Sunday farmer's market finds

Today Bob and I went to the Fremont farmer's market. It's so awesome, every neighborhood in the city has its own (really big and well organized) farmer's market. Last week, we went to the one a few blocks from our house and bought most of our groceries for the week. Fremont's market is more of an arts/crafts/antiques/and also food type of market.

Anyways, we were on the lookout for a hutch/sideboard for the entryway, and also a kitchen table. We don't really want chairs to go with the table, we have one cool light green metal chair (that was really an outside chair) from ikea, and a stool. We did want to get one or two more chairs eventually, but today we found an awesome, many-times-painted red chair:



FOR TEN BUCKS.

It has an awesome patina on it of places where the (no doubt lead based) paint has chipped off, revealing an orangy coral, and some spots where the paint is gone, showing the wood underneath.



I had to do some work on it, the legs all had metal endcaps that we were worried would scratch our floors. Don't want security deposit taken out for scratched floors :). Upon closer inspection I found that it was all crumbly wood glue holding on the metal caps, so I pried them off with a screwdriver and sanded the ends (Bob had sandpaper. Not that I probably don't have it somewhere in a craft box too), then applied little felt thingies:



I also found, at one of the many booths that were like miniature thrift stores, an "all jewelry this table $1". There was this beautiful brooch there!



Yay for farmer's markets! Or is it farmers' markets?

The package!

So, the package that Bob mentioned that came today is our wedding proof book! Yay! It was so cute, the UPS guy delivered it to the apartment office since we weren't there. I went to get it today, not knowing what it was, thinking it was some posters I ordered off of etsy. The girls in the office were almost as excited as me, and we looked through a good portion of it together before another resident stopped by needing their attention. It was kind of awesome. I felt like I was really girly, and a part of the girl club of loving weddings.

Of course, I loved our wedding, but before getting married, I wasn't really into hearing about other people's weddings. Now, I'm totally jazzed to hear about any wedding plans. I wonder if the ladies in the office are married, and that's why they were so excited to share the pictures with me?

Our new apartment!

Bob and I are settled into our new place! Well, mostly. Still hanging pictures. When professional movers pack your stuff, rather than your friends helping you load up some storage crates, you end up with quite a bit of paper and boxes. They wrap EVERYTHING. We found wrapped boxes of kleenex. Each pair of shoes was wrapped (in some cases, each shoe). A wrapped bottle of syrup? Check. Bags of chips? Yes. I couldn't believe how carefully done it all was. Also unbelievable was the amount of paper left once we unpacked.



I kid you not, that whole dumpster is full of bags of newsprint-like paper, all from us. But the apartment is shaping up really well!

Interesting Music Phenomenon

Okay, so for those who may know me, you should be aware that I am interested in the musical genre known as ska. You may also be aware that I have many t-shirts that feature ska bands or concerts that I have attended. So, I've warn these shirts in many times everywhere I've lived, and no one as really ever said anything.
So, we were out in Greenlake, a neighborhood in Seattle, shopping for antique furniture. Yes, I know, antiquing. Apparently it's something you do with your wife when you want furniture, but this post is not about that. So, in Greenlake, we ended up at this chocolate shop where we got milk to drink, and the barista girl made a comment about my shirt. I happened to be wearing my Ska is Dead tour shirt from 2005 that day, that features zombies. Very hip indeed.
Later that day, we went to Urban Outfitters in the University District to buy ourselves a coat rack for our new apartment. A girl who worked there was helping us, and she made a comment about my shirt too. She went into some story about how she helped with the tour, and knew a guy in The Toasters. I thought it was a funny coincidence, and that it had something to do with being in the college part of town. I didn't think much of it after that. Honestly,I thought the girl may have been flirting with me, but I was with Rebecca. And that was the end of that.
Until today, when we were out in West Seattle at the West Seattle Bowl for an event with Rebecca's coworkers. When we were getting ready to leave, a gentleman came up to me and ask if I was from Michigan. I happened to be wearing my Mustard Plug t-shirt, so this question wasn't completely out of the ordinary for me. He asked if they were still around, and made some small talk. He also made a comment or two about how he saw them in really small clubs back in Michigan.
Now, people commenting about t-shirts I wear really isn't that weird, I do tend to wear crazy t-shirts often. The fact that three people in Seattle have made comments about ska band t-shirts I've worn is odd. Considering how popular ska is what makes the situation odd. And this happens in the town that has a Science Fiction Hall of Fame and a Laser Dome for the Laser Rock Shows.
I'm beginning to think this is the town for me.

The Tubes

It's official. This is my first post from our new apartment in Ballard. It's not that we just moved in this weekend, no. Today we got TV and Internet installed. We've actually been here since the 4th of April. It's just that it took a little time to get cable figured out. There are not a lot of choices here, but I'll elaborate on that much later. A package came today that Rebecca is excited to share.

Not the "princess" kind of crown

Did you ever notice that, when you go to the dentist, you always end up needing more than you thought you needed in terms of dental work? It's like going to get your oil changed on your car and being told you need a new filter, new tires, and a new transmission. Plus belts or something. So, anyways, here's what happened:

- I enjoy Hot Tamales candy.
- I was enjoying them yesterday quite vigorously in lieu of dinner while Bob and I were finishing up moving in.
- I felt a crunchy bit in one of the pieces of candy I was chewing (I think you know where this is going).
- After that bite, while chewing another piece, my gum/tooth hurt a bit.
- So, I finished that piece and found a gaping hole on the right bottom side in one of my molars.
- I thought a filling had fallen out, because I had one there before. I made an appointment with a dentist around the corner from our new place for today at 2.
- At the appointment, an x-ray is taken, and the dentist determines that it wasn't a filling that fell out... it was a piece of my tooth that broke off. I ATE THE PIECE OF TOOTH. How meta is that?
- So, I don't need a filling. I need a crown. This makes me a sad panda. I've never had a crown before, and they were ready to prep the tooth and put on a temporary crown today. Let me tell you, I was NOT ready for that jelly. I have pretty mild dental anxiety, and I really need to research and prepare for something new and invasive and expensive like a crown. So, the dentist just put filling material there for now. They were sweet people, but I really want a second opinion. I don't want a crown, mainly because they have to shave down my tooth to put one on, and if "shave down your tooth" doesn't induce paroxysms of terror... well, I just can't relate to you. Additionally, let me share with you that sometimes root canals have to be done after crowns are applied because of damage to the nerve. She showed me a chart of what a root canal looks like, and the middle image, the cross-section of a tooth with a thin metal drill snaking down into the root, will haunt me for the rest of my life. I'm sure that isn't allowed under the geneva convention.

camping out

Tonight we're going to move for real into our new apartment. We've been sleeping in our corporate housing place even though we moved in this weekend. The reason - we have no bed. But we'll have a bed tomorrow, after the nice people from Sleep Country deliver it.

Tonight: a slight chance of blanket forts and air mattresses!

Radio

I was going to have a fancier, more humorous title, but I could not determine the inventor of radio from wikipedia.

Anyway, for those who want to know, I have not listened much to the radio since I lived back in New York and listened to EQX. There were some stations in Atlanta that I liked, but they eventually changed formats a few times. I found ones in LA I could tolerate, and one I could only get when I was in LA on the other side of the mountains. My main complaint with radio, besides all the advertisements, is that they overplay the same songs and don't play actual new music. For example, turn to your local alternative station. Have they played Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Sublime, Everclear, 311, Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, or any band from the mid nineties in the last hour? I'm not saying those bands are bad, but there is so much more music out there that they are ignoring. I do understand that the stations have rules and playlists that they have to follow, and these are all factors that drove me to listen to my mp3 player, or burn cds for my car. I even tried XM radio for 3 months when I bought my car, but I was overcome with an overabundance of choice that I couldn't pick one station to listen to. Not to mention annoying djs, and actual commercials on satellite radio.

So, I have now found myself in Seattle, and without my computer to burn new cds for my car. I have tried a fm transmitter with my ipod in the car, but we all know how well those work. Don't worry, this post isn't completely negative. I actually turned on the radio for the first time in almost 2 years. There are actually good stations here in Seattle that I am enjoying that do not play the same crap as most of the commercial radio stations. Now, keep in mind, no one gave me any suggestions for radio when I got here, and I never did a google search for radio stations until I started writing this post. I found these stations the old fashion way, by pressing the seek button on my radio while driving.

The first station I found and liked was 89.5 FM. They play dance music, like the type you would hear in the clubs. I know, an interesting choice for a radio station, but it is enjoyable on my commute, they are commercial free, and I think they even have an 80s show in the morning. Then today, I checked out their website and found out the station is run by high school students in the Seattle area as part of a class. That blew my mind.

The second station I found and liked was 107.7 FM. It's a pretty standard alternative station, but they claim to be "world famous" and play a lot of Death Cab for Cutie. The station seems to have been around since grunge started, so there is some history there. They do play new music, but suffer from the usual corporate radio station problems. I've been looking past that, because it provides a good change from dance music.

Then today, I landed on 90.3 FM, while driving home and hitting the seek button again. This station inspired me to write this post. The first song they played that I recognized was Are You Receiving Me? by XTC, mostly because that was the first song that Shazam on my iPhone could determine. They continued to play music I had never heard until the dj came on and mentioned My Bloody Valentine, who I swear I've heard heard before. Apparently the station is public or something. I will be listening more to this station.

The last thing is a interesting thing I mentioned to Rebecca a day or two ago. Driving to work in the morning, I was flipping radio stations again. I landed on a morning radio dj who I feel ended up spoiling the end of Battlestar Galactica for me. Just think about that for a minute and all that I could mean about the Seattle area.

I have more radio stations to find and listen to, and lots of music to discover. I'll also have to tell you later about the concert Rebecca and I went to last Sunday.

We've got to get moving now.

The story so far...

So, my first post.

I told Rebecca before we got married that we should start a blog. Then she finally goes and starts one, and it takes me almost 5 days before I post for the first time. Then I looked over all of her posts so far, and realized she never really introduced herself or us.

I'm Bob, and I'm an engineer. Rebecca is my new wife, and she has a job too. We just moved to Seattle from the San Francisco Bay Area, Mountain View to be exact. I've lived 5 places in the last 6 years. I'm originally from Upstate New York. No, not Westchester County, actual upstate, like the Albany area. It's easier to say the "Albany area" because not many people have heard of my hometown unless you're from the Northeast and have driven the Northway a lot. I went to college at RPI, which the important people have heard about, not that you're not important. You are important! After graduation in 2003, I moved down to Atlanta, and was there for damn near 3 and a half years. I met Rebecca there, but due to some uncertainties in my life at the time such as turning 25 and my job security in question, I made my way West. I ended up in the Southern California desert, which I told everyone was Los Angles because no one really had ever heard of the place I was living. I was in the depressing desert for a year before opportunity knocked, and I got a transfer up to the Bay Area, or Silicon Valley, or whatever you would classify Mountain View as. That is where Rebecca and I rekindled our romance, got engaged, and decided that marriage suited us. Then again with the job, I managed a sweet new deal for us in Seattle.

That's where our story begins. We've barely been here for two weeks now. I like my new job, I like the weather here, and I love my wife. We really like to take adventures and we think we're hipsters. I'm really into gaming, music, technology, cars, and a lot of other random things. I have a fierce beard and glasses. My wife is smart, sarcastic, funny, witty, and beautiful. I'm pretty sure we've both had blogs before that are now long dead. I'll probably write at length about all of those things, and of course about random things too. I just realized it's 12:30 am on a Sunday, and I gotta be up at 6. There will be more later.

Stay tuned. Same time, same channel.

Snow?

I promise the titles of every post won't be about the weather here in Seattle. I'll get used to it eventually! But today there's a chance of snow! I'm going to keep watching the weather and head home if it looks like it will turn icy and dangerous to drive. That's the Southerner in me :) - believe me, you don't want to be ANYWHERE near me if I decide to drive in any kind of inclement weather other than rain.

When I used to blog (oh the many, many poor blogs that have been abandoned), I would never be able to pick a subject line for my posts, so I'd always leave them untitled. Untitled posts, however, look ugly in feed readers because it pulls either as much of the first sentence from the post as it can fit, or it just says "Untitled", which sounds like a painting or poem by a lazy artist to me. So I'm trying to title my posts now.

Speaking of art (and maybe lazy art, who knows), tomorrow is First Thursday, which means that a bunch of the art museums in Seattle are going to be open late and free. Bob and I are going to go to the Seattle Art Museum, which is across the street from our temp housing. In fact, I look down at it every day from our 17th floor perch. Here's to cultural enrichment!