Shakespeare Sporcle and Zoos

Zan visited! I suppose telling you all how much I have missed him would be a bit sentimental, and a bit obvious. Long distance relationships suck, as anyone who has ever attempted one knows. But the one good part of a long distance relationship is that moment when you get to see the other person again. And, also, the fact that seeing them is such a special treat that you get to go out to eat all the time and do fun things you might not do in 'regular' life.

(Like, for instance, going to the zoo!)

We ate out A LOT. We had Flying Squirrel Pizza the first night, their October special, with roasted garlic cream sauce instead of tomato sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese, squash, caramelized onion, and bacon. The next night we went to Pies and Pints for some amazing pot pies and mashed potatoes (seriously, bordering on better than Jamestown Pie Co.). Then on Thursday I had my presentation in historiography, so afterwards to de-stress we went to my friend Sarah's for food and "Game of Thrones." Sarah made this fantastic mushroom risotto with pomegranate seed salad. SO GOOD. Friday afternoon we had lunch at an Indian place, followed by Italian style gelato at a place near the apartment. That night, we went to Pair with Kris and Chris, and had gruyere cheese puffs, steak frites, and scallops, and Saturday we had Mighty-O donuts for breakfast, then visited Naked City Brewery at night for some local brews, pulled pork, and brisket. Yum. Sunday we tried a different pizza place-- Garlic Jim's-- and found it very much to our liking. We also saw a ton more places that are on our list: a crepe place, a trattoria, a seafood dive/diner.

So now that food is out of the way, what did we do? Well, Wednesday and Thursday I had class all day, so Zan stayed home and worked on his screenplay and built our TV stand!!! Hooray! The TV is no longer on the box it came in! On Friday, Zan came in to 101 lecture to meet the other people in my cohort. We spent a great part of the morning playing Shakespeare-themed Sporcle quizzes in the PhD office. (Hint: try "Shakespeare's Survivors" and type in as many wrong answers as you can think of. Hilarity ensues).

We also watched a lot of "30 Rock", "Dinosaur Train" (because we're silly), and "Doctor Who". We're all caught up on "Doctor Who" now, though! I have missed my time in the TARDIS, and was glad to have about six hours of it this weekend.

Saturday morning we drove around some of the different neighborhoods in Seattle so Zan could get a feel for the city, and Sunday-- oh, Sunday!-- we went to the zoo!!! I LOVE zoos! We spent hours at the zoo. We saw red pandas (our favorite) and komodo dragons and elephants, giraffes, a snow leopard chasing a squirrel, wallaroos eating grass, and lions. The lions were amazing-- the male lion roared! and then the male and female began grooming each other and curled up in the sun. Absolutely majestic. I love love love the zoo.

(Zan pretends to be a baboon)

(The penguins and I enjoy the sun)

(The lions are both cute and majestic)

We also got a beautiful panda stained glass to put on our shelf at home, and a free plush tiger toy! Best day ever.

And now Zan has gone, and it's back to the grindstone :(. LOTS to catch up on after a weekend of fun.

(See how sad I am about Zan leaving?)

But only two months until Christmas and then Zan moves out here to stay! :)!!!!!!!!!

(And won't that be the best?!)