This past Sunday, Troy and I were planning to go to the library downtown so that we could find a few books about home design and decorating. It started raining while we were eating lunch and it rained the rest of the day off and on. We didn't want to wait to get a few books because we wanted some for the plane ride to San Francisco. So we decided to walk to the library in the rain, over a mile each way. It was kinda fun walking in the rain with our umbrellas. The rain was nice for a change too since it hasn't rained much lately and it cooled things off. Now we have some books to look at to help us decorate our place.

The things that are in Dallas/Fort Worth that I like most are family, friends, and food. You can add football to that list too, since I'm a big fan of the Dallas Cowboys. I've been able to travel back a few times to visit with family and friends and to eat the food. However, I'm a little concerned about what I'll do once the regular season starts. Seattle Seahawks games will get local priority, so if the Cowboys and Seahawks are playing at the same time, the Cowboys game won't be on local TV. So, I'm trying to figure out what to do so that I can watch the Cowboys games, because not watching them is not an option.

There have to be other Cowboys fans up here, so I'd be curious to know what they do to watch the games. Unless I make friends with a Cowboys fan who gets all NFL games, I'll probably have to go to a sports bar to watch the games.

I'd like to find a sports bar that is close to downtown and thus, close to me. If I could walk to watch the game, that would be ideal, but I'm open to driving a few miles. I'd rather not have to go to the suburbs. Also, I'd like to find a decent place, nowhere too loud or rowdy, since Lesley will want to come along (to root against the Cowboys, unfortunately). But, I don't want somewhere very upscale or high-priced.

Anyway, I'm not sure how to find a place that meets those criteria, but I'll see if I can search online, ask around, and maybe find some kind of Seattle Cowboys fans group to ask. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

I've never been very interested in the Olympics until this year when Lesley got me interested in it. We got cable just in time for the Olympics and have been watching some every day. We only have limited basic cable, so we don't get all the channels that show the Olympics, but we do get the Canadian Broadcasting Channel, since Vancouver is nearby, and their coverage of the Olympics has been better than NBC's. But, anyway, watching the Olympics has been quite enjoyable, and a good way to pass the time until football season starts.

Troy and I leave for San Francisco in two days, it's coming up soon! I can't wait! I have a lot of ideas of things to do and places to go. My Dad gave us a few ideas for where to eat too. One main reason we're going is so we can hang out with our friend who goes to college there and have him show us around. We're going to a Giants game Wednesday night and then we plan on renting a car on Thursday or Friday to go to Muir Woods, Sausalito, Tiburon, Yerba-Buena Island, and the Marin Hills. We'll definitely ride a cable car at least once and I'm hoping to eat at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory twice. And of course we'll go to Fort Point, Alamo Square, Chinatown, Golden Gate Park, and Fisherman's Wharf. We'll probably run of out time to do everything we want to do.

It's weird that we'll be flying again so soon after our last trip, barely two weeks ago. It seems like I've flown more this year than the rest of my life combined. Here's a list of everywhere I've flown or will be flying this year:

Jan 08 - Flew to Seattle/Portland for interviews
Aug 08 - Flew to DFW
Aug 08 - Flying to SF
Dec 08 - Flying to DFW

Anyway, I'm looking forward to going to San Francisco, it should be a lot of fun.

For the last few weeks, I'd really been wanting to go for a hike. Lesley received a book detailing some nearby hikes for her birthday, so we decided which hike we wanted to do and set out to do it this weekend. I was afraid that the weather would be too hot again this weekend, so we set out early for us (10:00). Unfortunately, the trail we chose had water damage, so we had to turn around after about 15 minutes. So, we chose a second trail and went there. According to our book, there was supposed to be a good viewpoint. Unfortunately, we never found it. But, it was still a very good hike along several well-shaded trails. Also, we ran across an old, abandoned car, which was strange. Anyway, I was glad we went hiking again, and am looking forward to going back to look for the viewpoint.

As of today we have been living in Seattle for 6 months already. The time has flown by. As Troy mentioned in a previous post, we're very glad we moved here. We just love being in Seattle!

One significant difference between living in Seattle and living in D/FW is the cost of living. Things like rent and food do generally cost more here, however it hasn't impacted us.

Our rent costs 64% more here than it did in the suburb of Dallas we were staying in, however if we were staying as close to downtown Dallas as we're staying to downtown Seattle, the cost of rent would be pretty close. Continuing to live in a suburb wasn't an option, so our rent cost would've increased regardless.

And, we've managed our other expenses well. Groceries are a little more expensive here, so we've learned to shop for better deals and only buy things when they're on sale. Gas and parking are more expensive here, so we sold a car and drive very little.

Overall, our expenses have been a little higher on a monthly basis, but if we lived in Dallas and bought a new car, we'd be spending more than we spend here. And, with the new higher-paying jobs we've both gotten, our income after expenses is higher here. So, we're actually better off financially after moving here.

There is a lot of new construction in Seattle, especially near where we live. Most of the development is residential, as more people are drawn to city living for various reasons and as developers try to profit off of underutilized land. These new developments will be good for the area as they will provide more activity and convenience to people spending time in the city.

Unfortunately, while the construction is in progress, all these construction zones are annoying. Lesley walks by three construction zones, plus a scaffold, and street construction on her way to work. While it's not particularly loud or unsafe, it just makes it less enjoyable to walk. There are other construction projects in the area, too, some of which are just annoying whereas others are inconveient due to sidewalk blockage.

It will be good when these projects are finished, but for now, I wish they could do more to keep the sidewalks available to pedestrians.

Since we've been doing a lot more outdoor activities in Seattle, I've been wanting some hiking shoes. I finally bought some from REI last weekend with some of my birthday money. I initially was looking at some other shoes, but they didn't fit that well and I didn't know what to do. Then one of the store employees showed me another shoe that fit my narrow foot much better. I ended up buying the ones he showed me and they were on sale too. I'm looking forward to trying them out this weekend on a new trail we plan on going to.

I also bought some winter clothes at REI. It's really convenient that REI is only 3 blocks away. We like some of the styles of clothes there, so we'll probably end up buying more stuff there.

Our home phone line is being disconnected today. I used it some for work, but now that I'm not working from home anymore, we don't really need it. We used it infrequently at other times, but it's not worth the extra whatever it costs. The only problem is that because we don't have a local number, now when a visitor gets to our apartment building, they won't be able to use the call box so that we can let them into the building, but that doesn't happen often enough to warrant keeping the phone line. Plus, now we can put away the phone that has been sitting on the counter. Anyway, I'm glad we could do that, I feel like we just simplified our lives a little bit.

The view from our apartment is awesome. We've added more pictures to our "View from Our Window" gallery:

Yesterday was my first day at my new job. Unlike my old job, I actually have to get dressed and go into the office for this job. Aside from that, though, things are going well so far.

On my first day, I got a new laptop, flat-panel monitor, and cell phone. However, the most exciting thing that I got was a FlexPass, which allows me to ride all local transit systems for free.

As for work itself, so far I've mostly been sitting at my desk and reading things. My boss has spent a lot of time teaching me things, and I've learned a lot so far. I'm very eager to start actually doing things and getting to know more people in the office.

I took a few more pictures in our neighborhood and have added five of them to the neighborhood gallery. I'm still not enthralled by the area, but I'm recognizing that it's better than I originally thought and is rather convenient to a lot of things, even if those things are not as close as I would like.

When I was back in D/FW last week, it almost seemed like I never left. Everything there was very familiar and rather uninteresting. Being there reminded me of why we left in the first place. While never leaving Texas would've been easy and normal, I am very happy with our decision to move to Seattle.

Driving around during our visit, I knew where every road went, was familiar with all of my surroundings, and didn't really miss any of it. I talk about the things I miss: family, friends, and food; but Fort Worth isn't on that list and neither is Dallas. While the cities have their advantages, along with the benefits of my friends and family, it's not enough to make me wish I stayed. Continuing to live in the same metropolitan area where both of us grew up and lived in would have been boring, routine, and tolerable at best.

However, Seattle fits our ideal lifestyle and interests better than any city in Texas does, by far, and moving here has offerend numerous benefits. Moving here has challenged us, the change of scenery has stimulated us, the things we've discovered here have been incredible, and our lives have been enriched significantly. There's no question that moving here has caused us to grow and mature like no other experience could.

It sucks that it's not as positive of an experience for everyone else as it has been for us, and it hasn't been without its sacrifices, but the great thing about being adults is that we can do what we believe is best and we believe it's been worth it. I won't comment on what the future might hold, but for now I must say that I'm very glad we decided to move. So far, it has proved to be a great decision and a highlight of our lives.

I saw the most ridiculous Chevy truck commercial ever last week. They were advertising some huge truck as being environmentally friendly because it got really great gas mileage - 20 miles per gallon. What the heck? How is that environmentally friendly? That would be terrible mileage. I just thought that was absurd. People in Texas just love their trucks. I don't think I'd ever see that kind of commercial in Seattle.

We went to Discovery Park a few weeks ago on a very nice afternoon. It was a nice day for a walk and the Sound was very blue and beautiful. Click the picture below to see a few others.

It's nice to be back in Seattle after being gone for 6 days. It felt like a long trip and I actually ran out of things to do. It seemed like I was just there in DFW, even though it had been almost 6 months. If my family didn't live in Texas, I don't think I'd have any reason to ever go there. I don't like the culture or the weather and I got really tired of driving everywhere. It was always muggy (humidity usually above 70%) and hot outside which made it miserable to do anything outside in the afternoon. Everything was so dry and ugly-looking and the water was very dirty looking from the plane. I noticed a lot of differences, mostly the same things Troy noticed. All the buildings are short, especially in Fort Worth. And downtown Fort Worth is very tiny compared to Seattle. There were very few people walking/exercising outside and I think I saw one guy on a bike the whole time I was there. It's just a totally different place from Seattle.

It was so nice to fly back and be able to see all the pretty mountains and trees and water. We took the bus home from the airport and then walked to the drug store and the grocery store downtown and then took the bus back to the apartment. All of that, without a car. We didn't use any of our gas and didn't have to fight traffic or anything. It was a relief to be back.

I'm also glad that Troy has finally quit his old job and now has a new one here in Seattle. It will be nice to finally have some stability and I won't have to wonder if his boss is going to call him and ask him to go back to Dallas any more. I'm looking forward to doing more things here in Seattle.

I arrived around 2 on Friday afternoon and we drove to my parents house and then went to eat at Uncle Julio’s for dinner. We all shared some queso and Troy and I shared the chicken fajitas. We each got our own Swirls, which were really really good. After that we went to the Kimbell Art Museum to see the current exhibit called The Impressionists. My parents wanted to see it since they went to the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. and saw a lot of paintings by Van Gogh and Renoir. After that we went back to their house and ate some chocolate cream pie from the Swiss Pastry shop and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Troy was also very intrigued by my dad’s iPod.

On Saturday, we went to eat at El Fenix with Troy’s parents and then played on their new Wii. After that we went to visit Troy’s grandmother, who was actually sick at the time. Thankfully we did not catch her cold. After that we met at BJ’s Restaurant in Arlington for my Uncle’s birthday and we saw the extended family. We visited for a while at my Uncle’s house and then went to hang out with Andy. We went to Dairy Queen and then hung out with Sofia and played a fun game called Taboo.

On Sunday, Troy and I went to our old church where we got married and we talked to our pastor after the service for a little while. He was very happy to see us and was glad we visited. My mom made a big meal for us that included baked ham, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, and rolls. It was all really good and Troy especially liked the ham. My dad showed us some photo albums from trip him and mom had taken to Seattle and San Francisco and he showed us some articles he’d kept that talk about things to do in those cities. After that we went to eat sushi with my sister at Edohana. It was actually pretty good. It was nice to hang out with my sister some. Then we went to hang out with Andy, Sofia, and Bryan and we made cupcakes and watched more of the Olympics.

I had a lot of time to myself on Monday and Tuesday afternoon since Troy had to work. I went to see my old co-workers in Dallas for a little while and they were excited to see me. They asked me all these questions about Seattle and how much we liked it and everything. It was nice seeing them again. After that I drove to Fort Worth and ate Perrotti’s pizza for lunch and hung out at my parents house until Troy arrived in Fort Worth via the TRE. We hung out with David and Andy Monday night and ate at Cousins for dinner, which was also very good. It was nice to see David since we hadn’t seen him in like 2 years. Tuesday I had lunch with Megan at Freebirds and then I hung out with Sofia at Hulen Mall. I picked up Troy again from the TRE and went to see my parents one last time. Then we went to Adam’s apartment to see him and everyone else.

Wednesday we went to the airport around 9:30 and finally landed in Seattle at 4:30. We took the bus to downtown and then had very good timing and caught the 70 bus that goes right by our apartment. We arrived around 6:15. It was a pretty long day and a long trip overall.

Click below for some pictures that we took during our trip to D/FW.

We were both a little hesitant about heading back to Texas during August, the hottest month of the year. But, the worst part of this visit back wasn't the daily 100 degree heat, as I thought it might be, but it was all the driving we had to do. Of course this was exacerbated by the fact that we stayed like 40 miles away from where all of our family and friends were, but still, everywhere we went included like 20 minutes in a car. In the week I was there, we drove 869 miles, which is more than the distance from Dallas to Albuquerque. I definitely got sick of driving, but even with all that driving, the large Texas sky wasn't as smoggy as I expected, which was nice.

The food was a highlight of our visit. It's been very nice to have a lot of very good food that many people have paid for. Unfortunately, the food is all so heavy and all the meals have been so filling, so I'm glad to be back in our own home again so that we can make healthy-sized meals.

My complaints don't overshadow how nice it's been to spend time here - though it was a very long visit for me (7 days) - but they underscore why I'm eager to get back to Seattle. Now that we're back, I'm looking forward to relaxing and getting some exercise.