A day at the races.

Gentlemen, start your momentum! Today we ventured out to the Red Bull Soapbox Derby in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. Thousands of Seattlites had the same idea, and crowded the barricades to watch the antics. The entries were very creative and funny, and those that didn't crash into the hay bales hit some pretty impressive high speeds. Before being able to handle the action, we of course needed to check out the concessions! We were thrilled to find a vendor selling Field Roast Veggie Sausages! Yumm!


Blink, and you could have missed the Rainier beer soapbox racing down Fremont Ave!


Just a few of the 37 soapbox mobiles parked after completing their run.


Two of our favorites, for obvious reasons, the Rollaroid.....


and the Crapster!


Disclaimer: We were not forced to drink any Red Bull to attend this event, or to pay any $.

Workin' Girl

Now Laura can contribute her fair share to the bacon that is brought home every week (uh... veggie bacon?). Laura heard the good news Friday, and she starts Monday! In case you missed the previous post, Laura will be a shadow for a kindergarten student with Asperger's Syndrome (psst.. if you have no idea what that is click here to find out). To celebrate, we all went out Friday for some delicious vegan Asian cuisine at Teapot.

Tuesday Trivia Night!

So while perusing the weekly local Seattle paper, the Stranger, Keith noticed that there was a trivia night at a local bar called Clever Dunnes. We decided try our luck (especially with the $0 cover to play) and compete against the Seattlites. Much to our own surprise, we placed second out of twelve teams competing! We even got 3 out of 10 questions correct during the Washington state trivia round. Beginners luck, or are we just that damn good? Only time will tell.

We also got a free pitcher for the best team name. Can you fill in the blank? (Hint: Yeehaw!)


Keith embracing Manny's Pale Ale (a really good Seattle area brew)


$30 for second place! We're going for gold and the $40 next time.

They celebrate Halloween in Seattle too!

Here we thought that by leaving the suburbs behind we would also rid ourselves of those horrible inflated monstrosities known as "decorations." Well, as you can see below, we thought wrong. We do have to give these people some points for their creative use of a small, outdoor balcony space.

Fatticus Maximus (a.k.a. Cheshire) has a big day!

Chesh was elated by the latest piece of furniture brought to the apartment today by her generous owner. Keith came home from work to see the oh-so-gracious feline sprawled out enjoying her new throne. He's still waiting for his present, but not holding his breath.

We <3 farmer's markets!

After some searching we stumbled upon an awesome farmer's market in Beacon Hill. We read some great reviews of MacPherson's Frut & Produce but we weren't convinced until we made our first voyage there this morning. It was all we could have hoped for! Check out all we got for a mere $19.28. Also, organic and conventional were priced the same, or had a difference of only a few cents. Yum! Weekly trips will be a necessity, and luckily it's only minutes away!!

we went, we saw, we conquered

Today we (laura, keith, brian, jess, and tom) took a drive out to Snoqualmie to check out the second largest natural attraction in the state of Washington (second to Mt. Rainier). The waterfall is also famous for its debut in the classic tv show Twin Peaks.




Thank you Polaroid for including a timer on your fabulous camera. We blatantly ignored the Cautions signs warning us about sudden rises in the the water level and climbed down the base of the falls. This beautiful sight was only a 30 minute drive outside of the city.

TGIF!

Keith had his first day of work today. He's working in the office of a property management company, that manages very very large office buildings in the city. He's a little disappointed that it's not like "The Office," but for a paycheck and all the down time to internet to his nerdy desire he's not complaining. Thanks temp agency for paying our bills! (Laura will probably be posting some good job news later this week, as she has been interviewing to be a shadow for a kindergarten student with Asperger's syndrome.)


After an exhausting week of working an entire day (his first one since school got out in June, three months to the day) some cold ones were in order. We decided to expand our horizons and to check out some new bars in the neighborhood. Six Arms Brewery had some delicious IPA and ESBs. An even better find was Linda's, which had a great selection of microbrews, all at $11 a pitcher. We have found our new favorite bar.


So there is definitely NO need for scarves in Seattle in September, but fashion over function. Keith, very high and mightily, refused to join Team Scarf.


A random picture from a random spot in Seattle that we chanced upon, when driving through the city with Nick & Emily. It took a little coaxing, but Keith finally conquered his fear and posed for a picture with The Fremont Troll (located under the Fremont bridge)!

Our first show in Seattle was...

...The Flaming Lips!

It was at the Paramount (walking distance from the apartment), which is a cool old theater that first opened on March 21, 1928. The architecture was very impressive! The opener Black Moth Super Rainbow was pretty good, and they had even better entertaining video clips playing behind them (such as richard simmons sweating to the oldies).

Pike St. Market..

After a good walk from capitol hill to pike street market, we first stopped at the Russian bakery "Piroshky, Piroshky" for some nourishment (and because it's one of Keith's new favorite foods). We are assuming that the name piroshky comes from a mix between a pirogi and a knish...?



We then stopped in at Market Spice so Brian could pick up some Matcha Green Tea. Matcha (抹茶) is a fine, powdered green tea, used particularly in Japanese tea ceremony. More info about Matcha's production and history at Wikipedia.



Before heading back up the hill, we checked out the local farm and produce stands, and picked up some purple and gold fingerling potatoes to roast for dinner!

not quite seattle related...

...but i had to share this yummy pumpkin pasta sauce recipe! I followed some of the comments and added red bell pepper and substituted the soy milk powder thing for soy creamer. Next time maybe we will try adding curry powder.

the ingredients


the final product (with the addition of trader joe's meatless meatballs)

The best cappuccino in seattle...

... Cafe Vivace!! They roast their own espresso beans, make fancy designs with your froth, and are cheaper than starbucks! And, they are a quick walk down the street.. can it get any better?

did we mention it was a full apartment?

But seriously, aside from moving all of these boxes and Brian & Jess checking out some apartments that haven't quite met their expectations yet.. (well duh it's only been a day of looking!) we have been having some fun....

a full apartment.

Jess, Brian, & Chesh all arrived safely to Seattle last night after a long trip with heavy suitcases (Jess had to pay extra for her oversized bag). We introduced them to Seattle this morning with a stop at the delicious Mighty-o Donuts. If we continue on this donut path, Keith and I are going to be huge. They are just sooo good though!



While Brian & Jess are scouring Craigslist and setting up appointments to look at apartments...


Chesh has settled in really quickly (once her kitty tranquilizers wore off) and has made herself at home. She is back to her normal ways: kicking her litter out of the box, eating the house plants, and sitting on (getting her cat hair on) everything.
She looks so innocent sitting next to her latest victim...

a general update.

So we have obviously been pretty bad at keeping up with the blog, but now that we have our own internet up and (mostly) running we will try our best to post more often. Making the apartment feel like home took 3 trips to Bed, Bath and Beyond, 2 trips to Ikea, 4 trips to our local (amazing) thrift store, and too many trips to the grocery store to count (Laura was quick to learn that the Trader Joe's & Madison Market Co-op are only a block apart)! We also had some pretty crucial finds on Craigslist, that once Keith got his (new) car, were easily hauled in at a decent price.
Here is Keith with his shnazzzy, ridiculously efficient, "it fit in the fit!" Honda Fit.


So our first week? Was spent doing all of the above, and hanging out with Laura's two friends from home (Tom and Kevin) who also live in Seattle. Some fun things? We went to the gallery openings at Pioneer Square (first thursday nights), of course checked out the local beer scene, and ate some yummy vegetarian food.

Our second week here had an exciting start, as our good pals Nick & Emily arrived at our place on Wednesday night, the first of their three nights with us. We will post more about what we did with them (especialy once we get their pics, hint, hint)! Some highlights though were checking out the ferry ride to Bainbridge Island, Gasworks Park in Fremont, Mighty-o Donuts for some amazing vegan, organic donuts, and of course more of the local beer scene! Check out their fancy shmancy blog for more info about their trip and better pictures then we took.



Finally, we are really excited today because in only a few hours Brian, Jess, & Cheshire will arrive in Seattle! We both hope that lil' Chesh is behaving herself on the plane ride as she earns her first wings.

Well, that is all for now, but check back again soon for more pictures and better updates.

ps- if you didn't get a chance to see keith's new tatto, check it out!

(comes from crayon rosary's first, self-released cd - artwork by brendan)
www.iknowashortcut.com/crayonrosary - to hear some of their latest recordings

a less empty apartment.

Here are some pictures of the apartment after a week and a half of living.

living in the lap of luxury.

The progression of our first couple dinners and the furnishing of our apartment.

Wednesday evening, our first night in seattle, was our urban apartment picnic. The blanket was the only piece of furniture we had in our apartment.



Saturday, september 8th... we ate like kings off our new coffee table and sofa. thanks to tom for taking us on an ikea run. We still owe him beers after stuffing the couch into his outback sport (which went from the rear window to the windshield - over laura's head in the passenger seat)!



Finalamente, after much craigslisting we acquired a dining room table. We had our first dinner on it last night, the 15th, and are ready to host a dinner party.

empty apartment.

So it's been awhile since I've posted anything, and most people have seen these pictures in person. But after going out to Seattle for 3 nights, we were very successful in finding an apartment. Here are some pictures of the empty apartment.. the one that we were greeted with on September 5th.

the outside of our building. we have one of the apartments with the awesome bay windows!


here is looking from the living room into the dining room and kitchen.


and the kitchen, where the magic happens.