100th post

In honor of 100 posts, I've changed to a ridiculous theme. Let me know how you feel about it.

weezer/ angels and airwaves

We finally made it into the city this weekend! Weezer and Angels and Airwaves were playing at the Key Arena and it was really fun. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, the arena is right under the space needle. Even knowing that, it was still surprising to exit the concert and be greeted with a giant landmark in my face.
ANYWAY.
We missed the opening band- I couldn't even tell you their name. We wanted to get a drink, but no alcohol was allowed in the seating area so we had to drink on the concourse. We got to our seats (yes, we were old and sat in seats) just in time for Angels and Airwaves. I really enjoyed them. I know this picture didn't come out very nicely, but if you can imagine, the orange lights looked like falling meteors. It was a really different light show.




Weezer was a blast! I was never a huge Weezer fan, but I knew just about every song they played and they sounded great. They had a trampoline on stage and generally acted ridiculous. During their encore, they let about 20 local musicians up on stage to perform with them. They had just about any instrument you could imagine and played some of the sing-a-long classics. It was really fun and I almost forgot to take video, but I did take this one earlier in the show. I imagined the crowd playing along on their rockband instruments because I know that's what nate and I were doing. Nerds ftw.

So we decided when we do end up buying a house, it's going to have to be in the city. We'd both rather sacrifice size for location because it's taken us a month living up in Bothell to make it down to the city. That is too long!

over 1 billion served

The national debt clock has run out of digits.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7660409.stm

I tried to add a widget to the blog, but it was too wide to fit. Go figure...
I added this instead. Be patient.. it takes awhile to load

pictures

As promised, I took a few photos of our new place in Bothell. We haven't hung our pictures yet but I had sunny weather today so it was now or never!

This is the fireplace with the beginning of my halloween display. To save money, we'll buy most of the decorations after the holiday when they are on sale and have something better next year.

This is my office. I took the den that is open to the living room. I'm very excited to actually have somewhere to keep my telescope.

The guest room is also Nate's office. His desk is across from the futon. When he works from home, he can close the door but mostly he just brings the laptop in the living room.

I have a reading nook again! It's much easier on my eyes to read with natural light. Stella is a fan of the view too.

Here's another view of our living room.
Every single window faces trees! This is the back of our apt as seen from the patio.

Here is our bedroom. We waited for a long time for these ikea tables to come back in stock!

All in all, we're very happy with this place. It's great to not have to look out my window into someone else's apartment. Since we're on a hill, our garage is actually above us. When you come in through our garage you walk downstairs! It's great for carrying groceries. The leaves are just starting to change around us, so I can't wait to see pretty leaves out of all of my windows!

a productive weekend

We were very productive this weekend.

-I got my dalom tables from ikea. They're being used as bedside tables.
-We finished our registry. This was difficult because we received way too much unsolicited advice on what to add (or subtract.) We tried to keep a wide range of prices keeping in mind that people can just get us gift cards if they don't like what we chose. And I took off the bedding because I still like mine too much. TJ Maxx ftw.
-We had our 2 meals out for the week. I wasted my Macaroni Grill meal on salad which was sad. Nate got a ravioli dish that was way better. I redeemed myself Sunday morning when we tasted "Washington's best bacon" at Country Cafe. There is a huge country village nearby with a giant rooster statue out front and it fills the void Cracker Barrel left.
-All of our boxes are finally unpacked and out of the garage! I finally can walk into our home and feel relaxed.
-The invitations are DONE! They took forever and at the last minute we decided to print up inserts that gave our website so hopefully people end up at the right hotel. The insert made the envelopes 0.01 oz overweight and I had to buy 17 cent stamps to add to the envelopes. It's an elk or a ram or something and it looks ridiculous next to the heart stamps I carefully picked out. Then the guy told me it's against federal law to not put return addresses on your envelopes. I check the usps website and it gave specific cases where that's true but I don't think it applies to my invites so I drove down the road and dumped them in one of the blue mailboxes. I hope they make it!!

Ok so I'm going to try to be better about blogging since I'm now way far away from anyone I know. Until next time.

life in bothell

We are out of corporate housing and in our new place in Bothell! Our unit is on a corner with forest on both sides so it's very private feeling. It's much larger than our place in Melbourne so our stuff actually fits. Pictures coming soon...
Wedding planning is starting back up again. The invitations arrived this week and I've been addressing them myself. SPOILER ALERT: They aren't in cursive AND I used some abbreviations. I can't get that many invites out in a few days without cheating a little. I'm calling it modern. Also, my dress should arrive today. We had to have it shipped from FL since I still need to get it altered. Now I have to find someone here to do the alterations.
On a side note, I want to mention that you can lump me in the 83% who disapprove of Congress. That is all.

life in seattle

We're here!! The moving was really easy. People came and packed up all of our belongings and took them away while we sat there. The cars got shipped here and pet transporters flew our cats to meet us here. Right now we're in corporate housing in Redmond. It's a cheaply furnished 1/1 apartment with the most uncomfortable bed I've ever slept on. We have a place up in Bothell that is really nice, but there is no point moving in until our stuff gets here. I sorta feel like I'm on a boring vacation and staying at Travel Lodge right now. I'm really anxious to set up our new place and actually feel home.
Adjusting to life in a blue state is interesting. For example, using plastic bags has become socially unacceptable. Every store will ask you if you want a bag in a tone that suggests you really don't want one, and if you still want one they will give you a bag so small your items are bursting out of it. In January, Seattle is starting a 20 cent plastic bag fee! (If anyone knows where I can find offensive, reusable bags please pass on the link.)
Another adjustment has been living on a three dimensional surface. Our new place is at the top of a steep hill and I wasn't sure if my car could do it. Everywhere you turn there is a gorgeous view. Anyway.. I have stuff to do. I'm going to send an email out with our new address and if you don't get it, give me your email b/c I don't have it!

this can't be right

This is the most unhelpful box of all time. The left button ended up downloading shockwave...


And then we tried to research how to get a marriage license. How frequently are people in Melbourne really asking to marry their nephew?? http://199.241.8.125/index.cfm?FuseAction=MarriageLicenses.FAQs (for a bigger look)

p.s. i'm done with work yay

what i've been up to

So as most everyone knows, we're moving to Seattle. My last day of work is Thursday unless the hurricane comes and then who knows. No day off until Friday =(
On Tues night after I got off work we drove to NC for wedding stuff. This was the only chance we're going to have to go there before the wedding so we had to make sure everything was taken care of. We arrived about 4am Wed morning and at 8:30am we started our vendor meetings. Faye, our wedding planner, was amazing! She lined up back to back meetings that lasted until around 10pm. Nate and I had packed lunchables which we shamelessly assembled in front of one of the DJs. The next morning we drove home and then I started my final (yay) 7 day stretch of work. I am not working another job without weekends again.
Before work yesterday we went to go buy our wedding bands but apparently platinum has tripled in price so my affordable wedding band is not so affordable anymore. Nate is pretty flexible on his but still I hate paying so much for something when it was so much less a couple months ago.
We still haven't found a place to live but we have a good idea of what we want. Renting is very popular in Seattle so the places that we've liked are already taken. Everywhere we look already has a washer and dryer, but we really want to bring ours.
Has anyone ever traveled long-distance with cats or know what shipping a cat involves? I will feel bad sedating them but I think they will be too scared otherwise. That is my only concern with moving because we'll have movers to deal with everything else. It's going to be nice not dragging boxes up and down stairs!
I think that's all for now. The wedding planning is pretty much taken care except for invitations. We just can't order them until we have an address. The moving is fairly under control. The rings are not under control but I can always just get a solid band if we run out of time before we move to get the one that matches mine. There is not too much to be stressed about but my doctor won't refill my birth control until I go in to see him which I really don't have time for so my hormones are a little out of whack. I will be taking a week off. After I get to seattle. =)

a quick update

Because I've been busy!

- Wedding planning is going well. We're going up to NC next week to finalize some stuff.
- Nate comes home tomorrow!
- Moving to Seattle at the end of the month!

Ok that's all I have time for.