hello, fremont, home to a seven tonne statue of vladimir lenin, a megalithic troll beneath a bridge, and the fuselage of a cold war rocket that proclaims that the small area is indeed the center of the universe. hello, too, to a fantastic greek restaurant that i did not think could be found outside kitsilano, where the servers speak greek (as opposed to when you go to any japanese restaurant and the owner and all the chefs speak korean, and to the untrained caucasian eyes and ears, no one knows the difference!). it satisfied my craving for dolmathes, and, surprisingly, "gyro meat" (ie meat sans the folded pita) that had exactly the moistness and flavor that i think all donairs on rotating spits should have, though they be turkish. 
after wandering through the farmer's market in its off season and boutiques that boasted $500 sweaters, we found a very unassuming little chocolate shop on a side street back to the car, and it was brimming with every chocolate sample known to man, with women in blue gloves constantly breaking up more expensive bars for tasting. 425 degrees later and in the comfort of my home, we enjoyed lovely little hotcakes. we also made it to pike place, where i had yet another sesame red bean ball (best use of $1.75 ever), and then back across the 520 to bellevue square in the nick of time to go to indulge the crafty teacher friend with the container store and paper source. did i mention we slept in and went to the later church service to start our adventure past noon.....and dinner consisted of a very spontaneous baguette paired with rosemary infused beecher's cheese that we sliced with fabric scissors. the scissors also worked to half-up my sesame bean-ball, dim-sum-chopping style. we capped off our evening with my favorite movie, and several more rounds of carcasonne. thanks for a fantastically action-packed sunday, natasha, i had such a blast.
