Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with more food than I could imagine at Charlie's cabin. It was a white Thanksgiving for us but luckily no additional snow entered the mountains while we were visiting. Movies were watched, a tree was decorated, and lots of wonderful food was consumed. Joe and I came back to Seattle on Friday afternoon. I headed downtown to immerse myself in the hustle and bustle of black Friday while Joe went to work. Friday evening was the lighting of the Christmas tree at Macy's. Although the tree wasn't as big as Rockefellar Center and there wasn't an ice skating rink underneath, the ceremony still brought out the Christmas feeling. There were songs sung by a choir group as the ever growing crowd waited patiently (and some impatiently) for the countdown. There is a big star that lights up at the front of Macy's along with the Christmas tree. After all the lights were on, fireworks illuminated the sky above Macy's. I was standing amongst lots of families and the kids were just taking it all in. As quickly as the fireworks went off, people quickly headed back into the stores for more shopping.
On Saturday I got our apartment in the holiday mood as I dug out (and I mean I had to dig!) for our Christmas decorations. Nala has already found her favorite to knaw on and my pretty gold present box currently has a T-shirt draped over it to avoid any more kitty teeth imprints. I found myself wandering another Mall Saturday night. We're doing quite well with our Christmas shopping but I find that I like to just wander about in the mall and take in all the shopping frenzy.
This evening Joe and I enjoyed the light show at Bellevue's Botanical Garden. It's amazing to see the creativity of lights done in vineyards, under the sea, and flowers galore. More Christmas cheer was felt near the shopping area as there were toy soldiers walking around on stilts, people dressed up as polar bears, and Christmas music blaring from the outside speakers. As the weekend comes to a close, I'm filled with lots of holiday cheer and my game face to make it the next three weeks until Christmas vacation. Gotta love the school calendar!

Thanksgiving Preparations

In light of the holiday (and my need to share my baking disaster), I'm doing a Wednesday update and sharing my story. Joe is at work and Nala is not much for responding to my kitchen frustrations so type I must. Let me preface my story by saying that for the first time in my life I put leftovers in the freezer. I have never been a leftover kind of person but in these hard economic times I'm trying to be more senseable. About a month ago I made some delicious pumpkin bread using just a small amount of pumpkin from a very large can. I knew that I would be needing some pumpkin again around Thanksgiving so I got myself a tupperware container (okay so it was a plastic container leftover from lunch meat-my first mistake), put the leftover pumpkin inside, and into the freezer it went. Fast forward to this past Sunday when I thought I was being really good taking the pumpkin out of the freezer to thaw. I noticed Monday night that there was some orange liquid at the bottom of the refrigerator but chalked it up to the peaches that Joe had opened that night for dinner. Tuesday comes and there is more orange liquid and no more peaches to blame it on. Joe thought it might be his grapefruit juice. I just kept wiping it up and didn't think much about it. This afternoon I decided that it was time to do the inevitable and tackle this chocolate chip pumpkin cookie recipe. I start to get everything together and pull out the pumpkin. As soon as I open the lid I see that something is not right. I'm not too familiar with pumpkin consistency but I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be lumpy mush sitting in a pool of liquid. Upon further inspection I notice that there is a crack in the bottom of my makeshift tupperware. The culprit of the leaking orange liquid has been found! At first I just tell myself that the pumpkin will be fine once I start mixing it into the other ingredients. Joe comes out to inspect my project and makes a face. I ask him if he thinks my chunky pumpkin will make a difference and he kindly suggests that I make another trip to the store. After some whining (on my part) since I had just come from the store not two hours earlier, and it was not an experience I wanted to repeat, I headed into the grocery abiss. I don't like grocery shopping on a normal day so going to the store twice on the day before Thanksgiving was worth than a trip to the dentist. Back from my shopping escapade (it was tough but I survived the masses), I'm ready to start again. As I look at the recipe I can't help but wonder why so many recipes suggest combining some ingredients in one bowl and others in another bowl before combining it all? To me this just means more dishes and more time spent cleaning up so into one bowl everything goes. I'm going along well until I come to the lowercase "t." Does this mean teaspoon or tablespoon? I'm used to seeing another letter beside the "t" so I was a bit perplexed. Trying to think back to 7th grade Home Ec class didn't help much so I just took a guess and decided teaspoon it is! I'm almost to the end and notice that the recipe calls for salt. This spice (can you call salt a spice?) is something that we've been out of for quite sometime and just can't remember to get at the store. Luckily we have some seasalt in the cupboard so I decide this will be a good fill in for regular salt. Yes Betty Crocker may be shaking her head at me but at this point I just want to get out the kitchen! Last line of the recipe calls for chocolate chips. I just assume it means the whole bag until I look again and see that it says 1 cup. My 1 cup measuring cup is already dirty so after pouring the whole bag in I just take a handful out and assume the rest is a cup. Who says you need to stay on specifics when baking? (Actually that was probably Betty Crocker too.-oops) Cookies just came out of the oven and they look normal. I think I might have Joe test one for me before they make the trip to the cabin. Breathing a sigh of relief as my baking adventure is complete, I look at the contents of the salad I must create. That I can handle as it's really just throwing a bunch of vegetables together and making it look nice. I even bought the already chopped red onion so I don't have to touch them. All I can think of is all this hassle for some cookies in a salad, how would I ever handle a turkey?

It's been a long rainy week here in Seattle. I'm starting to wonder if the "true" Seattle weather held off until our second year here so as to not deter us. Between that and the short daylight days, this time of year is already getting to me a little bit. I've spent much of this past week trying to complete progress updates for work. Take 45 kids x's 3 or 4 IEP goals to comment on and that is a lot of typing! I needed a break mid-week so I decided to take a fitness class at my gym. Normally I don't do this but I really needed a pick me up. I had quickly stuffed clothes in my gym bag that morning; not really paying attention to what I packed. Needless to say it wasn't the cutest or nicest gym outfit that I own. As I was approaching the door to go into the class, I noticed two familiar faces on the other side-parents of one of my students. I froze for a second and then quickly retreated to the stairwell and had a conversation with myself about whether or not I should go in. It's always awkward running into parents outside of school and what made this worse was that this set of parents were ones that always make me so frustrated during meetings. I decided not to let them stop me and went into the class-ugly gym clothes and all. Mom smiled at me and said hello and made small talk for a few minutes. Dad gave me a slight smile but looked almost as uncomfortable as I felt. Needless to say through the whole entire class I was very aware of their presence and couldn't leave fast enough when it was finally over (after politely saying goodbye to them). Not sure if I will be returning to that class although it was a very good midweek kick in the butt that I needed.
Saturday Joe and I headed to the neighborhood of Fremont. It has some really good vintage shops that we always enjoy browsing through and Joe had his eye out for a vintage belt buckle. After successfully finding what he was looking for (but unsuccessfully figuring out how to get it on his belt), we headed to "Roxy's Diner" for a late lunch. They advertise as "The Real East Coast on the West Coast." What makes it east coast? It serves sandwiches! And lots of them. Their specialty is pastrami but they have almost every combination you can think of. You're probably wondering why this is such a big deal right? Well the thing is that we have very few sandwich places out here. You can get any kind of ethnicity that your heart can desire but a true sandwich shop- you're going to have to do some digging. 15 months after moving here and I had my first really good bagel sandwich.
After returning from our vintage escapade I went out to get a haircut. Normally I am really good about keeping up with bimonthly trims but 2 unsatisfactory haircuts and hair that seems to never grow has kept me away from a hairstylist for longer than I'd like to admit. The last time I got my hair cut I was convinced it was uneven, but after several days of washing and blowing I began to wonder if it was all in my imagination. Apparently it wasn't as the nice hairstylist last night informed me that half of my head was almost an inch shorter than the other. An inch! How embarrassing. I've been walking around for too long of time with uneven hair! Guess that's what happen when your hand held mirror goes missing in the move and you can no longer see the back of your head. Look what I missed out on! Crisis averted as I left last night assured that I now had an even head of hair. I'm going to go buy a hand held mirror just to make sure.
We started our Sunday out to brunch with a couple that we've become very friendly with. As we were waiting for our table a group of tight dress wearing, high heeled clad "women" stumbled out after what looked like a late night/early morning party. After noticing the blond leg hair on one of the "blonds" we realized that we were looking at a group of men dressed as club going women. Not sure if that ever becomes common enough not to at least give them a double take . We weren't the only ones. Brunch turned into drinks while watching the Seahawks game and any other football game that we were privy enough to see. Within the course of an hour we saw two drunks fall off of their chairs and then not move. We weren't sure at first if they had a medical issue but when the staff came over to them and called them by name it was obvious that this wasn't the first time. The woman just looked at us with the most vacant eyes. Definitely a bit scary to watch (twice!). And to think that a Sunday could be dull and boring?

Sitting here on a Sunday night with the new Star Trek movie on (I'm already clueless and very uninterested but I won't tell Joe that) I was knee deep in progress updates (it's report card time of year) when I almost forgot to check in. It was a dreary rainy Sunday here today and I can't even tell you what I've done to make the day go by. I guess when you stay in your PJ's until noon (yes it feels good to do that every now and again) it's easy to get lost in the rest of the day. I find on Sundays I have a little more desire to really plan out a dinner and maybe even (gasp!) find a new recipe to try. I felt in the Italian mood and did a little search on the Food Network website for ideas on how to spice up a sauce. I was happy to find something that sounded tasty and was labeled "easy" to make. With my list in hand I headed to the grocery store. I was surprised by my revelation of finding garlic already minced in a jar. After talking with my Dad and Joe somehow I found I was the last to know about this amazing creation. When trying other recipes, I have done my own version of minced with knives and a cheese grader (form your own picture here). Who knew I could be sparing myself this hassle? Dinner was delicious and I got kudos from Joe. I told him I was now done for the week :-)
I had a different kind of beginning to the weekend as I spent Friday at jury duty. My first time ever that I was called and I had no idea what to expect. I was one of 450 people called in on Friday as a potential juror for a specific case. After a back story and other procedural information, we were given a questionnaire that took me almost an hour to fill out. I guess they are hoping to weed some of us out before the formal interviews. I can't say much more about my experience until I am (hopefully) released from consideration. I'll know on November 24th if I made it to phase two. I was done by noon and enjoyed a little sunshine as I meandered downtown and procrastinated from the paperwork that I knew was waiting for me at home.
Saturday night I helped my friend Sydney celebrate her 29th birthday. Glad I still have 6 months for that occasion. It's funny how birthday celebrations in your early twenties are about bars, drinks, and top 40 radio on the dance floor. Now as I'm approaching the horizon to my 30's, birthdays are more about a good glass of wine, a nice ambiance, and good conversation. Is that a sign that I'm getting old or just more mature? I'm hoping for the latter. At least I have another year and a half to wait before I find out!

Weekend In Vancouver

Joe and I spent this past weekend in Vancouver (or "America Junior" as Joe is calling it). We've been wanting to get an opportunity to check out this city and when Joe was given the weekend off we took the opportunity (despite the weather reports for lots of rain-which there was). We got into the city Friday night after a 5 hour car drive. What should have taken us 3 hours took us 5 due to a single lane leading into the tunnel after crossing the border. A single lane for rush hour traffic on a Friday night. Somebody does not have their traffic rules correctly in the book. We checked into our very quaint hotel that Charlie had recommended for us in Vancouver's West End neighborhood. It sat right across the street from the water and we did have a partial view from our room. We were in walking distance to everything we could need which was great. About a half a block away was Denman St which was filled with restaurants galore. We found the Whistler Brewery to eat at Friday night. After that long car ride we were starving! After dinner we headed to the bar at our hotel for a drink before returning to our room. I learned there that a glass of my favorite Pinot Grigio cost $10. Yikes! That was my last glass and I resorted to water after that expensive drink! On Saturday we woke up to rain but were determined to explore the city nonetheless. After coffee and breakfast at a cafe, we headed out to wander the city. Right off Denman is Robson St which feeds you right into the shopping mecca of Vancouver. Any store that you can think of is found on this street. We wandered along amongst the mist, rain, and dry weather all the way through past the art museum, library, to the hockey stadium. This stadium was #1 on the list of tourist attractions on my map. Guess that's what happens when you're country is all about hockey. Joe made fun of me for purchasing this map but it was a useful tool for me to get a feel for the layout of the city and we did refer to it more than once. I told Joe he was lucky that I didn't purchase a guidebook to go with my map and highlight the places to visit. I saw the map only purchase as an even compromise. After wandering the city center, we walked across the bridge to Granville Island. You can take a water taxi or walk the bridge and since we were already on foot we figured why not. The island houses some beautiful homes along with more shopping and restaurants. The waterfront has a large public market which we missed due to the downpour that happened upon us. After lunch we started walking only to be met with a downpour. I had a rain jacket and umbrella but Joe only had his rain jacket and was gambling with mother nature not to carry an umbrella. He was soaked before we were a quarter of the way across the bridge but we had no choice but to continue to walk. We made our way back to our hotel via Davie St which Charlie described as "more gay" than the rest of the city. It had its mix of restaurants and video shops with the rainbow flags hanging freely. Back at our hotel we dried off and took a rest. After flipping through the channels on the TV we game across the end of the Penn State/Ohio State game. Even in Canada we were able to witness the sad game. I couldn't even bear to watch the end and see Ohio State celebrate. Located right next to us was Stanley Park which is about 5 miles in radius. We didn't want to chance the rain again so we decided to drive around it and take in the views. We did get out of the car to take some pictures and it was neat to feel out in the open with the bustling of the city so nearby. We got some pictures of the skyline which consists mostly of very tall (and ugly) condo buildings. Some brief research on the internet let me know that this is the most common way that people live downtown. And at 1/2 a million dollars all I have to say is that there must be some pretty wealthy people in Vancouver with no room for the poor (although we say very few homeless people as compared to Seattle). Dinner Saturday night found us at a great all you can eat Sushi place followed by the largest desserts I've ever seen at a little cafe called "True Confections." The slices of cake filled an entire plate and we enjoyed the sweetness after so much walking that day. On our way back to our hotel we saw something interesting crossing the street- 3 raccoons running together towards a tree on the other side. Nobody else seemed to think this was weird as I was talking and pointing. Must be pretty typical. We ventured back to the States a little after 11 on Sunday morning. We had had enough of the rain and I was eager to get back to a country where I didn't have to translate kilometers into miles. It took us about 45 minutes to cross the border and by the time we came home Nala was very eager to see us.
It was a great weekend of "together time" for Joe and I and it was nice to get away and see some place different. I'm glad to have seen what Vancouver is like but I don't feel like I need to go back there anytime soon. Aside from the restaurants and shopping, I felt the city was lacking in authenticity and it didn't really have anything to give it its own character. Maybe Seattle has just spoiled me but I was happy to return home nonetheless. :-)

I Don't Do Sick Well

This week has been highly uneventful. Mostly because I've spent the better part of it on the couch. I have gotten one of the worst colds (and longest lasting) that I can remember. It started last Monday and I took Tuesday off. I was able to function on Wednesday and Thursday and then it came back with avengance on Friday and I have been on the couch ever since. I have befriended Musinex, Tylenol, Sudafed and a box and a half of tissues. I have a come to include standing over a pot of Vick's Vapor Rub and boiling water into my daily schedule (at least twice a day) and my taste buds seem to be permanently missing. On Friday I was able to take in every talk show host and their Halloween costumes and by noon I had once again affirmed how bad day time TV is. The sinus pressure has made it impossible to read a book and the little bouts of energy I did get were spent lysoling all apartment surfaces to assure that my germs are killed. By this afternoon I was close to tears out of frustration of why this cold just will not go away. I don't do sick well and after 3 days of doing nothing I have had it. I'm hoping some NyQuil and and some sleep will make it possible for me to be a productive member of society tomorrow so fingers crossed!