Pigs and Dragons

We had a busy weekend, too many parties and festivals to attend. I’m pretty wiped out!

It was a gorgeous Saturday when we headed to Everett for Ali’s Dad’s 80th birthday party. Her family is a trip, some really fun stories abound there. LOL We hung out with them along with Saysha & Joe. Ali’s brother Dennis had made some pulled pork and it was pretty darn good. After a couple of hours of numerous belly laughs, great company and big hugs to Dad Gilmore, we were off to our next soiree in Edmunds.

It was the 3rd Annual Rosewood Manor Pig Roast—I had missed the other 2, but we made it to this one. And it was fabulous. They had buried the pig in the ground Hawaiian style and it was so tender the meat just fell off the pig. It was YUMMY! Along with the pig they also had a bluegrass band. Turns out there are quite a few southern transplants in Seattle, and thank god they brought the pig pickin tradition with them. Robert thought it was funny that he could find such a thing here in Washington stated. =) Everybody watched as they dug the pig up and dished it all out. I ate so much I felt like I was going to pop. The band was great, playing all kinds of things—Guns & Roses and Michael Jackson played in a bluegrass fashion is quite entertaining! And if you didn’t think you had had enough pig, Robert got the bright idea to go get stuff to make s’mores. Everybody was whacking of branches from the bushes to roast marshmallows! LOL I had one bite, nothing else was fitting in my tummy!

Sunday it rained in the morning and was pretty gray and misty the rest of the day, but we headed over to the International District for the Chinatown Summer Festival. There wasn’t too much out there, there was probably more yesterday—looked like it anyway. We wandered a bit and then went to a Chinese/Cambodian noodle place for lunch. Then I took Robert over to the Uwajimaya market. He’s really enjoying all of the grocery options around here! And Linda – you know how I love to wander through the Asian markets. =)

Some pictures below of the weekend – my tummy will never be the same. Definitely need to hit the gym between Roberts cooking and all of our outings—because I am not going to by a bigger size pants, especially since I just gave them all away a few months back!

Saysha

3 Amigas

Robert & Joe

Here comes the pig

S’mores

Naomi and Dad

That pig was good wasn’t it?

Its smokin!

Spare Rib and the Blue Grass Sauce

YUM!

Travis in charge

Was that thunder?

The crowd looks on

International District

LUNCH!

One day I’ll be this good! LOL

Festival streets

What to do, what to do

Wow, there sure is a lot to do in Seattle in the summer time. After living here for 3 years, you’d think I’d know that, but I wasn’t really “living” here then.

Robert and I have been pretty busy every weekend so far trying to get the apartment together. But last weekend we spent some time preparing for our first gathering. We had 6 guests over to watch the fireworks from the apartment. Tammy & Bryan, Jeremy & Briana, and Dave & Katie. Funny, now I am a couple as well. Hadn’t really thought of it until now. LOL We had a great time, great food and wine, and phenomenal fireworks. Hopefully I’ll get the pictures developed soon to post. Because YES, I still use my 35mm camera I got for a HS graduation present. we also went to the Center for Wooden Boats on Sunday where they were having a street fair and tons of old wooden boats of every size and shape. They even had a schooner that used to belong to Neil Young that he sailed all around the world.

This week Ali was in town from San Diego, and we have had a blast catching up, and she and Robert have bonded – LOL. My little minstrel who always wanted to get into writing, turns out to be quite the little songwriter. She did a little CD of a few songs she wrote and sang for her dad’s birthday this weekend. Its really good and I’m very proud of her. Her dad’s birthday is Saturday and we are heading over for that during the day—her dad is a hoot, so that will be fun.

Later in the afternoon we are heading over to a pig roast! Its going to be a busy day – LOL Some friends cook a pig, in the ground – its gonna be GOOD! I never went before, but we are going to get by there this time – and they have a band playing as well. Definitely going to be fun.

Also this weekend if we have time is the Chinatown Summer Festival. Then we also have coming up: Bite of Seattle, Ballard Seafood Festival, Sequim Lavendar Festival, Vashon Island Strawberry Festival, Kirkland Uncorked, Seafair, Tibet Fest, Bumbershoot, the Great Wallingford Wurst Festival, Beethoven & Win Festival, South Lake Union Block Party, and an Italian Festival – along with the various concerts going on throughout the summer. And I’m sure there are other things that we don’t even know about yet. =)

We had to put everything on a calendar so we could keep up with the festivities and visiting guests. I’ll keep you posted on which ones we make it to, and I’ll try to use the digital camera more to get picks of the festivities.

Solstice

When I lived in Seattle before, I lived in Fremont. Fremont is the self-proclaimed “Center of the Universe.” It is very left, hippy-dippy, artsy-fartsy–interesting. It is the home of the Summer Solstice Parade and Festival, and Robert had to go and experience it at least once, so why not our first week here? =)

Usually the parade has been filled with Bush-bashing, so I was curious as to what they were going to do this year. I wasn’t surprised that it was focused more on the environment this year but there was an ode to Hooverville in the middle of the parade, along with a jibe at the pope, a kickball club, complete with a huge show kicking a ball down the street, some incredible gowns made of paper for some ice princess thing supporting some cause, and of course the Hari Krishnas- LOL . There was a huge ball they were rolling down the road, which Robert got out and run over by, and I got 3 hugs from the Super Huggers! LOL

At the beginning of the parade, for the last 7 years (i think its been 7) the parade has been led off by naked bicyclist. They are usually painted in some guise. There was a silver surfer, policemen, bride & groom – I even saw Captain Kirk. LOL Its funny, some people ride sans paint, and the people sitting next to us were yelling “more paint!” I had to agree!

There was one disturbing point for me this year though. There was this one old guy, think Jerry Garcia, crazy gray hair flowing all around like crazy, walking down the street wearing nothing but chaps. Meaning he was free flowing in the back AND front. Now the bicyclist for the most part choose this as a way to show their artistic freedom – and exhibitionist tendencies— but this guy was just disturbing. He was walking back and forth shaking himself in front of the crowd – it was all just look at me and my 65 year+-old penus. I would have preferred that they took him off the street, but I think the feeling was if they banned him, who else would be banned. Oh well.

Robert and I wandered around through the festival booths after the parade and finally headed home. And what a long walk was that. We have to park 10 blocks away—and it was all uphill all the way home. We had to take a couple of breaks on the way back. One kid was smart and was selling lemonade for 50¢ but he was giving jokes away for free—and he was more excited about giving away the jokes than selling the lemonade – LOL

Boxes, the bane of my existence

I’m beginning to think that I must always have boxes surrounding me, or I won’t feel at home. Will I be getting ready to move again 6 weeks after I open the last box again?? Man I hope not.

I never really want to have to move again. One of the biggest luxury items out there is paying to have the movers pack your stuff for you before you move. I have decided to start saving now for my next move, so I don’t have to pack up everything ever again. Maybe I can get them to unpack for me too. THAT would be fabulous!

Or maybe I’ll just sell everything next time and buy all new stuff. I like that idea as well. LOL

Time to make the donuts

So this past week was my first week back at Wunderman Impact in Seattle. Funny, felt like I had never left. I’m a little behind on what’s going on, and it’ll take some time to get back up to speed—but really it felt like I had never left.

Was I just on vacation for 8 months?? I remember being in DC and working with some great people, but was I really there? I kind of feel like my life was the dream sequence from Dallas…. LOL

Next week I’ll find out exactly what I’ll be doing for Impact, whether its the same as it was or different. Chris, who is now my boss, was out this past week, and I’m waiting for him to fill me in on everything that is going on in his head. Should be an interesting week ahead!

Move over Frasier, it’s our turn

Here we are in Seattle—in our super-cool, new apartment and no furniture or stuff. Robert’s was supposed to be here today, but now they are saying another week – UGH! Mine probably won’t arrive until Thursday. C’est la vie.

Last Friday was our first whole day in Seattle and we decided we needed to do a little stocking up. So we went to Ikea and spent a whopping $30 on plastic plates, cheap silverware, and a couple of pots & pans. Ikea can be great for those things! We also bought some new wine glasses since I had broken most of mine, and Robert sold his, for all the wine we purchased – LOL. Then we stopped at Walmart for a dust broom for the floors and some other sundries, and finally to QFC, a grocery store, for some food.

For dinner Robert made stirfry with shrimp and lobster tails (which had been on sale for $5 at QFC!) YUMMY! And then we crashed. For breakfast it was shrimp and grits—man I love having someone around who loves to cook! I think I might have to keep him. =)

Saturday morning we got up early so we could hit Pike’s Market when it opened to try and avoid some of the rush. (Who am I kidding, on a weekend its always busy – lol.) We bought flowers for the livingroom (aka Kitchen at the moment) and a $3 bouquet of Sweet Peas that smell wonderful in the bathroom! Then on to fresh veggies—new sweet peas in the shell, asparagus, some okra, a champagne mango, and fresh basil. We also picked up 2 dungeoness crabs to celebrate getting here, and then some really fabulous handmade orzo pasta.

After walking back home to drop everything off, we headed back out to the AT&T store to get phone numbers changed, and then we headed over to Macy’s to wander around and look at furnishings & linens and things. We will probably need to get a few more things for the apartment furniture-wise, and I was trying to gauge what kind of styles Robert likes. You know how I like my colors, and I have never had to make sure someone else liked what I bought, because it was always for me. So this decorating with someone else thing is new for me and I have a feeling it will be a little challenging. I’ll have to keep ya’ll posted on future purchases. LOL

One thing we did get this weekend was a new bed. We are sleeping on my 6-year old blowup mattress and I think I have finally gotten the last out of the $100 I spent on it. It has a slow leak and has become the most uncomfortable thing to sleep on. So I had mentioned that maybe we would want to look at buying a bed, because I wasn’t going to make it til Thursday waiting for a good nights sleep. So after pricing mattresses at Macy’s, Robert wheeled and dealed us a fabulous discount on a new mattress, to be delivered on Monday. So then we went back out to Ikea and bought a $500 platform bed that Robert had the fun of putting together all day on Sunday.

That was the weekend – we walked our butts off and got some supplies stocked up. Now back to work on Monday!

Are we there yet?!?!?!?!?!?

We were up early and ready to go Thursday morning. We were only about 4 hours away and I just wanted to get to Seattle and call this trip done. Of course it took us a little longer than 4 hours—we WERE driving through Washington wine country…LOL

Snoqualmie Winery

I asked that we just drive on into Seattle, and that we would come back and do a wine tour some other day, because we literally passed 20+ wineries & vineyards off of I-82. But after driving by acres of vineyards Robert said, “Why don’t we stop at just one.” So we stopped at just one, Snoqualmie Winery, and bought more bottles to stock in our wine cabinet. If any of you are Port drinkers, Whidbey Port is REALLY good—REALLY.

After passing all the vineyards we were driving through the Cascades, and I was watching the mileage signs and counting down the miles. We stopped in Renton, just outside of Seattle, to hit a bathroom & fill-up the car. They also had a little carwash, so we thought it might be a good idea to wash off some of the 3300 miles while we were at it. It helped a little.

Finally you could see the Seattle skyline and then suddenly we were pulling into our new home.

After some minor paperwork, we had the keys and were in the apartment. They gave us a welcome gift and we had to laugh because part of it was a bottle of wine from the Snoqualmie Winery, at least we knew we liked it already! After the walk-through with Damon, our maintenance guy—who is great, we borrowed a dolly and brought everything up from the car.

We blew up the mattress, went to Whole Foods across the street to pick up a little something for dinner, ate dinner, had a shower, and then went to bed. We were ready not to have to go anywhere for tomorrow.

Unwired

I’d love to catch y’all up with what’s going on since I got here to Seattle, but I seem to be without an Internet connection at the moment. They are coming to hook us up on Sunday, so I will be updating then.

Sorry for the delay

On our way to Idaho!

We left Salt Lake City without seeing the lake or the huge Mormon church. It was pouring rain and we just wanted to get on the road. There are, however, a TON of small churches all over the place. It looked like there was a little church every 10 blocks, seems a little excessive, but whatever floats your boat.

So basically it poured on us most of the way through Utah. It finally started to clear up in Idaho. We have been lucky with the weather, it has been beautiful for most of the drive, and even if it was gray in the morning, by afternoon the sun was shining. Which it was today when we ended the trip in Oregon.

Idaho was interesting. A little bit of mountains, hills, and plains. We stopped in Wendell, ID for lunch—apparently its the Hub of Magic Valley, whatever that may be. We had lunch at the Farmhouse restaurant and it was pretty tasty, especially the Marion berry pie for desert. We also had a quick stop in Mountain Home, ID for gas—now that place felt a little like Deliverance country. LOL

We were tallying up the number of animals we have seen on our trip today too:

• 50+ dead deer
• a couple of live deer
• multitudes of cows, horses, sheep, & goats and their babies
• 1 dead coyote
• pheasants
• hawks – or possibly falcons – I couldn’t tell the difference
• elk ranch
• llama farms – or they might be alpaca – again, I wouldn’t know the difference
• 1 dead elk – it was huge
• seagulls in Idaho & Oregon – who knows why…

I have also scared Robert to death a few times on this trip. For those of you who have ridden with me, you know I have a tendency to get excited and say “OOH!” and point, and its jarring and can freak you out. I know David hates it when I do that. But he’ll just have to get used to it, cuz I can’t change at this point. LOL

This morning we are just heading straight into Seattle. Should be there around 2-3 in the afternoon. I’m excited that I don’t have to get in the car Friday to go anywhere! LOL

Rocky Mountain high

Today we awoke in Denver, CO and it was FOGGY. I kept asking where were the mountains because I couldn’t see them. But once we got on the road, we were in them.

Robert let me be shutterbug today and drove all day – bless him. I’m so toast at the moment. But I was like a person at a tennis match – looking right, then left, then right, then left, then up, then down, and all around. I had 3 cameras sitting in my lap – LOL. My iPhone, to upload a couple of pics to facebook, and then my digital to post here, and I even had my trusty 25 year old 35mm out so when the batteries went dead in the digital camera I was clicking away with that too.

It was really interesting driving through the Rockies, I had no idea that they changed so much as you went along. First it was green and a lot of granite, then on to more red rock, and finally a more arid area on the western side. We even had a few snow flurries on us when we were in the higher elevations.

In to Utah, it was arid and some of the landscape looked like something from the moon – LOL As you got further in though, the mountain reappeared.

We are in Salt Lake City for the night, and tomorrow we get into Oregon for our last night on the road before heading in to Seattle to our new home. =)

I have to say, that I think more people should do some drives like this – hopefully not at the break neck speed that I have been doing it, because there really is some beautiful country out there—and some great little towns to pull in to and check out, have lunch, chat with a few locals. This is really a remarkable country.

Here are some pics from the road – they really don’t do it justice.