The new little eco car

As promised, here are the pictures of the new eco car...aka the prius. I still don't think I've gotten a really good shot of it but oh well. I've never purported to be an awesome picture taker and half of that is remembering to get out the camera...which, for me, always happens to be at the wrong times, wrong lighting. Oh well. This will suffice.

This picture was right after we got the prius and ran an errand to Whole Foods. Tim thought he saw something between his seat and the console and he was right. He thought it was a leaf, but nope it was a little friend that must have jumped in on the boat ride over.

Gross. He might have jumped in on the boat but he did not make it.

A view of the inside of the car.

And a view of the outside...sorry about the glare.

Driving home from the dealer.

And a view looking down on it.

These pictures don't really do the car justice. It's actually a pretty cool little car and this is coming from someone who was completely skeptical about prius' initially.

Reminiscing about arizona.

Today one of the partners at my firm and I headed down south to Tacoma to meet a client that we work with. Tacoma is about 30-45 minutes south of Seattle without traffic. I'm not really sure who decided that it was a great idea to meet at 4:30 in Tacoma on a week day. This is likely one of the worst decisions that person has ever made (and no, it actually wasn't me). Additionally, it doesn't make much sense since Jenn (the partner) and I were each coming from the Seattle area and the client works 20 minutes north of Tacoma. But regardless, the decision was made.

TRAFFIC WAS HORRIBLE. It took us 1.5 hours to get to Tacoma. I texted Jenn at one point when I was going 70mph (I was slightly ahead of her) and 2 minutes later we were dead stopped. So the text I got from her 10 minutes later was, "...and stopped." Yup.

I was immediately transported back to 2005 when I made the 1-1.5 hour commute every day to work in Phoenix when it should have taken 30 minutes without traffic max. One day it was 2 hours because old faithful decided to blow on one of the side streets (also known as a water main break). Granted, it was my decision to live where I did and to accept my job where I did and I dealt with it. And at the time I would have told you that I enjoyed being able to listen to music on the way to/from work and to enjoy tea in the mornings, make phone calls in the afternoons.

IT WAS ALL A LIE.

I was totally lying to myself and everyone else. How in the HELL could I have ever enjoyed traffic like that? I was hit by a huge baseball in the nose kind of reminder that driving for an hour and a half when it should only take 30-45 minutes is just pure torture.

We finally made it to Tacoma, however, and met up with our client. She (sadly) is my favorite client. She moved up to Seattle several years ago for a guy (does everyone do this? I swear, I have met so many people who have done this) but she came here from Scottsdale. Crazy! She has been my absolute favorite client up here for the past 3 years not only because she totally has her company running completely seamlessly but also because we do have quite a bit in common and can just talk forever- about our pasts in Arizona and whatever else we might be involved with in the present. The reason we were meeting her today is because she's moving back to Arizona at the end of the summer. So we talked all about her move back, where she's going, where she'll be working and I was totally, totally back there with her in thought. We talked about all of the places she should hit up once she's back, what to do about the 120 degree days, how awesome it will be in December to not have snow/rain/freezing issues. I guess that the plus side is that she will be back in Seattle every summer (can you blame her? Summers here are awesome!) and it's just another friend to have in Phoenix.

I was also reminded of Phoenix due to the place that we met for happy hour (other than the fact that it looked out over the Puget sound). This place was CRAWLING with people that you would see in North Scottsdale. Older ladies trying to look 25 (read: fake everything), younger ladies trying to snag an older guy with money, and money bags old men all over just trying to decide who to pursue (mostly it involved the younger ladies- including us at one point, although we obviously weren't there to snag a man- but the younger ladies getting attention elicited dirty looks from all of the older generation). It was totally cracking me up. It reminded me of many north Scottsdale experiences that I had.

Needless to say, I left happy hour feeling rather nostalgic for that hot, dry city that I loved so much for several years. I miss it. I miss the people, I miss the sun, I miss the places I went, things I did, I even miss the dryness. I don't know that I'd trade it for what I have now up here in the beautiful pacific northwest but, there will always be a very special place in my heart for that desert city...even the traffic, though the memories of that are memories that I am glad I don't have to visit often.

Miracle? Maybe... maybe??

So I wrote here about how the vet wanted to run additional tests for Bella's tummy issue. And I also ranted about how ridiculous these millions of tests were, where do we draw the line, how much do we do, and why aren't we treating?

Well, after this call from the vet we had the weekend to decide what to do. We happened to run out of Bella's special hypoallergenic food on a Sunday, a sunday that we met our friends at the dog park to play. I told my friend Gina that I had run out of food and was just giving her the stuff we used to feed her because at this point, nothing was really helping anyway and I needed to get some calories into her. Gina mentioned that she would bring the food she feeds her boxer as it is a high protein, high calorie food and if nothing else would get a considerable amount of calories into Bella. Perfect.

So we leave the dog park and I just give her the new food from Gina. No point in trying to switch gradually, she's already shitting her brains out every day.

A half hour later, I take her to poop and she has the most perfect poop I have seen in MONTHS.

W.T.F. I'm stunned.

She doesn't poop again that night (when usually it would be spray fountains of poop 3-5 more times in a night. Sorry if that's TMI). Again, I'm dumbfounded.

I think she's just having a good day but the next morning, I give her the same food again. PERFECT POOPS ALL DAY.

I have been hesitant to post about this because I don't want to jinx it somehow but it looks like we have found the solution. She has been on this new food for a couple of weeks now and I kid you not, she has put on 5-10 pounds. Easily. She is not emaciated anymore, you can see no ribs. She is scarfing up her food like she's been starving (which, pooping that much, she probably has been).

The only difference in this food? There is 0% grain. None. Nada. Our poor little puppy has had a grain allergy all along.

Oh, and the vet "specialist" (ha) was treating her with a hypoallergenic food that is 100% GRAIN BASED because "most animals have protein allergies." Initially I had asked her about the grain allergy because I thought, like people, animals would only have the grain allergy. The vet said, "No, it's very rare. Most animals are allergic to protein sources." APPARENTLY NOT and enjoy that $2K that we paid you for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Guess it makes sense that on the hypoallergenic GRAIN food, there was no improvement in the slightest.

Did I mention how freaking glad I am that we followed our gut in not going through with those additional tests?

We finally have a healthy, happy, growing puppy. I can't even tell you how excited and happy I am that she is so healthy. It is such a relief.

7.6.09...puke, cars, and new houses.

Yesterday morning did not start off well. I decided to take the day off since there were what seemed like a million personal things to attend to and it was easier to do if I had the whole day off. Plus, why not? Four day weekend? Yes please.

That morning Tim got off work and while he was driving home I decided to go get my blood drawn for a myriad of tests that they were going to do for me that are standard (by the way, according to my doctor the HIV test is now standard. Is that just a Washington thing? Does that seem weird to anyone else out there?) Anyway, I've been putting this off since my annual physical two weeks ago because I have to be fasting to get it drawn and I'm always in too much of a rush to go to the doctor before work. So this morning, I was fasting and didn't have to go to work so it was the perfect opportunity.

I decided that I would take Bella with me since I knew we would have a busy day in which she would be stuck in her crate most of the day. So I take her down to the garage, put her in the back of the mini, and get in myself. All of a sudden, OUT OF NOWHERE, I hear BLEEEUUUCH. WTF? I turn and luckily I am out of range but the effing dog is PROJECTILE VOMITING. IN. MY. CAR. ARE. YOU. KIDDING. ME?! I mean, come on! DOG. If you are going to vomit, especially projectile, PLEASE, next time, gag or something. There was no warning. It was like all of a sudden you are sitting in your house and BOOM! Tornado sweeps it away. No warning. Not fair right? (I am catering to my midwest readers at this point). The point is that she did not give any warning. At all. So I have a mess of vomit ALL OVER my car. Winston somehow managed to protect me from getting shot but GROSS. I was TRYING TO BE NICE by taking her even though I know she is not a morning person. Thanks Bella, I'm now even more aware that you hate mornings. Noted.

As soon as I get her out of the car, she pukes more. All over the garage.

If anyone knows me, you know my rather large (understatement) aversion to puke. My roommate and I were perfect for each other in college because we never puke. Nope, not even with drinking. It was actually maybe the most important criteria for each of us, and luckily we became great friends after we determined that criteria was met. The point is that I hate puke. I don't puke, I don't deal with puke, I used to run out of the room screaming when the cats puke. Let's just say that I win the nobel prize in dealing with puke after this experience. I have come a long way in the puke department. I didn't once feel like I was nauseous myself. I just cleaned it up, put Bella back to bed and went on my way.

There were no issues with having my blood drawn surprisingly, since last year it took about 5 sticks and subsequently three weeks for the bruises to heal. No. Fun. This year there was only one poke and 4 vials of blood. Ick.

When I got home, Bella seemed to be feeling better so either she just ate something bad or was just telling me that she would not prefer to go anywhere in the mornings. Who knows. But she scarfed down her breakfast like she hadn't eaten in years...probably because she lost any reserves she had. Ok, sorry, no more references to the puke experience.

After Tim got home, we went to the Toyota dealership to sign the paperwork, trade in the FJ and get the new car! Yes! It only took about 2 hours which was AWESOME. It took us 6 hours with the FJ. Of course, total the prius probably took us that long but it makes it so much better when you don't do it all in one day. The new car is pretty freaking sweet. We love it. I have pictures to follow, just don't have them uploaded now.

I also have an interesting story to follow after we left the dealership but I'm going to wait on that one too because it's really better told with the pictures.

After we got the new car (eco-duncan) and ran our errand, we then went to our new place to do a walkthrough with our new landlord. Everything looks fabulous and we can't wait to move in. It's very exciting.

It was a very productive day and even though it started off on a bit of a rocky foot, we couldn't be happier with everything else. We love our new little eco-car and we can't wait to move in to the new house... in, holy crap... a freaking week. Like I said, pictures to follow. Soon, I promise.

35 years....

Happy anniversary to my mom and dad who are celebrating 35, repeat THIRTY FIVE, years of marriage today. That is quite the milestone and I can only hope that in 35 years our marriage will be as strong as theirs.

Happy 4th!

I forgot to mention yesterday that before the beach I WAS slightly productive.

I had bought a million (ok, like 60) tubs from Target when we made the move from Iowa to Arizona. I inherited these tubs when I made the trip from Arizona to Washington. I used them a year ago when we moved to our new house. Turns out they have been a great investment.

After we moved (and some before we moved) last year, we allowed certain members of Tim's family (try all but one) to "borrow" our boxes. Apparently in each of these 3 cases borrowing was code for: "Here, I spent several hundreds of dollars on these boxes that helped me efficiently facilitate my moving but hey, no problem, you can have them to "borrow" and then just conveniently refuse to give them back."

Lovely.

I have two, I repeat TWO of these boxes left and various members of Tim's family have the remaining 50 boxes. But the heartache of trying to get them back is not worth it to me. They can be replaced.

So, Friday morning I ventured to target with Bella, in the mini cooper to load up on boxes. Not an easy thing to do when the boxes are big and the car is small. But I managed to fit in a grand total of 16 boxes. Pretty good, huh?!

This morning Tim got off work and while he was taking a nap after not sleeping all night, I ventured out (again) to Target to get more boxes since I knew from experience that 16 would not be enough. This time I just got 19 so that we would have 35. Perfect.

I got home and even though we had enough boxes to start packing, who wants to pack on the 4th?? So we headed right back out to the beach again since it was another perfect day. We came home and made a huge pasta salad filled with veggies and feta cheese (yum!) and then settled in for a fairly quiet 4th of July. We didn't really feel like going out since Tim had to work the next morning which means getting up at 4:30am.

So not an incredibly exciting day but then again, the 4th of July has never been my favorite holiday either and it definitely has a different feel in the pacific northwest than it ever did back home in Missouri. But, regardless, happy 4th to everyone out there!

Moving. So I'm going to beach. Stat.

Since I have today off I know one thing: I should be packing. We are moving. In a week.

I have no idea where to start. Tim is working.

So I decided that the best place to start is to go to the beach. It is completely sunny and mid-80s. Beach weather. Not packing weather. Plus we technically have a week and a half, right?

So I packed up Bella, texted her buddy Dallas the boxer (and my friend Gina) and headed to the beach around 1pm. Gina and Dallas made it out around 2:30pm. Dallas and Bella played and played and played... and then swam and played some more. It was fabulous.

When we left 3 hours later, I think we were all exhausted. And boy, was I tan. In three hours my tan came right back.

I do not feel guilty in the slightest for not packing one thing.

And another development...

I guess we just like to do everything at once...

We have been looking at different places to live for a while for a number of reasons:
1) We live on a fairly busy street right now
2) We would like to have a yard for the puppy now that she is getting bigger.
3) We don't LOVE our place. It's just a good area to be in.

We've kind of been back and forth about it because:
1) We have had a really great relationship with our landlord and even though our rent is higher than most places around us, we like him and have been happy to pay him.
2) We really like our location and don't want to move out from it.
3) We don't want to buy (market here is still falling and I believe it will continue through next spring- seems to be the general consensus among my real estate clients. Additionally, for what we can get now, it's still ridiculous. Try at least $400K for a 1960 rambler that needs an extreme makeover. Some are going for $380 but these are short sales which you probably wouldn't even want to set foot in. No thanks).
4) We don't really want to go through the whole moving process again.

HOWEVER, our decision was made for us. Just the other day I received an email from aforementioned cool landlord telling us he was going to have to raise the rent anywhere from $50-$200. I flipped shit. We are already paying a mortgage in rent at $1600- welcome to Seattle! There is NO WAY in hell I am going to pay $1800 for rent for a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath townhome when similar townhomes are going for $1400. That's just dumb.

So I promptly started looking around for something new. And found it right away. Just so happens there was a showing that very day from 2-3pm. It's perfect. It is bigger, has a yard for Miss Bella, has a cooler layout, has a side by side garage (no more tandem!) and has infinite more storage. Plus it's just nicer- hardwoods, granite, new appliances, wood blinds, etc. It's also in a much nicer, quieter neighborhood and we are even closer to the water. AND the kicker?! It's $100 cheaper than we are paying now. I was sold. We don't have to buy and we get to move to a nicer place where we will be paying less? Sweet.

I was even more sold when I met one of the landlords- a lady about my age who moved here from Australia to be with her husband. We hit it off right away. I love her.

SO, needless to say, I let the first landlord know right away. It just sucks because I felt like he was trying to take advantage of us and we had had such a good relationship. Oh well, he can have fun trying to rent that thing out above market in a market where there is SO much available to rent. We have the old place through the 31st and I committed us to moving in to the new place on the 15th so that the new couple doesn't lose out on 2 weeks of rent (we really wanted this place- it is so perfect for us right now. It's the best I've seen!) We're doubling up a bit but we are so ready to move up a little bit and we're so excited about the new neighborhood. So, July 14th, we get to do the whole process again. I always get excited because I love to throw stuff away, organize, de-clutter and I actually love the workout of moving. It's exhausting but it is probably the best workout around. I know, I'm a freak but it's fun for me until it's over and then I can barely walk and vow to never move again.