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.