Christmas Tree

Wow, so I am kind of embarrassed that I haven't written anything on here in so long. Life gets a little complicated sometimes and you have to set your priorities. I'll just leave it at that.

We got our Christmas Tree over the weekend! This is our 4th Christmas together as a married couple and in all that time, we have never once had a real tree! Honestly, I'm not really sure when the last time I had a real tree was, but I know it was a while ago. I definitely understand and appreciate all the benefits of a fake tree, but there is just something magical about a real tree.

While we were shopping for our tree I recalled some fond memories that I had with my Dad when we used to go looking for Christmas Trees. It always seemed like such a big ordeal. We used to do it as the whole family, but not everyone enjoyed doing that, so it ended up to be just me and my Dad. It always felt like we were on a special mission to bring home the most perfect, beautiful tree to Mom and Jeff. When we first started out, we would go to the lots closest to home but nothing was ever "just right." Finally we discovered a particularly Target that was a little bit, but not much, further from home. This Target had the best selection with the most beautiful trees. We would always go in and find exactly what we were looking for. While Dad paid for the tree and got it up on the car, I would run in the store and buy a new Christmas Music CD for us to listen to on the way home. I know this isn't some crazy big event or anything, but sometimes there are just memories in your mind that stick out profoundly. This one just makes me smile.

Before Glenn and I went out looking for trees we were interested in buying a live tree that could be replanted after the holiday. That idea appealed to our "green" sensibilities but it required too much green to sound like a plan. $125 was not exactly the price range I was looking for. Cut that into thirds and now we're talking. We decided to forgo that idea. Then Glenn found out that a local charity/foundation/support center would be selling trees and that all the proceeds would go directly to them. The place is called the Dunshee House. They are also known as the Seattle AIDS Support Group. It was really nice to find a great tree and support a great cause at the same time. It definitely put me in the Christmas Spirit.

The lot was full of beautiful freshly cut trees at really reasonable prices. Neither of us knew what kind of tree we wanted so we were mostly just browsing until I found the most perfect tree. This lovely little Douglas Fir is close to 6 feet tall and is as bushy as can be. It is very fragrant and has sort of a citrus smell to it. I absolutely love it!

Glenn thought he would attempt to tie the tree to the roof, but considering he had never done it before, I advised him to wait for the "professionals" to do it. He did. The guy tied our tree snugly to our compact little hybrid and down the hill we went to bring it home.

Getting it inside the apartment was surprisingly easy, but we did almost take out someone while turning a blind corner. Now the tree is nestled snugly in a corner of the apartment. We had to move Rally's bed, but he doesn't seem to mind.

I started decorating the second I had finished straightening the tree. Of course we were about two boxes of lights short so we had to go to Target. When we came home for some more decorating, I took out the new lights and noticed they looked a little funny. They had some weird box attachment on the wire. Crap. They twinkled. I hate twinkle lights, they drive me nuts! We returned the lights and I got a new sparkly pink stocking while we were out.

Now our tree is all decorated and pretty as can be. We bought and built a lego train about a month ago and decided to have it go around the bottom of the tree. I think it looks really cute there.

I just love the way that LED lights just light up the room. They leave the coolest looking patterns on the ceiling at night. They're so bright we can turn off all the lights and still read just fine. That's all for now, but hopefully I can stay a little more on top of the blog than I have been.

Love to all!

PAX '10

So I know Bri already had some things to say about PAX but I thought I would put some pictures up.

Here is Bri at the EA booth playing Need For Speed Hot Pursuit. She got First Place.

This would be the EA Sports booth that featured NBA Jam for the Wii. Just like the old one but using the Wiimote controls. Very cool. Bri and I got killed by some dudes.

This is Settlers of Catan on the Microsoft Surface platform. It is basically a multi-touch table that allows multiple users to interact at the same time. You roll these fake dice and the table recognizes them as dice and displays the numbers rolled. Those little shields that are on the table are used to hide your cards. It is really impressive gear.

This is us waiting in line for Bri to play Gran Turisimo 5. She can't wait for this game.

Here is a giant Ticket To Ride USA board. This thing was huge! Very cool.

I didn't take any pictures of the crowds or anything but some of the lines were crazy. The last day was actually a great day to go because the lines were shorter and we got to do a ton more.

Anyways, that's all for now.

PAX 2010

You might be wondering what PAX is. For the un-informed, or rather the non-nerd crowd, PAX stands for Penny Arcade Expo. The expo was created in 2004 and is held in Boston and Seattle. It's basically a big giant nerd-fest where gamers of all types (video, PC, and tabletop) come together and check out the latest and greatest their chosen outlet has to offer. This year, since we are conveniently living in Seattle, Glenn bought us tickets for one day.

I have to say, it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera with me, so I have no pictures to document the experience. Glenn probably has some on his phone. The first place we stopped at was the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit booth. There were ten or so stations set up so you could try your hand at the new and improved, and very good looking, NFS:HP. The last time I played this game was back when I still had a PSOne, so that was a really long time ago. I loved the new version of the game, and it's graphics are really nice. I might even say it rivals the hotly anticipated Gran Turismo 5. I even got 1st place.

After that we checked out the NBA Jam on the Wii. I wish I could say I liked it more, but basketball is just not my thing, and the two other guys we were playing with were playing dirty so it stopped being fun pretty quickly. Glenn really liked it though, so I guess we'll have to add that to the ever growing list of video games we want.

We wandered around some more and got to see all the cool things that Sony and Microsoft are working on and the main battle between the two is who is going to have the cooler "Wii-Like" gaming experience. Microsoft has the Kinect and Sony has the Move. Kinect seems to be the winner though, especially because it doesn't require controllers. Glenn played a demo of the Kinect and really seemed to enjoy himself. Honestly, anyone playing Kinect seemed to be having a great time, whereas people using Move mostly seemed confused.

I also got to play Gran Turismo 5. I absolutely cannot wait to hold my very own copy of GT5 in my hands. I can do that on my bday :o) The graphics are stunning, the cars are awesome, and the courses are complex. It is definitely a racer gamer's heaven.

We also checked out the tabletop gaming portion of the expo, but I really wasn't impressed with it. This is very much a PC/video game heavy expo. It terms of board games, there weren't any new exhibits, just stores with booths selling you their stuff. We did however see a giant version of Ticket to Ride, and that was pretty cool, but again, nothing else new.

I definitely had fun at PAX, but I'm not entirely sure I would go again. It was a cool experience, but the majority of the booths were just not my thing and most everything else I had already seen or demoed myself before. Now we just need to find a board game expo to get our nerd on in some other way :o)

View at Pt Defiance

Took our Tatanka over to the picnic tables in Pt Defiance. Here's our view at lunch.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

View tonight on our way to dinner.

Here is the amazing dusk view on our way to dinner tonight.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

A little video

Bri playing the baseball game at Lucky Strike in Bellevue.

View from my work

Yup, I work in a pretty amazing place.

Picture Post!

So I will start out with some randomness of Rally. The first three are of Rally missing Bri. He looks so sleepy...and sad. The last one is of him and Bri playing with his Beehive toy. He loves that toy to death, literally. I've had to take it away until Grandma can come see it.

So since Bri has been out of town for the past couple of days. It's been pretty quiet around here; just me and the Monstah hanging out. I thought I would take the time to post a bunch of photos I've had sitting on my phone.

So what we have here is the coolest arcade game ever. It is a pitching game. Sort of like those old basketball ones where you have to shoot the ball while the rim moves. This one, different areas light up and you have to throw the ball into them. Then, the one down the middle lights up and you have to throw three really quick strikes down it. You get different points depending on how many of these tasks you accomplish and how quickly you do it. The score on the top left is the fastest speed either machine has ever seen...66mph & that would be mine. The score on the top right is the top score from both machines - 460 - that would also be mine. Finally, if you look in the top right portion of the left-most machine, you'll see 457. That's Bri's. She got the high score on that one. To be fair, I only beat her by 3...but I still won. Either way, I hold the records.

Rooftop deck from the Hard Rock Cafe in Seattle.

Can't tell but its the rainbow flag flying on the space needle for gay pride weekend.

So this here was found under my desk at work. It seems to be some sort of safety kit in the event of an earthquake. Kinda awesome, kinda scary. It has a glowstick in it so I guess we could have a rave if things got really bad.

My First Day!

As you probably have already guessed, today was my first day at my new job! It's so fun and exciting yet completely nerve-wracking at the same time. Sleeping last night was like the night before Christmas for me. I slept well, but I was constantly up every hour checking to see what time it was. I couldn't be late on my first day! I wish I could turn that feature off in my brain, especially because it's not like Glenn wasn't waking up at the same time! Well, actually, he wakes up 15 minutes later because taking the dog out is my responsibility. Yay!

As a completely random side note, I would like to point out that fresh papaya does not taste very good. We we were at the market the other day and I thought they looked so pretty. Glenn bought me one. Since I had lunch kind of early today, I thought it would be a yummy pre-dinner snack. I cut it up and put it in a bowl and as I sat down to write this, I munched on a few pieces. Bleh. It tastes like feet. Or something equally appetizing. What a shame too, because it really is a beautiful looking fruit!

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming... It was really quite nice to be able to get up with Glenn and get ready, ride down the elevator together and then kiss goodbye on the sidewalk all at the buttcrack of dawn. My walk to work is quite interesting. Seattle, particularly downtown, is really quite beautiful when the sun is just making it's way up the horizon. The sky is a gorgeous deep blue color and everything has a romantic hazy glow to it. I just love it! I walked past a theatre and then walked right back and stared at how beautiful it was. It's funny, because I have passed this theatre a couple times before and never gave it a second look until now. I think one of these mornings I might give myself a few extra minutes just so I can take some photographs. Maybe I will wait until after Glenn's birthday and he might let me borrow the fancy new camera I'm buying him :o) The picture at the top of this post is the ridiculously tall building I work in. I work on the bottom floor. I thought it looked really neat looming above the street in the not-quite-daylight.

When I got to work, exactly on time, I was a little confused because it was all caged up but there were people behind it. I stood there like a dork and waved until I got someone's attention and they told me to go through the door on the side. After a very brief introduction to the people who were at work this early, which was surprisingly a lot, I sat down and filled out pages upon pages of paperwork. It wasn't really that bad though, it was mostly just reading.

Next I was acquainted with Dakotah, the former PM Production worker and my trainer for the week. He's a really nice guy and he is quite hairy. We have a lot of the same tastes in things like music and movies, so we get along pretty well. He quickly showed me where stuff was and set me to work. Right away I was making huge batches of bundt cake batter. First was orange poppyseed and then triple chocolate. Yum. Then I made some individual coffee cakes followed by a batch of triple cheese quiche muffins. There was almost 15 pounds of cheese in it! After that I started making the muffin batters. There was carrot raisin bran, apple cranberry, and something else that I completely forgot. I had to make double batches of everything because another one of the stores downtown is out a production member and needed the help. What a way to start my first day! Usually I would only make single batches which ends up being about 12 quarts of batter.

Another interruption: Rally doesn't like the papaya either.

I also learned how to do a bread pull, which entails go into the freezer and pulling out the next day's par for bread. That way they can sit out all night to proof and get nice and fluffy. The freezer is so cold that every time I walk in there I get short of breath and start coughing. It kind of makes me laugh. In case you were wondering, I am not technically a baker. I do all of the production work, like the job title says, so that all the baker has to do is pull my dough or batters out of the walk-in and scoop and bake.
Here is a picture of the shirt and hat I wear at work. I also have to where khaki pants (or shorts) along with an apron. I don't know if you can tell but my shirt has binary code on it. For those of you that aren't complete nerds, it's a computer language that consists of 0's and 1's. I don't know what it says, but Glenn probably will when he sees it. The back of it has some dorky saying on it that has to do with computer programming. Only in Seattle right?

I really think I will enjoy this job. The hours are pretty good, the people I work with are extremely nice, it's a positive environment, and it keeps my skills sharp. The only drawback is that it is very physical work with lots and lots of lifting. There is one bowl that I use that I could literally sit in if I wanted to. Imagine trying to pick that bowl up when it's full of batter. Not fun. I am really happy to have found a job that I think will make me happy and keep me occupied. I am also very excited that I am on my way to earning money to finish up my education. About a year or so of work and I will have saved enough money to completely pay for a year and a half, maybe even two, of college. Yay!

I GOT A JOB!

It's no secret that I was absolutely miserable leaving my job at Sunnyslope in Phoenix. My last day was pretty heart-wrenching for me and a few other people. I really grew to love the people I worked with, and I still miss them every day. I can honestly say that I had no idea I would love a place to work as much as I love Sunnyslope.

Because of all that, coming to Seattle was scary. I had to start all over again. Pretty much the first week after we settled in our apartment and had internet, I was fervently searching for jobs. Ideally I wanted to return to the school system. I definitely love all the awesome breaks. I applied at literally every school that had a position I was qualified for. I waited and waited to hear from them. Any of them would be fine. I got mostly nothing. A couple schools were polite enough to email me a stock rejection letter, but for the most part I heard nothing.

Fast forward to two months later and you will find me still searching for a job. I had branched out a bit by now, applying to every administrative assistant job that seemed legitimate, but still I was getting nothing. It was clear to me that no one was even looking at my resume. Not to toot my own horn here (toot toot) but I am a good catch. Just ask Sunnyslope. It was also clear that my references were not being contacted. If they were, I probably would have had at least a couple interviews by now.

So I decided to switch gears. I started looking around at food service jobs. I enjoyed about 3 out of the 4 years I worked in that industry, so I figured I could give it a shot. Lucky me, I even found a position in a bakery called Specialty's that was involved in production. I applied for that job on Tuesday, August 2. Later that night I got an email from the general manager telling me that she really enjoyed reading my application and wanted to interview me. We set up my interview for the next day at 1:30.

I was really excited for my interview, it's been 2 years since my last one, and I was ready to go and out the door at about 1:00. I got to the store at 1:20 and since it was so busy, I waited outside for a few minutes so I didn't look too eager either :o) I walked in and told them who I was and I got a confused look. The girl told me that the person I was interviewing with was at another store. She got on the phone with her and straightened things out. Turns out I am an idiot and went to the wrong location! I asked directions and the girl I was talking to had no clue. She just started saying these random things and pretty much gave me directions to nowhere so I made a guess and started walking in a direction. Luckily I picked the right direction and I am getting pretty good at navigating the streets of Seattle. The other store was only a quarter mile or so away so I was there by 1:40. The manager and I had a laugh about it and began our interview.

I definitely got good vibes from this place, it felt a lot like Paradise Bakery, and I really loved working there. After 20 minutes with the general manager, the kitchen manager came out and talked technical stuff with me. She was pretty impressed with my knowledge. I guess that baking class I took at Phoenix College paid off! Anyway, the kitchen manager said she wanted to give me some assessment called a BHI and then said goodbye. I took the weird personality test, handed it in and said goodbye to the manager who told me there were a few more interviews scheduled for that day, but she would let me know the decision either way.

Wednesday rolls around, I took the dog for a walk and had lunch with Glenn, and then I came home to do whatever it is I do all day. Almost as soon as I sit down my phone rings. It's a Seattle number. I'm almost positive it's the bakery. I stare at the phone for a few rings and decided I was too nervous to pick up. I didn't know what to do! I am such a dork. I kept my fingers crossed that they would leave a message. They did. They offered me the job! I was so excited! After about 30 minutes of acting like this has never happened to me before, I called the store back and accepted. YAY!

Here are the details. The store I work at is called Specialty's Cafe and Bakery. They have a bunch of locations here in Seattle, a bunch in California, and some in Chicago. They bake everything in their store from scratch daily. They serve sandwiches, salads, soups, and lots of baked goodies. Like I said earlier, it was very similar to Paradise Bakery. The location I am going to be working at is 1.1 miles of walking from the house, so just like Glenn, I will be able to walk to work every day! It is also located in the Columbia Tower, which is the tallest building in the Seattle Skyline, at a whopping 937 feet! My shift is Monday through Friday from 6:00am to 2:00pm. It will be nice to wake up with Glenn every morning now! I start work on Monday.

Aside from getting some Khaki pants and some comfortable shoes (I refuse to wear my super nice and expensive Nike's to work) I needed to get my food handler's card. Back in Arizona all you had to do was study, show up during business hours, take a test, pass the test, and pay your money and you got a card. If you were prepared, it would only take you about 20 minutes for the whole process. Here in Washington, it's a different story. To get a food handler's card here you have to show up at one of three class times on specific days, attend the hour and a half long class, take the test, then get your card. This ordeal takes like 2 hours because they tell you to arrive early. The test is only 32 questions, so it goes pretty quickly. In case you were wondering, you can miss up to 6 questions. I missed zero. It was really annoying because it was eerily similar to a driver's education class where there is always one person who insists on asking stupid questions, making a painful experience even more painful.

Well, I got out of there as soon as I could and all I got was a crappy piece of card stock. At least in Arizona you get a hard laminated card with your photo on it. Oh well, at least I am now licensed to work in the food industry in the state of Washington.

The Grill Master

We have been having the most beautiful weather here in Seattle. The days are cool with lots of warm sunshine and lovely little breezes every now and then. It definitely is a treat to be able to enjoy being outside during the summer. Contrary to popular belief, it really does not rain that much in Seattle, especially not during summer. I think since we have been up here, it's rained maybe a couple times, but even then, it wasn't much.

In any event, we have been trying to meet up with Rob and Darcy since we've gotten up here, but they are apparently the two busiest people on earth! When Glenn called them, they pretty much said there were two days they were available to hang out. We took them up this last weekend and we had a BBQ over at our place. The morning of our BBQ, Glenn and I went down to Pike's Market to pick up all our fresh produce. It was so insanely crowded. I'm not sure what we were thinking, going down there on a Saturday morning. Anyway, we ended up coming home with tons of stuff. We got lots of fresh sweet corn, a head of broccoli, some asparagus, some wax beans, and a lemon. I love having all this yummy fresh produce just a short walk away from home.

Glenn is quite a skilled griller, or whatever you call a person who grills. The chicken was soooo juicy and perfectly cooked, and the corn was really yummy. I made the pasta salad. Not much skill involved there. LOL. Everyone enjoyed their food, we all enjoyed the company, and before they left we made sure to rope them in to a board game and we played Ticket to Ride. Glenn actually beat me by a few points! Earlier in the morning though, we played the Nordic Countries version of the game and I whooped his butt.

I hope everyone is doing well. We are happy as can be here, and I am about to head off to a job interview right now! :o)

New Bed Linens

I've grown tired of just having bed sheets as the primary decoration in the apartment. Glenn and I finally went shopping for a comforter and some nice sheets, and what better time to shop then when Macy's and Nordstrom's were having competing sales?

We checked out Nordstrom's first, but there selection was a bit too high class for us :o) I'm not really cool with spending a couple hundred bucks on a duvet cover. That of course means you have to buy a comforter to put that duvet cover on first. Spending a few hundred bucks on bed linens was just not very high on my list of priorities.

Next, we made our way to Macy's and found a much better selection. Not only was the selection nearly 10 times that of Nordstrom's, but it was considerably cheaper too! I had my eye on a teal and lime green reversible set, but Glenn found a just as appealing set for half the price. Less than $40 was a killer deal. After we purchased the set, I was determined to find a complementary sheet set that added a nice contrast. We found these great organic cotton sheets at Target. They are so nice! I just love them. They have a sateen finish and they are delightfully soft. I definitely think that they were a good buy.

Now all I have to do is convince Glenn that having pillows that are used solely for decoration is really a good idea. Our bed set came with two standard shams and two European shams as well. I don't think I will be convincing him of that anytime soon :o)

Lake Tapps

Over the weekend we were invited out to Kali and Eric's lake house at Lake Tapps. It was absolutely wonderful up there! There was a tennis court, basketball hoop, shuffleboard, a dock with a diving board, and of course the beautiful lake setting. We basically just enjoyed the lovely weather and hung out in the sun while all the pups ran around ALL DAY LONG. If someone got into the water or threw something into the water, Rally was sure to follow. That dog just loves the water.
Speaking of water, we also brought some watermelon and thought it would be funny to feed it to the dog. He was mostly confused, but nibbled some off and seemed to enjoy it!
There was also a floating dock (or whatever you call it) further out to the lake and Rally and a couple of his new friends went out there and hung out for a bit. Once he realized that we were back on dry land, he got really confused. It was kind of cute!

Unfortunately, due to Rally's excessive playing and not really knowing his limits, he injured his front paws pretty badly. He started limping a lot when everyone was starting to settle down so we had to take a look. Apparently from all the rough housing outside, the skin on both of Rally's paw pads had been completely scraped off. We had to carry him a lot the rest of that day.
The next morning we were pretty worried about him so Glenn ran to the grocery store first thing in the morning to get some bandages. We wrapped up poor Monstah's feet and he pretty much hated it. You gotta do what you've gotta do though.
He pretty much rested all he could to recover. Walking was just too much. We tried to lay with him as much as possible so he would feel comfortable.
As you can see, he is all back to normal now. He's perfectly fine and his paws are healing nicely. Next time though, he's wearing shoes.

Things Are Starting to Come Together

Our tiny little studio is starting to feel more and more like home everyday. It all started out with a bed from IKEA. After a while we kind of started to get tired of eating on the bed for every meal and pretty much laying on the bed anytime we wanted to sit anywhere that wasn't the ground. Needless to say, I have been searching for a couch for quite sometime. I've mostly been looking at Craigslist because that is the most budget conscious choice for right now, but nothing really struck my fancy. I did find a coffee table and two side tables for just $15! Pretty sweet deal. Finally, we decided to stop at Mor Furniture, and what do you know, we find a pretty couch that we both like for $200. Even if we end up hating it, it's wicked cheap. I don't hate it though, I really like it.
As you can see, it's a pretty pale icy blue color. It looks pretty much like what the sky looks like on a typical hazy day in Seattle. The color is actually called Hydra. Corny, right? It's armless because it is actually part of a sectional, hence the deep discount, but it works really well for us. For one things, arms take up extra space and we don't have a lot of that to go around. Also, it's just not as flexible with arms, so we are really happy with our choice. I'll be honest though, my first choice was a a dark gray couch from Dania with a similar tufted/quilted styling to it and very boxy. My first choice was also $600 and that wasn't going to fly right now. Oh well. I really like my new blue couch. Plus, if I can ever get my bright green rug up here, it will look fantastic next to that pale blue color.
So now the apartment has a bed, a couch, a coffee table, and a couple end tables. Can you guess what else is missing? If you said a dining room table, you are dead wrong my friend. A TV is much more important when you are struggling to find things to do after relentless job searching and reading for hours on end. Coloring in your Cars coloring book can only last you so long. We had been planning on getting a new TV for quite some time and we were mostly just waiting for the 3D TV's to come out so the price on the one we've had our eye on would go down. Well, what do you know, Sony is apparently discontinuing that model, so good luck finding it! We went into the Sony Store one weekend and drooled at all the pretty TV's and then I wandered into the video game area, like I always do, hoping they would have Gran Turismo set up. They did not. They did, however, have the 3D TV set up with some space game. I put the nifty little glasses on, blew some stuff up and squealed with excitement. After a few minutes of Glenn talking to the sales dude about the TV and the killer, and I mean killer, promotion they had going on, we talked it over for a bit. I loved the TV, the price was good, the promotion was awesome, and we would be getting the newest technology. We went for it.
What was the promotion you ask? Well, let me tell you. We got a 5.1 Sony surround system, a 3D BluRay player, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 3D, some IMAX 3D movie, 4 PS3 games, and all the 3D peripherals for FREE. See what I mean? That is a killer promotion!
Anyway, I am absolutely loving our beautiful new TV and I cannot wait to really play with the 3D features. I am also really loving the fact that our apartment is starting to feel like home.

4th of July

I never used to be a really big fan of the 4th, but I can most closely attribute that fact to living in or visiting a hot location on the 4th. Sure, watching fireworks has always been fun, and I have lots of fond memories of that, but being hot and uncomfortable in July is just not that fun.
Like I said though, there were lots of fond memories. When I was younger, I remember Grandpa Lutes sending us a sweet little package full of sparklers and other mostly non-harmful fireworks and that was always a lot of fun. I remember a family vacation (before Glenn) where we went to Cabo San Lucas and were treated to beachside fireworks by the resort, even though the holiday has no meaning to them. It was a really special night that I will always remember. I also remember the time when Glenn took me to a Dodger game on the 4th. That was another experience I could never forget. After the 7th inning stretch, we left our bleacher seats in left field and stood behind the bullpen waiting for the go ahead to run onto the field and claim our seats for one of the most spectacular fireworks displays ever seen. It truly was amazing. It was even choreographed to music!
My most memorable 4th of July would have to be last year's. Not only was it not 100 degrees outside, but we were by water, and later that evening I got to shoot off my very own fireworks for the first time. Now that we are back in Washington, I wasn't about to spend another 4th of July simply sitting back and watching the show. I was going to get in on the action too.
This year, we made our way up North the day before to do a little outlet shopping, eat at Bajio (sadly out of business), and pick up some fireworks on the Rez. Of course, I have little to no self control when it comes to buying fireworks, so at the very first booth we spotted and stopped at, I spent all $40 that I had. We had brought Janke along on our little trip and he didn't buy anything at the first stall. At the next stall, I remembered I had $5 in my wallet, so I quickly spent that too. Since Janke is a little indecisive and I secretly think he was just planning on sharing with me, despite my protests, we decided to hit up Boom City. I've never heard a truer name.
Boom City is flat out ridiculous. If you were to create a stereotypical image of a pyromaniac in your head, multiply it by a couple thousand and put those people in a couple acres of land surrounded with stalls upon stalls of fireworks dealers, you would get Boom City. This place was nuts. I have never seen so many fireworks in my life!
Not only that, but there were boxes of fireworks for sale that retailed for $150, $350, even $1000!!! Can you believe that?!
Imagine my surprise when Janke didn't buy anything, and we left empty handed. Hmph.
At around 8:00 on the 4th, Glenn, Janke and I made our way out to Tacoma to watch the fireworks show. It was lovely as always. Afterwards, we drove around University Place to find a suitable place to shoot off our own explosives. We found a nice little area not too close to houses and proceeded to blow stuff up. I was even super nice and I shared with Janke. It was fun. I love shooting off my own fireworks. The only other person who I think might enjoy this as much as I do is Jeff. I hope I can get him up here, maybe next year, because we would have a blast!
I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July! I know we did. Love you and miss you all!
Enjoy the video below of Janke having a difficult time getting the lighter to work. (Hopefully I loaded it properly.)