If you can't be with the one you love...

...love the one you're with. My two favorite little snuggers, Huck and Emmy, live 3000 miles away now. Naps have been quite pitiful since they've been gone, and my lap is empty more often than I care for it to be. Lately, though, I have had the surprising joy of snugging with Colby, an English cocker spaniel. So while I'm missing those two little heat blankets, Colby has been trying to help ease the transition. He is really cute. And really cuddly!

Huckers and Emmylou

One of their favorite hobbies - and greatest skills

Colby

Being sweet :)

Keeping me company (and warm!)

Yeah? The maple kind?

I promise I don't think about food this much, but I had some really awesome Mexican last week and I need the world to know. Well, I had two really awesome Mexicans, actually. One was a cheap walk-in place called Rancho Bravo. It's literally on the corner across from the apartment complex and it's so tiny they don't have a website. But they all speak Spanish and just a little English, so it's pretty legit. I heard about it from Shiloh, the gal who cut my hair (it touched my back when it was in the highest ponytail I could muster = not my fav). Shiloh said RB looked "like a rundown KFC" but had the best burritos. She was right! (Full disclosure: I had a quesadilla. Still good). I've passed the place 1000 times and wondered what it was (there's also no sign), and thought it looked sketch. Sketchy? Si. But really good.

The second awesome Mexican was a swankier Seattle joint a few blocks over called Barrio. I love chips and salsa (what generic white American doesn't?) and theirs was ridic good. I also love tequila, but am not a fan at all of margarita mix; i.e. I never get a marg when I'm at a restaurant because they're usually made with that disgusting crap. Not at Barrio, though! It was fresh and limey and had just enough tequila to make everything way more fun (which, let's be honest, I'm getting older and it takes way less to do that these days). The actual restaurant was cool, too, though. It's street side was all open to the sidewalk and it had whole walls that were all cut out for candles. Que chulo.

Food. Couldn't stop thinking about it.

I'm not a food snob or connoisseur, and I'm not really picky (except for the no meat thing), so there's no way I'm going to write a food blog. But I do eat, and I have had some fun food stuffs lately.

"I didn't know your mom had a pizza place." Which meant we had to eat there. It's a couple blocks west (I wanted to say south, but that's only because it's downhill). The whole walking everywhere thing is kinda cool.

Wild Mountain Cafe was THE best.

Jill and I took her wedding dress to get it cleaned and preserved at this place that specializes in cleaning and preserving wedding dresses (a fairly symmetrical sentence, thank you). I was hungry as soon as we got in the car (of course), so when we got to the cleaners, Jill asked about a local place to eat a good lunch. The Ted Bev-alike suggested the Wild Mountain Cafe...best suggestion ever. Best veggie burger I've ever eaten. Best chips and salsa. Yum. Yum. Yum.

Plus a lot of this. We bought it because the bottle was cute. So far, a good method of choosing!

If only I could find a diet cherry coke like you get from Sonic or Steak & Shake. Or Chick Fil A french fries. Then it'd be perf-tastic.

Seattle is as Seattle does

First morning waking up in Seattle! Yesterday was arrival, 2 trips to QFC

(think Kroger and Whole Food’s love child), 1 trip to Walgreens (Pledge wipes and Clorox bathroom cleaner), 1 eat at Panera (they didn’t have creamy tomato! I’m hoping it was a fluke. But they do have compost and recycle options), and the first 30 minutes of Pineapple Express. Oh, and 1000 trips up and down the elevator (you have to use your fob. Yeah, a fob).

There’s a pretty-ish sort of wilderness across the street – Cal Anderson Park – and people actually use it!!

That was one of the first realizations that we weren’t in Kansas (which, when I think about it that way, actually makes me happy. See last post about those mid states). People were sitting, reading, walking, laying out, chillin’ by the fountain…who does that?! Apparently, people in Seattle. Or maybe it’s bigger than that and all people who live in big cities use their parks!

Unpacking took a while (and by unpacking I mean we unpacked a handful of kitchen boxes so we could find the brownie pan. And then later we tried to find the box with the bottle opener, but Drew figured out that some thing in the tool box would do the trick so we gave up the search). The TV is now up and I’m sitting the wingback, so there’s that.

Jill and I are going to tackle more unpacking and a trip to Target (somewhere out there), while Drew goes to SU to do homework. It’s weird. I should make a list.

Day 3: Shittiest Day of the Country

I thought people were exaggerating when they talked about the extensive cornfields of the middle US states. They weren’t. The drive from Kansas City, MO through Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota showed that I was quite wrong and those others were quite right.

It is probably actually very beautiful land (though the pic at left is about par for the day). It just happened to fall on the longest driving day of the trip (about 13 hours in the car, Kansas City, MO to Rapid City, SD). Stress and tension were high, and the mile upon mile upon mile of straight highway, I-29 detours, and corn was...I can’t think of anything polite to say. Arriving at the Holiday Inn in Rapid City at 9pm was the best part of the day.

Today was Day 4, Rapid City to Gardiner, MT, and it was loads better! A morning jog, Mount Rushmore, a shorter drive through scenery that changed and roads that did more than stretch out straight…ahhhhh sweet bliss.

Arriving at Jean and Hal’s (and getting their subsequent hugs) was wonderful. As was eating food not packaged in foil or consumed with a plastic fork. I’m sleeping in Benny’s room, surrounded by sports and aviation.

How do I feel? Ready to do something besides drive. Ready to have a routine. Ready ready ready ready ready to run.

The wand chooses you...

And I chose Harry Potter. The person and the park. Pure magic.

Hogsmeade & The Three Broomsticks

Butterbeer mustaches

Just outside Hogwarts

Closing time

I moved. And I want to go home. It's not just that I'm physically homeless, but...I mean, you get used to going back to the same place every night, and that place has your stuff and your stuff has a place. And no matter what, you get to go back to there. Now it's all

boxes and more boxes

empty

obsolete

I have a few trips (cross country drive, Seattle, maybe Hawaii) up my sleeve before I have to start work in October, so it's suitcases and travel size shampoo until then!