HAPPY FEBRUARY 29th

2008 is a leap year. And today it is February 29th. So happy leap day to all of you. Amazing that we get a free day every 4 years. I like that. We shouldn't waste it. But I guess I did it ... I went to the office today ... :O

READING on the BUS

As I was saying few days ago, I really love commuting to work by bus, because I have almost 2 hours per day to read all the books that I left behind in the last years. So after I finish "The life of Mahanta Gandhi", I started a new one "Guns, germs and steel". It is an amazing historical book about the evolution of the human kind in the last 13,000 years. The book is trying to answer to questions like "Why in certain area of the planet people created cultures and empires and went to conquer other continents? Why it didn't happen the opposite?" Really interesting. If you are interested in human evolution, you have to read this. BTW ... this is a gift from Jake, my former roommate in LA. Thanks Jake!

THE 1st GUEST OUT OF TOWN

Martin s the first guest that we have from out of town. He came to Seattle for some meeting and we invited him to our place for a dinner. Although our pace is still a mess and it is tiny, we managed to be nice hosts. Now that we have a couch, we can even take non standing pictures ...

... and of course now we hope that we will have more guests coming to visit us ... :D

I COMMUTE TO WORK BY BUS

I commute by bus, and that it makes my proud and happy. Proud because I believe it helps the environment, happy because it means that we don't need to buy an other car, because I hate to drive bumpuer2bumper (BTW ... who like it), because it relaxes me and finally because I can finally dedicate time to read that pile of books that I have in my room. And here is how the bus43 looks like at 8AM in the morning ...

... not even too crowded ... there is always room to seat ... :D

WE GOT A COUCH!!!

We finally got a couch! We bought in the weekend here in Capitol Hill, the Seattle neighborhood where we live. Nice nice couch, and very nice prize as well. I think it was a $900 couch and we bought it for $250 in the "as is" section. Here if when we got it home. The other guy in the picture is our neighbour Stevie, he help us to push it trough our apartment door ...

We bought it in this shop called AREA51. They have very nice stuff, but they have an horrible customer service (they are just jack-ss). I guess it is worth writing the story. In our case they try to charge us $300 for the delivery, and the reason behind that price was that we already got a good deal out of the couch ... so they had to charge us a lot for the delivery ... :O ... smart of them to tell us!!! And they didn't even want to keep it there for 1 day more, after we paid, again because we got a good deal out of it. F-ck-rs! So we decide to walk the couch home. 1 mile away. Ehehehe. It took us 1 hour, but at the end we made. Nene was so exhausted that when we got in front of our apartment door, she gave up. And Stevie help us to made the last push into the apartment door. People was looking at us, like we stole it. Very funny. Anyways when we got home, we realized that the plastic foot of a leg was missing. Of course because we bought in the "as is" section, there was no way to bring it back. And we thought that maybe we lost the "foot" on the way to our apartment. We went back all the way with our camping lamps and we actually found it on the curb! Very lucky! And now we have our new fancy couch ... ;)

PUBLICTRANSPORT+GOOGLE

I love public transportation and I love also GoogleMaps. And now I found that they are the perfect match for me. At least here in Seattle. If I want to go by bus, I just check the directions on Googlemaps and I select "by public transportation" instead of "by car" ... and there you go it gives you ways to go there by bus. Timetable, waiting time, everything is there. For example this is my way to work ... bus43 and bus 242 ...

... I love it ... ahahaha ... it is just great ... :)

The official GOOGLE BLOG

If you are, like me, a totally GOOGLE addict ... you have to keep the googleblog. It is supercool. It has all the latest news about GOOGLE products and it is updated almost every day ...

... so if you are a Google addict, you can't miss it!

AN OTHER ADDICTION

I got an other addiction. This time is for facebook. I was there for more than 1 year, but I never really used it. This week suddenly I started using it. And bang. Now I can't stop anymore. I need to check every hour if is there anybody out there who did something exciting. The good thing is that I found a lot of far away friends in there. Today I was able to speak with a friend, after 16 years! The bad thing is that I can't stop checking what is happening in their lifes. Now I know when they walk their dog and when they go to the doctor. Ouch! Is there anybody out there who can help me to get rid of this stupid addiction?

A PIECE OF WISDOM

Once Mahatma Gandhi said ... "The things that will destroy us are politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice". I read it few days ago and bang, it was like an eureka for me! I am thinking about it everyday now ... and it helps me to be a better person. Or at least try to be a better person. 

AN INCREDIBLE LIFE

Gandhi has always been an icon for me. But I never really read a lot about his life. So, last year when I was in Nepal, I got this book. I am reading it now, I am almost done with it. It is a good book. But it unveils also a lot of the private life of Gandhi. And there is where I was shocked. I discovered how hard he was with his family. Not a bad person at all, but his convictions about education and sex really strange to accept. Anyways, if you have some time, I suggest to give it a try and read this book.

BOOKSHELFing

Here we are. Driving back from IKEA with the bookshelf in the back of the car was funny. Carrying all that stuff upstairs was not too hard. And now it comes the last part of the game. Put together the bookshelf. Here are some of the phases of the work ...

... it took as a while, but at the end we made it. I have to admit that the hardest part has been to lift it up, as a whole. I was really afraid that it was going to kill me!

MORE IKEA SHOPPING

Here we are, we have spent only 2 months in Seattle ... and we have driven to IKEA at least 5 times already. Getting almost a familiar place. But maybe this is one of out last trips. We have actually purchased a book shelf and some other stuff ... and even if we had to squeeze our knees against the windshield on our way home, we have managed to fit everything in the car ... ehehehe ... here is it ... our mighty car filled in with a book shelf ...

 

FEBRUARY 17th

Febraury 17th is one of these dates that I will never forget. Last year something very very special happen to NeNe and I. And today, one year later, we have decided to remeber that day. And we were lucky enough that it was an incredibly sunny day. It is rare to see the sun here in Seattle in Winter, but today it was a sunny day. We went to Alki beach, just in front of Seattle, and there we met our friends Stefania, Supito, Joe and Kartik. For us happiness is just share our happy moments with our friends in a very simple way. And this is a picure that we took at lunch ...

WE GOT A PIANO!!!

Our researches on CRAIGLIST bring some result. We found a very good piano. For free. It plays really well, and it is in a very decent shape. The piano is actually for free, but we had to hire some PIANO MOVERS and have it delivered in our 3rd floor apartment. Here are 2 of the 3 guys who did the job ...... an amazing hard job. It took them almost 1 hour to push it upstairs! A very very physical job. The fee for the service was $250, but it was so hard that we ended up giving them $100 tip. Totally deserved. And here we have the new piano. NeNe is really happy, and I am as well. It is such a pleasure to hear her to play ... :D

RUN RUN RUN

Cathal is a colleague of mine. We work in the same cubicle here in our lovely Redmond, WA office ... and we love to run. So we have decided that going forward every Tuesday and Thursday we will have a lunch break run session. We call it RUN RUN RUN, and the red line in the map here is our first route ...... 3.2 miles here around the office. Overall it take us 1 hour of our daily work, 15 minutes to change and prepare, 30 minutes for running and 15 minutes for stretching, shower and changing again. It is very relaxing, actually. Sneak 1 hour out of the office routine ... you should try as well. You will come back to the office much more relaxed than when you left ... :D

NOT TOTALLY VEGETARIANS

We are not eating anymore meat, we are not really vegetarian. We still eat a lot of seafood. And it would be really a shame to live in Seattle and not eat the wonderful seafood that we can find up here and with Nene who really knows how to cook the seafood. In this funny picture she is busy to fight against the steam while she is preparing some PANCIT, a Philipino traditional meal made of vegetables, seafood and rice noodles ...

OUR PROTEINS ...

Yes, we are trying hard to eat healthy. We have basically eliminated all the meat. Lentils and tofu are becoming my favourite source of proteins. This is one of the phase of my lentils dinner ...... easy to make with all vegetables (i.e. lentils, red onion, carrot, tomatoes, spices and extra virgin olive oil) ... ans super yummy ... :D

TRYING TO EAT HEALTHY

US is not an easy country if you want to eat healthy. There are way too many chances to get your tummy flooded with junk food and forget about what is really good for your body. But things are changing also here. And if you know what you want, you can find it. NeNe and I have decided that we need a healthier diet. So no more animal fat, no more meat, no more added salt, no more added sugar, lot of fruit and vegetables. Extreme? A little bit, but it is really good for you. And after a while your taste gets used to it. And there are tons of options in the market place. One of our favourite new fruit is the pomegranate ... absolutely gorgeous either if you decide to keep in the kitchen or if you decide to eat it ...

PIANO for FREE

NeNe really knows how to play the piano, but unfortunately she hasn't been practicing a lot lately. Her place in LA was too small to keep a piano in. But we promised to our self to get a piano as soon as we were moving into our new place in Seattle. And so we did. We looked into CRAIGLIST and we realized that actually there is a fair amount of people, that at any given time, is giving away their piano for free. Basically it is people who have to move out of their place and can't take it anymore with them. Or Not too bad, especially for us. We already budgeted at least $1,000 to get a new piano. And these free pianos are in fairly good conditions. Maybe I could open a business. Get free pianos here in US and ship them back to Italy and sell them over there ... :D

STILL A MESS ...

We have moved in since weeks now, but our place is still a mess. A total mess. This is an example of how our bedroom look like during the weekend ... trying to figure out where to put our cloths ...... totally messy, but it helps you realize how many funny cloths you have been buying over the years ... :D

WE GOT A PACKAGE!!!

I have been sending out our new address to all our friends, hoping to convince someone to come to visit us or at least to send us a postcard to populate our new fridge. But I think we got luckier than that. We even got luckier that what we thought, we even got a gift ...... this is the first gift, and it is from Mae, one of Tina's best friend back in LA. Of course we will love to receive more and more ... so if you want just do it ... you will feel good and we will feel happy ... :D

HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS ...

I definitely spend too much time looking at the screen of my laptop. And honestly I don't really like too much. But sometimes I also find interesting stuf. Today for example I found a new (for me) website. It is WIKIHOW. They teach you how do do anything. From how to repair your car to "How to Make Her Fall in Love" to "How to make friends" to "How to Put On a Bicycle Chain" ... and more and more ... pretty funny ... if you have the chance give it a try ... http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page

HOMELESS in SEATTLE

I took ths picture the other day, few blocks from our new home, while I was driving down Broadway Blvd. A guy crossing the street with a shopping cart. If you look to the picture, you can see he is handling the cart on the wrong side, quite an imagine of how things can go in the wrong direction sometimes ...It is hard, for me, to see these people freezing in the cold of the winter and begging for your change at the supermarket door. So I did some small research and of course Wikipedia was a good source of information. Apparently in the King County (the count of Seattle) there are around 8,000 homeless on any given night, and many of those live in Seattle. In September 2005, King County adopted a "Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness", one of the near-term results of which is a shift of funding from homeless shelter beds to permanent housing. I am not sure if I will be there in 2015, but if you will happen to be in Seattle around 2015, maybe you will find a cisty without homeless anymore ... that will be a great day ...

PHOENIX AIRPORT SUNSET

Day business trips are don't really make much sense to me, especially if you have to cross half of the US, just to meet a customer for a couple of hours. Today I was in Phoenix, AZ for a day business trip. Early wake up in Seattle, flight to Phoenix, meeting and flight back to Seattle. At least the sunset at the airport was worth while. You can judge, to me it is absolutely stunning ...

CRAZY for SUSHI

Because our apartment is really far away from being ready to be used to organize any dinner with friends, NeNe and I are using the excuse to go and visit the local restaurants. Tonite we went to a Sushi bar suggested by Supito. Really a great place and not very expensive. We went completely crazy for Sushi, and this is a picture that I took ...

THE ULTIMATE SUNBLOCK

I got this cartoon strip today by email .... and I simply love it ... ehehehe ...Seattle is just great ... and it really makes you save a lot of money when you get to sunblock section of the supermarket ... :D

BLOOMING KITCHEN WINDOW

Our home is slowly getting furnished. And we area also getting some small gift from our friends. This is from Stefania. We love it. And it is our own blooming spring 365 days per year in our kitchen window ...

A GLIMPSE OF SPRING

A glimpse of Spring in front of our place. In the cold cold Seattle winter these yellow narcissus gave us so much joy ...... but unfortunately they were just a glimpse. Nothing more than that. The winter has been really really long. With a lot of snow. The mountains are completely snow capped. And we really like it, we don't really mind the cold, such a nice change from Southern California ... maybe we will get tired of this cold weather, but for now we really like it ... :D

OUR WEEKLY PASTIME

A weekly visit to IKEA has become one of our pastimes. And lucky us that we have an IKEA not very far from where we live. We go there we buy something, come back home. We realize that it is not exactly what we need. We go back to IKEA to return it. And we buy something else. For weeks ... but I guess we like ... IKEA is so organized compared with our apartment ... it is relaxing to see that everything one day will fir in some nice bookshelf or cabinet. But what I like the most is this car parked just outside the main gate ...