Lach and I are headed back to the Long Beach Peninsula tomorrow for our semi-annual retreat to a beautiful place called Shakti Cove. If you’ve read our blogs for any amount of time you know what a special place this is to us.

This morning, as I was wishing I could fast forward to our secret little hide-a-way, I came across a development that has me feeling completely out of sorts… the infamous Cove is for sale. If I had $900k in the bank, this would be fabulous news because we’d be moving ocean side but seeing that I don’t, I’m feeling heartbroken.

Shakti is one of the only GLBT-owned and pet-friendly places to be found in the area. But more than that, it has been our place of sabbatical for the duration of our relationship. I just can’t imagine it not being there when our hearts inevitably beckon to the ocean…

No, I’m not referring to the hilarious “Palin Rap” segment. (Although if you haven’t seen it PLEASE do.) I’m actually updating on our fun packed, liquor drenched weekend.

Friday
My neck and arm were killing me so I had to detour to the chiropractor but after my adjustment, we headed to the Duffy show at the Showbox Sodo. We got there reeeally early so that we could get a table in the bar, which is first come, first serve. The danger of being in a bar at 4:30 on Friday afternoon is that it leaves a lot of time for the beer to flow. Thankfully the tab wasn’t as scary as I anticipated but we probably knocked out a pony keg of Blue Moon before the night was out. Duffy rocked the house but she should have left her sound manager at home. When we first went out into the open warehouse, we could literally feel the music more than hear it. It got better as the show progressed and after some careful navigation I made it up to about the 3rd row just in time for a close-up view of Mercy!

Saturday Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps the title should be, “Surprise, it’s October!” I’m not quite sure how that could possibly be. This time last year we were house hunting and now we are suddenly creeping up on the first anniversary of being in our home. The chilly wind and rain has begun and home is the only place that I want to be today. It’s funny how that natural instinct to nest overcomes me in fall and winter.

My priorities are shifting from outside (landscaping and gardening) to inside (efficient heating and a couch worth lounging on). We spent most of the weekend canning and we still have more tomatoes to put up. Lach started a new flickr set dedicated to our adventures in canning and there are still photos to be added. So far, we’ve done dilled green tomatoes (with various peppers and some green beans), a variation on my great grandmothers chow chow, herbed red tomatoes and yesterday we added salsa verde (with green tomatoes instead of tomatillos) to the list. It’s really been a lot of fun to get more comfortable with the process. Next up, is my grandmother’s soup that I have been raving about since July. If I can’t taste it for myself, the next best thing I can do is try to replicate it. In fact, I think we might fix it tonight. I just sent my honey on a mission to find okra!

Life on “the plantation” is an ongoing adventure that bonds us to our home more each day. Some friends come by and see the yard, with it’s towering tomato plants and scattered pots of herbs and can only say, “Looks like a lot of work!”. Sure, there is labor involved but it’s certainly one of love. Is there any better of a reward than to taste a ripened tomato, fresh from the vine, that’s still warm from the sun? Or the slight twang of fresh pineapple mint that’s infused in a pitcher of sun tea all afternoon? I think not.

We managed to get a few big things done this weekend around the house. The majority of our herbs are now harvested and dried, and it was actually a therapeutic process. While Lach took Ruby in for an oil change Saturday morning, I bundled up in the rain and brought in arm loads of two different kinds of sage, pineapple mint and what was left of the Italian basil. After she got back home, we carefully washed and sorted herbs while we sang aloud to musical favorites blasting from the iPod. And yesterday, while my honey was playing reffing soccer, I managed to get the compost bin built in a corner of the yard. Now if it would only stay dry enough for me to mow so that I can begin to fill it with leaves and grass clippings, I’d be a happy composter.

Why go to all this trouble? For the love of food, of course! I’ve come to the conclusion that FOOD is my favorite romance language. Read the rest of this entry »

September is always one of our favorite months in Seattle and I hate to see it coming closer to an end. Today is the first day that I’ve opened the door and felt a cool mist in the air. My mind has already been full of “fall preparations” for the garden and yard but the coolness in the air brought on a new sense of urgency. For the last week, the Canadian geese have been singing “compost now, we’re heading south!”

Slowly but surely, we’ve been scratching things off of the to do list but as anyone with a yard or land knows, fall is a good time to break out the tools and start the clean up. We recently cut down two small Asian pears that were diseased and trimmed the hedges from hell. The most pressing issues in the game plan right now are Harvesting, Composting and Winterizing. Read the rest of this entry »

I feel like I need play catch up a bit, as time has just gotten away from me a lot lately. We’ve had an awesome weekend, between the incredible food/heavy drinking Friday night and the Uppity celebration last night. Lach is out playing soccer today and I’ve been trying to get a few things done around the house, although I don’t feel like I’ve made much progress. We were able to get our new stereo mounted this morning which is thumping quite nicely, I must say.

As Lach recently mentioned, I decided to get some red highlights in my hair. Maybe it was the fat ass talking but sometimes a girl just needs a makeover to feel better. My hair had gotten wildly out of control but thankfully it’s much more manageable now…

I began a long post a while back entitled “Gardening in Siberia” when it was actually colder here in Seattle than in freaking Siberia. Sadly, I kept editing it until it had warmed up and my garden outgrew the update. My tomatoes also outgrew me since I’ve last reported. (Insert boxing announcer voice) “Standing in at over 5ft tall, with a lingering temptation of hitting the skillet daily, I give you- biiiiig assssss tomatooooooooooes!”

House projects have taken over my brain. I think I’ve been dreaming about laying concrete last night- hopefully no one was underneath it… Thanks late night HGTV! I have so many ideas that I can’t decide where to go next. I’ve gotten the back yard in a nice state of bliss but the front still needs some love. And there’s soooo many plans for the basement. But then again, I reeeally want the romantic bedroom that we’ve never had. Actually, we’ve never even had a headboard… seriously, after 5+ years together. I guess Lach is lucky she hasn’t come home to me nailing up an old door at some point. What can I say, I have an obsession with home projects. I know that one of these days, this is going to be me and well, I’m cool with that.

… as in, where in the world am I? My mind has been going in a million different directions lately but I’ve not been able to focus this energy very well. I thought I’d take a cue from my honey and just spit it all out at once so perhaps I can get back into the groove again…

The Housewarming Party! Wow, it was just awesome. The draft post that kept running through my head was “Recipe for a perfect housewarming”. Take 30 of your closest friends, 5 coolers of beer and drinks, several bottles of wine- Mix well- serve chilled on a summer night. Add grilled hamburgers, brats, portobellos, vegetables, salads, cheesecake and strawberry shortcake until perfectly round around the edges. Garnish with Rock Band (add groupies for additional zest) and enjoy!

Speaking of San Diego We will be spending an extended labor day weekend there and I can’t even begin to tell you how excited we are to make the trip! I’m sure I’ll have to elaborate more on this in the coming weeks but for now, check out the sweet hotel we booked! The Italian design comes complete with a goose down feather bed, LavAzza espresso machine and an adjacent wine bar.

Photo Op As a favor to our bestest friends, Texass & Teach, I am taking senior photos for Teach’s cousin. We made our first ever adventure to Mt Rainier last Sunday (certainly not our last) and the scenery made for some amazing shots. I’ve not been doing a lot of photography lately but I’m very happy with the results from this shoot. Hopefully over the weekend I will get some of the landscapes that I took uploaded. It’s such an incredible area and next time, I’d like to stay in a cabin and enjoy it all for longer than a day trip. It was supposed to be 68 degrees and ended up 82 instead. The cool mist off the glacial waterfalls were the most heavenly thing I’ve felt since Maui. Read the rest of this entry »

So, I have to admit that I have gone a little nutso with housewarming party preparation. For the last month, nearly every spare minute has revolved around it. It’s been an obsession of sorts but the I really enjoy the yardwork and getting the house more like home. The garden is doing well and there are flowers galore. It’s really amusing to sit in the backyard with a beer and watch Sumi patrol. I think that maybe I have spent so much time running myself silly lately that I haven’t taken that in enough. But still, I really feel like this is going to be the best party I’ve ever thrown- and I’ve thrown some killer ones before.

As I was just saying to Lach a little while ago, there is something special about this one. Our first real party in our first home and for once, nearly all of our local friends are going to make it. Some of whom have not seen the house yet. I have about 26 hours before guest start arriving and I’ve finally found my chill. Why the hell it took so long, I don’t know. I had a minor breakdown last night after breaking the glass for the frame of a series of Maui photos. It was the one thing that I reeeally wanted to see on the wall and I just thought I’d ruined it. I was a basketcase and it was completely unnecessarily. Lach had the brilliant idea to replace the glass from other 4×6 frames we had in storage so the rummaging began. I felt a little silly that I got so bent out of shape but maybe it was the release of emotion that I needed. We found two pieces that would work and I just picked up a cheapo frame at Tarjay to complete the set. I also got tableclothes, extra serving utensils and an ice cream maker.

I have a few more things that I want to hang up tonight and will do the final grocery run tomorrow but essentially all of the major things are now taken care of. It will be bliss to finally relax among friends and know that I don’t have to put myself through this madness again.