I work in a very picturesque square. It’s all brick and old buildings with pretty trees and art galleries. There are often photo shoots there, even a Honda commercial a few weeks ago. But this morning when I was approaching work I noticed a group of people with a big movie camera. Pretty normal, nothing odd.

Then a coworker and I decided to go get coffee a few minutes later. We were walking out our door and the camera was pointed straight at our office door.

Awkward much?

So we fetched the necessary caffeines and were approaching our door again. The camera was still pointed at our door. Well we couldn’t very well wait for them to do whatever they were doing. It could take hours. And we have jobs to get to. This is why you shouldn’t film an office at 9am when everyone is arriving at work. Even one hour earlier would have resulted in much fewer interruptions, if any. Unless you wanted to film all the people. But they really didn’t seem like that’s what they were looking for.

Once we got inside, there were two people standing there. I think they were part of the filming squad. Not sure. But the whole thing was odd. We just walked past them and up the stairs to our office.

And life goes on.

Last month Caleb and I went to the walrus’ birthday at the Point Defiance Zoo. His name is E.T. And yes we have an annual pass to go see him whenever we want to. We really like walruses.

At the moment there are also two female walruses on loan from the San Diego Zoo. It’s E.T.’s harem. They are supposed to make baby walruses together, I hope they succeed this year. You have no idea how excited I will be if there are walrus pups to see. Though I’m just excited that there are three walruses at the zoo right now. There’s only about 13 or so in captivity in the U.S. Maybe even the world. They don’t really do well in captivity since they are such social animals. And it’s hard to house a herd of walruses.

Anyway. E.T.’s birthday. He was turning 38. Or 32. Something old. Walruses generally only live to be 35-40 years, so he’s an old guy. He’s been at Point Defiance since he was a pup, rescued from the waters of Alaska. His birthday party consisted of him doing a few tricks and then blowing the herring candles out on his cake. No, really, he blew them out. You should have been there.

Did I mention that we went to two of the three “parties”. We waited for 45 minutes for the second one to start so we could get front row seats. We have a problem. Is there a Walrus Lovers Anonymous?

It’s a new husband’s favorite!

Seriously, my husband said it’s the best avocado smoothie he has ever had. And he’s had his fair share. I’m sure you’ve seen avocoladas around the blogosphere, they’re pretty popular. My first encounter with an avocado in a smoothie was in bubble tea on University Way in Seattle. At first I was leery. Avocados are for guacamole and sandwiches. Not smoothies. So I thought.

After I tried my first one, I was hooked. Avocados are not very strongly flavored, so they are versatile on the savory or sweet side. And it makes such rich, creamy smoothies. Add too much ice and you have to eat it with a spoon. But I like to eat all of my smoothies with a spoon, unlike Caleb who camels it down. Yes, camels is a verb.

To Camel: To consume a beverage quickly and with gusto. Occurs often after intense exercise.

So this is my super hurried recipe for a version of an avocolada that I made up yesterday. It’s based on what I imagined it should be like. It would be better with coconut milk instead of regular milk and coconut extract, but it’s all I had.

And am I the only one who has tried to grow an avocado tree? I always start one, but then end up throwing it out after a couple of weeks. I don’t have the patience, nor the climate, for such a feat. But doesn’t it look like fun?