Surprise!

This weekend I did some yard work - mowed the lawn, dealt with leaves etc. I also pulled a pile of limbs out the the street for the county to take away. Low and Behold, look what was waiting for me when I got home from work today. We didn't have a windstorm -- not sure what happened here -- it wasn't like this last night. I think I'm going to need to borrow a chainsaw to deal with this bad boy. Oh joy. I love home ownership.

Underground?

We took this awesome tour in Seatttle - the Underground Tour. It was a fun little trip with lots of history, and some fun in it too. I highly reccomend.

Turns out Seattle was built in a tidal zone -- so it flooded like daily during high tide. Wow, they needed a good engineer or at least a city planner back then. After a fire took out 33 blocks of the city they rebuilt, with two changes -- all buildings were brick and/or stone, and the streets and sidewalks were raised 1-2 stories throughout downtown. They didn't build it up right away, but built at the original ground level and eventually raised the streets/sidewalks. The streets were raised first, basically via a pair of retaining walls with the sidewalks at the ground level. Eventually they covered up the sidewalks -- and the result is the undergrouns. It was a fun tour.

We saw the most unique store ever... the Utilikilt. Its not a skirt. Its a utility garmet.

A new fave...

Hulu.com
check it out.

Tonight i got to watch the gem that is jewel of the nile for free :)

Oh to be Joan Wilder

Sailing the Seas in Seattle

We hopped a ferry to Bainbridge Island one day. WOW. I love the ocean. this was equally cool. It was really clear out, so you could see Mt Ranier and the Olympics. Awesome.

If only my own personal McDreamy had been there for it, tee hee.

Note: no starbucks was consumed during this trip. Avoid the evil empire!!

Sarah and the Pike Place Market

We hit the Pike Place Market on Saturday. It was AWESOME. But you probably already knew that. We also re-hit it up on Monday to get take home goodies. Highlights included:
- posing with Rachel the Pig

- watching fish fly

- sampling smoked salmon and pepper salmon jerky

- sampling cherry products

- FLOWERS

- sampling lots of different jams from the farms

- looking at all sorts of cool crafts, and some not so cool ones.

- all the fresh veggies

- chocolate pasta

- seeing the original starbucks (but not giving them my bucks)
- tons of cool ethnic foods.
- BUSKARS!!!

Sarah + Seattle Sitting in a Tree

I love Seattle. Seriously I just returned from an amazingly fun weekend there. I look forward to returning. It was a cool, funky, spiffy sort of town.

Here are some pics. I'll post more in the comming days.

The Space Needle and Seattle Center

The Experience Music Project

Seattle Music Roll: The Kingsmen, Hendrix, Nirvana, Sir Mix a Lot, Soundgarden, Heart

Who knew?

This sculpture was entitled ' VI to X'

The outside

From above, it supposedly looks like one of Hendrix's smashed guitars. Very Frank Geary.

Touring on the Ducks
The Ducks are fun like no other. Last time I went out on the ducks was the Wisconsin Dells. Always a "classy" affair. We toured downtown, the market, pioneer square, and then we headed over to Lake Union. I have a love affair with lakes, as shown below.

Remember Sleepless in Seattle? Thats THE Floating House.

The Gasworks hill was in 10 Thinks I Hate About You. Ah the taming of the shrew. Ah Heath Ledger.

The Blue boat in the center is the Horizon from the 1st Season of Deadlist Catch. The current Deadliest Catch ships were docked in the bay while the Horizon had come through the locks to Lake Union. Alaskan King Crab, it IS the deadlist catch. you should check it out.

Kudos of the day

~The after hours clinic at Killer Region. They know how to hook a girl up.
~Angela for telling me how they hook a girl up.
~Christie for mothering Ange into going.

Seriously. I don't know how I would have made the trip to Seattle with the return of the crud and all. God bless good drugs. And shots in the @$$.

Based on the amount of drugs they gave me.... I'm thinking I should have gone to the doctor last time - I felt even worse then. Sorry if I got any of you ick!

And now sarah will go pass out while the JGs terrorize the world.

Cooking with Sarah Returns

So last weekend at Jane's wedding I found out that I had some blog readers I was unaware of -- AND that someone other than me actually enjoys the Cooking with Sarah Segments. In Karen's honor, I bring you another episode!

On the way home from work I stopped by the Kroger to pick up some goodies for dinner. In the spirit of Lent, I went with fish. I've learned to like fish over the last few years. I used to be able to do fish that came fried, but that was about it. Now I've really come to like other fish. This year I've vowed to learn to cook it myself - so here is another attempt. I just threw together a Salmon with a tzatziki. Tzatziki is fun to spell, and it also tastes yummy - a greek cucumber yogurt dip. Mine wasn't a real tzatziki, but close enough for me :)



Ingredients
Salmon
Olive Oil
Pepper
Garlic Salt
Dill Weed
Greek Yogurt
Cucumber

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place Wash and pat dry the salmon. Lightly drizzle with olive oil on both sides.
3. Place in the bottom of a glass pan and lightly season with pepper, garlic salt, and dill. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through and can be flaked with a fork.
4. Meanwhile, chop up a portion of cucumber. Mix chopped cucumber and dill with greek yogurt. 5. Serve salmon with the tzatziki sauce on the side.

I had made a similar salmon dish during my first ever escapade in cooking fish a few years back... It wasn't nearly as good as this one. This got two big thumbs up - no leftover fish. There was a little leftover tzatziki. I'm planning to eat it as a dip with crackers tomorrow.

Totally EASY to make, very yummy, and healthy. Definitely worth repeating

A Janeric Wedding

This weekend I headed up to IL for my friend Jane's wedding. She and Eric had a beautiful wedding. It was great to get to see everyone I hadn't seen in forever (Shoutouts to Nikki, Nathan, Karen, John, the Murbargers, the Flessner Girls, and the Rohms). It was also really cool to get to see all the people I have heard all about or read about on Janeo Fabulous and In The Nik of Time.

I was talking with Sydney, our young friend about the next night. I asked if she had her dancing shoes, and she got this shocked look on her face. Little did I know, she had specific shoes for dancing, as she is at the age where she takes classes. Ooops. eventually we told her that she could dance in her party shoes. And let me tell you, she made sure we danced at the reception!!!

During this high quality shot we were discussing hunter pence, and how we want him to be our pence charming. Lol.

My proprty manager for the weekend. Thanks Nik!!

While In C-U I had the oppertunity to hit a few landmarks - Lunch at Murph's. They are celebrating their 40th anniversary. It was followed by a quick desert at Jarlings. Mmmmm Custard Cup. I tried the German chocolate. Tasty, however I think the Bannana Split is still my favorite Snowstorm.

Also -- who doesn't remember the porn dumpster and the asbetoes hospital. Well, i knew the porn dumpster was gone since the random parking lot/helipad was converted to a City of Champaign lot. Now the asbestoes hospital with the creepy blue light in a random room is gone - and in its place is an apartment building and a grocery store. How convenient it would have been if there had been a grocery store across the street from the apartment.

Plus, I got to use the new Curtis Road Exit on I 57. How fun! C-U is big time now with all these interstate on ramps.