first day of spring

Yesterday was the official first day of spring, and it was an absolutely beautiful day. The sun was out with a high of 68. The tulips in the front yard look like they are ready to bloom any day now. I am really glad to finally get to experience seasons.
We went down town for a St. Patrick's Day pub crawl since it fell on a weekday this year. I really meant to take a picture of Pike Place Market while we were there because the entire roof is covered in daffodils right now. The windows on the bus are always too dirty and we didn't make it that far south in the crawl yesterday. I tried to find a picture online but wasn't able to. I always see other people on Facebook constantly posting pictures of the things they are doing and I wish I was better at remembering to do that! I love having pictures after the fact, but while I'm doing something I hate to be bothered taking out my camera.
In other news, I was feeling decent and worked a full week last week. Several coworkers who were clearly sick but did not want to use more sick time spread their filth and germs everywhere and now I have a cold. The point of sick time is not only for you to get better, but also for you to not get more people sick. I was just finally getting my appetite back to normal the past 2 days and now it's all out of whack again. My body is putting me on an involuntary diet.

spring forward

I didn't mean to go a whole month without updating, but we've been busy. My parents came for a visit which was a lot of fun. It was only for a weekend, but we did squeeze in some good food and some house projects. My dad and Nate put up a couple of light fixtures and my mom and I planted tulips in the front yard. I've haven't taken pictures of either, but both look really nice. Instead of the ugly brown light fixture in the living room (see previous post), we now have a pretty crystal chandelier. And instead of whatever random things the previous owner planted, we have a bed of tulips and hyacinths.
We've been really enjoying getting out in the garden when the weekends are sunny. We did a bit of planting last weekend try to spruce up the front of the house. Neither of us know much about plants so we still have all of the little tags sticking out of the ground to tell us the names of the plants. In the back yard my herbs are just starting to sprout.
We're definitely settling into a routine which I guess is both good and bad. It's nice to start to really feel comfortable in the house and the neighborhood. We know our way around Seattle, public transportation, our jobs. On the other hand, sometimes it feels like we're living in a foreign country. Like when we were buying plants, we didn't recognize half of them because they didn't grown in Florida. People's attitudes and mannerisms are different. People's values are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from ours. Even the road signs confuse us!
We love living here, especially in Ballard, but I wonder if there is always going to be a sense of not quite fitting in. Because no matter how long we live here we won't drive a Prius, give money to pan handlers, or understand wasting millions of dollars on public art when we can't fund schools. The beautiful views and mild weather will certainly keep us happy for while though.

painting

We painted all of the trim in the living/dining room white yesterday and it made such a huge difference. The whole room is brighter without the weird 70's wood trip. We still need to replace the light fixture, which I hope to get some help with when my parents visit. =)
The new couch arrived! My parents got it for us as a housewarming/Christmas gift and we absolutely love it. I suppose I could have straightened up the pillows before taking the picture. The Ikea coffee table looks really sad in comparison to everything else, but we have a lot of other projects that need to be done before we buy any furniture.
This was my project in my office. I had this swatch of blue on the wall for at about 3 months before finally getting around to painting it. I haven't figured out how to deal with the futon yet. I suppose I'll need to find a slip cover for it that matches. Then, I plan to put up this really girly white chandelier I saw at home depot.

spring is here early

We had beautiful weather yesterday so we took a walk to the library to get some more cookbooks and then down to the locks. While walking, we noticed many plants starting to bloom and the trees starting to get leaves again- in the beginning of February! We were excited to start planting since it seems we won't get another frost so we stocked up on seeds last night.
We spent the better part of today mowing, raking, and pulling up weeds. The pictures above are the beginning of the herb garden. The vine on the trellis had huge woody roots which were hard to get out and unexpected on such a small vine. We planted parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme, chives, and cilantro. A lot of them can grow indoors, so I'm not sure how they'll do out in the elements when they are starting as seeds.
In other news, I would like to announce that I finally made good chili. We watched the Super Bowl on the comfy new couch, extra careful not to spill any of it. The commercials were a huge disappointment, by the way. We laughed at a couple of Dorito ads, and started to laugh at the Green Police until it was actually for something green. I would have laughed harder if it was for a Hummer or something, but instead Audi got an eye roll.
All in all, it was a highly productive weekend rather than a relaxing one. Next weekend we have some painting to do which has been put off for months. More pictures to come as projects are completed...

sunset hill/golden gardens

Yesterday the sun peaked out so we decided to take a walk to the beach. The first photo is on Sunset Hill. If you notice how far down the marina is in the photo, that is how far you have to walk down to get to the beach. The path is a little further up the street and consists of a series of steep staircases and hiking trails. (You can also walk the long way on the bike trail which is much less steep and is probably an extra mile.) The beach pictures came out pretty dark even though it seemed bright to us (in comparison to normal winter days.) They had several fire pits, so I'm thinking bonfires are in our future.
In both the first and second pictures, you'd have a stunning view of the Olympics if it had been a clearer day.
It's funny that we moved to an opposite corner of the country and we are still 2 mins from the beach- even though it's a completely different kind of beach. I look forward to many sunsets in the future!

the green roofs are coming

(image from www.greenroofs.org)

As I mentioned last week, we made a visit to our library down the street. I had no idea what the point of putting grass on the roof was so I did some research on it. Read about it here.

Speaking of plants, many of the books we got were about gardening. Nate was out in the garden this weekend. (I was being lazy inside and not feeling well.) He got rid of a gigantic plant by the garage that did not look like it belonged in WA . In it's place he moved the ridiculously heavy cement sink that used to be in the basement. That will be our bed for planting herbs. He did a lot of work raking as well. The only thing not done is disposing of the gigantic branch that fell off our neighbor's pine tree. I don't want to have to pay for the city to take it so I think we should toss it back over the fence into their yard. They are lucky it didn't damage our house when it hit. Nate said I was being cranky. =)

We also checked out a Rachael Ray 30 min meal book and have been trying recipes. Some have been good; most have been misses. All of them have gotten us eating more veggies than we had been previously so I suppose that's good. The kitchen is really well laid out for us both to be in there and not bump into each other. The best recipe by far was a chicken piccata pasta toss- here. I'd recommend using less than a full pound of pasta and choosing a whole wheat one. The sauce is flavorful enough that you can't tell it's whole wheat, but there wasn't quite enough for a full pound of pasta.

While exploring this weekend, we found the best grocery store ever (and only 5 mins down the street). We used to love going to Trader Joe's for all of the unique things, but they don't have everything you need for a weekly trip (trash bags, cat litter, diet coke, a deli counter.) Ballard Market has to be the best idea ever. It's 50/50 with regular grocery store items and unique/organic things compared to about 90/10 at our regular grocery store. It's arranged with the organic stuff mixed in with the regular stuff so you can see what the price difference is without going across the store to the organic aisle. They've also got a ton of stuff from local companies and the best produce section ever. Best of all, I didn't feel like a tool like the one time I went in Whole Foods to use the bathroom.

first weekend of the new decade

It's bedtime but I'm trying to be better about blogging this year. A quick summary of our weekend:

• Had a fun time ringing in the new year with some friends (by the way, Seattle watches the ball drop in Times Square on delay instead of something on the west coast live- wtf is up with that)
• Finally got library cards and checked out our local branch. Found lots of books about gardening in the pacific nw so we can start our vegetable garden. Also found they have tons of the Food Network chefs' cookbooks so I'll be trying some new recipes this week.
• Put away all of the christmas stuff. We were the only people who put up our lights on thanksgiving weekend and the only ones who took them down on new years weekend. I thought that was standard but seattle is working on some other schedule.
• Got living room furniture courtesy of my parents!! We are so excited to have a comfy couch, though we have to wait 6-8 weeks for delivery because we picked a custom fabric.
  
• Speaking of my parents, my mom turned 50. They had a fabulous looking party last night and I wish I could have gone.
  
• Gave the house a good cleaning/ finally finished unpacking from TX
• Got lots of reading in

We were very productive this weekend, leading me to believe every weekend should have 3 days. I'm thankful another federal holiday is right around the corner...

last post of 2009?

I feel compelled to summarize the year so here it goes:
- Rang in the new year in London on our honeymoon. Had a frost bite scare but my toes recovered!
- Took a quick trip to FL for a friend's wedding.
- Started a new job.
- Moved from basement apartment to our top floor apartment.
- Bought house and moved again a few months later.
- Went to Austin for Christmas, visiting Perla, and meeting our new niece.
- Celebrated 1 year anniversary yesterday!

Next year we're hoping for a slower pace so we have more time to spend on the things that got overlooked last year. One of our goals in buying a house was having enough land to grow a vegetable garden. Starting in Feb we can begin planting! I also want to make more time for reading, trying new recipes, and exercising. I had to cancel my elliptical because the ship date moved to when we were on vacation, so now I'll have to reorder it. I would like to say I have a plan for improvements to the house, but I feel like the house has a plan for itself. I'm sure as soon as one thing breaks, it will lead to other projects so I don't want to get my heart set on anything cosmetic just yet.
Happy New Years, everyone!

Texas Photos

Leighann posted all of these to her Facebook already, but I figured I’d post them here for anyone that isn’t on the Facebook wagon.

 

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Salmon Bay Photos

I was walking around our neighborhood the other evening and came across this park on the edge of Salmon Bay. The Bay sits between Lake Union and Lake Washington on the East, and Elliot Bay (Puget Sound) on the West. The bodies of water are connected by the Ship Canal and the Ballard Locks. The park overlooks where the Bay reaches the Sound. The sun was setting behind the hill (Magnolia) and it was really pretty. I snapped these pictures with my cell phone, so they aren’t super detailed, but they stitched together nicely.

Photos are here