Sublime

I feel blessed to live in a place this beautiful 

Mystery of Broken Brake Lights

So I think I figured out the broken brake light problem.

Many cars here have 1-3 brake lights out. Every morning I drive behind someone with broken brake lights. It's dangerous. And reckless. And inconsiderate.

Back east, you are required to get your car inspected to get those stickers on your wind shield renewed. I think every two years?

But in WA the stickers are on your license plate. And they expire every year. Then you must renew and pay $227 to get new ones. No need to get your car inspected unless it's from before 2009. I'm going to guess that not having to inspect cars means more broken brake lights and people not knowing or caring? Can't get a ticket so who cares, right? 

This makes me wonder what the point is of paying over $200 every year just for shiny new stickers.

The Ground is on Fire

So the dirt is smoking. There is smoke coming from the dirt near my apartment. The ground looks black. There doesn't seem to be a fire. Do I call the fire department? Or is this no big deal?

Lax Lights

So apparently brake lights don't mean a thing to PNWers. Every day I see cars with 1, 2 or 3 broken brake lights. Maybe it's not illegal in WA or something? I really did almost rear-end this one car with NO brake lights at all:

Bumbershoot

So I decided to go to bumbershoot at the last minute yesterday because I found out Billy Idol was playing :)

Pretty much every girl was wearing too-short denim cut-offs and sneakers. It was like the bumbershoot uniform! Lots of young people, but some middle-age as well (omg I think that's me?). 

There were lots of little food stands and adequate beer&wine except when they ran out of rosé! For lunch I grabbed some poké. 

I ended up seeing a pretty fun range of bands...

The Pink Slips - kind of like no doubt meets nirvana. Raw energy and fun.

The Flavr Blue - from Seattle, kind of uptempo chill with vocals. They did a cover of nirvana that sounded awesome. 

Margo Price - I knew of her from country radio and it was a nice surprise to see her live. 

Maren Morris - Another country artist I recognized. She is unexpectedly petite! Like 4'11, super tiny, but big vocals. 

In retrospect, I should have been at the fisher green stage before third eye blind to secure a good spot for Billy Idol because most ppl ended up staying. I still got a good position close to the stage, maybe like seven rows of people in front of me. 

Billy Idol was electric. Seriously, this guy is an amazing performer. His guitarist, Steve Stevens, is pretty badass as well. 

I shouted out my fav song, Don't Need a Gun, early on in the show like a lunatic. Luckily for me, Idol ended up doing this song and I was ecstatic! Excellent show. People were still yelling at the end so Billy came back out and did two encores... Amazing! 

Spider Battle Part 2

Got some reinforcements in for my spider problems:

 Peppermint and eucalyptus reed scent diffusers!

Right Next to the Espresso Stand...

When I open my espresso stand in Jackpot, NV I am also going to open a franchise MOD pizza right next door :)

Two words: Pebble ice.

Spider Battle Part 1

Defensive shield: Mint plant!

I asked the guy at the store what type of mint is the most pungent. You know, to repel spiders. I was going to get lavender, but that attracts bees. 

Spider Party

Apparently a giant spider lives on my deck because last night I saw it fly up into the roof. It was like the one I killed in my bedroom the other night.

This am there was a baby spider on my deck table. I used the spider spray on it. Probably overkill. But the baby spider scares me because there might be hundreds more. There looks like some kind of web nest in the tree next to my deck; this makes me very nervous. 

Total Death toll: 3. 

I'm sitting in Starbucks doing work and a few minutes ago a small black spider was crawling on my purse. Did it follow me here? 

I've been spraying my bedroom carpet with eucalyptus oil every night. No spiders in there so far. 

I read up on plants that repel spiders and I almost bought a lavender plant, but those things need like 8 hours of sun every day, which is a challenge outside of the summer here in the PNW. Home Depot didn't have any mint plants. 

Those electronic devices that are supposed to repel insects might be next on my warfare list. Are they a total scam? Some of the reviews for them on Amazon didn't seem too legit. So I'm not sure. 

Is spider control one of those pest things you can ask your management office to handle without sounding like a crazy person? 

Gym Disconnect

I'm thinking about joining a gym up here. 

How's this for crazy...

LA Fitness is only $34.99 a month!

Back in NYC Equinox was $185 a month. And the initiation fee was $600 (promo from $1200). And this was around 2009. 

New Apartment Photos

Some photos of the new place. I just finished unpacking! 

Btw look how wide these parking spots are!!! They totally dwarf downtown Seattle's Japanese compact car parking spot standard ;)

Keurig Not Strong Enough

But thankfully there is no shortage of Starbucks nearby!

Spider Problems

So far I've killed two spiders in my new apartment. Both in the bedroom :o One was so big and on the ceiling that I used a swiffer to smash it. It fell to the carpet and I grabbed some tissue paper and swiftly crushed it again and ran to the toilet with it. The spider was an orange color. Frightening. I actually have arachnophobia so it has been a very big ordeal for me. 

After an hour searching on Amazon, I couldn't find a good spider vacuum. There seems to only be two models and one doesn't have enough suction and the other one doesn't have good reviews/might let the spiders crawl out. 

In the meantime, I concocted a spray with eucalyptus essential oil and doused the carpets, as I read that spiders don't like mint-type fragrance. 

Perhaps another trip to the Home Depot is in order for tomorrow. If I'm ever able to fall asleep in this room again. I'm having PTSD flashbacks to my teenage years when a giant spider appeared on my pillow on my waterbed one night. Despite it being a large room with lots of privacy and a badass water bed, I refused to sleep in that room from then on and moved to the tiny guest room upstairs. I really, really don't like spiders. 

Note to self: make friends with a neighbor who would be okay with me knocking on their door late at night to help kill a spider. Or maybe spiders warrant a call to the property maintenance people? 

Welcome to Edmonds

My move to Edmonds went great today! Eco Movers did an awesome job. The only thing that didn't go well was my sofa cushion lost a button. But all the furniture made it without a scratch!

The day began with me intercepting a cable guy to pick up my equipment as I was waiting for the movers (score!). Then Rocco and I just walked around by the truck as the mover loaded up all of my things. When I first saw the truck, I told the movers, "will all of my stuff fit?!" I was really doubtful. Yet it ended up only filling 3/4 of the truck with how the skilled moving men did their Tetris best with my stuff.

Rocco and I hopped into the Tiguan and drove to our new apartment! It was about 25 minutes straight up highway 99. No big deal.

At the lease signing, I discovered that I didn't have to pay the $400 pet deposit because Rocco is an ESA (therapy dog!). 

Since I couldn't unpack without music, my first item of business was ripping open the box from Comcast and installing my internet and cable tv. The technical rockstar that I am, I got both up and running within 45 minutes. I felt hugely accomplished after this and didn't feel like unpacking boxes just yet.

But alas, where were my garbage bags? So I started to unpack. I got through 20 of the plastic Eco bins. I pretty much got the kitchen done, which is apparently the very worst part of moving!

Rocco very much enjoys the sliding glass door. He loves sitting right in front of it and seems pleased with the chirping birds and sunshine.

At-a-glance...

The Good:

-Love the balcony and having a full size dishwasher 

-there is so much damn closet space! I have 3 closets and one is the entire length of the bedroom. Rocco has his own closet. 

-There are birds living in the trees right outside near my balcony.

-The air smells great!

-Garbage disposal. I've never had one before!

-Lots of storage space in the kitchen.

-There are so many outlets! All over the place! Outlets!!! 

-Plenty of green space around for Rocco to enjoy on our walks 

-A pool (not sure I'll use it though!)

-View of the cascade mountains from my deck

-8 minutes away from a Trader Joes and LA Fitness 

-Can walk to a bar (have yet to check it out) and a pancake house

The Not so Good:

-The cabinets lack the modern handles like what I saw in the model apartment. My inner designer is pouting.

-My microwave is white and doesn't match the black appliances.

-Making a left turn across 4 lanes of traffic on highway 99. 

-Doing laundry requires me to put cash on a card thing in the leasing office. 

Clearly there are lots more good things thus far! 

After a hard day's work I'm now having dinner at this cool place called Hop Jack's up the road. It is all bar food with friendly people and an interesting logo (apparently it's hops and not marijuana; I asked!). There is even a Pokemon gym here :)

Forecasting Madness

Weather in the Pacific Northwest is notoriously difficult. So I can't get too upset when the forecasts are totally off. But I still do. Let's just say I'm not crazy about dressing in layers...

Today there is a high temp of 66 forecast but right now it's 74 degrees :/