An Afternoon at the Zoo

This weekend, some of our friends wanted to take their wee one to the zoo.  The original plan was to go yesterday, but since everyone already had plans, the zoo outing got pushed to Sunday.  When we left the house this morning, all we could think was that it was an unfortunate mistake: yesterday was sunny, warm and beautiful and today was cloudy, chilly, and at that particular point in time, rainy.  The only silver lining was that the crappy weather would probably keep the crowds away.

Thankfully, as the afternoon progressed, the weather cleared up and the sun even tried to peek out for a bit.  The result?  A fun afternoon with the animals and this guy:

It was the sort of day that left us wondering why we don’t go to the zoo more often.  I’m thinking that a few repeat trips will be in order this summer (especially with a new dinosaur exhibit opening up soon).

Click for the full photoset.

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Because Nothing Says Happy Holidays Like a Stoned Cat

Last year, after we got our engagement pictures back from the photographers, one of the first things I did was use my favorites from the bunch to make my very own 2010 wall calendar.  I did it through Shutterfly, and not only was it stupidly easy but the result was fantastic.  I’ve loved looking at that calendar every day so far this year, so there was absolutely no question that I’d be making another one for 2011 filled with my favorite wedding photos.

One of the other things I wanted to do with the wedding photos was to make Christmas photo cards with them.  Sending out Christmas cards is something I get ridiculously excited about and love doing, and if we had a beautiful wedding photo to use for it?  Well, that would justify spending the money on custom photo cards instead of picking up a couple of boxes from the local Walgreens.  I was all set to go with that idea until I found myself flipping through my Flickr stream a few days ago and realized that I had a much, much better option right in front of me.

Remember last year, when we got the cats totally stoned out on catnip and then took pictures of them?  One of those would make a much better holiday card.  Because nothing says happy holidays like a cat stoned out of its damn mind.

Yeah.  I’m thinking this one is totally the way to go.  Who wants wedding pictures when they can have Bobo with a wicked case of the munchies?

(This post is sponsored by Shutterfly as part of a holiday card promotion.)

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Cutest. Wedding. Ever.

Y’all, I don’t even know where to start with Rebekah and Josh’s wedding yesterday. They had a gorgeous location.

They had perfect weather.

They had an adorable flower girl.

And if there was one thing even more adorable than the flower girl, it was the bride and groom themselves.

The two of them were just so obviously overjoyed to be marrying each other. It was everything a wedding should be, complete with excellent food and an awesome party.

Even her dad was out on the dance floor getting down. It was, as Rebekah would say, ruling.

It was just such a happy time, and I was so glad to be able to be a part of it.

Congratulations, guys. I hope all of your days are just as joyful as this one was.

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Food Truck Heaven

Today was the third Mobile Chowdown in Seattle, which is best described as a gathering of all the local food trucks in one place. The first one was last summer, and Irwin and I attempted to go, but when we got there it was an absolute zoo. It was less an “event” and more of a “hey, let’s park all the trucks here this afternoon!” sort of thing, so they were completely unprepared for the crowds that showed up. When we arrived two hours into the event trucks were out of food, the lines for all the trucks were insane, and the parking lot they were gathered in was just too small to contain the number of people. You couldn’t tell where one line ended and the next one started, never mind move around to get into a line. I’d done a long run that morning and was approaching a Desperate Need for Food, so we abandoned ship and got lunch somewhere else.

This time, things were much, much better. It was an actual event sponsored by Seattle Magazine, and they were set up in the Seattle Center where there was plenty of room for people to walk around, form lines, and sit and eat. The trucks themselves also seemed better prepared, as I didn’t see any indications that the trucks were running out of items. Plus, I made sure to get there right at 11 a.m. when it started, so my initial wait in line was incredibly short. Sadly, Irwin was busy today, so he didn’t get to join me. I took myself and the camera and spent a couple of hours sampling the highlights. There were too many trucks for me to try everything, so I tried to stick to things that looked interesting that I hadn’t had before. The first truck I happened upon was Maximus Minimus, which totally wins for “Best Truck Design.”

They specialize in BBQ sandwiches, so I ordered a pork sandwich with maximus sauce and Beecher’s flagship cheese. On the side, I got a bit of the minimus slaw.

This was outstanding. My only complaint is that the sauce wasn’t as spicy as I was expecting. It was good, but there was absolutely zero heat to it – I would order it “with hurt” (extra spicy) next time. The cheddar-like cheese was a nice complement to the pork (although I think pretty much everything is improved by the addition of cheese) and the bun had the perfect texture – it was firm enough to have a good chew to it and to stand up to the saucy pork without getting soggy, but it was soft enough to bite into without squooshing all of the sandwich contents out the back of the bun. The slaw was pretty simple – cabbage, a light dressing and dried cranberries – with a sweet refreshing flavor. I’ll definitely be keeping tabs on where these guys show up in the future.

I did a lap of the trucks after finishing my sandwich, scoping out my options and forming my plan of attack. My next stop was Koi Fusion PDX, a Korean-Mexican fusion truck that had made the trip up from Portland for the event. Since they aren’t local and had a pretty sizeable line, I figured they were worth checking out. Their menu featured Korean BBQ meats (bulgogi, short ribs, spicy chicken, etc) served in tacos, burritos and quesadillas. I ordered a bulgogi taco, which came topped with hot sauce, slaw, onions, tomatoes and cilantro.

Again: outstanding. The beef had a nice, sweet flavor to it that was well-balanced by the toppings. I would have liked a bit more spice in it, but since bulgogi isn’t really a spicy dish to begin with, I can’t complain. What I can complain about is the fact that this truck is based in Portland, since it means it’ll be a good long while before I can sample their wares again. This was the longest line I waited in – it was a little over an hour from the time I got in line to the time I got food. I was OK with that, though, since it gave me time to digest my sandwich from Maximus Minimus before being faced with more food.

At this point, I took a break for dessert. I’d spotted a “build your own ice cream sandwich” option on the menu of the Street Treats truck, so that’s where I headed. They had several different cookies and flavors of ice cream available for you to design your own dessert. I went for dark chocolate ice cream on peanut butter cookies (although the peanut butter ice cream on chocolate chip cookies was a strong contender as well).

The peanut butter cookies were great – crisp enough to not get soggy, but soft enough to eat without forcing the ice cream out the back. The dark chocolate ice cream was pretty good. It wasn’t overly sweet (which was good), but it struck me as more of a “chocolate” than “dark chocolate.” It didn’t stop me from enjoying it, but I was hoping for a slightly stronger flavor.

My last stop of the day was at the Marination truck, where I ordered a miso ginger chicken taco and an aloha pork slider.

I promise that pile of food is actually two separate items. The taco? Was fantastic. It was served with slaw, pickled jalapenos, lime and their special sauce. The sauce was sweet and tangy, which was a nice counterpoint to the spicy jalapenos. The lime juice added a lovely brighter note to the taste, as well. Sadly, the slider wasn’t quite as good for me. The pork was very heavy – it reminded me of a rillette, actually. I don’t know if it was the heat, but it just wasn’t appealing to me at all. It was too heavy and too salty and overwhelmed the freshness of the slaw it was topped with. That said, the bread that it was served on? Was delicious. It was a Hawaiian sweet bread, and I ate most of that even though I barely touched the meat.

The one truck I didn’t make it to that I would have liked to try was Where Ya At?, which was serving New Orleans-style food. The menu included po’ boys, muffaletta and beignets. I tried to work up the desire for a po’ boy, but it just wasn’t happening. I was just too stuffed. Irwin and I will just have to try and catch these guys at some other time (a plan I’m sure he’ll be 100% on board with).

I had good intentions of running some errands while I digested and then heading out for a (much-needed) run this afternoon, but it never happened. By the time I was done driving around, I was so wiped out from being in the hot sun all day that I just couldn’t fathom the idea of running in it. I suppose I could have gone running this morning, except I woke up when Irwin did (his second alarm went off while he was in the shower this morning), so I joined him and his friends for a pre-event breakfast at Brown Bag. As soon as I saw the special board, I knew exactly what I was going to order: peanut-butter banana french toast.

French toast stuffed with a peanut butter-cream cheese filling, topped with bananas. I skipped the whipped cream and syrup, and it was everything I hoped it would be. Even better: the peanut butter filling was made with crunchy peanut butter, which is my absolute favorite. Totally made up for the unnecessarily early wake-up, for sure.

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Geowoodstock VIII

Today’s big adventure? Geowoodstock!

The big annual geocaching party was held just a few miles from where Irwin and I live, so my parents took the opportunity to come visit us and check it out. I had big plans to go for a run this morning, but when my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, I immediately knew that wasn’t going to happen. I reset the alarm for 8 and didn’t move until it went off again. After spending all day on my feet, I’m not all that sad about pushing the run to tomorrow.

Once we were up and moving, we headed over to the Family Pancake House where I enjoyed a berry & nut waffle:

I was a litte bit disappointed that it wasn’t a big fluffy Belgian-style waffle, but the awesome variety of toppings made up for it. The waffle was topped with blueberries, strawberries, pecans, bananas and whipped cream. On the side? Two slices of bacon. As far as I’m concerned, you can never go wrong with bacon.

Once we were properly fortified, we headed over to the main event. There was an excellent turnout of geocachers, many of whom were wearing trackable items of some kind. There were a ton of people noting down ID numbers so they could log them as “discovered” in the Geocaching web site later on.

My personal favorite was this guy wearing a giant geocoin on a Mr. T-style chain:

When lunch time rolled around, we heard that the food lines were insanely long, so we decided to wait a bit longer before attempting to get food. Luckily, I’d packed my own snacks, so I had a pluot to munch on to tide me over.

I am a huge fan of these guys. They’re a combination of plums and apricots, and while the skin is a bit tart, the inside is sweet and juicy. My only complaint is that they’re only available during the summer, so, like cherries, I try to eat as many of them as I can while they’re out.

Once we decided to brave the lunch line, we found that it moved pretty quickly and that they had an excellent spread set up for us. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet of picnic and grill foods. I loaded my plate up with corn and watermelon:

And from the grill I selected a Garden Burger with cheese, topped with lettuce, onion and guacamole:

(I’d loaded my bun up with mustard and ketchup before I saw the guac, and was momentarily bummed out until I realized I could just scrape the inferior condiments off before eating my burger. So that’s exactly what I did. Guac > mustard and ketchup any day of the week.)

I was going to skip dessert, but they had strawberry shortcake, and it’s hard to turn down strawberry shortcake during the summer. I poked around and found a serving without whipped cream that had a high berry-to-cake ratio:

So good. It’s like summer in a bowl, even if it was only 60 degrees outside. (A temperature that I was totally OK with, since I could be outside all day without getting hot and sweaty and sunburned.)

After lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the geocoins and pathtags that people had available for sale or trade. While I’m not really into that aspect of the whole thing, it was fun to watch Irwin and my parents scoping out the scene for things to add to their collections.

I snacked on a beef stick on the way home, and as soon as we were back in the house I hit “nap and relax” mode. I’m running a midnight 5K tonight, and a nap was totally necessary if I was going to be awake for the race. With my nap out of the way, I helped myself to dinner: the leftovers of last night’s stir fry and rice.

I’ve got a couple of hours to kill before the race starts, which I plan to spend knitting and watching this morning’s coverage of the Tour prologue. I’m not a die-hard cycling fan, but I try to at least follow the Tour every year. The nice thing is that with this summer’s unemployment, I’ll actually have time to watch the coverage! Here’s hoping it’ll be an exciting 3 weeks of bike racing.

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Flowers in the Market

Today was the first day in months that I didn’t have anything to do.  Nothing scheduled, no reading, no studying, and no homework.  The Boy had a puzzle thing scheduled, which meant that I also had the day to myself.  I’d originally planned to sleep in, but found myself awake at 9:30 for some reason.  (Although, in all fairness, given my recent schedule, 9:30 was sleeping in.)

Since I was up, I decided to head down to the Market and grab brunch.  While I was there, I also wanted to check out the flowers that were there to get an idea of what’s in season at the end of August.  I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I want to do for the wedding, but I wanted to see if they were in season to make sure they wouldn’t be stupidly expensive.  I figured it would also be a good opportunity to play with the 50 mm lens that I recently inherited from The Boy when he bought a new one.

Of course, as I was wandering around taking pictures with the Big Fancy camera, I was also grabbing snapshots with the little point & shoot I recently picked up to grab pictures of wedding things over the next several months (snapshots of the venue, pictures from trying on dresses, etc, etc).  I can’t even imagine how much of a nerd I must have looked like taking pictures with one camera while carrying around another.

On the plus side, it was a worthwhile trip.  Not only were the flowers I was thinking about plentiful and inexpensive, I also got some other ideas while I was there and a bunch of really great pictures with the Big & Fancy:

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