Finally an update from California!

Hey family! 

I was just too tired and stressed out by the time we moved out here to do a blog of the trip here. I did post pictures on Instagram as we drove out. 

But I wanted to do some updates at last.  Here is a tour of our new apartment. 

We did not see it before we moved in, we signed the lease online. We really like the location, near to Tanner's work, and downtown Sunnyvale. It is on a busy road, which is not great. It is our smallest apartment so far, but we are making it work. We aren't going to put a lot of effort into it, because we are going to look for a new one in the winter. Our neighbors are quiet. 

And we have in unit washer and dryer for the first time!!!

The front door is to the left of this photo, looking into the main living area. My sewing area is in the corner of the "dining room" under a window. That is our new green couch! I LOVE it. My sewing room is the bulk of the dining area. So our little table is right behind the couch in the middle, it is perfect for just the two of us to eat at. 

The view from the front door area to the other side. We have a lot of furniture for the cat. The giant cat tree is ugly, but he loves it. We were sad he couldn't look out the window like in the old place, there aren't any window sills. The giant Macy's bag is also something he plays in. You can see a truck parked at the curb, above the fence, so pretty close to the road. 

We finally got our first tv stand. Tanner's whisky shelf on the right there. On the far right is a mirrored closet in the hallway, so you can see the reflection of the bathroom. It is weird in photos, but it helps spread the light around, which is nice. 

This is from Ikea. It was the best size and shape for us, but at first was all the grey fancy plastic that looks like glass. We liked the that, but not so much of it. So Tanner bought walnut veneer and applied it himself, it turned out so nice!

Our new couch! It is really comfortable and GREEN!

Tiny kitchen. We have a full sized dishwasher and oven which is really nice, the last place had mini ones. 

My sewing room. It is nice to have enough room. I can set up the ironing board next to me. The white steel table is a sit-stand, so I can crank it up high enough to cut fabric at it without hurting my back. The fan is on, so you can see it trying to take fabric off the design wall though. It might look messy, but I know where everything is. 

From the dining room back toward the front door and hallway. Another bed for Craig, and his new tunnel. He loves the tunnel to play in. 

The desk is also new, it is okay, we just needed something inexpensive to put the crabs on for now. They are happy here.

Got to have reusable grocery bags. 

Down the tiny hallway. The bedroom is on the right. Straight back into the tiny bathroom. 

Terrible house cleaning clothes. 

Into the bedroom. Tanner's mom made him a full Star Trek outfit when he was a kid, and recently gave it to us! Also yes, we have decided not to unpack everything, so those boxes just live in the bedroom. And an entire wall of mirrored closets. Another cat tree for Craig to sleep on, or look out the window.  

Giant empty wall I need to so something about. My tiny nightstand is on the right, just a pretty box mounted on the wall, and a reading light clamped to the bed. What a great idea, I love it. 

Out the bedroom window, not a lot of traffic in the middle of the day

Lots of closet space in here. 

Into the hallway closet. It looks like a mess but is actually really organized, cleaning stuff, linens, and camping gear. The pictures is a reflection of the wall behind me. 

Jim! And also growing cat grass in there for them. 

Craig's cat grass too. 

Alright! That is all for now.

Southern Observation of the Day

I had a training at work today. The entire company is getting a new phone system. Of the women over 30 in the room, full half were wearing leggings with a tunic and flats. I know this is a casual work place. But leggings in public are not really a good look on anyone. Many of them were patterned too.

Random Spring Stuff

I still don't have the photos from when my mom visited in March, which is really what I wanted to post. But here are some other nice things. 

Before March madness Tanner and I went to Chili's on campus, they were having specials for a VCU basketball game. It was okay. We were sat next to a table of 20 sorority sisters, who were not paying very much attention to the game. 

VCU shirts, and I have matching yellow earrings in

Early in April we went on a little weekend morning date. Tanner has been working really long hours. He usually gets up around 9:00 am and goes to campus, so I have already left for work. Then he has class, does some measurements, then stays to work on homework. So he has been getting home after 10:00 pm most days, and sometimes home as late as 3:00 am. He even pulled one all nighter. The semester really piled up. He seems to be keeping up by the skin of his teeth. Only two more weeks until the semester is over.

Anyways, so we got some coffee from one of the few independent coffee shops in Richmond, Black Hand. It was really yummy coffee. The place was kinda cute, I liked the front porch and side yard with picnic tables. The service was terrible, and it was a bit expensive. It was a nice rainy spring morning. 

Cute little guy was so sad his owner when it without him

The red Japanese maple was extra pretty against the teal colored house 

That is a dogwood tree. They bloom so much thicker and more beautiful here than in Seattle. Just a nice shot of the streets in the Fan, a really dense older neighborhood here in Richmond. 

Lots of trucks in Richmond. There is a tiny dog looking out the window here, so that was cute. 

Libby Hill Park

Tanner has been so busy. So so busy. He actually is in a huge hole he needs to dig himself out of right now. He was keeping up with his homework and taking measurements for the research group. But got behind on writing a set of lab guidelines and getting his proposal together for his own research. So we have not been doing much together. I will make sure to take more photos of things in our neighborhood, etc.

Libby Hill Park. This view is supposedly the view that named Richmond. A dude was looking down from the bill back in the late 18th century and it reminded him of Richmond-upon-Thames outside London. We took some crappy pictures. This was also back in February, so no leaves on the trees yet.

Tanner was impressed with the gas lamps 

So this is the only photo of the actual view down onto the river. It was really lovely, and this does not really capture it. 

Looking back toward the city. 

The cobblestone road through the park is where the bicyclists came up during the UCI race. It was pretty epic. 

We drove around a lot in some of these neighborhoods afterwards. It was really nice actually. We drove past some other parks. I know Seattle is known for being park poor, and I am impressed with how many parks are in Richmond. We also saw some cool houses, and drove past some restaurants and other things we have read about. 

Random bonus pictures. 

A different day we drove into the same lot as this store, we were going to Pet Smart. It was a really nice hobby shop! We had fun looking at all the stuff. Tanner wants fancy remote controlled stuff. 

Also, not impressed with the cart wranglers at Costco. Actually the service we get all establishments is not as good out here. 

February Storm and getting a new job

So we had a snow storm in February. It was pretty bad by Virginia standards, and compared to what we are used to. In the city I think they decided we got six inches of snow, but obviously more piled up along some streets, depending on the wind and things. In some areas outside the city they got up to 14 inches or so.

It started snowing on Friday, and snowed off and on through the weekend. Tanner had at least two days of classes cancelled. I worked from home, so that was easy. Until I had a phone interview and then an in person interview with this new non-profit I work for.

Just starting

By Saturday morning it had all melted again, before the next wave. This news lady is right outside our apartment building! 

Getting late on Saturday

I didn't take many photos on Sunday, this was late in the day on Sunday, really piling up

I am not a fan

They got at least one lane plowed downtown where we live, though some streets were plowed poorly and then sanded. Our car got buried on the side of the road, we had to dig it out. That was ridiculously hard. Luckily a nice neighbor loaned Tanner a snow shovel. All we had were some ice scrapers, a heavy metal skillet and some kitty litter. The pan actually did help a lot.

This was also back when we had to park like 7 blocks away from our house. Because we didn't drive the car every day, so we parked on streets that don't have time limits on the parking spaces. So we had to walk over there to see how the car was doing

I saw this and freaked out. Our car was not quite this buried, thank goodness

Tanner did a spot on job digging it out. He drove it around the block, on Monday, before going to class. Then parked it right back in the same spot. Tuesday warmed up and tons of snow melted. So I was able to go to my job interview in the afternoon. 

I have to say I was totally freaked out! Job interviews are stressful. But I hate driving in any adverse conditions, I didn't know where I was going, I had to dress up and then walk through the snow. I had a meltdown and called my mom like five times. I just really need to plan ahead for things, and not knowing what the weather was doing was tough. It turned out all right. 

It took another week for the roads to get plowed and snow to melt outside of the city. Some neighborhoods even in the city were snowed in for a long time. While I feel like a lot of criticism of the city is deserved, in this case I don't think they could have done better. It only snows like this here every 15 years or so. 

Bonus photos. When I found out about a week later, after a second interview, that I did get the job. This is at Perly's, the place across the street. We got the fish board, with three kinds of preserved fish. It had smoked trout, which was really delicious. Plus bagels, cream cheese spread, pickles, capers, some veg. Then on the left are the Jewish Eggrolls, they are like pastrami and other meats, then fried. They come with a duck sauce, and a spicy mustard sauce. We each got a local beer. It was all really delicious, and pretty affordable, since we only got those apps. 

My job is going okay. I don't want to talk too much about it since my blog is tied in part to my name. This is the kind of environment where if I complained online, in a private venue, they would write me up for it at work.