Mark and Beth's "Seattle Iron Chef" party. It's rewarding, but overwhelming, when your friends are all extremely talented cooks. The theme ingredient was pumpkin and everyone brought impressive entries. In one evening, I ate, in the following order: lime-chili toasted pumpkin seeds, sea salt and ginger toasted pumkin seeds, pumpkin fluff with cinnamon graham crackers, pumpkin waffles with root beer syrup, Japanese pumpkin salad with fresh beans, chestnuts, and black sesame seeds, pumpkin stuffing, lamb brochettes with pumpkin and chipotle marinade, pumpkin empanadas, pumpkin polenta with sauteed spinach and braised pumpkin, pumpkin-filled ravioli in a hazelnut cream sauce, pumpkin and pork stew, Thai red curry with pumpkin, peas, peppers, and bamboo shoots, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin creme brulee with chocolate shavings, and pumpkin pie. I got the "pumpkin sweats" early on and left the party in a pumpkin coma, pregnant with a pumpkin food baby. 3月29日 Weekend in ReviewThis weekend, my in-laws came to town. They hadn't been here since they came for our wedding in August 2002. Ever since then, we've kept track of things they'd enjoy seeing or doing and restaurants that they would like. Needless to say, it was a busy weekend as we tried to pack in two and a half years' worth of Seattle's bests. We didn't hit up everything, but I still managed to come up with lots of material to draw on for my posts for the rest of the week. A summary of the itinerary:
We're very proud of our little city and there was plenty more that we wanted to show off to them. Hopefully, we have convinced them to make more trips out to see us. My rough estimation is that I consumed 20,000 calories this weekend. That's a lot. |
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