Holy Snow-moley!

It snowed here on Sunday for most the afternoon-which seems crazy, although it was very COLD so maybe not that weird after all. I tried to take a picture to show it, but they were little snowflakes that didn't stick to the ground and didn't really show up in the picture.

I added some snowflakes into this picture so you can see what it was like...think of it as a snowflake reenactment

and enjoy.

Cha-Cha-Cha Don't You Know That I Love You....

Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha always thinking of you....

The fun kids pictured here went to the Cha-Cha Lounge (where everything is in fact VERY dark, but looks very RED on camera) this last Sunday and had some cheap drinks, delicious burritos and made it home before the bands finished sound check. A successful Sunday indeed.

Senior Danilsons for the Day

In celebration of MLK day, Gary and Jan Danilson made their annual trip down to visit us Junior Danilsons at our Seattle home. Okay- just kidding but we did the math and it had been almost a whole since we had invited them down- we are gonna have to work on getting invitations out more often, we love having company.

We were very happy to spend a day visiting some of our favorite spots in the City with them on this sunny Monday. After a little relaxing at the Casa, reveling in the magnificence of the bookcase, we headed over to the Columbia City Ale House to fill our hungry bellys. The food was great- Jan took a few pictures there I will try to post when I see them.

From there we made the scenic drive around Lake Washington over to City People's Garden, who claim to be open seven days a week all year, but however were closed today. We will have to try again next time Gary and Jan are in town because it really is a neat store.

Thwarted, we headed over to the Queen Anne neighborhood to stroll and take in the shops. A few boutiques and a couple grocery stores later we were loaded down and ready to take over another part of town.

Off we went to The Macrina Bakery, the new one in the SoDo area. It was late enough in the day we missed the full bevy of dessert treat options they normally have- but still were able to find some sweet treats AND amazing parking. If you like Macrina but can't bear the thought of parking downtown or on Queen Anne, there is ALWAYS free parking, right out front of the SoDo store.

Sufficiently strengthened we headed to our final destination of the day, the Uwajimaya Asian Grocery Store. Tyson and Gary got dinner essentials while Jan and I checked out the cool gift shop stuff. Far too soon, Tyson was checked out and ready to go home and get cooking.

Katie and Jamie came over and joined us for a delicious dinner of: Roasted Chicken, Potato Gratin and Stewed Cauliflower, cooked of course by the overly talented Tyson. Fun was had by all. Everyone left stuffed and happy and I have been blogging ever since!

Thank you for visiting Senior Danilsons, we are happy to host you whenever you are in town and hope to see you here again soon : )

Year of the OX

On our way home from Dim Sum the other day Tyson and I came across a string of firecrackers three stories long hanging down from a building in China Town- we were curious.

We waited for about a half hour as official looking men arrived and a cable with money attached as long as the fire cracker string, with a head of lettuce attached at the bottom was lowered down from an upper window of the building. We had found ourselves smack dab in the start of a Kung Fu Club's Lion Dance Ceremony as part of the Chinese New Year Celebration.

Two dragons and fours lions (the kung fu club members in costume) fought it out on the street as HUNDREDS of fire crackers were thrown everywhere by men on the sidelines. After the black lion ate the lettuce and money string, the three story string of fire crackers were lit- the whole thing was such a fun spectacle to come across.

Tyson and I decided if we ever do the Origin of the Species Parade that we will be a Chinese Lion, because they are pretty awesome. The picture below can help you figure out what your Chinese zodiac animal is.

The Green Lion, representing friendship.

More information about the dance:

In the old days, the lettuce was hung 15 to 20 feet above ground and only a well-trained martial artists could reach the money while dancing with a heavy lion head. These events became a public challenge. A large sum of money was rewarded, and the audience expected a good show. Sometimes, if lions from multiple martial arts schools approached the lettuce at the same time, the lions are supposed to fight to decide a winner. The audience would judge the quality of the martial art schools according to how the lions fought. The winner lion would then use creative methods and martial art skills to reach the high-hanging reward. Some lions may dance on bamboo stilts and some may step on human pyramids formed by fellow students of the school. The performers and the schools would gain praise and respect on top of the large monetary reward when they did well.

Let me tell you a little about Dim Sum...

1. You may not know this, I didn't, Dim Sum tastes good and is fun to eat.

2. Again you may not know because I didn't, spring rolls are delicious and should be eaten often.

3. If a nice old lady with a cart of steaming Chinese food offers you a small porcelain boat of wok-fried, sweet walnut sauce covered shrimp- for the love of god take all that you can get! SO good!

4. While you may trust your friends, the people you are dining with, do not trust that they will remember to remove the paper from the bottom of the steamed buns that they are sharing with you- or tell you as a first time dim sum eater that you are supposed to remove the paper- or that they won't laugh at you a lot after they discover that you ate the bun, paper and all and still thought that it tasted pretty good.

5. If you're in Seattle and hungry I would like to direct you toward the Jade Garden in the International District China Town, it changed my life.

All booked up

We filled the new bookcase and love it! Amazingly, there is still room for more books, whoo-BOY!And yes, when possible the contents of each shelf were organized in rainbow order- Sarah approved!

Super Saturday

Old "Bookcase"


New Bookcase/Desk - ready for books!

Dr. S. Scott and Sharon Horner came up to Seattle to visit yesterday, bringing with them the amazing piece of furniture you see me seated at in the picture. This wondrous shelf was a gift from my mom for Christmas and is going to make my apartment dreams come true when I move Tyson's 8 million books from their current milk crate homes to this more permanent and adult structure.

Mom and Dad are headed to their Hawaii home for a few weeks and we enjoyed their company squiring them around town before dropping them at their Seatac Hotel for the evening. We had amazing steak and potato burritos compliments of Tyson- this is my new favorite thing that he makes- Casa Que Pasa eat your heart out.

Then we went to go look at Swedish Modern furniture at the Dania store just for fun since we hadn't been before. Then to Elliot Bay Book Store, where we bumped into Katie and Jamie, small world! Next we ventured over to Columbia City to look at the neat little stores and shops there. We had planned to take them out to dinner at the Columbia City Ale House which we had dined at recently and really enjoyed but we were all still too full from our Burrito lunch.

Change of plans, we headed back to the apartment, grabbed out swimsuits and head for the Seatac Marriott- they have an amazing 5 story arboretum with full grown trees a pool and hot tubs in the middle of the hotel. Drinks, soaking and saunaing, we were officially a very relaxed group. After dinner there we headed home. Mom and Dad had a 5am wake up call and are undoubtedly soaking up some serious sunshine right now!

We are good looking

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