Friday, December 18, 2009

Happy Holidays!






We are heading up to Seattle tomorrow and catching a plane into Chicago on Sunday. Hope you all have a great holiday season and a happy new year.



Thursday, December 17, 2009

Victoria, Part Two

(Posted by Kyle)

The second day of our Victoria trip was rainy. We started with a really nice breakfast at the hotel's brewpub, then decided to do some shopping and take in a couple of the touristy attractions that our guide books suggested we avoid. They were both awesome.

First stop was the undersea aquarium.



It was kind of tiny and cramped, and the viewing windows needed cleaning, but it was full of pretty neat stuff. (Frommers took it to task for not representing the indigenous sealife.)




Steph is deciding whether or not to touch any of the stuff in the aquarium's petting zoo. (She finally did.)




There was a brief show during which a scuba diver swam around, picking up the sea creatures and holding them close to the windows. The crabs seemed like they wanted to be left alone, while there was a wolf eel that seemed to revel in the attention. It moved too fast for me to get a picture, but often swam in front of the diver when he was trying to show us something else.




The aquarium's resident octopus, which the diver left alone because they thought it was laying eggs that day.


Next up was Madame Toussad's Royal Wax Museum, dubbed cheesy and overpriced by the travel guide.


 

There was plenty of British royalty on display.




And the Hall of Creepy Ex-Presidents.





Here's the Madame herself, perfecting her wax technique on the guillotined heads of the French Revolution. I learned during our tour that she was volunteered to make death masks of all the severed heads.


At the basement level, you had to choose a path through the Chamber of Horrors or skip it. We chose the Chamber of Horrors, where a twitching severed head creeped Steph out so bad that she was jumping at real people by the end of the tour.




There were some pretty graphic displays. Mostly ways people have been tortured. This is the "Albanian Hook."




Joan of Arc or Princess Leia? You decide.


The rain let up a little by the afternoon, so we walked around a little before our ferry left.




The Parliament building is right across from the ferry dock.




We also walked over to the Thunderbird Garden, a park full of totem poles and a long house that sits next to The Royal BC Museum (which we need to go to next time).








There seems to be a strong street performer culture in Victoria. Even being off-season, we saw many of them out on the streets during our two days there. As we were heading for the ferry, we saw this guy:




A violinist in full Darth Vader gear, playing out in the rain.



The end.


Saturday, December 12, 2009

Victoria

(Posted by Kyle)


Steph and I took a short trip to Victoria, B.C. over the Thanksgiving weekend. Here are some pictures.




This is the ferry, the Victoria Clipper, that we took from downtown Seattle to Victoria's inner harbor. It makes the run in about 3 hours, and it is a catamaran type boat so it runs on top of the water, making for a pretty smooth ride. (All info I got from the onboard announcements.) We discovered on the return trip that the captain of the ship was a guy that Steph knew back in Iowa City.

The first thing we did in Victoria was have lunch at the rebar restaurant. We have been making recipes from their cook book for the last several months and they have all been delicious, so we were excited to actually go to the restaurant itself. I sampled one of their almond burgers, which is not in the cook book and is a 'secret' recipe. It was really good.




It was a nice sunny day, so we spent much of the afternoon walking around checking out the inner harbour area. Later, when we got hungry again, we went to the bakery that is run by the rebar restaurant people. It is right next to a yarn shop, and I took this picture of Steph and a bike that was wearing a sweater.




This is the Empress hotel, which was designated a 'must-see' in all the travel guides. They suggested having high tea there, for fifty bucks. We passed. It's an impressive looking building, though.

We spent the night at the Swan's hotel, a combination hotel/brew pub/bistro/art exhibition. They have a collection of original art that rotates through the rooms.




The painting next to the bed appeared to be of two naked men in the back of a truck. Hm.




There was a loft above the kitchen, with a door, lights, carpeting, and outlets, but no way to get to it. Hm.




Steph deemed the bed the most comfortable one she'd ever slept in.




It was a very nice space, with high ceilings and a kitchen fully stocked with plates and pots. Some summer we are going to live in the hotel for a month and check out the rest of Vancouver Island.

After having dinner at the rebar restaurant (I really can't say enough nice things about it), we went back to the hotel's brew pub, which has live music every night and is a favorite bar of the locals. We had some coupons to taste the beers, so we got six samples. A taster turned out to be 8 ounces, which is a pretty good amount. Their 'pints' were 20 ounces. So we got a little buzzed and watched some very enthusiastic dancers.


To be continued . . .

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Tis the Season

(Posted by Kyle)

Sorry about the lag in blogging (which I will now call a 'blag'), just haven't been feeling like it lately. But now with our furnace being out during a cold snap, I am looking for excuses to move my fingers.




I made up my annual batch of fruitcakes today for a treat exchange this weekend and also as a way to warm the house up. (Last time I will bring up the furnace thing. Promise.) I am pleased with how they turned out. The best use of three cups of rum I can think of. I'll be making persimmon bread tomorrow, which takes one of those little airline bottles of Jack Daniels in the recipe. So I've got the booze bread covered for the season.




Steph and I put the tree up the other day. The 'tree' is actually the top of a fake tree. It's sturdy enough to hold up that star though.




Here it is with the star lit.




Dracula does not get out of holiday duty just because Halloween is over. We have him propped up in the window by the tree.





In a related vein, I finally put up some of Steph's birthday presents. Here are the two Day of the Dead figurines that Lance gave her. They join our other Mexican folk art on the living room wall. (The fish coconut was actually purchased at Goodwill, so it's origins are not known.)

Here is how happy Steph was when she got these:







This is the wood mounted panorama photo of the Portland skyline at night that I got Steph for her birthday. (I may do a retro post of more pictures from Steph's birthday yet.) Everytime we went to the local grocery where this was hanging on the wall, Steph would go over to it, point it out among the other photos, look at me and tell me "I like this one. I really like this one." Who says I can't take a hint.


Okay, I said I wouldn't mention the broken furnace again, but I will bring it up one more time. The house is not actually that cold. The combination of space heaters and cooking keeps us in the 60s most of the day, and it's going to start warming up outside in a couple days. And maybe the furnace will even get fixed. Who knows. Anyway, I bring this up because the slightly lower temps in the house have made the pets extra snuggly. We caught Willow and Cleo spooning on the couch yesterday.




This picture isn't even half as cute as they were being.



Friday, November 6, 2009

Happy Birthday, Steph!

(Posted by Kyle)


Here's the birthday girl playing queen for a day with the pets.



She later made Cheeto give her a foot massage.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Nearing the End of the Harvest

(Posted by Kyle)


I have been nagging Steph to do a garden update, but she is pretty busy with work, while I have scads of free time.

We are still getting some zucchini and squash. The eggplant is doing its best to produce, and we are crossing our fingers for some brussel sprouts. I pulled up all the tomato plants yesterday so they would quit crowding the remaining plants. I also tore down the beans and corn. Steph made good on her vow to grow some corn. Almost every stalk produced an ear or two. Here is an average example:




However, she did grow this ginormous bean, from the scarlet runners:




The patty pan squash have been coming in great. Steph stuffed some of them for dinner the other night and they were delicious:




I think our future is in tomatoes, squash and oregano, until we can get some better soil to grow in. Our vision for next year is to get some raised boxes going. I think I want to try to grow some potatoes.



Tuesday, November 3, 2009

New Meatscape





Steph found this one in a Rachael Ray magazine.

Using a sunnyside up egg as a rising sun = genius.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

More Halloweeny Goodness

(Posted by Kyle)


Doing some live Halloween blogging while we hand out candy. We are having a nice homebound Halloween. We put up some more decorations and carved our pumpkins this afternoon.









Stephanie is putting mustaches on everything. And poor Dracula is suffering through yet another indignity at my hands.



The first time I met Dracula, he was forced to wear rabbit ears, and they stayed there for a few years.



Then I set him up as our bathroom attendant once he got to Portland. I'm surprised he still talks to me. (He doesn't talk to me.)

We've been watching scary movies all day. I burned some pumpkin seeds earlier, and broke down and had a Kit Kat bar. It was delicious.

Later, after the trick or treaters are done, we are going to wander over to the Davis Graveyard - a private home just down the street whose Halloween display puts our decorations to shame.





So far, we've handed out candy to a tiny Buzz Lightyear, a ninja, a Princess Leia (homemade costume, and escorted by an adult in full Darth Vader gear), and a few other general ghosts and ghouls.


Friday, October 30, 2009

Happy Halloween!

(Posted by Kyle)


Steph got the Halloween decorations up last Sunday while I was grouchily working.










The cat has fooled a couple of dogs and none of the squirrels.




Bloody hand prints courtesy of Wendy and Jeremy.





Hope you all have a fantastic Halloween!