A 5K Kinda Day

So, this happened:

A few weeks ago Mr. Goodlaff and I decided to get a feel for a race day, and signed up for the West Seattle 5K.  It was a Run/Walk fundraiser for the West Seattle High School, which means that, if nothing else, our entrance fees went to a good cause.

I had two goals for this race: 1. Finish in under an hour (we walked all of it but the last 50 feet), and 2.  Don't come in last place.  I'm happy to say that we accomplished both goals.  Pessimistic goals, you say?  Pshh.  Realistic goals, more like. 

Mostly, we were trying to get an idea of what Wheezy would be like, and get a baseline for our performance.  The verdict? We still have a long way to go.  With a little less than three months before Wheezy, we still have a ton of work to do.  But I'm pretty sure we can do it.

A Few Projects

I haven't been overly crafty lately, but I did want to share a few things that I have been working on in the past month or so. 

A few months ago, I got on a bit of an embroidery kick.  I was on Amazon.com, ordering a birthday gift for Mr. Goodlaff, didn't hit the limit for free shipping, and decided to get a little something for myself.  Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection, ended up in my cart, and gave me the pattern for this design:

I think it turned out well.  The metallic threads were a pain in the ass, but I really like the way it came out.  My next embroidery adventure involves clothing that someone might actually wear, so hopefully my skills are good enough for fashion!

My other project has been a long time coming--over a year in the making. See, once upon a time, I bought a cool frame from a thrift store.  I spray painted the hell out of it and with a little bit of magic, it got a new lease on life as an info sign for our wedding guestbook:

Niki Ross Photography

I love the frame.  The yellow is almost obnoxious, but you never see frames that shape, and I knew it would make a lovely...something...someday.  That day is here, and the frame has now become a chalkboard. 

I cut a piece of wood down to size with a box cutter (that was fun), painted it with black chalkboard paint, and now, our lovely wedding frame lives on as a weekly menu board. 

Here's what's cooking this week (don't be jealous):

 

It's actually a really useful thing.  We plan the week's menu on Sundays, buy all the supplies for dinners, and because we don't assign meals to days--we just see what we feel like eating on any given evening--sometimes we have trouble remembering what we are supposed to be making for dinner.  It's because we're getting old. And we keep forgetting to put Ginko on the shopping list. 

Tutorial Twosday: Quinoa

All hail the triumphant return of Tutorial Twosday!

I have just discovered quinoa.  It's a lovely little protein-packed grain with the consistency of couscous and a healthful resume. The first time we cooked quinoa (pronounced Keen-Wah), we fell in love with the texture and its ability to be a blank canvas to all kinds of flavors; the love affair has continued from there. 

This week, I have two quinoa recipes to share, both of which I have tested, both of which are tasty.

Feeling summery?  Try Quinoa with Corn and Scallions:

Via Just a Taste

This was so good.  Light, fluffy, and sweet, this was the perfect addition to a light, summery meal.  We had ours as a side for kabobs, and a glazed carrot and pea tendril salad, and it was perfect.  There are some things we cook and I think, " I am so bad ass! I am an awesome chef!" This was one of those.  Two thumbs up.

Remember how I said quinoa was good for you?  Remember when I said you could add pretty much anything to it?  Remember my love of cheese? (You see where this is going, right?) One of my lovely Pinterest pals found Quinoa Mac and Cheese, and I couldn't resist.  Grains.  Cheese.  What's not to love?

Via Around the Table RI

Was it as good as Mama Goodlaff's Mac and Cheese? No. But it was pretty awesome. And I felt very righteous eating that instead of pasta mac and cheese. I will probably add more cheese to the recipe next time I make it, which will completely negate all the good things the Quinoa brings to the table.  Oh dear--old habits die hard. 

Happy Cooking!

Baby, You Can Buy My Car

When we moved to Seattle, Mr. Goodlaff was able to telecommute.  Once I got a job, I drove the car, he stayed home, and all was well in the land of auto.  A few months ago, Mr. Goodlaff got a new job about 25 miles away.  Sadly, this means no more working in his pajamas, but it also means we needed another car.

We investigated public transportation.  If I had my druthers, I would never drive.  When living in China, I took the bus and subway everywhere, and I loved it.  We looked at taking public transportation here, but it was inconvenient, impractical, and a pain in the ass. So, we decided on another car.

I've already established that there are certain life experiences I missed out on because my dad fixed and provided my cars.  Buying a car is one of them.

One of our saving graces was that we did a ton of online research prior to buying.  We looked at a ton of cars and even more dealerships.  We read reviews.  We did price comparison.  We checked the Carfax.  Eventually we found one car that we liked and wanted to look at.  It had a clean bill of health--no accidents--and had always been serviced at the dealership that was selling it.  It was in great condition, and had a good price, so we went to the dealership early one Saturday morning to take a look. 

We were greeted the second we stepped out of our car, and told Voss (our salesman) that we wanted to look at the car we'd seen online.  He pulled it out, we gave it a once over, took a test drive, and we really liked it.  In fact, I was trying really hard to show how much I liked it.  We decided to deal.

The best thing that Mr. Goodlaff and I did before walking into the dealership was settle on our maximum price.  Then we settled our our real maximum price.  Sound confusing?  Let me explain...We came up with the number that we would tell the dealer was our top price, but we also came up with our real maximum--our "walking away from the table no matter what" maximum, if you will.  We went back and forth on price, and finally settled somewhere in between our two numbers. 

It took us another hour after we came to an agreement to hash it out with finance and dodge all the warranty upsells.  But just a few hours after we decided on a price, we drove away in a new (to us) car.

And she's beautiful!



This is Luna.  Luna is a Honda Accord, and we have been getting along very, very well.  She has very dark windows;  I didn't like them at first, but now they've grown on me. 

I can't say that the process of buying a car was fun, but overall, I'm pretty satisfied with the results!

Adult experience number 372...check!

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.