happy friday!

I'm super busy trying to pack, clean and get organized before Anders and I head out to the ocean for the weekend, so I don't have time for a "real" post. I'll simply leave you with two of my favorite things...

my pup and an Iphone app that makes really cool pictures!

Hope you all have a REALLY nice weekend!

(Anders took both of these on his phone with the Snapseed app.)

don't jump

So....Anders and I went indoor skydiving last Sunday. It was way easier/cooler/nicer and less stressful than regular skydiving. I can say this because I've actually been regular skydiving. You know...with a real plane and all. My experience with real skydiving went something like this:

Instructor strapped to my back: Okay. Now just put your foot on the plane wing outside this door that's open as this crazy intense wind is screaming by you and blowing your hair in knots you won't get out for a week

Me: AUGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGH. Don't make me jump. Don't make me jump. DON'T MAKE ME JUMP. I'll pay you any amount of money to NOT MAKE ME JUMP.

Instructor strapped to my back: You realize you are strapped to me, yes? Therefore, when I jump...you jump too. And I always jump.

Me: @#$!

Scariest moment of my life. Don't recommend it. Indoor skydiving is for scaredy-cats, which means it's right up my alley and way cool.

Ha! Who needs a guy strapped to your back when I have a wind tunnel and a instructor with two feet on the ground!

key west, part II

More pictures from our trip to Key West!

Breakfast at Schooner Warf

Key lime pie at Salute

Mallory Square sunset

The Red Trouser Show at Mallory Square

Drinks at the Green Parrot

key west, part I

We're back! We were only gone four days, but I would say we conquered that little 5x7 island! We ate as much seafood as we could get our hands on, drank fun cocktails, celebrated the sunset three different times (once on a sailboat, once at Mallory Square and once from the rooftop bar of the La Concha Hotel!), road bikes everywhere and overall had a wonderful time. The weather was perfectly warm and sunny the whole time and it was just the break from Seattle we were looking for. If anyone plans on going there, here are my recommendations. 

Check out the Eaton Street Fish Market and order a lobster roll, fish sandwich or shrimp BLT. This place was so good we ate there twice!

If you want want to celebrate the sunset from the water, we went on the Jolly Rover and loved it. It's a huge sailboat, you can bring your own food and drinks and you aren't packed in like sardines like some of the booze cruises. The captain and his crew even let you steer the ship and they shoot a cannon!

We stayed at Courtney's Place, which is the cutest little hotel off the beaten path, but still close to all the great things of the island. They have bikes you can rent for the week, a continental breakfast every morning and a little pool for afternoon relaxing.

Drinks at Hog's Breath

Tourist pictures at the southern most point and mile marker zero

Aboard the Jolly Rover

Island bird

key west

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Although Mexico was great, Anders and I are in need of another break. The weather this week has just been too much to handle with the nonstop rain, wind and cold, so we are packing up and heading to Key West, FL for four days. It will be a short little trip (with my parents and my Aunt and Uncle!), but the forecast is calling for sun and temperatures in the 80s. At this point, I would settle for an hour in that kind of weather!

Since we are gone for only a short while, I figured some trip organization would help. 

Key West To Do List

1. Eat key lime pie (when in Rome, right?)

2. See something crazy 

3. Find a coconut tree

4. Breakfast at the Blue Heaven

5. Bahia State Park

6. Visit the No Name Pub

7. Track down Jimmy Buffet

Jimmy hangs out in Key West, right? Seems like a place he would be.

Please leave a comment if you have suggestions on places to check out. Anders and I have never been!

See you next week!

rainbow point

It was really "nice" in Seattle last week. I use the term "nice" loosely as it was still pretty cold. However, whenever the sun shows herself during our winter months, people get very excited and declare that Seattle is having the nicest day. Anders and I took advantage of the nice weather and went for an evening walk and pretended it was later than only the first week of March. On our walk, we ended up finding the cutest and tiniest little park hidden off the freeway. If you look close enough, you can find all sorts of neat areas hidden in the city, and Rainbow Point is no exception. We were rewarded with excellent views of Green Lake and the cityscape. I'm glad we got out and enjoyed it while we could because it's definitely not nice in Seattle this week!

yum

Anders and I had no plans this past weekend (first time in SIX weeks!), so we made it all about food!

1. I poached my very first egg! It took me four eggs before I got it right, but I finally got the yolk runny. 

I used this method.

2. I've tried and tried to create a chicken salad recipe that doesn't use mayo, but I've never found anything that makes it creamy like mayo does. I learned (from this blog) that adding an avocado will create the creamy style I was looking for. It worked like a charm. My recipe below.

3. Anders and I started growing our own mushrooms! Get your own kit here and use them in this recipe.

4. Anders created a crab quiche that might end up in this cookbook. I'd share the recipe, but then you wouldn't buy the book :)

Un-Mayo Chicken Salad

Serves 1 for lunch

1 can of chicken breast in water, drained

1/2 an avocado, smashed

1 tbs chives, chopped

2 tbs of red onion, diced

1 tbs of mustard

handful of walnuts, chopped

half a lemon

salt and pepper 

sprinkle of red pepper flakes (optional)

Savoy cabbage

Directions:

Mix everything together in a bowl, season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste and the juice of half a lemon. 

Scoop into a cabbage leaf and enjoy standing over the kitchen sink while listening to the Grateful Dead.

maggie on things

Have you guys heard about Maddie on Things? The website is exactly what it says...Maddie the dog standing on things...but Maddie is the craziest dog I have ever seen. She has unbelievable balance! You must check out the website and look at all the pictures, but here are three of my favorites.

Now, I don't know if you realized this, but Maddie is a coon hound. Our little pup is also a coon hound and "Maggie" just happens to sound a lot like "Maddie." So, it got me thinking...maybe our dog has this incredible talent too. Who knows, right? So, Anders and I set out on a mission to put Maggie on things.

Well, we ended up with Maggie half on things...

...and Maggie jumping off things...

...and Maggie falling off things...

But finally! Finally! She got the hang of it.

Alright...maybe it's best we leave these things to the master. Maddie, we salute you!

surprise ball

Apparently surprise balls have been floating around the web for a few years now, but I just heard about them last month from the Cakies blog. The concept is simple. You buy 10-12 small gifts and then wrap them up one at a time in crepe paper until you have one big giant ball of wrapped gifts! The receiver has to start at the beginning and slowly unwrap the ball. Gifts start falling out the closer you get to the end. It's a bit time consuming to unwrap, so it makes the gift last a long time! I think it's the cutest idea, so I made one for Anders for his birthday. I also think it's a waste of crepe paper, so I did save all of it and plan to reuse it for my next surprise ball. I think my nieces and nephews would get a kick out of this, so I might be making surprise balls for their birthdays all year long. I can't wait.

a's day

Anders' birthday by the hour!

8am

Present opening with help from Maggie

9am
Making cappuccinos with his new espresso machine

10am
A visit to the dog park (even though it wasn't Maggie's birthday)

12pm
Brunch at the 5 Spot

2pm
Skee ball at King's Hardware

4pm
Opening up a surprise ball (more on this later!)

And not pictured...

7pm
Dinner at Umi Saki House

9pm
Drinks at Ohana

Not sure why I didn't get pictures of those last two places, but Anders was probably tired of the camera in his face all day anyway. We had a great time, though! If you are in the area, we highly recommend Umi Saki House. It was some of the best sushi we've eaten.

That's all from Anders' big day! A whole year till we can do it again (celebrate his birthday that is, not eat sushi)