25 MAY 2007 : FRIDAY
Amanda and I had been thinking about seeing the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie at our local theatre, but Amanda made plans to meet up with Carrie and some of her friends for dinner at Hale’s Brewery in “Frelard” (Fremont / Ballard). We ended up waiting with Carrie for quite a while for her friends as she thought they had not arrived yet, but in fact they had and were watiing for us. Oops.
The place was very popular, but I found it simply alright. Inexpensive for Seattle, which might be one of its advantages.
A couple of Carrie’s friends whose names I have forgotten had just come back from Peru and hiking the Inca Trail. I have always wanted to do that. It’s area is more popular now that there is a train going up to Machu Picchu though, but you don’t have to take the train.
26 MAY 2007 : SATURDAY
I am spacing on what we did in the morning. Later we went to a pond/pool place in SODO as we are considering putting in a very small pond in our very small front yard. They had a lot of koi there, too, and three wandering kitties. And a very large turtle (!) who was very threatening towards us but was denied by a strategically placed board.
We also went to the P-Patch for a scheduled work party. Only Nora was there, but Klaus also showed up. Amanda weeded and cleaned up the area of the gardens facing 35th Ave while the rest of us weeded the central common areas and put wood chips down. We have way too many radishes now to eat (and we have been eating them every day), so Klaus will be taking some to the food bank later.
Again we thought about seeing Pirates, but put off the decision and had a light dinner at Verve Wine Bar in nearby Columbia City, although Amanda is not drinking a whole lot nowadays. Eating out twice in a row! Decadent! Although we were celebrating our year anniversary for moving into our townhouse.
They mainly serve appetizers and whatnot and have crepes as their only hot items. The food was good, although pricey even for Seattle in my opinion.
We bailed on Pirates again as it is almost a three hour movie, and the next showing was at 10pm. We went home and watched the first installment again (which we have done the past few days). At least, like the past few days, *I* watched it again while Amanda who always wants to watch it fell asleep on the couch.
27 MAY 2007 : SUNDAY
We went to IKEA practically at its opening to beat the usual weekend rush. It was “sales tax-free weekend” at IKEA; I assume that means they pay the sales tax for you.
Amanda took a bite out of my 3 for 99 cent hash browns. What a deal!
We got various minor things such as some replacement tea containers, a few pots, replacement compact fluorescent lights, etc.. We also bought new curtains for our second floor sliding glass doors. We have had very thin curtains there since we moved. They have been alright but one can still see through them at night, and they don’t do much for keeping sunlight from heating up the house in the summer. I also returned a bunch of burnt out bulbs for recycling.
We were in IKEA for quite a while. It always sucks up a lot of time. There were an absurd amount of people circling the lots like vultures. Good thing we got there early.
Amanda had been lusting after a bedroom set at Dania for a long time, and she finally decided to get it. This purchase was really made possible by a gift from from my mother a while ago. Thanks Mom! It will be delivered this Thursday.
To continue our consumeristic day, we stopped by Target to get more random supplies. We did not actually need anything yet, but we do not get down to the shopping mecca of Tukwila all that often so we took the opportunity since we were in the area.
We had lunch at Zoopa’s. That is four times eating out in the past three days. More decadence. Fortunately, I am getting paid again (“the check is in the mail” I am told).
After all this money expenditure, Amanda went knitting with Carrie somewhere in Ballard, while I did house stuff like cleaning and putting up the new curtains and the like.
We did not eat out for dinner. Shocking, I know. Instead we had our typical dinner of the past couple of weeks: bread, cheese, and a salad our our own lettuce and radishes.
28 MAY 2007 : MONDAY
Amanda had the day off. After a bfast of french toast and potatos, we rode our bicycles up to the Seattle Center for fun, exercise, and to check out a bit of the Folklife Festival. We took a interesting route up; basically we found a way to cut over to Beacon Hill and avoid a lot of the steepness and then go downtown via 12th Ave. In retrospect, it was not all that swift, but it was interesting. We past by a park (that I had not known of) dedicated to one of Seattle “Sister Cities” in Korea. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the city’s name. There was a very nice pagoda there, though.
The were scads of people at the festival. It was sunny, if a bit cool. We walked about and listened to a few performances. Amanda complained about how the web site promoted getting to the festival by bicycling and whatnot rather than driving, but then they did not provide enough places to lock up said bicycles. But it was fun.
We took a more direct way back via the bicycle lanes on 2nd through downtown and then basically straight down Rainier. I am not really a big fan of bicycle lanes as when they are present, people get annoyed if you are not always in them and they make things more dangerous (for bicycles at least) as then one has to be very close to opening car doors and random people walking in them or other cars sitting in them because they have nothing better to do. It’s easier and safer just to take the lane.
Most people avoid bicycling on Rainier, but I think that is because most people don’t like riding in traffic. Rainier itself is a major thoroughfare, but it’s speed limit is still only 30mph. Even when people are speeding like maniacs, it usually isn’t all that bad. Of course, I am used to bicycling in traffic, but Amanda is less so. She later agreed that it was perfectly fine even though I apparently almost got squished by an erratic car when passing under I90.
Random side note: after over 12000 miles (I stopped keeping track around 2001) and all kinds of weather, my rear fender finally broke. Sad, but impressive.
Since Mandy was not around, I was permitted to accompany Amanda to Trader Joe’s and Madison Market. Things started poorly after I knocked down a precariously stacked display of fresh basil packed in plastic clamshell containers. Basil flying out of containers everywhere! Oops. A employee said, “I hope people are washing their basil”. Heh.
We had the traditional Memorial day cookout in between our townhouses. Mandy and Bryan, back from Thailand and Singapore, joined us, as did Kevin and Greg. Kevin helped me fix our kitchen exhaust vent since he has a very long ladder. Good thing, too, as we had heard birds trying to get in. One of our other neighbors had starling’s nesting in their exhaust! Bryan and I witnessed one starling entering. Anyways, we relaxed with the neighbors for a long time and then called it a night.