Midwest to Northwest...and Everywhere in Between

Christmas decorations! (plus the Thanksgiving table)

2009-11-29T20:31:00.001-08:00

Here's what the dining room table looked like for Thanksgiving dinner: My friend Katie came over today and helped me decorate the house for Christmas, and it was awesome! She's so good at this kind of thing - check out what she did to the table!

Isn't this centerpiece she came up with just awesome?

I love my chargers. I have red and green ones, so where there is a green charger, we used a red votive, and vice versa.

Mistletoe! And check out that bannister...

We did an ornament decoration thing in the bowl in the window next to the front door. It turned out cool!

The bannister really turned out great - we did garland, lights, snowflakes, ornaments and bows. It sounds like a lot, but it looks good.

This is a closeup of the bannister trimmings.

The tree! I did most of the tree myself - Travis hung a few ornaments on it with me last night, and I did the rest this morning. The lights are multicolored, but they do all sorts of cool things, and in this pic, only the yellow lights are on. Rest assured, there are more colors, and more lights than this picture shows!

I had to move the clock table to the other side of the living room so that I could put the tree up. I decided to put my Advent wreath on that table.

My Notre Dame snowman snow globe makes it annual appearance, and this year, it made some other snowman friends!

We also did lights and garland on the outside door - the house looks really nice from the street, because we have the door decorated, then you can see the Christmas tree in the front window, and the bannister in the background.

Thanks so much to Katie for helping me - it was really fun, and I am really happy with how the house turned out. Now I just need to go vacuum up the little green needles, and get a big wreath, and we should be all set!

-SKH

Um...does Facebook know something I don't?

2009-11-27T09:45:00.000-08:00

Check out this ad I got on Facebook...what the heck? Is it trying to tell me that my biological clock is ticking or something?

-SKH

New cooking goal - monthly menus!

2009-11-01T16:21:00.000-08:00

I won't bother making excuses for my hiatus from blogging. I just didn't do it. Suffice to say, I am alive and we are doing just fine.

I've decided that I'm going to combat the "What should I make for dinner?" battle I have every day. I hate stopping at the grocery store on the way home, with no idea of what to get. I've decided that my goal for November is to create a monthly dinner calendar, so I always know what I am making for dinner!

I sat down and made the menu this weekend. I tried out the larger QFC in Covington (about 10 miles from our house), and they were having a big meat sale, so I picked up most of the meat for the month already! My freezer is pretty full right now, but with this dinner menu, I should remember either the night before or in the morning that I need to defrost something. Wahoo!

Travis has reviewed the menu, and is also excited to try out this monthly dinner menu planning - when he was reading it last night, he said it made him hungry, which I thought was a good sign.

Here's the daily menu (we'll be flexible if we decide we want to go out to dinner, or if we have lots of leftovers we need to eat):

Week One:

Sunday - T-bone steaks and roasted onion-coated potatoes
Monday - Mango-jalapeno sausage jambalaya
Tuesday - Leftovers
Wednesday - Chili and cornbread
Thursday - French bread pizza
Friday - Kebabs
Saturday - Chicken wild rice soup (my book club is here too, so I will make a lot)

Week Two:

Sunday - Lasagna
Monday - Chicken stir fry
Tuesday - Travis closes
Wednesday - Flank steak (I'll be getting a Bobby Flay recipe for this night)
Thursday - Pork chops sauteed in cream of mushroom soup
Friday - Ham steaks with pasta
Saturday - Smoky beef tacos

Week Three:

Sunday - Tuna casserole or spaghetti
Monday - Pork tenderloin (Luna suggested this works as a weeknight meal, I am trusting her!)
Tuesday - Travis closes
Wednesday - Enchiladas
Thursday - Stovetop lasagna
Friday/Saturday - Samantha in NJ visiting Stacy/Cory/Charlie so Travis will be eating leftovers!

Week Four:

Sunday/Monday - Samantha is still in NJ
Tuesday - Travis closes
Wednesday - Cheeseburgers and french fries
Thursday - Thanksgiving! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy
Friday - Leftovers or grilled cheese and ravioli
Saturday - Carnitas

Week Five:

Sunday - Turkey noodle soup
Monday - Pork chops and pasta

So that is the plan for November! I hope it goes really well - keep your fingers crossed :)

-SKH

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

I've been a terrible blogger of late, but I haven't had much of a chance to take a breath lately.

I was lucky enough to have today (Friday) off of work for the celebration of our great nation's birth, so was looking forward to relaxing. And that's what we are doing! Travis decided to take the day off as well, so we are both just chilling on a beautiful Friday. Maybe we'll take the boat on Lake Washington. Maybe we'll just do nothing. Who knows???

Anyways, rest assured, I am alive. Busy, but alive. Amanda and Blair were here (awesome time), I had some really crazy weeks at work (productive), Clint visited (fun) and I was just in California for work (successful trip). That pretty much recaps the last month or so.

Looking forward to being in MN for some big events in two weeks - we're throwing Lisa and Beth a wedding shower, I have my 10 year high school reunion, my cousin will be in town, all sorts of fun times will be had! Oh, and I am working from MN for a week as well.

That's all I have for now...

-SKH

Got cookies?

2009-06-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

I do!

I decided today that I wanted to bake some cookies after work. When I got home, I turned on the oven and popped in the Twilight DVD so that I could fully engage in self-indulgence...baking on a weeknight and watching a cheesy romantic vampire movie.

It was wonderful.

I made two different kinds of cookies: chocolate chip-walnut (these always seem to get snatched up at parties, and they are one of Dad's favorites) and oatmeal-raisin (Travis loves these) Did you know that a batch of chocolate chip-walnut dough makes six dozen cookies? That's SEVENTY TWO cookies, people. I made the oatmeal-raisin dough while I was transferring the chocolate chip-walnut batches in and out of the oven, then refrigerated it for a while. The oatmeal-raisin dough made five dozen cookies...for you math majors out there, this means that I have a total of 132 cookies at my house. Well, 130. I ate one of each. :)

Hope Travis likes them!

-SKH

fishing widow

2009-05-27T19:34:00.000-07:00

It's official. I'm a fishing widow again. Travis and his friend Buddy are now heading up to Curlew to participate in a tiger muskie tournament, so I am holding down the fort here in Kent. It's weird, almost everyone at work is in New York this week for a conference, so I am holding down the fort there, too!

Weird!

OK, so for my first night as a fishing widow, I am watching some bad TV that Travis would not like, and eating food he isn't a huge fan of. So I am taking advantage of this!

Choir tomorrow night, a massage on Sunday, the first softball game on my work softball team this weekend...I'll keep busy!

-SKH

President Obama's Commencement Address at Notre Dame

2009-05-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

Text of Obama's speech from 5/17/09 (from the White House):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, first of all, congratulations, Class of 2009. Congratulations to all the parents, the cousins — the aunts, the uncles — all the people who helped to bring you to the point that you are here today. Thank you so much to Father Jenkins for that extraordinary introduction, even though you said what I want to say much more elegantly. You are doing an extraordinary job as president of this extraordinary institution. Your continued and courageous — and contagious — commitment to honest, thoughtful dialogue is an inspiration to us all.

Good afternoon. To Father Hesburgh, to Notre Dame trustees, to faculty, to family: I am honored to be here today. And I am grateful to all of you for allowing me to be a part of your graduation.

And I also want to thank you for the honorary degree that I received. I know it has not been without controversy. I dont know if youre aware of this, but these honorary degrees are apparently pretty hard to come by. So far I'm only 1 for 2 as President. Father Hesburgh is 150 for 150. I guess that's better. So, Father Ted, after the ceremony, maybe you can give me some pointers to boost my average.

I also want to congratulate the Class of 2009 for all your accomplishments. And since this is Notre Dame ...

(Speech is interrupted by anti-abortion protesters.)

We're fine, everybody. We're following Brennans adage that we dont do things easily. We're not going to shy away from things that are uncomfortable sometimes.

Now, since this is Notre Dame I think we should talk not only about your accomplishments in the classroom, but also in the competitive arena. No, dont worry, I'm not going to talk about that. We all know about this university's proud and storied football team, but I also hear that Notre Dame holds the largest outdoor 5-on-5 basketball tournament in the world — Bookstore Basketball.

Now this excites me. I want to congratulate the winners of this year's tournament, a team by the name of "Hallelujah Holla Back." Congratulations. Well done. Though I have to say, I am personally disappointed that the "Barack OBallers" did not pull it out this year. So next year, if you need a 6-2 forward with a decent jumper, you know where I live.

Every one of you should be proud of what you have achieved at this institution. One hundred and sixty-three classes of Notre Dame graduates have sat where you sit today. Some were here during years that simply rolled into the next without much notice or fanfare — periods of relative peace and prosperity that required little by way of sacrifice or struggle.

You, however, are not getting off that easy. You have a different deal. Your class has come of age at a moment of great consequence for our nation and for the world — a rare inflection point in history where the size and scope of the challenges before us require that we remake our world to renew its promise; that we align our deepest values and commitments to the demands of a new age. It's a privilege and a responsibility afforded to few generations — and a task that youre now called to fulfill.

This generation, your generation is the one that must find a path back to prosperity and decide how we respond to a global economy that left millions behind even before the most recent crisis hit — an economy where greed and short-term thinking were too often rewarded at the expense of fairness, and diligence, and an honest day's work.

Your generation must decide how to save God's creation from a changing climate that threatens to destroy it. Your generation must seek peace at a time when there are those who will stop at nothing to do us harm, and when weapons in the hands of a few can destroy the many. And we must find a way to reconcile our ever-shrinking world with its ever-growing diversity — diversity of thought, diversity of culture, and diversity of belief.

In short, we must find a way to live together as one human family. And it's this last challenge that Id like to talk about today, despite the fact that Father John stole all my best lines. For the major threats we face in the 21st century — whether it's global recession or violent extremism; the spread of nuclear weapons or pandemic disease — these things do not discriminate. They do not recognize borders. They do not see color. They do not target specific ethnic groups.

Moreover, no one person, or religion, or nation can meet these challenges alone. Our very survival has never required greater cooperation and greater understanding among all people from all places than at this moment in history.

Unfortunately, finding that common ground — recognizing that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a "single garment of destiny" — is not easy. And part of the problem, of course, lies in the imperfections of man — our selfishness, our pride, our stubbornness, our acquisitiveness, our insecurities, our egos; all the cruelties large and small that those of us in the Christian tradition understand to be rooted in original sin. We too often seek advantage over others. We cling to outworn prejudice and fear those who are unfamiliar. Too many of us view life only through the lens of immediate self-interest and crass materialism; in which the world is necessarily a zero-sum game. The strong too often dominate the weak, and too many of those with wealth and with power find all manner of justification for their own privilege in the face of poverty and injustice. And so, for all our technology and scientific advances, we see here in this country and around the globe violence and want and strife that would seem sadly familiar to those in ancient times.

We know these things; and hopefully one of the benefits of the wonderful education that you've received here at Notre Dame is that you've had time to consider these wrongs in the world; perhaps recognized impulses in yourself that you want to leave behind. You've grown determined, each in your own way, to right them. And yet, one of the vexing things for those of us interested in promoting greater understanding and cooperation among people is the discovery that even bringing together persons of good will, bringing together men and women of principle and purpose — even accomplishing that can be difficult.

The soldier and the lawyer may both love this country with equal passion, and yet reach very different conclusions on the specific steps needed to protect us from harm. The gay activist and the evangelical pastor may both deplore the ravages of HIV/AIDS, but find themselves unable to bridge the cultural divide that might unite their efforts. Those who speak out against stem cell research may be rooted in an admirable conviction about the sacredness of life, but so are the parents of a child with juvenile diabetes who are convinced that their son's or daughter's hardships can be relieved.

The question, then — the question then is how do we work through these conflicts? Is it possible for us to join hands in common effort? As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without, as Father John said, demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?

And of course, nowhere do these questions come up more powerfully than on the issue of abortion.

As I considered the controversy surrounding my visit here, I was reminded of an encounter I had during my Senate campaign, one that I describe in a book I wrote called "The Audacity of Hope." A few days after I won the Democratic nomination, I received an e-mail from a doctor who told me that while he voted for me in the Illinois primary, he had a serious concern that might prevent him from voting for me in the general election. He described himself as a Christian who was strongly pro-life — but that was not what was preventing him potentially from voting for me.

What bothered the doctor was an entry that my campaign staff had posted on my Web site — an entry that said I would fight "right-wing ideologues who want to take away a woman's right to choose." The doctor said he had assumed I was a reasonable person, he supported my policy initiatives to help the poor and to lift up our educational system, but that if I truly believed that every pro-life individual was simply an ideologue who wanted to inflict suffering on women, then I was not very reasonable. He wrote, "I do not ask at this point that you oppose abortion, only that you speak about this issue in fair-minded words." Fair-minded words.

After I read the doctor's letter, I wrote back to him and I thanked him. And I didn't change my underlying position, but I did tell my staff to change the words on my Web site. And I said a prayer that night that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me. Because when we do that — when we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe — that's when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.

That's when we begin to say, "Maybe we won't agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this heart-wrenching decision for any woman is not made casually, it has both moral and spiritual dimensions."

So let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions, let's reduce unintended pregnancies. Let's make adoption more available. Let's provide care and support for women who do carry their children to term. Let's honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also in clear ethics, as well as respect for the equality of women." Those are things we can do.

Now, understand — understand, Class of 2009, I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away. Because no matter how much we may want to fudge it — indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory — the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable. Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature.

Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words. It's a way of life that has always been the Notre Dame tradition. Father Hesburgh has long spoken of this institution as both a lighthouse and a crossroads. A lighthouse that stands apart, shining with the wisdom of the Catholic tradition, while the crossroads is where "differences of culture and religion and conviction can coexist with friendship, civility, hospitality, and especially love." And I want to join him and Father John in saying how inspired I am by the maturity and responsibility with which this class has approached the debate surrounding today's ceremony. You are an example of what Notre Dame is about.

This tradition of cooperation and understanding is one that I learned in my own life many years ago — also with the help of the Catholic Church.

You see, I was not raised in a particularly religious household, but my mother instilled in me a sense of service and empathy that eventually led me to become a community organizer after I graduated college. And a group of Catholic churches in Chicago helped fund an organization known as the Developing Communities Project, and we worked to lift up South Side neighborhoods that had been devastated when the local steel plant closed.

And it was quite an eclectic crew — Catholic and Protestant churches, Jewish and African American organizers, working-class black, white, and Hispanic residents — all of us with different experiences, all of us with different beliefs. But all of us learned to work side by side because all of us saw in these neighborhoods other human beings who needed our help — to find jobs and improve schools. We were bound together in the service of others.

And something else happened during the time I spent in these neighborhoods — perhaps because the church folks I worked with were so welcoming and understanding; perhaps because they invited me to their services and sang with me from their hymnals; perhaps because I was really broke and they fed me. Perhaps because I witnessed all of the good works their faith inspired them to perform, I found myself drawn not just to the work with the church; I was drawn to be in the church. It was through this service that I was brought to Christ.

And at the time, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin was the Archbishop of Chicago. For those of you too young to have known him or known of him, he was a kind and good and wise man. A saintly man. I can still remember him speaking at one of the first organizing meetings I attended on the South Side. He stood as both a lighthouse and a crossroads — unafraid to speak his mind on moral issues ranging from poverty and AIDS and abortion to the death penalty and nuclear war. And yet, he was congenial and gentle in his persuasion, always trying to bring people together, always trying to find common ground. Just before he died, a reporter asked Cardinal Bernardin about this approach to his ministry. And he said, "You can't really get on with preaching the Gospel until you've touched hearts and minds."

My heart and mind were touched by him. They were touched by the words and deeds of the men and women I worked alongside in parishes across Chicago. And Id like to think that we touched the hearts and minds of the neighborhood families whose lives we helped change. For this, I believe, is our highest calling.

Now, you, Class of 2009, are about to enter the next phase of your life at a time of great uncertainty. You'll be called to help restore a free market that's also fair to all who are willing to work. You'll be called to seek new sources of energy that can save our planet; to give future generations the same chance that you had to receive an extraordinary education. And whether as a person drawn to public service, or simply someone who insists on being an active citizen, you will be exposed to more opinions and ideas broadcast through more means of communication than ever existed before. You'll hear talking heads scream on cable, and you'll read blogs that claim definitive knowledge, and you will watch politicians pretend they know what they're talking about. Occasionally, you may have the great fortune of actually seeing important issues debated by people who do know what they're talking about — by well-intentioned people with brilliant minds and mastery of the facts. In fact, I suspect that some of you will be among those brightest stars.

And in this world of competing claims about what is right and what is true, have confidence in the values with which you've been raised and educated. Be unafraid to speak your mind when those values are at stake. Hold firm to your faith and allow it to guide you on your journey. In other words, stand as a lighthouse.

But remember, too, that you can be a crossroads. Remember, too, that the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt. It's the belief in things not seen. It's beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what He asks of us. And those of us who believe must trust that His wisdom is greater than our own.

And this doubt should not push us away our faith. But it should humble us. It should temper our passions, cause us to be wary of too much self-righteousness. It should compel us to remain open and curious and eager to continue the spiritual and moral debate that began for so many of you within the walls of Notre Dame. And within our vast democracy, this doubt should remind us even as we cling to our faith to persuade through reason, through an appeal whenever we can to universal rather than parochial principles, and most of all through an abiding example of good works and charity and kindness and service that moves hearts and minds.

For if there is one law that we can be most certain of, it is the law that binds people of all faiths and no faith together. It's no coincidence that it exists in Christianity and Judaism; in Islam and Hinduism; in Buddhism and humanism. It is, of course, the Golden Rule — the call to treat one another as we wish to be treated. The call to love. The call to serve. To do what we can to make a difference in the lives of those with whom we share the same brief moment on this Earth.

So many of you at Notre Dame — by the last count, upwards of 80 percent — have lived this law of love through the service you've performed at schools and hospitals; international relief agencies and local charities. Brennan is just one example of what your class has accomplished. That's incredibly impressive, a powerful testament to this institution.

Now you must carry the tradition forward. Make it a way of life. Because when you serve, it doesn't just improve your community, it makes you a part of your community. It breaks down walls. It fosters cooperation. And when that happens — when people set aside their differences, even for a moment, to work in common effort toward a common goal; when they struggle together, and sacrifice together, and learn from one another — then all things are possible.

After all, I stand here today, as President and as an African American, on the 55th anniversary of the day that the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Now, Brown was of course the first major step in dismantling the "separate but equal" doctrine, but it would take a number of years and a nationwide movement to fully realize the dream of civil rights for all of God's children. There were freedom rides and lunch counters and Billy clubs, and there was also a Civil Rights Commission appointed by President Eisenhower. It was the 12 resolutions recommended by this commission that would ultimately become law in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

There were six members of this commission. It included five whites and one African American; Democrats and Republicans; two Southern governors, the dean of a Southern law school, a Midwestern university president, and your own Father Ted Hesburgh, President of Notre Dame. So they worked for two years, and at times, President Eisenhower had to intervene personally since no hotel or restaurant in the South would serve the black and white members of the commission together. And finally, when they reached an impasse in Louisiana, Father Ted flew them all to Notre Dame's retreat in Land OLakes, Wisconsin — where they eventually overcame their differences and hammered out a final deal.

And years later, President Eisenhower asked Father Ted how on Earth he was able to broker an agreement between men of such different backgrounds and beliefs. And Father Ted simply said that during their first dinner in Wisconsin, they discovered they were all fishermen. And so he quickly readied a boat for a twilight trip out on the lake. They fished, and they talked, and they changed the course of history.

I will not pretend that the challenges we face will be easy, or that the answers will come quickly, or that all our differences and divisions will fade happily away — because life is not that simple. It never has been. But as you leave here today, remember the lessons of Cardinal Bernardin, of Father Hesburgh, of movements for change both large and small. Remember that each of us, endowed with the dignity possessed by all children of God, has the grace to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we all seek the same love of family, the same fulfillment of a life well lived. Remember that in the end, in some way we are all fishermen.

If nothing else, that knowledge should give us faith that through our collective labor, and God's providence, and our willingness to shoulder each other's burdens, America will continue on its precious journey towards that more perfect union. Congratulations, Class of 2009. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wish I could have been there.

-SKH

Nice weather weekend!

2009-05-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

I am hoping that the weather we've had this past weekend is a good indication of what summer means to Seattle! It's been gorgeous for the past two days - 70 degrees, slight breeze and SUNNY! (Who knew that Seattle got sun?)

I'm still working on getting my eye to 100% - I have these prescription eye drops that have bene helping a lot - so I have been taking a low key weekend. I've done all sorts of laundry (I'll hit up the bedding today) and cleaned the house a bit. We're having Travis' team over for dinner on Wednesday night, and that's also when Luna and Cat Wrangler arrive! (Yay, houseguests!)

I'm off to go prep some more rooms of the house for entertaining and guests - wish me luck :)

-SKH

Wacked out allergy or something worse? Yikes

2009-05-13T20:11:00.001-07:00

This morning on the train, I breathed in something that apparently did not like me. As a matter of fact, it appears that I must be allergic to something here. However, it seems like the allergy only affects my left eye and nostril - what the heck is that all about?

What happens with this allergy thing (?) is that it looks like I have been crying (because my left eye constantly tears up), my left nostril runs whenever the eye tears, and my eye gets all hot and puffy. Awesome. By lunch today, it was bugging me so much that I went down to the local Rite Aid and get some allergy medication. I spoke with Mom and the pharmacist, and I ended up getting Zyrtec D. I took it at 1:30, and have yet to see much improvement. In fact, I had to leave work early today and go work from home for the rest of the afternoon so I could take my contacts out and see if I could soothe my inflamed eye!

This are definitely not the most flattering picture ever (in fact, it's quite terrible), but I wanted

to show how puffy my eye got today. Two guesses as to which eye is affected!

I'm pretty sure it isn't pink eye, because it feels like something in my nose triggers the tears and runny nose.

Travis was very nice and got me some ice cream because he thought it might make me feel better. It didn't, but it did taste good! :)

Here's hoping this goes away overnight!!!!

-SKH

First fire!

2009-05-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

So we didn't have a fire on Saturday (the day I bought the fire bowl), but we did have one on Sunday afternoon/evening. The weather was nice most of the afternoon, so the fire turned out nice. It rained a bit later on in the evening, and that put the fire out, but it was good while it lasted. Here are a few pics of the fire bowl I built on our patio.

Here is a picture of some of the beautiful blooming shrubs we have out in our back yard area alongside the house. The azaleas (I think that is what they are) are particularly pretty (they're yellow!) We've got some pretty nice landscaping! :)

Some day this summer, Travis is going to actually dig a fire pit out in the backyard, and we won't need the fire bowl on the pavers. Until then, though, we'll be able to have lovely backyard bonfires right on the patio!

-SKH

Fire bowl for the Hensch house

2009-05-09T20:34:00.001-07:00

I realized today that I hadn't been to a Target store since Mom was in town. This means that I literally hadn't been to the Bullseye in over three weeks! Even worse, I didn't even realize it - Travis texted me today to see if I would go buy a fire bowl, and I thought, "Whoa, I wonder if Target even has the outdoor stuff out..." In Minnesota, this simply could not have occurred. In Minnesota, I went to Target at least 4-5 times per week. (The SuperTarget was less than a mile away from the house, it was super convenient.) I knew what was on display!

Target, I am sorry! I'd say it won't happen again, but it probably will. The grocery store aspect of SuperTarget was likely why I went to so often. Washington state doesn't have any SuperTargets.

Anyways, as the title of this post suggests, we are now the proud owners of a fire bowl! I picked up the Odessa (I think) fire bowl today, and was able to use both my employee discount (well, spousal discount) and a 10% off card that we had from using the Target pharmacy ten times. Sweet deal! I brought it home, and sat out on the patio to build it. It was surprisingly easy to build, even for me. I also picked up some firewood, so we should be set.

As I mentioned, Travis texted me today while he was out fishing, asking me to go get this so we could have a fire tonight. (The weather today has been gorgeous.) Ironically, he is now sleeping on the couch because he is tired from fishing and playoff hockey is on TV. We'll see if we have a fire tonight or not!! :)

Luna and CW, hopefully we will be able to have a nice fire - cross your fingers for good weather.

-SKH

First post of May!

2009-05-02T14:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry for bad blogging of late! With houseguests and traveling and a really busy time at work, I haven't been able to find a lot of time to blog. Here are some updates of what's been going on in my life lately.

Easter and family visit
I already posted pictures of Easter Sunday, but I didn't say much about the family being here. Let me tell you, it was awesome!! Mom, Mary and Jessie were here for the whole week, and I took a couple of those days off of work. On my days off, we explored downtown Kent, visiting all of the little shops. We went to a used bookstore, Chair and Trellis (I got some more stuff to decorate the Hensch house), some fun local lunch places and more. It was lots of fun. When I had to work, Mom, Mary and Jessie visited downtown Seattle (including the Seattle Mystery Bookshop), did a boat cruise on Lake Washington and checked out Fremont (where they saw the Troll). On Friday, I took a half day, and we really enjoyed Tacoma. We went to the Tacoma Glass Museum - Chihuly is incredible, and had dinner at Katie Downs. Yum!

Fargo trip
I went to Fargo last weekend for the Fargo MS Walk - the whole family was there, and it was so much fun! I would post pictures, but they were taken on other people's cameras, so I don't have any yet. It was really great to stay with Amanda and Blair (even though their cat Smoky wants to kill me...at least Faye likes me) - they were wonderful hosts. While in Fargo, we picked out our bridesmaid dresses for Lisa and Beth's wedding. (Oh yeah, have I mentioned that they are getting married in September?! Sweet!!!) I like my dress, now I just need to get shoes and get it hemmed.

American Idol and Dancing with the Stars
Yep, I love these two shows. I have been watching nearly every week, and here are my predictions. I think Adam or dark horse Kris will win American Idol, and I think Gilles/Cheryl will win Dancing with the Stars. In case you cared. :) Who do you think will win??

Cooking
I'm making pulled pork tomorrow for the first time ever, I will keep you posted on how it goes.

Well, that's all I have for the moment. I will try to be better about blogging this month - if nothing else, I will have to give reviews of the awesome-looking summer movies coming out...we're seeing Wolverine tonight!

-SKH

Whirlwind week before heading to Fargo

2009-04-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

Yep, I had houseguests all last week, and then this week I have a whirlwind of stuff to do before I can head out to Fargo to see Amanda and the rest of the family. I am super pumped about going to Moorhead (I know, it's April and it's cold there, but hey, the family is there!)

I think I have my house about back in order after guests, and am about ready to pack up a few things for my weekend trip.

Then it's back to business as usual here in Kent until Luna and Cat Wrangler come out to visit at the end of May.

And happy early birthday to my best friend, Stacy!!

-SKH

Easter 2009 was a success

2009-04-13T11:06:00.001-07:00

Well folks, Easter Sunday has come and gone. For those who voted in my poll, I know you have bene wondering which set of china I decided to use. Honestly, I was going to use the white tablecloth and the platinum dishes, but discovered yesterday morning that my white tablecloth is too small for our new dining room set! This meant I had to use the gold tablecloth, and thus the gold dishes. However, I think it still looked great, I was VERY pleased. Here's the table with all of the food on it, and we surely had a feast!

Travis and I in front of my handiwork. (No, Travis didn't do any of this.)

I made these delicious (and cute!) berry cobbler desserts for everyone, so we had both carrot cake, and these. Yum!

Sadly, now Dad has left to go back to Minnesota, but I still have Mom, Mary and Jessie here, so we are going to have a fun time!!

-SKH

Cake decorating success!!

2009-04-11T12:09:00.000-07:00

I channeled my inner Luna, and was able to successfully bake, assemble and decorate a three layer cake for Easter Sunday! Here are some pictures of the delicious carrot cake (yep, I had a little taste before I decorated, just to make sure it was okay for guests...hehe) - for those of you who don't know, I am NOT a good cake decorator, so this was a big win for me.

You probably won't see this in a store, but I think it looks yummy!

-SKH

Easter guests arrive tomorrow!

2009-04-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad get here tomorrow at around 4 - I am pumped! Mary and Jessie get here on Saturday afternoon. I am taking off Friday, Monday and Tuesday, and am really excited to show my parents our house. This will be the first time Mom's been to Seattle since I moved.

Fun times!!

-SKH

Which place setting should I use?? A reader poll

2009-04-04T16:33:00.000-07:00

Please take a look at the two fancy place settings I have, and vote in the comments as to which one I should use for Easter (next Sunday!)

Platinum rimmed china with Waterford crystal stemware:

Or gold rimmed china with Reidel crystal stemware:

I realize that this decision might be life changing for some of you, so please take a minute to vote. I will take a picture of the "winning" table before I serve dinner next weekend. :)

Also, any opinion on tablecloth or no tablecloth? I have a gold damask tablecloth or a white linen tablecloth. I will be using white linen napkins.

-SKH

Really delicious smoky beef tacos

2009-03-29T19:47:00.000-07:00

I'm back on the food blogging, people. Today I made a pretty involved meal, though tacos tend to be easy. Travis and I found a picture that looked really good in the Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine, and I decided to try to make it.

Enter smoky beef tacos with two special toppings - crema cilantro plus tomato and corn salsa. I also made cumin rice (eh) and a spicy pineapple salad (which was really good). I made the beef by taking a boneless beef chuck roast, and putting it in a Dutch oven with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, tomato sauce, vinegar, garlic and salt. The beef takes about two hours to cook, so while that was roasting away in the oven, I started working on the other pieces of the meal.

Rather than make our typical tacos with ground beef and the basic toppings, this version really kicks it up a notch.

The spicy pineapple salad is essentially lightly browned pineapples plus thinly sliced jalapenos and pepper. It was surprisingly tasty - it is served warm, and the heat from the jalapenos really tastes good with the sweet pineapple.

Crema cilantro sauce is just sour cream with lime juice and lots of cilantro. Travis liked it on the tacos, but said that it wouldn't be very good on its own. That makes sense. The tomato and corn salsa clearly includes both tomatoes and corn (I quartered grape tomatoes and rinsed canned corn), and also includes some sliced jalapenos and red wine vinegar. It tastes really good on the tacos.

I toasted the soft corn tortillas, and then our meal was set! From start to finish (including grocery shopping and cleanup), the meal took about 3 hours, so it's definitely a weekend thing. However, now I have some chipotle beef leftovers, so we will have enough to make fajitas later this week. Yum!

Sorry, no pictures :(

-SKH

I don't have anything against the South

2009-03-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

But apparently, I really don't go there!

Samantha has visited 36 states (72%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Weird! Honestly, the only reason I have ever visited the southeastern portion of the US is because of work trips, and I was just able to add the Carolinas this year. Also, it is somewhat ironic that I haven't been to any of the states surrounding my current location. It's almost like Washington state is an island.

Kind of a funny little map.

-SKH

Easter menu planning

2009-03-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

Someone recently told me (OK, it was Beth) that she was sad that she didn't know what was going on for me food-wise lately. I went back and looked, and she's right. Apparently, I haven't talked enough about food in the past few weeks. Therefore, this post will be entirely devoted to one upcoming meal.

~~~~~~~~~~~

OK, well, folks, it is time to get serious about Easter menu planning. I think I have a pretty solid idea of what I am going to make for Easter Sunday.

Appetizers:
-Deviled eggs - because it is Easter, we have to have some sort of egg thing, right?
-Cheese and crackers - Target has some delicious crackers that I will use for this one
-Veggie platter with ranch dip (or maybe I will make a homemade onion dip?)

Salad:
-Spinach salad with almonds, cranberries, perhaps strawberries and grated parmesan cheese with raspberry viniagrette

Main course:
-Slow cooked smoked ham - now, most people would add a glaze like brown sugar, peach, pineapple or mustard, but that certainly is not happening at my house. I cannot stand "sweet on meat" flavor combinations, and I HATE mustard, so that is out. I've always enjoyed smoked ham as is - it is so delicious and salty without adding anything to it.
-Mashed potatoes - because creamy mashed potatoes are so wonderful
-Either scalloped or au gratin potatoes - even though I don't like them, I know a lot of people look forward to creamy/cheesy potatoes at Easter. They will be satisfied at my house!
-Buttered corn - a good, traditional vegetable dish
-Steamed broccoli - I just like broccoli
-Rolls - I am going to go with Pillsbury's Grands Biscuits - I could eat a million (or a "meeel-yun", as Charlie would say)

Desserts:
-Carrot cake - everyone loves when I make this, and Easter seems like the perfect time to have carrot cake - I've got some plans on how to make it look more fancy than usual for the special occasion
-Berry cookie cobbler - I found the cutest little Easter ramekins at Target, and they will be perfect to make personal desserts for my guests. A few years ago, I made something called berry cookie cobbler out of Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade Cooking cookbook, and it was ridiculously easy and really tasty. I'll serve it with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. It will be a great addition to the overall meal.

I think the menu is pretty close to set. Any suggestions for substitutes or additions? Let me know. :)

-SKH

We got a new GMC Sierra Denali!

2009-03-15T20:10:00.001-07:00

Goodbye, Dodge Durango! This is the last picture we have of the Dodge (taken yesterday evening at 6pm):
Hello, new GMC Sierra Denali!! The lease was nearly up on our Durango, and so Travis and I have been test driving and researching trucks for the past few weeks. (Well, Travis has been doing more of that than me.) Yesterday, on a rainy (shocking) Saturday, we decided to pull the trigger and get a new truck. We spent the whole day on this quest, and even I test drove the truck finalist...just to make sure I was at least semi-comfortable with the truck we were going to buy.

The winning truck is the GMC Sierra Denali and we went with the sleek looking black one. It is tricked out, with pretty much every upgrade imaginable, including heating and COOLING seats, heated steering wheel, integrated navigation system in dash, back up camera, all sorts of stuff! Below are some pictures I took of the truck today when the rain broke for a little while. Travis and I took several drives thus far in the new truck...it's pretty sweet. We headed down to the State Capitol in Olympia today, and spent a little time down there. We checked out a little restaurant on the water called Tugboat Annie's. We also went to Tacoma and found some really great waterfront restaurant options that we are going to keep on deck for us, including Katie Downs. That's for another day, maybe when Mom/Dad/Mary/Jessie are here. (That's less than a month from now, by the way, I am SO excited...my Easter planning is going to go into overdrive soon!!!)

Yay for us! Travis is pretty excited about his new truck - he loves it.

-SKH

A general update - pictures of the house and other miscellaneous stuff

2009-03-13T18:08:00.001-07:00

Folks, I have been remiss in sharing recent pictures. I've been keeping busy, and haven't been too up on the blogging. (Sorry!) I am going to remedy this now, so take a look at some of the things I've been up to lately.

I made a homemade German chocolate cake with fresh cocoa frosting for the choir before we performed in the Saturday showing of Great Music. Apparently, people liked it...one guy had three pieces! :) (Note the ultra fancy cake plate...aka the lid of a large Tupperware container that I used as my cake transporter. Hehe.)
Yes, friends, I got a Kindle 2. I know, I know, I already had a Kindle 1 (actually, that's Amanda's that is pictured below, but you get the point), but I needed the newest one! I must say, I love it. Even more than the original one. I've read a bunch of books on it already...I've really gotten into the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. They are hilarious.

The kitty I found in my garage spent a little bit of time in our house before making the journey to Minnesota. The now-named Lady June (fka Pirate, Outdoor Kitty and Junebug) explored a bit...the Ninja (aka Indoor Kitty) did NOT appreciate it. Doesn't Ninja look mad in this pic?

Outdoor kitty slept on me while I took a nap before the red eye flight back to Minnesota. What a little cutie. (I, on the other hand, look sleeeeeepy.)

This is what our dining room looks like. I really like the furniture, it looks very nice.

I bought a new rug for the living room, which was pretty brave considering the furniture for the room didn't come until today, and I bought red furniture. The paintings you see laid out on the floor actually tie the rug and the furniture together really well. We are hanging most of our art this weekend, so maybe I will have more pictures to share at the end of the weekend.

Ta da! The red furniture! I got it from LaZBoy, and I can't stress how bad their customer service has been over the past 8 weeks. I couldn't believe how bad the process was with them - if I had known how they worked in advance, I definitely wouldn't have bought from them.

This is the arrangement of family photos I have in the niche above the TV in the family room. I have a bunch more pictures that I am planning on hanging in the hallway, and am working on getting coordinating frames for that project.

Here is a view of most of the family room wall. And as an added bonus, you get a screen shot of Becoming Jane.

And there you have a run down of some of the things that I have been up to lately!

-SKH

MS Walk 2009

2009-03-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

That's right, folks, it's time for the annual MS Walk! This year, because I have moved to Washington, it was up in the air as to which walk I should lend my walking shoes to. And the answer is...Fargo, ND and Minneapolis, MN! (Both?! Whoa!)

I will be physically walking in Fargo, ND (and making a visit out to Fargo!), but collecting donations for the team I am captaining (AmandaJCR) in the Twin Cities. The rest of the team is doing two walks - the one in Fargo and the one in Minneapolis - but I can only make one trip out to Minnesota in such a short time frame.

There are several ways you can make a difference! You have several places you can sponsor me in the walks this year - the my personal page for the MN walk, the team page for AmandaJCR, or my sister Amanda's team up in Fargo, the Wildcat Walkers! Please consider making a donation this year - I know times are hard this year, and I definitely understand that. However, any size donation helps us get closer to finding a cure for MS.

For anyone who missed it last year, I did an interview with Amanda and her experience with MS. Please take a minute to (re-)read this post, because I think it is important that you understand why I walk - it's for Amanda!

-SKH

Pirate has a new home and a new name

2009-03-01T13:28:00.000-08:00

Pirate has made it safely to Minnesota, and is starting to settle into life at its new home. The other cats are not enthusiastic about this new addition...lots of hissing right now. The kitty has been renamed - this afternoon, the kitty was dubbed Junebug. Cute! Sadly, that's not related to swashbuckling or thievery, but that's okay I suppose. Junebug is a cute name.

Now I am hanging out at Lisa's STP place for a couple of minutes (hello, Guitar Hero!) before I hop on a plane back to Seattle. The time at home was great - all the Schmid kids were in the same spot at the same time for several hours yesterday, which was fun. It was awesome to spend time with my parents...definitely miss the family a lot.

By the way, I saw the movie Taking Chance last night. See it, it's INCREDIBLE. It was so amazing.

Anyways, good weekend. Too short. Very whirlwind. But glad I made it home :) Lisa told me that Minneapolis wasn't the same without me, and I told her that I wasn't the same without Minneapolis!

-SKH

Minnesota, here I come!

2009-02-27T19:54:00.000-08:00

Yay, the countdown has finally come to an end. I will be getting on a plane in four hours, and I will be back in Minnesota in 8 hours.

I will have a busy weekend back home, spending as much time as possible with my family, singing with the GA choir on Saturday night at Mass, and meeting with the new renters of our Chaska place to sign the lease and finalize a walk through. All in 36 hours!

I'm very excited to see everyone...now I just have to pack!

-SKH

Twitterati

2009-02-25T19:54:00.000-08:00

I have decided to plunge fully into Twitter. Crazy.

Follow me at http://twitter.com/samanthahensch.

Be prepared for 140 characters of fun.

-SKH

Great Music for Great Cathedrals Seattle 2009

2009-02-20T15:07:00.000-08:00

If you are interested in attending a neat concert/performance, mark Friday, February 20 or Saturday, February 21 on your calendar.

The St. James Cathedral Choir (of which I am a member) along with all of the other cathedral musicians (choirs, brass, soloists, organs, et al) will be performing the annual program entitled Great Music for Great Cathedrals at St. James Cathedral in Seattle. This is my first year participating, but according to the press (and choir members who have been involved in the past), it’s really awesome. (Check out this article about last year: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/classical/304189_james19q.html)

St. James Cathedral presents

GREAT MUSIC for
GREAT CATHEDRALS
February 20 & 21 8:00 pm

LIGHT t SOUND t MOVEMENT t POETRY t CHOIRS t BRASS

This popular Seattle tradition returns with the renowned Cathedral Choir of St. James and Women of St. James Schola leading an evening of sound, light, movement, poetry and above all—MUSIC, with all of the Cathedral choirs, 16-member Cathedral Brass, and three pipe organs. directed by James Savage. Jeff Robbins, lighting designer, Kitty Kavanaugh, scenic designs.

Suggested donation $25.00, students and seniors pay as able. 206-382-4874
INFORMATION & RESERVED PASSES

www.stjames-cathedral.org/music

-SKH

Pirate Update: Ahoy, Matey!

2009-02-17T20:42:00.000-08:00

I'll be in Minnesota for the weekend of February 28-March 1! Why, you ask? Other than I desperately miss my family, I am also bringing a new little family member back to my parents.

No. I am not preggers. (Lisa, I am telling you that on MySpace someday. If our MySpace accounts are still active then...it may need to change to Facebook.)

I am bringing the kitty I rescued back to Mama Bear!! I took Pirate to the vet tonight, and it got a clean bill of health and a bunch of vaccines. It's officially a girl, and other than being on the skinny side, the vet said she was just fine. Travis is now miffed with me because I have let it into the house (only into one of the three bathrooms in the house!) until next Friday night, when I take the red eye to MN.

Who knows, Travis may relegate it to the garage again...but at least it won't go to the out outside...I picked up a cheap litter box for Pirate, and technically, we would put that in the garage and keep the garage door all the way closed.

But for now, Pirate is living in STYLE.

-SKH

PS. I personally vote for the Pirate name to stay. Though Aunt Sandy did come up with a cute name with Abby. Luna, you always have good names - any ideas???

Made me laugh

2009-02-16T14:46:00.001-08:00

I saw this on a blog, and it made me laugh out loud:

Edward Cullen vs Harry Potter.

Let's view the pros and cons.

Edward Cullen.

Pros - Very handsome. Can save you from ultimate danger.
Cons - May crush you and is prone to bite pillows

Harry Potter

Pros - Can save you from the evil Voldemort. What? He's already dead? Then why's Harry good? Oh, yes. Potter has good character. Have to admire that character...
Cons - Can kill you with a stick if angered

Hehe.

-SKH

FOUND: Cat in Kent, WA

2009-02-15T19:42:00.000-08:00

So when Travis moved the boat to our house in Kent, he discovered that he would need to make a very small modification to the garage to make the boat fit. He hadn't made that change yet, so the garage door had been open about 6 inches along the bottom for the past few weeks. Last week, I discovered that a stray kitty appeared to be hanging around the house, and yesterday, I confirmed that the kitty has been staying in our garage.

The kitty seems really friendly and comes right up to us and meows pitifully at us. It's clearly starving; when you pet it, you can feel all the ribs of the poor thing. It seems to me like it was somebody's pet...its fur is pretty thick, and it's pretty clean overall. It also seems to really like being around people. We set up a little towel bed next to the furnace in the garage so it could stay warm, and gave it some food and water (which it CLEARLY appreciated...it had tried to get in our garbage last night before we discovered it really was sticking around our garage.) Now that it has been fed, and has a little bed out of the cold rain, it's a very purr-y kitty!

We don't intend on keeping this cat, even as an outdoor cat (though I did give it a nickname...Pirate!) - I will have to call the Humane Society this week to figure out what to do in this situation. I wonder if it is microchipped. It doesn't have tags, but like I said, it seems like it at least was someone's pet at some time. I REALLY hope that someone didn't just get sick of having this sweet kitty and toss it outside, but in all likelihood, that's probably what happened. :(

Anyways, here are a bunch of pictures of the cat. If you know whose cat this is, please email me at samantha.hensch@gmail.com. (Who knows, someone might find this blog post because they were searching for their lost cat near Kent, WA!)

This cat really chowed down on the food and water I gave it.

The kitty cried - "I'm hungry and cold and wet!"

Kitty sitting on the rocks next to the garage.

Wandering near our garage door.

Walking towards me - it seems to come when you call it. (a la "Here kitty, kitty")

It really is a pretty cat. It has gray, black, orange and white markings.

-SKH

Visit to Charlotte, NC

2009-02-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to be able to extend my business trip to Charleston, SC so that I could stay on the East Coast for the weekend. I took the opportunity to drive up north about three hours to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins who live in Charlotte. So now I can say that I have driven through the Carolinas (Charlotte is really on the southern border of North Carolina, but I am counting my sojourns through Charlotte as counting towards "The Carolinas")

It was awesome to see Doug, Nicole and Lexi and then to meet the newest addition, Spencer. He's only six weeks old. He's so adorable! Despite having the cold from hell, I powered through and had a great weekend. I got there around 8:30 or 9 on Friday night (I got lost when I got close to their house, it added a half hour to my drive time), and Nicole had made a delicious pan of lasagna for us. After the late dinner (sorry I was so late, guys!), Lexi and I read from the American Girls books that I got her for Christmas. I got her the Kirsten series, and I was very impressed with how well Lexi was reading. She was comprehending the story as well, which was great to hear. Once Lexi had read for 15-20 minutes, she was allowed to stay up extra late to watch a movie with me. She picked out Bridge to Terabithia, which is really a sad movie. Of course, Lexi fell asleep in the middle (it was midnight, and she is six, people) but we still had a fun time.

The next morning, Lexi desperately wanted me to wake up, and kept tiptoeing in my room to check on me. She'd shut the door quietly, then sort of yell to her dad, "Everytime I go in there, she's still sleeping, but she keeps rolling over!" Hilarious. I got up around 9 or so, and we hung out during the morning. In the afternoon, we went to uptown Charlotte, which is their "downtown" type area. That's where the majority of the city's banking industry is. We did quite a bit of walking around, saw that there was a circus in town, saw some horse-drawn carriages and went to Imaginon, which is this neat children's theater and library. We stopped at a Baskin-Robbins on the way back home, and enjoyed a little ice cream treat.

That night, Doug, Nicole and I went out to an adults-dinner in Charlotte. We went to a place called Encore Bistro and had a really good time. We got an appetizer platter, salads/soup, main course AND dessert. Yum! After dinner, we went to a place that is sort of like Dave and Buster's - it's an arcade/bowling alley/general fun place, and played some games. We initially wanted to bowl, but the wait for a lane was almost two hours! We said no thanks to that, and ended up playing some mini-bowling, air hockey, skee ball, basketball and even a little Dance Dance Revolution. We had a really fun time, probably better than if we had just bowled.

We went back home after that and just hung out. I had to leave for the airport this morning around 8:30 ET, so didn't want to stay up too late. I had so much fun in Charlotte, and was really excited to see the entire family. Great times were had by all!

Now I am back in Seattle, and it was really nice to see Travis for the first time in ten days. (He was in Minnesota and didn't get back until I had already left for Charleston.) I'm not sure why I missed him so much this trip, but I did, so I am glad to be home with hubby.

We're watching the Super Bowl now, and then it is Vick's VapoRub, here I come!

-SKH

PS - I will post pictures at some point, just not tonight. The ones I have are on Facebook, and Nicole will be sending me hers sometime soon, too.

Great times, great eats at Chai's in Charleston

2009-01-29T15:11:00.000-08:00

I'd like to state for the record that Charleston has great restaurants.

I went to a place called Chai's Lounge & Tapas last night, and it was AWESOME. I was there with several fun people from the Charleston office, and we shared something like eight dishes, all of which were delicious. I particularly loved the short ribs - it's enough to make me want to come back to Charleston.

The people I was with know the executive chef Derek Falta really well, so we got a few special items from him as well, including this awesome bourbon pecan ice cream. Mmmm. Thanks, Derek!

Off to Blossom tonight!

-SKH

Upcoming visitors? Sweet!

2009-01-22T12:59:00.000-08:00

I've been a bit of a bad blogger, but I have an excuse! (Well, a bit of an excuse...)

I meant to post last night, but lo and behold, our cable is out at home. Yep, all of our cable things - TV, internet and the never-used phone. This means no internet at home :( It can't be fixed until at least Saturday. Comcast did offer to come out today or tomorrow, but couldn't give a time window that was shorter than four hours. Since I can't actually work from home without having the internet, that really doesn't work for me. Travis is leaving for Minnesota today, so he was also not available to be at home during the Comcast schedule.

Anyways, here's some big news: we're having more guests! The Lisa and Beth Suite will be seeing some more use. :) Here is our guest schedule:

February 5-8 - Erin Jane in Sea-town (and yes, she is welcome to stay with us)
April 9-13 - Dad
April 9-19 - Mom (she gets to stay longer!)
April 11-18 - Jessie and Mary (Easter is going to be fun)
May 20-24 - Luna and Cat Wrangler (we'll likely be taking a day trip up to Vancouver)

Who else wants to come visit???

I also have big weekend plans with people who actually live in Seattle. I'm going to a hockey game on Friday with a coworker, I have coffee on Saturday with another Minnesota transplant and I am seeing Rachel Getting Married this weekend with another coworker (I think).

Then next week, I am spending three days in Charleston (for work), and a few days in Charlotte (for fun) - I am going to get to meet my new cousin Spencer! (I need to find a Seattle-related gift for him and for my aunt and uncle who are hosting me in Charlotte...fast!!!)

Busy times for me :)

-SKH

Washington resident?!

2009-01-15T22:11:00.000-08:00

Holy Hannah, I am a Washington state resident now.

I got my license in the mail today. (That was fast, I just went to the DMV on Saturday to file all of the appropriate paperwork!)

Eeep.

-SKH

On a food mission

2009-01-11T15:14:00.001-08:00

Well folks, I am on a food mission. I am trying to find some new dishes to add to our old standbys that are tasty, easy, fast and relatively healthy. I usually make dinner at home 4-5 times a week, and we don't generally eat leftovers here, so I am going to try to be as careful as possible to make only enough for just Travis and I.

I am accepting all idea submissions :) Keep in mind that I will generally want to make these on a weeknight, where time and energy are both in low supply. To give you an idea of what is on our "old standby" list, here are some of the things I make at least once or twice a month:

-stovetop lasagna (this is Travis' favorite)

-porkchops sauteed in cream of mushroom soup with stuffing and veggies

-fajitas

-enchiladas

-stir fry (any kind of meat, some stir frying sauce, and any kind of vegetables, served over rice...it's never the exact same flavors, but it is fairly close each time)

-chili

-grilled meat plus flavored rice (sounds original, doesn't it?)

Yesterday, I started my mission by preparing halibut in spicy squash and tomatoes. I know, crazy, Samantha making fish at home? And it wasn't tuna casserole?! People, I am trying to branch out here! Here are a few pictures of what the halibut dish looked like while in process as well as the end result:

I thought it turned out pretty darn good - the jalopeno pepper give the overall dish a bit of a kick, and I enjoyed it. I told Travis that I would order it in a restaurant!

Tonight, I am going to try to make risotto, which I have never prepared at home, but generally love in restaurants. I am pretty excited, the recipe I am going to try is a garlic asparagus risotto, and I am going to make garlic chicken breasts to go along with it. (Travis wouldn't be too thrilled if a meal didn't have some form of meat in it, so that is why I am making chicken, too.)

If you have any suggestions or ideas, let me know! Wish me luck on the risotto :)

-SKH

Seattle weekend rundown

2009-01-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

So as you probably know, Lisa and Beth spent a long weekend in Seattle. Wahoo! I don't have all the photos that we took (we all did different shots on our cameras), but here is a weekend rundown and some of the photos. (I'm trying out Flickr, we'll see how I like it as a photo storing site.)

Wednesday: Because we closed on the house on Tuesday (yippee!), I was able to go to Macy's Furniture gallery and finalize the purchase of our dining room set and a great enormous armoire for the bedroom. After I took care of that, I headed over to the airport because Lisa and Beth arrive!

Sadly, the first thing Lisa and Beth saw in Seattle (after the airport) was a horrible car accident! This crazy pedestrian decided that he was going to impress his friends and walk across a busy highway against the light, in the rain, in the dark, while wearing dark clothes. He made it three quarters of the way across, but then got nailed by a car going over forty (the car wasn't speeding, the pedestrian was just in the wrong). Yikes!!!

So after that hullabaloo, I brought Lisa and Beth back to our house, or as they call it "McMansion". It was New Year's Eve, and we considered going to Seattle Center to watch then shoot fireworks off of the Space Needle, but it was raining, and Lisa wasn't feeling awesome, so we decided to stay home and resurrect Wandering Bront!! (John, Tracy, EJ - we missed our other bandmates.) I also made us some stir fry for dinner, and it was delicious.

We celebrated the New Year by watching the fireworks on TV - I think Lisa and Beth were unimpressed by the Seattle TV reporters...they were fairly terrible.

Thursday: On New Year's Day, all four of us headed down to the Seattle Center, and we hit up the Space Needle and Experience Music ProjectScience Fiction Hall of Fame. While it was too cloudy to see Mt. Rainier, I think that Lisa and Beth still got a pretty good view of the city. EMP/SFM was decent, but I had already been there (back in September), so it wasn't as cool.

For dinner, we went to a local restaurant at Kent Station called the Zephyr Grill and Bar, which was terrible. Seriously, it wasn't good. Travis and I will not be going there again, but it was worth a shot. Now we know!

Friday: On Friday morning, Lisa's cold had come on in full force, so she had to take a little break and try to get some rest. Beth and I drove over to Silverdale, which is on the western side of Puget Sound (about 60 miles away from Kent) because I needed to finalize the purchase of our kitchen table and living room set. All of the furniture will be delivered this week - sweet. On the way to Silverdale, we saw some really pretty landscapes, because it had snowed the night before and all of the trees were coated in snow.

Beth also got to go over the Tacoma Narrows bridge. While we were in the middle of the bridge, I think Beth realized how she recognized the name Tacoma Narrows. Yikes. Anyways, they rebuilt the bridge, and we made it over safely (twice) and we got some pictures. Well, Beth took the pictures, I drove.

After getting the furniture all taken care of, Beth and I were famished, so we went to this Mongolian Grill (like Khan's, but clean!) I don't remember what it was called, but it was delicious. Beth got her food, then proceeded to make a mess of their counter with the sauces.

My food was great:

Beth has now been from Phoenix, Arizona all the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, LA. In case you were wondering. And yes, we did sing that. :)

On Friday afternoon, after we came back from Silverdale, we spent "five minutes" (aka forty minutes) helping Travis install our surround sound in the living room, and then we headed downtown Seattle to go to Pike's Place Market. We got there around 4 pm, and got to see a beautiful sunset on Elliott Bay. I think Lisa and Beth enjoyed the Market. They did get to see the fish, and took quite a few pictures of the Market decorated for the holidays. (Sadly, I don't have those pictures on my Flickr...maybe Lisa and Beth should upload their photos to Flickr too, then I can post those pics in here.)

We indulged in some incredible crepes while at Pike's Place. I had a strawberry creme one, Lisa had a Nutella and banana one, and Beth had a cinnamon one.

They were good, and we polished them off:

We had Chipotle for dinner, and somehow, by some weird cosmic influence, the Chipotle at Kent Station literally did not have the food to make burritos. (How can Chipotle be out of tortillas AND salsa?!) We had to drive back to Tukwila to get the delicious Chipotle that we had planned on. (I just realized that we had crepes and Chipotle on the same night, wow. Impressive.)

Saturday: On Saturday, we slept in and I made the crew a scrumptious breakfast of thick, fluffy waffles, bacon and Beth showed me how to make these great (and easy!) potato slices. (Yes, they are pretty much as easy as they sound.) Lisa, Beth and I headed downtown Seattle again because we wanted to go on the Underground Tour. After we bought our tickets for the tour, we had about an hour to kill, so we walked up the hill (sorry, Lisa, it was hard for sickie McGee to breathe!) and I showed the ladies my office. No Rainier view on Saturday, it was too cloudy. (I had Lisa and Beth on the lookout for Rainier for the entire trip, it's really an impressive site when it is visible!) We also went to the Seattle Mystery Bookshop, and I picked up a book for my friend Luna because it made me think of her. (Luna, expect that to come in the mail sometime this week... I hope you don't have this one yet!) Mom would really love this bookstore; we'll have to go when she is in town for Easter.

After the excellent tour, we went over to Magic Mouse Toys and played with all sorts of great toys. I ended up buying Ninja a squiggle ball, and a game called Smart Ass, which we played at dinner and at home.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant in Pioneer Square called DeNunzio's. Our waiter was hilarious. He literally made Lisa spit out her gum into a napkin (which he held while she spit and then carried away). He made our dinner very fun. The most hysterically funny portion of the evening was definitely when Beth literally spit her gulp of water all over me. And Lisa's arm. Apparently, I am funny (I don't even remember what made her spit up, actually.) I laughed so hard it hurt.

All in all, the weekend was really great. I'm sad that Lisa wasn't feeling well, but I hope that she still enjoyed visiting and seeing Seattle. I was really glad to have company here, and it was just a ton of fun. I can't wait for their next visit!

Whew, I am tired after just writing about all we did, and I didn't even post pictures from everything (because I don't have them as of now)! Hope you enjoyed learning about our escapades in the Seattle region!!

-SKH

Raise your hand if you are excited for Lisa and Beth to come to Seattle!

2008-12-29T18:50:00.000-08:00

The picture I took of Travis with his raised hand didn't turn out, but rest assured, he is excited, too.

-SKH

Christmas pot roast

2008-12-26T17:24:00.000-08:00

Travis and I surely had lots of food on Christmas Day. As I mentioned previously, we planned a day of food, starting with a big breakfast of raspberry waffles, thick sliced bacon, eggs and potatoes O'Brien. I made the waffles, and Travis made the other stuff. (While Travis can't really cook dinner foods, he has fried breakfast foods down.)

I took the picture after I had already eaten the eggs, so you won't get to see those. But here are the other items.

For Christmas dinner, I decided to make a pot roast. I added in potatoes, carrots, celery and onions - they were a good addition. I think pot roast might become a specialty of mine. The first picture is the roast before I put it in the oven, and the second picture is after I took it out and sliced it. It was delicious! We now have leftovers that we probably won't eat, but it was really really good. I'm glad I decided to go with pot roast rather than a traditional turkey or ham. I will be making ham for Easter when the family comes out, which I am REALLY looking forward to. I'm off to make a second attempt at popovers tonight, I'm going to try parmesan garlic popovers. Mmmmm.

-SKH

Ninja versus the wreath

2008-12-25T16:39:00.001-08:00

Lisa made delicious wreaths at the inaugural bakeoff at Mary's this year, and I was lucky enough to bring some home. Not only did I discover that Travis likes the wreaths when they don't have cinnamons on them (boo, less for me!), I also found out that Ninja appears to be wary of the green colored food. Here are a few pictures of her investigating, then attempting to beat the last wreath. Don't worry, no wreaths were harmed in the process of this photography. (And I personally removed the threat from Ninja by eating the last wreath.)

:)

-SKH

Pictures of the Great Unwrapping of 2008

2008-12-24T23:02:00.000-08:00

Reader, beware: There will be many pictures in this post, possibly too many for you to really care about...but I wanted to document the gift opening because we couldn't be with our normal audience. If you want to see them bigger, I think you can click on them and get a full sized image. As I mentioned earlier, Travis and I decided to open Christmas gifts tonight. (Sadly, I couldn't go sing at Mass because of the stupid weather. The weather that is so bad out here would be easy to deal with in Minnesota, but Washington just is not prepared to deal with any of this. Bah.)

We didn't put up a tree this year, just wasn't enough time to make it a priority, but I did still break out a few Christmas necessities, like the stockings you see here on our mantle. I also "artfully" arranged our gift piles underneath the stockings. Mine is on the right side, Travis' is on the left.

Travis got me some bubble baths:

Travis is excited to open gifts...though he did ask me why I got him an envelope (right, like I wouldn't put something in it!)

We took turns. I opened up this box next, it had some awesome goodies. The Anne of Green Gables DVD set (my VHS tapes are really old) and a piano playbook for the musical Wicked, which I played a little on the piano after we were done.

Next Travis opened up the gift from my parents that I probably wrapped the nicest (I had some ribbon, wanted to use it):

Next I opened some shoes from Mom and Dad.

Then Travis opened up Stepbrothers.

We both got money from Grandma and Grandpa Hilton and Aunt Sandy and Uncle Terry, so I decided that I would spend that cash and get a couple of video games for me. :) I was able to get both Guitar Hero: Aerosmith AND Rock Band 2! (Lisa and Beth, get ready to play a little of these when you are here. I haven't played since I moved to Seattle...seriously.)

I will admit that we didn't take pictures of us opening every single gift (though you might think so as I have shown a blow by blow thus far), but we did take quite a few.

I got some awesome long sleeved Ts from Lisa and Beth, and let me tell you, Gap is serious about gift wrap. It took me a little while to figure out how to tear into it - it was sort of a heavy duty plastic overwrap, but it looked way cool.

Travis got several CDs by his favorite band from Lisa and Beth.

Travis' big gift from my parents was this really neat naval painting the German ship Bismarck in Hamburg port. He really really likes it, and it looks way better in person than it did online!

We got all sorts of great stuff again this year - we'd both like to say thank you to everyone for the wonderful gifts. We really appreciate them.

Do you feel like you've gotten a good grasp of opening gifts with the Hensches? It's not like being here. We definitely miss everyone in the family, and we are missing our Minnesota Christmas traditions. We are trying to start new ones here, beginning with the waffle breakfast and pot roast dinner tomorrow night.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!!

-SKH

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T20:10:00.000-08:00

Well, I've made it to Christmas Eve, and I haven't let Travis open gifts yet. I have broken down...we will open them tonight, but at least I made it past December 15th this year!!

I made linguine alfredo for dinner tonight, and tried to make popovers. The popovers were pretty close to how we want them, but we have plans to try a little different recipe tomorrow night to go with our Christmas pot roast.

Merry Christmas, everyone! I miss you all.

-SKJ

I'm in Minnesota!

2008-12-14T19:31:00.000-08:00

Wahoo, I finally made it to Minnesota! After two missed flights due to weather, and anger at several cab companies, I have defeated Seattle and made it to Minnesota.

Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad! :)

So there.

-SKH

Christmas cheer

2008-12-09T23:11:00.000-08:00

Well, it's only 15 days to Christmas, and I can't say that I have really felt the holiday spirit as much this year as I have in years' past.

I have a few hypotheses on what the reasons are for this lack of holiday spirit:

Captain Obvious says: I am in a new place, and not really settled into the area or a home. We don't have a Christmas tree up because we are moving two weeks before Christmas...and all of our holiday decorations are in storage.
Seattle weather: The temperatures here are sort of throwing me off. I am not complaining about missing below zero windchills and lots of snow (or am I?), but it is disconcerting that the daytime temp has hovered around 45-50 degrees and the nighttime temp is around 35-40 degrees. I wear my "transitional" winter coat here...if I come back to MN any time soon, I think I might be in for a rude awakening!
We haven't really met a lot of people here, so we haven't been going to any Christmas parties or events.
No annual Hensch Holiday Bash :( When we move back to Minnesota, we are DEFINITELY reinstating that. The 6th annual Hensch Holiday Bash might be held in 2013, but we'll just asterisk the 6th and say we missed 5 years or something.
Lack of presents, for a few reasons: until we move to Kent, we don't have a mailing address; buying stuff online means I have to ship it to my work and carry it home on the bus (Trav's Blu-ray player is sitting at work now because I don't want to just carry it on the bus); Travis can't buy me anything online because he has nowhere to send it; we are trying to conserve cash to close on our house; etc ad nauseum

That's probably enough reasons. At least we will be in the house this week, and we are going to make a point to go look at Christmas lights around town soon and visit the cool display of holiday cheer that I spotted downtown last week. Plus I have a great plan for Christmas Day, seeing if we can start a new tradition: sleep in (I am singing at Midnight Mass the night before), call Mom and Dad's to wish the family a Merry Christmas and have them play me some John Denver, make a delicious breakfast of my blueberry waffles, pepper bacon, potatoes O'Brien and scrambled eggs (sunny side up eggs for Travis), then open presents and set up the new electronic equipment, watch a movie (hopefully Dark Knight) and then have a pot roast dinner (made in the Crock-Pot). Seems like a solid plan to me - what do you think? Want to come over? :)

I think this Christmas will just be very different from what we are used to, so I think it could be tough. I guess we will learn from this year what things we want to keep for next year, and what stuff we have to add in (like a tree!)

-SKH

Moving day is almost here - the King returns

2008-12-09T22:50:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure words can adequately describe how excited Travis and I are to get our own bed back. The bed and a functional kitchen are pretty much the two most awesome things that will be ours by Thursday evening, and boy, we are thrilled. (Make what you will of the combination of things that make us most happy. Ha.)

Growing up, I never really considered the concept of a king sized bed. It just wasn't something that really crossed my mind. My parents had a queen sized bed, and I just assumed that the queen sized bed would be perfect for me and my future partner. Wow, was I ever wrong! In October of 2007, we decided we would get a new mattress. We just weren't agreeing if "his" queen mattress was better than "my" queen mattress. (For the record, we slept on mine, as I couldn't stand the pillow topped mushiness of his bed. However, poor Travis was stuck on a mattress that was much too firm for him.) Enter a marriage tool named "Compromise."

You might be surprised to know that we bought a mattress from Target.com, and we had not gone and tested out any mattresses prior to purchase. (Yes, I work on the internet, I'm pretty much willing to buy most things there. Maybe not a car. But most things.) An untested mattress might seem to be a crazy thing, but I think it was actually good for us - we had no preconceived notions about the mattress and weren't able to have that knee-jerk reaction you often have in furniture stores of "I hate it" or "This is great" and then argue about them. A three minute test in a store doesn't really tell you a lot anyway. We also had an extra 10% at Target (added to our employee discount, for a total of 19% off...), and so we picked the retailer before the mattress.

After I did much research at Target, and ran all sorts of comparisons to other brands, prices, etc, we decided to purchase a king sized (!) Plush mattress. Plush is smack dab between Firm and Pillowtop, and seemed like a good option. I bought all sorts of blankets and duvets and sheets to prepare us for this king sized monstrosity. In the middle of October, the mattress was delivered and set up for us. After a few nights of getting used to it (it's huge! it's softer than our old bed! it's firmer than the other old bed!), we fell in love with it. The size is great...no more fighting for our halves of the bed, there is plenty of room to share.

Anyways, that's a lot of unnecessary information about how the king-sized mattress came to be ours, but suffice to say, WE WANT IT BACK. We've spent the past three months split between a crappy full sized (yikes) bed that sagged heavily in the middle and a nicer queen sized pillowtop bed that simply cannot keep sheets on it (the sheets deny the laws of nature and elastic, and pull off the bed while we sleep, annoying). Beginning Thursday, December 11, 2008, we will once again be sleeping like kings on OUR mattress.

Woohoo.

Oh, and I've already talked about why I need my kitchen back. One must have the right tools in order to cook, and I have missed mine.

Looking forward to Thursday!!

-SKH

I think we have a house!!

2008-12-05T19:10:00.000-08:00

Good news! Travis and I are moving into our house in Kent, and we should close by the end of the month. (I know, moving in before it's closed, but we are taking a calculated risk based on the current landscape, and all signs are favorable for us, so we're doing it.) I am putting some pictures of the house below for your enjoyment, and you can picture me sitting in the rooms.

Front of the house - look how nice the landscaping is. Three car garage to fit three quarters of our vehicles.
Back patio - isn't this beautiful? Travis is going to install a fire pit off the side (off the right of the picture, it will be great)

Master bedroom. It's nice and spacious. We'll need to get black out shades and a ceiling fan and we are set to go.

A view of the kitchen from the living room. Who has two thumbs and is super excited to have her kitchen back? ME!

View of the kitchen from the breakfast nook. It's pretty.

View of the family room from the kitchen - isn't that stonework around the fireplace nice?

I hope you enjoy the pictures - we're moving on Thursday, which means we will be "home" for Christmas! Yay!

-SKH

1st Annual Hensch Thanksgiving Day Brunch

2008-11-27T10:53:00.001-08:00

So as you probably know, Travis and I are spending our Thanksgiving Day in Seattle. We have already celebrated in Minnesota with the family (with yummy food and great company) a few weeks ago. Travis can't travel around Thanksgiving because everyone has to be at the store on Black Friday. Stupid retail. I wasn't about to leave Travis alone on our first holiday out here, so here we are in Seattle. I decided to make us something special for Thanksgiving, even though it wasn't a turkey.

Well, to start off with, this is definitely no turkey deliciousness. However, it didn't seem to make sense to make a full turkey feast for just me and Travis. Particularly considering Travis is not a huge fan of the turkey day food goodness. It's just not his favorite. So then I would have spent all day cooking for food that gets a "it's alright, thanks, honey" response. Not going to happen.

Thus the 1st Annual Hensch Thanksgiving Day Brunch was born! I made a pan full of baked French toast, complete with homemade caramel sauce and pecans, potatoes O'Brien and breakfast sausages. I guess technically those are all breakfast foods, but I don't want to limit the time we can hold this now annual event, so it will remain titled "brunch". It was the first time I made the baked French toast dish, and I have some more modifications to make to it for the next time I make it (get ready, Lisa and B!) But overall, it was pretty good.
The hardest part of making this meal actually was not having the right kitchen tools. The temporary housing we have right now has fairly crappy and really basic kitchen supplies, and we are missing a lot of essentials in my opinion. We don't have a non-stick skillet, so the potatoes O'Brien didn't get crispy like I wanted them to. I couldn't make any eggs because I didn't have another pan to make them in. Kind of lame...I cannot WAIT to have my own kitchen stuff back. I have all sorts of good stuff that is just sitting in storage now.

I hope everyone is having a happy and fun Thanksgiving! We're going to watch some football and just chill here.

-SKH

Something I like about the Pacific Northwest: QFC!

2008-11-26T19:58:00.000-08:00

One thing that is a little weird about moving is that while the new place has all of the store concepts you are used to, a lot of times, the store executions are way different. Take grocery stores, for example. When I visited Stacy and Cory this summer out in New Jersey, I went to their local grocery store to buy some stuff to make dinner. Everything was in the wrong place, and while they had the food items I wanted, they didn't have any brands I recognized!

I was worried about a similar experience out here in Seattle. I am a fairly brand loyal person, so I want my Country Crock, my Creamette and my Campbell's. So stores should have all of those things. I think I mentioned in a past post that I had a good experience at the West Seattle Safeway when I first moved out here, but it doesn't even compare to the QFC! (We currently shop at the one in University District, but I am sure we will go to the Kent one when we move...I hope there is one in Kent!)

QFC stands for Quality Food Centers, and they are a regional grocery store chain out here in Seattle. They are owned by Kroger, which is one of the largest (if not the largest) national grocery store chain. QFC has got all sorts of great stuff! Their produce and bakery sections always look awesome. Travis says he isn't sure how they always look so good, and even he is impressed by the QFC. To give an example, I went there last night (yes, the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving), and while they were really really crowded, they still had awesome selection. I honestly didn't see any shelves that were empty, and I went up and down every row while shopping. I was most impressed with the bakery section - they had dozens of cakes, pies, cookies and treats still in stock, and at least 40 kinds of bread and rolls for the big Thanksgiving meal. At 6pm! I don't think that happens at any of the grocery stores I went to in MN.

The QFC-made items have all been really good so far. They have this delicious nut and honey granola that we really like. They also have great produce (not cheap though) and a nicely stocked wine and beer section. (Yes, you can buy wine and beer at grocery stores, just not hard alcohol.) B, they also have a ton of kosher products. I even took a picture of the kosher bakery section for you (I don't really know why), but I haven't uploaded any BlackBerry pics to my computer, so you will have to imagine it.

I have devoted an entire post to this grocery store...that should tell you how impressed we have been thus far with them. They are a 24 hour store, the staff has always been super friendly and helpful, and the food is great. Plus they have the QFC Advantage card, which saves you tons of money. (Recent example: Buy 2 12-packs of Diet Coke and get THREE free. Insane deal.)

That's what I have to say about that.

-SKH

A review of Twilight the movie

2008-11-21T21:51:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to reread the Twilight saga in honor of the movie that released today. I bought tickets via Fandango earlier this week, and I dragged Travis to the theater tonight. (Don't tell anyone that Travis saw this. It will ruin his street cred.)

First of all, the AMC Loew's theater in Aurora is not recommended by me. For some reason, Seattle doesn't seem to have many movie theaters, and this one was small and older. Only 6 screens...but the lobby was maybe big enough for two. In addition, they RAN OUT OF POPCORN. What theater does that on a Friday night? And they tried to make more to keep up with the crowds, but only had one of their three machines working. Weird.

On to the movie. It was a totally sold out show, and while there were some adults there, the primary attendees were teenage girls. Some were wearing Twilight tshirts, some had Team Edward or Team Jacob shirts on and some were clearly there because their other friends made them go. A theater full of teenage girls is LOUD. I seriously didn't hear the beginning of the Harry Potter trailer because they all screamed when it came on screen.

The movie was...well, it was okay. It stayed pretty true to the book, but it just seemed like everything was overly dramatic. Seriously, the theater burst into laughter many times...but the scene wasn't meant to be funny. It was just too much. If you haven't read the book, you will be put off by the over-emoting done by Edward and Bella. Bella always seems very confused, and Edward seems to be in pain at all times.

Here are the characters that were well cast: Mike Newton, Jessica, Angela, Charlie, James, Rosalie, Esme and Billy. Edward, Jacob and Bella are all sort of decently cast. Sort of what I expected from the book. The characters I didn't think were well cast were pretty much everyone else. Jasper was made to be particularly weird for some reason, and Carlisle was not at all what I anticipated. Oddly blond. And Victoria didn't have red hair. Not cool.

The biggest things from the book that I thought looked dumb in the movie? The sparkle Edward was bad. The running by the vampires didn't look great. The silver Volvo was a hatchback - NOT what I pictured. Edward comes off as very stalker-like...but that is true to the book.

The things from the book that translated well? Charlie's awkwardness. The vampires' perfect immaculate appearance. Esme and Carlisle's kindness. Jessica's attitude toward Bella. The Port Angeles scene. Prom was okay. Angela.

I think that if you have read the books, you will think the movie is okay. They didn't make massive changes, so the crazy fangirls can calm down. It's clearly set up to do an Edward versus Jacob theme for the next movie. They've also very much set up the Victoria going after Bella storyline.

I don't think I will be buying this movie on DVD. I don't really need to see it over and over again. However, it was worth seeing, particularly because I enjoy the books.

-SKH

Twilight

2008-11-18T19:20:00.000-08:00

I have decided to reread the Twilight saga in honor of the first movie's release this Friday. If you are unaware (as in you have been living under some sort of rock), Twilight is the first book in a four book series by Stephenie Meyer. Check out Amazon's Twilight Store

Anyways, I first read the series this summer and fell in love with the storyline. I don't generally dig vampires and werewolves, but I was totally sucked in. It has a good blend of romance (ah, Edward), danger, paranormal and normal high school moments. I have all four books on my Kindle, and the Kindle makes it possible for me to read on the bus, even if I have to stand up on the trip. There's no fighting to turn pages while struggling to keep your balance - yay! Twilight absorbs me so much, I don't even really notice the other people on the bus, which is a sign of a great book to me. (Before anyone worries, I am still aware of my surroundings. I am not going to get mugged because Twilight...now the Wicked soundtrack? Let's just say it's good I don't listen to my iPod on the bus...that is such a good soundtrack I could see myself being 100% distracted.)

I have convinced Travis to go with me to the opening of the movie version of Twilight. He definitely does not want to go, but he is still going. :) Thanks, honey!

If you haven't read Twilight yet, I highly recommed it. It's a bit farfetched, but even if you don't like vampires or werewolves, I think you could still like this series. I did!

-SKH

Do flu shots make you sick?

2008-11-11T20:23:00.001-08:00

I stayed home from work today, sick. I can't tell if it is a cold, or if it something worse than that. I did get a flu shot last Wednesday - could that have made me sick? As I hate when people come into work sick (to get everyone else sick!), I stayed home. I spent a lot of the day in a hazy state due to cold medicine. I'm trying to beat this thing by sleep and rest!! Normally, when I get sick, I get REALLY sick. In an effort to stave off the near-dying stage, I am medicating early.

In other news, Travis passed his first round of STL interviews in Portland today! He just rocked the interviews right out the park. They called him less than three hours afterwards to tell him he passed. :) Now it is on to regionals in January. That's AWESOME. I'm so proud of him!!

I am watching the Dancing with the Stars results show, and then going to bed. More NyQuil for me, then hopefully I will feel well tomorrow morning. (Keep your fingers crossed!)

-SKH

Pictures from the ND weekend!

2008-11-07T20:17:00.000-08:00

I took some great pictures at ND last weekend, and it's about time I post them! They are in reverse order because Blogger makes them be that way (boo!) and I didn't want to mess around with moving them around. So deal with it.

I took a lot of pictures this time because the fall colors on campus were really pretty. And I took quite a few "artistic" (or artistic for someone like me, artistically-challenged!) pictures, so enjoy.

Oddly, at the end of the game, during the first overtime, the sprinklers turned on on-field. What the heck? Come on, ND. Weird.
Dad and I at the game!

Dad and I in the stadium with Touchdown Jesus in the background.

Touchdown Jesus from the stadium.

Touchdown Jesus in the reflecting pool. (Artistic?)

Not sure why I took so many pictures of Touchdown Jesus this time, but I did. I like this one.

The greatest college football stadium ever...Notre Dame Stadium!

Dad and I in front of the Golden Dome.

Super artistic leaf shot. It's my desktop background right now. It's yellow and pretty, and very fall-like.

Pretty yellow/red/orange trees.

The Dome and Basilica from across the lake.

Another arty shot. I like the red.

Campus is pretty.

The Grotto. This is the first place I went after I heard the towers fell. Me and lots of fellow Domers. This place is such a great reflecting spot.

A fairly artistic shot of the Basilica, this is probably the best picture I have ever taken on campus. Well, maybe not ever, but close.

A pretty picture of the Dome. This could be in catalogs, that's how great of a photographer I am!

A picture of the leaves changing on God Quad.

I think that's all I will post. A beautiful weekend on campus...it's a great retreat. You get religion, sports and culture all in one weekend. :)

-SKH

My friend's great post on keeping a rational head after today's results

2008-11-04T11:00:00.001-08:00

My friend Luna had a seriously awesome post yesterday, and she is letting me post some of it here!

Here's the full post: A plea for a rational reaction to the election

There’s less than a day until the election, and just over 24 hours until it’s all over. Someone new will be elected president. And someone else will not. Some of us will celebrate, and some of us will not. But really, whether our “side” wins or not, we should remember to celebrate the process. That even if we don’t agree with the person who gets elected, that we live in a country where we get to vote. Where we can express disapproval over an election or a president.

I totally agree with this. It is amazing that we can express our opinion, and I am shocked by how many people do NOT do so via voting. PLEASE VOTE.

What I wish we could all do – on either sides – is this: first, see what happens during the first weeks and months of the new administration. It may not be the Evil Empire that the opposition painted it to be during the campaign. Plus, their own campaign rhetoric may not be what they truly intend to implement. Both sides have to play to their bases, and they may put aside what is most controversial once the race is over.

Awesome, a call for rational thought! I add my support to that call. The country will not explode on November 5, regardless of who is elected.

And last, a call to activism. The statement below is how I feel about the Catholic church as well as our government. You have to actively work to enable change. Make your voice heard.

Finally, if you truly disagree with the policies, instead of worrying, actively work for the outcome you want to see on individual bills. Spending election night upset and worried about the future, followed by 8 years of frustration and bitterness will not change the world. Accepting the outcome and then working within the framework of the government we have might. Being able to talk to the “other side” and about the leaders that you disagree with calmly and respectfully instead of from positions of fear, in speech filled with rhetoric, might lead to compromises that we can all support. But if we all become so entrenched that we can’t see that the other side may have some valid points, if we all dig in our heels even more every time we disagree with someone, we’re never going to make any progress.

Thank you, Luna, for your great and thoughtful post! Make sure to go check out her full posting. It's good.

Happy Election Day, everyone!!!

-SKH

Lunch, Minnesota-style! Plus, a voting PSA

2008-10-31T12:38:00.000-07:00

Apparently, my last restaurant review was too detailed...therefore, this post will not really be a review of the Olive Garden. But I still want to mention it, because their breadsticks are garlicky and delicious.

Anyways, I flew to Minnesota on the red eye on Wednesday night, got my Pricelined rental car, stopped by the Chaska Bakery for some doughnuts, then went to my parents's house, where I promptly fell asleep. It was nice to get some sleep that wasn't in an airplane seat.

I met up with Beth and Erin Jane for lunch at the Olive Garden...the food was good (see breadstick comment above), but the company was great! It was nice to see both of them. If EJ will send me her pictures, I will post them on this "highly read" blog for all to see. That's incentive to send those pics to me.

After lunch, I ran a few errands, of which the most important was voting. Yes, I have voted now! I asked the election people at the courthouse if they had more absentee voting this year, and they have seen a lot more people voting early this year than ever. Carver County already had over 5,000 votes. I wonder if this election will change that average percentage of eligible Americans who actually make the effort to get registered to vote and then vote. I hope so, it makes me kind of sad that less than 40% of eligible people go out and vote.

Whoever you support politically, please go vote. It's a civic right and a civic duty. So go out and do it!

-SKH

A Review of Daniel's Broiler Leschi - Delicious!

2008-10-28T22:00:00.001-07:00

Travis and I just enjoyed a fantastic meal at Daniel's Broiler - Leschi, which is right on Lake Washington. While it was already dark out when we went to dinner (we had 7:30 reservations), the view from the window at our table was still great! We had a great view of downtown Bellevue, all lit up.

Everything about Daniel's Broiler was top notch. I will start off by saying that we will definitely be returning. I had made reservations this morning after a man at work highly recommended this place as the steak place in Seattle. (More on that later.) The woman who took my reservation was extremely helpful, and when she learned that we had recently moved to Seattle and that we were celebrating Trav's birthday, she was very excited that we had chosen Daniel's. I recommend mentioning if you are celebrating a special occasion when you make your reservations.

When we arrived at the restaurant (after a neat drive along the waterfront), we were promptly greeted by the manager as the hostess was seating another guest. (Way to step in! :) ) Our server was Austin, and he was a great help to us as we were deciding what to order. He also helped select a wine for Travis that would go well with his steak. He also reminded me how much I like sparking water, and I ordered some of that for me.

Because it was a special occasion, we went all out with our food choices. (Well, we didn't get lobster...) We started off with bacon-wrapped scallops as our appetizer, and Travis loved them. I can't say I am a huge fan of scallops (it's a texture thing), but the bacon wrapping did give them a nice crispy texture. The hot bread and butter was also delicious and very fresh.

While the restaurant had several seafood daily specials, Austin strongly suggested we go with steaks for our main course, as that is the real specialty at Daniel's. It's 100% USDA prime corn-fed Midwestern beef...youm. Travis ordered a 16 ounce (yeah, that's a pound) rib eye, and I ordered the 9 ounce filet mignon. I really liked that Austin didn't scold me for ordering my filet well done. I just don't like pink meat, and I am not "ruining" good steak by ordering it well done. So there. Along with our main courses, we also got mashed Yukon gold potatoes (very creamy, quite tasty...they also brought out toppings for the potatoes, which Travis used, adding fresh bacon bits, chives and butter to his mashed potatoes) and an order of broccoli to share. Plenty of food all around!

The steaks were awesome. They apparently broil them first at 1800 degrees, which puts a char on the steaks and seals in the flavors. Then they grill them to the preferred temperature. My filet was great - I'd say it's in the top 5 steaks I've ever had. I also really enjoyed the potatoes, though if I had known they'd have a Parmesan cheese garnish on top, I would have asked them to hold off on that.

After our meal, Austin brought out a special treat for Travis: an Alaskan silk cake tartlet thingy (I don't remember what it is really called, and it isn't on their menu online, so "Alaskan silk cake tartlet thingy" is what I call it.) It was a chocolate silk swirled with white and milk chocolate on a graham cracker crust with white chocolate shavings around the side. And the plate said "Happy Birthday" in chocolate, and they had put a birthday candle in it. So Travis blew out the candle and went to town on the ASCTT (see above). I secretly wanted some Key lime pie, but decided I was full, and I could just sit back and watch Travis enjoy his birthday cake.

Before we got our bill, Austin's manager (I'm sorry, I didn't get his name, he was also quite nice) came to our table and told me that he heard we had been referred to the restaurant by a colleague. He gave me a gift certificate to pass along to my coworker as a thank you for recommending the restaurant! This is a really interesting marketing move. I mean, sure, I could hold on to the gift certificate myself, and never tell this coworker. (I wouldn't do that.) But from the restaurant's perspective, it's a win-win. If I use it myself, it means we liked it enough to go back. If I give it to my colleague, he'll be excited that his recommendation had benefits for him, and might be inclined to recommend it again. Win-win.

I definitely recommend Daniel's Broiler. It's on the expensive side, but...we really enjoyed the atmosphere, the service, the food and the location and thus we were okay with spending the money. It is a really great find for us; we will bring people who visit us in Seattle to this restaurant in the future.

-SKH

Happy birthday to my other half!!

2008-10-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't know, today is Trav's golden birthday!!

The gift I got him (a watch) will arrive late. The irony of that astounds me.

I am taking him out to dinner tonight, to a place called Daniel's Broiler. It's apparently been rated the best steak in Seattle for the past six years. I am looking forward to it!

Anyways, happy birthday to Travis!

-SKH

Irish 33, Washington Huskies 7

2008-10-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

First of all, I'd like to say thank you to the University of Washington for providing such a great experience on their campus for visiting fans. Dad and I were wearing ND clothes, and literally not one Huskies fan said anything bad about it. The only time I was actually sad to be an ND fan was when this idiot kid who was REALLY drunk stumbled into our section (of course wearing an ND hat and backpack) and essentially passed out. Not cool, kid. Not cool.

So after showing Dad around the Seattle-land area (checking out the house in Kent, visiting our PO box, partaking in some Target goodness and then eating at RAM Brewery), we headed back downtown. Dad and I then hopped on the very convenient express bus up to campus, which was free for ticket holders. (Side note: Seattle public transit continues to impress me. Yes, I know that the bus has its flaws, but seriously, free transit in the downtown area everyday? Free transit to and from major sporting events? Come on, people, it's not that bad. Suck it up and hop on.)

Dad and I spent a little bit of time wandering around campus, and we were very impressed. The campus is beautiful, and the weather this weekend was gorgeous; the combination was perfect for a football Saturday. (We're going to Notre Dame this weekend, hopefully the weather will be just as nice...) I took some pictures of campus - there seems to be a neat European influence on the areas we were in, with a big fountain, a palazzo-type area and even a cool amphitheatre deal complete with columns.

After checking out some of the campus, we headed into the stadium. It's actually rated one of the top 25 stadiums to see a college football game in the nation. (So is Notre Dame Stadium, in case you were wondering.) Husky Stadium was great! The tickets I snagged on Craigslist were on the 20 yard line, about 35 rows up - our view was great. I had worried that it might rain this weekend, but not to worry. Not only was it a beautiful sunny day, even if it had rained, the seats we had in the stadium were totally covered. We had a pretty view of Lake Washington from our seats as well.

We had the guy behind us take our picture. He kind of gave me a funny look, but still took the pic. Thanks, dude!The band made the flag!
Within the first nine minutes, the Irish had scored twice. They looked really good at the beginning, but then had some terrible looking drives as well during the rest of the game. By the way, Dad just loved the HuskyTron - I admit, it really is pretty impressive. That screen had awesome clarity. We should get one.
By the end of the game, the Irish emerged victorious, and it was pretty evident that Husky coach (and former ND coach) Tyrone Willingham was going to be out of a job soon. (And he is.)

All in all, this was a fantastic first experience at an Irish away game. Getting to and from the game couldn't have been much easier (or cheaper!), the game was fun, the stadium was a great venue and Dad and I had a great time.

Here's to enjoying another ND game this Saturday - hopefully the Irish can pull off a win against the Pittsburgh Panthers, who have something to prove after getting their butts handed to them by Rutgers this weekend.

-SKH

My first Irish away game is today

2008-10-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

Did you know that I have never been to an away game for Irish football? Not during my four years at school, and definitely not in the five and a half seasons since I graduated.

The streak is ending.

Somehow, by some stroke of luck, Notre Dame is playing the University of Washington out in Seattle this year. I finagled some tickets on Craig's List, and convinced Dad to come out to see the the game with me.

We're decked out in some ND gear, and we are sitting in the UW alumni section, so I am a bit nervous about how their fans treat away team fans. Hopefully we won't be hit with rotten eggs.

Now we're going to show Dad around town, and show him the house we are (hopefully) buying.

Yay for visitors!

-SKH

Newsweek is really trying to capitalize

2008-10-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

So I see today that Newsweek has launched four new e-books via the Amazon Kindle, apparently compiling some of their existing coverage on the candidates as well as adding some new content. The compilations will only be available on the Kindle, and here's the kicker: they are each $9.99! (For those that don't know, that is about the highest priced product on Kindle, brand new NY Times Bestsellers - generally only available in hardcover physical format - are typically priced at $9.99 as well.) These compilation pieces could be really interesting, and a good way for people to get a fairly full picture of the candidates, but I am not about to spend $40 to get a compilation from Newsweek.

Check it out:

Do you think these are each worth $9.99? I probably would have paid $9.99 for both of the Democrats or both of the Republicans or perhaps just all 4 together, but not for just one.

-SKH

Raining

2008-10-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Well, Seattle is living up to its name today. And according to the weather lady on the news, this is a "typical fall day".

Yuck.

-SKH

Both Hensches are in Seattle

2008-10-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

Can I get a woot woot?

I've been in Seattle for seven weeks, but Travis wasn't able to move out here until this weekend. He and our buddy Andy spent two and a half days driving out here in the Durango, towing the boat behind. (I'm glad I didn't have to be on that drive, yuck.)

Travis is now here! We're still in temp housing (and moving to our next temp housing next weekend), but at least I'm not out here alone. (Of course, Travis' complaining about everything from the weather to the mattress on the bed is a whole other story, but perhaps that's for another time.)

We're going to bring Andy to the airport now, and then probably just spend the rest of the day chilling.

:)

-SKH

Yay, we won't be homeless!

2008-10-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

Travis gets to Seattle this weekend, and we only have two weeks left in the current place we have downtown. Well, two weeks that would be covered by my company, then we'd have to pay the exorbitant rent at Harbor Steps.

We've been waiting (not patiently) to hear from the bank on the house we're buying in Kent, but it doesn't look like it would be possible to close by October 27th. (Yes, that's in two weeks.) Thus, we needed to find another temporary living place that didn't cost $4500 a month. We've been doing a ton of research online, and let me tell you, it's hard to find a furnished place in Seattle that allows pets! We found some, but they were in the mid $3,000s per month, which is just more than we want to pay. We considered doing an extended stay hotel, but finally, something popped up in the University Village neighborhood.

I went and looked at the place today, and we FINALLY have our next temporary housing lined up. Yay!! It's really close to the bus line for me, and close to the freeway for Travis. Yay! To top it all off, it's actually pretty nice. :) I snapped the place up for at least November, and we'll see from there.

I have made it back home, and am making some homemade chicken noodle soup. Mmmm.

Good day!

-SKH

Flying, fish...though not at the same time

2008-10-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last five days traveling for business. I spent Sunday-Tuesday evening in Santa Cruz/Scotts Valley, CA at one of our offices there. They have a beautiful facility - there's even this gorgeous park right outside their door. I had no issues with my flights, rental car or anything.

I spent all day Wednesday traveling to Charleston, South Carolina. I left my house in Seattle at 5:30 am and didn't get to my hotel at almost 10 pm. (Yes, there is a three hour time difference, but still, the entire day was essentially wasted.) Why did it take so long, you ask? Let me tell you. When I got on the first flight in Seattle, I didn't get to board until the last group (thanks, United), and by the time I got to the door of the plane, they had run out of overhead space. Since I am only going to be in Charleston for a few days, I was traveling with only a carryon. Alas, they took my bag at the gate, and required me to check it through to Charleston. Anyways, other than that, the flight to Washington, DC was fine. We were shown some hilarious comedies (ala 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory and one more that is not coming to mind) as well as the movie Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. It was surprisingly good. We landed in Dulles about 40 minutes early - the flight is actually supposed to be nearly five hours.

My Charleston flight was unfortunately delayed by an hour, so I had several hours to kill in DC. We finally arrived in Charleston, and awesomely, no luggage. Turns out, they had randomly removed bags from the flight in DC to meet a weight limit. However, they didn't tell us this for about 75 minutes after landed. By the time I filled out the form for them to deliver my luggage to me, rented my car and got to my hotel, it was already 9:30. I then had to locate and visit an area Target store and pick up some toiletries, socks, underwear and a shirt, just in case my luggage didn't get here. I got a phone call at 1:30am...yeah, they called at 1:30. Nice. Thanks, United.

Anyways, after very little sleep, I got up and went into our Charleston office and worked a long day. Then, several of us who had come into town went out to dinner downtown at a place called Fish. Not surprisingly, they are a seafood place. Well, I decided to dive in (get it?) and I ordered one of their daily specials, red grouper. Over the past few weeks, I have eaten several different kinds of fish and seafood, and quite honestly, most of it wasn't bad. I'm apparently broadening my horizons!

I'm back at the hotel, and depressed that I missed both The Office and Grey's Anatomy. Now I will have to get them both on demand. I'm getting ready for bed, tomorrow will be another long day. Saturday, I have a really early flight, and then I need to go down to Kent to get a PO Box. Travis moves out here next Friday! Who's excited??

-SKH

Seattle Thunderbirds

2008-10-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

Travis was here visiting for a few short days (just Wednesday-Friday, I brought him to the airport really early this morning). While he was here, he picked up our season tickets plus two jerseys for the Seattle Thunderbirds, which is a WHL hockey team. (No NHL here in Seattle, which is a bummer.) Anyways, the home opener is tonight, and I am going with a buddy of mine from Amazon. I'm kind of excited to see how these games compare to NHL games.

The first half of the season is being played at the Key Arena in Seattle Center, and they are moving to the Kent Events Center in December - that will be their new home. They've loaded their front half of the season with away games, so there will not be that many games played at Key Arena anymore.

In other sports news, I am watching the Irish win against the Stanford Cardinal. What kind of team mascot is a color? Weird. Uh oh, ND just had a turnover! It's the fourth quarter, and the Irish are up by two touchdowns, but weirder things have happened...I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an ND win.

I've got some house news. As I mentioned, we took our offer out of the Goat House last weekend. During the week, an inspection was performed on the Renton house (not on our dime), and foundational issues exist, so that is off our list as well. I think we've finally found the right house - Travis found it on Wednesday, and we have an approved offer in front of the sellers' bankers (yes, it's a short sale...bah) The place is beautiful, it's in Kent, near Kent Station and the Kent Events Center, and we really like it. We may not be able to close on the place as fast as we want, so I went to visit an apartment complex in Kent today to discuss a very short term rental. So that's a possibility.

It's been raining for the past few days. Travis always brings bad weather with him. Yuck.

Well, it's thus far a busy Saturday, and it's only 2:45. Tomorrow I leave for San Jose for a few days, then it's off to Charleston for a few days, so I will be out of town all week. I hope all of my faithful readers have a good week :)

-SKH

I found bread!

2008-09-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

I know it's a funny title, but for all of the farmer's markets and fresh produce that can be foundin Seattle, for some reason I have the hardest time finding non-Wonder bread. I want some good bakery bread! Well, today, on my way home from work, I finally found some. Yay for me!

This weekend, I went out to the Goat House to meet with a contractor. Travis and I have decided to rescind our offer on that house - it just needs too much work and it would be a lot of time, stress and money. So it's off the table. Anyways, after I visited the house, I went over to Kent Station and got a manicure and then got some delicious dinner at a restaurant called Zao. They had these awesome chicken spring rolls...mmm. I want to go back!

This weekend I also cleaned up a bit, and wandered around Pike's Place market to get produce. I picked up some really good peaches, apples and something called a plumcot (which is a hybrid plum and apricot). I also got some vegetables and some chicken, and made myself a delicious dinner on Saturday night. I watched Made of Honor with Patrick Dempsey as well this weekend...it was decent, but nothing to write home about (interestingly, I am writing about it in this blog, which is essentially writing home. hmmm.)

On Sunday, I went with my new friend G. from work over to Target. I helped her pick out stuff for her new apartment - she moved here from NYC. We started on the same day, so us new Seattleites need to stick together! After shopping and unpacking her loot, we went out to a scrumptious dinner at the Pink Door. Oddly, I have been to this restaurant three times now. But I haven't really been to very many Seattle-area restaurants. I do recommend the Italian cuisine at the PD - it's really good. It's apparently "my" place.

:)

Tonight, I'm watching Dancing with the Stars, doing laundry, and getting excited for Travis to be here! Tomorrow night, I have a work soiree to attend, so I won't be able to do anything at the apartment tomorrow night to get ready for Trav (he gets here Wednesday for a visit - yay!)

In financial news (no, not related to the bailout) - I get paid tomorrow!! It's weird to be paid monthly. I am also getting a portion of my signing bonus tomorrow...maybe I should go out and celebrate being flush for a little while! :)

-SKH

I'm pretty sure I'm not bored

2008-09-26T21:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I am pleased to report that I am not in any way bored with my job or with Seattle! It seems like there is always something going on - it's to the point where I am excited to be able to stay home and watch TV at night.

I have dived into work now, and will be doing some traveling for my job soon. I will be going to San Jose, CA and Charleston, SC during the first part of October. (Anyone know a person willing to be a cat sitter while I am gone??)

On Tuesday night, I went and saw another house that is a strong possibility for me and Travis. We put in an offer on that place. I actually think we have two great options, now we need to see which offer gets accepted first, and throw ourselves into closing that quickly. (I know, two offers? Crazy. But the Goat House bankers are simply not responding quickly at all, and so we have to have a plan B.)

Thursday I had choir practice. We sang a song my college choir had recorded, and that was really fun. The men also sang the same version of Ave Maria that the ND Glee Club does...awesome. Nostalgic.

I also got to watch a lot of Dancing with the Stars this week. I really like that show. I ended up buying the iTunes subscription for Grey's Anatomy...I won't be able to see it when it is on because of choir practice, but I like the show a lot. Plus, it's set in Seattle. I actually know some of the places they talk about.

I think it is bedtime for me. I am sleepy, and want to get some good sleeping in.

-SKH

Back in the Seattle

2008-09-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

This time, I brought the kitty!

As mentioned on here before, I planned on bringing Ninja to Seattle with me when I came back from my vacation. I did it. I was very nervous about the kitty on the plane, particularly after she pretty much rejected the liquid Benadryl that was meant to make her calm. Seriously, she spit as much out as possible, sort of throwing up, and then foamed some of it at her mouth. Not cool! (Can you imagine trying to explain to the airport officials that she didn't have rabies? Right.)

I got to the airport about 75 minutes before my flight left, and to go through security, I had to take the kitty out of her carrier and carry her with me through the metal detector. She did fine in the airport really, just meowed some. She was very meowy and agitated at takeoff, but then I put the whole carrier on my lap and pet her the entire three hour trip, and that seemed to help. She freaked out at landing, but I get that. If I were a cat, I would, too.

I let her roam free in the car on the way back to my apartment, and I think that was the right choice. She was pretty meowy, but I think it would have been WAY worse if she stayed in the carrier.

Prior to the whole airport deal, I had a great time at lunch over at my parents' house. Travis and I picked up a whole ton of Famous Dave's BBQ, and then we met up with Lisa and Beth at Mom and Dad's. I ate too much, but it was delicious, and the company was great. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Well, I am exhausted...it's hard work being stressed about your pet when you fly!!

-SKH

Up north

2008-09-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

I am in Minnesota this entire week (yay!!) because we rented a cabin on Lake Vermilion. We are staying at Pehrson's Lake Lodge, and we have the Wren cabin. It's beautiful...brand new, and the entire interior is done in knotty pine. We are up here with our friends Pete (aka Fetus) and his girlfriend Rosa. They came up from Phoenix on Friday night.

I took the red eye flight on Friday night into Saturday. I can't believe how they stuff you in like literal sardines on those flights...I was crammed into a corner, almost needed a shoehorn to get into the seat. I got a little sleep on there, though not as much as I wanted! I borrowed my mom's car for the week, so we had two vehicles to get up here. Pete and Travis drove up the Durango and the boat, and Rosa and I took the Buick. We listened to an audiobook on the way up (Judge and Jury by James Patterson) - we're not quite through it, but it is pretty good thus far. I feel like I may have read this at some point, but I really don't remember how it ends, so it's all good.

We are currently watching the Catch Me If You Can DVD, which is one of Trav's favorite movies. Pete and Rosa haven't ever seen it. It's a pretty good movie.

We also have a rip roaring fire going in our fireplace, and I just love them. I'm excited about it.

Anyways, it is nice to be in Minnesota now, and it's great to see Travis finally! :)

-SKH

Hamburger Helper...

2008-09-11T18:18:00.002-07:00

...makes a great meal!

Well, at least I am telling myself that. The lasagna variety is cooking away on the stove right now. I'm sure it's no stovetop lasagna (one of my specialties) but it will I think be serviceable. You might wonder why I even have Hamburger Helper. No, it didn't come with the apartment, but I figured when I was at the store that it was a quick and easy meal that I really don't have to think too much about. It takes maybe 20 minutes to make, so it doesn't get much faster.

I have choir rehearsal tonight from 7:30-9:30, and I also need to pack for MN, so I don't have much time tonight to do much else. Tomorrow night I have dinner plans before I head out of town, so I don't want to rely on having a ton of time tomorrow to pack, so I want to do it tonight before choir.

All is well in Seattle. I am excited to come home for the upcoming week...the cabin on Vermilion looks great, and I even got a spa day planned for Rosa and me next Friday. Fun times.

I'm settling in well, starting to make friends and do stuff. I went up to Ballard last night to meet up with some people, and enjoyed several adult beverages at a bar called Hazlewood. Then today I met some folks for lunch, and had an absolute blast...fun times!

Off to eat the Hamburger Helper!!

-SKH

Samantha = smart

2008-09-09T20:11:00.002-07:00

So on Sunday, I had my first Mass as part of the Cathedral Choir. It was awesome. Everything about it was pretty much perfect...I felt like I fit in, the music we made was literally divine, and it started off my second week in Seattle very well. The choir is going to be a time commitment each week, with a 2-3 hour rehearsal on Thursday nights, and 2-3 hours every Sunday for Mass, plus some additional rehearsals and Masses for special occasions, like Easter and Christmas. (Sorry to my favorite Jewish friend, for some reason we don't sing on Hannukah (sp?) or Pesach. I'm not sure why. We are singing a lot of Mendelssohn though, which sort of balances it out.)

After Mass, I decided to explore a little bit in the northern part of Seattle. The furthest north I had been in the city was downtown...that's not very far north! I drove up to Northgate (hit up Target, found a mall and Best Buy if I want them) and then around to the University Village (I went to Chipotle for lunch...an odd thing about downtown - there don't seem to be any chain restaurants that I am used to at all down here...it's weird.) While in UVillage, I also spotted a PetCo (prodigious!) and I picked up all the kitty stuff I will need for when Ninja is here next Sunday. Yay for the kitty coming to Seattle! I am a bit worried about her flying...I need to pick up the medicine to make her sleepy and less anxious on the trip.

Why does Samantha = smart? (Well, other than the obvious...) I explored on Sunday without much help from my navigation unit! And I did well!! (Woohoo for me.)

I made peanut butter cookies tonight, and will bring those into work tomorrow. I ate about a million cookies, and now my stomach feels yucky. Serves me right. Now I am watching 90210 - because clearly I need culture. :)

-SKH

Review: Shrek the Musical (Seattle)

2008-09-06T17:23:00.004-07:00

Well, I had the opportunity to go to Shrek The Musical last night at the 5th Avenue Theater. It is making its world debut here in Seattle, ironing out its kinks prior to opening on Broadway later this fall. I should start by saying that I had really no expectations for this show, as I had never heard of it, and I bought the ticket on a whim approximately 3 hours before the show began.

I did wonder: How would it be possible to turn this animated movie into a stage show? I know it's been done, and done successfully with shows like The Lion King and other Disney movies, but...this was different.

The adaptation was interesting, to say the least. The story really didn't differ from the movie at all; many of the the lines and jokes were verbatim. My seat in the theater was directly in the center, but it was the very last row, so I didn't see too many of the detailed facial features. The entire stage was set in shades of lime green, and the lighting was also very green. The marketing campaign of this show has been "Go Green", focusing on how to get to the theater in an eco-friendly manner, selling green ear pieces, etc.

The show opened, and through the first few songs I thought, "Uh oh. This is bad." The songs weren't catchy, the dances weren't very interesting and overall, I was not really enthused. Once the adult Shrek came on stage, it got better. The actor who played him (Brian D'arcy James) had a strong voice. The Scottish accent sometimes annoyed me, but even Mike Myers in the movie did that, and I really like the movies still. The actresses who played Fiona (there was a song with young Fiona, teen Fiona and adult Fiona) were all good - the adult Fiona (played by Sutton Foster) was awesome. The character Farquaad was played very well by Christopher Sieber, who is coincidentally from St Paul), but I really didn't like that he played the show on his knees. It was distracting to me, though I get why they did it. He did an impressive job of acting, singing and yes, dancing (!) on his knees, and for the most part, his costumes hid his legs. The guy who played Donkey (Chester Gregory) was fine, but his costume was fairly lame.

The ensemble cast for the creatures of Far Far Away varied from enchanting to annoying. I liked a few of the full company numbers, but for the most part, I felt like their sections fell flat. Too much focus on Pinocchio and some small elf (I have no idea who she was).

I forgot to mention the dragon! Extremely weird, didn't like those sections at all. Reminded me of the random spot in Grease where they sing "Beauty School Dropout" (I think that is what they sing then).

Overall, I give the show a grade of C-...it wasn't the worst show I've ever seen (that would be the Fargo-Moorhead production of Big), but it was by no means the best (that would be The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theater in London). For a major market large scale show, I guess I expect more. I know this run is meant to be their "dry run" before going to Broadway, but then so was the world premiere of The Lion King in Minneapolis, and that was phenomenal. So all in all, a bit disappointing.

Oh well, I really liked the theater, and will likely be making return visits there. The season this year has a few shows I'd like to see, and they have a special deal for subscribers under 30, so maybe I will see if Travis wants to subscribe.

So now I can say I have been to two global premieres, and Shrek the Musical is not the better of the two.

-SKH

I made it through the wilderness

2008-09-05T18:49:00.004-07:00

First week of work is on the record books! I won't be writing too many specifics about work on here (do you guys remember those cases when bloggers wrote about their companies and then got fired? that won't be me!) but the first week went well. I spent my first few days planning what the heck they are paying me for, and think I have a solid plan. Execution will be the key for me, my friends, and I will be working lots of hours to get this stuff done.

But it's fun!

I have a fabulous view of Mt Rainier, Safeco Field and Qwest Field from my desk - yep, I got myself a window. :)

I am going to go see the world premiere of Shrek the Musical tonight (well, it's not opening night or anything, but it is the world premiere run, so go with it) - I know nothing about it, but the theater is about 5 blocks from home, and on the way home from the office today, I stopped and picked up a ticket. More to come on how that is...not sure that the green ogre will transfer well (think Lord of the Rings: The Musical?) but we will see!

I get my car back (finally!) tomorrow morning, so that's good news. I may drive around the northern suburbs to see how life is up there. I am also thinking of going to go to the Notre Dame game watch with the ND Club of Greater Seattle tomorrow, and then Sunday, I have my first Mass as a member of the world-famous St James Cathedral Choir. (The first rehearsal and welcome dinner last night were awesome...this is going to be good for me.)

Anyone who wants to come out and see me...let me know! I would love company...I'm very excited for the kitty to come out here on the 21st after our Lake Vermilion vacation. Someone to come home to! :)

Oh, and I got a BlackBerry. In case I wasn't reachable enough or connected enough before. Now I have an additional cell phone number (this one with a 206 area code). I don't quite have the number memorized yet, but I am close. I do have my office phone memorized now. Woohoo!

-SKH

I like Labor Day

2008-09-01T20:47:00.003-07:00

What a holiday. I am not exactly sure why we get the day off, but hey, I'll take it. I spent my last day before starting my new job being a cultured Seattle resident. I went to the SAM, the EMP and the SFM. What are all of those acronyms, you wonder?

SAM = Seattle Art Museum
As I mentioned in my last post, the SAM is literally outside my door, and they had an Impressionism exhibit that only goes until mid-September, so I decided to head over there. They normally aren't open on Mondays, but they were open today to catch all of the Labor Day traffic. The exhibit was neat, it compared the works of several well-known Impressionist artists (including Manet, Monet, Cezanne, Cassatt, Renoir, etc) to the works of previous masters that inspired them. I used the audio guide, and was very intrigued by the paintings. Well worth my time. I'm glad I decided to do this.

EMP = Experience Music Project
SFM = Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame

I took the Monorail from the Westlake shopping center here in downtown over to the Seattle Center, which is where the Space Needle, the EMP/SFM and the Bumbershoot Music festival are located. I thought about hitting up the music festival (it's last day was today) as my favorite band (the Old 97's) was playing, as was Mike Doughty, but I wasn't willing to part with $40 to see a few bands today. Instead, I went to the EMP/SFM, and spent a few enjoyable hours in geek heaven. The complex was founded by Paul Allen, one of the co-founders of Microsoft (surprise surprise, he's one of the richest people in the world...) and it is filled with lot of cool music exhibits and "do-it-yourself" performance booths where you can learn how to play guitar or mix a track. Pretty interesting.

The SFM was funny. Lots of memorabilia around sci-fi, with a special focus on Star Trek and Star Wars. A lot of the exhibits were donated from Paul Allen's Family collection. I think it is funny that he owned so much of that stuff already, but I am not really surprised. I thought the SFM was sort of lame (how many times can you hear the Star Wars Death Star theme?) but I am glad I went to see it. It's good to explore my new city!

I drafted my fantasy football team tonight - sorry I was late, league! I had found a used DVD store close to my house, and I picked up a few movies to watch for when I am bored. My team might not be very good, so I guess I will have to work on my creative smack talk instead.

I am going to get ready for bed and hit the hay early tonight - my first day at the new job is tomorrow. I spent some time tonight researching my bus route over to the orientation building (my company has several locations in Seattle), as well as my route options to and from the Columbia Center, which is where my office is. I *think* I know what I am doing! We'll see tomorrow morning.

Have a great day, everyone!

-SKH

I really liked the church! - Seattle Day 2

2008-09-01T13:25:00.004-07:00

I know, I didn't post last night and I should have, but today's post will have to do. I did tell several people about this already, so this might be old news to you anyways.

As I mentioned, I went to the 10am Mass at St. James Cathedral yesterday morning. The walk took me about 20 minutes, and it was mostly uphill (I will apparently be getting into better shape by living here!) The walk was very easy, just up Seneca and right on 9th. When I got to the church, I was handed a bulletin, which contained their music as well as all of the parish happenings. The way the altar is set up means that people can sit on all four sides (Mass in the round sort of). I chose to sit in the front. After I sat down, the priest came up to introduce himself to me - he was very personable. The music for the Mass was gorgeous. All of the responses were sung, and the majority of the songs were familiar to me. Even though it is a Cathedral, and the seat of the Archdiocese, I loved the community feel of the church. It reminded me of the Basilica at Notre Dame.

After Mass, I decided I would go to the coffee hour and see if I could meet anyone. I did! I met an usher, who introduced me to a choir member, who wanted my information for the choir director. Both the priest and the choir guy told the director that I should be in the choir, so later on Sunday afternoon, the director called me. The St. James Cathedral Choir is one of the best choirs in the country, and normally you need to try out, but apparently because I sang at Notre Dame and my parish in Chaska, I don't need to. (Sweet.) I am going to check out the choir on Thursday evening as they have their first rehearsal of the year, and then sing with them on Sunday morning. I'll keep you posted.

After I left the cathedral, I walked over to my office building, and then headed towards home. It will only take me 10 minutes or so to walk to work; I will have to see how I am feeling in the mornings and how the weather is, but it's good that it is possible. I will be getting my workouts from that walk!

Yesterday afternoon, I wandered around the retail core of downtown Seattle, browsing shops and taking in the layout of the land. I found a hair salon/spa called Gene Juarez where I got my haircut. It looks good, and this business has mulitple locations in the Puget Sound area, so I will be able to go to one without having to come downtown even after we move to Kent (if we get the house, no word yet).

That pretty much wraps up my day yesterday. I just chilled in the evening. I think I might head over to the Seattle Art Museum (aka the SAM) today. It's just across the street, and they are having an Impressionism exhibit right now.

-SKH

First full day here

2008-08-30T19:55:00.011-07:00

Today was my first full day in Seattle. I decided I would sleep in a bit (I got up at 9, which is fairly early for me), and then begin exploring. I had two things on the agenda today: I needed to find Target and a grocery store. Too bad there aren't SuperTargets in Washington!

I wanted to buy a few things to make the place seem more like home, and I also needed to get all of the basic necessities for living, like laundry detergent and food. I desperately needed hangers as well so that I could fully unpack.

I spent a fair amount of money today at Target and Safeway (I recommend the West Seattle Safeway), but I really feel like the apartment is all set now. It feels good! It's amazing what a few placemats, lamps and throw blankets can do. :)

After I came home (!) and unpacked my loot from my shopping trip, I decided to head over a block and hit up the Pike's Place Market to see if I could find some produce and flowers. I scored on both counts...the giant bouquet in the picture of my dining area was only $10. Seriously.

I am including a few pictures from my foray into the market - there were so many people there, and it made it difficult to even walk, much less take pictures, so sorry there aren't that many, Beth! I took one picture of a crepe sign to show Amanda that it looks like I can get good crepes here in Seattle. :)

By the way, I passed this store today - apparently I belong here and this sign is telling me (or my former self) to shop here!

Tomorrow's plan is to head up to St. James Cathedral, which is about three quarters of a mile away. The weather tomorrow morning is supposed to be clear, so I think I am going to walk. Check out my route. The cathedral is only about a block away from my office, so this will be a good way to see how long it would take me to walk to work if I wanted to. I'm going to find a place to eat brunch after Mass, and bring my Kindle so I don't feel weird eating alone!

In the afternoon, or maybe on Monday, I am thinking of taking a Seattle tour, and getting the lay of the land. We'll see - stay tuned!

-SKH

New digs in Seattle

2008-08-29T21:44:00.004-07:00

I'm too tired to do much more than post the few pictures I took today of my new (temporary) apartment. It's a "fully furnished" place in a complex called Harbor Steps. The traffic to get from the airport to Seattle was a breeze, but the traffic when I got to downtown was unbearable. It took me at least 35 minutes to get from the edge of downtown to 1st and Union. Yikes!

Anyways, I made it. I have a rental car (a Vibe, it's actually pretty cool), and because of the parking garage, I will apparently get good at parking it (maybe?) The garage is definitely a city lot...small spaces, lots of pillars. Bad for Samantha!

I bought a few groceries tonight, and I will be making a bigger trip tomorrow out to a Target store and a grocery store. Once that is done, I should be all set. I'm almost done unpacking and making it feel a little bit more like home...I do need a bunch of hangers in order to finish putting away my clothes.

So on to the pictures. I took pics of the apartment from a few different angles, and got a few shots of the view as well. It's an interesting layout, but kind of weird in my opinion. The only bad thing about the "fully furnished" is that there isn't a TV in the bedroom, which I am used to...I wouldn't mind falling asleep to that tonight.

So there you have it, day 0 in Seattle is done and over. Now onto learning the area!!

-SKH

Leaving for the airport soon

2008-08-29T09:34:00.001-07:00

My flight leaves at 2:25...I have three enormous bags packed, plus two carry ons...I've said goodbye to my husband and my parents...I guess I am ready to go.

Whoa! Scary!

Wish me luck!!!!!

-SKH

Last time landing in MN when it is officially my residence...

2008-08-26T16:54:00.002-07:00

Travis and I had a quick trip out to Seattle over the past few days. Why you ask? Because we put in an offer on a house neither of us had seen, and we needed to be there for the inspection!

I cannot believe the way the previous owners/residents TRASHED the place. The smell in the house was pretty much unbearable - I almost threw up because it was that bad. Seriously, they had a goat that lived with them. A GOAT. We will need to essentially gut the interior and start all over. We're working with the mortgage guys to see how we can make that happen for us.

The great news about the place is that it is a good investment, the work is almost entirely cosmetic, and the location is fabulous. The number one (and two and three) tenet in real estate is location, so that bodes well.

Now we are waiting on our mortgage company and the bank that owns the property to get back to us to let us know what our next steps are - keep your fingers crossed!

Anyways, when we landed back in Minneapolis, I realized that it was my last flight to Minnesota that has Minnesota as my official residence! I move out to Seattle this Friday afternoon, so at that point, I will have to say I live in Washington! Weird!

-SKH

This made me a little sad today

2008-08-21T11:44:00.005-07:00

I was looking at my church's bulletin for this upcoming weekend (at http://www.gachaska.org/) and saw this little blurb in there:

This made me a little sad for a few different reasons. It was very sweet of them to put this in there (I'm pretty sure it was the music director's idea, thanks Teresa!). I am going to really miss this parish - I've been a member for the past 27 years, and cannot believe that I won't be involved there anymore. I am very concerned about finding a good parish out in the Seattle-Tacoma area that I really like and where I feel at home. Travis doesn't go to church, so Guardian Angels was pretty perfect for me...I knew so many people there and was so involved that I never really noticed that I was "alone" there.

Anybody have any suggestions for good Catholic churches in the southern Seattle/Kent/northern Tacoma areas?? Any advice would be welcomed!

-SKH

Ninja is flying!

2008-08-19T06:52:00.000-07:00

She's flying to Seattle with me at the end of September...I bought her "ticket" last night.

Now I just need to get her a vet appointment, and figure out some sort of sedative situation so she doesn't go insane.

-SKH

Weirdness of buying plane tickets...

2008-08-17T17:50:00.002-07:00

...when the departure city is not MSP!

Travis and I have been planning a week long vacation up in northern Minnesota for a long time. Since before we went to Europe back in February, really. So we've been looking forward to this. We've rented a cabin up on Travis' favorite lake ever, Lake Vermilion, and his best friend, Pete, and Pete's girlfriend, Rosa, are flying up from Phoenix to join us.

Except now I will be in Seattle! So I also have to fly in for this vacation. I am buying my plane ticket tonight, and it feels weird to be buying tickets with SEA as the departure airport. This is actually the second ticket I am buying with Seattle as my departure - I've already bought my ticket back to Minnesota for the November 1 Notre Dame-Pittsburgh game. I am flying into Minneapolis, spending the day with my Mom, and then Dad and I are flying to South Bend that night. I will fly back through Minnesota on my way back to Seattle at the end of the weekend.

This vacation we have up in Vermilion should be great - we've rented a really sweet cabin at Pehrson's Lodge Resort. We have rented a cabin called the Wren, which sleeps 6 people...if you're interested in coming up for a few days in mid-September, let me know - we might have a bed for you to crash on.

I'm also on a mission to find a spa in either Hibbing or Duluth. Does anyone know of one?

-SKH

Sitting in the hospital

2008-08-16T21:00:00.003-07:00

*********UPDATE************
11:30 pm No surgery needed! The CAT scan shows enlarged lymph nodes, which is what is likely causing this issues. The doc thinks it is some sort of viral infection...we're going home for the night. If anything changes, we will have to come back in the morning. But for now, good news!!

*****************************

Travis and I are over at St Francis Hospital right now (yay for wireless internet!) because Travis has been having stomach pain for the past 30 hours or so. Because the pain was mostly localized in the lower right part of his abdomen, we were concerned that it might be appendicitis.

We've been here for about 3 hours now and Travis has had a few tests done. They have definitely not been able to rule out appendicitis, and indeed, all signs point there.

If it is appendicitis, I will be here for the night, as they will do the surgery tonight.

Anyway, I will keep you posted...think good thoughts for Travis!!

-SKH

Moving in two weeks

2008-08-15T19:38:00.003-07:00

I changed my moving date to Friday, August 29 because Travis and I are going to be in Seattle for a few days at the beginning of that week in order to make sure everything is in line with the house on which we are making an offer.

Yes, we found a house that might work for us! It's an enormous (3700 sq ft) place in Kent, which is actually closer to downtown Seattle than Federal Way. We would need to do a lot of cosmetic work on the interior as the previous owners just trashed the place, but it's bank owned and looks to be priced right. We'll see how our offer goes; Travis likes this place a lot, and I think it would be a great place for us to build some value.

I'm working on finishing up our paperwork for the financing on the new house, and we need to pick a realtor to sell our existing house here very soon.

I cannot believe that I am moving in just two weeks. Nearly every day and night is packed full of stuff to do, people to see and going away parties to go to. It's insane, but good. We have so many people here that we are going to miss desparately, and it will be nice to hang out with the Minnesota peeps before I go.

Get ready for a crazy time - moving across country is scary!

-SKH

Michael Phelps might as well be a god

2008-08-15T19:35:00.002-07:00

So...Michael Phelps just won ANOTHER gold medal. Seriously, this man is unstoppable. That makes a perfect 7-for-7 record at the Beijing Games. One more relay race to go, and he should beat out the whiner Mark Spitz for a grand total of 8 Olympic golds in one Olympic.

Best Olympian of all time.

-SKH

Olympic Fever!

2008-08-12T19:19:00.002-07:00

I will start off by saying that I LOVE the Olympics. I will happily watch any sport. I love that there are literally hundreds of hours of coverage on over the two week period - God bless NBC. To demonstrate how much I enjoy everying Olympic, take this example: I am moving approximately 1500 miles away in just 16 days, and what am I doing? Sitting on the couch, watching Michael Phelps make history.

My favorite parts of the Summer Olympics are the swimming events, diving events and gymnastics. During the Winter Olympics, I like to watch a lot of events...skiing, skating, hockey, snowboarding - the list goes on and on.

MICHAEL PHELPS JUST WON HIS TENTH CAREER OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL! That was awesome. I am excited to see his next final tonight. Can he really continue his sweep? It's really incredible. Has anyone noticed his incredible abs, back and shoulder muscles? It is just insane. Wow.

Anyways, I think I will work on getting some clothes packed up for donation while watching some Olympics on this Tuesday evening. Who's getting excited for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics? :)

-SKH

Chicago's delicious food weekend

2008-08-11T20:13:00.016-07:00

Mmmm. So I spent the past 4 days in Chicago for Terminus with Hava, and we ate really well during our trip. :) We ended up having several kinds of Italian food during our stay. Chicago really is known for awesome Italian food.

On Thursday, we met up with some friends at Carmine's, which is a Rosebud restaurant. I had the square noodles with arriabiata sauce...yum. Of course, they gave me far too much food (the bowl of pasta they delivered to me could have fed my entire family) but let me tell you, it was wonderful. The company at dinner was also great. :)

On Friday, we ate lunch at a place called Mercat, a Catalan-inspired restaurant. I'll be honest with you: I didn't like it. I had this ham sandwich thing that had too much aioli on it, and then it came with paprika fries that we simply doused in paprika aioli. Gross. Anyways, that's where we went.

On Friday night, we actually decided to order pizza (Chicago-style deep dish, yum) and watch the Olympic Opening Ceremony. This was a very good plan by us! We ordered from a place called Giordano's that we had both had, and really enjoyed our pepperoni, mushroom and spinach pie. The opening ceremonies were incredible...China really put on a fabulous show for the world on 08.08.08.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to this cool deli sort of near the hotel called the Eleven City Diner. We decided to do salads as we were thinking that we might do pasta that night. They chop any salad for free, and I find that a chopped salad is way easier to eat. My chef's salad was good, and had a LOT of turkey chunks and ham slices. Yum. The place was crazy busy, and the owner was very abrasive to his staff, but all in all, plenty of fun. Hava got hit on by the cute diner at the table next to ours. I have a pic of the Deli and another of the two of us at the deli that I am posting.

On Saturday night, we went to a fun Italian place called Gioco - Hava wanted to carb up with some pasta prior to her race on Sunday morning. (Hava signed up for a half marathon on a whim once we got into town...impressive!) She was able to get them to make her spaghetti and meatballs, while I had their mushroom and pork risotto special. I couldn't believe how good the risotto was - I think I may need to learn how to make risotto someday because it is so dang good!

On Sunday, I headed to brunch at North Pond up in Lincoln Park with my best friend Stacy, her husband Cory, and her parents, Bob and Nancy. This was easily the best meal I had in Chicago. Wow. We picked our prix fixe items from this menu (well, a similar menu, they do their work based on what food is locally available). I had the citrus french toast as my first course (it was awesome, with sour cherries on top rather than strawberries...must be what they had fresh), the halibut dish as my second course (it came with a creamy polenta and cucumbers rather than beets), and a peach/blueberry tart for dessert. Heavenly. Top it off with a peach mimosa, and you have heaven in a restaurant.

Our drive home had no eventful food. We ate at a Taco John's (gross, there's a reason I hadn't eaten there in 10 years). I also had a McFlurry at one stop, which are generally tasty.

So there you have it, folks. I had a great food weekend. :)

-SKH

Softball update

2008-08-11T19:50:00.002-07:00

The playoffs for church league softball began tonight. We had an even .500 record in the regular season, and were seeded in the winners bracket. We played the team from Crown of Glory tonight, and I think our teams were pretty evenly matched.

Guardian Angels played an AWESOME game. I think we played the best we have all season! We were getting good bats and good gloves from everyone. Unfortunately, we were the away team, and COG was playing really well too.

In the top of the seventh (that's the last inning in our church league), we pulled ahead of the tie by getting two runs (I was one of them, I hit pretty well tonight). The score was 10-8, GA. COG gets up to bat, we get two good outs, and then BAM, one of their bruisers hits the ball out the park. That's the first time we had another team hit an out of the park homer. Dang. So the score is tied (they had a little guy on base) now, and they hit a huge fly ball with one person on base. It got lost in the lights, and they got another run...game over.

Dang! We played so well tonight! It's a real bummer to lose such a close game, particularly when we had some questionable calls from the ump that did not go our way.

Oh well, we lost gracefully, and we had a ton of fun playing tonight. We play again next week, and if we win our 6:15 game, we go on to play a doubleheader at 7:30. I'm going to have some optimism and see if I can get my husband to bring the team some KFC between games so we can have some delicious protein power. :)

Being on this team has been just awesome for me this summer. I've had a great time, and I am glad that the season ends just before I leave for Seattle. I doubt that any of them read my blog (YET), but if someone is, I'd like to say thanks for a fun season to Bryan F, Brian B, Brian R, Dan, Ken, Julian, Mike, Alex, Joanne, Sean, Brendan, Greg, Jenna and Amanda (my recruit! :) )

I meant to take a picture tonight, but I forgot to take care of that...so I hope to remember next week.

-SKH

Top 5 reasons I hate Wisconsin

2008-08-11T15:23:00.001-07:00

First of all, let me start off by apologizing to all Wisconsinites. I am sure you are nice (particularly if I know you well enough that you are reading my blog), but man, me and the state of Wisconsin are just not friends*. Below are a few reasons for this long-standing feud I have with the land of cheese, the Pack and I-94.

1. Weather. I think that I must have a bad weather beacon from the state of Wisconsin. Almost every time I drive through there, there is a tornado, blizzard or torrential rain. Or all three, if I am lucky. Take, for example, the trip that Dad and I took to Notre Dame during the spring of my senior year of high school. We left Chaska on a sunny Friday afternoon, hoping to make it to Chicago before full dark (which was fairly early, because it was spring). Things were going well until about two hours into Wisconsin…sky darkens ominously and then…downpour. Lightning, thunder, pouring rain – these all make for awesome driving.

2. Cheese. Cheese as a standalone food is one of the most disgusting things I can imagine. The smell, the feel and worst of all, the texture – gross! The entire state of Wisconsin is one giant cheese factory. Some people may like this…I do not.

3. The Green Bay Packers. I’ll admit it. As a high schooler, I cheered for the Packers. Was it because they were Super Bowl champions? Maybe. Was it because I thought Brett Favre was HOT? Probably. Was it because the Vikings were simply terrible then? Possible, though not much has changed. Anyways. Whenever the Packers play the Vikings, state pride really becomes an issue. Even if the Vikes get killed, it doesn’t matter. The Packers are no longer a team I can cheer for…they no longer have (old) Favre, and they aren’t Super Bowl champions. Sorry, Pack.

4. I-94. As mentioned above, my luck with driving in Wisconsin is not good. Not only does weather torment me in that state, so do other road hazards. Particularly, but not limited to, construction. This past weekend, we had two major delays in the big WI, and while neither was due to construction (this time), we literally waited for over two hours on the stupid interstate. There really aren’t many exits, and thus, we were lucky enough to just…sit there.

5. Oddly named highways. Highways should be numbers, not letters. In addition, if highways must be lettered, please do not use multiple letters. Highway A and Highway AA appear mighty similar in the dark in the middle of nowhere.

*The only friendliness Wisconsin and I share is due to their wonderful lakes and beautiful “up north” country. Someday I will likely own land in Wisconsin (CABIN!), and therefore, I hope to repair my relationship with the state. I hereby offer my hand in peace, Wisconsin. Your reaction to my offer the next time I cross into your borders is now up to you. I hope we can be friends.

Yes, it took me almost 10 hours to drive home from Chicago yesterday.

End rant.

-SKH

Harry Potter and Chicago

2008-08-07T13:42:00.002-07:00

So Hava and I finally made it into our room at the conference in Chicago! We had a time of it.

We left the office after a hectic half day yesterday at about 1pm. We decided to stop at Sonic in St Paul for lunch (who knew we had a Sonic in Minnesota?!) We had some delicious burgers, tots and limeades, and then got on the road in earnest. Things were going well, until we hit road construction and then horrible rain! The good news is that my car got 45 miles to a gallon for the first 5 hours of the trip. Regardless of the traffic and the rain, we pulled into the hotel lot at about 8pm, and made our first effort to check in.

Bad news. They didn't have us in the right room for last night, even though I had called two weeks prior to confirm. CRAP. The hotel was 100% booked, and so the only room they could give us had several issues...it was a parlor room, with a sofa bed and rollaway cot, and it wouldn't be ready until after midnight. Hava and I thought that this place sucks. Anyways, they did give us some vouchers for the bar, which was nice though we both got drunk on the strong drinks and no food.

Last night was also the opening of the Harry Potter conference we were at - they had a whole day of Wizard Rock. I'm definitely glad we didn't come for the whole day of Wrock, because it was (not surprisingly) sort of lame. It was a concert, in a ballroom, with every light on in the place, and chaperones sitting at tables in the back. Ha, awesome. However, we did actually like Draco and the Malfoys and Harry and the Potters, even picking up a t-shirt in the process.

Today, we started off with free breakfast (delicious) because my anger at the Hilton got us some free stuff. Then we wandered around Michigan Avenue for a few hours, waiting for our next (and final) room to be ready. We both bought some shoes. We came back to the hotel, checked in for Terminus (that's the conference name) and again tried to check in for our room. The people at the front desk sucked, so we decided to go up to the executive floor and try our luck there. Thank God for Isabel and Robert M - they are single handedly trying to make up for our bad experience thus far.

So now we are in the room (we got upgraded for free, thanks to Isabel) trying to relax for a bit before we meet some friends for dinner at Carmine's. (Yes, we are skipping the Opening Feast, I know, I know.) After dinner, we are coming back because I have to be in a trivia tournament...let's see how much HP I know.

So that's the news for now. More to come!!

-SKH

New layout!

2008-08-02T18:38:00.002-07:00

What do you guys think of the new layout? I'm going to use this blog to document my life for my soon-to-be faraway family members and friends.

Yes, I realize the picture is from London. Well, I don't have one of me in Seattle yet, PLUS it shows how much I really love Harry. Potter, that is.

Comment and let me know what you think of the layout.

-SKH

Golden birthday party tonight!!

2008-08-01T13:07:00.002-07:00

So tonight I am having a little soiree for my golden birthday. In case you didn't know (for real, how can you not know at this point?), my birthday was last Sunday (July 27). Yes, that's right, I am 27 this year. I feel like that is finally a respectable age - people don't think you are too young anymore!

I'm having some people over tonight for cocktails (nothing fancy, just beer, Mike's, etc.) and delicious burgers, brats and hotdogs. I've been spending my afternoon getting ready - stuff like shopping, getting the drinks in coolers, cleaning (that's coming up), blogging. You know, the really important stuff.

Anyways, I will be a better blogger here soon...I promise. The reason I have been remiss is no longer in play, so we are all set.

More to come :)

-SKH

Bar exam = torture = OVER

2008-07-30T21:28:00.002-07:00

Congratulations to my sister, Lisa, for finishing the grueling two day bar exam today!!

I can't even imagine going through law school and the bar exam...they seem so cruel.

I suppose I should also congratulate my cousin-in-law Hanna as she took the bar this week too.

Yay for being done!

-SKH

Softball fun times

2008-07-14T17:46:00.002-07:00

So if you didn't know, I decided that I would join my church's newly re-formed softball team this summer. My church hasn't had a softball team in about a decade (I think), but we have a really good bunch of folks on the team. I thought I'd sign up because it would be a fun way to meet other people in the parish (that aren't in the choir) and I used to love to play softball.

The league is co-ed slow pitch, which is an entirely new situation for me as I always played women's fastpitch. We're a little more than halfway through the season, and I LOVE IT! I have so much fun when we play, and we've been blessed with nearly perfect weather every Monday night, which makes any outdoor activity that much better.

Anyways. I've been getting better and better as the season goes on, and now I am feeling much more confident in my play. (I hadn't played any form of softball in about 10 years prior to our first game! I'm not saying I'm awesome by any means, but I am serviceable!)

I've been very busy lately with travel and cabins and other stuff going on, but I feel bad that I haven't been a very good blogger lately! My apologies, faithful readers (hi Mom!)

Tomorrow night is book club with this bunch of folks: http://grabbagbookclub.blogspot.com/ so you can expect a blog post on one (or both) of these blogs about that coming soon.

T minus 13 days until my golden birthday!

-SKH

Happy 3 Day Weekend!

2008-07-04T08:45:00.002-07:00

It's the Fourth of July! And this year, it falls on a Friday, which makes for a nice 3 day weekend. :) The weather couldn't be nicer. Travis and I took the boat out last night after I left work, and it was incredible. Sunny, not too hot, a bit of a breeze...I'm bummed Travis has to work this whole weekend.

We're having a birthday cookout for Mom tonight - that should be lots of fun.

I've been told I haven't been bloggin enough, and I know that's true. I'll try to get a post up here about my NYC trip, and I'll see what else has been going on in my busy life that is exciting enough to make the blog :)

Have a great 4th - where is everyone watching fireworks tonight??

-SKH

Sick as a dog

2008-06-17T19:20:00.002-07:00

So for the past few days, my throat has been scratchy, and I haven't been feeling well. I thought it was a result of several plane rides (ew, confined space with a bunch of grubby people) and the conference I went to last week (for some reason, the dry air in conferences just kills me). I figured I would go and check in with my doctor late this afternoon just to make sure all was well. All day yesterday, my throat was hurting more and more, and it was getting tougher to swallow.

Fast forward a few hours. I woke up pretty much every hour on the hour, hot as a furnace and having really odd and unsettling dreams. At 6am, I took my temperature - 102.0 degrees - NOT GOOD. I could barely swallow, and I am fairly sure I even cried because I felt so bad, but it's a bit fuzzy. I changed my doctor's appointment to the morning, and my doctor looked at my chart and said "whoa, you have a fever!" and then he looked at my throat and said "whoa, that looks like a sore throat!" I can't think it's a good sign when the doctor looks surprised at how bad you are feeling! Apparently my glands are also all swollen - I have tonsillitis. Dr. D gave me a fairly strong antibiotic prescription, which I hope kicks in very fast, as he said I needed to lay low until my fever was under control. Sadly, it's not yet, but here's hoping.

Want to know why I want to feel better?? We leave on Friday for NYC to visit Stacy and Cory, and then I am staying a few extra days for work. I've been looking forward to this trip for a long time, and I definitely don't want to feel sick while I am there! Stacy, if you are reading this, I promise I am really working on feeling better so we can have a fun time while we are out there. (Oh, and I don't think we need any special food or anything. The one thing in NYC that I haven't seen that is on my list is Central Park, so it'd be cool to add that to our itinerary.)

OK, even though I have dozed literally all day, I am tired, and I am going to bed. Fingers crossed for me, everybody!!

-SKH

Cannot believe...

2008-06-06T17:06:00.001-07:00

...how tired I am this week! I had a very long week at work, and there is no end in sight!

At least I leave for Chicago on Sunday, which will be a fun week!!

-SKH

Book Club Books!

2008-05-27T17:35:00.007-07:00

The Grab Bag Book Club met for the first time last week, and we discussed a book by a local author (Patty Jane's House of Curl by Lorna Landvik). We had a great time discussing the book, and picking out some of our upcoming books. I think we have determined that we all have different tastes in books, but we do all agree that we are looking for more fun reads, not ones that are super in-depth or serious. To that aim, we came up with a bunch of books that look good!

I found a great site called Reading Group Guides that has tons of great resources for a book club leader - ideas for books, themes, questions to guide discussions, meeting location ideas and more. Check it out. :) We found some of our "to read" books from that site.

The book we are reading for our next meeting is not on that site, but it does promise to be hilarious: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands by Chelsea Handler. Erin Jane thought her books would be very funny.

Here is a list of some of the other books that the attendees last week agreed on:

Mrs. Perfect by Jane Porter
Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA by Kris Radish
No Good Girls by Jean Marie Pierson
Names My Sisters Call Me by Megan Crane
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (my mom and I have read this and it is phenomenal...she has a new book out now called The Sugar Queen that we could read, but it is only in hardcover, so that could make it a bit tougher. However, I think it would be worth it. FYI, it's also available on the Kindle.)
Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch
My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson

We also had a couple of maybes, looking for approval or not from the folks who couldn't make our first meeting on these ones:

Things I Want My Daughters to Know by Elizabeth Noble
The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

Our next book club meeting is going to be at the end of June (I'm thinking either Thursday the 26th or Monday the 30th, or even Tuesday, July 1st), where we'll be discussing the Chelsea Handler book. If you have any suggestions for a meeting location, or for another good book to read (either from the lists above or anywhere else!), please send them to me. It's always best to have a lot of options on our "to-read" list, plus you may find that one of these interests you and you want to read it now!

Please let me know which date works best for you, or if a date doesn't work for you.

Thursday, June 26th
Monday, June 30th
Tuesday, July 1st

Happy reading (try not to shoot Diet Coke out of your nose when you realize how hilarious Chelsea Handler is...)

-SKH

Excited for the long weekend? Me too!!

2008-05-24T11:54:00.002-07:00

The long weekend has really started out well for me. On Thursday, we did happy hour, and I (ME!) lasted until 10:30. That's pretty impressive, and I had a lot of fun. I did have to work a full day Friday - the last one of the summer for me - but accomplished a lot in the new building. I got grocery shopping and some errands done last night, and then went to Hava's for a house warming party, which was very fun. (We are going to make fun of the fanny pack, sorry.) :) After that, Amy, EJ and I went to grab some dinner at Granite City, and that was lots of fun.

Now it's Saturday afternoon, the weather is perfect for chilling out, Travis and I made waffles for breakfast, and I am going to go get a couple of spa treatments at my favorite salons. I'm not sure I could ask for much more today. The only thing I could request is that Travis wouldn't be working this weekend, it really sucks to have a long weekend, and he has to go to work each day.

Hope that everyone else has a fabulous long weekend (and happy early birthday, Amanda!!!)

-SKH

Go Go Gadget LISA!!!

2008-05-14T06:44:00.004-07:00

Alright everyone...send good thoughts to my sister, Lisa. She has her last final of law school today, and then she is DONE with it all! She graduates this Saturday (which is coincidentally when Wandering Bront makes their big debut to an audience).

Congratulations, Lisa!!! Well done!
Thank God for no more law school :)

-SKH

Testing zucchini breads because I am a fishing widow

2008-05-09T19:14:00.010-07:00

As I am a fishing widow this weekend (it's the walleye opener and Travis went up north to fish with some buddies), I decided I would be extremely domestic this evening and bake some zucchini bread. Now zucchini bread is a longtime favorite of the Schmid family, and Grandma Darlene's recipe is pretty much the bomb. However, tonight I decided I would make the original recipe and then a few variations on it. Grandma's recipe makes some extremely unhealthy (but absolutely delicious!) bread as it calls for an entire cup of oil, and two cups of sugar. Whoa.

My arteries are clogging just thinking about it. And my mouth is watering. :)

The variations I baked tonight include a cinnamon-free variety (Amanda is allergic to cinnamon) that includes the oil and sugar, an oil-free recipe (substituting applesauce for oil) that includes the sugar, and an oil-free (applesauce) and sugar-free (using Splenda instead) recipe. They're not all quite out of the oven yet - this was a full evening event. By the way, it does indeed mean that I made 15 loaves of zucchini bread so there is plenty for everyone!

Want to see what five medium zucchinis shreds into? Check out this picture. That's a little less than eight cups. To make zucchini bread, you essentially have two processes going on. You mix up the shredded zucchini with flour, and in a separate bowl, you mix up oil, sugar, eggs, baking soda and powder, salt, cinnamon and vanilla. Once the two things are mixed separately, you mix them together, and then you have dough.

You bake the dough for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees, and then you end up with delicious and wonderful zucchini bread. You could also make this dough into muffins - that works wonderfully. I've made bars from it as well. My favorite remains the bread...it reminds me of Grandma.

I'll be bringing some of these loaves into work and to my family to test out what is best. I know my mom will appreciate some tasty zucchini bread for Mother's Day this weekend!

Let me know if you want to be a taste tester - I've got 15 loaves to work through here!! :)

What other things should a fishing widow do? I have Mass a few times this weekend (I'm cantoring twice), and we have Mother's Day dinner tomorrow night at Axel's...mmmm. I'll definitely do some laundry, and I should clean my house. I might also start reading the Septimus Heap novels - they are sort of like Harry Potter, but not as good. I'll give them a shot.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great weekend as well!

-SKH

What kind of dinosaur are you?

2008-05-08T06:30:00.002-07:00

This survey is from Beth, and let me tell you: this could make or break your band career. So step right up and answer some questions to determine...what kind of dinosaur are you???

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=5231314034101233143

-SKH