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Finally, a 4th with not a cloud in the sky.

And an appropriate summer cocktail! :-)

Chandler’s Crabhouse’s Havana Raspberry cocktail

Dinner mit usual chickies. ;-)

So today, a couple of things:

On the drive home from work—which was itself unusual, I haven’t driven to work without a specific reason (like after-work plans or errands I need to run midday) in I don’t even know how long—I found myself belting out If That’s What It Takes. Which got me to thinking:

1. HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE that I know all the words to this song.
2. Why didn’t I notice what I was singing until the last 30 seconds?

Thank God no one else could hear me in stop-and-go traffic with my windows rolled up, though this kinda shoots that all to hell.

Then for dinner tonight: Fish sticks.

I can’t remember exactly when I last had fish in stick form. I mean, I’ve had fish & chips fairly regularly over the last few years, but that fish is more wedge-shaped or (in many Seattle-area restaurants anyway) random–filet-shaped. There have been other fish entrées in restaurants fairly regularly over the last few years. And I grill fish on a regular basis year-round, mainly because I like to watch the planks burst into flame. But the stick form, they fell out of my life when I was, oh, maybe 12 or 13, and didn’t make another appearance until tonight.

And oh were they good. Crunchy little things, 2 by 1/2 by 1/4 inches. I remember them being much bigger when I was a kid, by which I mean about the same length and width but maybe twice as thick. Also soggier, no matter how long you baked them, but maybe the bigness was cuz I was smaller and now I’m an adult and most things from my childhood seem smaller, like the time I voted at my elementary school and I needed to use a restroom and I thought, good Lord, I’d have to kneel use these urinals.

Oatmeal and an apple fritter.

Cuz, you know, I’m all about balancing things out, even though the Diet Coke wouldn’t fit in the frame.

Julie Anne made a strawberry-rhubarb pie with rhubarb from our own garden.

Isn’t it purty?

Seasonal beers FTW.

And David’s brew, the Czech Pilsner:

Maker’s Mark. At a coffee shop. At the mall.

I must not be in Utah anymore!

The crab and asparagus omelet at Skillet. Insanely delicious.

At Skillet in German Village.

If Samuel Adams’ Summer Ale is to be believed.

And I’m ready to believe.

The first pint of Curve Ball this year. Aaahhhhh....

Cheers!

*And* beer. Heaven!

Buttface Amber at The Ram to finish the work week.

Aaahhhhhh....

Shrimp dumplings and a frosty Tsing Tao before I start the trek home.

Good for the planet, good for you, and fun shapes too!

Preparing the glaze for the rum cake. A 4:2:1 sugar/rum/water mix with a butter chaser :-D

Boozing up the rum cake. Holiday baking in full force!

Bacardi Coco and Pyrat XO rums, pineapple and orange juices, fresh lime.

Ahh, the tropics. :-)

From the “things we’ve never heard out of Julie Anne’s mouth before” files.

Chasing Tail ale in my Squatters Mug Club mug :-)

American Brewing Company recently opened its doors to the Edmonds community, and University of Washington journalism student Allison Barrett developed the following multimedia presentation through an internship project for My Edmonds News.

While American Brewing Company may be new, head brewmeister Skip Madsen has a long history of crafting beers in the Pacific Northwest. His regional brewing experience includes time spent at Pike Brewing Company and Big Time Brewery in Seattle as well as at Boundary Bay Brewing Company in Bellingham and Waterstreet [sic] Brewing and Ale House in Port Townsend.

via myedmondsnews.com; links added by me

We enjoyed American Brewing’s Breakaway Caboose Oatmeal Stout just last week at the twice-yearly Brewmasters Dinner at Ray’s Cafe. Ray’s executive chef Peter Birk paired the beer with an excellent starter course of baked Penn Cove Select oysters with horseradish, aged cheddar, and tallgrass rye bread. It was an unexpected match that worked really well.

Very much looking forward to stopping by American Brewing and checking out their Breakaway Room tasting spot.

Check out the link to My Edmonds News for the multimedia presentation, it’s an interesting look into the brewery’s people and operations.

Jennifer Talley, the brewmaster at Squatters Pub Brewery in Salt Lake City, has won the prestigious Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Brewing. She is the first woman to receive the honor since it was first presented in 1997 by the national Brewers Association.

She recevied the award last week during the Craft Brewers Conference in Boulder, Colorado.

A native of Chicago, Talley has been the head brewer at Squatters since 1994. Utah beer lovers know she is always experimenting with new beer styles and ingredients creating award winners such as Alt & In The Way, a gold medal winner at the 2008 World Beer Cup.

via www.sltrib.com

Good news! Squatters is my fave brewpub, glad to see the recognition.

Alehouse restroom. Flashing back to the hospital gift shop in 2004, all those old-lady volunteers.

Which is not to say the old-lady volunteers were in the alehouse restroom with me—nothing so scandalous.

No, one of them was named Stella. And every time I saw her, I’d do the “Streetcar” bit. And she’d smile tolerantly and encourage me to return to the cash-register lesson. ;-)

You can’t quite see the cheery glow of the practically white-hot metal, but trust my tongue. OW.

Crazy bald kid didn’t know WTF he was talking about!

(Clearly I am rapturously attentive in this meeting)

“Mornings aren’t pretty”—truer words never spoken, though I didn’t sleep long enough to get a really grand case of bedhead. But I kinda feel like Mickey looks.

And it can’t be purely coincidence that one French press = one giant coffee cup, right? No, it *must* be a greater statement of the proper order of the universe.

In order: People, beers, and cans of enchilada sauce to ring in the new year.

On the second hand (a set and a run), instead of, say, on an actually USEFUL hand like the final (3 runs)???

I decided, on the final hand, to try for three runs of diamonds. Here’s to that second joker :-D

Game final score: Don 190, Julie Anne 400

Not the game-winner, but it looks good so far. Three hands in (of seven total) and I’m batting a thousand. :-)

Cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas morning.

Julie Anne’s scratch-made pumpkin pies.

For the record, this wasn’t a total Martha Stewart endeavor. Julie Anne did not make the pie dishes herself. She bought ’em. And she feels a bit terrible about that. ;-)

Corned beef hash with poached eggs, home fries, and pumpkin pancakes at the Original Pancake House.

This has become a weekend ritual during the cold/wet months.

Interesting list. Now I know where I’ll be getting ideas for some new local bottles to try over the next few years.

The methodology is simple. I look through a year's worth of tasting notes and select one wine from each of 100 wineries for inclusion. All but three of these wines scored 91 points or higher (out of 100) in my reviews for a national wine publication. They are ranked first according to their score and within each scoring category by price. Among all 93-point wines, for example, the least expensive will rank highest, and the most expensive lowest. The original suggested retail price is also listed.

Why just one wine per winery? With roughly 670 wineries in the state, it is a better way to showcase the breadth and depth of the industry's offerings.

Who needs caffeine to wake up? This oatmeal has a half-life of several hundred years.

So Katharine knows I do, in fact, drink a Bloody Mary now and then

It were good.

Stepped away for a lunch break, returned to find a little sweet perched atop my notepad courtesy my coworker Jeremy. :-)

I give you: Julie Anne’s quick-draw map of Seattle.

She was trying to explain to her mom where we were in relation to Seattle proper, but she ended up drawing a mutant Goon from a 1940s “Popeye” cartoon. ;-)

;-)

It’s not cold in this room. I know this for two reasons.

First, I have photographic proof:

And second, I don’t feel cold.

But my hands do not know this.

My hands! They feel frozen and have for most of the day, dammit!

So, having achieved fluid equilibrium a few hours ago, that state where I must expel fluids at roughly the same rate I am consuming them, I went down the hallway a bit ago for a refresh of my beverage. And I thought:

Ah ha! Hot chocolate!

Which I am now not drinking but am hugging closely to my person, in an attempt (so far vain, because I have taken my hands off the warm cup so I can type this post) to warm my poor frozen hands.

Also, earlier (and unrelated), I sneezed five times in a row. Best sneezes EVER.

So how’s your Friday?

This morning we stopped at Starbucks for eggnog lattes and at Target for Christmas lights, candles, and a wreath and hanger.

Now back at Julie Anne’s discussing the particulars of her holiday decorating plans before we retrieve the dozen or so Christmas boxes from her storage unit, all while she’s mixing up a batch of home-made bread and Christmas songs waft from the living room.

Definitely that time of year!

Happy holidays :-D  

IHOP NFL-themed stuffed French toast, oh dear God
(Click image for full-size 1280x1024)IHOP’s newest thing: Football-shaped stuffed French toast for the new NFL season. Strawberries for AFC, blueberries for NFC.

Woo new local coffeehouse (and crepes! beer! wine!) opening soon just down the street. via citizencoffee.com

UPDATE: Targeted for opening Sep 01, woo! via Queen Anne View

Click image to view full size, 1280 x 1024Accent wallpaper pays amusing homage to the ubiquitous fowl at Kountry Kitchen in Kapa‘a.

So this morning at IHOP the server asked if I wanted my usual, and I said, uh, what is my usual? and she said eggs over medium and pancakes with link sausage, and I said, how do you know that? I’ve only had that once here and you weren’t my server, and she said, when folks come in two Sundays in a row, they always get the same thing.

It was kinda creepy. But the food was good.

Beldin: I had Golden Grahams for breakfast. There was a little zebra car toy thingie in the box, a tie-in to Madagascar 2—I opened the box (it was new) and the little toy popped right out, a bit of a surprise for so early of a morn.

Bug: Weird.. you mean they don't bury the toys at the bottom of the box any more? :x

Beldin: Nope. This one was in its own separate little wrapping on the outside of the cereal bag, just inside the box top.

Bug: How.. odd. Takes all the fun out of trying to DIG for the toy. ;x

Beldin: I know! I used to pour the whole damned box into a big mixing bowl to find the toy, and then ladle the cereal back in spoonful by spoonful after. ;D

Bug: ROFL, exactly. ;x