02 JUN 2007 : SATURDAY
We had bfast of french toast and then Amanda went off with Mandy to Trader Joe’s and Madison Market for our regular groceries plus party supplies. I was supposed to get started on cleaning and whatnot, but I ended up talking for a long time with Bryan and Kevin outside.
Eventually, Amanda came back and we spent the whole day cleaning and preparing for party. I made biscotti and rosemary foccacia. Amanda made a pasta salad, grilled eggplant stuff, and sundried tomato pesto. And we both made a lot of other stuff that I am not remembering now. I also grilled some salmon caught by Mandy’s dad once people started arriving.
Even came over around 4pm and prepared for the party as well. I gave her her present: a FSM iPod cover. She seemed excited about it. She and Karl got engaged over the past week. Woot!
The party was fun. Christy was here first and was very punctual. I always appreciate that. There were two waves of people; the first wave came fasionably after the stated start time while the second wave at previous dinner plans and thus came much later.
It was pretty hot inside which was dangerous as I ending up drinking much more than normal over the course of the evening. I had picked up a bunch of rim and gin and limes earlier in anticipation of hot mojito/gun fizz weather.
Amanda did get a few presents, although that was not the point of the party (I presume Eve did as well). Andrew gave us a signed copy of his book. I guess it was for both of us although it was Amanda’s birthday.
As might be expected, our neighbors were the last ones to leave. They don’t have that far to go after all. It was a fun night.
03 JUN 2007 : SUNDAY
It was Amanda’s actual birthday. Rowr! I was feeling kinda crappy after drinking for hours the day before… I am clearly not a youngster anymore with regards to drinking prowess. Amanda felt fine because she did not drink any alcohol at all; she is more virtuous than I.
We went to Geraldine’s Counter to start the birthday celebration. I felt a lot better after brunch.
After lazing about a bit at home, we then utilized Andrew’s book and went on hike up Little Si… maybe 4-5 miles and 1000+ft of elevation gain. Short but fun. We spent a lot of time on the summit watching an ant trying to drag a piece of sliced almond somewhere. It was quite impressive of her.
There was a P-Patch social in the afternoon, but we did not get back in time after our hike. Amanda wanted to continue the celebration by going out to dinner. After dressing up a bit (“you can look cute if you try! Why do you dress anti-cute?!?!” says Amanda), we headed downtown to Campagne which was just off of Pike Place Market. We had started eating outside in their courtyard, but rain forced us inside.
We had:
– cheesy appetizer poofs
– tasty bread and butter
– pepper oil marniated raw snapper topped with watercress, sweet onion and hearts of palm
– tempura fried greeen beans with some type of aoli or tapenade
– sautéed wild mushrooms with Yakima asparagus, house-made gnocchi and parmesan
– fresh sea bassserved on sweet pea, cucumber and asparagus tossed in tarragon butter
– twice-baked chocolate cake with espresso ice cream and caramelized orange sauce
– rum cake with coconut pastry cream and fresh mango
Obviously I had the fishy dishes. The food and service were quite good. I’d go back.
04 JUN 2007 : MONDAY
Amanda got out of whatever she was doing early (nutrition clinic?), and we spent most of the day and evening on house stuff: cleaning up after the partym reorganizing our upstairs rooms due to the influx of Amanda’s birthday furniture, purging old clothes and other unneeded items, etc. etc.. Amanda was gets very anxious when the house is too disorganized for her, and she was very happy when we finally finished.
05 JUN 2008 : TUESDAY
I took piglet for a follow up appointment at the vet. I was there a long long time as the vet does not do appointments so it is first-come first-served. And there were a lot of people and animals there. One cat was still quite vocal at 20 years! Anyways, I then had to leave her there because they need to get another urine sample, and she had previously emptied her bladder all over me right before I got her into the kitty karrier. Hopefully they were able to get a sample out of her, and I can just pick her up very soon. Actually, I will call them up right now.