She Sells Sea Shells on the Sea Shore

What an excellent long weekend! Kris and I joined Roomie A and a friend at her family's cabin on Puget Sound near Quilcene, WA. OH man, what a great spot! Kris and I were all ready for a rustic getaway, but that place was anything but! We had a great time hanging out, playing 1980s Trivial Pursuit (it's *extremely* difficult!), playing with Pixel the Swedish cat, drinking lots of delicious wine, going on an excursion to Pulsbo, WA, and going for late-night beach walks when the tide was low to photograph the starfish and other fauna.

It's always wonderful to escape from the big city for a few days. I hope we can visit her cabin again later in the spring! I love being near the ocean and I would really like to do some hiking around the area as well.

In other recent happenings, I officially have only four months left at my job!! How exciting! That means I only have two months until my sister and I are off to Hawai'i and one month until I hear back about teaching in France. Gah, I cannot wait!!

Kris and I had a lovely Valentine's day together. I had to work all day, so we didn't go do anything crazy, but we did cook an absolutely delicious meal of Hungarian Goulash with Israeli couscous, steamed brussel sprouts with cranberries and balsamic vinegar, and chocolate souffles for dessert! And of course, a bottle of red wine. It was a very European dinner. :-) We cooked up a good one! We are great cooks and love to be in the kitchen together.

The bad news? It's looking like Kris will be heading back up to Alaska in early March... We were expecting it, but we always have some hope that a job will materialize in Seattle that would keep him around. We will, on a happier note, have a 'last hurrah' of sorts for the winter in about two weeks: one of Kris' good friends is getting married in Whistler, B.C., so we're going to ski it up and celebrate Canadian-style for a long weekend!

In the literary/music world, I read a most excellent article about living and dining in Seattle today. If you're a true Seattlite, it's worth the read! I also just finished reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo yesterday. I wasn't sure what I would think of this whole Stieg Larsson fad, but wow, what a page-turner! The first 100-ish pages were just lots of set up and introducing the characters, but after that, I was totally hooked. I've already requested the second one from the library. :-) 

My new book is The Catcher in the Rye. Can you believe I went through two years of high school AP English and received a degree in French and Comparative Literature and I had never read The Catcher in the Rye? What kind of hogwash is that?! So, I finally picked it up. I also recently read A Separate Peace, also a very classic novel. Very, very good. The classics are classics for a reason, people. 

Finally, I recently got my hands on some fantastic albums: "Sigh No More" by Mumford & Sons, The Head and the Heart's self-titled CD (they're a Seattle band!), and The XX's self-titled album. All are beyond wonderful. I'm pretty much listening to those three on repeat, with a few other bands and genres mixed in here and there.
So anyhoo, all potential things to check out if you feel that we lean toward the same shades of that noun that we call 'taste.'

Happy week to all! The best part about long weekends is that the work week flies by more quickly and then you arrive at another weekend all the sooner. :-)