Guitar Heroes??

Saturday night Nate and I went to see his friend Chris, who lives in Seattle in a new apartment. Chris used to be the graphic designer where Nate works. Chris is quite the video game afficionado and prides himself on the amount of games that he has beaten. Chris has a game called Guitar Hero where you play a guitar with buttons instead of strings and follow along with the song on the game. You get points for how well you do. You can even get booed off the stage if you do really bad. Nate and I got booed off a few times in the beginning of the game. After about an hour we did pretty well. Here is a picture of the expert and the beginner. You figure out who is who!!

Rock On! You Rock!!

Lunch with the Anderberg's

On Saturday Nate and I went to lunch with Dana and Reagan and their new little daughter. She is only 3 weeks old and absolutely precious. We had a great lunch at The Cheese Cake Factory in Bellevue. You might remember seeing pictures of Dana and Reagan in the blog earlier. Reagan was scheduled to go to Iraq to fly Blackhawks but unfortunately one recently crashed. Reagan was chosen to be an assistant to one of the widows from the crash. It is an unfortunate reason that is keeping Reagan here in the states but he gets to spend a few more months with his wife and newborn daughter. Congratulations on your new bundle of joy, Aryonna. Here are a few pictures from lunch.

The happy little family.

Yeah! Yeah! Don't get your hopes up yet!!

Mariner's Game

Last weekend Nate's parents came over for an M's game. Saturday morning we walked down to Marymoor Park to look around at the Art's and Crafts Festival. We saw a lot of nice things but nothing we couldn't live without. Later that afternoon we got ready for the game and boarded the bus. We highly recommend taking King County Metro to get to the game. It was only $3 per person both ways. The best reason to take the bus is: You don't have to pay for parking!! The Mariner's played the Chicago White Sox and they won 7-5. It was an awesome game. Of course a huge chunk of the action happened when Nate and I were in line for hot dogs and garlic fries (yummy!!). We even got there a little early to watch batting practice. We are hoping to make this a yearly event with Nate's parents. Here are some pictures from the game. Enjoy! Go M's!

Waiting for the bus.

Welcome to Safeco Field!

Ahh! The cute couple!

Ahh! Another cute couple, Nate's parents! Can't wait for next year's game!

Cannon Beach

Well as Nate mentioned below we have returned from Cannon Beach. We had a great time. It was wonderfully relaxing. We gorged ourselves and did eat way too much but it was all good food. We are thinking about getting a group together next time and renting a house near the beach. I personally would love to live there year round, right near the beach. Ahhh dreams! We spent much of our time relaxing on the beach or eating and a little time shopping. On our trip back home we made a side trip to the outlying Portland area to see Nate's sister Tami and her 4 children. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures from that part of the trip. We also keep hearing high praise for a bookstore in Portland called Powell's Books. Since we are both bookstore nerds we had to take a turn through it! It was huge! They have maps of the store for you to put in your pocket. Trust me! You need them! I would have been lost for sure. I left with a copy of Bon Apetit for $12.95 (yes the book is usually triple that!), it was used and you can't even tell. I also bought a copy of Evening. I haven't started it yet but it is in my To Be Read (TBR) pile. Now for the pictures.

This is the bottle of Sparkling Cider the hotel left for us. Nate let them know it was our anniversary.

Some pictures of our room.

Our room was on the top floor in the back. You can see one of the windows.

The reason we come to the beach. Ahhh!! Heaven!

I'm not too sure either!

Breakfast! Yummy!

We came for the Blackberry Beauty Ale. They were all out! We still managed to gorge ourselves on burgers and onion rings!

We can't claim responsibility for this masterpiece.

Or this one! We will leave with one of the two beautiful sunsets we witnessed.

Have No Fear, Great Scott and Happyness

Nate and I have recently found the joy of attending outdoor movies. A park near our apartment, Marymoor Park, puts on outdoor movies every Wednesday night. They do the movies on a huge 50 foot blow up screen. They just ask for a donation per family. Unfortunately we found out about this a little late and have only gone to two movies and will be attending the final movie tonight. The first time we went we saw Back to the Future with Underdog cartoons before the movie. They even had BINGO before the cartoons. Nate won an Underdog towel with a hood. We gave the towel to Tami's kids in Portland. Enjoy! Last Wednesday we saw The Pursuit of Happyness. It was really good. I cried! Tonight we are going to see Monster House. Bring on the Kettle Corn.

Nate with his prize. That is the screen behind him. Ahhh! The classic Nate and Becky pose!

The Land of Plenty

Well, Becky has pretty much been taking over this blog, so I thought I'd finally post again to make my presence known!

This last weekend, Becky and I went to Cannon Beach to celebrate a belated anniversary, and the weather was pretty much perfect. Arriving on Friday, it was sunny and clear enough to enjoy a sunset from the beach. Becky had her camera, I had my sketchbook.

In addition to eating far too much food (roughly enough to nourish a medium-sized refugee camp) we also bought some art and other souvenirs. My favorite was an earthenware coffee mug for work.

Note: the proportions shown here are accurate.

The downside? The stupid state of Oregon declared the tidal pools on the beachside of Haystack Rock a "Marine Garden" which means that landlubbing tourists are forthwith prohibited from laying their feet anywhere except "sand or bare rock." Why? To protect the sea life in those tide pools, of course! Barnacles and anemones are endangered, donchaknow? It's not like it was an exposed wave-breaking coral reef.

It's bad enough that we have to put things in cages so we can look at them whenever we want, but now we're fencing off the world to prevent folks from interacting the natural habitat as well. Did I mention they were also asking for donations to help fund this project?

I donated my lack of respect and general loathing.

So that was my little bit of random activism/renegaderie against the Man, but the remainder of the weekend was terrific, and I'm sure Becky will be adding sunset pictures and other great photos sometime today.

Ta!

Paperback Swap

I just found a great website that I had to share. I know all you bookworms will love this site. I mentioned that we are starting to acquire a lot of books. This site lets you post your books that you want to give to someone else. Other people look at your "bookshelf" and choose what they want. The site sends you a message and then if you still want to give your books away it gives you the person's information to mail them the book. I posted 5 books last night and already 2 people nabbed two of them. So off to the post office I went with the books. You get points for the amount of books you post and the ones that you sell. It is kind of like eBay's rating system. You can even start Wish Lists. Please click on the icon to the right or on the link here. When you sign up you can say that I referred you (it will ask you if someone referred you). You can use my hotmail address or my username on the site is bettylou. I can't wait to start swapping books. Happy swapping.

Oh! I joined another site too! Who has too much time on their hands?? It is called Bakespace. I've had a lot of fun looking around at all the great websites. You should join. You can send me a brownie point when you get there. My name is bettylou79. Thanks! Enjoy! You can click on the icon to the left.

Blueberries and Farmers Market

This weekend we were free to do what we wanted! Yahoo!! On Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market in Redmond at Redmond Town Center. I love the Farmer's Market! There is so much yummy produce at great prices. It sure beats the grocery store! We got 3 tomatoes, 3 large cucumbers, and 3 HUGE zucchinis. Grand total for all those yummy's? Four bucks!! Love it!! So far one tomato has been sacrificed for the topping on some pasta with pesto, and one monster zucchini has been sacrificed for Chocolate Zucchini Bread. Yummo!! I think we may try some zucchini pancakes or we might grill one. I know they are going to be part of a kabob later this week. Please share any recipes you enjoy!

Later on Saturday we went to a blueberry farm in Bellevue. Yes, the yuppies have farms! Pretty shocking, we know! We picked for about 2 hours. We heard that they closed at 6:00 so we were worried about how they would let us know that we had to get out. We left the field around 6:15 and they were still letting people in so maybe they don't close when we thought! Here are some pictures of us picking berries and having a great time. Enjoy!

Some of the fruits of our labors!

An artistic shot taken by Nate.

The happy pickers! The total weight of our berries? Four pounds and 58 ounces. Yummy! I turned some of them into blueberry muffins. The rest are patiently waiting in the freezer.

Next time we blog we will be getting back from Cannon Beach! Please cross your fingers for sunny weather! We can't wait!

Talent?

Well, some of you may know, I have taken up knitting. My sister-in-law, Wendy, taught me around Christmas time. Seven scarves later I decided it was time to move on to new and exciting projects. My talented knitter friend, Jen, decided it was time too! She gave me this pattern. Honestly, it is pretty easy. Here is the pattern. You don't have to buy the exact brand of yarn they suggest. I went to Micheal's and bought Lion Brand Wool Felting. My purse took 2 skeins but you may need 3. I think that I may do a few more and then Jen will make me move on to more complicated ones!! Thanks for all your help!

Happy Anniversary to Us

On Sunday, Nate and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We really can't believe that it has already been a year. Nate and I came home to our apartment on Sunday and he had a surprise waiting for me. I had dropped some hints about what I might like for our anniversary. He spent Friday night and Saturday morning putting together a new desk for me a new bookshelf for our living room. It is starting to look like a library in there!! He is soo sneaky! I love my new desk. Nate rearranged the office/guest room. His old desk, aka card table, is in the closet and he has comandeered my old desk. Thanks Nate!


Here is a picture of the new desk. Don't mind the old hunk of junk computer. That thing has been more trouble than it is worth when I got it in 2000. I really would like it to go out Office Space style, you know up in smoke in a parking lot. In college I always joked that if there was ever a fire in my aprartment I would toss that thing out of my window then jump! Never happened!! Shoot. Thank goodness for my new laptop!! On to the picture!

We went to dinner at a cute Mexican restaurant in Kirkland called Cactus. I call it gourmet Mexican food! Yummy! The last time we went to dinner there was around when Nate just moved over here in 2005. Last time we had the most delicious Chocolate Lava Cake dessert but sadly they don't have it anymore. We had a banana dessert instead. Tasty! After stuffing ourselves at Cactus we decided to go see a movie. We went and saw "No Reservations". It was pretty good. It wasn't nearly as much about food as I thought it would be but it was still good.

We are planning on going to Cannon Beach, OR the weekend of the 11th. I'm pretty excited. That is one my favorite vacation spots, after Hawaii of course. We haven't been to Cannon Beach since 2005. On our way home from that trip I drove Nate to his job interview at his current job.

I'll leave you with a picture of the flowers that Nate got me. We actually had mini purple Calla Lily's in our wedding. Perfect!

The Wedding

I don't really have any pictures from the ceremony but I have a few candid ones and some from the reception. Enjoy!

Kjersti and her bridesmaids just arrived.

Yummy cake!

My mom and I at the reception at the Skagit Hotel. Some how Nate didn't make it into any of these pictures. Sorry honey!!

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Lopez!

Rehearsal and Dinner

As I previously mentioned my friend Kjersti got married. She and her husband actually got married the same place as Nate and I, LaConner Flats, and a day before Nate and I got married. Since I had experience with the venue and had done an extensive amount of planning just a year ago she asked me for help and guidance. Several months ago when Kjersti and I met for coffee she told me where the wedding would be and when. She so politely asked me if that was all okay with me. Of course I said yes. I told her it would be weird to be there and not have to do anything. Well she actually remembered that comment. Her mom asked if my mom and I would be their wedding planners/hostesses. We had to say yes. Kjersti didn't think that I wanted to help because of my comment. My mom and I were honored to help them out. We have figured out that we could be wedding planners but just not for people we know. It is too hard to be bossy to people you know!

Here is a picture of Kjersti and her dad at the rehearsal.

Kjersti's Bachelorette Party

Last Wednesday I went into Seattle with my friend Kjersti and 6 other girls. Kjersti was getting married on Saturday (more on that later). Kjersti was introducing me as "the friend who she has had the longest" or "her first friend". Both of which are true. She is about a year younger than me. Our mothers went to high school together and then ended up in child birth classes together when they were pregnant with their first children. My grandparents also lived next door to Kjersti's family, so I spent many a summer hanging out with Kjersti and her brother.

We started the night by going to a yummy Mexican restaurant in Belltown called Mama's Mexican Kitchen. Then it was back to the hotel for a few games and some oh so fun cake! Finally it was out to Belltown Billiards. We learned that Wednesday was not the most hopping night for downtown Seattle, but we still had a good time.


Here is a picture of the girls. Both of Kjersti's sisters-in-law are in the picture.