YOU’RE INVITED TO THE NORTHWEST FOLKLIFE FALL BENEFIT AUCTION

Mark your calendar for Saturday, November 6th and join us at Seattle Center’s Fisher Pavilion for the Northwest Folklife Benefit Auction! This important annual fundraiser helps get Folklife through the leaner months and features dynamic live and silent auctions, tasty drinks and hors d’oeuvres, a dessert rush and live music. This year’s auction celebrates the Hmong New Year in conjunction with the Seattle Center Festal event on the same day. Tickets are $45 per person, and festive attire is encouraged. Please call 206-684-7300 or email folklife@nwfolklife.org to reserve your spot or to donate an item.

This may come as a shock to you, but it does, in fact, rain quite often in Seattle this time of year. Please adjust your driving patterns accordingly.

A girl (Laura Rose) I met around the time of Bumbershoot via my friend Rachel is apparently teaching what sounds to be a kick ass belly dancing class that I’m definitely going to sign up for. If you’re interested in something way cool like that, here’s a link for it! Goth Girl Belly Dancing Class

Went to Serafina on Saturday night. It was warm and romantic, abuzz with couples on dates, old friends and people connecting on a cold, rainy, Seattle fall night. The strains of a jazz combo struggled above the din (on this night it was local jazz chanteuse Sue Nixon). The faint mental buzz of the Matthews Cellars Bordeaux Blend enveloped me. It was packed out, even at 11 PM. This was a great night, in a great place. Life was good.

I was sitting with my girlfriend, trying to jam down our sublime desserts after a big rustic Italian meal. If you haven

Leading up to the weekend, we made many enthusiastic suggestions for readers looking to have a good time. As a gesture to accountability, we provide a brief review below.

Early in the week, we raved about the potential of the corn maze. Even in the rain, it exceeded expectations. Go before it’s too late! No comment on the alt-publication parties. We regret that they didn’t fit into our tight schedule. Both of the author events were worthwhile and thoroughly enjoyable. I suspect there’s something hypnotic about being read to as an adult that causes overcomsumption of books. For instance, Stephen Elliott convinced us that it was a moral obligation to buy his new book, Looking Forward to It [$], and so far this seems like a fair assessment. Finally, for those of you who took our recommendation to see the Lashes, we regret any disappointment you may have felt upon arriving at Chop Suey to find that they were too busy being whisked off to NYC to hobnob with big time record execs at CMJ to play their scheduled show. But, since Ben is one of the only people who’s recognized me from my weblog, we wish the band all the best.

Saturday was a day I spent visiting a variety of my favorite restaraunts, bars, and coffee- and teahouses in Seattle.

That first latte of the day is always best when it comes from Caffe Vita, home of the best coffee in the world. Yes, that’s right: the best coffee in the world. Vita’s coffee is so good that I sometimes even dream about it.

Making my way down to the U-District, I settled on brunch at Araya. It’s a vegan Thai place, but don’t let the word “vegan” scare you. The food is well-prepared, healthy, and delicious. I’ve tried most of their menu and everything I’ve had there has been excellent. Even the most dedicated of carnivores whom I’ve dragged down to Araya with me has been pleased by the food. Today I was tempted to try the pumpkin curry new(ish) to the menu but couldn’t resist the lunch buffet; for about $6.50 you can get all the food you can eat, fresh and tasty and varied.

Before heading further north, I stopped off in Ballard for a chai at Mr. Spot’s Chai House. Mr. Spot’s is to chai what Vita is to coffee and their specialty chai drinks are not to be missed. It’s a great space, too–simultaneously stimulating and comforting, with an “arty” but not prententious feel to the atmosphere. Sometime afterwards, I wanted another coffee and ended up at Starbucks. It’s popular amongst a certain set of people to deride the quality of “Charbucks” coffee, but I find that most of their coffee is rather good.

Later, watching the debacle that was the Red Sox v. Yankees game with a friend, we called for pizza delivery from Romio’s. Romio’s doesn’t get my vote for the best pizza in Seattle (that honor goes to Mad Pizza instead) but their pizza is quite tasty. Thin crust lovers might balk at their thick, chewy crust but the toppings always taste fresh and delicious.

The game drove us to drink: first at Hattie’s Hat in Ballard and then at the Bad Juju Lounge on Cap Hill before ending the night at the best place in the world to end the night…Beth’s, of course.

I spent the afternoon at the Olympus Spa Korean bathhouse in Tacoma. The website is really anodyne and doesn’t do it justice. Its in a Korean strip-mall in South Tacoma, a region of car lots and low-rise fast food with corrugated iron roofs. Its not auspicious but the place is totally cool.

The women’s Bathhouse is a Korean tradition: hot and cold tubs, an icy waterfall, green goop, mineral baths, wet and dry spas and lots of scrubbing. But, unlike Western spas where you seldom see other women this is a very communal experience. You wander around naked in the ‘wet’ areas (the baths) and have a robe for the other areas. If you’re having a scrub (where they exfoliate you for half an hour until your skin rubs of like pulp) you arrive an hour early for soaking and steaming to soften you up. Afterwards you can relax in the hot rooms (darkened rooms with cushions and highly heated floors made of huge cushions of salt or sand or mats - like lying on a very dim hot beach). And there’s the restaurant with lots of condiments and only $7.50 for anything on the menu.

One of the greatest things about the bathhouse is the fee - its only $25 for use of the facility and $45 for a scrub. I spent almost 4 hours there for that. They’re opening another in Lynnwood - February 2005.

My boyfriend and I met exactly five years ago this past week and so we were trying to find someplace special to celebrate. The problem is that, while we enjoy going out for a nice meal every now and then, we are both vegan and have found that many of the better restaurants in town are not especially vegan-friendly. (I should note that while the bf is a fairly strict vegan, I

I was over at my local Safeway (yes, the one with the poo) this afternoon getting a few sundry items. As an aside, they have started selling mixed nuts again (which of course, they do every year right before the holiday season). But I digress.

While going through checkout, the saleschick surreptitiously stuck a pink leaflet in my bag. Well, she was wearing a tshirt with some breast cancer awareness text on it and they have been asking all month if I’d like to add a bit to my bill to donate to breast cancer charity, so I assumed, pink leaflet, pink equals breast cancer.

Got all the way home before looking at it and realizing it’s a help wanted ad.

Yes.

Evergreen Village Safeway is holding a Hiring Event next Wednesday afternoon. Amongst all the other positions they are looking for qualified applicants for, they are also hiring for their “”soon to open” Starbucks Stand!”

That’s when it hit me.

With Starbucks announcing their new chocolate “drinkable dessert”, Chantico, Safeway has obviously realized that after a while, we’re not going to be in the mood to shuffle 100 feet down to the other side of the mall to get our 390-calorie, 6-ounce cup of chocolatey goodness, and then 100 feet back to do our shopping. I mean, come on. That’s…. 200 feet. That’s like, almost… one-twentieth of a mile! Have a heart. I already have to walk all the way to the back of the store for my donuts!

Safeway, I salute you. That was pure genius. Now, Staples, and …uh, mortgage place, I expect you guys to be stepping up with your own little starbucks stands too!