An Open Letter to the Residents of Seattle:

Please burn your snow shovels.  Or burying them deep underground.  Or throw them in the ocean.  It doesn't matter, get rid of them.  Now.

What, you need a reason?  Here it is: in Seattle, the temperature rarely stays below freezing for long.  And when the temperature rises above freezing during the day, guess what happens?  The snow melts!  And when the temperature drops below freezing again at night, guess what happens?  It freezes again!  And when water freezes, does it freeze back into snow?  No, it freezes into ice!  So now you end up with big slurries of ice/snow everywhere!  A tad bit slippery, but if you walk carefully, it's pretty easy to avoid slipping on your butt.
But wait, what happens if you shovel the sidewalk during the day?  You don't get that ice/snow slurry anymore.  Instead, you get pure ice! 

Quiz:  Does this look like:
A) A nice clear walkway or
B) A frozen deathtrap of ice waiting to break your hip?

If you answered B, you are correct!

Sincerely,
Someone who just walked 2 miles in the ice and snow to get home

Things I love about Seattle:

How about 6 inches of snow being dumped on the city overnight?

My car got buried!

I wish I had a sled so I could join the kids at the park.

Nothing beats the sight of a rows of white rooftops.

I love sheets of pristine, untouched snow.... but not as much as I like making footprints in it!

I wish the city looked like this 2-3 months out of the year.  As is, I'll count myself lucky if it lasts for a week.

Apartment redone!

I decided that instead of doing something productive like schoolwork, I would redecorate my apartment.  A couch, a rug, a nightstand, a lamp, and some frame prints later, here's how my living room looks now:

Other than that, not much going on.  School still exists, and it still takes up most of my time.

And now, cat in a bag!

Oops, you still exist

And I've completely forgotten to update this for the last month.  A lot has happened in the last month:

-Took a week and a half trip to California.  Flew to LA, hung out for a few days there, took the bus to Oakland, and then stayed in the Bay area for a few days before flying back to Seattle.  Saw lots of old friends, ate some food I really missed, bought some new Cal clothing, and found out how much Greyhound sucks now (my bus was 3 hours late, and the operator said most of their buses were running 2-4 hours late this summer).  Makes me really miss California now!  My decision about where to settle after grad school is going to be a tough one.

-I found out I got a position as a teaching assistant for Nutrition 300!  Nutrition 300 is basically Nutri Sci 10, basic human nutrition.  The TA position means I get tuition exemption for fall, and I get a fat paycheck to boot!  It is marked as a 20 hour a week position, and with 3 of us for 700 little undergrads, I believe that. 

-To celebrate, I got a shiny new road bike.  It's a Fuji Newest 1.0, bought on clearance at Performance Bikes.  Figures once I bought it, the weather turned to crap, but in riding it around the neighborhood, it's super smooth and fast! 

-Two days after dropping big money on the bike, my computer goes to crap.  The fan for the CPU had been making loud whirring noises off and on for the last several weeks.  Today, it finally crapped out.  9/10 times when I turn on the computer, the fan gets super duper loud and I get an error message about the fan.  The computer then turns off.  1/10 times it turns on normally and the fan behaves.  I thought about replacing the fan, but it's nearly $100 for a new one, and for an old computer with multiple issues that was going to be replaced soon anyways, it didn't seem worth the money.  Lenovo was having a big sale that ended today, so I decided to just got ahead and order a new computer a bit earlier than planned instead of buying a $100 part which may or may not solve the problem.  In the meantime, if I sit here long enough and keep trying to turn on the computer, it eventually works.  Until one day I fry the CPU.  Hopefully my new computer gets here before that happens.  If so, I can sell this one on craigslist as is, but with a working CPU still. 

-Summer has ended in Seattle.  After a week of sunny 80 degree weather, the forecast is all 60's-70's, cloudy, and rainy.  Man did it turn fast.

Swimming progress update III

One more class to go before completing my 8 weeks of summer lessons!  My front crawl is coming along - I have the individual motions for the arms and legs down, but when I try to put it all together, everything gets sloppy.  A bit more (read: a lot more) practice is required for that.  Learning to breathe would be nice, but that will have to wait until my form gets better.  I did discover that I can do 1/2 of a backstroke - I can kick and keep myself afloat and going pretty decently.  I'll try to add in the arms next time and see if that gets me going any faster.  Still can't tread water though - that and my front crawl will be my two big goals to finish up the summer.  Overall though, looking at where I was 8 weeks ago, I definitely feel like I've made some progress! 

Swimming progress update II

15 lessons into the summer, I can finally do something that resembles swimming!  For the longest time, I couldn't figure out how to hold my body so that I could float on my stomach - my front would float, but my legs would sink and pull me down.  Today, at the end of class, we played a game called Sharks and Minnows. The instructors stood in the middle of the pool and were the sharks.  We were the minnows, and we were supposed to swim by them.  If our heads were out of the water, they could tag us and we became sharks the next round.  Somehow, during the first round of the game, I figured out how to hold my body so that my legs didn't sink!  I already had my kick down decently, so for the very first time ever, I almost sorta swam!  I still can't integrate the arms without disrupting my legs, or breathe, but hey, progress is progress right?  At this rate, maybe I will learn to swim by the end of the year!

Swimming progress update I

Week 5 out of 8 of swimming lessons just ended.  It's actually the second time I'm taking basic swim.  I have a different teacher this time, but the TA for the class is the same.  Our first instructor mostly stood at the sidelines and yelled at us while the TA was in the water with us.  The new teacher spends a fair amount of time in the water with us and has a slightly different teaching style.  Hopefully that'll help me learn faster?  Only time will tell.  I can float for a few seconds before I slowly start sinking, so that's progress I guess.  I'm also finally getting a decent kick going, so hopefully that'll help me stay afloat longer.  Our new instructor is also very fond of making us jump in the deep end of the pool.  I've done it a few times, and I can get to the surface of the water after jumping, but I can't stay there long and need to cling to the side of the pool to not drown.  Hopefully I can progress to adv. beginner in Fall quarter, but I'm starting to think I might need to take basic swim for a third time before I can move on.  I'll get it eventually, I don't care how many times I need to retake this class!

One more month before my California visit!  I really miss In-N-Out, as well as all of my friends and family. 

And unfortunately, no new Pip pictures for now.  I will have more soon!