The evening of my 30th … and other fun changes
Happy Birthday to ME! We spent my 30th birthday on the sailboat. It was so nice!
My dad and my sis brought us Bakery Nouveau's caramel apple tart ~ it was SO. GOOD.
Yes, I hope to kick of my 30’s with “CHANGE” Obama style, but that’s not the change I’m talking about today. We’re redecorating; or decorating depending on how you look at it.
I picked the color for the guest bedroom four years ago, and it’s … well … LOUD. But we’re taking to it and, heck, we don’t really have to look at it all the time. Our guests will be the ones to have to look at the crazy-pink accent wall. As Nate says, it will likely keep any house guest from staying too long.
The PINK during "construction"
More pink ... or is it orange? Salmon maybe?
We’re also creating an office in the upstairs bedroom. It’s much more tranquil — a light blue with a white ceiling. I can’t wait to put the furniture up there! I’ll chart the progress, not because you should care but because I’m excited about it. Working from home may increase in frequency
once this room is done …
The soon-to-be office
Office under construction
Pretty view from the office window
Weekend update
My husband is embarrassed that I would write about something so mundane, but I have to say, it motivated me.
Before 10 a.m. on Saturday morning we had emptied the luggage, folded all the clothes, swapped out my summer wardrobe for my fall wardrobe (I have too many clothes to fit them all in my dresser drawers at one time, so they change with the seasons–Yes, I know it’s a bit vain), filed all the easy-to-deal-with paperwork and neatly stacked the paperwork that needed a bit more attention, AND went for a run around Greenlake. Whoo hoo! Talk about productivity!
We spent the rest of the daytime hours prepping and painting the soon-to-be office, and I have to say, it looks GOOD. I can’t wait to make it a functional work space! I’ll post a picture when it’s finally done–hopefully in the next day or two.
Saturday evening I took my grandmother on a “date” and we went to see a community production of Beauty and the Beast, Disney’s musical. It was a lot like the movie but live, and the musical performances were quite good! I have a distant cousin who’s involved in the production and two of her kids were on stage, one as a menu and one as a cupcake. SO CUTE!
After Beauty and the Beast, I met up with Nate at our friend’s “Speakeasy” in Capitol Hill. OMG — Their party ROCKED! Flappers, gangsters and hobo’s hawking moonshine, a swing band, and prohibition flyers everywhere; I wish I could have come earlier and stayed longer, but it was a long day and we were tired.
Sunday was a much more low key, but we did have a chance to have dinner with Ailey who came over on her way to visit one of her old students from Japan. It was a good weekend, and things will just get better and better as the week goes on.
It’s my 30th birthday tomorrow, so everyone, be sure to call and send messages of well-wishes 
We’ll celebrate in early October at our BBQ. See you then!
Back to life, back to reality
It’s been a full week of work since returning from NYC, and Nate and I are looking forward to our first full weekend at home in ages — it’s been at least a month! And the house looks it. I left Pyramid Communications a month ago (holy smokes that month went quick!), and started working at Red Sky Blue Water the very next Monday.
They say that changing jobs is a major life event (although I know some people who appear to do this regularly) and my life has certainly felt somewhat disheveled ever since. Now, after a month, I feel like I have a routine established with my new work and it’s time to get the house back in order.
1) Paperwork is EVERYWHERE. All my files and all the things from my desk at Pyramid are in Rubbermaid tubs. They were sitting in our dining room for several weeks, but in my husband’s efforts to “clean,” he moved them to a corner of our bedroom. (This, by the way, is Nate’s regular form of cleaning.)
There’s also a stack of mail that’s been accumulating on our dining room table since our vacation. Ugh, we should do something about that.
2) Our suitcases, still full of clothes (the clean ones), are sitting on the floor of our bedroom. I keep tripping over Nate’s and I’ve added random shoes and pullovers to my open bag throughout the week. Time to put those away too 
3) We did several loads of clothes when we came home but haven’t bothered to put them away. Nate was awesome enough to put them into piles, or in some cases, fold a few shirts. We’ll put those away along with the clothes from the suitcases.
Speaking of clothes, now that summer is just about over and the weather is all but screaming the arrival of fall, I need to pull my tank tops out of my drawers and replace them with sweaters. Add that one to the list too.
4) We have grandiose plans to prep the office and the spare bedroom for painting. If we’re ambitious, we’ll even paint and setup the office. I think my plans are more ambitious than my actions will be, but we’ll see.
5) We also have to paint a panel on the outside of our house to protect our window sill from the winter elements.
6) As for the rest of outside, our yard is atrocious and Nate wants to cut down a tree in our backyard. There’s also a whole bunch of debris from his fence-building that we need to take to the dump. Yeah, right.
I’ll keep you posted on our weekend chores. Don’t you all want to come over and help?
Boston and New York Pics
Nate in Copley Square (oh, did I mention we went to Boston too?)
Trinity Church in Boston. On the way back to NYC we stopped at a farmer’s market that spread all along the square. Mmmmmm …
New York, New York
After eight days in the Big Apple, it’s good to be home.
Don’t get me wrong, we had a GREAT time in New York — the gorgeous food, the bustling sites, the wonderful friends, and don’t forget the Ng family — but I’m lovin’ the peaceful views of Lake Union and the marina right now.
The view from my office window. Can you beat this?
Peace. Maybe that can be the theme for my 30th year…
But I digress …
Since my sister has moved back to the United States after four years in Japan, the Ng family decided to take a family vacation. And we went to New York City! We stayed in a great set of timeshares, aptly supplied by my mother and her growing timeshare business: PrimeTimeVacations (I think she’s got a WordPress site if you’re interested). The timeshare/hotel was right in Midtown a few blocks south of Columbus Circle and Central Park. It was perfect for morning runs through the park — which we did once. (Sheepish grin)
What we did a lot of was walk around town, shop and eat. Isn’t that what any tourist does in NYC? Call it what you will, but we were no different.
Here I am walking to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge
And here's Nate in Madison Park after enjoying one of NYC's yummiest burgers
"I'm so content after my Shake Shack burger"
We had a great time hanging with family, visiting old friends and spending time together. We even snuck over to Boston for a night. When I get the pictures all sorted out, I’ll fill this out a bit more, but here’s something to look forward to: Nate and I will be back in New York for Sven and Dee’s wedding in November.
We can’t wait!