Two Weeks in Seattle

Tomorrow will officially mark our second week in Seattle. I think by next weekend I should have some additional photos of the house, considering how much we got done last weekend. We hung the blackout curtains my mom made us in the bedroom, as well as more art on the walls. We might paint a wall in the kitchen blue next weekend if I get the color sample approved by the property management agency. I'd like to paint a lot of rooms (since they are all boring white) but it is a lot of trouble for a rental. However, the more work we put into it the longer we will probably stay.

I am currently going through endless training modules at work. Today included topics such as ergonomics, electricity, cold stress, poisonous plants/animals (still can't believe that I went into the wilderness in Australia), flu (I actually knew enough on the pre-test to opt out of this one), and eye protection. I still have 12 topics to get through. But this is all so I can travel to job sites, so it will be worth it in the end.

Today we all went out to lunch to celebrate hiring me. I had my first pho! Basically just noodle soup, but according to my coworkers it is a cure for the common cold/a Seattle staple. They had places that sell it in North Carolina, so I had heard of it before, but it was not nearly as common as it is here. Its basically found on every block, so I was glad to get my first taste. I liked it though I probably would have enjoyed it more if it had been a cold, cloudy day. Plus, I didn't put the optional jalapenos or sriracha in mine, so I may have been missing something.

In other news, I REALLY want to get a DSLR camera (following in the footsteps of so many of my friends and family before me). Specifically I'm looking at the Nikon D3100. But its a big purchase and an investment even if you consider all the accessories and lenses that you can end up wanting. However, now that it is just me and Brad out here I don't have a friend or family member to rely on for great photos. And there is a lot of great stuff around here that I'd like to photograph to show everyone. I may still be open to a cheaper digital point-and-shoot to replace my current one, but I'd like to save up for the DSLR. Either way, I have been watching videos about photography and how to work all the features fancy cameras on Lynda.com. That has been inspiring me toward this potential hobby.

Flowers at the steps leading to our front door. They are light purple but my crappy phone camera didn't really capture their beauty all that well.

As an additional potential hobby, I bought a book on plant identification. There are endless flowers and plants in every yard around here, no one has just grass, if they have grass at all. And even though my grandma tried to teach me a lot of flower names when I was a kid, I seem to have lost a lot of that knowledge. So we'll see if I can at least learn the names of the plants in our own yard this summer...