somebody just like me

So, my life is really boring. So boring that I haven't really had any inclination to write down anything that I've been doing in here. However, Nate and I did decide to explore and (gasp) go out to eat after he got off work last Saturday. We hit up one of the two wine bars/restaurants we've been itching to try downtown, The Purple Cafe. We had a local wine flight and a couple apps off their tasting menu (which we promptly destroyed before I got a chance to take pictures of them) before my stomach started acting up and we decided to head home (this was totally not the restaurant's fault, by the way. I chalk it up to the fact that I don't drink EVER anymore, and that I ate three pieces of bread with copious amounts of butter at around 8PM, and we went to the restaurant at around 10:30PM.) I have to say, unfortunately (and somewhat fortunately, because it's free!) my favorite part of the meal was possibly their fresh bread and whipped butter. Although, we had crostini and white bean spread and beef carpaccio as our apps, and the carpaccio was mui, mui excellente (I have no idea if that's how you spell either of those words.) I wish I had taken pictures of the inside of the place, because their wine storage/bar is this awesome column-esque structure in the middle of everything with a spiral staircase going around it alllllll the way up to the ceiling.

(pic credit goes to their website)

The rest of their menu was large, in charge and looked varied and superb. They have a little bit of everything, and we will definitely return at a later date (and an earlier time.)

We're planning on going to Sip (the second of these purported wine bars,) this weekend for the second half of our belated Valentine's Day celebration. I ordered some presents for Nate, but they haven't come in the mail yet (one of them probably won't, but I'm hoping the other will, since it's supposedly 2-3 day shipping and I ordered it Monday. But this is the USPS we're talking about, so...you never know.) He got me things on actual Valentine's Day, namely a box of chocolates -- the true way to my heart, no doubt -- and a lavender-scented massage candle. I had totally forgotten we used to have JimmyJane (yes, I know it's a sex site. But really? The massage candles are SO awesomely wonderful.) massage candle samplers I got from my old job in Boston, and we had just used up the customized fragrance bottle of massage oil I got free from Aveda last year for my birthday (they were not skimpy, it was a large bottle,) so it came as a welcome surprise! I can't write what I got him here, since he reads, but I'll post after I give him the gifts, and let you know how it goes ;)

Last night's dinner was brown sugar salmon, brown rice and roasted brussel sprouts. This is the first time I've roasted brussel sprouts, and I have to say, I enjoyed them immensely. The outer leaves get crispycrunchydelicious, plus, I bought parmesan cheese at Target the last time we went grocery shopping, and it makes all vegetables that much more delicious. Because it's cheese, and cheese is good. I also roasted some zucchini and yellow squash the other days (one time with and one time without parmesan cheese -- it was good both times,) and I enjoyed that also! And roasting is super easy, because you put them in and leave them alone and I like it. I'll start taking pics of things and posting recipes again when I start being creative and making things I haven't made a million times in the past several months.

We did some major grocery shopping last weekend, and yet still have nothing in the house for lunch. Ok, so that's not true, we just haven't been very good at portion control with dinner lately, so I haven't had leftovers to bring. And I'm too lazy in the morning to make a sandwich. Yeah, I really am. (I'm also too lazy, lately, to get up in time to put on make-up, but that's another story...) In any case, we got a (manual) juicer at Ikea when we were there a little while ago, and we bought a bunch of lemons and a bunch of oranges to make juice with (or smoothies, should be feel so inclined. I do love my Magic Bullet.) Unfortunately, we keep making our regular juice -- aka Crystal Light (knockoff) -- in our one and only pitcher. It will happen soon! Or I will buy a carafe at Uwajimaya. For serious.

In other news, I won tickets to go see Bobby McFerrin at The Paramount from Seattle Weekly via Twitter. Apparently, online social media is the only way I win things, because I have -- honest to god -- never won anything before in my life. Ok, so maybe that's a lie. I won a Vera Bradley purse from Project Graduation in high school. (But to be fair, there were only 300 other people. The odds are much better that way.) And sometimes I win things that I actually have te be vaguely skilled at something to win. But for realz, y'all, I WON! Plus, I won tickets to go see Bobby McFerrin, which is awesome, because he is the king of singing. Nate went and picked up the tickets, and we're in row H. It's gonna be pretty cool. So you should follow them on Twitter so that, if you live in the Seattle area, you can win things to.

One more thing for this morning: we sold most of our seating! The couch and coffee table were sold earlier this week! They even came and picked them up during the day, while I was at work, so when I got home, there was just this big empty space in the wall, since Nate didn't have a chance to move anything before he left for work. So I shoved our chair in the corner, moved the little Ikea loveseat to the wall where the couch had been and voila! We have seating for people other than ourselves. That doesn't smell like cat pee. It's ever so exciting. I haven't taken pics yet, because I'm still contemplating moving the furniture more. Plus, I want to get some accessories. Namely, a throw and pillows for the love seat, and something similar for the Poang chair, to tie them all into one color scheme. Because we have a (strange) gray chair, an off-white loveseat and a sage green over-sized chair. I will make this work. (If you have any suggestions, I'd be GLAD to hear them. I'll post pictures later, of all three furniture items together, because apparently the Klobo loveseat is the only thing that Ikea doesn't make a slipcover for, and I don't think they make this particular cushion for the Poang anymore. Oy vey.)

Ok, I lied, this is the last thing. We're trying to the sell the car, but we haven't had much luck so far. Some guy offered to trade us for a Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible. This is funny, because Nate sold his Eclipse so we could drive across the country (though, this is a 2G and his was a 3G and blah blah blah, I don't care about cars, so I'm pretty sure y'all don't care about cars, so Nate is the only one that cares about cars, sorry, Boo! If you really want the specific differences, ask him. He would be glad to discuss it.) It requires us to do some thinking, because it's possible that we could sell this car (now or later on) for more money than we could get for the Xterra, but we'd have to factor in (probably) higher insurance costs and feel we would need to garage it, because a convertible is more likely to get broken into, especially considering the number of cars we see smashed in near our apartment building. In any case, we're going to see it this weekend.

The Boo is meeting me for lunch in about an hour. But first, I have to sort through this pile of receipts to try and find one specific charge. Sweet.

-C