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?

Whistler Pre-Olympics

Instead of the standard American staple of turkey for thanksgiving, May and I decided to pack our bags and head north for the long weekend in Whistler B.C. The border website that May mentioned in her last post was a lifesaver. We left at around 7am and completely avoided all the border back-up. Brilliant!

We missed all the good snow by a week...54 inches to be exact. By the time we arrived the weather had been relatively warm (40's) all week so much of the snow at the base had melted. We stayed at a hotel right in the heart of Whistler village, walking distance to everything. Instead of a fancy hotel using the Expedia travel agent rate we decided to book a room with a fireplace, living room and kitchenette. We really enjoyed it, much more room to spread out and it was super convenient to just make breakfast in the room instead of dining out for every meal. And with the 1:1 exchange rate, it made a big difference.

On Friday morning I went snowboarding while May researched spa treatment options. It was an unexpectedly beautiful day, crystal clear blue skys, not too cold. The skiing on the top of Whistler was perfect, no complaints, but the bottom of the hill was dreadfully icy. I had a blast but the last run of the day proved fateful, I sprained my wrist on a fall and walked down the last bit of the mountain... the bottom had very little snow, just ice patches here and there. After a quick visit to the doc I got a bandage and a clean bill of health.

May and I walked over to a nearby trail that circled Lost Lake and did a little snowshoeing on Thursday and Saturday. Not a ton of snow, but just enough that without the gear your feet would sink a ways into the snow. It's a blast, particularly the downhill sections. Talk about a super cheap sport. We were so excited to get our first snowfall on Saturday morning, but due to the warm weather it melted by the end of the day. I recommend visiting Whistler on Thanksgiving weekend, there really were not many folks in town...hopefully it stays that way for January too!

After scoping the border crossing website we decided to kill some time in Vancouver. What a great city, I keep forgetting how many shops there are there. In fact one might say it's a smaller version of Hong Kong... and colder too. The terrible exchange rate didn't get us excited to buy anything so we turned our attention back to our stomachs and visited a friendly looking steak and fish grill before hitting the road.

What's the next winter moutain trip? Mt. Baker? Crystal Mountain? Steven's Pass?

The internet saves the day!

It's really amazing the type of information you can now access through the internet. Scott and I were discussing this a while back when we were getting ready for our Deception Pass camping trip. We marveled that the Washington state parks site not only lets you view (and choose) available campsites, but also shows you pictures of each individual site so you can gauge shade, the level of the ground, etc.

Tonight, I'm impressed I was able to pull up archived data of the average wait times at the Washington/Canada border. The Cascade Gateway Data site can chart the average delay time down to the hour of a specific day. So cool! Based on the data for last year's Thanksgiving weekend, we've decided we'll try to cross the border back into the States this Sunday around 9-10pm. If history is our gauge, the average wait times by then should be down to less than 45 minutes. We'll let you know how it goes!

Symphony!

We have been very bad about posting lately! Sorry about that, we will try to be better. Especially with all the winter activities coming up, we should have a lot to report on.

Last night we ventured out to test the cultural side of Seattle and went to the Symphony. We catch the bus to work underneath the Hall, so it was fun to actually be able to go INTO the building this time. The hall itself is quite nice and far smaller than I imagined. It looks like pretty much any seat would be a good seat in this auditorium.

The headliner was Tchaikovsky's Pathétique, but the standout for the night actually ended up being Mozart's Piano Concert No 21 in C Major, featuring guest pianist Gabriela Montero. It was hauntingly beautiful and, since it's a pretty recognizable piece, we even found ourselves humming it after the show. Montero is known for her improvisations and she wowed us with her encore - she asked an audience member to pick any song and someone volunteered Sleeping Beauty. With that, she improvised a 10 minute piano piece incorporating the famous melody. It was dazzling to see someone riff like that on a piano - she started off playing it classic and then ended it on a jazz note. It makes me wish that I practiced piano more when I was a kid!

Here's the concert list that we heard:
Ludwig Irgens Jensen: Partita Sinfonica, “The Drover”
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, “Pathétique”