Recap

Damn I've been busy lately. For some crazy reason I thought it'd be a good idea to take 23 credits this quarter and unlike past quarters I've actually got some challenging classes. Seems like I'm spending all of my time stressing out about a paper and avoiding the actual work for a week and then busting my ass at the last minute. So far I'm pretty confident that my GPA has been holding but I've still got four weeks left for some epic fucking up.

On the baby front there's nothing new. Michele's 24 weeks along, he's still a he, and still named Porter. Had a visit with Group Health Midwifery today, I just sit there quietly and take it all in since I'm the big dummy in the room. A lot of the doc talk goes right past me but I try to follow along as best I can.

So really the big news of the day is that Michele and I are moving. My cousin Kate and her husband Jeff bought a new house right around the corner from their old one and Jeff proposed that Michele and I move in and fix it up in exchange for rent. As a general rule working with family is a bad thing but I think I've got a pretty good track record and I've got a pretty good feel for what needs to be done and how long it'll take. The whole endeavor will save Michele and I about $15000 in the coming year and that's cool by me. I started work today and we plan to be all moved in by no later than the 15th of July. The best part? It's really close to some good bars, grocery shopping by bike, Molly Moon's, and Greenlake. I'm pretty excited about the whole thing.

Just a cool bike shot I took for my photography class.

My latest(and probably best) skateboard, delivered last Sunday.

I'll try to keep this thing updated more often, especially with what's going on in the house, I've got some grand(small scale grand) plans.

It's Alive!

I'm reviving The Misadventures of S & M for baby related news and events. I figure Michele's not using it much these days, but she might once the baby's here. We'll see, but in the meantime I'm going to be putting it to work.

Spring Break!

Okay, Spring break has been over for a week now and I'm already buried in a load of homework for what looks like it's going to be my most challenging quarter to date, but whatever.

Anyway, Spring break was planned to be a short little vacation to Portland and Ashland with my parents coinciding with my grandfather's 90th birthday party. The party was Saturday night, right at the start of vacation, so once Michele was rested up from her Friday night call shift we packed up the car and headed South. The party was the usual family craziness, much of that coming from my grandfather, who has grown more conservative by the day since my grandmother passed, don't get me started on the "North American Union" plan to join the U.S w/ Canada and Mexico and Obama's links to terrorism, but I digress.

Grandpa attempting some sort of joke here that bombed miserably, I don't remember what joke specifically, but they all bombed so it doesn't matter.

My sister and The Kid even made the trip all the way from the heartland.

I think this is the first time all the cousins(except Chris, of course) have been in the same place at once since Grandma's funeral, maybe we all made it for Lizzy's wedding though, I'm really not sure.

We made a visit to Grandma's house to get the obligatory four generations shot, then it was on to Ashland. My parents go to Ashland twice every year to take in plays at the annual Shakespeare festival. For years my mom's been bugging Michele and I to come along, insisting that we really love plays(we're really not play people) and all we need to do is attend one and we'd be hooked. Mom's big plan was to get us to go to one really great play and then we would, of our own volition, start coming to plays with them on a regular basis. So my mom looked at the calalog of plays that would be playing when we were there, read up on them all, and of the 5 or 6 options, she chose the one about rape in the Congo. Thing is, it turned out to be about RAPE IN THE CONGO. My favorite. Way to go mom.

There were some redeeming things about the trip, dad and I got in an awesome ride in the snow in the hills behind town.

It wasn't all in the snow of course.

We also ate a fucking outstanding meal at New Sammy's Cowboy Bistro, expensive but well worth it.

Back in Portland we spent a couple days hanging out with Tim and Lucy before heading back to Seattle. It was a good time all around(except for the play). Oh, and Michele's pregnant...

Craigslist Deal of the Week

I picked up this nearly unused Yakima HoldUp off of Craigslist earlier today. I found the ad totally by chance(Yakima was misspelled) and emailed the guy about the price. I got him down $30 from his asking price to well below half of retail and was pleasantly surprised to find that rack in such great shape. I almost felt bad for him that I paid so little(so to speak). Now if I can track down that 2" Prius hitch before we leave town on Saturday. The price is right but it's an elusive little bastard and harder to find locally than I expected.

Mobile Chowdown III

Seattle vs. Portland!

The third installment of Mobile Chowdown took place today here in Seattle. All(some) of the gourmet roach coaches in town get together in one place and every hipster in town shows up looking for bacon. No bacon, sorry hipsters.

This time around some of the Portland vendors made the trip up, including Burgerville USA for some reason. Now I'm a native son of Stumptown and truly love Burgerville but seriously, what the fuck? Anyway Michele and each had something from Marination Mobile, Koi Fusion, and Annita's. Koi Fusion was by far the best I've had yet at this event(we've been to all three). It's a Korean/Mexican place out of Portland and was awesome.

I took a couple of pictures to show what the lines were like, this was only 11:00 or so before things really got rolling too. Definitely a good time for any self respecting foodie and I highly recommend it.


Oh yeah, and in other news, I got rid of Michele's tC yesterday and traded it in on a 2010 Prius. That'll teach Michele to drag me all the way down to Olympia for the day and give me nothing with which to occupy my time.

Seabrook

Those that know me well know that I rarely drink to excess. Rarely. Two beers, done. Glass and a half of good wine, done. That's not really the way things went down at Seabrook, and it all started with this:

An award winning, Washington made vodka. And that's all the time I'm going to spend writing about alcohol and it's effects.

About Seabrook, it's a planned beach community on the Washington coast meant to emulate what you'd find in the Northeast. Overly cutesy beach cottages all lined up, each with it's own pair of Firmstrong(WTF?) beach cruiser bikes. Rents are cheap but real estate ain't, doesn't matter anyway since the trip was a treat from Paul and Sean celebrating Paul quitting his job.

We walked to the beach and taunted a tsunami, played games, ate cracktastic food, did some hot tubbing, drank a little, and that's all I claim to remember.

On the way home, Michele and I convinced Paul and Sean to come with us up to the Quinault Lodge for lunch, where I managed to get a picture of Sean, which isn't easy.

Just a totem rain gauge.

On the way out from the lodge we saw these otters at play. I wonder if Paul and Sean saw them...

I Sure Love to Eat

It's not very often that I'm surprised by a meal. Normally I know exactly what I'm in for before I eat out. Michele spends a lot of time reading about restaurants and all but refuses to eat at places she has yet to read a review of.

So anyway, we went to Mr. Villa for lunch toady. It's a small Mexican place off of 80th and Lake City Way, not far from Hudson. Michele gave me a synopsis of the review yesterday and the reviewer really liked it. However, I really don't put a lot of faith in the reviews of Mexican food I've seen in this town. The much revered Godito's in Greenwood is bland city with giant portions, I still can't understand for the life of me why people go apeshit over that place. The much loved Greenlake Tacos Guaymas tastes like regurgitated blender food and people still flock there for some crazy reason. Our favorite Mexican food so far has been El Chupacaba up on Phinney, the foods okay, but it's the atmosphere that really makes the place worthwhile. As far as I'm concerned nothing here really holds a candle to what we were enjoying in the 'nix, until today.

Mr. Villa knocked me on my ass, I got a couple tacos and a tamale. The tamale was as good if not better then the truly homemade ones I was served at my New Mexico Christmas oh so many years ago. The asada taco was great but the chicken taco is what really blew me away, I caan honestly say I've never had a taco that quite compares. As a matter of fact I'm kind of wondering why I'm sitting here writing about it, it's not far away and I've certainly got room for at least one more...