lost and found in seattle

session day 95

2011-04-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

i'm no longer living in olympia, but i'm still living on capitol time. i am seriously obsessed with budget talk. i listen to budget hearings all day while working and have even taken to watching cspan. i'm so very happy i have found my passion. but how that translates into a post-graduate job, i have not a clue.

i'm back at united way of king county and so very grateful for it. the people are truly wonderful. i've been working more closely with the public policy team and am getting a much wider perspective on local, state and federal policy.

life is really hard right now, but i'm privileged and hate to complain. i know i have been out of touch with pretty much all of you (does anyone even read this?), but know you are always on my mind.

we decided to continue our gardening efforts and actually planted seeds this year. we were a little late in getting started, but we do have some sprouts coming up. inside right now we have both red and yellow tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, basil, mint, and marigolds (for the pests). outside we have radishes, beets, blueberries, strawberries and carrots. we have yet to start our arugula. this is the most exciting thing in my life right now, so once things really start popping up i'll snap pictures and post.

here's to getting back to blogging!

one of these days

2011-03-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

ah friends, one of these days i will triumph over this ridiculously dramatic quarter. that day is not today, but i shall return victorious. miss and love you all. if i've been a bitch i'll apologize through a more appropriate forum after i violently strangle this last paper. hugs!

thank you

2011-02-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

i can hardly keep up with myself these days! more changes are in store, and it's been a rough past couple of weeks (nothing tragic, just stressful). but the point of this blog is to thank all of you that have been showing me the love. you have been so incredibly supportive and validating. i've even gotten new socks out of all this. ;)

i can't wait to graduate.

session day 36

2011-02-14T18:58:00.000-08:00

whoa, people at the capitol are into valentine's day! all day long i heard people saying "happy valentine's day!" 75% of the people i saw were wearing pink or red. there was candy on my chair when i arrived this morning. and i got cookies for hearing out the legislative agenda of occupational therapists. feels like elementary school! except i am working on cost-benefit analysis and researching federal food safety. even better!

i apologize that i don't post pictures any more. i started taking the shuttle to and from the parking lot. aside from that, i don't make it outside very often these days. and, trust me, you don't want pictures of what i'm looking at all day. something exciting- i attended the senate hearing for the death penalty elimination bill last week. it blew my mind to see some of these senators in action- in an unsettling way. people, be careful about who you vote for. make sure you let your legislators know what are agenda is. seriously! i was glad i was there to witness it though. and, the house has introduced a companion bill. we'll see how far we get this year!

additional exciting news: daylight! it starts getting light around 6:45 am and doesn't start getting dark again until about 5:30 pm. this is hours more daylight than we were getting just a month ago. even if i don't catch it while leaving the office, at least i get to enjoy my drive into work!

i'm still here!

2011-02-13T12:33:00.000-08:00

we're about one third of the way through session here, and i am still struggling to get my bearings. it's been hard- really hard. everyone is stressed to the max, which results in bad moods among some. it's hard to work with such drastically different personalities and give everyone what they need- right NOW! i must say it has been an interesting session, despite the drama. i've already learned a great deal about the processes involved in making and amending state policy. i can't say i haven't thought about how wonderful it might be to go back to united way. with each passing day i am more and more grateful for the thought my supervisor at uwkc put into make my time there worthwhile. these days i'm particularly concerned about what it will take to get a good recommendation out of this and, most importantly, a J-O-B.

it's such a relief to come back to seattle. in fact, it makes it almost too hard to do anything besides rest. i am so far behind on school work! it's excruciating to think about adding anything to my schedule- including trips. we had been thinking about visiting denver over my spring break, but it's just too much. too much money and too much energy. we're both just about at our max these days. actually, we're probably significantly over our max. we did get our tickets to cleveland for a wedding in april. and with the bahamas in may, graduation in june and oregon for independence day, it's looking like we won't get back to denver until mid-july (we have a boulder wedding on july 16th). kind of a bummer, but such is life right now. if you're thinking about visiting, please wait until may or later. by then our house will hopefully be a little more visitor friendly too! we're trying to do some re-decorating and re-configuring in order to make our home more amenable to having friends or vacationers over. it will be a slow process, but i'm hoping to get the bulk done by mid-march. stay tuned for pictures- maybe. :)

christmas...a month later

2011-01-30T18:20:00.000-08:00

our christmas cactus has been blooming the past couple of weeks, and i had to share. it's got plenty of blooms at the moment, which is a nice reminder of spring. anthony got this plant as a gift from his (late) sister vivian nearly ten years ago. it has bloomed every season. it often is about a month off- last season it bloomed over thanksgiving, but i'm not complaining. i'm surprised it has stuck with us all these years and continues to put on a spectacular show! especially considering it's in the same plastic pot from from the store.

and while i've got christmas on my mind, i wanted to share this photo i got over the holidays in denver. as you know, lilliana and umeko visited. lilli really loved kiyomi and even let her mom leave her in kiyomi's arms for a solid hour. this is what ensued...

speaking of spring, i shot this picture of some shoots coming up in our front yard. i took a walk around green lake this morning and saw all sorts of green things pushing their way into the sunlight. spring will come eventually!

session day 16

2011-01-25T19:59:00.000-08:00

today i was looking in the bathroom mirror trying to rub off the mascara smudges under my eyes. turns out they are dark circles. fabulous.

olympia is amazing. it's rough running around the capitol campus in heels 10-12 hours a day. but, i love it. and it's strangely energizing. i have been spending more time in senate hearings, which are more different than the house hearings than i expected. there are so many interesting bills and budget proposals floating around that there is no way any one person can keep track of it all. going to different committee meetings in both houses helps me get a wider perspective of everything that's happening beyond the scope of my few issues. tomorrow will be a huge housing lobbying day. i've got msw friends who have organized gatherings, so i'm looking forward to observing their hard work in action.

state policy is definitely where it's at for me.

session day 8

2011-01-17T18:17:00.000-08:00

this is what the capitol looks like at 5:00 p.m. today was a big lobby day for lots of groups. it was wonderful to see so many people advocating for their communities. i'm really looking forward to all of the upcoming lobby days. i'm finally getting settled in and learning what i will be working on this session. i'm sure you will get sick of hearing about my issues, so i will spare you for now. when i know more, you will too.

it was great to be home this weekend, although we were so busy i still didn't manage to get any school work done. it has been pretty warm, but wow did the winds really kick up. it was blowing so hard last night our windows were shaking. that means no sleep for me. i better get used to that though. the weather this week is supposed to be mild, and we may even get some sun! this will certainly be a welcome change in comparison to the snow, heavy rain and wind we've had this past week. i snapped this picture in the university district sunday morning after volunteering at the youth shelter. i can relate, as i have now broken my 4th umbrella since moving to seattle. this time anthony bought me one with wind vents. woohoo!

another welcome change is that i'm just starting to notice the days getting a few minutes longer. i have been complaining to myself that the winter solstice is one big hoax, as the days seem just as short as they have for the past few months. however, the sun seems to be setting about 15 minutes later. i'm not sure the sun is rising any earlier, but i'm hopeful that spring will indeed come. :)

session day 2

2011-01-11T19:29:00.000-08:00

this is what the capitol looks like at 7:30 a.m. there are actually lots of beautiful buildings on campus, but i work in this one (yep, the one with the dome), which is the legislative building. the house floor is in this building, so it's nice to not have to travel very far for session. today i got to watch the governor's state of the state address. i even got a seat! it was very ceremonial, but also packed full of awesome moments.

i also went to two hearings today and listened to many, many testimonies from constituents, advocates and lobbyists. it was more emotional than i was expecting, and there were even tears from those speaking. this is going to be a very difficult session.

it's snowing right now. it has snowed every day that i have worked at the capitol (this does include last week!), so i guess it is a little more winter-y in olympia than seattle. i do not enjoy cleaning off my car and scraping windows at 7:00 a.m., so i am looking forward to the warm front that is supposed to move in overnight!

session day 1

2011-01-10T20:04:00.000-08:00

the 2011 legislative session has begun! this morning began with snow! not always my favorite thing to see, but it kind of added to the excitement of the day. the office was bustling throughout the morning with lobbyists, lawyers and others stopping in with candy, fliers, etc. and asking to schedule appointments. mid-day i got to watch the house opening ceremony, which was pretty exciting. after roll call, the members voted on speaker (rep. chopp), speaker pro tempore (rep. moeller) and chief clerk. i had to learn what the responsibilities of the speaker and speaker pro tempore are (as well as the caucus and whip- lots of terms i've heard, but never stopped to think about what they mean) in the afternoon i attended the ways and means committee meeting, during which the someone from the governor's office reviewed the supplemental budget with the members. i learned that the ways and means committee deals with the operating budget, which is obviously a huge project, particularly in this very difficult year. i'm really looking forward to attending those meetings for the rest of session. overall, the day was exhausting and i still haven't even found my desk or logged into my leg email account! now i understand why legislators cannot even get around to reading constituent mail, much less respond! thank goodness for legislative aides!

(pictured is the door to rep. pettigrew's office) tomorrow i will be attending the health and human services committee meeting, hopefully finding my desk and logging into my email account, attending the agriculture committee meeting, attending the ways and means committee meeting and then possibly going to a budget review later in the evening. i had a 10 hour day today and will be working 12-13 tomorrow. it's 8pm and i just want to go to bed. how the heck am i supposed to do school work?!

here's to a productive learning experience!

changes in the new year

2011-01-06T08:20:00.000-08:00

happy new year! our nye festivies were pretty low key this time around. maureen made a last minute trip to seattle to see us (and watch intervention) for the new year! we got a drink at the pink door late afternoon and then made our way home hang out. we made a simple dinner and then just watched fireworks on tv. we didn't even open any of the sparkling wine we bought! just one of those years.

i need to get you all up to speed on my big change...i have officially changed practicums to work with Rep. Pettigrew. i finished up my big evaluation project at united way of king county at the end of december. i got a loan to help with housing (and other) costs, and my dad got me a great suit. just before the new year, maureen and i drove down to olympia to look at some rooms for rent and check out the capitol campus. the campus is absolutely beautiful. and although seattle is surrounded by water, i was shocked at how many lakes are around olympia. it's definitely a small town, but i imagine i will be too busy to even notice. i did find a place to rent that is just 1 mile from the capitol. it's not exactly what i was hoping for, but it's short-term and i will basically just be sleeping there. from what i hear, i won't be home until after 9pm on most days, so i probably won't even be eating much there.

the legislative session officially begins monday, january 10th. in just a few short days i'm getting swept away into the madness! i will be moving down to olympia this sunday. i have been driving back and forth this week to help get the new office set up (he has moved into a leadership position, so new fancy office). i got my id badge and am getting set up with email and a parking pass. on friday i have new staff orientation. i will have to leave seattle by 6:30 a.m., so a very long day before my frantic weekend of packing!

classes started yesterday, and i am off to school again today. i'll be olympia 3-4 days a week, class 2 days a week and work 1 day a week. busy, busy, busy! i am hoping to update about my new legislative experience once a week. my dad gave me his old iphone, and i am trying to figure out how to blog from that. i can get into this site, but it won't let me upload pics from my phone. any tips?

gotta run to catch the bus! best wishes for 2011!

december opportunities

2010-12-17T16:22:00.000-08:00

i finished finals this week. the quarter felt very, very long. i have been unhappy with the opportunities that uw has offered to date. transferring is still one of the best decisions i have ever made in my life. however, i have become increasingly anxious about whether i will truly get the experience i need to have a career in policy right out of the graduation gate.

that MIGHT all be changing...another student left her legislative position with House Representative Eric Pettigrew. Rep. Pettigrew is a very well-respected community organizer in seattle and south king county. he was just appointed to house caucus chair. i jumped on checking into whether i could move into that vacancy. well, i shouldn't say jumped as i agonized over whether i should even ask. thanks to prodding from classmates, i asked. and then had a long sleepless night while trying to figure out the best way to tell my united way supervisor. i told her and she has been very supportive. i learned the position is open. however, there are some special conditions. i interview next week and will learn about those special conditions then. currently, i am all over the board about whether i should commit. see, the capitol is nearly 2 hours outside of seattle. this means i will need to find housing in olympia. that means we have to pay rent on two properties for 3 months. that also means anthony and i will be living apart again. and i will have to commute for class. and i will have to drop 2 of the policy classes that i have really been looking forward to. and i will have to buy a new wardrobe that is appropriate for legislation making- suits, suits and more suits. there is usually as very small stipend ($250 a month) for students, but with the severe budget deficit i am assuming one of the special conditions will be that i cannot get this stipend. that is scary. very, very scary. so, i'm going to have to get a private loan to afford all this. AND the session starts in just a few weeks. so, first i have to interview, then i have to accept. and then comes everything else- finding housing, dropping classes, figuring out how anthony and i will share 1 car while living 100 miles apart, etc. ugh. this is all very overwhelming. and then i remember that THIS is why i transferred. THIS is the opportunity of a lifetime. THIS could set my career in motion. THIS could be the ONE opportunity that puts me on the road to legislation greatness. that's right folks- legislation greatness. :)

anyway, no decision yet. i'll keep you posted.

i've been cooking a lot lately, and am loving it as usual. our csa box is getting more and more boring with the change in seasons, and i cannot imagine eating the same damn root veggies for the next 4 months. but, for now i'm using food blogs to get creative. at this moment i'm eating roasted beets with horseradish dressing and fried capers. if you've never fried capers, try it. even if you don't like capers. they are very tasty! and they puff up and open like flowers. they are really quite beautiful! i've been doing some cleaning, but am really itching to do more. i want to take everything out of every cabinet and drawer and shelf and clean out those cabinets and drawers and shelves and then throw away and re-organize. that kind of cleaning.

as for now, i'm craving brussel sprouts. let the roasting begin!

p.s. we had a great time in oregon for thanksgiving and will be in denver for xmas in less than a week. happy birthday dad and lilli and umeko!

seattle snow

2010-11-24T11:44:00.000-08:00

as many of you have heard by now, seattle was hit with an icy winter storm on monday. forecasters called for light snow showers, and the people of seattle were in full panic mode come sunday afternoon. i was actually pretty surprised on monday morning to find the snow already sticking to the streets in my neighborhood at 7:30am. i still thought people were being a bit dramatic, but not wanting to get stuck downtown i left work an hour early. well, it took me nearly 4 hours to get the 7 miles home. it was disastrous! although we only got a mere few inches of snow, the roads were treacherous. very windy + very cold = very slippery commute. even our bus with chains got stuck on ice for a few terrifying moments. thankfully we made it home just fine and fared far better than others that got stuck on buses for upwards of 12 hours!

on tuesday both of our offices were closed, so anthony and i walked around the neighborhood a bit to take pictures. it was sunny and clear, but very cold. highs in the 20s is very unusual for seattle, and we've already broken some records.

and now it's wednesday. schools are still closed and buses are still running on snow routes. i had physical therapy this morning and decided to take the bus just in case my big hill climb was icy. however, the roads were in much better shape than i expected. i had a pretty uneventful trip out.

this afternoon i'm headed over to the u-district for a volunteer orientation. anthony and i are going to start cooking breakfast for homeless teens 1 sunday morning each month at ROOTS. i never thought i'd be working with youth, but somehow i've become entrenched. through my work with united way i've had the opportunity to do some qualitative interviewing with homeless youth ranging from 15-20. these are unaccompanied youth, meaning they have no parents are guardians. it's hit me really hard. much harder than i expected. and with this severe weather, it's all i can think about. there is only one shelter in seattle that serves this population (that's ROOTS). many youth sleep in the woods. these are KIDS. please, do what you can to support your local shelter. we've started picking up extra pairs of gloves and socks when out shopping. oftentimes, it's just an extra $5. blankets and food are in huge demand. but if you've got time, that's needed too. cook a meal, even just once. it might change you.

side note: we've been trying a lot of new recipes. pictured are goat cheese zucchini pizza and cranberry apple pie. (for some reason these pictures won't rotate or change size.) the pizza was phenomenal. i still hate pie, but anthony ate the whole thing in 2 sittings.

seattle's dark days

2010-11-13T21:42:00.000-08:00

it's mid-november and seems to be dark 'round the clock here now. it actually is light in the morning by 7am, so i catch some sun on my way to work and school. however, the sun sets at 4:30 in the afternoon so it's dark by the time i get out of work or class every day. i didn't seem to notice last fall, but this year the change has really surprised me. i think part of it was that daylight savings happened while we were in MEXICO! i swear, the season seemed to have completely changed while we were away.

so, mexico...we were in cabo san lucas for just a few short days for christy and ben's beautiful wedding. it was such a wonderful break (hello sun and beach!) and such a treat to be a part of their special weekend. we didn't have too much time for lots of activities, but we did get to swim with dolphins and enjoy massages on the beach. anthony also went atv-ing. it has made me look forward to the other weddings we'll be flying out of seattle for in april, may and july. better get a new swimsuit for the bahamas in may!

i've got exactly on month left in this quarter, and i am so looking forward to a new set of classes. for next quarter i am registered for ALL policy classes and will get to take one at the school of public administration. it should be interesting to analyze policy from a different theoretical perspective. i actually will be taking one (and possibly two) more classes than i'm in right now. i'm just trying to remind myself that i will have a very light load in my last quarter and will hopefully be spending my free time enjoying the gorgeous spring weather we WILL have!

things aren't easy right now, but i'm just trying to hold on through the next few months. i sense a lot of change on the horizon (what's new for us, right?), but i'm counting my privileges and doing my best to enjoy what i can. stay tuned for the holiday excitement!

updates all around

2010-10-30T16:58:00.000-07:00

can you believe november is just around the corner? the autumn has been beautiful thus far, but today the real rain finally moved in. we had a big storm last weekend (i was out of town) and we're in the midst of one right now. it's actually supposed to turn worse with possible flooding on monday and/or tuesday.

i'm a little disillusioned with school right now, which is hard to say since i left du in hopes of better things. i'm not sure that i'm getting the experience i need to find a job i will actually like. we'll see how it goes next quarter, but right now i'm still feeling a huge gap.

as for the foot, i'm still in physical therapy but have scheduled a termination date. it's just not helping anymore. they told me i have a deformity that means i'm not built to run. alas, my running days are over. they told me to take up swimming or biking. honestly, i'm a little scared to bike. cars are scary. also, it's not exactly the right season to start biking. i'm going to wait until after the near year (when i will hopefully have more time) and then re-evaluate.

we've had some visitors over the last 6 weeks! first, maureen and jana came. we got to do some tasting at novelty hill/januik winery in woodinville. we also had pizza there! we did the theo chocolate tour too, which was amazing! it's definitely a great way to spend time with visitors. then, joan came and stayed with us for a short weekend. we went to the seattle art museum's picasso exhibit. it was wonderful, and i'm so glad we made it. i am always excited about new exhibits, but we so rarely make the time to actually go. i was really pleased we were able to go to this one. for the past few days my friend sophie and her boyfriend james have been visiting. they are the ones with the wine property on sonoma mountain. they've got 4 barrels of wine in the works! last night we went to the pink door and japonessa. the pink door is a seattle institution in pike's market. the food is amazing. japonessa is a new sushi place. i prefer more authentic sushi. the food was pretty good, but i don't like all those extra ingredients and aiolis's on my sushi. anyways, they stayed at the sorrento hotel and raved about it. so, if you need a place to stay, there's one recommendation!

i was in denver last weekend for a friend's bachelorette party and to celebrate sarah's 30th birthday. i missed her surprise party, but still got to surprise her with a very quick visit. we got pedicures and went to lunch. it was absolutely wonderful. i really miss girl time. it's getting hard not having friends here.

next weekend we'll be mexico for christy's wedding and then we'll be in portland for thanksgiving. we're heading to denver for xmas. we also have some trips in the works for next year!

hopefully i'll be able to explain my school situation a bit better later in the school year, but for now hang with me while i post less often. i will definitely try to get some mexico pictures up!

bus adventures #2 and #3

2010-10-05T07:02:00.000-07:00

i'm on a new bus to my internship and riding the bus to school more frequently as well. this means a different crowd. since my internship falls into normal business hours, that bus is mostly filled with professionals. the school bus is mostly students but a bit more mixed, since the u-district has a very high homeless population.

#2
the other morning i sat near a woman who was sewing lace. as in, she had white thread, a regular needle, and was MAKING lace! MAKING LACE! it was amazing! i had no idea that was possible! i always figured it was made on some kind of fancy loom. but no, it's made by middle-aged ladies on the bus!

#3
on a bus ride home from school i sat across from a very... dynamic? man. he is 85 years old. he has been shot 23 times. i know because he showed us all of the scars. meaning, he pulled up his shirt AND pulled his shorts all the way up to his crotch to make sure we got a good view of every single one. he also drinks 25 $0.99 beers every day. he showed us his backpack full of beer. he also showed us his 50 hits of acid. he smokes cubans every day. he also carries around a steel water bottle full of cuban rum, which he proceeded to share with those that wanted a swig (only one guy took him up on it). oh, and he has 16 kids, ranging from their 20s to their 60s. he's a grandfather and a great-grandfather. his grandkids drink all his booze and smoke all his pot but they're good kids. i'm sure there was more he shared with us, but those were the highlights.

foot update

2010-10-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

i have a lot to you update you on (i'm back in school, my internship, maureen and jana's visit, more bus adventures), but for now we'll focus on the dreaded foot.

tendinitis (or as my PT continuously points out, it's truly tendonosis) in 3 tendons on my left foot plus bursitis. i've also developed some tendinitis in my right foot as a result of over-compensation (not to mention hip weakness, and back, neck and shoulder pain). anyways, i'm in physical therapy twice a week and have to do lots of stretching and some exercises at home. i did a round of 6 days of steroids, which was what i imagine a crack binge to be. right now i'm at about 5 weeks no running. my goal is october 21st to get back. although, when i asked my PT about it she kind of laughed and said, "we'll see." basically, it's much worse than i ever imagined and requires long-term therapy. i'm also doing ultrasound and electrode therapy with each visit. at first it was a lot of massage, which was great. but this week she broke out the medieval torture tools. excruciating. basically she takes these weird shaped tools and runs then all along my achilles and the bottom of my foot. there are cracking sounds. that is the sound of fibrous tissue being broken up. there is me clutching the table for dear life and burying my face wherever i can to cope. it's bad. but i guess there's lots of research supporting it. so, i'll deal. i'm scheduled into november for now, and hoping i won't need to go into the holiday season. hurray for running! :)

today is frankie's 3rd birthday. happy birthday frankie jane!!!

seattle bus adventures

2010-09-13T15:49:00.000-07:00

for months i’ve joked about dedicating a blog solely to my adventures of riding the metro bus. it truly is an adventure, and not always pleasant. i actually do enjoy riding the bus (the majority of the time), and some days you’ll even hear me say that i love it. why? well, it’s actually a humbling experience. riding the bus reminds me to keep it real, to use my manners, and to recognize my privilege. just about every day i see (and/or hear) something strange, scary, hilarious or heart-breaking on the bus. so, i’ve decided that i should begin sharing some of those experiences.
#1
while boarding the bus, a little girl looked up at the driver and confidently announced, “excuse me, i’m four years and 5 months old today.” she was so proud, and just about everyone in ear shot of her smiled.

denver revisited

2010-09-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

i forgot to mention something very important about my trip to denver. i visited my grandparents. they are getting a bit senile and are even showing signs of dementia. i’ve been hearing lots of stories, but i have not seen my grandparents in long enough that i just couldn’t imagine them being any different than i’ve always known them to be. anyway, we had a lovely visit, which was timed perfectly with my grandfather’s 84th birthday. it was wonderful to see them, and i even left with treats. one of my (and probably all of my siblings’) favorite treats growing up was muisjes. there are different versions, but we always had the chocolate sprinkles (dark or milk). yep, pretty much just chocolate sprinkles. but, you have to get right kind (the dutch kind of course), and you have to put them on buttered bread to make it officially dutch. deliciously dutch!

labor day weekend

2010-09-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

as we head into the weekend once again, i’d like to tell you about a few things that happened over the holiday weekend.

to start, we had a gorgeous run on saturday morning along elliott bay. we started at the olympic sculpture park and made our way along myrtle edwards park. we got to watch a seagull gulp down a starfish for breakfast. another wonderful thing about living on the water. later, we had lunch at an indonesian restaurant i’ve been wanting to try for awhile. those of you reading this should know that my father and his side of the family are from indonesia. honestly, i didn’t get much exposure to indonesian culture while growing up, and as an adult i feel i’ve missed out. so, this was a big deal for me. anyway, i got nasi goreng (essentially chicken fried rice with an egg on top) and anthony ordered beef and rice a la carte. we ended up trading, and neither dish was excellent enough to elaborate on. however, the teh tarik (black tea with milk and spices) and the black rice pudding (sweetened with coconut milk) were incredible! incredible enough that i will certainly go back just for that. and, although the dishes we selected weren’t mind-blowing, i’d like to continue sampling. i’m sure there are a few things on that menu that warrant writing home about.

on sunday we went on a beautiful (albeit CHILLY!) hike up rattlesnake mountain. during the hike we met some seattle newbies (as in 2 weeks and 2 months new) looking for new friends. we had such a great introduction that they invited us for a labor day cookout. so, we spent monday hanging in ballard with our new friends who love wine. woo hoo!

stopped in my tracks

2010-09-09T08:24:00.000-07:00

ok, not literally. but i do seem to have injured myself again. some kind of bursitis/achilles issue in my heel. and it's actually throbbing as i type this, even after ice and ibuprofen. it started bothering me during my first run post-race (nearly 3 weeks ago). i figured i had just twisted it a little in the mud as it wasn't painful, just irritated. since then i've had 2 speed classes, 1 4-mile run and 1 4-mile hike. this is less than half of what i would normally be doing, and it's just getting worse. the only thing that seems to help is wearing heels. seriously. not tennis shoes, not flats, not a 1 inch wedge heel. real heels. i know it seems nuts, but it's the only relief i've gotten.

i skipped speed class last night and am supposed to start my half marathon training on saturday. i'm pretty bummed that i might need to halt my training. i keep thinking it will just heal with my limited activity, but it's getting so much worse. anyways, i'll keep you posted, but there is a chance i'll have to keep the running to a bare minimum and re-start my training with the new year. yucky.

d-town

2010-09-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

i spent almost 5 days in denver at the end of august. the weather was nice and hot (what summer should be) and we got to see lots of friends and family. besties maureen and jana picked me up at the airport (many thanks), and we got to spend the day together. we all met up with my sister at pajama baking company for afternoon treats. that evening joan treated me to dinner at the squeaky bean. i've heard lots of buzz about it, but i think we were both a little disappointed about the small servings and high prices- and i live in seattle. however, we got delicious dessert at little man ice cream to make up for it!

i got to spend most of the next day with my little sister, catching up since her return from japan. and then i went to henry's salon to get my hair chopped off! hooray! the following day joan hosted a yard party for us so we could see lots of friends. it was fun catching up with everyone (like hearing about amy and stephen's engagement story, bill and josephine's wedding update, how much baby isabella has grown, meeting baby evan, and getting the dirt on amanda's job and nick's crazy workouts). one of my favorite moments... talking to sydney about her upcoming first day of kindergarten. we definitely had to get a picture to commemorate that conversation! and now sydney is a kindergarten pro at more than a week in!

we couldn't leave without having breakfast at lucile's, and i had the privilege of seeing christy at her new place (not so new for her anymore!). can't wait for her mexico wedding in just a couple months! we had so much fun seeing everyone, and we hope to catch you during our next visit over christmas!

sarah visits seattle

2010-09-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

yes, i'm very behind. i finished school and still can't manage to keep up. but, it's important that i keep track of these special visits rather than just starting at present.

my beautiful, wonderful friend sarah came to visit in august. it was a quick visit, but we managed to pack in lots of fun and tons of love. to start, we had a fantastic lunch at one of my all time favorites- volunteer park cafe. then, the sky completely cleared for a gorgeous, sunny walk around green lake.

sticking with the water theme, we had drinks and dinner at joey's restaurant on lake union. the views were pretty incredible, with plenty of sea planes landing and taking off during our meal. the next day we spent some time in ballard, but the highlight was definitely the urban wine tour. i did the tour a few months back, but this time around i got to try all new wines and visit different wineries! very exciting! we did end up buying a couple bottles plus some new wine glasses from 106 pine.

we had such a great time, and fortunately, i got to see her again the following weekend in denver!

3 and counting...

2010-09-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

happy anniversary to my amazing husband. i cannot believe our wedding is 3 years behind us. and you readers probably won't believe that we've been together for nearly a decade. that's right! our lives have been a whirlwind for the last few years- bought a house a week before the wedding, wedding, joined americorps 3 days after the wedding, 1st year of graduate school for me, new job and moving to seattle for anthony, me moving to seattle, moving to a new neighborhood in seattle, another new job for anthony and starting my last year of graduate school. phew! a whole lot of stress, but we've only grown closer. you rock my world. you are my rock. i love you.

photos by jenna walker

lake union 10k

2010-08-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

i've been waiting for the race photos to do this post, but it turns out they aren't letting us copy the pictures this year. so, you're just going to have to follow a link if you want to see me crossing the finish line. i finished in 1 hour and 3 minutes. you might recall my goal was 1 hour 5 minutes, so i came in well under. plus, i obliterated my time last year. yay! click here to see my pictures. i'm pictures 7, 8, and 9 on that page.

i haven't done much running since then. we've had one speed class, which nearly killed me. and i tried running in denver and the altitude stopped me short. so, hopefully all this resting hasn't taken me out of the game. the long runs start again this weekend! gearing up for half-marathon training!

trying to get back

2010-08-23T17:14:00.000-07:00

hi friends! i seem to have fallen out of the habit of blogging. between trips and finals and visitors, i haven't had much time for updating. i also haven't done anything of interest, at least until recently. i still need to update you about the happenings from a couple weeks ago...

we finally made it to seattle square! seattle square is an outdoor market in the historic district of pioneer square. i actually work in the pioneer building, which is just gorgeous. it was such a lovely day, i decided to get a picture of the building on our way to the market. we had lots of fun visiting the vendors, but we were really there for the mobile food trucks. unfortunately, none of our favorites were there at the time, so we ended up walking around pioneer square in search of lunch. we hit a jack pot! we discovered delicatus. warning: this is not a spot for you if you are vegetarian. if you are not, wow, this place has any kind of meat sandwich you could hope for. and mexican cokes (you know, the kind that come in a bottle and use cane sugar instead of corn syrup)! i am really looking forward to going back. and, once again, we rounded out lunch by getting a scoop at parfait's truck. great ice cream. i'm now starting to like it better than molly moon's. but let's pretend it didn't say that out loud.

after seattle square we got ourselves ready for a fantastic wedding in discovery park. i've blogged about the park before, but i'd like to remind you all that this gem sits in seattle's magnolia neighborhoodand is just waiting to surprise you. the weather was divine and the nuptials were so touching. check out the gorgeous sunset we watched during the reception. but the highlight was definitely the food! isn't is always? but get this, they had a mobile food truck at their wedding! and not just any food truck...it was marination mobile! fantastic korean-hawaiian fusion. they weren't serving my normal staples, so i got a chance to branch out. um wow, i have new favorites!!! if you're ever visiting seattle, you HAVE to make a point to track down this truck! you won't regret it and certainly won't forget it!

as for more recently...i finished my summer quarter and am happily on a break for the next month. my friend sarah spent the weekend with us! and we completed the lake union 10k! i'll save the visit and the race results for upcoming blogs.

also, i'll be in denver in a few days!

meet zoe!

2010-08-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

we had a pretty busy weekend, full of lots of seattle fun. however, the most important thing that happened was the birth of my newest niece. here she is, miss zoe in her first moments...

proof!

2010-08-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

i'm up to 12 spider bites now and i finally got a picture of one of the culprits. the light was just right for me to get this... can you see it? these are EVERYWHERE around my yard and IN my house!

by the way...

2010-08-10T14:46:00.000-07:00

despite the cold snap we've been having (which is supposed to turn into a heat wave by friday), spider season is still in full swing! i've been seeing less webs (likely due to the wash out over the weekend), but my spider bite tally is now up to 10.

2010-08-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

alright, so i've turned into the worst blogger ever. grad school will do that to a person. my life now consists of school and running. i feel like an impostor saying that. but, it's true. i now schedule my school projects around my running schedule. that's right, running is taking over! and it's kind of fun- kind of. yesterday i did a 6 miler that just about made me want to quit forever. the run was actually beautiful, and mostly flat. but, i was not in the mood. the first 3 miles, i was ANGRY. just plain angry. but, half way through the endorphins started to kick in and i hit my stride. i ended up maintaining a 10 minute mile pace (and if you think that's slow, then i hate you. no really, i do.), which is pretty much my goal for the lake union 10k. as i've mentioned, i'd like to hit 65 minutes or less. i'm sticking with that goal.

this week's running involves 5k club tonight at green lake, speed class (i.e. most difficult workout i've ever had) on wednesday at woodland track, happy hour run (YAY!) on friday at roanoke park, and trail run (first time!) on sunday at mercer slough (hello, this place has a blueberry farm!) .

as for life outside running, i was in san francisco for a few days at the american bar association conference. no, i did not magically become a lawyer overnight. but, even we laypeople can teach lawyers a thing or two. plus, we had tom ammiano as a speaker. he was close to harvey milk and was even in the movie. i didn't know this until my boss told me, but exciting none the less.

the weather was glorious. for some reason, every time i go to san francisco the weather miraculously changes. this time was no exception. meanwhile, seattle was getting plenty of rain, the first in months. this is a good thing.

anyways, i did manage to do some walking around town and hit yerba buena gardens for the first time. now, it's not much of a garden, but it does have a spectacular tribute to martin luther king junior. i got some pictures of the quotes that fill the walls behind a 50 foot waterfall. the park also has an excellent view of a large catholic church. from a block away, i managed to snap this picture of wedding in progress. can you see the bride in the doorway? she's getting ready to walk down the aisle!

too busy to blog

2010-08-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

i'm fully engrossed in school and busier than ever! right now i'm in the airport getting ready to head to san francisco for a work trip. apparently it's the dead of winter there. anyways, i haven't been doing anything exciting here in seattle, so there isn't much to say. in a couple weeks i should be back in exploration action!

another reason to love seattle

2010-08-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

on the walk home from our run today (through beautiful cowan park and ravenna park), we spotted a plum tree in one of our neighbor's front yard. the fruit was already ripe and falling to the ground, so we each helped ourselves to a plum. i am usually not a fan of stone fruit, but damn those plums were good!

research project announcement

2010-07-30T10:42:00.000-07:00

i need your help finding participants for a school research project! here are the details:

Attention LGBT/Queer Community and Allies:

We want to gather information about the experiences of people coming out in a religious family. We do not want to exclude anyone, so that's as narrow as the topic gets. All experiences, all religions are welcome to participate (including people who no longer practice the religion of their family and people who are not coming out to their family because of religious concerns). We will be doing a qualitative project, so we are just looking to learn more about these experiences. There is no final result we are aiming for. We will ask for narratives- open-ended interviews. We would also love it if people wanted to share their experiences in any other ways- art, poetry, song, photos. However, this is certainly not a requirement. The interview process would take 1-2 hours. We would like to do it by Skype, but this is not absolute. There is no compensation. Ultimately, we are hoping to increase our own awareness of such experiences, as well as the awareness of other social workers viewing the project (professor and 19 other classmates).

Other important things to know: the project is QUICK. Essentially most of the research portion will be done over the next 10 days, so we need participants by Wednesday, August 4. Our final paper is due August 17th. So, this won't be a long process. This is not a professional study and will not be submitted for publication. Only myself, my research partner and my professor will see the final paper. We will also do a presentation for the class. We need people with access to a computer, and ideally a Skype account (or the willingness to set one up). We will protect the identity of the participants in the paper and presentation. All contact information (such as phone number, email address, skype account) will be destroyed at the end of the project.

People can email me: gohollo@u.washington.edu for more information or if they are interested.

spider season, pluots and volunteerism

2010-07-29T18:32:00.000-07:00

it's spider season here in seattle! i imagine many of you outside of seattle are experiencing the same thing. i have to say, though, i don't recall so many spider webs growing up in denver. there were of course spiders, but those colorado species must be more careful about hiding their webs. here, you can't walk 3 feet without crashing into a web. it's actually kinda icky. they even create webs on our car. seriously, they are EVERYWHERE! (i tried to take a picture of a web, but no luck.)

i also wanted to post a picture of pluots. pluots are a cross between plums and apricots. it looks like we got the "flavor supreme variety. you can't tell from the picture, but they're actually green with streaks of red on the outside.) i'm not a fan of stone fruit, and the taste of this didn't surprise me any, but the color... isn't it fantastic? so beautiful! my favorite fruit hybrid is the grapple- pronounced grape-pull i can't get blogger to show the long a symbol). they were big for a season in denver, but i haven't seen them here at all. anyways, those things are GOOD!

i just saw that my favorite store in seattle (paper delights!) posted about a new book: 100 best volunteer vacations to enrich your life. if anyone is looking for a gift for me, this would be wonderful- along with plane tickets of course!

giving up sandals?

2010-07-24T12:10:00.000-07:00

running isn't pretty, but i wouldn't have guessed that i would have to give up open shoes! it's july, and believe me, i want to wear them. but see picture below (i'm putting it at the bottom, so it's easier for you to avoid looking at if you prefer) for just one area of my destroyed feet. my running coach just reminds us that running makes for cuter butts. i don't know about that, but i do know i'm feeling ambivalent about giving up more shoes. first i have to give up heels to cope with all the walking and the hills. and now i have to give up sandals in order run? bummer. for now, i'm not giving up either. i'll be wearing my sandals (cute orange ones!) at the zoo this afternoon, and i'll be running again on monday. so watch out seattle! if you see me coming, avert your eyes from my damaged feet!

on a lighter note, we've begun harvesting strawberries!

something a little more interesting?

2010-07-23T14:05:00.000-07:00

i realize my recent posts have probably bored you all away, but sometimes i've just got to get it out! those who know me know that i love to over-analyze and even complain the interest out of life. so, there you have it. anyways, i thought it was time for some pictures. not exciting pictures, but hopefully interesting enough to bring you back to reading. :)

running has been going... just going. some weeks are fantastic and others are enough to make me cry. this week it was almost vomit and faint. i had my first try at speed interval training. basically, you go a shorter distance and alternate between a slower jog and a sprint. i lasted about two miles and then quickly veered off path while gagging. thankfully i didn't fully expel the contents of my stomach (yep, i swallowed!), but soon after i started seeing spots. so, that was fun. since then i've been taking it easy. especially since i pulled a hamstring while sprinting and then smashed my knee (yes, i trip in my own house quite often) in the same day. but, i can't take it too easy since i've only got 4 weeks to go before the lake union 10k. in a couple weeks i'll be starting a speed class, which will hopefully make me a more efficient runner and help me stay on pace. i'm aiming to "shave" a full 20 minutes off my race time, so i've got to get my butt in gear! i know, all this suffering for a measly 6 miles? makes me feel lame! and so, it is now the eve of a hilly, 5 mile run at 8am tomorrow. i'm gonna rock it! right?

speaking of four weeks away... my bestie sarah is coming out the same weekend as the race! i am sooooo excited! she hasn't visited yet and i can't wait to drink wine! yep, i'm going to have to risk mild dehydration on race day to catch up with one of the loves of my life. we have a bit of a wine history... wine walks (yes, that is walking around our neighborhood while drinking out of huge plastic cups), wine while watching so you think you can dance and american idol, wine while on the phone with eachother, wine while cooking, just a whole lot of wine. and i miss it. i miss it so much. wine is not the same without sarah, and it is time for a reunion.

garden news: we brought the strawberries inside and have been able to enjoy them at last. the plant is doing very well and we're getting about 3 times more strawberries than i expected. the raspberries are slowing, which is a relief. the tomatoes are FINALLY turning color. however, this morning when i went to check on their progress i found holes chewed into my gorgeous babies. holes! damn squirrels! i couldn't bear to takes pictures of the damage or tell anthony. i know i can't bring those inside, so we're going to have to come up with some other solution in order to actually get a harvest. lavender is growing like CRAZY. pears are getting bigger, and apples would be getting bigger if the squirrels weren't at those too.

anyway, i hope this blog gets more interesting for all of you again. with 5 weeks of school, it may not, but we've got a few things planned: woodland park zoo this weekend, a softball game and a bbq next weekend, san francisco (again), seattle square, the big race, and denver all in august. i'll try to take better pictures so you at least have something pretty to look at while pretending to read!

and now i better start working on my school assignments!

first day of school!

2010-07-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

we just jumped right in! this is going to be a struggle... i am a very detail-oriented person who likes to control my surroundings and to take responsibility for herself and only herself. this poses a lot of challenges in school, especially a graduate social work program. be forewarned that this is now going to turn into a laundry list of complaints.

first, our syllabus is very general. it does not even describe our assignments! assignments that are due NEXT CLASS! next, our professor has a very rich history and is clearly very educated and knows just what she's talking about. however, she knows so well what her thoughts are that she sometimes forgets to share them with the class. this is difficult for all new students that are anxious about upcoming assignments- me. back to the syllabus... it doesn't even list some of our assignments! what?! how am i supposed to prepare?! today she asked us to do a project about our identity (which requires a lot of reflection) that is due next week. this is on top of the other assignment that's due NEXT CLASS! i realize that in graduate school there is always too much work to do. there is endless reading and there are ridiculously long papers. however, i need some time to prepare! as in, put it on the syllabus so i know just how many projects and papers i'll be juggling before randomly announcing them in the last 10 minutes of class! now back to my upcoming assignment... (can you tell i'm overwhelmed here?) we were randomly placed in groups of 4 (who the hell likes being randomly assigned to a group?!) and told to select readings. this turned into a jumbled mess and it turns out that my group has to do a 20 minute presentation about the readings for the class during our next session. of course we are all busy and no one can meet until monday- the day it is due. what?! ridiculous! oh and it can't just be a dry power point. we have to incorporate activities so the class is engaged in the learning process. what is it with social workers and group projects that have to be engaging? really now, you know you all hated doing group projects too.

so now i'm doing the best thing i know how to do when i feel off-center: make a list. in fact, i have made 3 lists. 3 lists that will get me through the next several days. i have a feeling that i'll have 10 times that number of lists by the end of this quarter! here goes nothing!

by the way, my mind is already buzzing with project ideas. i'll share my "photovoice" pictures next week (you'll see) and may end up soliciting you for data (i.e. using you as a participant for my final research project) in a few more weeks. [some of you already got to be the very interesting foci of papers for my 1st year of school. i am eternally grateful and sincerely hope you did not suffer as a result of my wretched clinical "skills." thank you!] just you wait. i'm taking you along for this ugly ride and you're going to suffer right along side me. bet you now wish i had turned this into a blog about my running adventures, don't you?

say something

2010-07-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

apparently my dad has tweeted out the link to my blog. don't get me wrong, i'm flattered, but now i feel pressured to say something witty or interesting. or to just plain say something. the truth is, i mostly write this blog for myself and a handful of family and friends who want to know i'm up to here in seattle. perhaps a couple of people from the general public have stumbled upon it, but i'm pretty certain they never gave it a second look.

so, instead of relying on me to tell you something about seattle, here are some of my favorite blogs and websites:

seattle metronatural
crosscut
seattle metropolitan
my neighborhood blog
my old neighborhood
nearby neighborhoods: wallingford, ballard, queen anne, university district, maple leaf

weekend at home

2010-07-19T12:53:00.000-07:00

we had lots of big plans this weekend, but ended up spending much of it at home. there was actually a lot going on in seattle this weekend and we are sorry to have missed some of it. however, sometimes i just need a break! we were still busy though! i picked up my reader for my summer class, which starts this week. wow, that thing is huge! having a year of grad school behind me already, i figured not much could surprise me. but the heft of that thing for just 9 class periods still blew me away! i honestly can't believe how soon i'll be sitting at a desk, frantically searching for answers in readings that i didn't get through all while thinking about that darn 20 page paper that's due tomorrow and i've barely started. ah grad school, you just seem a world away! this past year off has been so full of change that i have completely and totally separated myself from the act of being a student. while school has been on my mind this entire time, i've completely lost all memory of how to write using apa and the best way to decipher which readings i'll actually use. i am desperately hoping i'll pick it all up again very, very quickly.

although i haven't started classes yet, i have been very busy preparing for my advanced internship. for social work students, the internship placement is incredibly important in getting the practical experiences necessary for a career. my first year practicum was the greatest work experience i have had to date. it was incredibly rewarding and challenged me in ways i could have never anticipated. the work was fascinating and drew out my passions for social work. i should have known it would be nearly impossible to find a placement to rival that one. however, i have done the necessary work of deciding how to make a confident choice in my internship search. stay tuned for more news on that front!

the seattle myth

2010-07-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

Knute Berger writes about "the myth of the seattle nice" in his book, Pugetopolis. i've seen evidence of it in researching particular issues. and now, it's right in neighborhood. essentially, the people of seattle are known as crunchy liberal types. and, many are. but a lot are afraid. afraid of people. all people. they support social services and liberal causes on paper. but bring a person who isn't gentrified near their kids, and they scream wolf.

for instance, i have recently been researching the great jail debate of 2008. i would first like to say i am against building new jails, because (as evidence shows) more time does not equal less crime. however, if a jail had to be built (in this case, it does not, which is why they took the idea off the table), it wouldn't be so bad having it down the street. research from the u.s. justice department shows that neighborhoods with a jail show no difference in crime rates than comparable neighborhoods that do not house a jail. in some cases, the crime rates are actually lower in neighborhoods with a jail. additionally, property rates are not affected by presence of a jail. and further, there is a greater police presence. believe me when i tell you that criminals want to be nowhere near a jail. think people. just think. or read the research. anyways, i read the thousands of comments people had when their neighborhood was being considered as a potential site for the new jail. just about every one mentioned their children or their property rates. they had so much to say about bringing negativity and "trash" and crime to their area. but many clearly didn't understand the failings of the justice system and the dismal failures of our society. for these failures have led to the need for so many jails. [and yes, i have worked in the criminal justice system (and still do), and have done a whole lot of research. i do actually know what i'm talkng about.] oh, and did i mention that this would be a municipal jail, housing only misdemeanants. that means no arsonists, no sex offenders, no violent offenders. i.e. no child molesters, no murderers, no rapists (at least not for the current charge which landed them in jail). anyway, perhaps children would be less inclined to get in trouble if they had a jail across the street to remind them of hell every day. what do you think?

my point is, people in seattle LOVE to say, "NOT IN MY BACKYARD!" i am so over reading and hearing those 4 words strung together. and now, it's all in my face.

i live in greenlake. my neighborhood is middle to upper middle class, pretty darn gentrified (as most of seattle is), and full of jocks and young families. however, being in liberal seattle, surrounded by the well-educated, i suppose i just assumed most of my neighbors believed in social justice and you know, civil liberties. i believed that until i became aware of the uproar my "civilized" neighbors are causing over 20 homeless men moving into the neighborhood. a church right in the middle of the 'hood has decided to host the SHARE program, a wrap-around transitional housing program. the men would live in the church, look for work, build life skills and get other resources while searching and preparing for permanent housing. this is not an emergency shelter that will attract whatever it is my neighbors seem to think is cause to fear for the end of the world. these neighbors of mine were interrupting and shouting at the preacher during a community meeting last night. come on! i'm a serial interrupter, but i can refrain from shouting at least. and if i can be respectful, then i would hope my genteel neighbors can too.

anyway, i would like to remind people of their privilege. i would like remind the people that surround me that most of us have never suffered in the ways that these men have. your life experience is no less meaningful, it has just been different. please respect those differences. please show our children that we can be a community that supports one another. please act with kindness and compassion. please be an example in humanitarianism. please bring back my faith in the people of seattle. it's so very important to me.

that's enough ranting for today i suppose.

read more about this on the neighborhood blog.

fun-filled seattle weekend

2010-07-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

sad news... those damn birds managed to eat our ripe strawberry... again! i think we're going to have to bring it inside if we ever want to actually eat the fruit.

our weekend started with a 4 mile run through woodland park and around green lake with beth baker's 10k club. saturday was warmer than expected and we certainly all felt it. after recovering from our run, we headed to mobile chowdown iv. mobile chowdown is a street food fest, offering the best mobile food seattle has to offer. this time around, there were also several vendors from portland and a beer garden. it was pretty darn hot, so we didn't stay as long as we originally intended. but, we did brave the line for marination mobile's kimchee fried rice (with fried egg on top) and aloha pork sliders. we also got scoops of meyer lemon and mint stracciatella from parfait. next time i'd like to try the sliders from maximus minimus.

on sunday it cooled off to a perfect 79 degrees. we headed to the international district for the annual summer fest. the international district hosts all things asian (including the huge uwajimaya market and the best darn asian food (from dim sum to veitnamese to traditional japanese to filipino to sushi to whatever your heart's content) this continent has to offer. the summer fest is a celebration of asian culture. we made it just in time to watch a kung fu demonstration, followed by the lion dance and a whole lot more kung fu. we had lunch at the best vietnamese restaurant in the country, green leaf, and then got lopez island creamery ice cream. every time i visit the id, i wonder why we don't go more often. it truly is always a good adventure involving excellent food.

speaking of excellent food, we ended sunday with a homemade fruit crostata. we used raspberries from our own garden and apricots, plums and peaches from our produce box. i still do not love fruit desserts, especially those involving a crust, but it was good to use up some fruit!

we've had a major cool down today, only in the 60s. i am relieved. i love seattle's cooler, cloudy days and i'm not looking forward to the next heat wave. besides, who wants to run when it's so hot and muggy?

finally, sammy is not feeling well once again. some of you have been privy to his chronicle of stomach and eating issues. well, they seem to have returned. he's stopped eating and started throwing up again- in the bed no less. he is constantly uncomfortable and you can hear his stomach growling in the next room. i don't know what to do to convince him to eat, but we'll keep trying!

his legend lives on

2010-07-11T19:34:00.000-07:00

several days ago bear, my brother in law's dog, passed away. he was a very special dog with a wise soul. he is very beloved and there will forever be a place in our hearts that shines with his light. many of you met bear and commented on his gentle spirit. he truly was one of a kind.

bear was adopted from wolfwood refuge, a nonprofit rescue organization for wolves and wolf dogs. my brother in law has adopted 3 wolf dogs from wolfwood. bear was the first. from what i've heard, wolfwood is an incredible place, where they are very careful to maintain the rules of the wild. they don't adopt these dogs out to anyone, and they take special care to make sure a new owner understands the contract they enter into when taking such a dog home. not everyone can handle the responsibility of caring for a wolf dog. but if you are interested in supporting the cause and honoring bear's memory, please donate to wolfwood today. if you had the opportunity to meet bear, let them know! i have no doubts they remember him well.

hot? in seattle?

2010-07-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

that's right, it's extraordinarily hot here. i had no idea how horribly humidity could affect my capacity to handle warm temps until tuesday rolled around. the temps weren't even high yet, but i could definitely tell a huge difference in comparison to the dry heat in colorado. my heart goes out to all the east coasters suffering 3 digit temps with 85% + humidity. in my book, that equals death. since tuesday, the temps have inched higher. yesterday we hit upper 90s. inside my house, it was in the 90s as well, as proven by my thermostat. temps in the 90s are unusual for this area, so NO ONE has air conditioning in their homes. it just doesn't exist up here. so, it's pretty much impossible to function during these mini heat waves. thankfully, temps are falling a solid 10 degrees tomorrow and after the weekend we should hang right around mid 70s for the next week. perfect.

as always, it's important that i mention food. these days we have more raspberries than we even know what to do with! we're averaging about 3/4 pint a day now, which is far too many day after day. so, i'm freezing them for smoothies and raspberry ice cream. i see lots of raspberry ice cream in our future! we have put our strawberry plant under a metal chair for protection from the birds and we're just about ready to pick our first one! just one single strawberry, but we have very high hopes for the little guy. we just increased our produce box delivery to every week. i'm sure you're all sick of hearing about it, but i'm just loving it. we got a ton of fruit this week- apricots, plums, peaches, cherries and blueberries. i'm making a crostata in a few days. i'm not a lover of fruit deserts, but i'll give it a shot. i can only handle so much fruit and cream, so i've got to start branching out if i want to continue enjoying the bounties of summer.

somehow, i've taken to running once again. somewhere, deep in my soul i've always felt like a runner. but my body thinks it is on the verge of death any time i move my legs faster than a 20 minute mile pace. as such, i've never kept up with running. i burn out too easily. but for now, i'm really loving it. loving it more than i ever have before. this is all very much due to beth baker with running evolution. beth is a hilarious running coach that hosts groups for non-runners, turning them into runners. i've now got a "running groupie" membership (this is a real thing folks) that includes a happy hour run and a trail run, among other perks. i'm also in the 5k club AND the 10k club. 10k club starts tomorrow with a 4 mile run, so let's hope i can keep up! i'm half tempted to turn this into a running blog, but my attempt this morning was a dismal failure due to the heat, so i'll spare you the gory details. except for this one: blood blisters. yep, the most i've run so far is 3.5 miles and i have blood blisters! yuck. good thing i loaded up on blister prevention socks at the nike employee store!

frankie loves to sing!

2010-07-08T17:19:00.000-07:00

when we got home from portland we got this little report from frankie's dog day care. cracks me up since i'm always telling everyone she loves to sing. you just have to hear it for yourself, but i can absolutely guarantee it will make you laugh. :)

4th of july weekend in oregon

2010-07-06T14:48:00.000-07:00

it has been a long several days without internet, but i'm back to update you about our trip! it all started with the seattle train station. what a let down! somehow i got it in my head (no thanks to all of you!) that riding the train would be romantic or glamorous. um, no. not at all. no security lines was great, and the leg room was also a plus. the views were pretty decent (especially on the way back!), but the food was horrendous. next time, i'm packing a cooler! anyways, we arrived at the portland station (which is about 1000x more beautiful than the seattle station) and were greeted by uncle keith. we drove through portland to west linn, a suburb of the city. keith's house is right on the willamette river, so we dumped our stuff and hurried down the hill to take in the scenery at the shore.

the next morning, the action really began! we had a nice run into the lake oswego farmers market. we got lots of goodies for the family bbq and had breakfast at just about every stand. that afternoon, cousin timm took us to where he works- the nike campus (fondly nicknamed "disney land" by the family). that place is spectacular! the gym is like nothing i've ever seen. it truly was a treat to get a tour of the place. he also took us to the nike employee store- the highest grossing store in the WORLD. we certainly dropped a pretty penny in the place, but well worth it at 50% off everything. i have enough running gear to last me years!

the excitement continued with the holiday. the 4th is always a holmes circus. that family has pyromania running in their blood and they spend hundreds (and up into the thousands) for fireworks each year. it takes hours to get through all those boxes! many of the neighbors also put on their own shows, so it's nice to just plop a lawn chair on the shore and watch all the commotion. there was also quite a bit of eating involved. and lots of nervous laughter over the little kids exhibiting early signs extreme pyromania.

anyways, it was all absolutely exhausting, but we managed to pull ourselves together for a trip to multnomah falls the following morning. just beautiful. there are a lot of options for hiking and camping, but we weren't really dressed for hiking, so we did a short 2-mile trek and called it a day. next time, we will definitely have to come prepared for a full day's worth of hiking. after our wonderful wilderness adventure, we went into the city for lunch and then back to the train station for our ride home. today i am just beat, but i need to pull myself together and get ready for work tonight!

finally, it's important to mention that today was anthony's first day at his new job with the architecture firm callison. we'll keep you posted!

more yard happenings

2010-06-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

while visiting, joan asked if there are hydrangeas in seattle. i told her i hadn't seen many, but wasn't sure when the blooming season is. a few days later i walked over to check out the pink rhododendrons in an unexplored corner of our backyard and found 3 blooming hydrangea bushes! can't wait till they're in full bloom!

we also got our first harvest from our raspberry bushes. we got a couple of handfuls from our first pick, but i'll bet by now i could get another handful. i ended up throwing them into a bowl with some blueberries and and a peach from our produce box for a delicious snack with cream (or course).

another fruit in season- cherries. it's cherry mania up here. stands popping up on the side of the road, people talking about the batch they picked up from their farmers market, pulling over at the sight of every neighborhood tree with ripe fruit to steal a few. oh yes, it's that time up in the northwest and we are participating in full. i swear, i rarely ate fruit until i moved here. and now, it's a daily thing. too bad they're getting a major trimming from the food pyramid!

we had a busy weekend, and i can't believe it's monday again and i have full a work week ahead. on saturday we went to mighty o donuts, which is a bit of an institution here. they make vegan and organic donuts and have been nationally recognized by the press. i personally missed the fat. i eat donuts rarely enough that i'll opt for the trans fat in order to have a delicious donut, full of fat as intended. we also finally made it to our neighborhood wine store. they do mimosas and croissants on sundays, but we ended up just buying a bottle of syrah for a friend's birthday bbq. and then we headed to dinner at anchovies and olives in capitol hill. it's an italian inspired seafood restaurant, and i loved the vibe. i loved the look of all the employees, and i thought the decor was just fantastic. i still can't completely jump on the seafood bandwagon, but they had some great plates to offer. i'd like to check it out again as their menu changes on a daily basis.

enjoy this week! we'll all get through it knowing we've got a holiday weekend just up ahead. woohoo portland! here we come!

produce box #2

2010-06-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

we got our second produce box, and i swear, it's like christmas morning when i get to haul that thing home and open it. this time we got: 2 large yams, 1 bunch of carrots, 1 cucumber, 1 bunch of broccoli, 2 avocados, 1 lb. zucchini, 1/3 lb. snap peas, 3 peaches, 3 nectarines, 1 pint of blueberries, 2 large tomatoes, and 1 bunch of red leaf lettuce. i'm going to be making stir fry this weekend, but haven't yet decided what to do with the rest. last time i ate the fruit with cream. it was divine. i imagine there will be a lot of fruit and cream throughout the summer. yummy! we did decide that after we return from the independence holiday we're going to increase our delivery to every week. everything is so delicious we just can't make it last!

check out our tomatoes. the weather here has been ridiculous- record lows across the board. i'm surprised these guys have hung in so long, but am still not confident they'll fully ripen. we'll just have to wait and see. in the meantime i'll be enjoying the organic tomatoes that come in our produce box!

i'm a husky!

2010-06-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

here it is folks, my new school id! now i just need to figure out what i do with the space that says "affix enrollment validation here."

by the way...

2010-06-22T09:05:00.001-07:00

for those of you i told to try the mailing announcement, i apologize. looks like you can just email that one post to yourself or others, rather than getting new post announcements. looks like you'll just have to keep checking back!

san juan island

2010-06-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

the weather held out for our san juan island adventure! considering we had 3 boat trips in 3 days, i'm very pleased we missed the stormy waters. we took a ferry from anacortes (about 1.5 hours northwest of seattle on fidalgo island) to friday harbor of san juan island. of the san juan islands (san juan, shaw, lopez, orcas), san juan is the furthest from seattle and is actually right next victoria, b.c. it also is the most populated and has the largest town- friday harbor. (photo of friday harbor by joan holmes.) we drove off the ferry and four blocks to our bed and breakfast, harrison house suites. this was a great place to stay as it was right in town and an easy walk to many places.

after checking in and unloading we headed state for lime kiln state park. we went to see the lighthouse, but ended up catching the whales! the lighthouse is actually the whale research center and naturalists/marine biologists are there all day long tracking the various pods and transients. (photo of lime kiln lighthouse by joan holmes.) it was pretty exciting to catch a glimpse of them before our boating excursion. (i actually caught this pic of mom cookie and juvenile offspring oreo just as my camera ran out of batteries.)

the next morning we walked into town and took a tour through the whale museum. all the guides call this place a "must-see," but i thought it was pretty grim. the museum has several fetuses in jars and is mainly focused on educating visitors about the species that have gone extinct and which are endangered. they even have a plaster cast of a baby whale that washed up on shore after starving to death. really glad i paid $6 to see that. after the museum we had a fantastic lunch at the bluff, which overlooks friday harbor. (photo from our lunch spot!) and then, we were off for some whale-watching with san juan safaris. i was extremely nervous about getting motion sick, but 3 dramamine and all the excitement kept my stomach and brain pretty well tricked. i didn't even bring my camera on the boat, because i knew it would be impossible to get any decent pictures. however, the "whales" (we learned that orcas are actually porpoises) did get VERY close to the boat. it was incredible. there have been 7 orca births this year, and we probably saw 2 or 3 of the new babies. the several hours on a boat were definitely worth it, and this is a must if you make it out to the san juans. our final morning on the island was spent at pelindaba lavender farm. now this was an educational experience! apparently lavender is an excellent cleaning product and is antibacterial. you can use it on your pets to deter fleas, on your plants to kill aphids, on skin burns, as a bathroom and kitchen disinfectant, and on and on. it was pretty incredible to learn about all of the qualities and uses of lavender. (photo of lavender fields from joan holmes.)

next we had planned on visiting san juan vineyards, but we had already tasted their wine at one of our dinners (it was a great cab franc!) and didn't feel like tasting at 10am. so, instead we headed to the little road bee farm. now this place was pretty creepy, but we mustered up the courage to walk around. still, it was interesting to see the hives. they also have very vocal chickens and an incredible orchard. we bought some honey, but i haven't gotten a chance to open it yet. and then we ferried back to anacortes and arrived just in time for a stormy drive back to seattle. oh summer, why must you evade us?

next we're headed to portland for the independence weekend. we're also thinking about going to the olympic peninsula for some rainforest hiking. i'll be starting summer school in about a month, and shortly after my term we'll be back in denver for a quick visit. and by the time we get back, summer will be over and i'll be back in school! wowza!

yes

2010-06-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

check out seattle metropolitan's list of "100 reasons to love seattle"

produce box update

2010-06-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

i picked up our first produce box today! we ended up swapping the 1/2 lb of red grapes for 1lb of roma tomatoes and the bunch of kale for 2 zucchini. we also added a loaf of bake at home sourdough bread, 16 oz of butter and 6 oz of blueberries. the blueberries were cheaper than in our grocery store, so that was a given. bread was about the same price and the butter was a bit pricier. overall, our box would have cost about $44. had we bought all those organic items in the grocery store, it would have cost $40-$50, so it looks like we're right on target! but, this week i had a coupon for $15 off, so it was less than $30! woo hoo! i'm most excited for the butter!

seattle makes my feet hurt

2010-06-07T09:21:00.001-07:00

the thing that has changed the most in my life since moving to seattle is probably the amount of walking i do. i walk every day, often more in a day than i would do in a week in denver. i probably walk 10-15 miles a week, excluding dog walks and regular walking around the house/office. when visitors come, it's more like 20+. it's just a part of life here. the vast majority of people have bus trips and walking in their daily commute. unfortunately, my feet were not built for so much wear and tear. somehow, evolution did not favor me on this point. my feet are constantly in pain, and as a result, my knees and hips are often in pain. i once worshipped the high heel. now, i wear flats everywhere. and not just any flat, ugly supportive flats. flats with built-in orthotics that cost $200 and still leave my feet swollen and throbbing after a 3-5 mile day. i have gone to see my podiatrist 4 times now in the last 2 months. apparently, my feet are unusual to even him. i've gotten orthotics that took 6 weeks to make because they had to keep sending them back to increase the arch support. and so this is my life as a walker. it essentially prevents me from becoming a runner and doing most other forms of exercise that involve use of my knees. too bad i hate yoga and can't commit to buying a swimsuit and using a pool on a regular basis.

anyways, the point of all this is that over the weekend i was reminiscing about my beautiful shoe days and was inspired to create an homage to my once passion. (on the left is a picture my dad took of my feet. large center is a painting by a once alzheimer's patient i worked with. right is a picture of my wedding shoes. and small right center is a card i bought- close-up above.)

something else i did over the weekend was the urban wine tour (please note the tour is actually 3 hours)! it was incredible! we visited ward johnson winery in interbay, the wine outlet (which has another location a few blocks from our new place!), and laurelhurst cellars in sodo. much of the tour included food pairings (amazing cheese, nuts, meat and fruit). i bought a bottle of syrah (usually one of my least favorite varietals) called randall harris. one of the best wines i've tasted and the bottle cost $8. i never would have even considered trying it if i weren't offered the glass on the tour. anyways, seattle also offers a number of food tours, so it's worth looking into the next time you visit.

a garden update... sadly, our strawberries have been ravaged by the squirrels or birds. we are considering taking the plant indoors, but aren't sure how well it will do. however, i was very excited to finally see some little tomatoes coming in! lots of them! and our apples have almost tripled in size since i last checked! i guess all this june rain has its benefits! (i learned that june is a typically gloomy month here and the estimated unofficial first day of summer is july 12th. cliff mass recommends that events be planned for late july through august. come visit!)

and most importantly, on saturday my niece lilliana turned 5 months old. i got her this little at a home goods shop in seattle (one of my favorites). it comes in a bag that is sewn closed, so you have no idea what it will say until you buy it and cut it open. i'm pretty thrilled with the result... it says, "mysterio predicts i will be a dount tycoon"!

stay tuned for the verdict on our soon to arrive produce box!

that's SO seattle

2010-06-04T12:35:00.001-07:00

we've finally done it... this week our first box of organic, local (mostly- some of the fruit can't grow here), sustainable produce from full circle farm is scheduled to arrive! this week we are getting: 1 bunch spinach, 1 bunch brocolette, 1 bunch kale, 1 bunch carrots, 1 cucumber, 1 bunch green leaf lettuce, 1 bunch spring onions, 1 bunch baby white turnips, 1/2 lb red grapes, 4 valencia oranges, 3 nectarines and 3 yellow peaches. YUM! they also have a green grocery and we can customize our box with special orders. this week i think we are going to add the bake at home sourdough bread since we didn't bring any home from san francisco. other organic and local items available: milk and cream, tofu, eggs, cheese, butter, honey, tea, coffee, juice, chocolate, grains (like risotta and farro), fresh pasta, nuts, meat, and speciatly vinegar and salts- hello aged balsamic vinegar and truffle salt!

my friend maureen in denver turned me on to this. she is trying a csa (community supported agriculture) program in her area. i also have another friend in denver that is trying a different program that is very similar to full circle farm box. look up the options in your area. it's very affordable and surprisingly convenient- many deliver straight to your door!

here is a neat article by cook local that will give you lots of great info whether you're in washington or elsewhere.

just because...

2010-06-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

check out sammy and frankie on the greatest blog of all time. you're glad you clicked, aren't you?

a san franciscan holiday

2010-06-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

we spent memorial day weekend in san francisco, visiting my friend sophie. as soon as we got there we began exploring golden gate park. we eventually made it to the bridge and did some major walking. sophie had never walked the bridge, so it was a new experience for all of us. later that night we went to foreign cinema, an outstanding restaurant that shows foreign films while you dine. it was an amazing experience. the next day we headed to the tippy top of sonoma mountain for some grapevine pruning. it was HOT and hard work! we decided to get lunch at this little roadside cafe called the fremont diner, which is apparently critically acclaimed. it was darn cute and delicious! on our final day in the city we mostly just walked around and revisited some of our favorite neighborhoods. overall, it was a busy and exhausting weekend! next up: whale-watching around the san juan islands!

we have made NO progress in getting the house together, but the garden is looking spectacular! we have amazing dinner plate-sized poppies and beautiful peonies in bloom currently. and, great news, one of our strawberries is starting to get some color!

looks like i'll be starting school in july. most of my credits transferred, but i will need to take one extra class over the summer. i will graduate with the rest of the class, and i'm looking forward to meeting some of my cohort a little bit earlier than expected.

stay tuned for our island adventure and the progress of our produce!

moved at last!

2010-05-23T16:37:00.000-07:00

phew! it has been a busy, busy month! frankie's face says it all! we JUST finished cleaning our fremont townhome for the last time and are now faced with endless boxes and bags to unpack in our greenlake house. we are loving the new neighborhood and are very excited to be able to spend our summer at the lake. there is a bakery just blocks from our new place that we have already walked to half a dozen times in this first week. i just started a couch to 5k running group that meets at green lake for 6 weeks. perhaps i'll be a runner by the end of the summer. although, i'm fairly certain the completion of a 10k last summer was the peak of my career. i had my school orientation and am anxiously awaiting the next steps in the process.

my urban garden continues to grow. the lettuce has just exploded! this is after our first harvest. time to harvest again already! we have some strawberries coming in and LOTS of apples. unfortunately, we had a cold snap and lost all of our cherries (pretty much) over night. good thing most cherries are grown in washington and we can get some at the grocery store very soon! the tomatoes seem to be hanging in, despite the temperamental spring weather, but we'll have to see as the weeks progress.

just a couple more pics of the house... we have a large deck in the back, but thought you'd be more interested in seeing our adorable little yard. for those of you wanting pictures of the inside, you will need to be very patient until i get everything unpacked and

organized. or, you'll just have to come see for yourself!

for dad and mom- birthday pics

2010-05-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

i promised my dad i would post pictures of my birthday clothes. so here they are, complete with unpacked boxes in the background.

a big thank you to everyone for the beautiful gifts and well wishes.

i missed you all on my special day in seattle.

seattle spring continued

2010-05-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

it's still spring in seattle and we've had some mixed weather. the past week or so has been typical seattle- CLOUDY! but it's also been chillier than normal with average temps 5-10 degrees cooler than expected. it's making it impossible to put my tomato plants out! i have noticed some new blooms around the neighborhood though. the dogwoods have been exploding all over town for the last three weeks. (by the way, there are pink dogwoods! they are the color of flamingos!) irises are just starting to open. the wisteria has suddenly blossomed over the last two weeks and can be seen all over town. the cherry trees are starting to grow cherries! and i've even spotted some peonies and roses getting ready to bloom over the next few weeks. today, it is beautifully sunny, but WINDY!

we've been busy since i last posted. we went to denver for the weekend mid-april. once again, i did not take a single picture, despite hauling my camera everywhere we went! another all-too-fast visit, but we were able to see a lot more friends than we did in february. we are not sure when we will be back, but hopefully at some point towards the end of the summer.

anthony's long-time friend casey flew into seattle from china last week and has been touring the city with us. i'm hoping he'll get to finally see the mountains today with the big clearing. we spent saturday at alki beach (another beautiful seattle park) and walked the shores picking through shells and crab bodies and taking pictures. we also saw a juvenile bald eagle!!! he was also walking along the shore and even had some snacks while we watched. yesterday we took the light rail to safeco field for a mariners game. lots of excitement all around. i have to say, i was pretty impressed with the light rail and recommend it to visitors trying to get into the city from the airport. also, i was amazed by the baseball stadium! the roof opens and closes (what's that called again?) and the lights were fantastic. there was also some pretty great food. we saw thai, sushi, philly cheese steaks, and chocolate dipped strawberries among the regular game fare. a great way to spend a sunday afternoon!

finally, we got the keys to our new rental home! we are moving to a beautiful house in a beautiful neighborhood. we will be taking our time, moving over the next few weeks. we have moved some boxes already and are packing little by little each day. it's hard to really see in this picture, but we have so many beautiful trees and other foliage in both the front and back yards, it's difficult to get a good angle! we still have a guest room, so please come visit if you can!

another seattle park: carkeek park

2010-04-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

we had gorgeous weekend weather and decided to pick another seattle park to explore. this time, we found ourselves at carkeek park in northeast seattle. this park is over 200 acres and offers the most spectacular views of the olympic mountains and puget sound than anywhere else we've been so far. i have to say it rivals (and even beats in my opinion) the beauty of alki beach. there is a lot of variety in terrain, with a huge beach, open grassy spaces, and woody trails. salmon can be found in the stream that runs through the park and there are areas where dogs can run off leash. there are about 6 miles in trails, but they are all pretty short and run into one another. this definitely isn't the site for serious hikes, but would be a great place for some trail running. additionally, dogs are not allowed on the trails that cross the stream, nor can they access the beach. so, if you want to take full advantage, leave the pups at home. we ended up taking them back to the car to check out the beach for a few minutes, but never got the chance to visit the stream.

skagit valley tulips

2010-04-10T14:28:00.001-07:00

we finally got to see the skagit valley tulips, and they are incredible! located about an hour north of seattle, the town of mt vernon hosts thousands upon thousands of visitors every spring for the tulip festival. the tulip festival lasts for the entire month of april every year, regardless of bloom dates (which can range over a month). they rotate their crops and have many fields spread over about 20 miles of land. the flowers in this section (roozengaarde) are the very same that are grown in amsterdam. they ship flowers all over the US throughout the year and have more varieties than i could even look through. you can also order bulbs or buy potted or freshly cut flowers on site. we ended up taking home several bunches and can't wait until they open! i imagine there are different varieties available every week, which of course makes we want to go back again and again! there are also daffodil and iris fields in the area (as well as several wineries), but we didn't make it to those this time around.

it was impossible to actually capture the enormity of these fields on my point and shoot, but i hope these photos give you some idea as to how incredible this place really is. we only walked through about a quarter of the area, missing hundreds of varieties and millions of tulips, but the area is so vast i can't imagine doing it all in a single day. if you plan to come to seattle at all next year, come in early april. spring in the northwest is a can't-miss event, and the tulips are absolutely unforgettable! but i urge you to bring your fanciest big girl camera. you'll regret it if you don't. :)

the reason i moved to seattle

2010-04-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

after a whole lot of frustration and self-advocacy, i received this email this morning:

"Dear Ms. GoHollo,

Congratulations! After careful consideration of your application, the MSW Admissions Committee is pleased to recommend you to the UW Graduate School for admission to the MSW day program for fall quarter 2010. We recognize the strengths you will bring to the school and selected you from a pool of over 600 applicants. We look forward to seeing you in September!"

it has been such a long journey, but i have appreciated the obstacles.

thank you for holding me up these long, long months.

a canadian easter

2010-04-05T14:20:00.000-07:00

anthony got the rare opportunity to take a day off, so we took advantage by driving up to vancouver, british columbia for easter weekend. of course a huge rainstorm followed us all the way from seattle to vancouver! (for those of you expecting tulip pictures, the soggy drive prevented us from stopping in skagit to see the tulips, but we've already got that rescheduled.) however, i was prepared with my galoshes, rain coat (with hood!) and umbrella. once we checked in, we decided to brave the elements and walk to english bay. it was beautiful, but i got the sense it's breath-taking when the weather is clear. still, we were able to pull out the camera and get a few shots during the downpour. we walked all over the west end, and were chilled to the bone by the end of it!

the next day we did more exploring on foot through gastown and chinatown. we even walked around the convention center to see some remnants of the olympic fanfare. the scenes from the convention center were spectacular, with views of the water, mountains and even gastown (behind anthony in the picture). in chinatown, we stopped at the chinese garden . we didn't do the full tour, but still enjoyed the beauty of the public park. areas like this (and we came across a few) really reminded me of seattle. lots of beautiful, nature preserving parks and gardens surrounded by sky scrapers and city noise. i think it's what makes such big cities desirable places to live. you've got all the amenities of city living, but pretty much anywhere that you live in the city you can still walk to a beautiful open space.

on our final day (easter sunday) we enjoyed the vancouver art gallery (particularly the visceral bodies exhibit) before walking to easter brunch. overall, we had some hits and misses (we couldn't find an open dim sum restaurant in chinatown, but instead got great veitnamese in a PACKED hole in the wall), but enjoyed our short vacation. next time we head to canada we're hoping to spend a weekend in victoria, british columbia. long weekend anyone?

stay tuned for this weekend's tulip festival!

seattle's spring storms!

2010-03-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

wow! so much for april showers, we've just had a march raging storm! after watching a show on patio plants, we felt inspired to plant some pots yesterday. we now have 2 strawberry plants, 2 tomato plants, and about 10 lettuce plants (red lettuce and bibb lettuce). at 5 a.m. this morning we were awoken by the pounding rain and howling winds. we jumped up to close our windows and suddenly, anthony remembered our brand new plants on the balcony. we rushed downstairs, threw some towels on the floor and hauled our pots inside. so now i'm hoping i haven't shocked the life out of them and they're able to "weather" all the upcoming spring storms. it looks like we've got rain for the next 5 days straight, so i'll have to decide when to put them back out. i'm not so worried about the rain, but that wind! i thought our little lettuce plants were going to blow away! any recommendations?

discovering discovery park

2010-03-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

the beautiful spring weather trend has continued, and sammy is very much enjoying sunning on our balcony. i imagine seattle will have plenty of april showers, so have been taking advantage of the sun by visiting the city's outdoor spaces. today, we spent the morning at discovery park in seattle's magnolia neighborhood. at 534 acres, this is seattle's largest park. we were actually quite surprised to find hiking trails spanning the park, as we were planning on just a short visit. 3 miles later and the necessity of gps to find our way back to the car, we decided it would take a few visits to really absorb all the beauty of this park. discovery park actually has a sandy beach with breath-taking views of the sound. the sailboats were a sight to see! if you're interested in a long walk "away" from the city, this is absolutely the place to do it! i am very much looking forward to visiting again!

after finding our way back to the car we decided to stay in magnolia for lunch. a co-worker recommended fighting cock roaster, a small sandwhich shop. wow, this place was GOOD! apparently they closed a year ago with hopes to re-open, and i'm glad they did! check it out if you're looking for a leisurely lunch, but definitely be prepared to wait!

stay tuned for easter in CANADA!

exploring our local parks

2010-03-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

this gorgeous spring-like weather (we're almost there!) has prompted a couple of recent visits to nearby parks. according to seattle parks and recreation, there are over 400 parks and over 6200 acres of park land within seattle city limits.

last weekend we visited magnuson park, seattle's second largest park at 300 acres. the land used to be a navy airfield, but is now a huge public park along the shore of lake washington. we only walked through a small part of this park, but had a great time exploring with the dogs. sammy and frankie were particularly interested in the wetland areas, full of old fallen logs and swimming ducks.

today, we took a very short drive over to gas works park on the northern shores of lake union. talk about spectacular views! the site of an old gas manufacturing plant, this 20 acre park is a photographer's dream- sea planes constantly taking off and landing, views of downtown, plenty of boats and nearby marinas, and the old rusted plant itself. i took plenty of pictures with my holga, but only managed to snap of couple of the dogs with my point and shoot. anthony got a couple with his blackberry, but you'll just have to come visit to see it for yourself!

i'm applying to a summer internship at the economic opportunity institute, which happens to be across the street from gas works. so, hopefully i'll be able to spend lots of lunch breaks strolling through the park and taking in the views.

stay tuned for spring in seattle!

p.s. i would like to note that while i typed up this post a man walked past my window with his cat on a harness and leash. that cat seemed pretty darn happy. wow.

february (plus the rest of january)

2010-03-02T08:51:00.001-08:00

well, we've established that i'm terrible at keeping up with this. i have already failed to post at least once a month, which was my "roomy" goal. so, now it's march and i'm playing catch-up once again.

the most exciting thing in seattle is that spring has come early! the weather has been incredible and everything is just about in full bloom- daffodils, plum trees, hyacinth, apple blossoms, magnolias, dogwood, forsythia, crocuses, and everything else that screams spring. all of these images were taken around my house. the smell of the plum blossoms and hyacinth is divine. that, plus the smell of paseo's cuban pork sandwiches, makes our neighborhood smell irresistable! from what i can tell, the cherry blossoms are just getting started, but in another few weeks we'll have a spectacular show from the thousands of cherry trees around town.

visiting lilliana: at the end of january we headed down to austin, tx to meet my newest niece. she is absolutely precious and so, so beautiful. my sister is handling motherhood with grace and makes it look oh-so-easy. lilli is, well, perfect. she smiles and sticks her tongue out and wails and sighs and projectile vomits and does all those wonderful things that babies do. i am now receiving a picture for every day, and i'm amazed by how much she changes in such short spans of time. i am hoping to see her again this summer and can't believe she will be eating solid food and 10 lbs heavier by then.

back to denver: after about 6 months, we finally got back to denver for a short weekend visit. i was sorely disappointed by the cold and snowy weather, but i'm not sure why i expected anything else. it is the middle of winter afterall. it was great to see family and friends and we wished we had more time to visit with everyone. we celebrated my brother-in-law's birthday and chinese new year, and i got to spend some time with my sister before her move to japan. it was comforting to fall right back into much missed time with friends. i am looking forward to seeing you (you know who you are!) again in april.

for those of you following her story, kiyomi has arrived in matsusaka. it was a long trip involving a flight to san francisco, a 16-hour flight to tokyo, a bus ride to nagoya, a ferry to matsusaka and some form of transport to their temporary apartment. communication will be limited for the time-being, but i'm hoping she will contact our parents or update facebook occasionally.

at the seattle municipal court, i've gotten to be more involved with community court and evaluating clients for eligibility. it's been a nice change, but it's hard to fit it in with so many recent changes in the court resource center. we are having a lot of volunteer turnover, so it's essential that i am in the crc for most of my hours. this limits my abilitites to get to work in probation, but i'm hoping we'll have our new volunteers trained in the next few weeks.

my work with the the league of women voters of washington has slowed. we were able to release our second video: a balancing act. we are still hoping to put out a third video, but for now we are waiting for members to absorb all the information we've released for far.

evening shifts with reconnecting youth have shaken up my schedule a bit, but it's good to be finally getting paychecks again. small paychecks, but one of these days i'll get my credit card paid down.

interning with the voluntary committee of lawyers has been interesting thus far. a lot of computer research. i'm following bills through the legislative process, looking at state drug issues (in washington and beyond), researching state statutes, and examining international harm reduction research.

overall, this move finally feel real. it feels different. it feels good. the change in climate has completely changed my outlook on life. i simply hate winter. i hate the cold. i hate the snow, or even the threat of snow. i'm surprised that i don't mind the cloudiness in seattle a bit. cloudiness does not equal dreariness for me. because although it may be cloudy or drizzly, it's still green and above 35 degrees. i can handle cloudy. i cannot handle cold and snow and brown. the el nino winter in seattle has been so enjoyable, in fact, i have realized that life continues even through those 6 months of cold in colorado. one can, indeed, make plans for the future and enjoy her time throughout the months of october to april. and so, i have. we have made lots of plans for travel, including san francisco, denver, and the san juan islands. we still have plans pending for canada this summer and mexico this fall and of course our asian adventure next year.

and for now, i wait. i am waiting to hear back from uw about whether i can finish my msw here in seattle. i feel as though my entire fate rests in the hands of the admissions committee. dramatic yes, but consider this: our next steps in life hinge on "accepted" or "denied." even if i get waitlisted i will have significant, life-altering choices to make. if i get accepted we (or at least i) will most certainly stay in seattle through june 2011. if not, i have to decide whether to return to denver or stay and try a third time. i can hardly bear the the thought of leaving seattle so soon. du seems hardly worth it now that i've settled in here. but, i am anxious to finally get this degree! and so, we wait. part of me cannot see any reason why i wouldn't be accepted. but another part of me can't shake this feeling that it's not yet my time (or perhaps i will never have a time) at uw. that part scares me. that part makes me hope that i don't have intuition. because i know it's common sense that says i am an excellent applicant. but for now, i wait.

stay tuned for official spring updates!

new year, new niece!

2010-01-07T21:09:00.000-08:00

Lilliana Elise Go was born 1.05.09 at 9:21pm to my beautiful sister in texas. she is 7lbs 6oz. isn't she a stunner?

at some point i'll get around to uploading my holiday pictures! i promise!

holidays in seattle

2010-01-01T15:57:00.000-08:00

i feel like 2010 completely ambushed me! i had intended to write a christmas post before the whole new year thing, but alas, it just did not happen as i had hoped. and now it's almost february! at the moment i am waiting for the dishwasher repair person, so i figured i had better bang this thing out!

anthony's mom and brother came out for a few days over christmas. it was our first holiday season away from home, so it was particularly nice to have family visiting. we decided to test a new tradition and got chinese for dinner on christmas eve. we headed over to the eastside to szechuan chef in bellevue. it was busy! apparently it's a common tradition up here! we tried some new things, and overall the food was delicious.

i've learned the ballard locks are always open, so we took a stroll through the gardens and watched for boats on chirstmas day.

we also went the the crab pot again and got to visit the woodland park zoo. it was my first trip to the zoo, and i was pretty impressed with some of their exhibits. the wolves and bears were particularly awesome. unfortunately, my camera is not able to capture that level of awesomeness, so you'll just have to imagine or visit for yourself.

we spent nye 2010 at the seattle aquarium. i've been to the aquarium a number of times now, and it's always a good time. this party was o.k., but it was good to get out of the house and celebrate.

with the new year i decided to make some "soft" resolutions. the past few years i haven't made any at all, because i never remember what they were to begin with. this year i decided to "record myself" more often. i want to keep track of my life and remember the little things. so, i've decided to video record myself and blog once a month. i think once a month is reasonable, don't you? unrelated, i have also decided to try to read a book once a month (considering that i used to read 5 in a month, i feel i've got some wiggle room here) and go to a yoga class at least 3 times a month. with my recent vacation and other weekend plans, i don't think i'll make the yoga goal this month, but i've got 11 more chances to get on track. so, there they are. i've got them in writing. we'll check in on those in a few months. :)

the weather is finally starting to get to me. i thought i would manage to survive my first seattle winter unscathed, but the first couple of weeks of january were brutal! almost a week of rain (real pouring rain) and strong wind gusts that made use of an umbrella impossible. i've busted 3 umbrellas now. the amusing thing is that this has been one of the mildest winters they've had in seattle- ever. with record-breaking high temps, the weather patterns match those of late march/early april. that's depressing. however, the rain fall has been much higher than average, so at least i know it's not supposed to be quite this wet!

i now am interning with the voluntary committee of lawyers doing drug policy research, in addition to the league of women voters of washington. i'm still volunteering with the seattle municipal court and the planned parenthood action league. and, i finally got a job doing research with reconnecting youth through the university of washington. oh, and i submitted my application to the uw msw program. i'll let you know in a few months how that turns out.

stay tuned for my febraury round-up of life in seattle.

"celebrated chefs" of seattle

2009-12-09T12:53:00.000-08:00

i hear there are amazing food tours of the city. (these are just a few: savor seattle, walking tours, seattle bites) i plan to try at least one, and perhaps many, depending on how long we stay in this fair city. i'm the foodie of my friends, so i'm not sure that we'll have any visitors requesting a food tour during their stay. that means anthony and i just may be on our own. oh darn! except, not really, because where there is good food there are happy people. and perhaps among those happy people we will find new friends, foodie friends.

case in point: when we went to cafe nordo we met a seattle native that had lived in many places beyond washington state, including japan. we told him we were looking for excellent asian food, and much to our delight he fervently spouted off a list of his recommendations. he also had recommendations for sandwich shops. and i'm sure he could give us a recommendation for just about anything food related. he has become our good food beacon.

anyways, back to food tours. several months ago, while my sister was visitng, we got brunch in west seattle. towards (what's the difference between toward and towards?) the end of the meal the server came over with a cookbook and an offer. offer: give them our credit card #, keep the cookbook (free), every time we dine at a restaurant in the book and use the card, 5% of our bill goes to charity. seriously? yep, no catch. seriously. so, we opted in, and then quickly forgot about it. until we dined at ray's cafe. we noticed the donation on our account register and decided we had better take a list at the list again. the program is called "celebrated chefs," and if you're visiting seattle, it's worth checking out. if you're visiting us, definitely let us know if there are any you want to try!

the restaurants are all over the city, the eastside and elsewhere, including whidbey island. these are the restaurants on the list that we've hit so far:

seastar in south lake union: see my "review" here.

ray's cafe in ballard: we went here expecting amazing seafood and were sorely disappointed. to be clear, ray's cafe is the cheaper version of ray's boathouse. ray's boathouse is supposedly obscenely expensive, but i'd say the cafe is way overpriced for the (lack of ) quality of food they serve. i'm still hoping to try ray's boathouse one of these days!

poppy in capitol hill: poppy is an example of the latest seattle restaurant to be over-hyped. i was psyched to try this restaurant and found a great opportunity while my parents were visiting from denver (my dad loves going to new and different restaurants too). the concept is 10 small plates on one larger plate- all per person. they do have some smaller options with only 6 or 7 small plates. the presentation was fantastic. such a clever concept, and i cannot imagine how much work goes into each and every plate. the taste was a mixed bag. a couple of the dishes were absolutely incredible, but many of them were over-worked (concepts taken too far). please note: i am not expert, have no professional food experience, nor am i food critic. as such, take my "reviews" with a grain of salt.

tidbit bistro in capitol hill: another mixed-bag with this one. our meal began with a bang, but devolved with each course. this is a restaurant will won't hit again.

ponti seafood grill in fremont/queen anne: this restaurant was incredible! we went here with our friends nick and manda while they were visiting. it was pretty expensive, but all of us thoroughly enjoyed our meals. although it's a seafood restaurant, i ordered a steak. it was the best steak i can remember having ever eaten. note: do not order the spanish coffee. waaaay too much bacardi 151.

nell's in greenlake: nell's is another place we visited with my parents. small, quiet and typical seattle fare. fresh vegetables paired with twists on classic recipes. good food, but a touch stuffy. perhaps a good one to try again in the summer.

thanksgiving in seattle

2009-11-27T20:32:00.000-08:00

my first thanksgiving in seattle was a quiet success. my parents came out for a few days and declined our cozy guestroom for the beautiful pan pacific hotel. this hotel is pretty darn fancy and in a great little complex in the south/west lake area. it's located in a very convenient location and is attached to a whole foods and starbucks. what could beat that? one of the hotel restaurants is seastar, where we lunched one day. this place is probably the most formal restaurant i've been to in seattle. recently, i've taken to constant dressing down (i know, a pity) to fit in with the casual seattle style (not to mention my shopping budget of $0). so, of course i showed up to lunch in jeans and a waffle shirt. i told my parents (dad donning tie and sport coat and mom wearing lipstick) that they were too dressed up for seattle, and my dad pointed out that everyone in the restaurant was dressed up (bow ties and all). attire aside, the food was excellent. i highly recommend the coconut pie for dessert. so good that it made my mom unable to eat for 2 days. no sarcasm here. we literally gorged ourselves on that pie (i focused on the filling of course!). thankfully she was able to eat again just in time for the thanksgiving feast!

i decided to go pretty traditional this year, as it was my first "solo" attempt at cooking the entire meal. it is important to note than anthony was a tremendous help, thus the "solo." my proudest achievement was baking my very first pie from scratch! too bad i don't like pie! the rest of the menu included carrot soup, blue cheese and walnut biscuits, deviled eggs, herb-roasted turkey, thyme and parmesan mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce with orange zest, and gravy to top it all off. the pie was a twist on a classic: pumpkin swirled with dark chocolate. here are some pics of the pie process:

we're now trying to figure out how to spend our first new year's eve in the northwest. but first, stay tuned for christmas in seattle!

it's been too long...

2009-11-22T20:46:00.001-08:00

i think about this blog almost every day, but just haven't put the time into it that i should be. so here i am, trying to play catch up.

halloween: this year we did halloween in style at the seattle symphony. we went to benaroya hall for the first time to watch the symphony play along to alfred hitchcock's psycho. isn't the auditorium beautiful? the movie was played on a big screen while the musicians played throughout the show. it was pretty incredible and hard to believe that they were playing live.

the next evening we went to "trolloween" in our very own neighborhood. apparently the fremont troll's (a huge stone troll that lives under the aurora bridge) birthday is on halloween, and this year he turned 20! we somehow ended up in a parade through the neighborhood and saw some interesting sights. this creature had huge bat-like wings and was on stilts. this was particularly impressive as there were hundreds of people marching along in the parade up and down the hills of seattle.

birthday: the weekend after halloween was anthony's birthday, and his mom came out to join us for the festivities. we had the amazing opportunity to attend the show at cafe nordo. chef nordo travels the country with his actor/servers, celebrating the life and death of the chicken. don't call it dinner theater; apparently nordo cringes at the thought. you MUST read this article about "the modern american chicken." here, in seattle, the theo chocolate warehouse (theo is a blog post all in its own right!) was turned into a little cafe/farm/psychedelic stage. each course was based on a life stage of a chicken, and each was fantastic. the actors were each assigned a table and were very interactive. i was chosen to be the chicken carver of our table and ended up dropping the chicken in the center of the table. wonderful. dessert was a rather morbid interpretation of bloody gizzards, but was delicious none-the-less. at the end of the evening they brought out baby chicks that were just too cute to resist! i later learned that they were destined to become soup. i'm leaning towards vegetarianism with each passing day.

it's still autumn here, but i'm starting to get the idea that the winter will indeed be cloudy and rainy. we get a sunny day at least once a week still and many days have at least an hour or two of sun. i try to get out during those times. it's been nicer that i expected, but it's only november. i hear that by february i'll be clamoring to get out of here. stay tuned for my winter distractions.

autumn in seattle

2009-10-19T11:43:00.000-07:00

the leaves are spectacular! theses days i'm gasping in awe everywhere i turn. i've never seen colors like this! my camera just can't do the scenery justice, so i'll let you imagine the beauty. :) UPDATE: click here to see another blog's pictures of the leaves. along with the changing colors has come the rain. it's been raining a little or a lot just about every day since my last post. over the weekend we had two instances of torrential downpour. the half an inch in 15 minutes twice in once day left our lawn totally flooded! however, we still braved the rain for brunch! we finally made it over to tilth to sample some of their organic fare. i decided to give sarsaparilla a shot, and although it wasn't terrible, i probably won't order it again (this of course is not because of restaurant preparation, but rather the ingredients themselves). they did have excellent cheeses. i'd really like to go back for their dinner tasting menu to get a wider selection of what they have to offer. this restaurant has gotten rave reviews from seattle foodies and it gets a thumbs up from me too!

something i've been wanting to post about for awhile- henry. all around town there are colorful murals on buildings, retention walls, cars, and garages- all with the unique signature of henry. i've found some articles about the seattlite, but none actually list all of his masterpieces. so, i've decided to take it upon myself to track down as many of his murals that i can find. i've seen at least a dozen, but i'm still working on having a camera handy at all times. here's one i snapped at lowell elementary in capitol hill.

mail-in ballots have arrived across washington state and all hands are on deck for getting the word about about candidates, propositions, referendums, and initiatives. i'm still working with lwvwa on i-1033 and will be volunteering with planned parenthood again next week to endorse a candidate. i'm really looking forward to getting out and lobbying with the action league. STILL in the hunt for a job! let me know if you have any ideas or connections! :)

stayed tuned for our halloween adventures!

hodge podge

2009-10-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

i realize i have been terrible about posting, but i've been so busy with the League of Women Voters of Washington that I haven't had much time to do anything worth mentioning! for those very few of you that i still have not harassed about our i-1033 video, i will make my plea here as well. in the very short time i have been working with the league, we have produced a short animated film about washington's initiative 1033. this initiative mirrors colorado's tabor, and would be at least as damaging here in washington. it has been pretty exciting to be a part of this process, as it is all new to me. working with an animator and voice actor has been pretty interesting! earlier this week i got the incredible opportunity to go to bad animals studio to watch our voice actress record the narration for our video. this studio is apparently legendary and has hosted some historic greats, including johnny cash and b.b. king. one of the current owners shared some of his experiences in the the studio, including watching kurt cobain fight with courtney love. today, they are still big in the music industry, but they also do a lot of audio for animations and video games. the guy who worked on our video is the very same guy that does the voice for mario in the super mario bros. games! anyways, they let me into the sound booth and were incredibly welcoming and glad to talk with us. and did i mention they provided their studio and services to us for FREE?! thanks bad animals!

and now back to the video... i got to play a big role in this, and i would appreciate it if you could watch it (although i realize that all of my readers do not live or vote in washington). just do it because you love me or at least like me a little! click here to watch. NOW!

bowling: before i got totally engrossed with lwvwa, we were able to go bowling for a friend's birthday. we headed to garage billiards for all sorts of fun! they have 10 lanes for bowling by time (rather than charging per game), a few bars and a back room dedicated just to pool. they also have a pretty full menu, although i didn't get to try anything. this would be a great place to spend a late evening with visitors, and hopefully we'll get to go back! i had planned on taking pictures, but when the back of my holga came off and exposed 23 out of 24 shot frames of my film, i had a bit of a fit and refused to have any further dealings with cameras for the rest of the night. the destroyed film still sits atop my table, mocking me.

and for those of you that still need convincing about moving to seattle, i found this article in the wall street journal. what are you waiting for?!

it's starting to get cold up here, although not nearly as cold as back in colorado! the trees are just stunning, and i'm trying to enjoy the last rays of sunshine as much as i can. they occasionally play the broncos games on seattle tv, but unfortunately i've had to rely on espn updates for most of the games. i've got a 3rd-round interview with a community agency this upcoming week, so hopefully i will have a job by the end of the month. in a couple days i've got volunteer orientation for the planned parenthood action league. i will be a public affairs volunteer, working to train citizens to become lobbyists, participating in lobby day in olympia, contacting legislators and lobbyists, and participating in all sorts of outreach events. i'm going to be very busy before the end of the year, but i'm really looking forward to being involved with so many great agencies!

stayed tuned for whatever it is i'm able to get out and do next! :)

sunny seattle gets visitors

2009-09-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

it has been absolutely beautiful here, and when i got the news that it has already snowed back in my home state of colorado, i must admit i was oh so very happy to be in seattle! my little sister and brother-in-law flew in last weekend for a visit and left just this morning. i have to say that i didn't have half the energy that they did for walking all over this fantastic city. yet, the exploring i did take part in continued to remind me of how wonderful seattle truly is.

oktobe rfest: last weekend was the annual fremont oktoberfest. anthony and i took part in the brew ha-ha 5k run first thing sunday morning and then joined up with our visitors to check out some of the other events. as a non-beer drinker i felt the cost of admission to the beer garden was a bit steep ($15), and the food was pretty disappointing. however, we did get to watch the chainsaw pu mpkin carving contest! sitting right up front i got sprayed with pumpkin guts, which contributed to a great show overall. as i have a feeling that my running career will be over by next year's oktoberfest, i'd instead like to participate in the street scramble. we watched people running all over the neighborhood for this scavenger hunt, and it looked like a blast! there is also a miss buxom contest, and while i will never be participating in that event, it just may have been worth a visit.

capitol hill: from what i had heard of this neighborhood, it sounded just like capitol hill in denver. and lots of it really is just like denver's cap hill, but parts of it are much more special. the beginning of our visit took us along broadway, where nothing really stood out to me. and then we made our way to volunteer park. as we neared the park, we found ourselves in a beautiful residential area. and the closer we got, the more in love with the neighborhood i fell! it is just stunning! the 50 acre park has a cemetery, public conservatory and the seattle asian art museum. the conservatory is a small building, packed full of tropical plants and cactus (in separate rooms of course!). the asian art museum is also rather small, but full of beautiful exhibits. i definitely think it's worth the trip away from downtown to hit this unique spot. outside the museum is the black sun sculpture, which provides an opportunity for tourists and transplants a unique view of the needle. we also made our way to lake view cemetery, which is the resting place of bruce lee and his son brandon lee.

the aquarium: although there just a couple months ago, i jumped at the opportunity to return to the aquarium with my sister. i haven't been to many aquariums, but seattle's is my favorite by far. for me the best part is the tide pools that allow you to touch all the sea creatures. i've done the starfish and crabs, but it's not every day that you get to stick your hand into a sea anemone. pretty fun! they also have sea otters, which are MUCH larger than their river counterparts. additionally, they have an extensive exhibit about the salmon ladder, which ends with the adult salmon battling the upstream currents with river otters playing right along side them.

alki beach: i wasn't sure that i'd ever find a reason to get over to west seattle, but having my sister in town prompted a visit to alki beach. this park offers 135 acres of stunning views of downtown and the sound. although the rest of west seattle is less than thrilling (at least for me), alki beach makes for a gorgeous and relaxing side trip. plus they have their own replica of the statue of liberty overlooking the waters of the puget sound.

saying farewell: my sister and her husband stayed for over a week, but somehow their departure came all too quickly. for their last night in town we went to a great little restaurant (holds about 20 diners at a time) in wallingford called sutra. this place serves a fixed menu (changes weekly) of 4 all-vegetarian courses. each course is served to the entire restaurant at the same time, so reservation times are fixed and all diners experience the meal at the same time. prior to service the chef discussed some of the ingredients and preparation techniques, which was pretty enlightening for a long time ex-vegetarian. the food was excellent and a great experience that we will definitely have to try again. plus i was turned on to vegan ice cream made with coconut milk. delicious!

and now that our visitors have departed, we are getting back to work (plus a lot of football watching). i start my internship with the league of women voters of washington tomorrow and continue to submit job applications. a paid position would be nice after all. :)

stay tuned as the autumnal weather moves in and brings the rain!

my version of hiking

2009-09-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

those of you that know me know i'm not one for athletic activities. however, hiking is so darn convenient (not to mention BEAUTIFUL) in this "neck of the woods"- yep, pun intended! these are our most recent hiking adventures:

cougar mountain wilderness peak loop: this low-traffic hike is about 30 minutes outside of the city in a more marshy area of cougar mountain wildland park. while cougar mountain can be generally busy, this particular trail is not nearly as popular as the others. we opted for the 3.5 mile loop with a short .2 mile side trip. one of the first and most exciting discoveries of the hike was a slug! i can't recall having ever see a real-life slug in colorado. my first slug encounter was actually in marin county in northern california, so i shouldn't have been too surprised to see one a bit further north up the coast. and as the hike went on, it soon became apparent that we would be seeing hundreds and hundreds of them! still, i made sure to notice every one on the trail and point them out to anthony to avoid squishing.

tiger mountain state forest: for our next adventure we chose an area with more than 80 miles of trails and a choice of 3 summits. we had planned on hiking the west tiger mountain #3 loop, but the weather led us in another direction. it was raining lightly when we left the house, but over our 20 mile drive the light rain turned into a full-on rainstorm. yet, we were committed to some sort of outdoor experience and found ourselves on a 1.5 loop around tradition lake. i wore a light rain jacket, but unfortunately i didn't stay dry! the heavy rain prevented us from really enjoying the environment, however i will say that i was impressed with the maintenance of this particular loop. it's certainly not a hike as it's very flat. but the nice gravel trail offers a beautiful leisurely walk in the woods. we decided it would be a great option for getting our dogs out into the wilderness. although our visit was short, by the time we made it back to the car the storm had worsened. we could hardly see the road because it was raining so hard, and yet we still saw a steady stream of hikers and their dogs during our short stay. obviously we are going to have to get some better rain gear for these situations if we are to become true northwesterners!

our most recent adventure took us back to tiger mountain for another shot at the tiger mountain #3 loop. the 5.1 trail is rather difficult and climbs in earnest with few flattened areas for reprieve. i gotta say, i thought this hike was miserable! i learned an important lesson: when the guide says "difficult," it really means just that! i pulled my groin about 2 miles in, but was determined the reach the summit. the summit offered expansive views, yet i suspect it is not the highest summit of the 3. we then let the guide book lead us down an unmaintained trail that dropped nearly 1,500 feet in just over a mile. translation: too steep for enjoyment. i ended up on my butt a number of times as my feet just couldn't hold me at that angle. in the car ride back to town our friend announced, "despite all the grumbling, that hike wasn't really that bad!" i disagree! i'm going to need to get better shoes and in much better shape to take on (and actually enjoy) another hike like that!

stay tuned for our upcoming adventure to the fremont oktoberfest (plus all that other stuff i promised)!

getting settled in seattle

2009-09-04T13:41:00.000-07:00

i first learned that i would be moving to seattle last october. my partner (anthony) was starting a new job and i would be applying to transfer schools. anthony moved in november, and i arrived to my new home at the end of june. it's been a whirlwind of a summer since.

our first visitors: maureen and jana came to explore the city with me in mid-july. despite my hesitation, we made plans to go to a tourist trap of a restaurant on the docks- the crab pot. let me tell you, one of the highlights of my time in seattle thus far! seriously! yes, the lines are outrageous, the decor is hideous, and the ambiance is less than ideal. but, the food is incredible and the experience was one that i would love to relive soon. we also went to the aquarium, did the underground tour, and took a ferry to bainbridge island. the aquarium was great, the tour was informative but a bit lengthy for my attention span, and bainbridge was cute but i likely won't return anytime soon.

back to denver for wedding mania: after just a few weeks of getting to know the city, i roadtripped back to denver with my most gracious and patient friend maureen. first up was my little sister's wedding. it was AMAZING! rather than traditional wedding pictures, they opted for a photobooth-type set-up. it resulted in hundreds of photos like these (taken by matt novak and partner):

aren't they wonderful?

just a couple weeks later i headed to winter park for a good friend's wedding and then straight to beaver creek for another wedding! and then just hours after getting back to denver, i began my roadtrip back to washington with my mom.

back in seattle: and now i'm back and trying to find my way in this fantastic city. stay tuned for commentary on my most recent adventures, including the paramount theater, green lake, and hiking in the northwestern rain.