Birthdays

We were planning on going out for Dem's birthday but family comes first and so they had family birthday dinner on Friday and since she had been up since 1 am, after-dinner plans were canceled.

Georgia's birthday celebration on Saturday went off without a hitch. Well, Sue did have a slight fashion emergency but we fixed that within an hour. And I found out that Sue is a shop-till-you-drop kind, too! I can't wait to go shopping with her sometime!

Ryan, Julius and I made all the birthday plans. I took care of the dinner train plans, Julius took care of lunch and Ryan melded everything together. Lunch was awesome. He did a crab pot: a steaming pot of crab legs, clams, prawns, potatoes, corn and sausages. Damn that was good!! Then Garrett beat me to it and asked Julius to marry him; I was too busy chomping my way through some corn. After lunch was presents time! With Ryan the Program Dictator directing everyone, we all took pictures with the birthday girl and our respective presents. Ryan also came up with the idea of everyone designing a page (or four, as Sue did) to go into a scrapbook for Georgia. It was a great idea, and it turned out SO well. She loved it.

After lunch, we played several rounds of Pit. That game is TOO funny. We love it!!! After that, we started getting ready for dinner. We were going on the Spirit of Washington - Dinner Train. The original plan was the Murder Mystery but they'd already filled up by the time we booked. I was afraid we wouldn't have enough tickets (there were 12 of us going) but everyone managed to get a ticket. We had to dress up for dinner: Sue and Georgia got ready in Georgia's room while Ryan, Heather, Tabitha and I were in Ryan's room. Dem, Mike, Garrett, Matt and Julius were already dressed and Tammy was meeting us at the train depot. Ryan couldn't choose between three different shirts while I had brought three different outfits to choose from. Heather and Tabby were much more decisive though.

The dinner train experience was fantastic! I don't get motion sickness so I was okay with the rocking and slight bouncing but poor Heather couldn't finish most of her food. Despite that, we had a blast and the food was delicious. I loved the herb cream cheese spread with the bread, the poppy seed vinaigrette with the salad and the apricot glaze on the salmon. It was too bad that it gets so dark so early now because halfway through the trip, it became pitch-black outside and we couldn't see a thing. When we stopped at Lake Kapowsin, we trooped down to the open car at the end to try and see the scenery. The lake was a bit visible, with the moon reflecting its light on it, and we saw a TON of stars. Other than that, we couldn't see much else. The trip back saw the desserts and dessert drinks come out. That choices were Chocolate Paradiso and Washington Apple Crisp. Chocolate for me, of course! I finished every little crumb.

We wrapped up that night back at Ryan and Georgia's, where we played with Darien, her cat, for a while. I dropped Mike, Garrett and Matt back on Capital Hill, Dem at home and I went home and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. It was a great day and it got me thinking that I should start thinking about ideas for my 25th birthday. Vegas, perhaps?

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Portland...And I'm A Shopping Addict

Went to see Em 2 weekends ago for a Fall Wardrobe Shopping/Dem's Birthday trip. I had a blast, as usual. Portland has fantastic shopping, and that's not entirely because it's tax-free.

Downtown has its usual shops: J. Crew, Gap, Victoria's Secret and Express (of course), and Banana Republic were just some of the ones we went to. 23rd Street has lovely little boutiques that are always so much fun to ramble through. You never know when you're going to find something truly unique, or when inspiration is going to hit (whether it's that DIY job you've got at home or Christmas/birthday/etc. shopping). We also hit up Washington Square, where Em introduced me to the Forever 21 superstore: XXI Forever. Yes, I'm laughing at the name, too, but it was fabulous and I found so many cute items. They're opening one soon at Northgate Mall and it'll have to tide me over until H&M opens next Autumn. Next time, I really want to hit up the outlet mall and see what they have to offer. Early December perhaps? Ryan and I are in the talks about it.

I know I should blog about the entire trip but I'm feeling lazy. (Obvious innit, considering the last post was two weeks ago.) Here's an abridged version:

We drove down Friday afternoon, got caught in a massive traffic jam that was worse than usual, finally fought our way past Olympia and from there it only took me about two more hours, landed in Portland safely and went to The Gilt Club for dinner. Lush atmosphere and decor, yummy food, even yummier drinks and dessert was interesting: Valrhona Chocolate 3 ways with extra virgin olive oil and vanilla sea salt. The chocolate was decadent and quite sinful, but the sea salt was a bit too much (and it didn't taste like vanilla at all).

Saturday morning was dedicated to pedicures at Spa La La and that was most enjoyable. Pedicures always feel sooooooo good and this one was no different! I was tempted to go French again but decided on my usual It's All Greek to Me (it looks red in the picture but it's actually a hot pink). Em got a really deep purple and Dem chose a deep navy. I'd love to work for OPI's marketing team and help come up with the names to their colors. Afterwards we went shopping (Downtown and 23rd Street), then happy hour at the Portland City Grill, which was delicious and very well priced. We didn't make the comedy club; instead we went to The Ram's Head, a McMenamins restaurant, back on 23rd Street. After a very pleasing hummus plate and a basket of tater-tots, we were off to Em's friend Melissa's in Vancouver (just across the bridge, back in Washington), where the girls got ready and Dem and I almost fell asleep on the couch. After the primping, we headed to a couple of bars in Downtown Vancouver. Wasn't totally impressed with them, but then I'm used to Seattle bars so there really is no comparison. The first bar had live music which was kind of nice. The second bar actually played modern music (Usher's 'Yeah' is a bit dated but at least it was something I could dance to...not that I danced because apparently, that's not what they do there. It made me miss R Place.) and although it made Em want to take a shower, I think I could like it. However, I was not much in the mood for a bar scene, so Em, Dem and I left and retired to yet another McMenamins (this time on the river) for dessert: marionberry cobbler, pumpkin crisp and black and tan brownie. DELICIOUS.

I slept in the next day and once I woke up, we got ready and headed to Washington Square for some more shopping. My mission was a handbag from White House | Black Market, but to my immense disappointment, they didn't have it! Luckily, Em pointed out the Forever 21 superstore which turned my frown upside down. Yay. The drive home was uneventful except for a short burst of torrential rain (I almost couldn't see but just as I was ready to pull over and wait it out, it started to lighten up).

So am I all shopped out? Hell no. That was only about five or six hours of shopping and I am one of those who can shop till I drop. Who can keep up with me??

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Huskies vs. Trojans

I went to the Huskies vs. Trojans game last Saturday and I had such a blast! My boss got four tickets from a client as a thank you gift and since he couldn't make it, he gave them away. They were quite nice seats on the visitors' side and we had a really good view. It was so exhilarating to be in the middle of all that energy and to find yourself getting caught up in it, jumping to your feet and yelling whenever we made a touchdown (or did anything good for that matter!).

The Dawgs started out doing real well but by the second quarter, we were behind. We were trailing by 10 points in the last minute and a half in the 4th quarter...then we made a touchdown! AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!!! We sho' did. That and a field goal put us at 27-24; 3 points is better than 10.

I don't know all the rules of the game and quite a few times R, Ryan and I had to turn to Dem to explain a call or something. The men's swim team were also there and they ran around the track, topless and with letters painted on their chests and backs (that was a really good view, too), yelling "HUSKIES", or something along those lines...can't really remember now. Our mascot, Spirit, was in attendance, too! He's so cuuuuuuute!! Although in reality a Malamute, he is most definitely still a Dawg. Every time the camera panned to him on the sidelines, he was napping with his head on his paws and eyes closed.

The Trojans kept wanting to start shit with us, too. They would shove our boys around; at one point during the game while a pileup was clearing up, one Trojan, who'd landed on top of a Husky during the pileup, got up then shoved our guy back down to the turf as he was trying to get up, too. Penalty flags kept flying all over the place! They ended the game with 16 penalties; we had 9. They're a rude lot and displayed poor sportsmanship. My friend joked that USC stood for University of Spoiled Children. *Snort*

All in all though, we had a fantastic time.

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