MB Day 2009

Wednesday, February 25 2009
23:53

Had a great day celebrating MB's birthday yesterday. We got up early, which wasn't so fun, but then went to Senor Moose for breakfast. yum! I had sopes con huevos, MB got huevos rancheros. Then, we were a bit ahead of schedule, so we walked around Ballard a bit. The weather was dreary, but we managed. We went into an eyeglasses place and tried on a bunch of glasses. I found a few that I thought were good on me. . .can't remember the brand though. Something Danish. Anyway, from there we headed to the Pacific Science Center, to see the "Lucy" exhibit. Wow! More than half of the exhibit is really about the history of Ethiopia. That was good, though not as exciting as the end where they actually have the fossilized bones from "Lucy" - 3.18 million years old! And a life-size re-creation, etc. They mentioned a few offshoots from the human family tree I'd never heard of - one of the skulls, something pre-Neanderthal and found first in Germany, was really quite freaky looking. I'm really glad we got to see that exhibit. Being a Tuesday, we were surrounded by droves of school children, but that wasn't too bad.

After that, we went to the University Village to do some shopping. MB needed some new shoes and a new watch. Success on the watch front, but not shoes. I got some socks too! hah. We had smoothies, and checked out a few other stores while we were there. Again, too bad the weather sucked, but we still had a good time. From there we headed back towards Fremont, stopping briefly at what a coworker calls "the hippy drum store" in Wallingford. They have a bunch of random percussion there. Anyway, our next destination was the Theo chocolate factory! We took the tour, which was great. The factory was pretty quiet by this time of day (4), so not much activity. It's so cool though that this place exists and is doing so well. I learned quite a bit about chocolate, too!

Next, it was up to Phinney to have dinner at Carmelita. Excellent. We got a bottle of wine, and split the cheese plate and a salad. MB had a polenta and squash dish, I had carrot gnocchi. Both yummy. We split the "duo of ice cream sandwiches" for dessert. That, alone, was disappointing. Really not very good. But overall a very nice dinner. We couldn't quite remember all that we'd done on "MB Day" last year, besides the Zoo. We thought maybe we'd eaten at Carmelita, but that was on 3/14 according to my diary. Survey says. . . looks like it was just brunch at the Hi-Life, then the zoo. After that, grocery shopping and watching the Oscars. Well, this year was better!

Speaking of which, after dinner we went to RCV and rented Charlie Wilson's War and Little Miss Sunshine. We watched both, in that order. CWW was very good - I'm a sucker for Aaron Sorkin's style. Overall, it was a bit of a love/hate, given the subject. Also, the "re-created" war footage (mixed with actual archive footage) was just so incredibly clunky and pointless and cheesy. . .I don't know what the hell they were thinking? But the rest was good. LMS was hilarious. I'm glad I finally saw that.

We had some nice weather last week, but it's pretty gray and wet and windy now. At least it's not dark at 4 PM any more.

February is almost over. And so is today.

Food and Movies and TV and stuff

Sunday, February 01, 2009
22:39

A packed weekend. Friday night: out to Habesha with MB for Ehtiopian food (yummy!) and belly dancing (a duo, each with very different styles). Home pretty late from that.

Saturday: rehearsal from 10 to 1. MB did HC stuff until 3; during that time I took a photo to the A&F shop to get it laminated, did some laundry, put my bike on the newly-installed bike rack in the garage (yay!), and had lunch. Picked up MB, and we headed to a tango lesson in the U District. That was very good, a wonderful teacher. Then back to this neighborhood, for a pho dinner, and then over to TM's to watch The Player. That movie is about as dark and cynical as it gets. And soooo good. Had some snacks and drinks there, then home to bed. I had a really bad headache for some reason. Thankfully, that was gone by this morning.

Today - slept in a bit while MB went to yoga. Then, a quick breakfast and out the door for haircut appointments on Cap Hill. I got a lot of hair cut off, MB got a color and style. On Will's suggestion, we stopped by In the Bowl for lunch - yum! All vegan pan-asian fare. Quick and decently priced. We got the taro spring rolls and green curry w/ tofu. The soy-meat stuff they do is apparently really excellent. I wish a place like that was closer to either work or home. From there, over the hill to JC's house for a Super Bowl party. That was good - they have a really great little house, I like it a lot. Watched the game with them and other folks from work - it was a great game. Started off a little one-sided, but stayed very interesting right up until the end. At which point we hit the road back to Ballard, to watch BSG at TM's. Wow, an intense episode. Had some wonderful spicy carrot / sweet-potato soup there and a few cookies. Then back home to wrap up the weekend, and now, to bed.