Summer!!!!!!!

Summer has arrived! REAL summer! The past 3 days have been unbelievable. The sky is EMPTY of clouds, from the highway interchange here in Bothell you can see Mt. Rainier (90 miles as the crow flies)! It's the first time I've seen that mountain since my last visit to Seattle in the winter of '01. It doesn't seem to have changed much ;) Temperatures have been in the mid to upper 80's, today it even reached 90. The forecast is for clear skies and warm temps to be the rule for the rest of summer. It's kind of a pain being so hot up here, because there is no A/C, but it's not stifling, and all I have to do is remind myself that the alternative is to be broiling in Orlando and it seems a paradise! Right now, I have such a strong desire to go to Twin Kiss it's unbelievable, but so far I've failed to find any soft-serve ice cream in the Pacific Northwest, let alone any small independant ice cream shops with white tail deer and ducks and a garage full of ancient video games...

My project that carried over from FL is complete, although Lisa mentioned if I need a job come August I'd be welcome to return for the installs. I've spoken with the TEKsystems people up here, and they're hopeful of starting me in a phone tech support or project coordinator position pretty quickly. In the meantime, Advanced e-Sports has re-entered the picture, I'm doing some part-time work for them (and being paid for it!) while I wait for something from TEK. I may even take a trip to the CPL in early July (fully covered), but I'll wait a few days to make any decision about that, and of course it would be dependant upon whether I get a real job before then.

The van is up here, it arrived all in one piece, and it was fun watching it get offloaded. It is now missing the ball on the top of the antenna, so I can't use my mickey antenna topper yet (and Pat refused to let his car wear one, even the Sorcerer Mickey!), but I'll get that fixed eventually. Having the van has given me freedom finally, I'm looking forward to being in a financial situation to take advantage of it. In the meantime, it's random drives and window shopping.

I'm slowly (ok, maybe not so slowly) being transformed into a soccer hooligan. World Cup has been a lot of fun to watch, especially with someone like Pat around to discuss/debate things with. Saturday, after watching that morning's soccer matches, we went to downtown Kirkland and strolled through the parks on the lake. My god that was beautiful. The sun on the water, the rythem of the waves, all the hot cars (ferrari, porsche, bmw, etc...), everything was just beautiful. Then we got a call from some friends wanting to hang out, so we invited 'em over, fired up the grill, and played Nintendo64 games while the sun set. What a perfect day :)

This week, if I can shake free, I plan to make a run for the mountains. Google Earth is a huge help, it can show me all the parks that are reasonable to get to, then I just google them and find reviews of their trails and lists of their terrain. I found a really nice little "hidden" park just north of UW (in a very urban area) that's supposed to have a mile long little forested canyon and a stand of redwoods. There's also some really nice trails right near the apartment here, but my rollerblades are in rather poor shape right now, it'll take a decent investment of $$ to get them back.

Otherwise, life is good. Stormy just got a new scratching post and some fresh Cosmic Catnip, so she's as happy as can be. Pat is currently at his parents having dinner after what was probably a real killer of a soccer game, he'll be back late tonight, but is kitty-sitting for his parents tomorrow and so won't be around. His company, SafeCo, is just being retarded, and he can't wait to get out of there. He's got a couple of leads on some interesting jobs, and if nothing turns up anytime soon I'll introduce him to TEKsystems and see what they think of him. Stormy has really grown on him, he's already realized what an addicting personality she has, and spoils her just as bad as I do. Of course, nobody spoils her nearly as much as she spoils herself. Last time we fired up the grill, she helped herself to one of Pat's brauts. She tore into that thing like she hadn't eaten in YEARS.

Anyway, I think that's a fairly thorough update on life here in the upper left-hand corner of the lower 48 states.

Les Miserables

I just want to record my impressions/memories of last night before they fade out. It was an amazing night.

We spent the day Sunday just hanging out, Pat had a soccer game, and I had some preperations to do to be ready for the evening. Dinner was at 5:15 at the Palomino in downtown Seattle. The food was delicious (I had chicken picatta), and we certainly would have dawdled for dessert if we hadn't been on our way to Les Mis. From the restaurant it was just a few blocks drive, and after parking nearby we realized we were about 25 minutes early. We wandered down the street to an ATM so Pat would have cash to pay for parking after the show. As we walked back up towards the 5th Avenue Theater, my hand on his arm in proper fashion, a lady came up to tell me what a nice dress I had, and how nice I looked. I hope I got my "thank you"s out well, as this took me a little bit by surprise. Once inside the theater, it didn't take long to get to our seats, which were incredible. We might as well have been in a box, the view was that good. A party of older women was making it's way past, with the oldest looking to be something nearing 90, leaning heavily on an usher. Pat got up and offered his arm and helped her the rest of the way to her seat, much to the appreciation of the group and the usher. I got many compliments from the older women walking by for his gentlemanly behavior. It definitly brought a smile to my face.

Shortly, and without much fanfare, the show began. I was half-stunned throughout the entire first half, our cast was unbelievably talented. We had 3 or so of the original New York Broadway cast performing for us, and every other major player had credentials including performances like Miss Saigon and Phantom. Every single one of them sounded fabulous, and some sounded so much like my international cast recording that it was almost spooky. The set was incredibly cool, the music was powerful, the acting was better than I'd expected, it was just stunning. The intermission was thankfully brief, and the second half got even better. It was a magical performance, one of the last performance of the Broadway Les Mis there will ever be, and I'm so glad I got to see it.

This morning I woke up with snippets from Les Mis running through my head, and the music has been in the back of my mind all day.

So, that was the evening in a nutshell, I'm going to get back to cleaning this place up (kitchen got to be a little bit of a mess over the weekend when we didn't feel like cleaning).

Many thanks to Pat for making it all happen, it was better than I thought it would be, and I hope I'll remember it for a long, long time :)

This is the view from the stairwell leading up to the apartment (basically the same view as out our front (bedroom) window
This is a view elsewhere in the apartment complex... note the relative heights of the hill/trees and the 3-story apartment buildings
Another view from around the complex, showing some of the very northern landscaping
This is a view looking up towards our building, which is actually out of the field of view on the left 

Pics from Seattle!!

The above is our living room, looking onto the deck, with the dining room on the right
This is the dining room and it's window, with the kitchen on the right
This is a view from our deck looking left
This is a view from our deck looking down and to the right