Such a great weekend

The summer in the Pacific Northwest has mostly been known as the summer that wasn't. We've renamed the months as they come to better represent the weather that we have gotten. Junuary, and Julytober, (Augvember is on deck) but what little summer we have had keeps showing up on the weekends.

For this I am grateful.

This last Saturday was everything that makes people fall in love with the Pacific Northwest, it was about 68°F by 9AM, which was when we decided to meet another couple (also pregnant) to pick the "early" blues at a Blueberry farm up near our homes. In about an hour we had both managed a little less than 10lbs each and made our way to pay. The you pick berries are only $1.80/LB so it was less than $20 bucks for my 8.5lbs of berries and we got to spend time out in the sun before it got "intense". I air-quote intense because the day only got up to 83°F by the end of the day, but it was hot for us. After blueberry picking we followed the couple on an errand and then dropped the berries off at home to be cleaned later and went out to lunch.

Lunch was a quaint little Italian joint with outdoor seating and excellent food for being in the tiny ferry town. On a sunny day eating out on the patio was such a treat, and made it actually feel like summer. After lunch we walked the pier to an ice cream place and watched people fishing and crabbing for a while. In classic Northwest style one couple came out onto the pier for wedding pictures. In all it was a great afternoon. Now if you've ever been pregnant or know someone that was you would know that the pregnant ladies would be nappy after walking in the sun and eating so we went our separate ways for a nap and to clean our berries and other chores and they were coming back later for dinner.

While they were gone and my wife napped I managed to get my beer bottled and kegged (I had one batch that was fermenting in two vessels one for the keg the other for bottling). After that I got to play an hour of Modern Warfare 2 before it was time to cook dinner. Dinner was pork carnitas with fresh Pico de gallo. Just as we were finishing up dinner more friends started to arrive for S'mores. We rolled out to the back yard lit a fire, drank beer and roasted marshmallows while the sun went down.

It was a great day, I deeply with someone in Texas could have been here to experience it.

Packing a Lunch could be fun

Lifehacker is at it again trying to help the pleebs like me get there brown bag game in tip top shape and pointed out the Latch Tiffin over at Happy Tiffin, and that got me thinking about my old and busted lined cooler lunch bag that has been in service for a little over 2 years now, and how I wouldn't mind an upgrade that gave me handy compartments so I could (hopefully) use fewer plastic bags. Given that the Tiffin is sold out in the size that I want and has been since the Lifehacker post I went looking for similar items and found the Bento lunch box and was excited that I could participate in the Bento culture and use cool Bento recipe and meal planing guides. I am torn, either will likely meet my needs, and the Tiffin can do Bento likely as easily as the Bento lunch box can, I just don't know which I should choose.