Valentine's Day

I sure did get spoiled this Valentine's Day! First, I got a surprise visit from Dad at my office. He had brought me a bouquet of tulips and a few chocolates from See's. When I got home, I put them in a red vase on the window sill next to the red glassy baby he had gotten me as a previous gift.

Clint and I hadn't made any specific plans for the night, I figured we'd just go grab a bite to eat or something easy. Little did I know that he had planned a nice evening in for the two of us. He asked me to come over for dinner, and I was surprised with roses, wine, chocolate, jewelry, and dinner being prepared! So sweet of him.

I had brought him a box of chocolates (with a chalkboard lid), a card, and some delicious chocolate red wine that Hilarie introduced me to on my birthday.

 
The card he found was my favorite part. It has a dancing musical kitten on the inside playing the piano! Love. I play it everyday.

Dinner was delicious. Clint's dad had recently gone on a fishing trip in Alaska, so this huge hunk of fish has been waiting in the freezer. It was about the size of a pot roast.

Clint also prepared broccoli and black rice (our new favorite), and topped the salmon with a spicy black bean sauce.

After dinner, we watched the Redbox movie Clint had rented, The Bourne Supremacy, and drank our chocolate wine. It was a great night, and I'm glad I got to spend it with someone so special.

Birthday Twinner Dinner

Last month, Weiner and I got together for our annual birthday twin dinner. This year she recommended Indigo Kitchen, and it was delicious! I'll have to vouch for Weiner since she was getting over being sick and couldn't taste her food, poor thing.

We had a great time catching up and laughing. I had shared my email hoarding problem with her. I have emails from back in 2006 when first I started my gmail account, and never delete anything unless it's spam. Weiner on the other hand deletes everything. Do you have that email I sent you last week about...nope, deleted. She inspired me to clean out my inbox. I archived everything (not the same as deleting...I'm not ready to let go), so that freed up my inbox for just the emails that I need to respond to, how smart is that?

adorable hand made card

We had a great night, and I'm so happy we've continued our tradition since it's something I look forward to every year!

Sarah B Visit

A few weekends ago (I'm a little behind) my bff from high school, Sarah B, came over from Ellensburg for a visit. I had recently seen her at her NYE wedding and we decided we needed to see more of each other. She hadn't been to my new place yet, so she packed an overnight bag and headed over the pass.

She got here on Saturday, and after giving her the tour of my new home we sat down and chatted, getting all caught up on her new life as a newlywed and mother-to-be! We started to get hungry, so headed out for some lunch and shopping. We grabbed a bite at the Edge Grill downtown (used to be Fox Sports, I guess they did some rebranding) and checked out the new Nordstrom Rack. What a difference from their previous location! It was packed, and a little overwhelming, but we managed to find some things we just had to have.

We came back to my place with intentions of going out again to someplace fun for dinner, but the couch got the best of us. Before we knew it, we were all cozy in our pj's, ordered a pizza, and found the perfect guilty pleasure tv show on Netflix to get hooked on, Pretty Little Liars. It's about four high school age girls who's friend disappears and is later found to be murdered. It's on ABC Family, so it's a little cheesy, but don't hate...it's super addicting. So much so that we sat through 8 episodes before we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore and headed to bed.

In the morning, my mom came over and she treated us to brunch out at Ma'Ono - one of my favorite West Seattle spots. It was delicious (and the portions are huge!) and fun for Mom and Sarah to get a chance to catch up since it had probably been about 10 years!

We headed back to my place, said our goodbyes, and Sarah headed back over the mountains to get home. It was such a fun weekend, I've missed the fun times we have together. Here's hoping we do a better job keeping in touch this year!

My boyfriend the artist

Who knew Clint was so artsy? Well...I did. One of the first things I noticed when we first started dating was an easel with a half painted canvas set up in his condo. Smart and artistic!

Here's a painting he recently finished. His mom had it framed as a gift to him, so sweet, and now it's hanging in his dining room.

Kindle addict

Well...I've developed quite the addiction to reading. You might say I rekindled my love for my kindle (see what I did there?). I'm well on my way to accomplishing my goal for the year of reading a book a month. I read 4 in January, and already on book number 2 for February!

I finished Sharp Objects, which was the third book I read by Gillian Flynn last month. It was another page turner (or button pusher), but I still enjoyed Gone Girl the best out of the three.

I also saw a fun way to review books on another blog, so I thought I'd give it a try for the books I read this year here.

Book 4: Blackberry Winter

Rating: ★★★★✩

Recommend?: yes

One-sentence summary: A freak Seattle snowstorm in 1933 and 2010 connect two women, each facing their own intense tragedy.

Buy, Borrow, or Avoid?: Buy if you can find for a good price (side note: why are Nook books so much cheaper than Kindle?).

Review: Enjoyed the time shifting plot, and of course the mystery aspect. Fun to have Seattle landmarks referenced...Pike Place, Olympic hotel, Frederick and Nelson (shout out to Mom!).

Book 5: Hopeless

Rating: ★★★✩✩

Recommend?: probably

One-sentence summary: New girl falls for the bad boy and together they uncover dark secrets from their past.

Buy, Borrow, or Avoid?: Borrow.

Review: If you can stomach the cheesy Twilight-ish teenage love, the plot is actually worth the read.

I'm currently reading (and only "eh" so far) Where'd You Go, Bernadette...another story that takes place in Seattle.

Birthday celebrating

I love birthdays!

And this year was no exception. I'm so thankful for all my friends and family that went out of there way to make my birthday this year a special one. Thank you for all the well wishes, texts, cards, gifts...you all are too sweet!

I kicked off the birthday celebrating on Friday night by having a few friends over for a slumber party at my place. My old neighbors Anne and Alicia, my new neighbor Hilarie, and Colleen and Sarah all headed over after work for a fiesta (Anne even brought a sombrero!). I made tacos for dinner, and we entertained ourselves by watching youtube videos and playing Cards Against Humanity. Hilarie even brought chocolate wine for dessert!

only picture from the night, ha!

On Sunday, the day of my birthday, Clint and I headed to Woodinville to stay the night at Willows Lodge. Clint's friend Matt is the general manager there, so he was able to hook us up with a suite! The room was incredible. We got there just after noon and checked in at the front desk. When we each got a complimentary glass of wine when we arrived, I knew I wanted to live there.

Willows Lodge

wine? yes please!

We dropped of our bags, and headed out for lunch. The pizza place suggested to us was closed...they were having a Superbowl party for the staff, so we went across the street to Mazatlan for Mexican food.  With a belly full of enchiladas and margaritas, Clint and I opted to skip wine tasting and go back to our room for a nap and to watch the Superbowl. Guess we'll just need to go another time to check out all the winery tasting rooms!

jetted tub!

cozy bed

Superbowl by the fire...except we couldn't find the switch

We had fun watching the game (or for me the commercials and half time show), but by time the 4th quarter came around we had to leave for our dinner reservation. We walked across the parking lot to the Barking Frog, a restaurant I've been wanting to try from all the good things I've heard. It was delicious! Clint ordered the tasting menu, so I got to taste all of his courses, while I went with the scallops, noms.

sorbet palate cleanser

yummy scallops

Clint's braised pork

"artsy" birthday card from Clint

After taking our time at dinner and practically closing down the restaurant, we made our way back to our room to call it a night. 

In the morning, we got up and fired up our laptops to get some work done (it being a Monday and all). Work doesn't seem as bad when you're working from a luxury hotel suite! I also took advantage of the jetted tub and took a nice relaxing bath. We finally checked out at 1pm, and went to grab some lunch. I was determined to get that pizza, so we went back to Station Pizzeria and fortunately they were open. The menu is full of delicious wood-fired pizza options, so we went with the Cipolla and a shredded brussel sprout salad that was also really good.

sausage, ricotta cheese, onion, and pine nuts

After lunch, Clint had a meeting to get to, and I headed home to log back on to get some more work done. Later that evening, Mom came over so that we could go out to Jak's in West Seattle to continue the celebrating (I really do like to stretch out my birthday as long as I can). She came over bearing frog cupcakes, my favorite, isn't she the best?!

ribbit

We headed to Jak's and both ordered the ribeye, which was ginormous! Unfortunately, a large chunk of the steak was all fat, but still way more than either of us could eat. I ended up with plenty of leftovers for the next night.

The next day at work, my coworkers had all signed a birthday card for me, and my coworker  Deanna had baked peanut butter cookies, another favorite! It was nice of them to remember even though my birthday had been over the weekend.

To continue the birthday momentum, Dad took me to dinner Wednesday night. We met up at Salty's for another delicious dinner. I had the scallops (yes, for the third time in one week) and Dad had the salmon. I was also surprised with a delicious white chocolate cake for dessert. 

make a wish!

It was a great week of celebrating, and thanks again to everyone!

Blaine's jewelry swap

Blaine had the great idea to host a party where you bring any accessories you may not want anymore to swap with everyone else so that you leave with new (to you) goodies. She also wanted to incorporate Stella & Dot, so she had me bring my jewels along to set up so that people could do some shopping if they wanted.

She planned the day and set out an evite, but unfortunately the date didn't end up working for most. With only 4 of us confirmed (Blaine and I and her two friends Hillary and Megan), Blaine decided to make it a girl's night dinner party, and it ended up being a blast!

I came over after work a little earlier than Hillary and Megan, and we set up my jewelry displays and got dinner started. Once the girls arrived, we drank wine, chatted, looked at jewelry, and ate a delicious dinner of scallops with bacon and spinach (I'm gonna have to get that recipe!).

The more wine we drank, the goofier the four of us got, and had a fun time taking self portraits and trying on some of the silly accessories we had all brought.

fun with the iPad

The girls found some Stella & Dot jewelry they liked, so I placed their orders and Blaine ended up earning jewelry credits as the hostess. It was a fun night and made me realize we need to have a fun girl's nights more often.

probably laughing at Blaine

jewels!