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.

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?

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?

The USPS is not my friend. First they always have the longest lines. Next they take away my tape. Soon they’ll up the cost of stamps again. Then they’re only open 7 hours a day. It just gets better and better. Yet they win because they are a billion dollars cheaper than sending mail via UPS or FedEx. Yes, one billion dollars.

Yesterday I had two packages to ship. Two normal packages. Each not more than a pound or two. The post office right next to my work is open from 10am to 6pm. It’s downtown. It should be open before 10. But I’ll take the “open till 6″, that will work.

I leave work a few minutes after 5. March down to the post office and walk in. Inside is a lone woman at the counter waiting, nobody is behind the counter. So I stood there and waited a few minutes, then a woman came out from the back and told me that they were closed. “But the schedule says you’re open til 6″ I say. “No, no we’re closed now.”

Uh-huh. I see.

The other waiting woman and I left, she was a  little huffier than me, I think she had been waiting awhile.

She could have at least locked the door at 5pm if that’s when she wants to close. Maybe leave a note on the door. But government services are special and don’t have to worry about things like customer service.

Since the packages had to be mailed out that day, I left and found a FedEx and got robbed blind for shipping. Ridiculous.

Yet I’ll still go back to USPS and deal with their rudeness for the sake of saving money. Ah well. Such is life.

My main entree includes three ingredients: collard greens (from Tahoma Farms), red pepper hummus (WF), and bell pepper slices (leftover from a BBQ). It’s a wrap! Excuse the weird shade of the red pepper, I took all of these photos under awful light at 10pm.

And yes I’m that excited about a wrap. Who isn’t. And no question mark there, because it’s not a question.

Mmm, wrap.

This is the hummus I used, it’s from Whole Foods and ridiculously delicious. It comes with a later of roasted red pepper on top that you stir in like fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt. Or you’re like me and dig to the bottom of the yogurt (or in this case, skim the peppers off of the top) and eat the fruity goodness. Leaving just enough fruit to flavor the rest of the yogurt.

Lunch also includes low-moisture string cheese and and a tupperware full of blueberries, mango, and fresh raspberries from my mom’s yard. I’m pretty sure that those raspberries and her homemade applesauce are two of my most favorite things in the world. Nobody does it better. Even farmer’s markets don’t get the raspberries right. Believe me, I’ve tried.

Aren’t they glorious? I’ve eaten them probably every year of my life in jam, syrup, frozen, and fresh form. I really can’t wait to have my own raspberry plants.

Drool.

On a side note, the wild blackberries in my alley have a few ripe berries! There are millions upon millions of blackberry bushes around my place and across the main road. And since it’s all city folk up here, I’m doubting that they’ll even touch them. Surprising since fresh blackberries are so expensive.

Anyway, I ended the night with a few spoonfuls of my new found love–Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato. Translated: Nutella Gelato.

My favorite flavor ever. It tastes exactly like what Nutella gelato should taste like. All your hopes and dreams have come alive.

Here are the nutrional facts if you’re curious, only seven ingredients (grouping the stabilizers together).

I bought it at Fred Meyer’s for $2.50 on sale. I would also love to try the Talenti gelatos but they cost more than I’m willing to shell out when I can have Nutella gelato for half the price. Yes the nice man at the store who grabbed a tub of Talenti strongly suggested that I should buy some as well, but I love finding new delicious things that don’t cost twice as much as I want to pay. Especially when there is Nutella gelato. I can’t get over that. Nutella. Gelato. Genius.

P.S. I could explain the title. But there’s no point if you don’t already recognize it. The rest of you get to stay in the dark. :)

And these Babushka cups. I would so want these if I were a little girl:

They remind me of my little nesting dolls that I’m sure are still somewhere at my parent’s house. One of my good friends when I was in kindergarten was a girl that had recently moved from Russia. Actually it wasn’t Russia, but it was somewhere Russian-controlled at the time. I think. My memory fails me. Ukraine? Anyway, I like nesting dolls.

I have two patty pan squash plants on my balcony. One is smaller but sort of producing. I say sort of because it does have squash on it, but none of them are turning from green to yellow and they come off looking like this inside.

Fail.

They’re not even shaped like pretty patty pans should be. I thought I might be over watering, so I stopped for a few days. Didn’t seem to have an effect. On the underside of the leaves appear to be teeny tiny little black bugs, though they don’t seem to be eating holes in the leaves. I sprayed them with some organic bug spray, but nada happened. Nada. Hmmmm.

The other squash plant that isn’t as sickly as the rebellious one has a little patty pan growing on it finally, and it actually looks patty pan shaped! Here’s hoping that it keeps growing. I’ll baby that thing to death. These squash plants have to earn their keep, they’re taking up a good portion of my precious balcony space.

In other garden news, my lettuce was attacked by this:

I call him Spot.

He’s about an 1/8th of an inch long and reproduces more than bunnies. He is now deceased, but his children keep living on. They have all but killed my lettuce, though it’s sadly well on its way. If anyone has any tips to get rid of Spot’s offspring, be my guest.

I have already tried soapy water, Safer organic bug spray, and manually removing them. No luck. They live on.

Back to the trenches!

P.S. 2 of 3 tomatoes plants have little green tomatoes on them. Hurray!

Found on Etsy in CalicoVintage’s shop.

But I’m pretty sure I’d have to be a real hippie and 7 feet tall. Or a a hippie Southern belle. If I wore this now I would look like a 7 year old girl playing dress up with her mom’s old clothes from the 70s.

This is pretty too.

Found on Etsy in thedabara’s shop.

It’s a little too much like a slip though. If the top edges weren’t scalloped I think it would look more like a real dress.

I really like this bag. Yes it’s made of walrus hide, which is unique in and of itself. If you know me then you know that I really like walruses. You would think that I would be appalled at carrying around such an atrocity, but no. The bag is made, what’s done is done. And I’m pretty sure there is no production line or black market for walrus hide bags so I don’t think that walrus’ will be in danger. I could be wrong though.

Found on Etsy in TopsyDesign’s shop.

Speaking of walruses, this wood sign caught my eye as well. Reminds me of reading Through the Looking Glass when I was young.

Found on Etsy in CountryWorkshop’s store.

Exhibit A:

We flock to restaurants and cupcake shops, tasting their wares and reviewing them without mercy! The peasants read our verdicts and cower before our decisions. The lucky establishments that pass our tests are revered in the kingdom and highly patroned!

So really the Citysearch Dictators are a group (you can join, at least in Seattle!) of people that review businesses on Citysearch. The editor, Chelsea, gives us monthly “assignments” that we can partake in and have the chance to win prizes! Assignments vary from writing a list of restaurants with patios to a review of our favorite restaurant that has Sunday Suppers. Sometimes you can win by having the best, or other times you can win by entering first or just winning in a random selection. I won a $25 gift card to Agua Verde recently to be one of the first 5 to submit the assignment.

We also have monthly gatherings, with a raffle and often free food or cupcakes! The last one I went to was at Cupcake Royale.

At this gathering we happened to get to decorate our own cupcakes and sample some local wine. We were given some great swag, a box with a Cupcake Royale travel cup, a coupon for a free cupcake, a bag of Shepherd’s Grain Flour, and some other neat goodies too.

Here’s a picture of the Sprinkle Bar where we decoratee our cupcakes. We got to choose the frosting! And we got to sample three different kinds of babycakes, oh were they good. I love Cupcake Royale.

In the raffle I won a Sprinkle Party! Me and a few of my friends (6 or so) get to come in and decorate our own cupcakes. Not sure when to use it, but sounds like a cute idea for some get together.

At the first Dictator gathering at Post I won a jar of Bacon Jam from Skillet. Which I shall have you know is very, very, awesome.

It’s a great group, and it helps you to get to know the city better. Quite a few of them are also very active foodies on Twitter, the gatherings are always a hoot with this group. We’d love more dictators, so join and get your ‘stache on!

*I found the photos on the Dictator Facebook Group Page, so kudos to whoever took them!

So I spent the majority of the weekend outside with Caleb. We went to the Mobile Chowdown on Saturday at Seattle Center. It’s a conglomeration of a bunch of food trucks from Seattle and Portland like the Marination Mobile and Koi Fusion. They are all really, really tasty.

Caleb and I settled on Skillet, it was a choice based on what we know of the food and how long the line was. We wanted to go to Koi Fusion and Maximus/Minimus (they have an awesome pig truck), but the lines were too long and exacerbated by the heat.

It also helps that Skillet is served out of an Airstream. I love Airstreams. My family used to have one. It was a more rare one, the shorter version of Skillet’s.

We had the famous burger and fries from Skillet and a strawberry lemonade.

It was expensive for the portions, but the taste was completely worth it. Oh I can’t even describe it, really excellent all around. Loved the fries as well, and I consider myself an amateur fry connoisseur. They were thin cut, with visible potato skin still clinging on. They were seasoned with coarse sea salt and fresh rosemary. I dream about fries like these.

The rest of the day was spent at Canal St. Coffee, which has a glorious deck overlooking the canal.

There be my handsome husband. Isn’t he handsome?

We opted to sit inside right next to some very large open windows and drink Coca Cola and Hales (which, by the way, are $2 every day all day).

And enjoyed the scenery. I didn’t get a worthy photo of the canal, but I did get some photos of the beautiful foliage from around the cafe.

That evening we had BBQ at my brother-in-law’s place and watched Office Space. It’s amazing how quotable that movie is, and how often you hear it referenced in the workplace. Same with The Office.

Who knows what happened to Sunday. I think I went on a walk, tended to my balcony garden, and cleaned. Oh and I made a version of Bulgogi (Korean BBQ), though without a proper BBQ.

Hopefully the rest of this week heats up a little, because 60 isn’t going to cut it. I’d like next weekend to be just as nice as this one.