Random Snapshots

on the road.

Cousin Denise and I are at Sock Summit; having a great time!

 

No time to blog!  But, follow our photstream here: Sock Summit 2009.

super loved it!

The NKOTB concert that is.  As we were walking out this is what my friend Kery said to me and I felt the same way -- we super loved it!!

 

I loved all the old stuff they played and even some of the new stuff.  They are still great dancers and overall put on a really high-energy show.  You could tell they were having fun up there.  The crowd was really involved which was fun.

You just can't beat the people watching at a show like this either!  Some of the outfits I just can't explain.  There were a lot of ladies looking for action.  :)

I would definitely see them again.  This show made up for not having a chance to see them when I was younger though. 

 

Here's a link to a few more pictures -- NKOTB Flickr Set.

fireworks

We got to watch the fireworks last night from the rooftop of a friend's apartment building.  She lives in the S. Lake Union area.  It was very cool and ended up being the best Seattle-fireworks-viewing-spot we've found so far. 

The sunsets around here are really amazing!

I brought my tripod with me to set up some long exposures and I got a few good shots.

 

 

 

 

 

I have a billion more photos to go through from the daytime fun we had as well.  It was such a gorgeous (and hot) day to be outside exploring. 

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

twentyninth birthday

I got to celebrate my 29th birthday twice last week!  The first celebration came on my birthday - Thursday 05.07.09. 

I got my favorite breakfast - McDonald's Egg McMuffin without meat - and my favorite drink - Starbucks Black Tea Latte w/ soy.  And I was greeted with flowers from my Dad shortly after arriving at my office.

After work Adam took me out to dinner at one of my favorite local, Italian restaurants.  I had some wine, caprese salad and my favorite entree there.  

Adam got me a new knitting bag - the Namaste Zuma bag.  I have been carrying it ever since and I love it so far!  It's smaller than my last bag, but very roomy and deep.  I also like that it has a very hard bottom and sits up on its own.  

I received some other great gifts including some Pilates DVDs and a gift certificate for yarn from my Mom and a Twilight umbrella from cousin Denise.  Yes, I said Twilight umbrella!  Perfect gift for a Twilight lover in the Seattle Metro area, no? 

On Saturday night we met up with some friends to celebrate again.  We had drinks, dinner and a lot of good laughs.  It was great to catch up with some friends that we haven't seen for a while.

 

Allison & I shared a bucket of rum!  Check out that huge cookie that Megan brought me - it was delicious.  You can also faintly see a sweet little bottle of Patron that Allison gave me for my margaritas.

It was a good couple of days.  And a good last-birthday-in-my-twenties celebration too!

so far...

My brother arrived on Saturday afternoon after a catastrophe of a flying experience and we started in on activities that night. 

Here's what we've done so far:

On Saturday night we went to the Seattle Sounders FC game.  The Sounders have been in Seattle for a few years, but this is their first year as a Major League Soccer team.  That's a pretty big deal for soccer fans and my brother and I are big soccer fans.  The game was a great time.  The stadium was packed and the crowd was pretty cool.  Seattle lost their starting goalie within the first 20 minutes of the game to a red card ejection and lost the game in the last 10 minutes 1-0.  Such is life with soccer games!  We had a good time either way though and I'm considering buying season tickets next year. 

 

 

 

The major downer of the game was that bottled Budweiser was $7.75 each!  I've never paid so much for shitty beer.  Needless to say we only had 1 each at the game.  I couldn't believe it when the guy told us the price!

 

After the game we met up with a few friends who were in a different section and headed over to Pyramid Ale House for more beer and food.  I had my favorite Apricot ale.  We had a lot of laughs and enjoyed catching up with a friend that we don't see nearly enough.

Sunday was Easter and we didn't do much besides eat and relax.  It was much needed!

Yesterday I worked during the day and the boys went to the gun range.  

 

After work we grabbed some dinner and headed into Seattle for a concert.  We saw Franz Ferdinand at the Moore Theatre.  The Moore is one of my favorite places to see a concert in Seattle.  It's an old theatre that is being preserved.  It's very small inside which makes for an intimate show and the architecture is gorgeous -- here a few shots I took on my phone:

 

 

 

The concert was good - the opening band sucked in my opinion, but I think that had almost everything to do with their lack of a good sound person.  FF was awesome and I'd definitely see them again.  They were better in concert than they are recorded in my opinion.  

We're not sure what the rest of the week will bring, but hopefully the weather will clear up for us.  I'm taking Wednesday through Friday off and my brother doesn't leave until Sunday so we have a lot of time to explore.  

 

the ring

Today would have been my Grandmother's 90th birthday.  She passed away in 2003 and like everyone in my family I miss her a great deal.  I think about her a lot.  All happy thoughts and hilarious memories. 

  

You can read more about her in a post I wrote back in December 2005 -- Stella's Addiction

In honor of her birthday I'm wearing her Mother's ring which was given to me when she passed away.  I wear it a lot actually and this morning I knew I had to put it on.  It's nothing fancy, but it means a lot to me.

 

There is something very cool about this ring - the 3 stones for her 3 children (my uncle, my aunt and my father) are the same stones for myself and my 2 brothers.  I've always thought that was really interesting that her 3 children were born in the same 3 months as one of her children's 3 children -- follow that?  ;) 

Happy Birthday Grandma!  I think I'll pull out my crochet hooks tonight in honor of you!

PS -- if you're the praying type, can you spare few prayers and good thoughts?  My Auntie M is having open heart surgery on Thursday morning.  Although I know she's going to be just fine she is very nervous.  And rightfully so.  I know she could use a few prayers and good thoughts to calm her nerves and our family would much appreciate it.  :)

twilight party

I ended up being home for the release of the Twilight DVD which worked out perfect because cousin Denise and I are real Twilight freaks!  Since I was home we decided to have a party Saturday night.  All the girl cousins and our knitting buddy Lynne came over.

We started the Twilight madness on Thursday night.  We stopped at WalMart to pick up some tshirts.  The selection and quality wasn't that great, but the price was right so we picked some up and decided to keep looking. 

On Friday afternoon we hit the mall in search of some other Twilight gear and general wardrobe freshening.  Wardrobe freshening is our tradition!

Hot Topic was the place to be and I walked out of there with far too much Twilight schwag!

 

The two shirts are mine.  Yes, I needed 2!  Then we've got a keychain, some pins, Twilight Sweethearts, Denise's puzzle, my magnets and the director's notebook.  Good stuff!

We started the puzzle on Friday night and it really kicked our ass!  Almost all the pieces are black and look the same.

Saturday night we set up the party by filling the house with Twilight goods.

 

  

Shirts for each of the girls:

 

  

I'm kind of bummed I don't have a photo of myself in my sweet Forks High School tshirt! 

The glasses for the punch were my favorite part.  We made up some candy apple mix and dipped the glasses in them for a dripping blood effect.  I ended up burning the mix so they turned out darker red than we had intended, but they still looked cool.  The burning made them taste like crap though!

  

We had some pizza and then cozied up on the couches with blankets to watch the movie.  It was a lot of fun.

Denise and I watched it a 2nd time after everyone left - ha!

mission accomplished!

This past Saturday we flew down to Hermosa Beach (LA) to surprise my cousin Jules for her 30th birthday.  The party was Saturday night so we figured going down for the weekend would be fun.  We got a killer deal on airfare through Virgin America and really couldn't pass up the opportunity. 

The surprise went off without a hitch.  She said that she had been wanting us to come, but didn't want to say anything or get her hopes up.  She was really surprised though.

Here we are waiting for them to arrive at John & Julie's for breakfast and the surprise.

We had a great time at the party on Saturday night.  Jules & Mark have a great group of friends and it was really fun catching up with all of them.

 

  

 

The sunny, 80* weather didn't hurt either!  Sunday morning Jules & Mark had a prior engagement so we took a walk along the beach and had breakfast with a friend.

 

Gorgeous, right?!  I love it there!

Sunday night we had dinner at John & Julie's house.  Julie made macaroni, of course, and it was outstanding as usual!  We also had a some famous Aunt Marilyn cake.

  

Monday morning before we had to leave for the airport Mark took us for another walk along the beach.  We also had breakfast at one of our favorite spots on the beach.

  

Does anyone recognize this house?

  

It's the 90210 house!  From the original series.

And for just $5500 a month you can rent out the top floor.  :)

  

We had a great weekend -- it was much too short, but we definitely made the most of it.  I really love surprises.  Especially the ones that involve flying somewhere to surprise someone.  It's my favorite.  

If you want to take a look at the rest of the pictures from the weekend click here -- Julianne's 30th Birthday Weekend  

Twilight stalking

The weekend before last BFF Jessica and I went on a roadtrip to Forks, WA in search of Edward Cullen or other hot, teenage vampires.  We didn't have anything to do that particular Saturday and figured Twilight stalking was as good a plan as any.  After checking out the weather and seeing that it was going to be 55* and sunny in Forks, without any rain the deal was sealed. 

We left early in the afternoon and it took us about 3.5 hours to get there.  The first half of the drive was extrememly boring, but the second half really made the entire trip.

Driving around the Olympic pennisula was breathtaking, to say the least.  The route is packed with gorgeous-green-Northwest scenery and takes you through the mountains and along various bays.  Thankfully there are several pull-offs along the way to stop, take photos, and drink it all in.

We stopped to take photos both before and after we explored Forks.

  

  

  

  

Getting to the town of Forks was a little anti-climatic as we'd expected.  There was very minimal filming there for the movie and most of the sites were staged.  We took a few photos and drove around a bit before heading home.  The town is VERY small and you can see everything on just a couple of main roads.

Bella's red pickup:

  

And the sticker Jacob put on the back:

  

Forks High School where all the magic happens:

  

The outdoor store that Bella works at:

  

And Dr. Cullen's parking spot at the hospital:

  

We also saw Charlie's police cruiser, but I guess I didn't take a photo of that.  We didn't end up going to the Swan or Cullen house - they are both staged and private residences.  We also didn't end up stopping anywhere in Port Angeles, but we did drive through it twice.  

All in all it was a fun roadtrip and worth the ride since we live so close.  It's nothing that I'd fly out for (unless they were filming -haha!), but if you're close it makes for a fun day!  I was the passenger so I ended up finishing most of my Bella's mittens on the way.  I had hoped to completely finish them and take some FO photos in Forks, but it didn't work out that way. 

Here are some links that I found about touring the area in case anyone is interested in going:

After the Bite 

Twilight Tour 

Dorks in Forks  

weekend wrap-up

I took a few days off of blogging to enjoy my 5 days off.  I am really sad that it is Sunday already...back to work tomorrow.

Did you have a nice Christmas?  I hope so!

We sure did.  I didn't take many photos which seemed nice at the time, but I'm sure I'll regret that soon.  :)

Christmas Eve was really great.  We had Jessica and Steve over for dinner and drinks.  We had a lot of drinks.  Polished off 2.5 bottles of wine and 2 bottles of cheap champagne.

They slept over too which was fun! 

Christmas was low-key for us, as usual.  Except for the presents.  We both went kind of overboard with the presents for each other.  We've been doing that for the past couple of years.  I know people say they aren't into the presents anymore when they become adults, but we are.  We love buying and hiding and suprising and opening on Christmas morning.  I think we would do this anyway, but it's kind of become our "thing" since we moved out here and have been spending Christmas alone.

Here's our living room shortly after opening gifts:

  

The rest of the week/weekend has truly been the laziest experience for both of us.  We've done a lot of staying up really late and sleeping in, a lot of video games playing, watching TV and movies, sitting by the fireplace, knitting, finishing, blocking and starting, reading a lot of books and magazines and just relaxing in general.  It's really been great!  I'm going to have a hard time going to work tomorrow morning.  Adam is off until Friday.     

I'll blog about a few of the amazing gifts I received this year over the next few days.  I'm off to enjoy what's left of my Christmas vacation now!