Seattle living

We have signed!

Ribbit!

I'm sneaking on to Lori's blog to showcase her hidden talents!

Found on our desk from Lori's pen.

Kitty display stands

My goodness asha is plump! She makes a good remote holder. Nikko looks pretty in his bow. I think i have too much fun when they nap.

Thank goodness for foodie holidays!

Happy belated Thanksgiving friends! I hope you all had wonderful days filled with family, friends, and food! I spent the holiday with at my Auntie's house in Kirkland. They have just finished rebuilding their house, so we got to help christen their new beautiful kitchen!



The day was filled with dancing (ala Soulja Boy and a "Learn to hip hop by Kelly Peters" dvd). We also later watched "Stomp the Yard" which went along with the whole dancing theme.

Erica was the only one of us to get this Kelly Peters move down:


Of course there was delicious food! One of the most fun to make was the Cranberry Almond Tart from Martha Stewart Living's October issue.



Due to a minor mishap where the pate sucree was placed on top of a lit burner and burned through, I ended up using a different crust recipe than Martha's (because it's quicker)

Crust:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
1 Pulse together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter and pulse just until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Add egg and vanilla and pulse just until dough clumps and begins to form a ball, about 15 pulses.

2 Butter and dust with flour the inside of your springform pan. Press dough onto bottom and evenly (about 1/4 inch thick) about two inches up side of springform pan with floured fingertips. Chill pastry in pan until firm, about 10 minutes. Use with Martha's Cranberry Almond Tart recipe in place of the Pate Sucree.

Lori humor

I must be really funny

Multimedia message

Three original gangsters Going 2 see american gangster. Btw the ballard movie theater is really nice! Nice stadium seating.

House on a hill

We are buying a house!

Woohoo! We should be closing early December. I have to admit, I'm really enjoying thinking about revamping the yard and kitchen. I think for the yard, I want to put in a French Drain (because our neighbors house is at a higher elevation, and all the rain in Seattle will make my hill soggy), and I want to terrace our backyard slope to make great areas to grow my veggies and cutting garden. I've already decide I need a cherry tree, apple tree, italian plum tree, lilac tree, some roses, hydrangeas, lots of lavender, and seasonal veggies and herbs. I also want to install a new stone patio (in place of the backyard lawn). I've been going through back issues of Better homes and gardens to look for remodeling and gardening ideas before I recycle them all.

Yay home! And I'll get to take Buddie (the family dog)! He'll love it in Seattle--it's such a dog town.

Elliptical

Blurry went to the gym pic. Yay for a quick workout.

Halloween treats!

My sweet potato pie for the office. I am so festive!

Ms chef!

Chef Clara in the kitchen. She and ervy made delicious curried food friday while i 'read' for class.

Hot n spicy!

Evan going crazy on the food at clara's house

Halloweenie

This house by green lake was remodeled all summer and it looks really cute... Except they have a life-sized Death hanging above their house.

Workin fly fashion

Mr zach 'stole lori's stunner shades' dude.

Gotta represent yo!

Why the heck would u have such a pot-bellied mascot? This is the retired sonics mascot, the weedle.

Mascots

How do i measure up? Btw, no one knows what a sasquatch is. The women team, storm, has doppler after the weather radar thing.

4 ur consideration

Evan considering the sonics half time stats like a true fan. We are big fans of sasquatch. Is he some weird kind of wookie?

Basketball suites(sweets)!

My dessert plate @ the sonics suite. My substitute 4 garlic fries.

@ the sonics pre season game vs rockets

Can u tell which is yao ming? He is sooo tall!

Let's boogie.

Clara and casey @ the go map party - gettin their groove on! I forgot dancing could be so fun!

Diversity in seattle?

@ the go map diversity 'get connected' event

If people haven't been able to tell, I finally implemented blogger's 'moblog' deal where I blog with photos from my phone! I just realized I could change the subject on the mms so that the posts don't all say multimedia message. I still can't get vertical photos to work correctly when posting, so for now, I'll only 'moblog' horizontally :)


On the subject of diversity in Seattle, Evan just sent me this link showing the historical segregation maps of the region.