gary and mary come to town

my apologies in advance for the super long post, but this trip needs documentation. last weekend my parents paid me a visit. this is no small feat. they drove 1700 miles in a truck for three days with two dogs. they must love me.

weekend recap
friday
i got off work a bit early and drove straight to their motel room. hugs ensued and we spent most of the evening talking and cooking. is it normal for people to tailgate at motels? growing up this was quiet common, and it's almost hard to remember a time when we were at a motel and didn't tailgate. this night in particular was my dad's hot chicken, which i hadn't had for years. amazing.

saturday
we got up nice and early (for me) and decided to take a bus downtown. this plan was almost foiled, as we quickly learned that most buses downtown had been re-routed due to the rock n' roll marathon. fortunately, my parents were amazingly patient throughout the bus ordeal. our first stop was the space needle. i was surprised when my mom mentioned that she really wanted to go up in it because she is afraid of heights. i was equally surprised that my dad didn't want to go. he was a good sport and waited outside while my mom and i took in the views up top. our next stop was the world spice merchants, where my dad bought a few foreign spices and chatted up the clerk. we followed that up with a quick run through pike place market, where morel mushrooms and scallops were purchased. exhausted, we boarded a bus back to my house. there we met some "characters"- identical twins (men) with snakeskin jackets, pointy shoes, long blond curly hair, and both very talkative. my dad couldn't turn his gaze away, and joined their conversation. the evening ended with tailgating at the motel...this time steaks from america's best steak.

sunday
sunday was unoffically "beer day". we began the day with a delicious breakfast at the blue star cafe and then walked to bottleworks (an imported beer store). many questions were asked and, amazingly, no beer was bought. our next stop was bob's homebrew supply...where my dad was in homebrew heaven and my mom and i were in the yarn store across the street. the grand finale came with the tour of redhook. if you are a local to the area and haven't been there...shame on you! for only $1 you get your own 5 oz redhook glass and 4-5 refills. oh, and you get to learn about beer. neat. we rounded out the day with scallops with morel cream sauce and some feisty games of cribbage.

we were, of course, all sad to say good-bye but it won't be long until i see them again. my brother is getting married in early october...hello, bogue!

bumps

for those of you who do not live in washington, we, like most universities across the nation, have been besieged with budget cuts and layoffs. for the last few months i have been really worried about keeping my job. i do not handle stress well, which is a drastic understatement. i silently freaked out about this for months. the good news? i didn't lose my job. for which i feel immensely grateful. the bad part? one of my great friends/co-worker did. actually she wasn't laid off, she was "bumped", which means that someone else was laid off and that person had more seniority than my friend. he/she was given the option of going on unemployment or taking my friends job. they made a hard choice. to make a gross understatement, this is a tough situation for all involved.

i feel horrible that i, not even for one small second, considered that it could happen to someone else. a friend, even. how self evolved is that? and though it doesn't make much sense, i also feel guilty that it wasn't me.

the next post will be more cheery. promise.

a visit from rachael

rachael graced us with her presence this weekend! it's hard to believe we have lived out here for 4 years and rachael had never visited us until now. out of all of aaron's siblings, rachael is the one i know the least, so it was fun to finally have some one-on-one time to hang out with her.

we started off right, but grabbing some happy hour appetizers and drinks at nijo's sushi bar & grill downtown on thursday. that sustained us until we made our way back home. we popped open some champagne and had a toast rachael. then went straight to work making mushroom bisque with focaccia.

i had to work on friday, so i didn't get much rachael time during the day. after work, aaron and i showed her the rose garden that close to our house. it's really amazingly beautiful. we don't go there as often as we should (it's practically in our back yard, we don't have an excuse). each time i do go i always vow to come back more often. the rest of the night was spent with a lot of laughter. we started game night with monopoly and taboo, which quickly morphed into charades.

saturday we celebrated the solstice by attending the fremont solstice parade (see prior post). both rachael and aaron had never seen this parade before so it was fun watching two newbies. aaron knew what to expect, but rachael was definately in for a shock. this isn't your typical "welcome summer" parade. i loved watching all the little kids get so excited by all of the wacky costumes and excitement. children's enthusiasm is contagious. afterwards, we went back home for a quick lunch and a nap. then went outside to a nearby park to play frisbee.

sunday we did the whole downtown-seattle experience. we toured the public library (which sounds lame, but seattle has the coolest public library ever, which rachael can now atest to). we window shopped. we went to pike place market. this, while it might sound fun, is actually obligatory, because if greg finds out any of his children are coming to seattle to visit us he insists on them transporting a huge box of crab back to wisconsin for him. it is delightful for aaron and i to watch our guest(s) lug around a 40lb box of crab, but surprisingly, they aren't that into it. good thing everyone loves greg.

we drove rachael back to the airport on sunday night. hopefully it won't take her 4 more years to visit us again!

happy solstice

saturday we went celebrated the solstice by going to the annual fremont solstice parade. what better way to welcome summer than naked bicyclists, stilt people, happy children, and bizarre costumes? it was made even more fun by watching a non-seattle dweller (aaron's sister, rachael) enjoy the seattle flamboyantness that i sometimes take for granted. my favorite part? the naked bicyclists, for sure.

shrug

for those non-knitters who read my blog (yes, i'm pretty sure that's all three of my readers) feel free to skip this post. go ahead, move along. you will not be missing much. i'm currently making this shrug that i found in fitted knits: 25 projects for the fashionable knitter (thank you seattle public library). my version is going to be a navy color on the sleeves and a light gray on the ribbed border. i like projects like this for numerous reasons:

1. i will not have to wait until november to wear it
   
2. i can complete this project in a relatively short period of time
3. versitility. i'll (hopefully) be able to wear it with numerous tanks/camis
4. fewer balls of yarn bought = more money in my pocket

so far, i've completed the sleeves and the back. i've only got the gray ribbed border left. this was a really great introduction to raglan sleeves. i understand the concept much better now, and it was very easy to knit.

justin & angie wech

may 30, 2009 two of my favorite people got married.

thwarted

yesterday we had been invited to go on a 18 mile bike ride with friends, two different bbqs, and a birthday party. that's a lot of socializing. you know what we did? we went backpacking instead. well, we tried to.

we set our sites on peek-a-book lake near darrington, wa. it was to be a short hike in (3 miles) and then we would set up camp and just relax. it was about 70 degrees, bright and sunny, really beautiful. amongst the normal camping ammenities we also brought wine, cards, and knitting. how could we go wrong?

well, approximately 2 miles in we lost the trail under the snow, which wasn't the most awful thing in the world. we had a printed map of the area, and aaron also had his compass. as we began hiking off the beaten path to find our way we began to hear thunder. the sky was becoming darker and then a few bright flashes of lightening. we knew our plans had been thwarted. i took a few pictures before departed to the car.


we did end up going to a friends bbq that night. it was much more fun than being stuck in a tent during a thunderstorm.

biking adventure

once upon a time there was a young lady. on this particular day she was riding her bike home from work on the burke gilman trail. the sun was out. there was a slight breeze. it was a beautiful day. suddenly she felt a slight sting on her right boob. she thought nothing of it, there was a biker ahead of her and his bike probably hit a small pebble up. no big deal. suddenly there was another sting...and some crawling. with horror she gazed down her shirt and noticed a bee had flown into her bra. chaos ensued as she tried to free the bee from her bra and stay on the trail while not hitting or flashing nearby pedestrians. do not worry, the young heroine escaped with only two bee stings, while giving quiet a few people a nice story to share.

hair woes

it took me a long time to like my hair. once i hit puberty it went from stick straight to unruly curls in a nanosecond. it took me approximately 6 years (no joke) to figure out how to adequately style it. but now i love it. i go through long and short phases and love to switch up the color slightly. currently, it's about 5 inches below my shoulders and probably the longest that is has ever been in my adult life. it looks ok, but i feel like i'm being smothered by it. i really want to get it cut soon...but getting my hair is becoming quite complicated...

1. m-f is out because there is no way i can make it to my hair salon (Babalouise) with time for a cut & color before they close due to work
2. donna (my stylist) doesn't work on sundays
3. the next 2 saturdays we will have company and the saturday after that is the 4th of july

this puts me into mid-july. sad. but if this is my biggest complaint, i think i can survive. in the mean time, who has an opinion regarding my new color...

copper?

auburn?

dark brown?

brought to you by the letter b

technically, summer hasn't started yet. but it feels like it has. in the last few days we have enjoyed beautiful mid-70s sunshine, bike rides, boccie, beer, & billiards (and though it has nothing to do with summer, we also baked brownies). i found myself less inclined to watch tv, and more inclined to be outdoors - even if it's just to sit on the swing in the backyard and talk. it feels good.

june has been (and will continue to be) a very busy month. rachael will be visiting next week, my parents the weekend after that, and aaron also has field work to do. normally fitting so many things in one month is overwhelming, but the incredible weather and longer days has made me less cranky. i'm happy. hooray june!

snoqualmie falls

last weekend aaron and i went to snoqualmie falls. initially we had intended on going for a 8-10 mile hike in the cascades, but i woke up not feeling so hot. we slept in much later, which was just what the doctor ordered. when we got up at 11 i was feeling much better and up for a small adventure. after living here 4 years we still hadn't been to see the falls. which is surprising, considering that they are only about 30 miles away. so we packed a nice little picnic lunch and off we went. below are some highlights.

really? again?

i have been contemplating starting a blog for awhile now. i get so much enjoyment out of reading so many myself, that i felt that i should contribute as well. i've been hesitant for many reasons.

i do not feel like i have the time. i realize the time excuse is just that, an excuse. i have no children. a normal m-f 8-5 job. if i don't have time now, i'll never have time. and that's ridiculus. some of my favorite blogs come from people who are much, much busier than i.

i do not think my life would make for a very interesting blog. (note: this still rings true.)

i have started others and they are long abandoned.

i will try again. onward.