12-31-18

The week between Christmas and New Years is often a time of quiet and reading, but especially with being sick this year.

As the year ends, time to reflect on my goals.  

My word this year was ALTER.  Alter my job/career, alter my housing situation, and get Anastasia to the altar.  The goal was to shake things up, to be different.  

I claim success!  

Another year of not losing weight, but feel like I kept stress under control.  I used more vacation, we took a trip to Austin, we enjoyed our early months in Seattle as if we were vacationing.  We didn't hike much, but we transitioned to our new lifestyle and landed in a cozy apartment with nice belongings where we can see ourselves staying for awhile.  I didn't get my wardrobe transformed (jsut bought more hangers!), but we downsized significantly with a huge moving sale.  Our new church may not be our final fit, but we are tryign to build our community and I was able to do Shoebox Ministries, Royal Family Kids, and teach Dave Ramsey with the Longview community.  And Anastsia and Jacob's wedding was wonderful.  

A great year of great change for sure.

12-30-18

Rest in peace Uncle Frank.  Grampa's brother passed away on the 26th after a long fight with cancer.

Uncle Frank was the fun uncle, we loved seeing him during our summers at G&G's.  And he has been great about helping G&G all these years.

12-29-18

Christmas #3.  Nailed it!

This photo doesn't have everyone, doesn't have Grampa playing his new harmonica, and wasn't the artistic shot I was after, but I like it best.

12-28-18

The week after Christmas is a great time for down time.  Xander got this book for my stocking and it fits the bill for downtime perfectly.

12-27-18

Thursdays are days to spend with Mom & Jerry.  Today we headed to the little art museum in Edmonds.  It was the perfect size to wander around and see what spoke to us.  We saw fun vintage Christmas cards from artists and learned a lot about Soichi Sunami.  There are his Seattle paintings, my favorites.

12-26-18

Kept the tradition of after Christmas shopping alive, just on a much smaller scale this year.

12-25-18

Merry Christmas!  Love the mess and peace after gifts are opened.  And now we relax.

12-24-18

Mongolian food for Christmas Eve, score!

12-23-18

The stockings were hung on the windowsill with care... it's time to pack them up to go to the airbnb.

12-22-18

Our view of the intersection.  I was trying to watch for Bruce getting home from work.  I'm not sure if that is him or not.  I got distracted by watching how much money our buddy I call Spare Change was collecting.

12-21-18

Good morning Seattle!  Loving vacation, loving sleeping in, loving the sunrise views, even if they get washed out in photos.

12-20-19

When work decorations become house decorations because my work cubicle is now 3 feet x 3 feet.  But no work today, spend the afternoon and evening with Mom & Jerry at their emmory care facility.  Forgot to take any photos, so here's what I do have... 

12-19-18

I love this bright tree in the Second and Seneca building lobby.  Today I walked to it to photograph it, and the balls on it are ginormous!  Loving Christmas in Seattle!  And this evening we waited in line to see the Whoville Gingerbread Village.

12-18-18

Enchant!  Family photo, with Bruce off in la-la land dealing with housing issues.  This time it was our personal rentals rather than his job at least!

12-17-18

Vacation day!  Found myself on dufferent streets of Seattle, and there were window washers at the library.  Elevators are a new part of life in Seattle, but so are indow washers.  I see them at home and at work with regularity.  And today, it struck me what a challenging task this building is.

12-16-18

Today was a quiet day at home AND two of our twelve Christmas related events between Thanksgivign and Christmas.  We are celebrating our first Christmas back in Seattle in a big way.

Pike Place and Westlake Tree Lighting
Viktoria Cocoa and Karoke Party
Greystar Christmas Party
Frat Stocking Packing Party
Handel's Messiah rehearsal at Benroya Hall
A Very Die Hard Christmas at Bathhouse Theater
Cookie Baking Day
DIVING SANTA at the Aquarium
MURDER ON THE MISTLETOE EXPRESS at Cafe Nardo
Enchant
Festival of Lessons and Carols at Benroya Hall
Land of the Sweets Nutcracker

12-15-18

Happy Cookie Baking Day!

Renting the rooftop lounge worked pretty good to be able to spread out and bake up a storm.

12-14-18

Everything sparkles at the convention center.

Bruce and I both were able to attend the TRENDS housing conference there today.

We just did very different sessions...

BRUCE:
Best Practices for Organizing and Managing Parking in a Multifamily Community
Enforcement of Tenant Duties
Conflict Resolution & Negotiating with Difficult Tenants
Rapid Rehousing: How You Can Include a Non-Profit Partner in Your Busienss Plan
Managing A Team: How Maintenance and Office Can Work Together

MICHELE:
Should I Hold or Should I Sell Now?
Utilizing IRA's and 401ks In Your Rental Real Estate Portfolio
Buying Proeprty Outside Your Comfort Zone
Confessions of a Millenial Mind
Short Term vs. Residential Retail: The Inside Story

12-13-18

A partridge in a pear tree, or a pear and Santa still life?  I wanted our decorations to be angels and nativity, but some cute Santa's, puppies, birds, reindeer and others have crept in...

12-12-18

Slept on an air mattress alst night, but well worth it wake up to this view!  Nativity in foreground, more itneresting juxposition.  I'm liking this new apartment, for the views and for the ease of houseguests.

12-11-18

Continuing the theme of old decorations in a new habitat.  There is one new bird to celebrate Jacob joining the fam, nice that Target sticks with themes multiple Christmas's.

12-10-18

The Christmas village fits nicely on our ledge.  With the construction site behind and the Great Wheel celebrating Seahawk victory in the background.

12-09-18

Photo from the same spot a day later.  It looks like we got moved and that Christmas finally got unpacked.  We'll ignore all the *fun* in between.

12-08-18

Move day is finally here!  Who knew that getting the keys would be the easiest part of the day?!?  We weren't sure when we'd be done with the frat stocking event so we didn't get an appointment with the leasing dept.  That timing worked out and the three floor move began...

12-07-18

I failed to take any photos at Bruce's work Christmas party, but there is a Greystar Christmas tree...

12-06-18

Hot cocoa bar!

12-05-18

Enjoying the holiday creamer immensely.  The little joys got a long way.

12-04-18

RIP Bush 41.

12-03-18

Trying to capture the wreath, got an interesting perspective on the morning commute.

12-02-18

Getting in the Christmas spirit with the Carasa's today, sharing our favorite stops and food.

12-01-18

Fun art found today, and has some elements of how we spent our day - Space Needle, rain, and coffee!

11-30-18

This weekend my office is moving, next weekend my residence is moving.  Ironically, neither move is very far, but both are still a pain!

11-29-18

Merry Christmas from Viktoria!  Love the simplicity and elegance.

11-28-18

Love these big snowflake decorations at a nearby apartment building.

11-27-18

Not even December 1st yet and it is already feeling pretty festive. Santa was smiling down at me this morning from the Metropolitan Grill.

11-26-18

Dad brought several of his village pieces for Bruce to display at work.  On top of the Amazon Hub seems like a visible but relatively secure vantage point.

11-25-18

Today was church, grocery shopping in Queen Anne, and Pokémon Go at the Seattle Center.

The wooden trees at church were full of red tags for Angel Tree last week, this week they are pretty bare.  They collect gift cards rather than gifts.  Much easier, but a little less fun too.

11-24-18

A nice chill day, what weekends should be.

We wanted the Pike Place Market light up for the holidays then headed to Cinerama to watch the latest Harry Potter movie with Jamie and Shanna.

11-23-18

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!  Being in Seattle this weekend is not unusual for us, but really fun to enjoy the festivities while we live here now.

Westlake Center - shopping by day, lighting ceremony by night...

11-22-18

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gathering round for prayer time in Olympia.

11-21-18

Took the plunge to start dying my hair.

My blue haired stylist wanted to know if I wanted to whisper, chat, or shout.

I asked for a whisper of copper, with hopes of pushing it further over time.  This cayenne mixed with apricot.  I think it is fun.

11-20-18

Missed getting a photo of Xander, drat.

Worked a lot on my embroidery today.

11-19-18

It's official, we're moving in a few weeks.  To a bigger unit, 773 to 888 square feet, adding a den.  To a quieter place, no HVAC right out the window.  Less spectacular view, but still a fun view, including the Space Needle and still seeing the Great Wheel.  Same price, score on softened housing market.  December 8th, so guess we will wait to decorate for Christmas.

11-18-18

Today we toured apartments, found one we'd like to move to.

We also walked all over the Seattle Center area, what a beautiful day to hunt Pokemon, rack up some steps, and get in the holiay spirit.

11-17-18

Toured a condo on Eastlake Avenue today.  It was cute, and had the exact same cabinets, counters, and flooring as our apartment.  Took the bus back downtown, just like Bruce did over 20 years ago...

11-16-18

Happy Friday!  Ducked into a public square to try for an artistic shot.  It's my reflection, but it doesn't look like I'm looking into the camera...

11-15-18

Big Seahawks vs Green Bay Packers game tonight, Pioneer Square is crowded!

11-14-18

This photo didn't turn out very good, but on my way to work I walk by a lot of bars.  The bottles look so pretty, in the dark, lit, when the streets and establishments are still.

11-13-18

Baking tonight.  Which means the stool is out.  When we move I plan to reorganize the kitchen so I can reach the staples and spices.

11-12-18

Another week of heavy meetings.  Double booked even.  You know it's serious when we start drawing T-accounts.