So in this year, 2012, we decided to downsize even more; we sold our Ford Escape with the help of Uncle Peter. We have been a single vehicle household for about 2 months now. Not only are we a single vehicle household but our only car is a 2 seater Smart Car. We still make our Costco trip every other month or so and we still stock up on the same things we used to (it all fits in the Smart, with both of us on board). With the savings from not having to insure a second vehicle, we’ve decided that we can afford to have more stuff shipped to us, but really Amazon prime is covering the vast majority of the shipping cost on just about anything we’d normally run out to get and shove in our SUV. There will undoubtedly be something that Amazon can’t send us and we’ll have to shell out some cash for shipping or delivery, but I doubt it’ll cost us more than insurance for the extra car every year, not to mention maintenance and depreciating value of the vehicle… Overall, we’re very pleased to be a one car house and really I don’t think we could have done it in Michigan.

Our New BBQ Grill

One of the things that Marie and I were really excited for about getting a house was the ability to have a barbecue grill. This was a high priority purchase for us since summer just started and something about summer time grilling is just so appealing. Today, Marie’s dad, Larry, came over and we went grill shopping with him. Marie and I had already been scouting out grills and found two different style grills in our price range and size at Lowe’s. After having Larry take a gander at them and approve of either, and with some extra help from a friendly sales person at Lowe’s, we made a decision and went home with a grill. It only took the two of us just under an hour to assemble it. Assembly was easy, and the instructions were clear to read so it was a breeze.

Tandoori Chicken

While Larry was over we cooked tandoori chicken for dinner. He’d never had it before, but it’s a favorite of ours since discovering tandoori chicken last year. To fancy it up a bit we grilled red peppers and made saffron rice instead of the standard white rice. Of course we also grilled up a couple of naan breads to accompany the meal. It was a hit and Larry said he’d love to help us eat it next time we cook it.

The recipe we decided to try out first is called Crunch Tortilla Chicken with Avocado Dip. It was delicious and has earned a spot on our cook frequently list. It does take a bit of prep since the chicken has to marinade for 2 hours, but other than that it’s an easy recipe and we keep most of the ingredients for it in the house. A jalapeno pepper and avocado are the only ingredients we’d need to go out of our way to pick up.

The only thing I would change is to prepare some Spanish rice or something a little more exciting than corn with it next time. We also had avocado dip left over, so we’re going to try it on tacos tomorrow. If that works out we’ll probably plan tacos for a day or two after this meal in the future, otherwise we’ll cut the dip portion in half.

A special thanks to Daisy, Lisa, and Lori for the awesome house warming present!

After the usability study, Marie and I met up with my work buddies at Card Kingdom in Ballard. We played a board game called A Game of Thrones based on the book and TV series. The game was pretty awesome. The idea of the game is similar to Risk, but it all takes place in the Game of Thrones world, making it ultra cool. Card Kingdom was an awesome place to play this game. We had a private room for the 8 of us and the place serves food and drinks (including alcohol). They also have a huge selection of board games, puzzles, card games, table top games, etc. Much fun was had and we can’t wait to do it again. We’ll definitely be going back to Card Kingdom.

Carrie and Herbie

Two weekends ago Marie and I went with Marie’s dad to the Maritime festival in Seattle. Marie and Larry got “passports” to taste 8 different chowders. Marie was pretty full by the 4th chowder, but they had a good time with it. I would have participated, but chowder isn’t my thing. They unanimously declared Edgewater to have the best chowder. After the festival we ended up doing some other stuff with Larry and ate at Dick’s Drive-in for dinner.

For Mother’s Day we had a nice picnic at the arboretum with Marie’s mom, Carrie. We had a bunch of different fruits, cheeses, and other goodies. The weather was extreme cooperative over the past 3 weeks, so Mother’s Day was no exception.

We also started playing Diablo 3 last Tuesday. Marie will probably write up a review post in her blog at xaben.com, so watch for that if you’re interested.

So a lot has happened, but this isn’t the post I promised yesterday. That post will probably come by week’s end. Stay tuned.

Honestly though, the weather was awesome over the past 3 weeks, so we got spoiled and now everyone here is complaining about this forecast. Watch for our exciting new post later this week! Probably Thursday or Friday.

Earlier this year Marie picked up 4 tickets to the zoo on Groupon for a steal. So, yesterday Marie and I went to the Woodland Park Zoo with Carrie and Amanda (Marie’s mom and sister). Oddly enough, we realized that this was the first time Marie and I have been to a zoo together.

Grey Wolf

It turned out to be a perfect weekend to go to the zoo; the weather was great. My favorite part of the zoo was probably the bear exhibit, even though the bears weren’t the most cooperative with the camera. The exhibit has a live streaming bear cam, if you want to check it out.

We took a bunch of photos at the Zoo, so be sure to check them out on Flickr!

Flickr Photo Set: Woodland Park Zoo

The Fin Project (Whale Fin Statues) at Magnuson

Marie and I have been without a nice camera for a while and although our phones have been great for taking snapshots here and there, we’ve been wanting to get a nicer bit of hardware so we can really take some great shots. So we finally decided that we should get ourselves an entry level DSLR. We ended up getting a Canon T2i on the recommendation of our friend Shaun Pezeshki.

So yesterday we went to Magnuson Park (the park that’s just a short walk from our apartment). We took a bunch of pictures, so we decided to start using Flickr to share them, rather than try to cram them all in blog posts.

Flickr photo set: Magnuson Park

The Space Needle from Kerry Park

Today turned out to be an even nicer day than yesterday, so we used our new camera as an excuse to go to a couple of parks that were a bit further away. We went to Kerry Park to try and capture a good picture of the Seattle skyline from the North. The neat thing about the Northern shot is that it puts the Space Needle front and center. If you noticed that we have a new skyline shot in our blog header, now you know where it’s from. It was the best shot we got from Kerry Park today; we’re hoping to go back and get a night shot some other day.

After Kerry Park we headed over to the Arboretum for a leisurely stroll and more photo opportunities..

Flickr photo set: Kerry Park and the Arboretum

Part of the reason we decided to get the new camera was to help motivate us to get out and see more of the city. We’ve mostly fallen into a regular pattern now that life has normalized and is less chaotic than it was when we first got here. So expect to see more photos from cool places in the Seattle area on our blog soon!

As promised by Marie a post or two ago, here’s photo evidence that spring is here in Seattle. The cherry trees in the Quad at UW have bloomed and what a great day to capture of a picture of it! Last night I told Marie it would be nice out today and she dared to question me saying “You think you know better than Steve Pool [Local weatherman on KOMO]” and I responded “Yes, you’ll see”. And see she did; it’s approaching 60º and there’s barely a cloud in the sky let alone rain falling from them! So Ha! It looks like I was right.

Everything is going great here. Things are really ramping up at work and I have a good handle on my role and what’s expected of me. I’m really enjoying my job here and things are really going well for both me and Marie overall.

Random fact: the grass stayed green here all throughout the winter, never took on the dead look like it does in Michigan every winter.

The Honest Store has a website, honestcities.com,  that shows you where honest stores have been and how honest the customers were in each of those places. It’s a pretty neat concept, and judging by the stats on the site, most people are honest, which I think is a great sign.