Cheesegasm

Crap! I thought I'd posted this last week, but a lot of sun in Seattle has a way of working its crazy dreamlike magic on the brain, what can I say?

I'm just now coming down from a full 48 hour cheesegasm, thanks to The Seattle Cheese Festival.

This was my 4th year cruising the Pike Place concourse for nibbles of curd, however this time I took advantage of the inevitable waiting to slip Calf & Kid cards into the hands of everyone I could. I also left little piles of them on several tables, so hopefully you either got one or saw them around somewhere. Strangely enough, I got the stink-eye from an old cheesemonger at the very first booth I approached. I was about 3 layers of people back from the booth, and tried as unobtrusively as possible to slip people a card saying "new cheese shop coming to Seattle". I think I handed out 3 or 4 when I looked up and she was glaring at me like I'd taken a slice of her cheese, wiped my ass with it, and handed it back to her. It was kind of funny, and I moved on with fantastic girlfriend in tow, and I cannot even begin to count how many warm responses I received from fellow cheese lovers. My favorite remark was from a woman several years my senior who gingerly plucked the card from my hand, sneered at it over her low-riding glasses, and said "Well it's about time!" Then she gave me a very warm smile, complemented the logo and that was that.

The rest of the afternoon was spent tasting sooo many cheeses that invoked physical reactions - most of them already known and a good smattering of new rinds on my pallet. With friend and fellow cheese lover in tow, I hit some of the seminars hosted by cheese hotties Tami Parr of PNWCP and Daphne Zeops, cheese guru. How I love to see other women marking their terrior in the cheese biz! All in all it was awesome, how could be otherwise? I am still reeling a tad from so much fromage in this glorious city, and cannot wait for more, more, more!

Chevre avec Ritalin?

Just a quick post to let you all know that I'm not dead, just un-hibernating, or whatever you might call thawing out from the winter slowly and enjoying the tad bit of sunshine and fun we all covet this year.

There is certainly nothing like starting your own business to induce the most extreme ADD symptoms. Every day holds the potential to send me soaring or pull me crashing back down to reality, sometimes both. A few weeks ago I was over the moon about a space right down the street, perfect location, just the right size and price, and then in one fell swoop the air was let out of that potential bubble by owners and their crazy ideas of when and how to renovate space. Every day brings another tidbit of news that either elates or crushes me, and every day I'm learning to flow with it a little more.

Mostly I'm twiddling my thumbs, figuratively and literally, waiting for a good space to come along. I am very seriously heeding the advice not to jump on anything too soon just for the sake of having it; my inner Goldilocks can wait for the spot that's just right.

In the meantime, I'm feeling very fancypants-ed at winning a Twitter contest today for tickets to the Seattle stop on The Celebrity Chef Tour benefiting the James Beard foundation, and in this case, my belly.

I'm also getting very bouncy about the upcoming Seattle Cheese Festival this weekend. I'm making hundreds of little Calf & Kid fliers to hand out, attending a couple of seminars, and meeting a handful of fellow Seattleites who I've only known online just yet. So far this week is shaping up famously.

Vive la fromage!