Only one thing’s missing from the photo for a perfect recipe and that’s since been procured tonight for upcoming festivities. I’m so excited! I’ll tell you about it very soon. Must pack.
*From a t-shirt I once saw at Kalaloch Lodge on the Olympic Peninsula.
Tonight, Mr. T’s colleagues had their bi-weekly pub crawl and today’s choice was Dad Watson’s. It became a prelude to dinner back at the (his daytime) ranch. Tonight’s menu was ribs, collard greens, and baked potatoes. They were the best ribs I’ve had north of the Mason-Dixon by leaps and bounds. The greens were okay, but too healthy. I ‘spose a good thing, ultimately, but I added bacon meant for the potato bar. You’ll have to just imagine what it all looked like as the camera stayed packed.
Shortly after dinner & before video games, I snapped this in the public zone.
For the first time in possibly 20 years, I played kickball tonight at our first league game. We won! 7-4. Lots of new-to-me folks. Go TEAM.
A lovely, lazy Sunday. We gardened, replanting casualties of the cold weather. Fingers crossed that this do-over takes. We also got our fair share of loungin’ about.
For dinner, Mr. T grilled up his BBQ shrimp. I love it so. We planned ahead for the week by grilling up extra.
Overall: perfectly relaxing day. One of those rare ones where time doesn’t fly too fast.
For Father’s Day Weekend, we took Mr. T’s father to the Washington Brewers Festival today at St. Edwards State Park. He was going to be out of town Sunday. All that sunshine was wonderful and hanging out = fun.
We ran into a number of friends. With the first, we got to meet her brand-new fiance. Later, we ran into two other couples. One couple had just finished The Flying Wheels Century bike race that afternoon and had the sunburn to prove it. I was surprised to see the second couple there as they had a baby one week ago! The new mom was in the shade with the tiny baby so we visited for a bit before heading home.
I was home much later than usual tonight due to a training. Another great feature of Seattle is late summertime sunsets, so this didn’t bother me much. I took the Baron out for an evening stroll and grabbed this shot just before it got dark.
You can’t tell yet from this picture at lunchtime, but the sun came out! Around noon, sprizee‘s Dude reminded me of the Airstream of Goodness by Skillet Street Food parked down the street. We gathered a few others and headed for lunch. Once again, I had the Kobe-style Burger with Bacon Jam.
I took this while we waited in line.
Tonight, Mr. T and I walked over to Greenlake’s Tacos Guaymas to meet a friend for dinner al fresco. All along the route, I took pictures (posted elsewhere). Like Maya notes in her blog, that sunshine makes a HUGE difference.
Today was much better than yesterday. I feared bad juju would follow into today, but luckily meetings went well and even today’s scheduled haircut was without tears.
Tonight, I got a headstart on my book club’s next read – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret – by heading to the library. Sometimes I wander and mix it up with zany new ideas, but no library visit is complete without a quick whirl through the culinary tomes, audiobooks, and travel sections.
Today. Not a fan of today. Sort of rotten. But, post-rottenness, we visited Vanessa et al on Alki, for Buffy Night. That started to make up for it.
I took this shortly after sunset, from her deck on Alki Beach.
As I crossed the bridge to Eastlake, I could feel the wind pushing my car as I raced to meet folks in Madison Park at dinnertime. I detoured through the sidestreets to get to the waterfront, as a tree uprooted and was completely blocking all lanes of East Madison. I couldn’t head back until dusk, so the light isn’t great and they’d cleared enough to make one lane passable. This picture is only the bottom third of what fell.
I grew up with hurricanes and remember when Hurricane Andrew took out over 20 trees in our backyard. I’m still in awe of the sheer power of an unseen force. Today’s fallen tree’s roots and the chunk of land surrounding it were taller than the men cleaning up. The tree must have been several decades old, if not 50 or 60.
This afternoon, a friend hosted a Pie Social. She is gifted culinarily and makes a mean sorbet. Today, she shared several pies and ice creams — including Salted Caramel, Vanilla Cardamom, and the French Laundry’s Strawberry Sorbet. I brought Pecan Pie Cupcakes and a Key Lime Pie. My dinner was effectively ruined, so it certainly went as planned. There was also a a peanut butter pie and a raspberry tart, which was well-loved by the hostess’ 18-month-old, Senor Onion. He went back for more several times. He also charmed everyone and I am quite taken with him.
Later, at book club hosted by sprizee, we discussed The Time Traveler’s Wife. Recommended reading!
Before heading to a party Saturday night, I decided to test out my new SB-600 flash in our living room, after dark, with the lights turned off. I was shocked that this seems like mid-day — or better, as this room is always shady. I got it a month ago from Mr. T for my birthday, but like any good Taurus, I proceed with caution on all new gadgets.
The party: good to see friends. Didn’t bust out the D80, though.
Anxiety Monkey: a dear friend gave this to me during a life-changing breakup, after a conversation where we joked I needed an anxiety-soothing pet monkey. Now, the anxiety is in the past, but Anxiety Monkey lives in the under-watered tree in the living room. Must fix the water issue.
Despite my love for BBQ, I find this premise disturbing.
Mr. T and I were in the Ballard hood shopping for my friend Natala’s Prep Party for Saturday night. Smokin Pete’s is a long-time stand-by of ours, and close to Ballard’s Goodwill which did not have old-skool penny loafers, as I’d hoped.
My other pictures were better, I promise, but this was more notable.
I guess we’re headed into Summer, given that all the flowers are starting to fall. The high today was in the 50s. Too cold!
I skipped out on a number of social opportunities tonight, but got my first 3 mile run in, since my surgery 3 weeks ago.
When we put in the garden a couple of weeks ago, I bought some starter basil to supplement the basil I was growing from seed. Looks like the cold Spring might have done in the poor plants. It’s been in the 40s and 50s all week. I might start all over on some of the plants. I hope it’s not too late.
Tonight was dinner with friends during a volunteer planning meeting. When I came home, Mr. T mentioned the evening’s historic event, with Obama earning enough delegates to get the D nomination. Just a few days before, I’d gotten this book from my beloved library. I’d already listened to Faith of My Fathers a while back. I wonder if the election season will be as exciting as the primaries. I hope.
This morning, Maya picked me up at the crack of dawn to meet up with some folks to drive down to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. The weather was COLD, but not too bad for our 5.5 mile walk around the delta. We saw this guy pretty early into the hike. His big buddy, Toad, hung out nearby, too well-camouflaged on an old board for photography purposes.
One of Mr. T’s colleagues/friends had a small gang over to his place in Bellevue for dinner. Eventually, we were supposed to play Carcassone, but the chit-chit lasted so late, we had to head back before we could begin. Fun dinner, hopefully we can go back soon.
All the week’s activities caught up with me today. I went home an hour earlier than normal, all headachy and cranky. My nap lasted four hours — I only awakened because my good friend showed up and rang the doorbell to return a borrowed media card (had to get ready for Sunday’s Nisqually Delta field trip!). Glad she didn’t knock as my deep sleeping skillz are legendary.
I realized Mr. T must be out on the town and saw text messages to meet him and a friend at El Camino in Fremont. I arrived around 11. I had to park in my weekday garage, as there were no parking spots on the street, even that late! Crazy Fremont.
A neighboring organization had a tech gathering tonight. Something like this is always going on, lately–add that to the list of Seattle positives.
Some deadlines are coming up, so it was worth my while to head back after the gathering to get some easy tasks out of the way, while all around was lovely quiet. Next thing I knew, it was 11 PM.
Then I remembered I hadn’t taken a picture yet, as I was skedaddling. Here’s my inspiration image of the quarter: sunshine-y tulips. They really do boost my mood against the gray outside.