pillow 1/2 (rain. and sun.)

Oh. My. Goodness! I never knew that unison actually had sales! It's a happy, happy day for textile dorks like me!

new music vol. 35

I really want to use this for a website or something as background. It's so beautiful and it gets better with more listens...

puzzled old folks

With darkness approaching at around 5:00 pm each night and no cable on the big TV and an iffy, FREE internet connection, B and I have had to get a little old school with our nightly entertainment options. Today, we bought a puzzle and can I just share with you how excited I am?! I haven't done a puzzle in a bazillion years and I love them and this one is super quirky and fun! And, check out the sailors and the babe on the boat. Hubba. Hubba.

Do you want to know the best part about this whole purchase? It was that the only other people in the puzzle section of Fred Meyer was this 70+ year old couple. We really are old people!

(I know you're jealous of our puzzle. I mean, who wouldn't be??)

new music vol. 34 (it's been awhile)

Girls Hellhole Ratrace

A little Elvis Costello-ish, which makes it good...

recession competition (sun. clouds. pretty!)

The woman who interviewed me today informed me that she had received 600 resumes for the position.

Um.

That's insane!!

(The competition is worse than I thought!!)

blog blaug (gray. not cold. no sun.)

I finally got around to redesigning my blog header. Whew! That only took over a year. It makes me wonder, should I rename this wee blog to Dancing in Stickers? My little gray thorns remind me of those terrible Texas stickers I would have to pull out of my bare feet. Ouch.

jen as june (cloudy all day. no sun.)

People, I need to get a regular, full-time steady job soon because it's becoming more and more clear that I am turning into June Cleaver during my unemployed hiatus! It's a total metamorphosis and I am not real sure how I feel about it. I'm obsessed with recipes. I have started to really LOVE doing laundry and there's nothing that pleases me more than a tidy kitchen. This is not the Jen I know but it's kinda cracking me up, all the same. I've tapped into my inner housewife that I never knew was there...

Today, it was homemade pretzels. I mean, come on, WHO has the time to make homemade pretzels? Well, of course we all know the answer to that: ME!!

Amy, it's your fault. I found this blog www.smittenkitchen.com on your blog and I was immediately in love! I love the pictures and the stories and the easy-ness of most things. And then, I found the pretzel recipe and I thought Heck ya! I have time, I can make those!!! And then, I did.

It turned out to be tons more work than I originally thought, but it was still worth it and actually kind of fun, which is the ultimate goal.


^My dough just wouldn't stop rising! I would roll out a pretzel, do the whoop-dee-doo and by the time my second one was on the sheet, the first one had doubled in size. It was madness!

^Finished pretzels, all brown and delicious!

The ultimate compliment was when B came home, took a bite out of one of these golden buddies and said Whoa! That's really good! It's tastes like a REAL homemade pretzel. Uh, hello, ya, I just made them...

wood house (sunny. sun. sun. sun. and. more. sun.)

If I were to design a house for myself it would probably look a lot like this one. In fact, I believe I have this sketch in my pile of *Jen's Dream House* doodles. See that sliding wood louvered shade for the window? I must have tried a ZILLION times to get something like that built in my former life as a multi-family designer, but the clients always looked at me like I was a duck-faced lioness or something. "You want to build wwwwwhattt???"



See and read more HERE!!

i heart seattle

Boy oh boy was I was having some serious love for my city today! The weather could not have been better and we had a guest (Eric) in town so we were out the door early and actually DID stuff. It was exciting!

We started the day off with some brekkers at Pete's Eggnest in Phinney, which is just down the street from our house. Then, we hit some random landmarks that both B and I had been wanting to find but just never got around to it. We found the Fremont Troll and the mountain bike course and dog park that are both under the I-5 overpass for the impending rainy days. We also went over to Alki Beach in West Seattle to take in the views and sit on a bench by the sand. Then, we found my favorite spot thus far in Seattle: SAM Olympic Sculpture Park. It's pretty fantastic and right on the water. Aaahhh, so pretty. I snapped a few photos with my phone...

^Entrance to the sculpture park.

^Eyeball benches.

^Calder's Eagle sculpture.

^People wallpaper inside the sculpture center.

stumbling goat bistro

3 months in Seattle and we FINALLY had a delicious, grown-up meal! Of course, it wasn't our idea and we were, by no means, paying for this extravagant affair. You see, B's stepdad/dad Eric came into town to sleep on our air mattress for a few nights and insisted on taking us out to a proper meal. And boy was it yum! I had almost forgotten what fancy food tasted like! We all snacked on the cheese plate and salads and I ordered the sugar pie pumpkin risotto. Mmmmmmm!!! Sugar pie pumpkin risotto!! Pure nom nom nom! Peeps, I cleaned my plate and I NEVER clean my plate!

Oh how my insides are happy!

baby business

Oh man. With all these baby bumps popping up all over me I decided to watch this documentary today. And. I don't think things will ever be the same for me. I am so intrigued by midwifery and home births and birthing centers and why our country is obsessed with hospitals and drugs when all of Europe does it differently. Granted, it did freak me out and I watched a lot of births (none of them having screaming ladies or IVs) and I am no where near to having a baby, but it sure is interesting, this whole Business of Being Born...

jen + 50 pounds (sun. rain. hail. sun. rain. cold.)

Ever since Halloween and our 96 pieces of excess candy, that I nearly devoured all by my lonesome, I cannot get enough sugar. I want it for breakfast. And lunch. And sometimes dinner (when B isn't around). I know it's probably that the rain has set in and it gets dark early and I still have NO job and the holidays are coming, but at this rate I'm going to be a balloon by New Year.

On that note, check out this recipe for delicious Glazed Lemon Cookies that I want to make NOW!!!

(What can I say? I'm weak!!)

v 2010 (sunny/gray. 61.)

Sometimes I am way, way, WAY out of touch. As in, so out of touch that I didn't even realize that the 2010 Olympic games are being held just 3 hours away in Vancouver, BC. Hmmm, I guess that's gonna ruin my February "Let's go to Whistler!!" idea. Or, maybe we could luck out and score some bobsledding tickets. Ooooh, or ski jumping... that's kinds cool.

By the way, how do you get that job to create mascots for the Olympics? They're cute and Japanesee and you can see them here.

koozie colds

I need a koozie (is that a word?) for my Slurpee. My digits are freezing, but I can't let go because the deliciousness of my Coke Slurpee is intoxicating and has me in a caffeine/sugar trance. To comepensate, I'm sitting on the sofa with my hat and coat on, using the laptop for warmth. These are the sacrifices I must make to enjoy a frosty beverage when it's kind of chilly out. Texas has ruined my internal thermostat!

It's 4:30 and it's getting dark. Poo!

(sunny. sun. sun. 56.)

What a pretty day! It was super sunny ALL day and crispy and a great day to strut around the hood with the pooch.

^The full moon coming over Phinney Ridge.

^Sunset.
You can see the Olympic Mountains on the right. Not super clear, but still kinds nice!

hall-o! tally

2

The number of trick-or-treaters that came to the door.

96

The number of pieces of candy we have left.

(Me + chocolate + alone in the house = 1 BAD combination!)

hall-o! (no rain. 57.)

Great Fall/Halloween day today! Right after I took this photo the gray skies magically disappeared (I still don't know how that happens) and it was nothing but blue skies and sun the rest of the day. Purrr-fect!

Now. We wait. We wait for candy begging fools that we're not even sure will come to the door or not. Hopefully we get juuuuust enough trick-or-treaters to purge the "crap" candy and save the good stuff for us! (We've already nearly wiped out our supply of peanut butter cups. Mmmm...!)

^B's is Boo! Mine is the little monster.

wrinkle poos (gray but not depressing... yet. boo is wearing her coat. 48.)

Last night, while I was NOT sleeping at 3, 4, 5 o'clock am (interview anxiety), I started thinking about this article on aging and wrinkles written by one of those whack dermatologist who created Proactiv Solution and all of a sudden, I was paranoid about the way I shove my face into my pillow! The article said, and this makes perfect sense, that when you shmoosh your face all up in your pillow for 7-9 hours a night, there is no doubt that it will start to leave a mark and it's usually in the form of wrinkles around your eyes. You know, I'm usually not uber sensitive about this subject (gray hairs are TOTALLY different), but for some reason last night was pure paranoia. I started thinking about my Aunt Jean and the one and only time I saw her in bed. She was all ready to sleep, with hard curlers in her hair and propped up, semi-upright in her bed, surrounded by pillows. This is the way she slept, which I thought I was kind of nuts. But now... Now, I see the appeal. My aunt is in her 60's and she barely has any wrinkles on her face! Could the secret to anti-aging not be an expensive cream, but simply to sleep in this ridiculous manner?

Should I be sleeping upright?

I came to no conclusion, only that right now, with pretty much zero sleep, I think it's all absurd. But, maybe I'll take baby steps and buy a silk pillowcase (also recommended by the article)! Ha!

oh, and...

... this pregnancy epidemic is SPREADING!! I found out today that another friend is knocked up. So, since the beginning of the year 5 of my peeps have gotten themselves impregnated.

I guess I need to come to grips that I am almost in my mid-30's (I'm planning on sticking at 35 by the way, when that day comes) and this sort of thing is going to keep happening, but geesh! Everyone wasn't supposed to go down all at one time! Good thing all are going to be such hip parents and still travel and experience things and come visit their poor, childless friend Jen up here in the Northwest. ;)

wednesday news (gray. no sun. 48. my feet are cold.)

Boo thinks she's a cat and now likes to lay on top of the couch on a blanket that she thinks is hers. She's also exhausted from dog parkin' today.

In other news, I have more interviews but still no job.

Maybe I'm a bad interviewer?? Could that be possible?