13. Decide what state to live inSeattle, WA, decided it after visiting for the second time, this time for my birthday. We'd have family & friends near, not as near, far, & pretty damn far. Which is a nice spread. I adore the city, & it has public transportation, Woo hoo! I hate driving. Plus from the research I did, cost of living is similar to Sacramento area. On Rent.com, the rent was actually lower, granted I don't know what districts they were in, which I do know makes a difference. When it gets closer (thinking we'll be moving in roughly a year) we'll ask the experts, aka, Amanda, Mike, & Mary. Perhaps, they'll even help with moving in! (Hey...I can dream...).
18. Successfully sell jewelry on Etsy
Granted, it wasn't too huge an achievement, I sold it to a friend. It was for his anniversary which was pretty cool. But I had hoped to make some income off it. Granted I've gotten really lazy about posting stuff, & I really need to fix that, perhaps this week I'll do it. So....if anyone needs some new cool jewelry check out my
store. Wait till later this week, as my store has emptied out due to no one purchasing things, like I said, my fault, I didn't do the upkeep. I've been feeling like I could tackle the world lately so, I think I'll try again.
19. Visit my cousin in Seattle without it being a "family production"
Cal & I went up on my birthday (Oct 2) & came home the Monday after. We stayed with my cousins for the first couple days. For the first night we were there we went to a little cafe immediately after getting off the flight, I had a hobo breakfast which was basically a REALLY thick omelet that wasn't folded with a bunch of stuff mixed in, including home fries. Was pretty tasty. It was also the day my baby cousin took his first steps! He had excellent taste in deciding when to start walking, of course now he's running everywhere much to everyone's dismay. That night we went to I do believe my FAVORITE place EVER, it was called Bizzarro's, was the BEST Italian I have had in a long time, Mmmmmmmmmmmm, so good....I'm practically drooling from the memory. Our friend Amanda was supposed to meet us there for dinner as well, but communication lines were complete & utter fail & there's a service charge if you're caught using a cellphone there (& it does get charged!), so she ended up hanging out with us after dinner at a German bar, I don't recall the name sadly. It was Oktoberfest, which I didn't know. Mary stayed home to watch Gavin, but we had a good time there. Do not actually recall what I drank...I think there were shots involved. I was happy though! I got to get more then tipsy at someone else's expense! Woo hoo! It was a blast there, especially when Das Boot came out occasionally, those kinda make me go Ewww....it's a huge glass boot, that's shared around the table. I'm not a germaphobe & I don't mind sharing a drink with someone, but THAT many people? Blech, backwash city.
Woke up the next morning without a hangover (thankfully). We went to the Aquarium, which was the second time Cal & I had gone. Was Mike & Gavin's first time & Mary's severalth (she grew up there), the octopus there is a huge showboat, it has 2 tanks with a bridge from one to the other. Both times we've gone he's been active as can be, full of amazing pic opportunities. After that we went through REI, it's an awesome building & I think there were biking & walking trails outside it, either way it was pretty, green, & had a waterfall. Was awesome! Cal got a ski mask to help with his allergies (poor Ronin was attacking him without knowing it) and fingerless gloves that are spiffy! Don't remember where we ate that night, might have been the night we went to Scarecrow Video (I *so* wanted to get a shirt from there) which is this awesome, amazing, rental shop and ordered pretty good Chinese Food. If it was we watched InkHeart, which was a cute family fluff movie. Wouldn't mind owning, don't mind not owning it as well. One of those.
The day after, Mary stayed home while the rest of us went to the zoo, it's an awesome affordable zoo. No, seriously, it is. I want to go back in the summer when you can feed the giraffe's. I adore giraffe's I think they look silly as hell yet somehow majestic, I know it's a strange combination. I think that was the night we went to a little pub to eat, I remember it was good food, but don't remember what I had. Afterwards we walked up to Cold Stone to get some ice cream, which is ALWAYS tasty.
Next morning, Cal & I went on the adventure to get down to Pike Market. We got there...after getting lost of course. Spent most of a morning & early part of the afternoon exploring it, tons of pretty, pretty flowers & veggies. Lots of tourist trap stuff too. But I would definitely go back for the flowers & veggies. My lunch on the way out was a Honey Crisp apple that was literally the size of my fist, yeah, I have semi small hands, but that was a BIG apple. Was really nicely sweet & crisp though. We navigated our way over to Amanda's house her 8 other roomies. Was an awesome 3 story house, even if I did keep sliding off the bed! It was hilarious but sad. For dinner that night we went back to Bizzaro's & I had another delicious meal with entire family & Amanda. After dinner we went next door to the joke shop who's name escaped me. It was definitely interesting in there! After we got back we decided to go see Whip It!, which was a rompingly fun movie, definitely need to own it. Barrymore certainly did a good job on it.
Monday we got dropped off at Mike's place & we headed to the airport to head home much to our sadness.
46. Adopt a dog
Accomplished! His name is Boo, he's a miniature poodle of adorableness. He's quite calm, unless someone comes home, then he goes racing from one end of the house to the other & back all the while looking behind him like, Well? Aren't you coming? It's the most adorable thing I have ever seen. We adopted him from the local pound in early September. Cal, Mom, & I went to pick him up. Boo even wormed his way into my pop's heart, he wasn't interested in getting a dog, till he met Boo. It's the power of Boo I tell you. *nods*
53. Find a penpal from another country & keep them
I found him on FB actually, he had commented on a friend's post & we started chatting & decided we should possibly change it to messages (that are written in letter format tyvm) so she would stop getting her wall cluttered. It's been a couple months, but so far so good! He's from Germany, which is kinda fun. We talk books mainly, but video games sneak in quite a bit. Though the latest topic was "rites of passage" & alcoholism. Not linked, just the latest topics.
79. Get a new laptop that can support Photoshop & WoW (at the very least...)
August 22 was the magical date! My laptop just refused to behave according to plan on the first day of school, so pop & I went to Costco to get a new one that'll last for quite awhile for school & play. :-D
91. Buy Advanced Photoshop or Digital Photography every month for a yearMy mom actually took care of that for me. She got me a yearly subscription for Christmas to Advanced Photoshop. I am ecstatic about that one! Those things are expensive since they're imports from England.
96. Actually get all the way through an RPG
I'd been playing Fable 2 off & on, & had taken several months off of it. Cal & I came home from a game of L5R tabletop (or was it WoW? Meh, either way) & I decided I wasn't sleepy & wanted to play Fable 2 again. So I dusted it off & played for the next several hours & actually got to the storyline end on December 5. It certainly isn't the end of the game, as I still have massive amounts of things I can do. But it was definitely unexpected. Hadn't realized I was that close to the end of the game. Was a most certain satisfying feeling.
