Author: neil

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July 4th

FYI, if you don’t like fireworks then this probably isn’t the post for you!

Our first July 4th, 4th of July or Independence Day depending on your preference was spent relaxing in the sunshine. We’ve had a good few days of sun now and long may it continue. After some soccer at Lake Hills Park in the morning the afternoon was spent lazing around in the garden – I think this is a definite requirement of the resolution of independence as proposed by Richard Henry Lee.

Just after 6pm we headed over to Bellevue Park where the Eastside spectacular had been going since early in the afternoon. Harry and Toby launched themselves into a variety of bouncey slides and obstacle courses without any of their normal hesitation. Maybe their confidence is growing? They would normally require some persuading.

After dinner at the Cheesecake Factory it was back to the park for the fireworks. Apologies in advance for the shaky camera (occasional altering of sound quality and lack of focus!) but if I’d known the display was going to last for seventeen and a half minutes I would have gone to the gym to train for the holding steady of a camera. Pins and needles in my right leg didn’t help either but hey, it was July 4th and I was going to record every last second of it!

Part 1 is as follows:

httpv://youtu.be/Rms0YWD9_bQ

Part 2 is here:

httpv://youtu.be/xGgFAWIgM_s

I would say I split the video up in order to give you a break however it was just because Youtube wouldn’t let me upload a video that is longer than 15 minutes. You’d have thought the fireworks team would have taken this into consideration and shortened their display accordingly. All in all the display was very good (a bit better than Northampton but it was close!) and best of all was the fact that Toby watched it all and didn’t cover his ears at any point. Confidence and bravery was clearly flowing through him tonight!

If having watched that display you think it lasted quite a while then you will be pleased to know that for about every minute the display lasted we spent 3 sat in the car park trying to get out! Their organization at big sporting events and the like is normally pretty good but I guess most of the police had taken the day off to celebrate Independence Day! Never mind, it’s all part of the fun!

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Sinking Feeling

No matter where we are in the world, Titanic still makes Tracy blub like a baby and assembling Ikea furniture is never straightforward!

We bought a nice new chair and foot stool (poof) from Ikea this morning and they delivered it this afternoon – very good service! Unfortunately the holes to fit two parts together (the base and the back) didn’t line up and the best that the customer service team could offer was for someone to call us back in a couple of days – bad service!

At first I was going to wait but then the call of the drill was too much and I decided to make my own holes! Thankfully (surprisingly), nothing went horribly wrong and we now have a lovely, comfy new chair. It’s big and squishy and covered in a nice brown corduroy type material. It’s in the family room and it’s made the  room feel much better.

During the stress of the Ikea furniture assembly Harry and Toby watched the “sinking ship” film aka Titanic. It kept them quiet for most of the afternoon however I think it may have been a touch wasted on them as they seemed to enjoy their mum blubbing like a baby more than the film itself!

Roll on tomorrow and Independence Day. That’s not wasted on them either – it’s all about the fireworks!

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The Zoo!

What a start to our first July 4th Independence Day weekend. A glorious sunny morning without a cloud in the sky and Toby wetting the bed! There’s never a dull moment round here.

After throwing Toby’s bedding in the washing machine and having some breakfast we headed off down the road to Cougar Mountain Zoo. We’ve talked a lot about cougars since we’ve been here so we were all excited about seeing our first one. We should have known better!

The zoo was only small with a range of cougars, tigers, parrots and alpacas (plus a few other bits and bobs) but it has a nice quiet, relaxed feel about it. First stop was the cougar cage but there were no cougars. We knew they’d be there later though so we went to see the tigers. There were three tigers, one of which sprayed to mark its territory. Harry and Toby enjoyed this and spent the rest of the time round the tiger cage talking about how you needed to run if a tiger turns its bottom towards you. Toby is convinced he can out run tiger wee!

We then went up to see the reindeer who had lovely furry antlers. They have lots of special reindeer events all across December so we may have to go back to see them and Santa Claus.

As we spent some time looking at “the most beautiful cranes in the world” Harry and Toby were more interested in a ladybird. When told to leave the poor ladybird alone Toby wasn’t very happy but Harry informed Toby that they should leave it because it is an endangered species.

We then saw some of Harry’s favourite animals – parrots. Tracy asked the first parrot if he could say hello. And he could. He said hello! We asked him to say it again but he wouldn’t! The parrots were very lovely and very colorful – hence why there are lots of pictures:

[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157627102565668″]

Toby and Tracy fed the alpacas some chopped apples which they liked very much. Toby took a bit of encouraging to feed them but he did it in the end. Harry was not having any of it though. Just to be clear, he wasn’t scared of them, he just thought the alpaca would probably tickle his hand and he doesn’t like being tickled. I repeat – he was not scared!

After a few more parrots, no cougars and munching their way through an ice-cream we went back home.

I decided to get the new lawnmower out (which didn’t come with a power cable – how stupid is that!?) and give the lawn a cut. It was starting to get quite long and the home owners committee wouldn’t be happy with us if we let it get much longer.

It was a heavy old mower but the lawn looked much better once it was cut. I think I need a strimmer though just to tidy up the edges.

With the garden tidied, Harry and Toby emerged from playing on the Wii to spend the afternoon in the garden. The main highlight from the afternoon was their version of Total Wipeout. It took a lot of discussion to get the rules of the game sorted but as I’m sure you’ll agree it was well worth the effort. Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy the very first edition of Total Wipeout – Harry and Toby style (you may need to increase the volume on the video settings below rather than your PC):

httpv://youtu.be/1astp9xu3lo

After they had finished this game they moved on to a variety of other games including throw the ball in the pool:

httpv://youtu.be/bl6p0arcs1Y

That game lasted most of the afternoon. And what a lovely hot afternoon it was. So hot that most of it had to be spent lying on the loungers taking it easy until it was time for a BBQ.

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It’s a tough life but someone has to do it!

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Whidbey Island

On the Saturday night the house had gone to bed with the knowledge that I was taking them on an adventure the next day. It was to be a magical mystery tour that they would only find out about as the day unfolded. With this in mind, I was slightly disappointed that at 8:45am the following morning I was the only one awake! So much for the early start, the excitement had clearly overwhelmed them in their sleep!

With the car packed up, zip codes scribbled on pieces of paper and the excitement at fever pitch (or maybe I just imagined that) we were off. The boys were surprisingly good about asking where we were going or if we were there yet (I think the arrival time on the sat nav screen takes care of one those questions for them). It may also have been that the first couple of times they asked where we were going they were told that we were going to the mall at Bellevue or going wine tasting at Woodinville and with that they lost interest and simply feared the worst.

As we headed north on the I-405 we were interested to see the signs that informed us that we had left the “apple maggot quarantine area”. I’m not quite sure of the full boundary of the apple maggot area but it sounds quite interesting and I need to research it further (it’s probably not interesting at all!). It was a day of interesting sign posts as later on we also entered a tsunami danger zone as well as following a tsunami escape route.

Anyway, we drove north for about 40 minutes before arriving at Mukilteo and the ferry. The ferries cross over to Whidbey Island every half hour so we bought our ticket, lined up in the car park and then made our way onto the ferry. It was only a 15 minute crossing but it was just enough time for the boys to explore and take a couple of pictures. The water was beautifully calm and with cloudless skies the Cascade mountain range looked pretty impressive.

After disembarking we headed over to Langley which was a 10 minute drive over to the east coast of the island and is a very pretty little village (although they call it a city). At Langley they ring the bell whenever whales are spotted feeding offshore. I was keeping my fingers crossed but there were no bells today. Meanwhile Harry and Toby had charged their cameras and started taking (what I’ve no doubt are) wonderful photos of us, landscapes, boats, pebbles and my bum which was a source of great amusement for Toby.

We then took a stroll round the town – the Inn at Langley looks super nice, I’d like a weekend there – before heading to Prima Bistro for lunch. We sat out on the roof terrace with a beautiful view (apart from an electricity pole) across Saratoga Passage and on across to Camino Island. The Bistro was inspired by French classics so Harry ordered cheeseburger and chips and Toby had fish and chips (with a side of fruit)! Nothing is wasted on them – two sophisticated little boys!

Tracy and I had crispy pork belly and some warm olives for a starter followed by prawns and sauteed greens and a croque monsieur. It was all very yummy and it felt like we were on holiday, which I suppose we sort of are.

After lunch we got back in the car and headed to Double Bluff Bay which was on the west coast. We relaxed here for just over an hour in the gorgeous sunshine while the boys played in the lake. Mount Rainier looked absolutely incredible. Even though we’d driven even further away from it, it looked even bigger. On some of the pictures you can just make out the skyline of Seattle in the bottom right – Columbia Tower is a black dot on the horizon compared to her (Mount Rainier is referred to as “her” in Seattle – maybe because it is a big obstinate bugger!?).

There is also a picture in the collection of an eagle. You wouldn’t know it was an eagle from the picture but I assure you it is. Moments earlier though, while I was frantically trying to change the lense on the camera, it had dived down into the lake, not too far ahead of us, and tried to catch a fish. It could have been a brilliant eagle action shot however my reflexes clearly weren’t up to much and ended up as a small black thing in a picture flying off somewhere! Never mind – I’ll get the right picture eventually.

After leaving Double Bluff Bay we tried to get to Useless Bay – just because it has a great name – but we couldn’t quite find the right way – it seemed to be tucked behind some sort of members only access roads. We then drove down to the southern tip of the Island to a beach area called Possession Bay. We didn’t stop here though – we thought we’d better start making our way back to the ferry and home as some of us had to go to work the next day!

We timed it to perfection though as the clouds were starting to come in and we’d had by far the best of the day (and weather)  on the island. We only saw the bottom half of the island and we will definitely be back to see some of the other sights such as the Lavender Farms, the Rhododendron Park, and the skeleton of Rosie the whale.

We may also indulge in a spot of local wine tasting if there’s anyone in the family who would find that of interest?

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Thirtylicious!

Just a short post as a special request from Tracy. She would like everyone to know that although she maybe fortylicious, upon trying to purchase several bottles of wine at Trader Joe’s on Friday night (it had been a tough day) the cashier had requested proof of age before letting her make the purchase! I think the guidelines here are that if they think you are under 30 they ask to see some ID.

So there you go. Being stuck with three irritating boys, with no escape but the bottle for over 6 weeks has knocked a decade off! Gok Wan eat your heart out!

 

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Sounders, Red Bulls

After the excitement of the driving test what better than following it up with a first ever Sounders game for Tracy, Harry and Toby?? Harry and Toby had managed to behave since Sunday so we were good to go. Plus I’d already bought the tickets and it seemed a shame to waste them!

Kick-off was at 7pm so we set off over to Seattle at just after 5pm to avoid the rush. We parked at the stadium, which was ridiculously expensive but also explains why the tickets were so cheap, and set off for a mooch about and to find some food.

The atmosphere was building nicely, as it always does at a Seattle game – I think they are the best supported team in the MLS, and it turned out that the final attendance for this game would be a Sounders record with over 46,000 people there. I’m glad it was a record attendance because Toby had wanted to know if this was the most famous Seattle game ever, which I had reassured him that it was. So by being a record attendance I feel justified in saying that it was!

The team band (Soundwave) helped build the atmosphere nicely outside the stadium by the giant soccer ball. It’s not the best quality video but hopefully it gives a flavor. If nothing else it helped Harry and Toby dance their way all the way to their seats!

httpv://youtu.be/TyLNtcq7RAU

As we were up in the third tier of the stadium we had a pretty good view of the city and the dock area when we were on the outside of the stadium. Since having our furniture shipped half way round the world (or however far it is) in a little red container Tracy has turned into a bit of a container geek. I think she would have happily spent the evening with a glass of wine watching containers in the port!

We grabbed some food (Seahawk dogs for the boys and fish and chips for Tracy and I) and headed to our seats. They were a long way up. It made my legs go a bit funny sitting up there but at least we still had a good view of the pitch.

Based on my experience of previous games I was fearing the worst – both games to date have been awful! However this was a cracker! Within about 15 minutes Seattle were winning 2-0 and comfortable. Then, in what I have found out to be a Seattle sporting trait (and somewhat similar to England/the UK) they normally find a way of mucking it up. With this in mind after about 10 minutes into the second half it was 2-2 and all going horribly wrong. Harry, being the loyal fan he is, was predicting a New York win and I couldn’t help agreeing with him.

For once though it all had a happy ending! Seattle scored a third:

httpv://youtu.be/ECWVsNjPX-8

And then a fourth went in and Harry and Toby got right into the swing of singing and chanting (once Toby had clarified exactly what they were saying):

httpv://youtu.be/j7V-_Vw2WAw

So it all finished with a 4-2 victory and high fives all round. Next trip back to the Qwest stadium is when those dirty Mancs (Manchester Utd) come over for a pre season friendly. Can’t wait!

[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157627041057692″]

 

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The Test

Thursday 23rd June, 10:50am. The day of driving destiny! The day to take my US driving test – all of 18 odd years after my last driving test. Although the test is designed for 15 year old Americans to pass I still felt rather nervous. The nerves were not helped by the stress of thinking I wasn’t going to make it to the test center in Renton due to the directions of a ridiculous (free) satnav app I had downloaded onto the phone. Tracy had the proper one as she had a day of leg waxing and kids birthday parties (unrelated activities).

After taking me on and off of freeways on a reasonably random basis and delivering me to a final destination that was clearly not my final destination, I arrived 10 minutes after my check-in time and 5 minutes before the test. For once though I didn’t have to sit around waiting and I was out in the car park waiting for my examiner to arrive in no time.

The examiner was called Sam-Sam. Or something like that. We started off with Sam-Sam checking the lights, front and rear, and then he asked me to show him my arm signals, starting with a right turn. Now as I had written about learning my arms signals the day before you would have expected me to actually learn them. However I hadn’t – safe in the knowledge that they knew I already had a licence and wouldn’t possibly bother asking me this kind of pointless questions.

If he had asked me to show him how to signal left as a starter it would have been ok – I know that one – but turning right I wasn’t too sure. I started to plead ignorance but saw from him face that that wouldn’t work and so I started to generally move my arm around into a variety of positions until he asked me how to indicate left. Amongst all the different poses I had tried I had clearly struck “right turn” gold however I’m still not sure what the actual right turn motion is but hey, never mind!

Next up was left turn which was easy. Slowing down took a couple of variations of hand movements (including a general flapping motion) and he seemed reasonable happy that I had at some point made the correct gesture – at least, he let me continue to the actual driving part of the test so I figure I may have got something right.

The majority of the driving test was fine, or at least I thought it was until Sam-Sam gave me my feedback later. I reversed round a corner, parked on a hill – including turning the wheel the right way on the off chance that it rolled away. Again to make sure I passed I made a good show of turning the wheel both ways so that he knew I was trying to do the right thing even if I wasn’t actually doing it.

We ended, 15 or so minutes later, back in the car park to do a quick spot of parallel parking. Of all the tasks this was actually the easiest because the parking space was a coned area and obviously large enough for some big old US cars to fit in so me positioning a small PT Cruiser in there was no problem.

I then parked the car in a final space and sat ready for judgement. It didn’t start well, Sam-Sam was clearly enjoying my misery – probably pay back for the rubbish efforts at arm signals. So the crime list read as follows…

1. I was too far away from the kerb when I reversed round the corner
2. I didn’t look behind me all the time while reversing round the corner (I think he’s wrong about that though!
3. At a stop junction I didn’t look far enough past a tree (don’t really know what he was talking about but I nodded and feared the worst)
4. Something about wide roads in the US and keep to a certain side on my side, blah, blah, I’d kind of switched off and wasn’t paying any attention any more

As Sam-Sam continued I was convinced I’d failed but then I looked at his clipboard and he drew a circle around “qualified”. Hurrah! He did continue to tell me more things I did wrong but I wasn’t in the slightest bit interested. I’d 88 out of 100 so I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. The smugness grew further when I sat waiting for my temporary licence and noticed that the gentleman who had taken his test at 10:55 had only scored 72 out of 100!

All that was left was to sit in a room with lots of “special” people for about 90 minutes so that I could get my temporary licence. The real one will be in the post in 7-10 days – how exciting!

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Bites, Bribes & Tests

So summer didn’t last long! I’ve been assured that it definitely, definitely starts after July 4th. Guaranteed. Today though, we were back to some overcast weather apart from the evening when it cleared up and the sun came out. It seems to do that a lot. Still, yesterday was officially the first day of summer – and it was fab – all the mountains came out to play. It was even warm enough for the boys to go swimming in Lake Sammamish at Vasa Park. Apparently the water in the lake was warmer than a swimming pool. I’m not sure I believe them but they sounded pretty convincing. I still haven’t been there but it sounds like a nice spot – hopefully a BBQ will be on the cards there soon.

In the evening we played soccer down at Issaquah soccer fields. I had to go in goal while they took shots at me. I didn’t ache as much as I thought I would this morning but I am covered in bites – there are obviously some savage creatures living in the grass down there. I have one on my forehead, one on my neck and one on my elbow – I’m almost a walking bump (and I’m not referring to my stomach!).

The bribe of going to see Cars at the weekend and Seattle Sounders on Thursday night is clearly working well with the boys – they have both been very good all week. I think they must have used up a weeks worth of wickedness on Father’s Day, so they are just in the process of restocking.

This evening should have been spent revising for my driving test which is at 10:50 tomorrow morning. But it wasn’t. Instead we had a little England night watching programmes on the iPlayer. First up was The Apprentice, followed by The Apprentice – You’re Fired and rounded off with an episode of Eastenders. When I say rounded off, I was wrong. Rather than rounding off, we moved on again! To Coronation Street. And then Alan Carr Chatty Man. I think Tracy has been missing UK TV and tonight she decided to make up for going 6 weeks without it!

One thing I have noticed about American TV is that although the programmes aren’t very good (or at least we haven’t worked out where to find the good ones) their TV adverts are much better. Way funnier than the UK – particularly the water skiing boxing and the clouds that go “yeah” (can’t remember what the product is though – probably burger related).

Update: I Googled it and found it – it was burger related:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92Zw_ew9goI

So all in all it was a night infront of UK TV and it was just like being at home! Speaking of home, we got news that there had been a break-in in Meadway since we left. They broke in through a patio door with a fork stolen from someone elses shed. Touch wood it’s not number 2! I presume they’d have to tell us if it was! Harrold has clearly gone down hill since we left.

Anyway, back to the driving test. Rumor has it that they’ll make you drive a couple of blocks, park in a supermarket parking space (which are huge) and that will suffice – I hope so. I don’t want three point turns, parallel parking and reversing round corners. Although I’ve just checked what I am going to be tested on. Arm signals!? Oh gawd! I’ve no idea what they are! Maybe should I revise!

The silly thing is that even if I fail I’ll just get back into the car, drive back to work and carry on as if nothing happened! I’m just hoping that they won’t make me go through the whole hour long test – mainly because I need to get back to the office for a meeting. Oh well, we will see – hope I’m not so nervous that I can’t sleep tonight! Keep your fingers crossed!

(And even if I fail I’m going to say that I passed!).

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Magic & Basketball

Today was the first commute from the new house. And it’s not bad! It’s about 8 miles and it took 16 minutes in the morning and 2o minutes home this afternoon – so not too shabby. I took the freeway and it wasn’t at all bad, so I’ll try it again tomorrow.

Harry spent the morning teaching Toby magic ready to give me a magic show when I got home. In the afternoon, they visited Vasa Beach Park, which unlike other parks round here you have to pay to access – which I suppose keeps the riff-raff out. The park received good reviews from Tracy though so I think a visit may be on the cards one evening this week. It has a nice beach and the slide into the lake which both boys seem convinced they will slide down into the lake. We shall see!

When I got home Toby and Harry tried their magic tricks. The first was guessing the number on the face of a dice after I had given it a shake and put it in a pot. Toby had clearly forgotten all his training and adopted the approach of just guessing what the number was. Although he had a 1 in 6 chance it didn’t work. He looked very disappointed with this turn of events so Harry took him aside for a refresher in magic. It worked as Toby turned into a super magician. Harry then demonstrated the skills of being able to push pins through a pot that had a solid coin inside it. The sleight of hand needs a little more work but it wasn’t bad!

The final trick was pulling your thumb off your hand and making it appear again. It has to be seen to be believed! Maybe the next video clip will be a magic show!

After eating some yummy pasta in the garden – it was a lovely sunny evening – I took the boys down to the local basketball court to shoot some hoops. It was the Stickells’ family against the Invisible Team and after some nail biting basketball Toby managed to shoot the winning hoop. It was his first of the game and pretty impressive considering the hoop is about 9ft high but it’s amazing what you can do when you’re 4 (and being lifted high into the air). Harry celebrated victory over the Invisible Team by throwing the ball in the air, which then came straight back down and landed on his head. Toby had hysterics and continued to laugh all the way home.

So day 1 of trying to behave passed without incident – they can be good when they try! Amazing! … Spoke too soon. 9:20pm and we’ve just been up to see them – apparently Goofy’s hand moved – any excuse not to go to sleep. Honestly children!

 

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Fathers Day

The first thing to decide on this post was the title. Normally it’s quite easy but this one could easily have been titled “Devil Children” or “Chicken Giblets”. While both of those titles would have worked I think Fathers Day is the most suitable.

This week has flown by and it has been another busy one. Our shipment arrived on Tuesday and the whole of Tuesday and pretty much everyday since has been spent unpacking boxes. It’s now Sunday evening and we’re getting there. The house is still a tip but the boxes are going! It is mainly clothes that need to be put away now and then we need to work out what on earth we are going to do with all the empty boxes in the garage – there’s definitely no room for cars in there at the moment.

Harry has finished school for summer now – poor Tracy! The final week consisted of his usual half day on Wednesday, no work all week, a sports afternoon on Thursday (although I’m not sure how sporty it was apart from a tug-o-war) and then a 2 hour school day on Friday. It seemed a bit pointless going to school for 2 hours but I think that is the minimum amount of time that counts as a school day and it means they have completed enough school days in the year. An easy life!

On the Wednesday we received an email from Andy (Harrold & Carlton FC coach) which informed Harry that his team mates had voted him player of the season – which he was suitably thrilled about. They asked if we could send a note or video to share with the team at the presentation BBQ on Saturday. After spending some time preparing his acceptance speech with typical cliches such as “really surprised”, “couldn’t have done it without you”, etc. we headed on down to the tennis court to shoot the video. To spare his embarrassment I won’t share the first 4 “takes”. The final version that got sent across was as follows:

httpv://youtu.be/aaRkmrTKqcI

On Thursday afternoon we headed to VW Seattle to sign the papers for the new car. We had been told that it could cost anything up to $1,000’s to register the car but it turned out to only be $156 which was a nice result! We then went back to VW Seattle on Friday to actually get the car. Tracy drove it back to the apartment following me (as I nearly drove into a bus!). It was definitely the bus drivers fault though – he was where I wanted to be! It doesn’t bode well for the driving test though which was meant to be taken this Tuesday but I rearranged it until next Thursday.

Our Friday night meal out was my choice, and I plumped for the Californian Pizza Kitchen in Bellevue – it made a change from Harry’s choices which were Zeeks Pizza or the Mexican and Toby’s choices which were McDonalds or Burger King. Although it was nice, it wasn’t quite the same as having a Friday evening in Kirkland but I suppose we need to get used the that.

Saturday saw us packing up the another 4 suitcases of clothes and a bunch of other things and almost moving everything to our new house. It rained all day and we spent most of it tidying, unpacking and shopping! The boys bedroom benefitted from a very colorful light and 4 new lamps appeared in and around the dining room and the family room. A giant pear was also acquired and currently sits proudly on the dining room table. Harry and Toby spent most of their time in the shops playing some sort of “touch as many things as you can” game. It didn’t matter how many times they were told not to – they’d forgotten 2 seconds later. Still they promised they would behave on Sunday as it was Fathers Day.

Fathers Day began rather abruptly at 7:10am as the boys came into the bedroom shouting “Happy Fathers Day”. I opened one present – a rather nice iphone charger before I got a cup of tea and Cadburys chocolate fingers in bed! I then opened my other pressie which is a Belgian waffle maker. I’ve wanted one of these since we came out in February. It looks brilliant – can’t wait to make some waffles!

From this point on I think Harry and Toby spent the day misbehaving in countless different ways and it stayed that way until just after 6pm when we sat down for roast chicken. We nearly didn’t get the chicken as unlike UK supermarkets this one still had it’s giblets in! I wasn’t getting involved (as it was Fathers Day) and neither were Toby or Harry – even though Harry had intended to take them out, he changed his mind when he saw them. Tracy ended up scooping them out with a spoon and putting them straight down the waste disposal unit – I can highly recommend these and not just for giblets. They are also very good for unfinished bowls of cereal and potato peelings.

After the giblet experience, it was decided that we wouldn’t be having roast chicken again just beef and pork, however, Tracy changed her mind once she had tasted how good it was! All plates were cleared and our first American roast dinner was complete – yum!

After dinner, we sat down and watched Cars in the formal lounge in readiness for Cars 2 which is out in the cinemas next week. The devil children are being bribed into good behavior – a week of behaving and we go to the cinema next weekend. What are the chances of that happening!?

 

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The Boxes are Back

Today was the day. After watching 2 Meadway get packed up, moving out and living in 4 different places for about seven and a half weeks and following the container across the Atlantic, through the Panama canal and up to Oakland, California, we were finally reunited!

[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157626840450527″]

Tracy was emotional as the boxes started coming out the container – probably at the thought of seeing all her handbags again (all $65k’s worth of insurance value – or somewhere near that figure!). I was excited at the thought of being able to sit on our sofa again – we’ve missed it! Toby just wanted to get his soft toys and Harry was busy at school, watching a movie and eating popcorn – school in America sounds awesome!

The container and crew arrived at 8:30am and it took about 4 hours for them to upload the lorry and unpack most of it. When we asked if they would be putting all the furniture together they didn’t seem too happy about it but they did it! The one thing that I knew would be a nightmare to put together was the bunk beds. And they were. I had hoped to avoid it altogether but after spending an hour or so trying to put them together they finally came and asked for help. After pretty much taking it to pieces again we managed to get it sorted. There is no way those beds are coming home with us though – they are being thrown out! They may not even make it until our return if Harry starts picking it again like he was in Harrold!

Although the our new house is much bigger than Meadway, the kitchen is smaller – not as much cupboard space anyway. There is going to have to be some creative cupboard packing skills displayed by Tracy – I’m keeping out of it! It’s also good to have the table and chairs in the kitchen/diner area (or nook as the Americans call it) mainly because it means I can no longer walk into the low light that hangs down. The lampshade is hard and it hurts and I used to walk into it on a regular basis!

The furniture all looks really good – I was worried the colors may not go with the color of the hardwood floor but everything goes perfectly. The sofas are super comfy, as is the bed, and by the end of a busy day the house is starting to get organized. It will probably take a couple more days and we will move in on Friday but progress on day 1 is good. Even if I do say so myself.

We left the house at 5pm and headed on over to Kirkland for a well deserved visit to Zeeks pizza. Then it was back to the apartment and into our comfy’s and pj’s just in time to experience our first earthquake. It was a moment we would never forget. At 6:52pm on the 14th of June it struck, just 9 miles north of Seattle. I say we would never forget it, we probably wouldn’t if we’d felt it, but we didn’t! It was only a magnitude of 2.5. Fortunately the local news station tweeted about it otherwise we would have been completely oblivious!

So all in all it was an exciting day! Our new house is starting to feel fab and homely (apart from the remaining piles of boxes), our bellies are full and now we are watching the Seattle auditions for Americas Got Talent (with a lot of weird people!). I think we will sleep well tonight!

 

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A Busy Week

In comparison to other weeks, it doesn’t feel like we’ve done a lot but we’re all pretty tired at the end of it! It must be all those early morning starts so that Harry can get to school on time – we don’t want him getting any tardy notes! Roll on September when it changes to a 9am start.

On the work front, I had two days out the office at a conference in Seattle which was good. The only downside is that having almost been organized at work I am now all behind again – I guess I need a productive week next week!

Tracy and the boys went over to our new house on Wednesday afternoon and got the keys – so it is officially ours! On Wednesday evening we went shopping at Pier 1 Imports and bought our first few things for the house. These were 2 lovely new bed side lamps (we don’t have any overhead lights in the master bedroom so we needed some lamps) and a giant knife and fork to go on the wall in the kitchen diner! We also checked out some TVs in BestBuys which we need ready for the cable guy coming round on Saturday to set it all up.

Harry went to Giovanne’s birthday party on Thursday which was held at 1-2-3 Jump. This place consists of dodgeball on trampolines. He was very sweaty when we picked him up but he had fun and that’s the main thing. After the party we returned to BestBuy to buy a hoover and two TVs. A 42″ for the lounge and a 32″ for our bedroom. Although they sound big, when we set them up in the house they look tiny! I can understand now why there are so many 65″ TVs on sale – they fit with the size of the rooms!

On Friday afternoon we opened another bank account, this time with US Bank. We have one with HSBC but they cannot setup direct debits to pay the rent – well, they will but they will charge us $30 for each monthly rent payment and $15 from the landlord for receiving it! The banking system over here seems a little bit backward but I’m not sure if that is just HSBC or banks as a whole!

Insurance for the new car and the house has also been sorted this week. There’s been a lot of form filling and payments so it would be good to get paid sometime soon – roll on those fortnightly pay checks! Although I should say bi-weekly – they have no idea what fortnights are over here! I am hoping to finally get paid next Friday for the first time!

On Friday night we had our traditional meal out in Kirkland. We won’t be having these on a regular basis once we have moved – will have to find new places to eat in Issaquah – so we thought we’d make the most of it. It was Tracy’s turn to choose where we ate and, surprise, surprise we ate at the Mexican! I had steak, prawn and chicken fajitas, Tracy had a burrito, Toby a taco and Harry was in the mood for new food and ordered the quesadilla’s (after he had asked the waitress what they were). Harry is getting rather confident – I think a couple of weeks at school has done him the world of good.

Saturday was another early start. We were over at the new house by 8:45am in order to put the bases on the TVs before cable guy arrived. Once I had unpacked them I realized that we didn’t have any screw drivers so a quick visit to the Home Depot was required. I’m not sure which came first but walking into Home Depot is like walking into B&Q in the UK. It could easily have been an early morning DIY shopping trip in Wellingborough. And when I say identical, they really are – even the way the aisles are laid out – the square walk round area with the power tools is exactly the same as B&Q. They even have the same self service checkouts – although these don’t talk at you quite as loudly as the B&Q ones.

Cable guy sorted the TVs – we have two setup and working but there are a total of 5 connection points around the house where we can plug new TVs in – just in case we need to have a TV in every room. We have our internet access setup with a connection speed called Blast! Not only does it sound good, it provides a 20mb connection speed which is about 4 times faster than what we had in Harrold and 20 times faster than Grampy’s!

The phone connection is sorted too but both these things required us to make another trip to BestBuys in order to buy a wireless router (pronounced “rout-er” over here) and some telephones.We do have a new telephone number but I have no idea what it is! There are so many new phone, mobile and PIN numbers to learn here – my brain cannot cope!

After sorting all that and having some lunch, Harry went off to play at Dane’s – a new friend from school. Dane has a treehouse in the garden so I think they will be having fun there most of the afternoon. Although when we dropped him off it sounded like they had a pretty busy, fun-filled afternoon lined up including making hotdogs.

While Harry played there, the rest of us played some tennis back at the apartment. It’s a lovely sunny afternoon, and while we played the largest golden eagles EVER flew over us. Typically this was the first time I had been down playing tennis and not taken the camera. They definitely know I want to take a picture and it’s clearly not going to happen. I’m thinking my best chance maybe going to a zoo. Maybe I will have more luck by Lake Sammamish?

… breaking news …. I just managed to get another fairly good eagle picture! Check it out here – it’s the one where he is looking to the left showing off his white bum!