A Martini with the Rossis: March 2009

Friday, March 20, 2009

Seattle Sounder FC Inaugural Game

I gave Dan and early birthday present this year...season tickets to the new Seattle Souncers FC Soccer team. Dan is a huge soccer fan and I must say that I'm really getting into it too. Below is Dan opening his gift of season tickets the night before the Inaugural game on 3/19. The Inaugural games was a blast. The crowd was awesome and everywhere you looked it was a sea of green scarves. The top it all off, they won the match.

Rufus helping Dan open his gift

Sea of scarves

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Mission West Seattle

Continuing on with our mission to eat at new restaurants Dan took us to Mission in West Seattle for mexican food. Another great pick.

Rufus waiting for us when we came out of the restaurant. He loves his rides in the car

Cake Decorating Sisters

I was sitting having pizza with Dan and Amy one Friday night and I told them that one of my goals this year was to take a cake decorating class. Amy got so excited and pulled out of her purse a cooking class schedule from Whole Foods and pointed to the Cake Decorating class. I decided it must have been meant to be and we signed up. We had a great afternoon learning how to cut, frost, and decorate cakes. It wasn't easy though and I left thinking maybe I should start smaller with cupcakes.

An African Themed Valentines Weekend

Dan and I had a fun filled Valentines weekend that seemed to have a bit of an African theme without having planned it to be. We started on the 13th with an evening planned by Dan that started with dinner at the Purple Cafe followed by the Lion King at the Paramount. The show was amazing. The next morning we had brunch with mom and Amy and exchanged Valentine's Day gifts over coffee afterwards. One of the gifts we gave Amy was an African Safari planner as we tried to inspire her to plan her dream vacation. The rest of the afternoon we headed back to our house where Dan and I opened gifts. That evening it was my turn to plan for a new restaurant, so I picked the Moroccan restaurant Marrakesh. Dan was so thrilled and surprised by my pick. He had tried to guess all week and I only agreed to give him one hint...I washed his hands for him...since we would be eating with our hands. He never guessed though and all he could think of was eating pizza. A great end to the weekend came on Sunday when I had brunch with my dear friend Jill who was in town from Rhode Island. jill and I worked together in D.C. and I love seeing her.

Dinner at Purple Cafe

The Amazing Lion King

Exchanging Valentines with Mom and Amy

Watch Out Africa...here she comes!

My Valentine

Rufus working on his Valentine

I gave Dan a Sounders scarf to wear to the Inaugural game coming in March

Along with US Magazine I got a Fray CD and a Norman Rockwell Puzzle (I don't know why, but it has been one of my goals this year to finish a hard puzzle)

4 Course dinner at Marrakesh. It was so good!!

One of the courses. Phyllo dough filled with ground chicken and almonds topped with cinnamon and sugar. It was so good. We both really enjoyed the food.

Main course

Belly Dancer at Marakesh

Brunch on Sunday at Portage Bay Cafe with Jill

Bob Greene Book Signing

On February 6th Mom, Amy, and I attended a talk and book signing by Bob Greene (of Oprah show fame) at the U-Village Barnes and Noble. It was perfect timing as Dan and I had just started to read his book. Before the signing he was only supposed to give a short talk on his book along with a few questions from the audience, but instead he stayed until the audience was done asking questions. He seemed very humble and kind. During the signing he also spent a few minutes with each individual person answering questions. We were impressed.

Dan unfortunately couldn't make it as he had something going for school, but he did give me a question to ask Bob...here I am asking it for Dan.

Mom and Bob

Restaurant Critics In Our Own Town

When Dan started his MBA program we committed to a Saturday night date night to ensure quality time together during all of the busyness. Well this quarter we decided to kick the dates up a notch by challenging ourselves to try a new restaurant each week. Dan and I rotate picking the restaurant each week and planning the date. It has been a blast. This is a picture of one of my picks...La Rustica a great Italian restaurant on West Seattle. While I don't have pictures of all of the restaurants, a few of the places we've enjoyed are Monsoon, Flying Fish, & Lee's Asian in West Seattle.

Driving along Alki Beach on a rainy evening towards La Rustica

Christmas/New Years in Ohio

On December 26th we left the snow of Seattle to visit Dan's family in Ohio. The first day we arrived the weather in Columbus was in the high 60's. Crazy! We had a wonderful week spending time with family and running around Columbus. It was hard to leave!!