Author: Rachel

I ran 20 miles this afternoon, after packing and before driving down to Portland, where Mr T’s good friend lives. This is Matthew’s Beach in northeast Seattle, conveniently located on the Burke-Gilman.

Weekend plans include a wedding and a visit to Ashland, OR.

Sprizee‘s dude had a birthday a few weeks ago. Other events conspired against a surprise party then, but we made up for it tonight.

I’ll say it again: Simply Desserts in Fremont is wonderful. We had the truffle chocolate cake to celebrate with the Copper Gate’s Scandinavian fare.

This afternoon, I took care of errands for my friend’s upcoming wedding. Tonight, I biked for an hour through Ravenna, up the Burke-Gilman trail, then back home via Viewridge.

The sun is setting earlier and earlier…but my neighbor’s flowers are still rallying.

Early afternoon, I ran a dozen miles. Late afternoon, I visited the Aveda place on Capitol Hill. I spotted this in a rush to an ATM.

In the evening, motomotoyama, Mr. T’s coworker & his wife came over to BBQ. We never made it to the games but they all stayed a good long while for conversation.

Many of the best friends I’ve had in Seattle have been co-workers at some point. Tonight, we had a farewell gathering at the Fremont Ballroom, for a very good old friend of mine. I’m pretty sad to see her go.

A few months ago, during training for the Whidbey Half — an event in which this friend participated by walking — I listened to On Beauty by Zadie Smith. I remember being at the end of an eleven mile run near Laurelhurst, and stopping in my tracks, when the narrator dropped the line “…he didn’t realize…Time is how you spend your love.” Indeed.

I’m pretty beholden to my blackberry scheduling system where I prioritize tasks and whatnot with shocking fanaticism. I find myself ridiculously concerned with meeting self-imposed deadlines. Yet, when I heard of this gathering, I cleared the decks for the evening and posted all tasks ahead, completely devoted to this activity. There wasn’t any way I wouldn’t be spending my Time here.

This came in the mail today. Yeah, double-take!

Today was mellow. Went to the library after work, then ran 9 miles. Uneventful, which is such a blessing, don’t you agree?

En route to a meeting, I spotted this in a window in Madison Park. Wonder if it works? I’m more than happy to test it out.

Yesterday’s obsession with Gustav continued into today. While I was scouring the Series of Tubes, I noticed this pretty bluebird just outside the window. I moved slowly & swiftly to capture in time, but alas. He hopped higher.

Tonight, I made this recipe of blondies, with super-rich chocolate. Practice session.

To put it mildly, I’m preoccupied with Gustav today. I met with motomotoyama mid-day for distracted shopping and while perusing shoe racks at Nordstrom, I felt like everything was about to shut down — you know, there was a hurricane coming. The fact that it’s gray outside and that tomorrow is a holiday; well that just abets the feeling, despite being thousands of miles away.

On my way home, I called my mother who didn’t ease my mind much by telling me they expect the eye to approach Baton Rouge closer than Katrina did. Her generalized lack of alarm helped but there is the anxiety undercurrent. She doesn’t anticipate returning to work until mid-week at the earliest — best case scenario is that she won’t lose power which feels a tidge over-optimistic. If not just downright silly.

I came home to nap my nerves away and while I slept, Mr. T cooked up catfish with my beloved meuniere sauce. He based his recipe on a copy of Galatoire’s Cookbook I found years ago at some thrift shop, which lists one of my favorite creole dishes of all-time: Trout Meuniere Amandine (recipe).

Which reminds me, I would like to go home for Christmas.

My old pal Seth threw a party at his place, The Shire. I want one of these for my backyard now. I could hang by the fire forever.

The other highlight of the day: I ran 18 miles in the afternoon. It was long, but I finished Sedaris’ latest hilarious collection: When You Are Engulfed in Flames and started Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World.

This week was exhausting. Mr. T dialed into our local Pagliacci’s and we had a fabulous pizza with basil, tomatoes and spicy Salumi pepperoni.

(Later note: I think I was asleep before 9.)

Partly to help with the marathon training, I’ve been visiting an acupuncturist. She’s in Ballard and she’s great. Contact me offline if you’re interested in more details…

I’m surprisingly unemotional about the early Fall start and focusing on the positives of the season change. Once upon a time in a land far from the Pacific Northwest, Fall was my favorite season. I loved the changing leaves, the end of the heat, the new schoolyear, brand-new coats and boots, upcoming holidays and so on.

Tonight, I checked out some options at Nordstrom. This coat is on the shortlist.

In gearing up for Fall, I made a trip downtown today. I decided against this hat at Banana…for now.

I love having all these veggies, straight from the backyard. We’ve been regularly getting beans, lettuce, cucumbers, and zucchini, amongst others. But, the zucchini Mr. T harvested today takes the cake.

We saved the zucchini for another project, instead using the broccoli with a balsamic vinaigrette to accompany our dinner.

I’d had a busy-ish morning and needed to throw something together fast for a BBQ. My recipe plans went like this: Decide on lemon cheesecake bars. Basically, lemon cake with cream cheese. Bake half a lemon cake layer for 13 minutes at 325, then add a cream cheese & lemon juice layer, then cover with more crumbled lemon cake on top. Bake at 325 for 15 more minutes until set. Cool for as long as possible, then drive like a maniac to Madison Park. I <3 lemon bars of all sorts and I'll make this again. The BBQ aspect of the gathering was rained out, but there was pie and goodness in abundance.

Our friend Eric turned 30 this week, and his awesome wife, The Architect, staged a surprise party. (She also made a fabulous carrot cake during the festivities.) Mr. T and Eric go way back, 10 years maybe, to days of rooming together at UW.

I’d run 15 miles this afternoon, so I was tuckered. (I cut one mile off, afraid of being late for the surprise, but turned out they moved up the time.) Fortunately, it was a low-key night where I “watched” others play games and rifled through their book collection…I didn’t want to move much.

I’m bummed I missed another old friend’s birthday gathering in Belltown, but the laid-back evening was the appropriate speed for me.