Happy Birthday Mike!

Tuesday, February 10th is Mike's 34th birthday. I've got 6 months on him so I already know what it feels like. He's preparing himself by ignoring his advancing age and spearheading an effort to ressurect his old fraternity house and watching Pearl Jam DVDs. (I jest, I jest- 34 is no different from 24 except the hangovers last a little longer) A little shout out goes to my brother Nate for sending him an early birthday gift. More on that in a minute.

For the past 4 or 5 years, we've celebrated Mike's birthday by having pizza at Balistreri's in Tosa with great friends. We're going to miss that tradition this year. Mike's favorite line, "I've never met a pizza I didn't like", may be true but he definitely has his favorites and Balistreri's was #1. So, I've got the daunting task of finding something in Seattle that might be comparable. We've got a local joint called Zeeks which does a portabella/prosciutto/arugula with olive oil that's out of this world, but Mike is a pepperoni and sausage guy. Pagliacchis is good, but it's not Balistreris. Garlic Jim's holds its own...but again, you get the drill. The other question is dine out, or eat in? It's a Tuesday, so it's not like we're going to kick back with a bottle of wine. If anyone has ideas, talk back!

I promised to share a few pictures of the house now that it has furniture in it. We're enjoying our new digs and especially like the fact that we're 10 minutes away from everything- Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, downtown Seattle and my office. The commutes can be brutal so it's an ideal location.

Great Room (dining)

Great Room (living)

1/2 of Grey's playroom Kitchen

So, back to Nate's birthday gift. He sent Mike a Pearl Jam DVD from a tour they did in Italy. (Highly recommend it!) Grey, as I mentioned in the last post, is quite the fan...check it out.