Living on Mercer Island provided a great opportunity to take photographs of Lake Washington and Seattle. My west deck looked out over the lake with Seattle and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. My east deck also looked out over the lake with Bellevue in the distance. Following are some photographs taken from my two decks.
Rather than leave for the honeymoon right away, we stayed in downtown Seattle on the first night at the Inn at Harbor Steps. The room was spacious and luxurious, complete with a teddy bear on the bed! The bathroom was also well decorated and featured a 2-person Jacuzzi jet tub. The building that housed the inn joined a few other high rises in surrounding a lush garden courtyard area. Just below our window was a bench, designed to look like a toppled Roman arch. We ordered pizza for dinner because our caterers failed to follow through with their promise to send us off with some food from the reception. That night we also jacked into the hotel wired Internet so we could update Myspace and Facebook accounts to list us each as “married” :) [Read more…]
Just in case you are attending and I haven’t sent you this: our registry info is available at wedding.hawkinwinter.com
We hope to see you all in Seattle :)
Its been a while since I’ve posted a blog. Been incredibly busy. Classes, research, time with t, etc. = no time for blogs.
Wedding planning is ongoing and we are making great progress. We have a church, reception hall, caterer, bartender, DJ, bridesmaid dresses and a full wedding party. There is still so much to do before the big day but its an enjoyable challenge. T and I attended a bridal show in Seattle and that gave us plenty of ideas. The sheer number of possibilities is perplexing but since we are sticking to a traditional ceremony and reception that helps us stay focused.
Valentines day was wonderful. Theresa gave me a beautiful Jasmine wreath which I need to replant soon. We also attended a play at the 5th Ave Theatre last week, thanks to T’s aunts. The Buddy Holly Story. I enjoyed it and was impressed with the production. It deviated from the standard theatre formula and did an excellent job at immersing the audience in a late 50s rock concert. We have season tickets to the theatre and have seen 5 shows since I moved up here, with two more on the way for this year. So far we’ve seen Les Miserables, Bombay Dreams, Company, White Christmas and the Buddy Holly Story. Coming up in a few months is Camelot, followed by Edward Scissorhands.
Here we are dressed up in proper theatre attire on my deck overlooking Seattle. The leather jackets are necessary to piss off any Seattle liberals we pass by.
UW is going well and I’ve been working in the nonlinear dynamics lab, along with taking classes. My research focus is currently control theory along with some embedded software. My plan is to take as many embedded systems and software courses I can while still completing the requirements for my masters. I’m hoping to have the necessary background to develop embedded control systems when I finish next year and that will require a solid software background.
I finished Anne Coulter’s Godless. All I can say is that she is as brilliant as she is beautiful (even if she isn’t a redhead). I’ll post my thoughts in another blog. For now let me add it to my recommended reading list.
I hope you are all well and I’m looking forward to having some of you up here in Seattle in August!
This summer LRH and I were wandering around downtown Seattle and we came upon this little hole-in-the-wall tea bar. As soon as the owners realized we were interested they quickly escorted us inside and proceeded to give us about 20 samples of their tea. What made this place unique is that their tea didn’t come in bags – instead the ‘bags’ were these little balls that would unfold into flowers once they were soaked in the hot water for a bit. They would flavor the water and then would be removed once they tea reached the desired strength. Anyway, I was looking for crackers in my cabinets the other day and found my last tea ball! Here is the result:
This morning I woke up to the roar of several jet engines only to find out that the Blue Angels were practicing right above my house. They are set to perform their show over Lake Washington on Saturday and Sunday but I’ll miss it since I’m going to be camping this weekend . At least I get to watch them practice today and tomorrow. Since I live on Mercer Island I had a great view of the action but the practice sessions required the closure of the I-90 bridge so I was stuck there until noon.
…let us now mourn the death of my cell phone
My LG VX6000 finally died the other day. Its been a good phone and lasted longer then my contract with Verizon. The timing was perfect since I recently switched to Cingular and picked up a SLVR. CDMA coverage sucks in Washington and the international compatibility of GSM makes Cingular very appealing. Oh yeah, and I HaXx0R3d my phone on the first day!
Besides that news, Im flying up to WA again tomorrow to look for apartments. Last time T flew down to Cali, Southwest lost her bag and it was a direct flight. I tracked the bag and found out it went to Houston instead and was later routed to Chicago. She finally got her bag back after it was sent to San Jose. (This several days after she returned home to Washington). So Im hoping the same wont happen to me since I’m also flying Southwest. Budget airlines for the win. Hopefully they pay their engine maintenance technicians more than their baggage handlers!
Filed Under: Life & Updates, Technology and Internet
Leave a Comment
Not that I’m complaining or anything….. Well actually I am. As much as I want to move here ASAP, I don’t want to spend my time here stuck in an airport, drinking fountain soda and eating gourmet fast food while blogging.
So usually it rains here in Seattle, right!??! Well, right now its raining in SF! So bad, in fact, that our flight has been indefinitely delayed. We have to wait for hourly updates about our departure status – by the time this airplane finally takes off, I would have already been home for a few hours.
At least the weekend was incredibly good! I mean… :D (thats a big smile) and I’ll update you in a few days. For now I’m just going to sip my fountain-dispensed lemonade, and add my voice to the choir of discontent that defines the atmosphere at SeaTac Airport Gate D4.
Quick update: Going back to Seattle but this time I’m flying and the University of Washington is paying for my plane ticket. w00t. Going to spend time talking to professors about their research and hopefully land an assistantship in the process. I’ll be gone for a week and I’m not taking my camera /cry. WoW client patch 1.10 came out today too and I’m leaving tomorrow. Damn.
So I heard back from Penn State and got accepted there too. That brings my acceptances to 4 (University at Buffalo: CSE & EE, University of Washington, Penn State), rejections to 1 (Oregon State) and still waiting to hear back from Michigan State and Northwestern. Still laughing about being rejected by OSU – seriously… that is funny.
See you all when I get back :) Take care.
