ONE LESS STUDENT LOAN

++ ONE LESS STUDENT loan! One to go! Almost there... ++

28 THINGS FOR 28 YEARS

++ I'M OFFICIALLY IN the heart of my late 20's. A list of 28 things I never thought I'd be doing right now. One for every year I've been alive.

01. Living in Seattle.
02. Working full-time for four years at various architecture offices.
03. Have a place that I own.
04. Commute daily to work by walking.
05. Have a cadre of Persian friends.
06. Play flag football literally under the Space Needle.
07. Referee indoor soccer.
08. Use an umbrella instead of rain jacket.
09. Own a Blackberry.
10. Have a vast majority of my male old school friends be married.
11. Have none of my female old school friends be married.
12. Be tired of road trips and pick flying instead any day.
13. Be in not one, but two curling leagues.
14. Have a Washington driver's license.
15. Have Washington license plates.
16. Be registered to vote in the State of Washington.
17. Know someone who has bought and donated an art installation at the Seattle Art Museum.
18. Be the the 'old guy' on any soccer team, let alone two of them.
19. Be the only person in the office with ties to Ohio.
20. Have other native Asians work in the same office.
21. Be in a relationship with a girl from Washington.
22. Consider myself a left coaster.
23. Not be disappointed, not necessarily happy, but not disappointed when it rains.
24. Only monetarily able to visit my family a few times a year.
25. Think 85 degrees outside is hot.
26. Think 35 degrees outside is cold.
27. Find solace in a tall drip.
28. Know I'm headed down the 'right' path to wherever I'm headed. ++

WASHINGTON DRIVER'S LICENSE

++ FINALLY GOT MY Washington driver's license today. Finally. Getting to the DMV wasn't a problem. However, waiting for an hour and eighteen minutes was a bit cumbersome. Well, that and the fourty-five dollars it cost me. I'm slowly switching out old Ohio stuff for new Washington stuff. Last year was the license plates. This year is the driver's license. Oh, also last year was the new condo, well, not new new, but new for me. Oh yeah and last year was switching my voter's registration from Greene County, Ohio to King County, Washington. Who knows, next year I may even finally switch my telephone number from a 937 number to a 206 number. No, that's crazy talk. ++

SEATTLE WAS OHIO FOR A WEEKEND

++ THIS PAST WEEKEND Seattle had an identity crisis and temporarily thought it was Ohio. Friday brought cold, but not cold cold, just a little below average Seattle beginning of December cold. However after Friday was when she thought it was a Midwestern state. Saturday morning was cold, upper 30's. Then around noon it started snowing. And not just Seattle snowing, which is minimal, but huge huge flakes snowing. Sideways and heavy. This lasted all day and finally sticking, leaving behind maybe a quarter inch of slushy snow. The evening temperature warmed and the snow turned into a cold rain, eventually melting the rest of the snow. Sunday morning was a brief spell of snow, quickly dispelled into an outright rain, Ohio style, but not warm. Blah blah blah.

Monday was the second highest recorded rainfall in a day in the history of recorded rainfalls for Seattle. Oh, but it warmed to 59 degrees. Snow one day. Almost 60 degrees the next day. I heart Seattle weather!

"The rain was tapering off in Seattle this evening, according to the National Weather Service. And that meant the one-day rainfall record in Seattle, last set four years ago, would probably stand. The last record was 5.02 inches at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, set Oct. 20, 2003. The weather service today said 3.46 inches of rain fell at Sea-Tac between midnight and 3 p.m. today. Even so, Seattle city officials noted that more than 5.8 billion gallons of water have fallen from the sky locally in the past 24 hours, enough to fill Green Lake six times." ++

MY STOLEN CAR UPDATE

++ SHE'S BACK! AND I've decided to name her Old Steady, which I know isn't a very feminine name and isn't particularly flattering, but that's what she is. Always there (except when I'm taking her in for maintenance) (and except when she gets a little antsy and decides to take herself for a spin.) Welcome home Old Steady, welcome home. ++