April Showers Bring Spring Flowers...

I so can’t believe it’s almost the end of April! It really crept up on me. Sometimes time just flies by! Probably because April was filled with so much activity! Between the Vegas trip and then endless birthday and other celebrations…it’s no wonder. Anyway…I figure that it’s time to update the blog.

A week or so ago Sarah had her 30th birthday party. She had her shindig at the Pritchard Island Beach Bathhouse along Lake Washington. The theme was a Venetian Masquerade and it was so neat to see all the different kinds of masks that people came up with for the party. Even the little kids had masks. They were so adorable! I ended up wearing a cool red and black lace mask I found at the Rio Hotel when we were down in Vegas. Everything at the party was wonderful! I guess that’s to be expected when the person throwing the party is an event planner. Haha! My favorite part had to be the Bellini’s. In case you’ve never had a Bellini… it’s basically peach puree mixed with Prosecco. Very yummy!

Following Sarah’s birthday shindig was another themed party. This theme was Spanish though. My coworker Laurie had a party to celebrate her anniversary along with her husband & daughter’s birthdays. That party was pretty amazing, too! They’d gone all out and brought in bright drapes and decorations. The best part was that they hired the Paella King to come out and cook paella for all the guests. Well this was also planned by an event planner (Laurie’s daughter Chesare who flew up from San Francisco) so of course it was fabulous!

Other than parties and celebrations, I haven’t been up to that much. I did go to an open house for a Master’s program I’m interested in. I really think I want to apply after going to the open house. It sounds like an amazing program! I’m a little freaked out though because it sounds like so much work and a commitment of another 2 years of my life. Then again if I don’t complete some kind of Master’s program, I may not be able to get very far in my field. I’m going to take it one step at a time. At least if I started the program it wouldn’t start until October.

With the possibility of school looming over my head, I started thinking about things I might want to do before possibly starting up with school again. Since this seems the year of trips for me, I was thinking I’d like to take one last trip before the end of September. I was talking to Gina the other day and it looks like my trip may be a trip east to visit her in New York. Yay! I’m excited about that! Not only do I get to take another trip, but I would get to see Gina!

Anyway, I guess that’s it for now!

Viva Las Vegas...

Well I'm thinking I should update the good old blog before too much time has passed and it has to become a novel again. Went down to Vegas for a few days. Vegas was for the most part fun. The trip had it's moments... but then again no trip is perfect right?

Now, I always love places like Vegas and New York because those cities never sleep. I always love that you can go strolling down the street in the wee hours of the morning to still find yourself surrounded by people. Plus...how can you not love a city that doesn't even bat an eye when people walk through the streets with Yards of alcholic beverages? Yes, we were some of the people who did that.

Now I haven't been to Vegas since my mom used to have to stick me upstairs in the kiddie section of Circus Circus because I was too young to be downstairs. Yeah well...it certainly has changed a lot from those days! Everything seemed so much bigger and brighter than I remembered it.

We ended up walking up and down the strip exploring things and did a bit of shopping. We checked out the different hotels which was very cool. We also did some gambling and caught some shows. One night we even headed out to the Fremond district to check out Old Vegas.

The highlight of the trip was dinner at Delmonico at the Venetian Hotel. This was one of Emeril's restaurants. I never thought that I would spend so much on just one meal, but it was absolutely worth it. It was a wonderful experience! The service was absolutely amazing! The food was fabulous! I think I may be converted. Now I don't think I'll be going to places like that all the time, but I definitely wouldn't mind going from time to time.

Hello again, hello...

Well so much for my trying to be better about posting more often! It's been quite some time since I last posted. I'll try to not make this an endless novel though. Okay....let's see. Here are the highlights since my last posting:

La Spiga:
Sarah, Greg, Polly, and I went to check out La Spiga. It's my favorite Italian restaurant in Seattle and had closed down for about six months to move to a new bigger location. The food was fabulous as usual! We had our usual Gnocchi with tomato sauce and tried a few new things, too. The new location was just amazing. The restaurant went from a teeny tiny little space to a huge sprawling open space with two floors. The new place had a totally rustic Italian feel and even an outdoor deck with strings of light for the evening.

Chutney's:
-Went to Chutney's to celebrate Brenna finally finishing her move from San Francisco'ish area to Seattle.
-Went again awhile later for dinner with Nifer and Trina just cuz we love ourselves some Chutney's. Mmmm!

Birthdays:
-Sun had her bday and now has her license. Yay! We took her to dim sum to celebrate.
-Celebrated Trina's bday at Buca di Beppo in Seattle. It was my first time and all I can say is that all the food there comes on ginormous plates!
-For my brother's bday we spent the day in Seattle hanging out. He had a hankering for Thaiku so we took him to Ballard.
-Had some yummy ribs at Famous Dave's down in P-town for David Turner's bday.

Hanging Out:

-Had dinner with Mar, Shay, Anita, and Nif at Galerias on Broadway while Mar was in town. We learned from last time though and didn't have the margaritas the size of our heads. Then we ventured over to Dilettante's for dessert, coffee, and tea.
-Went to Kim's in Ballard for a potluck and games night. We had lots of yummy food like meatballs, cabbage salad, hot wings, shrimp, artichoke dip, shrimp dip, garlic veggie couscous, and snickerdooles. Kim made some really good margaritas! Was a fun night with good food and good peeps!
-Heading over to Monroe later today to meet with some school friends for one of our occassional international cooking dinners. The theme this time is Greek which I think will be much easier than our last theme which was Indian. Indian food takes a hella long time to make!

Okay...I think that covers it! Oh! Almost forgot. I leave for Vegas exactly one week from today. Yay!!!