Damn this busy life and busy work schedule. I mean, I like being busy, but there are too many damn things to do lately. Work has been exploding, which is nice, but you know that leaves me running around like crazy. I’ve been in a rut, trying to dig myself out of this hole that is filled with things I should do instead of things I want to do. The ‘ME’ time seems to be fading.

I need to cut back on my elaborate dinners (sorry Chad), not stuff myself silly so I need an hour to digest, and take some time each night to do what I want to do. This whole fashion blog takes up a lot of time, and the result isn’t even that amazing. I just don’t have enough time to give it these days.

I finally got together with Matt for some birthday Sushi. We went to Shiro, which I have never been to before. Matt says he use to go there all the time as a kid. I was definitely up for the experience!

It’s super cute inside, and I always love to watch them make the sushi.

Ebi Sunomono

This is one of my favorite dishes ever, so I have become somewhat of a conusor. Every place we go that has it, I try it. This is one was very good; definitely one of my favorites. You can tell when it is REALLY done wrong because they put lettuce in it and it’s the most bizarre thing ever.

Sushi Explosion!

Special Crab Roll – Super good but holy Spicy Alert!
Negitoro Maki – One of my favorite ‘of the moment’ sushi. This one was good but they stuck Wasabi in it and I died. I can’t handle wasabi in any amount.
Dynamite Roll – Can’t go wrong with that!
Scallop Roll – I’ve always been scared of them because they look so gooey, but when I stopped to think about it, I adore Scallops so why not scallop rolls!? This was very good!

BBQ Squid Legs with Garlic Butter

The sauce was amazingly tasty, the squid was squish, but then it always is. This one as good!

Chicken Karaage

I’ve had this before at other places and it’s been better. It’s hard to go wrong with deep fried chicken, but there was barely any meat on these bones which was disappointing.

BBQ Salman with Salt

Tasty, but such a weirdly shaped piece of fish! The way it was cut with the fins on made it look like it had wings!

Over all a good dinner. I was so full and the green tea was soo good. I could have sat there all night drinking it.

We went back to Matts house for MTV and Ice Cream which was epic. The Hills is so amazing right now.

I think I will spend the rest of the day dreaming about Ebi Sunomono.

Last day in America!

We didn’t spend a lot of time in the USofA as there were things to do back in Canada!

We headed off in the morning to visit St. James Cathedral, which was amazingly beautiful.

Cab Cab Cab

We stayed for mass and it was so cool. The choir was amazing and there was all these different things going on. It was a very  neat experience.

Hey there!

All the pictures don’t do it justice. It was so beautiful.

I found Forget Me Nots outside.

After visiting the Cathedral we headed back to the hotel, packed up and took off. We made a quick detour to Pike Place just so that I could pick up some Mothers Day flowers from the market for our Moms. Then it was off to Costco to buy some Ciavarro Cheese and then back to Canada.

We got to the Ciavarros at about 3 in the afternoon and spend some time there visiting before we headed off to my uncles for my family birthday dinner / mothers day dinner.

It was a lot of driving.

Zoey did all the pre washing of the dishes. I hope Pat explodes when he sees these.

Yea. Pretty un eventful day compared to the other ones. But we did lots of family visiting which was nice.

It was good to be back home but it’s always hard going from a King size bed back to a Queen especially when someone likes to sprawl (CHAD).

Even though I’ve been to Seattle twice now, I wouldn’t hesitate to go back down again. There are so many things to check out that we never had the chance to do.

So whens our next weekend away!?

Day 2!

I never realized until this moment how time consuming these giant photo posts are when you are trying to finish a pile of work.

Do you see the dedication!?

Chad having a traditional toast and Peanut Butter breakfast.

Morning View

What a beauty photo!

The first order of business was to check out the Space Needle. Now, while looking at the tourist map of Seattle, I did notice the Monorail, but honestly thought it did a loop of the city (even though the Map said otherwise). Chad and I were both surprised to find out that the monorail only does two things. It picks you up at the Mall and takes you to the Space Needle. Then it picks you up at the Space Needle and drops you off at the Mall. Handy, but how useful is it if you aren’t going to any of those two place. Weird if you ask me!

Even though we have a Skytrain, I still get excited going on Monorails. I loved how much you could see when riding in this one.

Hobble, hobble, hobble.

I CAN’T SEE IT, I CAN’T SEE IT!

Oh! There it is.

Up at the top enjoying a relaxing view.

How is Chad not a super model?

Komo 4 news had by far the best Hella Pad. Sorry King, & Kiro. (Am I missing one?)

I love these photos.

We hung out at the top of the Space Needle for a while. Played wiht all their interactive games and stuff. The view was obviously amazing, but damn it was cold up there!

I really felt the need to lay in the grass.

HOT

We found a little garden beside all the Carney games.

Spot the Cripple!

We took the Monorail back to the Mall and then walked down to Pike Place.

Chad made friends.

The Ocean!

Apparently Alleys are fun in Seattle!

Chad was starving, so we stopped in at the little French bakery that Alicia, Claudia, and I went to the last time I was here.

Veggie and Cheese. SO GOOD. Everything looks amazing in this place.

GIANT HEAD.

We had to do a lot of stop and start and stop and go with Chads foot. We ended up buying a huge thing of oils for my Mom and ourselves. The thing weighed a ton and Chad had to carry it all day. Not smart :(

Crazy Dairy Farm place.

For Patrick.

Shhhh, he’s sleeping!

Most offensive T-shirt ever!?

This was suppose to be a seated rest area. There were 3 chairs. Nice.

We hopped into this place for a quick beer. Quite possibly could have been the place Sleepless in Seattle was filmed.

FIRE BOAT! Apparently the Tugboat races were going on. We ended up checking them out.

Down to the pier we go!

Poses.

We couldn’t really tell what was going on, but Magnum PI kept flying buy.

Oh yea! And I got my picture taken with a clam!

We took a cab back to 5th street to check out a few shops. There was no way Chad could have walked it even though it wasn’t that far.

Ze Hotel!

After our adventure we hit the hot tub, showered, napped. The usual. I organized all the stuff we had bought into nice piles so packing Sunday morning would be easy.

Chad slept for a while and I drank wine.

We went to a really nice Italian restaurant for dinner, and I felt too weird about taking photos. Then the wine and martini and more wine went to my head and I felt totally paranoid that I was going to make a fool out of myself. The pasta was amazing though.

After dinner I needed to sleep cause I just felt out of sorts (*cough*drunk*cough*) so Chad hit up the Lobby Bar and I snuggled into bed which was the best feeling ever.

Once I got into bed I felt so much better. I think my stomach wasn’t too happy with the left overs I ate before dinner, coupled with the wine and the martinis. I knew that was going to happen. I never listen to myself. Ah well.

One more day in Seattle left!

OK, photos of Birthday Day in Seattle Road trip Alert NOW.

On Thursday morning I saw a lady carrying a bouquet of flowers walk past my window at work. The first thought that came to my head was ‘oh God I hope those aren’t for me’. I waited to hear the door bell, but nothing. Sweet, I was safe! Then I heard the door bell. ”I have flowers here for a Dan Yell See A Varro” Sweet Mother of Mercy.

My obvious reaction was to think they were from Chad, considering how I had just recently bugged him about not getting me flowers, following Adam surprising Alicia at work with a bouquet. But, at the same time, I knew Chad would probably never send me flowers at work, so I had no idea who they were from.

Alicia and I laughed about them as I reached for the card. The envelope was sort of see thru so I could see that who ever had sent them had a name that started with an A. “Is it from Chad?” she asked me. I could tell by the look on her face, she had no idea who they were from, so the fact that all I could see was a letter A surprised me.

Well, I opened the card and saw it was from Alicia and Adam! The best part was that Alicia had no clue Adam had done this, so it was a surprise to her as well!

It was so sweat of them! Emberassing for me, because I hate having all the attention placed on myself, but it was definitly very special!

Friday morning we left the house at 8:30am. It was sunny and bright and beautiful.

Peace Arch Crossing didn’t have a long wait time, which was good. Boarder crossings scare the crap out of me. It has to do with my fear of authority and even though I never do anything wrong, I feel like I am going to get in trouble anyways. Fortunately for me, the boarder guard was very nice once he found out it was my Birthday!

We did some shopping at Target in Bellis Fair. That was basically the extent of my purchases for the weekend.

We tried to buy a McMini from McDonalds, but they don’t exist in America. 

We had many stops on the way down, which is one of the reasons why we didn’t get to Seattle until late. While it sucked because it meant we had less time at our destination, the stops were very much needed.

Like this stop for gas. Muchly needed.

And this stop at the Seattle Premium Outlets. If we didn’t stop here, Chad would have nothing to wear.

Chad saw these Herringbone Vans at Bellis Fair but they didn’t have his size. He was on an obsessed mission to find them. Luckily The Outlets had them in stock!

“Look! Jesus is on sale!”

YES, it’s TRUE. Marketing does work. I have been needing new runners for…oh…3 years now, but have been too lazy to spend the money. One commercial and I was sold.

I haven’t taken them out for a stroll yet, but they feel soooo cool on. You need to go try a pair! $108 inclusive at Seattle Premium Outlets!

The Outlets is where Hobble Along did all his shopping. I get so excited when it comes to shopping for Chad because it’s like I get to dress up my own live Ken Doll. Yes, I just said that.

Oh too Seattle!

So, remember when I mentioned trying to check out some of the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives in Seattle? Well, we made it to one of them!

A very late lunch (3pm to be exact) at Georgia’s Greek Deli proved to be the best idea ever, as the food was AMAZING. I think this will have to be a traditional stop every time we go down south now.

Jesus and Mary joined us for some foodz.

We knew eating at 3pm was pretty random. Too late for lunch and too early for dinner, but there were actually 2 other groups of people eating as well, so, we weren’t the only strange ones.

This is where they set the Saganaki on fire. I missed taking a picture of it :(

Greek Beers!

Saganaki, the love of my life.

Say Hello to Chicken Gyros with Greek Garlic Fries. Ugh, I want to go back and eat more food NOW!

So I started to look around the restaurant because I read that Guy Fieri leaves a little special something on all the DDDs he goes to. Just as I say this to Chad he points at the wall.

!!!

It was like meeting a Celebrity. Yes, I am that sad.

Photos from the taping of the episode!

Signed Poster!!!

The thing with Me & Guy is, when I was sick from my first Thyroid surgery, I would lay in bed all day long and watch the Food Network for 12 hours straight. This meant I saw a lot of episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. At first I thought he was the most annoying person on the planet, (as I’m sure most people do). I hated when his show came on, and I just found the whole thing so over done. But I watched, and I watched, and then they went to a diner that made pulled pork (gets me every time), and I watched more, and then I became OBSESSED.

I went from hate to LOVE. We had spent a lot of time bonding.

After my second surgery, I would lay in bed watching the Food Network and I looked forward to Triple D coming on. I loved watching all the different places he would visit. I was totally hooked!

Getting to go to this Deli/Dive, was like a small dream come true for me.

Oh, onto the hotel.

We didn’t really have the rest of the day planned, and we were pretty tried from our drive in. Not to mention all the shopping.

The view from our window at the Westin.

There is a lot of WHITE in this photo.

We decided to spend some time in the hot tub relaxing and then we went for a nap / obsessively watch The Food Network.

Chad went out and bought some wine while I had a shower, and tried to figure out a place for dinner, but it was 9pm at that point and the hotel front desk was a little clueless as to where all the action was downtown. Since we had got in so ‘late’ and had not explored the city at all, we really didn’t know where the happening places were.

We ended up just eating at the hotel restaurant. It was nice, but I was way over dressed. I had pick out this outfit before I knew where we were going. Oh well. At least I looked hot. HA.

After dinner we wanted to go out for a drink, but Seattle has this stupid law where they won’t give you a table if you aren’t ordering food, so we had to awkwardly sit at this window bar where we were served by the worst waitress ever.

I guess dinner and drinks wasn’t enough for Chad since a full glass of wine was in order while laying in bed. He stayed up to watch all the late night shows, but I passed right out. I was soo tired, plus I’m 85 years old.

Plus, I needed to rest up for all of the next days adventures!

Saturday was a full impact day that started off with me discovering my car had been keyed. Yaya! I get to spend $300 for no reason!!!

I then went and picked up Pat from Dario’s house, where they were trying to figure out how to hook up the Nintendo.

It’s hard to seperate lovers when they don’t see each other often.

Pat wanted to go down to this Roller Derby sale in Vancouver. He had informed me that it was near Terminal so the plan was to take the sky train to Main Street and then walk from there. Thank God I was feeling lazy and decided to drive instead because we drove around for half an hour trying to find the place, which according to Google Maps on Pats pohone was in the middle of train tracks, only to realized that the place was actually a block away from my work. SRSLY PATRICK! If only he had given me the actual address ahead of time it would have taken me 20 minutes to get there! Oddly enough I drive by this place every day after work and have thought to myself many times that I should tell Pat about it, but never put two and two together.

Roller Derby crowds are always very interesting. We were talking to one girl who laughed and said, “I’m in roller derby, but do I look like a freak? I don’t understand why people dress so wacky for this”. I agree. There was your mix of Punks, and Goths, and 40 year old women in hooker boots on a leash. You know, the usual.

We had to wait in line for an hour because the store is small and they only let so many people in at once. I didn’t buy anything but Pat got some wheels and stoppers.

I then had the brilliant idea of going to Memphis Blues for lunch.

Pulled Pork for me and Brisket for Pat. Nom nom nom.

I promised Pat a Pork and Bacon filled dinner, something ever Jew wishes for on their Birthday. I then realized after dinner that I forgot to put bacon in two of the dishes. Ha. Woops.

I was in a mad rush as usual.

I made…

Sweet Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin
Hand Cut Shoe String Fries with Lemon Salt
Onion Gratin with Creme Fraiche and Cheese
Caesar Salad

The shoe string fries took forever to deep fry. Everything else was ready to go but we had to wait for the damn fries.

I was actually surprised at how well the Onion Gratin turned out since I have never made a recipe that used onion as the main ingredient. Everyone thought it was really good which I was thankful for!

A nice little triple date.

Pat and Dario then shared their newly discovered shot with us; The Flaming Etna. Half Fire Ball half Sambuca.

It was actually really tasty!

Off to the Cambie for the usual Patrick Zaph Party Adventures.

We sat on the Patio for the first bit because it wasn’t too cold, but we then had to move to the inside as we froze our butts off.

That’s the truth.

I finally let my mark at the Cambie.

The Pat Zaph Trio

I made a new friend.

It was a good night until Elise went to the bathroom and discovered two people in the stall beside her were having sex. She was mortified and sat at the table in shock for the rest of the night. We all found it pretty hilarious, though, if I were in her position, I probably would have been totally disgusted.

Pat left on Sunday and we weren’t going to see him so we said good bye that night.

Another amazing weekend!

Until next time my little Jewish friend.

We miss you like you will never understand. Things are only normal when you are here.

Last night was Matt’s birthday extravaganza. Well it wasn’t really an extravaganza it was just dinner at our favorite sushi place by Metrotown.

We talked business as usual. A bunch of people got laid off at his work, including 5 of his friends, but he was safe. He is a genius and they know it.

He had a work birthday dinner last week and the rule was everyone had to wear fur. So classic Matt. Reminds me of the time I bought him fur for his birthday many years ago.

After dinner we went and saw Zombieland. OMG the Bill Murray part was the best part of the whole movie. I think that’s why I loved the movie so much. Hahahaha when they started to act out Ghostbusters hahah PRICELESS. Damn I love BM.

Speaking of work, I have to go out to the warehouse this afternoon and clean the crap out of the Notions room. It is the only room in the entire building that has never been cleaned and organized and yours truly is left to the task. Piss me off.

I had to go in there yesterday to look for some binders and I blew a gasket. It is so gross in there I can not tell you. When they re-did that section of the roof they didn’t cover anything so there is a layer of dirt everywhere. It is so so so gross. Not to mention all the old crap they shove into corners and forget about instead of just chucking the stuff they don’t need anymore. It doesn’t make any sense.

I brought old clothes, an apron, and rubber gloves because I know half the stuff in there is going to need to be washed. Pretty sure when I signed up for this job it didn’t say warehouse maid. I mean I don’t mind cleaning up and organizing things, but this is ridiculous. I’m actually really annoyed about it. It seems that no one except the Italian Housewife cares enough to get off their ass and clean something. It is very frustrating. I spent three days last week cleaning different parts of the office, and if it wasn’t for me, no one would do it. No one would sweep or wash or organize. We would just live in more filth then we actually do. I tested it and when I wasn’t cleaning no one was cleaning. Ok, I’ve gone off on a rant here but I am just frustrated. I know people do help out in a small way here in there, it just seems like the big projects are left to me. Or maybe I just take the initiative to do it. Ugh, oh well.

I guess in the end, I am the one who needs to use the room the most and if I have a problem with it I should fix it. I just don’t like the idea of it being covered in dirt and grime.

If only I wasn’t so damn good at cleaning!!!