Weekending

1. We snapped this picture while on the Highway 520 bridge this weekend – the bridge was closed for boat traffic so we were stuck on it for about 10 minutes. It was a beautiful day to be stuck on it though! Everyone was out of their cars and wandering around the bridge, taking the opportunity to hop in the opposing lanes and take pictures.

2. We visited Carkeek Park on Saturday for some sunbathing on the Sound. Carkeek is north of Golden Gardens and just as beautiful, but considerably less crowded. We took a picnic lunch and books and made an afternoon of it. Lovely day! And see those mountains in the distance? We're going backpacking there on a three-day trip in August. I can't wait!

Boulder and Chipotle

During my weekend in Colorado, I made a little excursion to Boulder (home of the University of Colorado) to meet up with my brother for the morning and get in some tourism. We walked around the Pearl Street Mall, sort of the main promenade of Boulder, and also walked up to CU to walk around the campus. The campus was SO gorgeous… it really made me wish I’d gone to school there! Boulder is in the foothills of the Rockies so the weather was a comfortable 80 degrees with a breeze. I’ve decided I could totally live in Boulder should the need arise.

On campus

We lunched at Chipotle that day where I had the absolute worst experience I’ve ever had at a Chipotle. And I’ve been to Chipotle a LOT. First of all, they had signs up promoting their new “spring mix” burrito filling, which was supposed to be a mix of veggies marinated in adobo sauce. Sounds good, right? Kind of like a fajita mix? Since I hadn’t heard about it before and I’m all about veggies, I thought I’d try it.

When I gave the cashier my order, she goes, “So… I don’t think the spring mix is very good.”
What do you even say to that? I just said, “Oh, yeah? Well I hadn’t heard about it before so I thought I’d try it out. How new is it?”

Her: “Pretty new, only one other Chipotle has it right now but they’re discontinuing it because I don’t think people like it.”

Me, now getting stubborn: “I think I’ll try it then since it’s being discontinued… what if I’m missing out?”

She told me it would be several minutes because they were still making a batch of the mix so we filled out a sheet (like if you were to fax in your order) with my preferences: burrito bowl, corn salsa, sour cream and cheese.

Regardless of my checkbox marked “burrito bowl,” the burrito came out fully clothed in a tortilla and foil. I noted this to my cashier and she said, “Oh… do you want me to put in a bowl for you?” You think?? Geez. So she did. Back at the table, I stirred it around and noticed that it looked like there was chicken in it… no “spring mix” in sight. I tried a piece of what looked like chicken but it was actually TOFU. It didn’t really taste bad, just different, and certainly not like what I was expecting. Nowhere in the spring mix description was tofu mentioned. Nothing against tofu but if I would’ve known that this “spring mix of veggies” was ONLY going to be tofu, I wouldn’t have ordered it. Then I noticed there were indeed some veggies: tomatoes from the pico de gallo. Pico de gallo, NOT the corn salsa I’d ordered. What is wrong with the Boulder Chipotle?? At that point though I figured I’d been high-maintenance enough so I didn’t ask for a salsa change. But I was pretty disappointed that their spring mix of veggies contained NO veggies. Weird, right? I guess one could make the case that tofu is a vegetable but pure tofu just can’t be advertised as veggies. Tofu doesn’t have THAT bad of a reputation, does it? To compensate for my lack of veggies, Richard kept giving me the fajita vegetables that they’d for some reason put into HIS burrito bowl unasked for. So I suppose I did get some veggies out of it.

Bachelorettes in Estes

Dang, this post has been sitting in my drafts since June 6. Where on earth did June go? I feel like I've been going and going like crazy and am just now coming up for air. Earlier in June I got to travel to Estes Park, Colorado with my best girlfriends! We were there to stand next to our friend Breanna, someone I’ve known since third grade, as she married the man of her dreams. It was a stellar weekend but I have to be honest: most of my pictures are un-publishable because things got a leeeeetle crazy. Just a heads up. ;) Thankfully we were in Estes Park early in June instead of now - there was a forest fire last weekend just four miles from the condo that the wedding party stayed in that destroyed 20+ homes! Hopefully rain comes to the area so those firefighters can have some relief.

I’ll start out with the bachelorette day. We wanted to start out the day with a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park but that was before we discovered there was a $20 fee per car to enter the state park. We were likely going to have to take two cars so no one was too keen on the idea of paying $40 for a two-hour or so hike, so we stayed around Estes Park instead and walked around the lake. Side note: I’ve been to Estes Park more times than I can count. Most of our church and school retreats were in Estes Park and as soon as I drove in and breathed that mountain air, I started having flashbacks of every retreat I’d ever been on! Talk about weird.

The plan for the bachelorette day was to follow this schedule: walk around and be outdoorsy, lunch, visit two wineries, make it to the nail appointments by 4, and be at our dinner reservations by 7:30. We allowed ourselves plenty of time for the wineries which ended up working our way, since we were stuck at one while a thunderstorm rolled in. I was so glad we’d already finished our outdoors lunch by the time the rain started! And let me tell you, rain in the Rockies is NOT like rain here. When it rains there, it pours buckets.

Bride in the middle! :)

We had dinner that night at Mary's Lake Lodge, where we knew a live band would be playing. The band was really the source of the craziness that was to follow. There was actually another bachelorette party (though her wedding wasn't until August... I guess they just wanted to party?) at the restaurant, so the band pitted the two groups against each other to see who could be the craziest. We gave the bride challenges to complete (like asking the cute guy at the bar to dance) and each bride kept one-upping the other in a night that spiraled into craziness. My text to Mark says it all (or not really?): "So... there may be lap dances, and I'm not involved!"

Yeah. So the pictures will forever stay on my computer and never see the light of day. But take my word for it, they are hilarious. And blackmail-worthy.

Smitten

We got to meet our absolutely perfect nephew, Parker James, two days ago and I’ve been smitten ever since. I picked up Mark’s mom from the airport Wednesday afternoon and we jetted to the airport to congratulate the proud baby mama and papa and meet the little guy. Let me tell you, Kelly looked AMAZING for having just given birth. Really, I was like, um, did you really just go through labor? Because I look worse than that after a three-mile run… a new mama glow, perhaps. :) The new grandma was the first to hold Parker and then he was handed to me which, let’s face it, is kind of a big deal for me. I’ll explain.

You see, I’ve never been much of a baby person. I chalk this up to the fact that I’ve simply never been around babies much in my life, so they’re kind of mysterious and fragile to me. Even when I was a kid I was more into Barbies and Legos rather than baby dolls. I just never went through a baby phase and never quite understood the hype. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve probably held maybe three babies ever. Ever! I went to an open house celebrating the birth of my co-worker’s daughter’s twins and needed coaching on how to hold one (after my refusal to hold one was denied). My co-worker said, “You’re not around babies very much, are you?” No. No, I’m not.

I definitely feel like I’m in the minority (fine, I know I’m in the minority) when it comes to my thoughts on children and my comfort level around babies. I know I want children someday. Just not now! I do think this is directly related to my exposure to babies though and can feel that unease ebbing away the longer I’m with our new nephew. But every time I think I might want a baby, the weight of the responsibility of parenthood quickly pushes the idea from my head. I hear that at some point you just feel “ready” and I hope that happens to me, where the hope eventually outweighs the apprehension.

The bottom line is I’m so, so glad that Kelly went first on the baby front so when my time comes, she’ll be a great resource. I know they’ll be awesome parents and I’m grateful to be along for the ride!

Three weeks into the new ‘hood

Now that we’ve been in the house for about three weeks, it’s time for some initial observations.

I’m surprised by how much I like having our own trash/recycle/yard bins (the simple things…). It’s not like we really had a problem with trash storage in our old house where four apartments shared one bin, but I do like the assurance of knowing we’ll have enough room for trash, should we need it. Not like we really use it though – this week our trash bin consisted of one half-full trash bag, which was a combination of kitchen trash and two bathroom wastebaskets. Maybe trash rates should be based on how much waste you actually produce – that might get more people to recycle and use the yard waste bins!

I kept telling people that our yard just looked big in pictures and wasn’t actually that large in real life. Now I’m noticing it is bigger than I thought – especially when I saw Mark out there with his new toy, a.k.a. a Husqvarna. The grass was pretty long by the time he got to it since we had to wait for the mower to ship, and it took him an hour and a half to mow. Well, as he put it, it only took him an hour and a half. I think it’s a good thing he’s mowing and not me, because I felt like that was a long time!

Mark cutting the jungle.

When we first moved in, the house was cold. And I don’t mean like, boo hoo, it’s drafty cold. More like WHAT HAVE WE DONE cold. Or I CAN’T LIVE DOWN HERE cold!  The master bedroom and bathroom are set up in the basement (cold factor number one) and have tile and concrete floors (cold factor number two). I think the cold settled into the floors since the heat was off for probably a month before we moved in, and then took several days to warm up to a habitable state. The good news is that it did eventually warm up and now it’s not so bad down there. Slippers are still necessary but it’s manageable.

The neighbors are super nice so far, no crazies yet. Do people still make cookies and introduce themselves to neighbors anymore? Because I think I’m going to. There are tons of kids here too – really, when I back out the driveway I have to remind myself to watch for kids on bikes because they are everywhere! I like it. :)

I probably should've moved that gas can. Classy.
The garage is on the left.

Dining area with the rug down.

Living area with the rug down and a new lamp.

Weekending

Mark and I went out to brunch to celebrate the house last weekend which was a real treat since we NEVER go out for brunch. I mean like, ever! I think I can count on one hand (fine, maybe two) the number of times we’ve gone out to breakfast/lunch, not counting vacations. Since we were going to be in the University district Saturday morning, we decided on Portage Bay Café, a Seattle favorite. They have a well-stocked pancake/waffle toppings bar with lots of fruit, syrups, and toppings from which to choose, but I deviated from my pancake norm and went with a savory hot breakfast instead: the chorizo sausage and egg scramble with roasted potatoes. I have to say it: the savory breakfasts (I sampled Mark’s ham and Beecher’s cheese scramble also) totally live up to the hype of the restaurant. I can’t rave too much about the pancakes and waffles – how special can those really be? – but man those savory dishes were good.

Behind the restaurant is an outdoor space that houses the laying hens, ducks, and other animals that (I believe) supply food to the restaurant, as well as herbs. They also had this rabbit who was absolutely HUGE. He’s probably the biggest rabbit I’ve ever seen! It’s hard to tell in this picture but he’s much larger than your average household cat. I don’t know if they are fattening him up for stew or what, but he’s massive.

We also stopped by the crew races at UW for the opening day of boating season. UW completely smoked the other teams so the alumni around us were excited. It was a beautiful morning to sit on the Montlake cut and watch the boats go by! The people next to us had a cuddly Bernese Mountain dog, who acted as my backrest and kept me warm. Love!

Some new {old} house pictures

Above: this picture is already outdated because we've since laid down the living room rug, but I don't have a picture of that yet. Mark's beloved table arrived at the house in a separate trip in our car since he didn't trust it to be moved safely on our actual moving day. Yes, that table fit in our car! The glory of a hatchback - tons of stuff can fit back there! The table looks great against the wood floor, especially now that the rug is down and can kind of pull the space together. We still haven't figured out what we're going to do with all the wall space but we have a few pieces up. They'll probably get moved around though... it'll be a wall shuffle!





Above: this picture is also outdated because we've since laid down our dining room rug (both rugs we already had). Our IKEA dining table is still in use. I kinda love how that house outside the window looks like a barn... it doesn't in real life though, just in this picture! Definitely looks rural.

Above: the other side of the dining room. That other door leads to a bathroom and two spare rooms, one of which we've converted to an office.

Above: and this is the other half of the living room, which is still in transition (obviously). I've been stalking Pinterest for mantle ideas because that is one big mantle to decorate! I love the built-ins though and the space was already set up for speakers. We've put the receiver on the credenza and leave out my old Mac so we can pipe music from the office (where our main computer is) into the living room. Eventually we want to put some comfy reading chairs where the credenza is but that's not a priority at the moment. Those boxes aren't there anymore so I call that our dance floor. :)