Dinner with the girls

A few weeks ago, I had some of the girls over for dinner for what will probably be the last time in my townhouse. Clint and I have been in the process of moving me into his condo (which could probably take up a whole post on its own), so I wanted to host a dinner before I'm out of there for good.

Colleen, Kylee, Maureen and surprise guest Reid came over, and we had such a good time catching up. I think Maureen told us all about Reid's birth...can't be sure though, Colleen and I tuned it out. You'd think if my friends wanted me to have my own kids, they'd stop telling me their childbirth stories.

sweet baby Reid and his sweet head of hair

Dinner was yummy, and Maureen stopped by a bakery to pick up some fun treats (cookies, cupcakes, cake pops). Love these girls, and love getting a chance to spend time with them!

Desert 100 2017

That time of year again, mud and motorcycles at the Desert 100. Clint and I loaded up his truck and trailer, and headed east to Moses Lake. We had learned our lesson from last year to never stay at the AmeriStay Inn (bed bug haven), so this year we upgraded to the Comfort Suites. We got checked in, and then drove out to the middle of nowhere, Odessa, where the race is held.

This year there had to be almost double the amount of people. The RVs and campsites extended out about 2 miles, it was crazy! So many more people, trucks and bikes than ever before. We checked out all the vendors, including our friend Jamey who was there to promote his law firm specializing in injury law. Clint got registered for the race, and then him and Matt went out on their bikes to practice the starting line.

Me, Jamey, Matt and Clint – D100 veterans

Matt and Clint ready to ride

View from the top of Jamey's RV

Pretty sunset

Clint and I headed back to our hotel that night while the rest of the guys stayed at the race site and camped in Jamey's RV. We were back the next day to hangout, as well as get Clint's motorcycle race-ready with a new sprocket and tires.

checking out vendor row

a new sprocket for the bike

Once again, we headed back to town to grab dinner (Clint needed his carbs to race the next day), and called it an early night since we were up before the sun the next day.

Clint carb loading at Denny's

sunrise in Moses Lake

Clint got all suited up, and headed out to line up for the race with the other 1,000 riders. They all parade along the street to get to the starting line, then they line up one by one standing about 10 yards behind their bikes. Once the canon goes off, they all run to jump on their bikes and take off. About three miles in, they all funnel through what's called the "hole shot". This year, Clint was so speedy that he was the 5th (out of like 1,000) to hit the hole shot, incredible!

pep talk from Matt before the race

Once the riders were out of view, Matt (who wasn't racing due to a back injury) sat in the pits with me while we waited for the riders to start coming through. The race is two 50 mile laps, so a total of 100 miles. After the first lap, riders stop to get fuel and anything else they need before finishing the second lap.

waiting in the pits for Clint to come through and
get fueled up for the second lap

Clint ended up not having the best race, even after that amazing start. At about mile 5, some guy wrecked in front of him, which caused Clint to wreck, and then also a third guy behind him. Clint hit the handlebars pretty hard and reamed his ribs. Having that happen right at the start of the race rattled him pretty good. At the halfway point, he still wanted to continue, but then got a flat tire just after starting lap two. So...not his best time, but still impressive that he finished. Out of all those racers, less than half actually end up finishing.

race finisher!

Once the race was over, we packed up the truck and headed home, until next year!

My Favorite Murder

This will probably make me sound sick and disturbed, but one of my favorite podcasts is called My Favorite Murder. It's two lady comedians, Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff, who get together in Georgia's apartment each week to record an episode. They'll both have researched a murder, the more mysterious the better, and tell each other about it. For anyone into true crime, I'd recommend it. It's hilarious too, which I know sounds terrible since it's about murder...but maybe you just have to listen to get it?

Anyways, they decided to do a national tour, visiting all the major cities to perform a show. I tried to score tickets to Seattle as soon as they went on sale, but was too late – they sold out in under an hour! So bummed! But then, I saw they added an additional show in Portland, and since that's not too far of a drive I decided to get 4. I knew Sarah and Heather would be down (the ones that turned me onto it in the first place), and of course Colleen my go to travel buddy.

Unfortunately, Sarah got the plague the day before we were supposed to leave – the sickest she's been in 10 years (worst luck ever), so she was unable to make it. So, Colleen, Heather and I headed out on our road trip to Portland, listening to My Favorite Murder episodes on the way down.

We stayed at the Vintage Kimpton hotel, which was super cute and in a great location. When we got there in the afternoon, we shopped (tax free!) and then back to the room for cocktails and get ready for the show.

Cheers! Missing Sarah :(

We grabbed dinner before heading to Revolution Hall, an old school that has since been turned into a theater, where the show was. There were tons of other "sick and disturbed" fans as we all waited in line to grab seats.

As fun as it was to see Karen and Georgia in person, I have to say the show itself was a little disappointing. The murders they told were unforgettable, and Karen's was even about mysterious things that have happened at Crater Lake – a stretch if you ask me. Come to find out (on one of the later episodes), Karen didn't realize they were doing three shows in Portland, and had only prepared two stories. I'm guessing her Crater Lake story was the result of procrastination. Regardless, we still had a fun time, and the banter between the two was fun to watch.

their sound guy Steven with a VooDoo Donut
made to look like him

The next morning, we headed to the McMenamins Kennedy School to check it out and have brunch. The place is pretty cool. We had brunch in the cafe which used to be the old cafeteria, checked out some of the hotel rooms (old classrooms), and peeked in to the movie theater and swimming pool.

The trip ended up being a blast, and fun to have some girl time!

More National Geographic

I've still been getting good use out of our National Geographic Speaker Series season tickets. These shows have become something I look forward to each month. The speakers have all been great!

our neck breaking seats, but hey–first row!

In February, my old neighbor Anne joined me to see the Risky Science of Exploration. The speaker was Kenny Broad, an anthropologist who has studied cocaine trafficking in Jamaica, venomous snakes in Vietnam, and what I found to be the most interesting – dived into underwater caves in Cuba.

Then in March, Colleen came with me to see Beauty and the Bizarre, where photographer Anand Varma shared some cool photos of parasites, honey bees and hummingbirds.

incredible photograph by Anand Varma

ladybug and a parasite

And finally, Clint was able to make it to one! In April, we saw the Mystery of our Human Story. We grabbed dinner first at Japonessa, then headed to Benaroya Hall. Lee Berger, a well-known paleoanthropologist, told us about his incredible discovery of a massive amount of human bones in a secret chamber of a remote cave system that led to learning a ton more about evolution.

sushi for dinner

being nerds

We're looking forward to the last in the series next month, Mankind to Mars.

Spring Break!

Another quarter complete! I had two really fun classes this quarter, Visual Communication and Creative Computing. The first was a lot of designing and learning the basics. This was more of a review course for me, but still a lot of fun. Here are a few of my assignments.

The first was picking a couple words from a provided list and finding a font and manipulating it to represent their meaning.

In this next assignment, we had to take to make visual instructions (no words allowed) to show a step-by-step process of an easy task. Mine was how to cook pasta.

This was a poster for a fictional lecture which had certain criteria...title of event, logo, and all the details.

And for our final project, we had to come up with the visual identity of another fictional speaker series of our choice. It had to relate to design in some way. I chose "chaos" as my theme. We also had to come up with four speakers that would be showcased at the event. Mine were a subway map designer, tv show host from Hoarders, an infographic designer and finally a photographer who specializes in taking parts of electronically gadgets and making them orderly.

speaker series poster

social media advertising

swag bags

My second course was all about learning to code. I'm pretty proficient in coding HTML/CSS for websites, but this was a fun introduction to coding in javascript. We had quite a few fun projects, which you can see all of them here in my portfolio, including my final project which was creating a coloring book application, try it out!

A weekend of culture

When Clint and I were on our cruise last November, we attended a couple of the auctions with Park West. We then got invited to come stay at the Four Seasons downtown for an art event where they had a few artists come and speak and then auction off their pieces. It was a great time, and we had fun pretending to be fancy art snobs.

The room was pretty great...huge soaking tub, and a view of the infinity pool and the Puget Sound.

TV in the bathroom mirror = living large

On Friday we had already purchased tickets to the Seattle Symphony (as part of our attempt to be more cultured this year), so we ate dinner with the group, then walked up the block to Benaroya Hall. The show was Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, and it was by far my favorite performance I've seen. They had a huge screen showing all the old Warner Brothers classics while a live orchestra played the music. Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Pepé le Pew, Tom & Jerry, Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote...all the great ones. It was fun to see the cartoons all these years later and realize they still hold up, hilarious. 

The artist showcased on Saturday, Michael Godard, was quite the character...lives in Vegas, loud, funny and very rock-n-roll. He reminded us of Bret Michaels with that bandana and eye liner. He's known for painting silly scenes with either olives or grapes and incorporating martinis or glasses of wine. Not quite our style, but he was fun to see and turns out he has quite the following.

photo of us with Godard and his fiancé by some of his work

Not an artist that was there that weekend, but Clint and I
bought the one on the bottom right while on our cruise.
Blue Couple by Romero Britto

taking a hot tub break after our workout sipping on
complimentary gatorade

On Sunday, artist Tim Yanke was showcased. He has some really cool work. Most of it is western inspired, lots of head dresses, cowboys and bull horns. He has some really neat abstract pieces as well. I love all the bright neon colors he uses.

photo of Clint and I with Tin Yanke and
one of his dragonfly paintings

We had a great time being wined and dined, but probably won't be going to anymore. Don't think we are really their target audience without a disposable income to spend on art that we don't have room to hang.

Even more birthday celebrating

Well after my birthday, I was still celebrating! Maureen and I got together a couple weeks after for our annual birthday twin dinner. We met in Alderwood at Anthony's, and had a great time catching up. So much change happening for both of us this year! Sweet baby Reid and all his glorious hair was our special guest. Isn't he the cutest?!

quick photo before leaving, or it didn't happen

such a doll face

The next day, Dad took me to Palisade for a birthday brunch. They knew we were coming, and set the table with rose petals and a hand written bday card, so fun!

tiniest birthday cake ever :)

typical gray Seattle day