Magnuson Park

This morning we tried out the new Tillicum cafe for breakfast, and later drove to Ravenna for some bagels. I couldn't believe it took us 12 minutes to drive to a neighborhood that took us 3 hours to walk to last Sunday. I love comparing driving and walking; we think nothing of driving 60 miles in an hour but do you have any idea how long it would take to walk that far!? I think I can walk 15 miles a day; the problem is by the 3rd day I have shin splints and sore ankles from walking the previous days.


I'm finally getting the 3 "M' parks straightened out: Magnuson, Myrtle Edwards, and Marymoore. We went to Magnuson Park on Sand Point to try and find the Sound Garden. We could hear it, and see it in the distance, but we couldn't figure out how to get past the barbed wire and locked gate to get to it. A lady at the dog park told us that there's a guard there on weekdays who would let us in. guard? barbed wire?



We still saw some other art though, the fin project (old airplane tails that look like a pod of orcas) and the salmon shower.

Grandpa's Lounge?

Bryce and I headed to grandma and grandpa's for a visit and to get car stuff taken care of. Grandpa has this really cool garage. It's a true grandpa garage: NPR playing, old fashioned tools and pullies hanging on the wall, pictures of the projects he's done, and a neat wood stove. I was thinking, it would be cool to have a lounge called "Grandpa's" or something and it would look just like my grandpa's garage. I would even make it so the place wasn't heated so it would be sorta cold inside except for heat from gas lamps or something.


We had Thanksgiving at Roy and Tammie's house. Tammie let me play with the grandkids' bouncy balls in the hallway.

Shopping

Bryce and I walked downtown today after dinner to go shopping; he went a little crazy at Banana while I got to look at all the new pretty things at Anthro. They have the prettiest coats out this year! I finally got a new coat at Banana on Monday; $100 off! woo hoo!

Of course, we had to follow that up with cervezas and nachos at Pacific Place.

Wellington!!

Geoff from NZ job seek wrote this afternoon and said he found a job in Wellington!



Bryce told me just a few days ago that Wellington would be ideal because it's on the southern tip of the North Island-- easy access by ferry to the South Island. Wellington looks amazing. Of course I'd live pretty much anywhere in New Zealand, so that's not saying much. It's about 4 hours away from the nearest ski resort, Mt. Ruapehu.

Wellington's the capitol of NZ (Embarrassingly, we just found that out. We thought it was Auckland). Wellington is NZ's 3rd biggest city. I found this out on Wellington's website:

New Zealand's currency is based on dollars ($) and cents (c). There are five notes ($5, $10, $20, $50, $100) and five coins (10c, 20c, 50c, $1, $2).

Brussel Sprouts

Kari and Christine told me that broiled brussel sprouts are yummy (some olive oil, some salt and pepper, 400 degrees at 20 minutes, and yada yada yada, you're done). They were good! I've never had them before. Tastes like broccoli.

Christine got some sprouts for me when we went to Pike Place Market together on her lunch break. (I worked from home today). While we were there we saw this broccoli/cauliflower hybrid, I wish I had a picture of it.


Here's a picture of our building that I took. I've been doing a lot of walking since we moved to Seattle, it's great! I think I have shin splints though from our long walk yesterday.

Seattle Hike

Click here to see our Trail Map (Give it about 5 seconds to load)

Bryce wanted to go for a hike today-- somewhere in the mountains where snow would be involved. I suggested walking to Pies and Pints; a restaurant we've been wanting to go to in Ravenna. Advantages: no snow, no wild animals, plenty of rest stops, and Pies and Pints has beer AND meat pies. Needless to say, we went with my plan. All in all, our Seattle hike took about 6 hours, was 12.5 miles long, and included an extra rest stop at the Triangle in Fremont. We walked to Ravenna via the University Bridge, and walked back through Latona, Wallingford, and Fremont, stopping to see the Fremont Troll. We were exhausted when we got back home.

Cool double-helix door handle on a lab building on Eastlake.


I-5 Colonnade Mountain Bike Skills Park


Found at the mountain biking park under I-5 off of Eastlake.


In U-District.


Our mission: walk to Pies and Pints in Ravenna from Belltown.


Fremont Troll under hwy 99.


I finally e-mailed NZ and said I could not take the job in Gisborne.

Restless

I need to get out.
Saw Warren Miller last night, it was great. Had like 20 people from the ski school there.
Went for a short run today, I'm definitely not as capable a runner as I normally am in late November. I'm kinda disappointed I took the easy way out and didn't sign up for the 1/2 marathon this year. That race really does a lot to keep November flying by and keeping me determined. I'm definitely fighting a rut lately.
Well at least I did work out Thursday and today. I can't wait to ride. I need some more riding partners. I think I need to do more weekday riding this year. Less lines, more vert, more powder.
Well it's time to go grab a beer or two.



Julie's note: I think Bryce was bummed because he was stuck in the studio all day while I baked with Kari. Yummy brownies. mmm. Bryce perked up once we met up with Ryan and Joe at Kushi, a cool sushi place, that oddly enough is right next door to Wasabi Bistro.

do a snow dance

Stocks went up a bunch today. I'm glad they've stopped tumbling, but it would be nice for the markets to be less volatile.

I couldn't bring myself to e-mail NZ and say that I'm not taking the job in Gisborne. I mean, wouldn't it be so awesome...? I know I can't but it's a nice dream.












Tonight we went to Rendevous, and then with Bryce's ski-school friends to Von's. We took the monorail to Seattle Center-- I haven't been on that in a long time, it was only 2 bucks. It was a fast ride, felt like Disney Land. We met up with Kenny and saw the Warren Miller ski movie-- we're pretty excited for ski season. Here's a picture of Bryce on Blackcomb last spring. I think I'm actually going to try snowboarding again this year. I tried it about 4 years ago and was baaaad. Maybe all the skiing I've done the past few years will make me a bit better this time around. Hopefully.

No Gisborne

The dow fell another 400-odd points today.



Today Bryce and I had a serious talk about Gisborne. While I'm all for it, Bryce pointed out that there's not much for him to do there while I'm at work. Apparently there's no real hiking spots or places to go rock climbing around there. Bryce is a lot different than me-- I would be perfectly content spending my days snorkeling, sailing, laying on the beach, reading, and cooking. He definitely wants to participate in some of the adventure sports that New Zealand is famous for. I get that. I thought that he was going to say no to Gisborne because it's so far away from the nearest ski resort. In actuality though, he kept an open mind about the snowboarding issue (which was a big one), but couldn't find anything else for him to do that would replace snowboarding.

Ooh I should've reminded him that he likes to run! You can run anywhere!! ;-)

Another good point against Gisborne is that it's really out of the way; it would take forever for us to drive anywhere cool on islands-- every trip would require an overnighter. We did decide that when we go to NZ (we are going no matter what! Even if it's for a 3 month vacation or something), we are stopping by Gisborne. Gisborne (see Anaura Bay below!!!) looks fabulous.

I'll confess that I'm getting so nervous about leaving our good jobs that it's almost a relief to say no to Gisborne. With the state of this economy, I don't mind waiting for the perfect job opening in NZ. We decided that pretty much any big city (except for chilly Dunedin) would work fine for us.

Getting Scared

Wow, those stocks really took a tumble today-- the Dow went down 400-odd points. Now that NZ is totally in our grasp with a great job offer, I'm getting scared about leaving behind two great jobs to go for this adventure. My biggest fear is that neither one of us will be able to find a job when we get back. I'm finally being honest with myself that this might not be the best idea at this time. Dang that president for letting our economy go down the tubes! Is it too much to ask for a president not to lead us into a global financial crisis?

One thing though, I'd rather be broke and on Anaura Bay in NZ (see below) than in cloudy Seattle!!

Gisborne, NZ

This morning I got a great e-mail-- a job offer in Gisborne! I was so excited about it, especially when Bryce e-mailed me from work that Gisborne is in wine country. The problem though-- it's about 5 hours away from the nearest ski resort and about 6 hours away from the nearest big city, Auckland.


Check out this picture of Anaura Bay in Gisborne.




I would accept this job right now, but of course I have to do that whole compromising/marriage thing. Bryce is actually keeping a really open mind about it, considering how far away it is from the mountains.

good NZ e-mails

I got some informative e-mails today.




ASHA told me,

"The Multilateral Recognition Agreement, which includes the speech-language pathology associations of Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, Canada, the US, and New Zealand will be signed at the ASHA Convention next week. It will go into effect in January 2009. We are still working on application details, etc. but you should be able to get information from the folks in New Zealand shortly after the first of the year."

Yay! Hopefully I won't need to wait until January though; hopefully NZSTA will accept my application this month.


Geoff from the NZ job seeking agency wrote,

"I haven’t been having much luck finding a job with paeds in Christchurch but a lot of companies aren’t hiring this close to the end of the year. I am going to keep looking and ringing around but I’m finding a similar answer wherever I am trying. If I keep having this same luck it may be best to wait until the new year and businesses have new budgets etc and it will be easier. It is good that we are on this early so there isn’t a big rush."

So that's disappointing, but still nice to know that everything might still work out.

Wally's

Today Bryce's dad and Tammie took us out to Wally's Chowder House. It was so good! I had no idea that beer and clam chowder went so heavenly together.

Fremont

Today we walked around Fremont. This cool old ice bucket caught Bryce's eye at Deluxe Junk so we got it. Apparently it serves double as a bun warmer too. Which is funny considering there's penguins on it.



I also got a shirt for me--







And a shirt I'm planning on sending Tracy. tee hee hee.





I just got done reading our old posts and I can see the slow progression from believing we're moving to NZ to doubting it. We've got some alternate plans going, like buying a house, but is that a good idea to buy right now, or should we wait? I If we wait, where would we live in the meantime? Where would I work? Will we ever be able to move abroad? Living abroad is something that I really want to do. This economy though-- we were so sure we'd be able to get jobs when we come back, but of course that's an unsure thing now. I have yet to hear anything from NZSTA. Their website says that they do not accept appeals when an application is denied. One bright spot though-- ASHA currently has a quadrilateral reciprocal agreement with other national SLP associations to accept international members. This month ASHA is due to expand their agreement to include NZ. A quick search of ASHA's website shows no news saying that this has happened yet. I did find this useful link though on ASHA's website: http://www.comdisinternational.com/world_views.html

Bond

Bryce, Ryan, and I went to see James Bond for Bryce's birthday. We really liked it. The previews look good--I hope I'm NOT in the U.S. when some of the movies come out though!




We stopped at Wasabi for Happy Hour.






We stopped at Vons before the movie... the waitress there is so nice.




We went to the 5 Spot for the first time-- ok that place is filthy, and despite the smoking ban I think nicotine is seeping from the walls. Grungy bras were hanging on a moose head over our table. Bryce and Ryan loved the place. I was scared of eating my nachos there-- but who can resist nachos??? mmmm

Old age

We'll I'm now old, though still younger than Jules.
2 more years till I'm really old.
I'm glad I'm getting so much snowboarding in the last 2 years and finding time to take up backpacking & climbing. I need to get even more time in!

Back to work

Here's some pictures of my office in our nice new school building.









Every time my audiobook nears the end I can't stand to wait to get into my car to listen to it. Last night I finished it up in the apartment. Poor Bryce. This audiobook was called "White Hot," a griping story about a steel forgery murder. And yes, some white hot scenes that Bryce got to listen to too. I try and read books with substance, but audiobooks are usually your run of the mill novel type-- some mystery or love story.


ANYWAYS, my point is that I had nothing to listen to while stuck in traffic today! I almost enjoy traffic if I have a book to listen to in the car. You know they are thinking of raising the 90 and 520 bridge tolls to 4 or 5 bucks??? AND they are planning on raising the price of street parking in Seattle. We'd definitely have to curb our happy hour thing we've got going on lately. Living in Seattle is too much fun. Not so much fun to have a car here though.

Veterans' Day!

I got to sleep in and play tanks on Wii Play for about 3 hours until Mom called me; I headed down to the south end to visit her. Problem was, I forgot where she lived (I was distracted with listening to my audiobook) and ended up going to her work instead-- in another city. I had to take all sorts of backroads to try and find her place, I felt like the rat in the maze who has that inner compass...




We knitted together and I started on an orange hat from some of Grandma's old yarn. I actually finished it that night! Productive day huh?

Subaru's calling

Early this morning I called ASHA and told them that I wanted the form that said I wanted the dealer authorization form for the Subaru discount. My "clever" little plan didn't really work. The lady at ASHA took down all my information, which she said she was sending to my nearest Subaru dealership. I asked her if she was sending a statement to Subaru saying that I was in good standing with ASHA, but she shoo shoo'd that and basically said that they don't specifically tell Subaru that. Meaning that part of the advertisement that says you have to me 6 months of "good standing" with ASHA to get a discount was B.S. So that phone call was a waste of time. What's better, Ballard Subaru then called about an hour later about the car I want!

You know the bad part? Bryce and I even thought it over for a second-- but then realized the $1500 discount only applies to new cars (we never want to get a new car).

Walking Day

This morning I dragged Bryce out of bed to walk me downtown so I could get my hair chopped. The stylist called it "sophisticated" but I told her that I've had that same hair cut (a bob) every couple of years for almost my whole life, and that's pretty cool I was sophisticated and didn't know it.

We walked to the sculpture park and then north along Elliot Bay; I think we would've walked all the way to Magnolia but it started raining. Maybe next time. We're really feeling settled here; I love the walking. It's my favorite kind of exercise; I just can't make myself use the gym here.


We haven't heard anything from NZSTA or from the people helping me find a job, which is discouraging. Bryce noticed on the back of my ASHA Leader newsletter a Subaru ad which said that ASHA members get a Subaru discount if they are "in good standing." We couldn't believe it actually said that! I'm calling ASHA tomorrow and asking why Subaru buyers can say they're in good standing but people who want to move out of the country can't have the same courtesy. I am so fed up with ASHA.

Birthdays

Today we went to Christine and Jason's for Jason's birthday. Afterwards Bryce went to Ozzie's for Joe's birthday-- I remember when I used to go there and actually find parking. Once upon a time. I couldn't find anywhere to park so I dropped Bryce off and he just walked home.


We're supposed to make an appetizer for Thanksgiving. Any ideas??

Rendezvous

Today Bryce and I hung out with Krista and Evan, who stopped by for Happy Hour after work at the Rendezvous. The bartender there was so cool. A new learning: did you know that most bars have hooks under the counter for your purse, umbrella, etc.???

Sick day

Julie and I are both sick from work... Cough, cough.
Ok, Julie took a personal day.
Time to explore Seattle on a rainy day (1-2 inches forecast).
Just because the weather likes to Mess with us, it's part of a warm front. The mountains are expecting 4-8"... of rain! Ack!


We're off to a cool t-shirt shop that's only in Seattle and Kona:
http://www.desteenation.com/

Yay!!

We probably should have celebrated with everyone else downtown, but instead we watched it on TV--- even though the 8:00 announcement was expected after Pennsylvania won, it still brought this amazing relief: "Barack Obama is the next president of the United States."

NZ problems

Late last night I got an e-mail from Geoff at NZ jobseek; there's no SLP jobs available in Christchurch and he was wondering if we're interested in Dunedin. Bryce and I quickly researched it and figured it wasn't what we wanted; too cold--even colder than here! We had a serious talk and agreed that we would work in Auckland if that's the only place where I could find a job. Auckland is really far away from the ski resorts, so we'd have to devote whole weekends to staying down there. It would put a crimp on Bryce being a snowboarding instructor too.

With the problem of finding a job near a ski resort and with the issue with NZSTA and ASHA, I just feel NZ becoming more and more of a difficult goal to obtain. We do have a backup plan though if this all doesn't work out-- a loooong vacation in NZ and use whatever money we've saved up to buy a house. So it's a win-win situation. I really want to have the experience of living abroad for an extended period though; it's something I really feel I need to experience.

Thinking through the details

Here's our view of the space needle this afternoon.





Here's our view looking East. I love these trees on 4th Ave.

Our studio's a bit cluttered but it's comfortable and livable. We're doing a good job of living without all of our stuff in storage. It helps of course that we're in a furnished place. I'm always thinking about what we're going to leave in the storage unit, and what we're going to take with us on the plane as over-load baggage. Towels: yes. Shower curtain: no. Pillows: maybe. Spices: yes!


We're planning on shipping Bryce's motorcycle to NZ. We went out and ordered a motorcycle helmet for me yesterday, it's so cool. Silver with a black sun visor.

Voting Day

Today Bryce and I sent in our absentee ballots.


(I have tried uploading this photo at least 15 times and it won't upload in the correct orientation! GRRR! I refuse to not upload it though, so here you go.)

One blogger on the nytimes website wrote on Friday that they were going to watch the elections on Tuesday with "champagne and hemlock" next to them. I understand the sentiment.


We had a great day of wine tasting, pasty making (the pastries, not the nipple covers), and trying out wii games with Sheryl and Herb.

Halloween and ballet

I scored some free ballet tickets at work and since we live so close to the theatre I convinced Bryce to go. It turned out to be a rehearsal-- about 100 of us sat in a large studio to watch 2 short dances. When you are sitting that close to the dancers you can really see how strong and graceful they are. We really enjoyed ourselves, it was a great experience. Afterwards we had a beer at an Irish pub near Queen Anne and then went home for martinis. Not the craziest Halloween we've ever had, but we had fun. We did decide that when we're back here after NZ we're Definitely dressing up and going out!