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)