adventures of a tired coder

One of the things I appreciate the most about Seattle (and other big cities) is the opportunity to see many plays, musicals, and other artsy things, and I've been taking advantage of these opportunities. Being under 25 makes the experience even better -- a lot of the local theatres offer great discounts for us young people.

Recently, we had the Seattle International Film Festival, where there were screenings of a bunch of foreign and independent films at some of the local theaters. I got to see three movies, all of which were great. Strings was a film from Denmark that had a pretty typical fantasy-MacBeth plotline, but the characters were all puppets, and the world was designed around that theme. For example, cutting a puppet's headstring would kill him. Cote d'Azur was a silly French movie about a family that had serious issues: the parents thought the son was gay, but he wasn't gay -- instead, his father was gay, but that didn't matter because the mother was having an affair. Right. And Dreamship Surprise was a crazy German spoof on Star Trek (kind of like SpaceBalls, except flamboyantly gay).


Listen to them sing!

I also saw Miss Saigon at the 5th Avenue Theatre, which is a theatre that shows musicals. Les Mis is coming next year, which I'm really excited about. A few of us got a season subscription to Broadway Across America, and we're looking forward to seeing musicals like Mamma Mia and Wicked.

Play-wise, I decided to try out a season subscription to ACT Theatre because it was a great deal for under-25ers. It's a very intimate theatre, but I enjoyed the one play I've seen there so far. And Seattle Repertory Theatre is always a favorite -- this season looks like it's going to be good.

So much to do!

I decided to try out a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program this summer. I first heard about CSAs (which seem to be pretty popular in the area) through Pike Place Market, but the boxes they offered were for a family of four, which is way too much food for me. Then I discovered Full Circle Farm, which offers small-sized boxes for two people, and they don't require an entire summer subscription: you can pay by the box, and it's okay to not receive a box if you'll be on vacation, etc.

So far, things have gone pretty well. It's a challenge to finish that many fruits/veggies each week, but it's healthy. :) The other interesting thing is that we get items that we wouldn't normally buy in the grocery store, like eggplant and white turnips (though we're allowed to swap a few items if there's something we don't like). So we've tried out some new receipes, like an eggplant, zucchini, and tomato casserole and white turnips au gratin. As for the fruit, Justin eats most of it, but I eat almost all of the berries. Strawberries came at the beginning, cherries started appearing recently, and this week was the first week of raspberries. Yum!