Baby steps. Must keep going.

It's hard to get a lot done when your 9-month old is learning to crawl and doesn't sleep a lot. It's 8:41 right now and I've been ready to go to bed for a half an hour.

That being said, I'm getting a lot done. My budget is coming together. My neighbor very generously has designed the look of my soon-to-be launched web site for free and she's going to do my business cards. How wonderful is that? (It looks great too! I'm thrilled)

Let's see, what else have I gotten done?

_________

I actually just leaned my head back to think about how to answer that question and fell asleep.

This is going to be hard. I will be an excited and excitable stress ball until I get home from the tour in March.

See, not only do I have to worry about getting everything up and running for the sale of the tour (and then of course the actual tour), I need to worry about how in the hell I am going to do it with my baby girl in tow. I already have my dear friend coming as my nanny and assistant, but I'm just really worried about the time I will be away from her when we are there. We spend so much time together now that I'm afraid it'll be scary for her. I know it will be for me. I trust my friend absolutely, but I will miss my girl so much when we are there. I just wish she could be with me the whole time and experience everything we will be doing. I'm not sure my guests will be down for that, huh?

Oh well, she'll become accustomed to all of this over the years. IT could be worse; spending time in Paris with your mom and dear family friend a few weeks out of the year, every year when you're growing up.

Oy! It's 8:50pm. Off to bed.

I found the dream apartment!!

I LOVE the apartment I just found for my tour. I just sent a request for information hoping that they will allow children and that they can arrange the rental of a crib for the babes. The kitchen ROCKS!!!! The location ROCKS!!!!!!! The price is AWESOME!!!!!!!!! (even with the exchange rate!!!!)

I am so jazzed! I was going to wait to move forward with anything until I heard from my Paris contact, but I realized today that I don't need someone there to be my contact. It would be awesome, but it's not necessary. Anyway, if it doesn't work out with her, there are plenty of people living in Paris looking to get paid for exactly what I'm looking for in an on-the-ground person. I just really want this gal. I like her style, I like her writing, I thing she's got a good heart and will lead us in the direction that I'm hoping to take this tour.

I'm building an empire here, people. One baby-nap at a time. Come hell or high water, I'm doing this tour Marsh 22-26, 2010. It's about God damned time!!!!!!

YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!

Fail-safe restaurants

In the December '07/ January '08 issue of Budget Travel, the publishers have asked their readers to send a recommendation for the fail-safe restaurant in their respective cities. I've been thinking about this for the Seattle area and I'm having the damndest time narrowing it down to just one. I, like most people, have my favorite haunts, but are they truly fail-safe?

Here's a list of some of my fail-safe (if not default) restaurants in Seattle and what you'll find there that makes it a destination for locals and visitors.

- The 5-spot: Bloody Marys
- Vera's, in Ballard: Salmon Benedict
- Market Street Grill: Awesome burgers and fries, their White Truffle Mac & Cheese, Bar Steak Frites, The service is awesome. It's a great upscale place that's a second home for many of the regulars (including myself)
- Coastal Kitchen: The Coffee Cake
- Wasabi Bistro: The best happy hour sushi!!
- Portalis: Excellant wines by the glass and great, though limited menu.
- Purple: Wine list and Coconut Prawns!! I'm a sucker for those puppies.
- Maritime Brewery's Jolly Rodger Taproom: Unexpectedly amazing food with great beer to match.

Ok, ok, I realize that this list is rather skewed towards Ballard, but hay! That's where I live, and these are places that I would go out of the way for anyway. So give 'em a try.