glassblowing

I bought Anders a glassblowing class for his birthday and today we went and cashed it in. Glassblowing is tricky and a bit overwhelming, but we had a really great instructor who showed us the ropes. First you have to heat up the colored glass in layers before adding the clear glass to the outside. Then, you blow to create an air bubble that make the circle for the bowl. The last step is to suck in, which creates the dip to make the bowl. If that sounds a bit vague, it's because I didn't really have any idea what I was doing. Still fun, though!

It takes very little to make me excited. NERD.

The bowls look orange in the pictures because the glass is still hot. We actually picked blue and green (Seahawks colors, you know). I get to pick up the bowls in a few days, so I'll post a picture of the finished product then.

happy summer solstice!

It's a bright, sunny weekend here in Seattle and the perfect weather to welcome the start of summer and the longest day. I went to the Freemont Solstice Parade yesterday, which will forever be my favorite. Of course, the sun directly overhead makes for horrible pictures (I had the same problem a few years ago), so please excuse the overexposed, shadowy images.

 My favorite of the entire parade, was this "mobile wedding." "This couple was actually getting married as they walked the parade! Check out her veil!

furry 5k

This year's furry 5k picture! Maggie looks so good in a pink boa. And she was super thrilled about it.

green lake fishing

We walked down to Green Lake the other night to check in on a few of the PPF guys who were there fishing. Fish guys fishing? Yup. Please note: don't actually eat the fish you catch in Green Lake.

TGIF!!!

kill the routine

I followed Jedidiah Jenkins on instagram as he biked all the way from Oregon, through South America to the Patagonia. He finished the trip and is now writing a book about his experience, but his friend made this little 5 minute documentary about the journey. Check it out. I loved it so much! Anyone want to go on an adventure...soon?

The Thousand Year Journey: Oregon to Patagonia

And this post seemed sad without a picture, so here's a totally unrelated, random photo of our awesome potted raspberry bush...

for the bears

Most people don't know that the fish the guys use to throw around at the market is actually "stunt fish." The flying fish get so beat up they can't actually sell it to customers. Instead of just throwing it away, the shop donates all the fish to the Woodland Park Zoo to feed the bears and to Wolf Haven to feed wolves.

Once a year, the guys get invited to the zoo to throw the fish to the bears! Here are few cell phone pictures from the day.

The Seattle Times posted a slideshow of professional photos from the day, which you can see here.

weasel coffee

Someone asked me recently what was the weirdest thing Anders and I tired while in Vietnam. Without hesitation, I had to say Weasel Coffee.

Weasel Coffee is the rarest and most expensive coffee in the world. This coffee exists only in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. In this part of the world, weasels eat mature coffee beans and discard the beans in their feces. It is then collected by farmers and processed. When the beans are in the weasel's digestive system, the beans mix with their stomach enzymes and it changes the flavor of the coffee. It becomes buttery with the taste of syrup that brings out the harmony of jungle and chocolate. (I stole that from the brochure). 

I realized this might sound disgusting. Okay, it is disgusting, but, in fact, is really delicious and smooth. The coffee is cleaned so it's not like you are actually ingesting feces of any sort, but it is hard to look past that, though.

This tiny, tiny little cup of coffee cost $10. A normal sized bag (like you would find in the grocery store) was $100!