Category: Uncategorized

Kevin and I flew a redeye into Boston on Thursday night, did a slew of wedding errands (including picking up the marriage license! And dropping of the dress to be pressed after bringing it on our flight as a carry-on — security was way less daunting that I’d been afraid it would be.), and then headed down to Brown for my brother’s graduation.

I don’t have the faintest recollection who took this picture, but here are the two of us outside the checkin tent shortly after we arrived, with a mere week before the wedding. 🙂

Kevin made strawberry basil martinis after he got back from Vegas. Very fancy. 🙂 I love the garnish.

I’ve been spending a decent percentage of the last few weeks at my eye doctor. For the first time in many years, it’s looking like my prescription is actually *improving*! Woah! Sweet. This means that, combined with all of the next lenses that have come on the market in the last year, there are all sorts of new combinations for me to try. My doctor’s great, and he’s far less willing to throw in the towel than I am. (I’d love to be able to look up from my work at a colleague and give them a “yes?” look, instead of the stare of death. But, I work in front of a computer all day, in an air conditioned environment due to all the computers, and so I can’t wear contacts at work, so I can’t really see the people who enter my office. I wear glasses in the hall, and flip them up in front of the computer. I don’t expect this to change.)
(I’d also love to wear contacts for our whole wedding — a major increase from the 2-4 hours that have been comfortable before.)
Anyway, I more or less have a good contact to order at this point, but he wanted to try me for one more set (two weeks). As he usually does, he threw in an extra pair of samples. Since that would take me to exactly the middle of my wedding/honeymoon trip, I asked if I could buy two extra sets. It’s a small office, and when he heard that it was my wedding and honeymoon (apparently, he’s an avid Hawaii snorkeler), everyone pitched in. They gave me extra contacts, more solution, and even single-use contacts to use while I went snorkeling! Woah. Good fun. Thanks, Redmond Eye Clinic!

(For those with contacts, you will recognize the generosity. Woah!)

Everyone has been very interested in the wedding, but I think that this was my first “It’s a bride!!!” experience. 🙂 Mad cool. I left grinning.

I had a short, short workday on Monday, before leaving for the airport for a conference.

It was my first time in Vegas. I love how it looks like if you hopped off the plane and rolled your bag to the edge of the runway, you’d be at the casinos. I was also very impressed at the mountains — for some reason, I thought that Las Vegas was surrounded by flat desert. The major rocks pushing up everywhere as the plane descended were quite impressive, especially as they were so unexpected. There were huge red areas — some mineral? Quite pretty. (You can see the edge of the city faintly in the background before the next series of mountains.)

As we flew in closer, I found the view shockingly green. All of the palms, lawns and swimming pools were so bizarre given the brown, tan, and red we’d been flying over.

The conference was at the Venetian, and the rooms were enormous. Here’s Kris (Kevin’s roommate from intern days. So fun that he was at the conference, too!) frolicking in my bathroom.

I was up on the 19th floor, and the view was lovely: the mountains, the Wynn, and the pools.

The windows were glazed, and so it actually looked kind of overcast all of the time. It wasn’t until you looked down and saw the dark shadow of the building that you could tell how sunny it was. I managed to sneak a few hours by the pool, which barely made a dent. After two and a half years of Seattle, my body doesn’t remember how to tan. Hopefully it remembers before Hawaii.

On the whole, I thought it was a very weird, uncomfortable week. The hotel was a maze — they really don’t want you to find your way outside. I thought the casino was disturbing (my first time in one). Given how much air conditioning, and pageantry, and faux-gold finishing, and flowing water, and electricity is used, it’s hard to imagine someone looking around and thinking that they feel lucky. So much money has to be lost for it all to be profitable. Many, many people worked on convincing me to gamble (it’s odd how excited other people get about introducing you to their favourite game), but setting aside money to lose just didn’t seem compelling. The restaurants were delicious, but ridiculously expensive. The gender thing is bizarre. The conference had maybe 5% female attendees (though I suspect I’m being very generous), and most of the women at the hotel ranged from arm candy to the drink and cigarette ladies in their costumes on the casino floor. I felt totally out of my element.

I left at sunset, though, and got some spectacular views of the mountains. (None of the pictures came out — the glass just reflected all of the slot machines next to the gate. I would have included them for artistry’s sake, but they were too blurry. You’ll just have to imagine.)

The “new” chair in use!

Kevin accumulated a slew of comp time during the last few months, and has been using two weeks of it for a well-earned vacation before starting his new job. 🙂 It’s nice to have him around.

My dad just switched jobs, and within a fortnight of starting managed to get on a trip out to Seattle for a conference. Yeah! The last time that he and Mom were out here was October 2004, which is sort of mindboggling. I was midway through my half-year vacation, our fishtank was just set up with rocks, but no fish, Kevin was still five months away from the Mustang, and the apartment was laid out totally differently. Now, we’re both two jobs down the line, we’re mere weeks away from our wedding (shocking, but yay!), and everything’s just settled. It was so fun to have them here.

The weather almost cooperated — we had glimmers of mountains and a few hours of sun. Better than it could have been. We didn’t do much of the touristy bit this trip. We spent a few hours on Saturday driving through the neighbourhoods that Kevin and I would consider buying in, which was good fun. We walked to the center of town for free cone day. My dad got fitted for his tux for the wedding, which made me grin. We’ll look great for our walk together down the aisle. 🙂

Here’s Dad — we enjoyed the sunlight in the room upstairs on Saturday, which shone through even though it was raining outside.

And here’s Mom, taking a tour in the crinoline:

My dress was shipped from the shop in Florida so that I could get it fitted out here, and it arrived just a few days before my parents did. I can’t get into it by myself — too many layers of delicate fabric, not to mention the laces, zippers and buttons — and so it was so fun to finally get to try it on.

I’ve been totally gardening obsessed recently. Last summer, I sort of petered out, because I hoped we would buy a house and then I’d have a real yard to play with, and herb, vegetable and flower gardens galore. Assorted things (mostly timing with the wedding, really) have put a crimp in the house plans, so we’re still renting. I love our apartment, so it’s kind of hard to mind, but given that the front deck only gets 3 hours of morning light and the back gets the same in the afternoon, it makes gardening feel a little more challenging. Since my parents were coming, though, I decided to take the mini daffodils out of the big planter and put them in their own pot, and redo the spaces in the front planter.

The tall plant in the back is the evergreen Phormium Tenax (also called New Zealand Flax), which has been acting pathetic over the winter. I think it needs more light. More water makes it look even more dreadful, so I’ve been trying to dry it out. I planted a bright red geranium in the middle, and then in clockwise order around the outside, there’s (new) bacopa, Elephant Ears (another evergreen, and still here from when I originally did the planter), the red snapdragons from last summer, some sort of variegated ivy that I’ve long lost the name of (another original), and new white impatiens that haven’t flowered yet.

Moving to the next pot, I also have a $4 Easter Lily — I bought it on sale after Easter Sunday, but it hadn’t bloomed yet. There are 7 blooms sitting there, and I love the smell. So wonderful. The bottom leaves are a bit yellow and pathetic, but I think that was mostly due to over watering at the store. I’ve moved it to the back porch now, in hopes that it will get better light.

The daffodils are the last pot. They’re all shaggy and floppy, but I don’t begrudge them the space — they’re so green.

The townhouse we live in has great, green landscaping. It’s not really a reason that we chose it, but there are constantly people working outside and it tends to look quite pretty. It was so unfortunate, then, that the garden people chose the day before my parents arrived (for their first visit out here in two and a half years!!) to demolish the pretty tropical evergreens (maybe New Zealand Flax?), and to prune the poor pines within an inch of their lives. Here’s the shocking view outside the front door:

And another shot of the destruction:

I’m afraid that it seems to be catching… the trees across the street have looked like this for a few weeks — trimmed to a fifth of their prior glory.

Poor things.

I love this picture. Seattle’s winter weather starts to grate, sometimes. The clouds are so deep, the light is so grey — it’s just a leaden landscape. The mountains are hidden, and it’s dark too early to see the huge pine trees on the side of the road on the way home. But then they moved daylight savings time up this year, and I’ve been able to see the summer coming a few wonderful weeks early — we have warm weather and light evenings, so I’ve started ditching the car and walking home from work. The way home is easy and lovely — four miles, nearly all downhill. Reversing in the morning is a little tougher. 🙂

It figures, though that the day I bring the camera, the typical thick winter gray would return. Here’s the view from the 405 pedestrian overpass at eight in the morning. It’s a straight uphill walk from the lake, and then you climb up a two- or three-storey ramp to get to this point, so it’s just way, way above everything. The clouds are practically at eye-level. You can just barely see the Olympic mountains peeking through at the horizon to the right of the pine trees. Gorgeous. The favour of a glimpse of the mountains is worth the gray to me.

From way up high on the ramp, I also got to see the upper limbs of the massive tree alongside it. The branches were budding, but the impressive sight was that they are covered with a thick moss. When you consider that this tree is totally open to the sky in four directions, it really throws into relief what a dark, wet climate this is during the winter months.

The walk is interesting. Rather than 520 or the back way that’s recently been slow due to construction, the “road” looked like this.

The public trail cuts in between backyard fences, and for a long portion, it cuts past all of the horse pastures in Bridle Trails. The path is a bit muddy, and so the hoof prints are very easy to pick out. I haven’t come across any riders yet, just the tracks.

I hadn’t posted the finished sweater because I wanted to gift it first. The recipient put on a growth spurt, and passed four pounds, so I was pretty certain it would no longer fit. I almost didn’t even both to gift it, assuming it would now be too small, so I was a bit shocked when the parents exclaimed that it would still be so big on her. Seems pretty teeny to me!

Given a do-over, I would have used acrylic instead of cotton, or found a floppier cotton. This is more structured than cuddly — not quite what I was hoping for. The yarn is Rowan’s Cotton Glace (color #747), and while it was great to knit with, it’s just too sturdy for an item this teeny. Good to know.

I’m also pretty iffy on the button. My original thought was to use velcro, but I felt like it would destroy the sweater in the wash. I had a hard time finding guidance for knitting preemie clothes online, but one recommendation that seemed to recur was to use 1/2″ round buttons, since they’re easiest for the NICU nurses to quickly manipulate. The same site advised against metal closures, since they can get hot under the lights. This button fits those guidelines, matches the ribbon, and is a bit cute with the flowers, but it just isn’t growing on me. Such an “almost-but-not-quite” ending.

A bright note: Since this only took 4/5ths of the first ball of yarn I bought, I’m thinking of making a pretty, spring pair of these dudes with the leftovers!