BSG, Guests, Pictures

I have recently become obsessed with Battlestar Galactica. I'd never seen it before (although I've wanted to), so when one of my friends mentioned it and lent me the DVDs it completely took over all my free time. I'm really liking it. I'm almost done with the third season and am excited to see how the show and characters progress.

In other news, Matt's brother and his friend are visiting right now. It's fun to see them, and is providing a nice excuse to visit a few of my favorite restaurants - including Happy Teriyaki #3 and Brewery City Pizza. We've also been having fun with our toy shotguns.

And finally, here are a few new photos:

Feel free to follow my full 365 Project at http://365project.org/eksidley/365.

Mom and Dad Come to Town

I've been intending to write this post all week but just haven't found the time. My parents came up and visited! We had a lot of fun with them while they were here.

The first thing we did was find the train station since they decided to ride it up as opposed to driving or flying. It's actually really close to where we live - only about 5 minutes away. They completely sold me on wanting to take the train down to California sometime, even though it takes longer and seems to always be behind schedule. It sounded much more comfortable than flying and more leisurely than driving. 

After hanging out with us for the night, they went up to visit some family friends on the San Juan Islands. It looks BEAUTIFUL there. I can't wait until Matt and I have a chance to make it up. Not only did they come back with gorgeous pictures, but my mom also found a really cute jacket and an extremely soft alpaca hat and set of gloves. Just from the way they told us about it, I could tell they had a lot of fun visiting.

Over the weekend they were here we did a few different things with them:

Visited Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. Both were pretty cool and worth checking out. I'm my father's daughter, so I liked the Science Fiction Museum better than the music part, although the room where you got to try different instruments was pretty cool, as were the band pictures we got to take!

Wandered around Pike's Place Market for a while. My mom even found this guy selling ocarinas and discovered her favorite ocarina back at home was made by his father. She talked to him for a while and even got to try out one of his flutes.

Finally at ate Ivar's. A few years ago when my parents were dropping me off at school, we took some time to head over to Bainbridge Island to see my dad's cousin. He saw Ivar's from the ferry and decided we should eat there. Of course, we didn't have time that trip since we ate dinner with his cousin on the island, but he remembered it when we were talking about what to do in Seattle, so we took them down to the waterfront so my dad could eat at Ivar's.

Played a rousing game of Scrabble. Back when I was in high school, my mom and I played Scrabble and I won. She refused to play with me again, which just shows how competitive she is. Apparently, she didn't know she was refusing to play with me again and the only reason we didn't play again was because we never got around to it...needless to say, my mom won, but only because I had so many Os. You can't make any good words when you have four Os, two Es, and a U.

Ate at Daddy O's, The Ram, Brewery City Pizza and Safura's  Mediterranean Cuisine. Yes I'm my father's daughter, but I'm also my mother's daughter. I really enjoy eating, so where we eat is usually a highlight for me. The four restaurants above are some of our local favorites. I would also add Koibito to the list - we just didn't have the time to take them there, too.

Took them to church. They decided to stay through the weekend so they could check Life Pointe out. I love how the week they visited, the sermon started with the play as an example of how something might seem over, but it's not. I would have been excited about that any Sunday, but the fact that my dad was there, too...there were two happy Cal fans sitting in that cafeteria.


Needless to say, Matt and I had a great time with my parents. We love it when people visit! Especially people that want to take us out to dinner...although that's not a requirement =)

Puzzle, Pizza and Playing

I finished the jigsaw puzzle! After I'd given up, I wasn't ready to put what I'd done away and Matt started working on it. His progress inspired me to give it another shot and, after a couple of days, we placed the final pieces. Yay for teamwork =) Sadly there was a piece missing even though it was brand new. Oh well, if we'd had it, we would have known where to put it. Here's the completed puzzle:

Every once in a while I crave BLT pizza from Peppe's Pizza (a restaurant I thouroughly enjoyed in Norway). This afternoon we ate at Brewery City Pizza, and I was delighted to discover that their Cool Ranch Chicken was reminiscent of the delicious flavor. Plus the crust on their pizza is amazing. I could really go for some more...

Today was fun! After pizza we hung out at the apartment with a couple of new friends and played Nine Card, a version of Skip-Bo (I won twice, thrice if you count our warm up), and Munchkin, a card game that "captures the essence of the dungeon experience...with none of that roleplaying stuff." I have to say, I personally have nothing against Dungeons & Dragons...it's just not my cup of tea. This game was really fun, though! It took me a while to get the hang of it so I'm eager to give it another try sometime soon. It reminded Matt and me a bit of Quelf, though - especially with the random cards that were really funny.

All in all, we both feel like we're settling into Lacey very nicely. It was fun to connect with a couple of people from church this afternoon, and they live pretty close - that will be nice. I'm also really excited about everything in our apartment being set up, including the pictures on the walls and all our stuff having a home. It's crazy how much more relaxed I feel when there aren't boxes all over and I don't see things that need doing as I look around. Now Matt's Xbox just needs to return from it's journey to Texas and we can enjoy watching DVDs and playing Rock Band again!

My Recent Travels: Portland

This past weekend Matt and I had the opportunity to visit Portland to see my sister-in-law (Cara), her husband (Dustin) and their son (Moses). Of course, the reason we went was because we wanted to see them, but the trip also gave us a great taste of Portland (literally) as we were shown around by locals. Now, I'd visited Portland before with a few friends when I was in college, and we had a great time, but I wasn't previously aware that this city is rumored to have the most restaurants per capita than any other city. Whether it's true or not, the fact they have that rumor makes it an even cooler destination for me. One of my all-time favorite activities is eating. As is hanging out with people. So a weekend full of hanging out with people while eating makes it a trip well-spent.

I'm a strong believer that hole-in-the-wall or family-owned restaurants taste better than giant chains. Don't get me wrong, I love the big guys, too, but when I'm traveling I like to try places I can't get at home. Although we were only there for a couple of days, we had the privilege of experiencing six different food businesses (not all of them were for full meals):

1. After trying to go to a couple of Ethiopian places that were closed, we decided to give Russell Street Bar-B-Que a try for lunch on Saturday. I had the Pulled Pork Sandwich which was quite tasty, and everyone else seemed to enjoy the Smoked Beef Brisket. I think what I liked best, though, was the decor. They had a lot of cute pigs all over, and there was a sign by the entrance that said abandon children would be given double espressos and...something else I can't remember right now, but remember thinking it was amusing.

2. I had read about Voodoo Donuts online a few days before our trip, so I was sure to request that as a location to stop by. The line was really long -- out the door and down the street -- but it also went quickly and was definitely worth the wait. My two favorites were the one that had oreos all over the top and the maple bar with bacon on top. I know this sounds a little odd, but the bacon combined with the maple flavor is quite tasty.

3. Something came up over the course of conversation about these Food Carts at SE 12th and Hawthorne that have fries, burritos, BBQ and crepes. As soon as I heard crepes, we had to go there. These sweet and savory crepes are made with all sorts of ingredients. The one part I didn't like was how long it took to get my crepe - Matt was able to think about getting a burrito, go over, get one, wait for it, come back, think about eating it, eat it, and still wait around...but my chocolate and pear crepe was still delicious and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

4. Cara happened to have a coupon for Cha Taqueria, so we decided to go there for lunch on Sunday. Now, Mexican food can sometimes be a bit tricky for me since I can't eat cheese, don't like tomatoes, and can't handle spicy food. I'm always able to find something I can eat, though, and I usually like it okay, but the "something" I found to eat at Cha Taqueria was amazing. Even without the cheese, the Alambre (Grilled steak, bacon, ham, peppers, and onions served on a sizzling skillet with handmade tortillas and all the fixings) was quite delectable. I was really sad when I realized we forgot our leftovers in the hotel fridge on the way back home...because it was GOOD. The restaurant overall was really nice. It had a chic feel, and you could tell from the decor that dinner/nightlife was where most of its business came in. Their prices on the lunch menu seemed quite reasonable, though, and the portions were large enough that I could've easily made at least two meals out of my entree.

5. Dustin happens to be a very talented musician, and he also happened to be playing at Mississippi Pizza Sunday evening, so we got to eat some good pizza while listening to some good music. Overall, I really liked the feel of Mississippi Pizza. It had a kind of eclectic feel, and had a separate room where they featured the musicians. While a lot of places with live music turn into people listening to the performers as background music (which doesn't make much sense because you have to yell at each other to hear the conversation and don't have a chance to appreciate those on stage), the way the room was set up made it easy for people to sit, listen, enjoy the music and socialize afterward. The pizza was good, too, which certainly gives additional motivation for people to come back.

6. The last food establishment we had time to visit was The Waffle Window, a window off the side of a restaurant that serves waffles topped with sweet or savory flavors. Sadly, Cara wasn't able to join us (although hopefully we'll be able to go again next time). I ordered the Berry Bliss which was quite good - I really liked the sweet taste of the batter with the fruity topping. Matt seemed to like the banana/nutella waffle he ordered, and Dustin tried the Farm Fusion which had more of the savory toppings. Although it wasn't a large piece of waffle, the amount was just enough to be filling.

Okay, now I'm really hungry again, thinking through all the delicious food places we visited this past weekend. We had a lot of fun doing things besides eating (i.e. bowling, walking around a street fair), but since food is my hobby and I love it even more with good company, I felt I had to share. Now I'll be on the lookout for more places to try next time we go back down to Portland, too =)