GrumpysMonkey

We’ve been looking at houses. Holy shit, this is difficult.

We’ve got a few requirements.

1. A bathtub.
2. A dishwasher
3. A kitchen we can both cook in
4. 2 toilets

There are a few location based requirements as well, but those are less important to this post. Maybe. If they aren’t, they are more than I want to type so we’ll skip them.

We’ve seen two houses we REALLY REALLY want to work.

House #1 – Patricia’s favorite

This house is a 1900′s farm house. It’s gorgeous. Leaded glass original windows in part of the house, a remodeled kitchen with a lot of room, gorgeous light, a downstairs bath with a claw foot tub and shelving, a sun room, and a phenomenal yard that’s fully fenced. We could garden, but the yard isn’t overwhelmingly large. There’s a little "cottage" out back with power. Upstairs there are three bedrooms, but they are small. There wouldn’t be a lot of storage space, and almost no closets. The master bedroom has french doors that open out to the roof and would be wonderful to leave open all night long in the summer. It’s almost the exact location we want too. I can easily see us in this house.

Pros:

• Clawfoot tub
• Has ‘character’
• Private
• Quiet
• Cottage out back
• Great natural light
• French doors in master bedroom

Cons

• Almost no closets
• Small basement
• Washer/dryer in basement, only accessible by going outside
• Only bathroom upstairs is in the master bedroom
• Would need gate/screen at french doors to prevent dog/cat from walking out onto roof.
• Electric wall heat – downstairs only!

House #2 – John’s favorite? Well, sort of.

This house is small. It’s actually probably only around 1000 sq feet in the main house. The yard is amazing. The owners (we think) are landscape architects or designers. The fence is great, the front yard has water elements, great plants, flagstones, and trees. The house is purple! It’s funky. The kitchen is great. The bathroom is great. However, the living room wouldn’t accommodate our TV AT ALL. There’s no way to have couches AND a dining room table in the same room. The front bedroom would have to be made into a very small living room with a small sofa and the TV. The master bedroom is way too small, only big enough for a queen bed and maybe 1 dresser. Why do we like this house? It’s got an artists cottage out back that has a 3/4 bath, a sink, a sitting area, heat, and a very small loft area. The back yard is huge and again, very well done. There’s also a shed.

Pros

• The yard. Fully fenced, gorgeous.
• Has ‘character’
• Quiet
• Large cottage out back
• Decent light

Cons

• Can’t have a dining room table
• Nowhere for the TV in main room
• A little far north, but not much
• Small bedrooms
• Small closets

So… any thoughts? Any words of wisdom?

… having birthdays that is. Two years ago, no one remembered (well, other than my parents and they sort of have to). Last year, one of my closest friends was mad at me for something that really put a damper on everything. This year, well, this year just sort of sucked all around. I felt crappy, and there’s just something missing when no one wishes you happy birthday in person until really late in the day (though thanks to all my Facebook peeps who all wrote on my wall). John got me a lovely gift, and tried with dinner, but the meal sucked (meat was undercooked, this place has no alcohol on the menu that I like, and the place was freezing), and there wasn’t really much celebrating this evening, and now I can’t sleep.

Is it September 24th yet?

• I’m not eating that. It’s got weird stuff in it, like arugula!
• She’s like a breath of fresh air (speaking of Sarah-you-have-to-pay-for-your-own-rape-kit-Palin)
• Who needs to text message? It’s a waste.

How in the world do I come from these people? I love them, but I don’t understand them and I certainly don’t agree with them very much.

This afternoon, I set out for lunch with a friend. I don’t drive much on the east side and while I’ve been to the shopping center where we were to meet, I had never driven there myself. My new phone has GPS, so I decided to punch in the address and let the phone take me there.

All well and good, the phone gave me excellent directions. The backlight didn’t even shut off (which is a nice feature when you’re not actually interacting with the phone but need to keep viewing the screen). The humor came when I arrived at the shopping center. You see, I had about 40 pounds of change in the trunk of the car in a piggy bank and my bank has a branch with a coin machine at the same shopping center as the restaurant.

So I pull into the far end of the parking lot and I decide to drive around the lot to find the bank and park as closely as possible to it. The bank is at the opposite end of the lot from the restaurant.

I have to go up one row of parking and down another and finally pull into a space. I look at the phone and it says:

"Are you lost?"

"Would you like to recalculate directions from here?"

I’m in the damn parking lot! I’m all of 300 feet from the restaurant. Apparently the phone thinks I need help navigating a parking lot.

The other day I blogged at how cool it was that Jefe from Austin Cantina gave me an onion slicing lesson while we sat at the counter for dessert the other night. Well, in his blog today (yes, the restaurant has a blog… a pretty decent one too), he writes that basically the entire kitchen staff has turned over recently and he’s running the kitchen almost on his own (their main cook left to go pursue his dream of working in the environmental field). They were decently busy when we went there, only one open table and the three seats at the bar, and Jefe still took time out to show me how to easily dice an onion.

That’s amazing service and someone who truly enjoys what he does. Finding out that they were completely and totally empty on Tuesday night saddened me. I think their food is excellent (though having never been to Austin I cannot speak to the Austin-ishness of it) and the welcoming feel I get every time we go there is worth its weight in gold.

So if you happen to be in Ballard and you need a place to eat, go to Austin Cantina. I don’t want them to close!

This
morning, I got up about 6:30 and John and I headed down to Green Lake
for the Iron Girl 10K race. I ran the 5K race last year with an
impressive (for me) time, so this year I wanted to do the 10K race.

I
was a little nervous about running a race so soon after the 13.1 miles
that we ran last weekend, but those worries seem to have been
unfounded. Here’s the race report.

We got there about 7:25. A
little earlier than I hoped. I hung around for a bit and then spotted
Beth, a fellow MetBlogger. We hung out for a few minutes, each of us
looking for other people, and then went our separate ways to try to
find said people.

I found John and we huddled together (for
warmth) for another 10 minutes or so. It was pretty cold with the
breeze that was blowing and a lack of sun right around the start line. 

One thing I was disappointed with was the amount of bathrooms.
They brought in the portables, but when you’ve got a race of ALL
women… 20 portables is NOT enough. The lines were easily 100 people
long. So I didn’t get a chance to use them (and kind of needed to). Oh
well. There were bathrooms along the course as well, but only those
that are permanent at the park (in other words, just a couple of stalls
in each one and lines at all of them).

The race is chip
timed, so you don’t have to worry about the huge lines to get through
the starting gate. I was towards the back of the pack, since I run
slowly, but that’s fine. I crossed the pads and I was off.

I
used the same type of schedule that I have been using for the past few
months: run 1 mile, walk 1 minute. I probably walked a little less than
a minute each time, but I did take a short walk break each mile. This
does several things. First, it gives your muscles a break. Second, it
lets you take water easily. Third, it helps with the motivation. I
could look down at my Garmin and see that I only had to run another .45
miles and then I got a break. It really helps keep the speed up.

I
actually passed some people this year! Running people! That’s amazing
for me. I felt pretty good the entire time. I had a tiny bit of knee
discomfort, but nothing major. Hips were a little sore, but again,
nothing unusual or major.

The second lap was a bit… odd.
First of all, the transition between the 5K and the 10K wasn’t well
marked. The 5K runners turned left and the 10K runners went straight.
But I had to actually shout out “10?” to the woman at the transition
zone for her to point me in the right direction.

A little
past the transition, they put us on the outer path around the lake, and
that wasn’t well marked as a race path. I wasn’t overly worried, as
there aren’t a lot of places I could have possibly gone off the course,
but another marker or two wouldn’t have hurt.

They
really needed one more water station. As it was, I had two small cups
of water. I do give them props for not filling the water cups too full.
Though this was why they needed one more station. I just didn’t get a
lot of water at each station. 

Towards the end of the 10K,
they did this weird loop thing where you very nearly ran in a small
circle for about .15 miles. It was just… odd. Then back around the
outside loop of the lake where again, a few more signs (especially one
that said something like 1/2 a mile to go!) would have been nice.

When
you cross the finish line, if you’ve hit the pads right, they call your
name. That’s pretty cool. Especially since it still makes me smile a
bit when people call me Patricia Eddy.

I saw John at the half-way point and he was waiting at the end. That
was nice. I really appreciate him getting up early to take me down to
the race.

Afterwards,
we walked around a little bit and got some samples of recovery drink
and electrolyte replacement. John bought me a running shirt (zebra
stripes!) and then we were headed home in a nice warm car.

This morning, I got up about 6:30 and John and I headed down to Green Lake for the Iron Girl 10K race. I ran the 5K race last year with an impressive (for me) time, so this year I wanted to do the 10K race.

I was a little nervous about running a race so soon after the 13.1 miles that we ran last weekend, but those worries seem to have been unfounded. Here’s the race report.

We got there about 7:25. A little earlier than I hoped. I hung around for a bit and then spotted Beth, a fellow MetBlogger. We hung out for a few minutes, each of us looking for other people, and then went our separate ways to try to find said people.

I found John and we huddled together (for warmth) for another 10 minutes or so. It was pretty cold with the breeze that was blowing and a lack of sun right around the start line. 

One thing I was disappointed with was the amount of bathrooms. They brought in the portables, but when you’ve got a race of ALL women… 20 portables is NOT enough. The lines were easily 100 people long. So I didn’t get a chance to use them (and kind of needed to). Oh well. There were bathrooms along the course as well, but only those that are permanent at the park (in other words, just a couple of stalls in each one and lines at all of them).

The race is chip timed, so you don’t have to worry about the huge lines to get through the starting gate. I was towards the back of the pack, since I run slowly, but that’s fine. I crossed the pads and I was off.

I used the same type of schedule that I have been using for the past few months: run 1 mile, walk 1 minute. I probably walked a little less than a minute each time, but I did take a short walk break each mile. This does several things. First, it gives your muscles a break. Second, it lets you take water easily. Third, it helps with the motivation. I could look down at my Garmin and see that I only had to run another .45 miles and then I got a break. It really helps keep the speed up.

I actually passed some people this year! Running people! That’s amazing for me. I felt pretty good the entire time. I had a tiny bit of knee discomfort, but nothing major. Hips were a little sore, but again, nothing unusual or major.

The second lap was a bit… odd. First of all, the transition between the 5K and the 10K wasn’t well marked. The 5K runners turned left and the 10K runners went straight. But I had to actually shout out "10?" to the woman at the transition zone for her to point me in the right direction.

A little past the transition, they put us on the outer path around the lake, and that wasn’t well marked as a race path. I wasn’t overly worried, as there aren’t a lot of places I could have possibly gone off the course, but another marker or two wouldn’t have hurt.

They really needed one more water station. As it was, I had two small cups of water. I do give them props for not filling the water cups too full. Though this was why they needed one more station. I just didn’t get a lot of water at each station. 

Towards the end of the 10K, they did this weird loop thing where you very nearly ran in a small circle for about .15 miles. It was just… odd. Then back around the outside loop of the lake where again, a few more signs (especially one that said something like 1/2 a mile to go!) would have been nice.

When you cross the finish line, if you’ve hit the pads right, they call your name. That’s pretty cool. Especially since it still makes me smile a bit when people call me Patricia Eddy.

I saw John at the half-way point and he was waiting at the end. That was nice. I really appreciate him getting up early to take me down to the race.

Afterwards, we walked around a little bit and got some samples of recovery drink and electrolyte replacement. John bought me a running shirt (zebra stripes!) and then we were headed home in a nice warm car.

John’s designing some business cards for me for Cook Local. Any ideas for a job title for me?

Things that were cool today:

1. Finally finding a copy of Twilight used at Twice Sold Tales (and getting to pet their cat).

2. Finding that Kombucha squash are back at the markets!

3. Eating mashed potatoes cooked on a plank in a Big Green Egg.

4. Eating chocolate pie cooked on a Big Green Egg.

5. Eating [ribs|chicken|prawns|pizza|tri-tip|paella] cooked on a Big Green Egg.

6. Friends helping us get our new (once used) Big Green Egg home.

7. Walking down to Paseo for dinner.

8. Going to Austin Cantina just for dessert (banana pudding).

9. Sitting at the bar at Austin, and having the owner give me an onion dicing lesson!

Today was a cool day.

Anyone who reads my blog… do you have contacts at MSNBC or Newsvine? Ping me please!