Weekend Wrap-Up - 8/7 - 8/9

My first full weekend back in Seattle and it was low-key and relaxing, just what I needed:

• Slept in on Friday morning.
• Took a shower, got dressed.
• Took a nap.
• Caught up on a couple TV shows that my TiVo picked up while I was away.
• Took a nap. (Yes that is 2 naps in the same day!)
• Watched New In Town.
• Did 6 loads of laundry.
• Successful trip to Bed Bath and Beyond for a new mattress pad, new laundry bags, new wash cloths, new hair drying towels and new air freshener refills.
• Assimilated all my new treasure into the house and organized a bit.
• Walked through Trader Joe's and picked up whatever looked good for snacking while sailing.
• Went sailing on the Puget Sound with friends.
• Watched It Had to Be You.
• Slept in again on Sunday morning (didn't stir until 9ish, unheard of).
• Enjoyed some coffee from Kauai.
• Chatted and caught up with a few family members on the phone.
• Got my ass kicked by Kat while playing cards.
• Enjoyed a wonderful dinner on the deck at Bell Street Diner.
• Tried to watch Rachel Getting Married but the disc from NetFlix wouldn't work.

Was that really 3 days? It went by WAY too quickly. How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up - 1/2 - 1/4

It was a pretty quiet one, here are the highlights:

• Worked on Friday, which is typical of "holiday" weeks, but I'm growing tired of working on Friday's.
• Had a runny nose, headache and mild fever upon arriving home and decided to stay in and get some extra rest for fear of it turning into a real cold.
• Organized my closet which was on the verge of being declared a disaster area.
• Curled up on the couch with Barney and caught up on my TiVo recordings.
• Went to bed early.
• Toss and turned, most of the night, ugh!
• Woke bright and early for the usual Saturday morning laundry, coffee routine.
• Had breakfast at Queen Anne Cafe following the laundry.
• Completed a few household chores.
• Took a nap.
• Enjoyed Chinese takeout at Kipp's while sharing stories of our holiday adventures.
• Woke when my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday morning and was about to get in the shower when I realized it was Sunday.
• Went back to bed and slept for a few more hours.
• Stayed in my pajamas until 2, I love Sunday's!
• Did some organizing and prepping for the week ahead.
• Warmed up some leftovers from the New Years celebration with the family for dinner.
• Headed to bed early in an attempt to get back on my "normal" sleeping schedule for the week ahead.

Pretty boring, but I was able to knock the cold out of my system. How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

It passed really quickly, especially Sunday which was bright and sunny and gorgeous. The highlights:

• Slept in and then relaxed at home on Friday morning.
• Took a long walk with Barney around the neighborhood and discovered a neighborhood park just 3 blocks away that I never knew existed.
• Finished organizing my TiVo season passes so that I catch everything I want to see.
• Did a few domestic projects around the house.
• Played pool and drank beer with Don at Rock Bottom.
• Finally tried out Teriyaki Bowl which is 2 1/2 blocks from home and it's pretty good.
  
• Laundry!
• Walked the entire length of Queen Anne Ave and back with Barney.
• More household projects including giving Barney a bath, cleaning the bathroom, dead-heading my patio flowers, watering my plants, coloring my hair and painting my nails.
• Laughed, laughed, laughed with Kat and Don at Whose Line Is It Anyway All-Stars at the Moore Theatre.
• Enjoyed a yummy dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.
• Crossed the 10,000 step threshold for the first time (since I started wearing the pedometer on 9/8/08) with 11,640 steps on Saturday.
• Met a new friend for coffee that I met through this blog!
• Walked with Barney to complete some errands atop the hill.
• Saw Nights in Rodanthe with Kat and cried, cried, cried.
• Had a crazy cooking marathon on Sunday afternoon to prepare for the week including a batch of homemade vegetable soup and Eggplant Parmesan.

It was a busy one. How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up Catch-Up

Playing catch-up on my Weekend Update entries. Highlights for the weekend 9/12 - 9/14:

• Enjoyed a relaxing day at home on Friday.
• Cleaned the apartment and other necessary household chores.
• Took a sunset stroll around the Olympic Sculpture Park with Barney.
• Sorted through boxes of paperwork in an attempt to get more organized.
• Laundry, coffee atop Queen Anne hill.
• Saw The Women with Kat and Don.
• Oriented Barney's new dog walker.

Highlights for the weekend of 9/19 - 9/21:

• Took Barney to the vet for his rabies vaccine and a general checkup.
• Ran to Pet's Mart and the grocery store.
• Played pool with Don at Rock Bottom and then walked down to McMenamins and enjoyed dinner a few more pints.
• Worked a tradeshow at Swedish Medical Center on Saturday.
• Shopped at the Seattle Premium Outlets in Tulalip where I got a new purse at the Fossil store and picked up a few new blouses and some underwear.
• Survived a trip to WalMart.
• Enjoyed a grilled dinner at Kipp's while Barney and Kayla played in the yard.

I really need to post these immediately because when I don't I forget the details and its much more difficult to put them together. I'll try to be better in the future.

Labor Day Weekend Wrap-Up

Better late than never, here are the highlights from my Labor Day weekend:

• Spent Thursday visiting some clients on the Olympic Peninsula.
• Supervised as Dave plank grilled some fresh salmon for dinner on his new Weber grill.
  
• Watched the OSU football season opener against Stanford, which they lost, painfully, with Dave, Kristen and John.
• Cancelled our planned day trip to Mount St Helens on Friday since the *cutest nephew in the world* had a virus so instead Barney and I relaxed at home.
• Did the usual laundry bit on Saturday morning. Only noteworthy aspect was the absence of the idiot barista at Peet's, maybe they got smart and got rid of her? We can only hope.
• Took care of John while Kristen and Dave went to a wedding on Saturday. Actually Barney did most of the work as he is the babysitting assistant ever.
• Drank some beer and played some cards at RedHook with Don and Kat on Sunday afternoon.
• Tried out yet another off-leash area, this time at Woodland Park, and have decided that Barney is just not ever going to fit in the "off-leash" scene and that's okay.
• Celebrated Labor Day with Don and Kat with a barbeque on Monday evening.

How was your weekend?

Photo of the Day - Laundry Helper

Laundry Helper, originally uploaded by JewellsinSEA.

Barney's way of assisting with the laundry. Taken last Saturday while I was folding clothes.

Photo of the Day - Plastic Laundry

Laundry, originally uploaded by JewellsinSEA.

The plastic laundry hanging outside the Queen Anne Laundry Room is wearing out. Bummer! It's my favorite!

Weekend Wrap-Up

It was a HOT one in Seattle. The highlights:

• Attended to some appointments on Friday morning. The best thing about a 4-day work week is that you have an entire day to schedule appointment and can be leisurely about it.
• Completed many of my household chores while sweating in my 80+ degree apartment on Friday afternoon.
• Enjoyed a quiet evening at home. Watched the Olympics, read and surfed the internet.
• Saturday morning was all about, that's right, Laundry!
• Watched more Olympics, gotta love em, read and relaxed on Saturday afternoon.
• Completed a very successful outing to the Costco Home store in Kirkland. I picked out my new mattress in less than an hour.
• Attended a gathering for friends and alumni of Westminster College at a lovely home in Bellevue.
• Enjoyed a lakeside patio dinner with Don, Kat and Nancy at The Beach Cafe at Yarrow Bay Grill.
• Walked around Fisherman's Terminal on Sunday morning, it was nice and cool on the water.
• Had a yummy breakfast at The Bay Cafe.
• Spent the bulk of Sunday afternoon in my bedroom enjoying the air conditioning while I gave myself a mani/pedi, read, watched old episodes of Gilmore Girls and the Olympics.
• Ventured into the non air conditioned part of the apartment to fix some dinner. Grilling was the only option due to the heat.
• Watched even more Olympic coverage while I ate dinner.

Now it's off to prepare for the week ahead, then bed. How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

The weather was perfect this weekend. Oh, how I love Seattle in the summer! The highlights of my weekend:

• Slept in on Friday morning. I'm really growing fond of the whole Friday's off, 3-day weekend bit.
• Worked a volunteer shift at Kirkland Uncorked on Friday afternoon. I was assigned to the *Winery Check-In* area which means that I unloaded boxes of wine, loaded them onto a hand-truck and rolled them over to the refrigerated trucks. Needless to say by the end of the day, I couldn't move my arms.
• Fought horrible traffic to get home to Seattle and when I did get home I took a shower put on my pj's and watched movies on the couch.
• Woke bright and early to do, that's right, LAUNDRY! :-)
• Attended the Mariners game at Safeco field with Don, Kat and Ian. They lost to the Cleveland Indians but we had a great time thanks to the beer, the sun, the beer, the good seats and the beer.
• Had breakfast on Sunday morning at The Original Pancake House in Kirkland with Don prior to walking down to the waterfront to enjoy the downtown festival and Kirkland Uncorked.
• Tasted some really yummy wines and soaked up more sun.
• Enjoyed the deck at McMenamins in Mill Creek.
• Took Kat to the airport for her evening flight to Europe where she will be traveling on business this week.
• Got home and realized that weekend was over. Wow, it goes by so quickly! And now it's Monday!

How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

Celebrated the 4th of July holiday weekend in a much busier fashion than I originally planned. The highlights:

• Started off the weekend having dinner and Margaritas with Kat on Thursday night.
• Woke early to do laundry and then have breakfast with Don on Friday morning.
• Made my "famous within my circle" Summertime Pasta Salad.
• Enjoyed a very low-key relaxing 4th of July at Don's. He grilled chicken, we drank wine and watched the fireworks.
• Had lunch at Red Robin on the Seattle waterfront with Dave, Kristen and John (a.k.a. the cutest nephew in the world), Don and Kat.
• Checked out all the "fishies" and aquatic life at the Seattle Aquarium with the aforementioned crowd.
• Drank a few pints at Rock Bottom.
• Learned that the more I talk smack about "kicking ass" when playing pool, the more likely I will be the one receiving the ass kicking.
• Picked up my Cuz at the cruise terminal and heard about her adventures in Alaska over lunch at Duke's Chowder House.
• Added 700+ songs to my iTunes library.

How was your weekend?

Memorial Day Weekend Wrap-Up

The holiday weekend at home in Seattle turned out to be a fabulous weather weekend and chock full o' fun. The highlights:

• Left the office early and met Kat at my place so we could run to the store to pick up essentials for the evening.
• Introduced Kat to the magic of the of the Laughing Cow.
• Ate clam dip and watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in preparation for seeing the new Indy film over the holiday weekend.
• Woke early Saturday to complete the usual laundry bit.
• Created new starts and baked the Amish Cinnamon Friendship Bread from the start that I received from a colleague 10 days prior. (If you live in the Seattle area and would like a start for this yummy cinnamon bread, let me know via IM, email or comment.)
• Downloaded pictures from my camera to Flickr including pictures of Mom's visit to Seattle, Jimmy's 30th and the trip to Utah and driving home through California.
• Ran errands.
• Attempted to take a walk on the beach at Golden Gardens but couldn't find parking so ended up at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks on the Lake Washington Ship Canal which was fascinating and totally cool. I can't believe I haven't been before.
  
• Had my eyebrows waxed.
• Enjoyed the afternoon and sunset from the deck at Eastlake Bar and Grill. The drinks and food were good, but the service SUCKED!
• Woke early again thanks to the sun and headed out to Costco to beat the crowds.
• Took pictures of the flowers and herbs on my deck and completed a blog post about them.
• Took a nap.
• Decided to go watch the big boats (a.k.a. cruise ships) leave Elliott Bay from the deck of Bell Street Diner but when I arrived they were closed due to a plumbing problem.
• Watched the cranes and dock workers load tons of luggage onto the Norwegian Pearl.
• Drank a beer at Anthony's Fish Bar.
• Frustrated by the heat and late departure of the Norwegian Pearl I left the Seattle waterfront in search of a sunny deck and possibly some Copper River Salmon.
• Soaked up the summer sun and watched the big boats sail by from the deck at Ray's Boathouse. Kat came down and joined me for dinner and the sunset which was amazing.
• Woke to a dreary cooler day on Monday so I opted to stay in bed for a couple of hours and read.
• Had lunch with Kat and Don at Red Robin in Bellevue Square.
• Saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which I loved.
• Watched as Don kicked my ass all over the pool table at Rock Bottom.
• Found my iPod, full story here.
• Shared a glass of wine with Kipp when he stopped by just after leaving Folk Life.
• Enjoyed some wine on the deck with Don and the sun faded away and the holiday weekend came to an end.

How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

It was a busy, jet-setting weekend. The highlights:

• Played pool with Don at Rock Bottom on Friday night and I actually won 7 of the 12 games we played, although most of the wins were thanks to scratches.
• Woke early on Saturday to do one load of laundry (stuff I needed for the trip) and enjoy breakfast at Queen Anne Cafe with Don.
• Packed my bags and organized the house to get ready to leave.
• Had a good flight to Anaheim in which I was seated next to a 5 year-old who was headed to Disneyland with his family and anxious to meet Goofy!
• Checked in and got settled at my hotel.
• Walked down the street and got a sub from Quizno's and went back to the room to eat it while I watched Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason which was on TNT.
• Woke to a gray "Seattle-type" day on Sunday, so I relaxed in the room while I caught up on my RSS feeds, checked my email and uploaded the pictures from the Cannon Beach trip to Flickr.
• Walked to Downtown Disney where I had lunch on the patio at Tortilla Jo's and soaked up the sunshine.
• Picked up some Disney goodies at the World of Disney store.
• Took a cab back to the hotel and took a nap.
• Spent the evening in my hotel relaxing.
• Watched Fun with Dick and Jane which was just as stupid as I thought it would be.

How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

It was a crazy week with long work hours and lots of projects to prepare for my trip to California which caused my weekend update post to be VERY delayed, here are the highlights:

• Left work a bit early to run by Costco on the way home to pick up some of our *regular* wine (Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling).
• Headed over to Don's to help him with any prep needed prior to dinner but he had things completely under control.
• Enjoyed lots of laughter and a really good meal with friends Kipp and Christy. Don made his infamous Orange Chicken on the grill, roasted red potatoes and green beans which was all yummy!
• Woke early Saturday for the regular trip to the laundromat, coffee at Peet's and doughnuts at Top Pot.
• Took a nap on Saturday afternoon.
• Enjoyed a quiet night at home on Saturday night catching up on my TiVo and dying Easter Eggs.
• Had Easter Brunch with Don and Kat at Yarrow Bay Grill in Kirkland. We had never been there and it was delightful. It will definitely be added to our list of regular places.
• Got an Easter basket full of fun treasurers from Nancy.
• Cleaned, organized and futzed around the house.
• Spent the evening playing pool with Don at Rock Bottom playing pool. As usual, he kicked my ass. :-)

How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

A bit tardy with my wrap-up this week cause I've been a bit under the weather. Here are the highlights:

• Ran to the grocery store with Don right after getting home from the office on Friday to get all the stuff for our St. Patrick's Day extravaganza.
• Did our laundry in what has become our typical fashion of being the first one's there in order to beat the crowds.
• Enjoyed coffee at Peet's Coffee and Tea.
• Walked down to the new Top Pot Doughnuts in Queen Anne while our clothes were in the dryer.
• Saw this extraordinary house on our way back to the laundry room, which is now on the list of Queen Anne favorites.
• Cleaned and organized the house.
• Drank beer and boiled stuff (boiled stuff is Irish for cooking) to prepare for our celebration.
• Enjoyed boxty (potato cakes), irish cheese, soda bread, corned beef, cabbage, champs (mashed potatoes with green onions) and lots of green beer with Don, Kat, Dave, Kristen and John.
• Watched The Cutting Edge 2 and The Cutting Edge 3 and am still amazed that they could make the same movie 3 times.
• Ran the dishwasher 3 times to get all the pots, platters and dishes washed.
• Read.
• Napped.

How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

It was only an hour shorter that usual but it seem a whole lot shorter than that. Here are the highlights:

• Enjoyed a quiet night at home on Friday night which included cheese and crackers for dinner, catching up on old episodes of Las Vegas and watching the movie The Break-Up which contained way too much yelling for the mood I was in.
• Woke early Saturday to head up the hill and do 5 loads of laundry.
• Learned what a London Fog is at Peet's Coffee & Tea when ordering my own "regular" drink.
• Sat at the corner table by the window and watched the world go by while my clothes tumbled around next door.
• Ran home long enough to put my laundry away and hook up with Don to run to errands including Fred Meyer and Home Depot.
• Spent the afternoon cooking and drinking beer with Don.
• Packed up the corned beef and Irish soda bread we had prepared and headed to our "Cooking with Bacchus" evening.
• Felt like a bum when I stayed in bed until after 9 on Sunday morning only to feel worse when I realized that thanks to daylight savings time it was after 10.
• Bitched while I walked through the house changing the time on all the clocks, electronics etc. I hate the whole daylight savings bit.
• Felt the full effect of the writers strike when I realized that except for a couple of shows I am archiving my TiVo is empty.
• Headed to Don's in the late afternoon Sunday to hang for a bit while he prepared dinner for us of grilled orange chicken and baked potatoes.
• Speaking of Don he has become quite the baker of late. Shortly after my arrival yesterday he pulled a cake out of the oven. It's the third cake (that I'm aware of) that he has baked this year. I don't mind his baking AT ALL and hope that it continues!
• Tossed and turned thanks to the time change and/or a late nap and/or god only knows what, and ended up with only about 4 hours of sleep which has left me a bit wiped today.

How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

Is it Monday morning already? The highlights of the weekend:

• Raced home from the office on Friday to meet Don and head to Happy Hour with my colleague and friend Kipp and several of his friends at McCormick & Schmick's on Lake Union. Happy hour turned into several happy hours with lots of wine and laughter.
• Fell asleep within an hour of arriving at home and slept for 11 hours.
• Found the sweaters that had been left at the Laundromat last weekend.
• Returned a sweater and bought a couple of new sweaters at the Outlet Stores in Tulalip, WA.
• Stopped for lunch at Diamond Knot Alehouse for lunch with Don on the way back from Tulalip. I had a yummy Chicken Cheddar Melt which was cooked at the table on a hot stone.
• Picked out knives to fill the empty holes in my knife block at Macy's as they are having an amazing sale.
• Watched cheesy Hallmark channel movies Daniel's Daughter and The Good Witch from my TiVo.
• Drank coffee and watched my usual Sunday morning favorites Meet The Press and CBS Sunday Morning.
• Ran out to pick up pizza and beer for the Super Bowl.
• Watched the Super Bowl (and the ads) with Kat and Don whilst enjoying clam dip (yummy!), pizza and beer. My favorite ads were the Bridgestone Tire Car vs. Squirrel, Bridgestone Tire Richard Simmons near-miss and the Audi Godfather spoof.
• Attempted to watch Woman of the Year on DVD from NetFlix but only stayed awake while I was sitting up and sipping at a cup of tea.

How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

Another weekend has flown by all too quickly. The highlights:

• Celebrated a very belated birthday dinner with Suzie at Mama's Mexican Kitchen in Belltown on Friday night. The food was yummy, as usual, and so were the margarita's and it was great to get caught up with Suzie.
• Woke up early on Saturday morning so Don and I could head up with hill to do laundry. I do love being able to do 4 loads of laundry in less than 2 hours.
• Sorted through every pair of socks that I own with Kat and threw those that met the following criteria: 1.) holes or runs of any size or shape (cause let's face it a small hole will be a big hole in no time at all), 2.) translucent fabric (when gym socks resemble nylons it's time for them to go away), 3.) outdated styles (remember those thick crew socks that you would pull up and then scrunch down for that *legwarmer lite* look), 4.) haven't been worn in the nearly 3 years that I have lived in Seattle (I used to love crew socks but don't anymore so they got thrown in the donation bag)
• Made a list of the replacement socks that would be needed to have a good selection/collection and set out with Kat to find them which we were able to do with a stop at Fred Meyer and another at Macy's.
• Stopped shopping long enough to enjoy a burger, fries and onion rings with Kat at Red Mill Burgers.
• Browsed through Barnes & Nobel and picked up a few books that we had been looking for.
• Saw 27 Dresses, which was good, except for the really creepy solo dude that was seated next to me.
• Laughed so hard that I cried during the "Benny & the Jets" mondegreen scene. Kat and I were both having major "Myzah Georgia" and "DaVinci View" flashbacks.
• Unpackaged and put away 46 new pairs of socks! :-)
• Watched and mocked the "not-so modernized or improved" Miss America pageant which my TiVo had recorded. I was disappointed in the final choice, Miss Michigan, cause what beauty queen can't sing "Over the Rainbow," give me a break. She is the stereo-typical Miss America proving that some things just don't change. Miss Washington made a great showing and I was really proud of her top finish.
• Savored a wonderful dinner at DeNunzio's Italian Restaurant in Seattle's Pioneer Square with Don on Saturday night. It has been on my *Seattle restaurants to try* list for nearly 2 years ago and it lived up to all the reviews that I had read. We had excellent authentic food, good wine and wonderful service.
• Watched The Nanny Diaries.
• Spent 4 hours on Sunday morning determined to fix the problems that I have been having with the external hard drive that stores my iTunes library. For no apparent reason it switched from F:\ to G:\ in the middle of last week. A quick google search reveled a fix in Windows, I then reinstalled the driver and I was back in business. I had to consolidate my library a few times and still have some individual errors but I was able to sync after 5 days which made me unbelievably happy.
• Watched Jersey Girl, Green Card and Dawn Anna all movies that my TiVo had recently recorded as suggestions when not recording game shows.
• Read numerous chapters on Eat Pray Love in an attempt to finish it before my Thursday night book club.
• Ordered pizza and groceries online so I didn't have to leave the house on Sunday.
• Missed forced-air heat as baseboard heaters just don't cut it when it's really, really, really cold outside.
• Waited for the snow that never came.

How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

I had a relaxing weekend which is just what I needed after the holiday craziness of last week. The highlights:

• Played pool with Don and watched the OSU Beavers finish their season with a win over Maryland in the Emerald Bowl.
• Put all of my Christmas gifts away in their new homes.
• Did 3 loads of laundry.
• Enjoyed what will likely be my final Egg Nog Latte of the season.
• Saw the movie Juno (a recommendation of my little brother Jimmy) which I thoroughly enjoyed for it's witty writing and classic one liners. Allison Janney's performance was awesome as no one can deliver shocking and hysterical lines with the finesse that she can.
• Cleared the rest of the cheesy holiday movies off my TiVo.
• Slept, a lot!

Loving my laundry bags

I went to IKEA on Saturday to get some new laundry bags. My old bags were very warn and falling apart. I saw the Bulla bag online prior to arriving at the store and really liked it when I saw it so I purchased two, one for whites and one for colors.

Tonight I took them for their first real test. They are lighter and much easier to haul than my old bags. The shoulder strap is a life-saver when carrying them up 3 flights of stairs upon arriving home.

These bags have certainly taken some of the chore out of laundry day.