Sometime before 13 FEB Amanda had gone to Safeway to use their coin counting machine to count the stuff in our piggy bank. It became nonfunctional and the customer service person couldn’t get it working again. She asked us ifwe knew how much $$$ we had, and of course we said no because that was the whole reason we were using the coin machine. She took our names and numbers and said she would call us back when they figured out what was going on.
I was thinking that there was no way we would get any money back, Amanda and I would be really pissed off, and neither of us would step foot in Safeway again. However, they did call me back and I went over to collect $60+ dollars. I don’t think all of that was ours; they had just counted all the extra coins in the machine, but it is conceivable that we had most of the money. Sweet!

13 FEB 2010 : SATURDAY
The weather looked OK (as in not going to rain heavily), so we look LK to the zoo. Amanda finally got to see the northern branch of the park. During many previous visits, she never was able to get that far before LK needed lunch or otherwise had to leave. I had already seen it during a previous visit without her.

Amanda wanted to see the Arctic Foxes, but they were not in evidence. At least as of a week ago, there were two with one still completely white with the other already with its summer brown coat.

As usual there was lunch at the food pavilion and time at the Zoomazium (a building with activities and whatnot for kids).

We had arranged to swap babysitting dates with Ann and Mike over the weekend. We bundled up the Kai and dropped him off at their house. Actually we stayed for quite a while. Only Mike and Connor were there; Ann and Liam were at a birthday party or some other social event. Mike broke out the IKEA train set he acquired a long time ago (but had not shown Connor yet).

LK seemed oblivious to our leaving, which in some ways was good. The plan was to have him spent the night, and we would pick him up tomorrow morning.

Our Valentine’s Day dinner was at a place downtown. We originally thought to take the train in to avoid parking issues and let us get completely wasted, er, “enjoy” the evening. However, we decided to go ahead and drive to give us more options later.

Amanda decided to make dinner reservations for Ann and Mike while I drove downtown. Ah, the magic of smartphones. Apparently she thought that they would decide not to do anything, so she took matters into her own hands.

I was dubious about our parking prospects, but we scored free street parking by the Y downtown, which was only a couple of blocks away.

Our dinner was at Sip: a wine bar and restaurant. We were going to go to another wine bar downtown, Purple Cafe, as it had more selections for Amanda to eat, but we were unable to get reservations. I had called days before but they were already booked; most people celebrated their VDay dinners on Saturday apparently. The restaurant’s typical patron seemed to not be like us (um, either “urban hip” in the more fashonable and/or monied sense as opposed to grungy… or just simply monied). An older couple next certainly spent a lot of money on wine; I recognized the producer. Maybe I should have asked them for a taste.

We both got flights of wine. I chose a selection of Washington State wines. They were good, but not good enough for me to remember. I again was reminded on how good wine can taste when it is served at the correct temperature. Amanda got the wine flight that was created for their special Valentine’s Day prix fixe meal even though she did not get the actual meal. That seemed odd to me, but she was happy. I also got a pinot noir with my entree.

Actual food consisted of:

• ahi poke with fried plantains: this dish was awesome and deliciously salty. I appreciate liberal saltiness.
• cheese plate: yummy
• pear salad
• bread and crackers
• red pepper polenta and brussel spouts for Amanda: tasty
• black cod with wasabi potatoes, slaw, and some stuff: a little mediocre and disappointing really
• truffled parmesan jojos: basically deep fried potato wedges which were of course very good. I got them even though they didn’t really got with our main courses, but our waiter was all for it as “jojos go with everything!”
• chocolate moose thing with cookies: tasty

While it seems unlikely I will ever return, I can say that the service was excellent: a rarity in Seattle. Our main waiter Jason was awesome. The prices for their main entrees/mains seemed not really worth it. However, their small plates seemed reasonably priced, and their sides definitely are inexpensive. The polenta and brussel spouts that Amanda had were simply sides and it was a lot of food. So, it’s a good place to go for a drink and a bite at the bar.

The bathrooms were interesting, too, in the sense that both sexes shared the sinks which was a curved stone(?) though with spigots over it.

It was way dark, so we were did not document the dinner with pictures.

Afterwards, we decided to take advantage of our soon-to-be-expiring Space Needle membership. We got rock star parking in front of the Needle, when we walked up to the entrance we found out that it was closed for a private function. Who rents out the entire Space Needle?!?!? Clearly someone with more $$$ than we have.

It was early, but we decided to just go home. No painting the town red for us. It was odd not having the Kai at home. As most days, though, we watched streaming Netflix stuff until Amanda fell asleep.

14 FEB 2010 : SUNDAY
Amanda retrieved the Kai early in the morning. I am not sure what we did later, but I think I took the Kai to the zoo again. Amanda stayed home.

In the afternoon, Mike and Ann dropped off Connor and Liam before their date. The evening rather well, and we were able to get Connor and Lonan to sleep without much trouble (Amanda actually did the honors). Liam did not really sleep much as he still is quite young, but he was very agreeable.

Mike came by later to pick up Liam; he is too young to stay overnight really. They had a good time at dinner, and like us found it weird to come home with no kids. And like us I don’t think they did much really after dinner.

15 FEB 2010 : MONDAY
Connor woke up at 5am. We were warned, though, so I was mentally prepared at least. I found it curious that he wakes up at the same time everyday when there aren’t cues like the sun rising or whatever. Lonan Kai can be fooled with keeping his room artificially dark when the sun rises earlier.

Anyway, I managed to keep Connor amused and relatively quiet until Amanda and the Kai woke up around 7:30. I made bfast of pancakes and other goodies. Ann and Mike came over to pick up Connor and share bfast.