Quinn's on Capitol Hill - GO, go NOW!

Our gift to my brother for his birthday other than the 6 bottles of wine (thanks Chris!) was a dinner to anywhere he wanted to go within reason (a.k.a. flying to Paris for a 15 course meal, yeah not so much). It took Jody a while to figure it out, but in the end he decided he wanted to go to this gastropub named Quinn's (http://quinnspubseattle.com/) on Capitol Hill.

Chris and I immediately go to the webpage and check out the menu. Ok, so it was admittedly not impressive in the sense that there are no fluffy descriptions. "Bone marrow", "Fried Frogs Legs", "Rabbit Pate" - sounds neat and cool, but where are the adjectives, right? Plus Capitol Hill isn't exactly close (hey we live on the 'Eastside' now) and parking there is nearly impossible. But you know, you just got to do what you got to do. :)

Jody and Sakeneh come over, we carpool to Quinn's - and within 5 minutes of looking we found a parking spot - which was the was the first of many amazing features of the night. Walking up to Quinn's you first notice the extremely large and clean windows - and that the place is PACKED! It was overcrowded, loud, and freakishly Robson Street-esque. People of all ages wearing various stages of what they considered going-out-on-a-Saturday-night attire. Of course being Seattle and Cap Hill various couples and families as well, man/man, woman/woman, man/woman?, you get the point. The hostess had matching circa 1982 Barbie Pink sunglasses, undershirt, and belt with the Flashdance sweatshirt and leg warmers on and happily told us that a table would be about 30 minutes. Sitting in the entryway we were admiring the loft-garage feel, the hardwood ceilings, the brick and concrete pillars, and that the bar and tables looked inviting.

I don't think it was 30 minutes, maybe more like 15 and we were at our table - center front of the bar and next to the windows. We ordered some drinks. I know that Jody and Chris had quite a few types of beers, I am not a beer expert but I can tell you that they were all good. Jody is into home brewing and he and Chris were really enjoying each beer as the meal progressed. I ordered a drink made with rosemary bitters (yum) and later a Ginger beer. Sakeneh ordered a bourbon drink with cinnamon bitters that we sent back. The cinnamon bitters cocktail was the most disappointing thing of the entire evening. We did not let it hinder our excitement though.

Snacks were up first - chicken liver croquettes and spicy peanuts. Both delicious beyond belief. I don't know how much of it was because we were pretty hungry - but man I have got to figure out what was in those croquettes besides the liver. The nuts were so good we ordered another serving. I think the nuts were coated in a lightly beaten egg white with the seasonings -- THEN fried or pan fried. There was this awesome sweet-spicy crunch and the nuts were not greasy. The croquettes had a not-too-thin-not-too-thick crispy coating which contrasted nicely with the yummy filling.

We were hungry now. Our waitress who I wish I knew her name - she was very awesome and treated us well, she spaced out the rest of our order so that we had time to savor, enjoy, and digest everything. Up next was the Fois Gras. Remember how I said there were no adjectives on the menu? Well I think I know why...because there wouldn't be enough room to put all of the words. Seriously people, this fois gras was...good, delicious, savory, buttery, texture-perfect, colorful, seared in the most awesome way, served at perfect temperature...yeah you get the point. It was served on this broiche which was springy yet crunchy and an apple-walnut sauce. I need to stop thinking about it because now I want some.

Next up was the grilled romaine salad with olives, tomatos, vinegar-tasty-red onion pieces, also the fanciest poutine ever -- hand cut fries with melted fontina and chives sitting in a pool of demi glace (feel your arteries hardening yet?), AND a salted cod-mashed potato dip served with homemade thin potato chips. It was after this that I felt full and 4 out of 5 doctors would say "stop eating", but since we were with a doctor and he was still eating it was obviously OK to continue (haha).

Bone Marrow was next. With these little amazingly hot yet soft and toasted pieces of baguette. We were all expecting the generic little 1" pieces of marrow that we would need to pick up and suck on. Nope, not at Quinn's. The bone was at least 4" in length. Served with this citrus jam on the top minced to perfection. Delicious is all I can say. And yes, still feeling full, but again, kept on truckin'.

Butternut squash soup with curried croutons, endive salad with salted pork nestled at the bottom, and a fried sunny side-up duck egg. The soup was perhaps the only other disappointment of the evening (besides the cocktail with the cinnamon bitters) if you can call it that. Accompanied with all of the foods we had been eating it was a good comparison to help your palette recover from the flavors and fats and salts, but if I were to order it all by its lonesome I would probably not enjoy it nearly as much. The croutons on the soup were also a little soft - which I don't know if it was because we waited to taste the soup after we had the salad, but again croutons were more untoasted than toasted. The texture of the soup though so amazingly light and airy. The endive salad was amazing - the salted pork was crunchy and captured the flavors of american bacon and the chinese style of making "crunchy" fat pork without all of the 5-spice seasoning. The apples were just right and not too sweet and went with the fennel and endive pieces. The fried duck egg came a little late, but believe it or not was a great mouth feel with the salad.

My stomach was wishing I had worn elastic pants by this point, but nonetheless we had more food to consume. And we had all commented at this point that the remainder of our meal would be a true test to how good the food was - because we were all so freaking full that the food would need to be amazing.

Well...the food was amazing. Steak tartar - impressive that it was served on a chilled plate. The crostini that came with it were still warm and crispy but not brittle (awesome). The tartar had a lovely olive oil feel and which allowed you to appreciate the tomatos, chives, and black pepper. Then the mussels with chorizo - amazing sauce which I think was a whole stick of organic butter along with garlic cloves and flat leaf parsley. These mussels had a great sea-water flavor. I think the cooking time was from when the chef placed the liquid into the cast iron pot, covered it, and then the waitress brought it to us table side and uncovered it -- so perhaps a matter of 2 or 3 minutes?

Believe it or not it had been almost 3 hours by this point...still unrooted from our table we said what the hell let's have dessert. We asked for the menu to look at dessert (apparently after 11pm the menu switches to the late-might menu) and decided against the Whoopie Pie because hey there is only so much one should eat (haha), but had the apple pie with their homemade cinnamon-brown-sugar ice cream, chocolate pudding with a blueberry compote and a pile of whipped cream, and Bailey's irish cream brulee. The top on the brulee was a little thick and burnt, but the custard part was excellent, smooth and not too cold with the irish cream flavor throughout. The chocolate pudding was very chocolately without being scary dark or milky sweet. The pie was well good pie and the ice cream was a good compliment to the thick crumble crust. Accompanied by three double-espressos and a latte (mmm...Caffe Vita) it was now that I realized that I have to come back to Quinn's again, and also try Restaurant Zoe (http://restaurantzoe.com/) -- both are owned and operated by the same people.

In case you were wondering we went to Quinn's with the sheer idea of trying all of their small plates which we successfully did. I think if our stomachs could endure more food we would have ordered some large plates too - the wild boar sloppy joe, or the fish and chips, or even the steak with frites (yes, more frites). I am determined that the large plate items would be just as high quality as the small ones were. When I go again it has to be with another couple so that we can order and taste more items. I am sure that Jody and Sakeneh would be up for it!

All in all - Quinn's was a great place. Would I bring an 8 year old here? No. But Quinn's isn't designed for people with small appetites, small children, or people unwilling to try new things. Ok let me clarify... Quinn's seems like it would be a great place to stop in for a quick bite, but let's be honest - you are going to want more than one item from their menu, so don't cheat yourself out of something to the point of regret you owe it to yourself to try as much as you can handle, and then go for more. You can bring children here as there are signs that clearly mark where under 21 year olds can and can't be, but since when was the last time you knew of an 8 year old that would put up with a 3 hour meal? :)

Quinn's was also not grossly overpriced. The quality of food outshines the sometimes too loud Ska/Off-pop music that pumps out of the speakers. The price of this food is also amazing which I think is essential for places in Seattle these days. We consumed all of what you just read, at least 3 or 4 split-bottles of ale, cocktails, etc. -- 4 people for $250 TOTAL. AMAZING.

My only wish is that Quinn's would relocate to Kirkland or someplace with more parking. :) Ok, now I am beginning to sound like my parents...(haha) I am looking forward to my next trip to Quinn's (http://quinnspubseattle.com/).

Awesome Birthday Weekend

I have to take a few moments to reflect on the awesome event that was my birthday. Although it was on Friday, it seemed to span the entire weekend.

Friday:

• Arrive at work and am greeted by Danielle, who bestows a card and a Curious George toy
• Michael arrives with balloons
• Roger arrives with french pasteries (the start of my downward sugar spiral of shame)
• Danielle had mini Trophy cupcakes delivered
• Charlene and Cristina arrive with card and gift
• Surprise 2-dozen red roses delivery from Chris arrives, yay!
• I Love Sushi lunch fun with Charlene, Cristina, Tracy, and Danielle
• more sugar...
• Go home to a wonderous Otto's hot dog and french fry extravaganza along with my favorite cold pea salad, awesome cheeses, and pie (even though I fell asleep before I could enjoy the pie)

Saturday:

• Sleep in!
• Biscut-donuts for breakfast and yummy coffee (more sugar!)
• Trips to Target, Trader Joe's, and Starbucks (soy pumpkin-spice latte, mmmmmmmm)
• Go to my parents for homemade almond fried chicken, sweet and sour pork, wintermelon soup, veggies and ice cream cake
• Get home to realize the Huskies sucked ass (boooooooooooooo)

Sunday:

• Sleep in again!
• Tasty breakfast
• A trip out to Maltby to have Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream
• Grocery shopping
• More tasty cheeses, oysters, and some mackeral

Overall, a filling weekend as you can see. I don't remember having had so much sugar before I was to the point of shaking - that is how I was on Friday.

Anyway, another year arrives and I am happy to have it!

Already a trip to the V-E-T, Husky Football, and TRIVIA!

Humboldt has already been to the V-E-T. We noticed that had a little dried blood on the edge of his eye; upon closer inspection he had scratched himself right underneath his right eye, right by the area of his nose; therefore, Chris had the adventure of taking the cat to the V-E-T earlier this week. Humboldt was tricked into his carrier by some treats (we'll see if that works next time) and then sadly mewed all the way to Woodinville. As we adopted Humboldt from Oasis for Animals, our first trip was complimentary! However, we now get to place eye medicine on Humboldt three times a day...

As I type this entry, Humboldt is happily sleeping next to me on the sofa. However, if I place my hand anywhere near his eyes he flinches. Poor kitty! I was lucky enough tonight to get the goo in place during his sleep - and again am I ever going to be able to get that done? Hahaha, I am laughing at the sheer thought of that simple success being repeated. Another thing we found out from his trip to the V-E-T - I had definitely under-estimated his weight, I thought he was only 9 lbs. well turns out he is around 12.5 to 13 lbs! Lucky cat now gets fed three times a day because of that new data.

I promise not to make all entries about Humboldt and his adventures; admittedly though it is hard to think of other fun things to provide updates on as Humboldt has really taken to our house and lives and we enjoy him very much.

Husky Football. OMG did you see the game? HOLY COW! Our secondary still kind of makes me think "what???", but we actually had numerous strings of FIRST DOWNS and our short-pass offense was tight!!!!! I had not enjoyed a game so much until this past Saturday. Kids around campus are wearing Bark for Sark t-shirts - hilarious. The real test for the Dawgs will definitely be this coming Saturday versus Idaho because we are expected to win...like Las-Vegas-expectations to win. I don't know if I want to sit through the pageantry that is Husky Band Day, but I will FOR SURE be watching the game. Maybe I can convince Joe to come over for some hot dogs, sausages, and other miscellaneous meat products and we can watch the game from the comfort of my house...with Humboldt running around in circles as he is not used to me screaming at the TV "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" and "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"!!!!!!!!!!!

And yes...Thursday Night Trivia at Jillian's is back. Now that is hawt.

Getting back into 'regular' TV

Those of you who know I grew up in a household where the only channels we got were ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, the God channel, and some fuzzy versions of local channels such as KSTW, KCPQ, KTZZ, and later KONG. Sometimes if we were lucky we also got CBUT, but it was always hockey and really who wants to watch fuzzy hockey at 8am on a Sunday? This was my exposure to TV until I started doing housesitting/petsitting gigs during graduate school.

I can remember it as I am sure my brother can as well; we were housesitting for someone and she had (gasp) CABLE TV. We watched Emeril Live for a whole week, just fascinated that there was a whole channel devoted to cooking - cooking shows ALL THE TIME. When I moved out on my own and into a townhouse with Joe and Andrew, I probably watched TV for a solid month just totally enamored with the glory that is cable TV. Years later I realize that there is a lot of nonsense on the 100+ channels as well and although the programming has gotten more expansive we really enjoy FoodNetwork, Travel Channel, History Channel, BBC America, HGTV, Smithsonian Channel, and the random Ted Turner owned channels for the movies. I don't consider these 'regular' TV though as my train of thought associates 'regular' TV with the major networks.

This past Christmas, Joe was saying that we had to start watching How I Met Your Mother and he proceeded to gift us the DVD pack of the first 3 seasons of the show. We are hooked! Last night I saw Big Bang Theory and found myself this morning wanting to read more about the show. More thinking (I know, a dangerous thing sometimes) into this and I realize that I haven't watched much 'regular' TV. I don't count my obsession with Dancing with the Stars as regular TV as in plain-sight the show SHOULD end due to the cast of characters they have lined up - I mean seriously they are reaching for the bottom-dwellers with the latest cast.

My co-workers have been urging me to watch 30 Rock so I may have to look into that as well. I don't really need to spend money on more DVDs, but the DVDs of entire seasons of shows are awesome. I never thought I would say "wow, I want to watch TV shows on DVD", but the shows are really funnier that way - also you get the chance to really get immersed in the plots and the characters. I watched Battlestar Galactica on DVD - definitely a good experience. Same with HIMYM.

I wonder what other shows there are out there for me to start getting obsessed with!

Our vacation was legend...wait for it...ary!

Our week long escape to Canada was excellent, fabulous, relaxing, and rainy. The rain was a welcomed sight just because of the extreme heat we have all been experiencing lately in the Pacific NW; however, I admittedly did not use my brain well when packing as I did not pack accordingly. First, I THOUGHT I had left my rain jacket in my car, but it was and still is happily hanging in the first floor closet. Second, I packed a pair of blue jeans that were hemmed for sunny happy weather and short heels - obviously not for rainy drag the pant hems in the puddles with sturdy shoes wearing. Lastly, I forgot to pack handy Shout stain wipes with me, and as anyone who knows me, I am a little messy around food.

The vacation started immediately after work got out on Friday the 7th - Jody, Sakeneh, and Heather came over for some delicious Americanized-Chinese take out food. Heather is in town for a short time to surprise her Mom for her 70th birthday. We had a wonderful surprise by a HUGE brown recluse spider who if I had not spotted it accelerating across the carpet it may have been more of an unpleasant than humourous experience.

Chris and I packed up and left for Richmond on the 8th. God bless Nexus, have I mentioned how much Nexus Cards are AWESOME? Well, they are, so you should go and get one if you haven't gotten one by now, don't tell me you only visit Canada once a year, don't tell me you don't want to deal with the hassle of the waiting and the RMCP interview, don't tell me you don't think it is worth the $55 fee -- because you will SO forget about all of that the first time you use it. IT IS AWESOME. After checking into the Four Points Sheraton we proceeded to eat nothing but Chinese food (3 meals at Sun Sui Wah, another at the place across the street from SSW, trust me -- stick with SSW). Oh, Sun Sui Wah is http://www.sunsuiwah.com/. We also had a brief trip to the Real Canadian Superstore to buy delicious canadian sweets. Mmm... coffee crisp.

Sun Sui Wah - pea vines with oyster mushrooms. Mmmm...

Sun Sui Wah - pork, mushroom, and shrimp shu mai. AWESOME.

So where are we, oh so inbetween meals we ventured to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary again - http://www.reifelbirdsanctuary.com/ and this time did NOT get chased around in circles by angry Japanese cranes protecting their babies. No this time we were stalking all of the herons (solidary birds, right) we could find. On our way out of Richmond to catch the Tsawwassen-Duke Point BC ferry - I got to see what M&M Meat Markets were all about. Large amounts of frozen meats and meals for an affordable price it seems. Our brief visit in the Tsawwassen store the saleslady was very friendly and allowed us to ask the usual questions and surprisingly there were 3 customers who came in and out with their purchases while we were browsing/killing time.

One 2 hour ferry ride later we were in Nanaimo and on the 10th we checked into the Coast Hotel on Bastion Street. Decidedly asianed-fooded out we had a psuedo American but really Canadian meal of BBQ ribs, chicken, and butter chicken. Our hotel room had the biggest bathtub I have yet to experience in a hotel room IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM with this amazing view of the water. We discovered the best place in all of Nanaimo so far -- Mon Petit Choux -http://www.monpetitchoux.ca/ - AMAZING coffee. VERY affordable prices and the breakfasts we enjoyed there were fantastic.

Top - Latte, Bottom - Cappuccino. Seriously, some of the best coffee we have had - all from Mon Petit Choux.

A nanaimo bar at Mon Petit Choux, in Nanaimo, BC of course. Delish!

Walking around in downtown Nanaimo you get the sense of very good attention to details such as bricks and signage, but admittedly there isn't a ton of stuff to do in the core itself. The waterfront walk is impressive and we had a good time walking around especially on the floating people-only pier. There was a mother and pup seal swimming around, people crabbing, families bringing their Tim Hortons down and enjoying - half eating and half trying to entice the seals to jump out of the water. The water area is perfect for seaplanes and we got to enjoy seeing them take off and land just as though we were at the Pan Pacific in Vancouver, or at the Laurel Point Inn in Victoria. We were also treated to a rather long practice session by Canada's own Snowbirds - who were apparently in town for a fundraiser event. The Snowbirds (http://www.snowbirds.dnd.ca/v2/index-eng.asp) are Canada's equivalent to the Blue Angels.

We left Nanaimo on the 12th and had a few hours to kill before we could check into the Chemainus B&B -- which was only 45 minutes away via car along the Trans Canadian highway. We drove up north and realized the Nanaimo community was only extended by the various shopping centres (yes, centres we were in Canada after all) along the highway. We stopped to explore a Canadian Tire store (think Joes, formerly GI Joes, now bankrupt of course meets Tri-State, Idaho's most interesting store), and after that I decided that we needed to return south. We stopped at the Petroglyph Provincial Park which is just outside on the south end of Nanaimo (before you hit the highway exchange for the ferries). I was disappointed a great deal by the park - the hike was maybe 2 minutes up a hill and the actual sandstone had been horribly kept up over the years. The best part was definitely the large birds of prey we eventually tried to follow via car.

We made our way down to Ladysmith which is the largest township after Nanaimo and before you hit up Chemainus. I must say - the Tim Hortons there was extremely busy. We drove into Duncan and picked up some local meats from the Duncan Butcher shop before heading back to our B&B. The B&B was fantastic. http://www.chemainusbb.com/ -- I STRONGLY recommend this place - the pictures do not lie. First the bed is comfortable, the place is EXTREMELY clean, like you feel bad dropping your first crumbs from your deliciously provided locally baked Vancouver Island bread -- and it is ONLY $125 a night. The place comes with a gas grill, a fairly sizeable kitchen area along with induction burner, pots and pans, plates and silverware -- coffee maker, etc. There are tons of places to sit outside and enjoy the birds and wildlife that come by. Free wi-fi, free international calls (to the US at least), your own phone line, a working desktop computer, and an air conditioner if you so desire. PLUS there is a full sized washer and dryer for your usage. LOVE IT!! The only downsides to this place is that it is not directly next to the water -- although there is an awesome view where you can see the BC ferries that take you to the smaller islands -- and the other downside is that you need to take a full flight of outdoor stairs down to get to the room. The next time we go, we are bringing different bags and packing lighter as the stairs were slightly cumbersome with our suitcases.


A rufus hummingbird - this little guy loved the flowers outside our windows at the Chemainus B&B.

This is a rambly post isn't it? Well you are still reading so...haha. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Chemainus. Downtown Chemainus is a mix of Leavenworth (without all of the kitsh) meets Oregon coast relax feeling. We spent a good portion of a day exploring the beach and downtown. We also spent a good part of another day at Pacific Northwest Raptors - http://www.pnwraptors.com/birds_of_prey_visitor_center.html. Very fun place and we really enjoyed all of the birds even through the rain. My favorite bird there was not a raptor, but a kingfisher from Australia, the kookaburras!


Roo, one of the two kookaburras at Pacific Northwest Raptors in Duncan, BC Canada.

So three nights later we had to check out on Saturday the 15th...which if you are astute you will know that it is our FIRST year anniversary of getting married. Woot indeed. We took the ferry back over to the mainland and stopped at the Tim Hortons in White Horse for my double-double, half dozen donuts and some timbits.

And here we are to this moment right now as we know it. This coming week is going to be EXTREMELY busy for the first week back after vacation. Next week -- we'll have a kitty!!

More pictures from our trip are up here: http://cleemd.smugmug.com/

I could talk about the heat...

...but why? Everyone else is - I would say that a majority of the posts I read on Facebook have been about melting, or home-made air conditioning, or the yearning for an air conditioner. Apparently yesterday was the hottest day recorded in Seattle since weather records have been kept for our fine city -- since 1891. It officially reached 103 at SeaTac. It was 106 at our house!

What has happened in my world. We are gearing up to go on a vacation the second week of August - celebrating our first year anniversary up in Canada. We are going to stay in Richmond, then take a BC Ferry over to Nanaimo and spend a couple days there, then drive a little south on Vancouver Island and stay in a small bed and breakfast type of place. Come home on a Saturday and then hopefully get to see Heather while she is in town for a while.

We decided to get a cat! Almost 8 years since I have moved out on my own I am finally getting a kitty! The non-profit shelter that we are adopting the cat from (http://www.oasisforanimals.org/) has agreed to hold the cat for us until after our vacation. The cat's current name is Percy, but I think I want to call him Humboldt, after a type of penguin. Below is a photo of the cat, I am WAY excited!

I was talking to Andrew the other night about the cat and I said that we had thought about naming it Andrew in Andrew's honor - I am not sure how he took that... :) Andrew assured me though that he would still come and visit me even though I have a cat - he would just make a lot of crock-pot-cat jokes.

Work has been a little busy, a lot of changes are going on. If you know of anyone who has the qualifications to be a CIO for an IT department at possibly one of the world's most influencial non-profits, then let me know! (haha)

We saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. NOT IMPRESSED. As I told Joe, it was like when we saw Spiderman at Oak Tree Cinemas - longest movie ever. Admittedly it was by far the most hilarious of all of the HP flicks, although not by much. I will probably end up owning it as part of the HP collection only to say "I have them all".

And something else I wish I could blog about, but have you ever worked with someone who just doesn't get what is happening around them? Someone who thinks they are -- excuse my language - the shit - they think they are all that and a bucket of chips with sauce on the side and they treat everyone else around them as though everyone else is in a caste BELOW him or herself? I currently work with some individuals like that - who appear to not understand that they are not respected, but they THINK they are respected - and therefore, treat everyone else in an unkind fashion. So without mentioning further details or names, that is my work rant of the month.

Whew, I feel better now.

Two dishwashers are starting to sound like a good idea!

Last night the first Tweet was sent from our house via Rusty Pitman's fancy Blackberry. Now tell me, who uses Twitter but NOT Facebook? Rusty if you are reading this, then you need to sign up for Facebook because seriously Facebook is so much better than Twitter. I only say that though because I have a hard enough time keeping Facebook up to date let alone find the time to sign up for Twitter.

Rusty, Robin, Patti, and Justin came over for dinner last night. We had a lot of fun and even though we ended up sitting in our formal dining area for the first time, it wasn't in my opinion a formal dining experience. For example we didn't have super fancy china or fancy placemats (I had a hard time remembering where all the placemats were!), etc.

Our menu was the following:
Appetizers: Champagne, wines, yummy cheeses, salumi salami, dips, crudites, chips
Salads: Plain Caesar and Shrimp Caesar Salads (thanks Patti and Justin)
Veggies: Grilled peppers, fennel, and onions
Starch: Grilled lemon-tarragon infused small potatoes
Proteins: Grilled alder planked salmon, NY strip steaks
Desserts: Fresh strawberries, banana bread-bread pudding, Mississippi Mud Cake (thanks Robin and Rusty!)

So even though there were only 6 of us, I think we managed to use all of our dinner plates, salad plates, glasses, and serving utensils. This morning I was thinking to myself that two dishwashers are starting to sound like a good idea!

I may be going to Macy's later today to exchange some items and possibly get more plates! Looking forward to more entertaining for other family and friends.

I welcome you to my FIRST post from our new house!

It is approximately 832pm PDT, Saturday April 18, 2009. We've been up since 640am. I should still be unpacking items and cleaning stuff and sorting and putting things up and and and and and ... . . . zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

We are loving our new house. Loving it. I know nothing is perfect, but right now it feels perfect. Other than I am physically and mentally exhausted and wishing that my credit cards could also get a break. As I type this, Chris is instant messaging me from the office. I really don't think we'll turn into the type that will do this often unless he is downstairs and I am up, but seriously now. . . :)

We got up early, had breakfast, packed more, the movers came and in about 2 hours had us packed up and unpacked. The movers left, we went back to the Seattle house to get more stuff, and then came back to unpack some more. Went to McClendon's Hardware and Target, and now more unpacking.

Ok I wish I had a way more exciting entry or even a picture to send, but right now besides this entry, I am focused on unpacking. And tomorrow I can guarantee it will be more of the same. Good night one and all!

We got the keys!

IT IS OFFICIAL - we closed on our house today and got the keys. We have already purchased some key items such as chairs, a table, wastebaskets for the bathrooms, house-hold cleaning products, brooms, light bulbs, etc. Chris is currently looking at blinds online and maybe we'll be getting those in a week or so. Our first official non-related house guest (i.e. not the seller, our real estate agent, the inspector, or others involved with the house buying process) was Joe - he brought us our very first gift -a ladder. It is very cool and should come in extremely handy. Joe got the grand tour and he and Chris talked about wiring and other stuff. I was busily setting up the bathrooms with soap, products, wastebaskets, etc. There is a LOT to do and it is just starting.

Joe was also very thoughtful and took us out to dinner. We went to the local Outback Steakhouse which is JUST up the way from our new place. It was by far the best meal we have ever had at any Outback, ever. The service was outstanding and the food was cooked very well. Impressive! Coincidentally enough we saw Brad, Janie, and Skylar enjoying a meal at the Outback as well. Who would have thought out of all the nights to be at the same establishment, go figure. I am glad that we left the house as much as I wanted to stay and sit in my little wooden folding chair because honestly if we hadn't left we'd probably still be there trying to seal grout or tile or something.

Instead after dinner we came home and I proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes or so loading up my car with things we had already boxed or bagged up. Mainly wedding gifts that were conveniently enough still in boxes. I figured tomorrow I will be waiting for the Sears delivery person for a while so I should have something to do as we do not have internet at the new house yet. Tonight I did a quick scan of possible unsecured wireless signals - none that my iPhone could pick up.

You read that right - Sears delivery person. Ok can I say HOW MANY CALLS DOES SEARS NEED TO MAKE TO CONFIRM A DELIVERY? OMG - so in the past 48 hours, I have been called by Sears 4 times, 3 of which to make sure I knew that Sears would call me with a delivery window. So yes, 3 calls to remind me that Sears will call - and the 4th call was an automated Sears call giving me a delivery window. Anyway, just wondering if people are really that dense?

Tomorrow we get our fridge and a friend from Husky Band (Don Sabo for those of you who know) is coming over to evaluate a door frame for us. This Saturday - Sears will be back yet again this time with our new washer and dryer. Egads! I am so excited about the W&D...but that in itself is a whole new blog entry for a later time.

My mind is wandering so I should stop this entry before I fall asleep. . .

Housie Housie Housie!

We are moving to Kenmore in April - we bought ourselves a house! Photos to come, but we are in the midst of finding appliances, talking about wiring and paint, packing, and the actual move. Closing is set for March 26.

Yippy!

A day of love

I admit that I really love the freecreditreport.com commercials. The jingles are snappy and one in particular gets stuck in my head - the one with the bicycle. Inspired by some boredom on this overcast Saturday morning I finally googled where I could find all of the lyrics and convenient URLs to the commercials - and some sucker already did the work for me :)

Go here http://www.garagespin.com/2008/08/17/free-credit-report-song-commercials-music-mp3-and-lyrics/ to see 'em all. F to the R to the E to the E, to the C to the R to the E D I T, RE to the PORT to the DOT to the COM.... love it!

Today also happens to be Valentines Day version 2009. My personal thoughts about Valentines Day is that it is a great day in general, but I am not all into the candies, cards, or the thought of HAVING to go out and purchase something probably totally unneeded for your loved one (s). Last night Chris and I had a very enjoyable omakase dinner at I Love Sushi where thank goodness I made reservations as the place was packed! We then took a stroll around University Village where we (at least IMO) came very close to purchasing some new fancy shiny things from the Sony store. Today we are relaxing for now, probably with an eventual trip to a grocery store to do one of my favorite things .... GROCERY SHOPPING.

I LOVE grocery shopping. I know many people dislike it and I have been told by my friends-recently-turned-real-adults-because-they-now-have-children that once I have kids of my own I will grow to dislike the art/activity that is grocery shopping. There is something about how neat the aisles are, how the products invite you to pick them up and read, how grocery stores place key items on end-caps or at eye-level, the imagination I get when I see ingredients...just fascinating.

Hope that your Valentines Day version 2009 is lovely!

Christmas Catch-Up 2008

I am bad. I have not blogged in obviously some time. I apologize as it is never my intent to be unsocial or unsharing. After getting married and sending out thank you cards and all that everything else seems so comforting and normal. Both Chris and I have been working quite a bit and are enjoying our jobs. No massive new purchases, no exciting vacations have occurred. We even planned to take a weekend trip to Yakima in mid-October, but ended up not going as Chris's family was not feeling well.

October was a blur now that I think about it. At least 3 of my friends had birthdays. I'm sure there are more, but my memory escapes me. Perhaps it was the 2 hour nap I just woke up from that is preventing my brain to function at top speed. November was fun of course with Thanksgiving and the Lemon Square party in my kitchen. Notably my good friend Kate decided that it was her time to leave Avanade and we had a lovely and intimate farewell lunch for her at the Avanade office. December kind of snuck up with me and within the past week I have been thankful that I completed all of my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. This past week has been nasty in terms of weather. Not since December 18, 1990 (yes, 1990...) has there been such a snow storm in Seattle. USPS, UPS, and FedEx have not been making it to people's houses - that is a lot of Christmas gifts not being delivered. Other services are also impossible it seems right now such as garbage, finding a gas station with gas, and for many the ability to cure a case of cabin fever and just get out of the house!

What I have noticed the most about this particular year is that I am truly happier. About a year ago I was allowing myself to get really down and upset by my job. So much has happened in a year - I left my former job, got a new job, got married, and am just happier overall. I appreciate the opportunities I have experienced and look forward to many more with this Christmas (only 2 days away!) and of course into 2009. Come to think of it many of my friends have also had quite a changing year. Joe bought a house, Kate also got a new job as well as Patti, Rusty, and Andrew. I will have to see if there was any predictions by anyone famous about 2008 being a "year of change", I mean besides President-Elect Barack Obama. (hee hee)

Tomorrow will be Christmas Eve (as today is Christmas Eve-Eve, whatever) and I will as always be making Lemon Squares and probably wrapping whatever is left that needs to be wrapped. Merry Christmas to everyone and I truly hope that you are safe and warm.

Days people, days!

I am feeling the excitement. In one week I will be getting all primped and readied to walk down the aisle and get married. In fact in exactly one week, I will be getting my hair done at the Venetian's salon (being that at the time of my writing this entry it is approximately 11am)...

But who is counting? ME! I finally got all of the "who is going to do what while I am out of the office" stuff straightened just yesterday. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but most of the hold up was out of my control and thought-process. I constantly remind myself that how things get done around where I work now is a LOT different than where I used to work. It makes me grateful that I had such awesome connections and friendships at my previous employment. Where I am now is fantastic - it is just that I am still "the new kid" around these parts so it takes some adjustment for everyone.

What has been happening...I feel like I have been to the hair salon more often than anything else. Deep conditioning, practice run-throughs of hair and make-up, hair trims, hair color, brow work, etc. One of the stylists at the salon I go to said to me yesterday "You know I see you more often than any of my regular clients, is that funny or what?". I call it expensive yet worth-while investment into getting married.

We have received gifts and they have all been wonderful. Been trying to keep up with writing the thank yous and letters as needed. All that is left to do is pack. I have even already made arrangements for the cleaning and deliveries between Vegas and Seattle. Admittedly I am giving William the benefit of the wedding season, but we have yet to actually finalize the "look" of the wedding cakes for September. We will probably hook up with William about that after Vegas -- hoping for the weekend of August 30...

Speaking of things with the number 30 - my brother's 30th birthday is coming up very soon. We are going to celebrate by going out to dinner this weekend. I am really glad that we are doing this because I did not want his birthday to be overshadowed by all of this wedding hoopla. I know he is excited for me - my personal view though is that it isn't every day you turn a milestone year! Happy Birthday Jody!

And yes...DAYS....counting down the DAYS...

Peanut Party and the weekend

I like to put out natural unsalted seeds and nuts in a pan on the deck to feed the animals. Sometimes we are lucky enough to get a glimpse of who is coming around to snack. Generally they are squirrels and bluejays. This morning we saw a stripey friend (a.k.a. raccoon) out and about which surprised us since it was 730 in the morning - aren't raccoons supposed to be tucked away somewhere when it is daylight? It inspired us to put more peanuts into the tray and we were rewarded; Chris got some nifty photos of a bluejay!

The bluejay and the peanut party tray, woo!

The bluejay on the rocks in the backyard.

In other news - we had a great weekend. The weather was outstanding in the low 80s and it got downright HOT Saturday afternoon. Saturday we got up and went to the Woodland Park Zoo (http://www.thezoo.org/) and to our surprise had to wait about 20 minutes in an extremely slow moving line to even gain entry to the zoo. Once inside it didn't feel nearly as crowded as I was expecting it to be. We got to see almost every animal there including TOUCANS, a tiger, and giraffes. Very exciting. It got very hot so we left and went home figuring we would hit up the Seattle Aquarium (http://www.letleonardin.com/) some other day. We had a light dinner and Johanna called - we were on the phone for almost 3 hours. I have to admit when I got off the phone my neck was tweaked out. It was good to catch-up with her.

Sunday I slept in and Heather and I hung out all day. We ventured over to West Seattle so that I could explore Lincoln Park for good photo spaces for the reception (family photo time kind of thing). We stopped by and visited with Ann and then we all went down to Alki in a feeble attempt to eat at Bamboo (http://www.bamboobarandgrill.com/), but there was no parking. The Spuds fish and chips were tasty morsels though followed up with a trip to the Husky Deli (http://www.huskydeli.com/) for a double-scoop of French Orange and Husky Flake. SO good. We went back to the Webb house and I caught up with Heather's mom. A quick trip home to grab the reusable grocery sacks and then it was off to the grocery store at 730pm to buy weekly food. WHEW!

I wish I was enjoying a peanut party right now. Or some more Husky ice cream (French Orange, where have you been all my life)...

Spot is cancer free!

Just read an email from my Mom - the vet said that the mass that was removed from my cat is benign and should not return at all. Yippy for Spot!

We are going through an abnormal heat wave for Seattle this weekend. We are getting ready to go to the Woodland Park Zoo and then to the Seattle Aquarium - wish us luck since who knows how many other people will be doing the same thing. Yesterday was a ghost town at work and after the work-day was over, Joe and Heather came over and we had a BBQ meat fest. We feasted on Kobe Beef hamburgers, bratwursts, and teriyaki-pineapple meatballs with a grilled pineapple and keylime pie for dessert. Today - the zoo and fishes like I said. Tomorrow I think Heather and I are going to hang out getting lost in West Seattle and then who knows what else, but I am positive it will involve a lot of screaming at the Wii while we play Mario Kart Wii.

Here's to my kitty and the great weekend!

Delicious!

We are enjoying some crepes with strawberry sauce. Delicious! I give all of the credit to Heidi's Cottage Cheese Pancake mix (if that link doesn't work for you, try this https://ssl2.ilinkadv.com/heidispancakes/index.html). All you do is add eggs and milk, whisk, let it sit for 5 minutes, then cook. Fabulous. I cut up some strawberries earlier and the ones that were super ripe almost over-ripe (think soft and almost squishy) I put in a sauce pan with a little water, some sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, salt, and a dash of corn syrup. So some homemade strawberry sauce and insta-crepes.

All the same that isn't the only thing that is delicious. My new job - I love it so far. It is still feeling "new" to me even though I'm in my third week, but so far everyone is so nice and genuinely appreciative of the potential I bring. It is nice working in an environment, hold on...it is WONDERFUL to work in an environment where they care so much about you as an employee, not only the free drinks and snacks, but the atmosphere is so refreshing.

This past weekend we went to Yakima for the Yakima Enological Society's Platinum event. We had 19 wines, 5 courses plus appetizers...wow a lot of booze and food. It too was all delicious. We were also invited to brunch with the Sukos. Delicious. We were treated to some self-caught wild salmon from Alaska that had been smoked. Yum!

Blu-Ray and BSG

If anyone wants to donate any Blu-Ray discs to us we will gladly accept. Last night Chris purchased a PlayStation 3 (PS3) and I am SO excited. Admittedly we were inspired by Joe's tv purchase call it electronic envy who knows - and also my friend Patti has a PS3 which when we were at her house last week -- was amazing. I couldn't stop saying "HOLY CRAP" and "Check that out". Plus the PS3 has totally different type of games available than the Wii and it will be fun to play sports and racing games. Perhaps some shoot 'em up type of games too, we'll see.

Also I can't believe that I haven't talked about Battlestar Galactica (BSG) yet. OMG, I have to admit that the show kicks ass. Krista, Shawn, Jess, Johanna, Mark - y'all were right. It is definitely a show that draws you in and you can't stop watching it. I just caught a special deal from Best Buy that allows you to purchase the box sets for $30 each - what a deal!!! I don't know how long the special sale is available, but the URL is here: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?type=category&id=pcmcat146400050062.

Too bad BSG doesn't come in Blu-Ray. I am too impatient because I want it now. But LOST Season 3 is out on Blu-Ray...perhaps another trip to Costco to see what in stock will be in our future. Tee hee!

More Ups and Downs...

Since my last blog there have been some good and not so good things happen. Good things include - ordering some shoes and other items for the wedding, having some job interviews at Gates Foundation and another place called PlayNetworks, planning out some fun "almost done with your job" get togethers. Curling - I've been more consistent than not and my teams have won quite a few matches now so that is obviously good. Some of my other colleagues have also made the decision to leave the company and all of our last "days of employment" are shockingly close to one another's...not sure what that says overall but I can tell you that for all of us - leaving is the right decision. We had lunch with Rusty again and that was the highlight of my week. I met Jess finally - HI JESS I DON'T KNOW IF YOU READ THIS BLOG YET BUT HI JUST THE SAME. She is really cool so I'm glad that I finally got to meet her.

Not so good things - this stupid waste pump in our beloved rental abode. My last entry as you know was a rant about the pump. Chris was successful in cleaning up the ew and we thought that after replacing the breaker this would be resolved. But no - this morning I am down in the laundry room and I thought it was the LeakFrog making noise...instead it was the power trip sensor freaking out. Sure enough, the pump is not functioning. We reset the breaker and the pump is RIP. Thus far today I have called our landlord - home, work, written him email and he seems to be MIA...so now we are waiting for confirmation of an emergency visit from a plumber.

I'm sure there have been other not so good things but right now - the pump takes the cake. Yay! At least the Scotties Tournamet of Hearts is on CBC right now. So that is a good end to this right now - on an up!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year to you all. It is the year of the rat. Squeak squeak!

Audi RS6

This is Chris' new (used) car, the Audi RS6. Ooh. Sorry, ooooooooooooh. It is a lovely car for car rides.

We're Engaged!

5 years to the day as today is our anniversary, Chris and I are finally engaged. We are still working on the details, but for now this is what "the plan" is:

- Getting engaged (done)

- Setting a date ... we're thinking August 2008?

- Buying stuff like a dress, flowers, you know... soon?

- Picking a place to get married ... we're thinking Las Vegas (those of you know who you are - are invited, only immediate family and close friends)

- Picking a place to have a less formal party AFTER the ceremony back in Seattle

So obviously the ceremony and the reception are two separate things in two totally separate locations and on two totally separate dates. There you go.

How did we get engaged? We had been talking about it for months now, so it wasn't a total surprise; we were inspired by Johanna and Mark's rings and we picked out a mokume gane style. As today is our 5 year anniversary of dating, we went out to I Love Sushi, came home and he popped the ring and the question. I had a feeling that today would be the day so I didn't burst out into tears or scream like a banshee, but it is still pretty cool. Neat huh?

And now pictures of the ring...

Front View, I think this shows the mokume gane pattern the best!

Oblique 1 ... oooh, ahhh...

Oblique 2 ... oooh....

On my hand, front view.

On hand, side view.

If there are any other questions, you know where to call or email. Thanks.

Christmas was great, 2007 is almost over!

I forgot to take pictures this past Christmas so I don't have any pictures to update. I could probably re-create some images with stuffed animals as stand-ins versus the actual people... or not. (haha). I hope you all had a great Christmas. I haven't been at work since the 21st and I don't plan on going back until the 2nd of January. I love the break.

Chris and I have been playing a lot of Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. It is a fun game although it has reminded me as to why I don't actually "play" these types of games; the constant motion shifting and "balance" or lack thereof makes me queasy. Luckily for me Super Mario Galaxy is a two-player game in the sense that the second player helps the first player out by shooting things or blocking fire balls, etc. You know the usual Mario enemies. We have taken breaks to go to the curling club so I could time the first round of the Jr. State playdowns, hang out with Johanna and her parents, and today we saw a movie -- National Treasure Book of Secrets.

Tomorrow is the last day of 2007 and thus far I have no super exciting plans. I will probably bake, do laundry, do some dishes and try to get back into a more normal sleeping pattern, although we'll see... re-entry into work can be painful so why kid myself right?

Oh -- you need to see this Hello Kitty Assault Rifle...http://gizmodo.com/338916/hello-kitty-expands-upon-arsenal-with-ar+15-rifle...

Happy New Year to you all!

4 days until Christmas 2007 and...

Another one of my friends has left Avanade after a long employment...actually make that 3 people. Paul is leaving after 7 years, Ricardo after 8, and Rusty after 3. How the time flies.

I left work early today as it is the last work day of the year for me at least. I am really looking forward to not having to worry about work for a while. Instead I get to worry about the washing machine in my house. I am doing some laundry and well, the basin of the machine won't spin. The water will fill and empty, but the basin stays stationary. I love it. NOT. I just wrote to my landlord - I hope that he is checking his email. If not, then I guess it will be trips to the laundromat or my parents house until this thing gets fixed or replaced. I wish we owned our own house at least then I could easily go to Sears and buy myself a new washing machine...

At least I have all of my presents and they are all wrapped. Just holiday baking to do!

In case you wanted to know...

...I didn't win the cookie competition at work, but I enjoyed seeing everyone having a good time and eating a lot of sugar.

Tomorrow is Ezell's Fried Chicken ... grease...yum.

I am le tired. I'm not sure if it is stress, or if I have been playing too much on the Wii. Probably both. Ha!

Life is like coffee (there is a point)

A week or so ago while I was driving into work, I heard this story on the radio and I want to share it with you as I think a lot of us go through this...

A group of college alums get together and decide to visit their favorite professor. The professor, now retired invites the alums into his house and serves them cookies. The discussion quickly turns from memories to how stressful each alum is, how much work they do, how the work takes them away from their families, etc. The professor gets up, unnoticed, and heads into his kitchen to prepare some coffee. Minutes later, the professor returns to the group of alums with a large tray of assorted coffee mugs and cups and of course a large pot of coffee. He says "Please select a vessel of your choice and I will gladly pour you a cup of coffee." to which each person chooses a mug and the coffee is enjoyed. The professor asks "Do you all enjoy the coffee?" and they all exclaim "Yes, this is some of the best coffee I have had in a while." After everyone has received some coffee, the professor says "You say that you are all stressed out and how hard it is to keep up with life these days. Well, look around at the vessels you each chose. I notice that you each took one of the nicer looking mugs and all of the mugs with scratches or ones that looked older were left behind. After each of you took a mug, I also noticed that you all were trying to get a glance and what each of you took. However, you were all served the same coffee. In fact, the coffee tastes the same whether it is from the fanciest mug here or from the plastic cup, it is the same coffee. Think about your lives and the choices you make. Did you choose the fancier mug because you felt you had to? You can agree that the coffee I served would taste just as good if you had picked a less fancy mug to drink it from. Life is like coffee -- you live your life the way you want and your life can be just as fulfilling with less expensive things, it is still your life and the choices you make as to how you enjoy it."

S...N...O...W...!!

Lo and behold the Seattle area weather forecasters were right -- it in fact SNOWED in the Seattle and outlying areas today. I was hoping that the weather folk would be wrong because we wanted to drive up to Bellingham to visit a jeweler who specializes in Mokume Gane rings -- http://www.mokume-gane.com/. My friends Johanna and Mark decided to go with Mokume Gane styled rings and since their wedding, we have seriously been looking online for Mokume Gane as well. We were all set to go through the same jeweler they went through, but apparently the jeweler who is located in Maine is going through some issues and to top it off he isn't exactly prompt with communicating whether it be via email or telephone; not sure if the time zone difference is the factor or not, but we are not impressed with his lack of speed... so we found a local jeweler and bonus -- this guy is located in the SAME time zone; turns out this jeweler located in Bellingham trained the guy in Maine that Johanna and Mark went through. Small world...

Since the snow came and is still here at our house, we hung around the house today. Drinking a lot of hot beverages, had some homemade split pea soup, and watching some bad holiday TV. Ok, how many times does the ABC Family channel need to show Harry Potter movies all weekend? Am I right? Now we are watching the Huskies play at Hawai'i...I hope we don't blow it!

I don't think the snow is suppost to stick around, but so far everything is still covered in a layer of white. Only 24 days until Christmas!

I'm feeling chatty today, or is that bloggy?

Yes - I'm posting yet again. This is what I get when I think I'm too busy to blog and only manage a post per month. Thanksgiving is only 2 days away! Chris and I were talking and it seems the older you get, the more fun Thanksgiving is -- not to discount or take any credit away from Christmas or any other holiday by any means. I say that mainly out of fear that Santa Claus may skip my house or the Easter Bunny will leave me rotten eggs...

Seriously - maybe it is because Thanksgiving is the first real get together kind of holiday since the 4th of July. Perhaps it is because there is no pressure of gift giving (although I heart presents, see previous post) or massive decorating. Maybe it is just the lure of a ton of food being available and readily edible all at once -- and that it is acceptable to over-indulge on it?

This year, The Lees will be joining us for Thanksgiving festivities and also instead of splitting Thanksgiving into two locations -- all of my families will be together at my parents house in Redmond. I hope that we have enough space; my parents house is huge but normally we can utilize outdoor seating on the deck. I highly doubt anyone will want to eat on a wet picnic table on a cold, blustery Thanksgiving afternoon... but you never know. This year I am planning on making the usual and expected Lemon Squares and also some Red Velvet cake. Yum yum.

And I need to state again -- it is wrong for people to work between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Just wrong. Tee hee.

I heart presents.

I heart presents. I enjoy the browsing, the thinking, the purchasing (ok, maybe not so much the actual financial transaction part of the money leaving my account...), the hiding, the wrapping and the giving. I heart it all. I suppose I enjoy receiving presents as well, but it is definitely more fun to give than receive them. I normally wait until the day after Thanksgiving to start shopping for Christmas gifts. This year I decided to start early so now I only have a couple items left to get. It is a relief although admittedly as much as I have grown to love shopping online, there is something about going to the mall and seeing everyone grabbing random items at will because they have to get "something" for that extra relative or friend. As per the last few years, I have done all of my purchasing thus far on Amazon. I especially like having things shipped directly to my office so that I don't have to worry about the UPS or Federal Express driver mis-delivering packages to my house.

I think that most of all, the best part is definitely the wrapping. I'm not a super fantastic nor necessarily most imaginative gift wrapper, but the fun papers and the ribbons are neat. I don't know -- call me a sucker, but I love the wrapping paper with the stupidly drawn animals, snowmen and Santa Claus-type images. I was at Target - my favorite junk store - a couple weeks ago and I was this close to buying yet another roll of Christmas wrapping paper. There must be at least 8 rolls in our closet that aren't even half-used yet, but there is this compulsion -- to buy more paper. MORE PAPER. I had to hold back from wrapping presents this past weekend -- because Thanksgiving isn't even over yet! Joe has started listening to Christmas music already as his rule of "you may play Christmas music the week of Thanksgiving" has gone into effect, but I can't relate that to actually wrapping presents. Or can I? Muhahahaha.

My usual catch-up-post-before-vacation message...

A lot has happened since my birthday (last blog post). Workwise things are so-so, there were some major moves within the office so now I have a new officemate. I didn't think I would miss sitting with Gail simply because she and I aren't super close friends, but I do miss Gail's presence. I think she misses me too because every time I walk by her office door she always flags me down and we end up chatting about something random. Now my entire team is split up between two floors and we are all spread out. Some feel disjointed or no longer part of the team. I do feel isolated only because I share an office with a new contractor who isn't exactly warming up to being social with me.

I've still been working a lot, although admittedly I am consciously trying to work less -- like it is OK to not work a 10 or 11 hour day, it is OK to leave at 430pm. I thought that it would be good to remember what real work-life balance is and the beginning of Curling season has helped. This year I will be playing in Monday and Friday night leagues -- very fun. I found out that some of my co-workers (from a different department) are trying out Curling so I need to remember to ask them how they are enjoying it when I return from vacation.

But for the next 10 days or so I am not going to think about work (too much). We are heading out bright and early tomorrow for Pittsburgh...yes, Pittsburgh. Stop looking at my blog that way yes you read it right, Pittsburgh. My friend Johanna is getting married in a very small way; a total of 28 people includes everyone in the wedding party and all of their guests. She and Mark live in Pittsburgh and have for a while so Pittsburgh it is. After the wedding we are then going to spend the rest of our vacation in Las Vegas doing whatever and whenever and eating whatever and whenever we want. So haha, haha to all of you.

And now...I must try to sleep. More to come later I'm certain. Oh--Happy Belated 32nd Birthday to a Mr. Joel Arnold Bakken.

I got surprised!

Yesterday was my birthday and for a while, I thought people at work were stalking me because everyone was asking me what I was going to do for my birthday. I didn't know that many people knew when my birthday was... anyway, it started off with a run to Starbucks, a hug from a barista and a free coffee later I was back working. We went out to lunch to rush back for a meeting -- to which I was surprised with PIE. Yay! I was so surprised that all of my work pals were able to keep a secret like this from me -- and I guess they had planned this for almost 2 weeks. After the surprise, I worked some more and after work Joe and I went to Red Robin, then a few games of Cribbage and watching Wayne Newton dance (sad dancing) -- that was my birthday!

This weekend we are going to my parents house and my dad will make almond fried chicken and sweet and sour pork for me. Yum yum.

The highlight of today: http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/index.php?page=2.

Wii have joined the club.

Two posts in one day can you believe it? I get home from my trip to Burbank and Chris says to me "I have a surprise for you when you get home". Is it a kitten? A ring? No, he got us a Nintendo Wii! So wii...er we have joined the Wii club.

We had a quick lunch and proceeded to play Wii Sports and Mario Party 8 for a few hours. The Wii is great and loads of fun. The only downside like anything else these days is the cost of all of the extras. Extra accessories and new games. The price of Wii. (hee hee).

Change is good.

An eye opening experience? Alaska Airlines will offer non-stop flights to Hawaii? New job possibilities on the horizon? Friends having children? Ordering a new item at your favorite restaurant?

Change is good. It is a good thing, a very good thing. Where is my Martha Stewart voice over?

Chris and I have been talking about houses a lot even though we currently lack the money to finance the purchase of the "ideal" house that we both want to live in. Over the Memorial Day weekend he quite randomly exclaimed that we could stay in our current house and purchase it from our landlord. We then discussed all of the renovations and changes that could occur in the house to make it more our style. Almost made me want to break out The Sims to build out a house with plug and play windows and door frames. Is staying where we are -- is that such a good idea? Initially I thought "no way I want a change", but change could occur within our current building boundaries. Although it may not change the neighbor situation with them dumping their garbage into OUR garbage can...

...or when we change the house we could build a shed for the garbage cans. Heh heh. Change is good.

Everything is fine... Happy Easter!

For those who have called or email or stopped by, thanks for all of your well wishes for my dad. He is doing remarkably well! He was able to leave the hospital Friday April 6th in the late afternoon. I know it sounds fast considering he was rushed to emergency surgery on Tuesday April 3rd, but like I said he is recovering "fairly well" as the hospital would say after a septuple-bypass surgery.

What else is happening (like there is room for anything else in my life right now) -- my friend Andrew is here visiting for a short time and today is Easter. The local paper has this Peeps contest and you should check out the photos: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/photogalleries/living2003652932/1.html

Other than the above, there is nothing more I can say except whew!

Quick Weekend Recap

I am really tired, but right now I'm slightly more concerned over this nasty cough I've developed. All I've done this weekend is curl. I participated in the 5-and-under bonspiel at our curling club. 8 four-end games were played and overall we finished first in the second bracket. It was pretty swell. I got this handmade plaque and stand; I am debating if it is worth taking to work for fear that I will stop every person who passes by and asks "Oh wow you curl, so do you sweep or throw?"

The spiel consisted of 15 teams and 3 brackets. After the first round-robin each team is reseeded; hence why I said we finished "first in the second bracket".

And with that more cough syrup and an early night to bed. Ta ta!

Snow in Seattle - again?

Believe it or not, we got a February 28th present of snow. Downtown Seattle itself had a light dusting if that counts for anything, but there was apparently quite a bit of snow in the Puget Sound Convergence Zone. School districts north of Seattle and south of Mt. Vernon are closed.

I was disappointed to wake up and see that most of the snow that had fallen at my house overnight had melted already. At least I have a tasty cup of coffee to enjoy right now.

Thrill the World!!

Follow this string of thought:

1. I come home from work, turn on the TV
2. Nothing really good is on, but for some reason I watch 13 Going On 30 -- yes the movie with Jennifer Garner ala Big with Tom Hanks
3. While watching said movie I realize that the best part is when main characters start doing the Thriller dance -- yes the dance from the Michael Jackson hit Thriller from 1983
4. Once movie is over I wonder "how does one learn the Thriller dance?"
5. Google "learn the thriller dance" and come across a site among various youtube URLs that is about a group of people wanting to set the world record for people learning and dancing the Thriller dance

Good times, no? Thrill The World is the site I stumbled across. World record was set in late October 2006 and amazing...who knew the Thriller dance was so "in"?

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

I'm a little late, but better late than never. Happy Chinese New Year or Gung Hay Fat Choy! It is the year 4704 and the glorious little piggy gets his year. The above picture is of 3 piggies, but as you can see there is only one looking at the camera. Isn't he cute? I enjoy this other picture as well, I got it from the last woot-off...
And of course, there is my favorite Pearls Before Swine character, Pig:

We celebrated Saturday night at my parents house where my Dad made everything... soup, rice, soy sauce chicken, fat pork (with the crunchy skin), taro with pork and pineapple, beans with foo yee, gai lan, bittermelon with beef, you name it he made it. I was quite surprised he didn't make a roasted duck as well, but I guess he was under the weather just the day before, so that probably threw a wrench in his shopping schedule. My Grandpa was able to join, so it was definitely good times. On Sunday I treated myself to a facial -- well Jody really treated me, he got me these gift cards for Gene Juarez and I used them, so I had a facial, relaxed and went curling.

What else...this weekend we are probably going to Yakima, but it is dependent on the weather -- it has been snowing in the pass. Work has been...worky that is what I will say, worky. Let's just say -- that I bought $20 worth of scratch tickets at the grocery store today, so you get the idea. Vacation is only a few weeks away, Oregon Coast here we come!

Happy Heart Day

Happy Valentine's Day. Or as one of my friends says "Happy Single's Awareness Day". I don't see any harm in wishing someone a good Valentine's Day. So what if Hallmark, candy companies, and jewelers want you to believe that Valentine's Day is all about pink, red, shiny, sweet things for others. Treat yourself! There is nothing wrong with being single. There is nothing wrong with being in a relationship. There IS something wrong with believing you have to spend a couple hundred bucks on flowers and a new outfit so that you can prove your love on one "fancy" day of the year.

What am I doing for Valentine's Day you ask? I woke up and dressed myself in a nice pink shirt. I went to Starbucks, did my morning dances for the baristas and bought my friend a beverage. I am bringing home fancy cupcakes for Chris. I get to watch LOST tonight and eat popcorn. Need I say more?

Cake - no. Bed - yes.

Let's see... last week the new bed was delivered, then we went away for the weekend to Sequim/Port Angeles. We stayed at our favorite bed and breakfast (Domaine Madeleine) and had some fabulous food at Victor's restaurant -- Sabai Thai. We also had some lovely european beef-based fondue at Toga's. Both Sabai Thai and Toga's are located in the heart of Port Angeles. I recommend them both very much. We have even thought about driving over to PA just to eat at Victor's place because it is some of the best Thai food I have had! This past week at work has felt like...a very long week at work. I volunteered a couple of times to be a timekeeper at the curling club -- the club hosted the Junior National Championships this past week.

I haven't had time to make any coconut cake like I was hoping for. Considering we just went grocery shopping and bought some fresh pineapple and blueberries, the coconut cake can wait a little while longer. That's a good reason, right?

The new bed -- it is quite nice. We both have less pain in the mornings, but it isn't a cure-all. Tempur-Pedic you have a good thing going. So far I am glad to say that it was a good purchase. Of course I haven't received my credit card statement yet (haha), but seriously -- good sleep has been had. I do notice that I have been having or at least remembering my dreams a lot more often than I have in the past. In fact I had a strange dream last night that involved knowing what time the world was going to end--and being concerned that I wasn't packing enough medication as we obviously had a safe place to go since Earth was going to be destroyed... yeah. I also have noticed that I do wake up feeling very rested and I have been sleeping until my alarm clock goes off instead of waking up 30 to 60 minutes before my alarm starts to beep at me.

Again -- so far, good choice for the Tempur-Pedic.

Money money money money...money!

Money....Thank you for Turbo Tax. Thank you Intuit for a fine product, thank you for making it easier for me to give money to the US Federal Government. I entered all of the pretty numbers from my W2 and I owe a whopping $27.00. I'm glad it is a low amount. Sure I'd rather receive a refund than shell out money, but Turbo Tax makes all of it so....so.... almost enjoyable. Jeff if you are reading this -- thank you for going to work for Intuit to make Turbo Tax support and the product even better for future generations of people who like myself are inept when it comes to understanding tax forms.

Money....before I did my taxes, we were out and about. We went to Target to do some browsing and got a photo printer. Decided that we needed a late afternoon snack and being indecisive as I am we ended up at the mall because the food court has endless choices; Sbarro, Thai, Panda Express, ice cream, Ivar's, Kidd Valley, Taco Time, SBUX and Red Robin (I'm not name dropping on purpose nor am I receiving endorsements for doing so, just filling you in on the great mall that is Northgate)... we settled for Taco Time and garlic fries from Kidd Valley. After a dozen mints a piece I treated myself to my first psuedo-impulse buy: a 5 speed Kitchenaid hand mixer. I had a Macy's gift certificate, so why not right? Joe if you are reading this -- I am FINALLY going to give you the Salad Shooter with all of the attachments so you may shred your cheese as you please for your bean dip. :). And Regina if you are reading this -- the Salad Shooter lives on! Back to the money... so after the purchase at Macy's, I asked Chris if there was anything else he wanted to look at -- a last minute turn to the Brookstone store. We walked into Brookstone and made a B-line to the Tempurpedic beds and..............................

Money....yes, that's right, I bought us a new Tempurpedic bed. MONEY. You may call that psuedo-impulse buy number two. The bed is supposed to be here in a little over a week so I am VERY excited because I've been wanting one of these beds for a while. Just like I've been wanting a new hand mixer for a while, hence the "psuedo-impulse" terms. I just happened to pick the same day to drop a buttload of MONEY.

I'll give updates about the mixer and the new mattress as they roll on. There is only a little bit of the Red Velvet cake left so next up will be a Coconut cake? Something I can use the hand mixer on...if anyone wants to give me ideas as to what kind of cake to make next, I'm all ears--send your recipes my way!

Money....you earn it to spend it, such is life. Now if I could just win the lottery....

Red Velvet Cake

I've been asked by quite a few people including Annelise who actually left a comment (yay, Annelise) what exactly Red Velvet Cake is and what it tastes like. From what I can gather, Red Velvet Cake is simply a chocolate cake with a LOT of red food coloring added. What also sets this chocolate cake apart from any other is that the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of distilled white vinegar and 1 cup of buttermilk. Chris found out that there is a chemical reaction between the cocoa powder and the vinegar and buttermilk -- which apparently give the cake the smoother, more "velvety" texture. I would like to say it is as smooth as velvet, but considering I have never consumed velvet in my lifetime, I can't really make that claim.

The chocolate taste is less intense and quite honestly -- the cake probably wouldn't be very appealing by itself. Think of it as this BRIGHT RED cake that is way more dense than a sponge cake....I made a cream cheese frosting for it and as much I as abhor frosting, the frosting on this particular cake makes it taste gooooooood. I folded in some shredded coconut and some chopped pecans, so there is definitely something "tasty" in the frosting. I found that at least with the cake mix version -- you can't taste the food coloring so that is a start. I particularly enjoy the cake with a glass of milk.

If you look at wikipedia for this cake -- it claims that most Canadians associate Red Velvet Cake with a now defunct department store chain called Eatons. Who would have thought that? All this time I thought it was a southern thing (which is apparently not true even though grocery distributors along the west coast do not carry Red Velvet Cake mix)...

Updates get your updates!

I finally updated our home page, check it out on the side nav link or simply use this link to get to Chicken and Cheese. It is easier to read and I have included some handy chicken and cheese links. The links I'm sure will be subject to change, but it's a start.

More updates -- I also added new photos to our album; again use the link on the side nav or simply use this link to get to our photo album. I realized that I needed to take more pictures and post them so that my friends far away can see what is going on. The newest album is called Wintertime Fun or something like that.

Also--the snow has finally gone. The rain came and washed it all away. We went to Target earlier today and as we drove by the Les Schwab store (tire store in the Pacific NW) the parking lot was FULL. Wanna bet that those people were buying snow tires??

And for those of you (who like myself) just want something fun to look at...I made a red velvet cake today--from the box. Thanks to Andrew for sending me some cake mix all the way from Alabama. Here are some photos....yummy??

As you can see--it is very RED.

I thought that my bowl would be stained, but it is OK.


Wa-lah. I am waiting for it to cool still so I can cover it with frosting.

I think Christmas is over

I don't believe I've ever had a Christmas last so long. I say this with all of the best thoughts, nothing negative implied. I posted some new pictures (see my album, the link is on the left side you can find it, I know you can!) so that is exciting. Basically we started Christmas on Friday 12/22 in Redmond...it then quickly moved to 12/23 - 12/25 in Yakima, then driving back to Seattle to then have Christmas dinner itself at my Aunt Jeannie's house in Fall City. FOUR DAYS OF CHRISTMAS. Whew.

Today...I am recovering and getting some laundry done. I think we need to go out and buy some new cell phones sooner than later though, the batteries on Chris' cell phone don't last very long. I probably also need to go out and buy some milk or something important like that.

I received quite a bit of stuff this Christmas. A lot of kitchen stuff (I asked for it, so very exciting), a Nintendo DS (which is the coolest thing ever), practical things that are useful including a lot of emergency prepardness kits (emergency flash lights, emergency kits, etc.), a folding card table, but what was will probably be the most useful is the $50 Shell gas gift card I received from my cousin John. Talk about a cool gift! Who doesn't use gasoline (presuming they drive a car regularly)??? I think the next time I really want to just get someone a gift card, I'll have to remember that.

I am fortunate and I took the rest of this week off of work (we get two days for Christmas so technically today is a paid holiday for me). I am SO glad. Reminds me of the days when you get a lot of time off for Christmas break. I am going to spend some time with my friends I hope; Johanna and Mark are in town; Heather is also back; and so is Allan and Amitoj. Lots of people to see I hope!

Ok, back to laundry. I hope you all had a good Christmas too!

Reflections upon Christmas past and present

Less than a week now until Christmas. I'm still dutifully going to work everyday. You know it is a crime to work between Thanksgiving and New Year's? No one is around, everyone is checked out or taking long lunches to go Christmas shopping, or people are "sick" (they just want to save vacation days and burn up sick time). I am planning on taking my usual time off between Christmas and New Year's though - I need time for me. No work, no pressure of missing work since everyone else is gone too, just time for me. I have some miscellaneous medical appointments, perhaps I'll do some light cleaning, my friend Johanna and her fiancee Mark are in town so we'll visit, and I'll probably hang out with Heather as well.

We recently went through a very bad wind storm that left over 1 million people in Western Washington without electricity. We were lucky and only lost power for about 15 hours, but even as I type this in my 68 degree house, stomach full of hot freshly prepared food, listening to a Charlie Brown Christmas -- there are still people even in Seattle who have no electricity. I have read reports that some will be without electricity through Christmas. Ugh. As much as I may rant about work or other trivial things I truly am grateful for a warm house, a roof over my head, food, my friends and family, and my job.

This Christmas we are going to Yaki-vegas....er, Yakima. I was telling Andrew tonight that this Christmas will be only the second Christmas in my life that I would not have spent it with my family. Christmas 1997 - The Huskies made it to the Aloha Bowl, I got to spend a week in Hawaii and away from my family. I know, how horrible. Spending a whole week with friends, getting paid and all expenses paid for to go to a bowl game. Christmas Eve night rolls around and I was very homesick. It was also the first Christmas after my Grandmother had passed away, so I was very sad indeed. The Huskies went on to win the Aloha Bowl, and we were flying back to Seattle on Christmas Day. We approach Seattle and there is too much fog so we had to land in Portland. My friends and I got to spend the night of the December 25h 1997 on the floor of PDX. A greyhound bus came to PDX to drive us home on the 26th. I came home very sad and tired to an empty house. My parents weren't home for some reason and my brother was at work. I remember opening a present with my cat watching me.

Christmas 2006 in Yakima -- shouldn't be so bad. It couldn't be any worse than Christmas 1997, right? I'm not going to be sleeping on the floor of a PDX terminal. I'll be with people who are almost like family (we are not technically family yet as Chris and I are still dating). I understand that it is quite chilly (single digit temperatures) in Yakima right now. I hope the drive over will be fairly easy, the thought of chains and a potential 4 hour drive does not thrill me to say the least. This Friday I'll be at least having dinner and a pre-Christmas but really Christmas celebration with my own parents.

All in all as the days get closer to Christmas, the happier I feel. There is just something about Christmas -- how everyone is generally happier and friendlier. I can't wait for the day where I'll have my own kids and the excitement they will have for the holidays. :)

My photo album is updated -- finally!

Can you believe that I invested some time and updated some photos? Well, believe it!! Due to the large amount of pictures Chris took when we were at Yellowstone -- I haven't had a chance to go through ALL of them yet, but in time grasshoppers, in good time. There are photos from our recent trips and adventures. Check out my photos. Woot.

It's official, everyone is having babies but me.

Kate (my manager) after many months and over 24 hours in labor gave birth this afternoon to a healthy baby boy -- Nicholas! My friend Dawn who lives in Hawaii gave birth to a healthy baby boy -- Carson! Bethany and Bhargavi -- both friends and co-workers are pregnant and due to deliver in May and June 2007! And of course Sommar who just had a baby (a healthy baby -- Casey!) but unfortunately she passed away (see previous blog post). Not that I need to have a baby right this instant, but there is something in the water. My time will be here before I know it I'm sure.

Today also somehow marked the official turn-over of sub-teams apparently within my department. We all went out to Cutter's for a nice lunch. Let me think, was it any other kind of milestone today? Hhhmm.. I guess not.

Special thanks goes out to Joe for helping me fix the links that weren't working.

Links, soup, shopping...

My apologies as apparently the links to my archived posts aren't working very well. Joe, when you read this help me out man. I "upgraded" to the beta version of blogger, whatever. I'm sure there is just some setting I need to look at somewhere.

Thanksgiving was filling. We ate a lot of fun at my parents house, then we went to my aunt's house in Fall City and ate more food. I didn't even wake up today until 10am. Chris is cleaning up the downstairs room. For those of you who have been to my abode, the downstairs area has always been..well, cluttered and full of stuff. Chris has been working diligently today--he said he took out 3 bags of recycling, 2 bags of garbage and burned an entire bag of old bills. Yes that means that we can access the fire place. Yay! He is breaking down a bunch of cardboard boxes now.

We have started eating the leftovers--today we had turkey soup. VERY good. Now, what to do with all of these sweet potatoes and ham...I spent most of my day browsing online for Christmas presents. You know online shopping kicks ass. I only have a few minor things to pick up from various stores, but a majority of my shopping is DONE. Woot!! Done! I also need to say that my friend Max--has a great online store. Check it out at www.maxwaugh.com. I also shamelessly gave Amazon business today. Amazon is a great searching tool that I generally use for price comparisons but hardly ever go straight to their site and just buy things -- with the exception of the day after Thanksgiving. If you look at my purchase records with Amazon -- it shows a yearly trend; I always buy a lot of stuff from Amazon the day after Thanksgiving. Anyone else guilty of this?

Lemon Squares!

I make Lemon Squares twice a year; once at Thanksgiving and once more at Christmas. My house smells of Lemon Squares right now and boy oh boy it is getting me even more excited for Thanksgiving. I've been making Lemon Squares for at least the last 16 years (if not longer). Seeming as how I'm 30 years old now...you can imagine how many sticks of butter that has been! I used to go bake-crazy around the holidays. Seriously, I would make batches and batches of cookies like non-stop from Thanksgiving all the way through Christmas Day. Snickerdoodles are still my favorite -- there is something about how they are FRESH and HOT from the oven. HHhhmm. I would like to make Chocolate Crinkles as well although admittedly they weren't as tasty as Snickerdoodles. And of course, Russian Tea Cakes (aka Mexican Wedding Cookies). My dad just LOVES those, he can eat a whole batch (one batch yields 60 cookies) in one sitting. I remember years where I would make at least 4 batches of Russian Tea Cakes.

I was talking with Shawn today at work about how your perspective of holidays change as you get older. We decided that the holidays are so much more exciting as adults; you appreciate them more because you don't have as much time to yourself it seems. As a kid admit it--Thanksgiving kind of sucks. You don't get any presents, there isn't any fun music to listen to, there is no candy, and all you do is sit around the small table at Grandma's house and eat turkey with your cousins. Not exciting. As an adult, Thanksgiving is about gossiping and getting to talk to your now "cool" older relatives and realizing -- "hey, I'm an adult now, this is fun".

Not much has happened since. I mean, work has been busier than ever. Getting my boss ready for her maternity leave, still transitioning knowledge to people, catching up with research, and at the same time planning events for April 2007...aaaaahhhhh! The weather here in Seattle has been crappy. Lots and lots of rain. Its raining right now, big surprise. Oh hold the phone, what am I saying -- there has been some excitement -- there was another woot-off on www.woot.com. The Huskies surprisingly won the Apple Cup this year (yay!). I just finished watching season 2 of LOST. And tomorrow, I get to eat Lemon Squares. Maybe I'll make some Snickerdoodles too... hahaha.

And now to save myself another blog entry, I'll post the Lemon Square recipe for those of you (you know who you are...) who will ask me for the recipe...

Lemon Squares

1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup of butter
1/4 cup of confectioners' sugar

2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. lemon juice
zest of one lemon
2 drops of yellow food coloring (optional if you want your squares to be YELLOW)

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, butter and confectioners' sugar thoroughly (best with semi-cold butter so that the dough is crumbly and not like cookie batter). Press evenly into a square pan (8x8x2"), building up a 1/2" edge. Bake 20 minutes. Beat rest of ingredients together until smooth (sugar should be almost completely dissolved and the color will turn lighter yellow, I like using a whisk). After crust has baked for 20 minutes, pour yellow mixture over crust and bake for another 25 minutes. When cooled you may dust the tops with more confectioners' sugar. Makes 25 squares.

Total baking time: 45 minutes
Prep time: 15 minutes
Eating time: 5 minutes

Happy Eating...er, Thanksgiving.

Zen or iPod?

Like I really NEED a new gadget!! I already have a 4GB iPod nano, but lately I have been having mini-screen digital envy. As you may or may not know the iPod nano does not have video capability - besides the screen on it is so small even if it did have video capability I'd go blind watching it. I blame my mini-screen digital envy on www.woot.com and their woot-off. So during the last woot-off one of the items was a 30GB Zen. Krista got one, Joe got one -- this inspired Ray to get one. And before all of this happened, Shawn got one. EVERYONE HAS ONE....right?

Ok so not everyone, I obviously don't have one. Which brings me to my impractical dilemma - to Zen or iPod? I've looked at the comparisons, the prices, the specs, the needs, and even the colors. The Zen yes it's cool, it comes in green, it has an FM tuner... but I already have an iPod nano. Which means I've already got iTunes, I have all of the accessories for iPods already... what to do? What to do?! What does one do with 80GB of space? Then again, does it make sense to have two sets of accessories for two different players?

Then again, do I really need a new gadget?

BTW I have to say this -- I am so glad that Emmitt Smith won Dancing with the Stars! That is all.

good times....

All-Day Meeting today went well. Hot water heater got fixed (thank goodness). Had a good lunch (thanks to Char and www.wowcatering.com) and a fun dinner. It stopped raining (for now). And Emmitt Smith kicked some dancing shaking booty on Dancing With the Stars.

Good times...good times. Bring on another day of all-day meetings!

A Free Shower!

The ever continuing saga of the hot water heater. So last night after we drained the hot water heater and shut it off, our house just felt so blah. I realize that we still had heat and all of the other luxuries of a house, but somehow knowing that you have no hot water is really depressing. I woke up this morning and the house felt colder. It was definitely not exciting to come into work at 630am to take a shower.

The positive thing though is that the shower is FREE and HOT. There is towel service, hair dryers and even shampoo. I haven't heard from my landlord yet, I am presuming that he is on the phone with the plumber and they will both be at the house all day repairing the hot water heater (hopefully replacing it!). :)

I'm not sure which is worse...no hot water/wet garage/broken water heater OR having your vehicle break down along 167. Ray's truck broke down along 167 this morning. Talk about bad timing.

Pi, anyone?

So I am reading up on some popular news stories of the day. I come across a story about a man who recited Pi to 100,000 places; I kid you not. You may read more about it here. Crazy Japanese people (I'm kidding, I'm kidding, not all Japanese people are nuts, but then again, have you ever seen those weird Japanese game shows on Spike TV?) It made me think--who does this--who memorizes Pi yet alone calculates it just for kicks. I found this other website that has Pi to the millionth decimal place. You can see it for yourself by following this lovely link. I have a hard enough time remembering what I ate for lunch today let alone memorizing Pi to anything past 5 decimals..tragic loss for my memory, I know.

In other noteworthy news--I am losing my personal office tomorrow. There is not enough room for everyone on the team to have their own office so I will be moving in, or rather, moving across the hallway to share a windowed office with Gail. It should be fine although admittedly I will have to get used to the fluorescent lights because Gail always gets to the office before me in the mornings and she likes to work with ALL of the fluorescent lights on (I personally like a dark office with my trusty lamps...). Such is life. The move has forced me to clean up a BUNCH of stuff that was just laying around in my office. I will be sad though since it took me almost 2 years to even get my own office space (I was in cubes for a very very long time in an environment where EVERYONE around you has their own office with a door).

LOST--ok I admit it, I am now a LOST junkie. Krista let me borrow the entire set of DVDs for Season 1--I watched it all this past weekend with breaks to watch the Huskies beat Arizona and meals of course. I haven't seen all of season 2 yet, but Jeff gave me "permission" to watch the premiere of season 3 tonight since I already know what Michael did....... (apologies in advance for those of you who don't watch LOST, I feel your pain)

I should send in my curling registration or else I may not get to be on a league! Eeeek!

Happy Birthday to me! :)

I have to say, I'm 30 years old. Woooooooooooooooooooot. Go me. I don't feel different, but now I'm a 30-something person.

Thanks to my pals who have wished me a Happy Birthday...

My workmates who gave me this wacky homemade card with a picture of me looking extremely excited (Shawn, Krista and Ray are primarily to blame!) :)

Joe for playing cards and enjoying a meal at Red Robin

My pals Becca and Dennis who wished me a Happy Birthday on my space

Heather who sent me a funny e-card with dancing squirrels and a great surprise delivery of an Edible Fruit Basket

...and last but not least, Chris for treating me to a great weekend at Domaine Madeleine and fun in the general Port Angeles area

I appreciate my health, job and friends more and more. Thanks everyone!

Curlng is BACK and thensome.

I am in disbelief as the Washington Huskies are 2-1....for now. Next week is a whole new story and a whole new football game, but for now I will be satisfied even if the win was so-so. If you want to talk about bad-call drama--you should have watched the Oregon-Oklahoma game. Oy.

My friend Hassie can't make it to the OSU game on the 14th of October, and I of course can't make it to Homecoming Game (on the 28th of October) as I'll be in Hawaii--or rather flying to Hawaii at that time. I am actually really upset about this as I haven't seen her in a very very very long time (since she moved to Montana) and I want to hear all about her life in Montana. I'm also getting equally upset that I won't see a whole bunch of other folks as Homecoming generally draws a larger-than-normal crew for the game. For those of you who do read this blog you'd think I only have like 5 friends and that isn't true. When people move away to places like Alabama, Alaska, Montana, Illinois, Pennsylvania...hell even Renton it is a lot harder to say "Yo, come over for some pizza and the game". Ok no more pity-party for myself. I do miss my pals a lot. I guess Hassie not going to the game will make it that much more important for me and Chris to get our arses back to Montata for another steak at The Derby (see my earlier vacation post from Yellowstone; Butte, MT is a great place to visit!).

It hasn't been 6 weeks quite yet so we haven't heard back from the fine NEXUS folks. Curling ice is now here at the club so this past Friday was the first time I was on the new ice--VERY clear and it was admittedly odd to curl with a hack (that is where you put your non-sliding foot when you are delivering the stone) that wasn't buried in layers of ice. My right calf is a little sore from all of the stones, but it was WAY fun to get back out on the ice and see all of my curling pals again. Work has been..well, work. I got to see Yumi and Annelise for lunch a couple weeks ago, Annelise was so funny -- we met at Saito (great Japanese place on 2nd and Bell in downtown Seattle) and apparently she hasn't had a lot of exposure to Japanese cuisine so she was taking pictures of the food. Annelise is back in Denmark now (HI ANNELISE!!) finishing up her thesis.

And is 30 the new 20? What a hokey phrase. But now that 30 is approaching for me I'm not sure what to think. I don't feel 30 then again I haven't a clue if I'm suppost to feel different. I don't act different than I did a year ago, I wear the same clothes, blah blah blah. I know that I often think I'm not a real grown-up as I don't own anything of value. I don't own a house, I'm not married (yet), even my car--technically the title is with the bank that was kind enough to grant me a loan. With that logic do I own my masters degree as I'm still paying off the school loan for that as well. I'm having fun and no matter what I suppose that is the most important part of all. GO DAWGS!

Nexus, whadda deal!

This past weekend we traveled to Richmond, BC (Canada -- the country where left turn lanes are non-existent and flashing green lights are expected) for a quick get away. We waited at the border crossing for 50 minutes--both going into and leaving Canada. All the while there are people zooming (ok they are going 15 MPH, but compared to my speed....um yeah...) by in the far right-hand lane in the "Nexus Permit Holders ONLY" lane. Did I see any elusive black squirrels in Peach Arch Park? No. Did my car overheat? No (although there was one car who did, how sad). But did I see a lot of people in their quick moving vehicles fly by me in the Nexus lane? YES!!!!

I found out from the Nexus site -- www.getnexus.com -- that a Nexus permit (once applied for, approved upon and granted) is only $50 USD and it lasts for 5 years. Now tell me, is that a good deal or what? No more waiting, no more watching for the squirrels. Faster entry and exit to Canada...the land of Tim Horton donuts, McPizza, maple syrup products, hockey, curling, seasonal Starbucks Maple Macchiatos, one single freeway and two angry men (look closely at the flag, trust me):



Roadtrip completion: a final stop at the store to buy groceries for the week. Tomorrow--the sending of my completed Nexus application.

Seattle is H-O-T!!!

I just came back to the office from a stroll to the Starbucks (needed an iced half-soy, half-milk venti chai...) with Shawn and MAN is it H-O-T!! I'd say it is probably 92 degrees out right now. Too hot for Seattle! I know, I shouldn't whine too much since in some parts of the US right now there are blackouts and people dying from the lack of electricity to run their air-conditioners... but you have to admit, it is still pretty hot for Seattle. We have a high humidity factor up here in the great northwest...so it leads to H-O-T!!

Why am I still in the office on such a great Friday? If I went home now my house is scorching hot, Chris is working late anyway so I figured I could get some random work done, earn a little overtime and stay cool in the nice air-conditioned building that is my place of work.

I haven't blogged in a while, what is new. I'll be playing in a Dominoes Tournament tomorrow.... we may end up staying in the Seattle area once Chris is done with his residency...my friend Heather is going to be up in Seattle in August so we can hang out and catch up...Joe spent the last few days in Las Vegas...and I think tonight is a steak night. Rib eye, please!

Ok, back to my random work tasks. Only a couple more weeks and I'll be heading off to Yellowstone for vacation. Yee-haw!

Where the Hell is Matt?

This is my new favorite dancing fool on the internet. Where the Hell is Matt? I so have to take dancing lessons from him. And he is correct, the Totem Lake Mall in Kirkland may in fact be the gateway to hell.

Why am I at work today??? Oh, for the ice cream...

Today is a ghost-town at work. A lot of people who hadn't already taken this entire week off as vacation decided to take today and probably Monday off. I love holidays and since we Americans only have one official US Federal holiday during the peak-time of Summer -- the 4th of July -- I guess a lot of vacation time is scheduled around the 4th.

I'm one of the few who came into the office. Granted I'm wearing walking shorts, a tank top and a hawaiian shirt, but still I'm here gosh darn it! Shawn and I have agreed that if we are still here around 2pm today that we'll need to go for an ice cream run. So is it a Cookies n' Cream day? Chocolate-chip cookie dough? Maybe just good old fashioned Rocky Road...

Ok, must get mind out of the ice cream mentality for now. I am studying for the MOS (Microsoft Office Specialist) 2003 Certification. Last year I successfully took and passed Outlook and PowerPoint (I know, such a challenge.....) and this year I will be taking Word and Excel. Once that is done I guess I could be an over-achiever and take the Access exam as well. Might as well since who knows when Office 2007 will be out, right?

More follow-up questions from the pork chop recipe. No you don't need to flip the pork chops during cooking. The chops that are cut 1/2" to 3/4" work best. You may cook them longer, it depends on your doneness liking and also crispiness factor. How do I dress the chops? Oy, does it matter? Apparently. :) So, once the chops are done I personally like gravy on mine and then I have the plum sauce on the side, so yes--gravy and plum sauce. It isn't that much different than having pork chops with applesauce, right?

This year for the 4th is the same as usual for me. My Dad will be cooking a lot of food and it will be followed up with fireworks. I hope you all have grand plans!

Catching you up...

Last week I decided to treat myself to a new toy. After work I went home, picked up Chris and we drove to Northgate Mall to look at cell phones. Of course, I didn't have any particular phone in mind except that it had to do or contain the following options:

1. Must be smaller than my existing cell phone (Sony Ericsson z500A)
2. Must be able to ring and vibrate at the same time and also "vibrate when silent"
3. Must not contain excessive psuedo-PDA capabilities (i.e. I don't want to walk around checking emails ala a Blackberry user)

I was initially only looking at other Sony Ericsson phones since I have had good experiences with their products in the past. I ultimately decided to purchase a Motorola SLVR L7. It met all of the requirements listed above and also passed the all too crucial "purse test". Ladies you know what I'm talking about. You have your cute little purse yet you still insist on trying to cram everything into it--wallet, lip balm, lip stick, pen, breath mints, cell phone, gum, etc. Well like I said, passed the purse test by a mile. Little did I care at the time that the SLVR plays iTunes--I have an iPod nano, that is small enough. I found out yesterday at work (I needed a pick me up before a meeting) that my phone plays iTunes without headphones--so my phone has turned into this mini-stereo. It is superb. I love it. Walking down the hallway with Thriller playing is a great eye-opener for some of my co-workers.

What else is going on. We had a nice Father's Day weekend--we split it up between Yakima and Redmond. Looking forward to our upcoming Yellowstone trip in August. I may be taking a trip to the Bay Area in July to visit Heather and go to a wedding. We'll see!

Work is fun as ever. I feel that all I ever do is go to meeting after meeting after meeting though. I don't know if other people attend as many meetings as I do. From what I understand and hear from my other friends, the answer is definitely NO. They don't understand why I go to so many meetings. Meetings make the world go round?

The ice is melting.

Today was the last official day to curl at the club. There was a volunteer bonspiel today (for those who have been volunteers at the club through-out the season), so it was small and intimate. I ended up curling with Sahara, Bob and Ian. It was a lot of fun as I've curled with Sahara before. I fell pretty hard on my knee, but I'll survive. I ended up making the take-out shot just the same though, so it was a temporary relief to my bruise.

We ended it with a tasty dinner and some Texas-style dominos, aka "42".

What else has been happening...so only one week left until vacation! This time next week I'll be far far away from work, which will be a good thing. I've been working a LOT. So many changes and so many new applications, I've been at work consistently for 10-11 hours a day for the past several weeks. Too much, darling--too much!

The weather around here has been spectacular but in typical Seattle fashion--it looks nice on the outside but it is still relatively chilly. It's 745pm right now and the sun is out :) -- yay!

Tomorrow....is Sunday. I want to sleep in and relax. Good times.

Long time, no blog!

Ok, for those of you who apparently read this blog (I'm impressed by how many read, but don't leave physical comments--they just tell me in the hallways at work...), here I am again, blogging. Curling season has come to an end sadly. Our little team consisting of myself, Chris and Joe--we did pretty well. We finished first during the skills challenge by over 20 points (trying to make individual shots and earning points, kind of like a skins version of curling) so that is pretty impressive. But now that Curling is over for the most part--I have my Sundays back! What will I do, hopefully something that will get me out of the house, right?

Work has been keeping me extremely busy. So much so that I have been staying later and later and later each day. Good because I am getting a lot of stuff done, but bad since I come home and my mind is racing and all I seem to think about is what I'll be doing the next day at work. I'm working on this massive taxonomy project conversion thing--well, in short I am trying to decipher uncommented code and it is way fun yet also tedious. Luckily we have a temporary employee helping to cover some of the tasks that I normally do, but I often feel that I am still doing all parts of my job even with the temp because she needs a lot of guidance.

This coming weekend is Easter. My family and I will be celebrating Ching Ming, basically going to the cemetaries where the relatives are buried--eating, cleaning grave sites, leaving flowers and spending time with each other.

Ok..something humorous, something funny. Uh, perhaps not tonight as my mind is racing about work still. Squirrel, please!

Comcast - the necessary evil

Well first....here is a funny picture of me (hahaha).

- Friday, Chris went down to Comcast and got a brand new DVR enabled cable box. It still even has the plastic over the time-display. DVR works Friday night.
- Saturday morning, getting ready to watch the Opening Ceremonies from the Olympics and there is no DVR subscription according to my fine Comcast menu. I call Comcast twice since the signal they sent out the first time didn't work. 1.5 hours later, DVR is now working once again.
- Sunday morning, turn on tv to watch DVR programming and yet again no DVR subscription according to the fine Comcast menu. Chris calls Comcast to resend the signal, and now the cable box looks dead.

Mind you, we only got DVR for the Olympics.... and the killer part is, the people on the phone have been really nice, so it's hard for me to complain about Comcast, but now we have no tv at all thanks to this new and improved cable box.

I think Chris is going to drive back to the Comcast office now and get swap out the boxes. Woot. For the periods of time that I did get to experience DVR recordings, it is great. I love the super-fast FF features, I like how I can tune out Bob Costas and commericals at my will. But I can't stand that Comcast doesn't seem to get the issue at hand or realize what is going on since it seems apparent that when they reset the signal every 24 hours we have no DVR subscription.

Not sure where to begin!

So much has happened since I last blogged...

I participated in my first Curling Bonspiel

The Seattle Seahawks have won the NFC Championship and are heading to the SuperBowl (amazing!)

I had to have an emergency root canal since I couldn't eat, sleep or drink

I found out my friend Andrew will be coming up to Seattle soon (yay!)

And today is the first day of my vacation.

The bonspiel...I ended up on a team with my friend Joe and some other curlers who have had more years of curling under their belt. Overall we finished 1-3, but I had a lot of fun nonetheless. Chris was on a different team since he could participate on the first day of the bonspiel. :(

I can't get over that the Seahawks are going to the SuperBowl. My friend Annelise--her dad looks SO much like Mike Holmgren. The local paper (Seattle Times) was doing a fun thing where people could send in their look-alike photos of Mike Holmgren (Seahawk's Head Coach). Annelise told me that I was the 3rd or 4th person to email her asking her to submit a picture of her dad. Too funny, huh?

And my tooth...stupid teeth. Maybe my dad was right and when I was 13 I should have had all of my teeth pulled. I have sensitive teeth already so I thought that my teeth were just hurting...and then all of a sudden, I couldn't eat or sleep or for that matter--talk! I had to have an emergency root canal. It is only half-way done, I have to go back again (post-vacation) and then I get to have a crown. Yay!!!!!!!!

What else, oh vacation....Chris and I are heading down to the Oregon Coast...again, I know. But it is great FUN and it is nice and QUIET.

And Happy Chinese New Year, go out and eat noodles and meats.

Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!

So it's Christmas, almost... ok, so it's Christmas Eve. I'm listening to Charlie Brown tunes and having a good time lounging in my pajamas. Our house smells of baked goods (lemon squares, yummy), porridge and toast. Not the usual smells on any given day, but nonetheless I am getting excited for the upcoming holiday-day.

I say holiday-day since yesterday was Christmas Eve-Eve as some call it. I heard it at work on the day before Christmas Eve-Eve (a.k.a. December 22nd for those you not following this weird linguistic phrase), I heard it on the news, I heard it on the radio. Crazy. I can't help but feel all warm and fuzzy by the whole week, but there are those out there who feel that saying Christmas is offensive. As those of you who know me know that it takes quite a bit to offend me, I just wonder how in the world then has the English language accepted the usage of Christmas Eve-Eve and so forth. Perhaps this is much too much of an intellectual thought for today as I am now realizing that my brain is mush. What a great use my Linguistics degree is, eh?

Tonight we are heading over to Redmond to spend a quality Christmas Eve with my immediate family. On Christmas Day itself we are going to spend time in Renton and Fall City with more of my extended family. Good times. More lemon squares. Hhhhhmmmmm.

And now, the Top Two things so far this holiday season that confuse me....

1) The Coca-Cola TV advertisement with the polar bears and the penguins.
Yes that's right--I don't get this commercial. First of all, everyone knows (as this was also acknolwedged by a recent IM conversation I had with my friend Andrew, hi Andrew!) that polar bears live in the North Pole. Penguins live in the South Pole. What gives, Coca-cola?? Secondly, I think that if a polar bear ever saw a penguin he (or she, forgive me) would more than likely EAT the penguin. Would the thought of sharing a carbonated beverage excite anyone? Hhmmm, likely not. In fact, it doesn't exactly make me want to have a Coke product either. Andrew said the commercial should show the polar bears with suitcases--and the suitcases could have stickers on them saying "Migrating Vegans".

2) The statement of "avoiding butter" or anything else bad for you during the holidays.
Ok I know that there is this epidemic of people all around the globe getting fatter and unhealthier and yadda yadda yadda. I am one of those millions of people alongside like 80% of my co-workers (IT with laptops, go figure). But not have tasty food during the holidays? That's like, like, like... not having milk with cookies, like peanut butter without jelly, like believing that polar bears and penguins actually drink Coke! Ridiculous. I was watching our local ABC affiliate (KOMO-TV in Seattle) for some reason (I prefer NBC) and there was an actual news story about "avoiding butter" and being healthier during the holidays. Cook your vegetables in a marinade of vinegar and lemon juice, no one will notice the difference!! Uh...right. No one will notice that their vegetables have no cream sauce or butter or salt. If you must have that slice of pie, don't eat the fatty crust, only eat the filling--and only if the filling is fruit, avoid the cream pies and no ice cream. Instead, serve angel food cake as it is fat-free.... Uh...again, what? NOT EAT PIE?? That is so unAmerican it makes me want to have a slice of pie out of spite and to prove pie is not a sometimes food.

Merry Christmas and all that to you all. Go have some pie. Two scoops of vanilla? :)

My Weekend = Curling...at least this weekend...

I know I haven't blogged in a while. My apologies. A lot has been going on at work, nothing exciting to the point that I should blog about it or not, just work stuff. Thanksgiving was a good time had by all. My friend Heather spent her Thanksgiving with me, so she got to see all of my family. She said that she had a good time, so that is awesome. Chris had to work all Thanksgiving--and right after he worked 2 on-call shifts in a row, he got sick. :(

So we're past Thanksgiving. Seattle has received snow more than once, although living in the Seattle metro area proves massively disappointing if you actually WANT the snow to stick around. Growing up in a suburb of Seattle--you always always always have the snow stick around, but in Seattle itself---nope. :( Oh well. It has been freaking freezin' around though.

Yesterday, Chris, myself and our friend Joe--we all drove up to Vancouver, BC to buy Curling supplies. I ended up with some shoes as did Chris--and we all got brooms. Pretty swell. Why all the Curling supplies? Joe talked us into joining the Granite Curling Club (in Seattle) and now we all curl together on Sunday afternoons. It is a lot of fun and I think I am getting better.... at least that is what people tell me. :) And then of course today--we curled. The ice was getting smooth (the ice in curling is generally pebbled) and a lot of people were slipping and falling.

Anyway, hopefully I won't become a total curling fanatic and only blog about curling... :)

Vacation....is over...let the wine festival begin?

Vacation is over, for now. I realize that Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, so 4-day weekend for me--cha-ching! And let's face it--the entire month of December is shot from a "stay focused" perspective. Give me a break--people are leaving work early or taking extended time-off, etc. Why work at all between Thanksgiving and New Year's? Ok, I digress... I shouldn't sound so drastic or over-arching of my presumption of people's work activities during the holiday season. :)

Just the same, you are probably wondering how my vacation was. The house itself was very nice--although at times you wish it was larger than it really was. We were not even 20 yards away from the edge of the cliff--which went straight down to the Pacific Ocean. Often you could feel the house shaking because of the waves. I was on vacation with Chris and a greater majority of his immediate family (his parents, his sister, his grandmother, and his aunt and uncle, 8 of us total). We lucked out and had relatively good weather for a majority of our stay. We were able to go out crabbing and salmon fishing--caught more seafood than you probably ever want to eat. We have about 45 lbs of Chinook salmon in our freezer right now. Salmon recipes, anyone? I am not as rested as I would like to be post-vacation, but still very greatful that I had an opportunity to stay in such a nice house and have a week away from the office.

You also probably want to know what this wine festival thing is... I am a member of the Husky Band Foundation--which raises monies to support the on-going operational costs of the University of Washington Husky Marching Band (http://www.huskymarchingband.com). A new fund-raising event is called Toast of the Northwest and I need to start talking to all of my friends about this event, hence this blog and the URLs. Good times. I suggest that if you are interested in wine at all that you look into this event. Here's the URL again http://www.toastnw.com.

So this weekend..it is the Apple Cup (Huskies vs. Cougars) and also the Civil War (Beavers vs. Ducks)...but the new Harry Potter movie is coming out too! Egads... too many choices!

The new fridge is here!!!!

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have a refrigerator again. Let me say that I am very appreciative of appliances, especially ones that work. The delivery itself took a lot longer than I thought it would, almost an hour, but Lee (the name of the delivery man) was training 2 new delivery guys, so he was explaining everything to them about how to handle the equipment and how to manuever and communicate with each other.

In a sense I am glad that the delivery took so long because once the removed the old fridge--let me tell you, the floor directly underneath where a refrigerator stands is NASTY!!! I did a pretty good job of cleaning the floor I thought, then they brought in the new fridge. I then had to spend about another hour or two wiping things down, drying off items that were previously living in coolers and ice and placing them in the new fridge.

I then had to go to the grocery store and buy things like bread and eggs and vegetables. All in all, it is very pleasant to shop for groceries during the lunch hour. There are better selections of meats and produce during this time, I guess I have that to look forward to someday when I no longer work, huh? Hahaha.

I just finished eating a steak, and it was so good. Yum yum.

It's Band Day, but...

... I'm not at the game. It is Idaho and I don't know if the Huskies will be victorious today. Nonetheless, here is my new favorite commercial:
http://www.petsmart.com/pressroom/smart/downloads/perfectToy.mov

I must also say that the Washington State Department of Licensing has become very efficient with renewals. I went there yesterday expecting to wait over 15 minutes (if not more) to renew my driver's license, but from the moment I took a number to leaving the building took no more than 5 minutes. Impressive. Of course, you don't walk out with your actual license--everything is computerized so you walk out with a "temporary" license and your new license gets mailed to you. Good times.

It feels like a lazy day. We'll see what happens.

Shop and purge..and thensome.

So I went shopping the other day--I had to get some mule-type walking shoes. I went for a walk around Greenlake (well, we kind of did a partial loop and then backtracked) the other night with my friends Joe and Heather and I wore the wrong shoes. Ouch--blisters! I felt like such a wuss since if I had just worn any other pair of shoes I owned I would have been fine. All in all, a good excuse to go to the mall and buy new shoes. I originally went to the mall to go to Nordstrom's big sale. But of course, I parked by The Bon (aka Macy's for those of you who are like WTF is The Bon) and walked in and I was caught within the sales at The Bon. I ended up getting some new pants, a couple new shirts and a new dress for a friend's wedding (can't be caught wearing something too dated, right?). I never did make it to Nordstrom's.

So while I was browsing through The Bon, there was this totally irate Vietnamese woman screaming and yelling at the sales associates. You could hear her throughout the entire petite department. Nonetheless, it was almost humourous, but not for the sales associates I'm sure. After she blew up, I decided it may be time to mosey out of the department. My cousin works the Lancome counter, so I visited her for a bit.

So where am I going with this--so I came home and realized that it was time to purge. That is what I just got done doing. One bag of clothes and another full of shoes (yes, a girl is getting rid of shoes, can you believe it?) are ready to be dropped off at the local clothing bin. Lucky for me there is one in the parking lot of my local Safeway (that is a grocery store, again, for those of you whom I know have no clue what a Safeway is), so it is quite close by and handy.

I am still wondering what to do about my job. I've been told that there is a possibility of me moving up within my department. I don't know if I want to do that...and then my friend Joe is telling me there is this super opportunity where he works--and I thought about it so much last night I couldn't fall asleep! I've been sending out my resume to other places as well (www.monster.com is a wonderous thing...), so we'll see.

I saw The Island -- it was alright, but I still think Batman Begins was a better film. Heather keeps saying she wants to see the new Willy Wonka movie, but she hasn't called yet...

What a 4th of July.

First of all, let me say that once I run out of ginger altoids, I think I may have to go home. My stomach is really upset and I didn't sleep well at all last night. The power of all of the food I ate over the weekend I think is catching up with me. :( Nonetheless it was a good weekend!!!

Saturday and most of Sunday was spent with Chris's family--they came to town briefly to celebrate Chris's birthday. What I don't get is--is there a certain point in a guy's life where people only buy him one thing? Like with my Dad, he's a DVD guy. He doesn't wear ties, he actually could care less about clothing styles in general. He has every tool in the book and thensome. He isn't the kind of Dad that you get a gift certificate for, like not even to Blockbuster kind of deal. So every holiday occasion in which Dad should get a gift, I get him a DVD. Chris is becoming a shirt guy. I got him some new shirts mainly because I do all the laundry and he needed more shirts. But his entire family--they all get him shirts as well. We have boxes of new shirts waiting to be laundered by yours truly. No books, no money, but shirts. I don't get it.

I also don't understand the concept that "girls are harder to shop for than guys". If you ask a guy, they will say "oh, girls are so hard to shop for", and I think we are?? I would totally content with time at a spa or a new outfit or a nice dinner out, etc. GUYS are hard to shop for. I go through this dilemma every time I have to get a guy a gift. My brother--he is impossible. He is too picky. Chris--he has EVERYTHING already and if he doesn't, he goes online and buys it for himself. My Dad--he also have everything, but he could care less about material goods (as mentioned before). My friend Joe--ok, well he is a bit easier in the sense that he, and also my friend Andrew--they are really into board games and playing games in general. So as long as I find a good game that either of them do not currently own, I am safe.

I digress. This post is about my weekend. So after Chris's family left, we relaxed and then the 4th was a day of eating a lot and lighting off fireworks. The 4th started off kind of bumpy in the sense that there was some confusion and also lack of time to do something like going out to golf, but my friends and I ended up walking around an outdoor mall for a while and then ventured to my parents place to eat, eat, eat, and eat. Oh and fireworks too.

Half a tin of ginger altoids to go and my stomach is still feeling semi-nasty. What a day. :)

New earrings!

So you may be wondering how the weekend in Yakima was. It was alright. Hot, hot, hot and more hot. The Sunshine & Wine event (www.sunshineandwine.com) that we went to was a lot of fun this year. It was way better organized and the volunteers that were here this year were WAY better than last year's--by far. I didn't have to stay until 9pm busing tables and stacking chairs.

We had to show up early and set up the sound system (Chris's family owns their own small business that specializes in sound and communications stuff-- www.sousley.com). But even that wasn't so bad. I kind of miss getting to do the behind the scenes stuff (ah, days of Husky Band, good times) for large events, so it is neat to see what happens and how and how long it takes, etc.

So the event itself consists of all of the wine and food you can eat, then a live auction at the end. During the day I got to sample a lot of wine and food, mainly wine. I admit there were some I liked a lot there, but I'm not a huge wine-person yet. During the festivities, there was a raffle available for some diamond earrings. A local jeweler (Dunbar Jeweler in Yakima, WA) donated a pair of diamond earrings supposidly worth $1700. The event then sold 100 raffle tickets at $20 a piece. They managed to sell all 100 of the tickets. When the time came to draw a winner, Chris's number got called, so I got some earrings. Pretty swell, eh?

Sunday was just going around Yakima finding fresh produce, having lunch, etc. Then we drove back to Seattle..with 4 cases of cherries. Yum!

I don't know if I have anything else to share...I watched Extreme Home Make-Over last night and I have to admit that was almost a tear-jerker for me. I'm getting better about not crying when sappy stuff comes on tv or movies, etc, but still, you can't help but be emotional about a little girl who is in remission from cancer--she's 8 years old and all she wants to do is help other kids who have cancer. It was touching.

On a totally different note--what is up with Tom Cruise freaking at Matt Lauer? And what is up with me even mentioning Tom Cruise in my blog? Oy.

Here we go!

Joe assures me that the post here will show up in the new site (which you are reading). I believe him, I am just not believing in my technical prowess so to speak at this moment.

I've had an interesting day so far.... I've been running around like mad getting quote permissions for my marketing team. That has been definite good times. I've had interesting meetings with individuals that I shall not name, but nonetheless..interesting.

Last night was a lot of fun. Heather and Joe came over for some BBQ meats. Quite literally. Chris made lamb and pork ribs, and some rib steaks that I got from the grocery store. It was a high quality meal. Salad and drinks of course were included. We then played some 3-person pinochle (Heather left early and she doesn't particularly care for pinochle), which was an interesting game to say the least. I think there is just something about 4-player pinochle. Having a partner to table-talk with, getting to pass cards. I wish Andrew would move up here so that we could play 4-player pinochle all the time.

The sunshine we had yesterday has evolved into a nasty somewhat rainy-drizzly mess. It is definitely not sunny, but I don't think it is really cold out. That is the one bad thing about having an office without a window--is that I really have no clue what's going on outside.

We celebrated some team birthdays today. The surprise with the cake and fun stories was held in an conference room in our building with a LOT of windows that overlook the Aurora underpass. Let me tell you, you thought that porn-filled blog sites were bad (maybe you do and maybe you don't, whatever), the things I saw people doing under the underpass.....woah doggies. There were at least 3 guys smoking something out of a pipe, I wonder what... hhmm.. and there were a lot of other people .. shall I say "communing". I'll leave that all up to your imagination.

Is it time to go home yet?

Neat. Right-o.

So my friend Joe decided to buy a domain name for himself and he has kindly offered to host my blog on his domain. How exciting is that? I just got back from having a nice lunch outside. Although if I have to eat fish and chips again (Chris and I went out and had it yesterday), I will probably get sick. At least today I had some chowder, so it was something different, but not by much.

It is too nice to stay inside. For those of you who aren't in Seattle, it is a scorcher (on Seattle standards) right now. On nice days there should be a policy about getting to work outside. Wireless everywhere! Workers unite! I also think that places that sell ice cream should not be allowed to charge more than $1.00 per cone and/or novelty item. Ice cream for all! Let the masses (who can stomach lactose) unite! I am not looking forward to going home to a hot hot hot hot (did I mention, hot?) house tonight after work though. I think we are already planning on barbequing outside. I hope I get to see some neighborhood cats again, that would make my day. That and some ice cream and getting to work outside.

An exciting Saturday

Hello again. I had an exciting Saturday. It started with me sleeping in and then getting up to do massive amounts of laundry. I was influenced by watching hours of Food Network to make something, so I made some banana bread ala Paula Deen's recipe. I think my neighbors were slightly bothered since I had the patio door and the windows open, so the smell of fresh banana bread were all over the place. Oh well.

I just returned home from spending a quality evening with my friends Joe and Heather. Joe and I first went to the EMP's (Experience Music Project) special event tonight, I guess they are celebrating being open for 5 years. We also got to visit the Science Fiction Museum. I have to admit that I was much more impressed with the Sci-Fi exhibits than I thought I would be, so maybe I'm a Sci-Fi fan afterall. We then met up with Heather and had some tasty treats at the 13 Coins.

I am quickly fading here due to food-induced coma but also since it is almost 130am. I think the crab and a couple more fish died today, but I'm not sure right now since the fish tank is in sleep mode (light is off). Here's to Sunday and the hopes that it won't go by too quickly... I like my weekends!

New fishy dudes and other things..

Today we received some new fishy dudes. Some chromis (little blue harmless yet somewhat fragile fishes), a starfish, some sort of crab, snails, and some peppermint looking shrimp that are suppost to help alleviate the problems we have in the fish tank. (They are suppost to eat the anenomes)

I digress. So far, two of the chromis have died--they are so tiny that they get stuck to the filter in the tank, and by the time they are unstuck, they are confused, run into things, and eventually peril. And this has all been 5pm tonight (the time of this entry is approximately 10pm). At least we had an enjoyable meal. We had some Pagliacci pizza, some salad, and I heard that there is some coconut gelato in the freezer somewhere...yum!

Tomorrow I am planning on relaxing, maybe doing some chores, and then hanging out with my friends, Joe and Heather. Sunday, well, that is just another day altogether now, isn't it?

I can hear the rain outside--so the rain that Jeff Renner and the rest of the King5 weather crew predicted is finally showing up. Today was a beautiful day for the most part. Like I would know since most of my day was spent in my office (no window, btw) getting ready to launch a new page into my company's intranet. Unfortunately, one of the major applications that this new page works off of has been down and slightly non-functioning all week, so after propping this page into production for approximately 2 minutes, we were forced to take it back offline because of the broken application. GOOD TIMES.

I've been playing Text Twist off of Yahoo! games. I should not start playing word games as I can't quite figure out how to stop playing them.

Traveling to San Jose!

So I'm traveling to San Jose today. It is pretty much a rubber band trip. I fly out this afternoon, get to San Jose, check into the hotel, work, sleep, check out of the hotel, go to an all-day conference, then leave the conference early to fly back to Seattle. GOOD TIMES. I am hoping that I will be able to watch the Amazing Race tonight, but we'll see. I am packing so light, it is kind of scaring me. Like what if I am packing "too lightly" and I'll really need something I am leaving behind (extra socks, extra toiletries, etc.)???