Steph's Space

It's funny how being laid up post-oral surgery gives you the time to do things you put off for a long time: reading queued up newspaper articles (speaking of which, my friend Galen made the New York Times today!), putting away some of the clothes piles that have accumulated, uh, holding a bag of frozen peas to your cheek...and best of all, catching up on various places of editorial output!  I haven't written in this blog in months now and it's about time.

 

Since I've already "toured" Berkeley and Seattle, another fitting destination might be the web, particularly given my bedridden state.  A couple of new websites I've discovered in the last several months:

 

http://www.mint.com.  It's a financial management tool that imports your various spending/saving habits, categorizes them, graphs them, generates monthly averages for various habits and then compares them against your prior behavior and that of people across the country.  I know the concept of putting your bank account/credit card numbers and passwords into a website sounds rather frightening, but this tool seems to have pages devotedto why it's secure, and I have to say, the things it did with my spending habits without my having to do any work were pretty darn impressive.  You'll have to check it out to see for yourself. 

 

http://www.yelp.com.  I like to describe it as Wikipedia meets Citysearch, and also the best tool for discovering fantastic places to go (especially to eat) in most major US cities, and some other places, too.  If you've talked to me at all in the time since December you'll know that I went through a several week stint where Yelp was my obsession for life. I talked of, dreamed of, thought of, did nothing of anything else while I generated 30-something reviews to get my foot in the Elite door.  (You can check out my reviews at http://stepht.yelp.com, if you're interested in where I've been eating--slash, be my friend!).  Word to the wise, get on writing some reviews and make Elite! 

 

OK, it's time to refresh my Advil dosage and consume some more liquid foods...til the next entry!

 

 

Spring is coming!  The days are getting nicer (though I guess the difference is less noticeable here in Seattle where the winter really isn't all that drastic in the first place) and it's generally light when I leave the office... The long, perfect days of Seattle summer can't be far away now.  And today is forecasted to be 59 degrees.  To me, that screams grounds for wearing flip flops, which I am.  Right now.  (Does anyone out there own Rainbow brand flip flops?  Just a shout out: they're pretty sweet!)

 

I am also mourning the passage of girl scout season.  I have both an addiction and a passion for Samoas, though thin mints are good, too.  Rumor on the streets this year is that they've introduced a few new varieties of cookies this year, but my internet research has only turned up the addition of sugar-free brownie bites. 

 

In the meantime, I realize my last post was geared toward interesting things to do in Seattle.  Instead of spending more time on *this* glorious city, I thought I'd spend a bit of this blog post talking about one of my other homes: Berkeley, California.

 

*Get Cheeseboard pizza and a Caribbean Passion Jamba Juice smoothie and eat it somewhere outside, preferably somewhere on UC Berkeley campus - Cheeseboard pizza, a hole-in-the-wall pizza cooperative across the street from Alice Waters' famous Chez Panisse restaurant, serves one type of gourmet pizza per day.  Example ingredients include (but are not limited to): fresh tomatoes, goat cheese, feta cheese, fresh corn, pasilla peppers, grilled eggplant...UH-MAZING!

 

*Visit the top of the Campanile ("Sather Tower") - Few people know that this is one of the tallest structures in the world, and unlike many other "get to really high altitude" attractions, you don't have to exert a ton of effort, pay a ton of money, or waste a ton of time waiting in line to visit it.  $2 (maybe it's even just $1) or a UC Berkeley ID gets you one of the most beautiful San Francisco Bay Area views (which, in my opinion is one of the most beautiful views ever), imagineable.

 

*Try Gelato Milano - Oh My God, this is possibly the best gelato outside of Italy I've ever had.  The man who opened the shop actually brought someone in from Italy to train him in the art of Italian gelato-making and it's flipping fabulous.  (Yes, I just used the word "flipping.")  Plus, who can resist those happy plastic cups and tiny spoons that suspiciously resemble shovels?  I particularly recommend the coconut and strawberry flavors. 

 

You know, everyone should be required to move to a new city at least a couple of times in their lives.

 

Aside from getting a lot of tips from people who have lived in the place for awhile, being new to a place gives one the excuse and the opportunity to explore the wonderful experiences that tend to go unexplored by tourists and undiscovered/unappreciated by natives.

 

If you haven't been to Seattle before or you just haven't been out in awhile, I recommend:

 

*The Downtown Library - Did you know Seattle librarians will make you a customized reading list based on books you've liked/disliked in the past?  Well, they will.

 

*Brunch at Salty's on Alki - This has to be one of the craziest buffets I've ever seen in my life...seafood, a fourteen foot dessert table, omelette/pasta/waffle bar, a chocolate fountain...

 

*Continuing Ed at Bellevue Community College - I'm taking ceramics but they have a lot of cool classes that provide instruction, materials and lab time

 

...maybe i'll discover some more cool stuff and post it here someday