just the same

I have recently become kind of obsessed with owls. Thankfully, so is everyone else,  so I don't have to go too far to find my feather friends!

Owl Soap Dispenser and Toothbrush Holder

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Owl Measuring Cups

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Owl Lovers on Music Print

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Peekaboo Owl Teacup

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Owl Multicolor Necklace

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Owl Watering Staes

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Ceramic Owl Bank

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I admit, too many of one decoration can be a tad bit ridiculous -- with this many owls, your house will start looking like an aviary and less like a living space. But how can you say no to their little owl faces?



tell us of the night

One of these days I'll stop being a lazy bum and start writing regularly again so I don't have to lump our giant weekends o' fun into one long and slightly boring post. Ah, well. A girl can dream.

This weekend was one of the most gorgeous times I have seen in seattle. Friday and Saturday were both super sunny, and Sunday was marginally sunny, so Nate and I took full advantage and walked around for a total of 13+ hours from Friday night to Sunday night. All our pictures are on the real camera -- we took the real camera out, aren't you proud of us?! -- so I don't have many to post here today, but as soon as I can muster up the energy to steal them from Nate's computer, I'll post our marathon walking tour.

Friday evening we walked downtown because a) it was nice and I wanted to get some exercise but b) Nate was still a bit of a sicky, so we weren't going to submit the gym to his snot just yet. We walked down to Pike Place and got some awesome shots of Rainier over Qwest.

The crazy-ass giant volancomountains is one thing I will definitely miss whenever it is we decide to scurry back over the east coast. I love the Appalachians, but there's really nothing like craggy, snow-capped peaks in the distance. It's one of my favorite things around living in Seattle, for realz.

Friday night we watched The Fighter. I though it was good, but I really have no love to give to fighting -- it just isn't really my sport. I don't like watching people get hurt. Nate said he thought it wasn't as good as he thought it was going to be.

Saturday we woke up at a vaguely reasonable hour, got ready and set out to find breakfast. We had yet to find a decent breakfast place and upon some further inspection, discovered a diner, Planet Java, right on the waterfront, a straight shot down Washington from our house! It's super cute and has that old-school, 50s diner vibe, including the music. There's vintage Coke and diner paraphernalia everywhere, but the most ridiculous thing is that the entire place is covered in clocks. Most of them are cool. Some, like the scary clown clock, not so cool. But the vibe and food (and our waitress) was AWESOME and just what we wanted.

After eating, we were going to wander down by the waterfront (along with everyone else who lives in and/or was visiting Seattle,) but we got distracted by the ridiculously loud sounds coming from Qwest, so we walked over there to check it out. There was a U2 concert on Saturday night, and they were setting up and sound checking while the Mariners game was happening at Safeco right next door, so we were not alone. (When we walked home later, I got an awesome shot of Lenny Kravitz -- their opening act -- using the digital zoom on the camera and focusing in on the giant screen above the stage. It almost looks like we were there! ;)

Afterwards, we headed to the waterfront, and walked and shopped and took pictures for the rest of the afternoon. We ate dinner at Contour, where they have a $2-5 happy hour menu until 8PM with some really delicious food. We also got a free round of drinks because they neglected to tell us until much, much later that they didn't actually have the fried calamari we ordered. Oops. Free booze!

I wound up getting a little sunburned from walking around, but considering were out for hours and my chest is just a little pink, I'll take it. Saturday night we watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It is kind of horribly depressing, but really really good. Beautiful cinematography and music (by James Horner,) but man, I did not see that ending coming. You should see it. And then be kind of depressed for a while.

Sunday wasn't as nice, but we went a-walking anyway. We would up at Planet Java for breakfast again before heading downtown to do some shopping. Originally we went for cologne for Nate, since he's almost out, but we wound up with six pairs of shoes instead. Hahaha. Hah. Ha. Oops. =\ But we needed them, and we got rid of some shoes that were really quite past their prime (which the shoes we bought replaced) when we got home, so it wasn't completely frivolous. Nate replace his semi-dressy black shoes, his gym shoes and walking sneakers and I replaced two pairs of casual walking shoes and got a pair of wedges for work. See, see?! We needed them. Neeeeeed. I mean, yes. Plus, they're having a BOGO sale until July 4th. Totally justified.

I also got this awesome ceramic owl at UO.

Technically he is a piggy bank, but since we keep out change in a Cafe du Monde tin near the door, he is simply a decoration on the window sill. He was on sale for $1.99, how could I say no?!

as you like it

It is a beautiful, goreous, warm day here in Seattle and I am very happy about it! I woudl be happier if I could just go find a patch of grass to lay a blanket on and read my kindle all day, but I'll take what I can get. It's actually supposed to be sunny for the next five days, until Sunday (including yesterday.) It's a reason for celebration! ::dances::

I'm in a pretty good mood, cause I'm down another .8 pounds this morning, which puts me at a weight loss of total of 5 pounds! And I'm certainly off to the gym tonight after work to keep that number dropping.

Also, I bought a new pair of sunglasses last night from Forever 21.

They -- and Instagram -- make me feel fancy! They're also awesome because they have this detailing on the inside:

The first pair I bought fell apart literally two minutes after walking out of the store, so I went back and finagled (and by finagled I mean, I asked the nice sales lady) myself another pair. Normally their accessories policy doesn't allow return or exchange, but they let me do it since less than 5 minutes had passed since I had purchased them. The screws holding on the arms were just loose, so we went back upstairs and found a pair that had tight screws and were on our way.

They also had these awesome linen pants in their Heritage 1981 line that I want, because they are only $25 and work-appropriate, but they didn't really have my size.

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I tried on a 29, which is apparently too big (I still don't understand Euro sizing, considering the rule of "adding 28 to your regular size" means I would be a 34...) and the next size down they had in the store was a 26, which would probably be too small, though I didn't try those on. I think I'm going to watch them (both in-store and online) and wait until I get my weight a little closer to what I want it to be. Online the largest size they have is 28, which is probably the size I need right now...but we'll see. I'm a gym go-er, you see. Imma lose me some more weight. And hopefully inches.

I also tried on this, and I like it, I just can't decide if the flare at the waist is right for my body.

Envision with a pink or red tank underneath. Also, please ignore the fact that I can't take a picture of myself in a mirror with my iPhone to save my life. You can see the shirt, that's all that really matters.

We stayed up to watch The Voice last night. It was over very fast and not terribly memorable, which doesn't necessarily bode well. Here's what I thought:

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(this is THE VOICE! Ugh, I hate their tag. Couldn't you have come up with something catchier than four notes that doesn't include anything more than seconds and a minor third?)

Team Adam: This pairing is unfair for anyone, but especially unfair because I really like Angela Wolff and wanted to hear more of her voice. But Javier is a singer. A SINGER. How can emphasize this any more. He SANGS. His control over his voice really is incredible, and Angela didn't sound terribly in control of hers last nice (to be fair, you'd probably be nervous too, singing in front of everyone in a boxing ring like that. I would be.) But she's just so adorable! I want to be her friend.

Team Blake: I'm sorry, but I hate just don't Jared Blake's voice. There isn't enough tone for me to dig my greedy little substance-searching fingers into (and ok, wow, it sounds like I'm on drugs.) He did, however, sound way better last night that during either of his blind audition songs. I also have to say that it's weird to have a duet as 'The Voice.' It isn't 'The Voices' or 'The Group.' That being said, I love Ellenowen's sound and will probably go download their cd later. They will probably make it on their own, because they are beautiful people. (I loved their blind audition song -- Falling Slowly.)

Team Cee Lo: This was really a tough call, because both of these guys have killer voices. I don't know if I think Cee Lo made the right choice, but going with the more unique voice is probably more what the show is about. I can't really get into the gritty, classical rock and roll voice (Nakia = Bob Seger, in my head) as much as the smoother R&B these days, but I can see the appeal of both. (as a side note: Cee Lo cracks me the hell up.)

Team Christina: I disagree with this choice. You give two people a song that clearly plays to the strengths of one and expect to be so impressed by the one whose strengths it doesn't play to and expect to be so completely blown away that you don't go with the first? I think that's a horrible strategy. I also think that Justin has way more flexibility and coachability than Beverly; his voice can do multiple genres. I guess maybe it's like the Tje and Nakia dilemma -- I'm just not that into the old rock voices. I mean, give me some good '80s Bon Jovi or Journey any day, but current Bon Jovi? Not so much. That ship has sailed.

All that being said, I would want to be on either Adam or Blake's team. This is kind of shocking to me, since I'm not a country fan, but I would want Reba's coaching, cause she is an awesome lady in the singing department. I also think it's very smart of Adam to have Maroon 5's musical director on-site to help him out. The man coaches Maroon 5...what else do you want?

What did you think of all this jibber-jabber? Do you watch The Voice?

all we can do is keep breathing

I took a little bit of a breather this weekend. And by a breather, I mean, I didn't really do a whole lot? I guess I took a breather from my debbie downer posts.

I guess that isn't entirely true. Friday night we had grandiose plans to go to the gym, but I was tired when I got home, so we sat around and ate, instead. A viable alternative, I assure you.

Saturday morning Nate had to work, so I slept in a little -- til 10:30 or so -- and then got up and cleaned up some. And then, before I got to the real cleaning, I realized we were almost completely out of paper towels. So mostly I picked up and took out the trash. Then I made pumpkin bread, because we've had this can of pumpkin I wanted sitting it our cupboard for a while and I am always up for pumpkin flavored things. I am a firm believer that pumpkin should not just be a fall flavor -- it should be an every day flavor! It is so good and almost gone. It is also a dessert that I eat for breakfast. (me = gluttonous)

 On his way home, Nate got paper towels so we could actually clean. We swept and everything! Only thing we still can't do is mop or vacuum. But the (only) carpet is dark green, so you don't see anything on it and we can just use damp paper towels to "mop" the 6' x 3' kitchen space, so I'm not sure it will get remedied anytime soon. The place gets pretty dusty, though, so maybe we should invest in some Swiffer products, since we have a whole book of coupons =P

We finished cleaning and hung out until Nate's sister and Brent showed up, then sat around and talked for a while before deciding we should leave before it got dark. We took the bus down to Westlake, then wandered around the market for a little while before deciding we were all kind of hungry. So we hit up Noc Noc and discovered it was 80s night. Unfortunately, the music didn't start until 9PM and when it did start, it was kind of lame. The best things they played were One Night in Bangkok (which not many people know, besides me, apparently) and Walkin' on Sunshine (one of Nate's most hated songs.) There was no Bon Jovi, Journey, Whitney or anything of merit. Granted, that probably comes out later on in the night, but a little something upbeat for the five people who were dancing might have been nice, Mr. DJ.

Anywho.

Sunday was for grocery shopping! We didn't leave the house until after 12:30PM, but we didn't think it would take us that long, so we planned to go to the gym afterwards -- doncha know, we just love planning on going to the gym. Well, we wound up spending two hours at the grocery store and didn't get everything we needed. So we dropped stuff off at home and headed to the drug store/small grocery store downtown to see what they had. We wound up getting everything on our list except coffee, which we couldn't find for a decent (enough) price (for us.) We've set a budget of $75 a week for groceries and managed to only go over by about $10 on our first shopping trip. It should be noted, however, that some of the items we purchased we won't need every week (like dry goods, condiments, spices, etc.) so hopefully some weeks we'll be able to keep it well under $75. (We also didn't include household items in our $75 budget, because we can't just decided not to buy toilet paper because it doesn't fit in the budget.)

For our $85, we purchased:

• 1.5lbs brussel sprouts
• 1 zucchini
• 2lbs strawberries (on sale because they were on their "way out," so we took them home and cut out the brown spots.)
• 1 bag baby carrots
• 1 head iceburg lettuce
• 1 box pre-chopped mushrooms (I don't really understand this, but you can buy 1 box whole mushrooms for the same price. I don't think it's done by weight, so the chopped is a way better deal! In any case, we still have a couple whole mushrooms for stuffing and baking. Noms =)
• 3 roma tomatoes
• 2 kiwis
• 3 white peaches
• 2 packs of spaghetti
• 5-pack large chicken breasts
• small pack of ground beef
• one salmon steak (unfortunately atlantic farm salmon, not pacific wild, but the wild is way more expensive.)
• one gallon milk
• 8oz sour cream
• frozen edamame in the pod
• two boxes no-sugar chocolate covered almonds
• one box pistachios
• coconut water w/ mango and peach
• two loaves of bread (one wheat, one white)
• 8oz fresh cow mozzarella (from Pike Place)
• one bottle chocolate syrup
• one bottle caramel syrup
• one pack double fudge brownies
• one box margarine
• one cup yoplait (free w/ coupon!)
• one bottle strawberry jelly

It was pretty good haul. The fudge brownie mix is actually to see if it adds enough chocolatey sweetness to a smoothie to be as cost-effective as the syrup, since it costs less than two dollars. We'll see.

We also got this yesterday:

Because it does this:



It's the JosephJoseph Chop 2 Pot cutting board and it's quite possibly one of my favorite inventions. We're slowly but surely trying to replace all our kitchen things with JosephJoseph: they are both colorful and functional!

We had the mozzarella and tomatoes last night for a caprese salad before dinner. SO GOOD. The fresh mozzarella was so very very delicious. Mild, with just enough flavor. So different from store mozzarella. Also calorie-laden. Hehe. Good thing we walked around for five hours beforehand!

For dinner we had salmon in catalina with couscous, onions and spinach. Definitely one of my favorite meals. The catalina left over from cooking the salmon makes a perfect sauce for the couscous, with veggies for extra flare!

I'm so tired, because I couldn't sleep last night. My coffee helped, but I'm probably going to crash after I eat lunch. Ugh.



no one is as lucky as us

You can take the title of this post both at face value and sarcastically. For two different reasons:

I skipped work Friday morning to go to the doctor for the first time since...I don't know...2008? I'm usually a pretty healthy type of lady, but I've been having some...ahem...issues that have gone on for way too long, so I sucked it up and went in. For the long and short of it, I'm absolutely fine. But I did scare Nate because his shift at work was cancelled so he walked up to my appointment with me Friday morning and I was in with the ARNP for about 45 minutes, but I was a new patient, so lots of questions and paperwork equal a longer appointment. He had no need to worry =)

Backing up, we were planning on going to Target on Thursday evening to switch out our coffee maker, which crapped out on Tuesday morning. I guess technically it crapped out Monday afternoon, but I already had my coffee for that day, so we didn't notice anything until Nate try to rewarm the extra coffee from the morning later that day...which just didn't work (and as a side note, this is the second of this particular kind of coffee pot that has crapped out on us for various reasons.) In any case, Nate gets ready to pick me up after work, goes out to the car and the back passenger window is smashed in. Awesome. So I walk home, we wander around in circles for a while before deciding we need to go out, anyway, to find a place with a vacuum to clean out the car, anyway. While trying to clear out the stuff from the car, we discover that our inverter is gone, as is a duffle bag, a bag of change (plus all the change in the change drawer -- mostly dimes, nickels and pennies,) flashlight, the remote for the radio, Nate's extra pair of glass (they have a prescription, what is anyone else going to do with them?)and the DUCT TAPE?! The fuse cover is off, but the radio hasn't been touched, and the faceplate for it (which we keep in the glove compartment) is still there. As is our tent, folding chairs, Nate's OBDII reader, rope and various other camping equipment, including our tent. What random items to take.

While we were cleaning everything out, we talked to a guy who had also had his car broken into and they'd swiped his fishing gear, but not his tent. He said that between Monday night and Tuesday morning, all the 4x4's that were parked on the bridge near our apartment had been broken into. Ridiculous.

At this point it's starting to rain, because we live in Seattle, so we decide to head out to vacuum out the car and find some new duct tape. We wound up at Target, anyway, and go a new coffee maker. After returning the old one, we sprung for a better (read: more expensive) type, with a timer and different strengths of brew. Fancy.

The other thing that crapped out on us was our free old-school TV that we got from Craigslist when we first got here. I turned it on one day and it was just a colored line in the middle of a black screen. Nate fixed it (first by taking the back completely apart and moving stuff around, and then by banging on the sides of the TV until the picture spread back out,) and that stuck for a while, but then it decided it didn't like being hit anymore and that stopped working. So the other thing we bought at Target was a new, 26" LED TV. Oh yes, it's awesome. Nate has already found things wrong with it, but he does concede that the picture is way better than he had thought it would be. But the USB port doesn't seem to working, so we can't upgrade the firmware like we're supposed to, according to Westinghouse's website. Ah well, you can't have everything work perfectly, can you? Oh wait, maybe that's just us...

So we have a new TV and a new coffee maker, but we still have to fix the window on the car. It's a balance, you see? No, I don't really either.

-C

i'm too busy dreaming

This weekend was spent relaxing and shopping!

I've been looking for a new main purse for a while now, because my old one is tattered and looking a bit busted. I couldn't really find anything I liked, even though I really only have two qualifications: big enough for my 13" laptop and not black or tan. When I was in Payless on Saturday buying new sneakers -- since my old ones did this a while back:

While I was there, I spied my new bag! It was on sale. It's pretty and pristine...and white. So you know it won't be white for too much longer. But for now, it's pretty and I like it.

(old | new)

(those white patches are where the fake leather has started to crack on the old bag. i know.)

I also spent some time trying on other shoes. I found a pair that I wanted that were on clearance, but couldn't bring myself to buy them because they are navy and they only go with two out of my three pairs of work pants and with very few of my work tops. But when I went back with Nate yesterday to get him some new work shoes, I wound up getting them, and another pair, because I just couldn't leave them sitting on the shelf for $12. I'm wearing them today and trying to get my feet used to wearing heels again, instead of flats. As it is, I'll probably have to alternate whiel I regain some flexibility in the ball of my right foot, which I had surgery on in 2003. My calves are also killing me, which I think is a combination of walking around in these in the store and then walking around in my Toms/sneakers all over downtown. It's just sad. Sad!

In any case, the other pair I bought is tan and meant to replace some old and dirty tan wedges Nate has been trying to get me to throw away for a while.

(new | old)

Not sure if you can tell, but the dark spot on the toes of the old shoes are DIRT. Ew. Showing them to someone besides me and my boyfriend makes me glad I threw them away.

Today is vaguely sunny and it's my friend Leslie's birthday! She is the last of the lifeform to turn 25. We are now, collectively, 100 years old. What a crazy thing to think about!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

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I'll leave you with this thought for today:

I think it's a good motto to live by.

-C

Anyone else have a hard time letting things go? (p.s. by "thrown away" I mean, the shoes, bag and a pile of underwear that I really shouldn't be wearing anymore are sitting by the door, waiting to be thrown away. Err...what?)

just listen for the lark

Hi there!

I'm so tired, my eyeballs feel all scratchy and I think I'm that guy at work because I'm having problems keeping my eyes focused on anything. Especially tiny, 10-point font. Gah. But this weekend was fabulous, so I'll sit here and sketch out for a while and not complain too too much.

Friday night, walking home from work, I ran into a lot of things having to do with the Sounders that was happening later. I got a free energy drink and saw a giant soccer ball!

I also found some pretty cool graffiti along the way.



I don't really remember what I did Friday night, but it must not have been too terribly exciting.

Saturday was a lazy day for me. Nate had to work from 10-4:30, and then they wound up keeping him until 5 after telling him he could go at 2 and it wound up being a huge 'I don't know when you're coming home so I'm hungry but I can't make dinner yet' fiasco. FIASCO!

Actually, it wasn't that bad. But it was kind of touch and go there for a little while.

Saturday night we went to Kells, which is in an alley way in between the stores on 1st and Pike Place Market that we didn't even know existed, to meet Nate's friend from college, Meghan, and her husband, Matt. We drank, ate, talked and listened to some fantastic live Irish music. After about a bottle of wine each (for the ladies) and a couple pints of Guiness (for the men-folk,) we decided that it sounded like a good idea to go over to Meghan and Matt's apartment to play Monopoly. Until, you know...2AM. Which is fine. Except that it's way past my bedtime, and we were all, uhm, slap-happy, to say the least. It became increasingly harder to do math, as it got later and later. So Nate and I finally called it quits, took leave of our gracious hosts via a cab. Once we got home, we promptly passed out as soon as our heads hit our respective pillows.

Sunday morning was a little rough, but we managed to be up and out of the house by 12:30PM, which is decent if you take into account that we didn't get out of bed until 11:15 or so. We found some coffee and some Jimmy Johns (and some ibuprofen -- hah) before I sent Nate off to Molly Moon's for his website meeting. I, of course, went shopping. What else do you do with a tax return? I got a couple pieces from H&M, but I also had a giftcard from my Aunt for Victoria's Secret, so I got some new undies while I was out, as well, since they are having a 7 for $25.50 sale right now, and my wardrobe from American Eagle boyshorts is getting kind of old and well-loved. So I picked up a couple different kinds, including their hipsters and boyshorts, to see what I like best so I can use the rest of my giftcard. They were running this promotion where you get a giftcard with your purchse worth between $10 and $500, so I'll have to go back in April and see what I get! Knowing my luck, it will be $10, but you never know.

We also went grocery shopping Sunday afternoon/early-evening. We spent more than we meant to, but we got everything from Safeway, instead of splitting it up between there and Uwajimaya, and most of what we bought we stocked up on, and bought more of than we normally would, because it was on sale! Like Crystal Light and Veggie Ritz. Plus we needed things like spices and household items, which are always makes things more expensive.

Sunday night we had homemade pizza for dinner, with an appetizer of stuffed mushrooms.

I love stuffed mushrooms because they're so super easy to make. The filling is basically whatever you have hanging out in your fridge! This time, it consisted of cream cheese, ranch dressing, parmesan cheese and an Italian spice blend, whith a Veggie Ritz cracker crushed and sprinkled on top. Pop them in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes and they are golden brown and delicious! I love mushrooms, can you tell?

We also bought our tickets and hotel room for my friend Catherine's wedding in Atlanta this weekend! We're leaving at 8:20PM on Thursday night and taking the red eye, so we have Friday to be there and sleep (and hopefully get me an appointment at the eye doctor -- I haven't found one in Seattle yet, and I am in desperate need of new contacts,) Saturday for Wedding-ness and Love, Sunday to hang out in Atlanta and Monday to get back to Seattle in one piece. And it's nice flying out this way, because even though we don't leave until 5PM, it's eight hours of flying, we get in at 10PM (which will feel like 1AM -- blech,) we can still get a regular night's sleepy-times. I'm so excited!

-C

i think she knows

Hey-o!

It's been a little while. Unfortunately, I don't have anything too terribly exciting to report. So...Happy Valentine's Day!

Those are my flowers from my booboo. He sent them to me at work. He's a very nice booboo.

Let's see. Here is a recap of the past couple days:

Wednesday it was beautiful outside, and I had delicious Jimmy Johns for lunch.

Thursday wasn't anything too special. We had a delicious casserole with egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup, onions and cheese for dinner. Noms!

Friday I have no pictures because I spent all day at "showsite" for TechReady12 learning more about what my company does. It was pretty cool, but it involved a lot of walking for the whole day. I did get to have sliders and sweet potato fries for lunch, though. Yum!

Saturday we braved the outdoors and went to Pike Place Market to do some long overdue Christmas shopping. Hopefully we'll be sending out presents soon! The shopping is mostly done, which is good. But it started raining not long after we got to the market and poured until about 6PM, which was the majority of the time we were out. Of course. Before it started raining, we stopped and got lunch at a little deli/store called 'Pear' across from the market. It was delicious. I discovered Kettle's Sweet Onion chips. They taste like funyons, only less like death and preservatives (ok, so that's a lie -- I love funyons) and more like deliciousness!

Sunday we couldn't decide what to do. It was vaguely nice outside, so we were going to go walk around, but decided to drive down to Ikea instead. I'd never been to an actual Ikea store, and I didn't know what to expect. Nate was shocked and so we did the whole experience -- shopping and eating. The food wasn't great -- it wasn't horrible -- but it didn't cost a whole lot. We got the pasta marinara combo, and the garlic bread was delicious. Plus, they have the best ice. Besides Sonic ice. Ice is an important part of my meal! Leave me alone...

Today is Monday and Valentine's Day. It's dark and gloomy outside, but at least it wasn't full on raining when I had to walk to work this morning -- just misting. Plus, I'm wearing my new shoes!

So shiny. Have a great day!

-C

i need some help

ModCloth is one of my favorite online shops to lust over where I can't usually bring myself to justify spending that much money on any one item. Deliverance! I have a giftcard. But now, I have to decide what to get.

I've always said I wanted a dress from them, but what kind of dress?

Cute and casual, but also stylish?

Something fancy for going out?

Or something practical, that I can wear to work?

But then, what if I don't wind up wanting a dress? What if I get a romper! (because lord knows, I LOVE rompers.)

Or I could really splurge and get an entirely-too-expensive top?

Or some awesome boots?

Ooh, I just love them. But I'm careful about buying shoes online I haven't been able to try somewhere, because my feet are picky. And by picky, I mean they will complain loudly in the form of crazy blisters if the shoes don't fit just so. No matter how much I break in the shoes. It's lame.

And you know, there's always jackets. Useful ones, that actually keep you warm.

And not so useful ones.



It's just too freakin' cute.

Ooooor, I could get some little accessories, so I'm not using the giftcard toward one item. Like these!

Accessory fiend!

But seriously, I'm not sure what to do. I've had too many times in my life where I think I know what I want, and then I wind up regretting not waiting for something I REALLY want. But if I wait forever, I'll just have this giftcard and no actual clothes. Le sigh.

What do I do? What would you get?

-C

larger than life

I took a small hiatus from writing things this weekend to actually hang out with people! This a very exciting development in my life here in Seattle.

Friday night, Nate and I went out to buy some things we'd been eyeing at Express, because they are having an extra 40% off clearance sale at the moment, and wound up get 6 items for about $70 (a major steal!) Then, we went to dinner at The Taphouse Grill. It's kind of in a touristy part of town, but they have, like, over 140 beers, plus really good food, so we decided to go back, instead of trying to find someplace new. When we got home, we watch The Grudge 2, which is possibly the worst movie I've ever seen. Ever. No really, it's horrible. We contemplated turning it off halfway through.

It was my best friend's birthday on Friday, so on Saturday, we made plans to go to the Science Center around noon. Well, we are all lazy bums, so I think I left my house to walk to her house around 11:30 (it's like a 40 minute walk,) and then when I got there, she was still cleaning and her roommate was still showering, so we didn't leave until after 12:30. Then, Nate wound up not having to work, so we had to wait for him to meet us at the Space Needle (which didn't take very long, it was pretty much perfect timing.) He also got some pretty cool pictures on the walk over.

 Then, we sat and ate a little snack at the cafe after waiting in line to get in the Science Center complex. So I think we actually started looking at the exhibits around 1:30? Which turned out to be fine, because while the buildings themselves were very nice, the exhibits were kind of...outdated. I mean, they had a sign that said a fossil was 'something you dug up.' (This was then a running joke for the rest of the visit.) And they kept calling all the dinosaurs in the prehistoric section "weird," which kind of irks me, because OF COURSE they're weird, they're dinosaurs, but really, shouldn't you be teaching kids to be interested by "weird" things, and not just teaching them to call them "weird" because they're different?

In any case, some of the kids exhibits, about how things work, were very cool. They had a "shadow wall," where you stand in a dark room against a reflective wall and they have a really bright flash on an audible timer, so that after the flash goes off, you can see your "shadow" left on the wall. It was fun standing in crazy poses and see what the shadow looked like! I also always enjoy the sections where they show you how hard your heart works, how hard you have to pedal a bike to burn so many calories in an hour, etc. They had one test where you had to pitch match, and even in the crazy kid loudness of museum, I matched the tones almost perfectly. Yay for being a trained musician! The middle of the complex, which was all outdoors, was interesting, also. They had several structures that (we think) are just meant to be artistic, along with some water areas, some of which were interactive. We didn't get shoot anything with the water pistols though, because we are nice and don't shove little children out of the way...usually.

After we wore ourselves out walking around for a couple hours, we went back and had a nice dinner, cheesecake and ice cream for dessert, and watched some Mystery Science Theatre 3000. I was so tired from walking and not eating enough (or probably drinking enough water,) that I went to bed at 10:30/11:00 and slept through all the way until 10am the next morning (at which point I not longer felt like I was getting sick, so I really think it was just the no water thing.)

Sunday, the boy and I went grocery shopping (which kind of turned into wandering around Target,) but first we stopped at IHOP for delicious breakfast. Our usual: a spinach and mushroom omelette (the real version, not the simple and fit version) with strawberry banana pancakes, hashbrowns and four strips of bacon. We downed it in about 10 minutes (we may have gotten up at 10, and waited until 1:30 to eat, so we were kind of hungry.) We figured it out, and the whole meal was about 2000 calories. So we figured that was breakfast and lunch, so we didn't feel so bad about demolishing 1000 calories each in such a short amount of time.

After Target, we wound up at Forever21, Express and Payless looking for a new all-purpose purse for me. My red one, from H&M, is starting to finally just fall completely apart, so it's really probably time for a new one. Unfortunately, everything that is out right now is kind of boring, and either black, tan or beige. I found an ok purple one at Payless, but I like to really love my bags, especially since I tend to only carry one all the time. So I may have to wait until Spring lines come out for some brighter colors. While we were at Payless, my trusty sneakers finally bit the dust. I was taking them off to try on a pair of boots, and the shoe completely separated from the sole. Sad day.



Sunday night was full of laundry and me whining because I was so. very. tired (which was apparently just hunger, even though I consumed 1000 calories earlier that day.) This morning, I took some time and participated in TPTP, which I ignored on Friday, because I'm a bum.

This green sweater has rabbit HAIR in it. Not fur, hair.

It kind skeeves me out, but I really like the sweater. And the color. And it was on clearance for $10, so I guess I'll deal.

-C