Who’s Walking Over My Bridge??

Today I decided it was time to take Jaryl to the Fremont Troll. So we trekked down to Fremont and explored! we used the Fremont Center of The Universe sign to find our way around.

 We found many amazing places including Ophelia’s Books! A great used book store with a beautiful spiral staircase and plenty of scripts and monologue books. (We each picked out a new book).

 On our way to find the Fremont Troll we were in search of “Rapunzel”. I read in a Washington Tourist book that she was on the Fremont bridge. But I was disappointed to find that she was just a neon light.

 

After This……

That’s right a RECORD store.

And This…

And This…

We  finally were on our way …..To the Troll.

Unfortunately there was this……

We tried to go past it…… but we could not.

 No Troll for Jaryl….Thanks alot construction. The worst part is I had just told some tourist to go see the troll…. SORRY random guy at the Northgate Mall. I had no idea.
Another Day…..Another Day..

Day 30. You want me to eat what?

Ah food. I think due to Jaryl and I being in tech rehearsals for our show all week we will be doing a few blogs on food. When you are on the go for 19 hours and stressed out who doesn’t love a little comfort food? So late tonight we were wandering the store looking for something new to try when we landed on this…

Awesome right?? Now let me tell you this is definitely the tamest of the flavors I found, but I need to ease Jaryl into it. The other chocolate bars I found were Chili, lime tortilla chip, ramen, and spiced ramen. So settling on french toast may seem like the chicken thing to do but it just leaves more exciting things for the future. (A series of chocolates, Jaryl said)

I think it was a good chocolate, although if you are looking for something super french toasty I would probably just eat french toast.

Jaryl says “Makes sense. I like chocolate on everything else….why wouldn’t I want it on french toast? Tastes like a kit kat”

We rate this a delicious late night 10/10

Day 26. Where IS Waldo??

Where’s Waldo. Those books bring back some fond memories. As a child those colorful books kept me busy while waiting in dentist offices. I even had a Where’s Waldo camera when I was 5. I would run around the house taking pictures of furniture, toys and my family. When I got the photos developed, Waldo would be in the left hand corner (He did not try to hide very hard).

So tonight we challenge our minds and have fun. When Jaryl pulled out all my old books I was all in. (Cause seriously, who doesn’t get a little whimsical over Waldo?) Besides Jaryl was already dressed for the part (See Below). He suggested we set the timer for 10 minutes and try to see how many Waldos we could find. It was on. We flew through the first book and moved right along to The Great Waldo Search. It was more challenging than the first but I still thought we could make it through. Until, we turned to the last page and we both let out an exasperated sigh. It was the page with all the guys that look like Waldo.
“What am I looking for?” Jaryl asked.
“Um..I think you will know him when you see him.”

But just then the timer beeped. So what were the results? In 10 minutes we had found 23 Waldos. In case you are counting that’s one Waldo every 26.087 seconds. Not bad. But I still have 2 more Waldo books….and Jaryl is still looking for the REAL Waldo in the group of Waldos….Apparently he is the one missing a shoe.

We give this a 10/10

Fun, Cheap and brings back the good old days.

Jaryl Says “I gotta find that freaking missing shoe”

This is going to be a long night…

Day 25. Taking advice from Sting.

So today was a really long day.  We just got home a few minutes ago.  And on the way home Madison said to me, lets write a message and put it in a bottle.  What a great Idea Madison!

Step 1- Stop at safeway.

Step 2-Buy a bottle of Perrier.

Step 3-Drink Perrier.

Step 4-Spit out Perrier.

Step 5-Let Madison Drink Perrier because I forgot I hate it.

Step 6-Write a letter to…Someone.

Step 7- Let bottle dry out.

Step 8-Stick letter in bottle.

Step 9-Seal bottle. 

Step 10-Drop Bottle in Ocean.

So here we have it.  We’re writing a message.  We aren’t going to send it until later though.  We want to be at the Washington coast for that. 

Where will it end up?  Well the currents around Washington go to Alaska or even California and Mexico.  But the truth is…we have no idea.  That’s why we have written our email address on the letter.  Hopefully some day we’ll see where this bottle ended up.  My mind races with the idea that maybe our friend Melissa will get it in Australia, or Robert will pick it up while he’s walking on the shores of Alaska,  we may not know until later in our lives, or maybe not at all.  I guess we’ll have to keep our e-mail address for the rest of our lives.

I give this Activity a 8/10  Only because we have to drink the Perrier.

Madison Says, “Maybe a whale will eat it and it will shoot out its blow-hole and a penguin will see it and be like whoa dude, a bottle”.

Day 20. Bubble gum Bubble gum in a dish.

The infamous Seattle Gum Wall.  Post Alley is nothing special. A bar here, an improv club there and then….gum. Loads of gum. Reds, pinks, greens, all shapes all sizes. EVERYWHERE. And if you happen to be strolling the alley on a particular warm day smells of cinnamon, spearmint and bubble gum fill the air. The first time I went down Post Alley I thought I as going to be sick. The smell and sight were a little disgusting. People’s old spitty gum. When you find it under your movie theatre arm rest it is gross but apparently if enough people stick it on a wall it is art. It just happens that my sister and I had something we called the Gum Rock when we were younger.  A large rock at the end of our driveway covered in bubblegum. I guess we were artists ahead of our time. (I cannot believe my parents let us do that)
Today Jaryl and I would become part of this art.

What gum would we choose? Where would we stick it? Follow our sticky adventure below….

 

Jaryl says “Bubble Yuck!”
We give this outing at quick 6/10.

Day 15. SNOW DAY!!!!

And now folks after 2 weeks of new activities and blogging, finally a word from Jaryl.

Today in Seattle…it snowed.  So Madison and I decided to do something crazy, something we have always wanted to do, something, in the words of Barney from How I Met Your Mother…Legendary!!!  But let’s go back to the morning first.

Madison and I awoke with no snow on the ground, we got into the car and drove to work.  As we were driving through Inglewood a snow flake hit our car.  “Was that snow?” we asked each other simultaneously.  It sure was.  We always reference Inglewood as being Narnia because when ever its cold, it snows there and nowhere else.  But today, It snowed everywhere.  Now we flash forward to tonight.  Where Madison and I did the unthinkable…

“What are we going to do today for our new thing?”  Madison asked me as I was engrossed in a puzzle of three dogs and some converse tennis shoes.  “I dunno” I answered.   Then she asked me the only thing that would take me away from the puzzle.  “Do you want to bury me in the snow?”  My eyes widened, my smile looked like the smile of the Grinch, and my hands reached for the puzzle piece I had looking for.   ”SUCCESS!!! I FOUND IT…Wait, what did you say? ” Do you want to bury me in the snow?”  She repeated.  Then, My eyes widened even wider, my smile grew 3 sizes (much like the Grinch’s heart), and I threw my hands in the air.  This was better than finishing a puzzle. 

This was a dream come true.  Bury Madison in the snow.   I was handed a snow shovel, Madison grabbed some trash bags and put them on her legs as if she were wearing M.C. Hammer pants, and we trekked out into the snow.   I scooped some snow and Madison laid on the ground.  “Quick hurry!  It’s really cold.”  she said as she shivered.   I picked up some snow with the shovel and dumped it on Madison’s stomach.  I then picked up some more and tossed it on her legs.  You couldn’t stop me.  It was one scoop after the other.  Scoop…place…scoop…place…scoop…place.   I had found my inner mobster, my k9 instincts, my pirate persona.  I was unstoppable.  I watched Madison as she laughed at me and laughed at being buried.   Finally…we were finished.    She lay on the ground…motionless.  Okay, not motionless, she was laughing really hard.  I mean, who wouldn’t.  She did something she had never done before…be buried.  And today, I did something I had never done before….Bury someone.    She stood up and the snow fell from her clothes.  She shook herself off and we went back inside.

Madison gives this legendary adventure a freezing 10/10

I give this legendary aventure a 100/10.  That’s right I said  100. 

This was amazing, Incredible, absolutely the greatest aventure ever! And for the price of a shovel, you could have the adventure of a lifetime as well.   If you haven’t buried someone or been buried in the snow, do it!  Right now!  Don’t wait! But make sure that they want to be buried.

Day 14. The color of Seattle.

Themed Photography. Beautiful architecture, old windows, cool fountains, statues. A friend suggested that Jaryl and I  explore Seattle through our camera, photographing a theme.  We were not sure what theme we would choose but as we parked our car and walked by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation it was clear what we must do. The large video screen outside the building that usually played a  strange video of a man standing in a crowd was green. Bright Green. So that was it. Bright colors! Colorful walls, objects, anything that brings a little sunshine to a sometimes drab grey city would be photographed.  (Later we walked by the screen again and the “man in a crowd” video was back….spooky.)

We wandered the streets of Seattle looking high and low. I LOVED this idea. Jaryl and I love historical, artistic and comedic photo books. We love to look at books like Weird Washington, Subway Art, and Found. Although Cake Disasters is one of our all time  favorites and if you have not read it, you should definitely check it out. 

Our walk was cold and at times snow filled. One car even stopped and laughed at us for taking pictures.  Jerks. We explored mainly 5th and 4th avenue but also a little bit of Roy Street and Mercer. I think today the pictures will do most of the talking for me. See the highlights of our adventure below. Not all pictures included.

We give this activity a 10/10.

 I think we will go try it again with a different theme and a different neighborhood. Also today we were on a time crunch because of rehearsal, so next time I would like to take a whole day to explore.

GO! Get outside, explore your neighborhood and leave the planning and the schedules at home.

 

Day 7. You put WHAT in a blender??

Well today marks a FULL week of our 2012 adventure. So far we have written our first blog, tested the Hurricane Simulator, built a table out of VHS tapes, tried Pho, explored the creepy woods behind our house and visited the Bellevue Art Museum. What a great week it has been. We have had a lot of fun talking to different people about things we should do and our list is up to 115 things. It’s good. BUT we still need more. So keep up the comments and keep spreading the word! The more people in on this adventure , the more ideas we will have.

But that still leaves us with today. Day 7. Jaryl woke up with no voice this morning. So right away I knew today would need to be an at home adventure. It has been an amusing day to say the least. Throughout the day we have been testing his voice to see if it is getting any better. Our test phrase is this
“My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard. And They’re like, it’s better than yours.”

Believe me when I say that does not get old. His crackley high-pitched wisp of a voice only makes that song better.

So today I made a quick run to Uncle’s Games. It is a great store filled with classic games, new games and just plain strange games. The staff are friendly and knowledgable. Plus you can try out games in their little game area. It was here that we were introduced to Shut the Box and Fluxx. A  couple of days ago one of the employees suggested that we try out a game called Kittens In A Blender.  I know how it sounds. But just bear with me. At the time the game sounded fun but we passed. Now with Jaryl’s crackling voice I had an excuse to try it!

So today we try Kittens in a Blender.

“Sure, kittens are curious by nature, but when these adorable kittens play in a kitchen full of dangerous appliances, it is up to you to save them. This fast-paced card game has players working to save all of their own kittens before the unthinkable happens.”

That’s right. You pick which color kitten is yours. I chose red (cause it looked like pink). And Jaryl chose blue. We each had 16 unique and adorable kittens (complete with cute names).  We had to save our kittens from the blender, while trying to harm the other person’s kittens. I know it sounds awful. But it was fun.  And hey, the box does say a portion of proceeds goes to a “no kill cat shelter.”

Jaryl had a good time acting out the cats in the blender. (What a goof.)  He says “The person who designed this game is a genius. It’s good for people who love to save kittens and people who want to blend them.”

Oh, and if you have to know. Jaryl Won. Sorry Pancake an Mr. Fluffers.

We rate this game a 10/10. At just $10 it is affordable, easy to learn and super fun.

Kittens in a blender is for 2-8 players , recommended for ages 8 and over, and takes 20-40 minutes to play.
Let us know if you want to check it out! Game night!!!!!!!!

Day 2 Hurricane MadJar!

Sometime in 2011 Jaryl and I walked into a mall and saw an interesting machine. Upon closer examination we learned it was a “Hurricane Simulator”. We both had a good laugh. Could this be true? Someone, Somewhere was making money off of a machine that blows air in your face?

Later in the year we saw the same machine. This time we got to watch a young couple try it out. We laughed together once again. Our laugh was both out of amusement and nervousness because not only did we find this machine silly, we also were both too chicken to try it ourselves.

Today as I drove to pick up Jaryl after work I was wracking my brain trying to think of our daily new activity. Then it happened. The Hurricane Simulator (ominous music) popped into my head. It was decided.

After I found my adventure buddy we trekked over to the mall. There it was. I inserted $2 into the machine and opened the door. As soon as I was in a voice began to count down. 3…..2…..1…… wind began to blow at my face.

“This isn’t so bad” I thought. But then I noticed the mileage gauge behind me. It climbed higher and higher until it reached 80 MPH.  By this time the people walking by were staring. Despite my pony tail, my hair was blowing about my face and it was hard to keep my eyes open. I spun around and flailed my arms for effect. The wind slowed down and I stepped out.  Jaryl’s turn!

Jaryl stepped in.

“Look! They’re going in!” A young girl shouted as Jaryl was hurricaned. The girl and her 6 other family members approached us. They began to ask me questions.

“What does it do?” “How fast does it go?”

“I want to do it!” The little girl proclaimed. Soon everyone wanted to try the Hurricane Simulator. So not only did we face our fears, have fun and entertain some strangers we made the Hurricane Simulator inventor some money today.

Overall we give the Hurricane Simulator an 8/10. For 2 bucks it is worth a try, we just would like to see them add more wind from different directions.