Mr. T’s good friend and co-worker, Adam, celebrated his birthday today. We trekked down to West Seattle to have dinner with him and his fiance. We were seated upstairs. (Flickr has more of this dinner, save for one small dramatic detail which I won’t post here…)
For dinner, Mr. T had fantastic steak au poivre, while I had the Bourbon porkchops.
This Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, Theo Chocolate in Fremont is celebrating National Smores Daze on the sidewalk in front of their factory between 3 and 6. I remembered after 5 today, just in time. I got to try a s’more with freshly made graham crackers, marshmallows and their coconut curry chocolate. Tomorrow, I might have to go back for the Chai Tea chocolate.
For lunch, I tried the prawn sammy with poutine and the basil limeade from the Skillet Street Food outpost. And for dinner, it was back to Ballard to hang with Misty & Co for dinner. She cooked up oysters and we spent time with my recently rekindled love, the Olympics.
Summer this year, she is a let-down. Misty planned a great idea — a Golden Gardens bonfire. Well, we’re on our third day in a row of rain. The plans were scuttled in favor of hanging out at The Sloop in Ballard. I passed on getting sloopercized for the evening, but I fully support friends on their missions.
In August, I’m supposed to be sick of the unrelenting Seattle Sunshine, rather than tolerate the grey and wet. That’s what Fall, Winter and Spring do: rain, grow moss, mildew, mold, make everyone feel soggy. Last year, I considered the Summer a fluke, this year, I’ve given up that dreamy expectation of being disgusted by heat. I’ll have to lift my ban on travel outside of the PacNW in the Summertime from here on out. Maybe I am being punished for cheating and visiting Jenn in San Francisco last August while she worked there briefly, but — it was only 3 days away! How much punishment must there be for those 72 hours?
Tonight, I turned into a recluse, skipped my run and watched documentaries on Rasputin, Anastasia, and Tiananmen Square. It felt right, like Thanksgiving’s just around the corner…
When I got up this AM, it was suddenly October out there and was completely demotivated to bike to work.
Tonight, Mr. T cooked up some of his awesome veggies for dinner (with bacon!) and we watched In Bruges. I’ve wanted to see it since we were there in March, so I enjoyed recognizing places we’d been recently — one of my favorite paintings was featured, but the movie didn’t relate its pertinence to the storyline. I liked the movie okay. Billed as a dark comedy. Way more dark than comedy.
(The Telegraph’s review is here.)
We book-clubbed at Misty’s this month: The Valley of the Dolls. I think we were split down the middle on whether we enjoyed it. I was a definite yes and now I’m curious to check out the movie adaptation.
I don’t ever recall having driven down 24th, so far north. Lots of Scandinavian references and lots of churches.
Friends of ours are getting married next month, in Ashland, OR. I predict the wedding will be a blast. We had the bachelorette party this weekend, starting at Geraldine’s.
We had a great dinner at Belltown’s Black Bottle. We considered Teddy’s in Roosevelt afterward but opted in favor of celebrating at Geraldine’s and Rand’s place since Rand procured an A-C for the party. We are in the middle of a heat wave, hallelujah.
(I ran 15 miles today. So. Hot. I’m not really complaining as I’m always cold here. I love the heat.)
Tonight, we headed down to Belltown to celebrate a friend’s birthday at The Frontier Room. I loved it the last time we went; this time, I needed extra BBQ sauce on everything. The macaroni was a bit bland but the brisket was great.
After a kickball game a few weeks ago, I’d mentioned to Monte Cristo (uh, nickname) that our dryer was on the fritz and it was a real pain and I hate appliance shopping, yada yada yada. He mentioned an extra set he just happens to have and offered to sell them. Before we go through the process of moving them, we went to check to make sure they still worked.
It’s the first time I’d been to his house that he bought two years ago. He’s in West Seattle and luckily in an area that hasn’t been overrun with new development.
In my ongoing quest to be more of a bike-commuter, I stopped off at Gregg’s tonight to get a rack so I can use panniers.
The Seattle Foodies are all over The Corson Building lately. I haven’t been there and I hear it’s difficult. But, I haven’t really tried. I was back in Georgetown this evening and noticed that the night before there’d been a picnic. Wish I would’ve known…next time.
Upon waking, Mr. T made eggs and ham for the croissants from yesterday’s stop at L’Artisan. It was good fuel for my weekly long run–10.2 miles, a step down from last week’s 13. This is part of training ramp-up; every third week is slightly shorter than the week before. Next week will be 15.
Before running, I lazed about, reading Valley of the Dolls for next week’s book discussion. I started getting into it, but it has lulls. I am nearly done after several hundred pages today. It’s Sex and the City: the Prequel, with more drugs.
Last week, I mentioned to motomotoyama that it’d been months since I patronized Target and it was time to head back. This is a sideshot from the parking garage in its final moments. The sunset was spectacular.
We had every fine intention of spending the afternoon with Mr. T’s very large extended family on Camano Island. Turned out a semi was our nemesis, blocking four lanes of I-5 North near the Everett Mall. We retreated at the nearest exit, once we heard the radio report, taking side roads south, near where Mr. T spent his last two years of high school. Since that time — well, even since I lived in Snohomish County until aught-four — Mill Creek’s expanded and we found this new Indian place, The Clay Pit, right near a new Central Market (jealous!).
He got the Tandoori Chicken Tikedar; I got the Nawabi Korma with Chicken: 4/5 stars. I prefer the tandoori sauce from our favorite–India Bistro of Roosevelt–but this was good. The Nawabi Korma was great.
Before dinner, I finally visited L’Artisan of Silver Lake. I first heard about this bakery from a cooking-school classmate last year who nannies for a family in SnohoCo. She raved about the bread, but I’m pretty spoiled by the fabulous options in Seattle proper. We grabbed a Truffle Tart in addition to the baguette. The tart was an amazing treat at home, right before we watched Babel.
I bought this about a month ago, but it finally arrived. I figure folks need fair warning.
Like most Seattle Summer weekends, we have a full one ahead, with tomorrow featuring Camano Island in the afternoon, a breakfast in the AM with a friend who’s known me since Junior High–no small thing for a Louisiana transplant–and a potential friend’s band playing in Ballard in the late PM.
We’d originally considered going to Emerald Downs tonight to celebrate a birthday in Mr. T’s extended family, but opted for the night in. He made pizza, I went running.
I didn’t actually cook today. Mr. T did, bless his heart.
After I got all my homework done (*cough*errands, running*cough*), motomotoyama planned to stop by. I recently got into this vintage recipe cookbook group and the month’s theme was vegetables, so…I was perusing the 1956 edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook before she came over. I probably found it at the Seattle Public Library’s AWESOME semi-annual sale, full of 1950s and 1960s newspaper clippings and cut-outs. It features a number of step-by-step photo layouts for subjects like measuring methods, entertaining hacks, along with 50 ways to make roast, soup, cake or pie, whichever’s your thing.
Today, we had a dodgeball tournament. I knew from the start I’d be there for pictures. Note to self: use a different lens for those Action Shots.
Anyhow, on the right here is the ultimate victor of the day right before the final showdown. Shortly thereafter, we all retired to the Fremont Ballroom for refreshing bev’rages and conversation.
The crew involved in the tournament was internationally diverse; lots of folks not from around here. Before heading to the field, my friend K from eastern Africa asked, “So, I signed up for a team…what’s dodgeball?” G fielded with a quick overview, and K replied, “would this be like a draft dodging?”
I had this volunteer thing, so I missed the playoff game with my kickball folks. Afterward, I met up with them at The Sloop in Ballard. Turns out, they were blown out of the water by some damn Unicorns. Better luck, next season.
Sorry if you’re not into our gardening successes…but I’m actually not that sorry. Hey, look! We have another crop. Beans!
It’s another Monday. Successes? I rode into work today. Otherwise, it was sort of a bureaucratic day, just gettin’ stuff done.
For dinner, we had our lettuce and cucumbers and zucchini from el jardin.
Ah, broccoli. Mr. T has been makin’ noise about needin’ to harvest. It went well with the leftover steak from yesterday’s outing to visit Carey on Bainbridge.
Today was a really laid-back day. Uh, I ran 13 miles. Other than that, I was lazy and we ended the night with Charlie Wilson’s War. Highly recommended movie.
A good friend invited us over to spend the day at her place on Bainbridge. En route to the ferry on I-5, I finally saw the Blue Angels. A worthy traffic jam, really. We watched more of their shenanigans while in the waiting line.
Once we got to the right side, there was lounging and talking. Fantastic Saturday.