Yakima, Weather, and Nothing

Even though there's not a lot going on, I suppose I need to write something. I was recently told that someone "lives" for reading my blogs. So, to my many fans...

I'm sorry to say that there's not a lot going on right now. I spent a couple of days in Yakima the end of January for work. Yakima is about a 2.25 hour drive from Seattle, but because of the snow in the mountains, we took a flight that took about 35 minutes. In the summer and fall Yakima apparently has things to do. There are lots of wineries and hundreds of fruit stands/orchards. But, in winter, Yakima is very boring. I didn't even take any pictures.

I'm sure you've heard about the copious amount of snow in the Northwest the past couple of weeks. The mountains close to us have received lots and lots of snow. And in Puget Sound there were a couple of days with some heavyish snowfall (by heavy I mean it snowed enough that snow was on the ground for a few hours). One day my vanpool chose to wait two hours to go to work to wait for the roads to get better. But the snow usually turns to rain by the afternoon and it all melts off in the afternoon.

That's about it for me. I'm actually starting to get really busy at work. Which makes the work day go a lot faster and makes me feel very productive. I've got several trips scheduled for March. I get to go back to the very exciting Yakima a couple of times. One trip is overnight, and one trip is the type where I fly there in the morning and fly home at night. And I will be spending four whole days in Spokane again as well. (In the meantime, my sister's business trips in the next few months include San Antonio and the Dominican Republic. Spokane and Yakima is just as exciting. Right?)

International District and Pioneer Square

On MLK day I had a holiday and Robb managed to switch his schedule around so that he could take the day off too. The weather was forecasted to be cold, but clear, so we decided it was time to head back to Seattle to explore some more neighborhoods. We decided to take the bus so that we could save money on parking and just avoid the stress of driving around downtown Seattle. We started out in the International District. This is Seattle's version of Chinatown. However, it's referred to as the International District because several different Asian countries, not just China, are represented in this section of Seattle. We walked around a little and found a city garden that could potentially be very pretty in the summer, but of the course the winter weather didn't show its best side. However, there was a beautiful view of the city, down to Puget Sound, from the top of the garden. We then headed to Uwajimaya Village. This is actually a VERY large Asian grocery store/shopping center, complete with a food court and Asian bookstore. We walked around for quite a bit to view the strange vegetables, fruits, and seafood among the more traditional grocery store items. After the grocery store we decided on a restaurant for lunch, Hing Loon. Robb saw the menu for this Chinese restaurant in the window, along with several local awards. We ordered 1) Udon Noodles with Beef and Black Pepper and 2) Singapore Noodles. Both dishes were incredible. With free hot tea and the best fortune cookie I've ever had, our total bill was less than $20.00. Delicious deal.

After the International District, we walked down the hill to Pioneer Square. This is the oldest part of Seattle and we decided to visit Smith Tower first. Smith Tower, when built in the early 1900s was one of the world's first skyscrapers, at 42 stories high. I'd read that the view from this building is better, and a lot cheaper, than the Space Needle view. So we decided to brave the old-fashioned cage elevator, still manually operated, and go to the 35th floor observation deck. Getting out of the elevator you step into the Chinese Room. The wood and porcelain ceiling, and other decorations, were given to L.C. Smith in the first part of the last century by the Empress of China. The views were magnificent. The pictures can speak for themselves. We saw the Puget Sound with the Olympics as a background, the Space Needle, and our football and baseball stadium.

Our next stop in the Pioneer Square was the Underground Tour. This 90 minute tour takes you "underground" to see old Seattle. In 1889 a fire burned Seattle to the ground. The city planners decided to take that opportunity to rebuild Seattle, and decided to rebuild one level up. What does this mean? Well you'll have to take the tour to get all the history on it, but basically the ground floor for most buildings became the basement. And the old streets and sidewalks were preserved underneath the current streets. Way back when they first created this underground, a lot of people still went about their daily business by using the original front doors of the buildings. Now that they were underground though, they couldn't really see in the tunnels, hence sidewalk sky lights. Confusing? Yes. Good tour that explains it better than me? Absolutely. So the pictures show the skylights as well as an old bank vault that we walked through. At any rate, the tour was really interesting and we learned a lot about Seattle history.

Our final destination of our day-long excursion was to check out some local shops in Pioneer Square. Magic Mouse Toys was one of the most interesting and fun toy stores I've ever been in (Robb bought a new yoyo string). Cow Chip Cookies had some decent-tasting chocolate chip cookies (pretty yummy, but some flavoring that I wasn't crazy about). And Elliot Bay Bookstore is always a delight (we got a couple of used books about Seattle). The picture of the bookstore doesn't even begin to do the store justice. Imagine room after room of books, looking just like this picture. This place is huge.

We caught the last bus home from Seattle at 6:32. We accidentally got on the wrong bus though, so yes, it took us home, but yes it took us 1.5 hours and we were subjected to the rude and thug-like bus patrons. Now we know. Avoid Route 174 at all costs! But all-in-all, besides the bus ride home, our day was beautiful and perfect. Good exploring day.

Spokane in January

Spokane, WA is a very cold place in the winter (and I’ve been told, very hot in the summer). Thursday morning my boss (D) and I flew to Spokane (about a 50 minute flight) for meetings. We left Seattle and I would say the temperature was in the upper 30s and no snow in sight. Well flying over the rest of the state showed that weather conditions were not similar to my home. Snow covered the ground all the way from Mt. Rainier to Spokane. While it wasn’t snowing while we were there, it was cold enough in Spokane that snow stays on the ground once it lands. It never got above freezing Thursday or Friday. Our meeting Thursday was fairly short, so D and I checked into our hotel early and relaxed in our rooms for a couple of hours. (And I have to say, I had been looking forward to watching cable again. I was disappointed. Nothing good was on. I guess there’s a reason that we decided it wasn’t worth ordering cable in WA!) Then in the late afternoon D and I went on a walk so he could show me downtown Spokane.

The city is much prettier than I thought it would be. The Spokane River goes through the city and our hotel sat right on the river. You can tell that in the summer it would be nice to have a drink in the outdoor seating area of the hotel. We walked along the river and crossed one of many bridges to go into downtown Spokane. It’s a sleepy-feeling city compared to the hustle and bustle of Seattle. D told me that I had to see the Davenport Hotel. He described it as a luxurious, old hotel that housed many a foreign dignitary in its day. We got to the Davenport and walked into the lobby and the place took my breath away. I have NEVER seen a hotel so elaborately decorated before. This place looked like one of the many castles I toured in Europe. But this was no castle; it was a hotel that people pay to stay at now. The pictures I’ve posted below really don’t do it justice, the detail of the trim was incredible. And you walked into a room and just felt glowing gold everywhere. We walked around the public areas and looked at historic pictures of when they first opened. After leaving the Davenport, we then walked by a building that is named after Bing Crosby. Apparently he went to college in Spokane (Gonzaga University, a Catholic college) and the city is quite proud of their claim to fame. We also saw an impressive monument to runners. Spokane is home to the annual Bloomsday Run. This 12 kilometer run has boasted more than 60,000 participants (in a single year) in years past. I was told that it was one of the largest races in the United States. So we came across a series of statues in mid run, obviously racing. That was pretty cool.

That evening D was tired so I went to dinner by myself. When researching Spokane earlier in the week I had read something about a restaurant called The Mustard Seed, and we happened to pass it earlier that day so I knew where it was. So I took the rental car (which I could drive, even though I’m not 25 yet, because I’m a state employee…ooh the perks of being a state employee!) and went to dinner alone. It was a nice restaurant that had modern Asian fusion food. I had the Beef and Mushroom. It had several awards posted in its doorways, claiming that Spokane had voted it as best Asian food in several different years and publications. It was very good, but nothing special. Nevertheless, I’m always excited to try local restaurants.

Friday was filled with meetings and we left Spokane in the afternoon, just as cold as when we arrived the previous morning. I’m very glad to have seen a different part of the state and to be so pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the city.

Driver Licenses

Wow, to get a drivers license in Washington is quite the hassle. Even though you're supposed to get a license within 30 days of moving, Robb and I have been avoiding it. Mostly because it's expensive: $45 for a first time license in the state! And since we were unemployed, it wasn't really something that we wanted to use our precious little resources for. But, because I'm a state employee, I needed to have a state drivers license and it was time to stop avoiding it.

It took me several days to get to the DOL (it's called the Department of Licensing here, not the DMV). I planned on going during a break at work because there's an office right across the street from my building. It took me several days to get there because one day I forgot my checkbook, one day I forgot my lease for proof of residency, and one day I actually forgot my wallet that had my current proof of identity in it. I finally made it to the DOL with everything (I thought) I needed: my Florida license, my Social Security card, my checkbook, and my rental agreement. When I finally got to the counter, I discovered not only was my FL id and SS card not enough to prove my identity, but also discovered that a lease is not proof of residency. Mmmh'ok. I just pay that much for rent in Washington because I think it's fun; I don't actually live here.

I was provided a list of those items that would count, most of which I do not have. So the next time I went into the DOL, I ended up bringing in my FL id, my SS card, my work ID, proof of auto insurance, and a letter from the state saying I was employed by them. Thankfully these items were accepted and I was given my drivers license. (By the way, I was very shocked when they asked me my weight. In FL they don't do that because weight fluctuates so much. So that's kind of a bummer to have my weight on my ID again.) Luckily, that day it only took me about 15 minutes to get in and out of the DOL. Poor Robb, on the other hand, went to the Federal Way DOL on the same day and was there for two hours!

And in WA they give you temporary licenses at the DOL. Your actual license doesn't come to you in the mail for 5-10 days. (In FL they just print the whole thing up and laminate it while you wait.) Incredibly though, it only took about 3 days to get them in the mail. Our next step in becoming real Washingtonians is changing our registration/license plates from Florida to here. It may take a couple of months, but it will definitely be done soon because they expire in March. Can you believe that I've already been here for 5 months?

My Cubicle and Vanpools

Well another work week down, thousands and thousands to go. This week was somewhat boring. I was supposed to take several day trips for meetings, but they all happened to be postponed, which led to not a lot to do this week, and the stuff I did do was very boring because I just sat in my cubicle all week. But next week my boss and I fly to Spokane on Thursday and come back Friday. Spokane is right on the border of Idaho and Washington, and about a 5 hour drive from Seattle. I'm super excited about flying across the state for business. Seems grown up, no? I'm doing a lot of traveling this month to meet with key players and start the planning process for a new project (that I was specifically hired to work on.) It will be exciting to see so much of the state, even if it is for business.

The only "exciting" thing that has happened this week is that I joined a vanpool. Intercity Transit (public transportation for the Olympia area) provides the van. "A vanpool is a group of 8 to 15 people who commute together in a comfortable passenger van. We [Intercity Transit] own, maintain, manage, insure and license a fleet of 8-, 12- and 15-passenger vans. These vans are assigned to commuter groups and driven by volunteers who share the commute. You must live at least 10 miles from where you work to start a vanpool." So I joined a group (7 people besides myself) that travels from Federal Way to Lacey. I go to a local Park and Ride where the van picks me up. We then make a quick stop in Tacoma to pick up some more people, and am dropped off in front of my office in Lacey. Almost all of the people in the vanpool also work for the government, so our hours and experiences are very similar. The only real negative to the vanpool is that I do have to leave the apartment a little earlier. If I drive myself I leave at 7:15 to get to work by 8:00. To get to the Park and Ride, I need to leave at about 6:55 for a departure from Federal Way at 7:05. And at the end of the day, I get home a few minutes later.

However, it is totally worth the slightly less sleep. First, I don't have to drive. I might eventually go take the class to get certified to drive the van, but the head of the vanpool usually prefers to drive. I would just get certified as a back up. But secondly, and more importantly, I am going to be saving a TON of money. To drive to Lacey every day is very expensive in gas. I was filling up ($30ish) every 3.5 days. The vanpool for the entire month only costs $74. Plus, once I get signed up through the state of Washington, the state will give me a $40 voucher to help pay for the vanpool. They encourage car pooling and taking the bus to relieve traffic congestion and pollution. So ultimately, it will cost me less than $40 every month to commute. Plus, I will save wear and tear on my car, and my car insurance should cost less since I'm not driving to work. Oh and I am helping out the environment too!

So that's about it for me. I see Robb for about an hour before I have to go to sleep most nights. He's a little frustrated with his job right now because they haven't been great about keeping track of his paperwork. (He had to refill out his W-4 and I-9 forms. He hasn't received his discount card yet, even though he should have weeks ago. The union didn't even know he existed, even though Met Market was supposed to let them know about him.)

Oh, and the Union is a whole other story which will be saved for another day. Other future installments will also include the hassle of getting a Washington State drivers license. Stay tuned...

December 30 - Two Year Anniv.

We celebrated our 2 year anniversary this weekend. This second year has brought some pretty big changes: I finished my master's degree, we moved to Washington without knowing a thing about it, and we both got new jobs. I think that this may have been the hardest trial of our marriage. We came to a new place where we didn't know anyone and we couldn't get jobs for a long time. Money was very tight and we questioned a few times if we should have come here. We spent A LOT of time together, day in and day out. And we didn't kill each other. And we hardly ever fought. That's pretty incredible to me! Unfortunately, we got used to enjoying so much time together and now that we're both working (and kind of opposite shifts) we really miss each other. I guess there's worse things than loving to spend time with your husband.

So this weekend we both made sure to have the weekend off. On Saturday we went to Seattle. We started in Fremont and ate lunch at Costas Opa. It's a Greek restaurant that Robb went to before I got to WA and has been wanting me to try. It was a pretty solid Greek restaurant. Robb had gyros, I had lamb souvlaki. We then walked around Fremont for a little bit and visited our favorite independent stores in the area. Then we headed to the Queen Anne neighborhood. This neighborhood has the cutest houses and when you think of Seattle neighborhoods, this is what you picture. So I've been wanting to check out the main street in Queen Anne, which seemed to have a lot of cute shops. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard by the time we got there and the area didn't have as many cute places as I had hoped. Lots of spas/salons though. We did check out the Queen Anne Metropolitan Market. And I have to say Robb's store in Federal Way is much nicer and bigger. And then my shoes (which were made of corduroy) finally soaked through, so we decided to to head back to Federal Way. We ate dinner at our favorite restaurant in Federal Way, La Casa Bella. And as always, our food was superb. We ordered a bottle of Chianti. We started with prawns in a goat cheese sauce. Robb had a rack of lamb which was succulent and I had a seafood pasta which was pretty darn good too. They gave us a free appetizer and dessert again. It's amazing to have such a top notch restaurant in our town.

Today (Sunday, our actual anniversary), I woke up to find Robb gone. Which is pretty incredible. I ALWAYS wake up before Robb and he left the house at 8:30! He came home with Starbucks breakfast and we had breakfast in bed. We had a selection of cheese (from Met Market) for lunch. We're becoming quite the cheese connoisseurs. And then we headed to the movie theater to see Juno (I highly recommend it!) Tonight we're sitting at home and going to watch a movie and drink wine. A low key anniversary, but we are still poor and have work tomorrow. We try to give each other low cost, traditional presents each year. The first year was paper and the second year is cotton. So I got Robb a new blanket for our couch and a cotton smelling candle (b/c the blanket wasn't officially cotton, the good blankets are made of synthetic materials) and Robb got me new hiking socks and made a mixed cd with songs all about cotton!

This statute is in Fremont. People just come out and decorate them for their friends birthdays and special events. It's featured in the opening credits of Say Anything.

Statue of Lenin in Fremont, currently decorated for Christmas.

Driving past the Space Needle, with the Christmas tree on top for the season.

Christmas in the Northwest

Christmas in the Northwest means that we have a fireplace, cold weather, and even a tiny bit of snow on Christmas Day! Unfortunately, because we are both newly employed, we couldn't take time off work and be with my family in Florida for the holiday season. But, other than missing the family a whole bunch, our first Christmas just by ourselves was nice. We had a nice dinner Christmas Eve that included steak, twice-baked potatoes, and fried corn. Christmas Day we had a big brunch with pancakes, bacon, and fried potatoes. For dinner we had shrimp cocktail and brioche. (Brie cheese baked in bread). We watched Christmas movies, opened presents, called family, etc. I love Christmas time and all of my decorations, so now you're subjected to my pictures of our first Christmas in the Northwest.

The apples are from Metropolitan Market. They put sugar stencils on them. The flowers were sent to us by my Grandpa and Kim. They're sitting next to our "whirly-gig" that my parents got for me when we lived in Germany. I love our wreath (we got it at a Christmas Market in Tarpon Springs, FL last year) and our tree topper (on sale after Christmas from Winter Park, FL). I love that we get a fireplace here and we had a roaring fire on Christmas Eve. And it snowed for about an hour on Christmas Day! We had a slightly white Christmas!

First Day of Work

It's official. I am now employed full-time in a career that I have been preparing for and educating myself for, for years. Of course, like most people's first days of work I'll be busy reading policies and procedures, setting up my voicemail, filling out paperwork, etc. in the coming week. But I already got to sit in on a meeting and I have assignments I'll start working on once my email is set up. I'm sure I'll have more insight into my job as time goes on, but now I'm just happy to be working. The people seem nice. The commute is 45 minutes, but there's no stop and go traffic, it's pretty smooth. I have my own cubicle which is pretty large; I need to figure out how to pimp it out. =) We took pictures of my first day of work. I don't know if you did this when you were a kid, but we always took first day of school pictures. So now I have my first day in the real world pictures too.

Musings on Full Time Work

I'm counting down the days until I start my government job on Monday. Unfortunately I wasn't offered the nonprofit job. For my own self-preservation I'm telling myself that it was because I was over-qualified. They were concerned during the interview about this position being too clerical for me, and I actually had more education than even the executive director of the nonprofit. I threatened them with my vast knowledge of the nonprofit world. Right? Right? That's why I didn't get the job? Right? Nah, who knows. But I believe things happen for a reason, so I'm very excited to start my management analyst job on Monday.

It's going to be strange going to work full-time. I've never had a traditional full-time job. I've always been in school and have worked part-time and contract positions. My hours are going to be 8:00-5:00 and there's about a 45-60 minute commute. Robb's hours are about 12:30-9:30, so I won't be seeing him more than an hour or two a day before I have to go to sleep. We've been down that path before. In fact, as a restaurant manager he had much later hours. But because I was in school or had contracts where I would work on my own time, I could hang out with him in the afternoons before he would go to work. Now I won't be able to do that. It should be interesting to see how this works out with both of us working full time. I'll actually be working more than full-time. This past weekend I went to Panera intending to put in my two-weeks notice. Well apparently they really like me there, so my manager offered me a raise to keep on working there one day a week. (And I think it's hard to find people to work the 5:00 am to 1:30 pm shift). I figure that I'll work Saturdays at Panera to make a little extra money for awhile. It's not especially hard work and I actually think it's a little fun.

Robb has completed his training at Metropolitan Market and is now working in our local store. Overall he likes it, although he's a little concerned that he'll get bored. There's a lot less to do than running an entire restaurant. But it's pretty good money to not be stressed! It's a different experience for him because it's hourly rather than salary and he has fairly strict Union rules he has to follow. He is not allowed to work more than 8 hours a day; but coming from restaurants he was used to 10-14 hour days at times. He's always been big on getting projects done, but because of his time restrictions, he doesn't have all the time to implement new cleaning or organization projects for the rest of the staff. He is the Assistant Bistro Manager so he is in charge of the deli (meats, cheeses, olive bar), hot food (sandwiches, soups, pasta, chicken dinners), and a section of pre-packaged deli foods (desserts, quiches, more cheeses, etc.) I've mentioned before how unbelievable fancy this store is and I've posted pictures below. While their deli has fried chicken, mind you that's free-range chicken. They sell slices of butternut squash lasagna. They saute personalized pasta dishes. They have prime rib sandwiches. They have one of the finest gourmet cheese selections around. A moderately priced cheese there is $20.00 a pound. Selections include: gouda, goat cheese, bleu cheese, gorgonzola, brie, etc.

So that's about it. The next few days for me will be filled with getting those last-minute things done before work. I need a haircut. I should probably send out Christmas cards or something, I need to pull out my professional clothes and take the iron to them. Wow, not wearing sweats during the day, that will be a change of pace.

Federal Way is Safe From the Elements

No weather worries in Federal Way. The Northwest has been in the national news the past couple of days due to very bad weather: snow, hurricane-force winds, rain, flooding, etc. While we had a minuscule amount of snow that melted as it touched the ground, followed by a steady flow of rain, it wasn't really bad in our neck of the woods. Now apparently, going just an hour north to Lynnwood or Woodinville (this is the town where Chateau Ste. Michelle winery is) or an hour south to Olympia would be treacherous. I think some areas received a foot of snow and then when the rain came, all of this melting water caused flooding, mudslides, and roads being washed away. Yesterday several main roads and exits were closed, causing a commuting nightmare. In fact, sections of I-5 will possibly be closed for the next several days.

But luckily, this doesn't really effect us. Federal Way escaped unscathed. And neither of us are commuting right now, so we don't have to worry about the roads. We feel very lucky right now that we live in such a temperate climate.