Ginger Beer

Like ginger ale but better!  No yeasty beer flavor so I am to assume it has as much to do with beer as root beer does currently.  Delish!  Picked up a bottle at the store and the next week purchased two four packs.  Mmm.  Seriously contemplating the juicer now so I can squeeze the life out of ginger root.  And anything else I want to juice.

Listening to the soundtrack for Ken Burns Jazz.  Awesome.  I'm so glad I watched that show years ago.  Taught me what real jazz is and that it can be more than enjoyable.

True Blood fest at Kelly's tonight.  Super fun.  She had gone to a fan event recently and picked up some neat post cards and had ordered herself some of the beverage and even a Merlotte's t-shirt! As if we were in Renard Parish, she cooked up her mom's recipe of gumbo.  Very tasty and not too spicy for wimpy ol' me.  Looking forward to many future Sunday nights in the same spirit, if with somewhat less fanfare.  Who knows?  Maybe more.  =D

Headed off to a cache event tomorrow night where I hope to be able to trade/send off my geocoin from Palma.  For some reason I feel guilty sending someone else's coin off like that but I can do what I will with my own coin, guilt free.  I was a bit bummed when I realized that marking myself online as having attended any event counted as a "found".  So I've revised my decision and I will still not log my finds of regular caches but I will attend whatever I want.  So there, brain, deal with that.

Picked up my farmer's market tomato plant today.  Been waiting for three things to happen for this to occur: me not busy on a Sunday morning, the weather isn't wretched, I'm not sick.  The stars aligned and I was able to make my purchase.  My last plant from the friendly worm farmer man and his wife produced beautiful, sweet cherry tomatoes year round on my south facing window sill.  That is, however, until a mysterious blight took the leaves by storm.  It's been about a year since I tossed the last plant (after much researching and failed attempts to bring it back) so I thought it would be time to try again.  There are blooms aplenty and several forming green fruits.  Yippee!  These things almost never make it into a salad because I pick them and eat them without leaving my view from the window where it grows.  So nummy!

I am refusing to look at the forecast and want to believe that summer is here now.  Such a nice weekend!  I even got a sunburn when I decided to eat lunch on Saturday on the roof.  Crazy.  At least (?) it was only one arm.

Saying goodbye to Chase forever this month.  I miss WAMU.  Even if they had bad lending practices.  Moving to USAA.  Customer service is ten times better.  So is the website.  Kiss it Chase!

Ciao for now.  Hopefully I don't fall into a work abyss.

Getting back to it.

Since the vacay I've been delinquent in my blogging and other duties.  Getting caught up at work seems like an impossible task most days and chores never go away, only grow.  What I have managed to do is purge my closet of winter gear for storage (just in time for the temperature dip!), print and Ikea frame 18 various vacation photos that I've taken over the years, sew a baby present (with many more to go), attend some Sounders games and try to exercise at least once a week.  Phew! I swear it is a lot.

Hit up the Cheese Festival and got cheesed out.  Didn't think that was possible.  Delish all the same.

Purchased a snake plant for the apt as they are supposed to be the best at detoxifying home air.  Every little bit helps and it looks neat.

Have been threatening to experiment with tamales.  Bought some and there they sit, waiting for the day I roast and mash them.  Hopefully I'll get around to it before they go bad.

Enjoyed a first Thursday art walk downtown and fell in love with a painting.  I tried to upload it to fb and email but no luck yet.

Went on my first night cache after this Saturay's Sounders game.  Too much fun sneaking around in the dark! Stayed on the B-G trail and got creeped out by glowing cat eyes and creepy crawlies.  Noticed a spider on my leg as I bent down to pet a kitty and promptly freaked out.  A lot.  Just before the freak-out I had mentioned the cat didn't have a collar and probably had fleas.  Kelly was quite understandably perplexed by the following spastic actions as I never got more out than, "AHHHHHHH!".  Once I had flicked off the spider I then began to imagine all the bugs I couldn't see or feel on my clothes and freaked out again, whipping of my coat, shaking it and wiping down every party of my body asking Kelly to double check.  She thought I was over-reacting to fleas still and was not understanding the severity of my case. It didn't help that every time I looked over at her pleading for assistance I blinded her with my headlamp.  It all worked out in the end.  At least I didn't see any more of the uglies.

Think I'm blogged out so I hope you enjoyed the long, long overdue updates!

Mediterranean Cruise 2010

To sum things up, it was a whirlwind, exhausting, sight-filled trip.  I wrote a bit each day in a travel journal and here are some excerpts and general thoughts on the day:

22 April
~ Waiting at SeaTac gate for adventure to begin!  It seems Eyjafjallajokull has stopped erupting long enough or bad enough to keep planes on the ground.  Should be a nice and uneventful hop across the pond!
~ Bejeweled on the pland & Top Gear - Sweet!  I remember the trips being worse.  Didn't really seem to bad.  Let's hope this continues with age.

23 April
~ Forgot about my money belt and set off the security scanner in Amsterdam airport.  My frisk search was extremely thorough.  Was a bit shocked, but I guess since the underwear bomber came through Amsterdam they are a bit careful in that area.  (Nothing too terrible, but was more of a squeegee down than a pat down.)
~ Arrived in Barcelona!  Today is St. Jordi Day, a day for lovers.  Guys are supposed to give their ladies a flower and the ladies are supposed to give their guys a book.  Crazy amount of people in the streets.  Tapas and sangria for dinner.  Mmm!  Kelly's first time to boot:

Gaudi architecture - amazing:

Purchased my Spanish souvenir, a lightweight pink and mauve scarf.

24 April

Slept in and then started the day off with bellinis:

You may also notice my favorite Spanish treat, magdalenas, accompanied by multi-vitamins and a banana.  Breakfast of champions!  Terrace of our fabulous room at the Praktik - highly recommended if you can get one of these rooms.

Next off to Gaudi park to see all the big sculptures including the wavy bench I've been wanting to go to since I learned about it studying abroad in 2000.  You can see the Sagrada Familia (perpetually under construction) in the background:

Paella for dinner and then off to the fountain show at the Fira.  With twilight coming on and colors for the fountain changing it was really neat.

25 April

~ Went to La Rambla / Las Ramblas and didn't get pick-pocketed!  And found our first Spanish cache in a telephone booth.  Lots of pet bunnies and birds for sale for some reason along the pedestrian walkway.  A few hours of wandering the gothic neighborhood of the city and then off to the cruise ship!  It is large, to be sure, but I had expected more the way everyone talks them up.  There is definitely a little bit of everything but think it is the issue of the quality goes down proportionately as the number of guests increase.  Still, a nice way to have someone drive you to another town while you sleep.

26 April

Hello Monaco.  I can see why Grace Kelly was swept away.  Beautiful!  Money from casinos really help with city beautification.  Walked into town from port and enjoyed the Jardins St. Martin.  Like the arboretum back in Seattle but with a tropical theme.  Walked all over town taking pictures of the gorgeous, ornate buildings, posh cars and general splendor.  Found one cache and Kelly managed to win a few Euro at the slots inside the Monte Carlo Casino.  Cameras had to be checked so no pics inside.

Walked to France. :)

Monte Carlo Grand Prix being set up so there were bleachers everywhere.  Kinda weird to see the city streets turned into a race track.  Ate DIVINE dark chocolate gelato here.

27 April

Port at Levorno so from port shuttle to city bus to train to Pisa and Florence.  Few!

Craziness.

Never knew Erika went to Pisa, much less broke Luca's heart by marrying Rick!

Lines were crazy long (and our time short) so we were not able to see Michelangelo's David.  But here is a pic of the sign of where he lives:

and the duomo was pretty impressive:

peek-a-boo!

It's too ginormous to fit into one picture (at least for my camera) so you'd be better off google-ing it.

Bought my Italian souvenir here, a leather coin purse like the one in the link.  Originally saw them in Germany ten years ago and fell in love with their utility and craftsmanship.  Paid a little too much for it but I love it anyway and I did attempt to haggle.  So I consider it a success. 

Crazy thunder storm on the train back to the boat.  Train stopped for at least half an hour and I'm still not sure why it was necessary.  Reminded me of a scene in a HP movie, actually.  I was half expecting a dementor to show up.

28 April

Rome.  Egads, there is stuff everywhere.  Sistine Chapel first and foremost.  Amazing.  So much cool stuff.  Then we circumnavigated Vatican City and found two caches in the walls.  Saw the Pope in St. Peter's square.  Trevi Fountain (tossed a coin as directed, to ensure a return trip to Rome), Spanish Steps, Colosseum, Circo Massimo.  

Pantheon.  Wow.

Outside, big but blech.

Inside - yowza!

29 April

Naples.  Ugly, sad city.  Don't bother visiting unless you are using it as a through point between other cities.  Got lost in train station.  Took two wrong trains.  FINALLY made it to Pompeii.  Sweet.  Uber hot and we should have opted for the tour.  Got some good pics despite ourselves.

Fruits stands sell fresh squeezed juice.  Thought a lemonade would be nice on a hot day but it was room temp, unsweetened lemon juice.  Pucker, pucker.  Should have gone for the orange.  Ah well.  Next time.

Creepy plaster cast of dead person.  Felt really intrusive and odd to take pics even though it is just a mold.

Reminds me too much of Rainier...

30 April

A sea day, thank goodness.  Totally exhausted from all the running around.  It was nice to have a day off.  We saw a show, one a trivia competition, watched a comedy spin-off of the Newlywed Game with cruise guests.  Slept.  Ate.  Chocoholic Buffet in the main dining area.  A good day.

01 May

Palma, Mallorca.  Holiday so everything was closed.  Good thing Groundspeak was celebrating geocaching's 10th birthday!  Went to the event and was able to meet some fellow international cachers and take some bugs and coins home with us.  One Mallorcan cacher had turned his vehicle into its own cache!  

I asked him why his van was so girly and he said the word for this type of vehicle has a feminine article ("la" as opposed to "el") so it could and should be girly with no affect on him what-so-ever.  Great sense of humor!

02 May

Very frustrating day.  Glad to make it to the hotel in Paris (eventually) and get the last leg of our journey on the right foot.  Problems at every step along the way from Barcelona to the steps of the hotel room door.  Gah!  Uninformative cruise ship employees leading to expensive taxi, creepy potential pick-pocket man, horrible airline ticketing agents, trapped inside a train station AND the metro, evil Parisian metro worker faking not understanding us, and I am incapable of passing through any doorway in Paris requiring a passkey.  AAAAAAAH!

Our new neighborhood is right next door to the Moulin Rouge and various Amelie shoot locations.  Sacre-Coeur is so very beautiful.

Ate at General Lafeyette and was very pleasantly surprised by the house wine.  Better by far than 90% of expensive reds I've tried in the states.  It's just not fair I tell you!  So cheap and so delicious.  The entrée (which, after I thought about it not so surprising, the appetizer and not the main course) was amazing.  Really. My meal: 31Euro got me an amazing apertif, asparagus rissoto wrapped in prosciutto with gorgonzola cream sauce, veal in a gravy with rice pilaf, crème brûlée, the amazing house red wine and several demi-baguettes.  I was bloated and oh so happy.  Took a constitutional to see the Arc de Triomphe at night and the Tour Eiffel.  At midnight the Eiffel Tower lit up with twinkle lights as opposed to it's regular, steady glow.  Awesome.

03 May

Despite being late to bed it was early to rise for the Louvre.  Able to get as close as possible to the Mona Lisa but that ended up being pretty far away, behind bullet proof glass, thirty feet and a velvet rope.

So many wonderful things to look at.  Will have to go back and spend at least a week visiting the Louvre and other museums.  Multiple days required for sure!

Notre Dame was next and after running around the city we put on our glad rags and headed out for our expensive night out at the Moulin Rouge.  

It was over the top but quite a fun experience.  Not just dancing girls and their high kicks and bare chests, but a magician, clowns, acrobats, ventriloquist, dancing girl swimming with snakes, miniature horses running around and lots of lip-syncing to the show tunes.  Wow.  A lot to adsorb.  Food was pretty good too and the half bottle of champagne, each, made all the lights and sounds that much more interesting.

04 May

Woke up with a mission: find fabulous cheese, meat and a baguette for lunch.  Took a bit longer than I anticipated (wanted quality for sure over easy tourist food) but I did it.

Kelly's lunch on top; I didn't eat everything you see.  ;)  And it was so divine.  Was in heaven for quite a while.  Only thing missing was that house wine from the General Lafeyette.

Musée d'Orsay allowed me to see one of my most favorite paintings by Renoir - Dance at the Moulin de la Galette.  Some jerk made the actual location private for residents so this was the only pic I could grab:

but I did get to stare at the painting for a good long while and dream myself into it.

As an aside, I wrote in my journal, "Does everything taste better in Paris?".  I think it does. Rhubarb tart, croissant, crème brûlée, baguette, all food.

Checked my Hungry in Paris book for a dinner suggestion and was not disappointed.  If you are ever there go to Le Mesturet.

I had (in French cuz it sounds better but I will miss some of the special characters):

Le entrée: Aubergine grillée a la tomate et au chevre frais de la fromagerie Lethielleux

Le plat de Grand-mere: Pot au feu aux trois viandes, os a moelle et légumes, fleur de sel

Le Dessert: Gateau mi-cuit au chocolat, coulis de cacao et glace cardamome

Took a stroll down the Champs-Élysées and actually went in to Louis Vuitton.  I couldn't afford the dust in that store, if it even has dust.  Crazy!

So many fabulous things in Paris I don't know if I could ever be done.  Definitely going back.

The big 3-0.

No, that is not a score against life but now my age. (Pretend this post is back in mid-April.) A bit of an underwhelming birthday I must say.  My big plans fell through :( but I was able to snag a few friends for some fondue dinner and I stuffed myself accordingly.  Always nice to get dressed up a bit and go out for a meal.  Dadders came through with an enormous Spanish cookbook (1080 Recipes by Simone and Inés Ortega) and mom has yet to deliver on the shared meal at Sea Breeze Farms.  To be fair, I got horrendously sick the Saturday we were planning to go and now we're just waiting for the weather to clear up a bit so the farm tour portion is less icky.  Lovely sing song from the sis and fam.  I think my favorite part of those phone calls is the parental coaching.  "Say happy birthday... say I love you!".  Totally precious.  The kids perform well for birthdays.  It was only the next week I was off for vacation so April treated me pretty well.