Did you know that Seattle is closer to the north pole than Fargo, North Dakota?
Wow! Me neither!
Monday, November 21, 2005
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Flop
File this one under miscellaneous stories from the idiot realm.
As a consequence of chiropractic care, L & I have been using Tempurpedic curvy-neck pillows for a few months now. Once we got past the smell, (memory foam smells funny when it's new,) we were in love. Since the chiro office claimed to offer some 'deals' direct from the manufacturer, we'd been waiting bloody forever before making the plunge and getting the matching mattress.
With a free afternoon on last Saturday, we stopped at SleepCountry and took the plunge. 3 days later the smelly new beast was delivered and sitting atop our bedframe. It was as marvelous as it was tall, at least 3" taller than the last one.
L was there to accept the package and manage the movers, and she made up the bed all nice and inviting. I came home that night and she said to me, "Doesn't it just make you want to FLOP on it? I think if you don't flop on it, it won't like you and will reject you during the night."
What follows next will go down in the annals of Duchek history. Yes, that's exactly what I did. I flopped on it. Jump, extend, decend, land.
It was like belly-flopping onto the floor. Memory foam doesn't bounce. It doesn't respond to quick pressures. It was as gentile as cement wrapped in cardboard. Ever seen those cartoons where the coyote lands on water (in the desert?) and the water cracks?!? And then of course the coyote slowly sinks into the water.
I am the coyote. Goo-goo-ga-joob.
As a consequence of chiropractic care, L & I have been using Tempurpedic curvy-neck pillows for a few months now. Once we got past the smell, (memory foam smells funny when it's new,) we were in love. Since the chiro office claimed to offer some 'deals' direct from the manufacturer, we'd been waiting bloody forever before making the plunge and getting the matching mattress.
With a free afternoon on last Saturday, we stopped at SleepCountry and took the plunge. 3 days later the smelly new beast was delivered and sitting atop our bedframe. It was as marvelous as it was tall, at least 3" taller than the last one.
L was there to accept the package and manage the movers, and she made up the bed all nice and inviting. I came home that night and she said to me, "Doesn't it just make you want to FLOP on it? I think if you don't flop on it, it won't like you and will reject you during the night."
What follows next will go down in the annals of Duchek history. Yes, that's exactly what I did. I flopped on it. Jump, extend, decend, land.
It was like belly-flopping onto the floor. Memory foam doesn't bounce. It doesn't respond to quick pressures. It was as gentile as cement wrapped in cardboard. Ever seen those cartoons where the coyote lands on water (in the desert?) and the water cracks?!? And then of course the coyote slowly sinks into the water.
I am the coyote. Goo-goo-ga-joob.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Whidbey Island - Girls' Weekend!
So last weekend (Sept 16-18) Carrie, Kim and I had fantabulous girls' weekend! Carrie and Kim are two girls that I work with in MSN. Carrie is in the same job role as I am, and Kim is in a similar role, but it more client-facing.
Carrie's mom and stepdad recently purchased an adorable little cottage on Whidbey Island that they will be working on converting into their dream retirement abode. Before they start construction, Carrie has had free reign of the place as her parents prepare their move from Cali. The cottage was originally a honeymoon cottage the prior owners rented out to couples ostensibly on their honeymoons. It's a charming little place all of 700 square feet and has been voted as one of the most kissable locations in WA. Of greater value is the land the house sits on. Carrie's parents will have beach rights, a view of the Sound and prolly about 1/2 to a full acre of land. It is totally secluded, quiet and beautifully landscaped. (I tried to add more images, but this stupid prgram won't work.)
The 3 of us drove up there Friday night (got to take a ferry over), stocked up on food and drink and hung out for the remainder of the night. Saturday we slept late (surprise!) and wandered into the quaint little town of Langley. The town is full of antique shops, boutiques and restaurants and has a gorgeous view of the Cascades and the Sound. How nice it would be to live there. :) After a full day of shopping, I cooked the girls my famous fiery fettucine. About half way thru cooking, I found out Kim doesn't do well with spicy food. Doh!! I siphoned off a side serving of what was to be a far less spicier version of the sauce. Heh. Apparently I've blown my spice meter out of whack, as I somehow made her sauce even spicier than what I made for Carrie and me! DOH! She took it in stride tho and we managed to cool it down with some sour cream. :) We spent the rest of the night indulging in the humor of Eddie Izzard and a good game of Phase 10.
Sunday we made the trip to the north side of the island to check out Deception Pass. WOW! What an amazing view! We hiked around the national park for a bit before calling it quits and heading back to pack up for our trip home.
All in all, I had a great time hanging out with Kim and Carrie and it was wonderful to be able to escape from day to day life for the weekend. I definitely can't wait to bring Brian back there for the weekend or even just for a day trip!
Carrie's mom and stepdad recently purchased an adorable little cottage on Whidbey Island that they will be working on converting into their dream retirement abode. Before they start construction, Carrie has had free reign of the place as her parents prepare their move from Cali. The cottage was originally a honeymoon cottage the prior owners rented out to couples ostensibly on their honeymoons. It's a charming little place all of 700 square feet and has been voted as one of the most kissable locations in WA. Of greater value is the land the house sits on. Carrie's parents will have beach rights, a view of the Sound and prolly about 1/2 to a full acre of land. It is totally secluded, quiet and beautifully landscaped. (I tried to add more images, but this stupid prgram won't work.)
The 3 of us drove up there Friday night (got to take a ferry over), stocked up on food and drink and hung out for the remainder of the night. Saturday we slept late (surprise!) and wandered into the quaint little town of Langley. The town is full of antique shops, boutiques and restaurants and has a gorgeous view of the Cascades and the Sound. How nice it would be to live there. :) After a full day of shopping, I cooked the girls my famous fiery fettucine. About half way thru cooking, I found out Kim doesn't do well with spicy food. Doh!! I siphoned off a side serving of what was to be a far less spicier version of the sauce. Heh. Apparently I've blown my spice meter out of whack, as I somehow made her sauce even spicier than what I made for Carrie and me! DOH! She took it in stride tho and we managed to cool it down with some sour cream. :) We spent the rest of the night indulging in the humor of Eddie Izzard and a good game of Phase 10.
Sunday we made the trip to the north side of the island to check out Deception Pass. WOW! What an amazing view! We hiked around the national park for a bit before calling it quits and heading back to pack up for our trip home.
All in all, I had a great time hanging out with Kim and Carrie and it was wonderful to be able to escape from day to day life for the weekend. I definitely can't wait to bring Brian back there for the weekend or even just for a day trip!
Saturday, September 24, 2005
*SIGH*
I don't know what you are talking about, ROB, I posted about your trip out here. Go look around mid-August. It's A very nicely written post if I do say so myself. 0:)
*ETA: For those of you who may be utterly confused at this point, Rob keeps a journal on Live Journal. Rob posted about his trip out here a few weeks ago, and I just shamelessly lifted the original entry and copied it into the Duchette, changed a few "I"s to "he/Rob"s, and voila! a brand "new" entry was created that chronicled Rob's trip to Seattle.
*ETA: For those of you who may be utterly confused at this point, Rob keeps a journal on Live Journal. Rob posted about his trip out here a few weeks ago, and I just shamelessly lifted the original entry and copied it into the Duchette, changed a few "I"s to "he/Rob"s, and voila! a brand "new" entry was created that chronicled Rob's trip to Seattle.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
A lovely time!
Mom, Cathy and Bryan flew out and spent a week with us from Sept 3-9. I had such a wonderful time with them, and I am so glad they came out for the trip! I can't wait until they can come again!
I wish I'd posted details of their trip sooner, but alas, my laziness defeats me.
We spent the week leading up to their arrival in a cleaning frenzy. They flew in on Saturday afternoon, and I met them at the airport. We spent the afternoon/evening touring Redmond and the Microsoft campus. Mom stayed at our place and Cathy and Bryan stayed in the cat-free rental unit that our complex makes available to visiting guests.
Sunday morning we got up and piled in the car for our trip to Vancouver, Canada. This was my first ever trip to our northern neighbors, and I was super excited to check it out! We had a lot of fun wandering up and down Robson Street and we took a boat tour in the bay. The morning started off cloudy and dreary, but it cleared up into a gorgeous day! We ended our day with dinner in an authentic fast food Chinese restaurant.
On Monday, Cathy, Mom and I drove out to North Bend to meet our cousin Kym. Kym is my 3rd cousin, once removed on my mom's side. We were put into contact with each other thru another cousin, Robert. Kym is such a sweet person, and I am so excited to have family out here! I look forward to spending lots more time with her as we research our family tree. While we girls were hanging out, the Bri/yans hung out at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. Around sunset we all piled back into the car and drove out to Snoqualmie Falls. WOW! They are amazing! That evening we dined at Calabria - an Italian restaurant in downtown Kirkland. Yum!
Tuesday took Brian back to work, but I took Tuesday and Wednesday off to hang with the fam. :) Cathy, Bryan, Mom and I drove up to beautiful Mt. Rainier. Such a lovely drive and so many amazing views!!!
On Wednesday, we toured Seattle. We started at Pike Place market which was a big hit with everyone! Cathy kept telling me that I'd better appreciate having the market so close by. :) Then we headed over to Lake Union to catch our boat tour of Lakes Union and Washington. We had PERFECT weather which made the boat tour all the more lovely. From there, we drove over to the Space Needle. Cathy, Bryan and I took the trip to the top while Mom kept her feet planned firmly on terra firma. :) We saw some breathtaking views of the city and the mountains, and it was well worth going! We also lucked out by going during the week. Once we came back down to earth (HAR!), we jumped on the monorail and rode it back downtown.
An hour or so later, we met Brian at the ferry docks and boarded a ferry to Bainbridge Island. The key thing to note here is that we boarded just before sunset, so that we could see/experience this. And this. It was AMAZING!!
On Thursday I had to go back to work, so Cathy, Bryan and Mom went back to Seattle and had a blast at the market. :) For dinner that evening, we found a yummy restaurant in Issaquah called Lombardis Neighborhood Italian. Delish!
Sadly, Friday came far to quickly, and before I knew it, I was shedding tears and saying goodbye to everyone at the airport. I hate goodbyes. :( But I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing everyone again in November!!!
I wish I'd posted details of their trip sooner, but alas, my laziness defeats me.
We spent the week leading up to their arrival in a cleaning frenzy. They flew in on Saturday afternoon, and I met them at the airport. We spent the afternoon/evening touring Redmond and the Microsoft campus. Mom stayed at our place and Cathy and Bryan stayed in the cat-free rental unit that our complex makes available to visiting guests.
Sunday morning we got up and piled in the car for our trip to Vancouver, Canada. This was my first ever trip to our northern neighbors, and I was super excited to check it out! We had a lot of fun wandering up and down Robson Street and we took a boat tour in the bay. The morning started off cloudy and dreary, but it cleared up into a gorgeous day! We ended our day with dinner in an authentic fast food Chinese restaurant.
On Monday, Cathy, Mom and I drove out to North Bend to meet our cousin Kym. Kym is my 3rd cousin, once removed on my mom's side. We were put into contact with each other thru another cousin, Robert. Kym is such a sweet person, and I am so excited to have family out here! I look forward to spending lots more time with her as we research our family tree. While we girls were hanging out, the Bri/yans hung out at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. Around sunset we all piled back into the car and drove out to Snoqualmie Falls. WOW! They are amazing! That evening we dined at Calabria - an Italian restaurant in downtown Kirkland. Yum!
Tuesday took Brian back to work, but I took Tuesday and Wednesday off to hang with the fam. :) Cathy, Bryan, Mom and I drove up to beautiful Mt. Rainier. Such a lovely drive and so many amazing views!!!
On Wednesday, we toured Seattle. We started at Pike Place market which was a big hit with everyone! Cathy kept telling me that I'd better appreciate having the market so close by. :) Then we headed over to Lake Union to catch our boat tour of Lakes Union and Washington. We had PERFECT weather which made the boat tour all the more lovely. From there, we drove over to the Space Needle. Cathy, Bryan and I took the trip to the top while Mom kept her feet planned firmly on terra firma. :) We saw some breathtaking views of the city and the mountains, and it was well worth going! We also lucked out by going during the week. Once we came back down to earth (HAR!), we jumped on the monorail and rode it back downtown.
An hour or so later, we met Brian at the ferry docks and boarded a ferry to Bainbridge Island. The key thing to note here is that we boarded just before sunset, so that we could see/experience this. And this. It was AMAZING!!
On Thursday I had to go back to work, so Cathy, Bryan and Mom went back to Seattle and had a blast at the market. :) For dinner that evening, we found a yummy restaurant in Issaquah called Lombardis Neighborhood Italian. Delish!
Sadly, Friday came far to quickly, and before I knew it, I was shedding tears and saying goodbye to everyone at the airport. I hate goodbyes. :( But I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing everyone again in November!!!
We done been busy!
So I haven't posted in a long time, blah blah blah. You know the spiel. ;)
Work has been busy as ever for Brian and has started really ramping up for me. I've been starting to keep longer hours, and the days are going by pretty quickly. The good news is the frequency of visits to the chiro has finally dropped off, so that's made things a little more bearable w/r/t having more free time in the evenings.
Speaking of free time, I've picked up a new hobby. I'm learning Irish! Yes, it's a language, and no it is not a version of English. My class meets once a week for 2 hours on Monday nights. I've got 8 more weeks to go, so we'll see how I do. Dia dhuit! Conas ta tu? Slain. (Hello! How are you? Goodbye.) Hopefully I'll master a bit more than that!
Work has been busy as ever for Brian and has started really ramping up for me. I've been starting to keep longer hours, and the days are going by pretty quickly. The good news is the frequency of visits to the chiro has finally dropped off, so that's made things a little more bearable w/r/t having more free time in the evenings.
Speaking of free time, I've picked up a new hobby. I'm learning Irish! Yes, it's a language, and no it is not a version of English. My class meets once a week for 2 hours on Monday nights. I've got 8 more weeks to go, so we'll see how I do. Dia dhuit! Conas ta tu? Slain. (Hello! How are you? Goodbye.) Hopefully I'll master a bit more than that!
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We interrupt your regular blog surfing schedule for this PSA.
We, the Ducheks, suck at updating this blog. Thank you for your understanding.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog reading.
We, the Ducheks, suck at updating this blog. Thank you for your understanding.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog reading.
Saturday, September 03, 2005
A time for buying
We're buying people, us Ducheks. We drive the whole economy of the northwest US (or you'd think so based on how often we go to that damn Target store).
Anyway - today we noticed that the sales center for this new condo complex in downtown Redmond was open, so we stopped in. The 10 minutes we spent there was kinda strange. I've bought a home before, of course - but this is totally different. The people at The Cleveland have a very different approach to the whole experience. We're on a list, you see. #200 in the order of people who first contacted them about their measly 88 condos. As soon as we mentioned our rank to the staff in the center, they went all weird on us - insisting that we'll definitely get to keep our spot in the "rankings" and that we'd better get pre-approved for our loan right now. Here, you can speak to this loan rep from Wells Fargo right now if you like.
Weird, but not unheard of. It's obviously a high pressure sales environment, but it was also a little snooty. They don't even have prices listed for the place. The paint isn't dry in their model bathroom yet!
So I check out their website and see that they're offering somewhat sane pricing (~$200 to >$500 was the stated range, no specifics), and for a new construction, relatively luxurious condo that makes sense. I've not really priced out much else in town, but I think you can find a decent condo in Redmond for in that range (20 seconds on Housingmaps turned up a good find). Of course, things move so fast out here in the real estate market, I'm sure this will be gone in a flash.
Plus, it's not like there aren't other new construction condos going up in the neighborhood that might be better. The Cleveland folks aren't talking possession until Fall 2006 - so there's really no hurry. But still, prices like those might force us into one of those nasty interest only (gasp!) loans. What's a couple starting out (again) to do?
But us Ducheks... We're buyers you see. We buy. It's what we do.
Cheers!
Anyway - today we noticed that the sales center for this new condo complex in downtown Redmond was open, so we stopped in. The 10 minutes we spent there was kinda strange. I've bought a home before, of course - but this is totally different. The people at The Cleveland have a very different approach to the whole experience. We're on a list, you see. #200 in the order of people who first contacted them about their measly 88 condos. As soon as we mentioned our rank to the staff in the center, they went all weird on us - insisting that we'll definitely get to keep our spot in the "rankings" and that we'd better get pre-approved for our loan right now. Here, you can speak to this loan rep from Wells Fargo right now if you like.
Weird, but not unheard of. It's obviously a high pressure sales environment, but it was also a little snooty. They don't even have prices listed for the place. The paint isn't dry in their model bathroom yet!
So I check out their website and see that they're offering somewhat sane pricing (~$200 to >$500 was the stated range, no specifics), and for a new construction, relatively luxurious condo that makes sense. I've not really priced out much else in town, but I think you can find a decent condo in Redmond for in that range (20 seconds on Housingmaps turned up a good find). Of course, things move so fast out here in the real estate market, I'm sure this will be gone in a flash.
Plus, it's not like there aren't other new construction condos going up in the neighborhood that might be better. The Cleveland folks aren't talking possession until Fall 2006 - so there's really no hurry. But still, prices like those might force us into one of those nasty interest only (gasp!) loans. What's a couple starting out (again) to do?
But us Ducheks... We're buyers you see. We buy. It's what we do.
Cheers!
Monday, August 15, 2005
Taking Rob to the land of Starbucks. And Frasier. And Microsoft.
Wow. What a cool, cool, awesome, cool (if maybe a little warm) weekend. For those of you not quite "in the loop", Rob came out to Seattle this weekend to visit us.
On Friday Rob left work around 11:30 for the trek to Midway airport (first time there!). Went smoothly, though the Orange Line train stops so far away from the actual airport that they should have another train running between the two. Rob felt like he was in an old McDonalds commercial with MJ & Larry Bird... "Up the stairs, over the bridge, through the parking garage, down the walkway, through the doors,... nothing but net." Since Rob had taken advantage of Southwest's online checkin, once he was through security he had quite a bit of time to kill. Checked out the Battle of Midway exhibit for a bit, got some grub, then eventually got onto the plane for the first leg of the trip... Oakland!
California in his little universe now consists of a hotel, a couple of restaurants, and TWO airports (it was just one airport before this weekend). He hung out at the Oakland airport for a bit longer than he wanted to since his flight to Seattle was delayed by like an hour and a half. By the time he finally got to Seattle (around 9:30 Pacific Time), it was dark and he couldn't see any of the cool sights from the air. However, I came out to pick Rob up in my way, way cool new car so it was a nifty ride from the airport to Duchek Inn West. Stayed up 'til 1 or so (I think) visiting and discussing plans for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday morning(ish) we got up, and BD & Rob headed out to one of the local farmer's markets so he could see what we keep raving about in all our e-mails to him. It's a very nice, small market, with maybe a couple dozen vendors selling everything from fresh fruits & veggies to flowers to crepes and donuts!
After some discussion and some lounging (this is vacation for Rob, after all!), we headed out to the Museum of Flight next to Boeing Field. OHMYGOD, Rob has found his west-coast paradise. He'll post pics later this week, but among the very many notable planes there were a Concorde (!), an old Air Force One (used by JFK among others), the prototype 747, the prototype 737, an M-21 Blackbird/D-21 combo (imagine an SR-71 Blackbird and its baby), an RQ-3A DarkStar recon drone, a bunch of WWII planes (including some REAL rarities!), and... okay, I'll shut up now. Wait for his pics. They're cool.
Following the museum I took us on a little tour of the Microsoft MSN campus. Wow. That so does NOT seem like a business... more like a college campus! It is absolutely amazing. Say all the bad stuff you want about Microsoft (Rob sure won't stop ya!), but they definitely do know how to make their employees comfy! We then went back to Chez Duchek and had dinner (I apparently made some really tasty lasagna!!!!) and Rob helped rearrange some furniture (or maybe that was Sunday... I don't remember). We watched some TV and talked until not terribly late (so as to get a bit of an earlier start the next day), then called it a day.
Sunday we started with a cool breakfast at a Southwestern-type place called Desert Fire. Not bad!! Then we stopped at Pike Place Market, which was really neat. All sorts of different shops and food places (including some very amusing fish-sellers). After that we took a two-hour boat tour of the lakes around Seattle. Got to see neat stuff like all the floating homes (including the one from Sleepless in Seattle... don't remember the movie that well, but I guess it made the house famous), Bill Gates' house (HUUUUGE!), the world's largest floating concrete structure (a bridge), and a ton of other nifty things.
After that, it was back to Duchek Inn West for more lasagna and a relaxing evening of TV and talkin'. Couldn't stay up too late 'cuz it was a school night.
Monday morning we got up early and Rob said g'bye to BD as he went out for a pre-work run. I gave Rob a ride to the airport (in the kewl car!) before heading back to work. We hit NO traffic (unexpectedly... traffic in Seattle sucks ass), so we got to the airport in plenty of time to catch his plane... especially considering that it was 45 minutes late! He got a fantastic view of Mount Rainier on the way out of town. Took a couple of pics of it (which he'll post later). Made it to Vegas, where he had just about enough time to get off the plane, walk down three gates, and get in line for the flight to Chicago. So much for his first trip to Las Vegas being all exciting! He'd been hoping to at least have a chance to walk around the airport a bit. Oh well.
Anyway, on the way out of Vegas Rob was treated to a beautiful overhead view of the Grand Canyon. Truly spectacular. No pics, unfortunately, as he couldn't reach his camera (it was too far under the seat in front of him). Well, despite leaving Las Vegas almost half an hour late, he still made it in to Chicago on time. Pilot-boy must'a been pourin' on the coal or caught a nice tailwind or something. After an hour and a half or so of train rides, he finally walked back in the door at home.
On Friday Rob left work around 11:30 for the trek to Midway airport (first time there!). Went smoothly, though the Orange Line train stops so far away from the actual airport that they should have another train running between the two. Rob felt like he was in an old McDonalds commercial with MJ & Larry Bird... "Up the stairs, over the bridge, through the parking garage, down the walkway, through the doors,... nothing but net." Since Rob had taken advantage of Southwest's online checkin, once he was through security he had quite a bit of time to kill. Checked out the Battle of Midway exhibit for a bit, got some grub, then eventually got onto the plane for the first leg of the trip... Oakland!
California in his little universe now consists of a hotel, a couple of restaurants, and TWO airports (it was just one airport before this weekend). He hung out at the Oakland airport for a bit longer than he wanted to since his flight to Seattle was delayed by like an hour and a half. By the time he finally got to Seattle (around 9:30 Pacific Time), it was dark and he couldn't see any of the cool sights from the air. However, I came out to pick Rob up in my way, way cool new car so it was a nifty ride from the airport to Duchek Inn West. Stayed up 'til 1 or so (I think) visiting and discussing plans for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday morning(ish) we got up, and BD & Rob headed out to one of the local farmer's markets so he could see what we keep raving about in all our e-mails to him. It's a very nice, small market, with maybe a couple dozen vendors selling everything from fresh fruits & veggies to flowers to crepes and donuts!
After some discussion and some lounging (this is vacation for Rob, after all!), we headed out to the Museum of Flight next to Boeing Field. OHMYGOD, Rob has found his west-coast paradise. He'll post pics later this week, but among the very many notable planes there were a Concorde (!), an old Air Force One (used by JFK among others), the prototype 747, the prototype 737, an M-21 Blackbird/D-21 combo (imagine an SR-71 Blackbird and its baby), an RQ-3A DarkStar recon drone, a bunch of WWII planes (including some REAL rarities!), and... okay, I'll shut up now. Wait for his pics. They're cool.
Following the museum I took us on a little tour of the Microsoft MSN campus. Wow. That so does NOT seem like a business... more like a college campus! It is absolutely amazing. Say all the bad stuff you want about Microsoft (Rob sure won't stop ya!), but they definitely do know how to make their employees comfy! We then went back to Chez Duchek and had dinner (I apparently made some really tasty lasagna!!!!) and Rob helped rearrange some furniture (or maybe that was Sunday... I don't remember). We watched some TV and talked until not terribly late (so as to get a bit of an earlier start the next day), then called it a day.
Sunday we started with a cool breakfast at a Southwestern-type place called Desert Fire. Not bad!! Then we stopped at Pike Place Market, which was really neat. All sorts of different shops and food places (including some very amusing fish-sellers). After that we took a two-hour boat tour of the lakes around Seattle. Got to see neat stuff like all the floating homes (including the one from Sleepless in Seattle... don't remember the movie that well, but I guess it made the house famous), Bill Gates' house (HUUUUGE!), the world's largest floating concrete structure (a bridge), and a ton of other nifty things.
After that, it was back to Duchek Inn West for more lasagna and a relaxing evening of TV and talkin'. Couldn't stay up too late 'cuz it was a school night.
Monday morning we got up early and Rob said g'bye to BD as he went out for a pre-work run. I gave Rob a ride to the airport (in the kewl car!) before heading back to work. We hit NO traffic (unexpectedly... traffic in Seattle sucks ass), so we got to the airport in plenty of time to catch his plane... especially considering that it was 45 minutes late! He got a fantastic view of Mount Rainier on the way out of town. Took a couple of pics of it (which he'll post later). Made it to Vegas, where he had just about enough time to get off the plane, walk down three gates, and get in line for the flight to Chicago. So much for his first trip to Las Vegas being all exciting! He'd been hoping to at least have a chance to walk around the airport a bit. Oh well.
Anyway, on the way out of Vegas Rob was treated to a beautiful overhead view of the Grand Canyon. Truly spectacular. No pics, unfortunately, as he couldn't reach his camera (it was too far under the seat in front of him). Well, despite leaving Las Vegas almost half an hour late, he still made it in to Chicago on time. Pilot-boy must'a been pourin' on the coal or caught a nice tailwind or something. After an hour and a half or so of train rides, he finally walked back in the door at home.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Weekend Fun!
**ARGH! Stupid blogger just lost my whole post. Now I have to re-write it all over again. GRR!**
So this weekend was super busy and went by in a flash! On Friday afternoon, my team hosted a "mix 'n' mingle" BBQ to help us get to know the sales team better. We'll be rolling out our new product soon, so we are hoping to foster good working relationships with sales. I had a lot of fun hanging out and watching people play basketball & volleyball, listening to tunes, and chatting. We had a full spread complete with beer, wine and margaritas! Yum!
Friday evening, my friend Carrie and I headed down to Seattle for dinner and a show. We ate at this neat little restaurant near Pike Place called Matt's on the Market. Definitely some good eats at this little hideaway! Afterwards, we made our way over to the theatre for some improv. It was pretty funny and I'd definitely go again. That's the beauty of improv--a different show everytime.
Saturday morning, B and I went to the Redmond Market and we picked up some delicious blackberries and a beautiful boquet of flowers. Then that afternoon, I took a huge step and finally met my friend Chelsea. See, we met online and have been emailing for a few weeks. She is super funny and we have some similar interests. We decided to finally meet up and opted for a movie. We saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I loved it! I liked it way more than the original version. Depp was great, but definitely demented in this role. I can only imagine how creepy Chirstopher Walken would've been had he been cast as Willy Wonka instead! After the movie, we wound up hanging out for 3 hours just talking and sharing stories. I really hope that this is the beginning of a good friendship as I had a lot of fun hanging out with her. :)
Finally on Sunday, B, Carrie and I dragged out our costumes and went to the Camlann Medieval Village. We were a little, um, "fashion forward" in our Elizabethian garb as this village was set in the time of King Arthur - about 200 years earlier. It was a gorgeous setting in the woods and the weather was absolutely perfect. This was the first faire where B wasn't totally roasting in his costume. :) The highlight of the festival was taking part in the Feast. Here is
Oh wow was that delicious!! We are seriously thinking about going back for the Yule Feast in December. It was also neat eating period food while in costume. I had to loosen the stays on my corset to make room for all the food!!
So that about wraps up the weekend. And hopefully this blog will see some more regular updates. :)
So this weekend was super busy and went by in a flash! On Friday afternoon, my team hosted a "mix 'n' mingle" BBQ to help us get to know the sales team better. We'll be rolling out our new product soon, so we are hoping to foster good working relationships with sales. I had a lot of fun hanging out and watching people play basketball & volleyball, listening to tunes, and chatting. We had a full spread complete with beer, wine and margaritas! Yum!
Friday evening, my friend Carrie and I headed down to Seattle for dinner and a show. We ate at this neat little restaurant near Pike Place called Matt's on the Market. Definitely some good eats at this little hideaway! Afterwards, we made our way over to the theatre for some improv. It was pretty funny and I'd definitely go again. That's the beauty of improv--a different show everytime.
Saturday morning, B and I went to the Redmond Market and we picked up some delicious blackberries and a beautiful boquet of flowers. Then that afternoon, I took a huge step and finally met my friend Chelsea. See, we met online and have been emailing for a few weeks. She is super funny and we have some similar interests. We decided to finally meet up and opted for a movie. We saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I loved it! I liked it way more than the original version. Depp was great, but definitely demented in this role. I can only imagine how creepy Chirstopher Walken would've been had he been cast as Willy Wonka instead! After the movie, we wound up hanging out for 3 hours just talking and sharing stories. I really hope that this is the beginning of a good friendship as I had a lot of fun hanging out with her. :)
Finally on Sunday, B, Carrie and I dragged out our costumes and went to the Camlann Medieval Village. We were a little, um, "fashion forward" in our Elizabethian garb as this village was set in the time of King Arthur - about 200 years earlier. It was a gorgeous setting in the woods and the weather was absolutely perfect. This was the first faire where B wasn't totally roasting in his costume. :) The highlight of the festival was taking part in the Feast. Here is
Le Menu i cours
TRENCHER BREAD (to eat & to eat upon)
ALMOND FRITURES
A GRETE HERB & FLOWER SALAT
BUTTERED WORTES (greens sautéed in butter)
FENBERRY PYE (pork, chicken & berries)
ROSTE BEEF ALIPER (pepper sauce)
SYROSYE (sweet cherry pudding)
TABLE WINE - MUSTE (spiced juice)
ii cours
A DISSH METE FOR SUMMER (spiced chicken morsels)
MINCES (steamed buttered broccoli)
EGREDOUCE (sour & sweet beef & onions)
HENNES IN GRAUEY (roast chicken in sweet ginger sauce)
FRESH FRUIT OF THE SEASON
ENGLISH CHEESES
TABLE WINE - MUSTE
Oh wow was that delicious!! We are seriously thinking about going back for the Yule Feast in December. It was also neat eating period food while in costume. I had to loosen the stays on my corset to make room for all the food!!
So that about wraps up the weekend. And hopefully this blog will see some more regular updates. :)
*whoosh* wow, that's a lot of dust!
All right all right all right...long time no post. To all of our loyal readers (if any of you are still left out there!), our deepest apologies. Can you ever forgive us? :)
So we've been kinda busy these last few weeks playing with the new car, working, taking trips back to Chicago, visiting the chiropractor and all that fun stuff. I can hardly believe it's August already!
So our trip home was so much fun but altogether too short. I was so happy to hang out with everyone and get caught up on everyone's goings on. It was hard coming back here and realizing that Seattle is now "home" for us--at least at this point in our lives. I felt so displaced when I got to the airport and it sort of hit me that getting on the plane to go to Seattle wasn't a vacation from life in Chicago. But the upside is we've got visitors coming out here! Rob arrives this weekend, and Mom, Cathy & Bryan will be here the first week in September. I can't wait!! :)
So we've been kinda busy these last few weeks playing with the new car, working, taking trips back to Chicago, visiting the chiropractor and all that fun stuff. I can hardly believe it's August already!
So our trip home was so much fun but altogether too short. I was so happy to hang out with everyone and get caught up on everyone's goings on. It was hard coming back here and realizing that Seattle is now "home" for us--at least at this point in our lives. I felt so displaced when I got to the airport and it sort of hit me that getting on the plane to go to Seattle wasn't a vacation from life in Chicago. But the upside is we've got visitors coming out here! Rob arrives this weekend, and Mom, Cathy & Bryan will be here the first week in September. I can't wait!! :)
Friday, July 15, 2005
YAY!
We got a new car!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Poor Beaker (the yellow car) has been traded in for a much cooler, much more exciting, much FASTER Audi TT Quattro convertible. Here's a picture of one. This isn't OURs but it's pretty darn close. We'll definitely be posting pictures of our new baby soon. :)
I am having so much fun driving it all over!! I have never enjoyed driving a car more than I have this one. Yay!!! Happy to have a convertible again!!!
Poor Beaker (the yellow car) has been traded in for a much cooler, much more exciting, much FASTER Audi TT Quattro convertible. Here's a picture of one. This isn't OURs but it's pretty darn close. We'll definitely be posting pictures of our new baby soon. :)
I am having so much fun driving it all over!! I have never enjoyed driving a car more than I have this one. Yay!!! Happy to have a convertible again!!!
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Day of Car Shopping
Yesterday resulted in a couple great test drives at the BMW and Audi dealerships in Seattle.
First stop was at a boutique car dealer in Bellevue, Park Place Ltd. I think it was called. We took a peek at a TT that was all blue on the exterior, and had the "baseball"” interior package.
Second stop was our 4pm appointment with Knight at Seattle BMW. Great guy &– very nice salesman. Went out with us on the test drive to show us where the cool “curvy roads were. Prime experience driving the two roadsters. They'’re very pleasant cars to drive.
On a lark, we decided to try and find University Audi, a dealer we saw across from a restaurant we'd dined at weeks ago. It was past 6pm, so we weren'’t sure that it'’d still be open (it was, till 7) or if they'd have any TT's in our range (they did).
The test drive was the last of the day, and it was on an '‘02. CPO, metallic black on black interior, premium audio, the works, black italian leather seats TT quatro roadster.
It was pretty much the only test drive that made Lisa giggle, so we had this vehicle as our 1st choice at the end of the day. I convinced Lisa that we should go home and sleep on it, and if she still felt as strongly the next day, we could go back and make them an offer.
It was a little bit out of our price range at their asking price, but if I can get them to come down a couple grand, then we should be able to do the deal.
The next step will be the fun part, negotiation...
Thursday, July 07, 2005
4th of July
We had our first visitor this weekend! Jim made his first trip to the west coast and we did our darndest to show him a good time!
We spent Saturday perusing cars and narrowing down our list of convertibles we're interested in. Jim knows his stuff when it comes to cars so it was a lot of fun having him along for the ride. (har har har!!) That evening, Jim got his first taste of Thai food at a nice little place in downtown Bellevue. We finished off the evening watching "In Good Company."
Sunday we were pretty lazy in the morning, but finally got moving and went to visit the 2 wineries in Woodinville (about 20 min away). We had fun tasting different wines and even got to take a tour at the Columbia Winery. It was pretty neat seeing thousands of barrels of wine in the cellars. Afterwards, we went into downtown Seattle and Rode the Ducks! Sounds cheezy, I know, but it was actually really neat! The "duck" is the land/sea vehicle used in WW II. They've converted a lot of them into vehicles used for tours for folks like us. We got to cram in a lot of the sights of Seattle AND got to cruise around in Lake Union and they even pointed out the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat! It was a really neat tour, and I'm glad we did it!
On Monday, we headed back down into the city and staked out our spot for the fireworks at Gas Works Park in the Freemont neighborhood which is right on Lake Union. We were there by 3pm (seriously!) and it was already pretty full of people! Since we didn't want to spend the next 7 hours laying in the sun, we hopped a bus back into the downtown area and showed Jim the famous Pike Place Market. It was pretty close to closing so we didn't spend too much time there. We did make it back to the park with plenty of time and were relieved to see our spot was still in tact. We wound up with a pretty sweet spot and were quite impressed with the fantastic show they put on! I'll have to post some pics of our view sometime soon. :)
We spent Saturday perusing cars and narrowing down our list of convertibles we're interested in. Jim knows his stuff when it comes to cars so it was a lot of fun having him along for the ride. (har har har!!) That evening, Jim got his first taste of Thai food at a nice little place in downtown Bellevue. We finished off the evening watching "In Good Company."
Sunday we were pretty lazy in the morning, but finally got moving and went to visit the 2 wineries in Woodinville (about 20 min away). We had fun tasting different wines and even got to take a tour at the Columbia Winery. It was pretty neat seeing thousands of barrels of wine in the cellars. Afterwards, we went into downtown Seattle and Rode the Ducks! Sounds cheezy, I know, but it was actually really neat! The "duck" is the land/sea vehicle used in WW II. They've converted a lot of them into vehicles used for tours for folks like us. We got to cram in a lot of the sights of Seattle AND got to cruise around in Lake Union and they even pointed out the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat! It was a really neat tour, and I'm glad we did it!
On Monday, we headed back down into the city and staked out our spot for the fireworks at Gas Works Park in the Freemont neighborhood which is right on Lake Union. We were there by 3pm (seriously!) and it was already pretty full of people! Since we didn't want to spend the next 7 hours laying in the sun, we hopped a bus back into the downtown area and showed Jim the famous Pike Place Market. It was pretty close to closing so we didn't spend too much time there. We did make it back to the park with plenty of time and were relieved to see our spot was still in tact. We wound up with a pretty sweet spot and were quite impressed with the fantastic show they put on! I'll have to post some pics of our view sometime soon. :)
Sold!
So it is official. We have sold the house. It kind of strikes me as odd that we closed on the same day as Dad's birthday. He must've been watching out for us. :) It doesn't seem very real to me yet for some odd reason, but it's true. I'm feeling something of a bittersweet relief right now. I'm very sad to see it go, but at the same time very relieved to have the worry off of my shoulders. I can't believe we got if off of our hands in 5.5 weeks--3 weeks really from when we got the initial offer. I thought for sure it'd be months before we sold. So yay! for not blowing thru our savings!
Although, I have to say, it certainly does seem like the universe is telling us that we made the right choice. I mean looking at the obstacles we faced in making the decision to move out here, it seemed like we really had some challenges ahead of us. But within 6 weeks, Brian found a job, we found a place to live and now we've sold the house. All huge things that could have easily taken a heck of a lot longer than 6 weeks. So did we make the right choice in coming out here? Judging from this recent series of major life events, it certainly seems like we did. I still say that decision was the hardest choice I ever had to make, but so far it looks like it's been a good one.
So what's next? Well, we can relax a little bit about our financial situation. There's rumors rumbling about those crazy Ducheks thinking about trading in their Lancer for a convertible. Mmmm....I do miss my Eclipse. We've also booked our tickets for our trip back to Chicago at the end of July. We hope that we have the chance to visit with everyone in IL!
Although, I have to say, it certainly does seem like the universe is telling us that we made the right choice. I mean looking at the obstacles we faced in making the decision to move out here, it seemed like we really had some challenges ahead of us. But within 6 weeks, Brian found a job, we found a place to live and now we've sold the house. All huge things that could have easily taken a heck of a lot longer than 6 weeks. So did we make the right choice in coming out here? Judging from this recent series of major life events, it certainly seems like we did. I still say that decision was the hardest choice I ever had to make, but so far it looks like it's been a good one.
So what's next? Well, we can relax a little bit about our financial situation. There's rumors rumbling about those crazy Ducheks thinking about trading in their Lancer for a convertible. Mmmm....I do miss my Eclipse. We've also booked our tickets for our trip back to Chicago at the end of July. We hope that we have the chance to visit with everyone in IL!
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Big News
Well kids, here's the last bit of news we've all been waiting for. We've accepted an offer on our house in Gilberts. I have very mixed feelings about the whole thing. A big part of me is going to be extremely relieved to have that worry gone and not have to think about how we're gonna manange two payments. The other part of me is saddened to see our house turned over to someone else. We'll pretty much be coming out of the deal with little more than we started with which is kinda depressing when I think back to our original goal behind buying the house. But I need to remember that the bigger thing is we won't be losing money by paying on a mortgage for an empty house and that to truly have made that investment worth it, we would have had to stay there for a lot longer.
So I've been having these roller coaster feelings where one moment I'm feeling so relieved and then suddenly I just feel like I want to cry and barf all at the same time. I hate getting so attached to things. But B made an excellent observation the other day. He said that instead of investing in real estate, now we're investing in ourselves. With the move out here, we have the chance to financially start over and and start making some wiser decisions. That alone will offer tremendous piece of mind.
So yay! We have an offer! This is that last piece of business that needed taking care of, and given what we were up against (the builder) we're damn lucky that we sold within 3 weeks of being on the market. I am so thankful that we've been so blessed how this whole adventure is turning out. We're both employed, we have a place to live and now we're getting that house sold. Of course, no formal celebrations until the papers are signed and the keys handed over. Don't want to jinx ourselves!!!!
So I've been having these roller coaster feelings where one moment I'm feeling so relieved and then suddenly I just feel like I want to cry and barf all at the same time. I hate getting so attached to things. But B made an excellent observation the other day. He said that instead of investing in real estate, now we're investing in ourselves. With the move out here, we have the chance to financially start over and and start making some wiser decisions. That alone will offer tremendous piece of mind.
So yay! We have an offer! This is that last piece of business that needed taking care of, and given what we were up against (the builder) we're damn lucky that we sold within 3 weeks of being on the market. I am so thankful that we've been so blessed how this whole adventure is turning out. We're both employed, we have a place to live and now we're getting that house sold. Of course, no formal celebrations until the papers are signed and the keys handed over. Don't want to jinx ourselves!!!!
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Thursday, June 16, 2005
For my geek friends: The Importance of RSS
There's an article on particletree about The Importance of RSS, and it hits on so much cool stuff related to both of what Lisa & I do professionally, that I had to post it up here for my geek-homies back in Chi-town.
Dig. (and block out some time to crawl over some of the annotations in the article for those of you not already familiar with things like Delicious and google.com/ig - they're the bomb!)
Dig. (and block out some time to crawl over some of the annotations in the article for those of you not already familiar with things like Delicious and google.com/ig - they're the bomb!)
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Making Friends in Seattle
Maybe you've heard, but there's a phenomenon out here in Seattle (so they say), and I even found a radio show covering it: 94.9 KUOW: Seattle's NPR News and Information Station has a show "The Conversation", which had a piece called How to make friends in Seattle
Anyone else have any thoughts on making friendships? I'm of the opinion that if there is such a thing as a Seattle Freeze, then it's just an expression of basic rudeness. Back in Chicago, there were certainly as many rude people as not, and it was easy to just ignore the jerks, right?
So I pose this to my friends and family back home:
I've been occupied with moving and managing daily life's more obvious details, plus work and silly things like opening bank accounts, so I've not had tons of time to explore this idea of "community-building" and all the things that fight against it.
Seattle has a reputation for being a hard place to make friends. The conventional wisdom is that there's a bland niceness. But often it'’s hard to break beyond the superficial. It's been called the phenomenon of the plastic smile. And the Seattle freeze. Is that reputation deserved? Have you had a hard time making friends in the Seattle area? Why do you suppose that is? There's a class in how to make friends in Seattle. What can it teach?
Anyone else have any thoughts on making friendships? I'm of the opinion that if there is such a thing as a Seattle Freeze, then it's just an expression of basic rudeness. Back in Chicago, there were certainly as many rude people as not, and it was easy to just ignore the jerks, right?
So I pose this to my friends and family back home:
- How do you make friends?
- How many times do you offer yourself to a new potential friend?
- Have you been anywhere that was more or less friendly than your hometown?
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Ahhh....our stuff
Random events...
We did it! We made it to our new townhome! It's been fun unpacking--it's like Christmas opening up all of our boxes and rediscovering what is in them. :)
I get to take a half day tomorrow since I screwed up our cable guy appt. So of course that means we have now missed 2 episodes of Six Feet Under. *SOB*
We've also started seeing a chiropractor. My back is pretty messed up. :( But I'm hoping that this treatment will really help get it straightened out. Har har har! Seriously tho, I do like this place. They really take the time to examine you and work out a treatment plan. X-rays and everything! I'm excited to see what the results will be like in a year. (Yes, I know--a year, but I think it'll be worth it.)
Ug. I so hate Verizon right now. They assigned us a phone number last week, but it didn't work all weekend despite us having a dial tone. So on Monday, Verizon calls can says it's all set up and we're good to go. I called the number from my office and it worked fine. So I'm talking to my sister later on and she goes to call me back on the land line. She tried a couple of times and got the Landons' voice mail. So I tried calling it from my cell phone, and sure enough, same problem. Calls to our home phone from a local number worked fine. Calls from a long distance number resulted in getting the Landons' voicemail. ARGH. So I call Verizon on Tuesday, and they tell me that the only way to fix it is to give us a new number. After I'd already sent out our new contact info to oh, 115 people!!!! I was NOT a happy camper. But there wasn't any other option, so we've got a new number, which you should all have now. Hopefully THIS one will stay consistent.
We did it! We made it to our new townhome! It's been fun unpacking--it's like Christmas opening up all of our boxes and rediscovering what is in them. :)
I get to take a half day tomorrow since I screwed up our cable guy appt. So of course that means we have now missed 2 episodes of Six Feet Under. *SOB*
We've also started seeing a chiropractor. My back is pretty messed up. :( But I'm hoping that this treatment will really help get it straightened out. Har har har! Seriously tho, I do like this place. They really take the time to examine you and work out a treatment plan. X-rays and everything! I'm excited to see what the results will be like in a year. (Yes, I know--a year, but I think it'll be worth it.)
Ug. I so hate Verizon right now. They assigned us a phone number last week, but it didn't work all weekend despite us having a dial tone. So on Monday, Verizon calls can says it's all set up and we're good to go. I called the number from my office and it worked fine. So I'm talking to my sister later on and she goes to call me back on the land line. She tried a couple of times and got the Landons' voice mail. So I tried calling it from my cell phone, and sure enough, same problem. Calls to our home phone from a local number worked fine. Calls from a long distance number resulted in getting the Landons' voicemail. ARGH. So I call Verizon on Tuesday, and they tell me that the only way to fix it is to give us a new number. After I'd already sent out our new contact info to oh, 115 people!!!! I was NOT a happy camper. But there wasn't any other option, so we've got a new number, which you should all have now. Hopefully THIS one will stay consistent.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Busy week!
This is (hopefully) my final post from Mercer Island - YAY!
It's been a surprisingly busy last few days! Work was quiet on Monday and Tuesday, but then we went into training/orientation for the remainder of the week. We have 3 new people on our team: Jeff, Carrie and Rich. They all came from the same company as one of the other girls on our team.
On Wednesday, we hiked over to main campus and hung out in a conf room and had the opportunity to meet with and listen to several people from the organization present and share info with us.
Thursday, we started the morning with training on the tool we'll be working with and then did lots of team building exercises in the afternoon. They were really interesting, but fun too. The actual exercises are kinda hard to explain, but it really fostered building communication skills, learning each other's styles and team building.
Then that evening, we had a VERY nice dinner at the Fish Club in downtown Seattle and it was all on Uncle Bill's tab. Some senior people on the team joined us so we all got to talk with lots of different people which was really cool. There were about 15 of us and the bill was $3,000!!!!!! Can you believe that?!
Finally, one of the biggest highlights of the week culminated in this evenings event. WE STARTED MOVING INTO OUR PLACE IN REDMOND!!! YAY!!!!! I am so excited to see all our STUFF and to finally be able to settle in. We've got a long way to go, but we did manage to get the kitchen nearly finished tonight. We plan to be sleeping there by tomorrow and to have the cats there by Sunday. I'm looking forward to my new 3 mile commute on Monday! :)
It's been a surprisingly busy last few days! Work was quiet on Monday and Tuesday, but then we went into training/orientation for the remainder of the week. We have 3 new people on our team: Jeff, Carrie and Rich. They all came from the same company as one of the other girls on our team.
On Wednesday, we hiked over to main campus and hung out in a conf room and had the opportunity to meet with and listen to several people from the organization present and share info with us.
Thursday, we started the morning with training on the tool we'll be working with and then did lots of team building exercises in the afternoon. They were really interesting, but fun too. The actual exercises are kinda hard to explain, but it really fostered building communication skills, learning each other's styles and team building.
Then that evening, we had a VERY nice dinner at the Fish Club in downtown Seattle and it was all on Uncle Bill's tab. Some senior people on the team joined us so we all got to talk with lots of different people which was really cool. There were about 15 of us and the bill was $3,000!!!!!! Can you believe that?!
Finally, one of the biggest highlights of the week culminated in this evenings event. WE STARTED MOVING INTO OUR PLACE IN REDMOND!!! YAY!!!!! I am so excited to see all our STUFF and to finally be able to settle in. We've got a long way to go, but we did manage to get the kitchen nearly finished tonight. We plan to be sleeping there by tomorrow and to have the cats there by Sunday. I'm looking forward to my new 3 mile commute on Monday! :)
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Baby Huyett has arrived!
For those of you who know the Huyett boys, Mike and Rob, you'll be excited to know that Mike is now a daddy! Karrin had a 10 lb 20 inch boy this morning who they've named Benjamin Thomas. Congrats to Uncle Rob too!
Weekend Laziness
Yeah--nothing too exciting to post for this weekend. I spent pretty much the whole day Saturday in my jammies watching ABC Family chick flicks. It was nice not having to worry about being anywhere and being able to just veg out. Next weekend we will hopefully be unpacking and getting settled into our new place! Man, I CAN'T WAIT!!!
Today (Sunday) we went to Pike Place Market and got some fresh fruit, yummy garlic spread and another beautiful bouquet of flowers. Don't worry--we plan on taking everyone there when you each come and visit. :)
Today (Sunday) we went to Pike Place Market and got some fresh fruit, yummy garlic spread and another beautiful bouquet of flowers. Don't worry--we plan on taking everyone there when you each come and visit. :)
Friday, June 03, 2005
We've survived....
...week 2! Wow--I can't believe we've been here for two full weeks already. It doesn't seem real. It was a pretty quiet rest of the week. Next week is going to be a lot busier at work with our orientation for the Search department. I also found out that Sean and I are gonna get a new roomie. Yikes--it's gonna be squished in our office. :(
After work today, my department went out for Happy Hour. Did I mention Happy Hour started at 3? Yay! We went to a restaurant/bar in Kirkland called Cactus. I had the best mojito ever there. YUM! We hung out for couple of hours, and it was all on Bill's tab. :)
We don't have too much planned for the weekend, so we'll see where that leaves us. One more week until we move into our townhome!!!
After work today, my department went out for Happy Hour. Did I mention Happy Hour started at 3? Yay! We went to a restaurant/bar in Kirkland called Cactus. I had the best mojito ever there. YUM! We hung out for couple of hours, and it was all on Bill's tab. :)
We don't have too much planned for the weekend, so we'll see where that leaves us. One more week until we move into our townhome!!!
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
*sigh* Restaurant Stress
So are our expectations for quality of service at restaurants too high? Were we spoiled in Chicago? Here's a few highlights from our recent experiences.
Fado Irish Pub in Seattle
*Had to ask for a glass of water 3 times
*Asked for a pint of Magners cider, was told they didn't have it. An hour or so later, saw another patron walking around WITH A BOTTLE OF MAGNERS
*Asked for my sandwich without dressing--sandwich came with dressing slathered on it
*Grade = D
Claim Jumper
Double Whammy
*SECOND TIME there after a not so great first time when we were here in April
*Stuck in the same (cursed?) booth
*Ordered app and entrees; entrees come out 15 min later but no appetizer;
*Manager comes over to apologize (positive points added there) and persuades us to take home the app to have later; we also made sure he knew that this was our 2nd poor experience
*We get the bill at the end of the night and find that we're STILL charged for the appetizer (big time negative points)
*Grade = F
Grazie
Redeemed!
*Started out with bad experience--went in for dinner at 9:40 only to be turned away b/c they closed early = unhappy and hungry diners (us)
*Decided to give it 2nd shot the following evening
*Manager was so happy we came back that he gave us a complimentary appetizer AND comped us on our other appetizer!
*Grade = A+!!!
Overall tho, folks seem to move at a slower pace here. It takes longer to get our orders taken, to get our food and of course to get our check. I guess we'll get used to it tho. :P
Fado Irish Pub in Seattle
*Had to ask for a glass of water 3 times
*Asked for a pint of Magners cider, was told they didn't have it. An hour or so later, saw another patron walking around WITH A BOTTLE OF MAGNERS
*Asked for my sandwich without dressing--sandwich came with dressing slathered on it
*Grade = D
Claim Jumper
Double Whammy
*SECOND TIME there after a not so great first time when we were here in April
*Stuck in the same (cursed?) booth
*Ordered app and entrees; entrees come out 15 min later but no appetizer;
*Manager comes over to apologize (positive points added there) and persuades us to take home the app to have later; we also made sure he knew that this was our 2nd poor experience
*We get the bill at the end of the night and find that we're STILL charged for the appetizer (big time negative points)
*Grade = F
Grazie
Redeemed!
*Started out with bad experience--went in for dinner at 9:40 only to be turned away b/c they closed early = unhappy and hungry diners (us)
*Decided to give it 2nd shot the following evening
*Manager was so happy we came back that he gave us a complimentary appetizer AND comped us on our other appetizer!
*Grade = A+!!!
Overall tho, folks seem to move at a slower pace here. It takes longer to get our orders taken, to get our food and of course to get our check. I guess we'll get used to it tho. :P
Weekend Extravaganza!
We had a pretty dang good Memorial Day weekend! :)
On Saturday, we got up late and tried out public transit on our way to the 34th annual Folk Life Festival. There were tons of music stages, lots of food, and some really good people watching! Holy cow was it ever an interesting mix of folks. High crunch factor, but that's not too surprising for the area. :) I did a bit of shopping and got a nice peasant style skirt along with cotton bodice style top. I also picked up a new watch (first new watch in 6 years!). Here's a picture of it. (It compliments my wedding/engagement rings very well!)
Sunday we ran a few errands and finally made a trip to the grocery store. That evening we hung out with a couple of my co-workers, Julie and Jessica (Julie is living in my temp housing complex right now and Jessica is from Chicago).
Finally, on Monday we had our first road trip! B and I piled into the car and headed east in search of wine country! Would you believe that on the other side of the Cascade Mountains, WA is a totally different climate?! It looked like the arid southwest complete with scrub bushes and dusty mountainsides. It was such an odd change!
Anywho, we drove out to the Yakima Valley and 3 hours later were tasting wines at various vineyards. We drove out towards the east end of the valley to the city of Prosser. We visited Hogue Cellars, Thurston Wolfe, Kestrel Vintners among others. We really liked Kestrel and wound up joining their wine club and walked out with 4 bottles of wine! We also found a touch of home at a local brewery. The woman working there grew up in Rockford and her grandmother grew up in Huntley! Can you believe that?!
We're thinking of headed back out there in a few weeks for the Scottish Highland Festival. :)
On Saturday, we got up late and tried out public transit on our way to the 34th annual Folk Life Festival. There were tons of music stages, lots of food, and some really good people watching! Holy cow was it ever an interesting mix of folks. High crunch factor, but that's not too surprising for the area. :) I did a bit of shopping and got a nice peasant style skirt along with cotton bodice style top. I also picked up a new watch (first new watch in 6 years!). Here's a picture of it. (It compliments my wedding/engagement rings very well!)
Sunday we ran a few errands and finally made a trip to the grocery store. That evening we hung out with a couple of my co-workers, Julie and Jessica (Julie is living in my temp housing complex right now and Jessica is from Chicago).
Finally, on Monday we had our first road trip! B and I piled into the car and headed east in search of wine country! Would you believe that on the other side of the Cascade Mountains, WA is a totally different climate?! It looked like the arid southwest complete with scrub bushes and dusty mountainsides. It was such an odd change!
Anywho, we drove out to the Yakima Valley and 3 hours later were tasting wines at various vineyards. We drove out towards the east end of the valley to the city of Prosser. We visited Hogue Cellars, Thurston Wolfe, Kestrel Vintners among others. We really liked Kestrel and wound up joining their wine club and walked out with 4 bottles of wine! We also found a touch of home at a local brewery. The woman working there grew up in Rockford and her grandmother grew up in Huntley! Can you believe that?!
We're thinking of headed back out there in a few weeks for the Scottish Highland Festival. :)
Contact
You know - you can always reach a Duchek. It's nice. Now there's lots of different ways to reaach your desired Duchek, but for today - let's consider the email medium.
Just drop a quick message to and you get all the Ducheks at once! How handy.
If you wanted to give your message some urgency, you could call upon your knowledge of email and SMS, and send a message directly to our mobile phones! Wow - technology works (sometimes). To reach Brian's phone, you'd send an email to and it would magically appear on Brian's cell phone! Pay attention: keep it short and free of fancy signature files, pictures and stuff. I can't see it on a phone and it increases delivery time. ;p
If you don't have access to email, you can just trot over to cingular.com and click "send a text message" in the top right corner. They'll help you get an SMS sent to our hands right quick!
Just drop a quick message to and you get all the Ducheks at once! How handy.
If you wanted to give your message some urgency, you could call upon your knowledge of email and SMS, and send a message directly to our mobile phones! Wow - technology works (sometimes). To reach Brian's phone, you'd send an email to and it would magically appear on Brian's cell phone! Pay attention: keep it short and free of fancy signature files, pictures and stuff. I can't see it on a phone and it increases delivery time. ;p
If you don't have access to email, you can just trot over to cingular.com and click "send a text message" in the top right corner. They'll help you get an SMS sent to our hands right quick!
This public service announcement brought to you by the letter @
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Feelin' Hot Hot Hot!
Ooof! It's HOT today! The high is 87! We've had just a beautiful week tho. It's been clear, sunny and in the 70s/80s all week! I love it! We've been able to see the mountains every time we're out driving around and it is simply breathtaking.
Today was another quiet day at work. I took advantage of one of our many perks and picked myself up a flex sticker. This sticker is subsidized by MS and allows me to ride any public transit for free!! Woo!!!
We also had our quarterly meeting today complete beer, wine and snacks! And swag! I got an MSN tote bag filled with goodies! Some butterfly notepads (MSN has a butterfly for it's little symbol), ear bud headphones, leather notebook with an MSN pen, a butterfly beanie toy, and a very nice reversible fleece/nylon vest!!!! I was very excited. My officemate and I also decided to rearrange our office, so now I face the entrance and I won't have to worry about people coming up behind me. :)
Oh, and in other exciting news, my friend Melanie has accepted a position as an SMA! She'll be starting on July 18. I am SOO excited for her! And it looks like another former co-worker will be accepting a position with MSN, but in a different area. Poor PFX...they're losing some great people.
Today was another quiet day at work. I took advantage of one of our many perks and picked myself up a flex sticker. This sticker is subsidized by MS and allows me to ride any public transit for free!! Woo!!!
We also had our quarterly meeting today complete beer, wine and snacks! And swag! I got an MSN tote bag filled with goodies! Some butterfly notepads (MSN has a butterfly for it's little symbol), ear bud headphones, leather notebook with an MSN pen, a butterfly beanie toy, and a very nice reversible fleece/nylon vest!!!! I was very excited. My officemate and I also decided to rearrange our office, so now I face the entrance and I won't have to worry about people coming up behind me. :)
Oh, and in other exciting news, my friend Melanie has accepted a position as an SMA! She'll be starting on July 18. I am SOO excited for her! And it looks like another former co-worker will be accepting a position with MSN, but in a different area. Poor PFX...they're losing some great people.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Ow, my head hurts
I got the chance to go to lunch with my boss today at one of a ba-zillion Asian restaurants in the Redmond/Bellevue area (I think this one was a sushi place). He asked me how it was going, since I'm about 2 full weeks into the job. My frankest answer was simply, that I'm not used to working this hard.
Dang, my head hurts.
Sadly, the last position I was in didn't provide anywhere near the challenge of this one. I've exerted more mental effort in the last 2 weeks here than I did at the entire last 6 months of work.
These days I come home, sit down, and my brain slowly decompresses. It's like every evening is another little jet-lag episode. I have job-lag, every night.
I'm NOT complaining! Far from it, I should add. I'm loving it here. There's tons of stuff to learn, and new people to get to know, SOOO much to do in the area it's near impossible to decide. But maybe that's just a consequence of the job-lag condition...
Memorial Day quickly approaches, and I was asking my boss what he's got on deck for the holiday. We talked at length about different things to do over lunch: ferrys and scenic drives, hiking and climbing, biking and skiing. My stories of leaning to ski in Wisconsin amused him. But this last bit sums up my work experience completely:
He's going to be working this weekend. And me...? Well, if Lisa doesn't plan anything, what else can I do? (wink wink)
Dang, my head hurts.
Sadly, the last position I was in didn't provide anywhere near the challenge of this one. I've exerted more mental effort in the last 2 weeks here than I did at the entire last 6 months of work.
These days I come home, sit down, and my brain slowly decompresses. It's like every evening is another little jet-lag episode. I have job-lag, every night.
I'm NOT complaining! Far from it, I should add. I'm loving it here. There's tons of stuff to learn, and new people to get to know, SOOO much to do in the area it's near impossible to decide. But maybe that's just a consequence of the job-lag condition...
Memorial Day quickly approaches, and I was asking my boss what he's got on deck for the holiday. We talked at length about different things to do over lunch: ferrys and scenic drives, hiking and climbing, biking and skiing. My stories of leaning to ski in Wisconsin amused him. But this last bit sums up my work experience completely:
He's going to be working this weekend. And me...? Well, if Lisa doesn't plan anything, what else can I do? (wink wink)
The Mountain's Out Today!
Yep! Mt. Rainier showed its beautiful self to us today for the first time since we've been out here.
I was leaving my office this afternoon and gasped in surprise as I looked up from my perfect vantage point on the on ramp to SR 520. :)
But wait! Here it is Wednesday and you still haven't even heard about how we're doing or about my 1st day at MS or ANYTHING!
Well, just scroll all the way to the bottom of this page to start from the beginning. Be sure to leave us comments and to click on the links to get some more info on some of the things we've mentioned!
I was leaving my office this afternoon and gasped in surprise as I looked up from my perfect vantage point on the on ramp to SR 520. :)
But wait! Here it is Wednesday and you still haven't even heard about how we're doing or about my 1st day at MS or ANYTHING!
Well, just scroll all the way to the bottom of this page to start from the beginning. Be sure to leave us comments and to click on the links to get some more info on some of the things we've mentioned!
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Lisa's Actual First Day
Tuesday counts as my first real day as I actually got to spend some time at the office. I finished up with NEO in the morning, got my ID badge (it's REALLY official now!), and then went over to my office. I met one of my co-workers, Julie, and she followed me over to our building. We went to lunch with the team and got a tour of the facilities. We've got a very nice cafeteria, basketball and volleyball courts, and the best thing is that our laptops are fully wireless so we can go to the lounge area or outside and work if we want to!
The grounds are really lovely. There are tons of trees and flowers and bushes all along the walk ways. There is also a pretty stream that runs thru all of RedWest (the name of our campus area which is separated from the main MS campus) and apparently culminates in a waterfall.
After lunch, I went to my office (which I share with another person, Sean) and started working on getting my computer set up. I've got a Dell laptop, flat screen monitor, wireless mouse, cool speakers, and can order anything else I need (like a computer bag, etc.). We had quite the challenge getting my computer set up, and by the time that was finally done, it was time for me to go home!
Apparently, I'm going to have sort of a light couple of weeks as a lot of folks will be out of the office. So I really have no idea what to expect over the next few days!
The grounds are really lovely. There are tons of trees and flowers and bushes all along the walk ways. There is also a pretty stream that runs thru all of RedWest (the name of our campus area which is separated from the main MS campus) and apparently culminates in a waterfall.
After lunch, I went to my office (which I share with another person, Sean) and started working on getting my computer set up. I've got a Dell laptop, flat screen monitor, wireless mouse, cool speakers, and can order anything else I need (like a computer bag, etc.). We had quite the challenge getting my computer set up, and by the time that was finally done, it was time for me to go home!
Apparently, I'm going to have sort of a light couple of weeks as a lot of folks will be out of the office. So I really have no idea what to expect over the next few days!
Monday, May 23, 2005
Lisa's First Day
I did it! I survived! :) Actually, it really was more of a "non-day" being that it was all spent at new employee orientation, or NEO for short (there are TLAs [three letter acronyms] for everything at MS). It was really weird for me to start actually recognizing that I am a MS employee. There were 115 of us at NEO. 115! The *normal* class size EVERY Monday is 75! Can you believe that?! I met some nice people that I'll prolly never see again. :P
There was a TON of information that they gave to us. I could spend weeks going thru the information on the websites alone! I keep forgetting that this company is 30 years old. Our speaker, Tim, was very engaging and he did a good job of keeping us interested. We even had a few break out sessions which kept things fresh.
Monday night we had dinner out at Mama Melina's. It's a nice little Italian restuarant in the University District of Seattle. I also got to take advantage of one of my MS perks-the Prime card. We got one whole entree for free! Ah yes, the elitism begins. ;)
There was a TON of information that they gave to us. I could spend weeks going thru the information on the websites alone! I keep forgetting that this company is 30 years old. Our speaker, Tim, was very engaging and he did a good job of keeping us interested. We even had a few break out sessions which kept things fresh.
Monday night we had dinner out at Mama Melina's. It's a nice little Italian restuarant in the University District of Seattle. I also got to take advantage of one of my MS perks-the Prime card. We got one whole entree for free! Ah yes, the elitism begins. ;)
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Welcome To Shorewood Heights
First stop on our new life in Seattle was scenic Shorewood Heights on Mercer Island, WA. Microsoft has been kind enough to obtain for us a fully furnished 1 bedroom apartment. Kitchen even came with a compliment of measuring cups. Nice.
Our First Weekend Living in Washington
We arrived safe and sound on Friday night despite a delayed flight outbound from Chi. I was in a panic before we went thru security due to snafus with our stupid Cingular phone service having a network outage at this most "opprotune" of times. Mom and Tara were circling with both Mom's car and the rental car while we got checked in. We agreed to rendevous via cell phone, but of course, due to the outage I couldn't make or receive calls. I started freaking out that I wouldn't get to say goodbye to Mom and Tara, but fortunately they opted to return the car for us, and then found us back at the terminal. Whew! I had a good cry (no surprise there) and we said our final farewells. :(
As I mentioned earlier, we did make it into Seattle safely and found our way to our temporary housing on Mercer Island. And the cats were so incredibly well behaved, but the poor things were so worn out. They had to spend over 10 hours in their carriers! But they didn't even have any accidents! Yay kitties!
Saturday morning my friend Melanie (who was here interviewing with MS for the same position I have) picked us up for brunch and some touring of the area. We showed her where our townhome will be (Avignon) and ran a couple of errands. It was really great seeing a familar face our first official day here in Seattle. I hope to see more of her soon!!!
On Sunday, I took Brian to his office, and then I got lost. Then I got lost again. I suspect that this is going to be a recurring theme over the next several months. :(
However, I DID manage to get myself down to Pike Place Market where I got us stocked up on some produce and these GORGEOUS boquets of flowers!! Mmm...the peonies smell like home! Can you guess how much the flowers cost?
The market is only about 8 miles away from us. I still can't get over how close we are to everything!
As I mentioned earlier, we did make it into Seattle safely and found our way to our temporary housing on Mercer Island. And the cats were so incredibly well behaved, but the poor things were so worn out. They had to spend over 10 hours in their carriers! But they didn't even have any accidents! Yay kitties!
Saturday morning my friend Melanie (who was here interviewing with MS for the same position I have) picked us up for brunch and some touring of the area. We showed her where our townhome will be (Avignon) and ran a couple of errands. It was really great seeing a familar face our first official day here in Seattle. I hope to see more of her soon!!!
On Sunday, I took Brian to his office, and then I got lost. Then I got lost again. I suspect that this is going to be a recurring theme over the next several months. :(
However, I DID manage to get myself down to Pike Place Market where I got us stocked up on some produce and these GORGEOUS boquets of flowers!! Mmm...the peonies smell like home! Can you guess how much the flowers cost?
The market is only about 8 miles away from us. I still can't get over how close we are to everything!
Inaugural Post
Here's a great new site to come see what us Ducheks are doing up here in the grand ole Northwest.
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