Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Did I mention the snow?

The fluffy white stuff is not helping at all with getting stuff done for our new house. The snow and very cold weather in the city has prevented people from getting to work. The status right now: the inspection has been done by the city for the certificate of occupancy, but the person who is meant to process the paperwork hasn't been in the office. Lameness. We were at our apartment tonight trying to get as much cleaning done as possible but left when it started to sleet. The roads get pretty treacherous when they get icy due to all of the hills. Although our lease ends tomorrow, we were given permission to take a bit longer to move out of our apartment. Dustin called the owner of our building and told her our situation (he still works for the company managing another building). Since our apartment hasn't been rented yet, she gave the OK for us to take a couple of extra days to move out.

The waiting game continues.

Monday, November 27, 2006

The saga continues

Woe is me. Our poor kitties must spend another night alone in an empty apartment. The excuse today? Snow. That's right folks - it's been snowing in the city a little and snowing a lot outside of the city. Apparently, the key people to make the Certificate of Occupation happen are snowed in today. Somehow, i don't believe them. All of our stuff sits in our new house that we cannot occupy. Our furry friends along with the ones that live in tanks must stay in our old apartment. We've been staying at Chris' house.

There has been other things that haven't been happening as they should be, but I don't feel like going into that house drama. I'm tired.

In other news, the snowboarding at Crystal this past Saturday was fantastic! We've been experiencing a nice front that has been continuously dumping snow in the mountains. We may have to make an impromtu trip to Mt. Baker this weekend so we don't miss out on that fluffy goodness. They've been getting tons of snow! Next weekend, me, Tony, Chris and Julie are headed up to Whistler for our first trip up there for this season.

More good news! Alyssa Wolff was born on Saturday, 11/26 at 1:15 AM. She is precious! Tony & I will need to plan a trip to Naples soon to meet our newest niece.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Intermission for a house update

I have the basis written for our honeymoon story, but there are revisions that need to be made. My extra time right now is being devoted to getting ready to move.

It hasn't been going as smooth as hoped. We've been meeting with delays at every corner that are out of our control. We signed all of the paperwork today, but Title is still waiting for some info from the seller. This info should have been requested a week or so ago but it was not. Now we wait. Fortunately, Chris the Seller is very understanding and will be giving us the keys tomorrow when we do the final walk-through so we can move over the weekend. It has been an unexpected nightmare, but we'll get through it. Our evenings have been spent packing in preparation for the movers on Friday. The closing may not occur until next week :(

It has been raining here and cold enough for snow in the mountains. Yay! We did go snowboarding last weekend but the conditions weren't good. The snowboarding this coming up weekend will be much better. Yes, we are going to take a day off from moving to go snowboarding. We just can't help it!

Long overdue

Honeymoon Day 1

Our flight to NYC left Seattle at 7AM on Saturday with a layover in Cincinnati. We arrived in Cincinnati to find that our connecting flight had been cancelled. Delta put us on a flight that went to Atlanta and then to NYC. No thank you! We requested to be changed to a different flight going into the NJ airport. Due to the cancellation, they gave us a couple of food vouchers so we had some lunch while we waited for our flight. We arrived at our gate to find they had overbooked the flight and were asking for volunteers to take the next flight. After some discussion, we decided to take the $400 in flight vouchers and more meal vouchers and spend a few more hours waiting in the airport. Plus, we flew first class. Finally, we arrived in NY around 10PM. We checked into our room that Jill reserved for us with her frequent traveler points and found she had ordered us a bottle of wine and cheese plate that was waiting for us in our room. Unfortunately, our luggage didn’t make it at the same time we did. However, our luggage was delivered to our hotel by the time we woke up in the morning. We went out to find a place to have a drink but found only disappointing atmospheres. The people in New York are much yuppier than I expected.

Honeymoon Day 2

We didn’t have any definite plans for our first full day in NY except to have brunch with Brad. We decided to walk because the best way to explore a city is by foot. We met Brad and his friend, Megan, at a vegetarian restaurant that he picked out. After a tasty meal, we parted ways with Brad & Megan and strolled through Central Park. The area was really crowded due to the NYC Marathon. As we were walking by the Children’s Zoo in the park, I spotted Estelle sitting in the zoo. She, Jean, Charlie and a couple of their friends were headed out of the Zoo so we met them at the exit. We knew they’d be in NYC at the same time we would be, but I didn’t imagine we’d randomly run into them! We chatted for a bit while walking out of the park and then parted ways. Our next stop was The Apple Store on 5th Avenue. We picked up a few things and then headed out – the store was too crowded to spend much time there. After that, we wandered around the city exploring the different areas. One of our stops was Macy’s – the store was huge and confusing. One fun thing was riding a wooden escalator – who knew there was such a thing? We continued to explore with no particular destination. At one point, we were hungry and needing some food but could not find a place to eat. Our legs were tired and we needed to rest so it was a little frustrating to be a little lost. Finally, we did find a place to rest and afterwards, we headed over to Greenwich to get some dinner and catch the movie, “”Borat”.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

5:20 AM in Prague

I didn't do so well with conquering the jet lag. We didn't sleep much on the plane ride here which wasn't a surprise. I fell asleep between 8PM and 9PM Prague time and woke up around 2AM. Not sure what to do to help me get some sleep.

My first impression of Prague: I am so surprised with how modern touristy it is. Very Old Buildings everywhere and the street level floors have been converted to retail/dining space.

I will tell the stories later and post more pictures. Promise.

Amanda - the internet is about the only way we are reachable. Would we have to rent a car to get to where your friends are?

Monday, November 06, 2006

The best thing about NYC is

You and Me!

Here's the brief list:

Delayed lots in Cincinnati - didn't get to NYC until 10pm.
Wandered lots on Sunday - had lunch with cousin Brad & Megan, ran into friends in Central Park (for reals!), visited the Apple store and wandered around a LOT. Oh yeah! Rode on a wooden escalator. For reals! In Macy's: the most confusing store ever.
Monday - MOMA and East Village.

Fun stuff! New shoes! Leaving for Prague tomorrow!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Kale chips! Kale chips :p

I love me some kale. Being that it is one of nature's 'superfoods', I was excited to try this new way of making it that I found on Hungry Girl. Kale chips! Yes, it was too good to be true. I made some Kale Chips last night and they just tasted like burnt paper. So disappointing.

We had our inspection yesterday and everything went really well (as expected). Too bad my GMAT exam didn't go as well. I'm unsure if the score will be high enough to get into the program. Let's hope they don't make me wait too long to find out.

I forgot my camera yesterday so there are no new pictures of the place :(
Jenn - I asked about the fireplace and they are putting up tile all around it. We'll just have to wait and see!

It will be weird. We leave for our honeymoon this Saturday. As soon as we get back, we'll be doing our final walk-through and signing the paperwork. So exciting! Dustin's going to check in once in awhile to make sure they are progressing on schedule.