Bistro Baffi

Chef Michael with the birthday girl

The good news...I have a new favorite restaurant, the bad news is that it's two-plus hours away from home!
Saturday night we had a little birthday dinner for my friend Diane at Bistro Baffi in Burien.
Eveything about this place is delightful. The decor is warm and cozy, the staff is attentive and charming. The food? In a word, absolutely fabulous.

There are a lot of restuarants that serve great food, but these days...if I'm going to dine out I want the total experience. I'm thinking twice before I spend money at a restaurant, a lot of people are doing the same. This little Bistro makes sure that every patron feels special, I noticed that Chef Michael stops at every table to make sure of that.

I just wish I didn't live so far away.

Happy Birthday Honey!

Today is The Husbands birthday.
Birthdays aren't a big deal to this guy, he lives pretty simply, one of the most content people I've ever met in my life. He's never really wanted to do anything except farm. Back in the days when we were struggling young dairy farmers, we were at a dairy related conference - at the evening dinner banquet I asked the question "If any of you guys won 10 million dollars in a lottery, what would you do with the money?" All of the guys said "I'd build a really cool farm".
I was stunned, nobody said they'd travel, buy a yacht, build a mansion (unless that mansion was for cows)...that's when I knew how much he really loved dairy farming.
He's never had any interest in doing anything else....

When we go to the marina he's never ever looked longingly at one of these.

He has absolutely no interested in being one of those guys who cruises around on one of these.

But a while back when we were at the recycled building materials store, he saw this! I looked at it and said "hey...that would be cool, we could put bolts and plumbing parts and all kinds of odds and ends in all of those little cubbies!"

It had been $29.00...marked down to $19.00...but it was in the half price section - a whopping $9.50!

I wandered away, but he kept looking at the thing - something he rarely does. Then he said it, that thing I've hardly ever hear him say - I could hardly believe my ears...he said

"I've always wanted one of those"....I almost laughed out loud. The guy who never really wants anything was actually looking longingly at an object.

We loaded it up in the truck and took it home of course.

I've spent the last couple of days pressure washing the back section of one of the barns that we're not using...it's going to be a shop.

A place for everything....and everything in it's place.

Ya right.

Oh well...we'll give it a try.

I asked him several times if there was anything special he wanted for his birthday today...of course the answer was "nope". I'll go back out to the barn and work on getting the shop organized.

I'll make a really nice dinner...and then take him out there and show him his new groovy organized organizer.

Happy Birthday Baby Sissy!

Today is my baby sister's birthday. The pic is of her with her daughter at our Christmas party at moms, I've edited it down a bit because I don't know how they feel about having their photos on the ole blog...here they've got their wild west masks on.

They're both amazing women of whom I'm incredibly proud, I feel so blessed to have them in my life.

My baby sis always gets my stupid humor, her laughter is like music to my ears. She'll tell me when I'm right even if I'm thinking I'm not, she'll also tell me when I'm full of crap. She's one of the most generous people I know...if she has what you need she'll loan it out to you, she'll pick you up, drop you off....and tell you when you need to pick yourself up and dust yourself off.

She works hard, plays hard, she's smart, she's funny, she's raised an amazing daughter...and heck... she can ride a horse like nobody's business!

Happy Birthday Sissy!

Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday Di!Today I met up with a couple of my gal pals to celebrate Di's birthday, we had a fabulous time.
Here is Diane with a bit of decor I gave her for the garden...every time I see it I want one ( or two or three ) for my own garden. I can see them hanging from the pear tree on a summer evening. I also gave her a little silver bracelet to add to her collection...our Di looooves her groovy silver jewelry.

We shared a creme brulee, not exactly on the diet... uhhh.. what diet? Hey man...we didn't even order it! The waiter heard me say "hey BIRTHDAY GIRL....if you want another drink I think you should order one." I love it when waiters eavesdrop.

As I was leaving the driveway to meet up with the girls today, a white swan flew in front of my car...I wondered to myself if there was some sort of mythology tied to white swans crossing your path. Well, as I rounded the corner on my way home late this afternoon this is what I saw. The end of the rainbow is right here at "This Old Farm".

I gotta run, I have to go out to the barn to look for a pot of gold.

I Love Wrong

The weather folks said it was going to rain most of this week, and they were wrong. It has been absolutely beautiful all week long. I've been getting a lot done in the yard and it feels great to get a head start on all of the spring garden chores. These screamin' yellow zonkers at the base of one of my rose bushes tell the story. Sun! Wahooo!

Thursday evening the girls in my family took mom for a birthday dinner out at Birch Bay. The sunset view as I drove along the beach was absolutely stunning, I wasn't the only one who pulled over to snap a photo. Spazzy me didn't think to stop to snap a shot until I saw somebody else do it...duhhh. Guess I have more work to do on that new years resolution of "Focus", although...when I really think about it...sometimes I don't want to see my world through a lens, nothin' "wrong" with that.

Speaking of wrong. We were naughty. We ordered this molten chocolate cake for dessert after moms birthday dinner....oh.....myyyyyy. It was so good there are no words. Hey..at least we shared....one dessert and four spoons.

Farmers Trash

Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Wire

The Husband and I have a deal, before he throws something away or takes it to recycling....he checks with me. I call these things "junk with potential". Years ago I asked him to save any old fencing wire because I thought wire spheres would be cool as garden art....TA DAAA.

We were gone most of the day today to Papa Jacks birthday party, it involved four hours of driving but Papa Jack is one incredible guy and we would pretty much do anything for him. We got home just as the sun was setting and I was able to take a little walk around the farm. I snapped this photo out by the party barn, the light was so goregous...I love the color of the moss on the concrete wall.

Ohhh....cake

Is this cool or what. It was my girlfriend Deb's birthday a little while back and this number (ok..these two numbers...the cake and the girl) were the stars of the show. It was so much fun to watch the guests at the party hover around this cake when the waitstaff brought it out from the kitchen.

I talked to Deb yesterday and she asked me if I got a photo of the cake. Wahoooo...I did!

She said the caterer had asked if anybody had a photo of the cake because he didn't snap one. Launching this cake into blog-land is the least I can do.

This cake was gooooood. I mean eyeball rollin' goooood. Not only did it look soooo cool with the chocolate daggers stuck to the sides - which I had never seen before, it was a delightfully moist cake with hints of spice and then a very subtle liqueur overtone. We had a little guessing game while we were cake tasting, guessing the spices, guessing which liqueur...I love playing the tasting-guessing game...I love cake...and oh yeah....I love birthdays.

Hey..cake guy...my birthday is in August...you busy?

Crazy Larry

Happy Birthday Larry!

Our pal Lar is 60! Hokey Pokeys!

Tonight is a Larrys big birthday party but right now it's snowing like crazy...hmmm. I don't know if I dare drive to Seattle. I have great studded snow tires and a car that handles very nicely in these conditions. It's not me I'm worried about....it's all the other goof-balls that don't have good tires and don't know how to drive in the snow. All it takes is one wrong move and...smmmaasshhh. Right now I think I-5 is a place I don't want to be.

Ohhhh....but the party is going to be fun fun fun. Larry is a musician and so are a lot of the guests, the music room at Larry and Di's will be jumpin' all evening.

What to do what to doooooo.

I love birthdays

Happy Birthday Tami!

Today I'm going for lunch with my friend Tami. We're going to celebrate her birthday, I'm not going to say what number but she's eight months older than I am...you do the math. Hint? I met Tam in the first grade and it was sometime in the 60's...oh myyy.