so what class am i taking this month? well from january to march it was spanish and quilting then april was probably the month that i went to the gym 4 days a week every week at 630am oh and then in may it was yoga,and now in june oh yes...FLAMENCO. i have not done that yet!

so it is! on mondays its flamenco classes with charisse and rosalie!

this our teacher...she is super foxy!


here is a video of her dancing on the streets in sevilla. so cool!


our first class was rough. i surprisingly had shoes that work well for flamenco but damn its hard. clapping hands and stomping at different rhythms is tough work. however im so excited to be taking the class with the ladies.

see there are many ways for one to not spend time planning a wedding.
: )

music weekend starts in t-5 hours. tonight we are catching grizzly bear at the moore theater. we bought our tickets what feels like months ago for what seemed like a lot of money. i know it will be money well spent. brian and i saw them once at sasquatch a few years ago however we were really messed up and i barely remember their show. tonight we will try to make up for that. although i didn't think yellow house was all that great of a record anyways and veckatimest is just so damn beautiful that this show will easily be memorable.

tomorrow morning we head off to portland with dave, michelle, lisa and maggie for a family vacation. we rsvp'd for a garage rock fest that is put on by Scion. yes, the car company. apparently they think will buy a car or think of their cars while we get our mind's blown by some serious garage bands old and new. garage has been my favorite style of music for a while now. it makes me think of blow-up by michelangelo antonioni. i know i have mentioed him here before but i just love the yardbirds scene towards the end of the movie and the crowd's cute, stoic, mod expressions.


at the garage fest i am looking forward to one band in particular, the intelligence. i saw them at SXSW this past year and although they are from seattle i have never seen them play here. damn! oh well, i will travel to see them if i can.

oh and on sunday night at SIFF cinema we are going to see a spanish film called Ramirez!

a movie about a serial killer that is looks modern and awesome. apparently the movie's budget was just about 50,000 euros but looks spectucular. i can't wait!

fake banana went through a minor blog color overhaul this evening. i have been so inspired by my friend, justine ashbee's drawings. from what i know, she uses colored paint pens for her hand drawn images. this drawing has been my favorite for a while now. the color scheme make me feel vibrant and light.


Oscillations by Justine Ashbee

i've made dinner all week and brian has been eating the leftovers. i was inspired by the latest issue of bon appetit and it's "7 ways to be more italian in the kitchen" list. rule #4 - eat the leftovers. but i don't like leftovers so i cooked. that means something right? all week i made delicious italian meals all consisting of cannelini beans. a basic vegetable soup with pasta. a tomato stew with sweet italian sausages, tuna with olive oil and red onions. yum!

the weather is changing...although tomorrow's high is 83' you can still feel the difference in the breeze and the smell in the air. i'm a little nervous to see what will happen to my garden once the rainy season is upon us. i harvested tomatoes from the garden, check them out. they are firm, not too juicy, a tad sweet but really flavorful in a citrus kind of way.

tomatoes and basil from my p-patch

last weekend we were in portland for a visit with dan and vanessa. we had a really great time with those guys...really relaxing and fun. we watched a movie at the theater, went to a minor league baseball game, ate food out and at home, laughed and fell asleep around midnight each night. it was really wonderful. i have to make more trips like that to portland, too many the last few times have been filled with too much drinking and a hangover the next day or eating at delicious eateries around town (but that is really hard not to do).

no plans this weekend but i think it will be a productive one. brian made a list of things we should do it includes a picnic, friend's house party, picking blackberries, watch netflix movies, riding our bikes to ballard, etc.

well, we are back from boston. the trip was smooth. the wedding beautiful. the only hiccup...humidity and mosquitoes! holy crap, mosquitoes. i bought an anti-itch lotion this morning because the itching pain is ridiculous! i wore shorts pretty much the entire weekend and that did not help the cause. oh well. we didn't get to do anything on my list of to-do for boston. we arrived early friday morning and couldn't deal with the humidity. we took a quick jaunt to the north end (italian neighborhood) and the city hall/downtown area then back in the rental car and drove to sturbridge, ma for the wedding weekend.

the wedding weekend was a great vacation, filled with brian's closest friends. it was nice to announce a date for our wedding and especially for brian to reconnect with some friends and invite them to the event for next year. every night we were drinking till 2am in our rented townhouse, then awake at 10am. so early i know but most of the town stopped serving breakfast at 1030am so we had to! otherwise it was burger king or mcdonalds for lunch so we tried to avoid that as much as possible.

i'm back at work today but it's cool. i arrived to a nicely wrapped package at my desk. the new mt eerie record, winds poem. a gorgeously packaged clear double vinyl. i can't wait to put this on tonight and continue knitting a hat i started on the airplane ride to boston.

last night brian and i had date night at Havana for their summer outdoor movie series. we saw Warriors...the costumed gang movie from 1979. it was hilarious and awesome.

this is for sure the most legendary and fun clip from the entire film...well that and the gang called the furies that wear clown makeup with an entire baseball outfit complete with bats in hand.

thursday night we leave for our trip to boston. although we bought tickets for this trip back in may i feel like it is finally being realized as i type. so in order to get the best of boston in one full day this is our plan.

we take the redeye from seattle to boston. arrive in boston friday morning. i've been trolling the message boards on chowhound for the best of this and that and this is what i found for our 8 hour jaunt in boston

breakfast - scups at the waterfront
lunch - neptune oysters (lobster roll and a glass of rose)
drinks - drink (if we have time)
walk around cambridge area (where the ivy league schools are)

damn! i kind of knew from the beginning that this trip was not a vacation but we were supposed to stay until at least saturday evening but we just couldnt find a decent hotel to stay at. oh well. next time, boston. next time.

i have some serious goodies growing in the garden. brian and i were at the p-patch for 6 hours on sunday afternoon. the p-patch organizers had a "master composter" (a term i'm sure only exists in seattle) from seattle tilth teach us about composting. since i was so late coming into the season, we headed to city people to purchase starters. we planted swiss chard, leeks, cippolini onions, romaine and red leaf lettuce, spinach, chives, rosemary, basil and mint! we also have growing tomatos, carrots, and peas. i can't wait to make quesadillas with all those tough greens and fresh cocktails with all those herbs. yum!

it's almost over

summer that is...ive only been camping once!

but in the last two months i have:
- planned my company picnic
- hosted the first ever 17th avenue block party
- found a place for our fall 2010 wedding
- acquired a p-patch and taught myself gardening
- finished knitting this huge ass ball of yarn into a very long beautiful scarf for fall

lots of pictures have been uploaded to my flickr so head over there when you get a chance.

tonight we are heading out to sole repair for trust...a monthly dance party. it will be good to get out of the apartment and shake a leg or two.

Work is nuts! They are shipping me off to the jobsite in West Seattle (3) days a week starting next week. I don’t know how I feel about it…so far spending my time in a job trailer and on-site does not sound very glamorous. ; )

Anyways, it’s hot out (in case you didn’t know)! Today’s high hovering somewhere around 90+ degrees. Brian and I found a great lunch spot at the Well Fargo steps where there are tables and chairs shaded by large trees. Love it. Last night we were at Dave and Michelle’s until midnight spraying ourselves with a garden hose set on the “mist” setting. The water felt amazing.

Tonight, a movie to escape the heat? I really want to see Up and that Johnny Depp movie.

This past weekend I

- brought my bike with me on the train to Portland
- attended Dan and Vanessa's kick ass wedding reception
- rode the shit out of my bike across Portland

It was a fun weekend but I'm exhausted. We took the late train home and met a rad couple of ladies on the train that were contemplating a move to Seattle from Atlanta. It just so happened they took a trip to Anacortes for What the Heck fest. That piece of info led to many interesting and fun conversation. I hope they move out here. They deserve Seattle especially with the radness that radiated from them. One of the coolest facts we learned was that one of the ladies worked for Adult Swim and was flying to ComicCon in San Diego, she was there to represent Adult Swim but most importantly...meeting the dudes from Mighty Boosh! Awesome

last night i made a kickass ceviche! i wish i had pics to prove but i was way to messed up to remember. i do remember the ceviche was limey.

yay! and the weekend is just around the corner...exactly one hour away.

this weekend i plan to
- learn more about gardening (ie visit the library, internet, people's minds)
- bike to ballard
- figure out podcasting

brian and i have tickets for tonight's opening screening of humpday. im pretty psyched about that. and the weather in seattle this weekend will be undoubtedly beautiful!

last night we were walking back from dave and michelle’s with those dudes and Kenobi …then we were walking down my block and I had my bike so I was going to park it next to Brian’s in front of my building and his was gone! WTF? I'm still fuming about it. I mean it was a cheap ass bike but still I just feel mixed emotions about people in our neighborhood right now. lots of crazy stuff has been happening ( someone was mugged at 17th and Columbia at 6pm! and yesterday michelle saw a shady guy outside of her neighbors house then the alarm went off!).

I think after work today I'm going to sit on the stoop and drink a beer and just feel that feeling like I'm “representin” like “hi, I live in this building and I'm watching all you motherfuckers”

sorry for the crass language. anyways.

1) while many many things have happened in the last couple of weeks, i wont get into details about how much fun summer has been. you can actually keep up with me on a more regular basis on my flickr...click on the link to the right of this webpage.

2) last night patrick and i posted "save the date" flyers for the 17th ave block party! ahh, it's real! and now we just have to get the neighborhood to bring the fun to the street. august 8th! i cant wait

3) i just received this email from the City of Seattle...
"You've been on the waitlist for a community garden plot at the Spring St. P-Patch. I am happy to say there is a spot available for you now. The garden is located at 25th Ave & E Spring Street"

i just got my p-patch plot!!! i've been on a waiting list for way over a year now! the grand opening for the garden is sometime in august. since i'm a new gardener i hope to not let them down!

siff movie #4 garbage dreams was so good. hopefully this movie gets wider distribution because i highly recommend you watch it.

thursday night craft night went to the columbia city art gallery to help artist/crafter, mandy greer crochet pieces of a blue stream that she will be putting together as a larger installation at camp long in west seattle called mater matrix mother. i can't wait to see the finished product. the coolest part about being involved in mandy's art installation is #1 she got the community involved by letting us contribute our smaller pieces to make the installation and #2 she taught us how to crochet and i must admit crocheting was so much easier than i thought.

julia and claudia learning to crochet with artist mandy greer

sooo easy! for someone that has been knitting for almost 2 years and finished a handful of projects, crocheting was frustratingly easy!

and so friday morning when brian and i hopped on a plane for the shortest trip ever to north carolina, i brought some yarn and a pattern. i wanted to prove to myself that knitting can be a weekend project and still be ultra rewarding. so one roundtrip flight to north carolina later and i made a pair of gloves. yes, the gloves may look familiar to you and that is because i have knitted them before. the first pair i lost two days after knitting them, this pair i plan to hold on to for a while longer.

knitted gloves, pattern from knitty

tonight, siff movie #4. we are watching another documentary called garbage dreams. a movie about cairo's waste management system or lack thereof, relying on the city's slum residents to clean, in which an incredible 85% is recycled. is that a sentence? i don't know but i think this movie will be amazing!

on monday, julia and i tried (well 90% tried) to watch (500) days of summer with zooey deschanel. the line was long and sold out. the rush line was about 25 people deep and by the time we got there only a few were allowed in the theater. we were shut out. oh well...i'm banking on the movie coming out sometime in the fall. we left the egyptian almost more excited than when we arrived because now instead of spending $11 on a movie, we can get custard. the custard was good, different from molly moon's and certainly not comparable to any of their flavors. i will always be a patron of molly moon's but on the lazy days i may head for the custard house.

siff movie count: 3
art & copy - documentary
i'm gonna explode (mexico) - drama
all tomorrow's parties - documentary

hi again, blogging is fun when you have nothing else to do while volunteering.

last night's show at the paramount was amazing! the entire dialogue between anthony bourdain and mario batali was so entertaining and informative. brian and i love these two guys so anything they can say would make us love them even more.

the last half hour of the show was dedicated to Q&A from the audience. i was 7th in line...a blur when i got up to the microphone and introduced myself to the fellas. i gave TBTL a shout-out and told a paramount theater crowd that i am a TEN and recently engaged. people cheered and clapped. my question was something to the liking of what kind of food do you think we should have at our wedding, anything remarkable at your wedding or a chef freind's wedding...and i'm not talking crabcakes and tuna tartare. the audience loved the question and someone in the crowd shouted "open bar". mario and anthony's advice was to keep it simple, if the wedding rocks no one will remember the food. then mario went on to say that he had tacos at his wedding. that sealed the deal for brian and i. i added that we were thinking about taco truck, people clapped and cheered and anthony and mario said "there you go, you got it!" as i said thanks the boys onstage congratulated me and i walked back.

hahah! best night ever! brian and i celebrated at barrio afterwards with micheladas, sangria, and ceviche.

a terrible picture of the guys on stage but you get the idea. we were so close too! i have to start toting a different camera.

luke burbank, mario batali, anthony bourdain at the paramount theater 5/30/09

today I am volunteering for SIFF and then in the night time...an evening with anthony bourdain and mario batali and luke burbank. oh shit!

oh shit is right.

last night's georgetown ride was hella fun. the bike ride was super easy! afterwards we rode back to downtown seattle towards the crocodile where we watched the maldives. the new crocodile is an interesting place...drawing random people from the street i heard a lot of "what band is playing tonight?" and was pretty sure people were there to drink and less about listening to music. oh well. it may never have the ambiance it once had before.

pictures from last night:

the maldives at the new crocodile

a welcoming a-frame sign outside smarty pants

brian and michelle

ps i love anthony bourdain!

hello summer, the sunshine outside is ridiculously gorgeous! 70+ degree weather from here until...

brian and i both rode our bikes to work (last day of bike to work month) and at 5pm we are meeting dave and michelle on their bikes. we are all heading down to smarty pants in Georgetown for happy hour beers and the outdoor patio.

SIFF movie count: 2
i'm gonna explode (mexico)
all tomorrow's parties - documentary

new bar! large patio...opening in capitol hill. say what?

it's called captain black's and its slated to open june 1st. the name is so south padre island spring break 1998 but whatevs. i am so down.