For those who may be unfamiliar, Dune is a science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. I’ve read all of the original books written by Frank Herbert (his son has written some, as well to continue the series, I think). I don’t know that I ever really got into the story, but I did manage to continue reading every book to the end of the series. It wasn’t an easy read for me.

I’m watching (and I use that term a little loosely today) the Dune movie with the music star Sting in it. It’s…bad. I’m sorry if you’ve watched it and liked it, but I really think it’s just poorly done. It reminds me of movies that are used for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 show.

Outside the window, in a tree next to the Real networks building, there are TONS of birds chirping. I think they’re the kind that are small and fly in what look like bird-clouds. They’re noisy!

Today was also the first day I’ve been in Seattle when it rained. My co-workers that have been in Seattle for some time told the two of us that are move-ins from elsewhere (our analyst is from Austin, TX), “Welcome to fall.” I quipped back, “And winter…and spring…from what I’ve been told.”

I finally turned off the movie. I feel like my brain can relax. Now I’m watching Knight Rider. One would think the special effects (i.e., the scenery as the guy’s driving in Kit down the road) would be a little better. I feel like tonight is “bad sci-fi night.” (Again, sorry if you watched the new Knight Rider and liked it.)

So – back to the Seattle weather and stuff. One point of frustration – and it’s not weather-related, though I’m sure I’ll be missing the sun big-time in a few days – house hunting. We’re looking for a house to rent, and part of the relocation package is a rental tour with a rental specialist. Well, not sure that three hours with a rental specialist will result in the house we want, we’ve been looking for houses on our own. I’m REALLY glad we did, because I’ve learned a few things.

First – we have to specify that we need at least one bedroom with enough room for a king size bed and a large dresser.

Second – it seems that having more than one car per family is a rarity around here. A two-car garage is rare, as is, it seems, two parking spaces in general. Maybe we’ll sell the XTerra – after all, neither of us really feel like driving a manual in Seattle.

Third – [okay, really? Michael Knight is driving over 100mph, Kit isn’t controlling the car, and he’s not looking at the road at all…and you’re going to tell me he’s on a very straight road that whole time, with nothing else on the road, when he just passed another car before deciding to have a heart-to-heart with Kit?].

Sorry — third – I have to also remember those 12 boxes of games.

Fourth – there’s that counter-top height dining table…

Fifth – we need to be sure we have updated electrical that will handle the computers, the TV, Xbox, Wii, etc. (Yes, when you’re looking at houses built in the 1920’s, they’re cute, but you have to start looking at power outlets!)

Now – last? We want something that will fit all of our stuff that in a decent neighborhood, that would be fairly close to work, that wouldn’t take my entire paycheck to afford.

But the search continues. I’m SURE something will fit our needs around here!!

Last TV commentary — I find it amusing Jerry Springer has gone from talk show host to emcee for America’s Got Talent…

I guess I haven’t said much about my new job, so people are probably wondering…am I liking it? What’s it like?

Here are some answers.

First – wow, what a difference from a Department of Energy National Laboratory! First – orientation. When I went through orientation at PNNL, I think there were 6 of us total going through orientation. In addition, it was all online. For my specific role as a temp secretary there, I had another 2 days of orientation specific to my role.

At Microsoft, there were over 240 people in orientation! And…surprisingly…the only person with a computer was the person leading the orientation. The stages of paperwork before getting to the room for the orientation were incredibly efficient – over 240 people were able to get through everything within about 90 minutes. The downside is that those of us who were there very early got to wait for more of those 90 minutes until the rest of orientation started. But orientation was amusing, fun, and informative. It took 1.5 days and was well done.

Another quick note about orientation — the diversity and median age in the room amazed me. There were people from all over the world in that room! And the median age had to be somewhere around 30! Weird, coming from a place where people seemed to be retiring in droves!

At about noon Wednesday (I started the day after Labor Day), the person leading orientation cheered us as officially new Microsoft employees, and we got our badges. Next step was finding my way to my office – going from Redmond to Seattle. The drive wasn’t bad (thanks to the wonderful GPS!!), though I got very turned around when I had to find the parking garage for the building! Took me awhile, but I found it, and up I go to the office. I got there and was heartily welcomed by the team! Talk about feeling WELCOME. I couldn’t believe how excited everyone seemed to see me! Then, the rest of the day was spent setting up my laptop, getting onto the network, and setting up the various accounts needed for work.

Next BIG difference – NO TIMECARD. You come in, do your job, go home when you’re done. Of course, with the project I’m working on, sometimes, that means leaving at about 6pm or so.

Next – the project I’m working on…it’s global! I have heard so many different accents lately, it’s amazing, not to mention wonderful! Along with the excitement of getting to work on a truly world-wide-reaching project comes the need to work late hours on occasion so that we can talk to sales people in Asia – while we’re ending our day, they’re just starting it. The first teleconference with Asia, it took me awhile to get used to that fact.

And, last (for now), the team — I LOVE this team. The first week on the job, a crisis of sorts was underway, but my manager still took two hours of her day to answer all of my questions from a morning full of meetings we’d had. And the team is small (for now – interviews are under way to fill a few positions) – there’s my manager, me, an analyst, a contingent staffer, the girl who used to do my current job, and a vendor who helps with the strategy direction. It’s a small, but close-knit team. The atmosphere there is SO team-centric, it makes crises easier to get through because you’re all in it together.

Later, I’ll write more about the project. For now – it’s been an amazing couple of weeks!

SO…I guess friends have actually been checking the blog, much to my surprise, to find out if I’m alive, well, enjoying or hating Seattle… And I honestly can’t remember the last time I posted, though I’m pretty sure it was before moving, so it’s been about a week and a half or so. I’m due!

Let’s start with injury rates. The foot that was bothering me…still bothers me a bit. I wore flats with no arch support the other day to walk to Pike Place and back with friends, and I think that was a BIG MISTAKE. My plantar’s fascitis is back in a big way! I’ve been using the night splint (not to be confused with the night guard for my night-time jaw grinding) every night, and it bums me out because I was doing well at just using it every few nights. Teaches me to try to be trendy…

I did go for a jog one evening along Alaska Way, much to my husband’s dismay and annoyance. I was ITCHING to do SOMETHING, though. I hadn’t yet figured out gyms or anything, and, for some reason, couldn’t get into the fitness center at the apartment complex I’m currently at. (Let’s just say I didn’t want to try again, either, after standing at the door, waving my little ID tag at the door, and then yanking on the door each time it would beep, with people IN the fitness center just doing whatever, and me feeling increasingly conscious of my inability to open the door…) I was definitely having workout withdrawals…ESPECIALLY cycling. I didn’t realize how hooked I was on cycling! The jog did me good, though, for some reason, I itched all over afterwards. I was convinced it was from not working out and gaining a few pounds, but my clothes all still fit decently (okay, the jeans are a LITTLE tight…but I also washed them, so I’ll chalk that up to the post-wash-need-to-be-stretched-again phenomenon). Anyhow, when I told my hubby (who is in the Tri-Cities, btw), he said, “Didn’t we talk about NO RUNNING BY YOURSELF?” “Yes.” “Don’t be stupid – you know how you get in trouble working out.” “I know.”

Sad, but true.

Not long afterwards, I found out where the gym was, set an appointment to go see it, and ran home from work (if you can call the 25 minutes to drive a few miles “running home”), packed a gym bag, and went to see the gym. The guy showing me the gym gave me my guest pass and then looked at the bag and said, “…and I guess you’re all ready to work out?” I wanted to say, “You have NO IDEA what kind of gym rat I am!”

The gym is nice – two floors of cardio and weights, one group exercise room. Locker rooms have a sauna, steam room, and hot tub! And the niceness of the locker rooms reminds me of the Columbia Basin Racquet Club. I liked it. They did have a couple of machines I’ve never seen before – one is a stairmaster, only with actual rotating stairs, so you actually DO have to climb stairs! Another is a thing that seems like you’re laying down…only no seat. You actually have weight attached on the machine while you are leaning back and almost paddling with your legs. It’s tough to describe, but it focuses on legs and seems genius to me…weights AND cardio for the lower half! I just wish it had arm movement (other than just trying to keep you up!). I chuckled when I saw them…considering Seattle is nothing but hills – and not gentle rolling ones. You suddenly find yourself on a steep incline to get to the next street up. It’s incredible. And I must admit, I get a bit of a kick (and a pang of fear) watching the cyclists working their way up those hills.

As for Microsoft itself? Wow – amazing. It’s really absolutely amazing. It’s only been a week, but I’m already immersed in my work, the team is GREAT, and it’s just crazy. The craziest thing is NO TIMECARDS. Coming from having to account for every hour of the day, it’s just incredible that you don’t clock in OR clock out – you just come, do your job, and go home when you feel like you’re done for the day. It’s interesting, because I think I feel more like being as productive as possible because I feel trusted. It’s a weird feeling.

Now – the weather…has been beautiful! Sunny skies since coming, with cloudy mornings, but that’s all the cloudiness it’s been. I’m definitely grateful, and honestly pray it continues for awhile. Granted, the highs are in the 70’s and not the 80’s or 90’s, but I can handle that well. My wardrobe fits for that – sunny and kind of warm but not too warm. When we get rainy weather, though, I’ll need to go shopping again.

So – I’m surviving, and enjoying Seattle. I’m even enjoying downtown, though the trains going by so frequently takes time to get used to. And I already found myself doing things just to avoid traffic. Last night, I got my stuff ready for the gym at dusk, not turning lights on. I thought I had grabbed a brown tank top to wear. First, my alarm was set, but not turned ON (point of frustration because I can’t figure out how to turn it OFF instead of just snoozing it, other than switching it to OFF, and I keep forgetting to switch it to ON). I woke up an hour later than I intended, but still early since I was intending to make it to the gym. I was about to sleep in and had even moved the alarm up (in my groggy state, not realizing it still wasn’t ON), then suddenly got out of bed realizing that if I waited, I’d have to drive in traffic. So I headed to the gym, did a workout, and then, as I was getting dressed, stared at my…PURPLE…tank top. It was to be worn with a teal and brown top…just so I didn’t have to deal with the traffic heading home or back, I just decided to start a new fashion trend and wear the purple under the teal and brown top. I feel like a sore thumb, but, hey, I didn’t have to spend 40 minutes on the road going to and from work (the gym is just up the road from work and takes only a few minutes to get TO work regardless of the time of day it is).

So, wearing my purple tank top under my teal and brown blouse, I suppose I am a true Seattle-ite, making odd sacrifices just not to deal with traffic.

Well, we’re in Seattle! We live a block away from the Piers, so, when you look out our living room window towards the water, you can see the ferries coming in from Bainbridge Island and from Bremerton, and, we live a block away from the docking point for the NCL cruise ships! Yesterday, we watched one take off, and, this morning, what looks like an even larger ship is docked.

We went roaming around Seattle yesterday to thrift stores, and found the Northgate mall, so I think we drove through a bit of Ballard, Fremont, Phinney, Wallingford, Greenwood, and Northgate. As we got a bit farther away from downtown (I think around the Northgate mall area), the more far apart things looked, which we liked. Not knowing exactly what area we were driving through, though, we’re going to take some of the house addresses we’ve seen that are for rent and go find some of them today.

Parking garages are going to take some getting used to — as is living in an apartment for awhile, but the apartment is VERY roomy and nice.

Things I need to get to blend in to Seattle, though — a purse that I sling across me instead of on my shoulder. That might be it, though I did notice that weekend wear wasn’t necessarily just jeans + tshirt…usually the tshirt was a bit nicer than just a tshirt. And the fashion…Target’s womenswear was NOT like the womenswear at the Target at home! Either that, or fashions changed drastically in the past month (which may ENTIRELY be the case!).

Time to go navigate Seattle…this time, thought, it’s ME that’s doing the driving. We’ll see just how much screaming that creates from both Rich and I!

Well, our lives are, for the most part, packed in the back of a moving van. Okay, that’s a little dramatic, but everything we own is pretty much packed in there, and we won’t see it for another month or two. I’m sitting on my sister-in-law’s painting stool, typing on my laptop, in our master bedroom. The movers are loading everything they packed yesterday, and there are only a few boxes left for them to take out. After that, there’s a few boxes of stuff we didn’t get to go through yet that are going to the in-laws for Rich to deal with while there, and his clothes that we decided not to have packed so he had stuff to wear for the next month while at his parents’.

The best part of having everything we own packed up had to be the games…10 big moving boxes all labeled “Boardgames.” I wish we’d had a camera to take a picture!

It’s so sad to be leaving. I feel a bit lost – our home is going to be sold to who knows whom, and I’ll be starting a whole new life, making new friends, seeing new things. It’s exciting, but it’s scary. Not even the weather will be the same!

Let me tell you, though – if you’re going to be moving across any distance…hire movers! They’ve done in a day and a half what would have taken US a week. These guys have just been amazingly efficient.

There went the last of the boxes. Bye, dear house. We’ve certainly had great times together.

I LOVE the comic Sheldon by Dave Kellett. His sense of humor is great! I just had to share this one: about the Olympics and what London might be feeling like. Granted, it pokes fun at Britain, but I got a kick out of it.

It’s now been proven – maybe not to the rest of the world, but to me – that I can’t do anything without risking injury.

I was doing yard work last night, the never-ending process of getting the yard ready for the house to sell. I had been working injury-free for a few hours. It was starting to get dark, which is when the big fun bugs come out. I jumped out of the way of one of them and landed funny on my ankle. I think I heard a pop type of sound, and I sat on the ground holding my ankle and thinking, “You gotta be kidding.”

This is the same ankle attached to the foot with the plantar’s fasciitis from walking too much in flip flops.

This is the same ankle attached to the knee that’s still nicely scraped up and healing from my latest fall off my bike.

I think the left side of me is cursed.

This morning, it just aches. I can’t really do anything more than keep my foot facing forward – side to side, the ankle hurts. It’s not inflamed or anything, so I probably just strained it.

But, still, can’t I do ANYTHING without risking injury? Or maybe I’m just getting this out of my system before I’m in Seattle for a month on my own. Granted, Rich and I will be together most of the weekends, but I’m hoping it’s not so he can nurse me back to health!

10 days left at my current job. Wow. There is still so much to do!! Somehow, surveys are going out earlier than expected, but it makes for a busy last week at work trying to make sure everyone gets their result resports!

And then there’s the house-stuff that needs to be done. We have a yard to finish working on, a move survey to be done (movers coming to find out how much stuff we have to move so they can give us a date for the packing), and a house to clean. So much to do, so little time! Of course, wouldn’t you know it, this is my severe allergy month, too. I may have gone through half my box of kleenex today before I finally decided to leave my desk so I could go get some over-the-counter allergy medicine! This is the only month of the year I end up wishing we still had prescription allergy meds.

So, work is stressful. We’ll call it – I’m leaving, and so is another half of the 4-person team, so management is very on-edge.

Life is stressful, too, right now. We’ll call that one – we’re moving to Seattle (stressful enough thought for me) and I’m going first (another very stressful thought) and we have a million things to do that involve being ready for things like move surveys, market evaluations for pricing our house and getting it listed to sell, and getting the house ready to sell (which really isn’t a million things, but it’s awfully overwhelming).

What do I do when things get stressful? Two things – I don’t eat, for one, and I try to do active things that will let me vent out my stress, like ride my bike.

Last night, stuff happened at the tail end of the work day that REALLY had me spun up. I tried to calm down by filling my prescription for a night splint (for my foot – we’ll get there in a second), but I was still fairly wound up when I got home. I had a nice chat with my sister-in-law prior to seeing Rich, which also helped, but I still needed that physical activity outlet. So, I mowed the lawn.

We should know that’s never enough for me.

I pulled all sorts of grass from the flower bed. I was going to harvest raspberries, but they’re still FULL of yellow jackets that need to be smoked out. I might try to do that tonight. By the time I’d finished pulling grass out from the flower bed, I thought I just needed a short bike ride. Rich made me eat at least a granola bar BEFORE going on the short ride (I had not had dinner yet, just a granola bar on the way home from work – see reference above about not eating when stressed). So, I did, and I took the bike out. Rich had told me NOT to, but then said fine when I told him it would just be a short ride around the block.

The ride was only 29 minutes (checked the timer on my bike), and it was only about 5 miles. It was around the neighborhood – I went to see some of the nicer houses and counted up how many were for sale. There were 11 just all in one small area!! Some of those houses are ridiculously huge and gorgeous, and it surprised me to see so many for sale. Interestingly enough, there didn’t seem to be that many of the “normal” houses for sale in comparison (you know, the houses that most people would live in, not the 4000 sq ft, 5 car garage, adobe siding houses). Anyway, everything was going okay, it was just getting to be pretty dark as I sped my way home.

I got into the driveway to our house and was starting to dismount…I didn’t realize my left foot had clipped in, and…yup, I fell. This time, it was like it was slow motion! The neighbors were out, I was okay with my right foot on the ground, trying to get the left foot out when I wobbled once, wobbled a bit more twice, and then wobbled the third and final time before I just crashed to the ground. My foot must not have released from that stupid pedal until midway through the fall; had I been a guy, I might STILL be moaning on the driveway. The neighbors from across the street (who were hanging out with our next door neighbors) called out, “Are you okay?” I was feeling very VERY moronic, so I answered a bit gruffly, “Yes,” like saying, “Yes – this has happened before…I feel totally stupid, I’d really rather you didn’t notice me right now!” He started coming over to help and I made a point to get up so he’d see I could at least stand; I was grateful he was coming over to help, though. I hobbled into the garage, got the bike put away, and entered the house to declare I’d biffed it again. Rich’s reply was something along the lines of, “I’m sorry, but I did tell you NOT to go riding your bike.”

I was all wound up again after that. I was wound up in part because I can do very few things thanks to plantars fascitis on my left foot (strained tendon that makes things like running unpleasant) – and those things are bike and swim. And there is no pool at the gym I go to. I was wound up because I felt like my falling had more to do with me just not being able to get my dang foot out of the pedal than it getting dark and me having gone out for a short ride. I was wound up because I was seeing the ability to do ANYTHING exercise-related that would let me vent my stress slowly disappear. And I was wound up because we might have to clean our house sooner than expected due to state laws binding the moving company to getting a move survey done really super soon so that they can enter the information in with enough time to schedule the move per the laws they have to abide by. Hearing we might need to get the house at least presentable earlier than later got Rich wound up, so there I was, bruised, scraped, and wanting to go boxing or something to vent it all out again.

So, today’s goal – stressful though today might get, don’t hurt myself.

I stayed home from work yesterday because I had really bad bloating and tummy pains Monday night. We’re talking Prilosec helped the top-of-tummy pain, but Pepto didn’t take care of the massive-bloating-pain. So eating was tough, and I just sat groaning on the couch, watching a movie on my laptop.

So, that was Monday night. Tuesday, I called in sick to work and took it easy. I figured the whole stress of moving, closing out projects, etc., was really getting to me and I needed to do something to at least make a good dent in that stress. Being wary of eating anything, I did manage to have a yogurt and a Kashi cookie (one of those health-food cookies with nothing but real stuff in it, instead of the good ol’ high fructose corn syrup we know and love). I waited an hour or two, then had a scrambled egg. Tummy was still doing fine, so I decided to mow the lawn that desperately needed mowing. Note here – this was at around 1pm. Good Z at least put sunscreen on.

But that just wasn’t enough for me. I was itching for a bike ride. After all, my last ride was two weeks ago! I needed to get out and get cycling! I got inside, packed my camelback with a granola bar and filled it with water and ice, and figured out how to pump up my tires, got them pumped up and headed out. Note here – it was about 2pm when I headed out. I really had no idea how hot it was, and I was feeling adventurous. I had already had a bottle of water before heading out after mowing the lawn, which probably should have clued me in. But we know I don’t “clue in” to anything.

I decided to take back roads to Sylvester and get to the park we reached on our ride, but make it to the Blue Bridge. Originally when I started, I had thought of making it a 10 mile ride – nothing too strenuous. My HRM had already put me at 600 cals after mowing the lawn. I had definitely not eaten that much yet, so I was already at a calorie deficit. So I wasn’t going to go too far.

By the time I hit the park, I was already at 5 miles. I was disappointed. I didn’t want to turn back YET. So off to the Blue Bridge I went. I got to the Blue Bridge and then saw the Cable Bridge and thought, hm, well, it can’t be THAT far, maybe just 1.5 miles. I had to know if I estimated correctly, and, besides, I had only hit about 8 miles on my bike so far. So off I go to the Cable Bridge. Proud that I estimated accurately, I decided to turn around. I was at something like 9.2 miles on my bike. Hm, so much for a short ride. Oh well, I’m still feeling fine, though I’m sweating like mad and drinking like mad.

Part way back from the Cable Bridge (I almost continued to see where the bike path took me beyond the Cable Bridge, surprised it kept going), I started struggling to get water out of the camelback. NAH, I couldn’t have already finished the couple LITERS of water in there?? I’ll just keep going. Hm, it’s a little sunny out. My bike odometer has a thermometer on it, so I ventured a look (I’d had it on the screen that shows average speed until then).

WHOA. It says “02.” Um, is something wrong? NO, it suddenly registers, that means ONE HUNDRED AND TWO.

I’m not quite at the Blue Bridge yet.

Crap. I’m disgusting and probably can’t call anyone to come get me. Well, so much for going on the path through Chiawana park and up Rd 100 and back. And, crap, there’s a HILL to climb. Eh, I can make it. Uh, my water’s empty. And I don’t feel like pulling ice cubes out (though I probably should have at that point).

Oh, look, Rd 44. I can make it there, then climb that hill that always looks daunting even when I’m not exhausted. No problem, I know my gears now and I can shift my way up that puppy. Wait, Rd 44 has a dead end, so I have to go to Rd 48 to get to Argent to cross to where Rd 44 picks back up. Okay, now I’m a little irritated with the detour. And I still can only get sips of water. And now my head is starting to hurt.

Hey – it’s the Rd 44 hill! I had so much fun cruising down that hill and hitting 26 mph! Wait – that means a little steep, need to go UP. I started pedaling, then looked down and saw two things: a) it’s not 104 outside; b) I’m going at about 6 mph up this thing. Then I started feeling my heart go wild and I figured, screw it, I’m walking. This isn’t worth it. I’m about to pass out from pedaling up the hill.

So, off the bike, up I walk. I convinced myself the last part of the hill wasn’t too bad, so I got on my bike and got up to the stop sign at Burden. HALLELUJAH. The last leg seemed to take forever, and I thought I was going to collapse when I got home. It turned into 17 miles, which I managed to do in 1 hr, 35 minutes, despite the heat and the lack of water and slow ascent up the hill. I downed water when I got home, had a fudgesicle because we had no milk (still needed to get groceries), and waited for myself to catch my breath before showering. I was exhausted, and I had a headache from the heat.

I called Rich to tell him I was back from the ride, and said, “That was stupid. I didn’t realize it was that hot outside!” His response, “Yeah, I knew you needed to do something physical, but I thought mowing the lawn might take care of that. I figured you wouldn’t listen to me if I told you not to go on a ride, but I thought it was a dumb idea.” Sadly, he was right. I would not have listened.

I did take it easy at the gym this morning. I came late, so I didn’t do either step or RPM, which is probably a really good thing, because even the 40 minutes on the recumbent doing small intervals wore me out!

Genius Z. Pure genius.