teamEggers

Seattle Cheese Festival 2009

One of the first things Jon and I experienced in Seattle was the Cheese Festival, held annually in the Pike Place Market. We stumbled on it quite by accident the first weekend we came out for a visit. The fact that it existed just added to the magic of Seattle for us. Of course, we had no idea that we’d be moving here at that point. The trip was more of a “happy graduation” present when jon graduated from CU.

Evey May, cheesemakers from around the NorthWest set up a booth and slang their cheese. For free. You can buy wedges from your favourites, but for the most part you’re just gorging yourself of free, artisinal cheese.

There are always some that are much better than others, and some that you wonder if *anyone* likes. (when they say the goat cheese tastes like “barnyard”, I don’t expect it to taste like a direct relative of goat poo.)

A few years ago at another foodie event in Seattle, we learned about Manchego. It quickly became one of our favourites – with its slightly honied, semi-firm texture. It’s a great cheese to bring to a party because it’s simple to pair (with food and wine) and it’s always a crowd pleaser. It’s from La Mancha, Spain. (Think Don Quixote) The texture on the rind has conflicting stories: some say it’s reminiscent of the particular baskets that it was aged in, and others say it’s from the weave of the grass it was aged in. Regardless, now it’s just for show. And easy identification.

Throughout the day there are also chef-demos. I remember these being more awesome in previous years. This was the chef from Crow / Betty, Craig Serbousek(?):

The place was packed. On the crowd-entering side, it was difficult to get any cheese at all because the crowd was so dense. These boys seem to have given up. Their cheese wasn’t that good anyways. It made me laugh a little.

After the Cheesefest, we headed over to the Seattle Symphony for Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (and a few other pieces). It was so much fun! I decided that I love Gershwin for his jazzy, upbeat awesomeness.

Okay, I have a confession. I love the matinee. Despite the fact that I’m a solid 50 years younger than the rest of the ticketholders, I really think it’s the way to go. You can still get to bed early, get dinner, your day’s still open. It’s… so great. The old people are on to something. They come by the busload.

vehicle accidents.

A funny thing happened on the way home yesterday.

I was hit by a semi. In the car. The car…. was hit by a semi.
Everyone’s okay. It was just a fender-bender, but what the heck?

AND I found out jon’s plane was hit by lightening on his flight home from Japan. Why didn’t that come up before, jon?! He says it was no big deal and stuff like that happens frequently. *I’ve* never been on a plane that’s been hit by lightening. And furthermore, how did it take nearly a week to tell me? Wouldn’t you mention something like that when we have the standard “hi honey, how was your flight?” conversation. Sigh. Boys.

I suppose I am uncommunicative in other ways.

So back to the semi. We’re both sitting at a red light in south-downtown (1st and spokane), waiting to turn right, when the semi starts backing up. Now, I’ve never known cars to randomly back up at a stop light. I’ve never seen this. I didn’t know it was a possibility. On a hill, with a standard transmission, sure – there may be some rollback. But at flat red light, to physically put your car in reverse? No, I just didn’t know that was a possibility.

So the car doesn’t have any majour damage, though it will definitely need a new grill and perhaps a new front bumper. It’s unfortunate that a few deep scratches could cause an entire bumper to be replaced, but i suppose that’s the drawback to driving around in plastic cars.

In other news, we’ve been home for exactly one week now and life is officially back to normal. We’ve (just about) finished unpacking, jon’s going out to see Star Trek tonight with Kyle and Will, and I’m cooking dinner for some friends.

Actually, I’m looking forward to cooking dinner. It’s great to look through my recipes, find something with ingredients that I KNOW i can just go to the store and buy (you’d be surprised how hard it was to find things like cilantro in japan. it was there… sometimes. but let me tell you – it wasn’t called cilantro.) and cook in a kitchen with nice pans and sharp knives.

Sunday, sunday. Sunday!

It was Sunday afternoon. We slept in embarrassingly late but just in time to make it to the matinee at the Seattle Rep, (Breakin’ Hearts and Takin’ Names), which was hilarious.

Afterward we went out for Thai food to our favourite place in Queen Anne, where jon said “arrigatou” twice and I nearly yelled “SUMI MASEN!!” across the dining room to get the waitresses attention.  Looks like it may take some adjustment to behave correctly in our society again. haha.

Later drank a great bottle of pinot from Elk Cove (it’s good to be home) and looked at the preview of our Japan-Book.  I sent it off to be printed yesterday morning, and I’m so greatful that it’s done.  Jon’s was going on and on about all of our wine accessories, which I suppose is good since we have them all. “What should we cut the foil with?” “What tool should we use as a pouring instrument?”

“A little paraphernalia always makes things better. Do you think we should get one of those crazy venturi aerator things?” So to all of you who have given us wine, or wine accessories over the years – thank you. Please know that they’re well used and loved.

And in about a week I’ll have a hardbound record of our trip that I’d love to share with you.

Landed.

Hi guys. I’m home! Just landed in Portland and found some free wifi. I love that. In other news, I’m exhausted, dirty, and slightly nauseous.

time to catch another plane!

Going Home

hey!

I’ve been absent lately.  Perhaps a little bummed that we’re going home.  Perhaps a little preoccupied with other things.
I just wanted to let you know that we’re getting on a plane later today, and we’ll be back home by afternoon on Friday.  See you soon!

Thanks to everyone we met here, for making these last four months so much fun.  Hopefully life will bring us back here.