Buying a House!!

Jeff and I have officially begun the process of buying a house. We've been talking about it basically since we got here and started paying crazy rent. We figured that since we're in the financial position to do it, buying seemed more practical. And we realized we could live in it for 3 years or so and when we have 1.5 kids then move into a bigger place in the 'burbs for the kids and keep this place as a rental. So after doing some research on our own, we've settled on the West Seattle area. We like that it's close but still feels casual. Far enough away from the bustle but still good sushi. Jeff was originally against it because of the bridge, but we've now been back and forth enough to realize it's not that bad and if we were ever to need to cross it during rush hour then we'd probably be on the bus anyway.

So we chatted about it with Grandpa Ron when we were in CA for Britney's wedding (since he's a realtor and knows things). And he hooked us up. Called a few people in the Seattle area and pre-interviewed them for us and found us a really nice guy. So we met with him last Friday. And talked about what we're looking for and he actually suggested instead of looking for 2 bedroom condos we should look at 3 bedroom houses - which works out a lot of the time to the same space (1000-1200 sqft). And he said it was much easier to rent out a house rather than a condo which could have building restrictions. This got us thinking and we actually decided we really liked that idea. It would be a different experience for sure (yard work!) but it would mean that if we wanted to we could stay longer than 3 years. It wouldn't be a "we have to move now!" but rather "well the kids get to share until we decide we're ready" or a "Jeff's office is moved to the basement/another room."

So anyway, the realtor sent us a filtered MLS search and we spent 2 hours on Saturday going through different options. We flagged 4 of them as "love" and about 10 that are "like" and we're planning on going and looking at a bunch on Wed. This is my favorite so far. But we talked to the realtor a lot about the hotness of the Seattle market and the guarantee of doing a bidding war, so be prepared for a little frustration. And of course you never know until you go stand in a house if it'll be a good home for you, so we'll see if I like it on Wed.

The other ball that has to be rolling for this is money. We contacted a mortgage lender and filled out some crazy application that told our entire life story. Now we know the fact that we're self-employed puts some weird parameters on what we can do (for instance we had to wait until now to start because we needed two years of showing we owned the business and were working), but when outlining our situation to people, they've said we really shouldn't have a problem. The only wrench is Jeff's credit sucks from when he was sick and wasn't working for a year so we might not get as awesome of an interest rate as we would like, but we know we can always refinance down the road if we want.

The other crazy thing is the realtor told us that if our offer is accepted, the whole process takes about 30 days. So it's crazy fast because of the crazy need in the market. But we're excited to start this process. Jeff is sitting in a corner saying "Oh boy" Jackson style* but I keep reminding him of all the cool stuff we get to do with our own place - and we can always hire someone to do the yard work :]

*also I'm fully aware that Jeff will be exactly like this when we have kids as well, but I love him anyway

EMP Anniversary

Jeff and I have officially been married for two years (I know, such a big milestone) and we still love each other and haven't wanted to kill one another at least at the same time yet, so I would say we're doing pretty good. We went to the EMP and then to fancy sushi. The EMP has some serious nerd exhibits happening right now. The ones we saw:

• touring Star Wars costumes - super cool. Because I'm a huge nerd, I'd already seen about half the stuff they had but it was still cool. The fabrics and beadwork on all of Padme's outfits are amazing. My favorite was her wedding dress. The beadwork was crazy and the lace was super intricate. The other crazy thing was the amount of people who worked on just her costumes alone was insane - something like 80 people. The other thing that the quotes on the walls and videos kept talking about was how bc of all the green screen that was used in Episode 1,2,3 (which is basically the entire movies) the costumes were really the only thing the actors had to connect with the story so they became really important for them.
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• Infinite Worlds of Sci-Fi - so Paul Allen clearly has way too much money, even after helping Bill Gates save the world. This entire exhibit is literally sci-fi show memorabilia that he has collected over the years. An entire exhibit! But Jeff and I decided that if we had that much money that's probably what we would do with it too.
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• Indie Games - so this was a whole exhibit about Indie video games and how the process of building an indie game rather than big money game is completely different. But the cool thing was there was 20 stations throughout the exhibit where you could play a game. Jeff and I found a few that we like: The Floor is Jelly (this one Jeff really liked and I wanted to throw it), Lumino City (I really liked this one), and Quadrilateral Cowboy (which according to the site is still in production yet we were playing it...)

Then we killed 40 minutes waiting for our reservation by going ot the same bar we went to last year when we went to Shiro's for anniversary sushi (last year was when we came to Seattle for Nickel Creek and stayed in the really nice hotel) - except it wasn't the same bar. It has a new name but other than that we couldn't tell any difference. But anyway, I ordered a "Green Tea Fizz" which is basically this. It was amazing and Jeff was appalled that I would drink a cocktail with a raw egg white in it, but it didnt taste weird - just added a nice creamy-ness to it.

And then we topped it off by stuffing our faces with Shiro's sushi. Always delicious. While we were talking we discussed all the things owning a house would let us do (more on that in the next post) like painting and running wires through walls rather than around them (although we decided that might be a project we tackle later). 

A great low key anniversary. 

a man with a bag

Yesterday on the bus I saw a guy taht was at least six feet tall, gym-rat muscles, and a white t-shirt to show them off, carrying a this bag. And my first thought was "well those two images don't compute" and my second thought was "man I hope that's a rip off bc that bag has to be mega expensive." And now that I looked up the bag to find the picture, I see that it is crazy expensive.

Last week, I went some ladies to a "Totally 90s Sing-a-Long" and it was great fun. It was at one of those theaters that usually plays movies and you can order food and drinks. But instead of watching a movie, it was a full theater of people doing karaoke to music videos - and then about halfway through we added dancing to the mix. And the breadth of songs was awesome - Marky Mark (he is still hawt to this day), the Titanic song (made me want to rewatch this movie), Achy Breaky Heart (made me text Meghan and reminisce about 1st grade), Destiny's Child when there was still 4 of them, TLC (best breakup song ever), and even a little Gin and Juice thrown in there. But my goal of the evening was to sing Britney and I wasn't disappointed and enjoyed a round of Hit Me Baby One More Time. All in all it was a great show and dancing and singing with a bunch of slightly drunk 27-35 year olds who definitely had to work in the morning but didn't care was awesome.

And then another night last week (I did all my socializing last week during the week and watched TV all weekend to recuperate bc of it) I went to a job fair that was bust, but while there I met this lady who was AWESOME. So we ditched out and went and had drinks and then started talking to the guys who were sitting at the table next to us and it was an awesome three hours of conversation. And I kept having to remind one of the guys that I was married - always nice to know I still got it :] All in all it was a crazy adventure of an evening.

Guilt Cycle

You know how when you don't do something for a really long time, and then you feel guilty about not doing it for a long time but it's now been so long that it seems weird and you feel more guilty and it's a vicious cycle? Yeah, that's how I feel about journaling right now. When we got back from CA (more on that in a minute) I wanted to write a big old thing about it because I had a great time and it was exciting....and then I never did it.

So anyway, no more guilt. Let's talk about CA! We went down for Brittany's wedding and made a thing of it (and no I have no pictures bc our camera ate our SD card and I'm very angry about it) We stayed in Koreatown in LA (we did an airb'n'b - so we had a whole apartment - this one: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/2540292) - which was really fun. I obviously haven't been down there since I was younger and I never really went into LA. So it was a whole new experience. So anyway, we ate tons of mexican food (Jeff was all "why do you want mexican so much?" and then I fed it to him and he got on the bandwagon), went to the Observatory, and of course Disneyland. Now here's what I learned - when goign to Disneyland, take a gimpy person with you. Jeff got us a cut-in-front-of-line pass for the whole day. Now this was helpful since we had to stop and take a 30 minute rest about three times and halfway through the day we were taking twice as long to walk between rides. But we did get to do a lot of rides. We did Space Mountain five times - but in our defense Matterhorn was closed for "sprint cleaning." Actually about halfway through the day we realized we should have done the park-hopper pass, but it was a great day. I got Jeff to stop and watch the little bits that they do around the park and we sat and watched the whole parade. The parade really got us talking. We sat next to a very cute girl who was about five and dressed head to toe in Belle and she got SO excited at everything and when Belle noticed her and waved, she freaked out. So the discussion Jeff and I were having is when do you bring your kids to Disneyland. Do you take them when they're five and still super excited about imagination and the Disney spirit but most likely wont remember, or wait until they're eight so they remember but they're more excited about Space Mountain than the imagination side of things? I'm for taking them early and Jeff is more for taking them later. Then there was a discussion about Disneyland young, Disney World later.

So the wedding was amazing. We got to see everyone and Jeff and I got complexes about being short. Even Joel - who is 11! - is taller than me. It was great to see everyone and Kristen was having a very entertaining mind-being-blown moments throughout the night. Anytime she caught me swearing or drinking or when we compared tattoos, she would say "You can't do that. You're ten!" But it was great to see everyone. I kept making everyone tell me their favorite things about life and most exciting things about life. My favorite pictures are below - family ho-ho (seriously, everyone is taller than me, but i am crouching slightly in that photo, but judge based on Jeff), my new favorite "this is our relationship in a photo", and my favorite candid from the night. 

So since CA, I've gotten back into sewing for real. Nani turned me onto watching a specific lady on PBS - Fit 2 Stitch - and she's all about making patterns fit exactly for you and how to make patterns out of existing clothes and using a french curve. So I have a favorite pair of sweats that I've had for ten years and are falling apart, so I tried to make a pattern. And it worked! And then I made an Easter shirt. And I'm in love. I love that I used the fabric to wrap the pattern around and then the arms match. I love it. Jeff thinks it "makes a statement" which is perfectly fine by me :]

Anyway, that's the latest going ons in my life. And I'll try to update the blog now that I'm over my guilt cycle. :]

SCRUM Mastery

The past two days I've been in a training session to get my SCRUM Master Certification for work and I learned a ton. I actually went into it not excited because my job was forcing me to do. But it was a lot more informative and fun than I expected. The instructor is actually a pretty big name in the SCRUM field so he had great stories and examples and was really good at teaching the stuff. We played games and got up and did things in different groups so we met everyone and heard everyone's story. In fact I enjoyed it so much I'm seriously thinking about going and getting the next level certification at some point just because.

I always find it interesting what kind of people you get in this kind of situation. For example I met a few people who I like a lot and felt like real peers - those people I got their names and connected with them on Linked In and will reach out and have lunch with them at some point. Others...not so much.

Also question of the day: why is conference food so good and so plentiful?

Beyonce Thighs!

I have lost a bunch of fat. I haven’t actually lost an weight but I’m much skinnier. Ex: I bought this epic 70s dress from a thrift store and knew I would need the proper underwear for it. So I brought it home, put on said underwear and the dress and was bummed bc I looked the same. Jeff was like “you need your spanxs” and i was like “i’m wearing them!!” all girl-defensive mode. Took me two hours to realize that the spanxs weren’t doing their job bc they were too big! And when I finally figured it out, I was super excited. And the best part is we haven’t even been trying hard. We’re doing 3-4 days a week and it’s just a half hour of either cardio or doing weights - but nothing mega intense. We don’t come home dripping or anything. I’ve lost a ton around my rib cage (I can feel my ribs again), thighs (Beyonce thighs here I come!) but my little tummy pooch are still there. I’m not super worried or obsessing over it and I’m not giving up my cocktails anytime soon so I’m just accepting that it probably won’t ever go away and moving on with life. But new problem - I’m basically to the point where I have to make my own pants (which I’m starting to try).

Once the proper underwear is acquired, this will be awesome!

Feeling sick-o

So I got whatever is going around. I have no idea how since I rarely go places, but there you go. It's been one of those colds where everyday brings you a new and interesting facet. Saturday - sore throat; Sunday - sore throat got so bad it moved to my ears too; Monday - snot added itself to the equation; today - stomach cramps. We'll see where tomorrow takes us. Oh, and it's one of those colds that isn't completely debilitating. When you sit on the couch for three hours, you feel fine; but the second you stand up to make meatballs, your body say "um, e'scuse me? where do you think you're going?"

Bookclub #2

So I met for the first time with the other book club I joined, called "Booze, Books, and [insert name of book here]. We met at a bar and it was awesome. There were only four of us and we spent more time gossiping about our lives than talking about the book, which was just fine. We read Not That Kind of Girl, which I hated. Seriously, I've seen Lena Dunham a few times on tv being interviewed and always thought "wow, that girl really speaks her mind. go her!" but after reading this book my opinion changed to "dude, maybe you should filter yourself just a little bit." And I now have absolutely no desire to watch Girls at all.

But again, very fun book club and I'll definitely be going back.

Australian Open

It's happening and Jeff was very sad when 'the Fed' (that's what I call Roger Federer) got defeated in the second round. I think we're about to see a huge change in the top eight this year because there are a lot of young players starting to come into their own. This idea was solidified more when Nadal was knocked out by a younger guy. One of Jeff's life goals is to see the Fed play in person, and we're pretty sure that means we have to sometime this year, so I'm now haunting the internet for signs of him saying he's going to the US Open in August. My original idea was to go to this Australian Open - until I looked up plane ticket prices and discovered getting there would be about six grand. So that didn't happen.

Super Bowl Par-tay

We have been invited to a Super Bowl party with some new friends and I am very excited. I've started feeling gloomy about friends again in the past few days because we drove Sean, our only friend we have made all on our own, to the airport so he could move back to Connecticut because he broke up with his girlfriend and wanted to move back to be with his family. It was very sad.

Mentoring is awesome

So the project I talked about a few weeks ago where I was kicking ass and taking name - this project is becoming a huge learning experience for me on multiple levels.
1. The first level is financial acumen. I'm working really closely with our COO right now because the sales guy on the project vastly underbid the project (by about three-fold) and we're having to develop our presentation of the bad new. But I'm learning a lot about how to do that from an expert (up until now I just had to wing it).
2. Mentoring - the designer on the project is right out of school and consequently has never done this type of project (let alone one of it's magnitude) and has little experience interacting with clients on a daily basis in a business setting. So I'm spending a lot of time mentoring him and it's great fun. He's really eager to learn and I'm finding how much I've grown just in the past year as a PM. Today I was coaching him on how to write emails to clients, and it was amazing to me how easy it was flowing from my fingers. One of the principles I've always had, but am really flexing in this scenario of telecommuting, is empowering my team. So watching him learn how to interact and deal with the client - and be a part of that learning process - is awesome.

Awesome things I've seen in the past week

SpaceX Dragon

Sean told us that we needed to hightail it over to the Museum of Flight last weekend because the SpaceX Dragon was going to be there. So we did. And it was awesome. The first thing I thought of when I saw it was "Wow. It looks exactly how I would imagine the Millennium Falcon looks like up close"...which Sean said was a compliment for the Star Wars props department more than anything. Anyway, it was so cool. It's been to space - recently!

It's been to space - recently!!

Up close it looked like styrofoam

My new desk chair (and the house it came from)

So Jeff and I have been having a problem. When we are both working at the same time, someone gets to sit in the nice Herman Miller Embody chair and the other person is stuck with the 1970s orange office chair I got from the basement of the Whitworth print shop that is completely broken and squeaky. As much as I love this chair for it's sentimental value, it was not a good long term solution. So Jeff really wanted to get a Herman Miller Aeron chair, but I told him buying two big office chairs wasn't necessary, especially since the goal is having Jeff being the only one working from home as soon as possible. So I dug around craigslist and found an awesome 1970s orange Herman Miller Aeron chair (or the equivalent) for a hundred bucks. So I told Jeff to contact the guy, and we went to check it out. And when we got to this guy's house, I wanted it all. He had a beautiful collection of mid-century furniture - multiple sideboards, a gorgeous bar cart, a low slung couch. It was amazing. I wanted it all. But I settled for the chair.

We now have two Herman Miller chairs :]

My unicorn lamp lives!!

After taking the picture of my new chair, I realized I was being dumb. I have a dedicated work desk but none of my work desk accessories set up. So I had to rectify that. And I'm excited to say my unicorn lamp still lives.