Seattle's Sunny Saturday and Sarah's Super Bike Route

I'm making this post...well... Jus' Because I can. I know it's inconsiderate of all our freezing blog fans in the Midwest, but really, how could I resist the shorts and sandals post in the middle of February?

There's nothing like a sunny Saturday in February to inspire you to dust off the bikes, pump up the tires and throw a picnic lunch in the backpack. This is exactly what we did today. I've created a bike tour of our neighborhood. It's embedded below for your viewing pleasure. Since I'm not too technologically savvy you'll have to click back and forth between this post and the map to see where the photos correspond. Sorry about that. Enjoy our photo journal of February 20, 2010...

We set off from Queen Anne and headed towards South Lake Union

Rode right past Fred Hutch were Dominic works, 

And enjoyed cruising along the waterfront past all of the house boats.

We admired these friendly neighbors out working in their shared pea patch,

and stopped for a moment at Good Turn Park.

You cross underneath I-5 (it's noisy)

And then head over the lake towards Fremont.

Be sure to wear your helmet and stay in the bike lane!

We didn't spend much time at the Wall of Death,

But continued on along the bike path scattered with joggers

We did stop to take in the scenery at GasWorks park

And couldn't help but get a shot of the blossoming cherry trees.

It's ok to take a break from the Burk-Gilman Trail to play in Ballard

And then on to the Ballard Locks for lunch.

You cross over the locks and cut up to Commodore Park. 

Then weave through Magnolia to get to the bike path again. Take a moment to admire the fishing equipment that pulls in all that delicious salmon we enjoy.

Back on our way to the sculpture park you must stop and remember the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for a moment.

And you end up at my favorite place to relax in the city: The Seattle Art Museum Sculpture Park.

From here, it's just a quick ride up Queen Anne to get you right back where you started. Anyone for another lap? 

View Sarah's Seattle Bike Tour in a larger map

A Victorian Valentines Day

On Saturday morning Dominic and I woke up early to get ready for our weekend away. He had planned a quick overnight to someplace special but I hadn't the slightest idea where it could be. I packed light and threw on my boots (just in case). 

When we didn't go to the car I was surprised, when we walked past the bus stop I was stumped and when we continued past my office to the waterfront I was worried. Were we staying in downtown? If so, why did I have to get up so early to walk to a local hotel? 

Just then, we were there: The Victoria Clipper Ferry! 

We had admired this vacation option for a year, but had never made a trip down to pier 69 to check it out. What an exciting start to the day! We boarded the ferry and shared a six-seat table arrangement with a chatty Canadian and two UW freshmen on their way to a fraternity Valentines formal. It was a fun ride and before we knew it we were arriving on Vancouver Island. 

We dropped off our bags at the hotel and set out into the misty morning to enjoy the city and search for lunch. We had plenty of love to go around on Valentines Day Eve:

Dominic thoughtfully pre-purchased tickets to the Victoria Tea Festival. It was a lovely activity for a cool, gray day and we enjoyed the exhibition a great deal. There were plenty of tea tastings, tea pairings (with delicious chocolate, scones, danishes and breads) and we even watched a 'cooking with tea' presentation by Chef Heidi Fink. If you come visit us I'll make you a delicious smoky maple salad dressing featuring Lapsang Souchong tea, 'adult flavored' lemon jasmine popsicles and perhaps even some green tea shortbread cookies. 

Tea Festival in the Crystal Gardens

Although we didn't sign up for High Tea at The Empress we did get our photo with this lovely tea connoisseur at the festival. 

The day was a nice opportunity for us to spend time talking, sharing and reflecting on the past six months. We are both amazed by our blessings and thankful for the life marriage has brought us. 

On Valentines Day we woke up to a downpour, but by the time church was over the sky had opened up and the sun was in full force. Victoria really sparkles when it's sunny outside.

We couldn't have asked for a better day to laugh and play in this romantic city of sights and statues: 

We didn't hire a tour guide, we didn't pay for museums, we didn't consult a map and yet we stumbled across the most interesting places walking through downtown. 

Dominic's learning (and practicing his knowledge of) Tai Chi at a Chinese New Year celebration in the square. 

We spent the entire day wandering through neighborhoods. We prayed in Christ Church Cathedral, spied on a wedding at St. Ann's Academy and looked at the window displays at Miniature World. 

The evening ferry departed at 5 p.m. and we sailed to Seattle as the sun set in Victoria.

Happy Valentines Day! We love you!

Newly Wed New Technology

Dominic and I celebrated our six month anniversary on Monday. As a surprise I gifted him an Analog Pass-Through DTV Converter Box. 

It's not much of a gift. To be honest it felt a lot like throwing money into the trash can, but with the Olympics just days away and March Madness not far after, my options were either the converter box or countless hours in The Spectator (the sports bar down the street). 

The front of the box promotes: "Eligible for the $40 DTV Converter Box Coupon". This is the government's way of apologizing for the expense of this time-travel machine. Unfortunately, the friendly Radio Shack employee informed me that the refund was only available until last November. 

As if the purchase didn't already sting enough, once Dominic got the box hooked up we realized you have to have bunny ears to get a picture. Geesh, it was like a blast from the past! We sacrificed a beloved metal hanger and Dominic went to work at trying to auto program our four channels. 

Within a half an hour we were the proud owners of a semi-working television set. All it took was Dominic holding the aluminum foil-hanger contraption in a very exact position. This was fine because the only show we could see was The Bachelor. 

Live and learn...  

Tea Time

Today Dominic and I spent time with friends doing what friends do: hanging out.

I decided last week to throw a tea party and gather as many girlfriends as possible for some good conversation and crafting. Dominic enjoyed the opportunity to watch basketball at a friend's house. 

It occurred to me about a week and a half ago that I have a million excuses not to spend time in casual conversation with friends. From 'too busy' to' too many other commitments'; from 'the house is a mess' to 'I'm tired', I've made up all kinds of reasons not to have people over. This all ended with a quick email invite (not even an Evite). I sent out the request to everyone, knowing full well that it would be uncomfortable at first. There were friends from work, church, wives of Dominic's friends and running partners. As it turns out, however, it's hard to turn down tea, and everyone got along really well.

To make things even more fun, at the suggestion of our dear friend Lisa I also made it into a craft party. For Christmas I got some great card-making books from Peg so I taught the group how to make pop up Valentines and let the girls go wild with all kinds of card stock and scrap booking paper:

Obviously I ignored the excuse 'not enough seating', but they promised they were comfortable on the floor...

This day meant a lot to me. A few weeks ago I was at a small group discussion where a woman made a point that Americans have lost our sense of community. That statement alone didn't seem newsworthy, but then I realized that we don't ever know when having people around who know and care how you're doing is important. It's never until something awful happens, like an earthquake or hurricane, that people drop work, stop planning and start caring for others. Why shouldn't creating community be the status quo when things aren't devastating?

Perhaps it was unemployment, maybe boredom, but the villagers in Surenavan were always dropping by for a meal, coffee and conversation. Was it that Armenians didn't have anything to do or is it that they made time for those around them? Was it that they have more time than Americans or that they enjoy hosting more? Whatever the reason may be, I sure wish I wouldn't have forgotten that sense of hospitality so quickly when I got back to the States.

While we were chatting today, we all realized that none of us have family in Seattle. If we can't be close to our parents or siblings-- and even when we can-- I'm sure glad we have friends. 

Valentines masterpieces

We're official

What's wrong with this picture?

a.) That's not our car

b.) I've been wearing those galoshes since 2005

c.) I'm holding an umbrella in the rain

Well, it's official. Dominic and I have a licensed Washington automobile. It's not that we're excited because we drive it all that much, it just gives us that much more respect on the friendly Pacific Northwest roadways. 

Truth be told, it was rough zipping down I-5 with California plates. Even more so to navigate the arterial neighborhood streets with that white and red marker. Like the scarlet letter, we believe that California plates imply to the Washingtonians that we are speeding, impatient daredevils. You'll have to ask Dominic about traditional Washingtonian behavior at 4-way stop signs in this state... be sure he's in a good mood first.

Despite the plates, and the fact that we've lived here for more than a year now, we're not quite true Seattleites. If you guessed "C" in my quiz above you guessed correctly. True natives don't carry umbrellas very frequently. Perhaps it's the abundance of REI-supplied gortex jackets, perhaps it's that normal rain comes down in light drizzles, for whatever reason, if you've lived here (at least longer than us) there's no need for an umbrella. In fact, you look foolish trying to carry one in the wind anyway. 

I carry mine regardless of how it makes me look. In fact, we've developed quite a collection of fashionable, wind-resistant, over sized umbrellas over the past few months. My favorites have the special wind catching flap that prevent the Mary-Poppins inside-out dilemma "inversion". 

For those out there who do try to protect themselves from the drizzle with an umbrella, here are some tips for polite handling, curtsey of Monica from the Big Blog. 

Life in the Big City

I was putting away dishes yesterday afternoon when I heard a person shriek and a thud outside the apartment. I ran to the corner widow and saw a man laying on the side of the road with his bike to the side. He was rolling around and clutching his stomach with three people nearby. A woman was on her cell phone and two minutes later the fire truck showed up. Soon thereafter there was an ambulance and later cop cars and a medical truck that eventually took the man away on a stretcher. 

I couldn't believe the events taking place before my very eyes!

Just when I thought the news was over and life had gone back to normal I walked home tonight to find a bus on the sidewalk next to my building and an 18-wheeler pushed next to it. I decided to update the Queen Anne Blog and all of a sudden I became an eye-witness. 

Media is so exciting!

Greenish-brown thumb

Since obviously we don't have children, and my apartment building (and husband) prohibits labradoodles, I get a lot of pride from my plants. I have five total, and they've done surprisingly well in our apartment's climate.

West Seattle has a great nursery where I found paper whites a few weeks ago. I remember forcing these spring-flowering bulbs into winter bloom way back when, but was wondering how they'd do without much sunlight and in an 80 degree apartment (I like it warm). West Seattle Nursery, however, may have anticipated my concern because the bulbs came with an instruction sheet. I do well with plants that have directions.

I 'planted' the bulbs in about two inches of rocks and water and placed them on our windowsill. Sure enough, it only took one day for two of the three (I had one dud) to begin sprouting up out of their Ikea planters. 

The bulb on the right in the photograph above developed quite a lean two days ago...in fact, it was nearly laying over onto the table. Fortunately, my instructions highlighted some advice out of Cornell University: "After roots have developed and stems have grown about 2 in. tall, replace the water in the bowl with a mix of 1 part 80-proof liquor (gin, vodka, rum, tequila, and whiskey all work) to 7 parts water." Although Dom's bar has significantly less Russian vodka in stock these days I'm very proud of how tall my little paperwhite stands now.

I was pretty excited about the success of this ingenious Cornell trick and it reminded me of some advice I got last year from Dominic's roommate about tulips. When they start to droop you throw one nickel into the bottom of the vase and they perk right up in a day as well. 

Can anyone help me with my dying orchid? I'm not sure what to do about this stem:

Here's my little basil that could. The thing won't give up even though the base of the plant is completely brown!

I haven't found any $100 bills growing off this money tree yet... but it's a new year. Anything's possible right? 

San Francisco Surprise

I have quite a wife.

Christ being a tough act to follow, makes my birthday (December 26^th) a day that I (and I must assume others) don’t really look forward to celebrating all that much. It’s just bad timing. I dread having to recharge (or appear to) the day after Christmas for another celebration… and it’s my own birthday. But with marriage comes new priorities, new skill sets. Sarah happens to love birthdays and has a real talent for surprises.

After celebrating my birthday in Ohio with a lobster lunch, a birthday card to open every 30 minutes (thanks all who sent cards), a trip to the zoo and bowling extravaganza, Sarah ended the night with one final card… A surprise trip to San Francisco for New Years.

Our New Year’s Eve was amazing. Staying in Union square, hanging out in North Beach, riding trolley cars and then fireworks on the waterfront. But Sarah wasn’t finished. Did I mention she loves surprises?

After a perfect day hanging out and watching the Rose Bowl (I shamelessly bandwagoned the Buckeyes once it became clear they would win), we headed out to dinner. North Beach, where we were staying, is the Italian district in San Francisco and renowned for all its wonderful and plentiful Italian restaurants. We settled on Thai. After dinner I was shocked to enter a local watering hole to find a group of my college friends there to greet 

me. Five minutes later my high school buddies arrived. Oh… did I mention that Sarah likes surprises? It was awesome to be surprised by so many friends and we had a fun filled night celebrating.

The very next day after touring the city, we headed to my uncle and aunt’s house for what I thought would be a nice intimate dinner. I was greeted by more Monleys than you can shake a stick at. Sarah had arranged another surprise party for my cousin Erika and I with my family. To have a second surprise party… or was it the third, was even more amazing. We celebrated long into the night. In short; a wonderful trip. I truly am blessed to have friends and family who were willing to make a trip San Francisco for the parties, as well as hosting and touring Sarah and I around the city.

Mostly, I’m lucky to have such a wonderful wife.  

OH... HO HO HO

I started worrying about our trip to Ohio in May when I booked the red-eye flight from Seattle to Columbus via Washington D.C. Despite some inclement weather the weekend before, all our prayers paid off and we arrived safely at CMH on Christmas Eve morning.

After brief naps and a remote work day, we celebrated the birth of Jesus at Lord of Life Lutheran Church. It was the first time we had been back since the wedding ceremony and the sanctuary was as beautiful as ever. It was strange to miss Pastor Jim, who is on a five month-long sabbatical, but we enjoyed seeing long-time family friends and worshiping as a family.

I knew that Christmas with the Zaengers would be very different from Dominic's experiences in the Monley family, but we had a wonderful Christmas day. We took my grandparents to Catholic Mass and then spent quality time visiting with family, exchanging gifts and eating. Exhausted, we collapsed into bed relatively early.

Bright and early on the 26th we got to celebrate another birthday -- Dominic's! Starting at 9 a.m., he was able to open a birthday card from a friend or family member every 30 minutes. The cards helped remind him just how special his day is and how, despite being away from others, he's remembered.

My Mom and Dad received a lobster gram for Christmas and generously shared with us for Dominic's birthday. Here he is reading a card and protecting his OSU t-shirt from clam chowder.

Dominic liked to tease: "Don't do anything special for my birthday. Knowing you, I'll end up with a petting zoo and a bouncy house." To prove him right, we took him to the Columbus Zoo. The animals were out and about, the carousel was spinning and the new LED lights were shinning bright. It was a fun visit.

Jill and Rachel generously hosted a pizza party and bowling night for Dominic. We aren't the best bowlers, but it was a great time.

Next year... bouncy house...

Advent Sabbath

There's a new Chipotle at 3rd and Pike and Dominic decided that today it was time we make our inaugural visit and celebrate the spirited Christmas decorations in downtown Seattle. 

We've been trying our very best to take the advice of a recent Bethany sermon series on remembering the sabbath and keeping it holy. After a nice advent worship service this morning and a warm day inside relaxing and writing Christmas cards, Dominic and I ventured downtown for dinner and Starbucks (hey, it's Seattle).

At the new Chipotle we made friends with Jacqueline, the restaurant's manager who hails from Cleveland. The bright-eyed employees showed us the new Chipotle salads (we'll see if I can branch out and sacrifice a burrito for the new menu item some other time) and chatted with us about how nice it was to have a downtown location. I couldn't agree more. 

We went out to the second-busiest Starbucks in the U.S. (second to Times Square) and got peppermint hot chocolates for our self-guided tour of lights. We enjoyed the Westlake center and then made our way to 6th and Union: The Sheraton Hotel.

The Sheraton has a gingerbread exhibit I had heard about at my work party last week. I thought it was an outdoor light display, but after one unsuccessful lap around the building we realized it was inside the hotel lobby. 

Here's Dominic with his favorite creation: a Muppet house. I liked Snoopy's dog house. There was a Charlie Brown christmas on a mini DVD player on the inside!

We hope you're enjoying the advent season as much as we are! 

Oh Christmas Tree

You try your darndest to get everything out and on the table before committing to that largest of commitments; the covenant of marriage. Truly. Children, Religion, expectations, living situations, shower schedules… we went over all of ‘em. Or so I thought. We tweaked our work schedules weekly to make room for pre-marriage counseling, read books, arranged and met with a mentor couple who had already waded through the vicissitudes inherent in the initial years of marriage. But you’re bound to miss something I suppose. It’s how you deal with those challenges that define the success of a budding marriage.

Frankly, I don’t know how we missed it. But when the subject of getting a Christmas tree for the holiday season came up Sarah stated off-handedly, “I’ve never had a real tree before.” I could have sworn I heard the Christ Child shudder in the crèche already laid out on our coffee table in expectation of advent. I knew Ohio was perhaps not the most verdant of the lower 48, but really….never a real tree?!

Luckily we live in Washington State where the state flower, bird and song are Norway Spruce, Balsam Fir and Colorado Pine respectively.

We headed up to the local mountain range-battery powered saws-all in hand-ready to conquer this marital obstacle with all the spit-and-vinegar of a young couple in love threatened.


It’s really a great process here in Washington. You merely stop by a ranger station and pay $10 dollars for the license. They then direct you to a fire road and you drive until you feel like you’ve reached the ideal altitude. It is then up to you to locate the perfectly shaped tree of ideal height, cut it down and haul it out. Unfortunately the aforementioned well-shaped trees of ideal height do not really exist out in the wild. We settled for a Charlie Brown-esque shabby looking thing with branches protruding from 180 degrees of the trunk (it was growing on a hill.) But just as a young starry-eyed couple can go to the pound, pick out the mangiest mutt in the place and love it sincerely, we can’t sing the praises of our tree enough. Because it lacks branches on half of itself, it pushes nicely up against the wall, saving us valuable space in our otherwise cramped apartment. The challenge of our shortage of Christmas ornaments was rendered insignificant as, in all honesty, the tree only has about 10 to 12 branches from which to hang anything. But it’s enough. And we love it.


The smell that greets us every day when we come home gives the requisite boost to our mood that the realization that it is once again the Christmas season rightfully brings. Nothin’ better.

Quilting Lessons

Ta da! Started in October when Dominic's mother, Peg, came to visit and here before your very eyes today: My first complete picnic quilt!

Peg came up to Seattle by car -- which was a good idea because it would be hard to carry a sewing machine and folding table on a flight from California. I sure am glad she did because it gave us the excellent opportunity to experience what she warmly referred to as "intense relationship building". She taught me the basics, how to sew (and unfortunately rip), how to cut with my new special for-quilting-use-only scissors, and how to measure accurate squares (that's a skill I'll need to perfect over time).

Quilting is an amazing process and one that I've taken for granted. I have a dear Aunt (Carlene) who quilts by hand. Among many others, she has the gifts of patience and attention-to-detail. Here's the quilt she gave us at my bridal shower:

I'm not sure if the intricate stiches show up here, but trust me, this is a masterpiece.

Peg is also an artist. She has a special talent of dreaming up creative designs, patterns and color-schemes that become functional works of art. For my Sacramento bridal shower she gave us the quilt below:

In the upper right hand corner there are two hearts on a map of Armenia.

Peg is a teacher by trade, so of course she was patient with me as I fumbled with the new tools and instructions. She was great to show me the skills I could use to make a quilt on my own (even without a sewing machine). One of my favorite parts, pictured below, is the corner-tying. Not only does this keep my stuffing from sliding around in between the front and the back, it helps cover up any aligning mistakes I may have made. How handy!

This was a late night. We even managed to pull Dom into the tying fun while we all watched TV on our laptop.

We had to celebrate my accomplishment, so Sunday night I made Aunt Kathleen's Chinese Chicken Salad (one of my favorites) and we had a picnic in the living room.

(Don't mind the poor basil plant in the background, I have high hopes it will make it through the gray winter).

Thank you to all the awesome women in my life who teach me such great life skills. Watch out, you just might get a home-made meal on the floor the next time you visit!

Dangerous Health Care Reform

Bear with me, it's Sarah and I'm going to get a little political. Well, not me personally, but I wanted to use this forum to highlight an article I just finished by the editor of The American Journal of Health Promotion.

The article, "The Danger and Opportunity of Health Care Reform Providing a Huge Influx of Funds for Health Promotion... and how to Avert Danger", is written by Dr. Michael O'Donnell and highlights just how important it is to protect the work of existing health promotion vendors. Since I happen to make my living through one such vendor, I was immediately drawn to his statement.

As someone who tends to appreciate all things free and discounted, I normally would have agreed with his scenario that "The best way to persuade employers, hospitals, insurance companies and other organizations to implement health promotion programs would be to provide free program materials and consulting services". The reality that Dr. O'Donnell highlights, however, is that this scenario in real life would cut revenues of health promotion providers leading to layoffs, threats to innovation, and potential bankruptcy for health promotion businesses. My perspective changed.

Dr. O'Donnell argues that, in general, federal funds should be used to do what private businesses cannot do on their own. Hello, hello, government representatives, we're doing health promotion on our own! And, we're doing a great job!

Thank goodness he provides four solutions for avoiding the dangers described above:

1. Develop core technologies that could be entered into the public domain and used as the foundation for new products and services developed by entrepreneurs.

2. Support program evaluation and research as well as information synthesis and dissemination so that the most effective methods are widely known.

3. [My favorite] Contract with existing health promotion vendors to develop and provide new products and services, rather than hiring new government employees to develop them internally.

4. When free or discounted services are needed for small businesses or other specific under served population groups, pay vendors to provide these services rather than having the government provide these services directly.

What do you think of Dr. O'Donnell's position? Are businesses threatened when government provides an agency to offer free services?

What about the U.S. Postal Service? Could our industry thrive the same way DHL, UPS and FedEx have?

I'd love to hear other examples you've seen where a private business is forced to compete with a government agency that uses tax payers' money to develop products and deliver services and then gives them away for free.

Sharing

The time has come. Dominic and I have been married for three months today and we've decided to take the plunge and share this blog with you as a team.

It will mean more we's and less me's and hopefully will introduce you to why we 'compliment' one another so well.

Love,

Sarah