Seattle

Many moons ago, I allowed the folks at Delta Airlines to transport me to Seattle.  I was on my way out to visit J, who had the monumental task of moving ahead of him.  This move was especially exciting, because he was moving into his own brand new house!

I have virtually no pictures from this trip, because we were busy moving things the whole time I was there, but I'll give a verbal recap.

I arrived late morning on Thursday, and we got right to work packing up the rest of J's apartment.  We had quite a time trying to maneuver the moving van through the narrow Seattle streets, and we managed to get a parking ticket in the meantime, but we got the furniture loaded up and moved!  And much to my delight, I discovered that the leasing office at his apartment kept a handy stock of cookies, orange soda, and coffee at the ready.  Those came in handy when I was running out of steam!  We finally broke for dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Cactus, and it was all the deliciousness I needed after a hard day of work.

There was more moving to be done on Friday, so we got up early to pack up the rest of the boxes.  There was a lot of rushing around, since the major appliance delivery was scheduled to happen at J's house between 10 and noon.  We dashed out of the apartment with the last few boxes we could carry around 9:45, and it was on the way back to the apartment that J got a call informing him that the fridge had been damaged in shipment and that they didn't have one of the pieces they needed for the stacking washer/dryer units.  So, no appliances after all.

No worries though.  I used my unexpected free time by going for a run and relaxing a bit before we headed off to the Klondike Gold Rush Museum. It was actually pretty neat, and I learned a bit about Seattle's growth as a jumping-off point for the intrepid gold hunters.  When we finished filling our brains with info at the museum, we wandered a bit and ended up at Zig Zag Cafe for dinner.  I was delighted by the cocktail menu and had something with a clever name which starred a delightful apricot liqueur.  As if that wasn't interesting enough, dinner was a camel burger with pickled fruits of various sorts.  The burger was a tad dry, but it was a worthwhile experience.

Unfortunately, due to the late hour, the Pike Place Market was closed, so we found an ice cream shop and enjoyed our dessert spoils while taking in the view of the bay.  All in all, a lovely evening.

Saturday morning I slept in, then headed to Portage Bay for brunch.  We had to deliver our leftovers to J's apartment since the fridge never got delivered to his house, and then we headed off to Pioneer Square.  We were going to go on the Seattle Underground tour, but unfortunately it was sold out.  Instead we wandered around shopping, and finished it off with the most epic trip to Bed Bath & Beyond ever.  J had a fancy new house, and he needed to stock up on supplies.

We headed to dinner at a great little spot that was recommended to me called Oddfellows (where I also went the last time I was in Seattle).  And what's even better, my friend M came out to meet us!  We had delicious food and tasty cocktails, and it was a fabulous evening.  One of the best things about Oddfellows is that it's right next door to Elliot Bay Books, which is so great! I didn't buy any books because I'm already overwhelmed by unread pages, but they do have an impressive collection of greeting cards and I bought most of them. Oh, and there was more ice cream for dessert of course!

Sunday started with another run, which was followed by brunch at Madame Toulouse (which, incidentally, has delicious [breakfast] cocktails - are we noticing a pattern here?).  We were super touristy and went to the Pike Place market, then headed back for the not-yet-sold-out underground tour.  And you know what?  The tour was fascinating!  I learned all about the development of Seattle (stuff I didn't learn at the gold rush museum), including why there's a story of all those buildings below ground.  Did you know that?  I didn't - but now I know why it's there!  Want to know? Go on the tour - or read about it here. Dinner was at a huge but weirdly-hard-to-find place called The Pink Door, and then I got completely and totally hooked on House of Cards before heading to the airport for an unfortunate redeye back to St. Louis.  Although I have to say that I planned well for the flight - I had a hot pink pashmina so I could stay warm/cover my eyes, and headphones so I could block out the noise.  I managed to stay awake the entire next day at work!

Goal #40

Goal #40: chicken.

I bought a whole chicken at the farmers' market on Saturday. Now I need to cook it.  Plans: snack on the legs and thighs.  Shred the rest for salads.  Make soup.

Think I can do it all?

Recap of goal #39: total success!  Hooray!  I've mastered a basic life skill!

The Song I'm Loving Today

Teach Your Children (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, or some iteration thereof)

This song gets me every time I hear it.  I don't hear it often, but it came on the radio this morning while I was on my way to the farmers' market.  It's so clean, so simple.  Love it.



You, who are on the road,
Must have a code that you can live by.
And so, become yourself
Because the past is just a goodbye.

Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by.
And feed them on your dreams,
The one they fix, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why,
If they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh,
And know they love you.

And you, of tender years,
Can't know the fears that your elders grew by.
And so, please help them with your youth
They seek the truth before they can die.

Teach your parents well,
 Their children's hell will slowly go by.
And feed them on your dreams,
The one they fix, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why,
If they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sign,
And know they love you.

Quote of the Day

"Not even the brightest future can make up for the fact that no roads lead back to what came before."
  -- Jo Nesbo, "The Past is a Foreign Country," The New York Times Opinion Pages

Random Links

New versions of old photos.

A new version of a classic song.

Leopards.

"I can't believe we're out of breath lip syncing!" starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, et al.

A new kind of symphony.

Historical photos.

Honey Extraction Party

There's a guy who lives a few blocks from me who has a lovely garden on his roof.  Also on his roof, he keeps a couple of rather large hives of bees, which have been quite successful in the last few years. Every fall, he invites all his friends over for the Honey Extraction Party, and you're best advised to go dressed to work.

Before the party guests arrive, he smokes out the bees and brings all the honeycomb inside.  The stack of boxes is taller than I am, and each box holds about 10 combs.  They come out of the boxes one at a time, and you use a heated knife to trim all the beeswax from either side.  That goes into a big tub with a drainage pan, and the honey drips out of the wax assisted only by gravity.

The combs go vertically, six at a time, into the extractor, a giant stainless steel drum with a simple gear and crankshaft running to a handle at the top.  Once it's fully loaded, you spin and spin and spin and spin and the centrifugal force sends all the honey flying out to the walls of the extractor.  It runs down to the bottom and out the valve into a waiting 5-gallon bucket.  You can eat it raw, or wait until it's in its final, twice-filtered form.

We probably filled six buckets. I would've taken pictures, but my hands were covered with honey!

Goal #39

Goal #39: Don't let the apartment backslide.

I have a very busy week at work this week.  I have also been making progress here and there (maybe not yet visible to the uninitiated) in the direction of a cleaner apartment.  Unfortunately, usually when I am busy in life, my apartment falls to pieces because I come home late, I'm tired, I drop things anywhere, and I never get around to picking them up or putting them where they belong.  So by Saturday when I get around to taking a breath or considering working on my apartment, I basically spend all weekend just picking up the mess from the week, with little or no forward progress to be made.

This week, I will put a stop to that.

Recap: I think I did a pretty good job this week of filling everyone in on the good tidbits we learned at the conference last weekend.  Unfortunately we had a Thursday evening meeting planned, and those are always a little rushed - everyone has a lot they want to say, but everyone also wants to get home.  Anticipating that, I typed put together a typed summary of my notes from the sessions I was in, as well as general brainstorming ideas we got from talking to other people at the conference.  So I'll go ahead and say: information -- conveyed!

Multi-Movie Recap

I have watched a few movies I haven't had the chance to write about, and honestly, there was enough other stuff going on that I can't write a full and complete review of them anymore.  So I'll just give a brief statement about each one:

Beasts of the Southern Wild:

This movie got lots of press when it came out, mostly for the stellar performance of the young Quvenzhane Wallis, who I believe was six at the time of filming.

Her performance as Hushpuppy is good; it's honest.  Hushpuppy lives with her father in "The Bathtub," a slum outside New Orleans which is prone to flooding.

Can you see where this is going?  You're right, but with a twist: Hushpuppy's world is populated by mythical creatures who help her learn to be caring and brave.


 Anna Karenina:

Admittedly, I watched this one a long time ago.  Regardless, the fact that I can barely remember it I think says everything you probably need to know about it.

However, you should not leave my discussion of this movie without hearing my favorite line, spoken by Alexei to Anna when she was refusing to come to dinner because her marriage to Karenin was falling apart.  To convince her to join him: "Divorce is one thing.  Dinner is quite another."

Looper:
In case I haven't said it before (which I actually have), I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  Still.  Ever since I was 10.  Can't explain it, and frankly don't feel the need to.

Despite his totally one-sided acting, Bruce Willis can be entertaining too, mostly because he's just a super-crotchety old man all the time, who somehow still manages to kick people's asses.  It works.






Like Crazy:

I liked this movie like crazy.  (How many people do you think said that before me?)  I think this is why: (1) the two lead actors are both fresh and refreshing; (2) Jennifer Lawrence; (3) much of the script is improvised, but doesn't feel like improv.  It feels real.

This is the story of two young lovers.  There are parts that seem completely ridiculous, but I still loved every minute.  Really.

Before Sunrise:

This is the first of what is now a trilogy starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.  In this first film, the two lost souls find themselves with less than a day to spend together, and they decide to hop off the train in Vienna and spend it there.

It's a young love story on a smaller scale than Like Crazy, in that the whole thing takes place over the course of a few hours.  It's like one of those long, wandering conversations that you have at the beginning of a relationship when you're just getting to know one another, except that in this movie you're in the middle of someone else's conversation.

Mmm . . . Dinner

Query: is there anything objectively wrong with buying a party platter of sushi from Trader Joe's and eating half of it for dinner?

Goal #38

Goal #38: recover and recap.

Work-related conferences can be great.  (They can also be terrible.)  One of the biggest problems I've found, though, is this: it's all well and good to sit around and talk about all the great things you will do someday when the only thing on your agenda at the conference is to sit around and talk about all the great things you will do someday.  It is quite another thing to actually put those ideas into practice once you get back to your busy real life and all the things you didn't do while you were gone are staring you in the face.

My goal this week is just to make sure my little working group at least has a good understanding of the things that I learned.  Implementation always takes time, but at least if everyone shares in the ideas, we might get somewhere.

Recap of goal #37: success! Exhausted as I now am (and as I was even thinking about it ahead of time), I was social, outgoing, talked to strangers, took the lead, and made connections.  And I spilled a glass of water on myself and got laughed at.  And I didn't even die of embarrassment.