Marina "Type-A" M.'s Profile

I organized an event for 150 people at City Hall this past weekend and given my love of Madhu, decided to hire them to cater dinner. This is a review of the catering service.

First and foremost, the food was delicious and on-time. Many participants came up to comment positively on the food, and some people literally repurposed Starbucks coffee cups to take home leftovers. The owner offered to let us borrow large metal trays to avoid potentially drippings on the table, which we did not need but I definitely appreciated after a certain spilled Thai incident at another event.

Now the catering ordering process. I don't know about you, but I don't feed 150 people on a regular basis. When I hire a caterer, I expect THEM to have some insight on THEIR food in terms of crowd favorites and quantity. The owner at Madhu was spot-on -- he even gently steered me away from ordering two creamy sauce meats and instead going for one creamy, one non-creamy. This was in stark contrast to the pizza place that just could not give me a pepperoni to cheese ratio to save its life. Madhu brought the perfect amount of food to feed 150, and there was lots of it -- samosas, saag paneer, chicken korma, rice, rice pudding, tons of naan (MMMMMM).

In short, recommended for dinner and for catering, wholeheartedly :)

On the whole, Whistler was great. Lots of shops, lots of people, reasonable lines despite a great power day.

I'm going to concentrate my review on the Whistler Snow School, because I felt the instructions were a bit lacking when I signed up online.

In short, the snow school was GREAT. I took an all-day snowboarding lesson from Greg. At the end of the day I was exhausted and sore but quite pleased with my ability to (finally) not fall down.

For the n00bs, Whistler and Blackcomb are two different mountains. I took lessons at Whistler. Pick up your voucher at the Chandler Village location, which is exactly where you'll meet your instructor. I did not pick up my voucher the night before like they suggest, and I was just fine.

Go into Chandler Village (big building, center of Whistler Village, right down the stairs from the bus/shuttle stop) and follow the sign for the Snow School. You stand in line first to check-in and sign your waivers. You then go to the back of that same room and hot Australian guys will size you up and give you your snowboard, helmet, and boots.

Go down the stairs and pay $6 to rent a locker in which to stash your footwear, wallet, etc. Go back upstairs and go right out the door where you rented your equipment. The MAX4 tents are very clear. The snowboarding instructors are in light blue jackets, and you can just go up and they'll assign you to a group.

All-day lessons include lunch (lunch is not paid for, but you should expect to hang with your classmates at the Roundhouse).

Don't forget to bring cash to tip your teacher! Or you'll have to track him down later. (Doh.)

I am ridiculously picky about hair stylists. For years, I flew back to Salt Lake City to Star 21 to get my hair done because I didn't trust trying anyone new in Seattle. When scheduling got in the way of making it back to SLC, my hair would get too long and I'd get pissed about it.

Finally I bit the bullet and tried Rebecca on the recommendation of two very trusted friends. SO GLAD I DID. Rebecca is just awesome and extremely talented. She is the first colorist I've ever had to not mix copper in my color (I have pink undertones in my skin and I've always been convinced the copper made this more pronounced). My hair looked fantastic when I walked out, and she didn't give me one of those dreaded crazy blowouts so many stylists seem to favor. She gives free maintenance cuts and doesn't try to upsell you on product.

She's also fun and easy to talk with. I could overlook boring or crazy conversation if it means my hair looks good, but legitimately having fun while getting my hair cut/colored is a real win.

First, let me say that I think Red Mango and its brethren "yogurt" chains taste like liquefied plastic. Yogurtland, on the other hand, is NOM IN UR MOUTH.

Love the flavors -- especially the strawberry and the cheesecake. LOVE the toppings bar, because I like every bite to have just a smidge of crunch in it. And I really love the price -- a giant cup with ample nuts runs under $4.

It's not fair to compare Dan's with a giant health food store like Whole Foods, and when compared to other small groceries/convenience stores, Dan's is *awesome*.

There's a decent selection of wine, an entire baking section and it devotes a section of the freezer to vegan meat. I am pretty price-conscious and I have not found Dan's to be extravagant, especially since the other two nearest stores -- Whole Foods and Kress IGA -- are not exactly known for being cheap.

Better, the employees here are all responsible adults -- no constant stream of teenagers like at other places. They know their customers, they're always kind (extra points for this given all the crazies they undoubtedly have to deal with each day), and they won't hesitate to walk back and get chocolate syrup off a high shelf for me when they just as easily could have given me verbal directions to the stuff.

My new apartment came available earlier than expected and I was eager to get out of my old place ASAP, so I searched Craigslist for movers who might be able to move me same-day. Miracle Movers answered the phone immediately (vs. the other three companies I called who called me back many hours later) and offered to come move me at 8pm that night. The two guys who came were nice, entertaining, and FAST. They moved a one-bedroom worth of stuff from Wallingford to Belltown (4th floor!) in under two hours and were careful not to damage a thing or even scratch a wall. While I hope not to move again for awhile, I'm positive I'll call Miracle Movers again when I do. Six stars if I could!

While I miss Avila, I am SO GLAD Wallingford now has this satay place.

Yea, the menu is short, but that's the beauty of it. No long overwhelming menu with 100 merely-okay dishes, but instead a handful of DELISH items. The chicken satay was truly succulent and they make the peanut sauce on-site with freshly-roasted peanuts. I am the type of person who melts peanut butter on the stove and pours it onto noodles, so their peanut sauce truly hit the spot.

The staff and owners are very gracious and I'm generally excited to have them in the neighborhood.

I am a boring, white ankle sock kinda gal, but Sock Monster sells some other awesome things -- namely handmade beer soap! I'm obsessed with the pumpkin ale soap and can't wait to use it up so I have an excuse to return and buy more soap.

The owner is really awesome and also sells wallets made out of recycled bike tubes and reusable grocery bags.

This review is for its catering services. We needed to feed 50 hungry car salesmen at a 7am meeting on barely 12 hours notice, and the owner Amy Mangione came through with flying colors. She didn't so much as bat an eye at our request and met us at the crack of dawn the following morning with a beautiful spread, including a bagel assortment, salmon with capers, bacon, sausage, eggs, juices and a heaping platter of freshly-cut fruit. Her attention to detail was clear; even the cream cheese was displayed in individually-sliced pats on a glass tray with strawberries in the center. In a pinch, she even brought tables for us to set up a buffet. Everyone enjoyed their breakfast  and there were lots of smiles and laughs all morning. Can't wait to use Amy's services again.

I could kick myself for waiting so long to try my local gym. This Anytime Fitness is fantastic.

I was a 24 Hour Fitness gym rat for years; I was in their downtown Salt Lake location every day for years and loved popping into clubs around the country as I traveled for work. However, their Seattle downtown location blows, so I've been afraid another gym would break my little heart all over again.

This Anytime Fitness pays attention to details. There's a blow dryer in the women's locker room, a magazine stack chock full of the latest issues of my favorite publications (and indulgences I won't let myself buy like People), and there are multiple televisions with access to a variety of channels. I'm a business consultant all day and dag-nabbit, I'm going to watch Bravo and read People magazine while I'm pounding the Stairmaster.

Yes, I said Stairmaster. THREE. Am I the only person who loves StairMasters and can never find one?

Each exercise machine has its own television remote. It can't change what's playing on each TV (there's another remote on the wall for that) but you can pick which channel you want to listen to and set the volume. Your machine must be on in order for this contraption to work, which was not obvious to me at first and I wandered around a bit thinking they were all dead. Not dead -- I just have to move first.

Only downside is that the Stairmasters do not have these little gizmos, so you can't listen to the TV if you're on it.

The gym is on the smaller side and yes, some of the equipment is a bit run-down (the foot "pedals" on the ellipticals are cracked) but nothing dangerous or gross.

I dig the key fob, which is so much nicer than having to dig your membership card out. There's also free parking -- in Fremont! Win.

As of today, membership is a $39 one-time activation fee + $44/mo. I don't know why gyms hide this information; I avoided for months because I figured it'd be in the $100+ range.