Mr. T’s colleagues were spending time at the Fremont Ballroom this evening, so I met up with them.

Some modern hippies & were hangin’ out nearby in front of the neighborhood funeral home, in their schoolbus.

Tonight, I had a meeting on the 75th floor of the Columbia Tower.

This club is legendary for similar views from the club’s Ladies Room.

10 years sure flies by. (Uh, not really.) Given recent trips to the Great White North we had a little less time for this year’s required renewal.

The gubmint warns that expedited passport service can take 3 weeks. In my case with an expedite everything request, this took under 1 week.

Tonight, dinner with friends & The Gastrognome family! Seder season! (Am I allowed to say that?)

Tonight, we had two birthdays to celebrate: the first gathering was at a local basque restaurant for our dear friend Kate. We had an epic meal of probably a dozen courses. It was wonderful to visit with old friends.

Our second celebration took place on the other side of downtown, in honor of The Admiral’s 16th human birthday. Mr. T got him the cutest sidekick.

The guest of honor passed out shortly before we left.

My friend Melissa had some of us over to watch Love Actually in her new place. This is her pup, Missy, all dolled up for the evening.

Found in the workplace kitchen. I had to borrow it for the day.

Today was lovely, so I grabbed lunch from Marination Mobile to sit by Fremont’s ship canal. This prowler was on his way to Alaska.

It was harder to find shade — so many removed tree stumps remain.

Someone suggests a conspiracy:

But, given city subsidies for the last few years for tree planting, I’m guessing something was wrong with them & the trees went to save others nearby. Does anyone know?

Remember how I worried my slacker winter gardening would yield zero results? Well, they’re doing splendidly for tulips planted 2 months late.

Mr. T & I had lunch with his parents at one of our tried and true: the Latona Pub. I took care of more post-wedding errands in the afternoon, done in time for a dinner walk over to Greenlake’s new place: The Pour House.

I’d read yelpy reviews & braced myself for a repeat of a recent bad experience at another new place. I’m relieved to report we had a fun dinner with great service, assembled from the $5 happy hour plate menu: jamaican jerk chicken, crab spring rolls, pork sliders and calamari with wasabi sauce. The sliders were right, the jerk chicken spicy with this mango salsa salad thing going on, & the crab rolls were bolstered by sweet chili sauce. That calamari was an unexpected hit; we’ve only really loved it like this in Greece. Mr. T enjoyed them even more than I did. So in the interest of marital harmony, I let him have most, including the last one. 🙂

Some places just dial it in and produce filler during that happy hour time zone, but tonight’s offerings demonstrated why these dishes are on menus in the first place. When done well, they’re so satisfying. It’s not a destination for most Seattle-ites. But for those in walking distance, it’s worth the patronage. And it’s only opening week.

Then we walked home in the early evening sunshine, pleased we have the Spring and Summer ahead of us.

Springtime! In celebration, we walked to Pies and Pints for dinner.

As I’m still not 100% this month (thanks to a variety of ailments plus wrapping up wedding errands), here’s hoping this Spring’s rejuvenating.

Every Spring, we get our surprise grape hyacinths in the backyard – surprise as in, Mr. T asked me this morning if I planted these this year. “Nope, they came with the house – they reappear every year. Don’t you remember?” I never knew of them ’til I lived in our home and then I learned their name from this query on flickr.

In other news: tonight, dinner with most excellent friends. Excited!

Tonight, we preemptively celebrated an old friend’s birthday on The Hill at Moe’s. I was impressed overall — by Moe’s service on an Amateur Night such at St. Patrick’s Day — but most especially by the fish & chips served from the neighboring Pike Street Fish Fry. I’ve missed the old Frites shop but have been remiss at visiting its new replacement.

I’m always a fan of team lunch in the ID! Today, we visited Sea Garden after a teammate waxed so poetically of the honey walnut prawns. They were a hit. We also had salt & pepper squid, pea vines, tofu hot pot, hot & sour soup, salt & pepper pork chops, & some sort of chicken chow mein. My favorites were the squid and the pork chops, as I’m a sucker for that fried garlic and jalapeno — but that sauce on the chow mein had several of us going back for seconds & thirds.

A side effect of following Agile methodology of software development has translated into a lot of desk-space moves over the last year. (Five. On 3 different floors.) This morning, I moved back to a space five feet from one I had a year ago. VERY glad to see the ships again.

Late last night, we discovered The Baron got himself into another scrape. So, today’s feature: an emergency visit to the Sunday vet. Good times!

I got all caught up to the weekend of the wedding, but some other errands are in the way. In the meantime, we are readjusting to Seattle Winter Life, since the rains finally arrived.

Stay tuned for more published entries down the line for prior dates. Hopefully this weekend.

This little dog was patiently awaiting its Master as he shopped in the PCC. It’s a regular dog parking lot scene in Fremont but this was the most obedient I’ve seen, which I attribute to age. Other times, I’ve seen unleashed dogs roam into the deli, looking for their people. And barking and causing mayhem.

Tonight, we took a ferry to the San Juans’ Orcas Island to stay at Turtleback Farm Inn for the weekend. We chose the Orchard House. The sailing was blessedly uneventful and we arrived at the Farm shortly afterward. These daffodils greeted upon arrival.