Some evenings we're very fortunate and see some beautiful skies and sunsets. Click below for some pictures I took last Friday:

My flight leaves at 6 AM tomorrow morning to DFW. I still have some packing to do and a few last minute chores that need to be done. Waking up at 3 AM will be hard. The shuttle picks me up at like 3:30, so I'll have plenty of time to get to the airport. It'll also be the first time I've flown by myself.

This will be the first time I've been back in almost 6 months and the first time to see my family again. It's going to be difficult fitting in time for everyone. Most of the time we're going to be with my parents, sister, and extended family. I'm also going to see my friend Megan for lunch on Tuesday. We basically have everything planned out, even the places we're going to eat. In fact, we're having Uncle Julio's Friday with my parents, which will be really nice. I'm not looking forward to the heat at all, but it will definitely be nice to see my family and friends again. This time it will be me instead of Troy who has the culture shock. I'm betting I will think it's really flat, everything is too far apart, and it will be very smoggy and hot.

Good advice.

The environmental consciousness here has influenced us a little bit. We've been doing more lately, in addition to all the things we've normally done motivated out of environmental concern, such as driving less and using reusable bags.

• Rather than leaving my phone charger plugged in all the time, I only plug it in when I'm using it, since it uses energy even if my phone isn't plugged in.


• I've also turned down the fridge so it wouldn't have to run as much.


• I've also been timing my showers to save water - doing something that my parents could never get me to do.


• We've also been turning off the surge protectors for the computer, TV, modem, and router at night, since these devices use electricity all the time, and from what I can tell, it doesn't hurt to turn them off nightly.


• We've also turned off the microwave clock, since there's one right below it on the stove. Why have two clocks right next to each other?

Most of these changes won't make much of a difference in our monthly bills, but if everyone did little things like this, the energy savings and decrease in pollution would be significant. Hopefully we can find more little, easy things to do to save energy.

And it feels hot and uncomfortable outside.

It will be a bit of an adjustment to be back in D/FW for a week of projected highs around 100º.

It's kind of weird that five months or so of working from home comes to an end today. I will be leaving tomorrow to go back to the office for my final days with my employer. Sending emails in my pajamas, holding conference calls on the couch, and writing documentation by the windowsill has all made for a good experience, overall. However, while I will miss some of the advantages (15 second commute), I'm looking forward to interacting more with my coworkers and shouldn't have any trouble adjusting to a more typical lifestyle.

I turned 25 last week and had a good time with my co-workers and Troy. I received several cards in the mail which was nice and got a few presents too. With some of my birthday money I plan on getting some new hiking shoes and maybe a new purse that I've been wanting for a while. On my actual birthday, Troy drove me to work and saved me the trouble of walking. When I got to my desk, there were two presents and a few cards there. I got a book called "60 Hikes within 60 Miles of Seattle" and I also got a little dish to save my tea bags on. After about 30 minutes, Troy called and told me to meet him downstairs. He had bought me some asiago cheese bagels with cream cheese for breakfast!

For lunch, my co-workers took me out to eat at a sushi place called Red Fin. I got a Bento Box with a Seattle roll and a California roll. It was really good, but it was a ton of food! One of my co-workers made chocolate chip cookies for me for dessert too, so I was stuffed. Unfortunately I wasn't very hungry for dinner when I got home, so Troy and I waited to eat dinner until almost 6:30. He took me to an Asian place in downtown called Wild Ginger. We got three small dishes to share (family style): mushrooms with pea pods, duck, and mandarin chicken. It was all pretty good, especially the mandarin chicken. It was nice to go somewhere different.

That night we didn't do much since we didn't get home from eating until about 8:30. Troy made me a chocolate cake with chocolate icing (my favorite) and gave me some really nice flowers from Pike Place Market, a bag of honey roasted pecans from Chukar Cherries, and some nice fruit to eat that included a peach, nectarine, apricots, and a pineapple.

Then on Friday, he took me to see The Dark Knight at the Cinerama. I really wanted to see it in IMAX, but it was sold out until this week and I was tired of waiting to see it. I thought it was really good, great acting by Heath Ledger.

On Saturday, we drove to the Washington coast and saw the Pacific Ocean near Westport. We walked along the beach and drove around the scenic areas and saw an old lighthouse called Grays Harbor Lighthouse. We toyed with the idea of going to Portland for the night since it was just over 80 miles away, but figured it would be better to go some other weekend when we'd have more time there. On the way back we stopped in Olympia, Washington state's capital. We ate at an Asian restaurant called The Lemon Grass, which was pretty good, and then drove home.

It was a pretty good birthday, even though it was a little weird not seeing my family. I can't believe I'm already 25.

Click on the link below for pictures:


Video of the coast:

Starting next January, grocery stores and other stores will have to start charging 20 cents for each paper or plastic bag. The city is trying to encourage shoppers to use reusable bags to reduce waste and litter.

This new fee shouldn't impact us much because we've been using reusable bags since we lived in Texas. They were on sale for $1 each at the grocery store and have saved us from using quite a few plastic bags since then. Before we got them, I remember we accumulated quite a few plastic bags, so not having to deal with plastic bags has been nice.

When we used our reusable bags in Irving, it felt kind of odd, as hardly anyone used reusable bags there. However, here probably about 1 in 3 people use reusable bags, and that number will probably increase once this law takes effect.

One of the most interesting things about my recent visit to the Photographic Center Northwest was a photo I saw called The Real Dallas. I always find it interesting when Texas is referenced here, and so I found this photo very interesting.

It appears to be a picture of a mural at a Metroplex establishment (I wonder which one). However, I don't know why the photo is called The Real Dallas, when the mural, in fact, shows downtown Fort Worth. Regardless, it's always cool to see something from Dallas or Fort Worth here. If you're interested, you can go here to view the photo at the photographer's website.

I went on a 17 mile walk on Thursday, which was a very unique and enjoyable experience. I'd like to share some more details and highlights from the day.

When I set out, it was a cool morning, but I knew it would feel good once I started walking. I brought my camera with me, along with some water and snacks. I set off with a basic idea of where I wanted to go, but I wasn't in a big rush and I just wanted to see how things turned out. Here's how things went:

1. After walking Lesley to work at 7 am, I walked toward the water. It's common to see people in the city selling a newspaper called Real Change News, which offers local news with a different perspective. For each $1 newspaper the vendor sells, he or she keeps some of the money and the rest goes to the Real Change non-profit, which is working to end poverty. I only buy one if I expect to have time later to read it and this day I figured I'd need some reading material for relaxing at the park later. I saw a guy lightheartedly listening to his headphones and selling the newspaper, so I decided to buy from him. After buying the paper, he offered to tell me a joke and let me choose the type of joke. He was very thankful that I bought the paper and told me that he was the Vendor of the Week featured in the newspaper and that because of people like me, he was able to get a job.


2. After walking along the waterfront a little bit, I got some bagels downtown for breakfast. I sat by the window and was able to watch the people go by as I ate my bagels and read the newspaper.


3. Pioneer Square is one of my favorite parts of the city, and that's where I was headed next. I enjoyed walking around there and looking at the old buildings. Unfortunately, I was there too early in the day to go into any of the many art galleries, so I'll have to go back there some other time for that.


4. Seattle has made the news recently for its automated public toilets and attempts to sell them on eBay. But, walking around all day without them would have been a problem. Fortunately, the one in Pioneer Square was still working, but the toilet was locked for good the next day.


5. I walked through the International District next, then crossed over the freeway and caught a few glimpses of the Blue Angels practicing. After that, I made my way over to and through the Seattle University campus.


6. As I was walking along 12th Ave, I was stopped by some people handing out some information and I stayed to listen to what they had to say since I wasn't in a hurry. According to them, the banking system is collapsing and our whole economic system is doomed. They were "very serious" about it. They handed me some reading material, including the magazine "Your Enemy George Soros" and the article "British Agent Al Gore is Taking People's Food Away!" So, uh...moving right along...


7. A big highlight of my walk was stopping by the Photographic Center Northwest. I like photography more than any other type of art, and this place had some pretty neat photos. It was well worth my time to visit.


8. I decided to take a break once I got to Cal Anderson Park, which is a nice park with plenty of benches. So, I stopped and read the Real Change News that I had picked up earlier. As I read, someone was playing acoustic guitar a few benches away, which, along with the beautiful weather, made for a very enjoyable atmosphere. I could have relaxed there for quite a bit longer, but had to keep going.


9. I walked north through a quiet, upscale neighborhood before getting stuck on a busy street as Lesley and I chatted on the phone. Once I got to the University District, I walked up The Ave. It's a active, exciting place to walk, with plenty of places to eat, but strangely, I just wasn't hungry. Next, I headed west toward Wallingford.


10. After walking through Wallingford, another walkable neighborhood, and picking up a smoothie, I gave my friend, Andy, a call, and we chatted for almost an hour and a half as I made my way through Fremont and along the west side of Lake Union. Aside from the Fremont neighborhood, this part of the walk was the least interesting, so it was a good time to be on the phone.


11. By the time I got off the phone, the day was almost over and my feet were sore. I walked through the walkable Lower Queen Anne neighborhood and decided to take the Monorail back downtown, since I'd been wanting to take it and I was running out of time to walk. Once I got downtown, I picked up some movie tickets and met Lesley outside of her building at 4:00.


12. We walked home together, and once we got there, I barely got up for the rest of the day.

Click below for some pictures that I took during the day:

As we've mentioned a few times before, it's been really nice not having to drive nearly as much as we used to. It saves quite a bit of gas and frustration with traffic and annoying drivers. It's been especially weird for me though because I used to drive over 25 miles a day to and from work in Dallas and now I barely drive my car once a month. Usually Troy is the one driving, so I've driven my car here in Seattle probably only 4 or 5 times the past 5 months. The first time I drove it after not having driven in over a month was weird. It's like I forgot how sensitive my brake and gas pedals are and it was hard to drive the car smoothly. Anyway, I just think it's interesting that I don't drive my car anymore really.

We went to our 4th Mariners game this year on Saturday, July 19 with a group of people from my work. They were playing the Indians and the game started at 1PM. It was a really sunny day and I knew our seats would be in the direct sunlight for most of the game, so I put sunscreen on. Troy didn't bother putting on sunscreen and so his forearms got pretty red. I didn't have a cap on though, so the part in my hair got sunburned again, which was annoying.

Anyway, the game was terrible, the Mariners gave up like 6 runs in the first 3 innings. They lost again, which means we haven't seen them win a game in person all year. The highlight of the game was actually when a fan ran onto the field and got arrested. It was nice to talk to my co-workers outside of work and Troy was able to meet and talk to some of them. We hung out for a little bit after the game too. So, even though it was pretty hot and the game was terrible, it was nice to do something with my co-workers outside of work.

Electric cars aren't very common here, yet, but they would be embraced. On the other hand, I forgot how much different Texas is. I read an article about a Dallas businessman selling electric cars, which mentioned some of the reactions to electric cars in Texas:

"I was out riding in the GEM [electric car] one day," he recalled, "and this guy – I don't want to engage in stereotypes, but he was like this construction worker in a pickup – yelled out, 'Where'd you buy that? Toys "R" Us?' "

Obviously that's not representative of most people in Dallas, but I think that kind of reaction would be unheard of here.

When I rented a Toyota Prius last time I visited the Metroplex, I drove a few of my coworkers to lunch. They all thought the car was interesting, but most of them didn't take it seriously. They seemed to think that it was dorky and gimmicky, and wouldn't consider driving one themselves. Based on the number of Priuses I see here, I'd say the attitude is a little different.

Of course, it's a common assumption that people on the West Coast are more environmentally-oriented, and I've always fit into that mindset a little better. But, after just a few months of living here, I already find it almost shocking how some people in Texas act towards electric and hybrid-electric vehicles. I'm sure that attitude will gradually change, especially as higher gas prices shift peoples' ways of thinking, but for now it's very interesting.

The Blue Angels have been practicing their maneuvers today around downtown Seattle. They're such a big deal here that the I-90 bridge is closed for portions of the next 4 days. I have a pretty good view of them since I'm up so high on the 28th floor. I saw them practicing all their stunts like tight formations and free falling. They made loud plane noise all day. They're here to perform for Seafair, which I mentioned in my post about the Torchlight Parade. The Blue Angels will perform their show Saturday and Sunday afternoon this weekend, so hopefully we'll be able to see them.

I took the day off from work today. Given my appreciation for the city, interest in getting to know it better, and love of walking, I figured it would be great to go for a walk on my day off. All day. I left home before 7:00 with Lesley and walked her to work. I walked all day and then arrived back at her work to walk home with her at 4:00.

The point wasn't to stay moving all day or stay on my feet, but just to stay out all day. I wanted to walk in areas that I like to spend time in and take some photos. I visited an awesome art gallery, relaxed at a park, and used the monorail to help me get back downtown more quickly.

The map to the right shows the basic route I took, but when walking through downtown, Pioneer Square, and the International District, I did a lot of zig zagging and backtracking. My route was so complex that Google Maps wouldn't let me map it all - at about the 49th stop it wouldn't let me add any more destinations. So, I actually walked farther than the map shows. I'd say I walked about 17 miles today.

Walking for that long is kind of a crazy thing to do, but I think it was a good idea. I really enjoyed it, it was good exercise, it was cheap, I got to know the city better, and it's something interesting that I'll remember forever. It was definitely a better use of time than staying at home today. Over the next few days, I'll be sharing some of my photos, experiences, and highlights from my walk.

We went to the 59th annual Torchlight Parade in downtown Seattle this past Saturday night. Last year more than 300,000 people attended and this year had just as big a crowd. Some people camped out overnight to save a spot right on the curb. The parade went all the way from the Seattle Center to Qwest Field, which is about 2.5 miles. People were everywhere on both sides of the road the entire length of the parade. We arrived around 5:30 after being somewhere else all afternoon. We walked around for a while before deciding to pick a good spot before they were all taken. The parade started around 7:30 and lasted until after 10.

I've never been to a live parade before, so it was pretty cool to see one in person. There were a lot of kids there and it seemed like all of them had toy horns they blew in the whole time. There were all sorts of floats, balloons, drill teams, bands, and special groups that participated. One balloon in particular we thought was cool was the compact fluorescent light bulb. You'd never see anything like that in a parade in Texas.

We started to get a little bored by the time the 5th drill team went by and our legs were tired from standing for over 3 hours. At the end there was a big pirate ship float that had an actual cannon on it that would fire couple minutes. It was pretty loud and scary the first time we heard it. Overall it was pretty fun.

Today is Lesley's birthday. Everyone feel free to wish her a happy birthday in the comments.

We used to get Einstein Brother's bagels almost every Saturday morning (read: noon) when we lived in Irving. So, when we moved to Seattle, I wanted to find a bagel store that we could go to. We tried a few places and were unimpressed, but then we went back to one of them, Noah's Bagels, and it was better the second time we had it, so we have been going there ever since. Noah's Bagels is owned by Einstein Brother's, so it's basically the same thing except here they have a few crazier flavors such as peppercorn and sourdough.

Anyway, it's nice to have a bagel place so close to us. We took the bus to Noah's last Saturday and got two asiago cheese bagels and a super onion bagel that were so fresh and even still warm. I can't wait to go again this weekend and eat bagels.

I don't really want to get into politics on here, however I always find it interesting when Seattle, Dallas, and Fort Worth are ranked on a list of cities. The latest list I found is a list of the cities with the least government restrictions, according to pro-free-market Reason Magazine.

The article takes the approach that government restrictions on things like guns, alcohol, gambling, etc. are restrictions on freedom and ranks the cities on this list from least restrictive to most restrictive. Unsurprisingly, the #1 least restrictive city on this list is Las Vegas. Anyway, the politics are irrelevant, the differences between Seattle and Dallas/Fort Worth are all I'm interested in pointing out.

I have definitely that there are more restrictions in some places. For example, on tobacco (smoking banned in all public places, though people still do it outside). Also, the liquor stores here are run by the state, and some beers with high-alcohol contents are banned in certain areas. And, trans-fats are banned in restaurant food. On the other hand, Seattle doesn't seem to do much to fight drugs

Interestingly, Fort Worth is ranked at #11 and is the freest city in Texas and Dallas is at #17. While Texas cities seem to be more anti-drug, they're more relaxed when it comes to regulating alcohol, tobacco, adult establishments, and other things.

Anyway, I'm sure there are tons of reasons why one way is better than another, which we needn't get into, but I just think the differences are interesting.

Welcome to the new look of our website. This new look is the product of a couple weeks' work from both of us, and we hope you like the change as much as we do. The previous look was set up quickly and was meant to be temporary, and a year of that look was long enough. We really wanted to make our blog and photo gallery better looking and more coherent. One main focus in designing this new site was to make the blog and photo gallery look like the same website and make it easier to go back and forth. Some of the changes were made to make the site more easy to use, in addition to the overall change in appearance. Here's a brief list of changes below:

• Our Move to Seattle blog and Our Move to Seattle photos have a standardized look. We worked for several hours on the header and footer, including editing the picture of Mount Rainier, which is an actual picture we took ourselves from Seward Park. We thought this was a beautiful picture and wanted to emphasize the natural elements in the Northwest, so we chose our main theme colors as blue and green.


• The font styles and sizes have changed.


• The blog shows random pictures from the photo gallery on the left side to attract visitors to some of the photos we've taken.


• The photo gallery includes links to the latest posts we've made on the blog.


• We made it easier for people to contact us by including our email addresses.


• We included Lesley's name in some places where only my name was listed.


• Post labels are now available on the sidebar so that you can more easily click on certain labels to see all posts on a certain topic or with a certain theme.


• Our Move to Seattle icon in the top left corner is visible after scrolling down far enough on the page.


• New icon associated with the site visible to Firefox users.


• There are numerous other small changes.

We've tested this in multiple browsers and believe that the site appears and works correctly in most browsers. However, if you find anything that doesn't look right or doesn't seem to work on your computer, please post a comment here or send us an email to let us know.

Also, please let us know what you think of the new look. I know that the white text on the blue background may be harder to read for some, so please let us know if you have an issue with that. And, let us know if you have any other suggestions or complaints.

Our blog is 1 year old as of today. I remember wanting to start the blog, which used to be called "Our Move to the Northwest", and being so excited about writing about how we wanted to move and all the steps we had to take to get here. I'm glad we have a record of how we felt and what we did the past year in the process of moving to Seattle. It's been fun writing posts and posting pictures and video the past year.

We watched the 1963 Elvis movie It Happened at the World's Fair last week because it's set in Seattle during the World's Fair. It was pretty neat seeing how Seattle looked in the 60s. The Space Needle was painted orange and the Monorail was brand new. There were a couple of scenes filmed inside the Monorail when it was going to and from downtown and the Pacific Science Center and it looked weird not seeing any tall buildings around. Downtown was pretty small back then. So, even though the movie wasn't that great (I've seen much better Elvis movies), it was still cool recognizing all the locations and seeing how Seattle looked back then.

I'd really like to go to the Oregon coast sometime. I've heard that it's really scenic and peaceful and a great place to go and relax. It's over 4 hours away, so we'd probably want to stay at least one night there. It'll probably have to wait until next year though since we already have so many trips planned for the rest of the year.

When we moved in here, we didn't sign up for cable TV or satellite or anything like that since we don't watch enough TV to make it worthwhile. However, we're going to get cable set up soon, in anticipation of football season, just like last year.

In our last apartment, we were just going to sign up for limited cable, which just had the local stations that we couldn't see because they didn't come through the antenna well. However, they had a great deal going so we only had to pay $5 more for the basic sports channels and whatever else came with them. Our monthly bill was something around $20/month.

I was hoping to find something that inexpensive this time, but it looks like it will cost more. The only channels I want to get are the 4 basic network channels (CBS, FOX, ABC, NBC), ESPN, and Fox Sports, so I do want more than just Limited Basic cable. It would be nice to have ESPN2 and Versus as well.

As far as I can tell, Comcast and Broadstripe are the two cable companies in the area. If I want just Limited Basic cable (local TV), it's around $20/month. I'd really like to have ESPN though, for college football and Monday night football. To get those two channels along with the network channels, I'd have to get basic cable, which costs around $55/month, which is more than we want to pay.

It looks like Broadstripe has an option called Expanded Basic (click for the channel lineup), which has all the cable channels that come with Basic cable and it carries only some of the local channels that come with Limited Basic. It has CBS, NBC, and ABC, just at a different channel number than they are through the antenna. It also comes with local FOX HD. All this is only $35/month. My concern here is based out of ignorance...if I get the FOX HD channel but don't have an HD TV, can I still watch the channel? Getting FOX is pretty important as I want to watch the NFL on it and we get a poor signal through the antenna.

So, I guess I need to figure that out. If I won't be able to watch FOX through Expanded Basic, then I don't know what we'll do...probably only get Limited Basic and watch ESPN elsewhere. I don't mind going somewhere else to watch TV on occasion, I just don't want to get tired of being forced out of the house to watch football...or get tired of paying to watch it inside.

A few weeks ago we went to a cook out because it was our friend's second to last weekend in her apartment on Westlake (west of Lake Union). Everyone was going to a Pat Green concert later that night too, but we passed on that part. We only knew three people at the party out of about 25 that came, but that wasn't a big deal. We had a couple of hot dogs, some chips and hot sauce, and drinks. The cook out was on the roof of her apartment and had a great view of Lake Union, downtown, and Capitol Hill. We could even see Mount Baker from the roof. Here's pictures of our view. If you look closely at the left side of the skyline in the bottom picture, you can barely see Mount Rainier.

There's a new building being constructed two blocks from our apartment and it's been like that ever since we got here. All the sidewalks around it are blocked off and sometimes the streets around it are closed too. I wish they would hurry up and finish it so that we would be able to walk on those sidewalks and not have to take detours. Also, hopefully they'll put some street-level stores or restaurants in so that we'll have more options for places to go shop or eat.

One of the reasons I moved here was so that I wouldn't have to drive as much. Overall, that's worked out pretty well. However, there's not a grocery store close enough that we can go to and avoid driving.

We normally go to a store near Seattle Center. There was an event going on this weekend, which we forgot about, so, traffic was terrible when we decided to go to the grocery store. It was quite annoying. It was our fault for trying to go to the store on the weekend, but it would still be nice to not have that problem. Also, whenever we forget something or need to pick up something from the store, it's such a hassle because we have to drive to the store, we can't just walk by after work or something. There are several grocery stores within a mile or so, but it's still inconvenient and I wish we didn't have to drive.

So, I'm seriously entertaining the idea of moving to another apartment complex when our lease expires. Part of it is because I want to live closer to the store so it's not so inconvenient and so that we don't have to drive. Another part is that I've never been crazy about this neighborhood, and while it's developing and should be a better place in a while, I'd like to live in a different part of the city. We don't want to move farther away from Lesley's job, though, so it will be hard to find a place that's close to her work, close to a grocery store, isn't run down, and is affordable. Still, I think I know of a couple places that would work.

Lesley dislikes the idea of moving, though, and really where we live now is not bad, so who knows if we'll actually do it.

1. Start early and be patient - The rule of thumb is that it takes a month of searching for each $10,000 you expect in salary. I thought I could get a job faster than that, but not really. If I weren't employed while looking, it would have been easy to panic. Whenever I look for a job in the future, I'll have to keep that guideline in mind and just be patient until I find the right position.


2. Don't settle or give in - I knew the whole time that I didn't want to work for one of the major manufacturers here and despite all of the suggestions from people and offers from people I met, I refused to apply there. I could've gone that way and maybe found a job faster, but I stuck to what I knew I wanted and it worked out in me getting a position with a company that I'd rather work for.


3. Keep options open - There was a company that I interviewed with and after the first interview I really didn't think I wanted to work there. But, I didn't rule them out and went back for a second interview. After the second interview I saw a lot of good things and felt that if my first choice didn't work out that I would like to work there. At the same time, though, I learned not to lead a company on if I'm not interested in working there. I kind of did that with one company to see if they'd give me an offer, even though I felt like I would have to decline it no matter what.


4. Know what's important - I knew I didn't want a long commute, so I screened all positions and excluded ones in suburbs that I was unwilling to commute to. This was one major screening criteria, but I also had a pretty good idea of what kind of company culture and work environment I was looking for. It ended up that I found a company that I feel will be a very good fit on all criteria that I felt were important. This goes along with #1 and #2 above; once I knew what was important, I didn't panic and settle for less than what I wanted.


5. Applying to individual companies is a good idea - I applied directly to some job postings, but the other prong of my attack was applying to individual companies. I bought a book that listed local companies, I did searches for local companies in the industries I was interested in, and I also used Google Maps to search for companies nearby. I found a lot of different companies and just had to slog through all of their websites to determine what they did and whether I thought they might have positions I would qualify for and whether the company itself would be a good fit. From there, I followed the process for applying to them, whether by uploading or emailing my resume. This is how I found the job that I ended up selecting.


6. Job postings aren't as important as I'd hoped but they're not worthless - Once I got my resume and cover letter ready, I started looking at job postings on the major job sites. After a few weeks of applying and hearing nothing back, I began to feel like applying to individual job listings was worthless since I was competing against so many other people doing the same thing. I almost gave up on browsing job postings, but kept going to make sure I didn't miss out on anything. It took a while, but I finally got some responses from my applications, in fact two of the three companies I interviewed with I made contact with by applying to their job posting on one of those major career search websites.


7. It takes time to learn to sift through job postings - The first few weeks of my job search, I tried to filter the available jobs with the highly inadequate searches on the major sites. Then I normally read most of the postings I found in my search, finding a very small percentage worth applying to. It was discouraging that it was taking so long for me to review all the job postings and then more discouraging that there were so few jobs that I could actually apply to. However, after a few weeks I got much better at identifying positions that I would possibly be suitable for before clicking on them and then in skimming the posting to quickly determine whether it was worth my time to investigate further.


8. Don't stay somewhere out of fear I can't find something better - One of my first jobs was with a good company to work for. Everyone who I talked to there said it was a good company to work for. They paid well and had good benefits. I chose not to work there again. The next company I worked for had tons of perks - free tickets to sporting events (in a suite), travel, nice views from the office, good bonuses. But, I'm leaving that company. The company I'm going to seems like a much better culture fit, and it has been rated as one of the top companies to work for.

Troy & I are revamping our Seattle blog over the next few weeks. I'm excited about how it looks so far and can't wait to upload the new version. I'm mostly helping on look and layout while Troy does all the html work. We've been needing to change how the blog looks for quite a while, but just haven't had the time to sit down and work on it for several hours a day, especially with Troy's job search taking up so much time. But now that's over, so hopefully we'll have it done before he starts his new job.

I think I've figured out the plan for the next few weeks. Getting a new job really helped to clear things up, but to solidify things, I had to figure out dates, book tickets, and coordinate details over the past few days.

I'll be continuing to work for my current employer for about another month. I've notified my boss, who has been very supportive the whole time. After this weekend, my main focus at work will be transitioning things. I've done a variety of things with my current employer and there are a lot of things I know that will need to be passed on. As of now I've documented most things I know, so it's just up to my replacements getting up to speed, but there should be plenty of time. I'll be traveling back and my final full days in the office will be August 7, 8, 11, and 12, which Lesley mentioned.

One of the things I've done between the end of a semester and the start of a job is allow for a week or two in between for some bonus time off. While it's not paid vacation, its nice to be off for a few days to take care of chores and errands, do things that I can't do when occupied full time, or to just relax. Since my next job will be starting a little earlier than expected, I'll try to intersperse this time off while still employed with my current employer. I need to go to the dentist, get cable set up for football season, meet Lesley for lunch and after work a few more times, study a few things for my new job, and finish a book I've been reading. Also, Lesley's birthday is at the end of the month.

I will be starting my new job on Monday, August 18 and am excited about that. After being in the office for a week and a half, I'll be out for a few days for a trip to San Francisco and then back in the office.

The next few weeks should have more variety than normal, with me taking some days off of work, traveling to D/FW, starting a job, then going to San Francisco, but I'm looking forward to it.

Walkscore released rankings of 40 walkable cities in the United States. This ranking shows what the most walkable cities are (excluding suburbs). Dallas and Fort Worth appear on the list. Walkability is, to me, one of the most important aspects of a city. While many cities have reasonably walkable neighborhoods, it's great to be in a city where walking can be done in many places.

When we were deciding where to move, we didn't have this list in front of us, but wanted somewhere walkable. We discussed in a previous post how we chose Seattle, but we started with a list of cities that we ranked based on factors important to us, and it's interesting that our list is very similar to the list of the top 10 highest Walkscore cities below:

1. San Francisco (appeared in our list)


2. New York (appeared in our list)


3. Boston (appeared in our list)


4. Chicago (appeared in our list)


5. Philadelphia (appeared in our list)


6. Seattle (appeared in our list)


7. Washington D.C. (appeared in our list)


8. Long Beach


9. Los Angeles


10. Portland (appeared in our list)

Weather, affordability, and other considerations helped us select Seattle, but it's nice to see that our analysis still reflects this Walkscore list pretty closely.

I found it interesting to go through this list and look at the maps of individual cities. You can see which neighborhoods are most walkable within the city and, even cooler, see the walkability distribution on a color-coded map.

Another interesting list along with this is the new list of walkers' paradises, which identifies the most walkable neighborhoods. Even the least walkable cities have some walkable neighborhoods. Different cities have different sized neighborhoods, which has some impact on which neighborhoods appear on this list, but it's interesting to see what some of the most walkable neighborhoods are and which cities have some of the most walkable neighborhoods.

Few people are as interested in walkability as I am, but it will become much more important to most people as gas prices, smog, global warming, and health become greater topics of concern. Besides, on top of how walking will become encouraged by finances, health, and the environment, for a lot of people, walking through a walkable neighborhood is very enjoyable and better than driving.

It's been really foggy this morning, so much that we couldn't see the top of the Space Needle from our apartment. It's especially foggy out on the water, which I can see from work of course, and it reminds me of San Francisco a lot. It looks like we'll have nice weather again this weekend with highs in the mid 70s and mostly clear skies. I love this weather.

I've been spending many nights for the last few months working on finding a job, uncertain that I would find anything that I would like. I've been having to put other tasks and projects aside while I focused on this. So, now that I have found a job which I feel will be a very good fit for me, I am very relieved. Not only am I glad that I found a good position with a good company, but I'm also very relieved to be able to focus my attention differently. Now I can work on other stuff in the evenings, or just relax. I no longer have to feel like I have to work on finding a job. It's just great that I have this big burden behind me, and I'm really looking forward to doing some other things over the next few weeks.

Troy & I finally booked our plane tickets to DFW in August, after waiting several weeks to see if prices would come down, which they never really did. Then for a while, we were uncertain when he would start his new job and if that would conflict with our trip back. But it's all pretty much final now. He's arriving in DFW on August 6 and I'll get there in the early afternoon on August 8. We'll be there that weekend and then the first few days the next week. Then we go back to Seattle around noon on August 13. We'll be staying at a hotel really close to his old office in Las Colinas, so that will be convenient for him going to work. It'll be nice to go back and see my family and friends and have a chance to eat some good mexican food and BBQ. I also plan on visiting my old co-workers in Dallas, which will be really fun. We'll certainly be busy seeing a lot of people while we're there.

After several months of searching (and several weeks of slacking, plus a 2300 mile relocation in between), I have accepted a new job. I have been working from home in what was a temporary arrangement set up to ease the transition out of my current position. I was in a good situation to allow me to search for another job while employed. Three different employers offered me a position, all of which seemed like a good opportunity. In deciding which job to choose, I considered the following:

• How would I like the job itself? (how does the position fit with my interests and background? Would it be interesting enough and challenging enough and use the skills that I want to develop?)


• How do I fit with the company? (Would I thrive in the culture with their expectations? Does the company seem like a good place to work?)


• Opportunity (What kinds of opportunities would I have if I stay there for a while?)


• Location (How long does it take to get there? How much would it cost?)

All three of the positions had good answers to some of those questions, however the job I chose had a good answer to all four and the best answer to three of those questions. It's too early to go into detail about what I'll be doing, but I'm excited about my opportunity in this position with this employer, and very glad that my search is over with.

I used to love working in two time zones. It meant I started work at 9 (Central) and when I quit work it was only 4 (Pacific), so it had the effect of making it seem like there were more hours in the day. It hadn't really been a problem because when I was at work, my computer had central time so I didn't have to convert. But, lately, it's gotten more frustrating, especially when scheduling job interviews. I have to check my work calendar (in central time) and convert it to pacific time to see when I'm available for an interview, then when putting an interview on my work calendar, I have to convert back. It's been a little complicated each time, especially when checking different days and times to try to find a match. Now the interviews are over, which is nice, and soon I will stop working in central time. I'll still have to convert times when talking to family and friends in TX, but that has never been as difficult.

Our friends thanked us for keeping their dog Benji last weekend by shipping us some brisket and barbecue sauce from a place called The Salt-Lick, located in Driftwood, Texas. We were shocked to receive something labeled perishable and wondered what it could be. It was a big piece of brisket, probably about 3 pounds, so we invited them over to have a cookout and share it with us today. The weather was awesome for cooking out. It was sunny with a light breeze and the high was about 75. We cooked it on the grill for about 45 minutes and had Bush's honey baked beans, corn in the husks, Texas toast that we found at the grocery store here, and some potato salad that they made. It all tasted really good and the barbecue sauce was excellent. It's a little different than what we've had before since the sauce was a little more mustard-based. The brisket was tender and flavorful too. For dessert we had angel food cake with cool whip and frozen strawberries. It was very nice of them to send us some Texas BBQ. We have some leftovers too, so that will hold us over for a little while until we visit Texas next month.

We had been wanting to go to Mount Rainier ever since we moved here and so we finally made it out there yesterday. The weather was great for going to Mount Rainier; mostly sunny with highs in the upper 70s. We invited one of our friends to go with us too, so that was fun. We left at 10:15am and didn't get to the park until about 1:00pm, after driving over 90 miles. Traffic was quite bad near Puyallup, which slowed us down. We stopped in a small town just outside the park to eat lunch and so I could get over being car-sick. This one place we tried to eat at only had two employees there (most likely the owners) and they never even acknowledged our presence, which was quite strange. So we gave up on that place and went across the street to a burger place, which was actually pretty good. I was glad to stop for a while after being car-sick from all the windy roads and stopping at stop lights all the time.

Anyway, we finally made it to Mount Rainier and were completely blown away by all the natural beauty everywhere we looked. We figured we would hike on one of the many trails there and have a chance to see some fields of wildflowers. Unfortunately, despite the fact that it was about 80º outside and it's the middle of summer, there was still several feet of snow in most places. Most of the trails were still covered with about 4' of snow. It was really weird walking on all that snow and wishing I had shorts on instead of pants because the air was so warm. We could also tell that the air was thinner at higher elevations. So, we didn't actually do much hiking, but the views were just spectacular. There were creeks everywhere you looked from all the snow melting, which created several waterfalls. One of the highlights was Reflection Lake, which will make a perfect reflection of the mountain and all the trees later in the summer when the lake is completely melted. There were still patches of snow sitting on top of the lake. There were several miles of roads between the different camping spots and visitors center, so it took us a while to drive around the park. There were also some canyons with rushing rivers going through them. We started heading back around 4:30pm and got back around 6:30pm. We were on the south side of the mountain and couldn't see Seattle at all. Next time we go, we'll have to go to one of the trails on the north side of the mountain if there are any. It was a lot of fun though and I'm really glad we went with our friend. We definitely plan on going again in the next couple of months and actually getting to hike on a trail.

I have received one job offer that I need to respond to by the end of the day Monday. I am expecting another offer this afternoon or Monday, and hopefully another one. All three of these positions would be a good fit, so since I don't have all of the details yet, I can't make a decision. Once I get more details and get closer to make a decision, I will post it here.

Even though I live in Seattle now, I do what I can to stay close to my hometown of Fort Worth (and Dallas). I read the Dallas Morning News on a daily basis and read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram multiple times per week. And, of course, I stay very caught up with the Dallas Cowboys. Also, I've been doing what I can to keep in touch with family and friends. While it's not quite the same as living in Texas still, considering how far away I am, I feel like I've been keeping up with Metroplex happenings pretty well.

There is a lot of hiking to do around here, including three lakes about an hour east of here that supposedly offer some good hiking opportunities. They sound like pretty cool places to hike, so I'd like to make it out there sometime. I think the trails are longer than the trails we normally hike, so I'd like to work our way up to going out there sometime.

We've been wanting to go hike at Mount Rainier for a while and I think we might be going this weekend. There are tons of trails there and it's very scenic, so it sounds like a lot of fun. Most of the roads are closed except for about 4 months out of the year because of all the snow and ice. We'll probably do one of the trails at the lower elevations. We invited some friends to go with us too, so hopefully they're free this weekend. It'll be exciting hiking on Mount Rainier. Maybe we'll go high enough to get some good views.

We kept Benji from Thursday afternoon until Monday afternoon when his owners picked him up. He's a cockapoo, a combination of a poodle and a cocker spaniel. We fed him twice a day and walked him three times a day. He wouldn't walk that far, though, and all he did was sniff the bushes. I think we made it around the block twice. He also went to the bathroom every time he went outside, which meant we had to pick up his poop with a plastic bag. When we'd go back inside after walking, he expected a treat, but he would not roll over for us, though he did sit and shake hands. He didn't bark that much, just when he heard other dogs in the hall or sometimes when we would come back into the apartment. Otherwise, he didn't really do much and just sat around all day. It was kind of weird to have a living animal with us. We're glad we could take care of him and help out our friends, but I'm definitely still a cat person. Here are pictures and video.

My parents were hoping they could make it out here to visit us this summer, but I think they will end up coming next summer. That will be their main trip next year, so they'll be able to stay for longer than they would have if they'd come this year. Plus I'm going back to see them in about a month and we're going back for Christmas, so it won't be too bad this year. They've been to Seattle a few times before, so they have plenty of ideas of things they want to do when they visit. I'm really looking forward to them visiting next year and doing lots of cool things here with them.

We had never made asparagus before and we needed to make a vegetable to go with the salmon and baked potatoes we were making for Troy's parents, so we decided to buy some asparagus. It's pretty easy to cook, we just put it in a pan with olive oil and cooked them on the stove for a little while. They tasted pretty good and are pretty healthy for you. I'm looking forward to making some for ourselves again soon.

We didn't really have any plans for the 4th of July except to watch fireworks from South Lake Union. I sort of wanted to cook steaks or hot dogs on the grill, but it was so much work the last time we used the grill and we had a hard time getting the fire lit. So, we just figured we'd save money. Around 9pm, we set out to find a spot to sit at South Lake Union park to watch the fireworks display on Lake Union. There was a huge barge sitting in the middle of the lake where all the fireworks would be set off from. There were quite a few people standing in front of us, so we had to stand while watching the fireworks. There was another fireworks display near the waterfront that we couldn't quite see because of buildings and trees.

Anyway, the fireworks finally started around 10pm and lasted for about 20 minutes. They were pretty cool, there were a few heart and smiley face fireworks which people really liked. And of course the grand finale was the best part. Overall I wasn't that impressed with the show and we probably would have had a better view from Gas Works park. Maybe we'll go there next year and stake out a spot early. We definitely won't be taking our car there next year though because it would take forever to get out of there. The only problem with walking there is that we'd be walking home for like an hour in the dark. Perhaps there's a bus that runs that late. Still though, this year it was much easier to go find fireworks, all we had to do was walk 6 blocks to South Lake Union Park.

Here's some video we took of the fireworks:

We had all day off today since it was the 4th of July and didn't really have any plans. We hadn't done a lot of walking the past week, so Troy suggested we go take a long walk around Lake Union this afternoon, which ended up being a 7-mile walk. We started by going north on Eastlake Drive, and walked for a little while until we stopped at the original Red Robin to eat some lunch. From Wikipedia:

The first Red Robin still stands at the corner of Furhman and Eastlake avenues E. in Seattle, at the southern end of the University Bridge. This building dates from 1940 and was first called Sam's Tavern.

It was alright, I got a California Chicken Sandwich, which is basically a chicken sandwich with guacamole and bacon on it, and Troy got a Chicken Teriyaki Sandwich.

After lunch, we continued walking north across the University Bridge and we could see the Cascade Mountains to the east and lots of green trees behind Portage Bay, Union Bay, and Lake Washington. After we crossed the bridge we went west towards Gas Works Park along Northlake Way. The park was really busy when we got there because of the WaMu Family 4th fireworks show. It's an all day event where people brought their chairs, blankets, food, and fun to Gas Works Park and waited until nightfall to see the fireworks. I've always liked going to Gas Works Park because of the lake with all the sailboats on it and a great view of the city behind it. I've heard before that on the 4th of July, Lake Union is so full of boats that you can walk across the middle of the lake on boat decks.

Anyway, we sat on the hill for a while and then continued to walk west towards the Freemont Bridge. After we crossed the bridge, it had to be raised so that a couple of large sailboats could cross underneath, so we watched that, which was something neat we hadn't really seen before. Then we walked south along Westlake and on down to South Lake Union Park. We were pretty tired at this point, having walked about 6 miles. We finally made it back to our apartment around 6:00 after having left at 2:00. It was a really long walk, but it was cool to be able to stop and eat and see Gas Works Park and walk across the bridges without having to mess with a car. And the weather was great for such a long walk today. The high was around 70 with a light breeze and partly cloudy skies. I'm sure we'll go on another long walk in the city again soon.

Here are pictures from our 7-mile walk today:

I had an interview this week. I think it went pretty well, but I got the impression that they were looking for a specific kind of person with specific experience and goals and I'm not sure that I fit that. I also don't think that the job and company fit me that well, either.

I did hear back from one company that I interviewed with and they've asked me to come back in next week. I was hoping I'd get a job offer from them, but I guess the first interview was just to see if I might be a good fit and the second interview will be for them to make a better evaluation.

Also, I had an interview that I didn't get a good feel for, but I got a call back from that company and will be going in for another interview next week.

So, as it stands, I'm being considered for three different jobs. I have my preference between them, but all I can do is prepare well for my interviews. I am still looking for other positions with other companies, though, in case none of these work out, or in case I can find something better.

I dropped my parents off at the airport this morning. It was nice to see them again - I think I've spent more time with them since Lesley and I moved than I did when we lived in Irving. They had been in town since Saturday, so Lesley and I spent some time with them on Saturday and Sunday, then every evening during the week. I also took a day off of work to spend time with them.

I was hoping that the weather would cooperate during their visit, and it did to a certain extent - it wasn't cold or rainy, and Mount Rainier was very visible. However, it was a little too warm, with temperatures 10 degrees above average, and since our apartment doesn't have air conditioning, we couldn't really spend any time there until the weather cooled off.

Even though it was hot and my mom is still recovering from surgery, my parents still did plenty of walking on their own. We let them explore the city on Monday and Tuesday, so they were able to go to Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square, the Space Needle, and spend time downtown, where they were nearby to a shootout. We took them to Kerry Park, drove through a few neighborhoods including Ballard and the University District. They wanted to eat seafood while they were in town, so we ended up having a lot of that. When the weather was nicer, we went to the locks, Volunteer Park, Gas Works Park, and Kubota Garden. On my day off, I took them to Snoqualmie Falls and West Seattle. We also spent some time togther at our aparment and played some games.

I enjoyed showing them around and doing a lot of different things in the city. We don't share the same interests, so they probably didn't enjoy everything as much as I did. If they visit again, I think they'd have a good time if they do some things outside of the city, like visiting small towns and maybe even going to Vancouver. Anyway, I'm glad they were able to visit and hope that if they visit again they can find some more enjoyable things to do.

Our friends from church (that also went to SMU) are going out of town for the 4th of July and needed someone to take care of their little dog, Benji (we think he's some kind of Yorkshire Terrier). Troy and I said we would take him. They'll be dropping him off tomorrow afternoon and will pick him up Monday afternoon, so we'll have him a full 4 days. He sounds pretty easy to take care of and seems to be on a regular schedule of being walked 3 times a day and fed like twice a day. It'll be an interesting and kind of cool experience. We've never taken care of an animal before by ourselves. It's like we'll have the fun and company that comes with a dog, but without the long-term costs and headaches. He doesn't bark either, so that's good. We'll post pictures of him sometime over the weekend.

We've been doing a lot of talking here, but thought we might open up this thread to questions. Does anyone have any related questions for us, such as about moving, living here, or anything like that?

I'm not sure how long our fridge has been broken, but a few weeks ago we noticed that our ice cream had melted and refroze in a different shape. Also, my milk has been going bad a couple days prematurely. So, I submitted a maintenance request and they replaced a couple things on our fridge. So, while I'd gotten used to our cool water in the fridge, now the water is really cold. Anyway, I'm glad that's taken care of.

I get to leave work early tomorrow at 2:00 because the markets are closing early for the July 4th weekend. It seems like it's been a long week even though it's a full day shorter than normal. So it'll be nice to get home so early and relax.

Well my parents are leaving in a couple days. Today they did a bunch of touristy stuff in the center of the city. Then, they met us at our apartment and we went to Kerry Park. After that, we went to the locks and then went out to dinner for seafood. The weather was alright so we were able to eat outside.

I'm not sure what they're going to do tomorrow without a car, since it sounds like they did everything they wanted to do pretty quickly today. However, tomorrow night we'll make dinner for them and then we have some ideas for the rest of the evening. I'm taking the day off of work on Wednesday, though unfortunately I had a job interview scheduled for that afternoon, so I won't be able to spend all day with my parents. But, I think we'll be able to find things to do.

I just wish it was more exciting for them. Seattle is a touristy place, but I guess that a lot of stuff is appealing to people with children or people who love the outdoors. I hope the other ideas we have will be enjoyable and hope it doesn't go by too fast.

It was very hot in here Sunday. It got kind of cool last night and this morning I used the fan to bring in as much cool air as possible, however it was back up to 80 degrees in here in the afternoon. It seems like it's cooling off, though, so hopefully tomorrow it won't get as warm in here. We haven't gotten to spend a lot of time here with my parents because it's been so warm.

Ever since we got here, we've been wanting to subscribe to a magazine about Seattle or the Pacific Northwest or something similar. We didn't know which one to get, so a few weeks ago when we went to the public library, we read quite a bit of the May issue of the Seattle Metropolitan and Seattle Magazine. We decided that we liked the Seattle Metropolitan more, so we sent a subscription card in about 6 weeks ago. We just now received July as our first issue. I'm looking forward to reading it every month and finding new things to do and new places to eat in Seattle.

There was a big gay pride parade downtown yesterday. I had no idea that this was going on, but my parents were downtown and told us about it. When we met them downtown for lunch, the parade was still going on and there were tons of people lined up to watch it, including some children. It was totally different from anything that I'd ever seen in D/FW. As Lesley and I walked along the parade looking for somewhere to cross, what I noticed in the parade more than flamboyantly costumed individuals of unidentifiable gender, were lots of messages of peace, love, and tolerance and even a church marching with signs welcoming everybody.

I'm sure there may have been some protests somewhere, but I can't imagine something this elaborate going on in Texas without considerable protest. While I've noticed several small examples of how it's more "progressive" or more "liberal" here, this parade was probably the biggest difference. While I can understand that the parade would be unappealing to a lot of people, I am glad that people here seem more tolerant of the fact that everyone's different, right or wrong, and less interested in judging other people's sins.

There are tons of outdoor activities to participate in here in the Pacific Northwest and kayaking is one of them. We kayaked once in Hawaii and it was fun, so we decided to go kayak sometime here in Seattle. I had heard about this Mexican food place called Agua Verde located on Portage Bay between Lake Union and Lake Washington that also rents out kayaks, so I figured we’d go there sometime. Then, the young adults group at our church decided to make our monthly event in June a kayak event at Agua Verde, which was pretty convenient for us.

So we met everyone this past Saturday to kayak on Portage Bay near UW. We had to wait in line for about 40 minutes despite getting there when they opened at 10am. I made sure we put on plenty of sunscreen since it was going to be sunny and hot all day Saturday. We finally got in our double kayak and headed for the Washington Arboretum, which didn’t seem that far away until we started paddling. Sometimes it was hard to steer the kayak because other bigger boats would pass by us and create waves. We kayaked for a little over an hour and I was so sore once we got back. My upper back and arms were really tired. The seat wasn’t very comfortable either, which made my lower back hurt too. The group stayed to eat lunch at Agua Verde, but we had to bail out on lunch since Troy’s parents came into Seattle earlier than we thought they would. But at least we were able to kayak with the group. It was fun to get out on the water and get some exercise and do something we hadn’t done much before.

We spent yesterday afternoon and most of today with my parents. We drove them around some and went to a park with them yesterday. Today, they took us out for a nice meal at McCormick and Schmick's and then we rode the ferry to Bainbridge Island. They were pretty tired, today, though, so they went back to the hotel early. I think they've had a good time so far. We have a few more things planned and I'm looking forward to spending more time with them and I really hope they have a good time here.

We've been attending Seattle First United Methodist church pretty regularly since we moved here and aside from the great people we've met, one of the things we've liked most about the church has been the senior pastor. His sermons have been some of the most relevant, motivational, interesting, and entertaining sermons I've heard from any pastor. Unfortunately, he was only an interim pastor, and this weekend was his last weekend. We were able to attend his last sermon, but we will miss him.

As we've mentioned before, our apartment doesn't have air conditioning. It's a pretty new building, but apparently they didn't feel like air conditioning was a feature worth installing. That's pretty common here, for some reason. But, today and yesterday were among the hottest days of the year. And, since our apartment faces the afternoon sun, it has been getting pretty hot in here. What makes it worse is that my parents are in town, so we can't really spend any time here. I'm looking forward to the cooler weather over the next few days.

After some uncertainty earlier in the week, my parents are arriving today for a visit. They'll be staying until Thursday and they'll actually be here quite a bit earlier than we expected. We have a few ideas in mind for what to do while they visit and really hope that they have a good time.

Texas has a good state flag. I'm not a flag waving kind of guy, but it's a nice-looking, classic flag that I can be proud of.

However, I can't say the same thing about the Washington flag. In fact, I'd say it's probably one of the worst flags in the United States. It's just a picture of George Washington's head on a green background.

I know the state is named after George Washington and all, but couldn't they have come up with something better than that?

I think their first mistake was naming the state after Washington. He was a good general, first president, and dollar bill, but there's already a Washington in the United States, did we have to create another? That's just unoriginal.

But, one thing I've realized is that these Washingtonians love them their George Washington. This guy's face is everywhere.

There's a park downtown and one of the sculptures is a 360 degree profile of George Washington (see picture to right).

And the symbol for state highways here is the highway number on top of a white silhouette of Washington's profile. I guess that might be better than the shape of Washington state on the signs, but come on, the state's named after him, isn't that enough? Does he have to be everywhere?

I guess it's not really a big deal, I mean, at least they don't have murals of him here, as far as I know.

This Tuesday, driving while talking on a cell phone will become illegal in Washington. The police will only be able to pull someone over if they're breaking another law, but after that, they can be ticketed for talking on a cell phone.

I rarely drive now, and when I do, I rarely talk on a cell phone, so I don't really care too much about this new law. Plus, I've been careful enough (or lucky enough?) to not get pulled over for anything ever, so I don't think I'm going to do anything differently.

Whenever I tell people where I'm from, I say that I'm from Dallas, but I'm really not sure if that's true. While I did grow up in Fort Worth and have spent a lot more of my time there than in Dallas, I spent most of the past 6 years of my life in Dallas, and that is the last area where I had a residence. So, in that sense, I am most recently from Dallas (or at least Dallas and its suburbs). It's also just easier to tell people I'm from Dallas, since it's a more popular city. I do slightly feel like I'm betraying my Fort Worth roots, since in many ways I'm more a Fort Worthian than a Dallasite, but I'm really not sure what to say, or if there is a right answer.

I've commented before about how we've been riding the bus here more than we ever did in Dallas or Fort Worth. Riding the bus here is pretty popular and most of the buses we've ridden on have been pretty full. However, while the buses are used much more than DART in Dallas or The-T in Fort Worth and our location in the city makes them more accessible to us, I can't say the system itself is that much better.

While many of the buses we've ridden on have been full, too many of them have been packed full, requiring us to stand. This hasn't been during rush hour or after a special event, it just seems that the route that goes by our apartment is always full. We can see the bus pass by from our window and it's often crammed with people. And, they're not even regular-sized buses, they're double-length buses with an accordion-style section in between to allow the bus to turn. However, that bus only runs every thirty minutes, I think, and it's just not frequently enough considering the number of people who ride it.

Oh, and the buses are never on time. Unless you're late, in which case they arrive early. Whenever I wait for a bus, I look at the posted time and add ten minutes to it to have a better approximation of when the bus will arrive.

Plus there is no light rail system (yet). A small section of light rail will open next year, but I can't believe it's taken so long.

There are a lot of bus routes, but the problem is that I think that there are too many routes and there doesn't seem to be much difference between them. The 66,70-74, and several other bus lines all go between Downtown and the University District but they have different numbers for some reason. Plus, what makes things worse, at least for people not familiar with the bus system, is that there isn't just one bus system. There's King County metro, which operates within Seattle and the rest of King County, but there's also Sound Transit, which provides bus routes between Seattle and many of its suburbs. The Seattle Streetcar is operated separately as well.

Then, there's the ticketing confusion. Sometimes you pay when you get on, other times you pay when you get off. Sometimes the bus costs $1.50, other times $1.75 (during peak-hours), other times $2.25 (two-zone peak-hours), unless, of course, you're a senior or a child and then it's all different. And sometimes it's free downtown but sometimes it's not. And there's a special bus that goes downtown after Mariners games and it's $1 and stops at different places each time we've ridden it.

A lot of people buy a monthly pass for the bus, since they use it all the time, but since we only use it occasionally, we buy a booklet of tickets. However, you can't buy a ticket book on the bus, you can only buy it at certain stores. But, we can't pay with credit card, we have to pay with cash. The tickets come in a confusing variety of options, depending on what type of tickets you want ($1.50, $1.75, etc.). Since we normally travel outside of peak hours, we got a booklet of $1.50 tickets. However, if we ever want to travel during peak hours, we have to carry around a quarter with us, which kind of undermines the point of buying a booklet of tickets.

These nuances of the bus system may not be much different than many other cities, but for a city in which so many people can and do ride the bus, it's disappointing that the bus system doesn't make things friendlier for everyone, especially considering that Seattle is a tourist city and the bus system is full of complexities that only a local can understand.

Still, it's a viable alternative to driving that we can take advantage of in the city and I'm appreciative when I can ride the bus and avoid having to waste gas and search or pay for a parking spot.

As I mentioned last week, this week is rather active for my job search. I had an on-site interview yesterday, actually three interviews for three different positions, and I feel that they all went pretty well. Two of the positions sounded especially appealing, but I'm not sure if I did as good of a job in the interview for the job I want more. I'm optimistic about how things will work out, but I'm kind of anxious about hearing back.

I'm probably more anxious about hearing back from this company than I've been about any other interview I've ever had. That's probably because this job search has been the longest and most time-consuming job search I've ever had. It's probably also because I feel this job(s) and company are a better fit than the majority of jobs and companies I've applied to so far.

Even though I'm optimistic that I will get an offer from this company, I haven't slacked off and am still working hard on finding other opportunities. I have a phone interview set up for tomorrow and a meeting with a recruiter set up for Thursday. However, I will be very glad and relieved when this job search is over.

I'm not much of a baseball fan, though taking road trips to several major league parks and watching more playoff baseball has helped me to enjoy the game a little more than I used to. Still, I don't think I'll ever be a passionate fan of any team. But, I do enjoy going to baseball games on occasion and rooting for the home team. Most of my life that meant going to the Ballpark and rooting for the Rangers, but now that I'm in Seattle, I'll root for the Mariners, I guess, even though they're terrible this year. Walking around town, I've noticed a lot of people in Mariners caps and I figured that since I'd be going to some games, I might as well get my own Mariners cap. The Mariners team store downtown had several options, but I found a fitted cap that I liked. It's the first fitted cap I've ever had, but I really like how it looks. If I ever live somewhere else, I'll probably adopt their home team, but for now I'll casually root for the Mariners, but more importantly, I'll enjoy my cap.

It's been really nice outside the past week and it looks like it'll be nice the rest of the week and this weekend. Mostly sunny with highs in the 70s. It's so pretty here with the water and the mountains and all the trees. Man, I love it here. I wish I could just take off work the rest of the day and go outside all afternoon.

Troy & I have been together for 7 years as of today. That's a pretty long time, but it doesn't seem like it's been that long. It's hard to believe that we've been together since we were 17. We've done so many things together and gone to so many places. I'm looking forward to spending many more years together.

We just had the longest day of the year this past weekend. The sun has been setting around 9:15pm and so it doesn't get completely dark until about 10pm, so for a few weeks, we've been going to sleep when it's still light outside. It's the first time we've gone to sleep when it's light outside since we were like 8 years old. It's kind of weird that it stays light for so long and then the sun rises again around 5:15am. I'm really glad we got some curtains to block out the light, during the afternoon and at night when we're going to sleep and in the morning also. They do a good job of keeping out some of the heat. But anyway, it's just crazy that we have like 16 hours of daylight now.

When we went to eat at the Space Needle last week, we also took some video of the scenery. We had several minutes of footage to pick from and we had to figure out what music to put with it. I took all the video myself and Troy did most of the editing work. So, here's our video footage from the Space Needle, enjoy:

One fairly significant difference between Seattle and Dallas/Fort Worth is that Seattle is a city of neighborhoods. Dallas and Fort Worth have areas, like Wedgwood, the Park Cities, and Fort Worth's Cultural District, but none of these are really neighborhoods in the same way that Seattle has neighborhoods. Many of Seattle's neighborhoods were actually once their own towns that became annexed by the city so the neighborhoods all developed somewhat independently when they were young and were kept strong through streetcar connections. Even now that those individual towns are part of Seattle, they still maintain their own unique identity, made up of their own churches, stores, farmer's markets and festivals. From what I gather, people tend to shop, eat, and spend time in their own neighborhoods and don't go to different parts of town as much, which seems to develop a greater sense of community, from what I can tell.

This neighborhood-centric attitude extends to how people think of places. In D/FW, when giving directions, something would be off of a certain street, ("it's off of Hulen near Central Market") or near a landmark ("it's over by Ridgmar mall"). But here, when explaining where something is, people are much more likely to first tell you the neighborhood, then the street and cross street ("It's in Capitol Hill, at Broadway and Madison").

I can't say that our neighborhood (South Lake Union) has a strong sense of community, but when anything is happening in our neighborhood, it's referred to by neighborhood first, before the streets or landmarks are mentioned. This hasn't been a big adjustment by itself, but it's just kind of an interesting difference.

This weekend was quite a good weekend. On Friday, we were looking for something to do, so we went to a soccer game. Seattle is getting a team in Major League Soccer (MLS) next year, but the city currently has a team, the Seattle Sounders, that plays in the United Soccer Leagues, which is a more minor league. The weather was fantastic on Friday, so we decided to drive out to the game, which was about 20 minutes away. Tickets and parking cost $35 total and attendance for the game was 2,500. The seating area wasn't that big, though, so a good portion of the seats were taken. The game was fairly entertaining, especially in the second half, when the home team had several good scoring opportunities. Unfortunately, there were no goals in the game, which was a bit of a letdown, especially considering how well the Sounders played. We probably won't go to another game this year but are planning to go see the MLS team next year.

On Saturday, the weather was pretty nice, so we went on a nice long hike. We ended up hiking for about two-and-a-half hours. We walked by an old coal mine, which had been grated over. We also walked by a waterfall, which was pretty cool. We dipped our fingers in the water and it was pretty cold. The air around the waterfall was a lot cooler than elsewhere in the park. I could've kept hiking for a while longer, but it felt like good exercise afterward. That night, we went out to eat at a Thai place in Belltown. The weather was nice, so we ended up eating outside, which was pretty enjoyable, plus the food was very good. We also watched Gandhi that day, which was a very enthralling, educating, and inspiring film.

We didn't do a whole lot Sunday, but walked to a local hardware store to replace a lightbulb in the kitchen. Then we walked to nearby South Lake Union Park and just relaxed in the grass for more than an hour. I'm not big into sitting and relaxing, but it was nice to relax and see all the sailboats on Lake Union, airplanes landing on the lake, people walking along the water and relaxing at the park, and the pretty lake. Anyway, overall it was a pretty enjoyable weekend.

I really wanted to go back with Troy the last time he went to Texas for his job because my grandfather had died recently and I hadn't gone back since we moved to Seattle. Unfortunately I didn't have any personal time accrued at work yet and plane tickets were going to cost a lot on such short notice. This time though, Troy planned his last trip back for work early enough to where I could ask for the time off in advance and get plane tickets at a reasonable price. Plus I didn't feel like being left in Seattle by myself again for a whole week. So, I'm going to fly back to DFW on August 8th and stay there the rest of the time Troy is there. It'll be nice for us to spend time with my parents over the weekend and to see some of our friends. We plan on eating at Cousins, Abuelos, El Fenix, Perrotti's, and possibly Wing-Stop. Oh and maybe the Great Outdoors. So, that'll be nice to see my family and get to eat Tex-Mex and BBQ again.

I've planned to go into the office for the last time from Thursday, August 7 through Wednesday, August 13. I figure by then I'll have a job lined up or at least some strong possibilities. I think it's better to start planning on the end of my job now, especially now that a replacement has been hired, so that way I can work on transitioning everything by then rather than just leaving everything up in the air. That way I'm in control of the situation and there is no more lingering uncertainty. I'll probably book my plane tickets sometime next week.

Pike Place Market is a very old farmers market and also a major tourist attraction here. We've gone there a few times after Lesley gets off of work and went last night. We bought some flowers, fruit, fish, and it was all so fresh. We also got some very good frozen macaroni and cheese, which we haven't eaten yet. There is a wide variety of things available at the market, and I'd like to go more often.

I have been getting more calls and emails lately from people (mostly recruiters) with positions available. So, my resume is getting out there. I'm meeting with one recruiter next Thursday and I am taking the day off of work on Monday to go to a career fair and for an on-site interview for two positions. I have been spending several hours every week finding companies to contact and browsing posted jobs, so I will be very glad when this process wraps up.

Texas is one of few states in the country that regularly builds access roads (also called frontage roads, service roads, or feeders) alongside its freeways. When I lived in Texas, I found them quite useful and even indispensable for getting around, wondering how people in other states could get around nearly as easily. However, now that I live in Seattle, I've started to realize how Texas' access roads have heavily influenced the state's development patterns, not only along the freeway but everywhere. This influence has caused access roads to be integral to Texas' transportation network and have affected the role of freeways themselves. In Seattle, since access roads have never existed, the land has been developed differently so that not having them doesn't seem like much of a loss.

In Texas, development is very car-based, so businesses build where they can be seen - along the major thoroughfares, and freeways are in many ways just a faster version of an arterial street in Texas. Due to the power of access roads and the convenience that they pose, businesses have been pulled toward the freeway. This makes a pretty big difference in how land is developed, at least from the vantage point of the freeway. Development in the Metroplex has made good use of access roads, allowing you to drive along them for miles, looking for somewhere to eat or for the next shopping center - you can cruise along and anything you want is just off the freeway. However, here, to go somewhere, you don't just drive along the freeway to find what you want, you kind of have to know where things are. Here it's much harder to build right along the freeway, because the lack of access roads means that just because you can see something from the freeway, doesn't mean that you can get to it.

Let me use this example from the Metroplex to help illustrate the difference that access roads make. There are three east-west freeways between Dallas and Fort Worth: 183, I-30, and I-20, but they have significant differences between I-35W and I-35E. Along I-20, which is the newest of the highways, I believe, there is a lot of commercial development right near the freeway including 3 malls (Hulen, The Parks, and Southwest Center Mall in Duncanville). Along 183, there is also a lot of development, with a ton of restaurants on both sides of D/FW airport and 2 malls (North East Mall and Irving Mall). However, I-30 has no access roads, and despite being the oldest freeway in the Metroplex, I-30 has less development along it than both I-20 and 183. The major point of development along I-30 is in Arlington (which is partially served by a two-way access road). In fact, there are no malls along I-30 either. How strange, there are 5 malls on the freeways with access roads and 0 malls on the freeway without access roads.

Now, that's just one example, but I think it helps convey how things are here. With no access roads, you just don't see as much commercial development along the freeway - I can't think of a sign for a single business that I can see right off the freeway, at least not in the city. The lack of access roads here has made a pretty big difference in how the cities have been developed, which means that the lack of access roads doesn't make that big of a difference on a daily basis, it just means that we use the freeway less. In D/FW, there's not much difference between a major street like Hulen or Greenville and freeways, except the freeways are faster and have fewer places to get on and off. Here, though, since there isn't as much development along the freeway, we don't need to use it as much. We still use it to go to the mall and a few other places, but otherwise we can pretty well ignore the freeway. The freeway here just has a different role than the freeways in Dallas, and I think that's a neat little difference between D/FW and Seattle.