Harry Potter

So the theater was called the Galaxy Uptown. Now when I used to live here, the Galaxy Cinema was all of 3 screens & not much to behold. That being sad, it wasn't a bad place but to say that they've made improvements would be an understatement. The theater is surrounded by a Tempe Marketplace-like commercial complex and features all of 10 screens. The screen that we bought tickets for? The VIP.

Now most of the time when you go to a midnight premier, you find yourself sitting outside for hours and you get packed in and have terrible seats. Also, midnight premiers for Harry Potter movies are usually attended by Jr High & High Schoolers which can get pretty annoying. The VIP allowed us to avoid both of those things.

Walking in, we saw the huge line that wrapped around the front of the theater. It was about 950pm and the line was huge. We walked past the mob & picked up our pre-ordered tickets from the vending machine and walked right in. At the end of the hall we were greeted by the VIP bartender who checked our tickets and directed us to the theater. As you can see in the picture there were only 4 elevated rows with 10 seats per row & 2 rows on the floor. The theater held only 64 people and we were the first to arrive. We claimed our seats & waited for our friends to show up.

Now the nice thing about this theater having a bar is that it means no minors are allowed in. That meant a nice quiet movie with no screaming or squealing. Even if you don't drink - you have to appreciate that! They also featured food delivery. You could place an order at the bar & then they would give you one of those light-up pagers (like when you wait at a restaurant) & you can go back to your seat. When your food comes out, your pager lights up & the waiter can then find you. Very nice.

So we got some popcorn & soda and settled in with a cozy DLP projected image & enjoyed almost 3 hours of Harry Potter.

Thanks to Jozie for takin the pictures!

-Glenn
Sent from my Centro

Gig Harbor

These look like crap because I'm trying to drive & take pictures. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge(s) on our way to Gig Harbor for the premier of Harry Potter...um...Half Blood Prince (I think).

-Glenn
Sent from my Centro

The Funny Farm!!!!!!

I have literally been waiting the entire trip to go to this place. I had found it online a while back and I knew I had to go. This is basically just someone's farm and they decided to start keeping exotic animals such as camels, llamas, a bush baby, wallaroos, wallabies, kangaroos, a chinchilla, and a mammoth donkey and they offer tours. On the particular time we showed up on Friday, we were the only ones there. I was so lucky to get a private tour, especially because the morning tour had 30 people on it! I'm not sure I could have been any more excited. Off we go!Our first introduction was the Bush Baby. This little cutie was so adorable. His name is Binky and he was originally owned by some people who weren't prepared to own an exotic animal. Apparently, Bush Babies have a rather disgusting habit of relieving themselves into their hands and then fingerpainting on the walls. Ewww... Luckily the Funny Farm was prepared and took him in and gave him the love and care that he deserved. I actually gave him the banana that he is holding. Way too cute.Next up were the camels. They actually had two of them. One of them was a Dromedary, the kind with one hump, and this one was the Bactrian. Both of the camels were looking pretty scruffy and the owner explained to us that this was because at this time of year, they lose all of their fibers (hair) and all the new growth comes in. There were a couple trash bags full of their surprisingly soft hair. Unfortunately, this camel looks rather ridiculous without its usually long hair and the family so lovingly calls it the "Chemo Camel."As we were heading over to the llama corral, this one llama was standing in the middle of the walkway and kind of staring me down. As I started walking toward him he kept staring at me, and it kind of freaking me out, as you can see in the picture. I jumped aside just a little bit.The llamas were just so cute I couldn't get enough of them. If you tell them to give you a kiss, they will actually give you a kiss on the lips! It's hilarious! I was a little hesitant to do it, but I did do it oce, and this guy gave me a kiss shortly after this picture was taken. So cute!

Never one to pass up a photo opportunity, I posed for this picture and the llama decided to follow suite. Next we made our way over to Snowy, the Mammoth Donkey. She was a big girl! We actually met her before the tour and pet her a little bit, but now I was inside her pen. She was so adorable and absolutely loved all the attention. As we were walking over to her pen, the owner was just telling us about how funny her bray is and that she hoped she would, and sure enough she did. It was hilarious watching her get so excited. It was classic donkey noise, but at the end she always squeaked. She was such a sweetheart but at one point, when I wasn't paying attention to her, she head-butted my shoulder so I would pet her again. Too funny!After the donkey I got to feed the Wallaroos. Despite what their name sounds like, they are not a cross of a kangaroo and a wallaby, but are their own breed of kangaroo. There were two in this enclosure, a momma and daddy, and their names were Google and Yahoo. Funny. The momma wasn't too keen on coming near me because she had a little baby in her pouch that wasn't quite ready to come out. I could see its little tail and one of the legs sticking out. It was cool. The one I was feeding was Yahoo and he really enjoyed those Wheat Thins!Next we walked across to the Alpaca area. These two guys were so funy looking! They were pretty skittish but they look just like silly surfy boys with their long, wild hair. They didn't seem to like being touched but that was probably because they can't see who is touching them past all that crazy hair!The Alpacas shared an enclosure with a couple other llamas, a mom and her daughter. The daughter who I was petting in this picture was super sweet and she seemed to love being pet. I was of course happy to oblige!We then made our way over to the Red Kangaroos. There were three in the enclosure, and their names were Romeo, Juliet, and Bella. I think I was feeding Romeo in this picture because the other two are noticeably absent. This is because once he realized I was feeding the girls, he came over and pushed them out of the way! How rude! I still fed him anyway, like I was going to pass up that opportunity.I saved the best picture for last. As we were walking back to the gift shop, the owner told me that there was a surprise. Hmmmm, what could it be? I couldn't imagine anything cooler than I had just experienced until they brought out this adorable little munchkin! I was freaking out inside when she handed me this bundled up baby wallaby. He was such a cutie! I honestly felt like I was going to die from cuteness overload. I did't want to give him back. I thought about just making a run for it with him. Obviously, I didn't. She let me hold him for such a long time but it was super hard to let go. How awesome. I had such a fun time at the Funny Farm. I was so glad that we made the trip up to Monroe to come here. This was quite possibly the highlight of my trip.

Reptile Zoo

I know Glenn posted a few pictures of this place with his phone, but I thought I would share some more along with some narrative. We needed to kill some time before we went over to the Monroe Funny Farm because they didn't start the next tour until 3. Glenn pulled into this place without me even noticing and then I got really excited. I just love animals and can't pass up any opportunity to check them out up close and personal. This place was... interesting. Some of the enclosures were nice, others, well not so much. It was also pretty stinky in there and extremely hot and humid. I guess that's the price you pay to hang out with reptiles. Well, that, and they 6 dollar cover charge.
The first little monster we came across was not little at all actually. It was an iguana, but he was a big huge iguana. I immediately thought of Jeff's iguana Tyrone. This one could probably eat Tyrone if he wanted. He was big. I don't think he was happy when I took this picture. He was puffing out his neck thingy. I think he was trying to scare me away.This was a big huge monitor. He was probably at least 5 feet long. They're known to be pretty mean and I'm sure they have a nasty bite. This guy was just lumbering around in his area until he decided he wanted to see what was happening outside. He just propped himself up with his very powerful looking tail and latched on to the window with his front legs. It was pretty funny and I got a kick out of it. I ran around to the other side of the window to get a picture from there, but I scared him and he jumped back down.Right outside of the building there is this open area where a bunch of turtles run around. I played with some of them and watched them move around rather quickly. I picked one up and for as small as he was, he was pretty heavy. Finally, we have this big bad boy. This yellow boa was so huge it was kind of scary. I made Glenn stand by the cage for comparison. Freaky, huh? There was another boa in there with him, but he wasn't nearly as big. I definitely enjoyed my time in this little place and it was a fun roadside attraction.

Northwest Trek

This past Wednesday we decided to do the Northwest Trek. There are actually quite a few billboards advertising this place suggesting that you "take a daycation" and visit. Basically, this place is a preserve of over 700 acres that was donated by a couple a while back that has since been turned into a wildlife park. There are all sorts of habitats in this huge place with lakes, meadows, open fields, and forests. It really is quite beautiful. The park is divided up into two sections. The front part is a large forest type "zoo". The paths are long and windy and go all through the forest and they take you to all kinds of different animals.
They have a couple of eagles here, a Golden Eagle and a Bald Eagle. It was startling to walk by because there is no real enclosure keeping them in there and the powerful bird was only like ten feet away. Glenn pretty much ran away when the Bald Eagle started talking. We didn't stay in that area for too long.There was also a section that was dedicated to the "Forest Animals" and that is where we saw this snot-nosed little porcupine sitting up in a tree. He was surprisingly cute even with the snot coming out of his nose. Right next to the porcupine was a badger. I can't recall having ever seen a badger until now. I always assumed they were ugly animals. I guess just the connotation of their name makes me pictures something ugly. Anyway, badgers are quite the opposite. He was super cute and he had really neat markings on his fur.As we were wandering along the paths we looked up and couldn't help but stop and take in all the beauty of the trees and leaves around us. At this particular part there was a heavy overhang of bright green leaves and this small little opening where I could see straight up to the trees and the sky. It was very beautiful.The second section of the park is an area of about 435 acres that is closed off from the rest of the park. This section is home to over 200 North American animals. They take you through this expansive area in a tram like at Universal Studios. There is a guide that drives you all through the park and points out all of the animals roaming around. It's like a safari, but in the Pacific Northwest. It was really cool just seeing the animals hang out and walk in the road whenever they felt like. The little guy in the picture above is a younger Bighorn Sheep. Those horns are going to get much much bigger.There were a bunch of much bigger Bighorn Sheep hanging out around a water hole. They seemed to like being in a group, but this guy wandered off and was checking out what was on the other side of the tall grass.This deer totally reminded me of Rally when he does this pose. He's definitely not a full grown deer, as you can see his little antlers are just starting to poke up out of his head. At this time of the year, all the deer with antlers are shedding so when you are up real close to them, you can see their velvety antlers that they will eventually scratch the exterior off of.Speaking of antlers, these Roosevelt Elk had some pretty impressive sets. I never thought that elk would like to hang out in packs but these guys seemed pretty content to lay around with one another. They were pretty majestic looking animals. That wraps up all the pictures I have for here, but there were many more animals. Along the tram we also saw plenty of bison including a few babies and even some moose. They were really cute! This was a pretty cool place that I would definitely suggest checking out should you find yourself up in Washington.

I'm A Winner!

We have been doing a lot of mini golf lately. It seems to be really popular up here. This time instead of playing in the dark, we made our way up to Parkland Putters, one of Glenn's favorite mini golf places. The place is pretty cute and has 4 different courses all with varying degrees of difficulty. We chose the hardest one because we like challenges and because there was hardly anyone doing that course despite the decent sized crowd. The course was a lot of fun and plenty difficult. I even got two hole in one's! How awesome is that!?!? I ended up beating Glenn but that was probably because he showed me how to correct my usually awful putt. We had a ton of fun there and we even got ribbons as you can see.

I Finally Made Dinner!

I'm pretty sure that anyone who knows me and Glenn knows that I do not cook dinner. Ever. Not unless it's in a box. However, for some reason I was absolutely determined to try my hand at homemade gnocchi. I absolutely love the stuff and I know that there is nothing that can beat it when it is freshly made. We bought a bag of potatoes and they sat in the cupboard for a while. I got a little bored one afternoon and Glenn suggested that I make the gnocchi, and I did.

It's a pretty easy recipe consisting of boiling potatoes, mashing them up, combining them with flour and egg, and finally rolling the little pieces out. It was very time consuming but I enjoyed most of it. When I was all done, I felt like I did a pretty good job. I put them aside until we were ready to use them and when the time came I boiled some water, threw the gnocchi in, and then waited for them to tell me they were done by popping up to the surface of the water. Glenn made some sauce and we were good to go.

The final verdict was that I made a solid effort. The taste was not too bad but the texture could use some help. Thankfully they weren't too heavy or too mushy. I think I may try again in the future and hopefully one day I will make killer gnocchi.

This Is What I Drink 2 Times a Day!

A couple weeks into our trip my allergies became really severe. I figure it was probably just because of all the different types of pollen that my body just isn't used to back in Arizona. There are a lot of plants here. Basically, it got so bad that I couldn't breathe through my nose at all. We tried all the over the counter remedies including 24 hour Claritin and Severe Allergy Benadryl but those didn't help very much. I even got some nasal spray for severe congestion symptoms but that only gave temporary relief and I had to stop using it after 3 days because the box says so. Basically, when I wasn't using the nasal spray, I couldn't sleep. Finally Glenn decided to look up some natural remedies and he found a local Chinese Medicine Practictioner with reasonable prices and an opening on Monday afternoon.

The practitioner was very nice and helpful. She asked me about all my symptoms and when they started, she checked my pulse on both wrists and then she asked to see my tongue. Weird. After that she started scribbling down a bunch of Chinese Herbs along with numbers next to them. It was pretty cool watching her figure it all out like a chemical formula. Once she was satisfied with that she started mixing together all the herbs which are freeze dried and ground up. I took my little jar of stuff home and heated up some water to dissolve the stuff in. I mix in about 2 teaspoons of this crap into water until it dissolves. Then I toss it back as quickly as possible. It is some seriously nasty stuff that I would never wish upon anyone. It looks like sludge and tastes about the same. Now, two weeks later I am feeling great and not having any trouble breathing so I think it was all worth it.

Reptile Zoo 2

More critters

Reptile Zoo

Asian Water Monitor at the Reptile Zoo in Monroe, WA.

More Sounders!

Pre-game National Anthem...

Sounders won 1-0 on an 89th minute PK. It was totally wicked!

-G

Let Freedom (and explosives) Ring!

In a dramatic change of pace from the traditional PHX celebration of staying home all day until it is cool enough to go out, then, sit in your air conditioned car and watch the fireworks at the closest Spring Training site - we find ourselves in a very comfortable 88 degree Olympia on Independence Day 2009. Let's being by noting why this is a better situation.

1. Temperature is (at their highest) about 20 degrees cooler. Of course, it will be 65 by the time fireworks start flying here and 95 back in PHX.

2. Setting is an important aspect of all great fireworks shows. While stadium fireworks can be awesome (see: Dodger Stadium), the shows in PHX are tame due to the dry environment. Real shows require water (see: Boston, Tempe Town Lake, and...below).

3. Government Restriction can put a damper on any celebration. While many in PHX like to celebrate events like Jihadists, most of us would just like to shoot some fireworks. Illegally obtaining them and then finding a location where the cops/neighbors won't notice can be tricky for valley residents. Thankfully, Olympia allows the sale of fireworks from July 1st-4th and the use of them July 3rd and 4th until 11pm.

All of these great things being in our favor, we STILL had to go to Tacoma for our celebration but not before stopping off at Freedom Fireworks (you know it is about freedom when there is a National Guard recruiting booth sharing a space with them. After dropping $40 down to some of the nicest people we've met on this trip, we ended up with an armory supply that looked something like this:















Of course no event is complete without a few obligatory shots of Rally being manipulated for the pleasure of our reading audience.



































You will have to excuse the quality. Late night, plus poor CFL lighting, plus flag in dog's mouth do not an photo-op make.

So once we had loaded up our fireworks, we headed off to Tacoma. Tacoma, for those who don't know (and really, why would you) has one of the best fireworks shows in the country. The fireworks are launched from a barge that sits out in the bay and there is a large public event along the waterfront all day (complete with air show). Not one for nightmarish parking or large air show crowds, we opted for the "good enough from far away" view. That put us at the top of the hill side at the end of a street that lead right down to where the barge was anchored. We made camp in someone's yard along with about 100 other people and enjoyed the pre-show activities that included rogue fireworks shot off by drunken teenagers and teenaged mothers taking out a life of mistakes on their boundary-testing toddlers. Good times.

The show got started at 10:15 which is literally when the sun went down. Some pics below.



























Whew. What a show. And because I am a parking ninja, we got out of the craziness ad on our way out of town. "To where?" you might ask. To University Place. This small suburb of Tacoma (that has no university) allows safe and sane fireworks within their city limits until midnight. Wanting to make sure we did everything by the book, we drove around U.P. until we found the perfect spot. A dead end street in a subdivision between an undeveloped lot and a forrest. Let the fun begin.






































After we were all out, we checked appendages to make sure they were all still there (all accounted for), cleaned up our mess, and hit the road back to Oly. All in all, it was one successful Independence Day up here in the PacNW.