February 18, 2012: Blogs, Dogs and Jobs

This is Gretel after training class.  It absolutely wipes her out.

This is me after training class.  It absolutely stresses me out.

Gretel is making progress, though.  She completed her first round of classes and we are now in the second phase.  This is where she learns a bunch of "tricks", like shake, sleep, and fetch a beer.  It's building on obedience training and a good filler class before she takes the advanced class.  Dog training is not the hobby that I would have chosen for myself, but Gretel is a city dog now, and she needs to learn how to live in the city; i.e., being on a leash, etc.  She's making some progress, but we still have a long way to go.  Because Gretel can be...unruly...at times, we have good sessions and bad sessions.  Today's session, being the first of a new set of classes with all new classmates, was rough.  Whew.  I'd also like to thank the 3 dogs and squirrel that taunted us on the walk home from class as well.  Ugh.

On another note, I know I've been remiss the last 3 weeks about updating the blog.  Frankly, I didn't really have much to report.  We've been sort of heads down, going to work/school, and generally just getting by.  The weather has been ugly and our respective jobs/school have been keeping us crazy busy.  My job continues to get busier.  I have an intense trial schedule for the next three months.  It's great work and I love getting back into the nuts and bolts of litigation, but wow.  I forgot how exhausting it is.

Shawn is doing great in school, but he's getting busier.  He started working at allrecipes.com a few weeks ago, part time while he's in school, and they've already upped his hours to full time.  It's great from an experience and paycheck standpoint, but it makes his life that much busier while he juggles school.  By the way, for anyone contemplating a move to Seattle, allrecipes.com has 40-50 positions open.  Talk about a company with exponential growth.....

Lorelei is busy too - she's doing more and more complex math concepts in school and she's also busy with learning how to sew, drawing self-portraits, and making some pretty serious contraptions out of empty cracker boxes.

Speaking of jobs, Steve's job has brought him to the Emerald City two weeks in a row, so we were fortunate to be able to share several meals with Steve and his copilot (First Officer?), Alan.  It's wonderful to have this time with Steve.  After being so homesick for so long, to see one of my family here just as if it happens all the time was just what I needed.  Alan, as it turns out, was born and raised in Seattle, so he's showing us all the ropes a bit.  Alan is pretty cool - he decided the last time we had dinner that he needed a blast from his past:

Ha!  I think this might be Seattle's equivalent of Milwaukee's Best.  We are a classy bunch.

This is part of the UPS garden referenced above.  It's in an urban neighborhood downtown called Pioneer Square.  I love Pioneer Square.  It's kind of like....maybe German Village or the Brewery District:  a formerly sketchy neighborhood that the City has put some money into.  Probably still not a good idea to walk around alone late at night, but lots of good shops, restaurants, and neat little corners to check out.  This is one of them.  There is also a firefighter monument, a kilt shop (Utilikilts), and killer sandwiches at Collins Pub.  Oh, and a brewery or two.

In addition to Steve (and Alan) breezing into town once in awhile, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of two people.  First, Leigh Ann is coming to visit for a long weekend in March.  Just 3 weeks away!  It's terribly exciting - I can't wait to have a friend to show around!  We also are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Unicornia Castaneda!  Also, just 3 weeks away.  Getting close!  Ed and Amy have discovered the lovely crib assembly, stroller operation, and pack 'n play mysteries.  Very fun.  We cannot wait to meet the newest arrival to the Castaneda family!

And very close to Pioneer Square are the stadiums.  A while back I promised a picture of Century Link Field where the Seahawks play.  This is the best I can do from my car - it's only a partial, but you get the idea.

I can't wait to post pictures from the inside of the stadiums!  I love living in a pro sports town!

We've had some yucky weather.  Just very wet, gloomy, dark days.  Interestingly, just about the time you are ready to jump off the Fremont Bridge because the weather is killing you, we have a marvelously sunny and clear day that gives the Sound it's perfect blue color and mountains in every direction.  It certainly makes it all worth it and reminds us why we embarked on this adventure in the first place.  On such a day, I snapped this picture on my way home from work:

Sure, it's not going to win any awards, but it was snapped from my car with my phone.  Gotta love it.

Speaking of the weather, it was cold, windy and rainy this morning.  Just biting cold.  It's now late afternoon and the clouds have disappeared, revealing a fabulous blue sky and yes, my beloved Olympics.  I think it's time we get out and enjoy it.

Love to all, and Go Bucks!

January 29, 2012: Winter Blues and Funk

Of course by now you've all heard about the snowstorm hitting the pacific northwest right after MLK day.  Despite my skepticism regarding Seattlites and their issues with snow, this storm was one for the record books.  Seattle ended up with about 6 inches of snow, followed by an inch or two of ice, and south of Seattle they measured the snowfall in feet.  Olympia, which is about 45 minutes south, had something like 2 feet of snow.  It was truly an unusual event for this area.

The hills in Seattle are incredibly steep - think San Francisco.  The city is full of them.  I have about a 6 mile commute to work and I can think of three major hills I have to traverse, and I avoid the seriously steep hills for fear I'll get stopped in my standard shift car and roll into the car behind me.  These hills are somewhat treacherous in the rain, so adding a little snow to them creates nothing short of madness.  As if that weren't enough to contend with, the city is really not cut out for dealing with this weather.  They do not treat the roads with very much in the way of salt or the chemicals used in the Midwest for fear that it will kill the salmon population.  Seattle also does not have a lot of snow plows to help clear the roads.  This is why, on the second day of the storm, I had a pretty good commute in until I hit downtown - nothing had been done downtown.  The city allocated its resources to the bridges and freeways.  It was...an experience.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the snowstorm was the cliche-like run on milk and bread.  We live pretty urban here - we are walking distance from several grocery stores, not to mention the little markets that are sprinkled in here and there.  In some ways, you can't really blame the masses for overreacting - the local newscasters described the storm as certain death for anyone who went outside.  It's far worse than the White Death newscasters in Columbus.

We decided to walk around in the snow, since there was virtually no traffic and not a lot to do (though of course, I was working remotely).  I love how green the plants still are in the winter.  When the snow melted, just a couple of days later, it was so pretty to see the green grass underneath the snow.  I can definitely appreciate how green it is here year-round.

They close the side roads during the bad storms because of the hills.  In West Seattle, where we live, it's hills all around.  You cannot go anywhere without heading up or down a very steep road, so these signs are everywhere.  The hills provided a lot of fun though; Lorelei went sledding with some kids from her school, and we saw lots of people skiing down the hills and getting around that way.

Of course, the beach is still fabulous, even with snow.

It's winter, so no matter where you are, if you are in colder weather, it's cabin fever time.  All of us here in Seattle are getting a little stir-crazy.  The snow has melted and the weather is a little warmer now, more normal for Seattle, but the rain is back and it's still just plain dark.  8 hours of light a day is not enough.  Gretel and my walks are consistently in the dark and the rain, morning and night.  It's depressing.  So yesterday, Ed, Amy, Lorelei and I took a day trip to Portland, OR, where it was 50 and sunny (sadly, Shawn could not join us because he had to study).  Despite the torrential snow they received in Portland from the storm, and flooding that followed after, the city looked great.

The city itself is gorgeous.  The Columbia River flows right through the city so there are lots of bridges and of course, natural beauty.  You may have heard that Portland is a very environmentally conscious city.  The picture below is of windmills on top of a skyscraper.

I think Amy put it best when she said, "Portland makes Seattle look like a bunch of uptight republicans."  However, like Seattle, Portland has all this cool, funky art out and about, and there is a real culture and beat to the city that you can't ignore.  It's a fun city.  There is a booming microbrew industry there as well.  You can't walk 3 feet without passing a microbrewery.  The beers were amazing, too.  I'd like to spend more time checking out the rest of the city.

There is this really cool bike sculpture outside of one of the stores in the Pearl District, which is where we spent the day.  Lorelei thought it was awesome.

I think we all liked the bikes a bit.

That's my self-portrait from Portland.

Of course, no visit to Portland is complete without two things:  a trip to Powell's books, which is the size of a city block (not including the technical annex which is on a separate block) and VooDoo Donuts.  Wow.  Donuts, beer and books.  Heaven.

Otherwise, we are hanging in there.  Shawn and Lorelei continue to do well in school and I'm busy at work as ever.  Shawn started working at allrecipes.com, and it seems to be going well so far.  It's a good start as he continues studying web development.  I have Gretel in training classes and despite how crazed she is on the leash (the reason for the training), the trainer loves her and sees real potential for her.  We'll see.  I know she needs this kind of stimulation and I need to be trained on how to care for a big dog that needs exercise.  I guess we are both in training.

In the meantime, we are keeping our eyes toward Spring and the weather clearing (hopefully) a bit so we can get out and about, exploring the mountains.  And of course, we await the much-anticipated arrival of Unicornia Rosabelle Castaneda!!  Amy is 35 weeks and counting.  It won't be long now!

Our best wishes to all back in the Midwest, and Go Bucks!

January 14, 2012: Time & Change

Happy New Year!  Many good wishes to all for this fabulous 2012!

The new year in Washington so far is nice.  You see in the picture above the welcoming mural on the side of a building in Leavenworth, WA.  Leavenworth is a Bavarian-style town nestled in the Cascades.  It's really kitschy, lots of touristy shops and German food.  We decided to go to Leavenworth last weekend, just for a day trip, something to get out of town and explore a little bit.  The nicest part was Shawn's mom, Brenda, arrived in Seattle Saturday morning, so we picked her up and took off for the mountains.

Leavenworth was really cute.  For the German in us, it was fantastic.  They still had their Christmas decorations up and it was truly adorable.

It's truly nestled right there in the mountains.  It had an amazing view on all sides and it's settled right in the middle of ski country.  I liked Leavenworth.  It was really neat, and I'll be happy to go back in the Spring and probably the fall for Oktoberfest - it's got to be just crazy fun during Oktoberfest.

The best part, though, was the drive to Leavenworth from Seattle.  You go through the mountains and through Stevens Pass, which is the easiest way to get there, being one of the lower altitude passes.  We had to watch the weather reports for several days to make sure we could get through the Pass.  Leavenworth is only about 2 hours away, but the weather in the Pass can make it difficult.  Down here in the lowlands we don't see snow very much, but just a couple of thousand feet makes a big difference.  The Washington Department of Transportation is pretty good with up to the minute weather and you can access their webcams for current conditions in the Passes.  They are also conservative about closing the Passes or requiring chains/cables for your tires.  So if the Pass is open without restrictions, we are good to go.

I go into this detail because I am a midwestern girl and really had no idea about all this.  But this is what it looks like in the beginning of the mountains:

No snow, right?  Here's what it looked like 3000 feet later, or about 20 minutes:

And this:

And this:

I love the mountains.  I mean, I really love the mountains.  I expected to reignite my love affair with the ocean by moving here, but surprisingly, I am drawn more to mountains.  I loved that drive to Leavenworth.  I also have itchy feet because I really want to learn to ski.  I think Lorelei would be awesome on skis, too.  Her legs are getting so long, and her coordination seems pretty decent.  I think our goals for next winter include buying an all-wheel drive car and learning to ski.

Other than Leavenworth, Shawn, Lorelei and Brenda had a great week.  They visited the Locks and the Nordic Museum, shopped downtown and went to Pike Market, and also did lots of local exploring.  Lorelei loved having her Grandma Shrader around, as did we all.

Speaking of snow, it's in the forecast for this week here in the lowlands.  If you think that people freak out in C-bus over a few inches of snow, you haven't seen anything.  The excitement and frenzy over the possibility of  a small amount of snow is akin to that of the Beatles landing at JFK.  It's like I'm living in town full of Jym Ganahls.  A town full of Jym Ganahls who can't drive when it's perfectly dry and sunny outside...and will surely lose their minds if they get behind the wheel in an inch of snow.  To be fair, the hills here are terrifying on the best of days.  I don't look forward to navigating them in snow.  On the other hand, I'm not sure this forecast merits a run on milk and bread.  Oh, and I'd just like to remind the Seattleites in my neighborhood:  you are walking distance from 4 grocery stores.  No need to rush out to stock up.  You live in the city.  You can walk in one inch of snow.

New Year's was nice.  Ed and Amy came over and helped us ring it in, and that was perfect.

This is Amy and the baby sharing a NYE toast.   Lorelei has named the baby Unicornia Rosabelle.  Is there a better name out there?  I dare someone to come up with one.

This is Ed with his three drinks.  We had fun.  We are now looking forward to the great arrival of Unicornia!  Amy is due March 7.  I will say this:  I might have a little baby fever.  I'm very much looking forward to holding a baby again!

For our biggest news, Shawn got a job at allrecipes.com in the customer service retention department!  He starts next week.  It's part-time, but will work well around his school schedule and it might also allow him to be around the web developers a bit.  It's a good opportunity and will certainly help us as we carry two households financially.  More importantly, this is Shawn's first step in the industry he'll work in.  The opportunities out here are so much better than in Ohio; it's one of the reasons we wanted to relocate.

Lorelei continues to do well in school.  She's learning to tell time from a clock (not a digital readout like most alarm clocks) and how to count money.  She's reading more and more all the time, also.  Gretel started school today also; she and I enrolled in training.  We'll see how it goes, but I think Gretel will be happier being in school pretty regularly.

As for me, well, I remain homesick for my friends and family and am looking forward to trying to get back to Ohio in a couple months or so.  I love it here - and I don't regret moving.  I just wish I could transplant all of my people to this part of the world.  Work has been ramping up and getting quite busy lately, but it's good work and I enjoy it.  Even when it exhausts me....

I think the most important thing to remember is to take time to smell the roses.  Or in Seattle in the winter, smell the coffee and sit by a giant stuffed bear.  (That picture was actually taken in Leavenworth, but you get the idea.)

We continue our new experiences and becoming acclimated to this new and amazing place.  Much love to all, and please come visit - let me know if you want to and I'll watch flight prices for you!

Beck

12/27/11: Holiday Frolics and Hangovers

Happy Holidays from the Pacific Northwest!  Hope you and yours had a good one.  I can tell you that for us, all was quiet on the western front.  We stuck close to our new home and had some home-cooking, and generally relaxed.  Well...as much as you can relax with a crazed 6-year-old whose eyes glazed over every time a new package arrived with her name on it.  Oooh the Christmas anticipation was at full speed by Christmas Eve.


Christmas Eve was a glorious Seattle day.  The sun and my beloved Olympics were out, and I went for a run along the water in shorts.  As a matter of fact, we spent most of the day outside, running errands (walking to the stores) and walking to a neighborhood open house in the evening.  The open house was hosted by the head of the PTA at Lorelei's school.  She's a true free spirit, which of course, makes her parties the best.  I've been to two, now, and each time, something interesting happens.  At this party, we walked into a conversation about the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance.  Just when I thought it could get ugly, someone handed me a glass of champagne.  God bless whoever that was.  Then another person arrived in full dress.  I mean, in full vampire-goth-weirdo-Halloween-floor-length-gown dress.  I feel terrible that I don't have pictures to share because it was a sight to behold.  To be perfectly fair, these people were wonderful and we had a great time.  The kids all played in the basement which was decorated, and the parents listened to great music and enjoyed a Mexican-themed fare - complete for 3 different types of homemade tamales (Ed - you were missed).  

When we got home, Lorelei was permitted to open one gift, and she chose the above gifts - from Great-grandma Bear.  She wears the doggy hat all the time!


And then the storm came.

Lorelei was crazy with presents.  She had a great time, but wow.  She got a lot of stuff.  Whew.  It wore me out.  By around 5pm Christmas Day, Lorelei had what can only be described as a Christmas hangover.  Those of you who spent the holidays around little kids will know what I'm talking about.  Only the aspirin isn't for Lorelei, it's for me.  Ugh.


It's hard to say what her favorite gift was.  She has played with all of her gifts.  It was really nice that everyone sent her gifts - she loved getting the mail and having the presents...it was just really nice.  She was sad to not be with family, she told us that.  This was a nice consolation.


Shawn and I did well too.  I got the hat I always wanted and the cookbook that I didn't even know existed (nice work, Santa!).

That hat is for the rain.  As luck would have it, it's been raining here, so I've had an opportunity to wear it.  This hat is perfect.


Probably the best part of the weekend came on the day after Christmas.  We walked down to Lincoln Park right near our house.  We walked all along in the woods and down by the water.  The Olympics were visible despite the clouds, but they looked like ghosts of themselves. It was really beautiful in a different way than the pristine views you have on a clear day.

Sometimes I think I like the Sound and the mountains as much on the cloudy days as I do on the clear days.  The wildlife is always much more visible on the rainy, cloudy days.  

It's nice.  This is a good place to get a little perspective on things, that's for sure.  It's why we moved here.  


As the year draws to a close, here's hoping that we all can keep perspective and have a great year coming up.  Much love to everyone - we wish we were with you, but hopefully we'll see you out here soon!


Much love to all!

12/10/11: Dark Days and Bright Lights

Happy Christmas!  Christmas in the city is a magical thing.  One of the most striking differences between C-bus and Seattle is that downtown is just about always hoppin'.  All times of day and night there are people out and about doing things.  This is certainly amplified by the holiday season.  My office is right in the thick of the shopping district downtown, so I get to see all of the decorations and activity up close.  Above is Macy's.  I took that picture yesterday.  It was a glorious sunny day.  Shawn had dropped Lorelei off at my work so that she and I, as well as a co-worker of mine, could all attend The Nutcracker (also downtown).  Before we left for the ballet, Lorelei and I walked around looking at decorations.  We visited Macy's and visited the plaza at Westlake, where we saw the big tree and rode the carousel.

Who doesn't love the carousel?  The Nutcracker was fabulous as well.  We all loved it and it was a good way to cap off what was otherwise, a rather terrible week.

I won't go into the multitude of idiot things that happened this week, but everyone knows what it's like to have that string of days where it seems like everything goes wrong.  It may be a smidge harder to deal with at the moment because I'm going through some homesick feelings and missing friends and family.

It's also dark.  The sun sets around 4 right now.  The days will continue getting shorter until the solstice, but at least that's only another week and a half.  The funny thing is, everyone here knows exactly when the solstice is - they talk about it on the news.  It's a product of being so far north.  The difference from Columbus is quite noticeable.  I keep telling myself it's not a big deal, it just means we get that many more hours of the fabulous light displays.  Whatever.  It's dark.  I knew I would have more trouble with the dark than the rain, and I was right.  Like I said, only 11 more days until the solstice.

In addition to holiday fun, there have been a few other noteworthy things we've experienced.

God bless the Swedes for giving us IKEA.  IKEA is about 15-20 minutes from our house, which is insanely convenient.  It is definitely an experience.  We went to find some things for the closets and ways to make use of the small space we have.  Wow.  IKEA is totally the place for that.  It's also a statement on Swedish organization and efficiency.  It's laid out so you tour the showroom (which is organized by room in your house), where you write down the things you like and the aisles they can be found in the warehouse.  Then you take your cart to the warehouse and pick up your things, then you check out.  It's easy and user-friendly, and unlike any furniture experience I've ever had.  When my mom comes to visit, I'm taking her to IKEA so she can see her heritage in action.  Sure, we'll visit Ballard where the Scandinavians live, and we'll tour the Nordic Museum, but she needs to see IKEA.  I think she'll relate to it.

We also did Thanksgiving at Ed and Amy's.  They had a transplant Thanksgiving - most of us were from somewhere else originally.  There were people who had lived there for 4 years, some for 14.  It was very cool.  The food was amazing, the company superb, and Mary's (my sis) champagne punch really got the party started. Not a drop of it was wasted or spilled, and by the end of the evening, that was pretty evident.  (I'm so making that again)  Part of the magic is that Ed and Amy know how to throw a party.  Even if Ed did accidentally order a 32-lb turkey and had to stay up all night the night before cooking it.  It was a great way to spend the holiday!

We've also been to the West Seattle Farmer's Market, which goes on all year round.  This time of year you can still find some produce from local farms, but it's mostly meat, cheeses and ciders, wines, that type of thing.  Our family seems a little obsessed with the cheese out here.  The only cheese we have bought that wasn't produced in Washington is Tillamook - produced in Oregon.  It's pretty amazing stuff.  I can't say enough about the food here, and local farms, local production is reason number 1 it's so good.  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it....  That day at the market, it was another glorious, sunny day, and on the corner, right where I took this picture, I could look east and see the Cascades, look west and see the Olympics.  They are my constant reminders of why I wanted to be here.

This will wrap it up for now, as I've probably rambled on long enough.  I'll leave with a couple of Lorelei pictures for the holidays:  one from the Nutcracker and one from home, Lorelei by the tree.  Wishing everyone lots of love, and know we miss you all and are thinking of you.

Nov. 21, 2011: November Olympics

This is the view from our living room.  I had to post this because that white stuff you see toward the horizon are the snow-covered Olympic Mountains.  I am becoming borderline obsessed with the Olympics.  I think they are absolutely stunning when you can see them and coupled with the Puget Sound, it makes for a breathtaking view.  It's the kind of view that makes me think it might not matter if I don't make it to the store, or the bank, or finish that load of laundry.  It's my zen check.  However, it being November and all (which I'm told is the wettest month here in Seattle), and the days becoming very short, we don't see the Olympics much.  Saturday, however, it was a crisp, clear day, and there they were.  Seeing them with snow is, well, it's hard to describe how it makes me feel.  But I love it.  Shawn and I watch the Olympics sort of in the same way that I watch football:  "Oh wow - did you see that view (play)?"  "Oh wait, look at it from this angle!"  I wonder if it will ever get old for us.

So far I have not been able to take a picture that even remotely captures the majesty of those mountains.  I think it might be better in the spring or summer when it's even more clear.  I remember coming to Seattle for the first time and seeing the Cascades and Mount Rainier.  I could not get over how gorgeous they were.  You could literally look to the north, south and east and see mountains.  Then we came over to West Seattle and I was stunned by the fact that there is a mountain range to the west, too.

I'm not sure why the Olympics are my favorite and why I'm so drawn to them.  I think it might be that once you cross over them, you've arrived at the Pacific Ocean.  Whatever it is, it is one of the biggest reasons I have fallen in love with this place.  I could dedicate an entire blog to the Olympics.  I just might when the weather gets clear in the spring or summer....

A few more words about my commute:  I've started taking another way in because I find it less congested and kind of a fun drive.  It takes me by some interesting landmarks, too.  This is Starbucks headquarters.  I also drive by both stadiums.  Here of course is where the Mariners play (if that's what you want to call it):

Right next to that is the Seahawks' stadium, but I haven't been able to get a picture of that because I'm driving.  I'll work on that one.  It would be cool to get a night picture - they do some interesting things with the lights on it.  Of course, you can't have stadiums without strip clubs:

I also drive by the Art Museum, and through the shopping district.  And on the West Seattle Bridge I can usually see the Cascades and Mount Rainier, though they are mainly shadows this time of year with the cloud cover.  The star of every show out here, however, is the water.  The Sound is so blue and so beautiful.  I do not know I will ever get used to it, and I sort of hope I don't.

In other news, we are all on the mend and starting to shake off the Seattle sickness that hit us.  Lorelei is doing well in school, and as it turns out, she loves math.  She subtracted 25 from 150 the other day in the car in her head.  She's obviously learning something at school.  Shawn continues to job search and is getting a few leads here and there.  You know how painful looking for a job is....  He continues to do well in school, though.  Everything will come together in time.  I think yesterday was my 2-month anniversary for being here.  We have come a long way in two months.

Uh-oh.  Looks like I'm going to be late for work (again).  Whoops.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Enjoy and be safe!  And if you are looking for something to do, come to Seattle!