Author: Rachel

Today I flew to Puerto Vallarta via Salt Lake City. I landed mid-afternoon. We were pretty low-energy, so we had dinner within the resort (in what I called Our Palapa) and hung out in the sunshine.

In the afternoon, we went to Mr. T’s parents for his niece’s birthday party. She also scored with the Barbie Dream House.

In the evening, we had our Through the Looking Glass discussion at Captain Amy’s.

Mr. T & I capped the evening off with the Mad Men finale with Misty, Chris & Jason. The season went so fast, but ended so very well. Mr. Sepinwall dissects the finale here: “Shut the Door. Have a Seat.”

Of teen comedies, a precious few stand a cut above the rest. Bring it On is one such gem — a late-90s oeuvre of SoCal high school cheerleaders. Keaver heard one of us hadn’t seen it, so this provided him the perfect excuse to have our gang over for brunch-time waffles and BACON, Halloween leftovers, and a viewing of the full trilogy. (Oh yeah, there’s more than one.)

Between the lazing about and talking, it took us 5 hours to finish the first movie. I snapped this view of the Needle during intermission.

Today was low-key but it couldn’t have been more perfect — spending time with some of the best people I know. I felt extraordinarily grateful to be there and felt more at home with Seattle today than I have in years. True story.

This is a good life to be living.

Tonight was my ol’ roommate’s 8th annual 29th birthday karaoke. Traditionally, the Friday after her birthday is always karaoke at the Kona Kitchen. I suspected I’d have fun, but I couldn’t have predicted at the start I’d end up covering George Michael’s Faith. There was even a Journey singalong, followed by a boy band reunion.

The boy band ringleader serenades the birthday girl.

Today is a first ever guest photo, sent along by Mr. T.

One of our favorite neighborhood places is the Latona Pub. Mr. T suggested we stop on our way home. The restrooms have chalkboards inside (graffiti deterrent?) — he joked he discovered my guerrilla marketing campaign. As if!

It made me laugh, so I asked him to go back and take a picture with his iPhone.

I’m glad they spelled it right.

This week is motomotoyama’s 8th Annual 29th Birthday Week. Today was her birthday proper and my half-birthday! I like how that works out. Tonight, we carried on the fine tradition of her Santa Fe Cafe Birthday Wednesday. Sidebar: in 10 days, she and I will be in Mexico. Oh, hooray!

Once upon a time, I lived with her and her younger brother. As demonstrated here by his “blinders”, he’s not so big on my paparazzi ways. (Check out Mr. T’s hat in the lower right! He just got it Saturday & wears it EVERYWHERE.)

P.S. I had the shrimp, the first thing on the Appetizer menu. GET IT if you go to Santa Fe.

Tonight, I went to Foodportunity. It’s billed as a networking event for those in the food industry. I’m not in the industry. I am not so big on the schmoozing nor am I angling for anything new. But, this was as painless as it gets if you were need such a venue — Keren Brown did a great job. Everyone met someone new. There were vendors serving food and showcasing wares. This was the draw for me, who lives to eat well. And I saw friends I haven’t in weeks — equally as compelling as food.

At one point, I tried the pulled pork with jalapeno coleslaw on a white trash biscuit from Lunchbox Lab. OMG, people. This was my favorite. I must have that again.

I wanted to take more pictures of the neon in the hood afterward. But after my first light-test shot, spotted a young lady lighting up her “pipe.” I skedaddled my way out of there. Poor Belltown. It’s hit the skids.

Today we stayed in the hood. For Brunch, we walked up to Hudson where I had their Benedict in a vain attempt to recapture one I had a month ago. Ah well. The mission continues.

Chrissy, the Sacred Cow, and Geraldine, the Vulcan
We had plans at Keaver’s for Halloween. At first I wasn’t going to dress up. Then earlier in the week, I threatened to go as Twilight’s Bella for Halloween (lazy route). All I’d have to do is wear black and sigh a lot, you know, like when I was 16. I couldn’t convince Mr. T to wear glitter or powdered sugar, as my vampire Edward.

Instead, this afternoon we went to a nearby costume shop where I picked out a 1930s gown to go with his 1930s gangster gear. The shop hooked us up with all kinds of accessories. Most notable: the two vintage silver fox…so that was different. I got used to it, quickly.

Before the party, we went out to dinner with Geraldine & Rand at Anchovies and Olives. It was marvelous. Oysters, bigoli, prosciutto & figs, clams, foccacia, soft-boiled eggs (try them!), strozzapretti, and a hamachi crudo. Oh, it was marvelous.

Rocky’s influence has been strong this week. A casual mention when I saw him at BOM put Oliver’s Twist back on my radar. Mr. T & I took the longer way home from work, stopping at OT in Phinney Ridge today.

Wicked awesome: Bleu cheese bacon stuffed dates with marcona almonds and warm tomato vinaigrette. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while.
Very Good: Bucheron chevre with figs, walnut bread croutons, and truffle honey. I am avoiding bread temporarily, but made an exception. Worth it.
Okay: Fingerling potatoes cooked in duck fat. Met expectations.
Not so good: I think Mr. T’s first cocktail made him a little sad. I think it was a Seelbach? We suspected the cava made it too sweet. His Sazerac perked him right back up, though.
Hrm: our tomato cappuccino with grilled cheese sandwich was forgotten. We were hoping to compare contrast with our beloved Latona Pub’s Grilled Cheese + Tomato Bisque. Ultimately, such oversight was okay. We were ready to head home and end this long week. And it started to get really busy by the time we left — it seemed like our waitress covered half the place on her own.

We’ll be back. This place has a great happy hour.

Mr. T & I made it to our first Sounders FC game tonight at Qwest Field, thanks to his season ticket-holding colleague. We rode down to SoDo with sprizee & her Dude and kicked things off right with dinner from Marination Mobile next to Safeco Field.

The final score was a draw — the high point the goal, the low point moments after, when the ref rescinded based on a foul call halfway down the field. Fiddlesticks.

Never a total loss as the people-watching was good and we came across this dude on our way back to the car:

As it happened, our man Rocky looks like he was sitting directly behind sprizee & her mayn. Evidence. I’d recognize that white hat anywhere!

I spent most of today (something like 18 hours) sleeping off the last parts of a cold, but tonight ventured out for Mary Poppins at the Re-bar. A risky endeavor to see my favorite childhood Disney movie skewered by a comedy troupe, but I left with my love of Mary Poppins intact.

Sadly, I left with less love for The Brown Derby. I chalk this up to the sound mixer failing to realize how piercing the music was or how much it drowned out the actors. It was distracting and I know it pissed off other patrons around me.

It’s been over six months since I joined in the Burger-of-the-Month outing, but tonight stars aligned & I went along to visit West Seattle’s Shadowland. The burger was excellent, cooked to order (and they listen) with option of bacon, cheddar, brie, or an egg. We approved. This place has a good grilled burger. Downside: weak bun. Also, I was freezing nearly the entire time.

From the eclectic menu and onto my plate: scotch eggs, mac & cheese, 3-cheese poutine, and fried pickles. The scotch eggs were a tidge dry but okay with the spicy mustard; the mac & cheese was delicious, respectable and the cheese never turned gummy or chalky; the poutine was decent until it seized in the frigid room; and fried pickles were as good as it gets anywhere and my favorite of the evening. There were spam sliders floating around, but I left those to Rocky et al.

Prior BOMs recorded ’round these parts:
Pig and Whistle
Latona Pub
Spur
All month I wished I’d made it to last month’s Spring Hill, but learned it’s not their strong suit anyway. Next places I plan to try in WestSea but not for their burgers: Buddha Ruksa, Spring Hill, & La Rustica.

At the dinner hour, I stepped outside to catch the last bit of sun. I was a little too late.

In related news, I hear Sunday is the end of Daylight Savings Time. BOO.

Busy Saturday – first up, the Gourmet Wake at Kim Ricketts‘s home. Everyone shared their Gourmet stories and reminisced. There were goodies from 60+ years of the magazine everywhere you turned. Pictured above is Viv’s fantastic apple pie. Jon Rowley taught us to shuck oysters. We met the regal border collie Daisy. We saw old friends, met new people — struck up a convo with a couple who used to live in Louisiana, not far from where I grew up, & who happen to know Mr. T’s parents. Small world!

More in the Gourmet Wake set here.

We left to head to Julie’s annual pumpkin carving party. En route, we saw a very good friend standing on a street corner with some other ladies. (…that probably sounds wrong. It’s not like that, she was just getting fresh air.) She happened to be the former soccer team captain from the team where Mr. T and I met. After some quick I miss you! We’ll talk! we arrived at Julie’s. It may be beginner’s luck, but I may have also found my calling.

Pumpkins in the Flickr set here.

On 65th in Greenlake, heading towards Ravenna
I took the long way home to get some Fall pictures. Few turned out, and I’m feelin’ crabby about it, but maybe that just means I’ll try again tomorrow.

This morning, I stumbled across this house in Greenlake/Ravenna, on my way down to Boeing Field. They had a pumpkin brigade and a yard full of skeletons. I wish I knew these folks.

The lower caption reads: my husband is soooo cheap.

Planets sure aligned this week to help me getting stuff done. Resolved a long overdue issue with my MacBook — replacing the keyboard, mouse, and crumbling cover under AppleCare. I feel so much better.

Herein I salute the American ingenuity of one-stop shopping. I love a great farmer’s market as much as the next NYTimes-reading, Prius-driving*, latte-swilling, arugula-munching elitist, but convenience is a relief, even for those who have some notion on finding virtue or salvation via shopping habits. (A modern day version of purchasing indulgences, if you will?)

So very tired. A little stressed by the day thing but had some outside business to attend to. Embarrassingly long overdue visit to pick up an Rx. Watch battery’s been dead for 2 months. Needed (oh come on, wanted) to pick up the final Gourmet issue. On a 2-week, pre-holiday sugar & bread avoidance to curb my escalating sandwich & dessert habit; needed rabbit food (i.e. lettuce). Needed to take a quick snap of the awesome rays as the sun set. Resolved all my first world problems in one fell swoop — 15 minutes, tops — by stopping at the nearby Big Box. So very grateful.

P.S. I don’t drive a Prius. Or drink lattes.

Tonight I attended a small debate between the two Seattle mayoral candidates. I was handed this at the door. Haven’t read it yet, but noted the shout-out to Hope. Smart, in this city.

The days are getting so much shorter — while waiting for Mr. T to meet me to head home, I grabbed this shot of the Burke-Gilman in Fremont.

Tonight is Mer’s birthday at Oddfellow’s!