Sam came rolling up on Friday evening armed with a Birthday gift of a Sake service and bottle of Sake. Josh and I were grossly captivated by the movie Fame, so Sammy’s arrival was a welcome change. We headed off to St. Clouds for slightly inadequate Predators and good music. I was so tired I faded in and out of consciousness at the table, drinking nothing but water. (Previously, Josh had put together the failed Puppet Theater in my classroom, a task that led us to be the last to leave the school at 5pm).
Saturday night we tried out the waterfront BBQ joint, Sho Is Good, at Madrona Beach:

While waiting for our food, Sam aggressively offered us chips.

The food was sticky, tasty, and mealy. The meat was not void of fat, the collard greens were salty, and the potato salad was blatantly made from real mayonnaise. The sauce was pretty good, nothing to write home about, but it was spicy and generously portioned. Sammy had some pretty terrific mac and cheese and creamed corn. The service was real down home, the portions huge, and the view of Lake Washington eased us into some serious gorging. All in all, it was a good eating experience. We topped off the dinner with cupcakes from our favorite Cupcake Royale…a tradition Sam insists on following every time he visits.
We put Josh’s remote control boat in the water until its batteries shorted out. Here I am enjoying the evening, (yeah I cut off all my hair):

A late night Ikea trip rounded out the evening nicely. Granted it took us 45 minutes to get there because we can never, ever, find Ikea easily or hit the I-5 exit correctly after one wrong turn. The place rules, but even more so when it’s not crowded. We wandered the aisles, pausing to sit in various chairs and admire random light fixtures. I came armed with all these dimensions of art work I’ve been meaning to have framed. Since Gina is a painting major, I’m always ransacking her basement for left over artwork that isn’t in a gallery, displayed in her home, or turned into the school’s collection. I found that, despite my careful measuring, it’s really hard to find frames for random paintings ripped out of journals or irregular pieces of watercolor paper. We only walked out with two frames, and only one of them actually fit. Ah, well..just another excuse to return to Ikea. Hopefully with Kris, who surprised us with a visit (and the keys to his car!) this weekend while perusing his new pad upstairs.
Sunday we tried going to a bakery (it was closed), hit up Trader Joe’s, and our favorite Capitol Hill Farmer’s Market. This time when we went to our favorite farm tent, one of the farmers recognized us. After overhearing my gringo ass talk about making salsa he presented us with an excellent grilled salsa recipe complete with free ingredients from his stand! Check out Josh’s blog for the salsa recipe (complete with pictures!)