Search This Blog

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Tom Petty/Seattle

August 18-21, 2017

Randy and I are big Tom Petty fans.  We found out earlier this year that he was playing in Seattle so we jumped at the chance on getting some tickets.  Randy also has family in Seattle so it was nice to see them again.  I suck.  I didn't get any pictures of them....

We rented a house for the first two days and then we stayed with is his cousin Debbie and her husband Brian for the next two.  We got really lucky on the weather.  It was beautiful!  Our rental was in the Fremont district, right around the corner from the troll under the bridge.  I can't believe how popular this guy is!!  There's always about 20 people there whenever you pass by.  I made Randy go with me at 8:00 in the morning so I could beat the crowd.  We weren't even the only ones there.  But by the time we got there the three other people left.
IMG_5699

IMG_5704

IMG_5700


The concert was at Safeco Field...sold out!!  30,000 people!  It was a great concert.  He never lets us down...
IMG_5685

IMG_5686


It's super hard taking a selfie in front of these things.  Between the glare and the changing of the pictures, you gotta be ready!  We must've taken about 10 pics before we got a half way decent one
IMG_5690


We were hungry for sandwiches so we tried out this place called Tat's.  Meh.  It was ok.  I wouldn't go back.
IMG_5683

My friend Jason told me about a frozen custard place called Old School Frozen Custard.  We went around 9pm so most of the flavors were sold out.  It was reallllly goooood.  I want to go back when there's more flavors I can try
IMG_5719


August 21 was the morning of the eclipse.  We didn't realize this when we booked our vacation, Randy had mentioned it to me while researching things to do.  We were thinking of driving down to Portland a day earlier to catch the total eclipse down there but we decided against it.  Good thing, they said it was a 6 hour drive from Seattle with all the traffic.  Lucky for us Debbie said that as long as you are looking to the Southeast then we should be fine.  Her house faces Southeast!!  Seattle would be in the 90% totality range, good enough.   She lives in Queen Anne, here's the view right down the street from her house.  We were walking around staking out eclipse spots...
IMG_5712

IMG_5715


One more bonus...her neighbor across the street said we can just hang out on her lanai and watch 
the eclipse from there!!!  SCORE!!  So we grabbed our eclipse glasses and headed across the street. 
IMG_5723
I don't know if any of you have ever used these glasses but you can't see ANYTHING through these things!  It's amazing how protective they are too because the sun was super bright that morning.  You see the hat?  It's covering my lens, I wasn't sure if my homemade filter was going to work so I didn't want to take a chance and have the sun shine into it for too long.  Like my shirt? ;)

Homemade filter you ask??  Well there was a theory that I remember hearing back in x-ray school that you can use unexposed xray film as your protection while looking at sun.  The silver bromide that layers on top of it acts as a natural filter.  One problem.  No one uses xray film anymore!  We are all in the digital age and it's rare that anyone prints films anymore.  Also the dry laser printer uses different film so I wasn't sure if it would work.  With lots and lots of googling I found out that the film that we use in the office does have a silver coating.  Perfect!  The film was expired so no one would care if I took a few sheets.  I layered two sheets onto my filter just in case one wasn't enough...
IMG_5666


 I guess it worked cause my pictures turned out fine. yay!  This was the sun at it's peak coverage, at 10:21 PST
peak eclipse_2325

Not as exciting as I had thought.  It just looks like a crescent moon!  And it didn't get very dark either.  I was hoping to see a huge difference in lighting.  It got really cold though.  Maybe about a 10 degree difference.  That was bizarre.  It was really hot waiting around for it.

I'm only showing this so I don't forget my settings.  I was at ISO 100
IMG_5728


Seattle was fun, we even got to see some other cousin's of Randy's that we rarely get to see....but ahem, no pics again.  Fail.  Off to Portland next!

Monday, August 14, 2017

Lennox

Kakaako

Meet Lennox....he's turning one soon and mommy Vikki needed some pics for his invitation.  I saw this wall on the internet and I was on a mission to find it!  Good thing I plenty friends that pay attention so they knew exactly where it was...It's on the Fisher wall next to Mother Waldron park.  It's awesome because since it's not facing the street I didn't have to worry about cars parked in front of it!

I took some test shots before they arrived
IMG_2180

IMG_2181

IMG_2182


So cute yah!!
IMG_2187-2

IMG_2195

IMG_2214

IMG_2232

IMG_2249

Friday, August 11, 2017

Baklava

I always wanted to try and make Baklava but was always scared to.  It looks really difficult and I've never really worked with phyllo dough before.  It's my co-worker's birthday (happy birthday Joanne!) so I thought I'd finally give it a try.  I found a recipe on pinterest, it was good because it had lots of pictures and a video.  You can find the recipe here.  Of course she made it look super easy, with her hair all nice and not a drip of sweat running down her.  Anyways, this recipe totally tests your patience.  It uses 40 layers of phyllo dough, and after every layer you brush melted butter on it.  The first step is 10 layers.  So yup, dough, butter, dough, butter...etc.  I swear after 5 layers if you're not paying attention you're gonna lose count and not know what number you're on.  After the 10th layer you sprinkle your nuts and then start again, except with only 5 layers.  Then nuts.  Then 5 more layers. Don't forget to butter your sheet after every one!! Sigh...so here's how it went

10 sheets
Nuts
5 sheets
Nuts
5 sheets
Nuts
5 sheets
Nuts
5 sheets
Nuts
10 sheets

By the time I finished my last set was 11 sheets.  Who knows where I skimped.  Good thing they're really thin so you can't tell.  I only took one picture.  I don't know how other people blog their stuff.  My kitchen was a mess.  There's no way I was pulling out my camera for this....
IMG_5658


It actually was pretty tasty!  It was a bitch cutting it, you have to do it before you throw it in the oven so your layers were moving all over the place.  I don't know how the girl got hers to look so nice.  I didn't even bother to take a picture of my pan.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Jalna is now a vegan!

Did you know that Jalna is attempting to become a vegan?  Go check out her blog to see her progress...I must say, she's very lucky because her son, who is trained to be a chef, is serious about changing their lifestyle.  His food is good!  There's no way I'd be able to handle if I had to do all this on my own.

I thought I'd help her out and look for a vegan snack for her to reward her for her suffering (actually she's not suffering too much I think, she wasn't a big meat eater to begin with). I found a recipe for chocolate chip cookies and it looked pretty good.  Bonus that I already had all of the ingredients in my kitchen.  We were already scheduled to go to brunch with Michele, her cousin V,  and fellow blogger Kat so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to try out this recipe. I found it on pinterest but you can get the recipe here 

Another bonus, very little ingredients!  
IMG_5630


I got permission from Jalna to use regular chocolate chips and not vegan since they were semi-sweet and not milk chocolate...

I prepared the dough last night so I could freshly bake them this morning before brunch.  It didn't make too much, a little over 2 dozen.  I think I'll double the recipe next time.
IMG_5631


IMG_5632


Success!  They came out pretty good, and not as coconutty as I expected.  I thought I wasn't gonna like it but I do!  
IMG_5634


I finally got to use my sealer that Jalna bought me for an early Christmas/birthday gift...uh yah.  My birthday is in February. hahaha!!
IMG_5635