Go to sleep and dream of snow

2005-01-09 - 10:20 p.m.

Last night when I went to bed, there was no sign of snow. I figured the few flakes we had seen the night before were all that Seattle was going to get.

And this morning at ten when I woke up and looked out my bedroom window, all I could see was white. I was so excited--snow! I decided to go out for a walk to see what I could see of the city in snow. Here's my apartment this morning (bedroom window on the left, living room window and door on the right):

Walking down through the city there were still a few flakes falling until I got to about 6th Avenue. I walked all the way down to the waterfront and there was even a little snow on the piers.

I walked along the waterfront and up Queen Anne. I'm in love. I really want to live on Queen Anne one day. It's so beautiful there. Of course the houses up there are all super expensive, but wow. There, my new dream is to move up there. Now I just need a plan to get there. Hmmm...hang out on Queen Anne and meet a guy who already owns a house there and seduce him? Yes, that sounds like a terrific plan. Anyway, here's snow on Queen Anne, looking down towards the city.

My original plan was to walk to Kerry Park on Queen Anne and then head back. But when I was up there at Kerry Park it was just so pretty I couldn't turn around. So I wandered up Queen Anne until pretty soon I could see Fremont. It was just right there so I walked down to it. And Gas Works Park is right there next to Fremont so I walked there. Here's a picture of some guy building a snowman in Gas Works Park. He must've scraped up every last bit of snow on the hill to make it!

Gas Works Park is pretty much directly across Lake Union from the city. I had a choice then: I could walk back the way I came, or I could continue around to the University Bridge and up Eastlake and back. Guess which way I chose. Here's a picture of some houses on Eastlake Avenue on Lake Union with the Space Needle in the background. This is the area where Tom Hanks's character lived in "Sleepless in Seattle."

So then it was starting to get dark out and I hadn't yet accomplished either of my two goals for the day. My first goal was to use the gift card my parents got me to Bed Bath & Beyond and buy myself some sheets and a comforter for my bed. I got this nifty brand new bed, but I'm still sleeping under the same pile of blankets I used to sleep on the floor. So I stopped on the way home and took care of that.

So today I walked around Lake Union. I must be nuts. I don't know how far I went exactly, especially since I did a lot of wandering in Queen Anne instead of going directly around the lake, but it was quite a ways. I was wearing my pedometer and it said I went over 30,000 steps. It takes me about 5,000 steps to jog around Green Lake which is almost 3 miles. That would calculate out to about 18 miles today, except I walked instead of jogged so it's less. I'd guess I walked somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 miles. I must be nuts.

But when I got home at about 5:30, I still hadn't accomplished my second goal, to make lasagna. It's a birthday tradition, so I went ahead and made it. I've never made lasagna before, so I was a little nervous about the outcome, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Does that look good to you, or are you grossed out? Let me tell you, it tasted good! Of course I was fairly well starving by the time I ate it because I hadn't had anything to eat all day. In fact, I ate this whole piece while standing up in my kitchen before realizing that I should sit down and enjoy it. Too late, oh well. Oh, and my cooking lesson for the day: You don't need to boil up all the lasagna noodles in the box to make one pan of lasagna. Shoot, what am I going to do with all this extra pasta now? Especially since I already have a whole pan of lasagna (minus one slice) to last me all week!