Discovery Park

Saturday afternoon, Nick and I took advantage of the sun and had a nice, little stroll through Discovery Park. (Zach, if you're reading this. I know you were first.) The park is this beautiful oasis of meadows and forest in the middle of the city, with easy trails for joggers, dog walkers and casual strollers like ourselves. Life is different in Seattle but with places like this in the city, it's been pretty easy acclimating to our setting.

BOO

Happy Halloween.

My mom sent me the card, which made a nice addition to our front window sill next to the mini pumpkin.

I started my new job today. My first "first day" in four years. In fact, my first day at AKQA was on Halloween too. It's funny how Halloween has become a significant holiday in my life. I'm curious to see what will happen on Halloween 2012.

One Year

Building a Nightstand

Happy Halloween.

I tried building the night stand posted on Design Sponge by Silvia Song. It didn't turn out the way I wanted. The wood I bought was warped, which made putting all the pieces together extremely difficult. It's functional but the pieces are crooked and wobbly. It looks alright and serves its purpose, so I won't be buying a real nightstand any time soon.

At least I mastered the art of the hand saw today.

Chilly Mornings

Keeping Busy

It's been a little over two weeks since I landed in Seattle. I'm not really sure where the time has gone.

For being unemployed, I try to stay busy. In fact I'm wasting less time now than I did during my last months working. I'm sparingly on Facebook or email. Each day I give myself tasks. Digging through the shelves at Goodwill or Value Village to find random kitchen things (e.g. compost bin), searching Craigslist and all the communication/travel that comes afterward to actually purchase the stuff, pruning the plants along our walk way, getting our car fixed ($$$), many trips to Target. I fixed up a dresser I bought off Craigslist. The innards needed some TLC and the drawer tracks needed new parts.

My next project: building our night stands. I haven't found anything I like and after seeing this on Design Sponge, I decided I'll just make them. Let's cross our fingers they turn out alright. I bought the wood (and hand saw!) today.

I'm really liking being handy and domestic, but these days are limited since I start a new job on Monday.

Fall

The mornings have been grey and there's been some rain, but for the most part Seattle's weather has been autumn-tastic -- chilly but sunny. The leaves have started to turn too! Growing up in San Jose, seeing the leaves turn in October and November was a real treat in NYC. Now I still get to enjoy this magical seasonal shift in Seattle. Lucky me.

Nick waiting for me while I take pictures. "Broads..."

Attention Shoppers

Today I rediscovered the beauty of a plentiful Goodwill. And it was glorious. I gave up on NYC thrift stores because they were usually picked over. Not Seattle's. Here's my booty for today.


Not pictured: a $2 cupcake tray and 20 cent knife utensils since I dislike Ikea's

Home Sweet Home

I made it! I landed in Seattle on Tuesday. I kinda can't believe I live here. The city is just stunning with its trees, mountains and gorgeous sunsets. Our apartment is pretty awesome too.


It's part of a duplex. We're just down the walkway on the left.



The house is surrounded by many plants and flowers, which hopefully we'll keep alive.


Tomatillos!


Inside we get some really nice light in the afternoon.


We just bought a couch this weekend, so we're really excited about getting the living room set up for visitors and lots of sports viewing.


I'm in love with our mint green kitchen.


A full size stove/oven!




Nick's duvet has a safari vibe to it, so I'm gonna run with it.
His only mandate: no animal print. :(


The luxurious second room.
Friends/family, this could be yours when you come and visit. (hint hint)
I promise it'll be much more inviting and comfy by then.



I still can't believe that I have a washer and dryer. I'm already taking full advantage.

The door leads to our backyard patio...



I cannot wait to make s'mores in the fireplace.





There's even more greenery on the side of our apartment.



We have a garage for storage.


... and a view of the Space Needle.
The apartment is pretty empty but I've spent the last few days buying random basics -- lights, towels, cleaning supplies -- so it's starting to feel more like a home. It'll be a slow process but we'll get there eventually.

The Hunt

Technically our search for an apartment only lasted 24-hours, which in retrospect is a very brief search, but at the time it felt long and intense. I was due back in NYC on a Sunday red-eye and Nick had nowhere to live, so we were stressed to find a place. Fast.

We arrived in Seattle Friday afternoon and by Saturday morning had seen five apartments. We really liked the second, but by the time we turned in our application, someone beat us to it. We were bummed. We drove away in our car stuffed with all of Nick's belongings, a pathetic sight, and waved goodbye to the landlords...

Five minutes later, they called.

There was a second property they wanted us to see, but it wasn't listed yet because they were still making repairs. We dropped whatever we were doing and drove to the second place. After parking, Nick saw a golden doodle staring at us from nearby house. A sign.

Nick loves Harry, another golden doodle from back home.
This is not Harry or Harry's patronus (HP reference!). Image via Google.

The place was even better than the original apartment we wanted. After the tour, Nick and I only had to look at each other to know this was it. We said "yes" and a week later after a very thorough credit and background check, the place was ours.


Our new apartment.


A very relieved and happy Nick after we found our new place.

Manifest Destiny: A Road Trip

Back in early September Nick and I drove out to Seattle to move him and his car across the country. It took us about a week to get to there. I met him in Albany, NY where he picked me up at one of the most depressing bus stations known to man. Then we were off on 90 West.

We wanted to spend most of our time in South Dakota and Montana, so we planned to bulk up on driving the first few days. Our goal for the first day was to get to Toledo, OH. We were making great time until we hit Erie, PA when... break down. Looks like we were spending the night.

Nick concerned.

The next day we bowled away our worries as the shop worked on the car (broken distributor).

Eventually we were back on the road where we made it to Bryan, OH. We sped through the Midwest the next day making it to Sioux Falls, SD late in the evening. I had the BEST flautas in Elgin, IL. (No picture. Was too occupied with stuffing my face.)

Crossing the Mississippi at the Wisconsin/Minnesota border

We finally reached the Badlands, which is what Nick was looking forward to most. I've never seen a place like it. I felt like we were on the moon. We spent the day exploring, visiting the epic tourist trap that is Wall drug and camping.

After waking up to a gorgeous sunrise, we were back on the road (surprise! lots of driving on this trip). I requested a detour to Mt. Rushmore because when will I ever return to South Dakota? Nick kindly obliged.

It was a weird sight to behold as you can tell by Nick's face. (This is my favorite picture from the trip.)


Collateral damage. Road kill. It was my duty to clean the windshield every time we filled up for gas.

I didn't take many pictures the rest of the trip, but we stopped in Montana where we enjoyed a wonderful evening in Livingston, a bison burger in Bozeman and took a lovely morning walk in Missoula. We spent an evening in Coeur d'Alene, ID before finally getting to Seattle. Montana was awesome, but it was a relief to finally make it to our destination where we threw ourselves into a rushed housing search (more on that later).

Here are some random scenes from the road.

We made it!