In the Good Old Summertime...

It occurred to me today that we're halfway through July.
Where has this summer gone? It seems to be zooming by in a flurry of activity!

Quite a few things have happened over the last couple of weeks. First off...I actually went camping. Can you believe that?! Those who know me well have probably already fainted from shock. Anyway...this was my first camping trip since the disastrous one my family made me go on when I was back in Jr. High. I'm not a big fan of the great oudoors mainly because of the bugs and the possibility of run ins with raccoons...which I have an odd sort of fear of.

I decided to put all that aside and joined everyone so that we could spend some time hanging out with Kim and her brit. I discovered something great...camping is not nearly as bad as I thought it was. It was a lot of fun! Good peeps and good times! Best of all...I didn't see a single raccoon!

Right on the heels of camping was the 4th of July. I spent it down in the southend with the Cabatit clan again which always ensures a good time is had. Sarah's brother flew home from N.Y.C. so it was nice to see him. It was a very relaxed and fun day. The fireworks this year were amazing! I swear that almost every house in the neighborhood had their own huge firework shows going non-stop.

My friend Laurie's bday was just around the corner from the 4th. I completely forgot to warn poor Trina about Laurie's parties. She had one of her usual awesome Filipino bashes. You know the kind where there's miles and miles of food and you know to wear loose clothing or you'll just hurt yourself. There was all the usual good stuff such as pancit and lumpia. There was even a nice gelato cake. Unfortunately, they forgot that gelato needed to go in the freezer so the cake had been in the fridge for a few days. After throwing it in the freezer for awhile, we ended up with an interesting sort of gelato soup cake. It was pretty funny.

Pretty much since then I've been running around visiting with friends from out of town, catching up with old friends I haven't seen in awhile, enjoying great BBQ's, and just general hanging out enjoying the summer and the amazing weather we've been having.

Bustin Out...

I found a website with some funny t-shirts. http://www.bustedtees.com/edtees.com/

A, You're Adorable...

After making sure that my illness was far behind me, I finally was able to make a visit to see little Jake and Sarah. It's been a rough road for them. Jake ended up having to stay in the hospital for about a week and it was determined that he would need open heart surgery in a few months when he was stronger. Both mom and baby seem to be doing very well considering.

Sarah is a wonderful mother and seems to be able to stay so very calm. It's hard to believe she's a first time mom. Now Jake is just too adorable for words. He's a cute, wiggly, cuddly bundle. He hardly seems like a sick baby at all. Hopefully he continues to do well!

This pic of Jake was taken a couple weeks back while he was still in the hospital. In my opinion, the pic doesn't do him justice as he's much more adorable in person.

Rock-a-bye Baby...

Sarah finally had her baby! She gave birth to a baby boy named Jake on Tuesday. Unfortunately, both baby and mom had to stay in the hospital due to some complications. Hopefully they will both be going home tomorrow. I'm just glad that they're both okay.

It's funny....a month or so ago...Sarah's mom and I had been discussing whether we thought the baby was a boy or girl. Sarah & Greg had wanted to wait and be surprised when the baby was born. Anyway...we both said that for some reason, we'd both always just thought it was going to be a boy. Looks like we were both right! Congrats to Sarah & Greg! I'm so happy for them!!

The Latest...

Can you believe I didn't wait until forever and a day to post another blog? So the last couple of weeks have been crazy busy and involved me pretty much running around all over the place trying to do 10 million things at once. I think I was able to catch up with almost everyone I hadn't gotten a chance to see in the last couple of months though. It was nice seeing people I hadn't in quite awhile.

Went to happy hour last week with some coworkers. We went to Dragonfish since we haven't been there in years and years. When we got there the hostesses said they couldn't accommodate us because one table was there. Mind you...it was only a table of 3 people and the rest of the place was empty.Then they acted like helping us was a hassle and then talked down to us like we were 5 year olds. The only problem was that we couldn't leave because we'd told other people to meet us there. The good news was that the waitstaff was wonderful! Good service and really friendly. It's just unfortunate that the hostesses may run off business.

Last weekend I went up to the Capitol Club to meet up with Bryan & Faina. I went to meet up with them to celebrate Faina's birthday. However, they had more to celebrate than just her birthday. It seems that they had actually gotten engaged the night before. I was so happy for them! They are honestly both the happiest that I've ever seen them.

In other news, Gina auditioned for an acting company and made it in! I'm so excited for her! Unfortunately, the play doesn't open until after September so I won't be able to see it while I'm there. I'm hoping that I can fly out sometime during the run of the show. Also, I'm hoping that while I'm in New York I'll get to see Sarah's brother. He's been doing stand-up at Caroline's Comedy Club.

I think that's it as far as big news. Moving on to other things...last night we did part deux of our international dinners. We went to Costa's Opa in Fremont for some Greek food. I've always loved the food at Costa's so I wasn't disappointed. However, after sampling an array of yummy appetizers...I could barely dig into my meal. So I'll probably have some Greek food for a random lunch or dinner at some point in the near future. Oh and the best part about dinner was that we had some live entertainment. On Fridays and Saturdays Costa's has bellydancing so this was an added bonus to our yummy food.

Today it's just a cleaning frenzy around the house before I take off to see my aunt who hasn't been feeling well. On top of everything, the doctors told her to stay home for the week so she's going crazy with cabin fever so my brother and I are going to keep her company.

Pirates, Babies, and Other Things...

So I guess it’s been like ages and ages since I’ve updated this here blog. I’ll admit it….I’ve just been kind of lazy. I’d like to apologize in advance for the mini novel that is to follow.
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Hands On Eating:

I met up with some former school folks for our occasional international dinners. This time we ate out instead of cooking and it was decided that we’d have Ethiopian. Now I’m not sure if any of you remember my last experience with Ethiopian food…but it didn’t end well. We had ventured to this place that was basically someone’s front room. If I recall correctly, Nifer found some buried treasure on her plate. She struck gold when she dug up a random spoon and a piece of a rib (even though she hadn’t ordered any ribs). Afterwards…let’s just say I didn’t fare to well and totally got sick. Needless to say…I was iffy about trying Ethiopian food again.

However, much to my surprise…I totally LOVED it! We went to a place that Kevin recommended called Kokeb. First of all…we were in a REAL restaurant and this place even gave us actual hot towels to wash our hands with before we had to dig in to the food. The food was amazing and so good compared to the other place. Seriously…it was like night and day. I am so glad that I was willing to give Ethiopian food another chance!

Dancing with Aloha:

Went to a Hawaiian fundraiser for a hula group that Nifer & Aimee’s coworker was part of. It was fun and we got to sample some delicious Hawaiian food. The best part I think was the dancing. Can I just tell you how absolutely adorable the kids were?! My favorite was this little girl named MacKenzie. She was so cute, but unfortunately was not the most coordinated when it came to the dances. I think this was part of her appeal. I mean who doesn’t remember being that awkward kid at something at some point in your life? However, when they began to do the Tahitian dancing…look out! MacKenzie was on fire!!! She was head and shoulders above the other little tykes! Guess she was just storing up all her hidden talents.

Name Your Poison:

There was about a week or so that I really didn’t do too much. This was due to a bad case of food poisoning from a pre-packaged salad I bought from a local grocery store that shall remain nameless. Unfortunately, I did not have enough sense to call the nurseline until after days and days had passed with no sign of getting better. I was told that most of the things I was doing that I thought was helping my situation was actually making it worse. So…once I started doing what the nurse recommended… low and behold I got better in a jiffy!

Pirates and Babies:

Sarah & Greg had their baby shower. I was recovered from the food poisoning just in time. The theme was Pirates of the Crib. It was very cool and the decorations were great! I love that Cabatit clan! There was a pirate ship made out of a baby bath thing and baby blankets. The crew members were little baby toys with bandanas. Even some mini pirate rubber duckies made an appearance. We had some good food….good games…and even found ourselves making mini babies out of pieces of gum. One of the best things there though was the wonderful cakes that were created by Sarah’s sister Anna who just completed the Pastry program at the Art Institute not too long ago.

Gambling:

I did try my hand at poker again. So this would have been my official 2nd time playing poker. Yeah…I still have a long way to go. I think I finally have down the whole whether or not I have a good hand thing. My next move will be to figure out if other people may have a better hand than I do and all the other little strategic tricks. I just hope that I’m actually improving and not getting worse.

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Welp(that was just for Trina)... those were the main highlights of the last month or so. And...done.

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!!!

Walk with personality, talk with personality...

Have you ever had those times in your life when it seemed like you had so much going on and life is a blur? Well…that’s what the last few weeks has been like for me!

A lot of things have been going on at work so that probably contributes to the whole days slipping into each other thing. Work has actually been better. Things are starting to die down from the whole beginning of year rush. Also, we’ve been doing other things which have helped things not be so blah.

Last week my supervisor and manager decided they wanted to try something different so they sent us all to a workshop on Personality Types based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. No relation to me or any member of my family by the way. Anyway, my whole department participated and it was pretty interesting. I found it very beneficial. Plus…it was fun, I didn’t have to stare at a computer, and I actually love stuff like this!

Other than work…I’ve just been trying to keep busy catching up with friends & family and doing things like volunteering.

Sarah and I went to our friend Kurchta’s birthday shin-dig down in SODO. Kurchta has this amazing loft with a view of the viaduct and it’s so huge. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet a lot of interesting people. A bunch of people at the party were just amazed that the three of us have known each other since Jr. High and are still friends. Oh! One interesting thing happened. It’s kind of a whole six-degrees of separation sort of thing. I ended up meeting a former coworker of Kurchta’s who happens to now work with another friend of mine down at Sound Transit. What a small world huh?

What else…what else? Last Saturday I did end up doing some volunteering with my friend Katrina. We met down in Issaquah at the Eastside Baby’s Corner to help sort through & organize donations and put together some kits that were going to some of the agencies that they served. She brought her daughter and her niece. I think it's so great to get younger kids into service and volunteering. The girls seemed to really enjoy the volunteering so that was positive. It was a good experience overall and we’re planning on volunteering there every so often.

Okay…and on a total tangent…I made a great discovery the other day. Joanna and I decided to walk to the new Whole Foods sort of near work for lunch the other day and found this wonderful tea bar called Koots. It’s kind of like the Starbuck’s for green tea and I totally love green tea! It had like green tea, green tea lattes, and even baked goodies with green tea in it. Needless to say…I LOVE this place.

Oh my gosh…I almost forgot! Last week, a bunch of my coworkers and I decided to have lunch at Farestart. It’s this great restaurant that has been involved with helping the homeless. They not only provide meals for the homeless population in Seattle, but also started programs to teach culinary skills to those who want to try to learn so that they will have skills that can help them achieve success for the future.

Anyway, my coworkers and I went there to support the restaurant and their programs. On top of all the wonderful things they do, the restaurant was quite impressive. We will definitely be going back!

You've Been Hit by a Smooth Criminial...

So the latest thing that's happened recently is that my storage unit was broken into. I got a message Friday from Shurgard/Public Storage saying that there was a break in at the building my storage unit was in. Only 5 storage untis were hit and mine was one of them.

It seems that these thieves didn't pick locks or anything. They literally tried to rip the doors off the entrance and storage units. I guess my door was so bad they had to replace it completely. My thought is that they did that because my unit has like the lock of death. I got one of those super, super heavy locks that are virtually impossible to cut, pick, or jimmy.

Sadly...my first thought upon hearing of the break in concerned only one thing. My wines from Napa Valley and Lake County California. These are wines I bought when I did my summer road trip to San Francisco to see Brenna. I think it's because those wines have sentimental value since they were from my favorite wineries and they were with me on the drive back through 2 states.

Anyway, I wans't able to go down to Public Storage until today. When I got there a police officer was there as well as another man who's unit got broken into. From the conversations I overheard with the police officer, the other man, and the Public Storage guy...there were actually multiple break-ins this week. The other man unfortunately had his broken into a couple times. I guess the thieves came across his baseball card collection and kept returning for more. This got me really worried about my wines. Of course by then, I'd also remembered my CPAP machine was in there and would cost HELLA to replace. CRAP!!!!

I finally went to my unit. They'd fixed the door and put in an even more secure lock than the one I'd had. Cool! It was weird going through my things though. I could tell that things had definitely been moved around and gone through. It's kind of creepy knowing that stranger has been through your things. The first things I looked at were there...wine crate with wine bottles in them...check....CPAP machine...check. Woohoo! That's really all the major things I was concerned with.

After moving most things out and check through stuff. It looked like almost everything was there. The only things missing were some picture frames and if you can believe it...two of my old school annuals. What the hell are they going to do with those I ask you? I just hope they turn up like some items have since they are of no value to them. Sorry for rambling...can you tell it's been quite the little adventure with all of this? I'm exhausted!

To briefly sum up other things....my mom finally got to move back into her condo after 2 months and the CT scan was a-okay! Brenna will be moving back up to Washington and will be here soon. I'm totally excited about that. Yay! Saw my friend Sarah earlier this week and she is totally showing now. She's due in June with her first child. She looks so cute trying to button up her coat with her bump. She's been keeping herself busy planning like crazy for her upcoming bday party. She has her theme planned out, the location and caterers booked. I can't wait to see how it all turns out. I know it will be fabulous. Besides...Sarah just happens to be an event planner. Oh and Gina got a lead role in a play! Yay! She moved to NY last summer to work on her acting. It sucks having one of your closest friends so far away. I really miss having her here, but I am happy that she's able to be doing something she loves so much.

Like Sands Through the Hourglass...

So…I started thinking about things I am currently doing, things I want to do, and/or things I used to do. Along with this train of thought…I began thinking of people I keep in contact with and all of those people that I haven’t gotten the chance to catch up with in quite some time. Why does it sometimes seem like you have all the time in the world and yet not enough time to do everything you want.

This reflection came about for two reasons. The first reason was the fact that I had to spend quite some time catching up with emails, phone calls, etc. last week to people. Now I had every intention of getting back to people earlier, but just never had the time to. The second reason was the result of a conversation I had with a coworker of mine. She found out that I used to paint and asked to see some of my work. While I was showing her some of my work, I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time I painted and I really do enjoy painting.

So the point of all my rambling is that I’m going to make more of a conscious effort to be better about keeping in touch with people and try to make more time for things I enjoy doing such as painting. Hell…If I can make time for all the frivolous things…then I certainly can make time for the more important things.

Feed a cold, starve a fever...

Okay, so...after weeks of fighting off the germs that constantly surrounded me at work, I've fallen into the sick trap. As one coworker after another got sick and stayed sick, I prayed I would not suffer the same fate. Alas....my body gave out. Jason and I were the only ones in our area who held out. Now we are both suffering while everyone else is okay. How is that fair I ask you? We didn't stand a chance!

What I find interesting is that those who were the ones spreading the germs are now the ones telling us to stay away from them so we don't get them sick. Um...hello..aren't you the ones who got us sick? Some people huh?!

Anyway...enough of my sicky talk. Not much has been going on other than being sick and work. Today was the day of our big filing deadline for January. Thank GOD! Unfortuantely, like 90% of all our work for the year comes in around January. I'm sure the work stress contributed to the whole being sick business.

Oh! This last weekend was a busy..but good weekend. Friday we went to Bandits Bar in Seattle for Kim's bday shin-dig. We got to meet Kim's Henry and celebrate her bday. Henry seems very nice and they both seemed very happy.

Saturday...did the whole family thing. Spent some time with my mom and my bro Chris. Did the Ulta shopping thing with my mom at one point to replenish my Curls Rock supply. I ended up buying a new purse. It was on sale so...you know I couldn't NOT buy it.

On Sunday we went down to P-town to David & Katt's place for their Superbowl party. They were fabulous hosts and I think everyone quite enjoyed themselves!

I think that sums up the last few days and that's all for now. Oh and I know I'm stealing this from Nifer, but I do have a couple things I'm really thankful for right now and wanted to share. I am thankful for Puffs tissues with lotion, Tylenol Cold Medicine, Hals Throat Drops, Green Tea, ColdEZE, and Airborne.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun...

Okay so it’s been a little while…okay a long while…since I updated the good old blog. This last month has just been so crazy what with the weather, birthdays, the busiest period of the year at work, and just other general activities with people. I thought about reflecting on what has happened since my last blog, but that would take forever and a day. I’ll just go through some highlights and random moments that pop into my head.

So…our weather was a bit wacky at times. I seem to recall another 4 hour drive home due to a snow storm. Oh yes…then getting snowed in because no one was able to go up or down our driveway. Let me just say…I am so done with this winter stuff. Two snow storms and the one windstorm that left me with no power for half a week is plenty of winter for me.

There was a fair share of gathering at people’s homes. Nif had a stamp camp a few weeks back. I think it went well and was fun. We got to do 6 different cards. I like all the cards I made with the exception of one that I still don’t quite know what I did to. Ha-ha! Oh and Aimee had a Tastefully Simple party up at her place. The consultant at Aimee’s was so much more together than the one that we had previously. I was very impressed so of course I had to get more stuff.

What else…what else? Oh yeah…my brother took me to dinner to a cool Caribbean restaurant in Belltown called Casuelita’s. It was very yummy! We decided to be adventurous and try Conch Fritters as an Appetizer. They were actually pretty good. The only sad thing is that neither one of us could tell what in the fritter was actually the Conch.

I ended up getting a Seafood Jambalaya which was really different from what I thought it’d be like, but still very good. It was a little scary looking though because I’m not used to Jambalaya with actual crab legs pointing out at you. My brother got this really yummy seafood dish with coconut cream sauce and saffron rice.

Oh and Caribbean stuff…very big on the whole rum thing. We got their “specialty” punch which while pretty to look at…had like 3 different kinds of rum in it. It was a bit much for even my brother and he’s quite the drinker. Oh and then they decided to be nice and light our pound cake on fire for us. This again was pretty, but all the rum they used to light it on fire soaked into the pound cake. OH MY GOD! Yeah…my brother and I are so not going near rum anytime soon.

Oh I almost forgot…we’re getting plans in order for a trip to Vegas. Nif, Joanna, and I are planning a trip down in April. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun! We’ve already decided on some shows we’ll be seeing down there and the plans are slowly coming together for the trip!
Well…that’s it for now. I am seriously going to try to be better at updating the blog so they don’t have to be mini novels each time. Ha-ha!