Wind storm

Last Thursday we were hit with a major storm. Lots o' rain during the day (1 inch in a 1 hour period prior to the rain storm, with 16 inches of rain the month prior--talk about water logged ground) and strong winds (50-70mph). 1st issue we had to deal with at home, was flooding in our basement. In November we had a few instances of a bit of water on the crawl-space side of our basement. We had been informed this happens after heavy rains before moving in and had installed a french drain along the north side of our deck/house. Frustrating we were still getting water even with the french drain, but with a vacant house on the uphill side of us and the fact we live on a hill, I think we'll just have to deal with some water issues. Anywho, the early afternoon of the 14th, we come home and find more than just a bit of water in our basement. An inch or so at the deepest point and spreading slowly towards our garage. Good thing we didn't have too much important crap on the floor. We keep an eye on it, but we seem to be getting more water and notice water spurting out of this crack in the wall! Darren takes a peek into the crawlspace and notices A LOT of water. Basically it's just seeping out of the ground. Time to get a wet/dry vac. Hit Lowe's to grab one of the last ones on the shelves--also pick up some quick-dry cement to try and patch up the crack. Unfortunately we hit Micky D's on the way home for a quick bite to eat--that combined with stress, does not treat my belly well. Which means Darren is the one sucking up water from the crawlspace and dumping the full loads into the street. Back and forth he goes. I attmpt a patch job on the crack, but as I don't prep the crack as suggested it doesn't seem to help. Once Darren gets the flooded basement under control, we chill out in front of the TV. It's probably 11 or midnight at this point. The wind has picked up and I think we start to watch a bit of news. Eventually the power goes. We stay up (can't sleep the storm is so loud) hanging out in our living room watching the trees across the street just getting whipped, branches being tossed around. At some point, Darren looks out our bedroom window and casually mentions something about the trees after he hears a thump. Oh, our neighbors trees are a lot closer than they should be, oh, there seems to be a tree on our house! Doesn't appear to be any obvious issues to our ceiling. A neighbor from across the way pops over to make sure we're okay (it's the neighbor everyone complains about who comes to check on us). We opt to sleep out in the living room, away from the trees. We probably make it to bed around 4AM. Unfortunately with the power out, Darren starts getting all these automatic phone calls from the freezers at his lab. Probably get 8 or so calls, starting around 6AM? Finally roll out of bed around 7 to check on our house/trees. Oh at some point, our security alarm starts beeping becuase of the power outage. We figure out in our sleep deprived state to turn it off, but unfortunately didn't turn it off completely. As I'm heading out of the house at 7, our securuity alarm starts blaring. Not a way to start the morning. Eventually turn that off and get out to check out the damage. The tree is on our house and has knocked the fence over. In our backyard there are 4 other trees just kinda hanging out as they're all part of 1 rootball. Decide around 8 or so it's time to go talk to the neighbors. They have just noticed the damage. They have a 5-6 foot root ball which was ripped up from the ground right in front of their backdoor. Too bad the cedar trees didn't have deeper roots. Get the name of their landlord (he lives right behind us), then get ready for work. I head over again to get more information and landlord has shown up, same with our kitty corner neighbor. Time to swap insurance and personal info. Their trees, both of us have damage. Should be fun.

Update:

It takes 2 weeks for the guys insurance company to finally tell him they won't cover tree removal. Our insurance company then comes out in just a few days for an estimate. As this was an 'act of god' our rates won't go up. Still have to deal with a deductible though. Just a little less than a month later (initial delay because of a snow/ice storm), the trees are off our house (required crane/cherry picker, small bulldozer, dump truck, huge shredder, and lots o' manpower). Amazingly there is little damage to the roof. Insurance company comes out again for an estimate on our roof--it's finally fixed about 4 months after the initial damage! Yehuda does a crap job fixing fence between our yards, but at least it's fixed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2006_Pacific_Northwest_storms

26.2!

For Tina,
originally uploaded by SeattleYogi.

The South-east

I'm in North Carolina now. Hmmm, too bad I can't type a southern accent--it sounds suweet. It's a bit odd to be on vacation by myself in a new place. I'm by myself at the moment as both H and A are at work right now. Helen didn't take any time off during the week while I'm here, but I had half-way expected this and brought a good book, a knitting project, plus I knew Helen had all 6 seasons of Sex & the City. And really, I can't complain as she took Sunday off--her 1st in 5 weeks! The life a pharmacy resident is insane! My bad though, the one weekend Hells says not to visit (important board exam on Saturday) is the one I end up choosing. Anyhow, what did we do on H's only day off in 5 weeks? We went shopping of course. She says that's all there is to do, but of course we know Helen loves her shopping. There were lots of couples and I don't know what this says about a southern boy, but they seemed into the shopping as much as the ladies. I saw familes with their kids in stollers and their parents in wheelchairs (grandma sitting by herself while the family tries on clothes in J random store, but at least she's with the family instead of sitting in a home). Some store called Charlotte Russe had styles of tops/bottoms which seemed way too young for me (I still purchased a couple) and yet there were women twice my age shopping in there. Reminds me I need to get out of the house more often. :)

Okay, so yesterday, my 1st day on my own, I slept in, had breakfast out on the screened in porch, watched some cable, followed along to a yoga program, putzed around on the computer a bit, then biked it to UNC/Chapel Hill which is 'just down the street'. Luckily the sun had come out after a couple days of Seattle weather. I checked on-line, the campus was only 3 miles away, definitely doable by bike, but was I told about the big ass hill? No. :) I wandered around campus, found Franklin Street (the 'Ave' of Chapel Hill) grabbed some lunch and ate by the Old Well. Once H & A got home, we went out for bbq and then went back to Franklin Street for a beer at the Top of the Hill which has a great open air balcony. Came home to watch Syriana (Helen proceeded to fall asleep quick-like, can't be blamed when her wake up call is 5 AM--gee, doesn't becoming specialized in pharmacy sound better and better?).

My plan today: eat some leftover bbq for brunch and bus it to campus to window shop and check out campus some more. Biking would be great exercise, but my excuse is the bike is too small for me AND a key for the U-lock couldn't be found so I can't really leave the bike anywhere. Have a couple more movies I could watch. Tonight it's more beer drinking. Hmmm, I've drank more beer the last few days than in the last few weeks on my own back home. Gotta love vacation!

3 Beautiful Things

I came across 3 Beautiful Things today and really liked the idea of blogging about beautiful things. It's easy to see the negative all around us (then bitch and moan to others which leads to getting more depressed about the state of things), but I know it's much healthier to focus on the positive (I'm now picturing Mr. Dudley, my counselor and cross country/track coach in high school singing...'Eliminate the negative... Accentuate the positive...').

1. Vacation! I'm leaving tomorrow for North Carolina to visit Helen for a few days. I look forward to catching up, shopping (Helen loves to shop and I'm allowing myself the luxury as I don't tend to buy new and haven't even gone thrifting in a while), movies, and rockin' out at a String Cheese concert.

2. Friendly old lady sat next to me on the bus this morning. She commented on my knitting project and we talked about her yoga class. She's been practicing yoga for 16 years and has been bussing around the city since February when she had to stop driving. I hope I'm as friendly and active when I'm her age!

3. Darren will be making dinner tonight. We usually cook together but he's such a sweetheart and has offered to take care of tonight's meal since I haven't packed for my trip yet. I know he'll take care of a load of chores while I'm out of town too--he gets so much accomplished when I'm not around.

Before & After

Dang, I have so much hair! Stylist said she probably cut off 12 inches or so. I haven't had it cut (other than a trim or 2) in maybe 2.5 years. My hair grows fast. Uh, didn't think I was going to cut off so much, otherwise I would have donated it. I basically said I just wanted some style and something easy. Big change, but I don't mind the length as it's still long enough I can put most of it back into a ponytail. I'll have to post another pic a few days from now when it hasn't been blow dried flat at the salon (I never blow dry my hair as it takes forever and can never get it flat on my own anyhow) and will be much poofier. I've heard a ceramic flat iron could do the trick, but I'm not a morning person and if it'll add time to my routine, I'll likely pass.

Hmm, is it me or is the left side (your right) a bit longer? Mebbe next time I'll smile for the camera. :)

overdid it but i did it

From a 'run' last week, last Wednesday I believe: gmaps-pedometer. Cool tool for mileage as I don't have one of those fancy portable GPS trackers. Run is in quotes as I walked most of this. I ran down a steep hill at the beginning of the run which wasn't a good idea as my left knee was killing me later. I would run until my knee couldn't take it, walk, run, run, eventually I just walked it. Tina says I started with way too much mileage. Makes sense. But I couldn't help but head to Seward as it's close by and I found the Martha Washington Park on the way so I had to check it out. Though we don't have a view of the water, I love living close by. Seward's main trail is 3 miles or so around the perimeter but it has a few trails which criss cross through the middle. I found one and enjoyed how quiet it was, easy to forget this was still Seattle. As I came out onto the main path, the sun had set, leaving beautiful colors in the sky. Aside from the knee pain during the run and the soreness the next couple of days (uh, hello, need to stretch before and after!) I was happy to make it out.

Beppu circle

Beppu circle,
originally uploaded by SeattleYogi.

It's been a while since I've done one of these. Here's a late entry for Photo Friday

This is a manhole cover from Beppu, Japan.

4 weeks plus

We've been in our house for more than a month now, but I'm not as settled as I'd like. It would help if I had more time for just house stuff. A week after moving we left on vacation. A road trip to Northern Cali for Reggae on the River Festival, 4 days of hedonism at it's finest. We were with a good bunch of people, had great weather, a great camping spot (in the shade, close to a swimming hole), and enjoyed world famous reggae music (one would think at a music festival I would catch more live music, but I spent a lot of time at camp, in the shade, listening to the shows broadcast over a local radio station). D and I did take a day off after our vacation to sleep and got massages!

There hasn't been anything we've had to to, to make our house liveable. But we definitely have a big To Do List:

insulate the attic
insulate ducting
add support to our deck
add support to our crawlspace
add a peephole to front door
paint side of the house (blistering issues)
rehang a few doors
pub table for kitchen?
desk from parents into guest room?
french drain along back side of house
...

Getting settled

Our place is looking better and better each day. So great to have a full weekend without anything but our stuff to deal with. I begged Jeremy to cover our PAWS shift on Sunday and he agreed even though he'll be covering my shift next Sunday when I'm out of town. I'll be taking a couple extra shifts later this month to compensate.

*The kitchen is unpacked. Darren cleaned all the shelves and we started unloading our goods. Still disorganized, but we aren't tripping over boxes. Have yet to find that last box of spices, we really wanted the no MSG Johnny's for steaks on Saturday, we survived with plain ol' salt and pepper. Also discovered most folks down in the south end likely bbq with charcoal briquettes, we drove for quite a while before we found a gas station with propane for our gas grill.

*A couple outdoor plants are in the ground. Our sweet old neighbors at our last place dug up some plants for us: pinks, daisies, and this one plant with cool red flowers. We might go back once more to dig up our irises and dahlias. While checking out our yard I came across a large (bigger than my head) yellow jacket's nest in the tree in our backyard. Just above head height hiding hidden among the leaves. Eek! Good thing when my friends (who were hiding in the tree's shade with popsicles after our move) and little 2 year old 2nd cousin (my cousin's child--is that a 2nd cousin?) who was running around in the yard a couple days later (wearing a bright yellow t-shirt and all sticky with popsicle, big no-no's when it comes to yellow jackets) were not stung!

*I took a very pleasant 3 hour nap. I had no trouble falling asleep at my regular time that evening. I think my body was telling me something. Rest! With the longer commute I am now waking up at 7ish AM and catching my bus at 8 (takes me about an hour to get into work) whereas before I used to wake up at maybe 8:45 AM for the 25 minute commute. I had it easy for 2 years while Darren had the long commute, it's my turn this time. I need to unpack my books so I have something to do while on the bus.

*Friday night Erica and Roxy came over to catch up. We went out in search of dessert and coffee. The Starbucks in Columbia City was closed so we checked out Lottie's Lounge. We weren't in the mood for alcoholic drinks and enjoyed our chai tea (Morning Glory is the best) and chocolate torte. Yum. Erica used to work with youth in this neighborhood back in 1999. She said it's changed a lot ('everyone's white now').

It's official!

We moved on Sunday, one of the warmest days of the year. Thankfully, we had a lot of help so we finished the majority of the move in one go. D and I did a couple more loads Monday and Tuesday, we cleaned the old place Wednesday, and turned in our keys last night. Now we can focus on unpacking and arranging our space.

I'm overwhelmed with the amount of stuff we have. Our house is 1180 sq ft (2 br/1 bath) including a 1 car garage and basement. As we were living in an 1850 sq ft (3 br/2 bath) house, D and I didn't get rid of much when we moved in together. I tried to purge as best as I could before the move, but it appears I have problems getting rid of stuff. I was able to get rid of bags of clothes, it makes sense to get rid of something I haven't worn in a year or so (or what doesn't fit anymore). But it's much harder giving away something which has a memory attached. Letters, pictures (thank goodness for digital cameras), trinkets, you name it, I still have it. I need to adopt the mantra 'love it or toss it'. I guess I just have too much love. :)

Still boggles my mind that this is really OUR house. It's exciting and now that the stress of the home search/bidding/closing/all those other pesky details is over with I finally feel a bit giddy. Doin' the happy dance. :)

Afternoon adventure

I forgot I was supposed to drop off a cashier's check at the escrow company today to cover the remainder of what we owe for closing costs. Luckly, my agent called to see how the signing went last week which reminded me of the check. Shoot, Darren leaves town for a couple days (ahhhhh, the bed all to myself!) and I forget about my responsibilities.

Anyhow, I'm at work without any paperwork regarding how much I owe. Call the escrow co. and leave a message stating I'm a dumbass and don't know how much I owe. As it's gettting later in the day, I can't wait too long for a response--I decide to bus it home to get necessary information, bus it to my bank, bus it to the escrow co., grab a bite to eat, and then bus it back to work. Takes 2 hours and 5 buses, of course most of that time is spent waiting for the buses (ok, for 1 of them I was just feeling lazy and didn't want to walk the last bit to work). Rolling down Roosevelt on the #66 & 67 a flood of memories; my old hood near Greenlake, being a student in the UD, Thursday nights at Dante's, pool at the Zoo. A bit sad to be moving from North Seattle which I know so well, but also excited I'll eventually learn my way around South Seattle.

Deed is done, check has been dropped off. I get back to work and there's a message from the escrow co. (left half an hour after I left), stating the final total comes to $70 more than what I dropped off because of an additional recording fee. D'oh. Will I have to do this again tomorrow? I do have a car, but I'm too cheap to pay for parking while I'm at work, plus the Seattle bus system is great (as long as you work at the U). I call back and am told this fee is just an estimate so we're likely ok. I sure hope so, because though I love taking 2 hour lunches, it really shouldn't happen on a daily basis. :)

Countdown

We close on our house next week! Start moving in on the 23rd, hopefully our current place is empty and clean by the 31st. I'm psyched, but for some reason I don't feel I'm as psyched as I should be. Possible reasons:

*Packing and moving. I hate moving. I haven't 'really' moved in 4 years. I say 'really' because though we moved into our current place just over 2 years ago, Darren moved most of my shit for me. I was out of the country and he moved his stuff AND my stuff. What a guy. I've got a lot of stuff, and know I need to get rid of a lot of it now, before the packing and move. Darren likes to remind me how much stuff I have, but I can't give him a hard time about it because he literally moved it for me. Though I'm constantly adding junk to the give-away pile, there is just more stuff. Need to remind myself 'Love it or toss it!'

*We're staying in the city, but I wonder if moving to South Seattle will affect how often I see my peeps. Thing is I already feel fairly isolated and anti-social. But it's my own doing really. Saving for a house has been the biggest reason. D working a lot lately is another. I know I shouldn't let D's schedule affect my own activities, but sometimes it's hard to motivate myself when he's so exhausted.

*I quit soccer for my foot's sake. We lost most of our games, but the folks on my team are good folks and it was great exercise (if hard on the body).

*I haven't been visiting my cousins and they live just 15 or so blocks away currently, meant to get together more often being family and all but I particularly wanted to get to know their daughter, Brigette, better. She's a handful but I kinda miss being around kiddos. No, not planning on any kiddos of my own anytime soon.

*I don't make it out to church (Thursday night beer) too often. We used to meet at Dante's which was a straight shot from Maple Leaf. Once the DJ'ing started it was moved to Ballard Ale House. It's usually not too exciting, but a chance to catch up with people. I've just convinced myself to go tonight. Soon I'll live even further from the action and it will only be harder to stay religious. ;)

Okay, well how can I be more social:

invite folks out for 1st Friday's in Columbia City ($5 cover gets you into a number of different bars with live music)
take some art classes at Seward Park
get out and exercise. Maybe this isn't exactly social, but it'll help my energy levels
go to church at least 1x/month
plan for our housewarming for later this summer.
find another volunteer gig closer to home. Bike works?
get crafty. i like being creative, but don't make the time. Schedule it!
invite friends over for dinners/movies

We have a house!!

Pics of the house

originally uploaded by SeattleYogi.

We have a winner

Our bid was accepted on the Seward Park house!! If all goes well with the inspection on Wednesday, we close on the 19th and can move in on the 23rd. I'm really psyched--I think I got all my nerves out on the other houses. Of course part of my excitement might just be being done with the searching part of this process. I know some folks take months (years) to find the perfect house. But we really didn't need perfect, this is just our starter house. It's just the 2 of us, 1 cat and a lot of stuff. We already know we have to get rid of a lot of crap.

I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this house and where it's located. We've already checked out Columbia City and Seward Park and both are great. Yesterday we checked out the Kubota Gardens which is located further south. Only portions of it were of a typical Japanese style garden but it will still nice to wander through as it was very peaceful.

As yesterday was another beautiful day, a ton of people were riding their bikes on Seward Park Ave. I think this area is very popular with bikers, and I know the Seafair sprint-triathlon is coming up and is located in Seward Park. The seller of this house was away this weekend in Coeur d'Alene doing an Iron Man competition so I get the feeling this will be a great neighborhood for getting in shape.

The house is located a block off Rainier Avenue which can get sketchy. There is a used car place and a couple auto body shops just down the street. There is a cafe right on the corner, but it has those ugly bars on the windows. I will definitely miss Cloud City which is our current neighborhood coffee shop in Maple Leaf. I chatted with one lady who was out in her yard with her old dog Wally. She's lived there for 12 years, knows all the neighbors and really likes living there. She loves the multicultural aspect about living south. Says she'll go and visit friends in North Seattle and is shocked that most everyone is white. A friend told me yesterday that until 1968, you couldn't live north of the ship canal unless you were white. Isn't that crazy? That wasn't that long ago!

Well, my fingers are crossed that all goes well with the inspection. Wish us luck!

Just dance

A reminder not to take life so seriously.



D and I are heading to Reggae on the River in early August. I can't wait for the music, sun, camping, and the dancing!

I got my fair share of sun today with pink cheeks and shoulders as proof. We checked out a couple houses down south--Ranier Valley and Beacon Hill area. 1st one was cute, but had bouncy floors and saggy ceilings--not for $350K! 2nd one is a possibility, nice looking home with a decent sized lot, only a block off Ranier, but also just a block off Seward Way. Walked the Seward Park loop. What a nice park! Not as crowded as Greenlake, some old growth areas, a ton of boats out on Lake Washington, and beatiful views of downtown and Mt. Ranier. Can't believe I've never been there before. Had lunch in Columbia City, a really cute area of Ranier. We found out where the Farmer's Market is located and know we'll be back to check out other restaurants. Even if this house doesn't pan out, I really wouldn't mind if we focused our search to this area. Only a 20 minute bus commute for Darren, 45 minutes for me.

House hunting sucks (okay maybe it's just getting shot down that sucks)

The roller coaster continues.

Bid #4 went in today, a nice place in Shoreline. We thought we were going to be able to get our bid in 1st, no bid date, no bidding war. Originally, the agent and seller were going to meet tonight to go over our bid. That meeting was delayed until tomorrow. Now our agent calls and said the selling agent was mistaken, the seller is having an open house this Sunday and doesn't want to look at offers until Monday. Supposedly the selling agent inherited this listing from someone else and didn't get all the info. I thought this was going to be the one, but my guess is the seller realized people were interested in her house and wanted more than listing. That or the selling agent was just lying to our agent. Guess being selfish is what real estate is all about.

To recap:
We started looking just over a month ago 5/21/06.

1st bid * Ridgecrest
*we were not the highest bidder
*Lesson is we need to be willing to bid higher over listing.

2nd bid * Bitter Lake
*we were not the highest bidder, 47K over listing and we were maybe 3rd or 4th in line. It was a fixer!
*Lesson is don't go for anything near waterfront as someone rich will bid a heck of a lot more to tear the house down and build new

3rd bid * Maple Leaf
*We were the highest bidder but they didn't choose us because we had an inspection clause
*Lesson is go with the pre-inspection

4th bid * Echo Lake (no actual access or view on this one)
*we'll see what the lesson is on this one.

We could still get the Shoreline place I guess. We get a pre-inspection lined up and deal with that tomorrow or Saturday and resubmit our bid on Monday. But then we're likely dealing with a bidding war and we didn't want to go much above listing on this place.

Maybe we just need to slow down. We wanted to tackle this process aggressively and we've been busy with on-line listings, drive-by's, and walk-thru's. Though there's a lot of expensive crap on the market, there are a lot of really nice places.

I think I need to go for a run to release some of this pent up stress (in general)and annoyance (at the seller and her agent). Then I'll come back to deal with a tired Darren (who will hopefully be in a better mood), a kitchen full of dirty dishes and dinner.

love it

had a dream last night and i woke up laughing. i think the dream had something to do with cute furry animals. maybe the laughing wasn't as loud as i thought (you know when you're awake but not really awake?), but at the time, i was worried the outburst was going to wake up d. it didn't. we're both quite heavy sleepers. in another dream, mike and jason came to visit. haven't talked to them in a long time, but sending them birthday cards (gotta love the internet) yesterday must have popped them into my dreaming mind.

hate it

being in the middle. personality conflicts at work. one person happens to be your boss, the other is the director of the department. wish this was just like the old days and there could be a dual or something-get it over with and lets move on! stop holding grudges and don't assume people are doing things on purpose just to spite you and your project. and don't try to use your power to screw someone else over. can't we all just get along? :)

Searching...

...for a house. My 1st house. Our 1st house. :) Not exactly a fun process. A given right? But Seattle's market is tough! It's not 1st come 1st serve, homes are going for much higher than listed, and there's not a ton of houses (in our price range at least) on the market. The listing agent will give a date that offers are accepted, which basically causes a bidding war. All the homes we have any interest in are either gone before we even get a chance to look at it or it's one that attracts other buyers. We've put in bids on 2 places and have been maybe 3rd in line. Even going $47K over listing! Gee, if only we had an extra $100K laying around we'd be golden. I swear we aren't that picky, we only want a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house with a bit of a yard. Okay maybe going for the house on Bitter Lake was pushing our luck, but come on, it was a fixer! Eh, it's only been a month, guess I shouldn't be complaining. But such the rollercoaster ride of emotions. I used to like rollercoasters.

Really, we're not just buying a home. This whole process has made D and I work on our future 'plans'. Can't we just plan to make a plan? Do we want kids? Maybe. Do we want a dog? Yes, as long as it can make do without much a yard. Do we want a fixer. Sure, bring it on. Can we make do with a big ass mortgage and a small home in the city. Yes, until we have a kid or one of us decides to go back to school. We've done the budgeting bit, and then budgeted and scrimped some more so that we can hopefully afford more house (not sqaure footage unfortunately, just price). And of course there's always the when do we get married question. Of course if that happens would we be able to afford a fun party and honeymoon? What's the point if we can't do that? :)

Feminine

Evening entertainment
Originally uploaded by SeattleYogi.

Entry for Photo Friday: Feminine

Blur

It's been quite a while since I've participated in Photo Friday.

I took this picture of the crowd during a String Cheese show at Hornings last summer. Trippy eh?

Four Things Meme

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Research Study Coordinator
2. Research Technician
3. Target cashier
4. Engineering Assistant

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Amelie
2. Pride and Prejudice (BBC version)
3. Office Space
4. Lost in Translation

Four places I’ve lived:

1. Seattle, WA
2. Richland, WA
3. Fairfax, VA
4. Anaheim, CA

Four TV shows I love:

1. Scrubs
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. CSI
4. Sex and the City

Four places I’ve vacationed:

1. Costa Rica
2. New York
3. Japan (mostly south)
4. Hawaii

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. sushi from the Moto
2. Penn Cove Mussels from Ray's Boathouse
3. Hukilaulu burger and fries from Primo Burger
4. pork chops

Four sites I visit daily:

1. Superherodesigns
2. dooce
3. Wish Jar Journal
4. Soulemama

Four places I’d rather be right now:

1. surfing (warm water please)
2. yoga class
3. snowboarding
4. on a beach with a book and a cold drink

Four people I’m tagging with this:
Actually, just two: Tina and Lastuka

1/2 marathon

Makes me think of T and her run tomorrow:

I'll keep running

Because it lets me be selfish.
It's the thing I do that's just for me,
and nobody else.

FYI, I never thought this being-selfish-thing
could take so much discipline.

(from an Asics ad)

This run raises money for blood cancer research and her team raised $83,000! I really admire T, who never thought she was a runner. She's run over 130 miles in the last couple months. Just 13.1 more to go...until next time. She is a Superhero, but as I'm being 'thrifty' these days I hope she handle something LYF style (T, a package should be arriving in a few days).

Mikey's running in the race as well. Sean and Jason have done marathons in the past couple months with more to come. What is it about getting older and running? Ha, on one hand I like the idea of getting into decent enough shape I could enter a road race again. On the other hand, maybe I'll leave all this running to others while I try new (and gentle) things like Nia. I still have not taken a class yet. No more exuses!

Good luck to Tina and Mike in their run tomorrow. Have fun! I hope Matt is taking pics at the finish line.

Happy Lohri

I think Seattle's rain streak has ended. 27 straight days of rain (unless they receive 1/100th of an inch? of rain by midnight). Sounds like today was beautiful (the Mantis was stuck in 4 hrs of traffic on the way to Stevens this morning, Ben told Stukes about chest deep powder!). Too bad I was on the way home from TC. But it was worth it.

Ryan's Lohri party was good times. Finally met 24--he smiles in person unlike most of his photos. Seems a sweetie, though really only had a few minutes to hang with him. Reub seems sooo happy about being a dad. Amazing to see so many of his family and friends come together for such an event. Rueben's mom sure knows how to throw a party. Plenty of food and alcohol flowing. And damn, those Indians love to dance. :)

I'm hoping to hit some powder tomorrow. If I need to be on the road in 7 hours, I better get some rest. Hopefully I have good stories (pics?) next time.