HEAT WAVE.

It is SO FREAKING HOT HERE. We are actually only 5 degrees from Phoenix and it's SEATTLE. A city which has never broken 100 degrees. Well welcome to 80 days without rain + a hundred degree temps. That's Phoenix. WHY is the pacific northwest trying to be Phoenix minus the air conditioning?

Today Winston told me that it was 108 degrees out. I don't think it was actually that hot. I think we actually topped out at 104. THIS IS INSANE. Mostly because no one has air conditioning because Hello!? We live in the pacific northwest and it doesn't GET HOT.

It is miserable!! I can't wait to go to Kansas City in a couple of days where they are having Seattle-like weather at 75 degrees, no humidity. And if they were having 100 degree days, at least they have air conditioning.

I actually took Bella to my friends house today because she has air conditioning. I've been hosing her off about 5 times a day to keep her cool (since I'm such the animal abuser) but since I had to work today, I couldn't leave her at home. It's way too hot, even if you have a million fans. So she hung out with Gina and Dallas in the air conditioning. She was a fan. And she has the whole next week with them while we are in KC so she'll do great in this heat.

I guess at least now I know how it feels to live in Phoenix without air conditioning. People who do that or used to do that are crazy.

Sunday morning hike.

Tim and I decided to go hiking this morning. It was crazy because a) we haven't been able to hike much all summer due to his crazy work schedule and b) it was supposed to be 95 degrees today, one of the hottest days in Washington. Not ideal for hiking. But, we made it! And it was gorgeous. We just hiked Rattlesnake Ridge which has great views. It's about 6 miles. I love it!

A rant on bitches. Crazy washington bitches.

I might as well keep ranting about stupid people. Seems to be the story of my life lately.

So the other day I had a quick errand to run. I had to get ice cream at Whole Foods and then make a quick stop at AT&T since we decided to cave and switch phone services/get iphones. It's 78 degrees out and sunny (this is relevant). I decide to take Bella with me since it's a short trip.

I go to Whole Foods, run in, grab ice cream, am out in less than five minutes. Of course Bella stays in the car with the windows down. I get back and she is sitting there calmly, not panting (also relevant). She licks me when I get back in the car.

I stop at AT&T. Park directly in front of the door. I'm the only customer in there so I walk right up to the counter. Bella is in the car, with the windows down. I can see my car from the counter. I tell the guy what I want and I pay for the iphones. I notice a lady is standing by my car and who walked over to it right when I pulled up. I don't really think anything of this.

Then she walks into AT&T and here's what went down:
Crazy bitch: "Is that your mini cooper out there, Ma'am?"
Me: "Um, yeah."(as I am signing the receipt)
Crazy bitch (yelling): "well, if you don't get out there right now, I'm calling animal services on you. You should NEVER leave your dog in a car and that dog is not happy with you for leaving her in there. She is PANTING. AND NOT DOING WELL. I am calling animal services RIGHT NOW IF YOU DON'T GET OUT THERE!!!!!!!"
ME: "I'm pretty sure she's fine. I know you saw me when I pulled up and I've been here for 5 minutes."
Crazy bitch: "GET OUT THERE!! It's people like you who should never have animals and should be banned from having kids!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I am stunned. I'm done at AT&T but I was just standing there with the guy staring at here like WTF?! At this point there is a line behind me so to make it more interesting, she has created a scene in front of the entire store.

I go out to my car. Shocker, Bella is fine and is just licking me all over, barely panting. BUT, this lady is not done. She parks her piece of shit car behind mine and continues to yell at me. Wow.

I have never been treated like this before.

I can respect people who look out for animals, I really can. Because I do. But I don't think I was "abusing" Bella by leaving her in the car. I really don't. She had the windows down, it wasn't super hot, she was happy to be out of the house. I just think that this lady was completely out of line. I know I'm not "perfect" but I do think I'm a pretty good mom to Bella. I take good care of her.

And by the way, when I got home, the ice cream was still a solid block of ice. And it takes 15 minutes to get home from AT&T. Uh huh.

Seems like there are a lot of stupid people lately...

I'm pretty sure that we got raped by our landlord. We had to meet with him to do a final walkthrough. Did I talk about the sun spot before? I don't remember and I'm too lazy to look. Anyway, on the (cheap, disgusting, 10 year old) linoleum floor (which by the way is WHITE), we put a rug down. In front of the sink. Well, come to find out when the sun beats in on it every day for a year, it dyes this disgusting linoleum a faint yellow color.

I might add that a) you can't see the discoloration in a photo b) you can hardly tell when you're standing over it c) we had to buy rugs to cover burns in the floor/stains on the carpet from prior tenants.

Our landlord told us he had to replace the ENTIRE kitchen floor due to the discoloration (and also, note that the rug was NOT that big). Come to find out the other burns and stains were caused by him when he lived there which is why the floors haven't been replaced before. So, since he has already tried to take advantage of us by raising the rent, we feel like he is just trying to take advantage of us more by trying to replace the whole kitchen floor when it doesn't need to be (or when he could just cover the spots with rugs, like we had to). He tries to tell us that we owe $1200 then realizes we are not paying for it (and knows that we are right in refusing to). So the only thing we lost was our $600 deposit which I really don't care about. For me, it's not about the money, it's just the principle. I feel like he was taking advantage of us and that's what was making me the most mad. Ugh. I'm just glad to be out of there and done with him.

Wedding!

Yesterday was our second wedding of the summer and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was Rich and Stacie's wedding up in Snohomish at Lord Hill Farms. Naturally, I forgot my camera and am still trying to round up pictures from friends who I know had theirs. In the meantime, Rich and Stacie have a couple of pictures here. They looked amazing and so did the venue. I am not even kidding you, I have never seen so many flowers in my life. Even the silverware was wrapped in fresh flowers. I love all of the little details so I was in awe the whole night at how many details these two covered from the ceremony to the reception and everything in between.

As a little history, I met Rich and Stacie when I first started my job up in Washington. I came in as a senior auditor and they were also two seniors at the time. Within my first month, I had worked with Stacie once. I learned that she and Rich met at our job several years before and were both leaving to take private jobs elsewhere. So by the end of the summer I was the sole senior! But, over the past few years we've stayed friends and have had much fun hanging out and partying outside of work and when we were home in KC last Christmas Stacie was our cats' godmother. Rich and Stacie are one of the best and strongest couples I know. It was so great to be a part of their day and to see so many friends at the same time! We had a blast.

A day in the park.

As mentioned previously we have a small park right by our house and a larger park about 5 minutes walk away, 1 minute drive. We take Bella there on hot days to throw her tennis ball for about 20 minutes, 3 times a day or so. It is enough exercise for her and it's short enough that she doesn't get too hot. And once she is hot, she stops playing anyway so there is about a 20 minute cap on these excursions. This park is great though because it's just flat and open and we can chuck the ball and she'll run forever. And usually there is no one there.

Throwing the ball for her. Notice the brown grass. Usually this park would be completely green... but since Seattle has not had any rain in about 3 months and is trying to be Southern Cali, well, we've got brown and dried out going on.

She fetches! Yep, our boxer fetches. The breeder told us that Bella's parents do not fetch at all, want nothing to do with it and to not expect that from Bella. Turns out fetch is one of her favorite games.

And throwing again......

Bringing the ball back...getting more tired.

Yep, now she's tired. She hides in the shade once she's had enough.

And another shade shot. I still can't believe how much our little pup has grown.

And seriously, is this not the cutest thing ever? She saw someone drink from the fountain and decided she wanted to. So she stood up and did it. She licks the stream of water and I think it's pretty adorable.

And we're in...

Well, we're in! Thanks to the cable guy. I had to take off work today to wait for the cable guy to show up to hook up our cable and internet. So obnoxious that they give you FOUR hour blocks in which they "might" be here. So I had a decent chunk of the day in which I got everything set up.

Here's a picture of Miss Thang (Bella) enjoying the new place. She LOVES it. She especially loves that we are 30 seconds away from a park and tennis courts. She also loves her little yard and all of the wildlife that is around here (versus our old place that was on a main road and was much more noisy). We are also about 5 minutes away from multiple trails and from another huge park and we are about a 10 minute walk from the water. It's perfect. She's laying in the sun from the two skylights that are in our upstairs. There is another skylight in the master bath. It's really nice to have that additional natural light.

And again. Hasn't she gotten huge??

Yesterday yours truly was posting about our moving adventures and I did NOT want my picture taken. This is in our office area that is not set up. So I have a makeshift floor seating until it gets put together.

And the kitchen... all set up. Much improved from the before picture from yesterday, eh?

Family room put together. Again, much better than before pictures.

And dining room all set up.

A picture of the hall way from the front door. The guest bathroom the first door on the left and the guest bedroom is the last door on the left. The laundry room is the door on the right. I will take pictures of these rooms and our bedroom/office and post them eventually.


It feels nice to be slightly (understatement) organized and in now. The only things remaining are hanging up pictures and putting together the office. I am not a person that likes to live out of boxes, obviously.

MOVING DAY

So yesterday we embarked upon the day of moving. I said I always get excited about this until it's over and that is accurate again. Yesterday was fairly exhausting. A good workout, yes. But still exhausting. We got up around 6:30 and started taking what remained in our house down (which truthfully wasn't much). We rented a Uhaul to move the big stuff like the couch, beds, etc. I think we did a total of 3 trips with the Uhaul and at that point had everything out of the old place and into the new. The Uhaul was returned at 5pm, which I thought was pretty impressive given that it was just the two of us. We got some of the big stuff put away/set up and crashed into bed at around 11pm. It was a long day but we did it!


Early on in the day- one of the first loads getting stuff out of the old place into the Uhaul to take to the new place.

A picture of the lovely truck.

This was our third and last load and consisted mostly of garage stuff. The most awkward thing of the day to move was probably Tim's tool chest (the silver thing in the picture). It was SO heavy. And somehow Tim got it into the truck himself though I still don't know how and I don't think he really does either. At this point in the day we were both operating under some sort of supernatural powers. The couch was also quite awkward as well but we did that first to get it out of the way. And the table weighs a million pounds of solid wood so that was an exciting thing to move too. I know I probably could have and should have hired movers but it seemed silly for not moving too far away. And I always think it will be fun, like I have said repeatedly... until it's all said and done and we can't move. At least we were lucky in that it was a party cloudy/sunny and cool day.

To get Bella acclimated to the new place, we took her with us on every trip. We had her crate over there on the first trip so she went with us every time. I think she was confused but she did great all day.

A view looking down on the dining room with everything sort of piled in.

And a view of the same of the family room.

Hauling literally the last box in. Tim was thrilled that I pulled out the camera at this point. We were exhausted.

And a view of the kitchen with junk thrown in. I actually got the kitchen totally organized last night. Yes! I can't wait until everything is completely done and we are settled in.