Fun weekend in Seattle

After a fun filled weekend, my gal pals are gone. I miss them already, Seattle seems lonelier without them. We had SO much fun together! Highlights include:

• Thursday Night: Dinner at the Pink Door to Celebrate Erin P’s birthday. Drinks followed at Kells.
• Friday Night: A fun filled evening playing board games: specifically True Colors. True Colors is a really great game for people who know each other well – and who don’t get hurt feelers easily. SO MUCH FUN!
• Saturday Afternoon: Shopped downtown. Lunch at Purple Café.
• Saturday Night: Sushi and Sake Bombs at Shiku. It was my first time there and it was wonderful. Two thumbs up! Delicious sushi, creative drinks and attentive service! I’ll be back there for sure (although I’m hoping they’ll start taking reservations). After several hours at Shiku, we migrated over to the Ballard Loft.
• Sunday: Girls left. Football, laundry and pumpkin carving at Stacy and Andre’s house!

I’ll post a few weekend pics soon!

Top Banana

I’d like to share a little hole in the wall produce heaven that Derek and I just discovered. It’s called Top Banana and it’s located in Ballard right off of 15^th and 65^th. Now, I know many of you have probably been going to Top Banana for years but it is new to us. Top Banana has wonderful fresh and flavorful produce at great prices. Monday night, we bought the following: 5 ears of Corn on the cob, 3 large tomatoes, 1 giant jicama, 1 lime, 1 onion, 1 orange, 1 broccoli floret (is that the right term?), 2 avocados, 3 red bell peppers and ½ lbs of bing cherries . All of this for $18!!! Are you crazy?!? My only suggestion is to use your produce soon after purchasing it (as it’s pretty ripe when you buy it).

Here is what others are saying about Top Banana. My favorite comment is “I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Top Banana.I mean LOVE.  I would buy Top Banana a big ol’ diamond ring, take it out to Morton’s, and fly off to a romantic trip to Italy if it were possible.” Ha!

Flash Pillow Fight – Pike Place Market

This just cracks me up. Every time I hear about these “flash pillow fights”, I can’t help but laugh. First in Ballard, now in Pike Place Market. It’s weird – but funny!

weekend recap

I had such a great weekend – it’s a shame we’re already back to Monday. The weekends just go by too quickly. Highlights include:

• Happy Hour at Dexter & Hayes Thursday AND Friday.
• A yummy sushi dinner at Kisaku in Tangletown. Limited roll selection, but good sushi and very reasonably priced. Sake bombs were fun too.
• Bustin’ a move in Queen Anne with Stacy and Richie – I think we may have made our own dance party.
• Watching Richie lose use of her legs and crawl into my apartment.
• A big group dinner Saturday night at the Old Town Alehouse in Ballard.
• Morning coffee and a card game on the ferry with my sister. Just call us the Golden Girls! J
• Breakfast (Streamliner diner) on Bainbridge Island with my mom, stepdad, sister and Derek.
• A visit to Grandma Lavee’s house (Derek’s grandmother).
• Visiting with Derek’s parents, aunt and cousin over a delicious lunch/dinner. Derek’s mom (Anita) is a fantastic cook!
• Derek for four full days. What more could I ask for?!

Lowlights include:

• Saturday morning…recovering from Friday night.
• A parking ticket on the top of Queen Anne.
• Running out of time this weekend – I really need to get my nails done – they are nastified.

all in an apple pie

One of my favorite (and most embarrassing) rituals after a long night of drinking is a trip to McDonald’s for chicken nuggies.  Despite my hundreds of attempts to forgo the nuggies, I always end up there – usually in a cab.  I know it’s gross and I wouldn’t do it sober, but I can’t stay away from the nuggies when I’ve been drinking. It’s pretty standard for me to start thinking about and anticipating the nuggies around midnight.

Saturday, after a long night of drinking in Ballard, I found myself sitting in the drive-thru with my friend and sister.  We ordered and were anxiously awaiting our nuggies while we recapped the highlights of the night.  When we pulled up to the window, they handed us our food and informed us that the car in front of us had treated us to apple pies. Nuggies and apple pies – SCORE! We didn’t know the car in front of us, in fact we didn’t even notice what color it was. It was such an unexpected surprise. If you are out there reading this post, thank you for the pies; they were delicious.

The next day I started thinking about it more.  We should have bought pies for the car behind us. At the time I was too excited and too tipsy; it didn’t even occur to me.  I’ve been feeling badly about it and the only way to redeem myself is to pay it forward to an unsuspecting Seattleite. Stay tuned!