Winter Solstice

So it's the longest day of the year today and never have I lived in a place with such little sunshine/daylight so the worst is over!

About the above pictures, the first is proof that I actually skiied. Well, skiied is really a loose term. After failing to get off the lift the first time around, I managed to hop off, falling flat on my butt with the lift nearly hitting me in the head! It would have been very comical....if I weren't in tears. Do they teach you how to get off those things in ski school? Poor Ryan had to coach me down a small hill, which was Mt. Fuji to me but that's beside the point. I actually enjoyed myself once I figured out how to turn and stop without falling. However, I did not get back on that lift. Learning to ski at my age is a very humbling experience! I think I'll stick to cross-country skiing and snow-shoeiing after this....unless anyone wants to volunteer to give me ski lessons.

Lake Tahoe was really beautiful...but much colder and windier than Seattle. We stayed in South Lake Tahoe in Stateline, NV, home of tacky casinos and didn't even realize it until the next day that we walked to the California side to check out the gondola to the ski lift without knowing it. I got to play when Ryan was at his conference but Mother Nature had other plans....the gondola was closed due to high winds so I found other ways to occupy my time and it didn't include gambling....wish Ryan could say the same. Art galleries, shopping, eating with a view, walks along the beach covered in snow, and a movie theatre still showing Bee Movie, so cute. The plane ride home was interesting...in a propeller plane, haven't been in one of those since flying space-A in Guam.

Since I didn't get around to sending out Christmas cards, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Ours will be spent in Nebraska visiting both sides of my family. The weather forecast is for a low of 9 and snow...hopefully we get in ok, our flight lands late Sat. night around midnight. I'll need to pack my warmest gear! Happy Holidays!!

Snow, snow and more snow

Here's our house, both the front and back, covered in the powdery stuff. We were told it never snows in Seattle!! It actually lasted the whole night turning into rain mixed with snow, then just boring rain by Sunday afternoon causing flooding in the area and some in our basement too. Not a lot, though, most of our stuff is up on crates due to the potential for flooding. Seattle hasn't had the horrible flooding that areas south of us have: I-5 has been closed to Portland, Oregon.

Work has been slow-going. I've been called to stay home 4 times so far in the past 2 weeks. Can't say I'm complaining too much, however, if this keeps up I might just have to find something else to keep me occupied and out of trouble:-) Due to this trend and the fact that I am not one to pass up any sort of travel opportunity, I persuaded my boss to allow me to take off all next week to accompany Ryan on a business trip....to Lake Tahoe!! I can be persuasive as hell when it comes to traveling!! We'll be staying for four days at a 4 star hotel on the Nevada side, where many of the casinos are (our hotel being one of them) as well as ski resorts. So, maybe I will get the chance to snow-shoe or at least ski a bit. Ryan's conference is on the California side which is more into outdoor adventures, it's too bad we couldn't stay there as it sounds more my style but Ryan's Vegas eyes will be happy in Nevada!

On to sadder news, all of my family and friends have been accounted for and were not involved or victims in the shooting at one of Omaha's malls. Please keep the families involved in your prayers. Super scary and upsetting; I found all of this out as I was in one of the malls north of Seattle. Have to say I'm not a big fan of the chaos and pushy sales people trying to cash in on the holiday season. Arrghh! Am I grinch or what?!

It's snowing! A weather post....

And it's gorgeous....from inside anyway. Driving is another matter as snow is so infrequent the city of Seattle does not own snow plows or salt for the streets and I plan to stay off the roads as much as possible as these people don't know how to drive in it....including me! We took some pictures of the house with snow which I will share....soon. I forgot how magical snow is! The mountains in the distance are snow-covered, it's really breathtaking. Have I mentioned my obsession with snow-shoeiing (?sp)? I am going somewhere somehow this season....Ryan doesn't understand my interest...he's a downhill skiier.

Hope your Thanksgivings were as fun as mine! I went to San Antonio and was looking forward to the sun and warmth....which only lasted 1 day! The weather was cold and rainy one of the days...just like Seattle, which made it easier to come home to. The trip made me really appreciate Seattle, not in a bad way towards San Antonio but I realized we hadn't left Seattle since we moved here in early August, rare...I normally love to explore other areas and was always doing that in MS but there is so much to do just in Seattle I hadn't felt that need to flee.

Family was so fun to be around, as always. Jack, my 2 year old nephew, is SO much fun and cute, I don't think I'm biased at all:-) He is amazingly always so aware of his surroundings and where everyone is....and who's paying attention to him, it's adorable. We ate such good food as always: neapolitan pizza, good Mexican and margaritas and an awesome traditional turkey spread. The best turkey I've ever had actually, courtesy of the family chef, Johnny. We played games. A new one for me: apples to apples and Socca! with Erin too and her Italian fiance, Pietro. Wow, did we ever learn some interesting stuff about them! Meatloaf!!!!

Work has been NOT been keeping me busy. I've been sick so called in a few days and the other days the census was low so they asked me to stay home. Highly doubtful I'll work all the hours I'm scheduled for which is fine with me. I've found so much to keep me occupied. I do miss the going to work routine though, the bus commute has been somewhat surprisingly, extremely tolerable. I'm still so new to the neighborhoods, etc. that I'm just in awe of everything, especially loving the ride home through downtown. It gets dark so early here that the holiday lights in the downtown area and Pike Place Market are on, I love it! Can't wait to have visitors to show this unique city off!!!!!

Whirlwind of a week

I almost have to go backwards to remember everything. I'll start with today and the 3 hours we spent in IKEA!! I thought Ryan would die, we came out with $240 worth of stuff and not a ton to show for it. Ryan is maddeningly trying to put together a file cabinet, so far has been 3 hours into the project. Why does furniture assembly have to take so long? Something tells me we won't be going back there anytime soon.... At least we ate Swedish meatballs!

Although I only was called in twice to work this week--once as a diet tech, the time just flow with stuff going on every night. I haven't been this busy socially since, well, I can't remember. I went to a book club which was held at a bookstore in a quirky area called Queen Anne. It was only an hour and unlike any other book club experience I've ever had--it actually stayed on topic. Ok, but that might have been its downfall as well. No time to get to know the others or talk of other books. The oddest thing was there were 2 dogs in attendance!! Am I living in Europe or the US??!!

On to some dangerous notes: I went to 2 DiscoverU classes: one on travel writing and the other on supporting your wanderlust. Which as you all know, I have been majorly bitten by the traveling bug and cannot and do not wish to get it out of my system. In fact, the more I travel, the more I want, it's truly an insatiable quest for me. So am thinking what better way to include this love than to try to make it happen as a career. More on this as I figure it out..... My research has begun!

The house has been given a facelift with much-needed curtains and furniture rearrangement! We've made the step tansu/entertainment center into a half-wall which opens up the living room tremendously, it's amazing what a few well-placed items can do for the space. Next up: getting rid of the beloved comfy couch and recliner!!!

Another close call

I have to find a new hobby! The Texas Longhorns are about to kill me!! Another too close game, with us down by 21 points most of it. They only played well in the 4th quarter, this is 2 weeks in a row. I don't know how they managed to win the game with a field goal as time expired. I screamed so loud and my face got so red, I have a headache from it all! Twice I had to go to my room I couldn't stand to watch. Please no more close games!!! My heart can't take it.

I am beginning to find a life (aside from college football) here. Have you ever heard of meet-ups? Check out http://www.meetup.com/ if you want to meet people that share your interest in anything in any city. There's a group here that gets together to try out different ethnic restaurants, that's next on my list to check out:-). So I've started doing The Artist's Way and I met with a group today going through the exercises from Julia Cameron's book. I am attempting to unleash my inner writer. So I find out it is national novel writing month (NaNoWriMo). The goal is to complete a novel by November 30th with at least 50,000 words!! That's only 1,667 words per day with the goal of quantity over quality. I figure I'm only 3,334 words behind if I begin tonight. So I'm going for it! What do I have to lose?!

Today has been full of plumbing fun in our house. We came home from dinner (Polynesian!) to find a stream of water coming from the kitchen sink. What a lovely smell it emitted. So everything under the sink is wet and Ryan seems to think it's been this way for a week. Oh, the joy of being a homeowner! And earlier this morning, he disassembled the washer and dryer the sellers left to see if our washer and dryer work. So far so good. So now we have to decide which set to sell on craigslist..... The best is our breakfast nook has finally emerged from behind the appliances! About time we've reclaimed this space....

Dia de los Muertos

Hope you all had a spooky Halloween! We had a much different one than last year....we actually got some kids who dressed up and said trick or treat! Well...only 4 of them before we went out. The kids we did get were cute. I asked them what their names were and one kid said: I don't know how to say it but I can spell it. Of course, I had to urge him on further: C-A-R-T-E-R. Oh, Carter, what a good speller you are, I say! Too precious!!

Bought tickets to the Rodrigo y Gabriela concert that day on Craigslist. Our seats were standing room only but right up front. Which was awesome to literally see their fingers flying across their guitars using them as drums as well. If you haven't heard them, they are great and if you get the chance to see them live...DO IT! They're strictly instrumental with a slight heavy metal edge...every now and then they'll thrown in strains from Stairway to Heaven. Heavy on the Spanish accent....but oh so funny when they do talk, dropping F-bombs quite frequently.

Happy Day of the Dead!!

Escapism edition

Wow, did the Horns ever escape Nebraska's onslaught! I can't believe how well they (and Jamaal Charles, the same man who lost us the OU game) played in the 4th quarter, too bad that was the only quarter they played, arrgghhh. I don't know how many more games like that I can take. I was screaming so loud I'm sure passersby were concerned, ha! Texas has to beat Nebraska or else I have to take it from the whole extended family. BIG sigh of relief! Hard to believe they moved up to 15 in the BCS.

Still adjusting to working full-time (well really only 4 days these past 2 weeks) but this is due to training. Tomorrow I train one more day then I'm in the on call position, meaning they call me if they need me. Not until Thanksgiving when I fill in for a girl on maternity leave will I have scheduled hours. My boss seems to think I'll work pretty frequently....we shall see. Got my first pay check, yay! Swedish Hospital charts on-line so reading the Dr's handwriting is not an issue, yay! And maybe now someone will read my note, ha. Rounds are really fascinating, in the neuro ICU a Dr. leads it and shows all of the disciplines the MRIs and chest X-rays when appropriate. I'm trying to become familiar with all of these neurological disorders, such as moya moya. It's so fun to say! It's a sad place though. Without giving too much information, there's a sad case of a woman who's 14 weeks pregnant with an inoperable brain tumor. She was nauseous and lost all this weight which everyone thought was due to her pregnancy. Swedish is basically a cardiac and neurological specialty hospital, there are a couple of other diagnoses sprinkled throughout but thus far, I'm already wondering if I'll get bored. You can only give so many cardiac diet instructions to 80 year olds who do not want to change..... The bus commute is easier now too, except that I have to run out the door some days to make it!

Work schmurk

I am officially a bus commuter. I love the idea but the reality of waiting and lots of stops is time consuming. My commute is only 8 miles one way but it takes 35-50 minutes and that doesn't include actually waiting for the bus and walking to the stops. Unfortunately, this is the only feasible option as it costs $12 a day to park in the garage!! I wish the city had a subway system to avoid the car traffic entirely. The upside is I get time to read and people watch!! I've met some interesting people and already have interesting stories. Such as yesterday in a meeting a man "coded", he is a nurse so was able to verbalize he was going into anaphylactic shock. Turns out he's ok, overreacted but sure made for an exciting meeting! The jury's still out on the job. My first day was not super productive in terms of showing me the ropes. I will say that I was led to believe I'd have some say in my schedule and immediately realize that I'm filling in full-time for someone going on maternity leave. Not a huge deal except that I was scheduled to work Thanksgiving and Christmas. Nice, huh? I said we might have an issue here. As an on-call dieitian (with no benefits) I had no intention of working those holidays when my family is in TX and NE!!!

House stuff has come to a complete stop now that I'm working. Which is not good as there is still a washer and dryer in our kitchen, the second bedroom still has some boxes, and stuff is not in its final place. We're still not sure what to do with the second bedroom. We need some sort of office space for the computer, files, books, etc. but want to have a bedroom for when people visit. Is anyone going to??? You might be thinking just combine the two but you have not seen how tiny it is! A wall bed would actually be really helpful, if I could talk Ryan into it. Good news, though: workers are currently installing our new furnace as I write. HEAT will be so nice!!! Temps in the 50s and rain has not made the house fun to come home to. The crew is currently pounding away in the basement and singing Beat It by Michael Jackson. It sounds like they are just under my feet. :-)

Settling in

So on the yuppie front....according to a former Seattleite, we are yuppies, but it's ok everyone is. As long as it's not the poor connotation associated with materialism, I'm ok with that.

Texas Longhorns won! About time!! And they took it to IA State but we needed that after 2 losses in a row. The K-State loss was rough, I have no idea what was up with Colt McCoy and our special teams. They looked awful! We gave up 2 TDs on punt returns and couldn't get a TO to save us! As much as I "hate" OU, this loss last weekend wasn't super tough as I expected to get spanked. Horns played really well, up to their potential. So now we have the Dish and a DVR, moving up in the world (further evidence of our yuppiness). Good thing, though, as we spent a lovely 3 hours this morning, during gametime, at the DMV. At least I didn't have to suffer through another game at Hooters! Hard to believe Nebraska lost so badly at home. I'm afraid to call my brother! Another crazy day of college football!!

Still having fun exploring the 'hood. We found another downtown area in Green Lake that we like, with some good restaurants and bakeries. The fall colors are really pretty!! Bright red and purple trees. Tomorrow's weather forecast has warned us it's the last nice day, rain's expected for the next 7 days. Just in time for me to start work riding the bus every day, should be a joy. I took the bus on Friday to go downtown to the Central Library (yes, I am a nerd, hey does this factor in to my yuppiness at all?). Ann Patchett (author of Bel Canto and new book, Run) gave a book reading and I took a tour of the library. Oh my god, I can't believe I'm admitting this. It was really cool, actually. Did you know Seattle is the most literate city? I believe it as I'm about to become a book reading groupie, I think. Many cool authors are visiting in the coming months, I get so excited about this kind of stuff! The bus was ok but a super smelly man sat by me when I got closer to downtown. It's definitely more diverse downtown that in my neighborhood, I didn't realize it until this trip. I wish everybody used Dial....

Granola (crunchy) or yuppie?

I'm having an identity crisis. Yes, I chose Seattle as it fits in line with my organic, natural, healthy lifestyle as well as my political and spiritual beliefs (I'm not going into religious beliefs in this post). I am most definitely a Democrat, although there are more independent and alternative types here. I don't have any piercings or tattoos and am not a vegetarian or vegan (although I do make vegetarian choices at home and in restaurants more frequently than meat). I frequent farmers' markets and am a big fan of buying local to protect the environment. I recycle like a fiend (although the City of Seattle makes you, the recycling bin is double the size of the trash can). Does this make me granola? Here's some more evidence: I've started acupuncture and taking Chinese herbs again, I've just joined a yoga studio, and I will be using public transportation to get to work. But I was just told I'm living in a yuppie neighborhood by a source that I trust! Can I be both? And why this box/category anyway?? And to further complicate or add yet another label to this mix, there's the category of DINKs (double income no kids)--but I'm not working yet, not until Monday. Or my new favorite: DINKYs (double income no kids yet). So can I be all of these (starting Mon. anyway)?? Help! I've already consulted Wikipedia and was unable to clarify this....

Still no heat (but there is red wine)

And it does wonders for keeping warm!! Unlike the rest of the US, it is cold in Seattle. Well, cold for me, at least. Most days are in the 50s-60s sometimes rainy. When it's not rainy, everyone takes full advantage of being outside. I'm not getting nearly enough unpacking/organizing done due to this fact. Walks around the lake have become my sanity! Our furnace won't be replaced for another 10 days so we've managed to lose electricity twice from the space heater which requires a trip to the scary basement to flip the circuit breaker. Ok, so Ryan did it once and then he dragged me into the scary basement to show me what to do. Doesn't he realize I could suffer from post-traumatic stress??!!

The house is slowly coming together. We rearranged our living room furniture a few times and Ryan has still managed to keep the awful reclincer. But if I get my way eventually it will be in the trash along with our overstuffed couch that takes up far too much of our precious living room space. I've already made a trip to the thrift store, so far 4 boxes and counting of stuff I don't need. I've realized I have enough kitchenware, pictures, and "trinkets" as Ryan calls it to last the rest of my life. And bathroom stuff. There is no place to put all of this stuff!! I don't need to ever buy anything again!!! Simplicity is fast becoming my mantra....

Locked out (again)

I do this every single time I move into a new place. I got locked out with no cell phone and barely knowing anybody. It was not as if I had planned to go out and forgot my keys. No, I was just stepping into the laundry room when the door that had been kept open with all of the boxes closed on me since there are no longer any boxes in the kitchen!! Thankfully, I was dressed to venture outside except for shoes....but Ryan left some (huge) football shoes so out I tramped to the local coffee shop, Cafe Lulu. Our neighbor owns it and was gracious enough to let me use her phone and hang out there while I waited for Ryan to save me! I better get some extra keys made and soon....

Unpacking is slow going....the only boxes left are in the 2nd bedroom which is going to be about as much fun to go through as a visit to the dentist. I've dawdled over organizing the kitchen and bedroom long enough I think. Even with all the unpacking, I am bored! We don't have cable so all day long I only have the radio/cd's for company as well as the occasional phone call. However, I've managed to take walk breaks to explore the neighborhood and bump into people to make random conversations to appease my social side. I need to start work to meet some more people!!

Boxes, boxes everywhere!

It's like Christmas here, haven't seen this stuff for 4 months!! There are not many places to put these boxes as the house seems small with so many of them....so our basement is doubling as empty box storage. Our 2nd bedroom became the catch-all for the stuff we don't know what to do with yet. So far everything is here and accounted for. Only damage is our step tansu has deep scratches so we will be filing a claim but hopefully we can touch it up without too much notice! The packers put such random things together, it's always a joy to find your bathroom towels in a kitchen box, ha.

Our movers show up with this huge truck for our 6500 pounds! So huge that there is not ample parking on the street so we met the neighbors right away knocking on doors and asking if they could move their car. Finally the truck fit and only a tree branch got knocked down. And Ryan saved the driver from a ticket. People complained about blocking the street! What are they supposed to do? I guess if the street's blocked for only a morning or afternoon it's ok but not the entire day. We enjoyed our movers, they were a husband and wife team in their 50s so he did most of the lifting. Oh yeah, and they loved the steep steps and the many trips for all of our boxes! The lady is also a seamstress and so made a makeshift curtain out of a sheet for our bedroom and our living room (to block the view of the beer cans from our neighbors!). She gave me her cell number:-) Back to the grind....

Closing day is finally here!

This little house has been a struggle since we placed an offer on it more than a month ago. The last few days especially have been incredibly stressful, but we get the keys tonight!! And amazingly enough, the movers come tomorrow!! I don't know how all of this worked out as we had a major scare yesterday (Ryan and I both tried to wire money to our escrow company, yikes!) and even today our broker told us we might not be able to close today.

The first picture is our old 2 galley kitchen. A LOT of work is planned for this so consider it a before picture. The second picture is the master bedroom which is a chocolate brown color. It's a decent sized bedroom and we love the French doors leading to the back garden/yard!! And you wouldn't think it for a house built in 1914 but it has a very large walk-in closet. So Ryan figured out that the closet used to be the 2nd bedroom!!!! And we thought the house was small already! The last pic is of the backyard which has a sweet little garden and feels really private even smack dab in the middle of Seattle. There's even sage, rosemary, thyme, and rosebushes! As you can see, there's not much grass so hopefully it'll be fairly low-maintenance. We're happy to have a home of our own and I can't wait to move out of the hotel!!! Check your email for contact info..... And keep checking this blog, I'm sure I'll have interesting moving stories! Moving should be a breeze after all of this!

No closing date yet but....

...our loan documents went through! We should close by Thursday of this week so thought I'd continue to post some more pictures of the house!! The first one is of the dining room. I love this paint color on the wall so much I'm hoping to paint the 2nd bedroom with it. I think it looks great with the white trim, coved ceilings, and hardwoods. And the second picture is more of the living room with the big windows. I'll post the last couple of pictures over the next few days....

BTW, did you know it's National Punctuation Day!?@!!!,, I would've added some expletives if I didn't have good news about the house!!:-)

...and Continues....

Closing date has come and gone and we still don't have a new date yet!! Our mortgage broker keeps telling us it should be soon and we continue to not believe him, ha. Best case scenario is now next Wednesday. I'm anxious to know a date. This waiting is even worse than the Air Force!

Things on the job front are much better. I received an offer for the clinical dietitian position! It's on call until November which is really flexible with the house stuff going on. So they call when they need someone and I can even say no. The hospital is in a great location, you can see the hospital where Grey's Anatomy is set. The cafeteria looks like a restaurant and guess what? There is even a Starbucks right in the hospital!! How quintessential Seattle!!

And the wait continues...

We're definitely not closing this Friday. We'll know more by Thursday but it should be next week sometime Mon-Wednesday. So many unknowns! And we have to pay $100 a day past our original close date which sucks as it wasn't our fault in the first place. Hopefully the military movers will wait until the last possible day to deliver our stuff and we might actually be in the house after all. Also, the fed's decision to drop interest rates today will help us get a lower rate than we would've had the original closing date worked out. I'm trying to think optimistically!! Do you see why I've been reading books lately? Have to get my mind off of all this stuff or I'll go crazy.

I feel the need to elaborate more on our hotel life. Contrary to popular belief, we do NOT receive daily housekeeping service. In fact, our weekly service is pretty basic. I've been doing the dusting!! I would not recommend this particular hotel as it feels dingy, carpets seem dirty, etc. Not to mention a very unpleasant fire alarm that went off at 3:30 am a few weeks ago not once, not twice, but at least 3 times and this thing was LOUD!!! And it would go off at random times over the next week or so. Plus, whenever we enter the hotel, we smell certain ethnic smells emanating from others' rooms. Have I mentioned that Microsoft is only a 10 minute drive? Anyway, the room has a microwave and a stove top but no oven so we've been eating as many meals here to save money which is mostly sandwiches or frozen meals. However, the most irritating thing of living here are our very loud neighbors. And the later it gets, the louder they seem to get. In fact, it sounds like they make furniture in there, I'm not kidding. Who knows what they are banging on at all hours?! The weirdest thing is that we can hear them coughing up a lung or maybe puking, we can't figure it out. Are these people sick? Or bulimic?? Who knows? I guess this is city living but now I'm glad that we won't be living in an apartment or a shared wall living arrangement because my sound machine would get so much use......

On to some good news. That per diem job that I mentioned before will actually be turning into more permanent work in November. So if I decide to take the per diem job, it'll be like deciding on the job if I like it and can then determine if I want permanent work there. Anyway, I have an interview Thursday morning!!

Life at the Extended Stay

has just been extended due to some major drama on the house front. Our lender fell through for a couple of reasons: our original mortgage broker left his firm to pursue politics as well as divulged information from the sellers' disclosure report that he shouldn't have. (Just can't trust those politicians! I won't be voting for this guy!). I won't bore you with the sordid details but needless to say, what should have been an easier last 2 weeks before moving in has turned into anything but. Our closing date is up in the air now, it could be as early as next Monday or pushed back a full week, depending on the speed of the new lender. What makes this whole situation even more fun is that our stuff is already on its way from Mississippi. ARRGHH! So if we're not able to close before Sept. 28th, we have to store it (on our own dime) in Seattle until we move in. Much fun! Hence, the lack of pictures the past couple of days. I'll keep you posted on the latest drama......

Books, books & more books plus a rant about the job search

Ok, I have entirely too much time on my hands right now, which feels so weird. Even with the traveling this summer, I didn't get in much pleasure reading, unless you count guide books. And school from the last 2 years ate up any reading time so the last time I've had some good time for reading was Guam. So, instead of looking for a job, I've been voraciously reading my eyes out. Actually, I'm passively looking, as Ryan says. The latest on the job search is there are not any dietitian or health educator jobs here. Actually, that's not exactly true. I have been phone interviewed for a per diem job which is filling in for RDs on vacations, weekends, holidays with no guarantee of hours or benefits. Not exactly a dream job. So either there just aren't many dietitian or health educator jobs or I'm just not looking in the right places, surprising for such a health-conscious community. Thus, I have concluded that the universe is trying to tell me to seek out another field! So I'm debating about many things including traveling, Starbucks, or a career in books. (Is anyone reading this?). If so, what should I do??!!

On to books, I've read some great ones that I want to pass along. Middlesex by Geffrey Eugenides (?sp) is a perfect novel and oh so engrossing. In recommending this, the subject matter is hermaphroditism which might not sound too appealing but trust me, do not be judgmental about this one, you will not be offended. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert made me so jealous as that's what I want to do with my life: well, the eat in Italy part and travel, anyway. But this book also is about finding God and oh so funny along the way. Also Heat by Bill Buford follows a former New Yorker editor as a slave in Mario Batali's kitchen and through Italy learning to make pasta, etc. This book has inspired me to visit Salumi, Mario Batali's father's restaurant in downtown Seattle.

I'm super excited that Love in the time of Cholera will be a movie soon. And Seattle has a Half Price bookstore so I'm headed there for a copy to read before the movie. I have to join a book club, I'm obsessed! Anybody have any book recommendations?

Inside pictures of the house

So here's the breakfast nook in the kitchen. We loved the built-ins. I can't wait to get my hands on the kitchen. It has old appliances and will definitely get a fresh coat of paint and much more. There's not a lot of shelving and cabinets so right above the stove I'm planning on a pot rack and some shelves. Ikea will soon be my friend!! Hmmm, maybe I should work there?!

The second picture is the living and dining room. We loved the fireplace. Oh yeah and the furniture, but that's not our stuff. Wow, staging really works. The living room walls are taupe and dining room is pale green which we like so will probably keep.

Horns beat TCU!

I love college football! Our game didn't start well, down 10-0 at half but McCoy and the defense really came through, 34 points in the second half! I hate to admit where we watched the game, ok, don't judge me you feminists, HOOTERS! Argghh, the Texas Exes meet there because the manager is a huge fan and he gives discounts on food and even has Longhorn stuff all over the place. So we got to meet lots of fellow Horns, very fun. And I have to brag on the Big 12 (because nobody ever does, ha) 11 teams won their games this past weekend!!! OU looks SO good, we are so going to lose. Poor Michigan, sorry guys. Washington looked great too, saw Boise State fans all over Seattle this weekend. Husky stadium is right on the water, gorgeous, and has the most unique tailgating ever, BOATS!!!! I think I should become a fan.....

We got the house!!

Yay!!! After agonizing over foundation, electrical, and roofing issues uncovered from the inspection and much going back and forth between the sellers over what they'll cover, the house will be ours!! Our closing date is in 2 weeks, Sept. 21st. Now our battle is to retrieve our stuff from storage in Mississippi and have it delivered as close as possible to that date. I have a feeling we'll be investing in an air mattress!!

One friend commented how easy it was to buy a house. Do you all think so? I couldn't disagree more, with this, my first experience!! Maybe newer construction is less involved but each inspection we had seemed to divulge more issues, argghhh! Maybe it's better to not know?? I had no idea the stress involved in this whole process. We almost walked away as their counter-offer after the inspection was much less than we were willing to settle on. The major stuff that needed to be done to the house amounted to an estimate of $20,000!! Our realtor warned us it's an old house (built in 1914) so there would be issues, still I wasn't prepared to take such a critical look at where we might call home. We eventually compromised at $12,000, now the real work begins..... The house is definitely "move-in ready" but we have some ideas on updates. I'll gradually post pictures instead of all at once to pique your interest in visiting us!!

Seattle Rocks!

This weekend was so fun because we weren't busy doing house stuff so had time to explore! There are tons of quirky little neighborhoods. For example, there is literally a troll under one of the bridges squashing a VW bug on Troll Ave, I'm not kidding.

We've been in Seattle for a month now so thought I'd post some pictures. Does the first one look familiar, you Grey's Anatomy fans? The other 2 are from a music/indie film/art festival we went to this past weekend called Bumbershoot in the coolest venue ever: under the Space Needle. I'm telling you all of this so you will visit us next year over Labor Day! It's a great time to visit....perfect weather and Seattle's uberfest. We heard The Shins, The Gourds, Rodrigo y Gabriela, all highly recommended!!! Hope you all had a great weekend too!

A Political Statement

I went to my first protest last Monday! Pres. Bush visited Bellevue (the more conservative, suburban answer to Seattle) while avoiding Seattle entirely. About 400 protestors were out in full force. There were no arrests, just some shoving with crowds, although there were some scary looking militant people at the ready. Have to say I was impressed with the diversity of people there: of course, there were scary extremists and a definite SWAT team presence, but there were people of all ages and cultural backgrounds.

The first picture is the best crowd shot I had (love the Crate & Barrel in the background) and the second is of the "I Miss America" girls, creative, huh? Even I didn't agree with some of the bash Bush posters such as 9-11 was an inside job. My all-time fav was "Dumb, Dumber, Dubya!" Although I didn't physically see 43, just his huge motorcade, at least I was a part of the "welcoming" committee. Is 2008 here yet??!!

Glacier National Park--Montana

Even though it's been almost a month since our visit to Glacier, thought I'd post some pics and tell you a little about our time there. Have to admit it was hard to pick which pics to post since there were so many good ones, that's my excuse for procrastination anyway. So these are all from the area of Glacier Park called Many Glacier. The glacial lakes are a stunning shade of blue! Unfortunately, we didn't make it here until the last day and liked it so much we added another day in a cabin with no bathroom (this was only for 1 night though and the bathrooms were super close, not a big deal at all). The other parts of the park pale in comparison and don't seem like they should be part of Glacier Nat'l Park.

While still in Yellowstone, we heard about the fires at Glacier and were wondering if we'd have to cut our trip short. Upon arrival, the fires really limited visibility but on the higher hikes you couldn't tell as much and on the bright side, it made for killer sunsets. The famous Going to the Sun road was gorgeous with views of huge cliff drops and stunning scenery some of which was obscured due to the fires. We also saw quite a lot of wildlife here too: mountain goats, bighorn sheep, bear cubs way off in the distance (binoculars and others helped us to see this) and my favorite: a female moose literally 10 feet away eating. And was she ever noisy! Then she crossed right in front of our path. I didn't want to tear myself away but Ryan had to get a picture of me, isn't my expression hysterical?

The best hike I've ever done (even including boonie stomps) was up to Grinnell Glacier, the most "accessible" glacier in the US. It was 6 miles uphill! And every step kept getting better and better: trail switchbacks, dramatic scenery changes, and walking through a waterfall. There were bighorn sheep all over and marmots too. The way down was another story, my knees were killing me so much that the next day I couldn't hike :-(. Good thing there was a boat so we saved ourselves about a mile walking back.

Overall, I was very impressed with Montana. The people are liberal and laid back. We went to a bunch of independent little restaurants and coffee shops in Whitefish, Kalispell, and Missoula. Our very last day we went to Canada as the land from Glacier abuts their national park, called Waterton. It was very interesting explaining to Canadian customs that we're moving from Mississippi to Seattle and stopping for a daytrip to Canada, ha. Great way to end our national parks trip and head to real life in Seattle.....

Our offer was.....

....accepted!! So pending inspection and closing, we'll move in September 21st!! Only 1 more month in the Extended Stay..... Now we have time to have fun in Seattle!!

The quaint, charming, cozy (i.e. small) house is 2 bedroom/1 bath in the Green Lake area, an almost 3 mile hike and bike path with easy access to the freeway. The best part is we'll be within walking distance to 3! Thai restaurants, at least 1 local coffee shop, a brew pub or two, and even a Whole Foods. It feels like Europe to us! There's potential to add on another bathroom and spruce up the kitchen. I'll send pics soon.....

Progress on the house search

After seeing at least 30 properties ranging from tiny condos with city and water views to run-down houses in sketchy neighborhoods, we found a cute house and made an offer last night! Don't worry, it's not in a sketchy neighborhood!! Now, I'm waiting (not so patiently) to hear back if the sellers will accept it. This whole process has been all-encompassing, not to mention exhausting learning the real estate lingo as well as trying to figure out the 'hoods we like the best. We've been told to expect a counter-offer but we're planning to hold firm with our offer of $5,000 under list price.... I won't describe it just yet in case we can't come to mutual acceptance--new term for me. Keep your fingers crossed!

Road rage and watermelons?!

So, I have to say besides being yelled at once by a driver for putting on my blinker when I shouldn't have, I've been pleasantly surprised in the fairly courteous way people drive here. Typically, someone will eventually let you in if you signal. However, this was not the case yesterday afternoon driving around with my real estate agent. She was trying to get over into the left hand turning lane from the right lane and had her blinker on for a while. She gunned it to get over (and later tells me the car was 2 car lengths back so she didn't feel that she cut him off too badly, if at all). The car, which she may or may not have cut off, pulls up right beside me on the passenger side and screams at Leslie and says, What are you doing? She says sorry. He says I have kids in the car. Leslie says sorry again. The passenger in the front seat throws a watermelon across the driver and it lands splat, at my window!! I jump and the guy tears off. We are both shaken up and marvel at what just happened. What anger! Nice lesson to teach your kids, dude. And what a waste of a perfectly good watermelon. Have you ever heard of such a thing? The splattered fruit was all over the car, on the top and the windshield as well. Leslie then tells me that I'll notice drivers in Seattle are angry. I have noticed how centered everyone is about traffic but this is just odd! And a poll back in April or May said for cities, Seattle had some of the most friendly drivers. Apparently that poll did not take into account this super angry guy!

Houseless in Seattle

Still no luck on the housing front after a good week plus of searching. We've got a good real estate agent who keeps telling me not to get antsy. Easy for her to say, she's not living in an Extended Stay! Honestly, it's not too bad but after months of living out of suitcases, I'm ready to be in my own place. There might be one possibility, I'll keep you posted....

Almost 2 weeks in Seattle and I can not complain (well, except for my watermelon story). The weather is so different from what I'm used to in the summer: 70s and clear. Today, Pike Place Market turns 100! Visited a farmer's market yesterday for organic fruits and veggies all locally grown. These people are into the environment and dogs big time!! Another interesting thing I've noticed are the teriyaki restaurants in practically every strip mall/intersection. Heard there are over 100 teriyaki joints and only 12 McDonald's in Seattle proper, my kind of place! Ryan was disappointed in this fact, ha. So you'd think with a health conscious population that dietitian jobs would be plentiful, not so. I've only been able to find 2 openings. Hmmm, is it career change time? I could handle health or travel writing or even blogging.

Went to a Mariners game Monday night at Safeco Field: what a stadium! I'm not into baseball but I might become a fan going to games here. We met Ryan's cousin, Gabe, and some of his friends pre-game at the Pyramid Ale House right across from the stadium and later enjoyed an $8 beer in the stadium with a great crowd and wonderful sunset! The Mariners even won with a bottom of the 9th homerun! So much to do here, I can get used to this....

The West (Left) Coast

We're enjoying the more liberal side of the US so far---couldn't tell you how many Impeach Bush signs we've seen! Also the sheer amount of Asian restaurants is amazing--went to the International District for Vietnamese food and durian (the stinky fruit that's not allowed in hotels in Thailand) was on the menu and in the farmers' market. Seattleites don't mess around with their food!!

On the housing front, we've decided against a temporary furnished apartment and plan to make the Extended Stay our home for a while. Our work with a real estate agent to find the perfect home won't come cheap, we are in major sticker shock!! From what we've seen in our price range in Seattle proper, we can afford a fixer-upper in an ok location. Read: potential if you're handy, which we're not so the debate goes on. Should we buy a brand new fully loaded townhome in a good fun area or a small house in an up and coming neighborhood that needs work??

In between house hunting, we met up with a friend from Guam, Amy, whose family lives close by. And I got to see Ryan's new work digs. It took us double the time that it needed to as we mistakenly got on the freeway and didn't need to do! Embarassingly enough, his work is right off of the street where our hotel is!! Just shows you we don't have a good handle on where stuff is. Seattle has been confusing for us to get around as we're staying on the east side so always have to cross a floating bridge so we've been rewarded with gorgeous water views. We even saw Mt. Rainier one day. I have to brag that the weather has been really nice this first week, not the first thing you think to say of Seattle. It's cool and not humid, plus we haven't seen rain yet:-)

Yellowstone Nat'l Park

Here are some pics from our 3 days here: the first is from the Geyser part of the park. This portion of the park seemed so otherworldly: like Mars with water!! Of course, had to see Old Faithful and it wasn't the biggest or best geyser but it did erupt as predicted unlike the Riverside Geyser which we waited for almost an hour in the rain, I might add! The geysers stink like rotten eggs due to the sulfur, couldn't wait to shower.... Other cool features were the mud pots, loved their splattering!

The second day we spent around the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone area, lots of waterfalls too....really gorgeous, how Yellowstone got its' name (2nd pic). We saw the most wildlife this day as well....grizzly bear with 2 cubs!!!, 2 bald eagles and a baby, bear tracks on a hike, and a huge herd of buffalo crossing the road. In fact, 1 buffalo hit a car very close to us, road rage??? Crazy enough the best wildlife was not on any of our daily hikes but from the road. As we are not adept at wildlife spotting we relied on other cars parking and assumed it was a sighting, which almost always worked.

So here's my "scary" buffalo story. We sought out an area that was known to have bears, I was nervous and was using the park ranger's advice of making loud noises, etc. Well, of course, we didn't see any bears but there was a huge herd of buffalo way off in the distance. It was about 3 miles across a meadow and forested area when we came upon this herd on the trail (see last pic). They were loud, the males were grunting but they weren't agitated as their tails weren't sticking way up. I was getting nervous anyway but not Ryan. We were just hanging out in their territory for a while and they kept grunting and looking at us, I just couldn't take it much longer. I am most definitely a city slicker.

Overall, really enjoyed Yellowstone. We stayed in West Yellowstone, Montana, a 5 min. drive to the park (which is in Wyoming). Just the driving to hikes was scenic and wildlife was spotted. It'd be fun to go back and visit with friends/family!! Out of all of the parks we visited, it had the most to offer even if it was a bit crowded in certain places.

We're "home"

We finally arrived in the Emerald City (didn't know Seattle is called this) yesterday afternoon!!!! The 4 hour drive from Spokane made for a huge scenery change. The plains of eastern Washington look like Nebraska, I swear. But then we crossed the Cascade Mountains and over a canyon/gorge (who knew?) into the Seattle area. It was sunny on the eastern side; the clouds look like they couldn't make it over the mountains into Seattle. It's 60 degrees here!!

Today begins the most unknown question of all: where to live? We're armed with Sunday's classified ads and some internet resources. We'll be scoping out different neighborhoods to choose our fav area.

On a food note, there's a Whole Foods just down the street from our hotel, already loaded up. And our first meal consisted of Thai food; there are Asian restaurants everywhere, I'm in heaven! This is a far cry from Columbus, Mississippi.....

Grand Tetons--Jackson Hole, Wyoming

I don't know if it was because Grand Tetons was the first of the national parks but it was jaw dropping beautiful with its' huge peaks and glacial waters. The first day we took a boat to Jenny Lake and then hiked to Inspiration Point where we saw our first moose in the (very large) flesh! The downside was there were a ton of people on this hike so the next day we went on a quieter trail and were rewarded with this view!!! Unfortunately, I got burned badly and also messed up my knee--old high school track/soccer injury so I've been icing ever since.

Just driving to these hikes we saw wildlife like elk, deer, and my new favorite: buffalo!! (Stay tuned for my buffalo encounter pic/story in Yellowstone post.)

We stayed in Teton Village, a ski resort village in a hotel called Hostelx. It definitely felt like a hostel and was priced accordingly. This should have been my first clue but we couldn't pass up this deal. We had our own dimly lit room with 4 bunkbeds but after 2 nights of near sleeplessness and hearing actual conversations through the walls even with ear plugs, we left a day early and headed to Yellowstone. Of course, this didn't bother Ryan...how aggravating:-)

Anyway, I loved everything about Jackson Hole except our lodging...even had organic deli/general store....right up my alley. Also drove through Jackson and ate at a great little restaurant for breakfast on Bon Appetit's top 10 places to eat breakfast in the country! And I thought they'd only have steak and potatoes in this part of the country! (Knew I'd add some food comments in there, didn't you? )

Back to "civilization"

After almost 2 weeks in the national parks hiking our butts off and seeing much wildlife, we are back in the land of Starbucks and cell phone service. We are finally in Washington....Spokane, not Seattle yet. We extended our trip by 1 day in Glacier. Had a great time overall...will post a little blurb and picture on each of the 3 parks in the next couple of days. Not having internet for a week was harder than I thought it'd be!!! No tv, on the other hand, was very nice....

Tomorrow we'll arrive in the Seattle area, living at an Extended Stay hotel close to Ryan's work until we can find a furnished apartment, at least that's the plan for now..... We'll be in touch..... Can't wait to hear what's going on with you!

Black Hills of South Dakota

Tatanka! If you've seen Dances with Wolves this might sound familiar: it's buffalo in the Lakota language. I had no idea Kevin Costner developed a site to tell the story of bison and not the white man's version. We saw buffalo in the wild as well--those things are so massive! We also ate some...in the form of burgers and brisket. Tastes like...chicken, ha. Actually much leaner than beef. Other wildlife sightings were of pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs, and even burros (sort of look like donkeys) right at our car window.

It's hot here! And very dry but surprisingly has a varied landscape--sagebrush, pines, rock formations, and red clay. So we saw the must see sights: Mount Rushmore (at night) and the Crazy Horse Memorial which I saw in high school and seems barely farther along in its' completion.

We also visited Deadwood, home of the Wild West (I didn't know this before this trip.) Apparently, Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead at Saloon no. 10. We did the very touristy thing of watching a reenactment of his death and Ryan got to play the bartender!! Ironic, right?

Covered wagons

Here's a picture of our friends Shawn (R's best man) and Jessie in Loup City, NE on the farm Jessie grew up on. Aren't those signs classic?

Anyway, driving through Western Nebraska was pretty even in its' desolation. Drove through a number of towns with populations of only 200 or 300! And I thought Columbus was small...but Wyoming is even more sparsely populated: the town of Lost Springs only has 1 and another town had 10. And of course, no cell phone service. Many sections felt as if we were on another planet! But back to Nebraska.... Wide open spaces, sand hills, corn taller than us, and rolling hills, much prettier than the landscape in Omaha. I have to say I still think the nicest people I've ever met are from Nebraska.

Europe Pictures

To see more pictures from our trip visit: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=lqm3nyo.9zuh14rk&x=0&y=-481ku . It's free but unfortunately you still have to sign in with a password, tried to change that but couldn't.

You'll be happy to know there are considerably fewer pictures than the 2,000 we originally had so 875 doesn't sound too bad now.... Let me know what you think!

National Park trip itinerary

We're about to leave for the National Park portion of our US trip--we're taking a very scenic route from Nebraska to Seattle!!

Sun, July 22--drive to central Nebraska to visit my aunt then high school friends & stay the night.

Mon-Tues, July 23-24--Mt. Rushmore/Crazy Horse

Wed-Sat-, July 25-28--Grand Tetons

Sat-Mon, July 28-30--Yellowstone Nat'l Park

Tues-Fri, July 31-Aug. 4--Glacier Nat'l Park

The plan is to arrive in Seattle on Aug. 5th; Ryan starts work Aug. 15th. Hopefully we won't have any more scary hiking stories:-)

Runza

Every visit to Nebraska requires a taste of these meat, cabbage, onion and cheese-stuffed bread sandwiches! Plus we made a trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo--heard a tiger roar, a gorilla smacked into the window right in front of us, and we saw penguins swim--very fun.

Saw the movie Ratatouille with my parents, highly recommend it, especially for any foodies. Johnny, you would love it!! You sort of forget the story is about a rat and his family. Only had to hold me feet up a few times as it felt that the rats were scurrying right under you. Ok, so I'm not selling this movie with that comment, but honestly, haven't enjoyed a movie that much since the first Shrek!!!

Went to Borders at midnight for the Harry Potter book but came out empty-handed. Got my copy today, it seems ominous from the few pages I've read...... Anyone finished with it yet??

Then and now

Our wedding day....July 18, 1998

9 years later.....

Look how we've changed!

We celebrated last night by eating at the restaurant where we ate at for our senior prom 13 years ago!

Cornhusker Land

We finally made it to Papillion, Nebraska at midnight on Friday the 13th after 1,000 miles on the road from San Antonio! Why do the last hours drag on so? Met my cousin Val in Denton for lunch, the highlight of the day.

I've already caught up with my first roommate from college and her twins on Saturday. Then yesterday we went to Nebraska City to see my Mom's side: my grandma, 2 aunts and uncles, and cousin and her new baby. Also went to Arbor Lodge in NE City, where the Morton family started Arbor Day. I've been trying to get Ryan to go there for years. It's great to catch up with my parents and brother too!

The end of Tex-mex

After a few days in Texas visiting family, we're leaving early tomorrow morning for the slower pace of Nebraska. Wish us luck packing up the CR-V. We've been storing all our suitcases in the Blecher's guest room for the past 6 weeks, thanks guys. I'll miss the rambunctiousness babbling world of Jack!!!

In Houston, I got to meet Emerson, Katie's newborn. How tiny! You should have seen him as a taco, all bundled up. Also got some play time with 2 year-old Aiden. Smart kid: his favorite color is orange!!

But first, we're about to get a last taste of Johnny's good cooking as well as a taste test of some beers and Radlers. Much fun! Then, we're checking out the new Harry Potter movie. Has anyone else seen it??

Adios!

A home of sorts

We're back in Texas until Friday, the 13th! I just have to say that it is so nice to have a choice in clothing other than 4 shirts. Just wait until we send the pictures you will see we keep wearing the same thing, ha! We did do laundry (mostly in the hotel sinks), tried not to smell too much like the locals anyway....

We downloaded all 2,000 pictures to our laptop so this week we will be sending out the Kodak website to you all....

Jack has me busy today reading books and just being cute in general. I like this aunt/godmother thing!

Jersey shore

It had been 5 years since our last visit and what a trip! A full week of sand, surf, and very good food. Honestly think I gained more weight this week than the whole time in Europe! I am not like Ryan spending hours in the ocean burning calories, I prefer to sunbathe!! So, our days were spent getting to the beach roughly 11 am and spending the whole day there. Rough, isn't it? The water was cold though, warmest was 68 degrees but I went in at 61, brrrrrr......

So the food goes something like this: crumb cake or some other doughnut for breakfast, sandwiches (really good bread and cold cuts) on the beach, and a smorgasbord of meats and/or a pizza pie for dinner! And don't even get me started on the desserts: zeppoles, salt water taffy, pies, and cakes. Yum....

Great to catch up with Ryan's extended family! Drama abounds but doesn't it with all family?!!

Back in the U.S.

Back in the land of many choices and bigger beds.

We arrived in Newark, NJ after a very long day of traveling by train from Bruges to the Paris train station to the Paris airport to Frankfurt then Newark. We are now at the much beloved Jersey shore visiting family. I think our hardest decisions this week will be when should we go to the beach!

Can't wait to visit you all and catch up....

Belgain waffles & chocolates

Our last country, Belgium! Couldn't wait to eat: mussles, chocolates, waffles, and beer.... The food did not disappoint nor did the beer. Bruges is a really beautiful city with picturesque canals and cobblestone streets. We coudl hear the sound of clip-clopping from the horses all over the city. Unfortunately, tourists were teeming all over the place. We managed to escape them for lunch but not dinner...

Summary of our trip:

2 people, 2 suitcases
10 countries
10 + languages
15 different nighttime accomodations
2,000 pictures
27 nights
28 days

Hope you enjoyed the running commentary!

Bicycles, windmills, and red lights

The bikes here are wild, I've almost been run over a few times, they're tricky silent! There are bicycle garages here as big as our mall parking garages! Had to take a picture of that....

So, the first day in Amsterdam was spent perusing the museums and yesterday we explored the seedier side. The Red Light District was everything you've ever heard about. Haarlem even has one, we almost went through it but it costs 6 euros and I was the only female (non-prostitute) around plus it was very late. And we also tried what Amsterdam is most famous for which is found on every corner.....herring, of course!

We are now in Delft, a cute Dutch town famous for its' blue and white earthenware as well as the birthplace of Vermeer. Even saw Girl with a Pearl Earring in The Hague!!!

Tot ziens!

Holland tulips

Hallo! Back to mainland Europe and it has a different feel. I love it! I want to live here. Although Scandinavia is beautiful and the people are very friendly, the food is not all that. So far, I've decided I could live in Amsterdam, Paris, the south of France, and Switzerland. I'm digging the greetings in other languages, I was mistaken for a Nederlandese (?), this made my day! Especially as my grandpa is from Holland.

So we're staying in Haarlem, a 15 minute train ride to Amsterdam, getting a good feel for everyday living which is small: rooms, bathrooms, etc. Our room overlooks the Grote Markt, looking out we see a sign with the letters eke of Heineken!! Tried the beer and Sprite thing, it's called Snow White here, Ryan loves ordering a drink with that name:-) Strange, it''s been colder here than even in Scandinavia, in the 50s, brrhhhhhh.

Hit 4 museums yesterday, a record for us. Corrie ten Boom house, Rijksmuseum (starring Rembrandt and Vermeer), Van Gogh, and the Anne Frank house. And it wasn't a rushed day at all. Met another American couple and ate dinner with them at the pancake (read: crepe) bakery. Indonesian food is big here, trying that tonight. I don't want this food stuff to end!! But it has been a long trip, each little segment seems like its own. What I have tired of is wearing the same clothes and washing them in the sink. Plus, the actual traveling to each location is stressful at times.

About pictures, I've had trouble at each internet cafe place uploading them, it takes forever. So, will have to share it all at the end. Just a warning, we have close to 2,000 of them and that is with deleting quite a few!

Tot ziens!

Norway: Fjords, glaciers & trolls

Ok, maybe not trolls but the fjords are amazing! We're in Balestrand, Norway now an extension of this tour called Norway in a nutshell, where you get a taste of the dramatic fjords and beautiful natural scenery. It's a tiny, sleepy little town that pretty much shuts down in the winter. We rented a car yesterday and toured the fjord country with its' beautiful aqua, blue water melting from the glaciers. We hiked on the ice yesterday--with ice clamps and harnesses, there were 10 of us all tied together with a rope and a guide. This has been my favorite experience thus far!!! It was raining at first so all misty and beautiful but then cleared so we had wonderful views and many waterfalls. I doubt the pictures will do it justice.... Also toured a stave church from the Viking era, only 28 left in Norway and this one has its' own architectural style (Urnes, named for the town) so is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

So the Norwegian food is not so good. I tried herring last night for the first time and actually liked it: ketchup, mustard, sour cream and curry (my favorite) but the other stuff is just bread and cold cuts at each meal with crackers (Wasa). They do cereal (called muesli) with yogurt on it instead of milk which is yummy, otherwise even Danish and Swedish food is better.

We are continuing our tour of Norway to Bergen today by boat, changing boats in the middle of the water!

Swedish Meatballs

We are now on country # 7 (France, Monaco, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark and now Sweden)´--I'm still counting Germany even as it was just 8 hours in Berlin. Thereäs a brand new train station very close to the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie so we were able to absorb a lot of history in a few hours and even got in a proper German meal of weiner schnitzel, wurst and beer (well, a Radler anyway, beer with sprite--my new favorite!)

Our travels get interesting (I use this term very loosely) at this point. First, is the overnight train to Mälmo, Sweden with a short train to Copenhagen. We had the cabin to ourselves, very tiny, but with our own bathroom and even a shower/toilet--had to try it for the experience, very fun when youäre moving side to side! Little did I know how similar our hotel in Copenhagen would be to this!! Our hotel was Cab Inn City, I think www.cabinn.dk, an inventive idea as the rooms are set up like the accomodations in cruise ships. Funny enough, we both felt that we were moving when in the bathroom, either weäre losing it or we still felt like we were moving as our overnight train actually went on a boat across the Baltic!!

Copenhagen is very charming. Very few cars as they are taxed 180%--bikes are everywhere and people are really friendly, no one seems to be in a big hurry. We checked out the area known as Freetown, Christiana and got caught in a rain storm listening to a Willie Nelson-type guy singing Red Hot Chili Peppers. Along a boat cruise to see The Little Mermaid statue, we were mooned (full frontal too) by some residents with letters on their butts spelling circus and something else in Danish. Free loving place!

Last night, we took another overnight train, to Stockholm. The sleeping arrangements consisted of 6 people in an entirely too small space: I was the only girl, Ryan had the bunk just above me and then a smelly guy from Seattle (I thought grunge was over) slept above Ryan. I slept better than I thought I would (because of my sheer exhaustion from sight-seeing) but it was not fun. You could not even sit up without hitting your head on the bunk above you. Weäre voluntarily spending our vacation time doing this as Scandinavian hotels are very expensive so weäre saving time and money taking these trains but I hope this is the last one!!

Itäs worth it, though, to see all these cities and countries I never thought I would. Stockholm is pretty. Lots of parks and water. But it is COLD here. I'm wearing a fleece, windbreaker, and scarf and still cold and this is JUNE!!! It's bright at 10 pm and light by 4 am. The most surprising thing for me is the food is NOT bad. Tried the Danish open-faced sandwiches and loved them. Had to try the Swedish meatballs, really good too, especially with cream sauce (like gravy) and lingonberries. With all the walking, I think I'm still gaining weight but I don't care....

Prague: Czech it out!

Sorry yet again, for the bad pun, it runs in my family!

Prague seems so foreign, even the all day train ride to get here prepared us for an alternate universe. 2 passport officials (1 from Germany and the other Czech Republic) very Communist-like stamped our passports. The language barrier is very real here and the people as a whole do not seem to like tourists. They seem surprised when we greet them with their hello Do bree den. No smiles here.

Besides the people, there's an almost magical feeling here. The buildings are beautiful with so many different architectural styles: gothic, renaissance, baroque and rococco all in one square. I did not realize the Jewish past, Prague used to be the home of the most Jews in all of Europe Jews, now, there's less than 2,000 living here. Also great shopping here: crystal and garnets are very big. Our feet hurt here from the cobblestone streets which are so charming. La Vie Boheme! We went to a funky show, called Black Light Theatre, which is similar to Cirque du Soleil, very hard to describe.

My favorite part has been going to the local grocery stores and bookstores. Because the food here is nothing much to speak of (or we've just been spoiled by France), we've been somewhat low-key and eating some meals at our apartment. Yes, we're staying right in the Old Town square in an apartment that might be larger than where we live in Seattle! This place would be so much fun with a bunch of friends--we miss you guys.......

Swiss Alps: Dangerous beauty

Weäre staying in a resort town that doesnät have a pretentious feel at all, Murren. We had to take 2 trains and 2 funiculars to arrive at 5, 361 feet in the mountains. Itäs really beautiful, the water is crystal clear blue and the air even feels different. Ryan and I both felt light^headed from the high altitude but that quickly faded. Weäre staying in a bed and breakfast place with shared bathrooms, but itäs actually quite charming, a Swiss chalet.

Achtung!! We began our day today attempting to ascend the Jungfrau, the top of Europe but it was not clear at all. This should have been our warning. Instead, we decided to go on our own on a trail that started quite nice and ended with me panicking and wondering if we would make it to safety. We ascended 3, 000 feet in altitude!! We did not see a single human being until the very top. We tredged through water, mud, snow, and ice and at one point needed to sled down fresh snow to packed snow!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was panicky and in tears during the end of this hike. Unfortunately, we did not see anything at the top and it was raining on us and the first lift was not even open so we had to wait until the clouds lifted. We almost had to turn back, thank goodness we made it safely! We wonät be doing this again, so donät worry about us now.......

It is so nice to be dry and in safety. We took to much safer activities this afternoon: laundry and the local pool.....

Nice is nice

Sorry for the bad pun but it is true. Blue waters and gorgeous mountains too. Ryan enjoyed the sceneray as well, topless girls, ha. There was no sand, it was a pebble beach in Nice, which was actually nice. We ate socca and have had a lot of street food, including gelato 4 scoops each... Nice has a definite Italian feel.

We also visited Monaco, gorgeous yet again. I declined to pay 10 euro to gamble but Ryan took full advantage and won 25 euro, about 35 US dollars. All the tourists (I am guilty too) took pictures of the Ferraris and Lamborghinis.....

Unfortunately, we were not able to stay long as we would have liked as we did not book a train reservation in enough time so took an overnight train and have just arrived in Interlaken, Switzerland. Plus, the French were threatening a train strike. The train ride was actually not bad, we shared a cabin with a French guy who translated for us when we were stopped in Marseilles for almost 2 hours. At least we think he was saying the engine did not work, I believe Kaput to be an international term now!!!!

Ooh la la!

Bonjour! After a nearly sleepless night on the plane, we arrived in the land of poodles, public PDAs, great food and high fashion. Our hotel was in a Parisian neighborhood with an outdoor market and different shops for bread, cheese, olive oil, and chocolates. My kind of place! At first, my paltry French was embarrassing but I'm slowly getting used to saying Merci, etc. I was in culture shock and had major jet lag for the 1st 3 days (hence, no post here and the French keyboards are wickedly different); Ryan made us push through with our crazy schedule. Plus, everything took longer than we thought riding the subway with the connections and just trying to figure it all out. Anyway, 1st day we went to the Eiffel Tower (Cara's afraid of heights!), and the Sacre Coeur/Montmarte area. We had a fabulous meal and tables are so closse to each other that we had a great conversation with 2 French ladies about health care, French vs. US differences, and even politics (George Bush was mentioned:-)

The second day we overslept and were really dragging but still managed to enjoy a walk through the historic core of Paris with the touristy highlights: Notre Dame, Latin Quarter, St. Chappelle, the Orsay museum, Conciergerie (where Marie Antoinette spent her final days before her beheading--I'm obsessed with her-on our visit to Versailles even saw her own palace/grounds), and Ryan's favorite the sewer tour. Yes, we found out what happens after you flush in this big city. Let me just say it was stinky! Speaking of which, the bathrooms are quite horrendous. Anyone visiting Paris should always use ones in restaurants or hotels. I almost got locked in a public one, not funny at the time!!!!!

The food is AWESOME!! Onion soup, croissants, crepes, red wine, it's to die for. The cafes are set up to look at everyone walking by and so close together.

Versailles was a worthwhile trip. So opulent! We even rented bikes and frolicked around the grounds pretending to be royalty, ha. Then we visited Napoleon's tomb, that guy gets his own building and a huge tomb made of many materials with lots of security. Oh. to be an emperor.

We tredged up the 236 spiral steps to the Arc de Triomphe, views better than the Eiffel Tower in my opinion. But maybe that's because I wasn't as freaked out. Anyway, Paris is truly beautiful.... The tower has this laser show at night, it's all sparkly and did I mention our hotel room had a view of the top of the Tower?!

Of course, we visited the Louvre. Rick Steves has this podcast that we listened to from my Ipod so we weren't super overwhelmed. Took a cool pic of the upside down glass triangle from the Da Vinci code.

The last day we went to this neighborhood that one of the French ladies we had dinner with suggested. It was a pedestrian only street and a restaurant without an English menu. What made my day was I stopped a friendly looking Parisian and asked where the restaraunt was and she asked if I spoke French or English.... Ryan and I have a system where I've been asking for tables and to get the check and he pays!

Just now getting into the groove of traveling and the frustrations when you don't speak the language. Now I'm enjoying the differences more......

Jack & Ryan

I took a lot of pictures of Jack but this is probably the best one. He's very fast and I haven't yet learned how to photograph a moving toddler!

St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans

Texas time

Much time was spent this past week with my nephew/godson and family. My brother-in-law graduated from high shool and celebrated his 18th birthday; my sister-in-law had a birthday; I went to Austin to visit Leslie and REI/Whole Foods; and met up with Chandra and her kiddos for lunch. We've been hanging out by the pool or playing Scopa! and shopping and eating. If you haven't seen Backyardigans, you must! Boinga, boinga, boinga. MS feels like a distant memory...

Bon voyage!

2 people, 2 suitcases, 9 countries, 28 days.......

We are packed and ready for our fun-filled adventure. I hope our bodies are ready.....

It will take us almost 24 hours to get to Paris. We fly Lufthansa from Newark into Frankfurt before our final destination of Paris.

Europe, here we come!!!

Cinco de mayo fun

Back in Texas

We made it safely to the land of great Tex-Mex! We've already been to our favorite restaurant, Alamo Cafe for tortillas and margaritas! My godson, Jack, a 20-month old is a fun handful; we've made fast friends again. I promise to post pictures soon....

Goodbye, Mississippi!

And we're off....after saying goodbyes to good friends. Ryan had his separation ceremony and going-away lunch yesterday. Fleet's Eats was his choice for lunch, it's in this guy's house (I'm not kidding!) complete with mismatched plates and good ole southern food in crock pots. Here are a few of the unique range of going-away gifts he received: a pitch fork (to shovel shit), a caricature by local artist and co-worker Eugene Poole, a picture of a former Lt. who everyone got him mixed up with, and a Dora the Explorer lunch box with his favorite items: crunchy peanut butter, granola bars, and a juice box! And I am the proud owner of 4 dolphin prints by Gene (he has the coolest name--I never just call him Gene, always Gene Poole!). It has not fully sunk in that the Air Force years are behind us yet. Maybe it will as we see Columbus in the rear view mirror?!

Our last night was enjoyed with a few people from Ryan's work at Woody's on the Water at the marina. What an awesome last sunset! Definitely the prettiest part of Columbus.

And now we're off to New Orleans for the night. My last chance for beignets and po-boys!

Movie recommendation

Now that the fast pace of moving is over and most of my goodbyes have been said, I'm using my extra time to watch movies related to our upcoming Europe trip. So far I've rented Diary of Anne Frank and An American in Paris. Last night I watched Antonia's Line and highly recommend it. It's a Dutch film so if subtitles are not for you, ignore this post. Otherwise, you're in for a treat as this movie won the best foreign language film at the Toronto film festival in 1996. It's about 4 generations of strong-willed women in a small village in the verdant Dutch countryside. It seems Gabriel Garcia Marquez-ish in this way, even with a touch of magical realism. Let me know what you think.....

Gypsy Lifestyle

I feel so free!! We are now out of our house and living on lodging at the base. Our new adventure as gypsies has begun!!

But first, here's a quick rundown of our last 48 hours, so chaotic that I haven't had a chance to write. What we thought would be a 2 day process of moving (Mon & Tues) turned into just 1 (Mon) as extra movers were sent our way. The day before was a mad dash to pack everything we'd need for the summer and beyond all into our CR-V. And just how did we manage to do all this? With very little sleep and a whole lot of I don't care where this goes towards the end.

Here are some of the highlights:

• 3 suitcases each into the car (1 carry-on for Europe, 1 for summer, and 1 for Seattle and beyond) plus a myriad of other bags with snacks, etc.
• packers arrived early--we were still unloading the dishwasher & eating breakfast
• movers requested chicken & okra for lunch (both fried, of course!)
• you would not believe the number of people foraging through our piles of trash spilling out of the cans
• neighbors cleaned out our fridge--just can't throw good food away
• house is empty and cleaner than it's ever been

This moving process (as well as packing only 1 carry-on bag for a month in Europe as suggested by travel guru Rick Steves) has been freeing as I've realized we have way too much stuff for 2 people. Strange time in our lives to be downsizing, huh? We've had to be more organized with this move than any other as our furniture and all other items we don't really need (or won't fit in our car) will be in storage in Columbus until we find a place to live in Seattle. Plus, we have to factor in getting to know the neighborhoods as well as traffic patterns and commute times. The most distinguishing factor of this move is we'll be choosing where to live without regards to how long we'll be there. This is a foreign concept for me!!