While in Seattle, Aaron and I went to see V for Vendetta. Admittedly this movie was not my choice and if Aaron hadn’t wanted to, I probably would not have seen it. You see, Aaron recommended that I read the graphic novel that this film is based on a few years back. I did read it and I didn’t like it. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself enjoying the film and even Natalie Portman, who normally annoys me, didn’t ruin it. For me, the movie version of the story stripped away the unnecessary side stories and sped up, what read as a very slow, drawn out narrative. I thought the film was smart, entertaining and visually very well done.

Aaron and I had an exciting evening Friday….. at the laundromat! Our new apartment has washer and dryer hook ups, but no machines. So, we have just ordered our very own machines, but they won’t be delivered until next week. As you might imagine, there weren’t too many people around, so we got to do nine loads of wash all at once. Actually, it wasn’t that bad, but it will be nice to finally have machines of our own.

The above photo of Emily and I was taken 10 years ago, when she was about three. This past weekend Aaron and I traveled to DC to celebrate Emily’s Bat Mitzvah and her 13th Birthday. It was a fun (and satisfyingly exhausting) weekend of food, family and happy gatherings. Emily did a remarkable job and gave a thoughtful and moving speech about social responsibility that had many of us in tears. We were (and continue to be) a very proud aunt and uncle.
Click on the above image to see photos from the weekend, and some more recent shots of Em.

So we’re just back from a great week in Seattle. Aaron had to go out there for work, and he invited me to tag along. We had a nice visit with Bonney, who joined us for most of the week and a brief visit with Patrick too. We ate at many good restaurants; our favorites included 94 Stewart, Lola and Seven Stars Pepper Szechuan Restaurant. I think Aaron managed to eat Dungeness crab in some form or another almost every day. We visited Pike’s Market, the Seattle Space Needle (that’s us at the top in the above photo) and took a day trip via ferry to nearby Bainbridge Island. The weather was mild and we only had one real day of rain. Bonney and I spent one afternoon in a spa, we saw a couple of movies and I patronized several knitting and bookstores. It was a lovely retreat from all the craziness that has been going on lately. Click the above photo to see our album of photos from the trip.

So two things surprised me about Seattle – 1) That it’s a hilly city. In fact, some of the hilliest parts are in the heart of downtown, and 2) that they have a serious thing for donuts there. I suppose I should have figured a town famous for its coffee would have put some effort into perfecting its most popular partner…but I had no idea. Donuts, in numerous varieties, were featured on many of the dessert menus of the restaurants we dined at. However, our hands down favorite donut shop was Top Pot Donuts. My favorites were the glazed blueberry cake and the glazed applesauce. Aaron preferred the Cherry Blossom and the Apple Fritter. And Bonney always chose the Bavarian Cream. Yum!

Following in the tradition of typical New England weather, snow fell for a couple of hours yesterday and actually started accumulating. The above photo is the view out of our new apartment windows…As you can see, we haven’t quite finished unpacking yet. Cardboard as a decorating theme is starting to look pretty good.

So we made it. It was a very long day and there is still a lot of unpacking to be done…but the good news is that we are officially out of the old apartment and slowly settling into the new. The movers were excellent. Although they were initially shocked by how much stuff we had, they muscled their way down the steps of the old place and up the steps of the new with all of our treasures. It rained a bit on moving day, but afterwards the above rainbow appeared right over our new apartment (it’s the blue house above).