Easy Day

This weekend was nice and relaxing. Saturday actually got to the point where I was wearing short sleeves for a while! It was nice and sunny most of the day, so we enjoyed some good times walking around outside and checking out some of the local thrift shops and a little art store over in Capital Hill. Since I am a huge sucker for deals and coupons and such, I signed up to get e-mails about deals for the Space Needle, which is normally a greatly expensive tourist attraction. I got an e-mail recently about an online deal for 75% off of the annual pass for the Space Needle. That means that I can go up with one guest as many times as I want for the year. Since we'll be starting to get some visitors soon and the Space Needle is a big thing to see in Seattle, I got 2 annual passes, so 4 people can go up each time with them. They really pay for themselves the first time you use them since it's normally $16 per person to go up. Anyway, that was the long way of saying that we finally went up the Space Needle this weekend! By the time we got to the top the sun was just starting to set so we walked around to see the views during the day then went inside for our free beer and wine (compliments of being a first time annual pass user) then went out again to see the night views of the city.And, of course, I tried out some more recipes this weekend, although not as much as usual because we still had lots left over. I tried to cut all the recipes in half this time and there still ended up being a lot of food. I just need more people to feed! I love my little heart shaped muffin molds, so I used them again to make some corn bread muffins. Sooooo good. I also made some apple scones and Ryan made some really tasty chicken fingers.

T-Shirts

I taught myself how to screen print a few weeks ago and am still trying to play around with it a little bit. My first attempts came out pretty well, but for some reason the last time I tried to make a print, the screen didn't hold up as well as I had hoped. Perhaps it's due to my hasty homemade screen techniques. We shall see in the next attempts.

CNO

Part of my job right now is that about once a month I have to stand a 24 hour watch in which I pretty much just answer a phone when people call in to report incidents around the base or emergencies or things like that and then I would make sure the correct people are notified and that the situation is taken care of. I have been working on becoming certified to do this, and last Friday and this yesterday (Tuesday) I did a follow along watch standing to get familiarized on my duties. Nothing terribly exciting happened while I was training, just a few calls about minor fires or injuries. But last night, I got to meet a Naval celebrity shall we say. The CNO (Chief of Naval Operations) came to the base for a visit. He is the highest ranking person in the Navy, and works with the President of the US of A. Part of my watch standing duties involved me making sure that the he, and his entourage, made it to the hotel ok and didn't have any problems checking in. So when he got in last night, we met him at the hotel door and introduced ourselves to him and such and helped them all in. There were all kinds of secret service people around and bomb sniffing dogs walking around. It was pretty amusing. So that was my job excitement last night.

I also got to greet the CNO, his entourage, and a congressman this morning as they came in to have a reception and proceed to a tour of the base and such.

Good Foods

So this Valentines weekends was full of lots and lots of food, mostly all home cooked. I have recently acquired a couple of new baking cookbook (one about muffins and one about breads) so I've been excitedly trying out several of the new recipes. This weekend, however, involved much more than homemade breads. Saturday night we cooked up some giant Alaskan king crab legs that we bought at the pike place market earlier that day. I think this may have been the first time that I have had king crab other than our traditional Dougherty Family Christmas party. They turned out fabulous, and I definitely had a super full tummy after that one! I had also tried out a recipe from my new bread book for some onion focaccia. That took a little longer than I had anticipated to prepare, so it didn't end up being ready until after supper. Sunday night was fajita night, and I also tried out another bread recipe for cinnamon rolls which turned out quite nicely. Monday (which I had off for President's Day) I made a chicken pot pie, which was also my first attempt at making homemade pie crust. It all turned out lovely, although I didn't have quite enough dough to make a full lattice top for it. Oh well, next time. That night, I also consulted my muffin cookbook again, and made some chocolate chip muffins in my little heart shaped silicon muffin molds. The color and shape makes the baking experience just that much more exciting.

New Set of Wheels

I got my new car last week. And yes I am thoroughly aware that I "downgraded" a little from a GTI to a Jetta Sportswagon, but I was feeling the change and I thought the Sportswagon would be a fine asset for my new home here in the Pacific North West and its outdoor adventures! It also has a stick shift, which surprisingly enough I haven't lost manual skills. It might get a little difficult in the city though on some of the really steep hills. I have yet to have to attempt to conquer that battle though.

Sunny Weekend!

As is common knowledge, it is often 'rainy' in Washington. Although it doesn't necessarily rain heavily, it is often overcast, foggy, and/or drizzly. The rainy season is the winter months, so it looks like we moved to Washington at just that time! The summer is supposed to be lovely almost everyday though. This weekend was a really nice weekend though. Probably the first really sunny weekend since we've been here. And, for me, it was a long weekend. I had a half day on Friday and had Monday off for MLK day! After work on Friday, I went and got my Washington drivers license. I'm pretty pumped about getting my plastic version in the mail any day now! When I got to Seattle that afternoon, however, things were not as carefree and relaxed. Poor Ryan had been given a model to build really late in the week and it was due on Monday. And they kept making changes on it, so he wasn't really starting it until Friday night. I ended up spending a lot of time up at his office helping/entertaining him since he had to be working all weekend long. He ended up taking Monday off though, so we spent at least one day enjoying the sun around Seattle.

Getting Adjusted and Seeing the Sights

Ok, I'll be the first to admit, my job seems to be a little lame at this point in time. It really has nothing to do with design or architecture or engineering or anything that I really enjoy doing at the moment. I work with customers a little bit and get their job requests (construction they want done) and such through the ridiculous government system. I also do some military admin stuff with some of the enlisted members on base. The thing I am really enjoying about the military is really seeing how the government works from the inside. It really is a whole different lifestyle. I would compare it to a cultural immersion, which is the best way to really learn and understand about another culture. I am certainly not convinced that this is the life for me, but it is a very enlightening and bizarre experience that I will not soon forget. It's a great thing to really be a part of this country and try to contribute to its driving force. Another positive factor of my job is that has great pay, benefits, and job security. I guess if I was going to go through this experience at some point in my life, this is the economy to do it in.

Oak Harbor, where I live and work, is about 2 hours north of Seattle. It's off the coast on Whidbey Island, so i have to drive across a bridge to get there. Luckily, it happens to be an absolutely gorgeous bridge! It's called 'Deception Pass' and you can see Canada on one side and the US on the other. Oak Harbor covers about the Northern third of the Island. It is a small town and a good amount of it is military. There are a lot of really great outdoorsie things to do. I would really love to go kayaking around deception pass, there are some great little islands and lots of great wildlife. I saw a bald eagle the other day while driving around the island.



I spend most of my time in Seattle, however. There is definitely much more to do there, and it's nice to get away from the whole military thing for a while every weekend. I spend a good amount of time there before the holidays because I got snowed in! Luckily I had driven down to Seattle right before the big snow storm hit so I was stuck somewhere amusing. The base was closed down for snow days for almost a week, and then I took time off for the holidays. Apparently Seattle is not used to snow at all. I'm used to Michigan, where if it snows at night, all the roads are cleared and iced by the morning. In Seattle, they just close roads and don't plow them at all. I didn't even try to drive anywhere. It was pretty crazy. So instead of going anywhere, we just walked around and enjoyed the snow in the city.
It did become a problem, however, when we tried to go to the airport and fly home for Christmas! By Christmas Eve, which is when we were flying out, most of the flight delays and cancellations were over, but apparently there was a major parking shortage. I just assumed we would drive to the airport, park the car, and get it when we can back in a few days. There was NO PARKING anywhere!! I was even willing to pay the $30 per day for the short term airport parking. People were parked illegally everywhere, and the whole top deck of the parking structure was closed off due to snow. A lot of the non airport parking were either shut down or half of the lots was covered in snow too. Finally, we decided to drive all the way back to Seattle, pick up one of Ryan' friends from work, then drive back to the airport and let the friend drive the car back to the apartment. It all ended up working out, but it was a greatly stressful start to the holidays!