in seattle

John and I flew in to Seattle last night. Will be here for CoffeeFest and other fun stuff until Sunday evening.



Ahhh Seattle.

We walked around Belltown last night, and ate at Serious Pie.

Went to a couple seminars this morning. Interesting. Some cool products: pitcher rinser, matcha stuff, gelato thingy, labels, nut butter.

Pho for lunch.

Going to an omakase place tonight.

in the Tribune

John and our siphon coffee brew are featured in the Tribune today.

babies at Utah's Hogle Zoo

This past Sunday John and I went to the zoo with Shawn and Daena. We HAD to check out the babies and other wonderful animals at the zoo.


Christie the African elephant and little Zuri (baby girl.) Awww.

Baby Zuri was very active... she walked around, picking up little sticks with her nose, climbed over little concrete obstacles, and played with little rocks.


Zuri trying to climb over a low concrete barrier.


I *heart* baby Zuri!


One of the Black Bears was eating a rack of ribs.


And the other guy was just chillin' by the canel.


It was lunch time for the penguins.


Aww the red panda was (sort of) looking a the camera!


The red panda was cleaning himself for a while, and he just looked so cute!


Baby giraffe!

This little (but still tall) guy was chewing something the whole time we were there.

Not too far from the giraffes are the Asian Highlanders. I love the Asian Highland cats!


Not one, not two, but THREE baby tigers!


The leopard was taking a nap.

My battery started to die off, so there weren't many more photos taken after this... but there were so many lovely animals and little creatures.

I love seeing the animals at the zoo... but there were a couple animals that made me sad: the Sand Cat and the wolf... both of them were circling their areas over and over. I think the Sand Cat probably needed more fun activities or a larger space, and the wolf needs a companion (or a pack!)


Where did the other pack members go?

There were more babies at the zoo such as meerkats and golden monkeys. They were too cute.

Oh, and Daena went into the prairie dog (gopher?) holes:



It was fun.

I think I'm going to the zoo again soon.

More photos here.

big head pooh

I got a pooh bear with a big head.


Jasper seemed very interested.


Nuki actually wasn't too much into Pooh, but he was 'forced' to pose with it for photos.

brownie

I was at Petsmart and saw this little guy that was totally adorable. I called him Brownie.



He was a Bloodhond and Lab mix, waiting to be adopted, along with a few other Coonhound puppies and other lovely dogs.

I wish I could bring him home, but it's not quite the time for our family yet... maybe after Torsion is "reunited" with Joyce later this year.


He was very happy and mellow.

He was a gentle guy, but he could also play with other dogs very well. He reminds me of Nuki!


He is still patiently waiting for a great family to call his own.

He's with C.A.R.E of Sevier Valley right now, and I hope he finds a good home soon!

I *heart* Brownie!

hanging out by the door

Nuki and Yama really like to stick together when they hang out.


... especially by the kitchen door.

Usually looks like Yama is leaning againt Nuki. Cute.

so i've been craving thai

Just at the small neighborhood Thai restaurants... nothing super fancy, but perfect for satisfying my cravings.


Sawadee.


Chanon Thai Cafe.


Tasty Thai.

These photos of course are not taken all in the same day. It would have been very nice if they were, but they are not.

My "Thai food buddy" and I would get an appetizer, Som Tum, and a curry dish. Yummy.

katydid

The other night after closing I waited on the patio while John locked up the doors.

Then I saw this guy:



Ahhh!

John came out and said, "Hmm. That's a Katydid. You know, like the girl KATY and she DID something."

Oooo Kay.

I don't usually like insects, but this one was kinda cute, in a strange way. It was probably the name.



It was slowly stepping upward on the side of the building. Its mouth was constantly moving. John said it was looking for little bugs to eat. Apparently most Katydid species are "predatory, feeding on other insects, snails or even small vertebrates such as snakes and lizards."(Wikipedia)

Katydid bites sometimes, too!

So here's the deal: Katydid - don't be fooled by its cute and girly name.

shelf curtains

I made some undercounter "shelf curtains" to cover up my little clutters at the caffe. (shhh!) Inspred by the Japanese Noren.


John put up the cables and hooks for me.

I intentionally chose the gray fabric so it "blends in" with the rest of the counter areas. I like it.

fishhead

My dear friend from high school Fishhead (OK that's not her real name, but I call her that anyhow) and her husband came to visit me at the caffe the day after Labor Day. I hadn't seen her for a few years!


Fishhead and her husband in front of the mural at the caffe.


Me and Fishhead.

It was so great seeing Fishhead, and finally met her husband! They live in Irvine now, and I hope they come to visit again soon (or we go and visit them.)

Ahhh. High school seems so far away now!

at Daena's mom's

Shawn and Daena were engaged! This past Monday (Labor Day) we went down to Pleasant Grove to Daena's mom's house for the engagement BBQ party!

I took a few pictures, and then realized just now I didn't take pictures of Shawn and Daena together, or their families, or the food! Hmm.


Daena's mom had a couple of these little veggie gardens in the backyard. Great idea!


An awesome green pepper waiting to be picked up.


Daena posed with the big kitty Junior.

I brought the sesame cold noodles and people liked it! I was glad. The BBQ was fun. I even tried some veggie hot dogs. Interesting.

I hadn't been down to Utah County for so long, and things have changed quite a bit. There were tons of new houses and newly developed areas. Pretty cool.


And we saw a lot of paragliders when we drove by Draper. Looked fun!

Congrats Shawn and Daena!

scratchers

I was putting things away (and organizing) and found this little gift my friend Nobu gave me a while back when he came back from Japan:



"What is this?" You may ask.

There are actually two things in the bag. A back scratcher and a ear scratcher.

"Hmm. Interesting gifts." You may say.

Yes. I think they were interesting gifts, too. But the one thing that really intrigued me was what the Japanese (and Kanji) word for the back scratcher: "孫の手(magonote)," which literally means "grandchild's hand."

A gradnchild's hand! That just sounded so interesting! I was giggling for a while.

I know some people would wonder why you'd need an ear scratcher... but apparently people do.

And yes, I get very easily amused.

[Portland 07.09] On the Way to the Pearl

After Powell's we went back to the hotel for a little bit before heading out to the Pearl District... we were going to Barista!

It was a fun walk up to the Pearl.


We passed a park with cool sculptures.

Lots of people at the park. Sleeping and reading.


Fish Grotto. Heard good things about it, but didn't get to go this time.


Bikes (a sculpture.)


More bikes. I think these actually belonged to people(?)


I like the building.

And we were almost there!

[Portland 07.09] Powell's Books

One of the "must stop" spots for us in Portland was Powell's Books.


We were there!

It didn't look giantically giant up front, but it was REALLY huge! The bookstore pretty much covered the whole block (and with multiple levels). Awesome.


Inside Powell's.


Rows after rows of books new and used.


More books.


It even had lots of used Japanese comic books!

John and I spent quite a while browsing through some of our favorite sorts of books, and picked up some awesome used books. I was in love.


Nice racks out front.

Powell's was indeed an awesome city of books.