The Emerald City

two days ago, catherine, jarrod, and i went to Seattle and it was just as great as i remembered it to be. it's such a beautiful city. as soon as we got there we were all saying "oh, i could live here. i want to live here." there's just something about that city that you just love as soon as you arrive. sure, it's probably not as "weird" as portland, but it has it's own unique personality. maybe we were just going crazy over it bc the weather was so nice! it was in the mid 70s and sunny w/out a cloud in the sky. i wonder when the rain will start? that doesn't matter, i love the rain and i love seattle. 

on to our awesome day: we started out at the Theo Chocolate Factory (http://www.theochocolate.com/) and we took a tour around. we had to wear hair nets into the factory, you know, so hair didn't fall into the chocolate that we weren't really allowed to be near... but whatever. haha. picture!:

don't we look fabulous?

our tour was recorded for some tv feature for a seattle news station. i think it was called the cheap bastard's guide to seattle (of course, they left out "bastard" as it's a news channel) bc admission was only $6, but let me tell you, they make up for that cheap price with their chocolates. i wanted to get a caramel box that had 9 pieces of chocolate in it. it cost $25! so i didn't buy it. catherine got that box and another smaller one that had 4 pieces in it. i have no idea how much it ended up costing but i'm sure i would have had a heart attack. haha. jarrod bought a few pieces from their display (he got 10% off bc we went on the tour). we haven't eaten all of the chocolate yet, but what i had was pretty tasty.
after the chocolate factory we went to lunch (even though it was already 4 something.) we ended up at a mexican restaurant called Poquitos (http://www.vivapoquitos.com/Poquitos/VivaPoquitos.html) and it was happy hour! our food was really cheap. haha. i got some brisket tacos, which were really tasty, and i got a poquitos punch...not as tasty, but VERY STRONG. i finished the whole drink by myself, which is a pretty big accomplishment. haha. i definitely felt it when we left. since we were still hungry, (you get what you pay for...the meal was really small) we went to Cupcake Royale (http://www.cupcakeroyale.com/) and we ate some seriously delicious cupcakes. man, i love cupcakes. haha.

after lunch, we headed to Pike Place Market, (http://www.pikeplacemarket.org/) which is one of my favorite places on this earth (that i have visited). sadly, we only had about 30 minutes to walk around since they were closing at 6. we walked through, but didn't really stop. we passed by the original starbucks and it was packed with people, as always. we continued to walk on and then pikes was closed so we headed to the space needle.

catherine said "i just need a book and i could lie in here forever."

jarrod would probably play video games instead

testing my strength by holding up the top of this sculpture.

jarrod, the monkey

the skyline and mt. rainier from the top of the space needle.

so the space needle...what is there that needs to be said when the pictures speak better than words do? the view was amazing, as you can tell. we stayed at the top for 20 minutes just looking around, taking pictures, etc. and then we went back down to the gift shop, which encompasses the whole bottom floor. we probably spend 40 minutes to an hour looking at everything in that store. i bought some postcards and a 4 set of magnets. jarrod bought a lego space needle (which he put together last night) and catherine bought...a magnet and i'm positive there was something else...not sure what it was.
we left the space needle and we were ready for dinner. i really wanted pizza, so that's what we looked for. we ended up at Bambino's (http://www.getbambinos.com/zgrid/themes/10240/portal/index.jsp) where we shared a fire grilled (not sure if that's actually what it's called.. it was cooked over a fire) meaty pizza. it was absolutely delicious. everyone was glad we ate there, even though there were some grumbles (from jarrod) when we decided on pizza. 
after dinner, it was time to head home. nothing exciting happened. jarrod and i fell asleep while i'm sure catherine had several heart attacks when getting caught behind slow drivers... haha. eventually, jarrod and i woke up, and just in time to PUMP GAS!!!! yeah for washington letting people pump their own gas. catherine was kind enough to let us do the job for her. haha. and we enjoyed that time. haha.

pumping gas like the good ol days

catherine dropped us off around 11:20 and then it was straight to bed for me.
and that was our visit to seattle. i can't wait to go back! we'll definitely spend more time at pike place market, and probably go to the pier...and maybe something we haven't done before as well. haha. whatever it is, i look forward to it. :)
seattle!!!

-sarah-

It's the Circle of Life!!!

Soooooooo... jarrod and i went to see the Lion King (in 2d, bc that's how it's supposed to be. actually, i knew the showtime we were going to would have less people in it, which is definitely for the best, as i hate children screaming...etc, etc.) earlier today and let me tell you, that movie is such a great movie. or did you already know that? haha. but seriously, i can't remember the last time i saw that movie, even though i'm pretty sure my parents own it on vhs. that doesn't matter though. the experience of seeing it again, in theaters, was just so amazing. now, i don't know if i've become a big baby or what, but i almost cried a few times during the movie. like i was more than teary-eyed. i had to hold back pretty hardcore so the tears wouldn't fall. when mufasa died...man...it was a close one. jarrod said he almost cried then too. what's up with us? bunch of wabies is what we are. haha. i don't know what it was...maybe it's bc this time we actually understood what was going on or maybe it's bc it brought us back to our childhood, maybe both. it's strange how a kids movie can affect us now that we're adults. it's nice that we can be affect though; that these movies can make us feel. i don't believe movies nowadays do that, unless their pixar. haha. but i won't get into my movies rant. (pretty sure i've become the biggest movie snob ever...) anywho, The Lion King- SO GOOD. i know everyone's seen it, but i suggest you go see it again while it's in theaters. it's just a great experience to reminisce and be taken back by that movie. so good. sooooo gooooooodddd. (in case you didn't understand that already)
alright, so enough about the lion king. after we watched the movie, jarrod and i went to a few thrift stores. my main focus was finding my halloween costume articles, but that's kind of hard when i'm undecided on what i want. all i know is i want to be Katniss Everdeen, but there's so much i can choose from, just from being here. 1. originally i was planning on being "the girl on fire"- the outfit she's wearing when she rides out on the chariot w/ peeta after they arrive at the capital. this outfit requires a full body black leotard, (easy solutions if i don't find a leotard) a fiery looking cape and headdress. i have an idea how to make this, but in case i do choose this outfit, i do not want to spoil it bc the pics i take in that costume will be AWESOME. haha. 2. i can be katniss when she's in the arena. the outfit consists of: a green shirt, khaki-colored pants, boots, and knee-length black jacket AND the mockingjay pin. oh, also, silver bow and arrows (substitution: my bow and arrows). 3. katniss AS the MOCKINGJAY!!! omg, if i could pull that one off, it'd be so amazing. this one is pretty much an all black outfit, w/ some white and grey in different areas, a breastplate, and the bow and arrows, again. here's someone's great interpretations of katniss' outfits (http://bookkittykat.tumblr.com/post/7512653187/katnisss-wardrobe) so, what do you think i should do?? help me, please! i can't make decisions by myself. though, eventually, i'll have to choose, but hearing some feedback would be nice.
that's really all i have for today....i don't even have any pictures, which is weird. oh well. at least i updated today, only 2 days after my previous update. go me!

-sarah-

May the odds be ever in your favor...

i'm gonna post pictures and start from there. let's hope i don't forget anything. haha.

At the Pirate Festival

Salted Caramel Cupcake. Absolutely delicious.

Pirate puppet show

blow up ship being destroyed by a giant octopus

My pirate costume. Very historical accurate.

Don't let this fool you, jarrod was only in full costume for this picture, which was taken about 10 minutes before we left the festival.

Pirate on stilts.

 

 

 

 

 The pirate festival (http://portlandpiratefestival.com/) was lots of fun. There were people dressed up like pirates everywhere, there were shops with pirate-related clothing and other related items (swords, guns, etc). i think we had the most fun watching the random shows they put on. the host of those shows were just hilarious. we were laughing non-stop, that is, until we left the festival... when we were ready to go home, we got into jarrod's car and to our disappointment, it didn't start. we were desperately hoping it was just bc jarrod's car was low on gas, since earlier in the week jarrod had fixed his car. so we went in search of a gas station. the closest one was off the highway, 1.2 miles away, so we walked 2.4 miles total. that's not too bad, but it still wasn't fun. all-in-all, we both handled it very well. (that's an accomplishment for me, bc we all know i wanted to go off and kill something. haha) it did turn out that jarrod was just low on gas, so yay! his car is truly fixed! what a relief.
onto more pictures:

Red Velvet Cake Balls before being iced

Red velvet cake balls, mostly iced with white chocolate

The "Mancake" from Stepping Stone Cafe

 The pictures above are centered around Jarrod's 23rd birthday. in case you were unaware, jarrod loves red velvet cake.(i think he gets it from his dad. haha) i think he gets red velvet cake for his birthday every year, so i decided to make something special with the key ingredient: red velvet cake. i made white chocolate covered cake balls. they did not turn out as pretty as the pictures i saw online, but they tasted alright. (i think they were really sweet, but jarrod absolutely LOVED them) they took a long time to make, even though it was really simple to make them. all you have to do is choose a cake mix you want, and bake the cake like normal. then you crumble up the cake, add a 16 oz can of cream cheese icing and mix it all together so that the cake will have consistency to make balls. let them cool and ice them. icing them was a pain in the butt. i didn't get enough white chocolate icing and the cake kept crumbling and ruining the pretty look of the icing. in general, icing the cake balls was the worst and i told jarrod i probably wouldn't make them again, which disappointed him. haha. but maybe i'll give them another shot. i do have to master icing them....blah. haha.
as for jarrod's birthday day, i took him to the stepping stone cafe (http://steppingstonecafe.com/) for breakfast. it had been featured on man vs. food and the menu said they had a cinnamon roll french toast. (yes, i am still looking for my replacement to the Cheyenne....no luck, so far.) Jarrod got a mancake, which is about 13inches; it's pretty big. he didn't finish, but in his defense, he also had some scrambled eggs and sausage...or was it bacon? i don't remember. haha. oh well. that's all we did on jarrod's birthday bc he had to go to work at 4. (if you were unaware, jarrod is back to his old, terrible sleeping schedule, ie: goes to sleep bw 3-4am and wakes up bw noon-2. yeah. terrible.) so that was jarrod's birthday, for jarrod. we had breakfast, he worked... that's it.
i, on the other hand, still had the day off, so i spent the evening with catherine. we went to Jimmy Johns and then we were going to go watch Toy Story 3 in the park, but once we got there, the park was infested with kids and so i made the decision that we come back to the house and watch xmen: first class (thanks to evan and britt for getting jarrod that for his birthday. haha). before coming home though, catherine and i took jarrod a jimmy johns sandwich bc it was his birthday. so let's add this up: i bought jarrod brunch and dinner. too much money in one day. blagh. haha.
that was for jarrod's birthday day. i had planned an extra fun surprise for jarrod for another birthday gift. i decided to take him to Ground Kontrol (http://groundkontrol.com/) which is a retro arcade. the fun thing was i invited jarrod's friends from work so that he would be totally surprised when he saw him there. i thought he'd have a great time with his work buddies, as catherine and i were gonna be there, and he's always surrounded by us or other girls (our roomies). well, i took him to ground kontrol, but none of his friends showed up. LAME. i'm not gonna talk about my disappointment. jarrod didn't know until after we left what was supposed to happen, and it didn't effect him either way. we (jarrod, catherine and i) still had an absolutely awesome time there. ground kontrol is defintely a way fun place, and we plan on going back again, probably very soon.
here's a special picture for my mom, taken at ground kontrol: 

it was the first game i played. :)

 

 

anywho, since tuesday (when we went to ground kontrol) nothing has happened. we were gonna go see The Lion King 3D on sunday, but i just remembered jarrod has P.I. (physical inventory) that day and now i will not get to see him until tuesday.
TUESDAY: catherine, jarrod, and i are going to SEATTLE for the day. a few things we have planned: the space needle, pike place market, a chocolate factory, and bimbo mexican restaurant. maybe something else in between... i can't wait!!!
and that's probably all that's gonna happen for the next few weeks. but i'll still try to keep you updated. maybe post some more pictures, if i take any.
i'm gonna leave you with this picture:

proof that iris is no longer a scaredy cat: she chose to sit in catherine's lap instead of mine or jarrods. HER CHOICE. oh iris, you're growing up so fast! (she'll be 3 october 1st. :O )

-sarah-

And we'll wait for the stone on your window

I believe the last time I updated this was the day of the Decembrists concert. It was a great show! Very lively and exciting. The band sure knows how to connect with their audience and show them a good time. haha. I don't know if they have that much fun everywhere, or if they were just really glad to be home again. It could have also been that their band mate, Jenny Conlee was back in action after going through chemo for breast cancer. She seemed to be doing well though. She was having as good a time as everyone else was, so that's good. 

anywho, close to the "end" of the concert, they played The Mariners Revenge Song, which required the audience to scream as if they were being eaten by a whale. that was pretty funny to hear/see. everyone was excited to be part of the show. haha. after a few more songs, the show "ended," but yes, they came back for an encore... they were up there for probably 20-30 more minutes for the encore (something i've never experienced before) and then, they were done....OR WERE THEY? no, they came back for a second encore, which is also something i've never experienced. what a great band. :) haha. i have a video of their second encore, which i shall share with you.

so that was the decembrists concert. :)

saturday night i went to another free movie in the park, this time with Athena. (the social network. yes, again. it's a great movie, okay?!) I heard Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein of Portlandia were gonna be there, and yes, they were. did i get to talk to them or get a picture with them? no. but they were there, and that's what counts. the movie was great, our picnic was also great. it was a lovely evening.

the rest of the weekend, we didn't really do much, just work and being lazy. nothing exciting happened until tuesday. during the day jarrod and i went traveling around to buy parts for his car and get his passport card taken care of. the best part of that afternoon was eating at mcmenimins in sunnyvale bc we got to have the most delicious tater tots on this planet: cajun tots. SO YUMMY! we also had a brownie/ice cream sundae for dessert. also very yum. haha. after getting everything we thought we needed for jarrod's car, we came back home and jarrod proceeded to work on his car- replacing the fuel pump. gene told me it was very frustrating to replace, and even after telling jarrod that, he refused to take it to a shop. he wanted to change it out and so that's what he did. and guess what? his car is fixed now!!!! jarrod fixed his own car with only the help of the internet and a bit of advice from gene. essentially, he did it on his own! amazing, right? i don't know how he does it, but he always manages to figure out how to fix things and he does it right. it just blows my mind how handy he is. haha. i think if he were good at spelling and grammar and would just wake up when his FIRST alarm goes off, (he has freaking 5-7 alarms go off. get up on the FIRST ONE. jeez.) he'd probably be the perfect human being, but as no one is perfect....haha. anyways, i think it's very awesome he fixed his car on his own. i think you get the point now. haha

on to tuesday evening: while jarrod worked on his car, and i went to the Bagdad Theater (http://www.mcmenamins.com/219-bagdad-theater-pub-home) to see/hear Colin Meloy (lead singer of the Decembrists) and his partner, Carson Ellis, read from their new book Wildwood. (http://www.amazon.com/Wildwood-Chronicles-Book-I/dp/006202468X) I went with a friend from work, Athena. We had a great time! We ate pizza AND i had more cajun tots! haha. can't get enough of those! anywho, i believe chapter 5 or 6 of the book was read aloud by Colin and then Carson went over a few of the illustrations (she did the illustrations in the book) and then there was a Q&A. all in all, it was a grand time. i'm still reading the book, and i'm really enjoying it! :) it's so fantastical! i love it. haha. oh, here's some pics i took.

Colin Meloy reading from the book

Q&A with Colin and Carson

that was the highlight of this past week. it was a good time. :) nothing exciting happened until thursday when i went to dinner with Catherine, her friend, Sara, and sister, Stephanie. we went to mcmenimins in oregon city where yes, i had more cajun tots. that was the best part of the meal. we were waiting for our food for FOREVER and almost got up to leave, when they finally brought our food out. thank you! jeez. anywho, after that, Catherine, Sara, and i went to coldstone. yum! and then Catherine came back to the house with me where we watched Kick Ass and Labyrinth. it was a good night. :)

and now you are all caught up on the exciting events of the past week and a half. something fun was supposed to happen today- we were supposed to go to the Portland Pirate Festival, but since jarrod STILL isn't off work, i don't think we will make it. awesome. there's no plan b...guess i'll probably just finish mad men. fun.

i don't really have anything planned for this upcoming week...jarrod works on his birthday, so on the 13th we're gonna go to Ground Kontrol, (http://groundkontrol.com/) which is a retro arcade, for some birthday fun. 

the most exciting thing that'll will happen in a few weeks is visiting SEATTLE! yeah!!! we're going the 20th. i can't wait!!! woot woot.

and...the end.

-sarah-