New York Minute

The weekend was a bit of a whirlwind for us, as we flew out (very) early on Friday morning to New York City and then flew back on Sunday morning. It was so weird landing at DFW on Sunday and realizing that this was our "final destination". I wouldn't say Texas feels like home yet.

At any rate, we went to the big city for a very special wedding. The B-hatch was marrying a most wonderful Jenji. The wedding was a private ceremony on Saturday morning, followed by an amazing party in Bryant Park on Saturday evening.

Compared to the last time I was in New York, I definitely felt like I was appreciating the city much more (taxis! tall buildings! ethnic food! ethnic people!).

[As an aside, when we landed on Friday, Mike and I had the most sickening taxi ride of our entire lives. There was no a/c and the driver was inexplicably stopping and starting (seriously, this was not in any way to avoid traffic). By the time the cab reached Riverside Drive, we both wanted to puke. Neither of us did, though. But only barely. Uuummm, okay, so what was I saying about those taxis? Perhaps not so much to miss there.]

Friday night while Mike attended the bachelor party, I joined the left behind crew for a very yummy dinner and very funny show.

Saturday morning we met Mike's relatives for brunch and a stroll in the park. Mike's cousin has some very cute daughters:Then, I met one of my dearest friends, Karen, for lunch and another stroll around the park (can you tell how excited we were to be somewhere where it was actually comfortable to be outside?). We had the requisite New York pizza, followed by a shared cappuccino cupcake from a bakery with stellar selection (although, the word from a fellow cupcake lover is that these aren't as good as they come in Seattle. I guess I am out of cupcake practice, since they tasted pretty good to me!). Here's a picture of Central Park:And here we are (not barefoot) in the park:Then, it was time for the wedding celebration. Here's Mike with the man of the hour:The rooftop cocktail hour was absolutely divine - Bryant Park was so green, the buildings were so tall, and the weather was so pleasant. I could have stayed there forever!

Here are some shots from later in the evening:The wedding was lovely, the bride beautiful, the groom handsome, and everyone so very happy for such a wonderful couple.


p.s. As an aside, I'm noticing a lot of distortion as I link the photos from flickr and put them on blogger. My pictures really are much sharper! People really do have their eyes open! I think this is happening because of some kind of compression, since the photos really are huge - but I'm not sure how to fix this without uploading two copies of each picture (one small, one original size). If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them!

Update: Thanks to Scott's tip, the pictures are looking much better. I can't say what happened to the right-hand side of black box around the pictures or why Karen and I are a little off center, but c'est la vie. Also, I am going to HTML class next week. For the record.

Rainy Day

It was a gray, soggy Monday here. It rained all day. It was glorious.
(okay, so it was also 80 degrees).

Broken elbow blogging

I visited my great surgeon on Friday, and he was happy with what he saw on the X-Rays. If you want to play along with my doctor, here is what he saw (the staples were removed shortly after the X-ray was taken, but the screws are in there for the long haul):



After the doctor's appointment I decided to give Fort Worth's bus system a try. Because the first bus I needed to catch only ran once per hour, I decided to walk a mile to pick up the second bus. However, because Fort Worth's streets were SO pedestrian unfriendly, I ended up walking more than a mile out of my way, though an upscale Fort Worth neighborhood. In political science news, here was the political lawn sign count in that neighborhood:

Obama signs: 2
McCain signs: 1
Nader signs: 1

I found these results surprising.

Our weekend

Although I wanted to make this be a whole post where we didn't really mention Mike's arm, that's not likely. . . .

Mike's surgery was Thursday. Thursday night and Friday night were a bit rough, as Mike was in a lot of pain. Saturday afternoon, though, Mike seems to have turned a corner and he's been steadily improving since then. On Sunday he even made his famous Pad Thai (although this is actually a picture of him making eggs).Also on Sunday morning I made lowfat lemon blueberry buttermilk muffins. This is one my favorite recipes.Last, my dear friend Claire sent me this. I totally adore it, and it helps me to remember that not *everything* in Texas is terrible (although my new default is to root against the Texas Rangers in all situations - and tonight they're playing the Yankees! Also, I use root extremely loosely in this context).

Relief!

Mike's surgery was this morning; everything went well.

As I write this, we're at home, he's asleep, and I'm so, so, so glad that the surgery is over.

Dr.P does Texas

[This post was written by the inimitable Dr.P.]

After a journey of 1400 miles, driven by moi-meme toute seule over three days and two nights, je suis arrive'e a' Fort Worth at about 1500 on Friday afternoon. I was surprised by the green-ness of West Texas and then the Permian Basin. It's much greener than Southern California, and there is a lot of empty space out there. There seems to be water from several rivers, some of which are underground. I came through Midland on the last day but gained no insight into the formation--or lack thereof--of our "dear leader."

I arrived in FW and alighted from my air-conditioned car; my first impression=HOT! Michael's directions led me easily to TCU--a lot more directly than Mapquest was sending me to their apartment. I met Michael in the visitors' parking lot, saw his spacious office complete with sofa and many books, and even met one of his distinguished and very pleasant colleagues. Then Mike and I proceeded to the now traditional first night in FW Mexican restaurant (Uncle Julio's) where we were soon joined by Kate, who had come from her work in Arlington.

Mike seems quite comfortable now and has become a master at doing all sorts of things with one arm--even cooking delicious waffles and pasta with homemade fresh tomato sauce!--although sometimes Kate provides the other arm.

On Saturday, we went to the Farmers' and then the Central Market, where we found white and graffiti eggplants. I was very impressed by a whole wing of the produce department at Central Market devoted to "Fruits from California." We came home to swim; Mike even worked out on the stationary bicycle in their exercise room--such spirit! The exercise room is air conditioned, but I felt warm while swimming my laps in the outdoor pool that was at an ambient temperature of close to 100 degrees. Then we had a yummy dinner of fresh trout, asparagus, and couscous topped off with fresh peach cobbler made by the team.

This AM, Mike made the perfect waffles, and then Kate and I went to a fabulous exhibit of Impressionist Art on loan from the Chicago Museum of Art. I just loved it, and so did a lot of other Fort Worthians; there were a lot of people there. On the way home I sampled some of the famous Texas barbecue recommended by my friend from Texas, Harriet.

So you can see that we did a lot of things in a two-day weekend. I'm happy to report for the benefit of future guests that their aprtment is light, spacious, and modern and that the Aero-Bed is most comfortable.

update

We saw the new doctor this morning. He was really nice and very smart. It looks like Mike will have his outpatient surgery on Thursday.

Being a patient

requires patience.

We're seeing another doctor on Friday, but it looks like some (outpatient) surgery is likely.

Thanks for all your kind thoughts and wishes - we'll keep you appraised of the situation.

Broken elbow has a broken elbow (or, it's Monday, of course)

Never a slow day here - today while I was at work, Mike had a small bike accident. It happened while he was biking to work with his colleague. Luckily, they weren't too far from home and they were able to return home, get his insurance card, and then go to the E.R. Unluckily, Mike broke his elbow.

He's seeing a specialist on Wednesday and then we'll know more. Right now he's not in too much pain and seems to be in good spirits.

Rustin' up and settling in

SYL is gone, and we miss her like crazy.

This week has been a little busy. Mike bought his new bike [and has been biking in every day - despite the fact that it's sometimes 99 degrees outside!] and I started my new job. The job is fine; the drive is a little longer than I'd like [but there is NPR- everything else is county music]. Overall, though, the people seem nice and the work seems interesting.

We spent this weekend running errands, relaxing, and unpacking a little more.

Here are a few pictures from last weekend when we went to the stockyards to see the cattle drive [the herd is owned by the city and they parade them through the stockyards twice a day]. It was actually sort of lame and very hot. But now we've done it, and I don't think we'll need to do it again.Here's a picture of Mike's school and his office [before he moved in and decorated].

Fort Worth: The syl Report

[This post is, somewhat obviously, written by the great SYL]

I went back to look at other guest blog posts for inspiration and discovered that I had promised to write a guest entry about my Japan visit and e-mail it to Kate and Mike upon my return to Seattle. Of course, I never did.

I thought about using this ploy again, but Kate has caught on and has now threatened to not take me to the airport until I blog about Fort Worth and our journey here.

As sad as I am to leave Kate and Mike, deliberately missing my flight by refusing to blog is probably not the best strategy to being invited back.

I invited myself along on their moving adventure (also known as The Great Rain Escape 2008) to make sure my best friend would be okay living in the great nation known as Texas. After spending a week getting in their way, bossing them around and telling them how to hang all their pictures, I am pleased to report that I believe everyone's favorite fish-for-breakfast-eating couple will be happy here in Fort Worth.

All the boxes are unpacked, there's now a small herb garden on the deck, there are groceries in the fridge, Mike has been cooking delicious dinners for us, there is internet and cable (!), we've been swimming in the pool every day, the apartment is spacious and modern, and there are lots of trees everywhere. All that's missing now is a dog. (And I'm assured this will be rectified soon.)

It is extremely difficult to leave, knowing that the Seattle I'm returning to is no longer the city where my best friend and I live. To me, the ideal Seattle will always be the one where Kate and Mike are, always ready for Thai food and cupcakes. But I feel reassured after having seen Fort Worth, and I know that Kate is happiest where Mike is, and Mike is happiest where Kate is, so who could ask for more for one's best friend?

Wyoming and Kansas

We arrived in Wyoming on July 3rd, having driven in from Ogden, Utah. Ogden was a surprisingly cool town - we found this great brew pub [I thought that no such things existed in Utah without private club membership, but I guess I was wrong]. The pub even had a beer called "polygamy" and then you could buy a t-shirt that said "I tried polygamy in Utah". We left t-shirt-less, but we did smile at the joke.

Anyway, we left Utah on the morning of July 3rd. Leaving Utah was really pretty.In Wyoming, there are windfarms. Lots of them.There weren’t a lot of places to stop for lunch as we drove eastward across Wyoming, so we just pulled over at this community college. We snuck in and used their bathrooms, and then had a picnic on their grass using peanut butter and jelly stolen from the breakfast bar of the hotel in Ogden.We arrived at the little kibbutz on the prairie around 6:30pm. We [meaning, SYL, in this case], miraculously, got the school bus up the long, steep driveway and backed into the designated parking area. And this time, the name “school bus” proved true, as one of my aunt’s neighbors called her up and inquired about the school bus parked in my aunt’s yard. To be fair, the trees did kind of obscure things (and, yes, that is a deer in the foreground).

When my aunt and uncle got home, we went for a little walk.

Then we picked veggies from their amazing garden.

Then we sat down to a delicious meal of chili, salad, and cornbread.

The next day, the 4^th, we went hiking to a hidden waterfall. According to our western Washington hiking standards, there was, like, no one there. But the Wyoming folk kept apologizing for it being so crowded. Less than ten other people showed up the whole time we were there!

We stayed in Wyoming for another day, resting and taking it easy and eating well. My aunt and uncle were great hosts, and it was nice to see my cousin.

We left for Kansas on the 6^th, driving south to Colorado, and then east. Since this was the end of a holiday weekend and the first part of the drive was straight toward Denver, the traffic was heavier than any we’d encountered. But we soon left all that behind. Eastern Colorado was very flat and farm-y.

And then we crossed into Kansas. [Hold all your ruby slippers jokes for just one minute!]. At first, the driving was good. But then the storm that we’d be seeing at a distance all day caught us. In the truck, even the slightest winds made for difficult driving. Add to that dark skies, outlines of funnel clouds, and huge raindrops, and then driving got a little tough. We were inching along at 40mph and then we pulled into a rest stop to figure out what to do. The day was getting late and none of the other drivers appeared to be stopping. So we decided to just keep driving. It was a little stress-inducing. But then we drove out of the storm, and all was okay. Later, we heard that a tornado warning had been issued for some of the areas we’d been driving through – although if that was related to our storm or a different, later storm, we can’t be sure.

We spent that night in Salina, Kansas. And the less we say about that, the better.

The next day we drove a good clip, hoping to make it to our new place before the management office closed. We got there in time, and quickly found some Mexican food.

We spent the first night on the floor, with nothing unpacked. The movers came the next morning to help us unload the truck. And since it was just a little warm, we were very glad for their help.

Here’s a picture of our first meal in the new place.

Our new digs

[ha- I first wrote "our new dogs." I think that is yet to come. . . .]

Anyway, as Mike wrote, we arrived on Monday night. I have pictures and stories from Wyoming and Kansas, and I hate posting out of order, but I wanted to share our apartment with you. So I'll post the other stuff over the weekend.

Right now SYL is here with us; we're lucky enough to have her company through Monday. Today she helped us buy a washer and dryer (to be delivered tomorrow! no more saving quarters!). We also explored the area where I'll be working. Tomorrow we hope to explore the area where Mike will be working. Perhaps over the weekend we'll check out the herd of cattle owned by the city.

So, with no further ado, here are some pictures of our place.

Here is the living room. Note that behind the framed pictures is a wood-burning fireplace.Here is our kitchen; the washer-dryer closet is to the left.Here is the view from the living room, balcony, our bedroom, and the front door. Unfortunately, I took this picture at night, so it's a little dark. But if you could see it, you'd see green trees and grass and the Trinity River Trail [a bike/footpath] and the banks of the river - the river itself is a little too low to be seen easily.Here is our bedroom:And our closet, which is even larger than our closet in Seattle was. Seriously. [But we still live in Texas, so, well, think about that]And our bathroom Here's the office. We've reduced down to one desk, so we'll have space to store boxes since we won't be unpacking everything. Right now, though, this plan is just looking a little messy.So I hope this post isn't over-sharing. I know this isn't nearly as interesting or strange as our Japan house, but, well, what can you do?

The Stars at Night...

We have officially arrived in Texas! We actually arrived Monday afternoon. Monday night, we went out to a really good Mexican restaurant called Uncle Julio's (warning: the webpage plays music). When we told our waiter that it was our first day in Texas, he said "Welcome to Texas, y'all!" We hired a great moving company called Gladiator Movers to unpack School Bus (our truck) on Tuesday morning, and now we are most of the way moved in. Even after returning our truck, SYL confessed that she still felt the urge to talk to nearby cars through walkie talkies.

Today we visited the Fort Worth Central Market for the first time, and it was fantastic. I picked up some ingredients to make pizza tonight, and we got a lot of other exciting things as well.

We will post some pictures and more information when we get more completely unpacked.

Kansas

We are in Kansas. It was a long day driving, including through some big storms. I'd hoped to put up some pictures, but that will have to wait for another night. Tomorrow we hope to arrive in Fort Worth, but we won't have internet access there for a few days.

Hiking in Wyoming

We arrived at Kate's relatives' place last night, in Wyoming. We had a nice walk after we arrived, and then they cooked us a feast of chili, corn bread, and salad from their garden. It is absolutely beautiful here, and today and tomorrow we will go on hikes, so blogging will be light.

Scenes from the road

Setting outLunch in Yakima (day 1)Eastern OregonWorld's most scenic fertilizer? grain? cement? plant in eastern Oregon.Lunch at an old-fashioned soda fountain in Boise (day 2)Eastern Idaho

The Utah

We have pulled in to Ogden, Utah for the night, after another productive day of driving. We took a small detour and tried a highly-recommended restaurant in Boise, Idaho, called Moon's Kitchen. There was a soda fountain and much fried food, and it was wonderful. Boise also looked like a fun city that I would like to explore more in the future. We drove past the Boise State University football stadium, but I was unfortunately not able to catch a glimpse of the famously weird blue field. Oh well.

"School bus, this is little blue, over"

Today we started our journey to Fort Worth, and I am blogging from a motel in Baker City, OR. We actually packed up the apartment on Saturday (quite quickly, thanks to much help from our great friends), and we spend the weekend with our friends Scoot and Meh and their adorable baby Zachary. Scoot wrote a really nice piece on their feelings about our leaving Seattle on their blog today, and I can assure you that we feel the same way. I have lived in Seattle since 1999, and Kate since 2000. In that time, we have both made a lot of incredible friends, and Scoot and Meh are some of our oldest and closest (actually Scoot and my friendship dates back past our Seattle days, to our childhoods in Michigan). It was hard to leave Seattle today.

Two things made our journey a little easier. First, Kate's best friend, SYL, is accompanying us. We are taking both a moving van and a car, and thanks to SYL's presence, one driver always has company. Second, yesterday we picked up a pair of walkie-talkies, on the recommendation of SYL's boyfriend K. We have given each a code name -- the big yellow moving van is "school bus," and the smaller sedan is "little blue" (hence the title of this blog entry). And they make coordinating things between the cars easier and more fun.