The Anti-Grinch

It's not even December and I'm already gung-ho ho HOLIDAY! (I realize that didn't make sense, but I think it appropriately expresses my excitement for the Christmas season!)

As I type, I'm breathing in the sweet, sweet smell of my Christmas tree and watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I feel like I should go make some hot cocoa for the complete experience!
Get excited for the seasonal posts to come! (And don't worry, Holden and Jessie, I'll honor Hanukkah for you. I must admit, I get a little jealous that you have eight nights of celebrating and you get to play cool games like Dreidel.)

Tronics and I went ornament shopping awhile ago and we couldn't resist a photo-opp with these awesome hats.

Here's my lovely tree, all decorated with ornaments from my childhood. I love it!

(I know you're dying to know, so yes, those are Barbie ornaments. I got one every year from my grandma without fail. I have quite the collection. Try not to get too jealous.)

Isn't he adorable?

My nephew is growing up.

He used to hug and kiss me freely,

but now I have to fight for it.

I guess that's what happens at 7 years old.

(also, we wear the same shoe size
and I can wear his jeans comfortably.

Reminder: He's 7. He's gonna be HUGE!)

Here's photographic evidence of how hard it is now to snag a kiss from the kiddo.

I can just hear him say "girls have cooties."

Success!

Now he officially has cooties.

(What are cooties anyway?)

This is unrelated to my kiss mission, but I think it's absolutely adorable how much he idolizes his grandpa. Look at the way he's looking at his Grandpa Pete!

(I, on the other hand, am too preoccupied watching the Husky game...)

A Thanksgiving Eve Tradition

That I may be outgrowing.

The evening before Thanksgiving, the Longhorn Saloon is packed full of Burlington-Edison, Sedro Woolley and even Mount Vernon High School alumni. When I say packed, I mean it's so packed you're forced to be smelling the cologne or perfume of the person next to you.

This year, I'm afraid to admit it, I think I might be too old for the tradition; after all, it is my 6th year. There were people there that I probably used to babysit! I won't put my foot in my mouth and say I'll never go again because it was really nice to see Jake, Sarah, Steven, Jeff, etc... but I may suggest we do a trip to the Longhorn the day after Thanksgiving.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving Eve and are preparing for a family, food, and fun-filled Thanksgiving Day!

(Sidenote: I really wonder how Mr. Shaun Knutzen is feeling today...)

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TGIdubs

dubs = Wednesday.

I don't have to work Thursday or Friday, so I'm thankful it's Wednesday!

Being that it's the season to be thankful, I'd like to give some shout outs to my fabulous family and friends.

{you're all the best! and I couldn't live with out you. I mean it.}

Other things I'm thankful for:

• Leftovers from my yummy dinner with the Doherty family at Cactus last night. (thanks for dinner and as always, fun conversation!)
• UW is favored by a lot for Apple Cup this weekend!
• Again, 4-day weekend. Raise the roof, Ryan Helling style...
• It's finally reasonable to start celebrating the Christmas season this Friday!
• I have been given a huge responsibility that I am accepting with open arms: Thanksgiving Day dessert. (Even though it's less pressure than when the fate of Thanksgiving dinner unexpectedly was in my control when my mom didn't feel well a couple years back... Dad took on the turkey, I took on the rest and it turned out great!)
• The good wine that awaits me. My dad just stocked up at Compass Wines and I fully intend to help him out with his overabundant collection. Purple teeth, here I come!

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I love Ellen

As you might know, I'm a big fan of practical jokes. Nothing too elaborate, just simple little jokes.

I'll have to tell you about a joke that Straube and I took on that may have involved Maddie's advent calendar that she gets every year from her mom. It's one of my faves. But I'll leave you in suspense for the time being.

In the meantime, please enjoy this awesome practical joke that Ellen played on Taylor Swift.

Oh, good ol' Chuckanut Drive

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One of the most beautiful, scenic drives you'll ever take - one that I took for granted while growing up across the water:

Chuckanut Drive.

It twists and turns like there's no tomorrow.

The road is so narrow that I feared for my life when I first started driving and had to drive in the cliffside lane.

You have to take in the beautiful views, stop at the viewpoints along the way

and most of all, steer clear of all the bicyclists!

(seriously, not the safest place to bike.)

They've recently had some problems.

Huge boulders coming down the hillside.

Now that would be a scary sight.

Hopefully they'll be able to secure the hillside! How sad would it be if they shut down Chuckanut Drive?!

Here's the state it's in right now. Crazy, huh?

The upside - they found this really cool fossil that's been hidden away on the hillside!

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Shhh, speakeasy...

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Last Saturday, the girls and I hit up a speakeasy in Capitol Hill.

Ok, so not officially, because fortunately we are past the days of Prohibition, but it was still super fun! We went to Tavern Law and had some fantastic cocktails. Then we had to pick up the phone next to the giant-sized mystery door to see if they could accomodate four lovely ladies on a Saturday night in the speakeasy-themed bar, Needle and Thread. We got a big "nope" at first, but we waited awhile and Steph gave them her number for when seats opened up. So we waited. And waited. Until finally after an hour, it was our turn to see what exactly was on the other side of the door.

I would hate to spoil it for you, but it was awesome! Super quiet. Comfy seats. (A little bit of an annoying leaky pipe that kept dripping on Mads.) They don't have a cocktail menu, so you tell them what you normally drink and what you're looking for and they'll put together a mystery concoction! (Steph's may have included an egg white... but it was sure tasty!)

Overall, I'd give it two thumbs up and encourage everyone to give it a try!

Patiently awaiting our call from the speakeasy...

We made it upstairs!

It was dark and mysterious up there.

"Um, don't you just want to get your picture taken with Jackie O?!" -man on right

"I would never miss such an opportunity!" -me

(In retrospect, looking at the picture, the guy on the left is actually rather cute. I just couldn't really see past the whig. Or maybe it was the red dress? We suspect they just came from the Red Dress Party in South Lake Union. Ooooor, they just couldn't pass up the stunning dresses hanging in their closets. I know the feeling...)

Heaven on a baguette?

Yes, that's how I would describe Paseo's Cuban sandwiches. They are Heaven on Earth. And they were requested for Christina's birthday lunch at work today. Yes! [Insert excited fist pump here]

The store is nestled away on Fremont Ave, usually distinguishable by a mile-long line out the door. If you're going, remember to bring cash because that's all they take.

I recommend the Grilled Pork, Cuban Roast or Prawn sandwich - but the Grilled Pork is my fave. Don't waste anymore time; go get your Cuban sandwich!

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TGI... oh wait, it's only Thursday.

What a loooooong week! I honestly thought yesterday was Saturday and for some reason I was coming into work because we're so busy. But alas, it was only Wednesday.

Therefore, since my mind is so scattered, today's post will be equally as scattered.

Would this be bright enough since I've been running in the dark lately? Or do I dare go for this? (Good thing I have running buddies like Autumn and Maddie!)
I would really like to make a Frothy Coca-Cola and Banana cake. Check out the recipe.
I'd also really like to make these.
Now I'm hungry.

Kitchen Envy

I used to never pay attention to kitchens. Now, I'm in love and can't wait to design and decorate a kitchen of my own.

Here are a couple of my favorites. (There is another one that I found once with a shiny copper backsplash, but have no idea where it is now!)

I love the color blue.

As my mom would say, this kitchen has great counter space.

Again, blue = pretty.
(plus, that chandelier rocks)

Aren't these chairs awesome?

pics: here here here here

Swanky swank

Last Saturday, I went to Christina and Andy's engagement party. Let me tell you - it was swanky! It was at Andy's uncle's condo on 2nd with a perfect view of this. Simply amazing! (We all offered to housesit when they have to leave town next.) We got to dress up in pretty dresses, drink fun cocktails and eat incredibly tasty hors d'oeuvres.

(I really think we should make cocktail parties happen more often, just don't let me bartend. We all know what happens when Petes bartends and it means there is never an empty glass which in turn means that people don't feel so hot the next day.)

Without any planning, there was a theme among the GMMBers. With the exception of Andy (co-worker, not her fiance), everyone wore some shade of red with black. As seen above, Kathryn and I were opposites... and we even arrived together, so people totally thought it was planned.

Some lovely ladies: Kathryn, Christina (bride), myself and Olita

Chattin' around the tasty treats.

(I tried to make this hairdo work,

but I think it needs some adjustments for next time.)

Help me get to Paris!

Vote daily until November 30th for Erika P!

http://experienceparisienne.com/contest/

I would love you forever!

Please feel free to tell everyone you know.

Note: Please don't make fun of my entry. I think I must have just watched The Notebook or something.

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Winter Pineapple Classic

A pineapple-carrying, 12-foot wall conquering, army crawling, cowbell dinging, load of fun! It was just plain awesome.

The Winter Pineapple Classic is a 5k obstacle course out at Magnuson Park that benefits The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Everyone races in teams of 2 or 4 and at all times one teammate has to be carrying a pineapple. (I made Holden carry it the whole time. Thanks!) The course is filled with about a dozen or more obstacles, including walls and rope nets to climb, pipes to crawl through, tires to jump, cowbells to ring out in the water, hurdles to leap and more.

I ran the race with Holden and we rocked it! Unfortunately our timing chips didn't work which means we have to go with our best guess, say 15 minutes flat? Yeah, right around there. Give or take. (We actually estimate that it was somewhere between 27-30 minutes which is pretty decent given the obstacles.)

As with all good races, it ended with a party at the end - complete with luau, live music, Hawaiian feast and Georgetown Brewery beer garden.

Team #1: Holden and Erika

Team #2: Kenny and JJ

(Team #1 > Team #2)

TGIF

I swerved off the road and nearly killed my passengers to insist that one of them snag a shot of this lovely pub somewhere outside of Carnation when we went on our pumpkin patch adventure. Anyone want to check it out with me?

What does your weekend look like?

My weekend looks as such:
Starting out with a little of this.
Then I'm going to run a little of this.
Maybe take a little nap.
Then I get to wear a pretty cocktail dress for an engagement party.
After which I hope to go to the Waterwheel - Kimbie said Ben is coming to visit!
On Sunday, I'm hopefully going for a run with Autumn and Maddie again. (We did a 4-miler last night and thought we had only run like 2 miles. It felt good!)
Maybe run a few errands and a little of this.
Then I have a cardinal cabinet director's training.

Full weekend ahead, but definitely room for this, this and maybe even this*.



*one can only hope to meet a fella as cute as this one.

Showing my wall some love

Maddie likes to keep a steady presence on my Facebook wall. (It's actually listed as one of her interests on Facebook.) She usually does a rather good job, but she's been slacking lately. Today she gave my wall some love.

It inspired me to look at our wall-to-wall posts which then made me laugh quite a bit. Here are some good ones from her - some might not make sense to you because many involve a story behind them that I am more than happy to share.

• Since you've ignored my text, call, and messenger pigeon, I decided to contact you via facebook. After that I'm going to fax you. Cool?
• I miss your voice, and your smile, and the way you tip your head the way that you do.
• The Blue Moon bottle called, it wants its maggots back.
• Dun...ga
• My favorite part is that it is the same song every time, yet every time you say "Wait, is this easy e TOO?"
• So, I found this facebook application you should add. It's called "Make a Baby" Here's the description:Make babies with your friends! Fill in your skin color, eye color, etc. and see if your baby gets those looks. You can also make a baby alone or adopt someone else's. Add a baby to your profile and let your friends hug, cuddle and scold it. That creeps me out.
• Strangers in the night....doobeedoobeedoo
• he must be a south pole elf.
• I miss you already. Like a child misses their blanket.
• I promise never to say "Oh heeeeey" on a date...again.
• Remember when autumn made that album titled "The Loves of My Life?" Man she is soooo creepy. (Note: Please check out this album and be sure to read the captions.)
• It's that time of year again...time for incessant Elf quotes... It lasts until March apparently.

Speaking of my grandpa...

Happy Veteran's Day!

Last year, he and my grandma went to my dad's school's Veteran's Day Assembly because my dad spoke. If there's such thing as a dedicated Veteran, I think my grandpa would have received top honors - always representing the American Legion for assemblies, parades, meetings and so much more!

I'm proud that both my Dad and Grandpa served.

Thank you!

Grandpa Pete

[Insert rare serious post here]

This last Spring, I lost my grandpa to cancer. Man, that was tough.

One of my best friends just lost her grandpa as well. (He was really cool too. And I'm there for you when you need me!) It all makes me look back a bit.

No matter how much you tell yourself that this is a part of life - people lose their grandparents - it doesn't make the experience any easier. I just feel so fortunate to have had 25 years with my Grandpa Pete.

He was the man. (I mean, he was Superman's dad, for crying out loud!)

So many wonderful memories that I'll have for the rest of my life. Camping every summer at Thousand Trails, playing cards at their house, proudly claiming him as my Grandpa at every Veteran's Day assembly in elementary school. While I don't quite remember this, my Grandpa was Santa every year at Edison and every year I would sit on his lap and tell him what I wanted for Christmas... little did I know, my parents had a secret informant. I was clueless, but today, I look at those pictures and smile.

Here are some great pictures of my Gramps.

Grandpa and Grandma Pete

Edison Elementary (our alma mater) dedicated the new greenhouse to my grandpa, naming it Ernie's Place

All the kids* came to for the ribbon ceremony and school assembly

*it sounds weird to refer to my aunts and uncles as "kids"

also to note: as you can see in this picture, my grandma loves the color purple. we actually got pedicures together about a month ago and she got deep purple. it's like she's a natural born Husky!

Mine.

I just came across this outfit on City Sage and realized that since I got this cloche awhile ago (similar to the one below), I should probably just find all of the other pieces to complete the outfit! What do you think?

{also to note: i sort of have this coat too, but in black and last year's model. it's my fave.}

Jet-setting across the state!

I'm off to Spokane for the day! Helping to direct a radio ad for a campaign we're working on at work. Should be an interesting experience! Since my office generally takes on PR and strategic communications work, I rarely get advertising experience - but we won some advertising work recently, so I'm getting my feet wet. It's all coming together nicely and I can't wait until the campaign launches later this month!

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Buckets!

Is it bad that it's only Monday and I'm already wanting a drink? It's just crazy in the office lately! Maybe a bucket from The Rock, a pizza place that Sarah introduced Steph and I to awhile back? It's quite good.

They actually limit you to two buckets per visit (due to the high potency!!). To which Sarah suggested we just move from the dining area to the bar and get a new waiter - that way no one would know you're ordering bucket #3! When did she become so sneaky?

However, we opted to go back to her place and play Wii Fit until the crack of dawn. Now I'm craving, 1. another girl's night and 2. hula hoop on Wii Fit (if people could see inside the windows, we looked a little like this. You feel incredibly silly.)

But, let's make this happen again.

TGIF

mom, dad and me in california

I'm happy it's the weekend for these reasons:

1. I get to hang out with my fam tonight and all day tomorrow.
2. I'm going to have crazy, fun with Kamron!
3. It's been a looooooooong week, so I'm ready for a couple days off.
4. On Sunday, I'm going to be Kathryn's photo assignment muse. (I have a lot of practice from my days helping Maddie in college. It'll be fun!)
5. UW is going to beat UCLA.

...overall, weekends are just great.

{thanks henry ford, for creating the official 2-day weekend!}

Kam wins the prize for "Best Nephew Ever"

My adorable nephew, Kamron

Last year for my nephew's birthday, my family went to the Tukwila Family Fun Center. It's awesome. I honestly think my sister, Richelle, and I had more fun than he did. (The evidence below)

This year, we're going to the Great Wolf Lodge. I'm pumped! It's an indoor water park. I'm going to be running around, waving my hands in the air, screaming alongside my nephew, Kamron. He's lucky to have an aunt who embraces her inner child probably more than normal adults...

The September Issue

Last night I went to dinner and a movie with Kimber, Autumn, Maddie and Lizzie. We had a little Greek food at Athina (very tasty) in Lower Queen Anne and then brought the stinky, garlicy leftovers into the theater - I'm sure everyone loved us!

We saw The September Issue which was really interesting. Basically, it was a documentary of the process of putting out the largest and most important issue of Vogue (September is the new year in fashion) and also about the editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour.

I had no idea that lady was so powerful. They say in the movie that, without a doubt, she pretty much controls the current fashion movements and trends. And even the huge designers are constantly trying to impress her.

The Devil Wears Prada was pretty much based on her. She's a tad bit icy. Take that back, she's straight up ice cold.

A couple of my favorite quotes from the movie:
"I don't like that font. It looks like it's for blind people."
"This one will need some retouching. Looks like someone needs to go to the gym."

Overall Grade: A

Now I want to go shopping. There were so many beautiful clothes in the movie. They made us all swoon.

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best friends

It kind of makes me want to get an elephant and a dog,

so they can play together all day.

Welcome back, Polaroid!

Thanks to the Impossible Project, they have brought back polaroid film! Yay, how fun!

So I have a couple from our day at the pumpkin patch, but I still need to scan them in and upload. (Hopefully I'll get to that sooner than later, but I'm not making any promises.)

I forgot how cool the colors are in polaroid pictures. They all turned out so pretty!

I consider polaroids an old school digital photography - instant gratification.

Her name was Lola

I've been itching to get back to Vegas soon.

This pic was snapped on a trolley between a couple hotels.

As you can see, Kimber really likes Vegas.

Or in Vegas, she refers to herself as "Lola"

Vegas is fun.

The Cloche

I just bought this hat.

I really have no place to where it, but I saw it and fell in love.

I got it at a cute little place called Goorin Brothers, right across the street from Earl's. I was peeking in the store window late one night and then noticed people were inside, so I went inside and browsed a little. (Who would have thought that a hat shop would be open at 9pm on a Saturday night?)

Then I found it.

I don't know what triggered me to go for it, but I just knew it was coming home with me. I've worn it a couple times to work, but I'm sure it'll make more appearances as the weather changes. (It would also look pretty on a hat stand in my bedroom.)

A little FYI - if you're looking for a fedora, they have like 682 of them. Seriously. I didn't think you could actually get that many fedoras in one store. They proved me wrong.

Lessons Learned this Halloween

1. Cut armholes if your costume involves wearing a box. (Pictures to come. I just left my camera at Holden's. And I think I also left my cupcake carrier.)
2. Appletinis + white rug = art?
3. I need more martini glasses. It's just not right to serve fun, festive cocktails in Guinness glasses.
4. If your creepcakes don't turn out like the pictures, remedy the situation with candy decorations that Straube once used for her cupcakes. Instant success.
5. The day after Halloween is the best day to be on Facebook. So many great pictures to browse!
6. Allow for at least 5 minutes to listen to Ugly Betty's voicemail. Betty has a new found appreciation for women who wear high heels and thinks that just about everything is ammmmmaaaaazzzzzing.
7. Thank you daylight savings for giving me an extra hour of much-needed sleep.