Shoo Smoke!

The smoke and haze in the sky has continued this week, along with the heat.  I guess the plus side for the two of these together is that smoke and haze are nature’s air conditioner and have helped to keep the temperatures cooler than expected.  The downside of the two of these together is that the air has felt much more muggy and humid than is unusual for Seattle.  We’ve continued the routine of closing all of the windows and blinds in the morning when we leave for work and then opening every window in the house to get airflow when we get home at night.  That, and we have kept the oven and stove off since Monday’s Game of Thrones night.  Cold showers and Bryan’s contraption of blowing the fan over frozen blocks of ice have helped cool us off at night.  Fortunately tomorrow cools down and the smoke is supposed to gradually clear.  I can’t imagine what a high of 69 on Sunday is going to feel like!

Our week has been good though.  After we spent the weekend in La La Land it was back to a full week of work and preparations for Game of Thrones on Monday.  This week we themed the meal around Southeast Asia.  I prepped chicken satay and peanut sauce for Bryan to grill and made a mango and pepper salad and pad thai with fried tofu.  I was sweating in the kitchen this week!  Plus we had twelve people to feed including ourselves but Bryan and I pulled off our fourth backyard watching party and everyone went home happy after an exciting episode.  Three more episodes left for this season.

Tuesday I joined my company on the volleyball field.  We had only five people playing for the first three games when we then got our sixth player for the last two.  We did not win a single game but every loss was by a point or two.  It was close and competitive and fun and I played fairly well.  Wednesday we learned that our my favorite seasonal pizza was back at Tutta Bella so off on the scooter we went.  We went to the South Lake Union location and ate our delicious salad and pizza outside on the patio while people watching.  Man that pizza is good!

Thursday night’s FareStart went smooth even with Bryan training for the expo spot.  I’d say he did a really good job commandeering the kitchen and I told him I am going to have to bleach his FareStart shirt so he has a white chefs jacket.  The dinner from Volunteer Park Cafe featured a bunch of fresh seasonal produce that I love; sweet corn and snap pea salad with a delicious herby green goddess dressing, roasted herb chicken with a beautiful heirloom tomato panzanella (bread) salad, and a blackberry pavlova with lemon curd, whipped cream and figs which was surprisingly delicious.

On to the weekend and our last one in Seattle for a few weeks.  We have a few fun shindigs with friends in town this weekend which should be enjoyable plus we are both looking forward to getting in a little exercise if we can.

Chelsea