Memorial Day Weekend with the Cousins

I spent Memorial Day weekend here in Seattle. I really didn't have any plans, and just thought I'd go with the flow day by day. It would be a very relaxing 3 days off. Well, the weekend played out even better than I expected. Friday night I spent with my family at my parents' condo here in Belltown. I'm so glad they're so close and I can hang out with them whenever they're here. Saturday morning, I went back to my parents' condo for breakfast, hung out at the park with Ardon, and then had a fabulous dinner and perused the city on a beautiful Seattle night with more family again! Yesterday (Sunday), my cousins, Tin, Michael and I went out to Lake Union for a kayaking excursion. The weather has been so beautiful all weekend, so the combination of amazing Seattle weather and such a great family made my Memorial Day weekend memorable. I guess today will be my day to relax. Not bad.

David and Tan.
The last time we went kayaking, Tan flipped. He managed to stay afloat this time!

Tin and Michael.
The rowing for their adventure measured out about 10% Tin and 90% Michael.
It was pretty hilarious to watch.

G and me.
We don't know what makes us row so slow.
We were, by far, the first ones to head back to the docks, and the last ones, by far, to arrive. It's all good. We got our tans!

May Days

It's pretty wild to think that little Mia is already a year old! Mar and Vince invited the whole family to the Mexican restaurant Azteca to celebrate the little princess's birthday, which was pretty festive for a Cinco de Mayo birthday. Since Cinco de Mayo landed on a Tuesday this year, we all got together for the celebration the Sunday before. Filling a restaurant with the whole family is always a lot of fun.

Sometime during the celebration Nishi and Gemma came up with the swell idea of having a cousin dinner at my place. I walked up to their table, and immediately hear, "So, we're going to come over to your place for dinner next time." I say, "Oh, that sounds good! When should we have it?" Gemma chimes in, "Tomorrow!" And surely I agree! It's always fun to break up the work week with something different and fun, so I was all for it. What better company than my cousins? So, needless to say that Sunday and Monday were filled with family fun.

Birthday princess Mia, blowing out her first birthday candle!
She already dove into her cake. You can tell by the little chocolate soul patch on her little chin.

The Picardal-Villa family and friends gathered for the special birthday at Azteca in Tukwila. Feliz Cumpleanos, Mia!

The next day, we moved the party to my place.
This is the busiest my kitchen has ever been!
We had a very diverse menu, including Italian, Southwestern, Indian, and Filipino food.

Michael, Tin, Macoo, Gemma, Sander, Matt, and Mar enjoying the food.

Josh, Tan, G, David, Andrea, Nishi, Raya, and Ty also enjoying the potluck dinner.
I knew my big couch would come in handy!

The little princess and Daddy Vince hanging out.
Poor Mia had her 1 year old shots and was feeling pretty under the weather.

Isaac always up to something. . .

Ristorante Magnifico!

Mamma Melina Ristorante
On the corner of 50th Ave N and Roosevelt in the U-District
It's the one with the red awning.

For Ardon, one of the perks of working at the hotel is that he gets discounts and gift certificates from the restaurants that surround the hotel. The desk clerks keep the neighboring restaurants in business by referring guests to their restaurants to eat, and in return the restaurants treat the desk clerks with discounted meals and gift certificates.

Yesterday, Ardon received a gift certificate from a neighboring restaurant called Mamma Melina Ristorante, an Italian restaurant on 50th Ave N and Roosevelt in the University District. He nor I have ever eaten there before, so we were quite excited to try it out. To our surprise, it was a very quaint little restaurant. The tables were small and placed quite close together, and the eating area was just one open room. While the dining area was small, it had a good, intimate, cozy vibe, with the white table cloths, candles lit on each table, and some Italian instrumental music playing low in the background. As I scanned the room, I noticed that everyone had to lean closer to each other over the tables to converse. I have never been to Italy before, but I could imagine myself stepping outside of the ristorante and walking onto a cobblestone street in the middle of Rome. The vibe was awesome, and everyone was very friendly.

We were served focaccia bread, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar before ordering. The focaccia bread tasted really good. It was still warm, and so soft on the inside with a slight crunch on the outside. The food we ordered was very good as well. Ardon ordered the Salmon Farfalle (Bowtie pasta with salmon in white sauce) and I orded the Pollo al Marsala (chicken breast in a brown creamy sauce with onions and mushrooms, and a side of veggie and pasta). Both dishes were SOOOO good! It tasted very home made, like lots of love was put into each dish. We also ordered dessert, and ended our meal with a Tortino--a slice of warm apple and cranberry bread pudding topped with vanilla ice cream. YUM!

Ardon made sure to thank the manager, Antonio, for the gift certificate, the wonderful food and experience. Antonio insisted that the entire meal was on the house, rather than on the gift certificate. We really could not have thanked him enough.

I usually don't blog about food or restaurants, but I do love blogging about a great experience, and this is definitely one of them. If you're ever in need of a laid-back, intimate, friendly, delicious time, head over to Mamma Melina in the University District. I highly recommend it!

Here's the link to their website: http://www.mammamelina.com

Taking Shots

So, I've always loved photography. As a sophomore in high school, I took a photography class, and I've loved it ever since. Well, back in high school, I had a 35mm Canon camera that took rolls of film. I would have to go to the dark room (we called it the "bat cave") to try to develop the film, and I'd cross my fingers in hopes that the negatives would actually develop. Most of the time, only half of the negatives would develop, and the other half was just a black strip of plastic, so finding a good picture to print was slim pickins. Thank goodness for digital! Last month I invested in a good camera with a focusing lens and everything. All of the photography terminology came back to me as I read through the manual. . . Words like aperture, F-Stop, and shutter speed, reminded me of all the things I actually know about photography. I'm also starting to learn more about photoshop and how to enhance the images. I am hardly pro or expert, but I really have fun doing it.

So, I've been taking lots of pictures, mostly just around the house when I'm bored. Here are only some of the pictures that I've shot. I have plenty plenty plenty more. I haven't touched these with photoshop, so these are the images in their original form. Oh yeah, I also have a vase in which I'm always changing the flowers. The vase is probably my favorite model to shoot. You'll see some pics below.

Ardon so peacefully sleeping. The flash woke him up after this one.

The strings of the guitar hanging on my wall.

Salt and pepper.

The morning after a night out, I found my shoes in the window.

In the flower vase.

In the flower vase two.

In the vase three.

In the vase 4.

Mes Nouveaux Amis. My New Friends.

I know, I know. . . I haven't blogged in months and months and months. I've been slacking for sure. However, I had to write about this last weekend, because it was très magnifique.

Ardon works at the University Inn right off campus of the University of Washington. Many of his work stories include interesting guests from all around the world, whether they're visiting campus as incoming Freshmen, or need accomodations while they visit from overseas. Last week, his guests included a group of African ballet dancers from France who conducted workshops and performed at Meany Hall all week. They were all members of Compagnie la Calebasse in Paris. Ardon kept telling me how cool they all are, and how much fun they are to have as guests at the hotel because they brought a great energy. He made friends with them over the week, and they gave Ardon 2 free tickets to see their show. So, he and I went not knowing what to expect to see, and the show was amazing. After the performance, they invited us to join them backstage, and I got to meet them. I was quite excited because it was a great opportunity to brush up on my French skills! The following night, we took them out into the city to DANCE, and we all had such a great time together. They returned to Paris on Sunday, and I miss them already. They are such wonderful, beautiful people who are truly great company, and they all have such intriguing life stories. I can't even begin to describe how talented and wonderful they all are because it wouldn't do them any justice. I'm so blessed to have crossed paths with an amazing group of gentlemen. Ardon and I just keep talking about how we miss them, and how we need to go to Paris to see them again. If you ever hear about Compagnie la Calebasse, I encourage you to go watch the show. . . Or better yet, watch the show and meet them. You'll never forget it.

Backstage after the show with Ardon and Serge (in orange).
Serge is a principal dancer in the company. He grew up in Africa and has travelled the world through dance. I don't remember the names of the other guys, but they were all so much fun.

Tony and Ardon. Tony performed all week with a broken wrist.

Merlin, Ardon, Serge, and me
Merlin is the founder of the company and the choreographer of the program. He is incredibly talented. His vision as a choreographer and artist is on a whole other level. He and Serge grew up in the same village in Africa and are now very successful dancers.

Bile (Bee-lay)
He was quite excited to see that I love Paris too, and he had to pose with le Tour d'Eiffel. Man, he was such a great character.