Puyallup Fair

Some people may fear El Niño the phenomenon, but what they should fear is "El Niño the ride" at the Puyallup fair! I doubt the ride itself lives up to it's impressive name... I think it just spins you around until you get very very sick.

Volkswagon & Hindsight

After doing some online/soul searching about what kind of car we want to invest in, we decided to look into hybrids and diesel cars. Biodiesel is so accessible here in the Pacific NW and it's *cheaper* than diesel at the moment. Having family in France (B's dad is a mechanic) and my parents who love their Passat, we know that Volkswagon makes good diesel cars.

In France, however, most of the Volkswagons are diesel. Here in the U.S. you only have a choice of the Beetle, GTI, or Jetta and online they list about $1000 more than the gas versions. At least that's what I gleaned from Vehix.com. What we found out at the dealer is that Volkswagon in 2006 made a decision (a terrible one in hindsight) to discontinue diesel cars in the U.S. I guess they couldn't predict that gas prices would elevate to such a point that diesel/biodiesel would be an appealing alternative. In Seattle, it is uber-appealing and everyone (me included) wants to have a car with a sticker on it that says "this car runs on biodiesel".

Volkswagon won't make more diesel cars until 2008 and until then the dealers can charge $5000 more than the gas versions b/c people will pay for them and they hardly have any in stock. The sales person told us that had we started shopping a month ago we wouldn't have had this problem. Damned inconsiderate of the thief to steal our car a month too late, don't you think?

Impound Lot, the stolen car saga continues

We got to see our car today at the impound lot. The exterior actually looks pretty good considering the car went through several fences. There are serious dents, but it's not like the entire car is smashed in. One of the tires was blown because the police "spiked it" to end the car chase. We decided to have it towed to a mechanic to get an estimate of repairs needed to the engine and body.

What was the interior of the car like after one whole day in the hands of the thief? Things we had in the car trunk (petanque set and lawn chairs) were gone. Not sure what the thief plans on doing with them... but maybe they are adorning his lawn somewhere. All of our CDs were gone, but replaced with a couple of new CDs. Most of the other stuff (umbrellas, misc. papers) was still there. Here's the true shock. Are you ready for this? When we opened the car door, we found various pornographic magazines (or torn pages from said mags) strewn all over the car. I was fairly calm about the car theft, I thought, but when I saw the magazines I almost flipped. We decided that although we could replace the tire and try driving the car to the mechanic, we really just wanted to have it towed and not deal with the "tainted" interior. I don't think I'll feel comfortable driving the car again until it's been professionally cleaned.

La Isla

This weekend we were running around and doing tons of fun things in Seattle and noticed a Puerto Rican restaurant called La Isla in Ballard. We were planning on going to Paseo for our favorite sandwhiches only to find out that they are closed on Sundays. So we doubled back and went to check out La Isla. ~Wow!~ It was very very good. The tostones with mojito (garlic olive oil dipping sauce), rice and beans, bistec encebollada, empanadas all reminded me of my favorite Cuban foods. There were some food items that were new for me alcapurrias (dough turnover made of taro and green plantains filled with ground beef or vegetables) and something like a plaintain hush puppy. We will definitely have to go back there, but now have to choose between Paseo and La Isla.

La Isla is located at 2320 NW Market Street.

De-Nile isn't just a river in Egypt

Well it's a good thing that global warming isn't happening, because otherwise we'd have to be worried that winter sea ice melted by approximately 15% between 2004 and 2005.

Bad luck for Popeye

Just when I found a green leafy vegetable that I actually enjoy eating, this E. coli outbreak happens. We threw out several bags of spinach. Trust me, I'd rather throw out the bags of food than risk getting sick or worse. Poor Popeye, what is he going to do while the spinach supply is tainted???

Kokanee found

The police called at 3:30am in the morning to let us know they found our car (Kokanee, see previous posts). The person who stole it was apparently inside and tried to get away. Our car went through several fences in the car chase and the police had to tow the car which was *damaged* in the process. No word yet on how *damaged*. For the time being they are keeping the car. The thief left some *equipment* in the car and they want to look over the *evidence*.

El Nino is back

Now I know why our car was stolen, El Niño is officially back! Things are warmer than average in the tropics and obviously at the expense of the cooler "enye".

Stolen Car

Sometime between last night and this morning our lovely blue Honda Civic (nicknamed "Kokanee" after spending too much time in Whistler drinking Canadian beer) was stolen from our home parking lot. We are in the process of contacting cops, insurance, etc.

Until we sort this all out, I hope you are okay Kokanee.

Cafe Flora & Greenlake

We went to Cafe Flora for brunch. We went there because we heard it was a great kid-friendy vegetarian restaurant and we went with a French couple and their two sons. We ordered the Beignets (traditional New Orleans deep fried pastries -- kind of like a doughnut) to start and they were very good. The rest of the meal was good -- but not the amazing meal I anticipated. I think the carnivore in me felt something was missing.

The service was a bit slow but very very friendly. It definitely was a kid-friendly place. The boys were able to roam around after the meal and nobody seemed to mind. We'll definitely go back and give it another chance. I'm curious about their lunch and dinner menu.

Afterwards we went to Greenlake so the kids could play in the park. Greenlake is even more fun to visit with children. They loved running around the trees and playing hide and seek. We were hoping they could visit the wading pool but I think it's too late in the season. I guess once the weather is below 70F they don't fill the pool with water. It was great to be out in the sun, but everywhere there are signs that fall is sneaking in.

Fake Eyelashes

My friend is a freelance makeup artist and teaches aspiring makeup artists her craft. She has a student who wanted extra-lessons and asked for all of her girlfriends to volunteer to be models. Of course, I signed up for that. I know I don't usually put on much make-up so folks might think I'd be the last person to queue up for that. Just because I lack the skill or inclination, doesn't mean I wouldn't jump at the chance to have extremely talented people make me look glamorous. One of the fun things I got to try was fake eyelashes. As an eyelash-challenged person, I've always been curious what it would look like to have long beautiful lashes. Here's what I learned a) they look gorgeous b) the fact that the glue smells slightly toxic is a bit alarming c) they are only comfortable for about an hour d) I'd never be able to put them on by myself e) you shouldn't drive the first time you try fake eyelashes. I'll post a picture when I get the chance.

Good advice from Ph.D. Comics

If a helpful graduate student had given us the same advice, we probably wouldn't have taken it. We do love research and the academic life. Still, good advice can always be obtained from Ph.D. comics....

(Click on the image for a clearer view or go to www.phdcomics.com)

Bocci vs. Petanque

A bunch of friends just moved closer to our place and we are looking forward to being more social and getting out more. We passed by one of their houses on the way back from some serious retail therapy. They were on their way to a local park to play bocci (Italian lawn bowling - large ceramic balls) and it just so happens that B and I had our petanque set (French lawn bowling - smaller crome balls) in the car.

I bought the set for him eons ago. But, we don't have a lawn suitable for playing and we are too lazy to go to the park to play just the two of us. Long story short, we never play and were very happy to dust the cobwebs off of our petanque set and hit the park. We only played a few rounds of bocci, but I very much look forward to a rematch. Hopefully I'll report to you by the beginning of fall -- I refuse to admit that summer is over -- whether bocci or petanque is more fun to play.