Adopt-a-Roadsters

Can you think of a better way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning
in the Pacific Northwest than picking up litter? Actually, it was quite a lot of fun! We found an interesting array of items from a fire extinguisher to a dead mouse to a tent! Of course there heaps of plastic bags, bottles and soda cans, but what I learned was that people snack a LOT in their cars and think nothing of disposing their nutrigrain bar wrapper out the window! I guess I never really grasped the concept of littering.

Stats: 3 hours and 8 bags of trash. We'll probably go out again later in the summer, in the early morning when there's no traffic. Hopefully by then our names will be plastered up on the sign so everyone knows who takes care of that really important 1.7 mile strip of East Lake Sammamish Parkway!

Wahlin Wahlin in Walla Walla

The rolling hills of Walla Walla.
Hey, isn't that my desktop photo?

Cucina Fresca

The only proof of the Cat 5 winners to be forgotten by the announcer,
until it was brought to his attention to announce them!

The Coochies take 1, 2 and 3 in the Crit!

Mr. Criterium Winner!

Community Supported Agriculture

I picked up our first box o' Full Circle Farm produce today, opened it, and started cookin'!

Shoulda done this a long time ago, but we were afraid a whole lotta fruits and veggies were gonna go to waste. We're starting out with the bi-monthly delivery and see if it's enough or too little (I'm thinkin' juuust right!).

I used all the carrots and half a bag of salad so far, but as you can see, there's plenty more to eat!

Strawberries, mangoes, spinach, lemons, green onions, ginger, apples, pears, capsicum, potatoes, sugar snap peas, green beans--we're going to be eating well for sure!

The grossest thing I've ever seen

I don't know if we heard about it elsewhere, but Wes and I were at Fred Meyer recently and couldn't get over how the air was filled the pungent odor of Krispy Kreme, and somehow the conversation meandered into -- I wonder if anyone has ever had a Krispy Kreme burger. Maybe I've been in the dark, but this EXISTS and is one of the grossest things I've ever seen.

I was on the Food Network site viewing the top 10 recipes of the day, and wanted to know what a "Lady's Brunch Burger" might be. So I click on the link and find out it's precisely the burger we had nightmares about--brought to you by Miss Paula Deen, of course. Eggs and bacon to top it all off? Early grave, Paula. Early grave.

Food Blogging

Mmmm Mmm! I have been making some tasty meals lately, most of them Italian-inspired. It didn't occur to me to blog about my dinners until my sister forwarded me a link to a blog I've been following for a few months now called Shutterbean, written by a gal in San Fran who uses all Trader Joe's products and makes inventive meals, snacks, desserts, etc. with them. No, I'm not turning this into a food blog, but if I have an inspiring meal, I'll share it. She has a kick ass camera, so my photos pale in comparison to hers, but typically all my ingredients are from the Joe's as well.

I never plans meals. I buy fruits, vegetables, cheeses, pastas, breads and some meats at the store and figure out something to do with them when I get home. For packing lunches in the morning to take to work, it's a terrible system, but for dinners I find it fun and a creative approach. It makes for super simple meals that usually take less than an hour to prep and cook. I don't always buy the same varieties; I try to mix it up, but as you'll see below, in the last few weeks I've been buying the same staples to make different dishes.

For lunch today I made whole wheat linguine with spinach-walnut pesto.

I didn't even really know if you could make pesto w/ spinach, but I did it anyway b/c I was craving it and I didn't have any fresh basil in the house. I did have a bag of pine nuts, but decided to use walnuts instead. I threw each of those ingredients into the cuisinart with a dash of chicken broth while the pasta was boiling. I took it out and mixed in some romano cheese (nearly nonfat and very tasty) with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper. I added my linguine, fat free feta from TJ's, cut up some yellow and red cherry tomatoes and had the tastiest lunch I've had in a long time.

I made a pasta primavera of sorts a few weeks ago that went over well with the hubby that included fresh carrots, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and the feta and romano again (but somehow I don't tire of it). I Another one he loved, saying it was the best he's ever had (really!) was a ground turkey and vegetable lasagna. I used the no-boil lasagna noodles from TJ's, their tomato basil marinara and layered with my 2 favorite cheeses again, ground turkey that I pre-cooked with italian seasoning and garlic, portabellas, black olives and 45 minutes later, tasty goodness.

How is it possible for 2 skaters' scores to be exacly the same?!

Nationals concluded today. No mention of Bowman's death. They did commemorate him there apparently, but no on-air message, which was a shame. Rightfully, the focus was on the melodrama of the Evan Lysacek/Johnny Weir rivalry, but just acknowledging it and doing a 5-minute celebration of his skating would have been nice.

Anyhow, on to the skating...I am so thankful American Men's skating has come back around; oh to be proud of strong, consistent, amazing skaters again! I do like both guys for different reasons, but must say I'm glad Evan won b/c Johnny's attitude and Russophilia are quite obnoxious AND even though Johnny's performances were perfect, he didn't have the quad in the short program and his "Love and War" long program was not as striking as Evan's Tosca (one of my favorite pieces of music). Evan's performances were clean, just kinda of bobbly on his landings, plus he had a quad in each program. Because they sensationalized the rivalry so much, it was so crazy (unbelievable really) that on top of it for them to have identical scores (Lysacek won b/c hen won the long program).

Due to recording issues, I wasn't able to see the pairs, but heard about the proposal of Baldwin to Inoue (can probably check this out on you tube, however). Not a fan of ice dancing, I was hugely impressed with the couples. They made it look less like, well, ice dancing. And the women's (girls), was OK. There were some good performances, but I just wasn't as impressed as I was with the quality of the men. I think it was overshadowed by the fact that the rules aren't aligned with that of the world championships, so b/c the winners of nationals are so young, NONE of them are going to worlds (well maybe the 3rd 4th and 5th place winners). How anticlimactic is that?

Happy Australia Day!

Tsonga (Tsonger, like Killer Cahill calls him)

The Jokester

In the past year, I honestly haven't had much interest in watching tennis on TV, more than likely because I'm tired of Federer, of Americans not doing very well and the lack of coverage. The start of this year, however, has re-piqued my interest in tennis. There were some really exciting matches--I was actually watching the matches nearly from beginning to end, not surfing the web simultaneously. Roddick/Kohlschreiber's high level match with insane stats (Roddick serving 42 aces [his personal record] and the astounding number of winners over unforced errors); Tipsarevic taking Feds to 5; Tsonga steamrolling over Nadal in 3; and of course history that was made yesterday--Djokovic ending Feds' hard court streak, beating him in straight sets.

Oh yeah, I didn't mention the women. Err...uhhh...happy to see someone other than Tylenol (ie Justine Henin; if you recall her giving the match to Mauresmo 2 yrs ago at this very tourney b/c her tummy hurt due to taking too many Tylenol) or Serena win a major. Good for ShaRAPova (they're never going to pronounce her name properly), except here's my beef w/ her: why doesn't she just play for the USA? When she talks you wouldn't even suspect she's Russian b/c she's spent the majority of her life living and training in the US. The second issue is actually with her mom--"too nervous" to watch her daughter play. Yeah, I get that it would be nerve wracking, but how selfish--shouldn't she be thinking of her daughter before herself? She should be there for her, supporting her.

Tomorrow should be exciting! Someone other than Feds and Nads! I love Tsonga's demeanor. He's so relaxed and confident. The way he plays reminds me a lot of Safin, he's just not a hothead. And everyone says he looks like Mohammed Ali. You know how the French version of Vamos! is Allez? Well, if I was at the Aussie Open I'd have a sign for Tsonga that said "Mohammed ALLLEEEZZZZ!." But Djokovic--the Jokester, as I call him--is also a likable character (save for his 15+ ball bouncing prior to each serve). His rise to #3 has given him a solid chance at winning a slam. May the best player win!

December 2007

the fahzha w/ a bowl of spicy peanut soup. i had the same. We bopped around the neighborhood of fairhaven (below), which is in bellingham. super cute!


On a rainy walk up to the highlands. We found a huge park called Grandview that must be true to its name, but it was too overcast to see anything. We could only hear the Grandsound of I-90.


All I wanted for Xmas was a new 'do. And I got it!


All Wesley got was pleepleeus.

Kazakhs Who Hunt With Golden Eagles

Wes and I watched a show about Kazakhs who hunt with golden eagles. It's amazing how they obtain, train and hunt with them.

You Know How I Love Cats...

Well this could be the most disturbing, yet funniest pet accessory I've seen in quite some time. What I really enjoy are the descriptions about the "bashful blonde" who only needs a Swedish accent to finish the look...

Ok, now is your cat really going to keep this on its head? And perhaps it's just to highlight the wig, but if you're going to wig your cat, why wouldn't you also dress it? I almost feel like these are pin-up girls. I mean, I'm not a cat owner, so maybe they don't dress 'em up as much as dog owners...but I feel like these are more like nude feline models...ICK!

Our New Art

This was our 2nd annual visit to the Vashon Island Studio Art Tour and here's what we got!

On our first stop to Brian Brenno's glassblowing studio. Well, the glassblower was out to lunch but his wifey sold us her art (she uses his glass remnants to create mosaics). We were just going to get one fish, but decided to create a scene instead (sun, crab). The crab is my fave, and although the photo doesn't represent them too well, the orange and pinks in the glass are really beautiful.

[photos are missing, sorry]

Our second stop was to Dreamtime Studios, where we bought a fish (yeah, I know, I think this is the last bit of fish art we'll buy) painting last year, which hangs above our couch in our living room. The artist, Marcus Fellbaum (see post December 2006 for our 1st Vashon visit), remembered us! We were so amazed! He's a really cool guy and we're very impressed with his imaginative body of work. He brought out a piece Wes remembered from last year, but we decided not to get it (a lighthouse from Whidbey Island). Instead we chose the fish (again, I know we have a lot of fish) triptych, which now resides in our dining room. We only have a few walls left in the house to fill, but I guarantee they'll be filled with sailboats or my sister's art! We've reached our fish quota :)

Sanna Annukka

I really enjoy this artist's work. She's from Finland and did the last Keane album's design. Check out her Web site.

The First Snowfall of Winter

The photos look quite a lot like last year's snow photos, only I added a photo of our Christmas tree.

MyTunes

Most played songs on my ipod (OMG I finally have an ipod!) that make me really happy at the moment.

"To Be Surprised" on the Dan in Real Life soundtrack by Sondre Lerche. "Stalker" by Turin Brakes on their latest album "Dark on Fire."

"Surprised" is truly a happy song, whereas "Stalker" is actually kinda creepy, as you can imagine what it's about! The video is equally as creepy, watch here.

More on each album: I was livid when I read a review by stinking Roger Ebert who actually gave the movie a thumbs up, but said, "If the film has a flaw, and I'm afraid it does, it's the Sondre Lerche songs on the soundtrack." Unbelievable! Sondre composed the entire soundtrack and the songs are as touching and sincere as the film; ie, they fittingly complement the film. BTW, we saw Sondre a few weeks ago at this tiny venue in Seattle called Nectar. Dan Wilson from Semisonic opened. It was one of those nights where you realize what live music is supposed to be about: intimate, interactive. There were sing-a-longs, whistle-a-longs, musician-crowd banter, and above all, talented guys using only 2 tools: their voices and guitars.

Re: "Dark on Fire." This one took a few listens to, but it is now my second fav TB album. I was so impressed w/ the Brakes' "Jackinabox," that I was initially disappointed w/ DOF. But I realized that feeling was longing for the sound of the last album and when I heard something different, I immediately judged it. That's what makes a good band--the ability to be dynamic and not put out the same crap over and over again, as many of them do. Anyway, I heard a rumor they'll be touring the US in the next few months and really anticipate this show. They better play Seattle!

Random Phrases Currently Uttered By Helen for No Rhyme or Reason

In an issue of a local magazine called "425" (the eastside's area code), a piece called "What do you consider beautiful?" posed the question to random residents. My favorite response was a 4-year-old who said, "Cold things, like popsicles and whales."



Which brings me to another reference to "beautiful." In the Flight of the Conchords' song "The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room," (if that is indeed the proper title of that song), the lyrics go: "And when I saw you at my mate's place/I thought what is she doing at my mate's place/How did Dave get a hottie like that to a party like this/Good one Dave!!!Ohhhh you're a legend, Dave!" Well, I tend to say, "Good one, Dave. You're a legend, Dave" quite a lot. I miss my weekly dose of FOTC. Looking forward to seeing the Wellingtonians of the Year when the 2nd season starts.