It was a long weekend, but aren’t they all when you work for yourself and your spouse is on vacation for the month? Too bad I did not make any money the previous week, although I did get paid for stuff I had done the weeks before.

I think we did something exciting on Saturday, but now I don’t remember what it was. Perhaps it was not that exciting. Hmm, actually I finally got around to getting the car into the shop for some scheduled maintenance (ok, not that exciting). It apparently is in superb condition after three years, which is good. Dorking around with the car took a lot of time because I had to take the bus too and fro.

Jane came to visit Amanda and to drop off a crazy knit sweater for Lonan Kai, so that was exciting, but I was in transit and spending some time downtown before picking the car back up. I finally got the battery replaced in my pocketwatch; it’s been dead for over a year. I could never figure out how to get the back open and since it was an expensive present from Amanda I did not want to experiment. I took it to Macy’s watch and jewelry repair place. It took a while because there was a line of people getting their watches fixed. Who would’ve thought? Clearly not me.

While waiting, I went to the Nordstrom Rack to look for cheap clothes. The downtown one is always a zoo and everything is extremely pawed over. I did get a couple of shirts at 75% off.

I had an odd encounter while checking out. The cashier woman asked me if I had Philippine blood, and I said yes. She then said that there used to be many of Philippine descent working there, but currently there was only one. “They all found better jobs!” I am still unsure what this conversation says about me or her or Nordstrom Rack or the world in general.

Sunday Mandy and Amanda went grocery shopping. I had thought there was a work party for the P-Patch but it is next week instead, so I spent some time talking to Bryan who was there pulling weeds.

We did a mega amount for laundry because Amanda thinks we have fleas in the house. I am reasonably convinced as well, but we have not actually seen them. Unfortunately for Amanda, they seem to have taking a liking to her; apparently the fleas agree that she is sweeter than I. It is unclear how they got in (we treated Armando when we first let him inside), but Piglet is the most likely vector.

We ventured out to look for flea stuff and found some of the stuff that you apply then vaccuum up out in Factoria. We thought it was premature to bomb the house as we have not seen them yet. And that probably is not good for, say, infants.

We had dinner with Eve and Karl. It was good to see them as always and perhaps we can get together more now that their wedding is done and Lonan Kai is more agreeable to traveling about. We went to a bar/pub type place called “Circa” near their house. They will be leaving on their hunnymoon later in September.
On Labor Day Amanda went off with Mandy again to pick up some canning supplies and do some other errands. I entertained Lonan Kai.

Later I took off the flowers from our tomato plants in hopes that will hasten the ripening of the rest of the tomatoes; it has been getting pretty cool here.
Carrie came over to knit with Amanda. She had been on a “Seattle date” thing with Eric all weekend and had been doing tourist stuff like going to the Market and Riding the Ducks.

Today is Amanda first day at her new job and the rest of her life. We were joking with Eve that now is when you think: “Is this all there is with life? Just go to work day after day?” Most people get this after graduating from high school or college, but Amanda’s feeling of life angst has been delayed seven or so years. I am sure she is excited about the new job. She is brilliant after all.

I picked up another DVD of the Mummy the other day; we had one before, but we lost it during our trip to San Francisco before Amanda started residency. And, just like old times, we have been watching it constantly… the movie and all the commentary… with the little piglet. And just like old times, Amanda always falls asleep.

Lonan Kai has been a bit sick (he did get his six month vaccinations last Friday). Sick in the sense that he gets congested at night. One might not think that is so bad, but he then has to start breathing through his mouth which then wakes him up and confuses and pains him which then causes him to scream. Alas. No more sleeping through the night for him. We can clear his sinuses and whatnot temporarily with a bulb aspirator thing but he hates that (and it probably does hurt)… he already screams (louder) when he sees it. It does clear his nasal passages enough for him to fall asleep and stay asleep, though.

As usual, I probably won’t get around to recapping all the weeks in August that I never wrote about… one of the ironies of my weblogging: when there is a lot to write about I don’t have the time to do so. Here though is a picture from Eve and Karl’s wedding (I did not really take many):

26 JUL 2008 : SATURDAY (continued)
Amanda wanted to go out to eat because Lonan Kai is better behaved now and our eating out will go down even more after spending $1300 a month on daycare shortly. And because “eating is no longer fun” since she can’t eat dairy. She settled on Cafe Flora because it would be easy to eliminate dairy there. We also could have gone for various Asian cuisines, but she was not into that.

We stopped by City Peoples first so that I could pick up a few more bamboo stakes for our tomatoes. I also got a pair of leather (evil!) work gloves.

Alas for Amanda, Cafe Flora’s current three course prix fixe / market fresh menu was asian inspired. She was still happy about eating out.

Lonan Kai was pleased to be in a different place as well, and he was fairly well behaved. In this picture he is munching on a plate.

Amanda got some type of vegan burger with yam fries. It came with a very tasty aoli. I did get the fixed price dinner with a glass of sake.
The first course was a fresh roll. It was good, if a bit hard to eat.

The second course was a noodle dish with pieces of breaded tofu.

The dish was alright. I think it was a combination of little things that tempered my enthusiasm for it. The ingredients were fresh, but the overall taste was a bit mediocre. Even though it was a noodle dish and predictably mushy, I think it could have benefited with more crunchy/crispiness. There were some crunchy noodles in it, but more would have been nice.

I got a ice cream/frozen dessert thing (no picture, though) which was very good. Amanda got a vegan chocolate tart. I unfortunately did not take any pictures of her food.

In the evening we debated on how we should handle Lonan Kai’s waking periods that night. There are a number of issues: getting him to sleep throughout the night, getting him to sleep without any intervention on our part, and definitely getting him to sleep without nursing. We eventually decided to punt the real decisions and plans until later and just see if we could make some progress on any of the issues.

The evening was not as pleasant as the night before, although I did get a lot more sleep. Amanda did end up nursing him the one time he woke up. Fortunately, he only woke up once.

27 JUL 2008 : SUNDAY
Amanda went on her usual grocery run with Mandy. She took Lonan Kai with her because she wanted to start keeping him up three hours in the morning before her first nap. I don’t recall what I did; idle cleaning, reorging the garage a bit for Armando, and perhaps other random things.

I spent a bit of time in the garden staking the rest of the tomatoes, pruning them, etc..

Amanda at some point went to REI to pick up some stuff she ordered. Our P-Patch neighbor is the manager of the downtown store, and she gave us a friends and family coupon to use online. Amanda bought a portable LP stove (for car camping really) and a new wallet for me.

I made a random pasta thing for dinner. I was going to make pesto, but I did not get enough basil from the farmer’s market last week.

On our anniversary, Amanda and I had dinner at Rover’s while her mom watched Lonan Kai. I had wanted to go there since we moved to Seattle as we used to live a few blocks away from it, but we never got around to it. Of course, the fact that it is on the very pricey side and had a jacket and tie dress code may have had some influence.

Now, though, they do not mandate a jacket and tie, but instead opt for the more nebulous “business casual”. I wore a jacket and tie anyway, because, what the hell.

The restaurant itself is tucked away from the main road and is on the smaller side (17 tables they say) with the tables divided between two cozy rooms. They were full when we got there; we were the last party of the evening to arrive.

Rover’s basically has three multi-course tasting menus (one “normal”, one vegetarian, and one that is simply more extravagant than the “normal”) plus a special prix fixe menu that presumably changes more often than the regular offerings. You can also get matched wines with each of the courses. And you can mix and match between all the menus if you desire and add and subtract items.

Amanda simply choose the vegetarian sequence. She did not want to drink a lot of wine since she is breastfeeding, so she skipped the complete set of matched wine, but they did select a couple of glasses for her. I basically choose the veggie menu with a couple of fishy modifications from the other menus. As might be expected, I got it with a full set of matching wines.

First up was the amuse bouche for both of us. It consisted of a minced cucumber cylinder thing, an olive tapenade, and a celery soup. Of course, everything was tiny, there was a maybe a tablespoon of the soup. It was all very tasty.

I was served a sparkling wine from Roederer Estate in the Anderson Valley in California. They poured me a lot more than normal so that Amanda could have a taste if she wished. It was good.

They served some bread at around this point as well. Or perhaps before the amuse bouche. It was notable in that is was quite mediocre really, but it was good enough to clear the palate and sop up sauce during the evening.

Next up for us was a “Red Beet, Fennel, and Orange Salad with Herbed Caillé and Baby Arugula”. It was good, and as with everything during the evening artfully presented. I noted that the thinly sliced circular beets had a perfect stripe of dressing… more attention to detail than I ever had done cooking.

Amanda got her first glass of wine: a Pouilly Fumé from the Loire Valley. I forget exactly what. It was good, although I typically do not care for sauvignon/chenin blancs. I got another white, but I totally don’t remember what it was.

Next for Amanda was “Warm Fava Bean Soup with English Peas, Baby Carrot and Marcona Almond”. They brought the peas, carrots, almonds, and whatever else to her in a covered bowl and then poured the soup into the bowl from another ceramic pot. It was excellent.

I departed from the veggie menu and got “Hamachi Tartare with English Cucumber, Toasted Brioche and White Sturgeon Caviar”. It was alright; perhaps I would have liked it better had the cucumber not totally been reminiscent of the amuse bouche. Again, it was very pretty, though.

I got a dry reisling from Germany (Prinz Rheingau Riesling). I did not think there were any dry whites from Germany. It was good.

Next for us was a dish of Washington State mushrooms (mainly morels) in a puff pastry, roasted Walla Walla onions and bok choy in a roasted garlic sauce. I love stuff like this dish. Slurp.

I got another white with this course, but again I forget what it was.

Then it was time for a palate cleansing red current sorbet. Yum.

The final course (excluding desserts) for Amanda was “Herbed Farro, Leeks and Caramelized Turnip with Grilled Asparagus and Harissa Butter”. She got another glass of wine: a Syrah from the Rhone Valley.

My final course was (poached?) halibut in a sherry sauce with some other things I don’t remember. It was good. I wish I could cook fish as perfectly as they do. The sommelier said he would normally match the dish with a chablis, but since he did not want to give me another white he choose a red Burgandy (of which I remember only it was from Beaune and vintage 2005). I was all for it since I would drink pinot noir with most anything.

We both received a “Symphony of Desserts” next with a glass of muscat. It consisted of a cherry tarlet, a bonbon-type thing, and a cake-thing with filling, all with sauces. I realize that is a poor description, so here is a picture.

They wrote Happy Anniversary on the plates, which was nice of them. I noted that they wrote it neater with chocolate sauce than I could with a pen and paper.
Finally, there were the “Mignardises” a variety of small chocolate and fruity treats.

I was surprised they did not offer coffee of tea afterwards, although they did ask if we needed anything else. Perhaps it was obviously late on a weeknight and it was unlikely we would want anything caffeinated.

Overall, the dinner was excellent. The service was among the best I have had in Seattle. Admittedly, service in Seattle tends to be very mediocre if one is lucky, but Rover’s service is genuinely superior. The food was excellent as well. It was artistically presented and pleasing to the eye, and it was obvious that everything was skillfully prepared (but, again, the bread was pretty mediocre). I would not hesitate to return, and it is a good place for vegetarians to experience very French-inspired food. It is pricey, though, and is the most Amanda and I have spent on a dinner in Seattle (shockingly, however, not the most ever for the two of us).

I did have to prevent Amanda from calling home to see how LK was doing. She was worried that he was tormenting her mother. She managed not to call, but instead sent a text message: “Zzz for LK?”

Today is my wedding anniversary; the most beautiful Amanda has not gotten tired of me yet. Looking back at my weblog entries, I again realize I never finished recapping that trip.

Happy anniversary Amanda!

02 MAY 2008 : FRIDAY
I worked at home. Nothing too exciting. Amanda was at clinic. My mom watched LK. Later she went out to dinner with a friend who was visiting from D.C..
I went to Karl’s birthday celebration at Taste of India. Amanda thought about going as well, but she decided to stay home with LK since she was tired and she had been away from LK since she had started working again and it was way past LK’s bedtime. I did offer to watch him instead, but she decided to stay home.

I had not been to the restaurant since Karl’s last birthday… it is north of the ship canal (of which my knowledge of the city is relatively minimal). Other than Eve and Karl, the other people there were his brother and sister-in-law, James and his friend (whose name I have again forgotten), Stacey, and Randy.
Dinner was fun. The proprietors gave Karl a bunch of sweets and a bottle of wine since it was his birthday. I believe they went out to a bar afterwards, but I left to return home since it was pretty late once we had finished dinner.

The above picture of Karl is pretty grainy since I took it with my cell phone. We lost our camera during our not-yet-recapped Tennessee trip.

03 MAY 2008 : SATURDAY
It was a rainy day, so we thought we would be denied in our scooter shopping. And, in fact, the place we wanted to go only had two 50cc scooters left, but it was raining too hard to test drive them. They suggested calling back in a few hours to see what the weather was doing.
We did call them back, and in the interim someone had bought one of the scooters! Without actually riding it I presume. However, they said to come on down as the rain had kinda let up.

The scooter people were great. Amanda did test drive the scooter, and it was fine, so we bought it and the required accouterments (i.e. helmets) on the spot. Well, it did take a bit to fill out all the paperwork. Apparently, a lot of people do the same as they are burning through their scooters, especially the 50cc models, as fast as they can get them.

Amanda was amused that she wears an extra-small helmet while I have a xx-large size. I also choose a black helmet in spite of the fact lighter helmets are more visible because their white helmet styles looked way too stormtrooper-like. I presume Amanda agreed because she picked a silver model.

Amanda did not feel confident riding the scooter home in the rain… it had started coming down again… so I rode it back while Amanda followed in the car. It went a lot faster than I thought it would, and the traffic was no problem at all since I was basically going as fast as the cars were. It was fun riding through downtown, although it would have been funner had it not been raining.

We must have done something in the evening, but I have forgotten. Hmm, maybe I played a little GTA4. I think I did actually while rocking LK to sleep in a chair. Amanda caught up on work.

04 MAY 2008 : SUNDAY
We did a lot of P-Patch work in the morning. Basically, that meant doing some final bed preparations and actually planting. We planted the usual beets, carrots, onions, lettuces, arugula, spinach, and peas. And we still have onions, swiss chard, and garlicks growing. LK was with us for a while, but Amanda and my mom took him home before he melted down.

It was a very nice day, so I went for a short ride on Lake Washington Blvd to test the scooter out more. It definitely needs warming up. Amanda did some scooter rides, too, but only near the house.

She later went grocery shopping with Mandy while I went to our start-of-the-season P-Patch meeting. There was more turnover than I thought there would be, and we have two new leaders/chieftains. Alas, there are many people on the waiting list, so they are retiring the kids garden and giving it to someone. Amanda was sad all the work she had done with the strawberries may go to waste. But who can say what the new people will do.

05 MAY 2008 : MONDAY
Work. Amanda did not have to work today and attempted to go to the library with my mom, but it does not open until 1pm or somesuch on Mondays.

LK apparently exhibited some weird screaming in the afternoon, so Amanda made an emergency appointment to take him in (she does not want to be his doctor as it is harder for her to be objective). She called me, so I came back home to take them to Group Health. As we kinda expected since his weird screaming had abruptly stopped, there was nothing obvious wrong with him once we got there, but obviously one never knows, eh?

I went back to work. Then came home. We had chili for dinner. LK wigged out again, but it was not so bad. I worked more then stopped to write this entry. Everyone else is sleeping upstairs except for piglet, who is keeping me company.