Starting our routine

Pictured: Andy's new suit for gross anatomy lab. He's not happy because with his long appendages he was forced to get the large size, and evidently they don't account for tall & skinny people, so he's got tons of extra plastic around his midsection. Mom, he wished you were here to take it in for him. (I suggested duct tape.) "Maaa, I can't put my arms down!" "Well... You can put your arms down when you get to school." I think it might have been this same day of orientation that he came home with a little pouch enclosing bits of milk thistle and rosemary. Rosemary is said to aid in memory, so he's been encouraged to smell it while he's studying, and then bring some in on quiz/test days to class. And the milk thistle helps support the liver, which will see some duress because of exposure to formaldehyde from his cadaver for anatomy.


The year's gotten off to a great start! Andy started his full routine bright and early 7am Monday morning after having spent the week before in intensive orientation sessions. I've decided to get up at the same time as often as I can, and to treat my job search like a full time job itself. I've been getting up and running and/or doing yoga most days, and trying not to spend too much time at coffee shops where it's easy to rack up a bill on a latte and a scone. Our friend Cicely teaches a yoga class 3 days/week at a studio walking distance from us, and she's invited me to attend for free as often as I like. After some difficulty with being able to use my design software last week, we're up and running (thanks to brother Dave and his friend Eric), and I've applied/submitted my resume (the tailored for retail/waitressing edition) to a number of stores, restaurants & coffee shops near our house. Surely some sort of temporary gig has to present itself! Wanting to just get moving, I figured it best to start with the least labor-intensive applications and get them out, so as to have some interim funds for a job search that could take a little while. My goal will be to have my portfolio finished, and cover letters/resumes submitted to at least 4 private schools for their substitute teaching lists by the end of the week. It feels good to be making progress again! I think I was king of turning my wheels a bit too much during our unpacking phase. Just being productive, but still having balance, I'm starting to realize I could treasure this transitional phase rather than being anxious about it.

Andy meanwhile has been STUDYING. One of his classmates joked that he learned more this week than he's learned in this whole year so far. So much anatomy! Labels & diagrams, memorization, poking of bones, explaining things to me... He estimated pretty calmly one evening earlier in the week that if he gives himself one hour of free time per day besides studying, and studies all the rest of the time, he should be ok. This means though that if he cooks dinner, that's his hour. I therefore have been taking on the role as head cook most evening & packing leftover lunches, and preparing some breakfasts too. This is an interesting shift for us, and we're communicating about it a lot, and handling it with grace, I think. Since my last post, I've made pureed yellow split pea soup, black beans & rice, fresh sauteed turnips/beets & their greens, white bean soup and a quick bread to go with it, a tofu pot-pie, and for Friday to celebrate the successful completion of his first week, I made Braised chicken legs with fig, honey & vinegar coupled with an arugula salad. (Andy's mom Kay consistently makes some of the best chicken I've ever had, and he's been missing/craving it. Plus, he seems to be requiring more protein for all of that brain power! Also, I had the chance to Skype with Mackenzie Martin while I made this meal, in Spanish, which was a lot of fun. She's sure not my sweet little 6 yr old babysitting charge anymore!!) ) It has been fun to take the "dried bean challenge", to surprise him with meals, and to feel more capable in the kitchen. I also look forward to experimenting with our new crock pot more: I'm definitely accepting favorite recipes! :oD

I put a down payment on a nice new bike. The bike shop near us was having a huge sale, so I found this really nice hybrid/road-ish ride for over $200 off! The woman said that if I take good care of it, since the components are so well-made, it should last me a very very long time. I was proud of myself for putting it in no-comittment lay-away instead of just paying for it with my credit card. It would be so nice to be able to go exploring already... Hopefully I'll tackle the bus system this coming week and expand my radius a bit.


The weather has been absolutely gorgeous- The mornings often start of cool and cloudy, but the day inevitably turns sunny and breezy, with highs in the high 70's. Today we took a walk around our neighborhood Wallingford with two of Andy's new colleagues/friends from school, after they went in this morning for extra lab time with their cadaver. We ate a huge lunch at a local little Mexican place, whose proprietor I had befriended earlier in the week when dropping off a resume, and then walked down to the Gasworks Park, and past the Essential Baking Co. Pictured: Andy, Ian (yes, a new Ian. McLogan. AND he's from Michigan. What's to be done??), and Stephanie; looking out over Lake Union toward downtown Seattle.
Tomorrow (Sunday) we're hosting brunch & a study session for these two and a few other new school friends. Last week Sunday, we had Brad & Cicely over for a brunch-time pancake blowout! (Kay, we made the Best Recipe pancakes, and the new version of the cookbook that we have is a bit different than the one in your book which Andy's used to referring to.) Fresh fruit syrups, & Brad brought the goodies for mimosas. Sounds like the start of a lovely & civilized tradition to me! :oD Also the highly-publicized Wallingford Wurst Festival is happening this weekend, to benefit one of the local schools. In spite of the nitrate-filled cured meats, I may have to venture over a few blocks and check it out. Dad, I'll be thinking of you. And last, I have very high hopes that Ken & Kay might venture onto Skype for the first time tomorrow evening. I miss them a lot!
Hope all's well on the east coast! Love to you all. -k

Apartment tour!

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Apartment tour part two

Fall is on the way

Happy September, All! It's really on now.

Quick-ish update since I last checked in, and some pictures. Last Friday, we decided to take the plunge and get our new desktop iMac computer. My macbook from Dave in Feb '07 is still working great, but Andy had been using my Dell from 2002 that took 20 mins to turn on and another 10 mins to load email, and with school coming up, that just wasn't going to cut it. It's going to be a great computer for us: I can use it for my design programs more easily with the faster processor, big screen, and plenty of saving space. We'll both share both computers, depending on who needs out-of-house mobility. We've been saving for a while, but still had to put some on the ol' plastic, until Andy gets his loan in a week or two.

The women upstairs, Jaya and Laura (more on them in a minute), have a cat named Lilly, and we have been happy to befriend her and share the backyard with her. Since our windows are all at ground level and we've been leaving them open more with the nice weather, we have funny little interactions with Lilly. It's kind of like how people talk about having grandkids- all the perks of having a cat, with none of the mess. :oD Ever since Andy let her in and we started paying attention to her, she follows him around like Mary's little lamb when we're outside. Ken, we're going to have to talk organic garden sprays though, because there are a few outside cats besides Lilly that like to use the flower beds right outside all of our windows as litterboxes.


Saturday we went to the Seattle Tilth harvest festival that I had mentioned before in the park across the street, which was pretty fun. They had TONS of tables on local and sustainable food stuff, community/neighborhood organizations to try and be more green etc. All that stuff doesn't even seem as new or novel out here, which is in itself new and novel for me. :oD I signed up for a few things, and look forward to getting to know (and network with) the folks who live nearby. Colin and Andy opted to forego all of the stalls and stands, and station themselves at the edge of the park to drum and enjoy the day. (pictured from left: Brad, Colin, Andy.) They had quite a following of curious/shy little ones toddling over from the playground to check them out, parents close in tow. It's been fun and shocking for me to see soooo many parents out with their kids, in strollers, with dogs, being relaxed, letting the kid be curious and have fun. Seems like there's a lot of good parenting out here, and an atmosphere of openness for families that's hard to describe. I've always enjoyed watching dads be really engaged and in love with their little kids, and it's easy to observe frequently out here. So yeah, they were coming up, doing little dances, wanting to touch, some being tentative and suddenly shy- all different levels of engagement. Andy would also want me to mention an interaction that touched him deeply: a guy that was driving on the street just outside the park (on the other side of the bush line from the pictures) parked his car and walked through the park just to see who was drumming. This man was from somewhere in SE Africa, but had spent time in West Africa, and was delighted by their playing. Andy was super humble and kind in his interaction with the man, and this guy was so into it that he walked back to his car and got like 5 CDs for Andy, and just insisted that he take them as a gift. Many were for groups that Andy either knew from his time in Mali, or listens to now. Super nice, right? People are just friendly here. We still have trouble at the grocery store sometimes, figuring out how to engage people, especially in a hurry.

Monday night, Jaya and Laura came down to have dinner with us. Andy had just seasoned his new carbon steel birthday cookware from his good friend Mike the day before, and was ready for a culinary adventure. Laura is vegan, so we decided to try and make something nice within those parameters. (A description especially for you, Kay, in case you're reading: First course: arugula/watercress salad on a small bed of thinly shaved raw fennel -thanks to the mandolin slicer-; tossed in mandarin olive oil with toasted walnuts and dried cranberries soaked in balsamic on top. Main course: Sauteed tempeh strips with caramelized onions, with a mushroom sauce on top; fresh cooked brussels sprouts, and and a perfectly to-the-teeth mushroom risotto Served with Castle Rock Pinot. Dessert: a custard made with almond milk, served in individual ramekins lined with raisin/pecan crust made in the Cuisinart. It was a big hit, and we enjoyed it slowly. And Andy likes his new pans!) (pictured from left: Laura, Jaya.) They are super nice, and we had a lovely meal. Laura has done a few different things in the past, went to undergrad here in Seattle, is originally from the CA bay area. She wants to go to get an MSN and seems excited about nursing that would let her travel, but didn't get in this past year so is now spending a year in limbo (tons of people our age are going back to school, with the economy the way it is, which makes admission more difficult than usual too, she said.) Jaya works in a lab at the children's hospital here. It's her parents who own the house, and her father & brother who comes to fix things up from time to time - a hobby of theirs. She's a tad older, has lived in Seattle always, and has done some traveling. We were delighted when she started telling us about a month she spent in Mali in 2004- a rare treat for she & Andy to meet someone else who has had that experience. Both of them know the neighborhood and some fun things to do here. One of the local bars has a trivia night that they enjoy frequenting (actually two, and they were discussing their relative merits), so Dad, maybe by the time you get out here, I'll be an expert, and we can go clean up. :oD

In crappier news, I've been audited by the IRS over an incorrectly filed income form from my 2007 AmericCorps grant through TFA that went directly to Pace for my 1st yr masters tuition. I'm going to have to give them $1500 before the end of January. Nice timing, Treasury Dept.

I had my first Seattle gray day coffee shop experience with Cicley yesterday morning. Got a little work done and was able to show her some tricks on how to use her new mac. Maybe I can get a picture of her if/when I go to her yoga class in the morning.

Last night I went to a job hunting for designers lecture at the School of Visual Concepts, a graphic design continuing ed place that seems pretty connected with the design community out here. I got some good tips for resumes, portfolios, and interviewing, a bit more tailored to the market out here. Just need to keep plowing ahead, courageous and active. I'm kind of stalled this week because of design software issues that Dave is helping me resolve, so I'm working on stuff that doesn't require that stuff (like updating this blog!). Andy went to Colin & Brad's place (they call it Moon Base 5- don't ask me why) to help them can tomatoes and do some drumming. Sounds like a combo that could happen pretty often out here this fall!

Andy started his orientation yesterday, and he's pretty psyched. In addition to the usual library intro, locker keys, meet & greet, he's learning about stuff like how the school was founded, and about their personal-fragrance-free policy on campus. His class will have 130 ND students in it, and they should be together for all 4-5 years, so he's going to come out knowing this small community really well. I'll be excited to meet some of them tomorrow: they're having an evening potluck for family. I'm hoping we'll take a hike or something this weekend, before he actually cracks that 23" stack of books. Let the games begin!

I'll try to send some pics of our apt next time, now that we're basically unpacked. Hope you're all doing well. Feel free to comment- then I know you're reading!

Love, -Kate

PS- Maybe once the routine gets more regular, we can set up a weekly Skype open-house time to talk to whoever signs on. Does this appeal to you?

PPS- Happy 24th Birthday on Sept 18th shout-out to brother Dave, who I miss very much.

First week in our new place

Greetings, loved ones! Sorry it's been over a week since my last post! Time is flying...

So I guess I was right to be a bit worried about our moving truck. We started waiting with friends Brad & Colin at the new apt at 5pm, but when we'd not seen or heard from them two hours later, we gave up and staked out local pizza options to take back to Colin's place. Jaya, the young woman who lives upstairs gave us a call around 10pm to say that the truck had arrived, but when they opened the back, the truck they'd delivered was empty! Andy made a few calls and got things straightened out. They had made a mistake, and our truck would have left the center in Seattle for California in the morning! They righted their wrong by delivering the right truck at noon the next day. (pictured: Andy waiting for the truck next to our new giant rosemary bush)

Colin was able to take time out of his day again, and thanks mostly to Ken's expert packing on the other end, for which I am so so thankful still, it only took us about 1hr 20 mins to get everything out of the truck and into its designated area in the house. (It also helped not being in a 5th floor Harlem walk-up with a winding staircase that had Spanish rice & cigarette butts all over it. haha.).

Since then, it's already come a long way. We've just about got our little galley kitchen organized to its max, and we've already cooked a meal using only stuff we brought in a dry goods box. The former took a while, but it's solid now, and we're enjoying the gas stove. Bed set up, little living room with couch and rugs; we're probably 90% there, I'd say. I stayed up like a crazy NYer until 5 on Thursday night breaking down boxes and smoothing out newsprint into a reusable stack.

We went to Bastyr Friday to pick up Andy's books, so that he can get a head start and not have to brave the bookstore madness during orientation next week. Here's about 75% of his first-quarter books, many of which he'll use for the year, I guess. When the bookstore guy saw his pile, he said, "oooooh. First-year, eh?"

Ash & Hannah were able to come to spend the evening and sleep over with us Friday. They had also just made the cross-country trek from Ohio, along a very similar route but faster. Hannah is starting a PhD at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver this week, a 5-yr arrangement about which I'm ecstatic, since it's only about 2 hrs away. We took a trek to Pike's Place market,

(see fresh flower pic- $5 for this bouquet. Incredible.)
then ambled down the main drag of our neighborhood of Wallingford, and ordered takeout from our new favorite Thai place, and brought it home for a living room picnic and cozy evening in. Funny to try to show somebody around town when you've only been here yourself a week or two, but we had a great time of it. Seeing them again was so easy and so nice: it's wonderful when close friends can go a long time without seeing one another and then upon meeting, get along as if no time had passed at all. Andy was happy audience for our girl talk for a while, and then was content to catch up on some piano, fresh out of its case after a 3 week hiatus. (He didn't forget everything after all. haha.)

I am sad to announce though that when we got up around 6 to take Ash to the airport for her trip back to Cbus, we found that during the night, someone bashed out the back window of Hannah's new Honda Fit with a large rock and took her backpack, containing her laptop and camera, as well as some of her special Ultimate frisbees. Andy and I had no idea she'd left them in the car, but we were all a bit devastated. We've heard nothing but good things about living in this neighborhood, that it's safe and whatnot, but it was a good wake-up call early on. We live across the street from a park, close to the UW campus, and we've definitely seen some homeless people parking vans across the street. But it's super well-lit, and in terms of safety here at home, we also have the advantage of Jaya and Laura living upstairs... Andy took Ash to the airport and I stayed with poor Hannah got right on the phone about getting the glass replaced, and the police came and took a report. She handled it with such grace.

This week is flying by. Saturday we did our first big grocery run to stock the pantry (gulp... we did well getting dried beans and stuff though!) Sunday was filled with more unpacking, and Colin came over to drum and have dinner. He brought fish from the freezer and vegetables from his amazing garden, and we supplied the rice and cooked it all up into a great curry dish. Monday was gloomy and non Labor Day-ish, but we did get a chance to finally explore our Meridian Park, and learned about the Seattle Tilth, who will be having their harvest festival next week, and the Meridian School, a K-5 private school where I had already planned to apply to substitute. They had an open house yesterday, and I enjoyed watching the kids play in the park at the picnic afterward. It was kind of a culture shock: they all seemed so smart, so healthy, so happy and free to play and chase and get their hands muddy. I realized that no matter what, teaching here would be different, and likely easier.
Then yesterday evening, I attended a networking happy hour with Colin, Brad, and our other Homestead friend Dave that happens monthly called Seattle Greendrinks. Free local beer! Bring business cards, and your own drinking vessel! (Colin brought a pyrex measuring cup- good conversation piece I guess. :oP) I made a few good contacts, but mostly it was another opportunity to enjoy our friends. We went after to Bastille, a french restaurant/bar where they've established a rooftop garden. They've been providing us with fresh produce all week: I'm so thankful and it's been completely amazing. Their company, Seattle Urban Farm Co., was featured in the latest issue of the Denison alumni magazine! (Click here for the article!) They've been getting some other good press too: evidently GQ came in May and shot a picture of Colin for a story titled "Grow Your Own: a man's introduction to gardening", and he was voted 14th in a competition to choose the next farmer for the White House. We're proud, and give them their share of teasing too.

Now that the dust has settled, I'll be charging in full force on the job search front. No dice on the internship that I'd interviewed for, but I thought it was a good first sign, anyway. More to come on that and plenty else soon enough! Love to all and thanks for reading. (Maybe I should come up with a ritual closing, like Garrison Keillor! :oD)

Pre move-in jitters

So today's the first cloudy (maybe rainy too?) day we've had here in Seattle, and Andy and I are sitting reading/working with a bit of apprehension. The moving truck guys are supposed to deliver our truck at 5pm, and it's now 3. We're not sure whether they're going to unhitch and leave it to unload at our leisure, or maybe help us unload it quickly and get it off the street. While it's their responsibility to figure out where to park the thing, it could be quite tricky! Luckily, our friends Colin & Brad may be able to assist with their pickup trucks.

Pictured below: 1) The moving truck, as shot from our old apt in NY/the cottage. Notice how big it is next to Andy's Toyota Matrix! There was no ramp to get stuff up into this thing. 2) Ken & Andy finishing up the loading of the 8' allotment we had in the back of the truck. [All tidy, thanks to Ken's great help- and only using up 6'!] 3) The nice little house where we'll have our basement apartment. [Remember- click on any picture to enlarge!] 4) The sreet context- maybe they'll park it across the street?? Envision Kate & Andy scurrying across with their couch/mattress...