Awesome seafood

Ahhh yeah. Nothing beats some great seafood on the waterfront. Last night, a group of us had a super fun time at Salty's in Seattle. There are three Salty's locations and we went to the one at Alki Beach that gives you an AMAZING view of the Seattle skyline. SO beautiful. If you ever get the chance to go, sneak around the right side of the restaurant and there's a little walkway that gives you an unrestricted view of the city.

Our party of 12 was separated into two tables, but we had seats right at the windows looking into the city. The waiter at my table was awesome. The oyster crackers were incredible. We ordered a "Trio" appetizer which was a crab cake, coconut prawns, and calamari which was super excellent. Everyone's meals were great too, but the absolute best part was the FREE dessert that our kickass waiter hooked us up with. Our table got 2 pieces of white chocolate mousse cake (that was featured on the cover of Bon Apetit magazine in Seattle) that was heavenly. Those cakes were completely devoured in no time flat and we were very close to licking the plates too. If I ever go back, I'd def buy that outright.

So yeah, I'd totally recommend it. Esp with a girl. It's def on the pricey side (you're lookin at $20-30 for an entree on avg) but it's worth it for the atmosphere and the taste.

Bailey, Suz, Larry, and Amy with the Seattle skyline in the background (what, you can't see it with my crappy camera?)

Suz and Larry staring into Seattle

Comeback from the balloon mess

It's all good (for now...I'm a little worried about flying tomorrow morning). After last night's mess, Pete, Beth and I rocked the incline this morning. It was a SUPER beautiful day. Totally clear and on the cool side. I almost went a PR with a 31:40. Pete went 3 min faster at 41:07. And Beth was 9 min faster at 52:57. Totally great.

At the top, I was grateful to meet this 73 year old man who just finished doing his incline for the day. He was telling me that he's done 28 of the 54 14,000ft peaks in Colorado. So insane! I wish I could be that active when I'm that age.

A big reason I was grateful to meet that dude was because his awesome story distracted me from being about to puke all over the place.

See you in Seattle!!

I got schooled by a balloon

So last night, my boy Dom brings balloons over to this big bday extravaganza. Of course I jumped all over that as did a few other people...but these balloons were impossible to blow up!! Or very close to it at least. More than 20 people attempted to blow up these balloons. People were turning red. The more people that faied to do it, the more people attemped. In the end, only three people were able to do it - Dom's girl, Pete (of course), and some big dude who prob had lungs the size of my whole body. Not to be one to be stopped by a tiny piece of rubber, I gave it everything and more. I mean, why would they manufacture balloons that I can't blow up? I think I have always had pretty decent lungs. But alas, the balloon proved stronger than the insides of my head and the left side of my face is definitely all messed up on the inside. I feel like there's fluid trapped behind my ear which I imagine is not a good thing. Not really sure what I can do about it though. And if you think I talked loud before, just listen to me now when one of my ears is not at 100%. Screw balloons. Screw the people that make them.

Movie review: Wedding Crashers

So it takes me 2 hours to iron 9 shirts. That's what I found out today when I watched Wedding Crashers. (I'm still a very slow and meticulous ironer even without a movie going on.) In any case, I'm not sure what to say about Wedding Crashers...I feel like my expectations were in the wrong place. Coming right off of enjoying the unrealistic, stupid comedy Anchorman, I thought I was in for something like that. However, Wedding Crashers actually tries to come off as somewhat believable! How about that? There were definitely it's funny moments that I can totally laugh at from a dude's perspective. I really liked the first half of the movie better than the second half...the first part made me laugh a ton more, but then the second half brings in a sensitive love story aspect that wasn't what I was expecting. During the second half, I just kept thinking "dang this movie is really long for a ridiculous comedy" and "these dudes falling in love is supposed to be funny to me?" Maybe I'm being too hard, but I would have enjoyed it more if they kept up with the "jerk guys crashing weddings to get girls" theme. But instead, the jerk guys tranform into sensitive ones, and that just isn't as funny for me. If I wanted to see a movie about a guy falling for a girl, I'd watch a chick flick.

I do, however, have to say that Rachel McAdams is unbelievably pretty. This just confirmed it. Yes, I actually saw her in the Notebook, and then in Mean Girls too. How beautiful is that girl??

Sad news on the homefront

One of my old friends from back home called me on Sat morning. I hadn't been sleeping very long at that point but Tim never ever calls me so I figured it could be important so we talked. And it sucks, but whenever I get a call like that, I brace for bad news...I'm pretty sure that's a little protective mechanism that stems from when my sis called me about my dad. In any case, I was ready this time. Tim told me that there was a real bad accident involving some members of my old club swim team, the Flushing YMCA Flyers. The team's season culminates emotionally and performance-wise every March at the YMCA State Championships. It's a weekend of a ton of fun and fast swimming that everyone looks forward to for the entire year.

This year's meet was in Buffalo NY, about an 8 hour drive from NYC. A minivan with 2 moms and 4 swimmers were making the drive up there when they apparently stopped to check on a tire. A tanker never saw them and wasn't able to stop or avoid them in time. From what I read, it was an absolutely horrible accident. The driver and 3 of the children (a 10 yo and 16 yo boy, and a 14 yo girl) were all killed instantly. The other mom and boy are hospitalized. It wasn't huge news out here, but it was all over the news back home.

The team decided to continue swimming the meet, leaving the lanes empty for where the 3 swimmers would have been. So sad. It's been years since I was in their place, but I can totally remember those trips to Y States and how tight we were as a team. Unfortunately, me and my teammates on the Flyers back then also know what it's like to lose a teammate we essentially grew up with. The 14 and 16 yo also went to my high school too so it just brings it a little closer to home for me and makes me appreciate what I've got and have been able to do a little more.

Daily News article 1
Daily News article 2
Daily News article 3
Newsday article
NY Times article 1 (you need to be signed into the NY Times site...it's free)
NY Times article 2

Pete's first incline

Within a week or two of being here I believe, Pete challenged the entire office to a race up the incline. (Surprise, surprise.) What more, he even did a whole bunch of trash talking (even more of a surprise). Coming from a self-pronounced sprinter, these were pretty bold words considering that the office is filled with endurance beasts. We are, afterall, in csprings and that's how we do.

So at the end of May, we're having this race and in preparation, Pete did his first incline today. I actually think he'll be very competitive with the crew because he really does have an idea of what he's got himself into and who he's up against. Not to mention that he'll strategize the race to death.


Part of Pete's strategy today was to take little breaks and take in the scenery as well. Here's one of those rest breaks.

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Pete did great for his first time...41 minutes! It was Gina's first time too and she was up just under 40 min. Here they are at the top.

Movie review: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Pete and I were all psyched about renting "The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior" after reading about it on The Sports Guy's column on ESPN Page 2, but alas, Blockbuster doesn't even carry it in their database. what's up with that?! I mean, the Ultimate Warrior was ONLY the most popular pro wrestler when we were in elementary school and every boy wanted to pretend to be like him when we wrestled with our friends! Not sure how we're going to remedy this, but somehow Pete and I will get our hands on this movie and I'm not gonna lie, I'm very much looking forward to blogging about it.

So anyway, we ended up renting Anchorman, a flick neither of us had seen and I think both us would agree that it met our expectations for an excellent Will Ferrell comedy. You definitely have to be in a light, stupid sense of humor to enjoy it, otherwise I'll guarantee you won't like it. I def hate people who see movies like this and Zoolander and say they didn't like it because it was so dumb and stupid...what else are you expecting?? Obviously, the movie is entirely unrealistic and ridiculous, but that's what makes it so great! So if you're too serious, don't bother.

Just like any good comedy, there are plenty of one-liners and references that will come out of this movie I'm sure. Will Ferrell is his normal self. Steve Carrell (The Office, 40 Year Old Virgin) is great one of Will's sidekicks. Christina Applegate has clearly grown out of her Married with Children roots to play the serious female role (very similar to Matilda in Zoolander like Pete said). My faves are Ron Burgundy's definition of diversity and the awesome cameos from the other news crews. You'll just have to see it.

I'm not spending any more time reviewing this movie. It's pretty simple stuff. Definite Oscar-caliber acting and you will almost certainly be overcome with deep emotion and tears at the end of the movie.

Mission aborted

3.5 hours of driving, and precisely 0.00000000 hours of snowboarding. Ah man, it really sucked this morning. All day yesterday, I was a little concerned about the road conditions, and then pretty apprehensive this morning just before leaving, but I really wanted to try and make the trip because Che was here just for the boarding pretty much. I mean, I really wanted to go too. I wouldn't have laid off of exercising my last few days in VA to ensure I was fully healthy, reserved a hotel room, or woken up this morning at 530a if I didn't want to go myself either. But with the road report not the greatest and having to drive back by myself for work on Monday morning, I would have opted not to go if I were on my own. Not that it was undriveable, but my car SUCKS in the snow!! Hyundai Elantras are not really Colorado vehicles, and I know from the couple times I've slid into the curb or guard rail (with minor damage) and the many slide-outs in the last couple winters. So when my car slid past the turn from Hwy 24 onto Rte 9, and then I had to get a running start just to get out of the gas station in Fairplay, I talked myself into giving up and turning back just before starting the climb to Hoosier Pass. The thought of possibly sliding down the back side of Hoosier Pass was not very appealing to me and definitely not worth it at all. So in Alma, almost 2 hours into the drive and very very frustrated, I said we were turning back.

I felt terrible for sure, but I just couldn't get myself to risk it. Yeah, I know I'm a baby. And to make matters worse, when we were driving back, 9 out of 10 cars going the opposite direction were SUV's, but those 1 out of 10 non-SUV's really compounded my guilty feelings. But then I just kept thinking about how stressed I was about driving towards the mountains and how stressed I would be driving back Monday morning after some more snowfall, and I felt a little better. At least it's way beautiful here in csprings. And now I can unpack from my trip.

Restaurant review: Giuseppe's Old Depot

My fave place to eat in csprings! I love it because of the atmosphere. It's an old train depot from the late 1800's that closed operation in 1971 and was turned into a restaurant! It's totally awesome...you walk in and there's the old ticket booths in the nicely renovated lobby and then the dining area has the feel of a big train car. It's got this real homey and warm feel to it, and that's why I love it. I think it's way fun to eat there. The adjacent railyard is still functional so every now and then, a train will roll by and that's really cool.

Chris and Yanni, my friends from UVA who are engaged and are moving here after their wedding, were in town for a couple days looking at some housing, so I took them there for lunch.
The salad bar is great, and the soup and salad bar is pretty much all I've ordered the last few times I've been there. There's a lot of variety at the salad bar and at the end, you can have unlimited chocolate pudding! That's hard to beat. Giuseppe's specializes in their Italian entrees...the calzones, pizza, lasagna, ravioli, calamari, bruschetta are all pretty good. They also used to have an amazing pasta carbonara, but that was taken off the menu. I've also gotten the open faced hot turkey sandwich, and that's definitely a real winner too.

Unfortunately, I've definitely been there a few times when the service has sucked. Real slow at times. Lunch started out as one of those times, as it took us a while to get our drink orders, drinks, and then bread. I was parched, so I def realized the slow service.

But if you're there with friends and you can appreciate the atmosphere, then it's all good. I mean, I still go there a lot. Check it out.

http://www.giuseppes-depot.com/

Concert Review: Jamie Cullum

Really awesome show. If you don't know Jamie Cullum's music, it's kinda jazzy pop...can be pretty mellow at times, always catchy with great vocals, some real good lyrics, and he does some unique covers of songs. Definitely different from a lot of stuff that's popular now. He's British and he's sometimes described as Brit pop, but as Annie said, that makes her think of the Spice Girls, which is he clearly the opposite.

So the show was super great. Jamie's got a TON of energy and is constantly jumping and dancing around (I think he got on top of his piano and jumped off it three times during the show) and it was so fun to be there. There have been many shows I've been at where an artist's mellow songs takes the energy and crowd out of a performance, but not last night. The mellow songs were pretty powerful and captivating, and there was always some great instrumentals to go along with the sweet tunes. Jamie's very interactive with the crowd during (singalongs and whistle-a-longs) and in between songs, which I really like in a show.

One of the highlights was him playing the piano, beatboxing, and drumming on his piano to Ne-Yo's "So Sick", then Kanye West's "Golddigger", then Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman", going into his version of Pharrell's "Frontin" (which is also on Jamie's studio album Twentysomething).

Jamie and his band are all very musically talented and they were able to showcase that for sure. He's got a trumpet player who also does guitar and back-up vocals and plays all sorts of bells and whatever. His saxophonist also plays the bongo and does other stuff. The old man drummer is a beast. And the bassist whips out a stand-up bass every now and then. Jamie himself played the piano, guitar, drums, and bongos.

So check it out!! It was way fun.

Brady and Annie fresh from their honeymoon (and a major crash on the slopes)!!

Me and Suz!

Old friends

I couldn't script a better ending to my awesome trip that already allowed me connect with so many old and new friends. I'm walking to my connection in Chicago's O'Hare Airport and not paying much attention when somebody ducks in front of me and says "Russell??" I was absolutely stunned and caught off guard - it was my old friend Nadine who I hadn't seen since 1999. Totally amazing. Running into an old acquaintance is typically pretty cool...but running into Nadine was really something special for me. Hands down, Nadine had the biggest influence on my life in terms of how I interact and communicate with the people around me. She basically taught me how to really talk to people. Those skills, and the confidence that I got from watching her operate and copying her opened up so many doors for me. When she talked to you, you could just feel her genuine interest, care, and attentiveness no matter how mundane the topic, and because of that, she really endeared herself to her audience. I saw how people responded to her, and I knew how much I enjoyed talking to her...and so I learned from her because I wanted to make people feel the same way when they talked to me. Totally invaluable stuff that I'm extremely grateful for. When I write it down it sounds pretty minor, but I know it had a very major affect on my life.

We completely lost touch after 1999 because our lives were taking us in opposite directions, but I often wonder about her because I still feel and appreciate her influence on me a lot. Nadine's now happily married in Chicago doing a lot of traveling for work, which is how we managed to cross paths. We ended up catching up for more than an hour while I waited for my flight to board. The perfect ending to my VA trip.

Goodbye VA

Despite having the sickness for almost a week, this trip has been super great. I still managed to get a lot accomplished work-wise and really balance my time with friends here. The 2 weeks have flown by so fast and I'm going to miss the routine and crashing at Al and Sarah's place. Thanks to all the people that made this trip awesome (half of whom will never read this blog ever): Alison, Heidi, Amanda, Sarah, Brady, Annie, Kid, Dharma, DBell, Haag, Moose, Nick, Brendan, BigD, Norman, Jenny, KZ and Ray B and all my Fishie friends, Kit, Dave and Kevin, my GW peeps, the UVA men's team, and everyone else I saw at the wedding.

I'm going to be back blogging a bunch of restaurant reviews after I get back (maybe). There were def some good eating experiences around here. Now I'm back off to CO for an action-packed weekend. till then, see ya later.

Restaurant review: NanLa

NanLa (formerly known as Viet Grill)
907 King St
Alexandria, VA

Dharma and I accidentally ended up going to this place and it turned out to be super awesome. She had wanted to take me to this other Thai place that ended up being a little further down King St, but we walked in and decided to take a seat because it was all the same to me.

I ordered the chicken curry and Dharma ordered some lemon poppyseed chicken thing. All of the entrees came with a salad that had this great sweet and sour dressing on it. And then the food was awesome too. It tasted as good as it looked for sure. The chicken was practically melting in my mouth, the curry was great, and there were these huge ass potatoes in there too which turned out real good. Dharma's plate looked to be just as good. She had veggies on the side that were totally bright with color.

I'd definitely go back. With a pretty girl preferably. The atmosphere was real cozy and nicely decorated. Service was real good (which wasn't hard because we were literally the only people in the restaurant the entire time except for the lone guy at the bar).

DC Adventure

I'm at like 85% health now. Which means I can actually do things other than lay in bed now. So me and my two fave girls in Old Town Alexandria took a little adventure in DC. It felt good to be outside (accompanied by two beautiful ladies). Check it out...

The Washington Monument

My boy, Mr. Jefferson's Monument!!

Check out these rockstars. Alison and Sarah. Hot dogs make them happy.

Me and Al on the swing of death.

Brady & Annie's wedding

So I was able to rest and rally from my sickness to be one of Brady's groomsmen last night. I'm still totally bummed that I wasn't able to attend all the rehearsal stuff on Fri night, but incredibly grateful to recover enough for the wedding. Even though I wasn't 100%, I had a total blast. Call me a girl all you want, but I nearly lost it seeing how happy Brady was, watching Annie walk down the aisle, and thinking about two of my close friends getting married to each other. It made me super happy to be there, and as I stood in front of everyone in the church, I was able to reflect and appreciate a lot of the moments I shared with Annie and Brady. I feel so fortunate to have been able to get to know each of them - Brady as one of my first-year residents (his dad remembers me from Brady's move-in day 6 years ago) to rooming with me in csprings for the last 6 months...Annie and our many Colorado adventures together - hiking, camping, boarding, tubing. I wish them endless years of happiness together in the future.

I definitely didn't tear up the dance floor (or meet my future wife), but I had a great time reconnecting with lots of old friends and making new ones too. Besides the marriage, the highlights of the night for me were catching up with my old resident Nick who works for Steven Curtis Chapman's non-profit adoption organization (Shoahannah's Hope), meeting one of Brady's friends who just moved to NYC to pursue his music career (Norman Vladimir), and an awesome conversation I had with one of my old ressies dates. The two of us ended up talking about our jobs, which naturally leads to how much I love mine and how I landed such a great gig. This girl could totally relate to how miserable I was with my past job and was inspired by the chance I took to find the dream job. She was definitely pumped by my story which made me super happy. If there's one thing I enjoy seeing people do, it's seeking out happiness. Not settling for less than they deserve. I truly believe that there is no need to be "stuck" somewhere that you are unhappy at, esp when it comes to your career. I feel like I've had it very lucky and didn't have to fight extremely hard to get where I'm at, but I think I'm living proof of it.

Sick in DC

Sucks!! I went to the pool on Mon PM, had to strain my voice to talk at the pool and then wake up the next morning at 415am...and now I'm sick. Really sucks.