HollyKing's Journal

I was given a citation by a helpful Seattle city officer a while ago. Why he felt the need to flag me down in heavy traffic and the pouring rain to write me up for the dastardly crime of having expired plates I don't know. I'm sure he could have been doing something more serious and helpful that night. A cat in a tree? Lost puppy? Whatever...

Budgetary concerns have kept me from mailing in a check to cover the fine until now. To prevent another citation I was looking at where I could go to pay in person. I was pleased to find out that you can find your citations and pay online. No need to drive anywhere. Service with a virtual smile.

The move is progressing well. I think I’m finally starting to realize that life is different in Seattle. For one we’re going to lose our nice short commute and have to deal with crossing Lake Washington. I did a bit of quick math and it looks like taking the bus is much cheaper than driving. It’s about $15/day to drive and only about $9/day to take the bus. According to Google Maps the drive should take about 34 minutes and the bus ride would take about 55 minutes. Sounds like the bus is a winner as I’ll get much more time to read.

I just got done switching our electric service to the new apartment. Instead of transferring my account with Puget Sound Energy I had to close our account and open a new one with Seattle City Light. I wish I had found the online form before I went through the long phone process but the service is done and that’s one less thing on our list.

I’m really excited about living in a city again. I am looking forward to exploring Seattle.

The Emerald City Wanderers of Seattle are hosting some walks around various areas of the city this summer. This weekend they will be walking along the Freemont Ship Canal. I’m planning on going at 10am and thought I would put out the word if anyone wanted to join in.

Crossposted to city_walks.

Update: Added the note about starting at 10am. My thought was to get an early start to beat the heat.

There are a ton of activities going on in the Seattle area. Well I guess there are tons of activities going on in every place I've lived. The problem with Seattle is there are tons of them that I want to do. There are concerts, Freaky BBQs, movies at the Naval Undersea Museum, more concerts, Fests of Beans in the West, classes, Grinding and more. On top of that a lot of them happen at the same time. I guess it's better to have a feast than a famine.

I'm wavering on the edge of going to the Grind tonight. I know it would be fun but we're heading out to Victoria tomorrow and need to pack. Should I stay (home) or should I go?

hollyqueen was up for the weekend again. This time we had a list of specific apartments to visit in our search for a new home. However we started out having dinner with jerichobrown and his wife at The People's Pub in Ballard. While walking from the car we happened across kerrizor who was in the area and out with some friends. Dinner was good and I'll have to go back there to try some of the other dishes they offer.

Saturday was a crazy mess of going from apartment complex to apartment complex. At the end of the day we had two strong contenders and in the end the Gates of Redmond won out with their two-floor townhome. Sadly with all the running around, miscommunication and two raging migranes we weren't able to join intrepid_reason and others for dinner and clubbing. I should know not to schedule so much in one day. After a shower to calm down and relax we had a calm dinner with loree and datavore.

Sunday we gave the apartment complex a money order to hold the apartment for us until next Saturday. Then we did a bit of furniture shopping for a new bed. We found a few that we liked but the promise of a headboard with bookcases in a month led us to wait so I'm off to buy a box springs and mattress that I'll use on the floor for a while.

After bed shopping it was time for tourism. So it was back to Ballard to visit the Chittenden Locks which is the first on the list of sites in the Maritime Heritage Network. It seems that you can go through the locks in a kayak and I might have to do that someday.

I'm in Seattle now and mostly settled in with dustin_00. I'd say 90% of my stuff is unpacked and the last bits can wait until tomorrow. After all I think I can survive a few days with the DVDs and games packed in a bag.

Dustin took me along the route I'll take to work and it wasn't that bad. Of course at 8pm on a holiday night there wasn't any traffic to get in the way. We'll see how it goes tomorrow morning. I'm hoping it won't take over an hour to get 10 miles but who knows. I sat on I-5 for an hour because the Interstate bridge was up to let some ships pass.

I should go try to sleep some for my adventures tomorrow.

The King County Library allows you to sign up for a library card online. They'll mail the card to you and the first time you use it you will have to show a photo id and a proof of address.

hollyqueen and I are thinking about moving to Seattle when our lease is up in a few months. There are many fine reasons to move to Seattle. There are a few reasons not to move. Right now the scales are heavily leaning towards moving. Any reason we shouldn't?