Football season here we come

Today was a day to do my research on my NFL fantasy football leagues. I had to do some studying, set-up my draft priority list, and even think up my team name. I never win in FF but I still have fun doing it, one day I will win...just once.

I know I'm supposed to be doing other things today but right now, that's on my mind. Mariners are done, so now Husky and Seahawk football will occupy my life for the next 4-5 months. Hayley will have to love me anyways.

Aha Shake

Summer has finally kicked off here in the Seattle area but at least it’s not too hot. My apartment last year was so freakin’ hot but this year, not so much which is good. I can still hang out in my house and wear a hoodie in the middle of summer, that’s alright with me.

Just began to swim again, looking forward to moving soon, awaiting word from Seattle University, and oh yeah that whole wedding thing coming down the pipe soon. Lots on my plate but lucky I’m a fat body so I can make room for it.

I also found out how anti-Twitter my fiancée is, and I believe that means I’m on the right track. She is excited and began boiling up ideas for our future apartment together because she gets to decorate. Pantry, here she comes. I just want my W&D, and my own bathroom.

Did have a good weekend out and about but I was really truly wanting to go to Kings of Leon @ the Gorge this weekend. After seeing some video clips on YouTube I did miss a good show but we’ll catch again next time.

Knockin' em down

World Cup has come, halfway there and the US is already gone. They gave their best efforts but giving up too many early goals finally caught up with them. On that note, I get to focus on finding a new place to live with Hayley, let’s just say no arguments have ever came out of it…I swear.

Time has flown by for the wedding, we are getting down to just over 90 days until the wedding....it’s the final countdown (enter synthesizer solo by the band “Europe”). We have all the big things planned, now we have to finalize the little details and somehow come up with money to do so. We are feeling the crunch because all of this money is coming down to the last minute, it sucks.

I will miss Magnolia and look forward to the commute change, who knows if it will work or not. This week I will be submitting my application for Seattle University. Since my GMAT put me in the category of learning disability, I have to make sure my essay and resume are just right. It has been given lots of opportunities to be read so keep your fingers crossed on this one.

I did it like this, I did it like that...

May is coming to a close and hopefully it ends well. Right now my spare time is used to study for the GMAT or find ways to spend money on my car or wedding (both guaranteed). I can’t wait to read something else besides how to remember high school math once again. I used to think this stuff was so easy as a kid, what happened?

We have a wedding website up and running so now it is out there for all eyes to see. Now we know the potential population who will indeed bring a ironing board to the wedding, we should start taking bets. More expenses keep coming in which we can thank Hayley for and all of her wonderful ideas, so if it looks like I am walking funny it’s because a Visa card is being maxed out.

I can’t talk about sports because it is depressing for the WA sports…done sir done.

May oh My

April was a busy month with lots of ups and downs. The down for me was not being chosen for the Sr. Accountant job that I applied for and it took 29 days from the last interview to find that out. More frustrating about it was I didn't find out why as far as you didn't have these skills or not strong enough in that. I was told by the recruiter "I can't tell you that" but I can only figure that this Sr. job wasn't a true senior job and my job is more complicated. All of this is speculation so I'll take it as that.

Hayley and I took our engagement pictures and registered the same day, including doing a family function that night. I was spent by the end but turned out to be a productive day, but wish it could have been spread out over another day. Now we are getting into the final stretch of wedding plans and looking forward to a move in August. I am starting to see why people never get out of debt on weddings, luckily for me I have a realistic fiancee or it would be trouble.

Baseball Season Underway

It is that time of year again where baseball (specifically the Mariners) season is just getting underway. The Mariners are finally above .500 after a slow start but the season is still young. NHL playoffs, NBA playoffs, final games of the EPL, World Cup in July, and MLS season just starting too. I starting to realize that studying for the GMAT is going to be tough but as long as I have my DVR I should be fine.

I finally registered for my GMAT date, $250 to take the darn test!!

Hayley and I just took engagement photos last Friday plus did some registering...we are going to have a lot of bowls in our kitchen. I think we did pretty good, all those "discussions" paid off in the long run. All the pictures were in Post Alley/Pike's Place in downtown during lunch hour, slightly embarassing but who cares. The weather was nice and we had $6 grilled cheese sandwiches.

Updates for Everything

Just got back into the office today after a relaxing and busy weekend. Had my interview Friday afternoon and figured this was the last one. Just found out today that if I make the final cut there will be one more interview in person. I guess 4 is the lucky number when it comes to interviews for this job. I am excited for this job and I hope I get it so wish me luck.

I drove a few miles this weekend, over 600 not to be too exact. Hayley and I met up with Chuck & Diane in Packwood Friday night. Had fun with them eating, playing games, golfing, and eating once again. They had to leave on Sunday night because they had to go visit family during their spring break. Hayley and I decided to stay one more night. Plan was to leave first thing in the morning but we ended up sleeping in, had a quick breakfast, and tidied up the house for the next guests. No cell phone service so that could be good or bad. Downside, didn’t know who was in the final four until Monday, missed all those games.

Got on the road at noon towards White Pass, traveled for a little bit before we got the snow became too much. It ended up being a blessing in disguise that we had to stop because I feel it would have put us in more danger if we traveled any farther. So we turned around and made our way back the same way we came on Friday. We had to backtrack all the way to Puyallup and cross thru Auburn/Tacoma and joined I-90. A 90-minute drive ended up being 360 minutes. The rest of the night was moving boxes for Hayley, me going to the storage unit to look for pictures and make sure we got room for all of Hayley’s decorations and books. Overall I think we got this done pretty quickly for what the job originally looked like. The only thing we did that was not good was our food intake. We had Sonic, McDonalds, and Kings Row in two days, our bodies didn’t like it.

Arrival time: 5 PM
Miles drove: 624 miles
Tanks of gas: 1.50
Weather endured: Snow, wind, rain, some sunshine

And now I am back at work…..

Manic Monday with One More Hour to go

First things first…UW is in the tourney! Even though we beat Cal twice this season, they somehow received a higher seed than us. Either way, Huskies start off this Thursday against Marquette a very good team but they are beatable. So productivity across the nation will plummet in the next week. Our office will obviously take a $10 buy-in pool to crown the NCAA champion of 2010. I never do good in these type of things but I still find it fun to do.

I do have to confess that I did participate in an “Operation Repo” marathon on truTV this weekend. I hate to say it but I love that show. To anyone who doesn’t know what the show is about, it is a repossession company in the L.A. area who encounter some whackos, people in major denial, or not right mentally. I have seen them repo planes, ice cream trucks, go-karts, canoes, U-Haul trucks, Segways, RV’s, motorcycles, and of course cars. My favorite one is trying to get a Ford Explorer, the team shows up and sees it on cinder blocks with major front damage. The guy comes out a little drunk and admits that he got in a wreck and started to sell parts off of the car. He tried to justify missing the payments because since he couldn’t drive it, he shouldn’t have to make payments. When they drove away, he made it seem like they were driving off with his treasure chest or 401k.

And Mondays like today start off so good. I am starting to drive and park at a certain bus stop so I can have 3 buses to get home. While driving there today the garbage truck decided to block the road for about 2-3 minutes. After finally getting thru, I see the bus has already passed by. Then getting to my floor, first thing is to pick up my WSJ…it’s not there. I asked the receptionist and asks “…you have a paper delivered here?” Yes I only pick it up everyday right in front of you. I figured that another guy named Jim took mine so I figured I would just take his if that was the mistake. Then a guy waiting in the lobby area became generous and offered to give me his, I said that’s ok I will have this one. He insisted again so I asked “where did you get that one?”, in which he replied “I took one off of the counter there.” I looked at the corner where the name would be and there it was, my copy. Now if there was just one copy of the paper there I would more than likely understand but there was 4 sitting there in a row. There is a big white tag right on the front page in the corner with the delivery address and who it goes to. At least I can give him props for speaking up and admitting that he took it, easily forgivable and not that big of a deal. Just love the feeling for paying for an un-opened paper, I didn’t get that feeling today.

Surprise Surprise

Last night I attended a PNW MBA Fair at Seattle University and I think the decision has been made. I will be looking to Seattle University as my first choice so I can forego the enormous UW application process including the $90 fee and most likely not get into the school. Seattle University has more of a social justice and community service aspect a part of their curriculum which is more appealing to me. Seattle University is nationally ranked just like UW and is internationally accredited, plus I’m going to be married to alumni from there. So this takes off a little pressure off because trying to cram in the application process with studying for the GMAT would have most likely resulted in a bad score and no go on admission. Both programs have the same approach but Seattle U. does a little bit more and application. I was skeptical at first but more research has convinced me where I need to go. So now I’m putting all my chips in one pot and I hope that they accept me.

2010 Update

I’m pretending I am working right now but typing this in Outlook. 2010 has started off busy but since no one reads this, why am I making an excuse?

Hayley and have made some good progress in wedding planning. Hayley has the dress in her possession now, she got it for Christmas. Now she talks about how it will make me cry when I see her walk down the aisle with it…we shall see. Next to do is finalize a list so we know roughly how much our caterer will cost and all that junk. I am not too far from stepping away and letting the girls plan the rest of the wedding because I will be officially out of my realm.

Everything else is on the up and up. I’m studying for the GMAT and applying for UW & Seattle University for the MBA program. So hopefully come September I will be back in school. I still have a job, but who knows how long since there are 3-4 people in my office that have coughing fits. I’m about to go choke em’ out but I’ll resist, I got a wedding to pay for.

Holiday Happenings

As 2009 was coming to a close, it seemed I was going to ease into the New Year and decade. Hayley and I embarked on a trip to Seaside, OR for four days with her good friends from Yakima. It was good to get out of the area for some R&R and away from work. We endured some rain and wind, but the last two days had sunshine so that made it worthwhile. I also got to have dinner with my Uncle Jay and Aunt Sandy so it was good to see them. We saw a few landmarks such as the Goonies house and school where Kindergarten Cop was filmed.

By the time we returned, Christmas was upon us and Santa was good to me this year. I then returned to work for a few days before I had my birthday. The night before my birthday I got a severe stomach flu and spent 8 hours in front of the toilet and sleeping near it to save time and energy for my constant trips. I didn't recover until the 2010 was rung in. That was the worst sickness I've had in a long time and I hope not to repeat that for another 8-9 years.

My final day of vacation was at QWest Field to witness the Hawks final home game. It was good up until about 5 minutes to go when the Titans scored a TD, and our QB threw an interception to end the game. Now it's time to look forward to the Mariners and Sounders. The loudest the stadium got is when Ken Griffey Jr. raised the 12th man flag before the game even started.

Hearing all of the comments during the game, it is determined that most Seahawks fans know little about football and are only fair weather fans. There was even a Seahawks fan getting harassed for wearing a University of Oregon stocking cap and being told that "Oregon sucks!" I guess these people forgot who did and did not go to the Rose Bowl this year and who just beat the Huskies in BB on their home court. Even having a fight break-out between a Titans fan and a Hawks group of fans, seems pretty sad to me that wanting to start a fight every time an opposing fan walks by, but there is always next season right?