When Beth was here...

It's been a couple of weeks since Beth left, but I wanted to share a few pics from her trip. We had a really nice time together relaxing and playing around Seattle. We visited Kubota Garden, Chateau Ste. Michelle winery, the troll, and all of the downtown sights. Had a lot of nice meals and shopped a bit, too! We also spent one evening just being girls, too--crafting, drinking lava flows, and watching SATC. That was just what I needed! =)

I've finally updated the online guestbook, too. Added everyone since July and we are up to 18 visits. November is booked w/two arrivals and the holidays are just around the corner...

Metronatural.

Seattle unveiled a new tourism slogan last week: Metronatural. Hmm. Apparently, it means Seattle is a nice mix of urban goodness and natural beauty. That may be true, but I personally enjoyed some of the other options presented:

-- Seattle: Left of Bellevue.
-- Seattle: Come look at the monorail.
-- We hate Bush. Come join us.

She's tiny.

I got to meet Aubree tonight! Well, on the webcam at least. I got to see her make faces, yawn, drink a bottle, and even heard her cry a little bit. She's soooo tiny. It's cute seeing Mom and Erika totally loving on her, too.

Oh, and that's me (and sometimes S...) down in the lower left corner.

Free.

A good friend just tipped me off--Mew is the free download on iTunes this week. Time to take advantage of that! =)

The world of gelato.

So, as I mentioned in my last post, we stopped to taste the goods at La Casa Gelato after dinner on Saturday. This place has been visited by Martha Stewart and claims to have the most flavors of gelato anywhere (218, to be exact). Some of these flavors, however, I would not deem to be edible. S ran around like a kid in a candy store inspecting each possible selection. The stranger options included:

• taro root
• garlic (which S tasted!)
• vegemite
• pear parmesan
• pear gorgonzola blue cheese
• chai tea (another S tried)
• curry
• wasabi
• balsamic vinegar

Canadia.

We took an overnight trip to Vancouver yesterday. The weather was beautiful, so there was really no reason to keep ourselves from enjoying it. =) Vancouver is great, too. Makes it very easy to appreciate all of the cool places we have at such a short distance.

When we arrived, we headed straight to the Capilano Suspension Bridge (pics below). Freaky, but cool. Drove around the amazing Stanley Park afterwards before heading to dinner at Feenie's. OMG. Such incredible food. We couldn't stop drooling on ourselves. Stopped at La Casa Gelato for dessert. This place will get its own post later. It was insane.

Today, we wandered along the waterfront and inspected the architecture downtown. Ended up rollerblading the entire 6.5 mile seawall at Stanley Park. It was incredible. Pretty difficult to blade because of the wet, falling leaves, but still worth it! Before heading home, we revisited a tea house we discovered last October and indulged in miniature sandwiches and sweeties. Such a satisfying getaway overall...


Getting psyched up for crossing the Capilano Suspension Bridge.


The Capilano Suspension Bridge itself.


The Treetop Adventure at the suspension bridge.


Giant falling leaves.


Siwash Rock at Stanley Park.


McDonald's is cute here.


At Canada Place.


Canada Place.

The circle of life.

Today, my Grandma held Aubree for the first time, went to a wedding, and also attended a funeral. Talk about experiencing all of life's big moments all at once... I would have been overwhelmed with emotion had I been placed in similar circumstances.

So, we're off to Vancouver up in Canadia for the rest of the weekend. ;)

She's here!

Aubree finally came into the real world last night at 3:00ish am EST! =) Sis ended up having a c-section after 2 hours of pushing and some 12 hours of labor. They thought Aubree might be too big, but ended up coming out just over 6 lbs. I need to get specifics now that I'm awake.

I don't have any pictures yet. =(

Is it time?

My sister *might* be in labor. She's a week late and I just woke up to the phone call. Keeping the fingers crossed.

Update @ 12:38 PST: She's definitely in labor! Mom has just taken her to the hospital and she is already in her room. Her fiance, Greg, and my dad are joining them very soon, if not already. =) Now, I have to sit here hoping for hourly updates. Ugh. No patience.

Not quite friends, not quite strangers.

We just came home from a great show at Neumo's - Mew! Caught them twice on the east coast this summer where they played in broad daylight with Bloc Party. With Nathan in tow, this show was just perfect. More intimate, much darker, and complete with whimsical films playing alongside them. Yum-o.

Music-loving friends in Chicago: Go see Mew. They're playing October 26th at the Double Door.

A haiku for you.

Shawn turned 34 today! =) To celebrate, his coworkers wrote some amazing little haiku poems for him. A sampling:

This birthday haiku
Is delaying my entrance
To the building yo!

Another year gone
Many more to go with luck
New haiku next year

Years spent on aging
Youth is wasted on the young
No one hears your screams

Shoegazer guitar
Artsy and so sensitive
Not Guns n Roses

Middle aged rocker
Not your average douche bag
Like that bowflex guy

And, my personal favorite:
Another birthday
If this was bad, like the Cubs
Just wait til next year!

Otherwise, my sister was due Tuesday, but no baby has surfaced yet. Our good friend, Beth, is coming for the weekend, so we're looking forward to chilling with her all weekend. No doubt Seattle will put on her best face... and rain.

It's Pat.

Today I had a meeting with a network hardware vendor named Jim Sweeney. As we sat in the conference room, he pointed to the "Pulp Fiction" poster on the wall and proclaimed "My sister was in that movie." He went on to describe the junkyard scene, at which time I said "Your sister is Julia Sweeney? From SNL and It's Pat?". That's the one.
Pretty cool, but I wonder how often he brings this up to impress clients.

Post-Hawaiian Happenings.

We're still planning on posting more about our Hawaii trip, but for now here are some different updates.

We bought a new car! Yes, we traded in the cramped Acura RSX in favor of something a little more practical: a 2007 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport. This car will provide some legroom for our guests, while allowing us to brave the snowy mountains during ski season. Since the Outback is by far the most popular car in this city, I guess that makes us real Seattleites now.

In completely unrelated news, while biking on Alki today we witnessed two rare sights. First, a baby harbor seal was basking in the sun next to the bike path. Incredibly cute! Just down the road from the seal, we saw a seagull carrying a freshly caught fish in his mouth that was almost as big as him. Incredibly absurd!

The real tragedy is that was didn't have a camera with us.

Lost (on the beach).

The third season of LOST starts tonight. We somehow managed to be in Waikiki at just the right time, though, and attended the premiere on Saturday night. 10,000+ fans crowded onto the beach while the entire cast came on stage prior to an advance screening of tonight's episode. Shawn was able to get close to quite a few of them. Here are our funny paparazzi-style photos:

We are back...

And jetlagged. I was negligent the last few days because we were so exhausted from too much sun! Anyhow, those posts and pics will be up soon.

Off to do laundry!