The Meghann right now.

I’ve not written a post in a quite some time. Let’s just say I’ve been swamped with life. Not in such a bad way, I just am unable to leave a day or a weekend free from commitment lately. The consequence has mainly been an increase in friendships and a decrease in my bank account.

Last weekend was the birthday weekend. I tried to keep it low-key this year, tried. Friday night Steve’s parents took Mark Gilz, Daron, Steve and I out to dinner at Taste because Shirlae was in town. I know I am biased because it’s the restaurant Steve works for, but I really really love the food here more and more. They just remodeled to remedy the scathing reviews for being “cold and cafeteria like” by adding dark brown circular booths and extra lighting. I wasn’t blown away, but the spring menu definitely did the job. Some of the favorites were lamb with cherry jus and fried blue cheese, smoked gouda polenta with some sauce that I can’t recall, and of course one of my fav dishes of all time the gemelli with crab and cheese. This dish is mac and cheese on crack. Handmade little swirly noodles in just the right amount of cheese with large lumps of fresh crab meat, truffle oil, bread crumbs and mache (kinda like baby arugula but not as peppery). I could eat bowls and bowls. I’ve already decided that if I had to choose a last meal, this would at least be a course in that last meal.

We then all walked over to the Paramount to see Avenue Q. I almost peed my pants laughing a record number of times. I was really really surprised at how hilarious this musical was. I now want cute little floating muppet bears to follow me around taunting me to “buy some beeeeeeeer! Yaaaay that make us happy!” If you can scrounge up the funds (holy cow expensive tickets) I’d recommend this any day. Afterwards we walked up the hill to get drinks at the Capitol Club. I’d never been, but they have a perfectly uncrowded balcony. As poop-tastic as the weather has been, the nights have been soo lovely up on the hill. We sat for a long time watching city lights, peering out from the tree-tops (the balcony is nicely nestled near the top of an old tree and looks out over downtown). It was cool and slightly windy but dry J

Saturday we went to Elena’s ‘non-bbq’ (she does not own a grill, but we sat in the sun and drank beer in the spirit of bbqs). We played some basketball, Frisbee, sat on their glorious balcony in eastlake. We managed to fit 10 people onto the balcony, and I managed to actually get a hint of sunburn. We sat out there pretty much the entire night talking, smoking cigars (ok, not me, but everyone else, can’t stand cigars), and eating the requisite ‘bbq’ foods. It was a lovely day overall and I’d never been so happy to have a redish nose and pink shoulders.

Sunday morning we woke up and went to Steve’s parents house to cook a father’s day brunch. Steve made a hash from potatoes, cauliflower, apples and asiago cheese, I made buttermilk waffles from scratch with caramelized bananas and pecans, and Shirlae made blueberry cobbler. It was a fat kid brunch for sure. Steve’s mom brought out the champagne and all. After lounging around in our fatitude, we decided to go for a walk around scenic Medina. There are a ton of 4-8 million dollar homes for sale in Medina right now in case you were interested. Yikes! We also took Inga out for a ‘walk’ in their backyard. I tried to make her put her paws in Lake Washington just for fun and she scratched me… big shock there. Why are cats just soooo fun to torment? After sitting on their back porch in the sunshine looking out over Lake Washington, watching people in their yachts drive by we returned to normalcy by heading back to Seattle. We then rushed to dinner with some friends, a small little bday dinner at Wann in Belltown where we proceeded to eat even more food and drink more than a few drinks. It was very lovely indeed.

This week has flown by, I’ve managed to make it to the gym once, but played basketball with Steve for an hour on Wednesday. Gotta break these bad spending and eating habits! I’ve spent almost all of my free time after work planning my HS friend Tracy’s bridal shower next weekend so I’m looking forward to relaxing a bit this weekend.

No plans tonight, which is quite alright with me. I wouldn’t be surprised if I manage to fill it with some form of social activity, but right now my goal is to leave it open for some alone time. I’m reading Michael Chabon’s Yiddish Policeman’s Union and I’ve been officially sucked in. I am excited to get some breakfasts with the Beth tomorrow morning, then explore the delights of the Fremont Fair with Ms. Okano, then off to the Gilzenbirth celebration at the Kingfish Café!

More food, more friends, less money…. Sigh.