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I'm pretty far behind in updating. The last few weeks at work have been just wretched, and as usual the thought of doing one more thing that felt like an obligation, such as updating, made me want to burst into tears. Unfortunately, things aren't going to calm down for at least another week or so, and even then it will probably be some completely other irritating thing. I guess that's why they call it "work." But it hasn't been all bad. Not last week but the week before I cooked some more stuff, specifically sweet 'n' sour glazed chicken breasts and mandarin orange pork medallions (not at the same time, doy). And broccoli, because there's always time for broccoli. The chicken was pretty good, with the usual issue of the glaze (thick and sticky, I swear to you!) droobling off the chicken during cooking. The pork medallions were good too; the recipe called for 1 teaspoon of prepared horseradish, but I don't know why, because you couldn't taste it at all! Shawn said maybe it didn't matter if you could taste it or not, that it may have added a certain oh, I don't know, je ne sais quoi. Kij has promised me that we'll have a salmon-cooking date at some point, and I'm really looking forward to that.
I had Saturday to myself because Shawn was off doing Guy Stuff. So I went down to the Weyerhaeuser campus to visit the Rhododendron Species Foundation and Botanical Garden and Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection. Despite having lived here all my life, I've never visited these things before. Our state flower is a rhododendron, and we're sneyed up with the things. The problem with rhodies is that they look spectacular for a few weeks a year and then the rest of the time they look like hell. We're in peak blooming season for some of the varieties, so everywhere you look are explosions of blossoms in both rich, saturated colors - cerise, fuchsia, violet and papaya - and delicate pastels such as lavender and apricot. At the garden some of the shrubs are up to 25 feet high, which you don't really think about when you think of rhodies - they're almost trees! The garden is very pleasant, and I like it a lot more than the UW Arboretum because everything isn't as spread out (and it feels a lot safer). They have Himalayan poppies, which I'd never seen before; they are a shocking electric blue that looks utterly unreal, like they were dipped in blue dye. The bonsai collection is magnificent, and the photos don't represent the beauty of the trees at all well. I'm going to drag Shawn there as soon as possible, but I don't know when we'll make it, as next weekend is super-busy.
One newsworthy thing to report: I finally finished one of the charm bracelets I've been trying to make for a couple years! So what, you say? Well, you need to understand that I never ever ever finish projects. Never. (Ask Kij and Jilli and Jeanine about the Weaselmom Memorial Altered Book Supplies Collection.) But after collecting charms and running down a bracelet blank, I completed my first one! It's a forest theme with 9 deer charms, 5 pine tree charms and 5 pinecone charms, all different. Finding this many different charms that I liked was half the battle, then finding a long enough bracelet was another half the battle, and then trying to teach myself how to do this was, um, the other other half of the battle. You get the idea. I'm going to bawl like a baby the first time the bracelet snags my sweater or a charm falls off.
Last weekend we dropped my car off at the vet for some service and geocached around Kirkland for several hours. For the non-locals, Kirkland is part of what we call the Eastside, which, along with Redmond and Bellevue, is where we keep all our rich people. We found 17 of the 22 on our list, DNF'd two, and didn't have time for the other three. Now we're at 165, which means that 175 isn't so far away, and 200 is within reach. Still, I look at some of the folks online who have found like 4,000 and I just despair. Then again, there are just the two of us and we don't get out all that often and we don't race around at top speed and ::whispers:: we have other interests too.
So, yeah, five days of hell at work next week, then helping K move, then our friend Bryan's wedding Sunday, then five more days of hell at work, then Memorial Day weekend, then four more days of hell at work, and then vacation (to be spent with S's family in San Diego). Are we having fun yet?
I had Saturday to myself because Shawn was off doing Guy Stuff. So I went down to the Weyerhaeuser campus to visit the Rhododendron Species Foundation and Botanical Garden and Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection. Despite having lived here all my life, I've never visited these things before. Our state flower is a rhododendron, and we're sneyed up with the things. The problem with rhodies is that they look spectacular for a few weeks a year and then the rest of the time they look like hell. We're in peak blooming season for some of the varieties, so everywhere you look are explosions of blossoms in both rich, saturated colors - cerise, fuchsia, violet and papaya - and delicate pastels such as lavender and apricot. At the garden some of the shrubs are up to 25 feet high, which you don't really think about when you think of rhodies - they're almost trees! The garden is very pleasant, and I like it a lot more than the UW Arboretum because everything isn't as spread out (and it feels a lot safer). They have Himalayan poppies, which I'd never seen before; they are a shocking electric blue that looks utterly unreal, like they were dipped in blue dye. The bonsai collection is magnificent, and the photos don't represent the beauty of the trees at all well. I'm going to drag Shawn there as soon as possible, but I don't know when we'll make it, as next weekend is super-busy.
One newsworthy thing to report: I finally finished one of the charm bracelets I've been trying to make for a couple years! So what, you say? Well, you need to understand that I never ever ever finish projects. Never. (Ask Kij and Jilli and Jeanine about the Weaselmom Memorial Altered Book Supplies Collection.) But after collecting charms and running down a bracelet blank, I completed my first one! It's a forest theme with 9 deer charms, 5 pine tree charms and 5 pinecone charms, all different. Finding this many different charms that I liked was half the battle, then finding a long enough bracelet was another half the battle, and then trying to teach myself how to do this was, um, the other other half of the battle. You get the idea. I'm going to bawl like a baby the first time the bracelet snags my sweater or a charm falls off.
Last weekend we dropped my car off at the vet for some service and geocached around Kirkland for several hours. For the non-locals, Kirkland is part of what we call the Eastside, which, along with Redmond and Bellevue, is where we keep all our rich people. We found 17 of the 22 on our list, DNF'd two, and didn't have time for the other three. Now we're at 165, which means that 175 isn't so far away, and 200 is within reach. Still, I look at some of the folks online who have found like 4,000 and I just despair. Then again, there are just the two of us and we don't get out all that often and we don't race around at top speed and ::whispers:: we have other interests too.
So, yeah, five days of hell at work next week, then helping K move, then our friend Bryan's wedding Sunday, then five more days of hell at work, then Memorial Day weekend, then four more days of hell at work, and then vacation (to be spent with S's family in San Diego). Are we having fun yet?