Category: about Seattle

Tonight, Mr. T and I stopped for dinner at the new Vios location in Ravenna at Third Place Books. I loved the feta/roasted red pepper dip. We met up with C&I in Ballard to see Frost Nixon. Two thumbs up!

A subset of the folks I hang out with all day had their annual international potluck. Representing the French — M brought a French King Cake. Much different than the oval ones from my childhood, but there’s the baby inside.

Amongst Thanksgiving traveling, getting engaged, Christmas traveling, and returning to work after 3 weeks off, this impressive mountain of email accumulated. Tonight, the social schedule is clear so I’m sitting down to catch up. And while I’m at it, write several recommendations and maybe an appeal letter to our local parking overlords.

I didn’t want to fiddle with trying to capture the image right, but simply wanted to use my POTD to convey my thankfulness for the miracle of streaming Netflix…a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down!

Yay for unlimited 30 Rock and The Office.

We came so close, but made second place. Painful moment? Two Southerners briefly doubted Stonewall Jackson’s existence on Georgia’s Stone Mountain. Elementary fail! (The other two on the monument are Jefferson Davis & Robt E. Lee, which we all agreed upon.)

Also, the capital of Sicily is Pah-lehr-mo, not Pal-er-mo. In case you’re ever a trivia announcer and need to be able to deliver the answer convincingly.

Yesterday, Mr. T brought home a final Xmas present he received along with his colleagues. Today, I’ve been tinkering with it, off and on. Cute little android!

My first day back in twenty. I had a lunchtime errand, and spotted this near the border of Fremont/Ballard.

After Mr. T proposed, the next step: finding a ring. It’s true, the shopping experience did seem a bit protracted at times, but I wanted to make sure I found IT. I saw something similar at other stores, and in Louisiana last week, but we took the plunge this afternoon.

Also, today we celebrated a postponed Christmas with Mr. T’s parents on the Eastside. We had brunch at the Brown Bag Cafe in Kirkland before going to their place to exchange gifts. The Feast of the Epiphany (12th day of Christmas) isn’t until Tuesday, so we’re just under the wire.

I am on extended vacation right now, but have been taking pictures everyday. Will catch up v. soon. 🙂

Last year, I took Mr. T to Louisiana for the first time. Now his grandfather was born an hour from where I was in southern Louisiana, but his immediate family hasn’t gone back. This allows me the perfect opportunity to do all the touristy things you miss even when you lived somewhere for 18 years. We missed out on going to Alligator Bayou on his first trip but this year decided to make it a priority.

This was my favorite day of the trip. We started at Georges’ Southside for Shrimp poboys, then booked it down to Prairieville, 20 minutes from my mom’s.

I can be a jaded traveler, but this Alligator Bayou Tour was SO MUCH FUN. I wondered why we’d never been. The owners explained how they were doing this new work while also giving tours, of reclaiming and working on restoring wetlands. I learned a lot about the effect of nutria on wetland destruction — these are the vegetarian, invasive rodents brought from South America that have destroyed much that I’d incorrectly believed was solely the oil industry.

I learned why I knew so little once they reminded that during the 1990s the swamp in the current form wasn’t there — there was basically a drought, at least by this area’s standards. More recently, you could still see the water lines from recent hurricanes and tropical storms. The ’00s have not been easy on my home state.

As part of the tour, they showed off the alligators in one area, let tourists feed them (!!), then the group of ~30 boarded the boat to cruise down the bayou for more landscape. The owners talked about the history, region, and wildlife — and were so funny throughout that I hardly noticed the time passing. Perfect three hour tour with surprise nutria and baby gators on board.

Surprisingly, or not so, I took no pictures this day. Cross-country on Christmas Eve was grueling. We arrived in New Orleans at dinnertime and met up with my mother and brother at Galatoire’s Bistro in Baton Rouge.

For Christmas, my mother, brother, and Mr. T & I went to my childhood best friend’s home. She also happens to be my oldest friend — she borrowed my christening dress when I was six months old. We spent the day with her extended family, eating and talking and eating some more. It was great.

Since I have no pictures, I’ll post one from the next day, which will be backposted soon.

After a week of worrying whether we’d even make it to the airport, we did. We got there via Yellow Cab instead of our usual car service since the region’s got serious transportation mayhem. This was the scene shortly before we boarded, Christmas Eve, before dawn.

Oh, look! It didn’t snow today! I finally got productive this afternoon, but we’re still housebound. Goodness gracious, that snow leaves a mess.

We tried going to Sushi Tokyo on Roosevelt for dinner but walked down there to discover they were closed. Second night in a row dining plans were thwarted — last night, India Bistro on 65th closed as we arrived. I’d called ahead, but there was a mix-up and the cook needed to make it all the way back to Kent. Totally understandable, just wish we’d known before heading there. We’d gone more to get out of the house than anything else but were pacified with their fantastic spicy chicken korma (awesome!) takeout.

I heard a rumor that Greenlake became a ski resort, so I went out to check out the Nordic Center shortly before sunset. The lake is starting to freeze!

There were plenty of skiers:

All day, we’ve been in wait for the next huge storm. After Thursday’s brouhaha, the next was due Saturday, late-night. We left our neighborhood midday for the first time since round 1…we went north to Costco and that jaunt was pretty much enough for me. I think everyone else in Seattle had the same idea — housebound for 2 days, with one day to shop before the next blizzard rolled into the area. It was a complete madhouse.

I took this just after the snow started calmly around 4 PM, about 8 hours earlier than the weatherman estimated. The idea of being cooped up the entire evening nearly did me in, so we took Metro to Northgate to meet up with C&I and motomotoyama. Hours later, it’s been dumping since and reminds me of that Family Ties Blizzard episode where the snow’s blowing sideways, nearly white-out conditions.

I walked over to and along Greenlake to stave off the Cabin Fever this afternoon. The ducks were still out in full force.

Maybe I wanted it to snow, but I wanted that yesterday on day 1 of my vacation, not today. Snow was supposed to arrive Wednesday morning but came 24 hours late. When I woke up, it was dumping. (It would not stop snowing until after the sun set.) I had two appointments today. One was canceled but the other happened all the way over in Ballard.

I figured out the bus situation & went way early which ended up taking exactly enough time. I hoped to make my afternoon by going to Than Bros. Unfortunately, the service was no bueno, the beef was virtually nonexistent, yet I had a bad reaction later…I made it home mid-afternoon. Then I thought, “Oh! I’ll take pictures! That’ll be fun!” But it was cold and at 3:30 the sun was saying goodnight already.

I made an excellent dinner though. My own version of Dayment’s Feta Pasta, except we replaced the spinach with rotisserie chicken and added Mama Lil’s goathorn peppers, which we first discovered in Portland at Apizza Scholls. That stuff is truly made of angels.

Mr. T’s colleagues met at Dad Watson’s tonight for a pre-Xmas gathering. I joined in after tons of errands on my first day off (of 20 days off). On our way out, I grabbed this shot of a jolly Fremont Troll in his Christmas Hat.

It’d been awhile, but we made it to Cooper’s Trivia again finally. Third place!

Alternatively titled: Why I Haven’t Been Running in Days

I almost went running, but got really really really cold in the 30 seconds I stepped outside to snap this. The kitchen window thermometer reads 20 degrees (F).

Editorial note: I’m finally all caught up on publishing drafts and paused entries of the last 2 weeks. Yay!

This afternoon, I braved icy conditions for Maggi‘s cookie swap. Maggi’s rugelach and ginger molasses are pictured here. I brought Chocolate Featherweight Cookies with Walnuts — a recipe from Orangette. The cookies were fab, but the sugar overload left me craving sushi. That switch for sushi was flipped back on recently, by the Hawaii trip, by Kris and Traca’s dinner party, and a friend’s recent Six Days of Sushi in Seattle. (ETA: Actually, it’s now Seven Days of Sushi!)

Mr. T & I invited out his coworker and wife to our nearby Kisaku. I hadn’t been in years and we sat at the bar. We ordered our usuals, then went for one chef’s specialty of spicy chutoro, avocado, radish sprout and crab with a tempura crunch.

I’m tempted to start heavier research on Seattle’s sushi options…maybe in the New Year.