Happy Thursday!

We are FINALLY closing on our new house today, so the next few days are going to be a flurry of moving, cleaning, and saying good riddance to Everett.  I hope that you all have a wonderful end to your week and weekend!  

Next time I post, hopefully it will be from here:

Weekend Recap

We had such a fun weekend!  We hadn't had a visitor since my sister came in November, so it was long overdue!  Thank you, L.Rae, for spending your weekend with us!

L.Rae got in around 8:00 on Friday night and we took her over to West Seattle to enjoy the view and Phoenecia.  If you have never been to West Seattle ... GO!  The view of the Seattle skyline is amazing.  And, Phoeneica is awesome as well.  They are known for their pizzas, but everything we've tried has been delicious.

Me and L.Rae

J. and I

Seattle!

After our dinner, we met up with some friends in Belltown.  We had to take L.Rae to our favorite bar, Bathtub Gin & Co. and we stopped by Rob Roy as well.  L.Rae was very impressed with the atmosphere at Bathtub, as well as their "aggressive" drinks.

Saturday, we planned to see the tulips at the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.  We also wanted to stop by our new house (more on that later!) to show L.Rae.  We did not plan for the fact that every other person in the state of Washington was going to the tulip festival as well.  The traffic was INSANE.  We decided to head to the house first, then stop in downtown Mount Vernon for some coffee and paninis and then head back down 5 to get to the tulip fields through Conway.  Luckily, that route was much less traveled.  Saturday was the most beautiful day of 2011 (by far) and we soaked up every ounce of sun that we could:

The red was so bright it was almost blinding ... it was amazing.

The tulips with Mt. Baker in the background.

Red and yellow tulips with Mt. Baker.

J. and I

Field #2 ... there were red tulips scattered in with the red ones, I loved it! 

L.Rae and I

J. and I

Love this little hut ...

A field of daffodils with Mt. Baker in the background.

After we saw the daffodils, we headed to La Conner to meet up with R. and her roommate.  We stumbled upon a great little find, Hellam's Vineyard.  It was a pretty big wine shop with a tasting bar and a great little patio right on the channel.  We got a few glasses of wine and sat outside until the sun went down.  It was such a gorgeous night!

A cool bridge over the Swinomish Channel in La Conner

Sunday morning, we woke up and had Easter baskets!  Yay!  And then headed into Seattle to show L.Rae around.  During her last visit to Seattle, we went up to the San Juan Islands, went on a lame kayaking trip and didn't make it to Pike Place Market, so we had a few things to check off our list.

We started by checking out the first Starbucks ...

And then we wandered into the market ...

Where we saw more beautiful tulips!

And then onto the gum wall ...

L.Rae and J. deciding where to put his gum ...

That spot looks good.

Umm ... gross.

L.Rae and I

Gross ... germs!

Then we headed over to Fremont and saw the troll ...

These are our best troll faces ...

We also strolled through the Fremont Market, sampled chocolates at Theo's and then met some friends at Brouwer's for happy hour.  I LOVE that Seattle does happy hour seven days a week.  We also stopped by Molly Moon's on the way home.  Yum.

Monday, we lounged around the house all morning and then headed to the U-District.  J. wants a record player so we stopped by Hawthorne and saw some very cool old record players and some even cooler looking new ones.  And then we headed to Cedar's for some Indian food.  It was delicious.  We had bottomless chai, two types of naan, Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala and Madras Chile Masala.  I'm getting hungry just writing about it!  

Thanks so much for visiting, L.Rae!  We loved having you!

Ten on Tuesday #11!

Whew, it's my "Monday" so to speak and I am still recovering from the weekend!  My bestie, L.Rae was visiting and we packed a lot into our three short days together.  I'll write more about that later this week, because I loved the questions for this week's Ten on Tuesday so I can't skip them!  As usual, if you want to play along, go visit Chelsea at Roots and Rings!

1.  How many blogs do you read every day and what are they?  (I'm talking the ones you NEVER miss)
Hmm, well I usually read all the blogs in the "Blogs I'm Reading" section on my blog!  I don't read every single blog, every single day, but the ideal start to my morning is to check my email and read my blogs while I eat breakfast.

2.  How many "best friends" do you have?  Do you have different "besties" for different areas of your life?
I definitely have different "besties" for different areas of my life!  We have very close family friends from when I was growing up.  I have my best friend, Nicole, from high school.  Then in college, I had my roommate besties who visited in October.  And I have my bestie, L.Rae, who is my bestie from studying abroad.  And then I have besties from law school.  And there's my sister and my cousin, C., who I consider to be besties.  And then there are the new friends I'm making out here in the Pacific Northwest that I hope will be besties one day!  And, of course, J.  He's not a girl bestie, but he's a bestie all the same!

3.  What's your daily make-up routine?
I have a pretty involved make-up routine, but I only wear make-up if I am leaving the house.  Haha.  I use Mac Prep+Prime, then Clinique concealer, Bare Minerals powder, Nars Blush, MAC eyeshadow and mascara!  That sounds like a lot but I can usually be done with my face in 5-8 minutes.

4.  What is your ideal girl's night?
Depends on my mood ... I love to stay in, drink wine and chat or go out with my girls for a night on the town!  Right now, my ideal girls night would be a week long beach vacation!

5.  Do you keep up with your nails/toenails or are they au natural?
I try to keep up with them.  My toes are always painted, my nails are most always painted.  I've found that you can go into most nail salons and get a "polish change" on your finger nails for $6.00 + tip so I usually do that about once or twice a month.

6.  What's your best roommate story (assuming you had a roommate at some point in your life)?
Well, I used to live with a girl in college (no one that reads my blog!) and she got mad at me and didn't speak to me for 6 weeks.  And we lived in the same apartment.  Talk about awkward!

7.  What's your "go to" outfit that you wear more than anything else?
This simple black dress I bought at Old Navy about a billion years ago.  Seriously, I have no idea when I got it but I found it in my closet last fall and I can't get enough of it.  I like to wear it with tights and boots.

8.  Do you have a beauty secret?
No, but I need one!  Ever since we moved out West, I feel like my skin is more oily and breaks out more often.  Any advice West-Coasters?

9.  Did you read Seventeen magazine growing up?
Of course!

10.  How did you learn to put on makeup?
My mom took me to the Clinique counter when I turned 13 and let me get my own set of make-up.  They taught me how to apply it and then I've refined my techniques over the years.  Whenever I get new make-up I always ask the make-up artists for tips or advice.

Fremont Troll Stroll

This past Saturday, we had the chance to re-live our college days while donating money to a good cause.  Sounds like the perfect day, huh?  We participated in the 2011 Fremont Troll Stroll ... a twelve bar, bar crawl through Fremont with the proceeds going to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  It was such a fun time!  And, as our accountant said, a pretty good deal at $3.75 a drink!  With advance purchase of your ticket you got a drink ticket to each of the 12 participating bars and a t-shirt.  It was our goal to make it to all 12 bars and, I must admit, I was slightly worried about having 12 drinks.  But, the organizers were one step ahead of us (this was their 10th Troll Stroll after all) and we had mini-beers at each bar.  Genius.  Unfortunately, we only made it to 11 of the 12 bars, but not because we didn't put forth a good effort!  We tried to go to one of the bars, George & Dragon TWICE but both times the line was so long we didn't think it was a good use of our time.  

A map of all participating bars

The Dubliner Irish Pub ... Bar #4!

Group photo ... Me, R, R's friend, R.H. & S2

Unfortunately I don't remember what bar this was ...

Jello shots at Woodsky's

R.H. and J. ... hey, wait a minute, I'm wearing that shirt too!

Austin joins the fun...

R., Austin, S2 and me

After the bar crawl, we headed to happy hour at Dad Watson's (one of the participating bars).  One thing I love about Seattle is that most bars have happy hour every day of the week!  A $6 dinner?  Yes, please!

And then, on our way home, I decided I needed to try Molly Moon's.  R. has been talking about it for ages, NavyGirl blogged about it last week and it was conveniently located on our route home:

The menu

My Theo Chocolate and Salted Caramel ... yum.  I also tried a sample of balsamic strawberry which I think I will mix with Theo Chocolate on my next visit.  Perhaps I need to introduce L.Rae to Molly Moon's this weekend?

It was such a fun event and I think I will definitely be participating in the 2012 Troll Stroll ... 

Mariners v. Tigers!

The Detroit Tigers are in town this week and we ventured down to Safeco Field last night to watch them take on the Seattle Mariners.  We aren't Detroit fans, but our friends S2 and R.H. are plus all Tuesday home games are military appreciation so we're able to get tickets for $12.00.  Not a bad Tuesday night :) 

We started our evening across the street from Safeco at Pyramid Brewery.  They have a Game Day menu and decently priced beers, as well as a beer garden.  We opted to eat inside, but the beer garden will be fun when it's a little bit warmer out!  

Safeco Field

Me and J.

S2 and R.H.

Loving this Segway

Making my Dippin Dots purchase ... it was the highlight of my evening.

Play ball!

The groundskeepers had a little dance routine they performed :)

Ryan Raburn ... S2 may or may not have a little crush on him.

This guy was manually changing the scoreboard.

R.H. went to the first game of the series on Monday night and saw the Tigers beat the Mariners.  The Mariners more than made up for it last night, beating the Tigers 13-3.  It was a fun game!  Everett doesn't offer much in the way of weeknight entertainment, so it was nice to get down to Seattle during the week and have a little fun!  And who can say to $12.00 baseball tickets?

Ten on Tuesday #10!

Happy Tuesday!  I am baby-sitting all day and then heading to the Mariners v. Tigers game with J., S2 and her hubby, R.H.  The weather yesterday was beautiful so I am keeping my fingers crossed that today will be a repeat of yesterday!  But, before I run off to baby-sit, I wanted to post this week's Ten on Tuesday.  Link up if you want to play along!

1.  When someone asks you for a book recommendation, what is your go-to book?
It depends on the person.  Right now, I'm recommending "Water for Elephants," "The Help," "The Glass Castle" or any of the Chelsea Handler books.

2.  Do you buy your books, or are you a library patron?
Well, you would think that I'd be a library patron considering I live next door to the public library, but I'm not.  I really should go get my library card.  I like to go to Half Price Books and peruse their Clearance section.  Books for $1?  Who can pass that up?  And, you never know what you are going to find.

3.  E-readers, yay or nay?
Well, I have a Kindle but I haven't really read anything on it yet.  I hope my mom isn't reading this!  I had a bunch of $1 books to finish reading and I'm having a hard time spending $10+ on a book.  AHH, I know that's really not that much.  I have been using my Kindle to do New York Times Crossword Puzzles and I LOVE it for crosswords.  It makes it so much easier and it can help you out if you get stuck!

4.  What was your favorite book as a child?
Depends on what you mean by "as a child."  I liked the Richard Scary's "What Do People Do All Day?" book when I was really little.  I liked The Baby-Sitter's Club, Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High, The Saddle Club and the Thoroughbred series when I was old enough to read chapter books on my own.  I was a book nerd :)

5.  If you could be any character in a book, who would you be?
I think I would want to be Becky, from the Shopaholic series.  I mean, she has a fabulous wardrobe, she manages to get out of every mess she gets in and she married a millionaire.  Sounds good to me!  I (of course) would manage my money better :)

6.  What book would you love to see turned into a movie?
I think most of the books I've read lately that I REALLY liked have been turned into movies already.  I can't wait to see Something Borrowed and Water for Elephants.

7.  What is your all-time favorite book?
I don't think I have an all-time favorite book.  I have lots of books that I like, but it's hard to pick an all-time favorite.

8.  How many books do you read at once?
Just one!  I'd get the story lines confused if I tried to read more than one at a time.

9.  What is your favorite book genre?
Memoirs.  I love them!

10.  Which Harry Potter book is the best?  Or haven't you read them at all?
I've read all of them and I don't remember enough about each book to pick a favorite.  I really enjoyed the series as a whole.

I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!

What we're eating this week ...

I can't believe it's another Monday ... this year seems to be flying by.  Of course, I say that every year but I always feel like time is going by so fast.  I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend and are having a good start to your weeks!  This week we will be trying the following recipes:

Sunday night -- we had leftover chicken from the Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken that we made last week, so we mixed it with some barbecue sauce and had BBQ Chicken Sandwiches with baked beans and potato salad.  Yum!  I like to serve these sandwiches on dinner rolls that Safeway sells instead of regular bread or hamburger bun type rolls.

Monday night -- we are having leftover lasagna.  We were gone Friday and Saturday nights so we've got a lot of leftover lasagna to eat.  Luckily, it really is The Best Lasaga Ever so we don't mind having it again!

Tuesday night -- we will be going to the Mariners v. Tigers game!  Every Tuesday is Military Appreciation Night so we got tickets for $10.00!  We are going with some friends from Detroit so that should make the game a lot of fun.  We're planning on eating at Pyramid Brewery beforehand, it's right across the street from Safeco and also has a beer garden!

Wednesday night -- Asian Pork Tenderloin.  I blogged about this recipe a few weeks ago but I never made it.  We plan on having it with stir fried vegetables -- some sugar snap peas, bell peppers, water chestnuts and baby corns.

Thursday night -- Monterey Chicken.  I've made this recipe before and it was REALLY good.  We don't have a grill so I baked it in the oven and then added the toppings and it turned out really well.  I can't wait until we move and get a grill so we can have grilled Monterey Chicken instead of baked!

We aren't trying out a lot of new recipes this week, but hopefully our meal plan will give you some ideas!  I really think that planning ahead makes not only our grocery shopping easier, but our week nights easier as well.  Whoever gets home first doesn't have to look around the kitchen and decide what to make, they can just get started!

Happy Cooking!

Deception Pass Sunset

I was up on Whidbey Island a few weeks ago for a meeting and the sunset was so gorgeous that I stopped at Deception Pass to take a few photos:

If you look REALLY closely (or enlarge the picture), there's a white dot smack dab in the middle ... it was a plane from the Navy base!

Looking out towards the San Juan Islands.

I cannot wait for warmer, clearer weather so we can spend more time outdoors and have beautiful sunsets like this every night!

Ten on Tuesday #9!

Happy Tuesday!  I had a MAJOR case of the Mondays yesterday, so I'm hoping that today I'll be starting off on the right foot ... if not, I may just go back to bed and get up next week.  Anyways, it's time for this week's edition of Ten on Tuesday, if you want to play along, link up at Roots and Rings.

1.  If you work, do you drive to work or take public transportation?
Well, I kind of work?  I do my lawyer work from home and drive to meet my clients.  I also volunteer at a legal aid clinic in Seattle and I alternate between driving and taking public transportation.  When I was volunteering in the mornings I took the train, but I've switched to the afternoon clinics and I usually drive over taking the bus.

2.  How often do you get your haircut?  Do you go to the same person every time?
When I lived in Indy, I got my haircut religiously -- every 6 weeks by Miss Caroline at Salon Orange Moon!  Since I moved out to the West Coast I only get my haircut when I go back to Indy!  Miss Caroline has been on maternity leave so Stephanie was cutting my hair in her absence :)

3.  Do you read the newspaper?  If so, a hardcopy or the online version?
I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I get 99% of my news from Twitter.  I follow CNN, the Indy Star, the Seattle Times, People, OK!, US Weekly ... I'd say I'm pretty well informed :)

4.  What is the best book you have read this year?
Hmmm, I can't even remember what books I have read this year.  The last two books I read were Plainsong and Lost & Found and both were pretty good.  I have a few on my "to-read" list: Unbroken, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest Series and probably a few others that I can't think of right now.  Any suggestions?

5.  What is the best movie you have seen this year?
Well, I haven't seen that many movies this year.  J. and I have Netflix, but we've been watching TV shows over movies.  We just saw Secretariat which I thought was a very good movie and we've also seen Vicky Christina Barcelona which I liked a lot as well.  I really want to see The King's Speech and I am patiently waiting for it to come out on Netflix!  Any movies that you'd recommend??

6.  Do you tend to crave sweet or salty foods?
SWEET.  Every day, all the time.  My current obsession is Starburst Jellybeans.  I eat a bag a week.  And no, I am not kidding.

7.  Do you eat breakfast every day?  If so, what do you have?
I usually have a smoothie made with strawberries, peaches, blueberries and plain Greek yogurt.  Sometimes I get a Chonga bagel from Starbucks and eat half of that as well.  I just discovered these a few weeks ago and they are to die for.  On the weekends, J. and I usually have eggs and bacon or pancakes.  I love breakfast food :)

8.  If you celebrate Easter, what Easter treat/candy are you most looking forward to?
STARBURST JELLY BEANS!!!! Yum.

9.  How late is "sleeping in" to you?
Ummm, noon?  Or later?  I am not a morning person at all.  On a normal day when I have nothing in the morning I try to get up by 9:30 because I find that acceptable.  If I have nothing to do for multiple days in a row, I might lounge in bed til noon.

10.  Where are you going on your next vacation?
Well, my family is taking us to the Cayman Islands for Christmas, but I would REALLY like to go on a vacation before that.  However, unless we win the lottery I don't see that happening :)

What we're eating this week ...

I was slacking for a few weeks, but I'm back on track with my meal planning!  It really does make the weeks so much easier.

Sunday night - I had leftovers from both my lunch and dinner from Saturday, so I had leftovers.  J. spent the night in Anacortes because he had a 7:00 a.m. brief on Monday morning (yuck!)

Monday night - Sesame Shrimp Stir Fry.  J. found this recipe on Allrecipes.com.  It was quick to put together and very tasty.  We served it with rice.  

Tuesday night - Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken Tacos.  I am really looking forward to making this recipe.  I love tacos, but making chicken tacos can be such a pain.  This recipe looks amazing ... throw everything in the crockpot before you leave in the morning and dinner will be ready when you get home!  

Wednesday night - The Pioneer Woman's Best Lasagna Ever.  We've had this several times and it's a favorite.  I substitute Italian Herbs for some of the Basil in the sauce, because I think the Basil can be a little overpowering.  

Thursday night - depending on the amount of food we have left over ... we will either be having leftovers or I might make the leftover chicken into enchiladas or tortilla soup.  I'll report back if I do something fancy :)

Hope you're all having a wonderful start to your week ... I've been suffering from a case of the Mondays!

Weekend Update

This is going to be a long one ... are you ready?  First, I need to make some introductions.  We hung out with some people this weekend that I haven't talked about on the blog before.  Mateo is in the Navy with J.  He flies the Prowler which is the plane that the Growler is replacing.  R. is dating Mateo.  She had a friend in town from L.A., so we'll call her L.A.  S2 is my friend from the legal aid clinic I volunteer at.  We have the same name, we're both from the Midwest and we both can't find jobs.  We've got a lot in common :)  Her husband, R.H., hung out with us as well.

Friday night, we met up with Mateo, R. and L.A. at Spur Gastropub in Belltown.  I didn't know what a gastropub was until I looked it up on Wikipedia -- a gastropub is a bar and restaurant that serves high-end beer and food.  Works for me!  We ate dinner at home, so we weren't able to try to Pork Belly Sliders that everyone raves about on Yelp, but their drinks were fabulous and we were able to get a table.  From there, we headed to an old favorite, The Bathtub Gin & Co., a fabulous, hidden speakeasy in Belltown.  This is one of my favorite places to go in Seattle, but it's very tiny and there can be a wait to get in on the weekends.  We had to wait for about 10 minutes to get in (we had a party of 6) but we were able to get a spot in the lower level with chairs and sofas.  I'm on a Moscow Mule kick, so I had their version, the Soviet Mule.  We wanted to try one more place before we went home, so we headed up the street to Rob Roy.  They had a long and fabulous looking cocktail menu, but they were all pretty pricey so I stuck with my tried and true V&T.  We parted ways with Mateo, R. and L.A. and headed home.  But not without making a little pit stop at Jimmy John's :)  And J. even walked away with a whole loaf of their wheat bread for free.  Apparently, they throw out their leftover wheat bread every night after closing ... shouldn't they be donating it or doing something less wasteful?!

Mateo had tickets to the Sounders game on Saturday afternoon and invited J. to go with him.  I didn't know what I was going to do, but I knew if I had a free ride to Seattle, I was going!  I made plans with S2 to go to lunch and do a little window shopping around Fremont.  However, by the time we got to R.'s to pick up Mateo, our plans had changed (and for the better!)  I thought R. and L.A. were going to the game with Mateo and J., but Mateo only had 2 tickets so they decided to drive out to Snoqualmie Falls.  S2 and I decided to tag along and I am so glad that we did! 

Beautiful Snoqualmie Falls:

It was hard to get a good picture of the falls because the trail was closed that lads to the bottom of the falls.  It's not closed for maintenance or for the season ... it's closed until 2013!  So, in 2013 one of my resolutions is going to be to visit Snoqualmie Falls and hike to the bottom!

After we viewed the Falls, we headed up to the hotel overlooking to Falls for lunch.  The wait for our food was SO long (like 45+ minutes), but the food was good and we were able to snag a window seat so the view was fabulous.  

From there, we took L.A. to the airport and headed back to Fremont to meet up with J. and Mateo who were enjoying happy hour at Brouwer's.  We got a bit delayed - we parked right across from Theo's (the chocolate store) and had to stop in for samples!  After filling up on chocolate samples, we joined the boys at Brouwer's and R.H. came and joined us as well.  We had a great time getting to know each other.  I haven't really met that many people who live in Seattle since we moved here and I feel like things are turning around!  We've been going down to Seattle a lot more often lately and it's been SO.MUCH.FUN.  I hope we continue with this trend :)

After Brouwer's we decided to try one more bar in Fremont.  On Friday night, the three bars we went to were named as one of Seattle's top 25 bars by Seattle Met so we decided to go to only Fremont bar on the list, Quoin (coin).  It was pretty crowded in the bar area so we decided to sit outside around the fire!  It was a lot of fun ... I wished I had marshmallows with me!

Going into the weekend, we had absolutely no plans and it turned out to be one of the weekends we have had in a long time.  I am a city girl 100% and I love exploring Seattle.  It's an added bonus when you get to do it with people who actually live there and know all the hidden gems!

Thanks for such a great weekend J., N., Mateo, R., L.A., S2 and R.H.!

What we're eating this week ...

J. was in charge of meal planning for the week and he did a great job (and all the grocery shopping!)  I just might keep him around.  We're working on cleaning out our freezer and pantry in anticipation of moving out of our apartment at some point this summer.  It's nice to have things on hand "just in case" but it's also nice to eat them before they expire.

Sunday night - dinner at G.S. and N.'s house.  They made yummy ribs, we brought baked beans and these delicious brownies.  I was nervous about how the brownies would turn out because the batter was SO thick, but they are pretty good.  I used Double Stuf Oreos instead of regular Oreos and I think that if did it again I'd try regular Oreos.

Monday night - Slow Cooker Chicken Pot Pie Stew.  Whew, what a name.  I was skeptical about this recipe, but it turned out to be really good and the leftovers were even better.  And I don't usually eat leftovers.

Tuesday night - Red Curry with Shrimp and Scallops.  This was DELICIOUS.  As in, I am considering running out to Trader Joe's and purchasing their entire stock of Red Curry Sauce.  I got a bottle of TJ's Red Curry Sauce, we added shrimp, scallops, green beans, potatoes, cilantro and served it over rice.  It may just be my new "go-to" recipe.

Wednesday night - leftovers.  J. has to work late and we have a fridge full of leftovers.

Thursday night - not sure what's on the menu yet.  If it turns out to be as delicious as our Red Curry, I'll be sure to post about it later :)

Hope you're having a good week!

Weekend Update

It's Monday already?  How did that happen?  The weekends go by way too fast around here!  J. came home from the boat this weekend, so we caught up with some friends, cheered Butler on in the Final Four and got organized for the week.  Once again, I didn't take a single picture even though I lugged the camera around all weekend.

Friday night, we drove up to Oak Harbor and had delicious BBQ with some of J.'s friends.  I love BBQ and we don't get it very often around here!  From there, we headed down to Coupeville to meet up with some other Navy boys at a bar.  We had a great time catching J. up on all the things he missed while he was gone, drinking goblets of wine (ok that was just me) and playing pull tabs.

Saturday I was supposed to baby-sit but I woke up Saturday morning to find a text saying that the husband was sick so they wouldn't need me.  Free day!  J. had plans with Mr. S. and G.S. to go to watch the Butler game and go to REI so I decided to tag along because I wanted out of the house and going to Seattle is always fun.  We decided to watch the Butler game first and headed to the Belltown Pub.  We made it just in time for the game and happy hour - I love bars that have happy hours on the weekend - and we had a great time watching Butler defeat VCU.  Butler is not my team per se, but my team is out, my sister was good friends in high school with one of the players on Butler's team, I went to law school with a lot of Butler alums and it was so much fun last year to watch them make it to the Championship game in their hometown!  After Belltown Pub, we went to REI and then we headed over to Fremont to meet one of my friends for a drink.  We met at Brouwer's which was a great place to end our night.  They had a huge beer selection, it was a great atmosphere and the building it was located in was really cool.  My only complaint was that their wine list was ridiculously priced ... it was hard to find a glass of wine for under $10.00.

Sunday, J. and I got organized for the week.  We cleaned the house, went grocery shopping, worked out, etc.  And then we headed up to Anacortes to G.S. and N.'s house for a delicious dinner of baby back ribs and a viewing of Due Date.  The ribs were a-m-azing (I can't wait to get a grill!) and the movie was funny.  It was a great way to end our weekend.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  I'm wishing I was in Indianapolis tonight to watch Butler in the NCAA Championship!  Go Bulldogs!

Visited States

NavyGirl blogged about this cool site where you can make a map showing all of the states that you have visited.  I loved it!  Here is my map:

Now, I feel like I need to make some disclaimers.  I've only driven through Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas and Idaho and I've only been to the airport in Minnesota (layover in Minneapolis - I really liked their airport!).  Anyways, I am hoping to knock out Alaska and Hawaii while we are living out west and then I need to go on a road trip through the Northeast!  I'm not sure how I will ever make it to North Dakota, but visiting all 50 states is on my bucket list so I better make it happen someday!

Happy Friday friends!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!