Life in Washington!: August 2012

Friday, August 24, 2012

Seattle Summer continues!

Another two weeks has flown by since I updated?!?! Where does the time go?! Ok, so let’s see where I left off and begin there…. OK, I left off at beginning work and the Sass clan visiting. We have actually had more visitors since the Sass’s came to town. We had a few guests stay with us over the course of a couple of weekends. One was here for a wedding and another was on his way back from Alaska from a month and a half long kayaking trip (how awesome is that?!). It’s been nice having a sliver of life from Crystal Lake come through Seattle. If anyone needs a place to crash we will happily house you.

So, I would love to tell everyone that we during the work week we go skydiving, and jetskiing, and mountain climbing, but unfortunately, when you work for The Man you just don’t have time for that sort of business (still adjusting to that whole scenario). We still have a good time- we generally spend our time after work cooking dinner and then relaxing a bit. I will say that all week long we are “working for the weekend”, and when that glorious weekend makes its appearance it’s “go time”. So far, we have been REALLY busy on the weekends- taking full advantage of days off. I’ll go ahead and detail one such weekend so you can get an idea of what I’m talking about.
To start the weekend, we got home from work around 6:30pm and started packing for a camping trip to North Cascades National Park. Upon finishing the packing, we left immediately to the bar where we played “Settlers of Catan” with some friends (totally awesome fun board game if you are looking for one). Got home late and then proceeded to get up early to drive to North Cascades to do a 7 mile hike around Lake Ann and Maple Pass. After the hike we make it to a campground, set up camp, cooked dinner, and promptly passed out. Woke up in the morning, headed straight back to Seattle and then met up with friends at the beach. By the time we made it home, we had enough time to make dinner and get ready for the work week. Phew! The business of having fun can be an exhausting!

As it turns out, the weekend after that was busy, just not entirely exhausting as the one I just described. Jenny had to study for her big pharmacy test and I continued working on a set of three Mac Pacs. It was a quiet but VERY productive weekend for both of us. While Jenny pounded away pharmacy calculations, I cut, sewed, glued, and occasionally un-sewed the bags. After a crazy busy weekend away from the home, a productive weekend at home was just what the doctor ordered. The new round of bags are coming along nicely and I think I should be finished with one more productive weekend. I am incorporating some new designs into this round of bags so nailing down the production method has been a give and take process.

Here is a new set of pics from the last few weeks! Enjoy!

On the way up Maple Pass- Lake Ann

Lake Ann in North Cascades National Park

On top of Maple Pass!

Me and Jenny on Maple Pass

Seemed like an appropriate pic at the time

So appropriate that we both posed.

Working on a set of 3 Mac Pacs.

Starting to take shape!

Down by the beach, mon! We are a 6 minute bike to the beach from our house.

Big night out on the town. The sushi here is ridiculously awesome.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Summer in Seattle

Hello everyone! Has it really been over two weeks since I last updated this thing?! I apologize for the long wait in between posts. As usual, it’s been busy busy busy around here. So let’s see where did I leave you all hanging? The Move! Ok, so we successfully moved into our place and got settled in. We moved in without any furniture (besides beds and camp chairs) so I took it upon myself to peruse the local Goodwill stores for furniture. I am going to go ahead and clear the air and confess my undying love for the Goodwill. That place is amazing. To summarize all of our Goodwill adventures, we essentially got everything we needed, and more, for roughly $60. That includes a kitchen table, 4 chairs, a desk, tv stand, kitchen utensils etc etc etc. That place is amazing. Also, 2 pairs of ski boots (for Jenny and Rachel) for about $18- the boots were both selling for over $150 online. Amazing! Ok, I am done gushing over the Goodwill. We decided to buy a couch and tv off of craigslist and while the deals were not as good as are at Goodwill, we still saved a bunch of money going that route- and don't have any bedbugs! So as it stands now, we have a home!

All the while this was going on, I had a few job interviews and was lucky enough to land a job back with Motorola! Woooo! I started last week and am settling in nicely- although I am having a hard time adjusting to crazy amount of sitting I have to do. But anyways, I am very happy to be gainfully employed (with health insurance yea!).

I was lucky enough to have a few weeks of free time before I started work so I decided to create a durable, totally waterproof backpack. The first step was to create a computer model (used Google Sketch up- it’s free!) which allows me to turn it into a pattern. I won’t go into the nitty gritty details, but two weeks of free time turned into two waterproof backpacks! That actually turned out better than I expected and several random people on the street have already commented on the bags- which I think is a good sign. Right now, we are calling the bags: Mac Pacs- Copyright Jenny 2012. I put up a couple of pictures of each project. They are made to order so let me know if you want to purchase one and we can talk about colors and whatnot!

The last stretch of free time I had before I started work at Motorola, the Sass clan came into town for about a week. It was really fun having them in town- we sampled plenty of wines and beers, had a roof top cookout, and lots of good meals. It was really fun having them in town and definitely look forward to having them come back soon- ski season is just around the corner!
So I will leave this post here until next time! Enjoy the pics.