Apparently our wedding pics are far easier to view here.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v448/outrace/Wedding/?start=all

Our wedding.

Our wedding pics can be seen at:

http://liberated-man.blogspot.com

Posterity

It's been a LONG time since I posted anything here on this side of our lives. Posterity says I need to do an update.

One: The house has been up for sale for some time. $525K is way too much to even get a nibble in this market. I'm going to miss this house.

Two: We're moving to Vancouver, BC, Canada on July 1.

Three: We'll be married in Vancouver by 5:30 PM on July 3, 2008. It will also be our 8th anniversary as a dedicated couple. Pictures will follow if I can find someone who can shoot.

Weekend report

We had 'open house' all weekend trying to sell the albatross. Saturday was apparently decent with 8 or 9 viewings. We got no report on Sunday. Still no offers.

For the Saturday open house, Ed and I took a load of stuff up to our storage unit on the border. Thrilling.

For the Sunday open house, Ed went to the library to work and I took a shake down cruise on the motorcycle. Raining and 37F in the mountains. 54F and blowing 40+ in the high desert. Now I know everything will work for the trip in 3 weeks.

House for sale!

The house went on the market yesterday. It's valued at far less than we wanted to get for it and the probability is that it won't even bring our asking price. Such is life.

I'm going to miss the place. I'll miss it's completion. To be honest, I wanted to be able to entertain friends here in a place made perfect for lots of fun, happy people. That won't happen now. Time to move on and move forward in a slightly different direction.

Full pics at http://andreshomescapes.blogspot.com

Partial crosspost from Motocancer

Back in the middle of '05, Ed applied to the Canadian government for Permanent Residency. He was granted Permanent Resident status in October of '07. He can become a Canadian in three years. (Ed is not a US citizen.)

Now, this is where I let the cat out of the bag. Ed's been offered a terrific position in Vancouver, Canada. I can't tell you exactly what the position is until the final paperwork is signed, but I can say it will be seen as pivotal in his career. Yeah, this is a big deal for us.

So the facts are that we'll be moving to Vancouver in July. We're selling the house, getting rid of a lot of stuff, and will be moving to a place that's roughly half the size of what we have now.

We're both looking forward to it.

Clumsy with a Saturn.

We awoke this morning to the doorbell. Yeah, I guess we should have been out of bed already by 8:30, but what's a poor 'retired' guy and his hubby gonna do on a lazy Tuesday.

Well, I found out what my day would consist of.

Some guy in a Saturn backed into the 4x4 that holds up my mailbox (and my neighbors). Snapped it right off at ground level. Both mailboxes were lying in the driveway.

Ok, so I didn't get my pants on early enough to answer the door, but our neighbor across the street watched it happen, as did the construction crew across the street (who I know peripherally, oddly enough).

I was contacted by my neighbor via email with a license plate number. Then the construction crew told me he'd left a note on my adjacent neighbor's door (but he hasn't been in the house for 7 months).

So I spent part of my day digging a new post-hole, burying and cutting a new 4x4, and transferring the boxes themselves. EXACTLY what I woke up thinking I'd do today. NOT! For some odd reason, I'm tired.

I left a message at the number he provided. His bill is gonna be 3 hours at $60/hr plus $10 for the post. Total of $190. We'll see how that works out.

Crackers in the package.

I've recently started drinking beer. I drink one, and only one, and it's generally with dinner when we're out at a restaurant. I'm not a beer-o-phile (or whatever beer-o-philes call themselves when they want to pretend beer is important.) I generally just want a beer that's extremely drinkable without a hoppy or bitter aftertaste.

I want a beer that quenches my thirst. I don't need (or want) a "beer experience".

Obviously I'm leading up to something here. Yesterday, I bought a 15 pack of Budweiser 16oz bottles of beer. It'll probably take me a month to drink them all. But, here's the kicker.

The beer bottles are shaped like bowling pins. Yeah, really. Bowling pins.

OMG - I'm gonna be drinking ButtWiper from bowling pins. I guess it's something I'll have to do in the closet. My inner redneck needs to stay hidden.

Just one more quick rant.

I surf lots of blogs. Bloggers who put music on their blog should be shot.

Somebody asked why.

It's intrusive. It's rude. People might want to look into your little slice of life, but we don't want you to bang on our door and download your personal selection of what you think your life is, as expressed by somebody who we don't care about at midnight while surfing.

And then there's some piece of music you STOLE from somebody.

There's the general stereotype that sites with music almost never mention anyone or any activity that isn't completely self centered. Well, sometimes it's moms blogging about how incredible their little offspring is and will be. Get over it. If you're lucky, your kid will be normal.

Yeah, blogs tend to be personal and rather like diaries, but jeepers, doesn't anybody know anybody besides themselves? Funny, I don't generally hear music on blogs that require reading and thought.

That's why.

A bit of a rant on sociability.

It's the nature of our situation here in Seattle that we often meet new people in social settings. We're not social butterflies, but we're introduced to new people on a pretty regular basis. These meetings generally take place in restaurants.

It amazes me how bad people are at social conversation.

Ed and I tend to ask the new people at the table about their lives. What do they do? What activities or interests have they? Generally people answer these questions with side information that allows us to segue down another path. The objective is to get these people to open up and feel comfy at the table. Ed is the best at this, but it's a tactic I've used for years to make folks feel they're in a pleasant setting. After all, dinner without conversation is just a restaurant review by consensus.

People seldom have difficulty talking about themselves and their lives.

Within a few minutes, Ed and I let the conversation rest for a while. No sense in making the new folks feel like they're being probed by aliens.

What amazes me is that about 2/3 of the people we meet don't have the courtesy, decency, or social skills to turn the conversation around and learn something about us. When I say "let the conversation rest", I mean it takes a nap more than half of the time!

So what's up people? Do you not understand that basic social courtesy suggests you ask us a few questions? Do you not care who you're sharing a table with?

If this is how people are in common social settings, is there any wonder blind dates go so badly?

An active weekend.

Ed and I did our usual weekend maintenance stuff most of Saturday, then we went out to dinner with a friend. The friend's boyfriend was visiting from Boston and it was nice to finally meet his S.O. I'm going to guess that the age difference between them is approximately equal to the age difference between Ed and I. With 20 years difference in our ages, Ed is occasionally 'older' than I. It's funny how that works sometimes.

On Sunday morning, Ed woke up and announced he wanted a Filipino breakfast, so we went back to our new Filipino restaurant and had 'silog'. Basically, this is garlic fried rice, two eggs, and whichever meat you choose. As an example, tapsilog would add thinly sliced beefsteak that has been pan fried. Tucilog would add marinated pork. Longsilog adds short little sweet sausages (Longanisa sausages). Ed makes spamsilog at home quite often. Yes, it's made with fried Spam.

Anyway, after a heavy brunch cum lunch, we lazed around the house most of Sunday afternoon. Nice weekend.

Spoiled Rotten

I spent all day doing errands and running to the doctor in Ed's new car. We both like it, we really do. It's small, maneuverable, zippy. There's just one little thing....

It doesn't have power windows or power door locks and we're spoiled. When we leave the car, we actually have to lock it...by hand. We have to reach across the car to unlock the door for a passenger.... and we have to roll the windows up and down by hand. Primitive.

We'll get through it....

Ed's new wheels.

Ed's been thinking about a new set of wheels since he murdered his sedan. Truth is, he really didn't like parking or driving the big car in Seattle, and he hates driving my full sized pickup anywhere except the freeway.

So he's been looking for deals and he found one a gently used 2007 Hyundai Hatchback. It's the right size for him. It's a car he's familiar with. The price was exceptional and I mean exceptional.

We spent most of Saturday buying it. I drove it home. It's a surprisingly comfortable and quiet car. Absolutely no frills, but I like driving it. Ed loves it. It's his new toy.

Here are the pics. Click to enlarge.

Late January, 08

It's been a strange few days on the health front, but the life front has been great.

Ed and I spent a nice quiet day at home on Saturday and then he announced, "I want Filipino food for dinner." Suddenly I anticipated making adobo, but he said we were going out to a new place he'd found online. We actually have a pretty good Filipino place in town so I was a little confused. Seems Ed found a place that's got a pretty wide variety of foods with a Filipino core. No, they don't make Filipino fettucini alfredo, but they do have normal f-a on the menu. Apparently the chef comes from a commercial base and knows not everyone wants to eat 'strange grub'. From our standpoint, I eat a wider variety of Filipino food than Ed does.

Anyway, I've found the ultimate guy food. I had this same thing when we were in Vancouver and the better/fresher version at this restaurant really got me hooked. It's pork hock fried in a pan. Skin and fat remain on so you get 'chicharrones with tender meat'. Yeah, hard, crispy pork rinds with a thin layer of fat and about 1/4 inch of tender pork. That's it. No sauce, very little spice. (Seems like just a little salt and vinegar before frying.) This stuff makes bacon seem dull and I really like bacon. Really. (For some reason, I'm not worried about my cholesterol.) It's called Lechon Kawali.

So here's the strange part about the restaurant. It's in the 'eclectic' part of town (as Ed says). I say it's purely ethnic. Black, Mexican, Filipino largely. Obviously within the target market but not something Seattle's Birkenstock crowd will drive their Subaru wagon to. It's right next to a construction site. It apparently used to be a burger joint. Conversely, it's NICELY decorated inside (Huh?). And then, as we switch back to the odd, there are big TVs everyone can see while they eat. They play the Filipino channel and a horrible show called Wowowee (Wow Wow Wee). What a train wreck. Makes Sabado Gigante look like fine art. I honestly don't know a single Filipino who likes Wowowee. Really. It's trash. It's one of those things you watch because it's in your language. Sorry to put it this way, but it's immigrant garbage. Target marketed for people trapped in their linguistic ghetto. Somehow I remember some of that....... The place was paradoxical. Location and TV were horrible and detracted from the positives. The interior and food presentation were terrific. The tastes were wonderful. Service verged on 'apathetic teenage daughter'. I know we'll go back. The food was great.

And then came Sunday: Ed really needed to work with his mice. Sunday is a good day to do that because there's nobody in the lab. He can harvest what he needs and not be interrupted by other users of the mouse room and other facilities. He pulled a good solid 8 hours doing what he needed to do and eventually came home. In the meantime I had a very good day physically and spent most of it puttering around and then I rode the motorcycle a couple of miles up the road and then home again. Technically no big deal, but psychologically important and physically expository. Truly important to my mental health, self image, and confidence. Ed was quite pleased I'd ridden the FJR. The temp was only about 40 and he was worried I'd gotten cold, but feeling cold was the least of my concerns. Funny thing is, I don't remember the temp at all. It was a dry and sunny day and I was on two wheels. I was back in the land of the living. It made me a little emotional after I put the monster back on the center stand.

Monday:Nothing major.

Tuesday: I was supposed to see a doctor this morning about a problem with the "terminus of my digestive tract" (I'll leave it at that.) I arrived for my appointment only to discover it'd been cancelled by my referring doctor's scheduler. No phone call, no email, no contact. I wasn't happy but I didn't go nuts and have anybody slain. It apparently has been rescheduled for Thursday morning at 8:45. If the docs eventually do what I want them to do, I'll be in for a day of outpatient surgery with some recovery time. I just consider this issue to be a 'quality of life' thing I don't want to deal with any more. The problem is that I'm going to have to convince the docs to do something besides look, think, and wait. I really dislike these procrastinators.

Oddly, I'm as weak as a kitten today. My last labs showed I was becoming slightly anemic. I wonder if that's progressing.

So, we're staying active.

The worst movie on the planet.

First off, Ed and I don't agree on this review. Ed was perfectly satisfied with the film and wants to rent the second feature to this pig.

We rented and watched "Grindhouse - Planet Fear". It's a Rodriguez/Tarantino film. I dunno what these two were smoking and snorting when they directed.

It's a gore/slasher/high techish "homage" to apparently every movie ever made. It's shot in/for 2007 with digitized Super-8 film quality whenever the directors smoked a big enough joint.

Yeah, it's the equivalent of taking EVERY ingredient and EVERY spice and every "everything" in your entire kitchen (no poisons) and putting it in a giant pot for a long boil. Now force feed it to your family. What the hell did you just cook? Is it dinner? Technically I guess it has nutritional value, but why would you serve something like that?

Just because you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

Quite honestly, and without exaggeration, this was the worst movie I've ever seen. Train wreck bad. Look away bad. Leave the room bad. Turn it off bad. The only reason I watched the whole thing is because I genuinely couldn't believe it continued to be so bad.

Life proceeds

It's been a long time since I wrote anything here about us. It seems as if our lives just stopped some time ago.

Life doesn't stop.

So, some bummer stuff first. Nothing horrible, but not fun anyway.

We had some local flooding in the area about 45 days ago. It rains a lot in Seattle in the winter, but normal runoff handles the load under normal conditions. Unfortunately, it rained A LOT for a long period of time around here and we had some water issues. Two problems cropped up from this.

First, our drainage field filled up and water began to seep under our back door and flooded our downstairs. Yeah, downstairs is carpeted and finished. We have some damage and mildew. We're still trying to deal with it.

The second issue came from inexperience / inattention on Ed's part while driving his car to work. See, there was a sign about a mile down the road that said "Water over roadway." Traffic was avoiding the deep stuff in the right lane, but Ed just kept on driving.

BMWs don't ford water over 2 feet deep.

Basically, he sucked straight water directly into the engine. Hydraulic lock occurred. Pistons broke, rods bent, the crank probably twisted a degree or two. The car was toast. I think Ed learned a thing or two about the relative inexpense of comprehensive automobile insurance. He had none. The financial loss, while limited, was virtually total. Several thousand dollars were lost because of a puddle.

But that's the bad stuff. Into each life a little rain must fall. Literally.

The good stuff. We're still making progress on the house. It's obviously quite slow right now, but we inch along whenever it's possible. It'll get done.

Ed's career and experiments are going well. He can finally see the end of his data gathering and plan for the big number crunch / paper.

I went out to see my brother and his hubby in Dallas a few short months ago. It was good to be able to connect with them at their place, and I took the time to visit with some of my old motorcycling friends. It was nice to see the old guard and meet several new folks.

I had dinner with the two friends with whom I motorcycled into Canada. Wow, it looks like I haven't written about that. I should be shot!

See, I have two adventurous friends from Dallas who are long time motorcyclists. They decided they were going to ride from Dallas to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Yeah, that's 10,000 miles plus for each of them. Here's a link to the primer of the story.

Anyway, arrangements were made and we hauled butt from my house. 4 days, 1600 miles round trip, and some great scenery en-route.

Departure pic. Click to make it larger. From left to right, that's Tim, Brad, then me.

We had a good time on the trip. We also had a wonderful time at dinner with their wives, Tim's family, and another friend (female pilot, motorcycle racer, fun person.)

Anyway, I'll write more as I think of things and as life moves forward.