Long time no update...

Well. And how are you? Things have been pretty busy here, especially in the last few days. The boy has finally arrived--hooray! He got in on Sunday, we went out to his dad's on Monday in the lovely town of Port Townsend, picked up the car and came back yesterday. Then it was a mad dash to Costco, the hardware store, and various other take-care-of-business scenarios.

The weather has been absurdly pretty out...as many of the natives have taken pains to tell me. Soon the fog and damp and interminable rain will be upon us...so I'm trying to soak up as much sun and color as I can for the moment.

That being said, I'm enjoying some of the misty romanticism that'll probably get old once I've been here for a few months. The pix below are all from the Port Townsend excursion.



The view from my father-in-law's back porch in the morning.



A place where I had a fab seafood omlet on Tues. morning.



The view outside the restaurant. So pretty.

Nice weekend...

Went to Discovery Park yesterday for a hike--and didn't get lost on the bus! Yay! Steve had mentioned this park to me (one of many in the city) and it really is gorgeous. There's a 2.8 mile loop hike around the park that goes through forest, a little rainforesty-area, and a gorgeous meadow near the sound.

First, forest greenery:



And then the meadow:



So pretty. Couldn't get anything to take in the rainforest area (not enough light) but tons of ferns everywhere. So instead here's a little fall foliage on a clear autumn afternoon:



Today was a bit more sedate. Tried out a rather progressive church today. Won't say the name, because I really liked the sermon. Unfortunately the music made me cringe. It wasn't just praise-oriented Christian pop (not my thing at all) but it was bad praise-oriented Christian Pop. Phrases that trailed off into nothingness, warbling vocalizations, saccharine piano music over the psalm reading. Oh well. At least it got me out of the house.

Gratuitous political linkage

This is a bit long, but darn it I still like it:


Obama '08 - Vote For Hope from MC Yogi on Vimeo.

Ya know, I've been amazed by the amount of music surrounding Obama's campaign. It isn't shatteringly good, but it's been fascinating in its variety--and mostly done by people without an official affiliation to his campaign. The man most definitely has his finger on the pulse of large chunks of this country. I'm praying it'll be enough to get him into office in November.

Networking fail, but interesting atmos

So Steve pointed me to a networking op at a place called Office Nomads--an office for freelancers that rents space by the day and the month. They accommodate all kinds of freelancers--writers, urban planners, photographers, designers, programmers, etc. I meandered around, sipping a glass of wine and looking for some openings into conversation before chickening out and leaving. Lame, I know. I did find out that they have free drop ins on the first Monday of every month--so I'll go back then and give it another shot. As I was walking out and heading toward the bus one of the women who'd been there passed me and complimented my boots. Guess I should've hung around a tad more, could've sparked some chitchat with a little extra effort...oh well.

It probably didn't help that I was suffering from epic bus confusion on the way down--kept getting on busses going the wrong direction. S was on the phone, doing the web searches and helping me navigate, but when you're on the ground the the busses keep going in loops instead of heading in a specific direction it can get pretty damn confusing. Doesn't help that I'm not *used* to being disoriented in a city...and I hate getting lost. Hate it.

That being said, I got down there eventually, and had no issues getting home. I have to get the hell over myself and be more free about checking with bus drivers when I get on the bus to make sure I'm going in the right direction. All the drivers I've talked to seem more than accomodating to tell the truth.

On the bright side, I saw this on the bus going downtown:



Cute, huh? Just sittin' there on this shoulder, wiggling his nose and staring at us.

Rabbits seem to be popular pets in this city. I saw one at a farmer's market last weekend, and on the way home last night I saw another guy with a pet bunny in a cage. He ended up chatting with a fellow passenger for a good 20 minutes about how much he loves his rabbits, and how mellow they are.

Ok, nuff blogging for now, gotta get back to the cover letters. Will try to take a hike this weekend, hopefully I'll have more pix to share from that.

Top o the mornin'...

Surfacing at Starbucks...I'm gonna be spending this rainy cloudy day at home waiting for S's beer brewing stuff to show up from UPS. There's always a ton of stuff to do around the house...boxes to unpack, freelance to finish, cover letters to write. So I'll be keeping pretty busy. More of my clothes have surfaced...still looking for one bag of 'em, but they're around somewhere. Appliances that I've unpacked need to be cleaned and tested out.

Exciting stuff, huh? Such is the life of the newly-moved. Hopefully I'll have some more interesting stuff to update over the weekend.

Whew

The movers came, brought in all the boxes. Everything seems to be here, but I won't know for sure until the last box in unpacked. They reassembled everything that'd been disassembled, and I dove into the kitchen boxes as soon as the big rig pulled away. We have a lot of glassware. Where the hell am I gonna put all of the tissue paper that this stuff was wrapped in?!

O well. I'm just glad it's all here. And that it wasn't wrapped in newspaper...my hands might not recover from the newsprint...hate that newsprinty feeling. Ick.

Ugh, oy, ai yi yi

The movers are coming today...pray for me! I will be SO GLAD to have a bed again. I miss the rest of my clothes!

Spooky ladies

Near Pike's Place Market:

Pikes Place Market

Made a quick stop here after a networking interview this morning. Totally touristy, and for good reason. I tried to get some pix of the great views, but the iPhone camera just wasn't cutting it, so I didn't bother. Here's just a couple of pictures:

Massively large whole salmon and rainbow trout (mmmm)


Really, really reasonable (and lovely) seasonal flowers

The Main Branch of the Seattle Public Library

It's official. I'm in love. I've been here once before, but only as a visitor, not a card-carrying member. Now that I have my very own card I can browse the halls of this noble establishment for hours, dare I say a full day, comfortable in the knowledge that I can check out anything I want.

Ok, I know I sound like a total geek. But this isn't just an architectural oddity--it's huge, its collection is equally vast, quirky, and enjoyable, and it's the most browsable library I've ever been in. Floors 6-9 have massive walkways that slowly spiral downward, so you can walk the 3 floors without effort, grazing thru the perimeter of a large chunk of their collection.



Here's one of the reading rooms. You'd think that the open space and industrial look would be kinda foreboding (or at least I would) but it's a very welcoming, quiet space.

Open message

To the person who keeps calling my cell phone looking for "Pauline" after I told you that you had the wrong number--repeatedly calling over and over is not going to make Pauline appear any faster. Stop calling me!

Homer’s Dream come true?

I haven’t tried this out yet, but I think I’ll have to. Sorry for the crap lighting on these pix--cloudy days and an iPhone camera do not a fab photo make.

VP Debate

I meant to go to one of the viewing parties for last week’s debate—in transit to the location I got an invite from my sister to hang with her family (including their adorable almost-one-year-old). Gotta say, there’s no contest when it comes to a group of strangers, Biden (who I find amusing and likeable) and Palin (who I find both annoying and scary on multiple levels) versus the latter two with my sister, her awesome hub and their cute as a button, round-all-over, funny and super-sweet little one. The debate was a lot more palatable in their presence, I gotta say. That being said, I found this double-bill amusing at Central Cinema:



On a related note, I highly recommend checking out the SNL sendup of that debate:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/5/03338/3977/922/620475

I’m not an SNL fan as a rule—altho the Fey portrayals of Palin have been rightly praised, usually the sketches are waaaay too long for me. But I’d be hard-pressed to find anything to cut in this one. The added benefit for me is in watching Queen Latifah as Gwen Ifill. Very funny.

Updates...

It’s been an interesting few days here. It’s kinda weird to be navigating a city solo—especially when I’m used to the ease of the subway (at least easy to me). Busses have always been a bit more alien to me—I think I’ve used NYC busses on an average of 2-4 times a year, max. But so far it’s going decently. Weekend ones are slower…I need to be more on the ball when it comes to giving myself plenty of time to get from point A to point B.

But it’s been kind a cool to notice the little things. It’s been cloudy and rainy since last Thursday…but the plants are so, so green and lush. I smell flowers and eucalyptus often as I walk past particular houses. Since I don’t have internet at home I’m manning the Starbucks every morning…on the way there I see this:



Bad lighting, but hopefully you get the idea. These are from a house a block away from me…you can smell the apples as you walk by. Awesome. I hope the inhabitants are able to harvest these, seems a shame to let ‘em go to waste.

Out on the other side

After Tuesday's movement of all of my possessions onto a truck, my flight out to Seattle, and some drama with a burglar alarm that is now dead, I'm comfortably ensconced in the upper bedroom of an empty house. Starbucks 5 minutes away, 2 groceries and the bank within walking distance, I'm getting to know a relatively mellow neighborhood.

I also saw a couple of these birds bathing in our backyard teeny fountain on Weds:



Pretty, isn't it? My friend Lee in CA sez that it's a Steller's Jay, and Wikipedia apparently agrees, since that's where I got the picture.

More tales to follow, but for now I need to work on some cover letters for the long slog thru a job search.