Postcards from Seattle: Gas Works

I'm a bit behind.  It happens.

A few weeks ago we went exploring in Seattle, and all roads pointed towards the Wallingford neighborhood, home of Gas Works Park, which used to be--I kid you not--a gasification plant.  Now industry and recreation have come together, and I happen to love the combo.  It's clear we weren't alone in loving the park or the beautiful weather.

I was most enchanted with the spring daisies sprinkled all over the park.  If you ignored the industrial elements, it could have been a scene out of The Sound of Music.

We headed up to the top of a hill in the park, and saw a few really awesome views:



  



All in all, Gas Works turned out to be a pretty awesome park!

Postcards form Seattle: We Like Pike

What do truffle oil, harissa pasta, clam chowder, and strawberry balsamic ice cream have in common? 

Seattle!

Several weeks ago the Goodlaffs decided to take advantage of a brief break in the torrential rain to get out and be tourists in our city.  I like to think we did pretty well.

We started at the Space Needle, and found an Angry Bird ready to launch at the evil space piggies. Apparently, it was a promo for the launch of the new Angry Birds Space game (which is awesome--just sayin'.)

The Space Needle was a part of the 1962 World's Fair, and is celebrating 50 years of being awesome, so the Seattle Center is doing a lot of revamping and remodeling to celebrate such a big anniversary. One of the new exhibits coming in is a blown glass greenhouse garden featuring glass artist Chihuly.  The glass is starting to go up.  It's not even done yet, and already it looks cool.



We walked from the Space Needle to Pike Place Market.  We explored the stalls, bought fancy gourmet pasta (harissa-flavored, which was really good!), saw some flying fish, and got suckered in to buying some truffle oil (which is amazing--we are so gourmet).  All the food made us hungry, so we paused for lunch at Pike Place Chowder.  I firmly believe that only real way to eat clam chowder is from a bread bowl:

Right after lunch (and I wouldn't recommend this order of events), we popped down Post Alley to see the Gum Wall.  It was artfully disgusting, or disgustingly artful--I'm not sure which.

We paused on our way back to the Seattle Center to admire some strange plumbing:

And by the time we got back to the Space Needle, the clouds had disappeared and we headed up in the Needle for some seriously great views of the city! Looking towards Lake Union:

Then Downtown with Mt. Rainier peeking out in the background:



We ended our day with a quick trip up to Capitol Hill, where we grabbed ice cream cones (Strawberry Balsamic and Thai Tea) from Molly Moon's.  Tasty!

We are loving exploring our city.  There's so much to see and do--I don't think we'll ever get bored!

Wheezy: Roadblocks

Well, friends, I'm Wheezing it up, but not in a good way.  The training schedule I had so painstakingly laid out?  Totally shot to hell. 

We started running, and that's when it all fell apart. I wasn't stretching well enough before we went, so my leg started hurting halfway through our runs.  After the pain kept up, I took a day off to rest.  The next day it began dumping down rain. 

Then I got a cold. Then Mr. Goodlaff got a cold.  And then, and then, and then.  It hasn't been good.  My cold didn't last as long as the last one, but it seriously affected my lung capacity; I was out of breath walking the 20 feet from my desk to the printer.  Then Mr. Goodlaff got sick.  Then came two weeks of torrential, very cold rain.  The running and the walking completely stopped.

Training in Seattle isn't for sissies, which apparently we are. 

We are slowly getting back on the road again.  We are back to walking, and sometime this week, there will probably be running.  We have just over four months to get to a running-ish shape, and I know we'll make it.  I just don't know if we will be able to run as much as we'd like. 

Well. You know what they say--the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. 

An Old Friend

I've been quiet, I know.  I haven't felt much like blogging lately; I got sick, it's raining cats and dogs, and well, I just haven't been feeling inspired enough to clickety clack away at the keys and share. 

But today, I will share a magical tale.   Once upon a time, there was a magazine called Blueprint.   It was a Martha Stewart design/lifestyle magazine for the younger set, and it was amazing.  Projects and styling and pretty, pretty, good things.  They did 8 issues, and then Blueprint went away.  It was a sad, sad day, especially since I only managed to snag six of the eight issues. 

Without issues one and eight, I felt incomplete.  And sad.  Very, very sad.  I had to fill the void and complete the set.  To eBay I went.  The eBay sellers knew the preciousness they had, and were charging accordingly--$25 dollars for one issue!  Psh. A bit of fortuitous googling brought me to The Hidden Library, where I found a customer service number (1-877-747-1050) and an offer: all eight issues for $20.  Sold.  I called, I bought the set, paid the man, and today, I have eight brand-new, never been loved issues of Blueprint magazine. 

That dress...I just love it...

It's like meeting up with an old friend and making a few new ones at the same time.  I can't wait to re-read through all the issues for inspiration! 

There aren't a ton of bundles left, so if you're interested, go snag yours while you can.  You'll love it, I promise!

Honk Honk, Rattle Rattle Rattle, Crash, Beep Beep

Alternate title: In which I give the reader a bit of back story before launching in to my tale of used-car shopping.

There are several advantages to growing up the daughter of an auto mechanic:

One: "Daddy?  My car is doing X, Y, or Z.  And making an "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" noise. What's wrong with it?"  This question is soon followed by: "Drop it off and I will take a look at it."

Two: Oil changes that I don't have to do myself or take to Jiffy Lube for the hard sell.

Three: Anytime I need a car, one is available to me.

Four: Family Discount.

These advantages all went away when the Goodlaffs moved to Seattle. Bummer.

As you can imagine, being the daughter of a mechanic means I've never had to buy a car.  I've never even considered having to buy a car.  When I turned sixteen, the car conversation went something like this:

"So, you want a car?"
"Yes!"
"See that car over there?"
"Yes."
"That's your car. The engine's broken. You are going to help rebuild it."
"Um, yay?"

The car my dad pointed to was a copper-colored 1974 Mercury Comet. Behold "Nimbus" (I name my cars--they run better that way) in all its glory.  I have pointed out some of its best features:

At first, all I wanted was a lovely 90's Honda Civic like all the other cool kids in school, but in all honesty, I came to love my car, and wouldn't have traded it for anything. It was easy to find in a parking lot: Honda, Honda, Honda, Honda, my car. I never had to worry about anyone stealing it--its age made it theft-resistant. Nimbus had a beastly engine that once hit 100 miles an hour (shhh), was practically a steel tank, and once I installed a CD player, had a kick-ass stereo. And did I mention the leopard print seat covers?

Sure, Nimbus had a few issues.  At stoplights I had to keep my feet on the brake and the gas so the engine wouldn't die. There was a massive water leak that soaked the carpets every time it rained, and the water that came in would pour directly onto my foot on the gas pedal; I once found an actual living seedling growing out of my carpet. The cyllanoid wouldn't always work, so sometimes I had to start my car with a screwdriver (though, this, I considered to be more of a plus than a minus--how many people do you know that can start a car with a screwdriver? Two words: Bad. Ass.)

I would also like to point out the car next to Nimbus.  This was the second car I drove, and was named "Fluffy" after the three headed dog in Harry Potter (seeing a theme here?), because no one wanted to go near the car.  In college, all my friends would offer to drive because Fluffy was not cool.

I got my third car when I came back from teaching English in China.  Daddy Goodlaff had him (and the bill) waiting for me.

Source

Neville, my maroon 1984 Honda Accord was lovely.  He was a little slow at times, but brave when it really counted (like his namesake, Neville Longbottom). Before we moved to Seattle, we sold Neville and decided to stick with one car until we couldn't any more.

We hit that point a few weeks ago.  Mr. Goodlaff got a job that would have meant a two and a half hour bus ride for him, or an extra hour added to the commute for me.  We weighed the time, the cost, and the quality of life, and decided to start the hunt for a new (to us) car. 

Up next:  I actually tell you about my shopping experience....

A New Project

I've been sick for a few days now--sort of a mini-cold of death.  And when I'm sick and feeling helpless, I like to try and counteract the patheticness by taking control of some small measure of a thing.  In this case, my desk.  My desk was buried under all kinds of half-done crafts, months and months of receipts, and various other trinkets. I can't control my cold, but I sure as hell could fix my desk situation. It took me a few hours to straighten and sort and file, but I can now say that my desk is clean.  How long it will stay that way is another matter entirely.

In all the sorting and cleaning it became clear to me that I needed a little something extra to display my pictures and mementos, and keep a few things front and center.  Once upon a time, I had a fabric memory board (sometimes called a french memory board), and I found myself needing one right this second. 

I also found that I had everything I needed to make my very own.  Well, almost. 

A long time ago I painted three canvases for my bedroom.  Since Mr. Goodlaff and I moved in together, they've been sitting in a closet, and for whatever reason, we dragged them up here to Seattle (sentiment, I suppose). In any case, one of my canvases went from this:

To this:

Pretty good for a nearly free project, I'd say. Stay tuned for the tutorial!

Postcards from Seattle: Surprisingly Sunny

Well, it's dumping down rain right now, and it's set to do that for the foreseeable future.  There's so much water, I'm considering building an ark. 

But a few weekends ago?  Totally different story.  It was gorgeous!  Still on the cool side, but the sun was out and the Goodlaffs took full advantage of it. 

We started on Alki Beach, and found this somewhat out-of-place statue to greet us:



I still don't know what a mini statue of liberty is doing in Seattle, but it's still cool...

We walked all along the beach,

Checked out some sea steps,

And finally made it to the best view of the city!

Sunday was spent a little closer to home, at Lincoln Park.  The day wasn't quite as sunny, but the trail was just as awesome.

We had fantastic views of Elliott Bay!

I am so in love with our new home that I can't stand it!  We just have so many amazing public spaces available to us!

It was probably the best weekend we've had in a really long time, because it wasn't focused on errands or chores.  We got a chance to really enjoy the great outdoors in the Pacific Northwest, which is part of what brought us here in the first place. 

Here's to many more sunny days to come!