Celebrating Dara & Leah

Over the weekend, Corey and I had the opportunity to celebrate the recent nuptials of my co-worker Dara, and his wife Leah. They got married last week in Victoria but invited all of us over to her parents' house in Maple Valley to celebrate this major milestone in their lives.

With Dara being Persian, we were able to experience an abbreviated version of a Persian ceremony, which was incredibly interesting. It centers around a Sofreh, which is an elaborate spread of amazing food, which each symbolize something that is wished upon the new couple (happiness, prosperity, energy, love, fertility, etc). Presiding over the ceremony was one of Dara's uncles, who did a great job keeping those of us new to Persian wedding ceremonies up-to-speed with what was happening, as well as keeping it light and fun.

Like traditional wedding ceremonies, the woman is asked if she will accept the man's hand in marriage; however, the key difference is that the woman will typically require the officiant to ask three times to signify that the groom is anxious to have her and not the other way around. Leah made Dara squirm by following along with this portion of the ceremony, which drew a lot of laughs from the audience. The man only needs to be asked once.

Following the ceremony, everyone enjoyed fabulous food from Gorgeous George's Mediterranean Kitchen. They are #14 on Urban Spoon and have been featured in The Stranger and just last week in Seattle Weekly. We will be planning a trip to this restaurant soon - the food was to die for! (Corey, our resident "foodie" even said it was the best food he's "had all year".)

The evening was topped off with dancing to a perfect mix of top hits and fun, upbeat Persian tunes. It was amazing to look out on the dance floor and see people of all ages crowding the dance floor at all times. I think everyone truly had a blast, but no more so than my boss, Tony, who was quite the dancer.

Here are a few photos of our fun evening.

The happy couple.

The Sofreh

The ceremony

Part of the Channel Management team - Stacy, Dara, Tony and I.

Axiously awaiting our yummy dinner.

Some of the delicious food!

Tony taking his turn with the bride.

Chef George taking his turn on the dance floor.

Entertainment on the Eastside

Over the weekend, Corey and I joined the Reeders for a date night in Bellevue. We hadn't spent much (or any) time with them since returning from Vegas so it was great to get out and see them again.

Our first stop was Earls, a popular Canadian chain that recently open in Bellevue. On a Saturday night in B-town, Earls was definitely the place to be, especially if your name is Jack Sikma. Yes, he was there. I noticed him first but not because of who he was, but because of how tall he was. I told everyone to 'check out that tall guy' only to find out that the 'tall guy' was a center on the Sonics back in the day. After doing a little research, it's no wonder I thought he was tall. At 6'11", he definitely would have caught the attention of most.

Those of you who know Lisa know she likes to get photos of herself on any couch she comes across, even if that couch happens to be in the lobby of a busy restaurant. Luckily, no waiting patrons had to be moved for this shot.

Since the guys wouldn't let Lisa and I ask for a photo with him (how blog-worthy would that have been?), Corey took a stealth photo of him.

After filling our bellies, we headed to Dinner for Schmucks. Though Lisa wasn't a fan, Corey and I thought it met expectations and provided some good laughs.

Who says you can't have a little fun before your movie starts? Although maybe next time, Lisa will follow the instructions. Nah, probably not.

All in all, a great way to spend a summer Saturday!

Another DIY Success

While we love condo living (just steps from tons of restaurants, shops, bars and the grocery store, and no yard / exterior to maintain), there are some things that are we are super excited to enjoy some day when we own a house. These include a yard for Roxy to run around in and for us to relax in, not needing to worry about making too much noise, and of course having more space and storage!

In our condo, we have a fair number of closets but with the amount of cooking we do, we have way too many kitchen gadgets but not enough cupboards. We have a buffet that we were constantly afraid to access for fear that everything would fall out or would hate to open because we knew we'd have to unstack a million things just to get one pan and we were feeling pretty disorganized and things were feeling pretty crammed when it came to the kitchen.

Until now!

We spent a few hours several weekends ago clearing out the buffet and the closet in the den to be able to put shelving up in half of the closet. This meant Corey had to find some extra room for about 20 of his favorite coats and jackets but it gave us TONS more storage space for our makeshift pantry that our kitchen now can spill into. We're now no longer afraid to open the buffet and it's so easy to grab what we need quickly from the new shelves.

Seriously - if having a real pantry some day is this exciting, I can't wait to see what else a house may have in store for us!

Perfect Summer Treat

The recently opened D'AmbrosioGelato has become our go to spot in Ballard for gelato. We recently hit it up with the crew (aka Nick & Gina, Kels & Mark, Sara) after a Matador happy hour and were lucky enough to head back with Joan over the past weekend after dinner at our place.

With 20+ unique flavors (woman's kiss and dark chocolate are my faves) to choose from, everyone is happy. And truly, there is nothing better than a cold treat on a hot, sunny day. Wouldn't you agree?

Here are a few photos from our visit last weekend --- as you can tell, it wasn't hot out that trip, but it was still just as good!

Summer Celebrations

Whew! We've had a super fun (and busy!) week as we've been on the move, celebrating one thing after another.

It kicked off with my friend Brooke's surprise (belated) bachelorette party. Belated because she and her hubby, Brian, eloped last December and a bachelorette party as she and Brian are finally heading to Kauai on their honeymoon later this month. About ten girls gathered at one of Brooke's friend's houses for an evening of yummy appetizers, girl talk, presents, and a stripper. Yes, you heard me. Prior to arriving, I had no idea that in addition to surprising Brooke with a party, we'd also be surprising her with a stripper, but as soon as one girl ran out to 'get lots of $1's', the rest of us figured it out. Needless to say, Brooke was extremely surprised (and shocked) but I think she had a blast.

Sorry folks --- Corey said I had to keep the blog PG, so that's all you get.

The celebration continued on Friday at my co-worker Stacy's house. She and her husband Chris hosted my work team's annual summer BBQ. We always look forward to our get togethers for --- and with good reason. We all get along so well (both at and outside of work), love to catch up with the significant others, enjoy yummy food, lounge in the nice weather and share lots of laughs. This year didn't disappoint. And to top it off, we were celebrating two exciting occasions --- the arrival of Stephanie and Billy's baby (due in September), and Dara and Leah's upcoming wedding.

Stephanie & Billy

Doyin & Tomi

Dara & Leah

Tony & Linda

Chris and his Big Green Egg,which he used to prepare some fabulous ribs.

Channel Management Team

The whole crew

Last night, we joined our friends Kevin and Jen and 12 of their other friends to celebrate their 30th birthdays. It kicked off with a sail around the Puget Sound on a Let's Go Sailing boat. With weather in the 90's, it was the perfect way to take in the Seattle skyline.

After we were back on land, we hopped aboard a stretch Hummer and made our way out to the Snoqualmie Casino for an evening of dancing and gambling. The boys had good luck at the tables (Corey came home with $380!) and us girls had a blast dancing and people watching in Club Sno.

And aside from the formal celebrations, we also had lots of other fun activities planned this weekend:

• Brunch with Brian and Katrina on Saturday, who were in town from San Francisco this weekend, at B&O Espresso.
• Brunch with my parents on Sunday, who were in town for the night after visiting my brother in Bellingham, at High Life.
• I've been reading Eat Pray Love and had a blast going to see the movie with Joan today.
• While Joan and I were at the movie, Corey fixed us all dinner - can't beat that!

We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather for all of our weekend festivities. Another fabulous, summer weekend down and hopefully many more to come!

Lake Chelan

Miss Sara Diane's recent 27th birthday called for a celebration. And by celebration, I mean a weekend getaway in Lake Chelan! I joined Gina and Nick and Sara's friends Julie & Carlo and Erika & Greg in Chelan to toast our dear friend and enjoy the sun. (We couldn't find anyone to watch Roxy on short notice and don't have a kennel lined up yet, so Corey stayed behind to keep her company. Thanks Sweetie!)

Julie was our weekend event planner and found us a great condo right on the water. It was nice and new and had a great view of the lake. To top it off, Erika and Greg recently bought a boat and were kind enough to allow us to enjoy it over the weekend, so we spent most of our weekend out on the lake. A thunderstorm and haze from a nearby forest fire cut our day short on Saturday, but we made up for it on Sunday.

No weekend getaway is complete without yummy food (including homemade fish tacos and birthday cake, in this case), games (Mexican Train Game --- highly recommend it!) and lots of laughs and you can rest assured that we fulfilled all of these obligations.

Happy birthday, Sara!

Check out the rest of the photos from our Chelan weekend here.