Celebrating Winter Solstice

Our favorite local pub, Naked City, has finally started brewing its own beer and can now truly be called a Brewhouse. Since we hadn't tried them out yet, we decided to walk over and toast the Winter Solstice. We thought it would be a nice way to send off Winter, and welcome the longer days, no?

I started with the Naked City Drifter - very light, slightly sweet. Kinda watery even. Reminded me of Coors Light! Scott had the Naked City Hoptricity, which he said was only okay. It's an IPA, but because it's made from rye, it threw him off. After those, we moved on to schooners of the Black Raven Wisdom Seeker IPA (Scott's favorite of the night), Russian River Pliny the Elder (too piney for me!) and the Rogue Mogul Madness (a nice winter beer).

I think the best part of beer is all the funny names.

Bench project

After a few hints from May saying, "Wouldn't it be nice if we had a bench in the laundry room to sit on while putting on your shoes?" we finally acted.

This weekend we built a little bench to fit the small spot in the corner of the laundry room. First we trekked to Home Depot and bought some pine wood cut to size then over to Jo-Ann Fabric to get the foam and batting for the seat cushion. I had a ton of fun playing around with the dowel bit set that I got for the project. Each leg now has 2 dowels securing them. In no time the bench was glued and screwed together. Next we sanded all the corners in preparation for paint. After 3 coats of bright white pain we stapled the foam, batting and an old curtain that we used as the bench cloth.

I got flack for the 'architectural detail' I added to the bench legs (notches), and while they aren't 100% symmetrical they do add quite a bit of charm if I do say so myself. Very neuvo-Simpson.

All in all it cost about $25 make. Except now May has ideas for other furniture she wants to make for the bathrooms :)

Christmas Tree

We've been enjoying our fabulous Christmas Tree! We braved the cold weather last week to purchase a tree one evening after work and our poor little fingers were so cold, having to haul this up on top of the car and then drag it up the stairs and into the house. But, we de-thawed and spent a nice night of decorating the tree while Christmas tunes played in the background. The tree is all decked out with gold ornaments (purchased from Home Depot last year), and while it's pretty, I'm thinking it might need some more color. We'll have to do some after Xmas shopping to stock up on colored ornaments!

Holiday Wreath

I'm very proud of my home-made wreath! I got my inspiration from Martha Stewart. She mentioned how you can take a few trimmings from your tree and make a free-form wreath, and then pretty it up with some bows and what not. Here's my version. Fun, huh? Now I just wish our door faced the street so all the passerbys can see it!

Sedona!

Scott had a conference in Scottsdale earlier this week and since I had a few vacation days to burn before the end of the year, I decided to join him. I've been to Scottsdale only once before for work, so this time, with Way joining me, I was able to go explore a bit.

On Monday, we took off to Sedona for a day trip. Sedona is red-rock country, and had the weather been cooperating, I'm sure it would have been as beautiful as everyone says. But, there was a massive storm that day (blizzard conditions in Flagstaff to the north, and so much wind/rain in Phoenix/Scottsdale that four hospitals lost power) and most of the red rock formations were shrouded in mist. And, with the rain coming down steadily, it made everything red, muddy, and not very conducive to exploring and hiking around.

On Tuesday, we hung around Scottdale and explored old town a bit, and then met up with Scott in the afternoon for a small bite before heading to the airport. I was happy to have satisfied my Mexican food craving, hitting up several places for Mexican food. I found most of it pretty good, but a little smokier/sweeter than I am used to. I guess they have more of a tex-mex flavor?

Noodles on a cold day

After a brisk, frost covered morning spent "winterizing" our yard (yeah, we're a little late) we quickly changed and headed over to downtown Seattle's international district on our way to do a bunch of errands. Last month I made the unfortunate mistake of buying "extra sticky short sweet rice", apparently this is the type they make tasty chinese desserts out of. Oh well, we have a ton now. While we were out and about we decided to go to the Uwajimaya japanese mega supermarket and pick up rice and find some noodles. Both were a hit.

After some intense searching we finally found Samurai Noodle behind the grocery store. It was tiny, eight 2-top tables and a huge line. The ramen hit the spot - hot tasty, porky and fat noodles. It had green onions, soy sauce hard boiled eggs, pork and bamboo. May got "extra fat" added to her ramen bowl, boy was it lip-smackin' good. We'll definitely go back. We heard they are opening up another one even closer in UW area.

Passing back through Uwajimaya we picked up the correct rice and a bunch of a little mochie squishie treats for fun. I love that place, too many funny looking little expensive treats to throw in the cart.

After some intense Christmas shopping we walked over to the Sheraton hotel in downtown so that May could see the Gingerbread house exhibit. It was impressive and surprisingly cool. Made me hungry too.

here comes winter!

It's been c-o-l-d these past few days! In the mornings, the temps are below freezing and we see many a lawn frosted over on our drive into work. It almost looks like it snowed at night because everything is frosty white. It makes us super excited for the snow to start coming in soon! It's been sunny and clear these past few days (probably why it is so cold!) but we're crossing our fingers that this year will be snowy enough that we can sled down our street again. Who knew that I would like the cold weather so much?