Yummerz

I can't say I've ever been too crazy over key lime (since there's no chocolate involved) but I made some key lime tarts a while back because Ryan said he liked key lime, so when I found a recipe for key lime cupcakes, I thought I'd try my hand at it again. Soooooooo good, and waaaaaaay super cute! I think I may have gone on a little bit of a sugar high 'tasting' the frosting while I was making them, but I was pleasantly please at how much I enjoyed them. I brought the leftovers (since I didn't think it wise for Ryan and I to eat all of the cupcakes) into work to get devoured! Everyone thought they were super cute!

I also tried my hand at a little bread baking again this weekend. This time it was challah bread. I didn't think it was going to turn out at first since it wasn't rising nearly as much as the recipe said it was supposed to, but it ended up being really good. It might have been a little more dense than it was intended to be, but we enjoyed in none the less. This weekend was hempfest in Seattle, which made it a little difficult to get around without being swarmed by large crowds of hippies. We still tried to get out a little and walk around the city...here's one of the Seattle sites to see. It's is actually incredibly gross, but it's a whole wall in an alley covered with gum. It looks kind of pretty from a ways away with all the colors splashed over it, and some people even tried to make patterns in it, but once you get a little closer and realize how much saliva was involved in its creation, it's a little more of a turn off. It is still a site to see!

Land Navigation

We did a land navigation exercise a few weeks ago at work. We spent the first few hours in the 'classroom' going over how to plot points and use the navigation compass and protractor and such. The second half of the training involved us going out to a empty area of land on base with mostly just a lot of overgrown grass and weeds and a few clumps of trees to try out our hands at land navigation. In groups of three, we were given point on a map that we had to find in the grass/trees. It was relatively easy, but fun to get out of the office. I also had to get a sweet new set of camis and a set of combat boots for the event. Everyone else in the office said I should wear them everyday because they're sooooo comfy. I beg to differ, and I also enjoy feeling like a female in my little khaki skirt instead of swimming in the giant camouflage uniform even though I got smalls in everything. Clearly they were not made for women!

Is Tara a little human?!?

She has me convinced sometimes. We spent an afternoon at Volunteer Park this weekend. I got a new tennis racket this weekend, so we were trying it out. I'm pretty sure I haven't played tennis since high school...unless Wii tennis counts?!? After a little warming up, I wasn't half bad! After tennis, we took a snack break at a picnic table under some trees. As soon as Ryan and I sat down, Tara climbed right up on the bench and sat down with us. Apparently she didn't have a good enough view from the ground...especially when there was food involved.

Po Dogs!

This was quite the socially productive weekend spurred on greatly by the pinnacle of the Seattle Seafair. After a week of training in Oak Harbor, I headed down to Seattle for the weekend. Friday night, after grabbing a quick pre-drink at a local hot spot (the black bottle) with one couple, Ryan and I headed out to Eastlake to grab dinner with a middle school friend of mine that I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen since high school! We’ve been trying to meet up since I first moved here 8 months ago, and it finally happened! We tried out a great local place (Sitka and Spruce)that is known for serving very local dishes with a menu that changes daily depending on what produce they get it. It was great food, but even better to be able to catch up with Leigha and meet her boyfriend. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another 8 months to see each other again! We also found out that they live only blocks away from where Ryan’s office just moved to in Wallingford. Even more motivation to hang out again soon!

Saturday we were privileged enough to be invited to the premier tasting party for Capital Hill's newest gourmet hotdog restaurant, Po Dogs! The new place is going to open up in October and is run by the girlfriend of one of the founders of Ryan’s firm. We went over to their house, which is also one of the firm’s projects and a really awesome location for the air show later that day. They made 6 different hotdogs and cut them up so everyone could get a taste of each kind. Apparently they’ve come up with 30 some different kinds of hotdogs! Here’s a little sample of the goodness that we got to participate in:

BLTA Dogs (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Avacado)

Mac & Cheese Dog

Peanut Butter & Banana Dogs (Surprisingly Delish!)

Wasabi Dogs (Hot dog in an Egg Roll!)

Texas Dog (BBQ and Onions)

White Trash Dog (Potato Chips and Cheddar Cheese)

The tasting party was up on the roof deck of the house, which was a perfect location to see the blue angel show that afternoon. The planes flew right above the house and even rattled it a good bit several times! By the end of the afternoon, I was thoroughly drained from the sun and stuffed from the delicious food, and ready for a nap and a relaxing evening.

Sunday was round 2 of Seafair viewing! We were joined by our fellow auburn architecture alumni on another Pb project roof deck. This one was a multi unit project that is nearing completion in Beacon Hill. One of the units had an open house going on that afternoon, so we set up camp on another one. Since the project was so high up on the hill, we even got a pretty good view of Lake Washington which is where the Blue Angels did a lot of their show. Again, the planes flew right over our location and rattled the house. It was neat to be able to see even more of the show that we didn’t see the day before, and not have to deal with the crowds down by the water.
All the festivities this weekend were a blast, and it was good to see everyone!

Seattle Seafair

This weekend was the kickoff of the Seafair in Seattle. I'm not really sure what all goes on with it, but I think there are going to be several aquatic type events and festivals next weekend and I know there's supposed to be a blue angels show as well. Anyway, last weekend we participated in the 8k run that was part of the kickoff for it. It was a really neat little route through the city, but the best part was that it was right before the big Seafair Parade started and the last 2 miles of the run went down the parade route which was already lined up with fans who cheered us on all the way back to the stadium. It's been pretty toasty in Seattle lately, so when the race began at 6:30 it was still hot and sunny out. By the end of it, however, when we were all crazy hot and sweaty, it started to drizzle just enough to be a perfect cool down at the end of the race. The theme of the Seafair is pirates, so there were several people dressed up as pirates in the race. Also to compliment the theme, we got super cute t-shirts with a little pirate logo on them! OK, I realize that I am easily amused, but how cute is that?!? 

Harry Potter = BRILLIANT!

I don't think I stopped grinning through the whole movie...ok, well maybe the end when I nearly shed a tear. I can't wait for the DVD to come out so I can watch it over and over again!

Stephenson Vay-Cay!

It's been a little tough getting back into work after having such a great and much needed vacation! My last day of 'work' work was really June 30th. On July 1st I went to the Naval Undersea Museum in Silverdale to be a part of a retirement and change of command ceremony for the CAPT that is my regional boss. I got to be a part of the 'Old Glory' detail. It's 6 people from and Ensign (me) up to a Captain that ceremonially pass a folded flag up the ranks, each saluting it as they go. We had to do really slow salutes so that the whole thing would last about 2 or 3 minutes. After all that was done, I was officially on Vacation!! We had 2 days off for the 4th of July holidays, so I just hung out in Seattle getting ready for our Georgia trip and taking care of my invalid puppy, who is doing really well now even though she's missing a toe!

Friday night we took off on the red eye flight to Atlanta. We got in at about 6am and made our way to Columbus. After a little nap, since no sleep was achieved on the flight, we were ready for the festivities to begin. Ryan's Dad and brother cooked up a ton of chicken and ribs and we picked up some fireworks in Alabama to shoot off later that night. I even shot off a few of the 'Crackling Candles' which is about the most I can handle since I have a rather large fear of explosions.

The rest of the week we just enjoyed being in Columbus (it was not as hot as I was expecting, thank goodness) and hanging out with the family. We went down to the river walk, went on a tour of an old historic town, visited the new infantry museum at Fort Benning, went golfing a couple of times, swimming, movie-ing, shopping...

The main reason that we had planned the trip to begin with was actually for a wedding the second weekend that we were there. One of Ryan's good friends from high school was getting married, and he was one of the groomsmen (and a very handsome one at that!) Friday night was the rehearsal dinner, which seemed like almost a bigger deal than the wedding. It was in the saloon of a historic theater (that is supposedly haunted...ooooooooh). I think about half of the people that were at the dinner gave a speech/toast to the couple. It was a lot of fun and pretty amusing as well even though I don't know the couple all that well. Saturday was the wedding. Ryan had to be there about 3 hours early, so i just dropped him off and went to get my nails did :) The wedding itself was pretty small. After pictures and such we headed over to the country club for the reception which was mostly just desserts and drinks with the groom's dad's band playing music. It was a lot of fun, and I got to meet a lot of Columbus folks.

On Sunday, we had a few hours to hang out with the family before heading back to the airport. Ryan's younger brother and his girlfriend had come in from Athens, GA and were taking off that morning too.

A great vacation ended with a less than perfect trip at the airport. Our flight was originally delayed about an hour while we waited at the gate. That was probably a good thing since it gave us time to grab some food and such. Then we got on the plane and headed down the runway only to get behind a line of about 20 planes and then were forced to wait on the plane for about 2 hours before we could take off due to weather issues. This whole time we were sitting in the middle of a thunderstorm with winds shaking the plane back and forth. Apparently the bigger problem was actually out west on our route, so we were rerouted to a northern route that would make the flight a little longer too. Finally we took off and had a relatively painless flight. I don't think I want to take Air Tran anymore though because even in a 5 hour flight, they didn't have any movies or anything like that. I might have to suck it up and pay a few extra bucks next time for a nicer airline. Once we finally got to Seattle (about midnight pacific time) we went to go pick up Ryan's golf clubs from the baggage claim only to find out that they weren't there. We waited for a long time then filled out a report. By that time we had no patience for taking public transportation and just took a taxi home, to get home at about 2am. Obviously I wasn't able to pick up Tara that night like I had planned, so I had to do that Monday morning and just get into work a lot later than I had planned.

It was still an awesome vacation; I wish we didn't have to end it! Lessons have been learned about which airlines to choose for next time.