...a Peach in the Rain

Savings Time! :)

2010-01-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

Ok so you can blame it on the economy, on Clay's thrifty ways influence, or my unemployment, but I've been obsessed w/coupons and money making stuff lately. So here are a few for y'all if you're interested:

FREE 8x10 Pic on Canvas: Sound too good to be true? I thought so too - but I've heard other people use it and I went and read this page and I'm a believer. I just need to find the perfect pic to put on it now! https://secured.canvaspeople.com/why-free.html

Kohl's: Get a free $5 coupon on a purchase of only $5 AND 10% off that total purchase more:www.kohls.com/upgrade/registration/sale_alert_signup.jsp

QT: Sign up for the QuickTrip Web group and get a free hot dog and fountain drink immediately, then each month you get a new QT coupon. http://www.qtwebgroup.com/

Different Atlanta deal each day: www.Groupon.com/atlanta

Creative Loafing: much like Restaurant.com, various restaurant gift certificates can be bought at half price. atlanta.creativeloafing.org

Great coupon/freebie/etc. blog: blog.al.com/saving-for-eight

Any others anyone wants to share? Tell us all - I'm all about savings these days!

Happy savings! :)

What next?

2010-01-19T19:05:00.001-08:00

Ok so I'm no longer a foreigner in a strange city (that is unless you call me a foreigner for even having lived north of the mason-dixon line for more than 6 months in the past two years, and/or you call Atlanta a strange city...), so what to do next w/my precious peach in rain?

A few thoughts - all different but all possibilities as I think I'm going to open this bad boy up into one of them multifunctional blogs.... But don't worry - this is as much of a list for me as it is for "you" out there in audience land ;)

Money, money, money? I've been super obsessed lately w/finding any type of good coupon, freebie, or even
Recipes? Probably goes along w/the frugal e, but Clay and I have been working on lots of money-saving and quick-making recipes - especially those we can set and forget or freeze for later...
Entertainment in the ATL? Being a newbie in Seattle taught me many things - one of those being how to explore and learn about the city you live in. Perhaps it's time to do that at home?
Any lasting impressions/questions about Seattle?
Smarts and Crafts: an unemployed chica's #1 survival tip...keeping busy! :) I've been sm-afting lots and could fill anyone in who is just on the verge of falling asleep but not quite able to....
Other blogs? So I know that many people out there (ok MOST people out there) including a few family members think blogging is a complete waste of time - and I'm not sure I don't agree....but then again there are actually one or two or ten out there that I frequent on all sorts of different topics to keep me entertained (I mean besides peachinrain :P)
Anything else??

So wha'chy'all think??

Love and miss you all... even though I'm back in the ATL :)

-e :)

Merry Christmas from a Peach Returned...

2009-12-25T19:03:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to Everyone!!

....and by everyone I think I mean just me as I certainly don't expect anyone to be checking this 9 months after my last post. Needless to say I apparently feel victim to that nasty blog demon who prevents anyone from being consistent on their blogging for more than a year. I can hear the weeps and moans now...

But enough of that, I'm back in Georgia after a very interesting year and a half on the left coast. Never thought I'd be so happy to return, but then again I never thought I'd be so unhappy out in Seattle. Sure the weather, the lefties, the lack of sun, the absence of good food, overly politically correctness, (and did I mention the rain??) all led to a desperate need to return home, but the real meat in the sandwich is how much I missed my family and friends. I knew I'd miss them all, but I had no idea the extent at which I would do so!

So I'm so glad to be back in the South (although no promises to continue to be so happy come summertime) and maybe - just maybe - I'll add some good ole' South storytime items on this page in the future.

A quick debunking

2009-03-19T00:19:00.001-07:00

....of Seattle weather, that is.

Yes.

It rains.

HOWEVER... the rainfall is LESS than it is in Atlanta (and yes, I'm sounding like my mom ;) ). It turns out it does in fact rain often around here...BUT the rain is entirely different than the "rain" I know. Back home rain is almost always in the form of thunderstorms, which, well .....they storm in and storm out. They can start at the drop of a hat and they can leave just as quickly... Fact is, thunderstorms are simply unheard of here - I have only heard thunder here ONCE. Seriously - just one roll. And that wasn't even until this last month. Vanessa said she once saw lightning here, but I'm still not convinced she didn't just blink too fast... It doesn't storm here at all! Which, surprisingly, is a little sad. I never imagined how much I would miss those days and never realized how much I enjoyed watching (and smelling - who knew?!?) a storm a brewin' sitting together in the garage... Oh to watch a storm roll in!!!

As for the rain here, we actually get less yearly rainfall than Atlanta. Really! But it does rain more often here, it's just that it's a VERY mild rain. Honestly it is probably better described as a mist or a drizzle...but it does rain often throughout the entire late fall to early spring, but definitely not every day. I understand the general perception (not to mention the marketing goldmine), yet living here is entirely different than what I had imagined. It is a mild nuisance, not a factor in my overall mood.

Yes, I get annoyed a few times a month at my "chronic cold, wet thigh" (only I say that, never heard the locals name it as it's probably the same thing as "Tuesday" to them) and the constant wetness and dirt that gets sucked up the cuff of all of my jeans, but overall I have yet to feel a dismal, dark, cloudy feeling come over me during this past season or two...

Next we'll debunk the whole sunless Seattle myth. It's admittedly true that Seattle gets MUCH less sunshine than Hotlanta, but it isn't as "dark" as I would have expected a city without sun to be.... There are definitely more clouds (that are much lower in the sky) and if I make it a point to look up from time to time, I realize that the sun is, more often than not, hidden behind clouds. Sure, if I thought about it, I would realize that I haven't seen a cloudless sun in a few days, but quite frankly I don't notice. For me the allegedly gloom and doom that accompanies "the rainy season" just isn't there.

Clay might be a bit different - whether it's because he works and lives in the same exact room or because he just generally is more affected by natural light I don't know, but he was definitely the only one of us to comment on the direct sunlight.

As for the overall temperature of Seattle vs. Atlanta - it is MUCH more similar than I would have ever imagined.... In Atlanta the highs vs. lows tend to range about 20 degrees per day while in Seattle it is only 10. So the average temps are super close in nature throughout the year, but Georgia gets the extremes on each side of the average - in fact Atlanta saw a much colder winter than we did here. The only time the averages are much different is in the summer where Seattle averages a cool 85 degrees. Nice, eh?!?

Bottom line? Summers in Seattle ROCK - so much so that the locals LIVE for them......but late fall thru early spring are a little tougher. Definitely not unbearable, just a little annoying. Nothing a good pair of rain boots and a good raincoat (with a hood!) can't outdo!!!!

Miss you and love you all,
-e :)

Happy St. Patty's Day!!

2009-03-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

May your pockets be heavy,
may your heart be light,
and may good luck pursue you each morning and night.

My friends are the best friends -
loyal, willing and able.
Now let’s get to drinking!
All glasses off the table!

Bricks and mortar make a house but the laughter of children makes a home.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! :)

SJI Day 2: praries, wildlife, and hail

2009-03-12T15:13:00.000-07:00

So after getting a wonderfully comfy night's sleep in our B&B (weedless though it was), we packed up and went downstairs to a great breakfast (Mom - random shout out - it wasn't Cascadian Farms yogurt - it's Cascade Fresh - yummy AND gelatin-less!) and then we ventured out to explore the rest of the island by car.

First up: South Beach. MUCH different from the only other South Beach I've been to, it was surrounded with prairie land, dark sand, tons of rocks, and miles and miles of beautiful driftwood. We also saw lots of wildlife - several deer, a couple fox, and a few local hippies. One of the foxes was particularly entertaining as it was just as curious about us as we were him - he was also quite the poser - I swear he knew he was being photographed... The other cool sighting from this park is Canada - you can literally see Victoria, B.C. in the distance just across the water. How cool is that??

After a nice walk on the beach (and Clay insisting I NOT take any driftwood. Punk.) we headed north for Lime Kiln Pt. Park - also known as Whale Watching Park. It was beautiful!! Although we didn't see any whales (the prime season for that is in the summer), I swear a saw a few porpoises even though Clay seems to think they were just waves... I definitely can't wait to go back during the high season to see the whales for sure! As we continued to meander down the trail, I was so intrigued by the trees (here are a few of my faves:

We then arrived at the little lighthouse as seen on the right: cute, eh?? After looking around the lighthouse, hovering around at each nook and cranny to try to spy a whale, and heading back up the trail, Lime Kiln Pt. was a thing of the past.... For now! :)

Lastly we decided to drive up to Roache Harbor - this provided MUCH debate as I say "roach" while Clay continues to insist on the incorrect pronunciation "row-shh"....silly Clay. But the joke was on both of us as we drove up towards town and it was almost entirely shut down for the season.... And while the weird things abounded, it began hailing. That's right, not rain, not snow, but hail! We ventured out into the dippin' dots falling from the sky looking for a place to eat, but alas the off season got us again when all restaurants were closed.

Back to Friday Harbor we drove and found a delicious Mexican restaurant - still no queso (of course!), but super yummy rellenos and salsa. Perhaps in our honor, perhaps for the old guy sitting at the bar - this Mexican restaurant came equipped with Nascar blaring on every tv in the joint, but despite that oddity, the Mexican in the kitchen made it authentic and yummy!

Then lastly we hit the Whale Museum for some pretty cool looks at whale artifacts, skeletons, videos, etc. before heading back on the ferry. The sail back to the mainland was even more beautiful than the one on the way over - the sun was shining and it was such a gorgeous day! Here's the final pic of the post from that ride home:

All in all it was a great trip and you should all make it a point to come see for yourselves!! :)

Love,
-e :)

A San Juan Weekend...

2009-03-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

Hola chicos and chicas!!

Clay and I had a WONDERFUL getaway weekend visiting the nearby San Juan islands. I'm not gonna lie to you - things started off a little rocky - but the weekend was redeemed without a doubt.

It starts with a drive 1.5 hours north of Seattle to a small town where the ferry comes and whisks you away on a beautiful 1.5 hour ferry ride to the islands (there are no bridges to the islands or in between them, so you can only get there by boat or plane). Our first stop was Orcas Island where we took a quick drive around the island in hopes of seeing the islands from the highest lookout tower which is on Orcas. Alas our weekend is foreshadowed upon a 25 minute drive that ended in a very small, yet very drive-ending sign that said "closed for the season". DOH! Ok, fine. We can continue on. If we hurry we can even catch the very next ferry and have virtually no time pass at all....

So quickly Clay drives back around the mountain up around the horseshoe-shaped island so quickly that I start to get one of my typical road-trip-induced, sun-shining-rapidly-in-and-out-of-trees, whiplash around the rural, mountain switchbacks until we arrive (early) to catch the next ferry. Whew. We made it. We saw the 'downtown' of the tiny island, we drove through the state park, know where to go when the observation tower opens up, and found a quaint little campground equipped with paddle boats, canoes, kayaks, fire pits, and cute bath houses...

Alright Captain Jeeves - on to Friday Harbor! And make it quick! (but not toooo quick!!).

A short yet scenic trip from Orcas got us to Friday Harbor where excitement turned into a moment of panic as we pulled into the dock... Anyone notice anything wrong with this pic? This is the Clay (in uniform, of course!) standing next to the freshcape and the dock is right behind him..... Ok did we get into the wrong lane? Are we actually in line to go to another island?? Because I KNOW they don't expect us to BACK OUT of the ferry!?!? Our fear grew with each inch we got closer to the dock convincing us that the ferry wasn't going to turn around... Uh oh - we see some cars pointed the other direction. We need to be in THAT lane! Uhhhhh we're Southerners - we don't have none of them ferry things down there! HELP! So Clay got the nerve to ask one of the many ferry employees standing around waiting to secure us and they chuckled a little at the silly Georgians and assured us we would all turn around inside the ferry. Phew! Yeah...we knew that all along...we're just testing you.......

So we venture up onto the island and are immediately greeted with an adorable little town with lots of restaurants, shops, and bed and breakfasts. I (of course) had done plenty of shopping around online and found the cutest B&B to stay at with the best deal and I was even more impressed in person!! Neither of us have stayed in a B&B before but we decided to finally brave the lack of anonymity that a large hotel provides and even choose a room (the cheapest of course) that had a shared bathroom down the hall. Gutsy, eh?? Well when we got there the owners gave us a free upgrade since it was so empty and we got a larger room w/our own bathroom (score!). All of the rooms that weren't filled (95% of them) were left open so we dropped of our stuff and ventured through the 3 floors of rooms peeking into each (they were all adorable!!!) and we even checked out the 2 shared bathrooms (all very roomy and clean and nice). We also looked at the cute sitting areas scattered throughout, the business center and tiny library for anyone to use, and the several shared decks - I'm in love with this place! So check it out if you're ever on San Juan Island: Bird Rock Hotel.

Ok so what to do now? Well eat or shop? Eat it is. A few recommendations from the owners and we were off for a great dinner followed by drinks at a bar where we were entertained by the locals and had a Washington first. I can't believe it took almost a year for it to happen, but it did. In all of it's glory. One of the locals was being super friendly and talkative - ok a bit TOO talkative. I should have picked up on that when he showed us his certified marijuana patient card, his certified marijuana growers card, and his Oregon NORML card (all laminated of course) - but this peach is a bit too naive I guess. After not picking up on the hints he became more direct - I told him no, I don't do that, and he asked a few more times and then finally said "I've got a pound in my car right now!". Uh, no thanks man! Shortly there after we dashed out just in time as he spilled his 6th tequila shot on the bar. Once we had escaped and were safely out of sight, Clay said "I got some weird vibes from that guy". "Nah," I say "he was just trying to sell us weed." Ahhhhh - I guess we're officially Washingtonians now, eh?

Ok our next day will be a new post.... I gotta go find a guy.......... Just kidding!

Flying High in Seattle

2009-02-28T22:38:00.000-08:00

So Clay and I finally went to the Boeing Museum of Flight which is just 10 mins from our place - I loved it even more this time than I did 8 years ago - definitely one of my favorite museums ever! We only had 4 hours there and I swear we could spend another 4 weeks there exploring everything. The normally $14 admission is cut to $3 with my MSFT card and I can't wait to go back with everyone who visits!

Probably my fave exhibit is the huge 6-story gallery with planes galore, each with their own stories (pictured to the left). This huge room is right next to the space exploration exhibit and right below the tower exhibit which teaches of air traffic control, dispatchers, the phonetic alphabet, etc. However, one of my favorite memories from my first trip was of walking through an old Air Force One so I had to show Clay that plane (which has moved across the street and now also has a Concorde to walk through and the very first 737 and 747 ever made). That's the 747 to the right - notice the small blur of khaki and red underneath the plane - that's Clay standing under the plane to show you how huge it is!! I was disappointed that the 747 didn't have an internal tour as I've always wanted to see a double-decker plane with the spiral staircase, but the Concorde and the AF One didn't disappoint... Did you know that the AF One has a doggie door for the president's office on board and the Concorde literally grows 6-10 inches while in air due to heat?!?! How crazy is that?!? It could cross the atlantic in just under 3 hours and many rock stars used it to quickly get from country to country for shows. Rough life, eh?? Too bad they're all grounded now due mostly to the one accident in France in 2002 and the manufacturers are now more interested in fuel efficiency than speed.... Oh well - another part of history now I suppose.

Speaking of history the last exhibit we looked at (which I think is also new?) is a history of WWI and WWII pilots and aviation - what an eye opener. There were stories, pictures, and planes from both wars and each had their own personal account and/or artifacts which were all so moving. The model of a trench and the stories of hours spent down in them and the lives lost were particularly frightening. I can't even imagine what our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers went through to protect our freedom. Thanks again guys from the bottom of my heart.

All in all it was a super day and a super trip down aviation's memory lane - I'm just looking forward to going back with each of you, and in particular to return with mom and dad so Clay can hear all of their personal stories and insider knowledge to add to the exhibits! :)

-e :)

So many photos, so little blog!

2009-02-24T20:06:00.000-08:00

Ok seriously behind, I know! So what's been going on in the great Pacific Northwest you ask? Lots!

First of all we had another visitor last week! My mom came to see the flower show (well and us of course!) last Tuesday and stayed for a week - it was great to see her! Not only did she cook us food, but she walked Clay (you see I'm tired at the end of my day and I walk to and from the bus each day so I'm ready to crash on the couch and escape into some tv - while Clay has been sitting on the couch watching tv (ok, and working too) and is ready to go out and do some walking when I get home), chipped in on some AMAZING vinegars for us at Pike Place Market, ventured throughout the Seattle neighborhoods with us, and even joined us on our weekly Library/Rock Bottom Brewery Sunday walk.

Our weekend was then filled with a drive around the different Seattle neighborhoods. So the first picture above is from Alki, which is the West Seattle Beach that has amazing views of the Seattle skyline, a tiny bit of beach, and several local restaurants and shops. The other two are taken from Gas Works Park (aka the park where the naked cyclist parade ends). We got to the park just in time to watch the sun go down - I'm sure my mom has some great pics, but at this point our camera pales in comparison to hers, so I'll have to wait for her to send us the pics from our next stop: Kerry Park (home of the view used on Frasier for the view from his condo).

On Sunday we got to walk around downtown and cap it all off with some Fire Chief Ale at Rock Bottom - how perfect is that??

On Monday she sadly departed for Atlanta, but she promises to be back in April :)

I simply cannot stop smiling

2009-02-10T17:18:00.000-08:00

...and for that I'm sure to be sent on an express bus to hell, but can you bear with me while I gloat a little? I promise I know how tough the economy is - and I know all too well the complications that come with these times - and I know I'll get hit by karma in the end....but golly gosh darnit there is just no wiping this enormous grin from my face!!!!!!!

So what on earth could send this peach into such utter enjoyment??? Well the demise of my enemies of course! More specifically - Shaftrust. During my tenure there the stock climed to a high of $90 (I take full credit of course), and after I left the stock dropped 67% down to $30. Quickly visions of greedy execs who insisted on options danced in my head, and I had a mini-gloat.

Well kids I just took a peek and the news is even better. CLEARLY the Wall Street analyst shave now been officially alerted of my departure, because guess where it stands now?!?!?!?

$9.

That's right - you read that right - not ninety, not even nineteen, a mere NINE DOLLARS folks.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I know I'm awful, I'm a horrible, horrible person, but gosh darnit I can't stop smiling!! Mulleted man hands devil woman is going down! This is what happens when you treat Erika poorly people! It's like the day arsehole Tony jacka$$ was fired from Hewitt....revenge is so sweet!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Now to my friends still stuck there I promise this isn't directed at you, for I wish you only riches, and you are all underappreciated, under-rewarded peeps and they are too greedy and ungrateful to include you in their exec plans anyways (jerks!). I am still thinking of your 401k matches, but you all have plenty of time for those to bounce back! Join me in thoroughly enjoying the greedy old men who get all the $$ - guess they'll have to sell a couple cars, cut back on their house miads and landscapers.

Hey boys - I hear McDonalds is hiring.

Now for my song of the day: The_allamerican_rejects_gives_you_hell blast it and grin and smirk and rejoice with me!!!

ps-yes I'm a bitch for this posting, please forgive me - I promise I'll start to feel guilty and regret it......later.

Sight Seeing Saturdays

2009-02-08T18:55:00.000-08:00

So lately Clay and I have been trying to visit the many points of interest around Seattle music - not only are we huge music lovers in general, but the grunge movement and the guitarists who got their start here are nothing short of amazing!!

Not too many years ago Paul Allen opened his "Experience Music Project" (EMP), but visiting there several years ago, I was severely disappointed and am not in any hurry to return to the blatant (not to mention boring) showoff of his music collection. So instead, we were left to venture the random sights and memorials on our own....

Enter first Mr. Jimi Hendrix, a guitar hero for Clay for sure. Hendrix died at the very early age of 29, choking on his own porcelain god impurities at the time his father lived in good ole' Renton, WA (similar to Tyrone, GA in both proximity to big city and in redneckedness). He was first buried somewhere else, but when his dad realized that fans wanted a place to come visit him (and when the checks were cashed, I'm sure), he wanted to give Jimi the proper burial place he deserved. Thus the memorial to the right - it was quite impressive. Carvings of his lyrics in his own handwriting, his signature, his pictures, and one or two dozen plots circling the memorial for his family to join him in the future. It was beautiful.

If only Steph had such a monument that she deserves....

Then to complete the Hendrix experience, we heard there was a Jimi Hendrix statue in Capital Hill (aka the Midtown Atlanta of Seattle) we needed to see. And so to Cap Hill we drove.... We got to Broadway and Pine (the intersection of the statue) and looked and looked - drove around it twice and finally got out to try to find this statue... Surely it's actually a model of Hendrix himself and not some abstract art that we saw from the street??? So we look, we venture close to the art at Seattle Community College (located at the same intersection), but no Jimi.

Surely it would be obvious?!?

FINALLY.

He seriously couldn't have blended in more, couldn't have been more random! I guess the only thing that made sense in this busy intersection was that it happened to be in front of a music store - I guess that was the big connection?? A monument in and of itself, Clay and I had to walk into this store - surely one of the last remaining brick and mortar music stands left in the country.(!) It was ok. I guess. It was no Zune marketplace ;) But alas, our Hendrix experience has been completed. Check!

Next on to my personal fave - Mr. Kurt Cobain. The lead singer of Nirvana, he was a leader of our generation and a genius sadly too sick for this world. Unfortunately his crazy wife won't bury his remains or even tell where she scattered ashes, so the only remnants of his last days remains at his house where he took his life (unless you believe all of the conspirators who say that he was actually murdered and his suicide note was nothing more than a brain dump and a letter to simply leave his wife). The neighborhood was much different than I would have ever imagined - extremely quiet and conservative feeling, the address wasn't even posted anywhere... Of course I'd done my research so I'm confident we found the right house - I wonder who lives there now - but for sure it is inhabited by someone who doesn't want any visitors or spectators... Not shy, I still took pics and still walked up close - he was a hero of mine, dangit! I deserve to feel a part of his life. Thus the pic above :)

So our musical tour ends here, a reminder of the great Seattle musical influences of the past - if only such brilliance would spring up here again.... Well short of me and Clay of course! ;)

So happy musical times everyone - go put on your favorite album and enjoy the healing power of some kick-arse music!!

Fog, Flurries, and Furries

2009-01-31T21:55:00.001-08:00

Hi peeps,

So as Ginny so wonderfully reminded me, it's time to get back to my touristy roots and show you what's happenin' in good ole' Seattle. Thus, I bring you: fog, flurries, and furries.

Not sure if I've mentioned it on here or not yet, but gosh darn if this city doesn't remind me of San Francisco every time I turn around. Now I don't think I've ever been to San Fran (or at least I don't remember), but trust me when I say I've watched enough "Party of 5" and "Full House" to truly know San Fran - I'm practically a resident. That said, (ah!!! visions of man hands and mullets and old ST comp team attack), this city is borderline stalker copycat quickly approaching restraining order level... I had no idea when I moved here what a hilly city this was, how windy it would be, and how friggin foggy it would get! Don't get me wrong, the good parts of SF are here as well like the obvious waterfront (for which every day I try not to take for granted the fact that I like 3 blocks from the water and see it everyday on my walk to and from the bus stop, the grocery store, or the local sports bar), the local fish (and produce!) markets, the coffee shops (I recently heard that you aren't a true Seattlite unless you can thread an automatic sewing machine needle by hand), and there is even the recent addition of a new street car (funny story - they knew that they wanted to name it "... Transit" like the other public transportation vessels, and it's in the area that's south of Lake Union. Wasn't until after they had their grand opening and cut the ribbon that they realized "South Lake Union Transit" had an awful acronym prompting many entrepreneurial types to sell the now famous "Ride the S.L.U.T." t-shirts.....) but I digress. Point being this is one hilly, windy, foggy city. It was pretty cool the other day when a co-worker said "you know I saw on the news this morning that the only part of the needle you could see was the very top - it was completely foggy up until that point" and I was able to reply "yeah, I saw that!"....from my living room!!!

But on to the flurries.... I keep hearing "this is so unusual for Seattle!", but I'm 99% positive those people are smoking crack. Ever since I moved here people say things like "oh it's not usually this cold", "this is so weird for Seattle", and "this is definitely a weird year", but I seriously call B.S. Seattle. Upon probing in the slightest, one finds that this "unusual", "rare" weather and snow has now been happening for at least 3 years...folks, this isn't unusual anymore! I'm not sure who thinks that global warming is happening, but it sure as heck ain't happenin' up here! Thus the flurries. Not that I mind them at all - in fact I quite like them, I just wish the locals would quite being so darn surprised. It's basically like people in Atlanta saying "what??? pollen???? this is sooo weird.", "it's not normally this hot and humid", or "sorry newbie, I can't figure out why we keep seeing mosquitoes - these are definitely not the norm!". Needless to say it doesn't usually stick (truthfully), but it has been flurrying a bit lately. Kinda picturesque while walking around downtown (which we love to do and do a lot!) to tell you the truth.

Crap this is getting long - wind it down, 'Ka.

So lastly for the furries... In our continual quest to experience Seattle to it's fullest, we recently ventured to a Seattle Thunderbirds Hockey game. Pretty cool, eh?? I mean we've definitely enjoyed the Atlanta Thrashers before and when we heard that Seattle had a hockey team that just opened a new venue south of Seattle we were stoked to go! So what if they're minor league, we thought...hockey is hockey and surely they know hockey even better up north! I mean we're only 2 hours away from Canada, eh!

...and so we ventured last Saturday night. We drove, and drove...and drove some more. Finally! Kent, Washington (how do you like that, Sandi?!?). Ok - looks like the suburbs....looks like pretty far away...but hey, I've been to friggin Gwinnett Arena (hard to admit but it was FOO for crying out loud!), so the Kent ShoWare Center can't be that far behind. We get there just about an hour before game time - too late to walk to the nearby "downtown Kent" for food, but apparently also too early for the doors to be open. So we wait with all of the other fans for them to open the doors and think that surely there is plenty of vendors inside for some yummy food. We wait and wait - ahha! They're opening!

Enter the furries.

.....and the kids

......and the kids and the furries and the kids.

EVERYWHERE!

Surprise, surprise, I've heard it's not "usual"... but I think I've made my point about how much I trust the locals and their sense of "norms". And just so you know - the pic above only shows maybe one third of them (ew - what's with the furrie convention?!?!). The arena was small so all seats are good - heck, we even saw a Seattle team win (finally) - but I think the long drive to the burbs, the lack of any good venue food, and last but MOST important, I think the attack of the furries was enough to scare us away for at least a little while!

Nonetheless, if anyone visits and wants to see a minor league hockey game we'd be happy to take you.... We just might not join you inside the venue ;)

MS Layoffs

2009-01-22T08:40:00.001-08:00

Just in case any of you are listening to all of the MS news.... They have announced 5,000 job cuts, 1,400 which will happen today and they have also emphasized that HR will definitely be hit.... but still no more details than that.

I'll keep you posted in between panic attacks.

A last minute steal!!!!

2009-01-21T14:31:00.000-08:00

Super late notice, but if there's anyone who's interested, the direct flight from ATL -> Seattle this Saturday-Mon or Tues is only $218!!!!

ORRRR - fly out of B'ham anytime by 5/31 and pay only $174!!!!

Hurry up and book - come one, come all!!!! :D

ps-should I stop dreaming now?? ;)

I owe you all a HUGE....

2009-01-21T00:03:00.000-08:00

...apology.

For some random reason I started looking back through my blog today (ok perhaps not that random, but more on that later). Looking at my current front page entries I quickly became quite disappointed in the quality of my recent entries. I feel I have let you down, and for that, I apologize.

This revelation led me to take a trip down memory lane to determine if my talent has drastically decreased or if it was never there to begin with....

Although I haven't made a final decision yet, the good news is that I'm happy to report an immediate return to original blog Erika. Not only do I pledge to more frequent entries, but I also hereby vow to return to the brilliantly witty Erika of my beginnings. (HA! I kid, people! Well not about returning to my witty southern roots, but about the brilliance of said entries...)

This politically correct NW has sucked the fun out of my bones and I vow to stuff all the fun back in dagnabit!

Ok?? Ok. Ok!

But.........now that I've said what I promise to do for you, I ask you one favor in return. Only one, I promise. From here on out, you all must SWEAR to me that you won't let me go limp again. Promise?? Deal? Deal.

Call uncle, call boring, call me absent, call me Judy - just promise not to call me sufficient.

Phew!
Thanks. :D

Love and miss you all,
-your rededicated e :)

Microspotting

2009-01-20T12:52:00.000-08:00

So it's been at least a whole week since I preached the gospel that is my employer which must mean it's about time to hit you guys up with another session...

One of the first people I met at orientation was a guy I sat next to named Tom (who happens to have been born and raised in Atlanta - bonus!) and when we were talking about what we were hired to do here at MS, he said he writes games and was going into the Entertainment and Devices group. Perfectly normal, right? Yeah...except he doesn't know anything about programming. Huh? Turns out he's really a drama/film major - a pen and paper type-writer hired to write the stories, dialog, etc. for games. How cool is that??

Since then I've learned there are a lot of different jobs at Microsoft that I wouldn't have thought of before coming here (it was super weird seeing an apple laptop on my MS bus until I realized we have people here who work on MS products built for macs...). Well another super cool job is this girl named Ariel - she is a journalist hired by MS to write about what it's really like to work here.

It's a very entertaining blog and it gives you a glimpse of all the different type of people who work here - some of them the typical geeks you'd think of - and some of them you'd never in a million years think would work at "the evil empire"...

So take a look and you'll get to see the type of people I get to work with! :) http://www.microspotting.com/

-e :)

SERIOUSLY - your dance card can't be THAT full....

2009-01-11T01:56:00.000-08:00

So the verdict is in.

The 9 (+)! month trial period is over, and I'm ready to state my opinion. I know this is a national matter and I know this might have adverse reactions, but it's high time the truth be told! I'm ready to stand up for the truth.

Washingtonians are frozed.

That's right.

Not a typo.

Not frozen,

not freezing,

not chilling,

but officially froze-ed.

(Yes, if you move cross country, you officially have license to make up words. See: G-dub's "strategory" or Jake's "vee-cation" and "bah-ronco" (I know a bit of a technicality here since technically he moved to Alaska far after he invented those words...but call it foresight and succumb to it like I have - trust me, you'll like it.)).

At any rate................... A girl moves cross-country, a girl has NO ONE local to the city, she TRIES to invite others to do things, but to no avail.

I heard from a senior coworker when I first moved here that it takes "AT LEAST 1 year" to meet people....and I have been trying to remind myself of that mantra ever since. Still doesn't make it any easier to invite others all to no avail.

Thank goodness for Clay, Vanessa, Bill, and Joe. Were it not for them I would be packing my bags immediately - but instead I will just whine on my blog and long for the days of yore...the days of southern hospitality.... of friendly families with arms wide open, a genuine concern and caring for new-in-town folk - and even - dare I say it...for non-locals!

Damn yanks!

Damn hippies!

Damn hipkies!

(if you don't get that word, please see 1st paragraph for explanation...)

I don't know if it's the mason-dixon line run west, the higher altitude and longitude, the lack of fried food and waffle houses and chic-fil-a's, or simply because all the people in this city were born and raised here and brain washed into staying and never leaving and therefore already have their dance cards full...but hello people!

Southerners ROCK!!

And despite our clever wit and well-placed sarcasm, we are not evil. I promise to not even expose you to a rebel flag or a potentially-almost-slightly-politically-even-questionable statement.

Weesh!!

I am seriously missing my like-minded sisterhood of the south. I miss my GRITS (girls raised in the south, of course - never was a fan of the food) and I miss my fried green tomatoes.

Ok................thanks for letting me vent - I feel much better :)

Now close your browser and go invite a newcomer to town for dinner or a local tour - ok?!?!?

ps....hmmmmmm.....maybe it's because people just don't like us?!?

pps...............NAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ;)

DOH! A second pause and a few links....

2009-01-10T18:49:00.001-08:00

I know, I know.....It's been a few weeks and I have yet to blog about ATL - so sorry! It's just so many pics, so many memories and field trips, it's all just too overwhelming!

Wow - do I sound like a wimp or what?? ;)

BUT in the meantime (AGAIN), I'm just so thrilled at my thriftiness I just HAD to share (and I promise this isn't even about MS or the usual Amazon, just another random purchase site that I love (piperlime.com) and all of its sister-sites (old navy, gap, and banana).... but you see not only have I convinced Clay to check out the local Goodwill for recent purchases, well, my mom taught me well. She taught me all about rain checks on a sale day and price adjustments after the sale day. But did you know you can get them even when you order online?!? Neither did I, but I tried it randomly yesterday and sure enough IT WORKED!! I ordered a few shoes off said site and then I get the awful "you know that shoe you bought?!?! it's now $20 cheaper!!" email, and so I dug and dug...and there I found it! 14 days later and I can get a credit for the price difference right back on my credit card! Go me!

Cool, eh?!?!? Ok, well I thought so. But I digress....

The other link I wanted to send is a link to a bunch of pics I've posted online lately... I know most of you are already on facebook and can therefore ignore this message, but for those of you who have avoided the devil-book (and are therefore still happy with your lives as they are and not sitting around seeing how great your old classmates can make themselves appear online), check this out if you'd like to see some pics from Atlanta and a few other recent trips: here, here, and here :)

Love and miss you all like always!!!!
E :D

A temporary pause...

2009-01-02T20:31:00.000-08:00

So I promise to blog TONS more about my wonderful trip back home later, but Clay took this adorable video of our condo on New Year's Eve and I just had to post... So watch, enjoy, and start making plans to come see it for yourselves!!! ;)

Love,
E :)

Anyone wanting to save a buck or two??

2008-12-11T22:41:00.000-08:00

I knew it.

Me too!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

That's why I was excited to find out about the promo I'm about to tell you about.... I know it's had its critics: is msft is bribing its customers to use their new search engine? Perhaps. But does it get you presies and save you money in the meantime? Absolutely.

So above first is the "cashback" search on any product that you'd like to buy...not sure how diverse it is, but for the products I've looked for (aka the ZUNE!!!!!), it has saved me $40+ bucks and my coworkers have had the same experience. So try it already! All you have to do is download the live.com search perks app and you'll be set. All you have to do is download this app: here.

Just in case that didn't sell you yet, there is a smaller promo that is kinda cool - for every search you do on live.com (aka instead of google.com), you get 'points' which can be turned into products come April....even for signing up you get 500points :) That app is here and just use live.com for your searches instead of google.com and you'll get credits to turn into prizes soon.

Now lastly (for now anyways - have I mentioned I can't help it???), I'm going to solicit myself a bit... Not sure if I've mentioned it to all of you or not (ginny?!?!), but I wanted to make sure you all know that I can get all msft products for a big discount at the company store (which happens to be literally in my building now), so that means not only vista and office, but any xbox game (scene it or the new acting rock band anyone?) or wireless mouse you'd like - for a VERY reduced cost. SOOOOO....I promise I get no commission, but point being I'd be honored to help any of you out if you're looking to buy xbox, xbox games, zune, office, vista, msft, etc. items for anyone on your cmas list this year - just let me know and it's totally legit!! :D

Ok, if anyone else has any money saving tricks this season (besides the obvious "don't buy me anything" suggestion which I TRULY am abiding by this year...), add it to the comments on this blog and share it with everyone!!!

Love and miss you all :D
E.

It's my party...

2008-12-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

...well you know the rest ;) Don't worry tho - I'm not really crying. I am actually excited - I managed to swing myself a date at the department christmas party!! I'm so stoked I can't wait for Saturday. I'm bummed Clay won't be here - but I think I can manage her myself. She's a 4 year old girl :D

FINALLY someone out here took me up on my babysitting offer! She is the daughter of a coworker and soooo precious - I can't wait. More on that to come for sure.

I miss all my kiddies up here!!! I'm afraid I've become some sort of freaky old woman from which people shelter their kids...everywhere I go I stare and them and wave, it's all I can do to not take one of the babies I see in the store and run off with them! Ok, ODDviously I would never do that, but times are desperate out here where not only do I not have any friend's kids, nephews, etc, but it's even at a time when my friends are poppin' out fresh pickens down south!! MAN I wish I could be there to babysit David and watch him grow - same thing for George, Hayden, Grace, Sarah Beth - ALL OF THEM!!!

Ok I've got to quit before I get too emotional ;)

So back to my party...we just had our Christmas party here in the new Visitor Center - cool compared to my prior employers, but I must admit - LAME compared to the other Msft holiday parties. But what do I expect - I AM only in HR after all - not like I'm in a revenue producing group or anything! ;)

REGARDLESS (have I pointed out yet how much I HATE the word irregardless?? It's not a word people!!!!), it was a nice party. I guess. Sick of families and kids on a certain level though - unless you met me yesterday, you KNOW I love kids, but perhaps for once a company party could be aimed at the single folks instead of the parents and kids???????

Ok, I'm sorry everyone. I'll quit.

I love and miss you all.
E.

Clay and Erika invade Vancouver - pt. 2

2008-12-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

So I can't believe I left out one of the most critical aspects of our first day in Canada - we OF COURSE did our research to ensure that the Ga/Ga Tech game would be on tv and that we would have absolutely 150% certainty that we could watch and enjoy the good ole' fashion hate up north. So Canada finally did us good by showing the Seattle station that was playing the game. PHEW! That was when we decided we'd stay through Saturday - otherwise I can guarandamntee you we would have fled back to our home country to do so.

So that's the good news - the bad news is that NO bars open up until 11am (not even for us!) and the game started at 9am (which, by the way, is a major setback to living this far west - but then again I guess that's what screwdrivers and bloody mary's are for). No worries - we're flexible and adaptable. So we wake up bright and early, watch the first half of the game on our 11 inch tv in our hotel room and then run out of the hotel at half time and back up to the local sports bar. You thought we were in an urgent American crisis before - but trust me this time was 50 times more serious! This time I was Elizabeth Shue as I burst into the restaurant - "We're American! And Georgian!! Turn it to KIRO ASAP!!!". Phew! All set. So speaking of Bloody Mary's, that's what we order - the bartender says "Well I don't know how my bloody mary is, but my bloody caesar is fantastic." "What's in a bloody caesar", we naively ask. "It's basically the same thing but kalmata juice is used instead of tomato juice. I think to myself I'm not really a big olive fan, but I'll give it a shot - I mean she did say it had celery salt on the rim so that sounds yummy. She gives us a sample of the juice - Clay approves - I guess it's ok too. Watery and a little slimy, but ok - if it's her specialty... Just hurry up and get it and be quiet so I can watch the game!!

She serves us our drinks, I take a sip, and they are pretty good I guess - this salt is super yummy. Go Jackets!! Then Clay asks "So what is in Klamata Juice?" - and here is the horror folks - "tomato and clam juice". Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaattt??? CLAMATA juice??? I thought it was kalamata like the olive!!!!!!!!!! EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

Clay was so good though - without even skipping a beat he swipes my drink away, tells the bartender he'll drink both of those and that I'll take something else ;) So as I wipe my tongue with my napkin over and over trying to get that nasty slimy sea creature out of my mouth I held back my gag reflex and tried to focus on the game. Eww. Even typing this story out makes me want to go take a shower!!! Gross!

But I digress - back to the game - which was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GO JACKETS!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOHOOOOOOO - FINALLY WE WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That game was fantastic!!! MAN I was thrilled. Clay - not so much - but he went and pouted outside while I celebrated at the bar. AWESOME!!!!

Ok I guess I'll quit rubbing it in all y'all dogs faces...for now. Back to Canada....

So after the (amazing) game, we decide to drive up to North Vancouver where there is supposed to be amazing views of the city. So across the really cool Lions Gate Bridge we drive and up the mountain we head in search of said views.

Only one problem - it was so rainy/foggy that we could hardly see 20 feet in front of us, let alone down the mountain or across the river!! So yet again Canada wins this round - but of course we don't quit there. We haven't let Canada defeat us yet, so we drive further west to Horseshoe Bay which is where the ferries come and go from Seattle. Cute little town where we enjoy lunch and more football before we head back to the states. (ps-I'm sure you guys have figured this out by now, but anytime you see a blur of khaki and red in one of my pics, you can rest assured that it's Clay in his standard Seattle uniform ;)

Perhaps the funniest part of this trip was seeing a "self-serve" line in the bar and grill - there are literally gas station-type coolers behind the bar where we saw people going to purchase beer to go after they ate/drank at the pub!!! Ummmm - hello - anyone else think that is a terrible idea???

Ok so we think we've seen all of Canada that we can and been drenched for as long as we can stand, so back to the border we head.

At this point it's about 5pm on Saturday night so surely the border isn't too bad. UHHH yeah right!!! Canada gets us one more time before they boot us out of the country.... Over 3 hours, 2 car battery jumps (luckily not ours), much complaining and confusion, drama dealing with the other drivers around us stuck in such an awful predicament, and a mere 3 questions at the border and finally we're back inside US territory. Talk about frustrating!! Here is the 3rd and final time I wanted to yell "But we're American! Let us back in!!!"

So all complaints aside - we're back home and even more appreciative to be American ;) Or as Donna would say "Home again, home again - jiggity jig" :)

Clay and Erika Do Vancouver - pt. 1

2008-12-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

...and we're off!!

...like a herd of turtles...

Who knew that the roads would be so crowded on thanksgiving morning?? Shouldn't these people be with family? Argh. It's driving me nuts. Took us forever to get out of the city, but once we finally did things picked up and we were at the border in about 2 hours. It was cute - Clay was nervous but luckily the canucks let us in no problem. Another half hour or so and we were in Vancouver - it was beautiful!

We checked into our hotel and immediately set out to find the Cowboys/Seahawks game, which we did at a local bar and grill. Immediately upon entering we ask the bartender if the NFL game is on and Clay quickly announces "We're American!". I'm pretty sure that was his way of explaining the desire to watch american football, but to me it brought back the scene from "The Saint" when Elizabeth Shue is running for the American Embassy gates through the rioting crowd and she yells "I'm an American!!" as she runs as fast as she can to the closing gates.... I'm quite sure that our situation wasn't as desparate - but it sure felt like it!

So there we sat and ate lunch while watching the game (Seattle sports teams are a lost cause by the way) and quizing the locals on what we needed to do during our visit. I'm so glad we did because they recommended we go check out Granville Island - an artsy island just across the river from Vancouver. Even more importantly they recommended a restaurant called "The Sand Bar" that was WONDERFUL. The food was great but the heated patio and view were amazing: the patio was covered and enclosed on 3 sides with heat lamps throughout, a huge fireplace on one side, candles everywhere, and tables with big comfy chairs with a blanket thrown over the back of each seat. The view was amazing - here's an example -->

The next day we decided to take the hop on/hop off trolley that went all the way around the city and was equipped with drivers who narrated the tour. It was definitely a good decision as we got the back story on the city, got to see all of the different neighborhoods within the city, and most critically - was covered!! It rained all day Friday and Saturday - you'd think we'd be used to it by now, but it sure puts a bit of a damper on tourist activities! Nevertheless, we managed to check out the city and see beautiful Stanley Park where a few HUGE old trees actually survived the logging era (we can't wait to go back during the spring or summer and see all of the greenery without the rain), trendy Yaletown and Gas Town, and the largest lived in Chinatown in North America.

So that's the good part of our trip. Don't you worry though - there were definitely times that made us not such huge fans of canada...(it wouldn't be a peach in the rain post without some rough time rants!) So after walking around in the rain realizing we could either shop or eat....or eat or shop...we decided we should hit up some museums. So we headed over to the space museum where I wanted to see a planetarium show - easy enough since the trolley is hop on/hop off, right?? Almost. So we get to the museum, hop off our trolley, and go inside. Doh. All the planetarium shows are over!! Fine. We look around in the gift shop and wait a half hour for the next trolley. But don't worry Clay - tonight is the OmniMax - I can't wait to show you how much more amazing it is than a regular IMax and the local theater is the largest in north america!! Ok so we return to our hotel, get ready, and plan to take a cab to the science museum where the theater is located. I do my research - I know what time the shows are - even find that there is a 2 for 1.5 special tonight and both shows (the Alps and Hidden Caves) look awesome. I try to buy tix on the phone but it isn't possible - at least I confirmed the show times, prices, and location!

We go to our concierge and ask for a cab: "Nope" he says "AC/DC concert tonight and no cab companies are even answering the phone anymore." Fine. We can hail one ourselves. Out into the street I go, I hike up my jeans just a tad and flail my arms around at the first available cab that drives by. Woohoo! I rock at this - a real city gal. The cabbie is great and drops us off right at our museum, even a little early.

We go in and find out some bad news: "All sold out" they say, "a big group came in and bought out the entire theater." Whaaaaaaaaaaaaatt????????? How RUDE!!!! Dangit! Well fine. "Any good restaurants around here for dinner?" Hmm....the worker thinks... "other than mcdonalds? not so much."

FINE. Two strikes on this city now. We hike across the street to the local train station and go to the regular imax theater. I question this decision, but Clay insists, very positively suggesting "Let's make the most of tonight - we are already out..." So away we go to the sub par but hopefully good imax. Now admittedly I only wore shoes based on the original plan of cabbing it all night, but regardless what happened next was ridiculous. We get out of the subway station and hike over to the imax building - no biggie. UNTIL we walk, and we walk, and we walk, and we walk......... you see this pic to the left?? You see that pretty building and those pretty white sails??? Yeah. The imax is

ALL -
THE -
WAY -
IN -
THE -
BACK!!!!!

It might not look like it from this pic - but that was a HIKE. So we finally get there and read the marquee for what great adventures lie ahead of us.

Apparently no one informed us it was kiddie week. So it was either Nutcracker in 3-D (45 min) or the Polar Express (2 hrs). Hmmm. Now you might not all know Clay as well as I do, but trust me when I say I knew he would NOT like either. But once again, the trooper that he is, he insisted.

$30 tickets, a $20 coke and nachos later - we were in the imax theater. us and the only other 11 people in Vancouver who thought the Nutcracker in 3D was worth watching at 9pm on a Friday night..... After running away 5 of them from sitting close to the weird adult couple without children, we sat through the entire film. It was neat that it was Clay's first 3-D film, but aside from that I can't say there was a single noteworthy item from the entire flick - it wasn't even the real nutcracker! Instead it was the horrible British version of a girl falling in a frozen lake and dreaming up a trip-influenced nutcracker rip-off. Needless to say the next time I hear "Nutcrackah!! Nutcrackah!! Be Caaahr-ful!!" will be too soon!!!

After that we went back to our hotel where there was a rooftop bar/restaurant that spun around the hotel in hopes that it would finally redeem our day.... One appetizer later and we find out the kitchen is closed, the drinks are severely overpriced, and the music cheesy and too loud. Yet we still managed to have fun and end the day on a high note - "Canada you won't beat us today!!"

So enough of our first impression of her majesty to the north - try not to hold your breath until you hear part 2 tomorrow ;)

Happy Thanksgiving, eh!!!

2008-11-27T10:43:00.000-08:00

It's pretty weird to not be with family today - I miss you guys and wish I were back home with you all!!

It's not the first time this has happened though, so I'm trying to channel 1994 when I was lucky enough to go to NY for the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (AOB, baby!!)... it was super fantastic to be in New York and to be in the parade - we did the tourist activities, shopped, and even saw a show. However....the 26 1/2 hour bus ride each way was TOUGH - especially on the return trip which was on thanksgiving. To this day I'm still not sure if it was a lack of planning or just the only option available, but one thing lead to another and our thanksgiving meal was at a truck stop - no lie. Not only was it a truck stop - but we were 300+ strong, so by the time those of us lucky enough to be at the end of the line got to the counter, there was no food left! Pre-packaged powdered donuts for us! Happy Thanksgiving to us!! :)

But hey, it makes for a good story, right?

That said, Clay and I woke up today and made a decision: if we can't be with family and friends, if we can't have a traditional thanksgiving meal (or even a truck stop meal), well then...we're leaving the country!!

Clay's brand new passport has been burning a whole in his pocket since he got it, we have 4 days off, so let's go to Canada, eh!! :)

ps-the Ga Tech band was in the parade this year so I was definitely thinking of them all day too - but don't worry, I checked their itenerary and they all had a big thanksgiving meal in NY before heading home - hopefully the directors learned a lesson from our trip back in 94 ;)

Mystery Monday

2008-11-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!!

Nothing too entertaining or insightful to post today I'm afraid, but I'm not gonna let that stop me from actually posting ;)

So the question of the day: what the heck is in this picture??? Several of these creatures turned up in the woodsy area by my new building and no one seems to know their purpose, so I thought I would turn to my trusty blogience to see if any of y'all know (or how creative you can be in your guesses)... I call them UFO's, others refer to them as weather balloons, and yet still others try to insist they are lights, although I have walked these woods MANY times in the dark now that it gets dark at noon), and I have yet to see any light beaming from the orb...

What do you think?? -->

Sorry - I can't help it!!

2008-11-20T16:24:00.000-08:00

But I have to give you all a big serving of the kool-aid in this post...

I just continue to be amazed at this place. Right now I'm lounging in a cafeteria on a comfy couch with my feet propped up and my free diet coke to my right as I wait for my free transportation to pick me up and take me home. This place is just too cool. I actually drove to work yesterday because I had an appointment after work - and do you know it was the first time I've done so in a month?!? I'm saving so much on gas and wear and tear to my car (even though Clay and I now share a car, we still drive so rarely that my car battery literally died on me when I left my phone plugged in!) and as a kicker I don't have to deal with traffic and I get an extra hour back in my day in which I can work, read, nap, or surf the net.... and I don't even have to go home - you can take any of their buses so I've even taken a different one to another part of the city after work for appointments or dinner or whatever - I just love it! In fact I'm enjoying it so much it is quickly gaining on the FREE medical coverage as my favorite benefit....

So back to the couch I'm sitting on... the culture and work environment never ceases to amaze and amuse me. I'm reminded each day as I walk past (or sit in) cozy little conversation/work areas scattered throughout each building how laid back it is here, what a collaborative and inviting atmosphere they create. Do you know there are literally ping pong tables and fussball tables scattered in most buildings too? And people actually use them! What a great way to step away from the code bug you're stuck on to take a breather before you tackle it again or to run your problem by a coworker. I also love that everyone is welcome in every building on campus - even the high tech research building or the executive center - how cool is that? At shaftrust I couldn't even get into non-HR floors or suites in my very own building!

Ok so my last bit of praise before I lose you all to a sweet tooth toothache is my beloved zune... I know I've raved about it before, but they just made an announcement today that makes it even cooler: not only did they add 2 more free games to download, but they upgraded the "zune pass". The zune pass is a monthly subscription that allows you to download as many songs as you want - the only catch being that once you end your subscription, you lose rights to those songs (so basically you're just renting the songs with the pass). Cool, right? Well now not only do you get to rent as many as you want, but you get 10 songs per month that you can keep now!! Very cool considering the monthly fee is $14 so it's kinda like you pay for one album and get to rent as many as you want for free!! I'm stoked :) I'm not sure if you have to have a zune in order to use the software and the social, but there is a free 14 day trial if you want to check it out - I highly recommend it! You can also look at me and see what I've been listening to, fave songs, most played artists, etc - my tag is erikaleighc.

Ok I guess I'll let you all go now - it's probably time for a cult meeting soon anyways ;)

Love and miss you all,
e :)

Fieldtrips for...ATLANTA!! :)

2008-11-19T23:02:00.000-08:00

Clay and I both officially have travel dates for the ATL now!!

Clay arrives 12/12 and I arrive on 12/18 (work is keeping me here a little longer so I can meet my international coworkers - but truth be told I'm actually excited despite the fact that it is keeping me from home) and we both return to Seattle (or should I say "home"??) on 12/29.

We're so super excited!

A few people have asked what we'd like to do when we're back in town (ok....you caught me - it was only my mom....but she puts forth the love of several people - not to mention the fact it makes me feel better, so I'm exaggerating this to a "few" people - ok???), and so far I haven't suggested anything outside the ordinary.

However, I just came across something that looks really interesting to me: you Hotlantans might have heard about this tons before, but it's a first for me: "Dialog in the Dark: Your Senses will Never Be the Same" - it looks super cool!!!

Bottom line I'd love to go - anyone want to join????

Love and miss you all :)
E. :0)

Field Trips Revisited...

2008-11-14T22:25:00.001-08:00

So I owe you all a huge apology...

All this time...

We've been venturing out, exploring the city, documenting our travels, yet I've been depriving all y'all of our exploits.

I come to you now for both forgiveness and redemption.

Thus this post: a catch-up on all of our undocumented summer ventures (and yes, I understand this is probably a lame attempt at some sunshine in this dark, rainy night...but such is Seattle.... ) So I can't guarantee these pics to be timely, fully explained, or even sequential.....yet here it goes y'all....

In the past I've taken you all to pike place market at least half a dozen times, exposed you all to the friendly fremont troll, the beauty that is Lake Union and its hundreds of sail boats...brought you along to nearby waterfalls and train depots and ferries... a fire festival, a display of freedom represented mostly by naked peeps, and last but not least....the county hospital.

... and I know what you're all thinking: "what else could possibly be left, our fearless leader"???

Just you wait, kids. Just you wait.

Ok, so I'm sure that's entirely too much of a build-up, but surely it beats sitting at a desk pretending to work like you are surely all doing right this second... (ha! caught you turkeys!!!)

And so begins my first trip down memory lane - and I can promise you all (good or bad) that there will be several more to follow. (But don't worry - I promise to break them up so as not to cause you to read too much at once)

#1 on my agenda is most assuredly Leavenworth, WA:

Enter into evidence our tubin' trip of the NW. You see, Vanessa and I had been planning a get-together of sorts for awhile, and seeing as how it was merely June or July - we knew we had to take advantage of the rare summer weather. So which is it: tubin' down a lazy river or a battle with the rapids in white-water rafting?? Hmmm..... Erika had her vote - and I know you're all surprised - but it did NOT involve lots of hard work or a price tag of over $25. And so I bring you............ (drum roll, please) ........... Tubin' down the Wenatchee.

Now as much as I hate to say it - no pics of the tubes or the four of us lounging in said tubes were officially documented. But don't worry - I'm pretty sure you're much better off in this scenario than you would be in witnessing the not-always-pretty sight of our trip.

And such it begins: typical men that Clay and Bill are, it was left up to the chicaritas to do all planning (I know, such a surprise, right?). And for that I'd say we did pretty well. We had a plan: a destination, a tubin' company, and an approximate timeline. Bill and Clay, on the other hand, just might disagree.

So I admit that we took a little long getting loaded up and headed out of Seattle (the hordes of people in town for the annual weed festival didn't help...no lie.) but we were on the road at a decent hour. One stop at the world's s-l-o-w-e-s-t sub shop and we were getting closer...slowly, but surely. Then comes the mountain drives - curvy and slow, sure. What we had not factored into the time equation was the driver: you see Clay was gracious enough to drive us all, but you have to remember that Clay has probably only driven a total of 15 hours in the 5 months since he moved out to Washington. Needless to say, we had a grandma on our hands. (Insert flashback here to high school when I was driving on a back road and I was stuck behind a slow car... "Let's go, grandpa" I say before whipping around the car in my responsible, yet non-senior citizen like pace.....only to see that - swear to the good Lord above - in the car was really my grandma and grandpa. Doh!)

But I digress...3 hours later we finally made it to Leavenworth. A few phone calls and many, many circles driving around downtown later and we find it! Tube Leavenworth. Let's just say that thank goodness they stayed open an extra hour that day due to the crowds and great weather - lucky for us!!

I have to say this experience was far different from any back home, this was no Hooch folks! For starters the tubes were somethin' way fancier than down south - no simple black tires for us! They were double stuffed, had a bottom and a hammock seat - a cup holder, and even a pillow! Add to that a cooler tube and hooks on each tube to stay close to each other (and more importantly the cooler float) if you wanted to, and some FRIGGIN COLD water, and it was quite a different experience - but it was GREAT.

Once we all thawed out and started to adjust to the non-GA/FL water, we were really starting to enjoy it. A few tee-tiny waterfalls here and there, a deer - no! two, three! - deer later and I was truly feeling relaxed. Ahhhh!! a tee-tiny rapid or three just added a little fun and splash.

But quickly Bill and Clay have made some headway and are a good bit ahead of me and V. "Boys!" "Boys!!" "Where are you going?? That's not the path!!!" Fine. Whatever - V. and I are good sports - so we quickly paddle (with the frisbees provided for the task - and quite handy might I add) toward their detour. Fine... Guys 1, Girls 0.

Ok, this isn't funny kids - this is getting a little shallow. Are you sure we shouldn't have followed the teenagers that are so obviously local kids using the day as an excuse to see each other in their skivies and sneak and hide some beer on the "reeve-er"?? I really think they know what they're doing - unlike us! Ok fine. Fine! No. Really. The rocks are starting to scrape my dragging arse... This is getting un-funnier by the rock boys, but fine I promise I'll be a good girlfriend and play along...

"Ok. SERIOUSLY." Not only is my arse dragging at this point - there are times when I am really STUCK. So up I stand - to literally walk to a deeper point hobbling over the sharp rocks looking to determine which side of the river will be the most forgiving... Ahhh. Finally. The deeper waters are back and the rocks have disappeared... Or so I THOUGHT!!! Gosh darn it here they come again - "Owwww!!!!! This isn't funny!!!"

But no matter how hard I try to convince them otherwise - the boys are laughing hysterically downstream where they've pulled off and parked to watch the spectacle. "Thanks guys!" I holler, "as if I didn't have enough body image issues already!!" This is ridiculous. Quickly visions of a beached whale finally slipping back into the current after a very long 30 day fast quickly flood my brain in a panic... At that thought I quickly stand up, pick up my fancy huge tube, drag it along next to me, and WALK /RUN the rest of their "detour". PUNKS!!!

Ahhhhh finally back in the REAL river - safe from my impending doom and lonely beached life - phew. I see the local teenagers ahead. We must be safe now. And slowly I begin to relax again, this time appreciating the deep water much more than before. A few floaters cruise past, others linger as we lap them at the speed of the tortoise. "This is what I was looking forward to" I say to myself as I lazily drift down the peaceful river...

Another half hour or so and I'm still doing great, but at this point the liquid I've been sipping on has made it's way through my peaceful (yet narrowly-escaped-from-a-very-ill fate) bod. "Uh-oh" you might think...but silly you, you forgot about one of the many thrills of tubing - the lack of a need to actually find a bathroom! Ever wonder why none of your friends have to stop and tinkle on your 3 hour long tubing session?? I don't. And I'm ok to admit it kids. (Sorry!!)

So I strategically make my way ahead of the gang, pull of to a slightly shallower area (but not TOO shallow!!!), let my river flow, and hop back into my tube - the gang none-the-wiser. Back they join me, and sure enough mr. bill has my same concern....but alas, Mr. bill lacked a bit of planning that ms. management major had....

No worries right away - a hop off the tube and although cold - definitely still perfectly within tubing norms. that is....until re-boarding time.

Now to this day I'm quite convinced the upcoming show was for no one but me, but regardless (or shall I say for those less versed in vocabulary and those wanting to chap my hide just a bit more - IRregardless - look it up folks, it's not a real world!!!!) I love him that much more for putting on the show...

Let's just suffice it to say that it can be quite difficult to hop up on a double decker tube with your swimmin' trunks below your crack and no shallow riverbed on which to boost oneself up on!!! For the next 10 minutes I worked off every bit of weight I had felt in shallow waters as I watched Jesus try unsuccessfully to pull himself up on his raft. Oh - the pictures forever burned into all of our brains... I'm not gonna lie to you - it just about made up for the shallow waters they dragged me through just to see cheek after cheek try to flop up on the tire time and time again while the inner-plumber grinned at me in between attempts at launching itself up on the float - all the while arms and legs flailing in the splashes.....

Approximately 8 or 9 minutes later Bill was back up on his tube and we were unable to breathe through the laughter, but were all the happier for having witnessed the spectacle of flailing crackdom....

Thanks Bill!

So alas we were nearing the end and sadly enough the drop off point was inevitable... At that point leave it to Erika to miss the drop off, have to leap out of my double-wide, and swim panic-y against the current to make it back to the exit spot. (Note to those the current gets really strong at the end!!) It was so bad I had to actually dunk my whole body into the frigid water in a moment of survival, but don't worry kids - i also managed to save my drink which stayed above water the entire under-water doggie paddle time, all the while keeping my glasses on my face, so all in all I'd say a successful trip!!! What a blast.

We all made it safely out of the ree-ver, all managed to (gracefully or not so much so) get changed into our dry clothes in the parking lot, and drove back into town. The town is basically like Helen, GA so we ventured to a German Restaurant (Clay's favorite - not!) and proceeded to refuel after the long, long day...

What a fantastic day and a fantastic way to enjoy the Washington outdoors!

So start planning your next trip kids, and remember to request a trip to Leavenworth ;)

Happy Birthday Tanner!!!

2008-11-11T10:25:00.001-08:00

That's right folks - I am now the proud aunt of a double-digit igit!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANNER!!!

I wish I were with you to celebrate, but since I'm not make sure to eat an extra piece of cake for me. I hope you had a great day with papa visiting your school and getting all of the presents you hoped for :)

I love you and miss you TJ!!!

Thank you Dad and Jake...

2008-11-11T09:37:00.001-08:00

...and all of the other amazing men and women who have served to protect us all. I can never even begin to imagine what all that means - what it must be like to go to a foreign land and fight for people back home who are not able or not willing to do the same, to literally put your life on the line, to face the horrors that you did, to carry that with you always, and to do so virtually thanklessly...

Thank you seems so hollow and so little for such a gigantic task, but that is all I can think to say.... well that and I'm sending you each a huge virtual hug to accompany the thank you :)

In the spirit of today, I saw this article today and remembered the time I was lucky enough to help these guards lay a wreath on the tomb of the unknown soldier: http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/11/10/1667441.aspx. Those guards were amazing: here were 4 6th grade chorus kids incapable of understanding the magnitude of this monument, and the guards were so kind and friendly. He explained to us the exact steps we were to take, the exact moves we were supposed to make - he joked with us, smiled widely, and lined us up. But once we stepped foot outside and began our procession, he turned into a different person - hardly a person at all - more like a moving statue. There was such honor and dedication in his perfectionism. What an amazing experience. If only everyone treated all soldiers with that respect and appreciation....

Thank you Veterans.

Is this thing on?

2008-11-10T14:17:00.000-08:00

Just checking.

I'm having flashbacks to lonely days in middle and high school when I would pick up the phone just to make sure there is a dial tone and it's still working...

Admit it - you've all done it at least 3 or 4 times in your lifetime.

Thanks guys. Thanks.

I'm going to go back and cry in my corner now.

War games in dark times....

2008-11-09T21:51:00.001-08:00

So not only have both this blog and my entire voting state gone a bit dark politically, but they have both turned in the literal sense as well.

Do you have any idea why time it gets dark around here??

Well let me back up for a minute here, my non-commenting readers: it was back a month or two ago in a large team meeting when it happened. It all started innocent enough - a talk about our move to the new & improved HR building. Ahha, the new building has a parking deck that is a block away from the building. No biggie, right? Well....the walk to the parking deck is through a wooded pathway....so it is fine right now. But when the winter comes and it starts getting dark at 4...

"WHAAAAT?!?!?!?
IT STARTS GETTING DARK AT FOUUURRRRRR???????"

DOH!!! Was that out loud???

Immediately the other 20 people in the room start laughing hysterically at the young, naive southerner. Hahaha - she doesn't know about our Alaska-like seasons!! Teeheehee - she doesn't realize Seattle is simply L.A. - Lower Alaska!!! Haha folks, haha. My manager then says to the director in front of everyone: "Shhh - I wasn't planning to tell her that until our November one on one meeting!!"

Hilarious Seattle, friggin hilarious.

So you know what kids? It's November. And it's dark. REALLY dark. REALLY early. Apparently it's not the worst it's going to get - but I seriously left my office to walk to my bus stop a mere 3 days ago at 5pm...5 P.M. PEOPLE. Should be light, right??

WRONG. Here's what I'm immediately faced with - the picture to the right. I wish there were a time stamp on the pic so you would all believe me. 5:00 in the evening and it is already this dark!!!!

Crazy, eh??? Welcome to Seattle kids, it's dark.
...REALLY dark.
...Before 5pm.
...Seriously!!!

Now it's time for the war games...

The best part of moving to the new HR building: the new company store and visitor center are right there in my building!! Pretty cool! Not only can I shop when I need to stretch my legs, but I can also play with a Surface or see old computers and ancient pics of bill and the other original msft team anytime I want! Awesome!!

But, folks, it gets even better.

You see, Gears of War 2 just released on Friday, which apparently means that it pre-releases at 4pm the day before at our company store. AWESOME. Literally hundreds of gamers lined up for hours before and after 4pm to be the first to get the game (at less than half of retail, btw) and to get the opportunity to play it an extra 24 hours before their fellow gamers.

Hysterical folks :)

It was hard to keep working with this level of people watching around. I know it's hard to tell from this pic - but there were hundreds of them coiled around our newly established lobby and company store - and that's right people...JUST for you - I once again risk life and limb to position myself and snap pictures of these creatures in their natural habitat....

And yes, they saw me taking the pictures and cursed my documentation of the event. Or were they proud?? You be the judge.

ps-there was some cool stuff that happened lately too - I like to pretend we were not as lamo as the gamers or the early darkness, but Clay, Vanessa, Bill (aka Hey-suess), and I recently went to a comedy show that rocked my face off.

Judah Friedlander (aka Frank from "30 Rock" on the left) and Brian Posehn (aka the opera-singing mailman from "Just Shoot Me" on the right) were fabulous and they even hung around to chill with us peeps after the show.

Here are the pics to prove!

Loe and miss you all,

e. :)

Did someone give you all diamonds?

2008-11-07T20:40:00.000-08:00

Because you guys are speechless.... Or as Ron White so eloquently put it: "diamonds: that'll shut 'er up."

Hmmmm so it is now up to me to decide if you are all:

Obama lovers,
you can't find the comment link on my new format,
you are all so bored with my blog (and/or my lack of frequent posts these days) that I've lost you,
or you have turned Washingtonian-ly politically correct via internet osmosis.

So which is it???

Well until I figure it out, I'm trying to stand strong and I'm pretending you are all having internet access problems. Deal? Deal. (and ps-if your answer is #1 then don't tell me - I'm much too fragile right now.....)

i meant no harm

2008-11-05T00:19:00.000-08:00

....in blaming or addressing anybody in particular - I'm just unbelievably angry and disappointed where things ended up.

So I'm Done.

I'm returning my recently-acquired Washington license and tags.

As soon as possible.

In return,

I'm demanding they refill my GA license hole that they punched.

ASAP.

My beautifully wonderful GA license must be reinstated.

Immediately.

If not...

I'm moving to Mexico.

Immediately

Warning folks - this is going to get political. and ugly. FAST.

2008-11-04T20:30:00.001-08:00

I didn't think I'd get this worked up about this gosh darn election, but here I am: sitting and stewing in fury. Obviously a large part of it is my candidate didn't win (screw the neutral bullcrap I've been bathing in up here - I'm SICK of it!!!) and you add to that the fact that the election was called before my vote had even been counted and this just blows.

I have been absolutely effing sick to my stomach day in and day out living in hippie land with obama b.s. everywhere ALL THE TIME and if I hear one more person say his effing name that sounds way too similar to an effing terrorist I'm going to pop a cap in someone's ass. That's right people: Erika is getting mad. VERY, VERY mad.

I'm sick of hearing that the economy is all W's fault: it was NOT W who put the b.s. laws in place that mandated low-income mortgages, and the prior incumbents did NOT have the enormously difficult task of dealing with terrorists attacks on our land.
I'm sick of having to hide my opinion in fear of being ripped to shreds by all of the liberals I work with and share a state with.
I'm sick of hearing the word "change" without any details - or heaven forbid - any experience to back it up and prove what you stand for.
I'm sick of ignorant people who are allowed to vote when they don't research the issues.
I'm sick of a man who served for his country (as did generations in his family both before and after him) being harassed by his opponent about not being able to "use email" or "tie his own shoes" without the explanation that those things are impossible for him now due to injuries sustained during his unimaginable time of service and POW-time he spent standing by his men.
I'm sick of showmanship being the deciding factor when it should be the issues and voting history of the candidates that matters.
I'm sick of candidates who promise to use a fundraising cap and then back out when they realize they can swing more votes by spending a ridiculous amount of money on advertising. Advertising is for coke and pepsi - not something this important you idiots!!!!
I'm sick of people who believe that anything other than "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to be a right: god-given healthcare, home ownership, and welfare just a few examples!!!
I'm sick of big fat-head D's growing our national government rather than focusing on states' rights when it is NOT the way it should be - not in the original founding of our country or in my opinion right now.
I'm sick of a race that became about race when that has absolutely nothing to do with a candidate's character.
Lastly I'm sick of candidates who stoop to the lowest common denominator - who make incomplete blanket statements so as to sway uneducated voters. Wake up and do your research people!!!

So you know what bullbama? Take it. Take this economy and show us how you can single-handedly make it so amazing when it was so obviously one man who tore it down.

I know I shouldn't be surprised - but damn if I'm not still disappointed in you America.

Falling into Washington...

2008-10-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well it's official folks - I am a card-carrying Washingtonian. Not only do I have a state license but I even have car tags! (or should I say car "tabs" as they say here...silly Washingtonians). It took me forever but I must admit I was glad to get certified in the fall - it's been my favorite season yet!!

Everyone talks about the beautiful summers - and it truly was. However, something about the fall has impressed me even more: the weather is cooler, the rain hasn't fully started, and the leaves are changing gorgeously. Being the "evergreen state", I admit that I was a little nervous that I'd miss the changing of the leaves we have in North Georgia, but it has definitely rivaled the Blue Ridge Highway (mom, don't laugh - you have to admit the fall in that area is beautiful!! even - dare I say it - more scenic than here! ;).

So now for the rain: apparently the official "rainy season" began about a month ago (yes, it actually has that name and official begin date!). So how do I know this you ask? Well I've mentioned my amazingly awesome free bus rides but I'm not sure I've mentioned the bus stops... To do so I should back up to explain campus a little: we are in the suburbs of Redmond about 10-15 mins outside of Seattle and our campus sprawls out like a college campus: brick buildings everywhere - over 100 of them!!! We have shuttles that run between the buildings all day (mostly hybrids, of course) and there are grassy and wooded areas bigger than half of the colleges I've been to. In fact campus is so big that it even has it's own bus station - that's right, not just a bus stop (there are many of those) - but a bona fide bus terminal. So imagine a big high school with the bus loop but there are public buses and microsoft buses - from "short bus" length all the way up to the tour bus types that go out to the burbs. Since it's so big there aren't shelters for every mini-stop within the station - but I never even noticed or thought anything was missing.

Enter the day before the first official day of rainy season: I walk to my stop in the afternoon as always and I see these obstructive white tents sticking out like 2 sore thumbs in our beautiful campus. Picture a big white tailgating tent with 3.5 sides covered and a see-through plastic "window" complete with white plastic panes. I had to stop and laugh. Silly kids - rain tents are for wimps!! I literally laughed out loud and took a picture. Who cares if people are laughing at me snapping a picture - this HAS to go on my blog!! So here it is :)

So the very next day was officially announced as rainy season day 1 with fresh coffee, juices, bagels, and assorted pastries at our morning bus stop when we got off the bus. How nice, I thought, it is hardly even drizzling!

All is fine and naive until Erika walks back to her bus stop in the afternoon, and folks I have to tell you - I tucked my tale between my legs and crowded into the ghetto rain shelter I had made fun of just the day before.

You live and you learn....

Now if I can just find an official raincoat I'll be set!

Happy Autumn and don't forget to enjoy the sunshine for me!!

Love,

e :)

New Format for the Fall :)

2008-10-27T15:29:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

So I decided to shake it up a bit and change the format on here for the first time and I updated some of my links on the side while I was at it, hope you likey :)

I promise to blog more soon!!

Imagine...

2008-10-14T16:27:00.001-07:00

http://5resolutions.blogspot.com/2008/10/friends-dont-let-friends-fat-talk.html

Football, football, and more football

2008-10-04T21:17:00.001-07:00

So it's GAMEDAY and you know what's missing????

Babies. :(

Ok. I guess not every gameday can be like the last the weekend I was in ATL, but I sure miss baby david and baby hayden. Of course I miss all my georgia fam and friends (and by "Georgia", I mean the state and not just UGA OF COURSE)!! Good thing my JACKETS won last week AND this week to help ease the pain ;)

Now while it's nothing to do with ACC or SEC football, nor does it remind me of home (perhaps it what it reminds me of what is missing up here and what is exactly OPPOSITE of home), it has made me want to write about a recent trip: a University of Washington Football Game with Joe!!! While his parents were lucky enough to tour the Italian countryside, I was lucky enough to tour the "U-dub" campus with Mr. Joe: I was so excited - my very first northwestern college football experience!!!!

The differences were obvious right from the start - we took a bus to get there and did no tailgating, pre-game drinking, or flask sneaking. Different but certainly not unacceptable (don't forget - I was in the band). However, what was crazy was that we weren't the exception! We passed a few tailgates but not many at all and I don't think I even smelled beer the entire day. So basically it was the anti-UGA. ;) The stadium also felt very different inside - much more like a high school stadium with a large track around the field, temporary bleachers at one end zone with a soccer and baseball field squeezed in close behind. Very strange, but we had great seats so we could practically see the players' faces.

Then it got even weirder. I thought I understood the magnitude of the hot caffeine addiction up in these parts, and I thought I understood how different the culture was, but going to this game brought this realization to a whole new level. Do you know what the longest line in the whole stadium was for? The hot dogs? Nope. Sodas to spike? Not even a thought on these people's minds. (!) It was for COFFEE!!! I kid you not kids. There it was: a starbucks in a stadium. Not just a carafe or two - not just an option in the regular refreshment stand - an entire Starbucks store, complete with 5 or 6 baristas, the entire menu and all the fancy machines and flavors required to fulfill all of the orders. Crazy!! Add to that a city that just can't get their mind grapes around the fact that Coke is the superior cola by a million miles and I'm at a loss for words. Well...wait...more like full of new rants ;)

But hey - it ended in my first real, live Washington Honeysuckle sighting (and therefore tasting, duh! but alas, I could not get Joe to partake - his loss....) so I guess not all was lost....

So flash back to current day and here I sit in downtown Seattle - South Lake Union's Jillian's Billiards to be exact, and I have to confess I have this wretched black "G" sticker on my cheek. That's right folks - I'm sitting at a sports bar with Clay and the UGA Alumni of Puget Sound - I'm pretty sure this qualifies me for girlfriend of the year - and I'm pretty sure you should all remind Clay..... seriously - a "G" on my cheek!!! Oh the things you to support each other when you are in a city of strangers.....

One GA and one GA Tech win later, I'm back at home and thankful that Clay didn't think to get a picture of me. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go take a shower and was the UGAness off me while singing every GT fight song I can think of... buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz ....

SEA vs. ATL: Which is Home Now??

2008-09-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

So thanks to those back in Atlanta whom we bombarded in our whirlwind trip back home - thank you, thank you, thank you! To those of you we didn't get to see, I'm so sorry we didn't get to see you - I feel so unbelievably cliche and pompous in saying so, but I'm sorry we didn't get to hit every hot spot in metro-ATL, but it turns out the city and our family and friends are more wide spread than we thought, not to mention the fact that less than a week is shorter than I would have ever guessed (add to that the insane gas Armageddon and bob's your uncle)!

Just to fill in those in the dark...I tried to surprise everyone back home last Tuesday night with a little bite of completely unexpected Seattle Erika pie: turns out a few bites were prematurely nibbled and all that was left untouched was the rents and gma Decker, but alas those few untouched bites never tasted so good as Tues night. You see there I stood - or shall I say there we stood - Clay and I (albeit nervous was he as he prefers to have previous permission for each such trip, but I knew way better that such a trip was WAY far allowed no matter how unplanned)... KNOCK,knock , knock,KNOCK,KNOCK.....and here she comes to open the door (several texts to Josh gone past to ensure a pizza was well on the way as Clay's tummy was rumble-de-dumpscious)....
I see her open the door,

I see her see me,

I see her...

SCReEeEeEeEeACH!!!!

Yet 15 minutes later my heart still beats entirely too fast trying to slow down to a normal pace to enjoy the moment..... :) SOOOO GREAT!!!! - I GOT YOU!!! :)

and might I add...soooooooooo worth it :)

Sure she'll tell you otherwise, but I was in contact with a third party the entire time and the house looked great, she looked great, and everyone was in town who needed to be. The next morning we got to do the same for grandma D. and I could have gone home a happy girl right then and there. Thanks mom and gma, love you ladies!!! :)

Add to that Clay's family, lots and lots of dearly loved and dearly missed friends, and 2 new amazingly-amazing-angelic, far-too-long-since I've held and not-nearly-enough-time-to-hold babies that I got to meet for the very first time.... OH and the most amazing melt-in-your-mouth queso and pizza to touch my taste buds in 6 months, skies far bluer and clouds far puffier than ever I remember, and a strange mix of the muggy humidity that is all-too-familiar along with the dry drought that I didn't think was possible, the start of a nasty cold, and about 27 bug bites to bring back to Seattle - and my first trip back home was TOTALLY worth it.

So here I am back to my second home of gray skies, staticy radio, cooler weather, my (almost) very own thermostat, TiVo, Microsoft, and a city with the irony of an abundance of gas that we don't really ever use...and I tell you what - I can't really complain in either city. Not a bad life when I have to try to decide which to call home: and just like Clay said as we left Sea-Tac airport headed back to the condo: "can't they both be home"?

Love and miss you all, - e :)

I'm a PC!!! :)

2008-09-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

Watch out folks, here comes the biggest kool-aid speech of them all...it all started with with the innocent enough launch of the new Zune and the new Zune software - simply amazing if you ask me. Add to that the company meeting and golly gosh darn it - stick a fork in me, I'm done!

This meeting was like no other - to begin with it was held in Safeco Stadium (where the Mariners play) and over 20,000 employees attended. Seriously - over twenty thousand!!! I guess it's hard not to get pumped up in that environment, but you add to that Rainn Wilson Emceeing (Dwight from The Office), demos from the latest and greatest exciting new products, pyrotechnics, an energetic and inspiring (and yes a little crazy) CEO, and finally some awesome new ads, well I left truly thrilled about my employer. So YES, kids, you are going to have to sit through it now too!

Some of my favorite demos were of course Office 14 and Surface, but something new to me was Mesh (mom - look here - you'll love it! you can sync your pics everywhere in an instant, so easy, so quick - to all pc's in the house, cell phones, digital cameras, tv's, and even digital photo frames! I thought of you immediately when I saw it - I think it was invented for you :).

Now the super-de-doopertie exciting part - the new commercials! They discussed the Bill and Jerry commercials a bit and then unveiled the latest and greatest: I'm a PC!! windows.com. I admit it was cooler on dueling screens about 30 ft. by 30 ft., but still cool! They also showed this older but goodie one for Windows mobile ad here (note the song - I love the song)! Then in MSFT fashion, the meeting ended with free food and drinks and buses back to campus for the eastsiders, while the much cooler seattlites continued to celebrate downtown with a pub crawl back home spreading the word with dozens of "I'm a PC" stickers. (I kid you not - I have even been asked about them since then at my favorite hangout - shy Erika is that excited about this stuff!)

Ok, one last force feed and I promise I'll quit (for now). Love and miss you all, hope to see you all soon!

e :)

Happy Birthday to you....

2008-09-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

....Happy Birthday to you....

Happy Birthday Glee Anneigh.....

Happy Birthday to You!!!!!

One day late ;)

I miss you Glee!!! Hope to see you in October, love you and miss you! Hope you had a great day!!!

Georgia Watch Out...

2008-09-11T13:22:00.001-07:00

...he's headed back to town. Clay, that is. Just dropped him off at the airport again and I have to admit I'm jealous. I've been planning this whole time to wait until the house sells, but boy 6 months isn't exactly what I had in mind when I first made that plan. :(

6 months seems like a long time, eh?? Sometimes it feels like it was only a month or two ago, but when I stop to think about how much I miss family and friends, or how much I've missed like all the millions of babies everyone is popping out back home, it feels like years have passed without me....not to mention all of the mellow mushroom pizzas consumed, sweetwater beers enjoyed to the last drop, and queso dips slopped up on yummy crispy hole-in-the-wall mexican chips and soft tortillas.....yummmmmm. Man food up here doesn't compare! Oh and the tailgates I've missed!! OHHH and the sun, the glorious poolsides and the Lake boat rides!!! I swear I'm paler than I've been since - well - since my Hewitt days I guess. And contrary to what some might say, pale is NOT the new tan!!!

Sigh....

So everyone treat my clayfus well, redden up his neck for me, and send him back well fed :)

Love and miss you all,
e :)

ps-send back lots of pics with him please!! OH and lots of lots of hugs and kisses!!!

How to insult someone from 3000 miles away...

2008-09-08T21:08:00.001-07:00

Anyone want to know how to insult someone from 3,000 miles away? Here's an idea... Offer them less than 75% their asking price on their home, that's how!

WOW. The nerve of some people. Don't get me wrong. I understand a buyer's market, I promise I do! You see, right out of the shoot I had all carpet replaced and the entire outside and downstairs interior repainted all while listing my price 10% lower than market value trying to sell my house "quickly". Pretty damn good I'd say. Right?? Anyone??

Not good enough, eh? FINE. After not selling after 3 months on the market, another appraisal, and lots of additional listings in my neighborhood, I lowered my price an additional 7% AND made a few more improvements. So after all furniture was removed, a few straggling closets had carpets replaced, the final 2 rooms were repainted, and it is practically a new house! So what's left but to what for an offer, right??

HA! Finally the first one landed tonight. LITERALLY less than 75% of my original listing price, less than 70% of the original value....in fact almost the price I originally paid almost 8 years ago. I can't tell you how insulted I am. I have watched shows on tv about snooty buyers who are so insulted by offers that they don't even counter and I was deplored by their smugness.

Yet here I stand. And I won't counter, dagnabbit.

I mean hello people!! I get that's it's a buyer's market, but I'd be better off with a duplicate mortgage payment for another two years than to give in to your offer you rotten stone thrower!

Thanks, but no thanks buddy. And the next time you attempt to make an offer, why don't you think about how horribly awfully awful of a horrible person you are right now and that your first born child might need to be put up for pennies or even 75% of a penny for the next 30 years of his life before you attempt to insult someone who has worked so hard to actually take care of their mortgage and not default like the other irresponsible people in this country who are calling uncle like the other people looking for "change" and seeking "assistance" from the government in their loans or who are running for shelter or chickening out and saying "oops" on their loan so the banks can now sell their house for way less in my neighborhood so that buyers can now buy a home in my neighborhood for half the price of my home even though i am the one who is responsibly trying to sell my home legitimately?????

Ok sorry peeps, I promise not to get back on my high horse for at least another couple of offers - and no telling how many months or years that will take.... ;)

PS-I MISS YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess what day it is????

2008-08-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

yeah, yeah, I know... "Bad Erika." No posts in an outrageously long time. Awful. I've got so much catching up to do it's overwhelming. Bad, bad Erika. I'm slapping my wrists as I type. I've got pics galore, many many more weekend festivals to fill you in on, and a gripe or two more about Seattlites yet to blog (who would have guessed??).

HOWEVER, that is all going to have to wait for two reasons. #1 it is simply way too daunting to have to face all of that at once - the 7 or 8 draft posts saved in this account will prove this point easily. #2 and FAR more importantly.......

It's . . . . GAMEDAY!!!!!!

Nothing can stop me today - I am so pumped!!! I'm sporting my gold ramblin' wreck shirt and practically marched all the way to my bus stop this morning (da-dadada-da-dadada-da-GO-ja-KETS....) trying to keep my fist from shooting up in the air (da-dadada-da-dadada-da-GO-ja-KETS....) almost peed my pants when a girl stopped me to ask where elliot ave was I was so engulfed in my own parade (da-dadada-da-dadada-da-GO-ja-KETS, FIGHT, WIN!!!!!).

This continued until I made it to my stop where I wondered if there were any other yellow jackets - I looked around at the other softies....nope. Definitely not. But then again maybe their just not awake yet - but HELLOOOO it's GAMEDAY!!! I thought about yelling it once I got on the bus "GAMEDAY!!", but alas I was pretty sure there were no other marching yellow jackets on here and therefore rather than hearing the intoxicating roars of "GAMEDAY"'s in reply, I was sure it would be greeted with stranger stares than normal. But then again - I would almost surely be guaranteed a seat alone for the rest of the year....Hmmmm.....perhaps on the way home today ;)

GO JACKETS!!!!!!

ps-ironically our season opener is against jack state - so sorry Mr. Tyndall, Kelly Walsh, and Meghan Panepento - all band alliances are off - we're gonna squash those gamecocks tonight!!! Let's go tech!!! :)

Just in case you're still reading....

2008-07-28T22:04:00.001-07:00

So just in case anyone is still reading, I'm so sorry!!

I promise I'm still here and still alive, and I still love you all...in fact I'm still wanting to blog; it's just this pesky work and staring at a computer all day long that has kept me from being proactive on this site. Ok, ok, I'm sorry - I admit it - perhaps feeling a little distant and lonely for comments but I promise I'm NOT begging for sympathy comments ;) Honestly just working too much and not being lazy couch Erika NEARLY ENOUGH!!!

That said, it is my sincere promise to you to never go another 2 weeks without posting again in the future. Deal kidarooskies??? Deal! :)

Love and miss you all!!!

ps-the rents are out here now and Clay and I have been having a great time with them - I promise pics and stories galore to follow!! in the meantime our bellies are definitely full, Clay is definitely wondering why I don't cook like my mom (in both quality and quantity), I am trying to pull my dad to the MS darkside a little more and more each day, OH and they fixed my freshcape hood!!!!!! Oh yeah, and we've seen some cool sites too...... but HELLO - my hood no longer talks to me when I drive down the road!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D

A Tale of Three Hospitals

2008-07-18T18:54:00.001-07:00

The first hospital is the happiest of 3: George Maxwell Groves is here! Baby George, the first boy grandbaby for the Chet and Rise, was just born out in Texas! This makes Clay a 4 time Uncle and is baby #3 for Shirley and Mike and they seem like total pros!! :) Have I mentioned yet how excited I am to meet all of the summer babies yet??? Because I AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The second hospital takes a scarier turn. Those of you who know my brothers know they are gluttons for adrenaline - Josh and Kerry being the firefighters and Jake being the cop/air force kid. Even Kerry's wife Mac works on LifeFlight and in ER's - they are all so amazing and work so hard to do so much good for so many people (well that and save cats from trees and eat donuts). So when my mom called yesterday I didn't expect it to be about Josh going to the hospital. Having been around firemen for 15+years now (or is it 20 Kerry???) with (Thank the Lord above) no major injuries, it's all to easy to forget how dangerous their jobs really all are.

So sure enough, Josh got caught in one of those dangerous places yesterday morning while working at Dekalb - here's an article about it. Josh is doing ok now but here is what I've pieced together from the story: he was in the basement of a 5600 sq ft house with his partner - no doors, no windows - could barely see his partner's flashlight 24 inches in front of him. While in this less-than-desirable situation, they got tangled up in all of the wires hanging down from the drop ceiling, when they both ran out of air and got lost in the dark, smoky basement. They finally made it out of the house but they were in pretty bad shape and had to be taken to the hospital and put in a hyperbolic chamber for a few hours.

Talk about a small world - a really great former coworker from SunTrust (rare, I know!) Helen's mom is the nurse at Crawford Long Hospital where Josh and the other firefighters were taken. Crazy, huh? So it was great reassurance that she had heard about the fire and her mom remembered Josh and said they would be ok and that Josh wasn't just being macho :) Turns out a few days rest and one hell of a sore throat and lungs later - they should be ok. So please just get some rest Josh!!

So now for the third hospital - I promise this one is lighter....needless to say - Toto, we're not at Seattle Grace Hospital anymore !!! So there are many, many lessons I've learned out here and trust me when I say finding all new Doctors has certainly proved to be a huge lesson learned! You see, it turns out there are things you just sort of just know after living in a city for decades - such as which hospitals are the friggin county hospitals.

That's right folks. Erika picks out her doctor based on a nice looking hospital in the local medical neighborhood, one associated with the University of Washington with a dedicated woman's clinic, doctors who all went to reputable schools in the past couple decades, and of course one that takes my medical insurance. It's funny how the silly things like "welfare hospital" weren't on my radar during my search... You see - LESSON LEARNED!!

So I leave work early the other day, have my directions on hand, and head for my appointment. I admit as I got closer to the hospital the neighborhood got sketchier, but I rationed that's probably not unusual for a hospital with sirens blaring at all hours and sick people in and out on a constant basis. So here is little Miss. Peach finally pulling up to the building according to their directions and it is definitely a massive structure - but seriously folks - did you have to have me come in where the first sign I see is "KING COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER OFFICE"??? Ok. Strange. Seriously. This place is a little creepy. But I finally get to the parking deck - and 25 minutes later I finally find a parking spot. My original thought in this crazy parking structure is a figure 8. But after driving around nearly tossing my cookies after countless loops, turns, dips and dives it definitely turned into a "Drunken octopus" super-quickly. Yikes folks. Dizzily I finally make it up to the main level of this looney bin where I find a maze of not-so-healthy wheelchair patients who appear to be randomly-wheeled-out to smoke among the incoming traffic. And as much as I hate to say it, 'tis just a foreshadowing of what is to come.

After weaving through the smoking wheelchair obstacle course, I make it through the next strange course in county hospital through the rotating doors (warning: don't touch anything!), hop over the sleeping homeless people and around the translators trying to usher the undocumented patients out the exit door. Stop. Where's this nice "women's clinic" I read about online?? Ahh...past the white-dyed beehive lady wearing the red blazer at the information counter and around the bend. SURELY the scenery gets better (and CLEANER) around the bend. RIGHT??? No such luck - unfortunately the picture is no prettier. This is the dirtiest hospital I've ever been in. I mean absolutely no insult to Harborview at all - but suffice it to say that I would never choose Grady to go get my annual checkup, either. I find the "women's clinic" on the ground level and there I wait carefully in line with other women - none of whom I think were in my situation.

Needless to say this waiting room had the most multi-cultural group I've seen since moving to Seattle. I also think I threw them off by even having insurance. So after the fiasco of signing in with that pesky insurance card, I sit down where the only thing louder than all of the various languages being shouted all around me was the one in my head telling me to get the heck out of dodge (where of course my concern was if i'd have to pay as if i were a no show, so i decided to stay against all odds). So I finally get a call for my name (at least a close-enough Japanese version of my name) and after verifying my last name once behind locked doors, I follow the nurse to the exam room. She didn't speak engrish very well......... turns out I was the only one in who knows how long to actually go for an actual yearly preventative check-up - so much so that they couldn't even find the paper work to do so!!!! Crazy!! So first of all I threw them off by even HAVING insurance - let alone being PROACTIVE in my healthcare - they didn't even know where the patient history forms were people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO???????????

Not only that but by the time the Dr. got there she and I were talking for awhile (which, by the way, wouldn't you know it, she was actually really awesome) she noticed the nurse had only given me a sheet - not even a gown!! She then says "I know were county, but we're not that bad!" But how was I to know based on what I had seen so far?? Right before I finally left thank goodness the Dr. came back for a quick signature on some old records at which point i asked if i needed to wait for the nurse (no, surprise surprise ) - "you can just leave", she says - "exit that way". Wow. I found a bathroom on my way out, (it turns out no sample required at county, folks). Wow again. Thought I had to go - turns out county restrooms make that feeling climb right back up inside you faster than white climbs on rice. Thanks, but I'll just head out and hurry home for a shower instead. I raced out as fast as I could, still in one piece, thank goodness!!

An eye opening experience folks. And remember all of you Atlanta folks - the next time you are looking for a regular doctor - you might want to look somewhere besides GRADY!!!! ;)

Bring It On, Crawford Boys!!!

2008-07-15T20:59:00.001-07:00

So it didn't take Sherman to burn down Seattle - it merely took a paint and woodwork shop that caught on fire and quickly spread over 100 acres in downtown back in 1889. I won't spoil the underground tour for you since I know you're all going to come visit and get all of the juicy details in person, but long story short, this fire is quite famous up here, and basically for good as much as for bad it recreated the city from underground up back in the late 1800's. This fire was close to the waterfront in a district known as "Pioneer Square".

Dating back for some time (although I'm pretty sure not all the way back to 1890), Pioneer Square has embraced this fire history and appreciation for its firefighters (yea!). So as a girl with several firefightin' brothers, I have to appreciate that even before 9/11, this city was celebrating and embracing (let alone actually paying half-way decently) their firefighters. Woohoo! Enter the "Fire Festival" which is held each year - Clay and I just had to attend, and I'm so glad we did! My only complaint is that we had to do so sans any Crawford boys to help us truly appreciate all of history and camaraderie with first hand experience - so I expect you all here this time next year boys!!! Don't worry Jake - they even allowed a few cops around, including some tshirts with the comforting phrase "if you can't stand the heat, become a cop".

There were kids activities, bands playing all day, about 2 dozen historical fire trucks and ambulances, the free for admission fire museum, the normal fire/ems/jaws of life demonstrations, the fire dept pipe and drums corps, all sorts of vendors with every possible fire-associated memorabilia to buy, a beer garden (turns out EVERY festival out here has one of those complete with the make-shift chain-link fence walls, and, depending on the neighborhood you're in, perhaps a creative sign strategically placed on the outside such as "tourist zoo, please feed"), and the main attraction - the firefighters challenge!

The challenge was nothing short of intense - teams from up and down the west coast competing against each other for a spot in the finals in Vegas. I had heard it referred to as “the toughest 2 minutes in sports” and first thought it was merely marketing, but after watching them climb a 5-story tower, hoist, chop, drag hoses and rescue a life-sized, 175 lb "victim" in under 2 minutes...well....needless to say Clay and I were both impressed! They had both male and female teams (ok there were only 2 female teams - and surprise, surprise - they had an extra minutes to do the challenge); and both 5 man teams as well as 2 man tandem teams. So what do you say Josh and Kerry - a Crawford tandem??? Come on boys!!!!! :D If you're looking for sponsors let me be the first to lay down my wallet. Of course I also saw the team of Air Force boys who supposedly do nothing but compete professionally with professional equipment and are paid to do nothing but train and compete all year - so Jake maybe that is your calling for your next assignment in the AF??? You could probably beat Josh and Kerry anyways.... Hmmmmm or maybe no Crawford could win regardless.................

Have I spurred any of you three on enough yet???? ;)

ps-mom-totally random - but the OU Duck was there so I had to get this pic just for you!! :)

Day 2 with the Out of Towners

2008-07-13T23:12:00.000-07:00

So you'd think I'd be used to this by now, but I'm still embarrassed & ashamed when my guests wake up before me... Well not only were Elaine and Megan out later than us, but they were up way before us of course too. (Thank goodness there is a coffee shop right outside my lobby downstairs since I'm not a coffee drinker - talk about an even worse host!!)

At any rate, once I was finally up we headed for the market - an absolute must see of which I will NEVER get tired - no matter how many visitors come to town!! Sure, I might not want to ride the monorail or pay to get to the top of the space needle each time, but I would never pass up an opportunity to go to Pike Place - it never gets old!

Why you might ask? Well here are just a few reasons... OF COURSE the flowers. So beautiful, so bountiful, so CHEAP, so gorgeous!! For example, all of these are $10 or $15 each!!! Elaine and Megan were blown away as are all of my visitors - myself included!!

Ok, now I would rather cut off my left pinky toe than eat seafood, but apparently it's impressive to others and I guess it's fun to watch the fish get thrown around.... As for food there's plenty more that I WILL eat. ESPECIALLY the fresh produce. It is so fresh and so delicious, this weekend I just tried a local organic fruit farmer's smoothie...yuummmmmmmyyyyy!!!

Next comes the music - sometimes surprisingly good (such as the cellist playing classical this week), sometimes simply weird (like the guy wearing a sailor's outfit, playing guitar, playing a harmonica, and singing all while hoola-hooping- who at times switches it up to spin a second guitar on his nose while playing guitar and hoola hooping), but always random and entertaining. Well this week was extra-special for the southern girl as somehow some good ole' fashioned bluegrass managed to migrate out NW!! :) Enter the "Ballard Ave Jug Buskers" - note Clay's favorite part of of the bass played with an upside down tub, a broom handle, a string, and a glove with duck tape wrapping it up for easy movement up and down the string to change the pitch. Brilliant! Of course I not only tipped but bought a CD - dad I'll have to share it with you!! Perhaps you can learn a few tunes on your banjo for next time I come home!! :)

Next we met up with a friend of Megan's who lives here in Seattle too - Amy and she was super too, of course!! We all did more walking around the market, to the local shopping district, and then the girls headed for a fairy ride to Bainbridge (yea!) and Clay and I the exhausted little puppies tucked out tired toes between our legs and went home to do some boring work (well that and the BEAUTIFUL sweet pea's and sweet williams which we bought for only $5 per bouquet and Clay so sweetfully carried in our handy dandy backpack - thanks mom and dad those backpacks have come in more handy than you'd know!!)... So it's back for another work week as we await the next exciting weekend!!

All in all a superb weekend - it's always great to have visitors to remind us to get out of the house and to do all the fabulous touristy things there are to do around here!!

Love and miss you all, e :)

Our First Overnight Guests at the Condo!

2008-07-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

It's a family member... it's a long lost childhood friend - NO - it's a SunTrust Recruiter and her buddy!!!

That's right folks, Elaine Emmons and her Vandy Career Center friend Megan (oh no - or is it Meghan??) came by and we all had SUCH a fantastic time!!! They were our first official guests to stay overnight, travelling from Portland (where they visited family) all the way to Canada.

The 2 Southern ladies arrived on Saturday night, but before I continue, I must give you some background... If you'll remember back a few days, all of our furniture and boxes arrived at the condo exactly one week and 2.5 days before their arrival. Add to that my insane work schedule and Clay's obsessive need for neatness, and...well..it's pretty much a recipe for disaster - right???? RIGHT.

Ok, fine. I took off July 3rd in a desperate attempt to rid the condo of unnecessary shtuff shipped 3,000 miles cross country. 48 hours, 2 fireworks shows, 2 FULLY STUFFED, PACKED, and LOADED Freshcape Car-FULLS of boxes for charity later, and well - the place was at least presentable to guests.

Enter Elaine and Megan. Great to see Elaine, and just as great to meet Megan. (BTW - Megan, Seattle and its residents loved you as much as you loved it!!! MOVE HERE DARNIT!!!! ;)

Ok, enough of sounding like another Crawford woman I know, on with my story. So our guests sat sipping wine in wonderful awe of our views as we discussed their overall plans for their Seattle visit (always nice to have someone appreciate the views we pay way too much for - in fact, I've decided that lining up guests to do so each month for the next two years will help ease the pain of rent, so all potential visitors please sign up now!!!) First on the list? A view of the Needle. Check!!!! Right from our condo!!!! Sure, we could go to the top, but cloudy skies don't exactly warrant the $16 per pop to do so...

Next up? "Well," Megan says, "my research says to visit some park . Have either of you heard of some park of all statues?" "Ahhhhh," I say, "You mean the Olympic Sculpture Park?!?!" "Why yes!", Megan says. This was the really cool part where I got to walk her to the balcony and say - "it's right there!!!" Check, check!!! How cool is that?? We also walked down to check it out first hand (much to Clay's appreciation as he's been begging for me to get my arse off the couch and walk around there for weeks now). It is definitely a nice walk, but I have to say the status leave a lot to be desired. Seattle has a lot of ugly statues! The only one that was mildly interesting was this one to the right. We can definitely see the large red thing in the back right (turns out it's an eagle), but we can also see the random spinning ampersand which seems so bizarre. Reading the plaque explains it as an ode to Love and Loss: think of it as a crossword puzzle - there are two benches facing each other (the two L's), a table in the middle (the O), the two S's come down on the left and the V and E to the right. Kinda cool. I guess. At least you would think so if you saw the other statues. Everything is relative, right?

Next we headed to dinner. Now I've walked this path a hundred times but apparently walking it with strangers DEFINITELY pays off as strangers come equipped with both cameras and encouragement for Clay to stand underneath his namesake sign which is only 2 blocks away (and I walk past several times a week)!!!!!!!!!!!! This is one of my faves since moving to Seattle - thanks Megan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry ladies - this man is taken!!!

In return of convincing my Claybie to display the gun show for the camera, I went to a DISGUSTING (for me only ;) ) seafood restaurant. They all liked it which made it amazing for me too :P Heck. I'm feeling generous. Mom here's a pic to boot. But pretty much you should no longer expect anything for Christmas. hahahaha ;)

Overall it was a great day and we had even more great times on Sunday before the girls headed to their next adventure, but those stories and pictures will have to wait for the next blog entry. Stay tuned folks!!! :)

Celebrating Indepence Out West!! :)

2008-07-06T21:03:00.001-07:00

Oh wow - I've always loved the 4th, but Independence Day '08 in Seattle was Wonderful!! :)

Don't get me wrong, whether it's because things seem bigger when we're little or because hookups into the PTC fire department got us front row seats each year complete with firemen antics all day, Peachtree City fireworks still seem the best to me (the 4th just isn't the same without begging for warm coke from other families or getting to see Kerry lead his team to victory year after year in the Keg tug-o-war). However, the lightshow over Elliot bay came pretty darn close last week! You see, Seattle has many celebratory displays throughout the city and two of them just happen to be visible right from our very own condo!!! The first (and the main) sighting being the barge out on Elliot Bay which had a spectacular show that drew an immense crowd of both in-person onlookers on shore (a la PTC) as well as boats GALORE on the bay.

Add to that the spectacle over Lake Union which was on the opposite side of the balcony yet still at least 50%+ visible - and - well - suffice it to say we were owning Seattle Fireworks!!! :) Our only problem was in the whiplash we got trying to go back and forth between the bay fireworks on the left and the lake works to the right - such a good problem to have! Clay was the genius who finally figured out that if you stand just so on the balcony and get one of the guest bedroom windows in your field of view for the main display, then you get a reflection of the lake at the same time! What a smart kid I'm dating. (Although Kerry you might be at a disadvantage so I promise if you join us next year we'll rig up a set of mirrors just for our one-eyed friends :) )

So the only other downside to being out here is that we weren't in the midwest with the rest of my family. During the entire lightshow, my thoughts and prayers were with the Crawford clan in Peabody, Kansas where everyone was celebrating Grandma and Grandpa C's lives and scattering their ashes where they truly felt most at home. I wish I could have been there and I love and miss you all!!

So overall BLOT?? I'm taking reservations for 4th of July 2009 now!! Any takers yet?? Rosie? Glee? Crawfords? Robertses?? :)

ps- I hear they shoot off fireworks from the very tip top of the Space Needle for New Year's - so I'm planning to throw a party for that to take advantage of the views while we got 'em too! Come one, come all!!!

You call this a "BEACH"???

2008-07-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

Wow. Just when I think it can't get any weirder, it manages to do just that. So I already told you about the Washingtonian warped sense of thunderstorms and good pizza, but I'm afraid last weekend just might take the cake. Enter Seward Park. (or as Clay likes to say - "remove the d and you'll have a better description of the place")

It all began with a simple dream you see - a dream for a little thing called sunshine and a crazy accompaniment called water. Seattle has just as much water as Atlanta has pollen, Waffle Houses, or heatwaves; so surely this is a simple dream, right??

My huge project at work finally went live on 6/29, so on Sunday afternoon I was thrilled to have a few hours off and some beautiful sunshine to boot. I had done my research and this southern girl was bound and determined get some sun on my pale self. Clay was such a trooper, following me blindly just as eager for a reminder of back home.

Sucker.

I swear it looked better online, I swear!! Turns out a "beach" to people up here doesn't necessarily mean "sand". This "beach" was nothing but GRASS!! Add to that the 15x15 roped off "swimming area", signs up everywhere warning against "swimmer's itch", and the "bathhouse" that I swear reminded me of nothing less than Auschwitz, and well - needless to say - I'll never return to one of Seattle's city "beaches" again!

I know, I know mom - I hear Alki and Golden Gardens are the only true "beaches" up here, and rumor has it they might actually even have real sand. Still, I'm guessing the real ticket up here is to either own a boat or find a friend who has one and is happy to have friends that want to join in and chip in on gas ;) So...DJ and Courtney....you ready to move out west yet or what?? :)

Love and miss you all (and real beaches!) terribly!!!

Another Angel is Born!!!!

2008-06-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

David Jackson Layfield the Third decided to bless us all almost a month early! Congratulations DJ and Courtney!!!!!! There have been many days that Clay and I have wanted to be back in Georgia, and today is one of the strongest yearnings yet.

First Ginny's baby, now DJ/Court's, next Shirley's...I miss kids sooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's a pic of the latest angelic bundle of joy!!!! Half tiger, half gator, less than 6 pounds and a month early... I can't WAIT to meet "deej"!!!!!

Love and miss you all - have I mentioned that yet?!?!?!?!?!

ps-Prayers and thoughts with your mom, DJ - may she join you all as soon as possible!! :D

Are they really naked if they're painted??

2008-06-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Solstice Everyone!

This Saturday was the famous Fremont Solstice Parade, so as new locals I decided that it was our duty to go see it and boy am I glad we did!! You might remember Fremont from an earlier post of mine that included the Fremont Troll statue in which I explained that this is the artsy part of town. You might also be like me and think that the best people watching was in airports. Boy Howdy was I wrong!! Welcome to Fremont everyone!! :)

So the celebration starts off Saturday morning with a parade. Now you all know what a giant band geek I am and thus I think I am not overstating my expertise when I say I am a bit of a parade connoisseur. Folks. This was like no parade I've ever seen. Maybe it's the altitude, maybe it's the extreme political leftness, but probably mostly because of the hippieness, but whatever it is it makes for an interesting weekend for this southern peach! The rules are quite simple I guess - anyone can be in the parade (no matter what you are wearing or what you are not wearing) as long as you do not use anything motorized or display any written words or logos. There were a couple of small marching bands, many randomly dressed (or undressed) people walking or dancing to their own beat, and several "floats" each with its own theme and agenda. For example, it took us awhile to figure out what the huge red, white, and blue boat looking structure was that about 5 people were hoisting up high down the parade route until we figured out it was a 6 foot long doobie with about a 6 foot diameter (silly us for not expecting such a thing out here...). I'm still not sure what the meaning of the guy wearing an orange prison suit while carrying a huge cross as a guy in camo carrying a big fake gun followed him, but then again I don't think I want to know.

And now for the real stars of the parade: the naked cyclists. That's right folks, about 50 men and women painted either a little or a lot wearing nothing but paint. Really. N-O-T-H-I-N-G!! (ok that's not entirely true, many of them had piercings in various places, but I kid you not, that was it). Surely it can't be comfortable and they all must be huge exhibitionists, but whatever the case they clearly all look forward to this all year long and spend much time planning out their "outfits". (As a side note it's really funny to see them try to gain speed by standing up to pedal and thus exposing berries of all kinds and areas on their tooshies the approximate size and shape of the bicycle seat where the paint had rubbed off). Here is one example to the right (there were lots of girls in fairy themes), but note she is only wearing that sash b/c we were in the beer garden where covering of some kind was required around the waist. But believe you me, as soon as they headed out of the beer garden it was 'au naturale' again!

We definitely marveled at the unabashed lack of self-consciousness that (literally) ran amok. I'm telling you it was people watching at its best!! So the parade ended at "Gas Works Park" where there were lots of food and drink booths, bands playing on stages, and people everywhere. It was a blast. The pic to the left is Clay with a coworker of mine Vanessa (the one from Florida - surprise, surprise I get along with her best of everyone here at MS - she's a smart arse southerner of sorts as well!). Third in the picture - I know what you're all thinking, but the man in the middle is not Jesus from the parade, but is in fact Vanessa's husband. They are both tons of fun and I'm definitely glad I met Vanessa here!

So I have soooo many pictures from the event but I'll only post a few here (for all of your benefit, I'm leaving out the one of the old man who was one of many who decided the paint wasn't necessary at all and just went buck for buck's sake - oh and DJ I'll send the naked man painted as a tiger straight to you). So enjoy, and if you like what you see, plan to be here for next year's Solstice - now we know to get to the parade route early to stake out a front row seat!! :)

He's here, he's really here!

2008-06-17T22:36:00.000-07:00

Dang, it's good to have Clay back in my same zip code and sharing the same views that I have been (that's the view of the needle from our living room)! Don't get me wrong, I love that we were both reminded of how tough life was without each other (and by "we" I mean "Clay" - haha), but it sure feels much more real now that he is here, like we are now Seattlites together (of course no longer owning property in Georgia would mean at least as much, but in the meantime I suppose I'll settle for another rebel by my side...). Furthermore, I got the good word today that work is going to help out a little extra with the whole duplicate mortgage issue above and beyond what they promised in my offer for awhile, which is beyond amazing! So there's not even remotely a doubt in my mind - I am STILL drinking the kool-aid!!! :)

But back to my handsome roommie...I'm so proud of him. I mean I guess getting your MS in CIS is a pretty big deal, but yesterday he managed to top that accomplishment. He braved the Seattle Public Transportation all by himself!! Of course he didn't get it quite perfect, but I'd say he did pretty darn good considering the transportation system he's used to back home.... However, I think it's safe to say he's learned his lesson about finding the correct corner to wait at, deciding when he needs to get off the bus, and the necessity for exact change -I think he ended up paying $10 for his $2 bus fare ;)

So after a trip to the walmart on crack, we headed home. As you have probably gathered by now, we are SURROUNDED by water up here. It can be quite beautiful, especially when the weather is nice enough to have boats out on the water. This was most definitely the case as we drove past Lake Union that night. Believe you me: if you added up every sailboat I've ever seen in my entire life - including those I've merely seen on tv - there still wouldn't be more than there were out on Lake Union. Seriously!! It's impressive enough when looking down from the interstate, but we decided to take a closer look and I was instantly amazed that so many boats could sail around in circles so fast and not run into each other! (I couldn't help but have flashbacks to the hundreds of minows swimming frantically around the mud ditch across from grandma's house growing up!)

So Clay and I spent an hour or two just walking around the lake and the "museum of wooden boats" that might better be described as an "old boat part graveyard" or perhaps even as crudely as Clay's "junkyard" description :) It was pretty cool and we are looking forward to going back there once it warms up and renting a boat or two ourselves. There are several WAC's (water activity centers) throughout the city where you can rent anything from a canoe or kayak to a sailboat. We're even considering taking beginner sailing or crew classes for fun... But for now we're tiptoeing into the waterworld with viewing trips like this one. You should all come to visit and check it out with us! :)

ps-DJ this pic is for you - Clay wanted to show you what a real man's prop looks like....

My mission is clear...

2008-06-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

....well there are lots, but I must admit that I have a personal agenda working at MS. "What is it", you ask? Well. I am absolutely determined to meet Bill. I know my odds are dwindling as he's about to retire to work fulltime with his non-profit org (which is way cool, by the way) and is therefore only going to be on campus 1 day a week, but I will see him in person!! That's really my mission - I'm entirely too shy to actually talk to him, but how can I look someone in the face, tell them where I work, move to Seattle to do so, and not see Bill in person? Glee I know this is just setting you up for kool-aid talk galore, but I've become so impressed with him the more I read about him.

Only one problem though - it turns out I got the wrong job. I completely missed my calling. Bill's house has a nanny's quarters! Can you even imagine living in his estate? Check it out here. I have to admit I actually got directions and one day when I decide traffic is too much to take, I'll take a detour just to see how close I can get :)

They're having a huge town-hall to say goodbye and thanks but of course there's not going to be seating for everyone, so they're actually having a drawing for seats. How much do you think those bad boys are going to go for on ebay? Just kidding. But I am hopeful that I'll get one - I must! Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Ok, back to my tivo and my air mattress - Glee bring on the cult bashing!! ;)

Sick in Seattle :(

2008-06-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

So I've been homesick plenty up here, but a cold in June??? I know I only made it through Anatomy and Physiology 1, but I'm pretty sure colds in the summer aren't normal. Oh wait. It's still not summer here......sigh.....

So besides this annoying cold, life goes on as normal as I await Clay's arrival. 4 women showed up at the house on Wednesday and packed up everything in the house (I'll never do my own packing again!), then more movers showed up on Thursday and packed up the piano, all the million boxes packed the day before, and all of the furniture we're moving. Apparently they were all completely done in only a few hours this morning!! I think they're picking up another house or two's worth of stuff and supposedly 12 days later it will all be here!!!! It definitely seems weird that I'll never see my Marietta house again as it was before I left, and hopefully the next time I see it someone else will own it.

So what's it like living in a beautiful condo with no furniture? Here it is, the glorious life of a vagabond (ok not really, but kinda!): a queen air matress, 2 lawn chairs, a tv tray, and Clay's new amazing tv. Note my last necessity of any abode of mine - puzzles! That's the one good thing about lots of hardwood floor space - all the room for more puzzles! But the good news is that furniture or no furniture, the views are always amazing.

Ok an under-the-weather-Erika isn't very creative so I'm off for now...wish me rest on my plush, high-quality bed now.....

Life with the Rika

2008-06-10T17:26:00.001-07:00

Hey y'all!

This is Erika's most favorite Seattleite, Joe. To some of you, I can be referred to as HGJ (but that's all I'll fill ya in on).

I can't tell you how much fun it has been over the last 2 months hanging out with Rik (short for Rika). She's a totally amazing person. LOVE HER!

Rosie came to visit a few weeks ago. And, might I just say... wow. She's rad-as-can-be. We had a total blasty-blast. From hangin' at the Aboda, to Bainbridge, to crawling on the Troll, I can honestly say that we had so much fun hanging out! I'm happy that I was able to meet her. It was great to put a face with the name.

So... on to bigger and better stories!

Rik moved into "The Condo". Wow, is it amazing. Her original apartment (corporate housing), as you all saw, was totally amazing. LOVED IT. The view was nothing like I'd ever seen in Seattle. Sweeping views, and amazing location. However, now... she's in the most awesome condo EVER. The entire building is staffed by a CONCIERGE! Yeah. If we (or Erika and/or Clay) need anything from ÜBER last minute dinner reservations (on Valentine's day, no less), to suggestions on good take out, these homies can make it happen! They're great. Plus, not to mention, they all greet you by name as you walk in. It's rad. This condo ROCKS. I'm jealous as hell. It's no wonder I've been sleeping on the floor for the past couple of weeks. I don't wanna go back to my own. *sigh*

I can honestly say that Rik is doing very well in Seattle. Not to worry though, all you Atlantans, I do know that she misses you all and, of course, everything that is and always will be Georgia. She can't stop comparing...

We call them FREEWAYS in Washington. Not INTERSTATES.
There is NO Kudzu in Seattle. I have actually never heard of it.
Traffic is Seattle is AWFUL. I'm sure something can compare, but it just flat-out sucks.
Air Conditioners are most definitely NOT a requirement, nor a necessity in Seattle. There's just no point.
Yes, the weather has sucked lately, but I can definitely attest... it's NOT normally like this.
The roadkill situation is baffling me. I have totally noticed all of the roadkill. I don't normally see it this bad.

That's all I can think of for now... I'm sure I can come up with more as the days, weeks, months and years progress... but for now, on this guest blog... I'll leave it at that.

Hope everyone is doing well in Georgia. I can't wait to meet you all some day.

Peacin' out.
Joe

A Dukes of H.C. Cameo as I Channel Glee

2008-06-06T14:00:00.001-07:00

So those of you who know me at all know that public speaking is my biggest fear in life (well that and snakes - I'm convinced that my hell is public speaking to a room full of people all holding snakes as snakes hang from the ceiling and slither through the room and up the walls and all over me). So when I found out I had to do some training at work I was beyond terrified. Luckily I was able to ignore it for several weeks and live in the wonderful, blissful world of denial, but this week reality came and slapped me upside the head like it always insists on doing. Another twist to the story involves working for a truly global company (aka more than just "off-shoring" with India). It turns out that not only does every training session have to be given for the US, an early morning call must be added for those in Europe/Middle East/Africa and an evening session must be done for those in Asia. Ok wait a minute. Stop the presses. Isn't it bad enough that I have to present once? Now you're telling me that I have to present the same thing 3 different times??? Ouch. But hey, speaking with those in countries all over the world and getting to know their local quirks and concerns is interesting so I guess I can deal. I guess.

Enter my Glee channeling (Glee's job involves lots of training and she appears to be comfortable with it for some crazy reason - damn extroverts!). So Wednesday brought the first 2 sessions but alas - I didn't have to present until the 2nd 2 sessions scheduled for Thursday. Ahhhhh, sigh of relief. I'll wait to practice until Wednesday night so I can avoid it as long as possible (just like speech class in college). La-di-da...Wednesday afternoon I'm still living in denial until I turn a corner at 5pm on Wednesday. That's when I was attacked with horrendous news: server problems mean Erika must present tonight! Haha, funny joke guys. No. Really. No! REALLY???

PANIC!!!!

Less than one hour to prep for the 6pm Asia call. Lovely. What? You're recording this session for anyone to reference throughout the year? YEAH - thanks for turning the pressure up EVEN MORE. Fine!

Many, many, many sweat beads, voice shakes, and finger trembles later, the call is over. PHEW! (Good thing asians are quiet and don't ask any questions!) Thursday morning at 7 comes way too soon and all the anti-persperant in the world can't calm me down. That's fine. I can do this, I can do this. FINALLY! Done. Only one more to go - Friday afternoon in person.

So I still had to attend Thursday night's session but I was able to completely relax knowing that my part was over and I was simply there for assistance. This time the fact that it is recording is much less intimidating! Blissful Erika in the room simply catching up on email and doing a little online shopping. It's super silent and the lead lady is leading. Enter the faint echo of the "Dukes of Hazzard" theme.

OHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I ruffle through my bag as quickly as possible, (just them good ole' boys....) but not before the damage is done (they don't mean you no harm...). Turns out I found yet another way to get glares shot at you like needles in a conference room. Go figure: in a conference room that I can never seem to get reception in, a call from my brother who hardly ever calls, and on the one and only day in as long as I can remember that I actually have my volume up (I used it as an alarm as I was completely paranoid about sleeping in past my mandated 6am wakeup to train) I'm in a silent meeting that's being recorded!

So moral of the story - check your cell phones before each meeting!! Thanks for the southern interuption Jake - you made my day!!!!

And for those of you still reading and concerned about the training I had left - well it's done and I'm still alive. But kinda like my dad purposely messing up in the kitchen at the beginning of their marriage, well hopefully MS will no longer ask me to present! ;)

It's raining cotton in my first 50 degree June

2008-06-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

....and the culture shock continues. First of all, I can't even explain how weird it is to see sweaters, jackets, and scarves in JUNE. So far I'm enjoying the cool weather, but I can only imagine that time is all that stands between enjoyment and a yearning for some warm sunshine (I think I'm growing paler by the second up here, it's no wonder that there are tanning salons on every other corner - but who are they kidding? At least down south there's at least a chance your tan came from the actual sun...). Next enter the cotton. It's sleet...it's snow...it's bird droppings... NO - it's cotton! So there isn't the yellow pollen overcoat there is down south up here (thank goodness!), but the pollen up here is literally cotton flying through the air. It's so heavy it actually gathers in clumps in parking lots, yard corners, and street gutters - an odd site for sure!

A few other differences I've noticed:

They don't pick up their roadkill up here - whether it's because they don't have rednecks to scoop it up for dinner or because they are simply lazy, I'm not sure. Either way, it's nauseating to see each evening for weeks on end, especially with the traffic causing nice, slow observances of said roadkill. Blech.
Seattlites think they know humidity, thunderstorms, and good pizza. They don't. (Then again, to be fair, Atlantans think they know lakes and mountains)
This is completely random I know, but I swear there is an abundance of lisps up here. At first I thought maybe it was a company culture thing (as in maybe programmers just don't know how to speak clearly?) but it has become obvious that this condition runs wild up here. So you know what I say? I need to head back to school ASAP to become a speech pathologist - apparently they have none up here! It's how I'm going to make my millions...
Lastly and most upsetting: The locals are completely apathetic (with the obvious exception of the George W hatred that is apparently piped through the city water).
- They call it laid back and friendly.
- - I call it boring and unpassionate.
I have tried desperately to spark a few rivalries, to poke for some feel-good sarcasm, to pit teams against each other.....all to no avail. Let's have some fun people!! Where is the good old fashion hate that is bred in hordes between UGA and Ga Tech?? "Well Erika," you're thinking, "what about University of Washington vs. Washington State?" Nice try. I try and I try and I try. I even have about a 50/50 split of alumni on my team and I try so hard to get them to spar...but...NOTHING. You know what I say to that??
B-O-R-I-N-G.
Needless to say, I've been visiting the Good Old Fashion Hate site often to get my fill.
So bring it on you under-educated, overly proud bulldogs!! ;)

Ok, I'm sure I've offended enough people by now so I'm going back in hiding for awhile ;)

Love you and miss you all,

-e :)

It's time to warn the neighbors...

2008-06-04T10:34:00.000-07:00

...both Clay and my furniture will be here soon!!! We have officially booked our move - the movers are packing on June 11 and loading on June 12, with an estimated arrival by June 28th!! Clay will be coming up the weekend of June 14th and we are both so excited!! By the way - Clay deserves a huge congrats now too, he just finished his Masters in Computer Information Systems on Monday!!! I'm so proud of him :)

So now for the bad news: no, the house hasn't sold yet :( We've had lots of traffic, but still no offers :( Who knows, maybe it will show better without furniture..............

But enough of the downer talk, yea for Clay and furniture!!!!

Ok, gotta run - soooooooooooooooooooo much work to do. Don't tell SunTrust, but sometimes I miss the slow bank pace! Of course then I remember how much I hate them and how horribly they treated me and the feeling passes immediately. Speaking of which, can you believe they actually billed me for a fourth of my signing bonus?!?!?!? I am absolutely appalled. Not only do I know for a fact that they usually don't do that, they didn't tell me I was going to have to pay anything back upon my exit. I also know that they were the ones that drove me out of there, they know how bad it was for me and actually said specifically that they don't blame me for leaving, and amongst all of that I still graciously agreed to stay an extra week to help them out without any additional incentive, even though I was trying to pack and prepare to move across country!!! And I won't even mention never giving me the raise I was promised for 6 months... but boy howdy they sure took real nice care of the managers that drove everyone out of the department. Definitely clear to me that they were all out for themselves and no one else!! Sad and infuriating at the same time. So bottom line? Boycott SunTrust!!! :)

Ok, I'm off my high horse now...back to the wonderful world of high tech at a company that actually appreciates good talent and rewards performance, not years of service and who you know :P

ps-where are those resumes people?!? ;)

Congrats Cory and Ginny!!! (Oh - and my Grandma too!)

2008-05-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's not really my family but I'm so super excited for Cory and Ginny, I had to post it for everyone. Here's Cory's email:

Hayden Clara Salley was born on Tuesday, May 27, 2008. She weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces and was 21 inches long. The nurse who measured her said she was "off the charts" in regards to her length. I guess she is tall like her daddy. Ginny is recovering nicely, and the pediatrician said the baby was perfect.

Congrats you two - can't wait to meet her!!

So next while I'm posting about other people, I also had to share a story from my mom about her mom, my grandma decker. Now you can all see that I come by my strange stories and get into honestly!! :) P.S. - while you're reading, keep in mind she's 90 years young!!

You know how we turned moms car port into a garage? She was hurrying to get to Sunday school forgot her keys and locked herself in the garage. You really should hear her tell it, she's hysterical! Her thought process was amazingly clear. She remembered Dad told her to pull the cord to release the door. Unfortunately , even after SWINGING on said cord it didn't work. First thought was there's a faucet. I can live for days without food as long as I have water. She thought she could with existing tools take out part of the wall dad just built to get to the brick wall. I know I could take out some of those old brick!. Worst case I have my lipstick, I can write HELP on the garage door windows. An hours contemplation later she decided to try it again. Much SWINGING, prying etc. it finally released! But the story doesn't end there. Late to church, someone else was sitting in "her seat". After church she couldn't find her car because of course someone got "her" parking space and she had to park way down the hill out back. As she was standing there frustrated, the same two women that took her seat came by an asked to help. After several more minutes looking, she remembered she had parked on the opposite side. That was quite a morning for her and she really got a good laugh at herself. How I love to see her laugh!

This story made my day - not because grandma had a tough time - but because I can absolutely picture it all and love her sense of humor and (not to mention her sense of survival)!! I miss you grandma!!! Oh, and congrats on finally getting out! ;)

Ok I promise next post will be more about Seattle and the new condo...but for now, suffice it to say that I continue to barely stay afloat at work - it's SUPER BUSY, especially since I'm new and still learning, and I still don't have internet at my condo which limits being able to work some from home... So not that it's a good excuse, but hopefully it atleast explains why I've been horrible about posting and email. Add to that the late nights at work and a 3 hour time difference, well I just really need to get better about communications.... Sorry guys I'll try I promise! :)

Love and miss you all,

-e :)

My last night in my first highrise...

2008-05-23T20:36:00.000-07:00

My time at 2515 1st Ave is coming to an end and it's time to reflect on lessons learned from highrise living...

Being able to walk to everything makes city life absolutely amazing and you'll never understand how you could have possibly relied so much on your car before now.
Parking in the city is a nightmare. People in Seattle claim they stay fit for their health and/or that it comes from simply enjoying the outdoors and the NW culture: in reality, it's so they can squeeze in and out of their cars in Seattle parking spaces!! (On a related note: always wear dust-colored pants when squeezing in and out of said spaces!!!!! And think about charging your neighbors for waxing the sides of their cars as a side note... And on a super side, note I'm convinced that Sherman did us a good thing by burning down half of our state if for no other reason than the fact that we were forced to redraw our parking spaces for cars and not just tiny horses and buggies...)
Trash Chutes are an absolutely fabulous invention, just remember to always hold your breath when the chute is open!
Elevators can be both friend and foe: 23 stories up and you grow dependent on them. When looking to rent/buy a highrise make sure to check quantity and speed of your ellies!
An Easterly-facing bedroom window is a friend to the late sleepers but an enemy to the air-conditioning deprived.
Air conditioning is not always a given, but it is an absolute necessity no matter where in the country you are, and don't believe the locals when they say it's not needed!!
The views in a highrise will cost you an arm and a leg..... and they are absolutely 100% worth it.

So where to next you ask? My new condo of course!! I am soo stoked! Not as stoked as I will be once all my furniture arrives, but in the meantime I can live like a pauper for a few days (I'm certainly used to that!). In fact, Rosie was so great that she spent her last full day in Seattle at the "Walmart on Crack" with me buying a few essentials. I think our shopping list was quite telling...I felt like a college student all over again with slightly more refined taste. So what does your 30-year old college revisited type get? A cheap set of dishes, silverware, an air mattress and one fitted sheet, 2 bath towels and 1 bathmat, a can opener, a few knives, a plastic cutting board, a pizza cutter, a cork screw, a cheese grater - OH - and a 12 pack of diet coke :) I'm all set! Profilers go crazy - I'm sure you can tell me my entire life based solely on my necessities necessary! :)

Miss you and love you all, I promise to have both furniture and Clay in about a month for you all to come and visit!!
-e :)

ps-good luck to Ginny and Cory - if the baby doesn't come before Wednesday then Wednesday it is!! I can't wait to meet baby Salley!!!!!!
pps-Cory - I just found out that one of my co-workers was born in Warner Robbins, and although he only lived there 6 months, he still has family in....guess where?? Thomaston!!! :) It's a small world even when 3,000 miles away!
ppps-new addie is 2929 1st Ave, #803, 98121. Pretty cool, eh? :)
pppps-if you are a stranger reading my blog, please do not come attack me at my new apartment. Thank you. ;)

You say good-bye, I say hello.

2008-05-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

Hi! It's Rosie again. It's my last night in Seattle and I had an absolutely freaking good time! Yesterday Erika, Joe and I took a ferry to Bainbridge (my first ferry ride)! Rika's parents used to have an apartment on this island. So Donna, these pics are for you :) We had such a good time both on the island and the ferry.

After spending a good amount of time on the island, we can back to Seattle to check out Freemont and Gas Works Park. And of course, more pictures :)

So, we had way too much fun at the Freemont Troll! Joe was the adventurous one agreeing to climb on the troll's nose. I was more concerned with picking the troll's nose. Seriously, Joe and Erika made me laugh so much my stomach hurt for twenty minutes after we left the park.

After fun with the troll, we went to Gas Works Park. Again, more child-like fun ensued as evidenced by the pictures below.

We came back to Rika's and then got ready for dinner at the Space Needle. The restaurant was amazing! And the view...spectacular! The couple at the table next to us got engaged while we were there! Since the camera was out, Joe took some pics of them and I sent them this morning. It was too cute.

So I have packed my bags and will be heading back to the ATL shortly. I have had such a great time in this wonderful city and I am sad to go. I'm already looking forward to my next visit to see Erika, Clay and Joe (in their new digs, no less!). Rika, thanks so much for having me out here. I love your city, but even more I love you and miss you a lot. Until next time, this is Rosie signing off :)

We Have a Place to Live!!!

2008-05-19T21:29:00.001-07:00

No, my house has not sold yet, but my temporary corporate housing is coming to an end. After tons of research and lots of apartment and condo showings, we finally picked our dream rental. It's a little pricey (yes, almost twice my mortgage back home), but it's also the going rate out here and it's beautiful. Not only is it just a few blocks from where I am now, but here are the other fab things all within a few blocks walk:

My bus stop for the free work shuttle
The Space Needle and all of the other things at seattle center
The Waterfront!
Olympic Sculpture Park
Lower Queen Anne
Restaurants and grocery stores galore!

It has million dollar views, hardwood floors, cherry cabinets and granite countertops, 2 BR/2Bath, full size washer and dryer, surround sound wired through the entire apt, california closets, a fireplace, 2 decks, and a space in the parking deck. And here is the best part of it all: it has central heating and AIR CONDITIONING!!!!!!!!! (They had me at forced air...) Even better yet, the heat and air conditioning, water/sewage/gas, and high def satellite are all included!! Suckers. Don't tell them I keep the air on 65 all summer long! Furthermore I can bring my baby grand if I want to!!! Check out pics here.

I am so excited!!! I sign papers tomorrow and Clay and I can't wait to move into our new place!!!

ps-if you know anyone who is buying a house in ATL - I'll give them a really good deal on mine!

Rosie takes Seattle!

2008-05-17T11:55:00.001-07:00

Hello to all of Erika's friends and family! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Rosanne, but Rika calls me Rosie. I got here on Wednesday night (2 am Atlanta time) and was left to my own devices on Thursday and Friday while Erika was at work. Apparently I brought the weather here - it's been high 70s and 80s and the Seattlites (sp?) apparently are freaking out! On Thursday morning I started my journey by hitting up Pike Place market. I was in search of the first Starbucks ever being the rabid coffee drinker that I am. Unfortunately I did not see it! I saw a huge Seattle's Best, but I did not see my green lady. I nudged my way through the other tourists and made my way through the market (apparently I didn't go down far enough through the market - that's where the first Starbucks ever is). However, I did see the place where the guys throw fish at each other. This was actually really entertaining for two reasons:

1. The guys were a lot younger (not to mention cuter) than I had expected and 2. They sing these weird songs in weird voices as they do their act.

Next I went to the Olympic Sculpture Park. At this point the weather was gorgeous (in the morning it was gray and cold). People were everywhere in the park basically just laying out in the grass. The park itself was interesting - I'm not sure of the style of art, but it was somewhat out there. Plus the park is right on the water (I saw the house from Real World Seattle).

I went to back to Pike Place to get some flowers for my fabulous hostess. She wasn't kidding how beautiful (and cheap) they are! It was the best $10 I spent! I made my way back to the apartment and about 20 minutes later Erika and Joe came home from work. Joe is absolutely freaking adorable. I'm so glad Rika has such a good friend out here. I'm a huge fan.

So this was all day one! I already have over 200 pics (right now it's the morning of day 4 for me)! I have a tendency to get extremely long winded so I'll spare you all from my daily itineraries :) So far I've also been to the Seattle Aquarium, the Microsoft campus, Pioneer Square (Rika and I took the underground tour), and Safeco field for a Mariners game. Today we are going on a ferry and Erika, Joe and I are having dinner at the Space Needle. Yes, that probably guarantees at least another 100 pics. But before I let you all go, here are a few observations:

There are plants & vegetations everywhere! Window boxes, big planters in the street, etc. It's really quite gorgeous and makes me happy.

Everybody smokes. I was not expecting this. Erika and Joe said they haven't noticed this and perhaps this was because I was in a touristy section town, but I think they're just oblivious :)

The city is really clean (well, except for all the cigarette butts). Again, a huge plus.

Beautiful skyline. Joe told us that there was an ordinance awhile back mandating that none of the buildings could have flat roofs. View from Erika's apartment below -->

Okay, signing off for now! Thank you Erika for letting me be your first guest blogger. To the blogience (sp?), our girl is doing great out here :)

Time for some catch up....

2008-05-12T18:27:00.001-07:00

...blame it on Clay's presence if you must, but blogging when he's here often pales in comparison to venturing off for new city exploits and discoveries (plus, all the more to blog about later, right?). So first and foremost, I think I downplayed his arrival due to my ill-timed migraine...It was like Christmas Morning!!!! Clay was so great calling and drilling me the night before to find out anything and everything I wanted him to bring...so $50 in excess baggage weight and a 5.5 hour flight later, presies galore! Not only did he bring me the purses, dvds, cds, and clothes I had been missing - but he surprised me with my TIVO!!!!!!!!!!! The only bad part was making sure I didn't pay the tivo more time and attention than Clay. ;)

So over the 10 days that he was here (Clay, not TiVo) we had a great time to say the least. I already filled you in on our two weekend trips but there were lots of weekdays in between as well. Overall we balanced Seattle sightseeing with time spent relaxing at the apartment (read: lazy time on the couch....ahhhhhh my tivo remote back in it's rightful place with clay at my side...perhaps home really is wherever you make it....). All the while, things somehow continued to go on in Seattle - case in point - the opening of Boating Season!

I'm new to the whole world of boating so I'm just beginning to learn of their traditions including the opening day boat parade, the "logjam" which from what I can tell is a big log thingy where they all line up on (anchor to maybe?) a couple days in advance in order to "get a good spot on the logjam before they all fill up", and the cruises that fill the bay each thurs-sunday.

So little time, so much to learn! Now if we can either score some friends with a boat out here or convince DJ, Courtney, and baby Layfield to move west then we'll be set!

Happy Mother's Day!!

2008-05-11T18:29:00.000-07:00

Hi mom! Hi grandma!! Hi all other mothers out there!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I miss you ladies!!!

To Mom, Grandma Decker, Machelle, Patti, Sandi, Rise, Shirley, Elizabeth, Jenn, Eva, Chaun, Punk, and Chris...and the future moms to be Ginny, Courtney, and Shirley (again!):

You are all so amazing and I truly think that there must be nothing short of having children to get you in line for heaven first - you all give your hearts and souls, your time and effort, your love and your embrace... Thank you all for all that you do!! Here's a site just for you guys that might make you smile: http://www.inthemotherhood.com/ (this is especially for you, mom - I'm afraid you sometimes spend too much time worrying that you aren't mrs. perfect like you imagine all of the other moms to be - but don't worry - they're not perfect either and even if they were - I'd still choose you and not have it any other way!!!)

and ps...... for Glee, Rosanne, Shannon, Paige, Nancy, Heather, and all of the other childless women like me - happy UNmother's day to us!! I know someday it will be right for us to join the motherhood too... and if not, may we always have children around to make us smile and always have their moms around for us to send them home to at the end of the day!! ;)

love and miss you all! -e :)

Clay's Last Full Day :(

2008-05-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

Having Clay here for a full 10 days has been fantastic but it's almost over :(

In the meantime we tried to make the best of it and we got to see a lot of the city in his last day. It started with a drive to Discovery Park which is the largest park in Seattle and supposedly has beautiful cliffs to the ocean, a lighthouse, and a few miles of beaches where people can bonfire and stroll up and down the coast. We got to the visitors center but it had already closed so we took a quick peek at the map and off we drove through the forests...

"Dangit! Authorized vehicles only??" Funny thing you see... it turns out that a GA license plate does not qualify as authorized, so we tried a few other routes that were just as unsuccessful. Darn outdoor hippies! A pair of flipflops (thanks Eva!) and a looming sunset served as excuse enough to save the hikes for another day so we headed for the locks instead. We drove through the neighborhood of Ballard, and I must say, were it a little further east I think we could definitely move there - it's a quaint, understated area that seems to have a pretty young and relaxed vibe. Darn commute.

So on to the Ballard Locks - it's the first time either of us have been there and we were definitely impressed. Basically, these locks (imagine several huge boat elevators about 50 feet long and 20 feet wide) separate the Sound (on the map above it is the blue area on the left which goes out to the Pacific Ocean) from Lake Union and then Lake Washington (the blue area in the middle). The locks serve to control the water level on the lake side, but as a benefit (or perhaps on purpose?), it also keeps the salt water to the west and leaves all of the lakes freshwater - pretty cool! The picture on the right shows one of the lock doors closed and then when needed, it splits open from the middle closing the walls up and out to allow the water (and boats) to flow through to the next section. It's like a Ga Tech engineer's dream project :)

So the fun part was definitely seeing how the locks work and watching several boats pass through, but I must admit that I felt a little bad for Clay - what a tease I am! I show him all the water the city has to offer, boats EVERYWHERE, fish hopping up left and right....and not a boat or fishing pole for him in sight! Sorry Clay - give me time at MS and hopefully I'll eventually be able to buy you what you want and deserve ;)

To continue the trip through the city, we went through Fremont (showed him the famous troll) and its neighbor Wallingford, then back across the Fremont Bridge to Seattle. Just south of the locks and the bridge I showed him what houseboat living was like in the NW. If you're like DJ then you're picturing one of the huge "trailers on the water" that are so abundant in Lake Lanier sailing all over the lake and docking when done. Not so up here... Not sure which is higher class and which is lower, but the "houseboats" up here are still on the water, they just look more like houses and are completely stationary (perhaps "dockhouses" would be a more descriptive name - think "Sleepless in Seattle"). It took awhile for Clay to understand what he was seeing, but then it clicked: "These people actually live ON the water, can have boats tied up to their HOUSES, AND can fish RIGHT OFF their front porch???" I think he was in love.

Well...that is... until we spotted the sign warning about excess sewage draining in the case of high water levels.

Yikes. Back to land-living we go....

Techie Talk Thursday

2008-05-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

Ok so maybe I'm behind and everyone else out there already knows about this, but I am so excited to find a fun new toy. Now for anyone who does not have their own webpage you probably want to skip this post unless you are having trouble getting to sleep... or are looking for more ways to be paranoid about being stalked online...

So I feel bad for once again hyping a google product, so please forgive me and I promise once I start researching msft products I'll add them too. In the meantime I'm just doing research on our competitors ;) You see it all started with my desire to add a simple site counter to my blog. Turns out blogger.com doesn't have a good template for one, but they did have several suggestions for free versions out on the web, so off I sent exploring. Most of them required you to setup an account and although they were free, I try to at least minimize the amount of times I put all of my info out there and add more junk mail to my inbox...and thus my google find. Since I already have gmail account I gave it a shot. All I had to do was add some simple hidden HTML to my page and I was done.

It's been about a month and I decided to log back in and check out the analytics reports. WOW!!!! I am so impressed! Not only does it tell you how many hits you've had, it breaks it down by day, by length of time on site and number of pages within the site visited, AND by country, city, and state!!! Furthermore you can see exactly how the traffic was directed to your site such as my google gadget, a direct link, boredomtech.net, or a search engine - which is further broken down by exactly what was typed in the search box to get to your site!!! How cool is that?!?!?!? I know it's a bit big brother but it's super fun too. I was thinking about dad's church site and how you could use the analytics to see the most visited/therefore potentially most important pages on the site, how to expand your audience by researching the traffic origination, etc. Plus I got to find out there is some city out there called "Earth City" in the midwest and that someone there actually looked at my site!! There are also lots of pretty charts and graphs and knowing my love of those, well I was entertained for all morning. As an example I have pasted my GA traffic map is on the right. So fun!!!

Now I hope this won't preventing any of you secret readers from visiting - you can just block your IP address and I promise I won't be able to see you ;)

Ok now finally I'll end on a fun msft tool - maps.live.com, enter in your address (or mine!) and choose the birds eye view. Way cooler than google's satellite view!! (although live has that too...)

So I've got to go back to work - now you all can go enjoy your first tech thursday!!

Downtown Snoqualmie

2008-05-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

So I told you all about the falls and now I'll continue on our trip for Sunday afternoon's downtown Snoqualmie. I must say I was surprised at how much I liked it, how much I connected. I'm pretty sure it's the Crawford-Decker connection that got me: for those of you who don't know, my grandparents on my mom's side were in the logging business while the other side was into railroads. Enter Snoqualmie, WA, a memorial to logging trains. How perfect!!! I thought of Grandma and Grandpa Crawford so much with all of the train museums, train rides, and train memorabilia everywhere. As for the Deckers, I couldn't help but picture Grandpa Decker down in Oregon being a top logger and grandma doing either the cooking for the entire mill or at home waiting for him to join her and my mom.... It just seemed like the perfect culmination of my background and I really felt a connection. Here's a few pics:

Pretty perfect, eh?? The first is the main town square/town train depot; the second a painting/memorial of the logging that brought the town to life; and the 3rd a combination of the two with one of the largest trees transported by train (no fear, it was dead from midway up so no trees were hurt in the making of this photo). We had such a great time!

Driving back towards town we continued the amazing views that weren't visible on the cloudy day before... We mistakenly thought that houses in the 'burbs up here would be as reduced in price as those in ATL but no luck - still half a mill for a 3BR/no yard house in a planned neighborhood....sigh.... But then again, who can blame them for these views???

Love you and miss you all!!!

e and c :)

Drum Roll Please....

2008-05-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

Where exactly where did I take Clay you are asking?? Well ...(insert drum roll here)...I took him to Salish Lodge at Snoqualmie Falls!!

Only 40 miles East of Seattle, it is a quaint and beautiful hotel perched over an amazing 270 ft waterfall. I hadn't been there before so it was new for us both, but it came very highly recommended by the locals and now I see why! In this picture the waterfall is obviously on the right, the lodge is on the top left with our dinner window in the middle of the top floor and our room is around the corner on the right/river side of the lodge.

Now just to back up a little first, Joe and Clay finally met on Friday night and we all walked to an amazing Thai restaurant that has become my favorite Thai food ever and one of my favorite local restaurants for sure! We all had a such great time and therefore my Friday ended a little better than it started; and it was a much better kick off to my weekend than expected. We chatted until dawn (or at least the two of them did, I fell asleep much earlier) and we have all created great friendships despite the short time we've known eachother, no doubt!

On Saturday afternoon Clay and I headed east for the lodge. It was a typical Seattle misty/overcast day, so the drive over wasn't very scenic, but that just gave us time to explore the hotel :) Our room was adorable and was equipped with a wood-burning fireplace, a patio overlooking the river, and the most comfortable bed I've ever sat on (pillow service came free with the room where we had an actual "Pillow Menu" - lavender, buckwheat, pregnancy, body, hypoallergenic - you name it they had it! My headaches that come from strong smells kept me from trying anything out but I really should have tried out the memory foam pillow...next time!). We had an amazing dinner at the resort on Saturday night and we checked out the falls from above to complete our day.

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous - not a drop of rain for miles and the sun was beaming down heavy just as if I were back home in the South. More views of the falls from above first and then we decided we needed to make the trek down the cliff... A "mere 1/2 mile trail" is what was advertised....and so we followed...

"This isn't so bad", I thought, "nice and meandering". Ok, I'll admit, getting close to the bottom it got more bumpy with a few narrow passageways and tree roots to climb, but no biggie, right? Once down along the river a wooden walkway meandered along the river until it finally ended in a small observation deck. "Hey wait a minute! This isn't close to the falls! What about all of those people that we could see playing on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff?" Ahhhh...right on queue, right next to one of the dozens of signs warning against going off the walkway due to extreme water changes jump the visitors...

- Over the wooden ledge,
- - down the steep hill with help from century old tree roots and branches.
- It's as if nature had created a path down to the view,
- - (well nature along with thousands of visitors I'm sure).

Needless to say the leaps and bounds were sooo worth it. It was a beautiful spring day: an amazing waterfall cascading off of a cliff as the mist blows off of the falls like a light summer rain. We relaxed on large rocks enjoying the view and listening to the river trickling by at our sides. In a word it was amazing.

And then came....... the return hike up (!!!)

No worries needed - despite my closeness with death - I did finally successfully make it back to the top in one piece. Note to self, NEVER go on that trek again without water and NEVER go on that trek without a few months of training and a really good pair of running shoes!!!! ;) About 25 minutes later after a treacherous hike straight up the cliff, a purchase of a few bottles of water and a diet coke, and one valet parker later - we ventured around town. Turns out we both loved Snoqualmie!!!

I'll post details about downtown next....

I am SOOOOO depressed right now

2008-05-02T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry - I know you're annoyed at all my north v. south talk - but I can't help it!!! My team just went out to lunch which is way cool (especially since it went on the company credit card), but I must tell you it was depressing on so many levels....... First of all there is no such thing as real mexican food up here - not even 1 real mexican employee, no good food, no good chips and salsa, - not even a Willy's! But set the cuisine aside and the lunch still just about sent me packing to come back home....... The people up here are way too nice - well not in a good way - not in a "oh, let me hold that door open for you ma'am" kind of way, that would actually be great. Instead they'll close the door in your face but hang you for mentioning anything related to any group of people that might even be remotely possibly twisted a million degrees to be something even remotely possibly offensive. You just can't cuss - not even in a "golly molly darn it" kind of way, instead it is in a "oh we don't acknowledge bad things" kind of way. Nevermind that I was just set up for the most perfect smart-arse comment, I have to bite my tongue!!! Well....don't get me wrong - I still say it - it's just that I'm the only one who does... And I get lots of dirty looks. Losers. ;)

Furthermore, NO ONE UP HERE WATCHES COLLEGE SPORTS!!!!!! I was prepared to have to look far and wide for ACC fans, but to not even like ANY teams?????? Ludicrous. It would probably not be PC enough to chose one team over another anyways... I mean do you know they ACTUALLY call black people "african-americans" up here??? Like for real!! If you ask me it sounds dirtier than black. They probably don't even know any black people.

They watch lamo tv and read lamo books too. And the guys up here watch lifetime and think that camo is only for hunting. (not that they hunt of course, that would hurt the animals....) I prefer men who are gentlemen to ladies but actually do manly things - but then I guess I'm just a Crawford at heart. Only a bunch of crazy bleeding heart liberals up here - that's all there are! Maybe it's in the granola.....note to self - steer clear of the granola..........

Ok guess I'll go back to being a hard-working PC cog in the machine...I wish these people would get a sense of humor and joke around some though!!

ps-Glee I LITERALLY just came back to lunch into a conf room and BUSH was playing!!!!! eerie!!!!!

He's Baaack!

2008-04-30T21:07:00.000-07:00

Clay arrived last night and I couldn't be happier. Oh wait, I could do without the migraine.... But lots of rest in a very dark room later I'm a bit better and enjoying his company.

As for Clay's 10-day stay: so much to do, so little time! He's already ready to run down to Pike Place and recreate a fabulous fresh dinner, we OF COURSE need to do some apartment shopping, and I still want to see this city's green spaces! The only downside is that there is no doubt that I have a couple hundred emails in my work inbox - no lie :( I haven't quite yet caught up to the speed at which emails fly into my inbox on a second by second basis, but hopefully I will join the ranks soon (psst-don't tell Glee!). In the meantime, I have at least managed to LITERALLY sort through the 660+ emails that I STILL have in my inbox (all sent within the mesely 4 weeks since I've started, mind you) EXCLUDING the ones that I have already sorted away and/or deleted. WEESH!

Ok back to Clay - it's absolutely wonderful to have him here and I think he's getting excited to actually move out here too. So far we've pretty much just stayed close to the apartment but this weekend I'm taking him somewhere out of town...still a surprise for him so I have to keep it the same for you for now. While there is no need for you to hold your breath, you might want to scoot to the front of your seat until I fill you all in on Sunday - stay tuned! :-D

Neighborhood Tour #1: Fremont!

2008-04-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

So I took a little drive through Fremont last week and wanted to share some pics... Fremont is the really artsy/funky district that is about 5-10 minutes north of where I am now, just north of Lake Union. The first pic is my fave - it's called the Fremont Troll - it's hard to tell size based on this pic but under the troll's left hand is an actual VW bug. Random, eh??

Next we have their "Center of the Universe" sign. I'm not sure but I think they might have come up with their city slogan after meeting one of the Crawford boys. Ha! I kid - but they really do like that phrase. Once again I'm sure it'shard to tell anything with this size of pic but it has all sorts of signs and directions pointing all of the place.

Pretty unique, right? So this, children, concludes your Seattle neighborhood stop #1 - stay tuned for more hood adventures soon! :)

So I'm in a big HR conference

2008-04-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

I'm terrible with estimating crowds, but I'd say there are a good 300 employees in here. It's a huge room and EVERY person in here has their laptops up and are just typing away. I'm still getting used to being able to multitask in the open - I no longer have to hide it!

So as I multitask, I figure this is a perfect time to talk about the campus - needless to say I'm still drinking the kool-aid and the honeymoon has yet end. Campus is huge - it is so much like a college campus - have I told you about that yet? If so, jump down a paragraph; if not, listen up. (I can never distinguish when to use commas vs. dashes these days -,- email has completely ruined my punctuation and I rely entirely too much on dashes and ellipses these days but oh well.... Ms. Houghton isn't reading this, and even if she were, she can no longer make me stand up in my chair and repeat the grammar rules that I messed up to the whole class over and so hahah ms. houghton - I might even start setting off my one word appositives with commas or underline, italicize, AND bold my titles. Take that! I swear I have PTSD from her class...) Whew, so I digress...so campus is just like a college, in fact it reminds me of Georgia Tech - lots of grass but still a fair amount of streets, tons of brick buildings, intramural fields everywhere, people walking and biking around with backpacks, it's crazy. Add to that the guy to girl ratio of about 2 or 3 to 1 and the high percentage of asians - well it's exactly like Tech! The only difference I've found so far is that I've gotten lost on campus here several times but I don't think I ever got lost at Tech. Oh, and as much as I hate to say it, this campus is much more technologically advanced - well at least compared to Ma Tech back in my day.....

So each building has a kitchen on each floor with all of the free drinks, a large first-aid kit attached to the wall (which I first thought was for huge freak emergencies only, but it turns out it is a goodie box full of free medicine - oh the free advil and band-aids!), free girlie products in each bathroom, 2 locker rooms per building equipped with showers in case you bike to work and need to freshen up once you get to the office (or if your spouse kicks you out of the house and you need to live at work for awhile I suppose), and lots of break rooms with foosball tables and ping pong tables. Legend also has it that each desk on campus has a liquor license in order for anyone to have drinks in the building. In fact, last Friday I walked past the cafe around 3 and there were huge buckets filled with ice and beer...oh to be on that team....but then again supposedly that's not rare.

Even cooler is that our badge gets us anywhere on campus - ok I'm sure there are some places that we're not allowed - but for the most part you can venture anywhere. Coming from a stupid bank that won't even let you into floors in your same bldg that are other departments - this is way cool. So I've been doing a little wondering around campus for lunch - you can call a shuttle from any building to any other one whenever you'd like, so Joe took me to a part of the campus he used to work at last week. It was amazing! Each group has their own flavor and personality -this was an online group so it was really creative and so beautiful. 5 or 6 brick buildings with gorgeous landscape including a small waterfall and lots of picnic tables and green space. But the coolest building is the cafeteria - it looks like a huge ski lodge and inside is every kind of food you can imagine - all fresh and made to order and GREATLY subsidized. It is so cool! The only bad side is now my cafe feels lacking, but hey that's all the more reason to go venture out to all of the others on campus in the future!

Dang, I'm sorry folks, I promise to stop writing novels for each blog!!

Love you and miss you all, come visit and I'll show you around campus! :)
e.

ps-if you want to take it another step forward and REALLY join me - I'd be more than happy to sub resumes, they have a great referral program! ;)

Just found the downside to highrise living...

2008-04-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

So admittedly I slept in a bit and that I take responsibility for...BUT taking an additional 30+ minutes to get to my car once I left my apartment - that is all the fault of the highrise!!! Want a recap? Oh you just try and stop me.

I finally get myself out of bed, shower and get ready - running a little late, but hey - it's Friday and my first meeting isn't until noon. Gather up my laptop bag and my diet coke, grab my keys and head out to the elevators. Now I've long since dreamed of an elevator call button inside my apartment or a graphical representation of exactly where the elevators are at any moment, but for the most part my lazy self feels worth it to wait a minute or two for moving transportation that will save me 24 flights of stairs. At least until this morning.

So as usual I hit the call button and wait for my chariot...and wait...and wait...and wait... Ok, I hear someone in one of the shafts so they're probably working on one of them so we're down to 2 ellies. Fine. I wait and wait - well, what the heck, I'll go ahead and put on my earrings while I wait...ok that's done. I'll open my coke - ahhhh the refreshment. Still waiting. Ahha! It's arrived! I guess it was worth the wait.

Now normally I'll make it down to the parking deck easily on the express - and occasionally I'll have 1 or 2 passengers join me along the way, so no worries when it stops on 19. Guy gets on. Ok, smile smile, still early - but don't talk to me because I'm not a morning person, so just look at the floor or at the numbers slowly decreasing as we plunge downward... What? Another stop on 17 already? Fine. Oh great, it's a maintenance guy with a cart - you know what that means - another stop in one more floor. Kriepe. 16 he gets off. Ok seriously?? Another stop on 14??? FINE. 3 more people, all carrying blankets, which begins a semi-conversation - "ah, had to wait so long you were afraid you'd fall asleep so you came prepared, eh?". Haha. Let's get a moving folks.

Seriously?? ANOTHER STOP? Ok people I could have walked up and down 24 flights 3 times by now. Whatever. Ok, this ellie is packed. No more stops, please no more stops. WHAT??? Another stop? We're already full!! "he, he", I think - I have control of the door close button and it's so full no one can see me discretely hit the button before the idiots can try to squeeze in. "he, he". WHAAAAAAAAAT? Thwarted by the friendly guy with the blankets??? NOOOOOOOOOOOO. Fine. Please be only 1 person, please be only 1 person - and for the love of the Lord above, please no dogs!!!

Dammit. A dog. A big friggin golden retriever. FINE. and 3 people - I mean does it really take 3 people to walk the dang dog?? You're all just testing me now people! But we're finally on 6 and I'm feeling lucky - one more stop and I'll be good to go.

Then just as I was starting to calm myself down with some deep breathing, it happens. You've GOT to be kidding me. I left my friggin phone in my friggin apartment. You've got to be kidding me! On a day with only 1 ellie working, 15 minutes invested in the process - seriously??? So I spend the next 5 flights debating the pros and 1 HUGE con for actually taking this entire rigmarole all over again.

P1. I'm finally here. What to do, what to do? Oh no, I'm supposed to go see a local band with Joe tonight and I'm sure to get lost and I'll really be kicking myself if I don't have my phone. Dammit. I've got to do it.

Wait for it - wait for it - deep breath, hit the button.

This stinks. Get on, press 23. Deep breath. Besides, surely everyone in the entire building who wanted to go anywhere was on the last train...... Fine. stop on the lobby level -that's to be expected. Fine, get in you apartment viewers and you leasing agents, fine. (I bet they even had an appointment - losers.) Ok another explanation about the ellies again - heaven forbid the potential renters think this is usual, so let's all laugh it off as you pull the curtain over their eyes wiz.... OH and did I mention another friggin dog got on at the lobby? Now you all know that I have a terrible dirty secret that could get me stoned in certain crowds - I'm not a dog fan. And you know what happens in highrises? People have to take their dog in the elevator and outside to let them take care of business. Well you know what happens in Seattle??? IT RAINS. Do you know how much I hate the smell of wet dog??? Now add that smell to the other 5 people trapped in a tight elevator with little to no air circulation and it's practically my hades on earth.

But I digress - fine. They're going to 6. I can deal with that. Of course we stop on 5 and another leasing agent with another looker. And he's the annoying one. Oh no, he tells everyone, "there really are 2 working -it's just that when 1 ellie is down, then one of the others only goes down and the other only goes up." "ahhh", the riders say. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? THAT REALLY MAKES SENSE TO YOU PEOPLE??? Guess I'll just stay on this one then because I'm headed right through the roof just like Willy Wanka I suppose. Idiot.

So 4 more stops and I'm FINALLY back on 23. I prepare for my takeoff and return - I cleverly hit 27, the highest floor in the building. You see that way, I'll run to my apt, grab my phone, and be back in time to catch it on it's way back down (assuming this ellie will actually come back down at some point and not fly out the roof). I'm so smart.

Ready? got my key ready.
Set? it's about to stop...
Go!

I run as fast as my heeled sandals will let me, trying not to spill my coke or toss the laptop in the wall - quickly stick in the key (leaving it in for efficiency's sake), grab the phone, run out, lock it, run back over to the ellies and hit the down button. Did I get it?? My heart is racing. Please, please, please let me catch it. DOOOOHHHH I hear it pass by. Dangit! My plan was missing one action item - I should have hit the down button BEFORE I ran to my apartment! Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaangiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

Fine. I'll wait. I'll squat down on my heels, catch my breath and friggin wait again. Seriously people, it's taken so long my coke is almost gone. Dang I hate this place.

No less than 10 minutes later, my chariot arrives. 2 people already onboard complaining about the wait - if they only knew........

Now I won't put you through the entire rest of my trip - but needless to say it took me a loooong time to get back down.

Finally to P1, keys in hand, ready to bust this joint. What? Seriously??? ANOTHER guy jumping in front of me to get off first? Seriously. I miss southern gentlemen SO MUCH. Sure, the bank was a slow moving beast filled with old people and old technology , but I don't think I EVER had a guy leave an elevator or door before me. But that happens ALL the time up here - talk about rude! I swear the next time another guy jumps in front of me I WILL knee him in the nuts.

Seriously. Get some manners people! And I tell you what, if you could get all 3 elevators working while you're at it - that'd be great.

Your comments make my day :)

2008-04-24T08:42:00.001-07:00

And I just realized that I should really be replying to them. This blog has made me so lazy about email and personal responses, so I have decided to be better. At least I'll try!! Thanks you guys - it sure helps me start my day right when I hear from my fam and friends 3,000 miles away....

Crap - a mtg with my mgr - I'll add more after the meeting.........

Wi-fi (aka "wiffy" for Ginny) everywhere!

2008-04-22T19:04:00.001-07:00

#3 for the day - but I just had to tell you I'm now in a pizza joint and working online... I love this city ;)

Hey - it's not my fault you know - the bus drops me off right outside a pizza parlor - how can a girl resist?? :) :) :)

The wheels on the bus....

2008-04-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

2 posts in one day is crazy, I know - but how can I refrain when I'm connected to free wi-fi on my free shuttle! Too cool. Just hope it doesn't get crowded - I need to spread out here..... I mean how is a girl supposed to play text twist without enough breathing room?? At least there is good people watching - I'm starting to notice the difference between the different orgs, the game writers vs. the hard core techies vs. posers like me in HR....

I feel short.

2008-04-22T13:06:00.001-07:00

Boo-hiss. These crazy hippies up here don't wear heels!

Don't kid yourself - I still wear mine on occasion (because of course to leave them hidden away in the back of a closet would be nothing short of pure blasphemy) but have decided to join the crowds on occasion and get some (gasp!) flats. Not only do I have to get no-heeled non-sandal shoes, but it's very European up here so no light colored shoes allowed. Jenkies. So off to target I went (you see I'm a big spender now that I'm a softie) to get me some boring short shoes. What before my bright eyes do appear? Not just black, blue, and pink chucks...but CAMO CHUCKS!! Darn straight I got 'em! So no worries you southerners - I'm representing the dirty south even when up north. They may bend me but I will not be broken!

Speaking of turning granola, I turned another real corner this morning...besides officially being in town for a month and one day, I ventured on to mass transit for the first time. (Not the public bus yet but that will come next... baby steps needed for this Marta-traumatized Atlantan!) Today it was the company shuttle that is offered free of charge - complete with a charter-type bus equipped with wi-fi and a straight shot to campus. So up I wake this morning, put on my new camo shoes, my white jean jacket (which by the way is rebellious in and of itself in a sea of black coats swimming through the city), my laptop bag with zune in pocket and ear buds in ears to walk/bus to work. So Seattle! Well with one major difference - I sported a diet coke in hand instead of the uber-common starbucks cup. Just as I said - I'll bend but some items will always stay Erika!! (even if this Erika is 3.5 inches shorter....)

To market, to market...

2008-04-21T13:14:00.001-07:00

Had SUCH a fab-tab day yesterday. I finally have a friend up here!! :) A co-worker came downtown yesterday to see my apartment and do dinner - we had such a great time. First of all he approves of the apartment and was super impressed at the location, views, etc. (and even the price) which was good to hear from a local. We then just started walking downtown and ended up at pike place to just shop around - we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day - slight breeze, around 70 degrees, sun shining and not a drop of rain in sight (although it did snow again on friday evening but nothing stuck). The food looked so fantastic at the market we actually ended up buying EVERYTHING for dinner there (2 kinds of handmade flavored pasta, fresh organic produce, fresh baked sourdough, and a delicious sun-dried tomato olive oil for bread dipping), and mom I finally bought my huge, beautiful, and way cheap bouquet of fresh flowers!! It was so super fabulous. We then stopped to get some wine on the way home and found pike place label wine! It was fate - we simply had to get it to finish off the meal. Back at the apartment I started to fix it for us, but it turns out his dad is a chef and he actually knew what he was doing unlike me so I even had dinner fixed for me! To top it all off it turns out we like a lot of the same music and shows on dvd as well so I have a music/tv buddy now too! (don't worry folks, before the rumor mill begins, I'm not his type without going through some major reassignment surgery...)

This all probably seems minor to you all but for a girl who hasn't had a local friend in a month it is the most exciting thing since the treasure hunt for black bean burgers....

ps-his name is Joe, hopefully you'll be seeing more about him in posts to come :)

Feeling the miles...

2008-04-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

So last night was one of the first nights I really felt the miles between here and home. I was feeling pretty home sick - I didn't think it would bother me at all being in such beautiful surroundings working at such a great company - but I guess it does. Sorry mom, but apparently if you are born and raised somewhere and live there for 30 years, no matter how great or how bad it is, it's home. I guess I'm just a "GRITS" at heart ("girls raised in the south" - ala the bumper sticker that says "I love GRITS"). I've even found myself leaning on the girl from Florida as the only other southerner around (despite the fact that Floridians are just geographically confused yanks), and even worse reminiscing about Hewitt with a coworker who worked out in the Woodlands for 9 years. Now you know that's desperate!!

I would have never guessed how much I miss rednecks, jacked-up pick-em-up trucks, and all of the local jargon. I realized yesterday that it's been over a month since I've even seen a rebel flag and I made the mistake of mentioning that to someone in a meeting when I was immediately attacked by daggers shot at me from all around the room. Apparently if you ever need a way to shut up a room of washingtonians you just mention the rebel flag. I mean seriously people - it's just a symbol and you are all privileged whities so no need to be offended. I then mentioned to someone else that I haven't seen anybody wearing a single article of camo (besides the socks I was wearing yesterday) and they answered me in all seriousness that "over in eastern washington you'll find more hunters but the terrain is probably different so it will probably look a little different than what you are used to". I laughed at the idea of him only associating camos with hunters. Silly Seattlites - camo is for everyone, not just hunters! I mean sure the ugly "real tree" camos that DJ wears - well those can be reserved for animal killing trips but not the "good camo"! I swear I never imagined that moving north would make me more of a southerner than actually living there did. I actually wish my accent were stronger now!! Who knew.

Miss you all,
your southern belle e.
(ok well maybe not as refined as a belle, but at least a southern girl)

Lotion, Fingerprints, and a Gadget

2008-04-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

What is stuff Erika needs in Seattle, Alex? You got it.

You see the good news is that humidity is not an issue up here at all, but the bad news is that my skin is absolutely parched!! I think I've used more lotion in the last month than in the last year, but I'd consider dry skin instead of the suffocating humidity a good trade off, so I won't complain. Not only that but my fingerprints have become my best friend as a password for EVERYTHING on my computer so I guess I should probably take care of them anyways... Both my laptop and my super-fancy phone have fingerprint readers so no more passwords needed for anything! It is so cool - I can even use any of my 10 fingers. I'm thinking about trying toe prints next but I'll wait to get a little more familiar with my coworkers before I start pulling out my calloused feet and scaring them all off just to login... But no fear - I will try it someday and keep you all posted. (Now for those of you who are thinking of chopping off my fingers to get access to my computer - don't even think about it - it must be a warm finger with active blood flow, so no Mission Impossible moves allowed kids.) They tried to enforce a retinal scan next, but I told them my one-eyed brother wouldn't approve of lasers coming at my eyes, not to mention how aware I am of a looming potential retinal detachment at any moment...

"But Erika," you ask, "what about the gadget?" Glad you asked. As long as you won't tell my employer, I will share my latest techie geek tool. Deal? Deal. Look to the left (not the left of your computer guys, the left of this text). You see the "Add me to your iGoogle Page" text? Hit the button below it. Really! Now! You now have my famous blog on your home page (assuming you're using iGoogle, which you really should be, but since I can no longer promote it ask Clay ;) ) and you'll see new posts there as soon as I post 'em. Cool, huh?? I thought so.

It's PAYDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-04-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

Let us rejoice. A moment of silence please.

Now scream! Woooooohooooooooooooo.

Not a minute too soon - I had a dream last night that my credit score went down to a 282. Seriously.

Well if I HAVE to watch the 'mercials....

2008-04-14T21:12:00.001-07:00

Ok, you all know by now how much I desperately miss my TiVo, so in the meantime I've decided I'll use this time to do some good (since I'm dying inside!!!). You see I've been looking for new music lately so here are a few songs that are surprisingly commercial inspired (way to sell out bands - thanks! no, really, make the mullah where you can!!)

kia: here
allshaft: (editor's note: I HATE allstate but I LOVE lifehouse so it's bittersweet as I post this) here
bluegrass roots: (ok it's not a commercial per say but fills my young kid bluegrass familiarity and has been advertised as coming to sea lately) Woods Brothers - BONUS!! They're coming to SEA THIS WEEK! Stay tuned...hopefully I'll go :)

Random links I like:

Beau/Elizabeth/Baby Jake - miss you guys!
last.fm or 99x.com to listen to music at work
amazon.com duh!! ;)
Underrated music blog - she has lots of good lesser known artists/music to explore
Text twist [ed. note this is a VERY addicting game so don't even start it unless you are ok getting hooked forever and ATTEMPTING to beat my 300,000 score...]
Seattle Rentals - more than just the apartments, I like the overview of the diff neighborhoods in case you're curious about the local 'hoods...
Piperlime - SHOES!! Free shipping AND free returns. It's like shopping in my living room. Also TrueJeans is cool for moving the dressing room into the comfort of your home - girls you can measure yourself in the privacy of a dark room and enter all your stats and attributes of pants you like and it tell you exactly which brands/styles/sizes will be good for you. Pretty cool! Also you can enter "truegenes" as a promo code and get 20% off! Wow. I should get a commission.

Ok I'm sure I'll add more shortly...stay tuned once again!

Pictures Finally - Maybe??

2008-04-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

Hello my Blogience! (that's my clever name for you out there in web land reading this - get it? my blog audience. somehow "fan club" seemed slightly narcissistic, even for a Crawford)

I finally gave up on perfecting the picture slide show and adding music in the background - at least for now... in the meantime I think I've posted what I have so far to the left. I had to create a youtube account and post it there (yikes!!) but that's the only way I could do so without lots of trouble figuring out another way... So yes, I have a youtube account, but no, I'm not a perv or weirdo who posts random videos of me dancing to 80's music or performing stupid stunts, I PROMISE!

So as for Sunny Seattle, it actually got up to 70 on Saturday - it was absolutely beautiful! I had an old friend from Hewitt in town for a few days and we were able to do the touristy stuff on the most beautiful day I've had out here. The views from the needle were amazing: Rainier was as clear as the building next door and Pike Place Market was buzzing with activity and the most beautiful (and cheap!) flower arrangements and produce... One might even say it was a little slice of heaven (and by one, I mean my mom of course).

The only down side to the day was returning to the non-AC apartment that afternoon - it turns out the window method of cooling only works if there are breezes outside, and even then the breeze can't compete with the wall of sun shining in around every corner (I know I should close the blinds but I can't bear to block out the views)! It got so bad that even in shorts and a t-shirt I was sweating (not unusual, I know) so finally I dug deep in the closet to drag out the ghettoesque fan that was left by the temp housing folks. I know you all have visions of window units, ceiling fans, or even something that oscillates dancing in your head, but 'twas no such luck...not even close. Instead think back about 25 years ago to the oh-so-pricey beige plastic box fans that sit on the floor, sound as loud as a diesel F350, but produce little more air than flapping a piece of paper in front of your face: yeah, that's the one. [Sidebar: for those of you who were lucky - dare I say blessed - enough to know me and my bros as little kids, it is the same fan that we used to sit behind and talk into pretending we were airline pilots. I can hear it now: "this is the captain speaking...we have reached 30 million feet travelling at 5 miles per hour. if you look to your left you will see the washington monument and to your right the mississippi river...." (give us a break, we were just little kids! we didn't know how fast and high planes really flew nor had we learned our geography lessons yet...but flash forward 10 years and my german exchange student and I DID learn that even though the plane is landing in autopilot, you still need to operate the brakes yourself, else you'll end up in the potomac river - turns out THAT is the river in DC...stupid flight simulators (or shall I say "Flight Stimulator" like Jake used to say???)] But I digress....yes, that is the crappy fan I was reduced to and needless to say Clay and I are narrowing our apartment search to air conditioning units only!

Ok, back to work now.... KIT! :)

Well I do de-claaire....

2008-04-10T16:07:00.000-07:00

If you'll allow me one more rant - this is getting ridiculous. Me talk English two u know. We live in the same country!! Stop pinging and syncing and hard stopping and dropping darn it. Enough about your "perners" (because apparently emplID's and empl stats mean NOTHING up here - literally blank stares as if one couldn't piece it together at all - it's all about personnel numbers). I mean no one has even used the word "personnel" since the more PC "HR" came along decades ago and CERTAINLY techies use ID's instead of numbers?!?! Furthermore, I know every company thinks they use a lot of acronyms and they all think they use more than the average bear (ie. Hewitt's acronym for their acronym dictionary, which thankfully I have forgotten), but this is over the top. ROM's are rough orders of magnitudes (I mean are they TRYING to sound intelligent??), they UAT instead of test, they have CSP's and JTT's and MMM's; SPSA's and IP SPSA's (and yes, they actually say "S-P-S-A's-AND-I-P-S-P-S-A's" because heaven forbid they just say STOCK even though it usually has to be said twice because the first time they said it they are bound to switch around at least one or two of the letters but can't let it go), I am working on CMAT, CBC, and even P@M which has nothing to do with email at all. Weesh! Well LMNOP people! Trust me people - you sound smart enough, start talkin' english like I like it!

My boss actually said to me on my second day here, mid sentence in one of our touchbases, "HEY! I just heard your southern accent! Have you been hiding it??". Umm. No? I don't have a southern accent, thank you. You should meet my friends from mac-rae and carpel-tunnel gaw-ga. THEY have southern accents. In fact - I'm thinkin' 'bout talkin' extra real southern just to prove me my point. Then it would be THEY who didn't understand ME! HA! "How'syourmomandthem?" "'djaeatyet?" "Let's go muddin' ya'll!" "I'm gonna put on my hills and go walk up that heel to buy me some whoopin' cream and me-elk" (I miss you Glee!!!)

I'm putting it on my agenda tonight to memorize every single line from each of the blue collar comedy tours ASAP. In fact, maybe I'll just play them in my office 24/7. See how it feels people? Don't feel like you're in your own country anymore do ya now??

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to the library to find Bre'r Rabbit.... because frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

Oh the shock and horror!!!

2008-04-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

So now begins my grocery store tirade....and might I add that thank goodness I waited a day to make this post else I would have filled it with Seattle bashing and post-decision regret!!!

I knew moving out west would come with certain struggles and a few adjustments...but I never expected this. I really thought that core certainties in life would never be in question. Sure i have a roof over my head and a shirt on my back; lack of air conditioning was a shock to my system but I'm slowly learning the science of window-controlled temperature regulation; safety is an ongoing issue but I always watch my back and carry my mace; but THIS??? This is shockingly scary and absolutely unacceptable.

No Morningstar Spicy Black Bean Burgers and no White Cheddar????? Only Gardenburgers and Yellow Cheddar??? Not even not-so-sharp white cheddar?? What sort of cheese racists live up here anyways???

No Publix, no good cheese or black bean burgers, no Mellow Mushroom, no good generic tonic water, no liquor past 8pm even on weekends....I mean it might sound dramatic - but it's a good thing I didn't know about these things before I moved out here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Add to that Diet Coke 12 packs at $7.99 (REALLY!), a COMPLETE lack of anything even resembling an east-coast pizza or pizza joint (and no, the one that calls itself east coast but has no beer or wine or liquor or decent chairs is NOT sufficient), no Sweeetwater, and roads that are completely devoid of any jacked up pick-em-up-trucks or rebel flags, and - WELL - what's a southern girl to do??

Just as I was ready to pack my bags and return back south....enter Safeway. I call it the Publix of the north you see. I guess it only took 5 (!) tries to find it (I seriously checked out 4 different supermarket chains including fred meyer (aka the wal-mart on crack - more on that later) all to no avail (and no, mom, I didn't check out "Whole (Paycheck) Foods" or its more expensive cousin "PCC", but come on - I still haven't gotten my first paycheck so give me some time before I blow it all at a grocery store!)) I GUESS it was worth the wait. Very friendly staff everywhere (ala publix), plenty of beautiful produce, SEVERAL kinds of white cheddar including Cracker Barrel (yummy) aaaaaaaaaaaand my Spicy Black Bean Burgers!! I quickly bought every box they had. Now I'm stocked up just in case Safeway crashes to the ground at any moment. SOOOO much better.

Phew! Crisis averted. Guess I should can call off the national guard now. I feel better. Don't you?

Who knew I could write so much about groceries??? Guess too much computer time and not enough human interaction are starting to get to me ;)

...and then there was one.

2008-04-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

I'm sadly back on my own again today, but the good news is that we had a great time and next time Clay comes back it will be for even longer! (Not to mention the added benefit for all of you now that I'm posting again without distractions ;) ) Bottom line though we really enjoyed the week - Clay got to see what it would be like to work from home and I it looks like it is going to work out well. Believe it or not he even actually got up from his work "early" (aka 4pm PST and 7pm EST) to walk around the city and venture out before I got home to see what the city had to offer! If you know Clay AT ALL this is VERY impressive!! ;) That said, I think we'd both agree that we are looking very much forward to living in the same time zone again. We looked at a few apartments/condos over the weekend - but would you believe that some of these snootie patootie leasing people actually expected us to have appointments??? For a friggin apartment??? Unless you're a doctor or a hair dresser then you best work on my schedule whenever I say whenever I want!! Snots! Their loss as far as I'm concerned - Clay and I would be the perfect renters and might even help fill their redneck quota......oh wait is that only at Tech?

HEY - speaking of which do you know someone at work actually had the nerve to not only call me a "hornet" (although I'm used to being called a "bee" by jealous friends back home so no skin off my back), but to tell me they had NEVER HEARD of Georgia Tech???? Clay says they're just ignorant so I'll go with that. My team made up for it though the other day when I found out that 3 of my teammates are vegetarians!!! Not only did the carnivores stay in the conversation after that, no one even asked me "do you eat fish? chicken? how do you get your protein?"; in fact everyone started giving me recommendations to lots of vegetarian and vegan restaurants all the while assuring me that being a veggie up here is nothing out of the ordinary!! WOW! Woohoo! :) Not that I ever mind the way things are down south, but it is pretty cool being in such a vegie friendly city!!!!

One thing I forgot to mention last week (I think?) - I got my escape back!!! She made it all the way across country, gimp hood and all. The tow truck guy delivered it to my work last Tuesday AFTER he fully washed and polished it - it arrived in better condition than I sent it off in! On the flip side, the guy said that I need to fix my hood - apparently it's a "safety issue" that I'll be ticketed for up here - I miss GA where it just made me fit in!! ;) In the meantime I'm hoping the GA license plate will buy me some time until one of my big, strong, brilliant brothers comes up to fix it for me.... (does flattery work boys? No? Ok I won't hold my breath I promise :)

Tons more to write but I feel like I should spread it out a little.... There's a video of my pics coming soon I promise <insert collective scoot to the edge of your seat here> but I'm just finishing up the last details before I post...

Love ya'll ;)
e.

You like me, you really, really like me! :)

2008-04-03T21:56:00.000-07:00

Ok I think I finally get why people get hooked on this blogging thing. People are actually reading the ramble that I type and even posting replies! Woohoo! I feel so loved - thank you guys!! :)

Now on to the latest in not-so-rainy-Seattle....Clay's here! It's so good to see someone from back home again. Clay and I have been working during the day and then checking out the different neighborhoods and local haunts at night. I think we are both hooked on the idea of a high-rise, the views are absolutely addicting! It makes living in an apartment again so much easier, all that is left is to pick a neighborhood! Seattle has so many different neighborhoods, each with a personality of its own, the only problem is that there are too many good ones to pick from! Right now I'm in Belltown which is just north of (but still walkable to) downtown (very similar to midtown atlanta just without so many rainbows) and I think this is probably our #1 pick...but then again there's Eastlake right on Lake Union, so cute and active lower Queen Anne, the artsy Little-five-ish Fremont and next door Wallingford, or maybe even the way fun (but potentially more dangerous) Capital Hill. Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Wow this post is feeling boring...I'm even putting myself to sleep. Surely there is some quirky antedote that I'm forgetting about right now... Must be writer's block setting in now that I know you guys are actually looking at this! ;)

Tomorrow Clay and I are going to an 'open house' at work followed by a trip to the company store - I can't wait!! Then on Saturday we'll do more exploring of Seattle and hopefully check out some of the millions of parks around the area. I want to check out the downtown library that is supposed to be beautiful but it turns out Clay doesn't find that as interesting as I do - that will have to be something I do on a weekend when I'm here alone ;)

Later gators,
e :)

Okay I promise I'm not polly-anna...

2008-03-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

...so I figured I'd post a few things that are tough about here rather than just telling you all of the awesome positives (even though the positives are still 90% + as I see it)..

What do I miss (besides family and friends of course!)?

1.) TiVo and digital/premium cable!!!!

2.) Good radio stations (or at least better than here) - can't quite pinpoint it but they just aren't great up here and they are always playing commercials. On the flip side I heard Sweet Home Alabama the other day as I was driving aimlessly and I rocked it like I've never rocked to the song before! Who knows, I might even like country after a few more months! Or not....

2.) Willy's!!! Tried the imitation place downstairs and it didn't even clome close :(

3.) My house, even though it's on the market (which is just going so/so by the way - good bit of traffic but no bites yet) especially when I'm going up and down the 23+ floors with arms full of stuff, when it gets hot, or when I want to tickle the ivories or swing on my front porch (J&J - mind out of the gutter please, the ivories are my piano keys)... OH and the toaster oven!!

4.) All my purses that I accidentally left behind and the shoes that I thought I could live without until the big move - good thing I've been living out of my laptop bag and I don't have much of an occassion for heels or sandals...

5.) Lastly, the lower grocery and restaurant prices......which reminds me of probably the biggest thing I miss - a paycheck!!! After 3-4 long weeks that should start up next Friday...........I'm anxious to be able to exhale again! ;)

BUT now the good news....

My first visitor arrives tomorrow afternoon!!!!

I am so thrilled to see Clay - I can't wait!!!!!!! Unfortunately............ even though it's only my second week at work, it's apparently one of the more busy ones including a working weekend :( Talk about no ramp up time at all! I'm sure it will all work out though and I'm so excited to show him around and venture out even more with a partner! Finally I won't be asked when going out to eat "JUST one"? ;)

Later Alligators :)

I can walk to EVERYTHING!!

2008-03-30T14:58:00.001-07:00

I ventured out on foot today throughout downtown and it was great. Absolutely everything is within walking distance from my apartment and I feel completely safe walking around everywhere (but don't worry Jake, I have your air force mace on my key chain just in case...). The only bad thing about having so much to do so close and being here alone as I've found myself shopping when I'm bored... Good for a time filler but bad for the budget!

Work ended really well with a meeting with my new boss (who seems really fantastic by the way) where I showed him what I had compiled/gathered so far. Still a million miles to go but it made me feel like I've picked up at least a little so far. Unfortunately the busy year-end stuff that just finished at my last job as I left is now just ramping up here since they use the fiscal calendar instead of calendar year...but hey at least it's all still fresh on my mind and I'll get to jump in and learn TONS right off the bat.

Speaking of which I think I'm going to go review a little more work to get even more prepared for the week - wish me luck! And go book your flights already!!

Miss you all,
e :)

1 week down, countless to go....

2008-03-28T18:56:00.001-07:00

I made it through my first week in a new city, a new job, a new everything! Despite a few bumps in the road, I must say it was a great week overall that ended well. I'm finally getting in and out of my parking spaces here at the apartment in less than 27 point turns, finally remembering to bring up everything from the car when I get home (thus avoiding the trip down to the dungeon parking deck after I've changed into my bummy clothes), and making a few less wrong turns downtown when trying to get back to my place...

A few lessons learned in my first week:

1.) Seattllites really like to recycle: turns out they don't have massive rubber garbage bins on wheels and their recycling bins are actually bigger and mroe in number than their "rubbish" bins. Crazy! Good thing I have a trash chute...

2.) HOV lanes are on the right side of the interstate and they LITERALLY have bus stpos on the interstate! Or I guess I should say Freeway like the locals....

3.) Starbucks are the Waffle Houses of the Northwest - 1 or 2 at every corner. (legend has it that there is an intersection downtown where you can actually get wifi from 4 different starbucks at once. My disdain for playing in traffic has kept me from trying it out myself)

4.) At work people don't "touch base", "e-mail", or "instant message"; they "sync", "thread", and "ping".

5.) ...they also ALWAYS bring their laptops to meetings - be forewarned not to be the only one to show up with nothing other than the archaic pen and notepad!

6.) Car keys must be hidden and stashed away as items of selfish shameful greed while the bus pass is your card to cooldom.... (I would fear that they would peg me with rotten tomatoes but luckily those have all been composted...)

7.) No matter how rainy or overcast, or how little sun, seattle seems to always be lit somehow...I swear it glows. People also bike no matter what the weather is like.

8.) As bad as the locals say the traffic is here, it is nothing compared to atlanta and the scenery makes the drive even shorter.

I'm sure there is plenty more that I'm not remembering now but I'll add them later....

Workin Day 2

2008-03-26T23:39:00.000-07:00

So now comes my first full day in the office and it was almost as intimidating as it was exciting - but even getting a door was a thrill, let alone a key to that door, a brand new laptop, and a speedy new personal printer (no more running down the hall to pick up my printouts!)! Add to that all the free starbuck's, pepsi (blech), coke (yummy!), and this strangely good 'talking rain' carbonated water ala clearly canadian I can drink, and it's all pretty phenomenal. Little do they know how much diet coke I can down in a day.....don't tell!!

As for the actual work ,they definitely threw me in the deep end with no time to tip toe in nice and slow... I know that will work out better in the end, but it also caused a little 'heartburn' early on today. Bottom line I think that once I get the translation of the terminology I'm used to things won't be so bad at all. The profession-specific terms are all familiar to me (thank goodness!) but basic ways to explain processes and technical steps are slightly different. No biggie though, right!?! Right :)

So here is my chance to really step up (or maybe even do a jig or three) and prove myself without much direction, so hopefully I can actually do so! I'm excited and I think I can do it - just keep your fingers crossed for me! :)

Love you all,
e :)

Workin Day 1

2008-03-26T23:37:00.000-07:00

The first day at work today was great as well, of course it's only day one so I'm sure it was lots of sales but I was really impressed. They even addressed all of the negative impressions that we have all encountered re: the company and clearly they have plans to address those issues which is quite raeassuring and open. We had a funny presenter showing us the impact of all of the company software bugs and the importance for fixing those issues; 1 woman to explain all of our amazing benefits (which despite the awesomeness of their coverage and payments is always difficult as an HR professional to listen to all of the stupid questions - turns out some people actually think that Saturday and SUnday are included in vacation weeks and/or don't know that 40 hours = 1 week in non-firefighter/cop world), and another woman to talk about her long career at the company and her move from the east coast. Lots of congrats for joining the team. Sound cheesy? Of course. Still pretty darn amazing and inspiring? Absolutely.

So I'm hoping to enjoy my first day thrills (as naive as they may be) and will keep you posted as the arrow moves both up and down... Now go book your flights to come visit already!!!

Love, e :)

Seattle Here I Am!

2008-03-26T23:35:00.000-07:00

Hello from Seattle!! Everything is going great so far! A few minor setbacks all cleared up quickly and all is well again in the Emerald City. As for some background on my trip so far..... After a long day on Friday, I finally made it into my temp apartment friday night and I couldn't be happier. Well, wait, I take that back....I would be happier if the building had air conditioning!!! Crazy northerners think it's not necessary I guess...but at least a lot of the windows open; and the views could not be more spectacular. It's a 23rd floor corner unit, 2 BR, 1.5 Bath with lots and lots of windows boasting views of downtown, the entire sound (including the ferries!), the Cascades on one side and the Olympic mountain range on the other. Embarrassingly enough, it took me 2 days but sitting in my living room yesterday I finally realized I was staring right at Mt. Ranier making its beautiful presence over the buildings downtown!!! Even driving to work this morning across the massive freeway floating bridge, the majestic scenery was breathtaking. The only thing missing (well besides the air conditioning!) is family and friends...