Choose your own adventure

Birthday Edition!

Friday night, Joe and I went out for a "Choose your own adventure" adventure for his birthday.

His first choice (which he actually had to make the night before, so I could attempt to make reservations): Food?

1. Italian
2. Puerto Rican - so we went to La Isla in Ballard.
3. Burgers

Drinks?

1. Cocktails - this decision brought us to Hazlewood
2. Brewskies
3. H2O

Entertainment?

1. Ping Pong
2. Bar Olympics - We hit up the 4Bs and played pool, buck hunter, skee ball, darts and pop-a-shot. Joe won 3 of 5, so he took the gold. I'm still proud of the silver. (Everyone wins at Bar Olympics!)
3. Skydiving (leading up to the night, I kept telling him this is what we were going to do. He wasn't having any of it.)

Dessert?

1. Cupcakes - I had a hunch he'd pick this one, so I sneakily picked up cupcakes at Cupcake Royale during my lunch break.
2. Ice Cream

UW Basketball Tix?

1. vs. Arizona
2. vs. Arizona State - So next Saturday, we're continuing the adventure fun to watch the Dawgs crush the Sun Devils.
3. vs. USC

Then we went to the Royal Fork to cash in on his "senior citizen" discount... :)

Very fun night!

Knock Yourself Out

Busy day, but I took a little breather to enjoy a little blast from my past: Way over the Rainbow

I know the whole dance. And song. And even the back-up dancer moves. And so do 13 other former national consultants. We may have performed it in front of the National President - Jean Mrasek - at headquarters. I'm sure she was pleased with her selection of consultants after our off-beat performance. Really pleased. (Or trying to figure out how to hire and train 14 new consultants before the 2nd semester began. Yeah, probably...)

Blogger hates me and won't let me embed the video, so check it out here.

TGIF, right?

Update: Please note that this is not a video of me. Apparently I confused some folks, namely Josh. I could only imagine the excitement build, then suddenly pop like a balloon when it turned out to be an awkward 12-year-old boy jumping around and fist-pumping across the stage. And no, we were fortunate enough to not have our rendition filmed. Thank goodness. Ok, go on now. Watch the clip. I know you're dying to see it now... I hope I haven't built it up too much. Lauren Bakian, this one goes out to you!

little letters

dear good intentions,
i understand that you like your fruits and veggies, but you kind of went overkill at the grocery store last time. how will you ever finish a head of lettuce, spinach, 3 oranges, 4 bananas, 4 apples, 5 tomatoes, 2 zucchinis, 1 red onion, 1 bell pepper and 1 avocado? reminder: you live alone.

dear full marathon,
you're 5 months away, but you're still intimidating me. back off.

dear phinney ridge starbucks,
watch out for autumn and her flamingo-loving toddler that is not hers.
(p.s. i laughed a lot at this.)

dear sleep talkin' man,
i feel your pain. for years, i have had people tell me what i have said to them in my sleep. it's a shame (read: quite exciting) that your wife finds pleasure in posting your sleepy ramblings, sometimes even with audio.

dear anyone who has ever slept in the same room as me (i.e. an entire sorority sleeping porch of 25+ for four years),
my apologies for the excessive sleep talking, but my sincerest THANK YOU for not starting a blog about Petes Sleeping Speaks.

dear lunch break,
thank you for existing, even if it's often at my desk.

Amiche dall' Italia

My roommates from Italy came over for an Italian feast last night - complete with bread and olive oil/vinegar, wine and pasta. (Sorry, ladies - I forgot to whip out the Nutella! A minor obsession of ours.)

It was great to catch up! Learn all about Carol's wedding plans and Jessie's gutsy (and successful!) moves at work. As always, we promised that we wouldn't let so much time pass between get-togethers and I hope we stay true to that. Although, it's good to know that we can easily pick up where we left off...

Chillin' on the side of a canal in Venice.

Livin' la vita bella.

Funny story: So Carol and I knew each other because we just so happened to be Panhellenic Delegates and Presidents of our respective sororities for two years (Read: tons of meetings together where we shared our crazy stories of the crazy women in our houses). However, we were under the impression that we needed a third roommate. Fortunately, little Miss Straube met this "really cool DZ at a Pi Kapp toga party who was going to Rome too!" Bingo.

In an effort to reduce our risk of getting bunked up with "that crazy girl" of the program, we bombarded her at our next pre-trip meeting and asked her to be our roommate. She accepted our plea and later told us how weird she thought it was that literally attacked and forced her to say yes. Fortunately, it all turned out perfectly! Even if Jessie ended up being "that crazy girl." (Ok, just kidding. I think there was a clear winner of who really took the crown of Miss Crazy.)

An 8 second pick-me-up

Call me immature, but I think this is funny.

Rollin' with my homies

The 90's had great music. We learned this on our trip back when we listened exclusively to XM radio, 90's on 9. Best. station. ever.

Counting Crows, O Town, Melissa Etheridge, Live, No Doubt, Alanis, Goo Goo Dolls, Jewel, Whitney Houston, The Fugees, The Cranberries and so many more.

What are some of your faves from the 90's?

Snowy Awesomeness

I can't begin to explain how awesome last weekend was.

Maddie explained some of the reasons here.

I will give my little debrief via pictures because I think it appropriately captures the shear awesomeness of the weekend.

Playing in the snow.

Playing at Mt. Bachelor.

(the fresh snow was bliss.)

More snow playing. We can't get enough of it.

Lounging by the hot fire after playing in the snow.
Don't mind if I do! (Or if Autumn and Karen do)

Loving every bit of the snow.

Driving over the super, crazy, snowy pass on the way home. It was a hot mess. Well actually, freezin' cold mess!