After 1 hour

After 1 hour in Vancouver, our car was broken into. The jeep was parked in a parking garage with all of our stuff in it for about an hour. The cop claimed "Seattle has the same problem." Oh really?? News to me.

The window was broken and Rob’s ipod was gone. Jokes on them, though. Rob’s ipod was dated and the battery life only lasted 4 hours. On top of that Stewie had chewed through the power cord, so that was barely working. Now he can get a Nano.

So besides the busted up passenger window. Vancouver was nice. We had a great time. We stayed at the Hyatt, great location on Barrad & Robson street. We spent both evening out in Yaletown. Some compare it to NYC Meatpacking district, but I don't really buy that. We ate at Blue Water Cafe, it was a pretty fancy restaurant with best spicy tuna roll that I have had since moving west. Our waiter looked like Mat Kearney, which made me think he would break into Girl America while pouring my water.

On Sunday we did a trolley tour, which was horrible. I would never recommend it. It was essentially a $33 cab ride. We got to see a little more than we would walkng. We liked Granville Island a lot. Granville Island is also home to the Granville Island Brewery, where we tossed back a few... or several. We joked that we needed to be heavily intoxicated to get back on that horrible trolley.

We went back to Yaletown for dinner on Sunday night too. Rodneys was an even better place with even better prices. We had muscles, oysters, halibut, and scallaps, and beer. It was wonderful.

So like any new city, we love to wander around and eat and drink at the local spots. We found some good ones in Vancouver. The people were nice and the seafood was outstanding. We didn't see any mountains due to the clouds and fogginess, so I don't believe that the scenery is better than Seattle. Lots of toursits (yuck)because of the cruise ships. I'm not bad mouthing Vancouver, I'll go back. Maybe next time with someone who likes to shop. Oh yeah, and we will take the bus or the train.

Wedding Flowers

You know that as soon as you tell anyone you want to get a price on something wedding related, you have to add about 25% to the cost. The wedding industry is making so much money... I admit, so much money from idiots like me. Especially flowers. I know how much flowers cost, the types of flowers you would want for your wedding. I know that I paid $7.00 for a stem of a calla lily (which I find out later differs by location). I know that I was trying to cut the costs of our flowers and the only callas that I bought were for my bridal bouquet and Rob’s boutonniere. How is it, that I have a whole bush of white callas and I didn’t have to do anything to make them grow. How is that worth $7.00 a flower?

At any rate, here are some pictures along with the blooming wisteria in the back. Rob is still miserably sick and I think I might be soon to follow (darn him).

Baseball Game

This Monday was my first company softball game. We had a friend in town. Katie, one of our good friends from Michigan was in town doing Development work for the University of Michigan Business School. She is married to one of Rob’s college roommates and I have grown to know her through all those weekends hanging out at 529 Packard. On Monday we had her over for dinner. I was sad that we didn’t get to spend more time with her, but it was just such a busy weekend for us that it just didn’t work out.

She came over for dinner and we grilled out. I had to then run to my softball game in Bothel. I haven’t played in years.. probably about 5 years. The only thing that I have going for me is that I am fairly athletic, so I knew I would be able top pick it up again. I did not, however, expect to be the catcher for the team. All that squatting was a little too much. I hit 2 singles and fouled out once. It was tons of fun and I was the only player who has a cheering section. Rob and Katie came to cheer me on, which made me happy. 3 days later my legs are still sore. Oh yeah and we won 22 to 15. Maybe next week we will have pictures.

Blog Hiatus

I’ve been on hiatus again. The reason: My parents were in town! 10 days. It seems like a long time, but not when you have projects to do and lots of activities planned. The time flew by and here is a list of some of the things we did.

-- Buying a whole fish at Pike Place Market and having them throw the fish just for me.
-- Argosy Harbor Cruise and Boat tour.
-- Climbing the hill at Gas Works Park to see the awesome view.
-- Meeting my cousin Mel and Rob in Bremerton. We took the ferry there and had an awesome meal at The Boat Shed. Lots of fun.
-- Having dad put in the screen doors, which I love.
-- Having dad do the wiring, which looks great.
-- Having Rob and dad put in the new kitchen window.
-- Selling my car!! Finally. Although it had nothing to do with my parents, it just so happened they were here when it finally sold.
-- Taking mom & dad to Steller Pizza
-- Taking mom & dad to Pig Iron BBQ
-- Taking mom for a facial for mother’s day at High Maintenance was the absolute best.
-- Going to the space needle. Better than I expected and it didn’t make me sick like the Empire State Building.
-- Rob enjoyed his day taking mom and dad to the Boeing factory tour and then meeting me at Fado for drinks after work.
-- Then spending Saturday in the San Juan Islands was really wonderful. It was one of the first times that we have ever seen Mt Baker so clearly. We’ll go back it was so much worth the trip up there.

In a nutshell those were some of the fun things we did. It was so great to have them here and be able to show them all the things that we love to do here. We took them to our favorite hangouts and then got to explore some new things too. It was great and we really appreciate their help with all the house stuff. It would have taken us like 3 weeks to do what they did in just a few days.