Potter!

We have a trip to the Wizarding World coming up, and we just went to an awesome Harry Potter party at our friends' house, and so I thought it would be appropriate to do our homework to get in character, etc. by... watching every single one of the Harry Potter movies!

Lydia hates both fun and movies so I had so bribe her with some Harry Potter themed snacks.

Slytherin!

We recently went to see a little John Cleese show live so it was fun to remember that he has a few scenes.

Lydia with a face that says "I just ate a jelly bean flavored like vomit". Thanks Bertie!

We continued to entertain Seago with the wonders of Seattle.

Lydia finished the puzzle I bought her.

We had a good time at Lumen Field doing the Field to Table thing last year where you eat delicious foods where others kick footballs and such. We thought Seago might think it was amusing so we came back for another go.

They have different big deal chefs on different days for you to choose from. This time we chose Musang's Mel Miranda.

Ginataang alimango

 dungeness crab, ginger, coconut milk, scallions, rice cracker

Bangus + Munggo

Mung bean stew, tomatoes, onion, gralic, malunggay, fried milkfish

Bobotu - Filipino Tamales

Annatto chicken, salted duck egg, rice flour, corn grits, shiitake mushrooms, coconut milk, banana leaf

Banana cake caramelized with jackfruit latik and fresh whip

Mel came out and gave a little speech, which I sort of think should happen every time I have dinner.

On our way to our car we noticed there was a Rolls Royce in the parking lot. 

Colonoscopy Party with Seago

An impending Troll delivery was a good way to peer pressure Seago into coming to Seattle to visit.

Half as a joke and half out of genuine curiosity we took him to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Discovery Center. I discovered Bill almost immediately. Mission accomplished.

Next door is the Museum of Pop Culture which has more nerdery than even a Seago can handle in one visit.

Seago has been bugging me for a colonoscopy party for years. I don't think I'm ready for that yet but I did take him to check out this unauthorized Simpsons game thing at Time Warp bar arcade. He loved it because he's a sicko. I think the story is some genius inventor came up with this thing for a colon cancer charity event.

 

Yer a Wizard, Johnny

Our friends Gabby and Derek invited us to a Harry Potter themed party at their house. I always sort of secretly wanted a Hogwarts outfit and wand since we visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando like ten years ago. Well this party plus our pending trip to Universal Studios Hollywood pushed me into wizard mode.

It's completely normal to dress like a magical British school child, I think.

Gabby really went all out with the menu. There were wands made out of asparagus with like croissant dough wrapped around them, and deviled eggs with little olive spiders.

They had a boozy butterbeer in production as well. Somewhere in the middle of mixing up a batch of these Derek blurted out that Gabby was pregnant!  That was fun. Maybe we won't completely lose all of our friends after we have a baby after all.

In addition to growing a human she also made some pretty frightening little potatoes.

I brought some fancy booze out of the beer cellar from the far away land of St. Louis.

I also brought a non-alcoholic potable from the even farther away land of a Saudi Arabian shopping mall with a big hole on top. We initially planned on popping it for New Year's but ran out of time.

Derek has a 3D printer he's proud of and made several creations with that. They also printed some fun Harry Potter style nerd glasses with lightning bolt included that were fun.

At the end of the night we did a lot of Expecto Patronum spells at some black Dementor balloons that attacked us. They even had some 3d printed patronus animal figurines inside. These guys really went all out. 

I went home with my very own 3D printed Dobby the House Elf parting gift.

Mangophobia Triggered

TechCity Bowl in Kirkland is such a fantastic futuristic name for a bowling alley likely built in the 70s that I was excited to take a peek. It was actually pretty expensive which surprised me. We were also paying by the hour not by the game which seemed a little shady to me. I haven't bowled much recently so it's possible that I'm just not bowling cool anymore.

I was forced to drop the bowling hammer on my enemies.

We had some exotic desserts at Redmond's Hui Lau Shan.

The place was covered in cases of mangos.

I apparently did not get the memo that I should order a mango thing. Instead I ordered a black sesame mochi ball situation but I had major regrets.

I started to play Grounded on Xbox and was greatly amused that there was an Arachnophobia trigger warning in the beginning of the game. Kids these days are worthless and weak!