Birthday Week

Here are a slew of pictures from my birthday week.  And yes, it was almost a week of celebration.  For the first time in six years my birthday weekend wasn't spent down in Eugene so I actually feel like it wasn't sort of an afterthought this time.  I'm not complaining mind you since Eugene was always my choice but it was nice to have a birthday at home at the normal time and not after the fact. 

The fun started last Wednesday with a session with Corks and Canvas to make "art".  While I harbor no illusions about either of our painting skills, I don't think we were downright horrible.  Regardless of the outcome, we had a good time and actually learned a few things about perspective and color.   Clearly, neither of which we used in our paintings.

Mine is on the left, Kevin's is on the right.

After seeing a really bad movie about Gauguin at the Seattle Art Museum on Friday night we decided to try to squeeze in one more visit to the Gauguin and Polynesia exhibit at SAM early Saturday morning. The horrible steaming pile o' movie actually did give us a new perspective on his work and I looked at the paintings differently this time around.

I call this one "Taurus with Taurus"

From SAM we made a quick gelato stop, mmmmm......cantaloupe and passion fruit gelato, and then headed out to our main destination, Woodland Park Zoo.  I love the zoo and haven't been in a ridiculously long time so I decided it would be the perfect birthday treat.  Also, my Groupon was expiring ; the story of our times. 

Wolves!

Minutes before getting his ass kicked by another peacock.

Lined up waiting for the artificial wave to start so they could jump in and play in it.

Look closely at the above picture of the tapir.  That is not a skinny leg protruding back there.  That is a ginormous tapir wang.  Boy did that tapir look pleased with himself!  He can move that thing like an elephant trunk.  A lot of dexterity for that appendage.  We looked up tapir penises on the internet later because we  were so fascinated and then proceeded to learn all sorts of fascinating animal kingdom penis facts.  Just let me know and I will totally share them with you.  Detachable penises are real, people!

We had a great time at the zoo.  We got to hang out and watch the penguins for quite awhile (my favorites), see the orangutans get their temperatures checked and get shots (fascinating how they are trained so well to put their heads and shoulders up to the wire for the keeper) and see the above mentioned manly tapir display.  We didn't get to see everything though but there was another visit scheduled for Sunday morning so that was alright.

From the zoo we went down to Greenlake to sit and kill time until our dinner reservation was ready.  I chose Poppy because I had heard such good things about it and the food looked unusual.  I wanted to try something totally different.  Somehow I became enamored with the idea of eating fiddle head ferns and decided that my meal must include them.  The meals are made up of either seven or ten small dishes served together on a tray and included some interesting flavor profiles. 

 Mine was sadly just sort of "meh".  There is far too much greenery on that plate for it to excite me too much.  Nothing was bad but nothing was outstanding.  Kevin, on the other hand, out ordered me and everything on his plate was delicious. 

Notice the total lack of green things on his plate.  Tasty correlation?  I think so.

Afterwards we walked Broadway for a little bit.  Man, has that street changed in just a year.  You can hardly recognize it any more.  But we surely recognized this guy.  If it wasn't for him, Dick's Drive-In and a few other places I wouldn't have known what street we were on.


Me and Jimi

Sunday brought more birthday goodness.  We headed back to the zoo in the morning for an "up close" tour that didn't take us as up close or behind the scenes as we hoped.  Still an informative tour and very interesting but I really wanted to get closer to the penguins.  Later, we did get to feed the little guys some little fish so that was fun.  Maybe someday I can be filthy rich and donate a bunch of money with the condition that I get to snuggle some penguins.  I hear they are practically chickens!

We left the zoo and went down to Mom's place for the family birthday celebration.  That meal was much tastier than the fine dining experience I had on Saturday.  We had cowboy beans, deviled eggs and cream cheese dogs with caramelized onions and bacon.  Holy hell was that a good meal.  Future sis-in-law made a hummingbird cake that was quite tasty too. 

Sadly, the actual birthday was filled up with that pesky old job but Kevin and I enjoyed some lovely leftovers, presents and some mini-cheesecakes we picked up on Broadway Saturday night from The Confectional.

It was an exhausting but fun birthday week but I am totally ready for things to be back to normal.  I did schedule one little treat/indulgence for myself for early Saturday morning but that is the last of it.  Who knows?  Maybe next year will find me back at Eugene running my inagural marathon.  That would be a delightful present for myself.