Nothing left to hide

I joined a practice bowling league with my friends.  We bowl Sunday nights and progressively get better each week which is all you need to take 3rd place apparently.  Even though we have really high handicaps, as long as you improve you average your team beats everyone.  It feels weird though because we really aren’t that good but with the Handicaps and improvement we beat people who have bowled 300 games.

Yesterday we went to Alderwood Mall and went to Daiso. We bought a bunch of stuff for really cheap, so if you like Dollar stores and like Japan, check it out.  I was going to take a picture but the other room is a mess from our After Shopping Rock Band/Things party.  We also ate out at our favorite Sushi place in Lynwood, I think its Kudasai but I always get that mixed up with the one in Greenlake.  Much fun was had and much sushi/beer consumed:

The rest of the month was frantic at work, lots of people calling in sick and me not getting any project work done because of it. We still haven’t heard back about the sourcing… very soon though.  Jen has been off traveling for the most part and was gone around 2 weeks so I mostly stayed at home with the cat.

We’ve also been playing more WoW together.  We both have 47 gnome mages, her’s is Ice and mine Fire which has been a blast.  Being able to portal anywhere is just the only way to play this game.  I also have a druid I’ve been leveling slowly that is 48.  I thought about playing my rogue to grab some of that new PvP gear but I realized how out of touch I am with Rogues and how I don’t have nearly any good gear to PVP with so it would be very painful and sad.

I picked up Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for DS which is simple hack’n’slash with some RPG mixed in.  The two player wireless mode is great (even though we both need the game) and the best part is that gear you pick up is shown on your character… I’m all about riding that shit through Ironforge.  I also grabbed Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core which… ahh it just feel so good, which is probably just nostalgia, but the feel and game play is great and who doesn’t love that universe.  I still can’t stand FF main characters but the world is still enchanting to me this many years later. Pixel Junk Monsters, and Everyday Shooter is also a daily staple now… btw I bought a ps3!

Let’s dive right in shall we?

Biggest news is that we’ve been doing intense wedding planning.  We have our place booked, the cake, dress, food, and maybe even all the guest list all set. July 29th, this summer, or just a few months away (for those of you counting at home) and we will be Mr. & Mrs.  Rosa.  Creepy aint it, how quickly we get older? Just this time last year I was procrastinating through March finals.

Work has been great, I’ve been working really hard and with all the has come many rewards. I have alot of great friends their and I was hired on Full time as a Safeco Employee despite their being other contractors who have been there longer.  Of course it helps to actual work as hard as you can every day but we won’t get into the particulars.  I get to move desks in the a more interesting area of the office and sit next to some guys who are closer to my age. I get paid a lot more and get way better benefits and get to take some more important calls and finally get involved in something beyond just answering calls all the time.

This friday we are going to a Sonics game… against the Timberwolves I think.  Should be fun as I haven’t been for maybe 3 years and we are going with 2 of my friends from work and their spouses, so a triple date of sorts.

I’ve been pretty much off of WoW. I got up to 66 and just kinda lost interest.  Mostly I’ve been playing Guitar Hero 2 and will be challenging my brother to a Jam off this Spring Break when he and his current lady friend come up to Seattle to visit us.  Crackdown has also been a fun distraction but I’m coming to the end of that after maxing out almost all of my skill sets.  I also have been chugging through Hotel Dusk, but stuck at the portion after the dinner, another one of those… “which random think do I have to click on to get this damn thing to advance?”

I started reading Sidney Poitier’s Autobiography.  If you have ever seen him act or heard him speak (such as the Oprah Interview with Jamie Fox) he is as eloquent a writer as a speaker. Calm, reserved, full of wisdom and depth and yes I am aware their are co-writers and ghost writers but I doubt they could claim such a likeness to their false visage as you can find in this book.

Jen and I also finished the entire 6 feet Under Series, which is truly wonderful and the only thing in the last… 15 or more years that has made me out right cry.  We started the acclaimed Sopranos as we both love a good Mafia flick and this show continues to deliver 3 seasons in.  I just wanna shiv whoever has the 2nd disc of season 3 though, I’m sick of waiting weeks for whoever has them to return it.  Speaking of not wanting to wait, we downloaded “The Departed” and “Mission Impossible 3″ on the Xbox 360 which turned out to be a worth while investment.  It works like a rental and streams or downloads to your Xbox.  It costs about the same as a new movie rental, especially if you consider the cost of gas.  MI3 sucked but departed was wonderful.

The cat is over a year old now, she is still white and pink, and her body still to big for her little head, both figuratively and mentally.  Other then that, things are well, if you still read this drop me a line if you ever see me online or better yet, call me on my ever elusive cell phone, as I tend to keep it charged and active frequently.  No time for spell check or editing, this is raw and uncut!

It was a busy month.  My job took up most of it, getting familiar with the new settings and improving my work habits.  In the middle of the month my Grandmother’s kidney failure went into it’s final stages.  We visited in October to what would actually be the last time I would get to speak to her and have her cognisant of it.  She passed away on a Thursday in November, with my family sitting around her bedside, there until the final moment.

We get older and more mature everday in so many ways.  Coming home to play videogames and past out on the couch really seems like years ago and not months ago.

We spent the Thanksgiving Holiday with Jen’s family up in Lynwood.  Their usual festivities consisted of eating Pizza and then going to a movie.  Not so bad in itself but I find out that the pizza actually wasn’t that good and the movie they see isn’t just one but several different films that they don’t necessarily see together, but mostly at the same time (oh and their Grandparents say they will go but then ditch at the last minute).  This year we had a more traditional meal and spent the evening laughing over various Board Games we brought to play.  Even though I couldn’t see my family, it was quite nice to have almost the same feeling just 10 minutes north of my apartment here in Seattle.

Safeco moved offices this week so I am back in the U-district.  I like it actually, while I will miss the feeling of going to work with the big-wigs of the tech center of Bellevue, it’s a shorter commute to the U-district, I know all the places to eat, more busses, it’s just familiar and I manage to stay away from campus in an area by my old apartment that is usually pretty tame.  Work is better, I’ve finally gotten to the point where I’m ready to expand my plate, do some harder stuff that I have no idea what to do with.  Not sure it will help me get a better position but, it can’t hurt and it gives me more experience, so that’s good either way.  Still looking for somewhere to move to, not sure if it’ll still be to Bellevue, that commute really did suck.  Probably looking towards the areas west of Wallingford, maybe Ballard.