Is It Possible to Love a Serial Killer?

Since the new season of "Mad Men" doesn't start until 2012, Matt and I were feeling the need for a little more (TV) drama in our lives. Enter: Dexter. The concept sounded a little morbid for my taste, but we had heard such great recommendations about this show that we decided to give it a try for a few episodes. Aaaaaaaaaand now we're hooked :) We marathoned Season 1 in a matter of days, and last night started in on Season 2.

It is such a great show! I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes drama/suspense shows or movies. Since it's on Showtime, it does get a little graphic (but what do you expect when you watch a show about a blood spatter analyst who moonlights as a serial killer?) There are some parts that I have to turn away for, but it is not gratuitous for the most part. The story lines are interesting, but the main thing that keeps me watching is the character development. As you learn Dexter's story, you love him more and more. You find yourself rooting for him to make his kills and keep his secret hidden. He's like a Batman vigilante without the costume. But you also see him learning to build relationships with people and experience emotion. He is just such a likable guy.

I'm excited to see what plays out for my new favorite killer over the next few seasons. I read spoilers online as soon as the plot gets too thick, or else I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. It's like flipping to the end of a suspense novel to make sure everyone you like survives and you get closure. But then I drive Matt crazy because I know how things end and he doesn't :) And from what I can tell, it is going to be a good, long run for Dexter. And we'll be rooting for him the whole way!

POSH Dining

Yesterday kicked off Fall Arizona Restaurant Week - a time when the fancy schmancy restaurants across the valley offer prix fixe menus at a discount to get diners into their doors. I always look forward to restaurant week since normally I can't justify eating at places where a salad costs $20. So last night, Matt, Claudia and I got all prettied up and headed over to POSH in Scottsdale to get our eat on.

One of my friends at work had recommended the place, and the concept sounded really cool. It's improvisational dining, which means there is no menu and the chef just surprises you with each of your 4 courses. You are able to give them some guidelines to start off, though. They have you fill out a form that asks questions like how you like your meat prepared and what foods you absolutely would not eat. They list out all of the seasonal meats and fish that they have on hand, and you can cross off the ones that you're not feeling adventurous enough to try. Claudia and I were a little more timid than Matt. Among the list of items I would not eat: Quail, duck, sweetbreads (NOT actually bread - don't be fooled!), and Kangaroo (WTF. Seriously. I plan on going to Australia someday and do NOT want to get kicked in the face by an angry kangaroo avenging his father's death. Pass.) So that basically left just steak for the girls, which I was fine with because I love steak. Matt was a lot braver - the only one he crossed off was sweetbreads, and that was only after I read him the lovely Wikipedia description of what they were.

For the fish options, I was a lot more open. I don't like shrimp and I don't like mussels, but was willing to try any of the other options. With our sheets sent off to the head chef, we sat and waited for our surprise meal. First, they brought us a palate-starter that tasted like fancy mayo with cucumber and saffron. Then came the real thing. The courses we received:

Course 1: Soup & Salad
Claudia got a bowl of Summer Squash Soup with a hint of pumpkin.
Matt got an Endive Salad with cranberries and imported Italian bleu cheese.
I got an Arugula Salad with goat cheese and toasted almonds.

Winner: Arugula Salad

Course 2: Fish
Claudia got a Ceviche Halibut with tortilla strips and bell peppers.
Matt got Escolar with risotto and sauce.
I got raw Ahi Tuna with cucumber caviar (cucumbers have eggs?!) and jelly (pronounce jele - all French-like).

Winner: Escolar
This one surprised us a little since I also Googled "Escolar" and was a bit turned off by the description. The particular website called it the "most controversial fish" since its wax and fat content makes it at the same time very delicious and very rough on your *ahem* digestive tract. Matt promptly pointed out that he eats at Filiberto's on a regular basis, so we probably should be worried about the fat effects of a little fish. Good call. It was buttery and delicious and one of the best fish any of us had ever tried.

Course 3: Meat
Claudia and I both got a NY Strip Steak since it was the only option we hadn't crossed off :) But we were rewarded for being chickens because it also came with a side of chopped cheesy potatoes and perfectly cooked green beans. The steak itself was seasoned and cooked perfectly.
Matt got Duck Confit with lentils and a savory sauce.

Winner: Steak!

Course 4: Dessert
This time Claudia and Matt got the same thing: Panna Cotta with berries and sauce.
I got Rum-soaked Pineapple with Cognac sauce and ice cream.

Winner: Panna Cotta
Matt and I were nervous about the Panna Cotta - the only other time we had ever had it at another restaurant, it was not even close to good. This time, it was sweet and light and delicious!

They topped off the night by bringing us some Plum & Blackberry Popsicles with the check. All in all, it was a wonderful meal and I was so glad we were all adventurous enough to give this improvisational dining a try. This would be a great place to go for a birthday celebration or even a fun date night. I know it won't be the last time we go there!

Restaurant week is off to a good start.

Vacation Sentiment

Pamela and I are planning a vacation for this fall and we've narrowed it down to two locations; Aruba or Jamaica.  We've looked at flights and resorts for both places and they both look awesome and we can't decide.  So I figured since I turn to Google for so many other answers, why not try it out to help us decide on our vacation.

The numbers are based on the amount of Google search results yielded from an entry in the form of (Location) "(Adjective) vacation".  I figured this would give me a general idea for the overall portion of people that were satisfied or not satisfied with their trip to either location.  I plotted the results against each other for easier comparison in terms of percentages. 

Positive Sentiment

Negative Sentiment

Results:
1)  Jamaica returned more hits for both the positive and negative searches.  
2)  The ratio for the positive searches was about 65% for Jamaica and 35% for Aruba.  The negative searches came out to around 80% for Jamaica and 20% for Aruba. 

Conclusions:
Jamaica returned more results for all searches, this is most likely due to Jamaica being both larger in size and possibly a more common vacation destination.  However, Aruba had a higher percentage against Jamaica for positive sentiment than it did for negative sentiment.  This tells me that across all of the Google results, a higher percentage of people were satisfied with their trips to Aruba than with their trips to Jamaica.  I realize there are flaws with this process and by no means is this conclusive evidence that Aruba would be a better destination.  This all just comes down to one more data point for us to use in making our vacation decision. 

Seattle Trip

Last month, I went to Seattle for my company's annual sales meeting. We regroup on our fiscal year that just ended, and then we spend a lot of time discussing strategies to win for the upcoming fiscal year. In addition to that, though, they let us have some fun and take us to some cool places. Since we were in Seattle, we had to go to the Space Needle to check out the views. And they were worth the trip! It happened to be a clear day, so you could see all of the city from the top floor.

After the work part of the trip was done, Matt flew out to join me for a fun weekend. We didn't make a ton of plans or reservations - just decided to wing it and enjoy walking around a new city. So on the first day, we went down to Pike's Place Market. That place was packed with fresh food, trinkets and some of the most beautiful bouquets of flowers I had ever seen! Apparently everything grows a lot easier in the moderate coastal weather than it does in the middle of the desert :) We made a stop at the "original" Starbucks and hit it during a good pocket because we didn't have to wait in line at all. (Turns out the real original Starbucks burned down, so they decided to re-build a mile up the road and not tell tourists the truth...)

Then we walked down towards the coast and ate at a restaurant called Ivar's Acres of Clams. It had gotten really good reviews online and we were not disappointed! We started with some Goat Cheese & Crab Dip (similar to a spinach artichoke dip in texture, but with a seafood flavor). Then for dinner, we split some Bacon-Wrapped Halibut. Holy cow that stuff was good!! I'm really glad I decided to give this seafood thing a try a few years ago because now I am a total convert. After dinner, we walked around in Pioneer Square and stumbled upon the cutest park I'd ever seen - Occidental Park. What makes it so cute? Check out these pictures - somebody put SWEATERS on all of the TREES!! It looked like a world created by Dr. Seuss himself and it was adorable.

View from Ivar's; Awesome Trees

After that, it was time to go to our Underground Walking Tour of historic Seattle. Some of my coworkers had done the day tour and weren't super impressed. But the night tour was adults-only, which meant we got adult beverages and a raunchy, comedy-infused guide to Seattle's history. A lot of the history was really cool - they talked about how a huge fire destroyed Old Town Seattle, and the damage would take 10 years to repair. But the businessmen didn't want to wait 10 years to start making money again, so they put up retention walls and started building a city on top of a city. The original stores now became basements, and the story above became the new store fronts. But over time, the underground portion became a seedy place for drugs and hookers. We learned a lot and had a ton of good laughs. Our tour guide suggested a local bar to go to afterward called Vons. The best feature: a giant Wheel Of Fortune-style wheel that the bartender spun every half hour. Whatever the wheel landed on was the $3 special for the next 30 minutes. And the wheel lords were looking out for Matt because it kept landing on Rum & Coke, Whiskey & Coke and other Matt-favorites.

Crazy optical illusion - that structure is actually level!!

The next day was the most exciting for me because we went on a gourmet food tour of downtown Seattle. Over 2 hours, we got to sample everything from fresh cinnamon donuts to Rainier cherries to the world's best clam chowder (in my opinion!) The famous fish market was really fun - we saw the workers tossing fish and hollering - it seems like an awesome place to work if you don't mind smelling like salmon all day. And the samples there were delicious. And then the cheese... Oh, my, the cheese. We stopped at a place called Beecher's where they make some of the tastiest cheese in-house. We tried their flagship cheddar, their world-famous chipotle mac & cheese (Oprah AND Martha Stewart's favorite!), and even got to try some fresh cheese curds that were heavenly.

With our happy tummies, we decided to head over towards the coast again to look at some of the artwork around town. We walked to the Olympic Sculpture Park and enjoyed the weather and the ocean views as much as we liked the funky, modern art scattered around. We then headed back to the hotel to meet up with Matt's sister Liz and her boyfriend John, who were driving in from Olympia, WA to visit us. This was really the highlight of our trip, since we don't get to see Liz very often. Our first stop together was a trip to Serious Pie - a pizza place recommended to us by my sisters Kim & Liz. The wait there is never less than an hour, but you can leave your cell phone number with the hostess, head over to a nearby bar, and they will call you when they have a table available. So we spent a little time at an Irish Pub catching up with Liz & John, and then got to indulge in some very tasty pizza. After dinner, we headed over to a wine bar called Purple and enjoyed the wide variety of wine flights they had available. The building itself was really beautiful and modern, and it made for a fun, relaxing end to the night.

The next morning, Liz had booked a ferry tour around the cove for all of us. So we got to motor around and see the city skyline from the water - a very cool view. Matt also liked seeing the giant orb thing in the water that apparently Raytheon (his old company) manufactured. (I am now being told it is called a Sea-Based X-Band Radar.) We walked around a little more afterward, and ended up finding a serene inlet in historic downtown that had waterfalls and tables to take a break and picnic. But after that, it was time for me & Matt to head back to the airport to go home. All in all, it was a great trip and I was so happy to have been able to visit a new city with my favorite guy!

Bathroom Before & After

Matt and I just got back from Seattle, and we're both coming down with a cold. So while I lay on the couch and try to recover, I figured I would post the final before and after pictures of the guest bath. Enjoy!

I tell ya - it's full on luxury over here!!

Finishing Touches

After tiling was complete, all we had left to do was put stuff back into its place and add on all of the finishing touches to the bathroom.

First up: install the new vanity. We heaved that bad boy into the bathroom and set him in his new spot. It was nice to have him out of the living room after 6 weeks. Once it was in the corner, it became apparent that either the floors or the walls were a tad uneven. This is actually really common in all houses - you just don't notice it until you're putting new stuff in and need a level surface. But my MacGyver fashioned some small foot pads for the vanity to level it out and then screwed it into the wall to give it even more stability. The back panel of the vanity wasn't the right shape for our plumbing in there, so he used a jigsaw to cut out a nice nook for it all.

Next mini-project: the mirror. The mirror that came with the house was nice, just the wrong color for our new bathroom. Instead of spending $100 on a new mirror, we decided to save some money and just spray paint the frame of the old one. We went to Home Depot and picked out some paint that we thought would match the vanity cabinet. Matt disassembled the frame and set it on some cardboard in the yard. Then it was just a matter of evenly spraying it and letting it dry out. The reassembly of the mirror was a little tricky, but he was eventually able to caulk the mirror back onto the finished frame. The color matched pretty well, and it looks good on the wall!

After that, I went out of town for a few days and Matt did some work that didn't require assistance. He installed the new fixtures for the bath tub on one day, put in the new toilet the next, and put on our cute new little toilet paper roll. That's all I have to say about that because I wasn't there for it - ha! But it is nice to come home after traveling and have a lot of tasks completed!

For our lovely new linen closet, we decided that a little organization was in order. I don't have any great before pictures because I am so embarrassed of the wreck that I let happen in that closet. It was bad - blankets and towels shoved onto the shelves in total disarray. While we were walking through Home Depot, we happened to spot some cute cloth organization bins in a color very close to our Tropical Lagoon paint. So we bought a few and I printed out tags on the computer to indicate what was in them. I let the "fancy" towels that match the decor stay out on display, but hid away the ugly towels (that we use to wash Jordan) and the mis-matched sheets and blankets.

And then there was our new lighting fixture. The old one was disgusting. I took great joy in throwing that thing in the trash - Goodwill wouldn't even want that piece of crap. The new light is a mix between modern and traditional - a theme that we carried throughout the whole bathroom. The light install carried a lot of pains - mainly because all of the work that you have to do is over your head and thus exhausting on the arms. But Matt managed to get it done and when the power was flipped back on, we cheered at the fact that everything had been wired properly (gotta celebrate the little things!). Then it was a slight lowering of the mirror to get it into its optimal position and we called that portion done.

Lastly, I took a little trip to Bed Bath & Beyond to pick up some accessories. The funny thing is that we already had really cute accessories before we started the remodel, and we initially planned to design the bathroom around them. But it turns out it is easier to get the big things out of the way first and then match accessories at the end than it is to find tile and vanities that match a soap dispenser :) The new accessories are beautiful and simple and they go very well with the room. We also picked up some cute faux flowers at IKEA - I think I'm going to make it a "thing" to have flowers (even if they are fake) in all of the rooms in my house. They make me smile every time I walk by.