Note: This post comes from my Walking in Seattle blog.

Seward Park is a large park on a peninsula extending into Lake Washington in the southeast part of the city. The trail around the perimeter of the park is a great place for a lake-side stroll.


View Walking Seward Park in a larger map



Click here to continue reading

We haven't been posting much on the blog recently because frankly, we haven't been doing much lately. Troy was sick with something last week and had a sore throat. And we haven't been able to walk as much or do much outdoors like hiking because of my plantar fasciitis. I'm looking forward to my foot healing completely so we can start our season of hiking soon.

Lately Troy has also been busy with church meetings and other things. This past Monday I went to hang out with Eric at his new house, which was cool. Friday we're going to our first Mariners game. We have been watching the Sounders games on TV lately. Too bad they haven't been playing that well.

It's hard to believe it's almost May, where did the first four months of the year go?

Note: This post comes from my Walking in Seattle blog.

People don't normally think of the industrial area in Georgetown as a good place to walk. An area with warehouses and other light industrial uses, it is criss-crossed by a grid of streets that are often traveled by large trucks and sometimes not served with sidewalks. However, if you know where to go, you can stay on the sidewalks and walk along some quiet residential streets and get a feel for this unique part of Seattle. Also, this time of year many cherry trees are blossoming, so let's go for a nice walk in the industrial (and residential) part of Georgetown.


View Larger Map



Click here to continue reading.

We had our best weather in 6 months this past Sunday, with a high near 70 and clear, sunny skies. The summer is just around the corner and I can't wait to go to some of the festivals in Seattle in a few weeks. The Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market and the U-District Street fair are both the weekend of May 15th. The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) runs from May 20th-June 13th. And the Northwest Folklife Festival is Memorial Day weekend. I love going to festivals here because of all the good food, music, and having fun outside in the awesome weather here.

Troy and I celebrated our three year wedding anniversary on the 14th. We took the bus to eat dinner at La Carta de Oaxaca in Ballard. We both got margaritas and the carne asada plato. We shared guacamole and chips before the meal. It was all very tasty, but could have been hotter when they served it to us.

After that we went to have cupcakes at Cupcake Royale. I had a carrot cake cupcake and Troy had a vanilla coconut cupcake. We were both very full after dessert.

Troy gave me Up on DVD and a new body pillow that I've been wanting for a while. He also bought pretty flowers - yellow and purple tulips and purple irises. I gave him The Sting on DVD.

My parents gave us tickets to the Mariners-Rangers game on April 30th, so that will be fun to go to since I've been wanting to go to a game.

We went to see The Ghost Writer Saturday afternoon at the Harvard Exit theater on Capitol Hill. It was an entertaining thriller; definitely nice to see a movie in a theater since it had been so long since we last did that. It's been a good anniversary. Hard to believe we've already been married three years and been together almost nine.

Over the past few weeks I've been participating in a weekly Saturday morning walking group.

The church we attend has several community groups, including this one. Each Saturday, the group gathers at 8 am and splits up to do an hour-long walk or jog. I've really enjoyed having reason to walk in different parts of the city each week, including Washington Park, Myrtle Edwards Park, and Ballard. It's also been really nice to walk with and get to know other people.

Typically I've enjoyed sleeping in on the weekends and I never thought I'd enjoy waking up early on a Saturday, but participating in this group has been a worthwile and a great way to start my Saturdays.

Plantar fasciitis is a fancy term for pain in the heel of my foot. My left heel has been hurting for a couple of months now. I tried replacing my normal walking shoes and then I went even farther and got shoe inserts for more padding. I've been trying to stretch it when I wake up and before I go to bed every night, but it's hard to do that consistently. It hurts more if I'm on my feet for long periods of time, which makes it difficult to continue doing as much walking as we do. A coworker of mine gave me a small massage ball than I can use to try to massage the muscle/tissue there, but sometimes that seems to hurt more than help. I guess I'll eventually have to go to the doctor to get specific shoe inserts to make the pain stop.

I've been wanting a new cell phone for a few months and so I finally made a plan to go to T-Mobile and get one. My old Nokia phone is at least 3-4 years old, perhaps more. It's so old that it has an antenna sticking out of it. There wasn't really anything wrong with it, although sometimes the ring tone files would get corrupted and my phone wouldn't ring properly when I was receiving phone calls. It was as if it was on silent or something when it wasn't. Some of the outside was starting to peel off and look pretty bad.

I knew I wanted a slightly better phone than the free ones they offer you after you've had a 2 year contract (which we have). I was willing to pay more for something that had more memory and a better camera. So this past weekend we went to T-Mobile and I got a new cell phone, the Nokia 5130 Xpress Music. I love it so far! I like the red and black colors and it also has almost 2GB of memory that can store music, so it's a small MP3 player too. That works great for me since I only really listen to a few artists these days. Probably my favorite thing about it is that I can set any song I want as my ring tone. Right now it's the theme for Star Wars. Yes, I admit that's pretty nerdy. I just wish I could have a different song for the different people that call me. It can also record video and has a better camera.

While we were there, we also changed plans and pay $10 less a month. We actually get 50 more minutes with this new plan. There was no two year contract requirement, but the catch is that we have to pay full price for new cell phones. But over a two year period, saving $10 a month more than makes up for paying full price for my new phone. So, I'm happy with the deal we got and having a new phone to play with is pretty cool.

We spent this Saturday visiting the University District. Though farther from downtown than some of the neighborhoods we've visited previously like Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Lower Queen Anne, it's one of the oldest and densest neighborhoods in the city. The 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific exhibition was held on the University of Washington campus.

We live a relatively short bus ride away from the University District and we started our day out with brunch at Ugly Mug Cafe. Lesley had a breakfast croissant and I had a California BLT, which was easily the best sandwich I've had in Seattle.

It was a sunny day but there was a cold morning wind. We headed north along University Way (known as "The Ave"). In addition to hosting the U District Street Fair that kicks off the summer festival season, the Ave is lined continuously with retail and restaurants. It's a mixing bowl of international foods, from Indian to Mediterranean to all types of Asian foods, mostly inexpensive enough to attract plenty of students.

We enjoyed strolling along the active street all the way through the U District, meandering through the U District Farmers Market, which is one of the best farmers markets in the city and had lots of food that we wanted to buy and take home with us. We then visited the Kirsten Gallery. This gallery was surprisingly large with a peaceful backyard garden and a variety of painted, printed, and sculpted art for sale at reasonable prices. This was one of several enjoyable places we stopped this day.

We continued on, past the towering and historic Blessed Sacrament Church to another historic building, the Seattle Public Library's Univeristy Branch, a Carnegie Library. We continued walking and realized that we were getting a bit hungry, so we stopped and shared a falafel.

We walked on the other side of the Ave for a while, stopping in several interesting shops. We stopped to look at wall posters, spooky gargoyles, some amusingly tacky crap, and some Asian imports. After this we decided to visit the University of Washington, enjoying the view of Mount Rainier and stopping to rest for a while at Drumheller Fountain.

We then grabbed some tea and stopped at a park (technically outside of the U District). The last thing we did was eat some very filling Indian food before heading back home.

The U District is a part of town that I often don't think about but is one of the more eclectic parts of the city. Despite being kind of a college neighborhood, after our visit I came away impressed and hope to spend more time there in the future.

Quick U District facts:

• Population: 16,355


• Population density per square mile: 9,844


• 2008 Median Home Price: $489,900


• 2008 Median Condo Sales Price: $400,000


• Cars per capita: 0.2


• 8th most walkable neighborhood in Seattle

Sources:
1. Seattle Metropolitan Real Estate
2. Walk Score: Seattle's Most Walkable Neighborhoods

I mentioned in my last post about work that I was working in a temporary department and there haven't been any changes since then. I had been taking on small projects for other departments, but that has mostly ended, except for one project.

For my one freelance project, I am developing an Excel-based tool that will be used by offices nationwide. I reviewed the existing spreadsheet, identifying its deficiencies on with feedback (complains/suggestions) from others. From there, I worked to improve the existing spreadsheet making sure to get regular feedback, which has been very positive. The tool has come a long way from where it was and is almost ready to be rolled out.

Overall, though, most of my time over the last several weeks has been focused on my temporary job, mainly on a single project. I've really enjoyed working diligently on getting the pieces of our project lined up, including working with our web development subcontractor, and coordinating the project. I've also learned more about the types of things that I don't enjoy as much.

I'm not sure how this temporary position will work out - whether it will become permanent, and then what kind of role I would have. I am looking for more chances to have ownership of projects and processes that will allow me to work with and lead others. I'm not sure whether I will fit best in a role in my current temporary department, another position in this company, or a position with another company, but I am looking forward to finding more career development and professional growth.

The baseball season started this past weekend and the first Mariners home game is next Monday. I'm looking forward to going to a few games this year. I'd like to see one of the inter-league games against San Diego and maybe a game against the Rangers. I've heard the Mariners are going to be even better this year than last year since they signed Cliff Lee who is a really good pitcher. Last year they finished as one of the most improved teams compared to the previous season.

I wish we still had cable so we could watch the games on TV. It was nice having the games on almost every night last summer. We didn't necessarily watch every pitch, but it was comforting to me to have them on since I grew up with baseball so much. It's ingrained in my personality. I wonder if one of my teams will win a World Series any time soon...

Early this morning while I was at work, I heard a big crash and thought it was thunder. It turned out to be the facade of the Icon Grill collapsing on the sidewalk. I can see Icon Grill right out my office windows and the whole sidewalk was a mess. The bricks came crashing down from the top of the building and injured 3 people. Thankfully no one was killed. There was rubble everywhere; it looked like we'd had an earthquake. Here's a good video about it on King 5 News: Icon Grill facade collapses

I wonder when Icon Grill will open again. I guess I didn't have any plans to go there any time soon. It's just crazy, I've walked in front of it so many times. That facade could have come down at any time.