Smoked salmon... yum! In 2003, Sara and I went to Bainbridge Island for five days, and we had the best smoked salmon ever, too! They ARE amazing hosts; I love everything about their house. It was really fun to go again.
Pike Place Market is great! I love it... when Mom, John, and I were in Seattle two days ago (it was when we drove back in our rental car from British Columbia, and stayed at a motel in Seattle for the night before flying to Mpls) we went to Pike Place Market for a little while. John had never been to it... well, he'd never been to Washington State at all. I love that market... it feels so much better than something stupid like the Mall of America... like you're buying real stuff.
Thanks Alia, thanks for sending the blog on to me. I enjoyed reading about your trip and am glad all of you had a great time. David and Susan are magnificant hosts. I still remember the best salmon I have ever had that they smoked when John and I went for a visit. You said you went to the farmers' market. Did you see Pike's Fish Market? Aunt Dianne
Ooooo, I missed all the fun What an incredible family this is.........So, it's my turn to shovel in the food. Looks like Kaia and I will be in FC at the end of this month and am so looking forward to the event. Love you, S
re: Hard work and fun, too Oh yeah, thanks for explaining that utensil story for me. I forgot to write anything saying WHY we were eating with spatulas. Haha. oh, and Mom, we just forgot to bring back chopsticks. Grandmama used them at the restaurant, and I did for awhile. We also forgot to bring silverware to the new place. But luckily the spatulas were there. Of course it tasted just as good, but it was pretty funny.
Sammy's tail is a lot longer now! OK, it's June 20th (gasp! Summer solstice tomorrow already!), and Sammy's a lot older now. His tail is now much longer and fuller. Today, I took him to a vet for a "well bird check" and to address some concerns about an eye situation. No biggie, he's fine, says the vet; he just needs some drops in his eye twice a day for 10 days, plus I should gently wash his eyes with saline solution used for contact lenses every day. They also tested him for any diseases. One test was negative; the other, we'll hear about later. Anyway, what I wanted to write here in this blog was that Sammy wowed everyone at the vet's office by his friendliness, perkiness, and all around lovable nature. He's a star!
Chinese food and utensils I have to wonder if the Chinese place didn't send along chopsticks? Well, I know not everyone is adept at using those! Just wondered. But yes, we humans have a great capacity to adapt tools at hand to tasks at hand. Think: plastic fork is available; no comb is available; hair is a mess. Another example: no spoon or fork . . . but cardboard food containers can be torn and folded just so, to make little shovels to use to insert food in mouth . . . . anyway, it gave you all something to laugh about and record for posterity on this blog site.
Hard work and fun, too I am pleased to have been a part of Alia's Colorado adventure. Unlike her, I did not fly there but drove 600 miles each way across Kansas and Eastern Colorado. If anybody did not understand the giant kitchen utensil incident, it happened because noboby had thought yet to pack and move any ordinary tableware. Perhaps we didn't realize people would be eating at the new place that soon. So, lacking spoons or forks, we ate our Chinese food with what was available. It tasted just as good that way.
haha Noooo, don't move yet... Wait until we're done with this one first. Maybe give it three months. ;)
Thanks for your comment - I really appreciate it. I think the week was well-spent.
Gives me an idea! Wow, after reading of the efficiency, willingness, low cost (a few meals out), I suddenly have the idea of MOVING! What a crew you guys make. This is a great blog, Alia.
You should visit!! Yeah, there were things we did that I hadn't done either, and it's always interesting to have a reason to go explore one's own city. If you came to visit, we'd definitely show you the chapel and the basilica. The Art Institute's really fun too.
So, the Walgreens thing... Grandmama lost her watch, and our bird needed some bird seed, and we kept putting off a trip to Walgreens the whole weekend, and it kept being mentioned that we'd go get that stuff "soon." But we kept putting it off, but kept mentioning it over and over, and I guess finally, after they dropped me off at Augsburg, they made it to Walgreens. It was just funny because it was such a big deal that we needed to get stuff from there. Luckily, it was open on Easter. :)
Envious Thank you for sending me the blog. I learned things about your area that I had not known before. It makes me want to visit you there, not that I needed another reason. We'll have to figure out a good time to do that. I have only one question: What's up with Walgreen's? Did I miss something that explained that? I'll have to look again.
Dishes Um, you forgot to mention that we ate Easter dinner on Lu-Ray dishes. Just thought I'd add that! And we drank orange juice and stuff all week from Swanky Swigs! Andrea at least humored me along with seeming to admire these amazing artifacts as I hoped she would.
Reply to Mom and Grandmama Cool! I wrote on the post that people should read your comment. I'm glad they got to see the Weisman. Sometime they need to see the inside of it. There's that one cool exhibit I always think about that is like an apartment hallway with all those doors, and you listen to different sounds coming from each door.
I'm glad you topped the trip off with a great Walgreen's visit... ;) That was the goal all weekend!
Anyway... thanks again for the great dinner, and for driving us all over the place.
Grandmama, thank you so much for flying out here - this whole weekend, with the recital, you and Andrea coming, and Easter, was probably the main highlight of the semester.
Thanks Uncle Alan! I hope your Easter weekend was fun, too. I had so much fun seeing Andrea and Grandmama. The two of them coming was one of the main reasons I was so excited for my recital... I think they should just stay here. :)
Well, Andrea I would say we did pretty good work. The captions were, shall I say, "interesting."
I wish I didn't have to go to school tomorrow, and that I was still home w/ you guys.:(
Have a safe flight home, and make sure to email me soon with pictures of what we talked about... :)
Thank YOU! Thank you for letting Andrea come and spend Easter weekend with us. It was so much fun seeing her and Grandmama... it made my recital a million times more exciting!
And thank you for the mood ring - we talked about our mood ring colors pretty much all day. And the candy was, of course, quite tasty. :)
8:30 p.m. Sunday Mother (Grandma) says it's fun to see Kathleen's comment already here. We also both want to add that we took a drive across the University of Minnesota campus after dropping Alia off at Augsburg College . . . including dramatic drives across the Washington Avenue Bridge which passes high over the Mississippi River and gives great views of the silver, modernistic Weisman Art Museum on the campus up on the river bluffs, designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry. The sun was still out, and was reflected off the brilliant museum exterior surface, which is made of stainless steel. See images of the museum at http://www.weisman.umn.edu/ We passed by buildings where my offices used to be, and other buildings that house classrooms where I used to teach international students. Then we finally WENT TO WALGREEN'S . . . . and now are at home (obviously) reading and commenting on this blog! Mother and I are ready to take it easy now, after a long but fun Easter Day of 2007!
Looks like fun Wow, looks like you guys did every thing fun you could do in Minneapolis. Now I want to visit. Thanks for having two visitors during your recital. Tell your Mom and John hi. Love, Uncle Alan
alia142
Alia
Thank you Andrea!
I really wished you could have been there too.