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Saturday afternoon, we welcomed a new household member, and it’s time that you met him too.

From Blog Photos

This is Max. or as we’ve taken to call him, Emperor Maximilian Monster Pants, Monster Butt and Sir Max.  I’m sure more nicknames will follow. He is 7 years old approximately, and he weighs 15 pounds. (Tiffa weighs about a third that)

I’ve always had a love for tuxedo kitties. It’s a sentimental thing going back to the first cat I ever had, Bootsey, plump kitten my dad gifted me, when i was 5.  When it became clear Max  needed a new home, I made the arrangements neccesary and he came to join us on Saturday.

Look at those paws!

From Blog Photos

The kitty integration didn’t quite go as planned, I figured I’d keep him downstairs, but didn’t expect that he would choose my bedroom as his safe place to hide. This has meant that Tiffa is kicked out at night so he can wander about  to eat drink and take care of business.

She’s curious about him, and clearly accepts my role as alpha cat. I’ve chosen to accept him, so she’s shown  no aggression to him at all. He on the other hand thinks she smells funny and wishes she would just stay away.

It’s going to take some time, but for the moment we are alternating between giving him Tiffa free space at night and having them both contained downstairs during the day, so she can wander in and out.

More, better pictures will come soon, I promise.

From Blog Photos

A favorite coffee shop reopened a few weeks ago, and I finally got a chance to stop in this morning.  If you don’t know the story the synopsis is this,  It is  a community coffee shop that was hit by an arsonist last fall.  A local business Sip and Ship took them in, letting them take over the coffee operation as they planned their rebuild. The landowner of a former McDonalds gave them a deal on a lease, and  they spent the last 3 months outfitting the building into something far more comfortable. So they’re back open,and I’m delighted.   It’s 10 am on a Tuesday and the shop is buzzing, we’ve got business meetings and homework happening, retirees and moms with kids hanging out.

They are the epitome of hospitality, always friendly  and welcoming. They remember my name and this morning when i popped in one of the workers  mentioned “It’s your day off isn’t it? ” They remember me. And for another example, one of the workers just took my coffee away, so he could get me a warm-up. What more could a girl want? I’m glad Greenbean is back and recommend that  you check them out if you’ve never been. (In the neighborhood? ping me and maybe I’ll buy the first round of joe.)

GreenBean Coffeehouse

8533 Greenwood Ave N

M-F 7-6, Sat 8-5, Sun 10-4

(Let me add here, Greenwood has 12 coffee shops in about a 2 block radius, I don’t lack for choices, but keep my consumption to 3 shops, Wayward is fabulous for late nights and early mornings, vegan donuts, vegetarian sandwiches and social events. Neptune is quieter and has Molly Moons ice cream. Greenbean is so community oriented and friendly and has fabulous food. How could a girl choose just 1?)

I’ve just weeded through all of my photos on iPhoto, in an effort to clean things up. (The new laptop has more hard drive space, but I’m adding a windows partition and historically, I run out of space) As I wandered through these photos I noticed a few trends.

From Blog Photos

From Blog Photos

From Blog Photos

From Blog Photos

(The Greenwood SeaFair Parade 2 years ago)

There I was standing in the corner as the object of my affection stood mere feet away, unselfconsciously keeping time to the music with her rain stick.  I whispered to my family, “She’s so cool!”. I vibrated in excitement at being so close to my “celebrity crush”. Later in the evening I got a chance to speak to her, and just narrowly avoided drooling and saying “omgyoursocool”.

Something has happened! The people I admire most, the artists, musicians, writers are all one step closer to me then ever. I don’t flail over the latest People magazine looking for the latest gossip on Leonardo Di Caprio. Instead, I look closer to home. To Marian Call, Seanan McGuire *, T. A. Pratt and others.  In the craft world I’ve met Moxie of “Made by Moxie” fame, and  made button barrets  with Susan Beale of “West Coast Crafty”.Through twitter and blogs I interact with these folks, and  feel like I’m part of a larger peanut gallery, urging them on, supporting their work.

She? Marian Call, currently on tour visiting all 50 states in her from 49 to 50 tour.   I’d been eagerly anticipating this evening, and after interacting with her on  twitter for months I was a little star struck.

Something has happened! The people I admire most, the artists, musicians, writers are all one step closer to me then ever. I don’t flail over the latest People magazine looking for the latest gossip on Leonardo Di Caprio. Instead, I look closer to home. To Marian Call, Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant, T. A. Pratt  and others.  In the craft world I’ve met Moxie of “Made by Moxie” fame, and  made button barrets  with Susan Beale of “West Coast Crafty”.Through twitter and blogs I interact with these folks, and  feel like I’m part of a larger peanut gallery, urging them on, supporting their work.

Some of my closest friends and dearest acquaintances have me in awe. Dazzling in their creative work, humble  and honest about the hard work they put in.  Put out an album? Have a short story published? Put on a live show? You all are superstars in my eyes.

I’m glad to be your cheerleader, to support your work with enthusiasm and sponsorship when I can. Just forgive me if I’m sitting in the corner vibrating from excitement at seeing you.

(*Admission of my inner dorkness, when Seanan was in town last weekend, I was too nervous  to go meet her.  )

On Thursday, I got this weird email. The address looked spoof, it contained misspellings,  and had no link to a real person. Suspisicious, I emailed the parent organization and said “Is this spam? The response was surprising.

The case cracking issue with my macbook has had me running into the Apple store every three months for a case repair. The last two times? Service has been less then stellar. When I took it in in March they replaced the top case, the portion where my hands rest on the computer next to the mouse pad. They did not replace the bezel around the monitor. Frustrated at this I let them know via the customer response survey.

The manager contacted me and we played phone tag until June when I brought the unit in again, for the same top case cracking. I asked for the manager, and explain my concern. Turns out the bezel, which cracked from connecting to the top case wasn’t  covered.  I  asked for assistance and understanding but his  attitude was “so what?” and “I’m not an engineer don’t ask me” . I’m not sure why he bothered to respond to my complaint, It didnt seem like he cared at all what the situation was. He did expedite me through the Genius Bar, and pay for the bezel again, as a one time thing.  (The Genius bar as been great through this, quick to get me in and out and friendly, I just resent having to take 3 hours out of my schedule every 3 months to hang out at University Village.)

In the end, I left sad. After all this laptop has to last me for the next 2 years through my MSIM program.

So referencing The Consumerist,  I found the executive information for Apple, and emailed Steve Jobs. I explained  the situation, how I am  an active user of my hardware. It’s not stationary, it goes with me to class every day and is open in class, between breaks, on the bus and at home.

I never got a response. At least not until I got this weird email on Thursday. The manager I dealt with in June  responded to me and confirmed that they did indeed have a replacement machine for me.  In light of my issues they upgraded me to a MacBook Pro, 2.4 ghz. This was beyond my wildest dreams. I expected a response  of “thanks for your feedback” or “lets swap the case out completely” or something along those lines.

Apple clearly has communication issues and the hardware problems prevent me from considering an iPad till they are a little more broken in. In the meantime the resolution to this problem has ensured that I’ll be a Mac girl for life.

“Bodies at rest stay at rest, Deb at rest plays Warcraft”

It was with this thought I mind that I made plans to run away on Saturday, to get out and do something active.  So on Saturday I kicked off the holiday weekend with a trip to Bainbridge Island with Miss Sunnie.

It was up early to do a little work, then a few errands visiting the local True Value, yarn store and scrapbooking store. I then hopped a bus and waited at Coffee Works, my favorite downtown coffee shop.   Full of a mixture of vacationers and World Cup watchers it was bustling.  I took the opportunity to assist a couple planning vacation activities with a few suggestions and then wandered over to the pig to meet Sunnie.

The beauty of Bainbridge is the combination of the ferry, the short walk to “downtown” Winslow and the variety of shops available for shopping.  The fact that my favorite ice cream shop, Mora, is there is a mere coincidence.

After all with a view like this who could resist a quick day trip?

From Online Edits

Where Pike Place Market was crowded when we walked through, the Ferry and Winslow were both very reasonable. We stopped at 122 Winslow for Dining and Cheer, and found a spot in the bar with a breeze. Service was stellar, the food tasty. Refreshed we wandered around, poking into the different shops to see what they had.

We failed at window-shopping, simply because we bought something at the first stop, Bath Junkie” a “franchise make your own” bath product company. They offered us a hand scrub and had us hooked.  You start with one of their carefully formulated products then add scents from their array of hundreds, mixing and matching something to suit you. I wandered away with a walnut scrub in cucumber melon, and bath oil in citrus mint.  They do birthday parties. I could totally see taking the ferry over for a girls trip.

Subsequent stops Eagle Harbor Bookstore  and Church Mouse Yarns were more successful. Downtown Winslow was setting up for a dance party and concert, but we opted not to stay. Our last stops were Mora for ice cream, and Town and Country to pick up ingredients for the 4^th.

From Food

Sadly, Mora was heartbreaking. They’ve discontinued my favorite kind of ice cream and the brownie I got was nasty both dry and burnt. They’ve opened a new location in Kingston, another ferry day trip destination; I’ll likely give them another try. It was sad that what I thought was the gem of the trip was a dud.

Next up? Maybe I’ll take  a trip out to Alki. I’ve never taken the Water Taxi and I’ve heard there are a ton of things to do, from beach walking to a yarn shop and Salty’s for brunch.

A few months ago one of my younger coworkers said to me “No one used e-mail before 2000. ” I laughed at him, and explained that no only did we have email, but I had met my first husband through match.com in 1998.

I’ve had an internet presence nearly as long. I moved to my own domain in 2000, and blogging came shortly after. I’ve been at this for over 10 years. From blogger to wordpress, typepad to handcoded html. (My blogger profile was created in November of 2009, I hand coded before that.I’ve combined blogs, split blogs, started a million livejournals and jumped the bandwagon for social media projects that sailed and failed. (When’s the last time you were on Friendster? Orkut? Multiply?)

In some ways I feel like  done.  I figured I’d return to blogging, both here and at FatandCrafty when the quarter ended, that my creativity would return and I’d be ready to share with you what I’m up to. It even crossed my mind that I could share the excitement of my new program, the goonies vacation I just took, and my plans to take over the world this summer.

All I can think is that I’m tired. Ten years has been a good run, impressive that I’ve kept at it for so long, even with stagnant periods. I’m not sure I’m going to get my groove back. I feel a responsibility to engage in information culture as part of my new degree, but there are new technologies i can study and explore. Maybe its time to give one of those a turn.

Maybe it’s time to return Seattlejo.com to static content, FatAndCrafty too. To hear my take on the world, you’d have to email me, or actually engage with me in real life.  With all the shakeups in my life recently it seems natural that I need a shake up here too.

I’m not making any changes tonight nor tomorrow, but these whisperings are on my mind, and in my heart.

As expected this quarter is a little challenging in the schedule department, and Im finding less time for writing. In 6 weeks it will be over for another year, so have no fear I’ll be back soon.

It’s another vacation in Portland. I enjoyed the trip in November but spent 6 hours each day working on homework. This kept me close to the downtown core, and didn’t give me much chance to get  really explore.

This trip I’ve done a better job of getting out, though not as great of a job touching base with friends.  I’m more comfortable with the city, and  more able appreciate things that are outside the realm of “touristy”. Give it a few more visits and I’ll have a better understanding of the city neighborhoods and  their inherent culture. It’s good to know, in case I consider relocating in the future. (Could I be PDX-Jo? Dunno,  I’m considering it a courtship right now, something I’ve never done with my other moves.)

In the meantime,  I have to say that Portland is weird. From the deer statue in the middle of main street,  to the variety of retail in the pearl district to  the mangle of food carts in the downtown district. Portland is WEIRD!

I’m having an awesome trip though. Thursday I ran around from Pig and Pancake to the North, to Penzeys to the South. I hit Yarnia and Pix Patisserie, and  dinner was at Kenny and Zuke’s for shitty service and a  kick ass ruben.

Friday was spa day. I needed a haircut and wanted a manicure before the quarter began, and opted to schedule an appointment at Aveda and a visit a local nail place.

A stop at Knit Knot Studio yielded yarn for a project, and a visit to Powells was intended to achieve my texts for next quarter. I came way with another copy of A Local Habitation because my kindle is out of juice and I wanted to read it again on the train home. (I finished it yesterday, but it’s just that good.)

I tried for my burger and beer at Deschutes,  but again was stifled by a  25 minute wait. Instead I ended up at Melt where I over indulged in two cuba libras. (Rum and coke and… something else)  I hadn’t had anything since my 8am coffee and yogurt, so the rum hit me pretty hard. I wandered back to the hostel, stopping to stare drunkly at the produce at Trader Joes first.

Saturday found me at the Saturday Market, The Original, and  traveling back home, watching coupling and knitting the whole way.

In the end it was a good trip, though i didn’t do most of what I expected. No Tram ride, I didn’t get ahold of Betse, and I didn’t make it to the peruvian place I was dying to try.   It was good though, and nice enough that I’ll probably ask Portland on another date.

February 2000 Rob and I packed 8 feet of a U-pack truck and attended our last Estrella War. We filled our geo metro with the rest of our stuff plus cats and caffeine. Thus began the drive to Seattle. It took 3 days, but we landed here around the 1st of March, found our new apartment in Mountlake Terrace and began to settle in to our new home.

There have been a lot of changes in those 10 years.I’ve gotten divorced, formed a partnership with my current significant others (8 years strong) , gotten engaged, become backup guardian to an amazing teenager, and future step mom to a vibrant elementary-aged girl. My life has had a revolving cast of characters of friends and chosen family. From classmates to coworkers, community members to sweethearts. Some are with me now, including those I look forward to walking the long path of life with me, others will move on though I’m glad for the impact they had on my life.

I’ve lived a little bit of everywhere in Seattle, from Wallingford to Broadview, Greenwood to Burien, and that initial stay in Mountlake Terrace. (Never lived on the other side of 520, somehow I don’t think its compatible to my non-driver lifestyle) I’ve traveled from Victoria to Eugene, from Orcas to Winthrop. I’ve taken ferrys, trains, and airplanes.I’ve traveled with friends and family, and gone on solo adventures too. (I there was still a ferry between Port Townsend and Seattle)

My personal identity has shifted, my professional roles have changed. I’ve become more independent, more responsible and in some ways more reliable. (Still a flake sometimes. I think I’ll always have a schedule from hell.)

Seattle is home. The Pacific NW is “my country”. Mt Ranier greets me at the sunrise, the Olympics frame my sunset. I walk the hills from Capitol hill to Downtown, I ride the ferries from Seattle to Bainbridge and Bremerton. I love our seafood, pan asian fast food and local beer. Mild winters and subdued summers.

Chicago is where I grew up. Arizona was a stop over on the way to adulthood. Seattle is where I have come into my own.