Seattle = dog, Portland = cat*

Seattle, 2013.

Unexpected stop in Spokane due to thick fog in Seattle. Duh.

4 Days, 3 Nights, Airbnb studio apartment in Capital Hill.

Some seafood, some tea, lots of coffee, a bit of beer, tastes of wine.

Played Battleship and Heads-Up.

Walked up and down hills and hiked around parks and piers.

Arguably more homeless than Chicago. One drunkard was looking for a "man to love" him. (record scratch)

Slept about 9 hours/night. 

Saw fish tossed at the market. Took a ferry to Bainbridge Island. Rode the monorail. Took in some open-mic comedy. 

Fire roasted bagels. Russian sauerkraut pastries. Mussels and clams. Rumbles are like scrambles. Fish tacos. Homemade potato chips. Local vegetarian pot pie. 

Drove 2 hours to Ellensburg to meet my great aunt and uncle for the second time and my dad's cousin and her husband for the first time. 

Family is great!

Volunteer Park

Water supply

Chia cow outside of a shop that sells locally sourced prepared food in refundable containers

Remedy Teas

Seattle Coffee Works

Bedlam Coffee

Boat to Bainbridge

Stopped along the Pass to Ellensburg.

Seeing sun for the first time in days.

Meeting family for the first time.

*A review I read that compared the two cities said that Seattle is the "dog-person" city while Portland is the "cat-person" city. I'm so glad we chose the one we did! And we saw a lot of dogs! They are allowed in every shop, mall, public place you can imagine!

First Star to the Right and Straight on 'til Morning

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When there's a smile in your heart 
There's no better time to start
Think of all the joy you'll find 
When you leave the world behind 
And wave your cares goodbye
You can fly
You can fly
You can fly
You can fly

I was reciting lines from Peter Pan last night. The Mr. indicated that he'd never seen it before so, of course...

As a child I could recite the whole movie. Now, I can only remember some of the lines. Mostly I remember Wendy's because she had a lyrical quality to her voice that made is stick like a song. 

When we were looking up the movie, the Mr. asked me if it was the one made in the 50's. I was surprised to realize how old the film was. Naturally, its been restored for color and clarity, but the cartoon was still pretty impressive. 

The racism, sexism, politically-incorrectness was pretty impressive too. Taking it all in with nostalgia through a historical lens made it pretty wonderful though and we overlooked a lot. 

Not sure the Mr. found the magic as beguiling as I did, but I was singing and lilting alongside the Darling children, their parents, and the incredible creatures that leapt out of the minds of children and into the world of Neverland. 

As an adult, I was drawing connections between the movie, niche pop-culture, the strange fairy-obsessed crowd that can be manifests itself on Halloween and Michael Jackson. 

But with some wine in hand, a sleeping dog at my feet and a patient Mr. willing to participate in a skip down memory lane, I was only drawn out of the wonderment temporarily, jumping right back in in time to bob my head to the tick-tock of the crocodile clock.

Duh duh duh, du-du-duh-duh duh, dum dum dum duh du duh duh duh duh....

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What I imagine 'ocular yoga' feels like

My head hurts and I've had a long day of meetings and lunch meetings and feelings meetings. I am le tired.

I just want to chat with some pink wine* while wearing this sweater (please get delivered today!). When did pink wine get so chic? I mean. It was all White Zinfandel in the early 00's and now it's all 2011 Rosé served in 2013 and I get it. I suppose it has gone the way of it's friend the denim shirt. (Also in the order with the aforementioned sweater.)

Instead of a nap, leaving early from work or breaking my no-booze streak this week, let's all drink this in. Glug, glug.

First seen here.
From here.
Taking over here <3 .="">

* You didn't read that wrong. I want to chat with the wine. Not with someone over the wine. You do that? Ignore your wine?

Tipsy Tuesday: Waiting for Home Delivery

Waiting for something to be delivered can be a pain. It's as convenient as waiting for the cable guy or a plumber. They give you a 4 hour window and then show up 20 minutes after the 4 hour window closes. OR if you are there for the majority of the time, they will show up during the 5 minutes you were in the shower or out back or, in my case, taking a jog around the block. 

Murphy wrote a loophole-less law, right there. 

So I've compiled a list of things to do at home while you are imprisoned by in-home delivery/service. 

1. Dust the baseboards. If you have pets, this is something that should be done regularly.
2. Prepare and cook an elaborate meal for dinner (something like this).
3. Do some laundry.
4. Scold the pets for things they probably do every day but you aren't around to see them do it. (Pet shaming, anyone?)
5. Hand mop the bedroom floor in preparation for placement of a fancy-schmancy rug.
6. Do not attempt to place the rug yourself because it's a 9x12 rug wooly beast that will crush you.
7. Run a short run. But run hard to compensate for your limited time. Then come home and do your very first pushup... ever.
8. Feel proud of yourself. And then ashamed that it was your first pushup ever. #ProudAshamed
9. Dance around to T.I. Wonder if he's still in prison. Wonder if the neighbors can see you dancing around to T.I. Move further from the windows.
10. Shower a quick shower for fear that you'll miss the delivery guy. 
11. Continually look out of the peephole without prompt. 

Through the peephole.

A preview of our bedroom. iPhone photos don't do the blue justice!

Ok, ok. This is just a list of what I've done today. Oh, and I worked a bit too. 

Beverage pairing: Water after the run/dance party. Wine with the braised pork.

Song Suggestion: What You Know About That by T.I.

Traveling is Hard, There is Such a Thing as Too Much Pink and other first world problems.

As aforementioned, we were in Massachusetts this past weekend (roughly 4 days). For fun and to not require too much reading or writing out of all of us on a Monday, I'll give you advice alongside my vacation photos. 

Photo: At O'Hare after getting up much earlier than normal.

Advice: You may not be able to control your wake-up call, but you can control your attitude about it. You can also control your husband's attitude about it - if you are sickeningly sweet to him and sing songs about vowels (A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Yyyyy!) he's bound to perk up or at least go cross-eyed for the camera.

Photo: One of two dollhouses in the house we rented.

Advice: Beggars can't be choosers. If you are staying in a house for free, you cannot get mad about staying in a child's room that has more pink than the inside of a shark's mouth (and somehow gives you a corresponding feeling). 'Twas the kinda pink (ceilings, carpets, walls, dollhouses) that gives everything in it an unnatural hue. 

Photo: Berkshires- A river/creek runs through them.

Advice: Soak it in. The quiet is so pure. No wonder celebrities who have mentally cracked go here to rein in the crazy.

Photo: Short-horn cattle

Advice: If you approach them, the cattle may bolt. Act like this was your intention and blame it on the Amish cattle being camera-shy.

Photo: Me in front of Mt. Greylock after my own celebrity break-down. 

Advice: Sometimes (all-the-time) on trips I get grumpy/irritable/sad/overwhelmed/crazy/sick-in-the-digestive-system about 2 or 3 days in. I think it has something to do with how inefficient my digestive system is, being a middle child, and being a woman from a family of awesome people who have achieved greatness (degrees out the wazoo from places like Yale, MIT and Princeton and brilliance to match, for instance). It's a weird combo, but competition and constipation get the best of me.

After 2.5 days of 21 adults, 4 children under the age of 6, and 2 nights in the pink room of perpetual shark sorrow, I broke. The Mr. took me on a walk and let me whine and cry it out. Such a good Mr. he is. My advice for you, if you get sorta overwhelmed, is to take a break by yourself or with someone you trust and get away from your get-a-way. 

I read a book that my Grammy loaned me for a few hours and sat down to talk the stock market with a smart-but-approachable uncle of mine for an hour. I felt both smarter and validated for it.

Photo: Walk/hike in the mountains.

Advice: Get some fresh air and physical activity while on vacation. Burning some calories and doing it with a group can be a bonding and uplifting experience.

Photo: Albany airport. Flight delayed (a total of 4 hours). 2 expensive glasses of wine.

Advice: Just like the beginning of this trip, one should be reminded that travel is not easy and to expect bumps in the road. We were patient and calm and tried to make the best of it. We decided that our expensive glasses of wine were worth the potential calming effect they could offer. They also helped lubricate the letter we are sending to break it off with United and hopefully get some sweet alimony in the divorce. (United = the worst. Officially. They have stranded us too many times.)

Photo: Wine shipment from August Hill Winery.

Advice: Have a wine company ship you wine. Seriously, it just come right to ya and when you get home from a trip it's waiting for you, with open arms. 

Do you have any weird problems with travel? Do any of you ever feel like you need a vacation from your vacation?

What We Can Learn from Wine: The Economy

According to this article in The Atlantic, the market for fine wine is taking a downward turn just like the world economy.

The article sites the Chinese as being a gauge for economic and consumer trends. China has been on the upswing for wine consumption, namely French varieties and status labels. As my cousin Mary Oakley would say, the Chinese are buying up wine in exhibition of "face". They choose traditionally expensive wines from France and buy from major suppliers with well-known, expensive products. This gives them the insurance of getting a great wine all-the-while impressing those that come to dinner or just see the bottle sitting on the shelf. Like having an impractical car in the garage.

While Mr. S and I were in Napa, we learned that the Asian cultures are much more into wine now than they used to be. Some of the wineries had large export markets going right to Japan and China. They claimed that Asian cultures were getting into wine they way a teenager would - breaking into their affluent parent's wine cellar and taking the fanciest bottle (my words, not theirs). Since France is known for wine, French wines are the equivalent of a bright pink bottle with rhinestones and a blinking cork.

BUT. Relatively recent inclusion of California wines into European tastes tests prove that American wines can be just as impressive as (and in some cases, more so than) their French grandparents.

Now, this article only mentioned that the Chinese weren't buying as much French Bordeaux as they used to, and that they are branching out to other regional, French wines. Is the article leaving out American wines to make a point on the instability of wine sales? Are the Chinese just not as hot on American wines...  yet? Or am I just overly patriotic of our wines and therefore should support the wine industry and buy local :)

Purple Toad from Paducah, KY. I got this wine from my parents when they visited Paducah. 

A plug for buying local: Wine is traditionally stored and shipped in heavy glass bottles. It takes more oil and resources to ship wine from Australia or Chile than it does from California. And if you live in the Midwest, it takes more oil to ship from California than it does from Illinois. Support your local economy, U.S. regulated working conditions, lower carbon emissions, and lower fuel usage by buying local.

Advice: Yee-haw! Get Back On The Horse

Sometimes you're up. Sometimes you're down. I feel like there's a song here.

I've had an awesome and terrible couple of weeks.

I've also exaggerated how terrible it's been. It's been mostly great with a few slight hiccups, if I'm being honest and reasonable.

But I'm not honest and reasonable. I all sortsa crazy on a whim.

So what do you do when you've: picked 3 fights with your family in 24 hours, put your foot in your mouth, broke the website at work that they JUST entrusted to you, been late to dinner, wasted money on a cab when you should have walked, let your emails pile up, been "overserved" and therefore "dehydrated" the next morning when you have to go to work and deal with a problem, AND failed to sew the button back onto the only pants that match the sweater you NEED to wear and just say 'screw it' and go to work all sloppy-bobbie with an unbuttoned pocked flap?

 High five me. High five.

What do I do after all of this and a solid half hour of complaining and dramatizing my demise (a la phrases like "This outfit? Take a good look. This is the outfit I'll be wearing when I get fired.").

But after all that I get back on the horse. Nothing's all that bad. I still have a family that loves me (sorry guys, I know you love me even if I've tried to alienate each of you lately), a job (no, I didn't get fired), friends that are willing to say "yes" to a 3rd (or 4th?) bottle of wine, and a trip to Tucson in January to look forward to. Nothing is that bad. All will turn out fine.

So maybe the song should be Where the Blacktop Ends. Original, drugged-out, short-haired Keith Urban.

Actually, no. This is the song.

Tipsy Tuesday Advice: Know Your Pie and How to Slice It

I made this chart with the data from our Mint.com and this site. Yes, it may be a kids site, but it makes a pretty good free graph. Neat.

Looking at this graph, I'm all like, "Woah, are you supposed to spend 40% of your cha-ching on rent and stuff??"

Let's take a step back.

This chart only shows our total spending broken out by category. Whew. It's totally ok that out of our total spending, 40% is on rent. It SHOULD be the largest expense we have each month. Unless, we have a mortgage, then that should be our largest ticket item.

To give you some perspective, here's how much we really spend a month:

We save quite a bit, so the first pie chart shouldn't be so scary.

Now, people who claim to be experts say that you shouldn't spend more than 1/3 of your income in housing.

We seem to fit comfortably within our limit of spending less than a 1/4 of our income on rent. High five for saving, spending within our recommended limits and for charts in general.

Fives to NewlyWedsOnABudget too, for getting me excited for charting.

Drink suggestion for this post? What goes well with pie...

If it's a pot pie, a beer; if it's a dessert pie, then have a glass of Merlot. (Some would argue that you should have a sweeter wine with dessert, but who can take all that sugar... let's go DRY.) Last night I had a glass from a winery my parents visited in Paducah, Kentucky. Thanks Mom and Dad for the Purple Toad Merlot! I love a good, local wine with a story behind the hunt for it!

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Tipsy Tuesday: J.Mill's Take on the Mrs. Lilien's 7 Persuasions of the Extraordinarily Successful

Pretty awesome list of how to be awesome from Mrs. Lilien (blogger I just found today via Fancy Schmantzy's blog roll). Boom goes the name dropping and the shout-outs. I know Mitzi of Fancy Schmantzy personally. I have no idea if the Mrs. is even a woman. Here we go.

I decided to do my own list of 7 Persuasions Of Awesomeness. Here's the J.Mill version:

1) The Mrs. says: Bedeck to Impress.

J.Mill says: Dress to the 9's, yes. Dare to upstage. Think: "Can I get away with wearing jeans?" But then add a blazer. Avoid wearing panty hose unless it's cold. Panty hose will cut-you-in-half. I have the oddly mishapen waistline to prove it.

2) The Mrs. says: Begin with High Stakes in Mind.

J.Mill says: Under promise, over deliver. If you set the bar low, then people will appreciate your follow-through. Get a pat on the back just for waking up in the morning whenever possible.

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"Hiiii-ya!" She gets a pat (or did that sound like a chop) on the back for waking up, fo sho.

3) The Mrs. says: Put Leisure First

J.Mill says: Can't argue there. Just make sure you define leisure in your own specially-tailored way. I, for instance, find shopping to be stressful, not leisurely. I'm more of a stare-out-the-window type of relaxer. Speaking of relaxers, muscle-putty-pills work for leisure-inducing too! Or at least they make shopping tollerable. You may walk out of a downtown Chi-town Target with nothing on your list, but at least you walk out of Target (as opposed to running, screaming out of Target).

4) The Mrs. says: Think Chin-chin. (cocktails)

J.Mill says: Can't argue with this one either. But to deviate from the Mrs., I suggest that you go more daring with your drink dates. Don't drink with friends. Drink with a bartender. Drink with Facebook. Drink with a good book. Drinking alone, once considered sad, now (or maybe not yet) is considered brave! One mojito down and I was de-friending half of my facebook friends. I didn't even KNOW these people. Try it. Purge your FB, your closet, your fridge with a glass of Malbec in hand and see how productive you are!

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5) The Mrs. says: Accessorize with Abandon

J.Mill says: Take only one piece of advice from Suzie Orman and only wear like 3 pieces of jewelry over and over again. Invest in some dime-store plastic pearls and wear them 'til the cows come home and crush'em. (If your cows are crushing your pearls, learn your lesson and pick your pearls up off of the floor/barn.)

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6) The Mrs. says: Make Marveling Merry (rando acts of kindness)

J.Mill says: I just try not to scowl at the people who play their music too loudly through headphones. Random acts of kindness might be out of reach for me. (J/K... I do nice things)

(That's not me, btw. That's a random child. Get it. Random?)
7) The Mrs. says: Capitalize on Conviviality

J.Mill says: I don't believe conviviality is a word. Woopsie daisy. It is. It means to have a good ol' time with folks. I suppose I can stand behind that. That, or invite people over and then hide in the bathroom with a 6 pack and some kebobs.

Nom nom.



Untagged photos are via pinterest.com

I Have a Beverage Problem

When my long-time friends and I reconvened in central Indiana this past weekend, I often found that wine-related humor was directed at me. I guess I deserve that. (Shout out to M, S, S and R!) I really do love beverages. I order two drinks at restaurants (usually one of them water) and have 2 thermoses and one tumbler at my desk right now.

It doesn't matter if its alcoholic or caffinated, I just like drinks. In fact, I made an awesome milkshake/smoothie (where's the difference there?) this past weekend involving a frozen banana and Nutella. I even got decaf at a S-bux this weekend just to have something to sip in the car. Nothing like a warm drink, a longer car ride and a phone call home.

Anyhoo. I found this blog and love its transparent consciousness (read: he's honest and random). Oh, and he's funny.

So here's what he says about beverage ettiquette when attending a social gathering. And in honor of my book club meeting this week to discuss Unbroken, I vow to abide by the last point on the "Do's" list. Although I doubt we'll be borning :)

Photo and funnies via.

Book photo via.