Really relieved that the sickness has finally disappeared. Seems like it took its dear sweet time, but I survived. The past weekend we started to feel a bit like ourselves and this week we were able to dabble in our usual activities. Halluluah!
Wednesday: I attended a huge party for the new catering service at Benaroya Hall. For whatever reason they hosted so many guests to sample all of their food and drink for free (I mean beef tenderloin, roasted pork, shrimp cocktail, smoked salmon, antipasti galore), plus live music. After filling up I went to my first yoga class in months it seems like. It was also one of the easiest yoga classes I have been to in months.
Thursday: Great FareStart dinner featuring a fantastic salad with warm bacon viniagrette and a poached egg, seared steelhead with cauliflower puree and fancy mushrooms and an excellent take on smores.
Friday: Free dinner with Polly at a Mongolian Grill followed by volunteering at an amazing acoustic, string and vocals concert held inside the magnificent St. Mark’s Cathedral.
Saturday: Went for a long walk in the precious warmth of the sun before scooting to the bookstore (yes, both of us) for New Zealand books, watching Texas beat Oklahoma State, and then getting a fantastic fancy French dinner at A La Bonne Franquette, a quick drive from our house. Seated with the most amazing view of the city we shared a great mushroom soup, simple green salad, carafe of Bordeaux, the seared steelhead with brussel sprouts and brandade potatoes, the mushroom stuffed chicken with butternut squash bread pudding and green beans, and the spiced pear bread pudding. Nice date night out.
Sunday: Watched the first half of the Seahawks from home before riding the scooter to the newly opened Quality Athletics sports bar for their Dine Around Seattle three-course lunch menu for $18. We shared their potato croquettes with herbed aioli and super spicy duck wings with a cooling yogurt sauce to start. Bryan got the lamb philly cheesesteak with house salad and I got the excellent smoked chicken salad with a great buttermilk salad dressing, manchego and hand torn croutons. For dessert we shared the peanut butter ice cream sundae with salted caramel sauce and cracker jacks and the smores with gooey mallow, chocolate and homemade graham crackers. We lost which sucked but we were full. After digesting we went on our usual 5.5 mile run around the Arboretum in the remaining sunlight. I got my best time of 51 minutes. More football watching, picked up an easy dinner at QFC and then watched the first Lord of the Rings in preparation for New Zealand.
Monday: Had Polly over for dinner. I made my go-to cider glazed pork tenderloin, mashed red skins, and a beet and avocado salad with tahini lemon dressing. We supplemented dinner with winter crafts (or at least Polly and I did). We made some snowflakes and gold pine cones to hang…EVERYWHERE…while Bryan baked us homemade chocolate chip cookies! Then we introduced Polly to Dr. Pol…she cried 🙂
Tuesday: Rose early morning to head the 1/2 mile to my barre class, great! After work I had my SEAW monthly dinner meeting featuring a project that my company is partly involved with: Bertha. It was a fascinating presentation, trying to cover up all their boo-boos in the project.
Wednesday: Potluck lunch at the Capitol Hill Station. Night off included Bryan making me dinner for once. He made a fantastic (and rich!) loaded baked potato soup and we watched the PBS documentary about the science behind the Oso landslide.
Thursday: Barre class again. Night off from FareStart (by choice). Our staff went out for happy hour after the decision was finalized to merge with McMillen with a passing of 92.7% of the votes.
And we have a whole list of things we plan on doing this weekend to keep us occupied through the forecast of 90% chance of showers both Saturday and Sunday. We’ll see how many we do!
Chelsea
Evolving in the Emerald City 