We Meet Again

Yes, my title is referring to the time of night. Yet again I'm up way later than I should be, and am I going to sleep? No. Instead I'm blogging about it. 

The big news around here lately has been the snow. We got tons of it. I mean, usually we get a few inches and everyone flips out and has a great time until it melts the next day. But the snow has been here since Sunday. And there's been a lot of it. I mean, look at how high it comes up on me:

The last few days have been a lot of fun enjoying the snow, but then today it got really slick and icy. That and our Internet was down for about 5 hours this morning, which made working a bit of a challenge, although I was able to keep busy and work on things offline for a while. Then, a couple of hours after our Internet was back up the power went down, which meant the router turned off and, again, I was without Internet. Although my work day wasn't quite as productive as I was hoping, I still got a lot done and was able to use the time effectively.

One thing that really helped was the ability to check email on my cell phone. That's right, we upgraded from our regular old phones to smartphones! We are now two proud iPhone users. I've been having fun exploring all sorts of fun apps, etc. If you have any suggestions, let me know. So far I've got everything from social media and productivity apps to sports and games apps. I decided to jump on the bandwagon and start using Instagram. Here's my first creation:

I found another fun photo app that let me add frames, so I created these two photos:

Needless to say (although I'm going to write it anyway), I've been loving my new phone. 

Anyway, it's 3am and I have a busy day at work tomorrow, so I'm going to go to sleep now. Really. Let me know if there are any more apps I should download, and good night!

Washington & California: What I Love & What I Miss

This summer will mark the second complete year of living in Washington. It's really sunny today, which I guess is what made me think about summer and, henceforth, moving here. A lot of people still give me a hard time for one of the reasons I love living up here: the weather. I love the cloudy, rainy skies overhead 9 months of the year. I know most people don't share my sentiments for the gray weather...but there are other things I love about living in Washington (in no particular order):

• Chicken Teriyaki. It is really easy to get good chicken teriyaki up here. It's everywhere. We have a couple of default restaurants, although we just tried a new place last night that was also very good. In fact, there are at least two teriyaki restaurants within walking distance of our apartment. It's a great substitute to a burger when you're on a budget.
• DaddyO's Burgers. Speaking of burgers, theirs are delicious. Yes, my husband works there, but that doesn't mean I have to like the food. I tend to be a little picky about fast food, but DaddyO's makes good quality burgers with their own special sauce. Mmm...I could go for a burger now...
• It's beautiful. How can you not enjoy the green of evergreens with Mt. Rainier in the distance? 
• It's light longer. Well, at least during the summer. It's not uncommon for the sun to be out until past 9pm in the months of June, July and August, allowing even more time to get outside and do something fun!
• Sometimes it snows (but just a little). When it does snow, it's just enough to be really pretty and fun to play in, but not enough to last for months at a time. It's also a big enough deal that a lot of businesses shut down and get snow days along with the kids in school.
• Life Pointe Church. I have to include our church on this list, because I love it! From the day we started attending, it felt like home. Our Life Group is a HUGE part of that as well :)

With all the things I love about Washington, I do have to admit there are a few things I miss from California:

• Friends & Family. This one's obvious, but needs to be said. Most of our family, plus a lot of close friends, still live down in California. I really wish they all could've just come up here with us, although that's not exactly practical.
• The San Francisco Giants. I've been a fan for as long as I can remember and have a lot of fond memories of going to the games, especially with my dad. I was SO excited about them winning the World Series last year, although I was also a little sad I couldn't go to any of the games or just celebrate with other fans before, during and after the games.
• Chinese food. I grew up in a predominantly Chinese/Taiwanese neighborhood. In addition to standing out in class photos, I learned to expect a certain quality of Chinese food (thanks to all the family-owned restaurants). Although the places I've tried up here have been okay, none of them have quite hit the spot.
• Disneyland. Even though we lived in Northern California, a trip to Disneyland only took 6 hours, which made it much more feasible.

Snow, Penguins and Chimpanzees

I really want it to snow again. It doesn't look like it's going to anytime soon, but it's so much fun when it snows around here. Everything shuts down. Everyone's happy. Plus it's so pretty! It snowed a couple of weeks ago for just a few hours (it melted by morning). I was able to take these pictures:

I think one of the reasons I like the snow so much is that everyone else gets excited about it, too. As much as I love the rain, I'm usually the only one excited about it. Like this penguin:




But with snow, I'm not the only one getting outside and enjoying the beautiful weather :)

In other news, I recently crossed over to the dark side. We bought a MacBook Pro. I have a tendency to kill computers. Every 2-3 years the computer I use needs to be replaced for various reasons. I have no idea why I kill them and what I do that makes them die, but they do. About a year ago I started using Matt's desktop and it's been making odd sounds recently, getting the blue screen of death, etc. So we decided to see if a Mac would last any longer. Obviously it's taken a little bit of time to get used to, but I really like it. I can see how someone that likes the flexibility of a PC might not like it, but since my main functions of a computer include checking email, Facebook and blogging (well, and writing pitches, etc for work), all that flexibility isn't completely necessary. At this point there isn't anything I've wanted to do that I haven't been able to do...so that's good, right?

Now that we got a new computer it seemed like a good time to upload our CDs to our iPod, so I've had fun going through CDs over the past couple of weeks. I'd completely forgotten I had some of these songs, and I'd never really taken the time to go through Matt's music. I have a couple of new favorites, like:


Barenaked Ladies - Another Postcard
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Postcards and chimps! Who wouldn't like that song? Anyway...here are a couple more artsy pictures I've taken recently that I felt like sharing:

Snow!

The first time I ever saw snow was during a family vacation in Yellowstone. In July. Needless to say, we weren't prepared for snow because everyone told us, "it's gonna be hot." It wasn't. We had a LOT of fun, though. I have very fond memories of playing in the snow with my older brother, both of us dressed in jeans and raincoats. We'd run around throwing snowballs at each other until our hands were numb, at which point we'd go inside to warm them up by the heater before going back outside.

My view of snow hasn't changed. Living in California for most of my life, the few times I've experienced snow since them have been filled with excitement and the strong desire to be outside running around, no matter how I happen to be dressed. 

When I went to college in Washington and it snowed, two of my friends that also happened to be from California ran around campus with me - jumping, tossing snow and squealing with delight. When I lived in Norway for a semester, we played in the street around midnight with a couple of other foreign students. Senior year of college we fell into the ground to make snow angels and created my first ever real snowman. The snow hasn't failed to excite me yet.

When it started snowing yesterday, I couldn't contain my excitement! Seeing the snow still falling today brings a wide grin to my face. Although I can't take a snow day from work, I definitely DO plan to make it outside during my lunch break. I'll be the one in polka-dotted rainboots and a giant smile.