Update II

Since I’m posting these about weekly, here’s to another week!

I don’t really have that much to report. I’m moving next week, so I’m mostly spending this weekend not thinking about moving (yeah right). On Tuesday the very lovely syl and I will rent a truck and drive down and get our furniture from Tacoma where our friend has been keeping it for us. The containers will all our earthly belongings will be delivered to the new address on Wednesday. I’ll spend Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights unloading them a little. I have friends coming on Saturday and Sunday for the big unload.

Also, I helped some friends move on Wednesday (my nanny charge was sick, so I had the day off). We discovered that they had a little Murphy bed in their apartment – they were using it for storage, not sleeping, so we never knew about it. I find this very cute. I wonder how old that bed is?Also, here are two of our Seattle friends toasting to the end of the moving day.Other than thinking about moving . . . .

I want you to know that I have been eating well. I, of course, haven’t really been cooking (if you don't count cheese sandwiches), but here are some shots of delicious food made by my friends.Blueberry pie made by Lisa and Corey.Antipasti made by Kristian.Milkshakes (a group effort).

In other news, although, like my friend Wally, I am not generally a fan of the cat-beasts, I have been seeing a lot of them lately.One of these creatures is much happier than the other

This is the cat of our friends who moved on Wednesday. She is exploring her new surroundings.

Hello Again!

I haven’t had great email access since I’ve arrived in Seattle. Where I’m currently staying, only my friend’s computer can access the internet, so while I can read and reply to emails, I can’t easily blog or post photos.

But today I’m at a very cool cafe, Cloud City Coffee (is that not the best name?), that has wifi, so I’m able to use my own computer. There's a picture of the cafe below.

Things have been going okay. I miss Mike a lot (a lot a lot!), but life here is pretty busy. I’ve been nannying for two different families that each have six month-old boys. The work isn’t all that intellectually stimulating, but it’s nice to take the babies on walks, to the park, etc. I even took one to Pike Place Market last week! I just about had a migraine from the stress of it all, but we survived just fine.

In two weeks, I’ll drop down to just one family and then start my new part-time job. This job is the same job I’ll be doing once school starts – it’s just on an hourly basis during the summer. I’m not going to say any more than that (or the nanny jobs) here because I don’t want to be dooced (although it might be worth it if I could write like that). But, suffice it to say, I’m very, very happy about said new job.

In part, I’m happy about the job because it allows us to get our own place. While I’d dreamed of staying in Fremont, the market has just gone crazy (funny what an organic grocery store and a spate of condo conversions will do to your neighborhood). Our money went much further elsewhere. So, after living in Fremont since 2000 (excepting the obvious, of course), I’ll be leaving.

Our place is big and light and airy. There’s secure parking, an elevator, and a washer and dryer on every floor. The kitchen is nice, too. There’s a direct bus to campus and another to downtown that run just a few blocks from our place.

Here’s a picture of the new building:Although we will no longer have seventeen Thai restaurants within a ten minute walk, the new area is quite nice, if more sedate: more single family homes, fewer young hipsters. There’s a ginormous Safeway not far away, and very cool coffeeshop (with free wifi and yummy food) just a few blocks from our apartment. Here’s a picture of the coffeeshop:So I’ll be moving in early August, hopefully with the help of my wonderful, amazing, beautiful, and very talented friends. I’m trying not to dread the move and rather just focus on how nice it will be to be settled back with all of our familiar belongings. It’s been pretty hot in Seattle these last two days (yesterday it was 98 degrees [just like the boy band!]), so I am fervently hoping that the moving day will be cooler.

I’m headed down to San Diego August 8th-14th for a little visit. I haven’t seen my grandparents in a year, so I am looking forward to the trip. My brother will also be in town then, so hopefully we can hit the beach together!

The Magic of Sumo

A sumo tournament runs for 15 days, and each day, there are scores of matches. There are no official time limits on the matches, and there is also no limit to the number of times that the wrestlers can throw salt and stare at one another before the match begins. And yet, somehow, the matches always end right around 6:00 pm, just in time for the news. How does that happen?

On a related note, here is a commercial where of one of my favorite sumo wrestlers eats noodles. Mmmmmmmm.

Tsukuba's extended forecast

Tuesday: Rain, heavy at times; humid
Wednesday: Rain
Thursday: Rainy
Friday: Humid with rain
Saturday: Mostly cloudy and humid; chance of a shower in the afternoon
Sunday: Overcast and humid with rain possible
Next Monday: Rain
Next Tuesday: Humid with rain.
Next Wednesday: Cloudy with rain possible.

Also, right now (Monday night), it is pouring. It has rained all day. Wikipedia has a good discussion of tsuyu, the Japanese rainy season, for interested parties.

Forecast from Accuweather.

What we've been up to

We've had a crazy couple of weeks, but things are finally settling down. We attended my old college roommate's wedding in Hood River, OR, which was fantastic. You can find some pictures here.

And this past week I attended a huge international conference in the same Japanese city where I was an exchange student in high school. Although schmoozing is usually not my forte, I did some pretty good schmoozing at this conference, and my presentation went pretty well.

Katem is now living in Seattle, getting ready for school in the fall and doing some babysitting. MHS is back in Tsukuba, getting ready to move to a smaller place at the end of the month.

The Fish for Breakfast World Cup Challenge: And the Winner is...

Team Competition for Breakfast, affiliated with Dogs that Blog (team owner lives in same house as chief blogger, Wally). The team owner is actually my former roommate, Jay. Great job, Jay!

Here are the other results:
2nd place - Team Semi-Rapid, affiliated with Matt Rochkind's Fat Blog.
3rd place - Team Gluck, no blog affiliation.
4th place (tie) - Team KL, affiliated with Finding Resonance.
4th place (tie) - Team Calicio and Cocomero, affiliated with Prosciutto and Peanutbutter.
6th place - Team Tsukuba Divers, by MHS, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
7th place - SE1 - by frequent Fish for Breakfast commentator MD
8st place - Team Okachimachi, by Katem, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.

Standings after Week 4 of the Fish for Breakfast World Cup Challenge

1st place - Team KL, affiliated with Finding Resonance.
2nd place - Team Competition for Breakfast, affiliated with Dogs that Blog (team owner lives in same house as chief blogger, Wally).
3rd place (tie) - Team Semi-Rapid, affiliated with Matt Rochkind's Fat Blog.
4th place (tie) - Team Gluck, no blog affiliation.
4th place (tie) - Team Tsukuba Divers, by MHS, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
6th place (tie) - Team Okachimachi, by Katem, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
6th place (tie) - Team Calicio and Cocomero, affiliated with Prosciutto and Peanutbutter.
8th place - SE1 - by frequent Fish for Breakfast commentator MD

This is the second to last week, but based on my understanding of the point system, no team has yet been mathematically eliminated. So, team KL should not begin celebrating just yet -- the Divers are close behind.

Also, for the record, the amount of kibbitzing on the Bulletin Board has declined below acceptable levels.

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was the Strausz parents' 33rd wedding anniversary! To celebrate, we took them out for a very nice Peruvian meal.Also, speaking of food (and why would one speak of anything else?), here are some pictures of the pancakes we ate the other day. According to AOL, this place is supposed to have the best pancakes in the city. They were good!In other news, the B&B where we are currently staying has a pet rabbit, Callie. So we got to hold Callie while we watched the soccer game yesterday. Some of us were more interested in Callie than the soccer game.Yesterday (between the two soccer games! Priorities!) we also went to Portland's Saturday market. The market had lots of beautiful flowers and yummy food.

Standings after Week 3 of the Fish for Breakfast World Cup Challenge

1st place - Team Okachimachi, by Katem, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
2nd place - Team Semi-Rapid, affiliated with Matt Rochkind's Fat Blog.
3rd place (tie) - Team Gluck, no blog affiliation.
3rd place (tie) - Team Tsukuba Divers, by MHS, affiliated with Fish for Breakfast.
5th place - Team KL, affiliated with Finding Resonance.
6th place - Team Competition for Breakfast, affiliated with Dogs that Blog (team owner lives in same house as chief blogger, Wally).
7th place - Team Calicio and Cocomero, affiliated with Prosciutto and Peanutbutter.
8th place - SE1 - by frequent Fish for Breakfast commentator MD

Also, for the record, the amount of kibbitzing on the Bulletin Board has improved markedly.