A diary of our two years in Seattle/Bellevue/Kirkland
At 10:14pm Tuesday night spring began. I’ve no idea why it starts at some random time in the night but it did and I’m glad it has. We’ve had a good few weeks of wet weather but the sun has been shining since spring sprung and it’s been really rather lovely.
On Wednesday we had a lovely sunset which turned the mountains pink. Mountains that we hadn’t seen for quite some time:
Hopefully this is just a sign of things to come! Roll on the sunshine and let’s cut back a little on the rain!
The excitement of Match Attax returned to the house tonight. The last time we had this type of excitement was when Grandad was here back in October and we had a box full of cards to open. Today some more cards arrived from Nanny and GanGan and after lots of waiting the time came to open 10 packs each. It didn’t take long but they didn’t half enjoy themselves!
httpv://youtu.be/czV5jxl3WwQ
Yay! The soccer season is back and that means the return of the Sound Wave. We had tickets for the opening game, Sounders vs. Toronto. Sounders had been thrashed in midweek by a Mexican team so the omens weren’t looking good. But to be honest it was seeing the Sound Wave again that was more important that watching the game! And it wasn’t disappointing, they had new material and everything! (not sure what the everything is but they definitely had new tunes!). Including this one, which is now up there as one of our favorites:
httpv://youtu.be/jTlU_APtrr8
After listening to the Sound Wave we went up to our seats, which weren’t in Club, much to Harry’s disappointment. We prepared the boys for some foul language as it was St Paddy’s day and there were a lot of green, drunk Seattle fans about. After the opening day parades, flags and fireworks it was down to the national anthem and soccer. Harry found the whole anthems and raising your scarf for kick-off rituals a little bit inconvenient as he just wanted to stuff his face full of pizza:
httpv://youtu.be/d3f6Q-kCESw
At half time Harry managed to get his hands on some St Paddy’s flashing glasses which he was rather pleased with:
He particularly enjoyed wearing them in the car on the way home as he danced in his seat to the music and created a one boy light show.
Despite getting a mid-week drubbing, Seattle didn’t let us down and they beat Toronto 3-1, so it was a successful soccer day all round, as Harry and the Gunners had won 11-0 earlier in the day. One more goal for the Stickman, 5 so far for the season.
And if all that wasn’t enough, with Seattle scoring 3 goals it meant free haircuts for everyone! If only they hadn’t let one in, then it would have been free haircuts and free taco’s for all. Only in America!!
This week at work we have had the global SEO team visiting us in Bellevue. As is now traditional you have to do some sort of activity which can be classified as “team building”. Awful stuff. To make matters worse I had to think of the team building activity.
On Wednesday afternoon we went and undertook the aforementioned activity which was … glass blowing. I’m not sure why this area (Seattle and Tacoma) appears to be so famous for glass blowing, but it is. We had 4 hours in the afternoon across which everyone in the group created a couple of master pieces.
For my first piece I had asked if I could make a glass version of the Space Needle but the answer was a clear no! Apparently making the Space Needle is not straightforward so instead I made this:
I would have preferred more of a Mario Kart style mushroom but this wasn’t bad.
Next up I decided to go for a sort of shape type thing! It could be a vase and it could be an upside down thing that sits on the side:
The colors weren’t quite as vibrant as I wanted but even so it wasn’t a complete disaster. Harry thought both pieces were really good. I’m not sure Tracy was quite so convinced. Shame one is her birthday present and the other her anniversary present!
Tomorrow, Toby has someone famous visiting his class. At least that what he tells us. And Miss Chen told him so it must be true. When asked who the famous person was, Toby thinks that it may be either Obama or Justin Bieber. His preference is for it to be Obama because he can’t stand Justin Bieber singing. If it is Obama he thinks that he will probably tell Toby that he can be President.
I’m not sure if will be either of these two but time will tell!
I was a bit naughty today and bought myself a present! As I’d had a a good week at work (a promotion, two bonuses, a pay rise and some shares) Tracy convinced me that it was ok! I didn’t need much convincing! I’d had my eye on getting a new body for a few weeks – a camera body – and yesterday at the mall I almost gave in to temptation. Luckily I hadn’t because this morning we went to Costco to get a joint of pork and we ended up with a new camera!!
It would have been silly not too really – it was such a good deal. I got a Canon Rebel T2i with two lenses, a bag and a memory card for not much more than the camera shop wanted for just the body. Good job Costco!
So we should now see a considerable improvement in the quality of photo’s on this site now, starting with this:
Which is not really anything special but I had to take a photo of something! The very first photo ever taken on the camera was the featured image at the top of this page. It made Tracy look even more beautiful than normal!
A competition for you all. It’s quite simple, who is the star of the following video? There’s no visual clues just some noise. Could it be me? To be honest I don’t make these sort of noises so I doubt it! It could be Harry, it could be Tracy or maybe it’s Toby. What do you think?
httpv://youtu.be/UGX5h2nLBlc
Correct answers get a prize. Not sure what but it will be good!
After sneaking away from work a little bit earlier than normal we decided to visit the 41.5 park and shoot a few hoops. We started out somewhat rustily (aka rubbish) but slowly improved. Harry soon rediscovered his mojo and scored some baskets, including a spectacular over the head effort, and Toby scored a hat-trick of baskets. Toby also learnt a new “pass under the leg” move to add to his dribbling and basketball dance moves …
httpv://youtu.be/mNY9hp5xqLQ
I’m not sure if it is because she worked in a marketing and logistics department for about 15 years or because the contents of our house went into one but Tracy has developed a somewhat irrational love of containers. So probably the highlight of the trip to Victoria on Vancouver Island was the site of a ship loaded high with containers. As the clipper pulled alongside the ship I was sent outside to take a photo ensuring the moment was captured.
So, here for Tracy, are the pictures:
Despite the cold winds and rain there is a little hint of spring in the air. The green shoots are poking through the flower beds at home (and not just weeds!), and at Chittenden locks the crocus, daffodils and something else (!) were starting to bloom. A splash of color and some sunshine made up for the lack of boats, trains and salmon!
Now as Tracy points out, they probably should be called the Toronto Maple Leaves rather than Leafs, but that’s not the area of discussion for this post. While in Toronto I took advantage of a free evening to go and watch my first ever ice hockey game. From what people in the office said it sounded a bit like the Leafs were similar to Seattle teams – well supported but not really very good!
As I tried to enter the stadium, security confiscated my camera lense! Apparently if contravened some sort of NHL governing body rules – I guess they didn’t want me selling high quality images of the game to the local newspapers. It was disappointing as the zoom would have allowed me to take some fab pictures – I’ll have to try and smuggle it in next time – if there is a next time.
After quickly scoffing a couple of pizza slices I settled down to watch the game. Unlike American football and baseball there is nothing too complicated about the rules of hockey, so I could just sit and enjoy. The highlight of the first part of the game was a fight between two players. For some reason, in hockey, they don’t bother trying to stop the fight, the referees just stand next to them watching until one of the players ends up on the ice. At that point two of the refs leap on the players, keep them on the ground and then send them both off for 5 minutes!
With about 40 seconds left in the game the Maple Leafs trailed the New Jersey Devils 3-2 but then with just a few seconds left the Maple Leafs equalized to take the game to overtime. Maybe luck was on their side and the Leafs weren’t as bad as the Sounders, Seahawks and Mariners afterall?
One minute, eight seconds into overtime and I realized that they were. The Leafs went up one end and spanked a shot against the post and then the Devils went up the other end and some how the goal tender managed to take a shot that was going wide and direct it into the opposite corner of the goal.
Final score, 4-3 to the Devils. And lucky devils they were too.
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Whenever you go somewhere new you should always go up the tallest building and go on a boat ride (I’m pretty sure that is an unwritten rule/law).
Having ploughed my way through the longest airport security line in the whole history of airports and security, jumped in a taxi to the hotel and checked in, I thought I had better go up one of the tallest buildings in the world before it went dark. I set off on the short walk to CN tower and found myself at the back of another very long queue. Why these people weren’t at work I don’t know.
After probably 45 minutes or so of waiting I had my ticket and caught the elevator to the highest point I’ve ever been inside a building. The elevator goes at 15mph and takes 58 seconds to get to the observation deck at 1,136 ft. It made my legs go funny. There was another observation pod even higher (1,465 ft) but fortunately there was another long queue so I didn’t bother with that! But it doesn’t stop there, the actual tower itself stretches all the way up to 1,815 ft which I think is pretty much 3 times the height of the Space Needle. But size isn’t everything. The views from the Space Needle are so much more super awesome – on a clear day anyway. I’m not saying that Toronto isn’t nice but it’s quite flat all around the outskirts of the city – which I suppose is to be expected considering half of it borders Lake Ontario!
The other benefit the Space Needle has is that you can take proper photo’s. Up the CN Tower you’re either blocked behind glass windows or lots of netting type stuff. Which I suppose makes sense when you’re that high up but it doesn’t help me take fabulous photo’s which is somewhat selfish of the architects.
Some additional interesting facts about the tower … it opened to the public in June 1976 and was the tallest tower in the world for over three decades. On a clear day you can see over 100 miles (including as far as Niagara Falls). Lightening strikes the tower an average of 75 times a year.
Any finally, it was the highest the little boy in front of me in the queue to come back down in the elevator had ever wee’d at! Fact.
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