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.