lying in wait

Y and I needed some time together to catch up and to clear our heads we went for a short hike. Y went up a rocky incline and as I trailed behind her I gasped as I saw a small snake curled up and probably just trying to get warm. In terrified hushed tones I pointed it out and started directing her back down. It would be amusing to find out now that it was harmless, but at the time the option of taking such a chance did not even exist. The encounter with the snake left forgotten the waterfall we had hiked over to, as well as the stinkbug that we followed for a few minutes while resting. A small adventure always makes for a nice escape...

bottle tree ranch

I drove out to Elmer Long's Bottle Tree Ranch yesterday, with my family. It was every bit as magical and amazing as I thought it would be. As a fan of antiquated glass, welding, found objects/signage/outdated infrastructure, this place struck all the right chords in my heart. Being there felt like I was in a wonderful dream...

when something good happens

Reunited with Isaac | Ed Ruscha at SAM

Seattle Central Library by OMA (!!!)

J at Bathtub Gin | The new standard & new favorite (though currently unobtainable) whisky.

This display of citrus fruits alone made me want to tend bars.

Little Maxie pawprint (upper left) | Someone's dog I used to know

Concurrent expressions: glee at new flask | happy asparagus sign

cauliflower mac & cheese

I made cauliflower mac & cheese (cauliflower instead of the pasta!) using this recipe! Apologies for the picture spam, and lack of words. I had so much fun making this dish I made it two days in a row! I substituted cheddar with a white cheddar/gruyere (creamy!) and substituted greek yogurt for the sour cream :).

rainy day

Yesterday was a back-to-back workday - 5am to 1pm, and 1pm-on. I had to drive out to Venice for the second half of the day, but in the pouring rain realized I wasn't going to make it, so I ended up hastily scrawling dimensions with a Sharpie on my hand while pulled over on a red zone downtown, listening and clarifying hard on the phone. I sewed for the rest of the afternoon at home and in the evening made vegetable soup for dinner. As I chopped up tons of veggies, mom baked Irish soda bread to go with the soup and we downed them, soup & bread, piping hot, as soon as they were ready for consumption.

portland, or

Portland felt sleepy, and reminded me a tiny bit of Berkeley at points but the feeling passed. Good food, good coffee, adorable dogs everywhere and plenty of hip young twenty-somethings. We spent St. Paddy's at a little establishment called Casa Diablo, and new experiences were had. The next day a stop at Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Voodoo Donuts to start off, and we made the drive back to Seattle at noon.

seattle, wa

I sneaked away to Seattle with J this past weekend! We hit all the usual tourist spots - the Space Needle, with Frank Gehry's EMP museum nearby, Pike Place Market, the Seattle Central Library, Olympic Sculpture Park... drove down to Portland for a day or two and explored what we could there, and in both locations had plenty of food adventures. I saw falling snow for the first time in my life and was entranced by the soft splashes of slush that landed on my coat and hat, that rapidly melted into puddles once we entered the heated indoors. Whiskey/mixed drinks/beer nearly every night, blasts of frigid air on the drive or walk back, and many new things experienced. It felt like a dream, and now that it's over I'm focusing again on urgent deadlines that I need to complete! Vacation's over, and the work begins once more. But I couldn't be happier.

'to know what to say/mind is a razor blade'

Signage. A recent bad habit I've developed is compulsively snapping photos, with iphone/camera while I'm driving...

Sister's awesome hand-me-over jacket from a badass friend/mentor.

Valentine pop-tart that I talked about a while ago - chocolate with a blood orange marmalade filling...!

How amazing would it be to chew a hole in an orange, crawl into it, then several hours later crawl out and, while lazing about on the skin, proudly tell yourself yeah, I ate that entire thing.

I drew a happy roma tomato for one of the signs at the store.

Leaves un-meant yet wholly meant for each other; the crackle of a eucalyptus fire.

Coffee outings have tailed off since H has gone back to Melbourne. A latte from Paper or Plastik, a finished latte from Buster's, and a chai latte also from Buster's. Come to think of it, my intake of good coffee has greatly tailed off on its own because of work situations, and has reverted to small samplings of unsavory drip coffee in the wee hours of the morning.

march forth

1. California surfboard (!!!) Fuck L.A., love CA (???)
2. Whenever I see marbles, I think to myself: 'Lost, lost, lost...I've lost my marbles.' a la Toodles from Hook (1991), and how that scene was my first memory of and understanding of wordplay.
3. This is how I wish my closet could look. I have a steadily growing drawer of striped shirts, new and thrifted, but they really don't make clothing the way they used to.

I have trouble believing it is already March.

CDfC

I laughed so hard as I took pictures of myself in this beanie. My sister and I each got one, original plan was for one to get charcoal, the other black, and switch with each other at whim, but we both got black after a mishap with the stock of charcoal. Fascinating story, I know.