i miss ivy...

i've been a slacker and also traumatized by ivy not being at work with us anymore.  so i haven't put up the post about her last day of work.  

she's off to have a baby and be a mom and i really couldn't be happier for her.  she's gonna be a GREAT mom and what fun!  i'm crossing my fingers that her kid inherits her infectious laugh.

for her last day of work, we all took her out to lunch at toulouse petit.  we went there for our holiday lunch last winter and it was delish.  it was ivy's pick for lunch so almost our whole dept went out.

hi nicole!!

we had to sit at two separate booths because there wasn't a table big enough for all of us:

aaaaaand there's the laugh i'm missing!:

 

we had all kinds of good food.  i had a garlic shrimp fetuccine. 

ivy had some great looking sannie:

dave had mussels and frites:

and one last group pic with ivy nownotsmith!

I MISS YOU IVY SMITH!

you are much loved and talked about!!

bring that bebeh in asap!! woooooo!

the duck!

our AP dept totally kicked ass on a goal and for a reward, our managers took us all out to lunch and then on a duck ride.  if you don't live in seattle and don't know what a duck ride is, it's a ride the duck tour of seattle.  my co-worker's girlfriend is a tour guide and she drove us for our very own duck tour!  it was super fun!

but first we got taken out to lunch at jalisco's up the street from work. 

here's one half of our department:

and the other half:

nicole...you look so dreamy.  why are you looking at me like that??

and rebecca...you popped yourself out of the picture.  you silly.

jane and i both wanted the same two things, so each of us got one and split it!  such a good idea.  i got the chicken flautas and she got the spinach enchilada.  unfortunately, jim didn't think my idea of pitchers of margaritas was as good of an idea as i did.  sad face.

i thought the spinach enchilada was DELICOUS:

much to our surprise and delight, our managers dressed up as ducks for the actual duck ride.  nice.

just really really fantastic.

then the duck pulled up outside jalisco's and it was time for the tour!

jozette (i really hope i'm spelling her name right. i'm probably not) is a great tour guide and we were all cracking up.  pretty much everybody had already met her since her and emily (my coworker) are really social and our job makes people drink.  hee hee.

nicole and i spent a lot of the ride waving and yelling at people out on the street.  it made me happy.

QUACK QUACK!

even though we all obviously live in seattle, it was still pretty cool to take a tour and see things up close i'm never close enough to to take pictures of.

the duckmobile is also able to go on water, so part of the tour is a water tour around lake union.

driving into the water:

gasworks park:

a seaplane was taking off and went right over us:

it was a loop around the lake and then on out again.

the university bridge? is that what this is?  the bridge I-5 takes leaving the udistrict?  or is the university bridge the smaller one?  the one westlake goes over?  the one that goes up?  i've only lived here 11 years, you would think i know what the names of the bridges are.  yeesh.

all in all, it was an absolutely beautiful day and we lucked out being able to wear short sleeves on the tour!

we learned little known facts about seattle and had a lot of laughs.  i know we have another goal for the end of november and i hope we make it.  i hear the next activity is bowling.  that would be good!!

i also had my kowa six with me and apparently, all the pics of the outside of the duck are on film.  i'll be sending it off to get developed soon, so i'll put up a part II post with the black and white pics :)

i can....!!!

i've been able to do some canning this summer and that makes me happy! we went and saw my dad in portland about a month ago and he has this awesome blueberry bush in his backyard.  it was there when we moved in when i was 3 or so, so....1975?  sounds right.  the bush is still producing mad huge blueberries.  maya and i picked a bunch and brought back up here to make some blueberry jam.  

i should have thought far enough ahead to take a shot of the blueberry bush, but oh well.  at least i remembered to take pics of me making the jam!

 dammit!  bigger pot!

and the blueberry jam was done and some already given away!!

and at the beginning of the summer or so my mom brought me a couple of jars of these BITCHIN' marinated veggies.  she said they were super easy to make...so i did!  

i used green beans from the backyard, cauliflower, corn, cucumber, kalamata olives, onion, shallots and heirloom tomato.  should be great and i hope it comes out as good as hers!

in the waiting line:

steamy mcsteamerson:

yum!  so far they taste good.  i'm going to let them sit a couple of months before i open them so i hope they get good and soft. mmmmm.....

i walk, you walk, we all walk for alzheimers!!

my work is in a senior living corporations corporate headquarters, so this year i participated in the walk to end alzheimers.  i reached my monetary goal (thanks everyone for supporting!!! wooooooo!) and this morning was the actual walk around seattle center.  maya, alistair, q and i all walked.  

it wasn't as far as i thought it was going to be and it was also the only time that the 3 of us will ever be in matching tshirts.  we got there late and weren't in time for group pictures with our whole team, but it was still fun and i still took pictures!  it's an absofuckinlutely beautiful day here in seattle...a perfect day for a morning walk for a good cause.  i guess so far they've raised over $250,000 which is awesome!

this is the main area where all the booths and the stage was set up.  it's much larger than it looks...i didn't get all of it in one shot.

a ton of people brought their dogs, but this one was my favorite!  it was someone on our teams...so fantastic!

waiting in line to register...

and more waiting for the actual walk to start:

and we're off!

it was just a quick loop around seattle center and took under an hour.  afterwards there was door prizes and a flash mob.  everyone on our team was encouraged to participate, but i had a friend in town last weekend and coming home after work to practice dance moves just wasn't happening for me, so we watched.  it was pretty awesome.  we happened to be standing directly behind the people filming it and directly in front of the main people leading it.  great spot to see!

hah!  i love this one!

after the flash mob was over, we called it a day and went home.  first we had john from work take a picture of us so we could never forget that we all wore matching shirts:

q was totally over the whole morning and just wanted to go home and was helping alistair look at the bus schedule on the bus:

i love taking pics over my shoulder without looking:

and apparently the morning wore poor ol q out, so she fell asleep sitting up:

hahahahaha!  she is so cute!  do you like her matching turquoise lace?  so she matches our team shirts. *snicker*