Good morning! I think it's time to return to my blog. I'll try to write more often now, and I think maybe there will be enough going on in the next forseeable months to have something to tell about.

I'm in Seattle in our new house here. Spencer and I came up this last weekend, with two car loads of stuff. But since I'm going to stay in Petaluma for a few more months, this house is going to be half-furnished until then. I feel badly about that for Spencer, but it seems like the way to go. The house is nice! Large enough, close to the city bike path Spencer can ride to work on, and in a very nice neighborhood. We have one of the crappier houses on the street, but we have plans to try to make it look better. It just looks like a rental house that no one puts any effort into. So far we have made improvements to all the houses we've rented, and we'll do the same here. The house faces south/southwest, so it gets good light all day, and the living room has nice BIG windows. Photos will come later, it's too messy here to photo now. There's a big huge basement for storage, and two bedrooms, so we'll have a guest room/office. It also has a fireplace. Downfalls are hardwood floors (Max and I prefer carpeting) and a small kitchen. We have plans on how to deal with the kitchen, however, and we'll make the most of it. There is also a big backyard for Max with lots of plants to pee on. He's happy about that.

We haven't had a lot of time since we got here to get the house set up, because we've both had to work. Yesterday Les and Kari brought us a bed, so that was a vast improvement. Having to figure out how to parcel out our stuff into two houses (between here and Petaluma, I mean) has been a challenge. We'll move the rest of the stuff up after Thanksgiving (is the plan at this point).

As for the area, it's nice! I've never lived right in a city before, but it's kindof like the suburbs, the houses go forever. There are lots of hills in Seattle. Max and I went out for a walk the other day and went up and down, up and down. My local yarn shop is 0.9 miles from the house (according to google), but I haven't been there yet. Probably when I come back in a couple of weeks. There is a dog park relatively close too, but we haven't made it over there yet either. And from around our neighborhood are views of the Cascades (which are very craggy up this direction, compared to Oregon), Lake Washington, the Space Needle, and Mt. Rainier. And we can see Mt. Rainier from our dining room! That's very exciting to me. I've missed the volcanoes in the time that I've lived in California and BC.

So, this weekend we're off to the Gorge to see the Dave Matthews Band. I'm very excited, as usual. The band has said they're taking next year off (this is their 20th year touring) and that they'll come back after that, but I'm not holding my breath. I love going to see them, but no one can do this forever. They've worked hard to do this and it would be understandable to want to stop and relax at some point. So maybe this will be the last year. I've been out to the Gorge every year except one since 2000. The trip out there has become a wonderful thing of spending the weekend with friends and family as well, since my parents and friends are there and we camp together. Concerts are in the night, so there is all day for two days to spend sitting around relaxing and enjoying each others' company. It's very good. I look forward to this aspect as well, and it's one of the reasons to not go see the band in Giants Stadium in SF (for example, like we did in 2005 and it sucked), and to make the drive all the way out to eastern Washington. It's just better. This year my parents will be there, as well as Sabrina and Lucas, and Wayne, Tracey and Owen (who have been absent for two years because of Owen's arrival). It'll be a good crowd.

More after the party weekend...