New Year, New You, or something like that

So here is another update and it's only 8 days after the most recent update. It was a quiet week at work because the holiday stuff I would work on was pretty much over by the actual week of Christmas. There was still plenty of stuff going on but it wasn't urgent to the point of causing issues.

Anyway, Jessica and I went to Semiahmoo resort in Blaine WA. Semee Ah Moo is a way up by the Canadian border on this tiny little spit.


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It's pretty slick and it was very quiet and relaxing. We watched a few bad X-mas shows about the misers (both snow and heat) and a few about a BB gun. It was a little rainy but it was a perfect pre-holiday weekend to de-stress and not worry about things. Getting married to Jessica is the best present ever.







After Semiahmoo we went to my cousin Melissa's place to have X-mas day with my local family. It was also low-key and the present trading was funny and light. Anytime you can do Christmas shopping at Walgreens you know it's been a good year. I got Beers of the World and a few other nice things. Thank you Vicki, Daniel, Melissa, Jesse, and Eric.

Once we got home we watched 6 hours of stored up Zombie TV. The new show is called Walking Dead and is sort of similar to The Stand by Stephen King. Think post apocalyptic type stuff where limited survivors go around trying to survive evil, zombies, and good meaning people who don't get the new world order. Good show but needs work, it has a long way to go before I put it in the same category as Breaking Bad.

Working this week and having a low key weekend is the plan for now.

About Damn Time

It's about damn time I write something. I don't how I got so far out of routine when it comes to posting updates on the blog but once you lose the rhythm it's really hard to get it back.

Anyway, still moving to London but it's taking a little longer to get going than I would have thought. I should have known it wouldn't go smooth but all the immigration bumps appear to be smoothed out and HOLY SHIT the Hyundai commercial with the weird band singing a holiday song makes me want to not buy a car from them. Overkill! Anyway, the immigration stuff has been sorted out and things should be going forward as I type this. I would expect to be in London in February but everything has taken longer than expected to date so no promises.

We're in the process of getting rid of books, furniture, physical music and dvd's (since they are are different standards in the UK) and also because they take up a ton of space when I listen to almost all music on my Ipod/Iphone anyway.

Things that have happened in the last few months:

Went to Ohio to spend time with Jessica's parents in sort of a mini-holiday.
Went to Vancouver BC for a failed attempt to attend a hockey game. (failed because traffic went totally crazy because the freeway was closed)
Started homebrewing beer with some friends in Seattle. (It's watching water boil a few different times - it's not rocket science)

I think Jess and I are going to a little resort near Blaine WA for Christmas and then over to my cousin Melissa's for a holiday gathering. They're my Seattle family so to speak and spend quite a few holidays with them.

Right now I'm finishing up a pain in my ass called re-burning all my CD's onto Itunes. My PC took a crap a few weeks back and I lost all my music and a few other less important programs. It's taken me more than a couple hours to put them all back on my PC. I certainly will be backing these suckers up this time around so I don't have to waste hours doing this and since I intend to get rid of all these CD's anyway I better have them saved somehow.

I figure I'll get a new phone once I get to the UK anyway so having these songs saved in a couple of places is probably a good thing.

I'm sad TRON is getting bad reviews. :-(

I'll try to post more, dinner is calling.

The blog will most likely be renamed Beutler in Seattle.

My Update

I'm moving to London for at least 2 years in January with my girlfriend to work for Amazon.co.uk

I'll post more soon but that's my update.

Photo's - The Beginning

I've been very lax in posting and I'm trying to get back into the routine of posting to the blog regularly. Jay, who hassles me the most also has been posting very irregularly himself so I don't feel so bad. I have to be honest, my computer got a virus of some sort and has been running crappy even since I got rid of the virus. I might need to either get this PC rehabbed or maybe even get a new one because this one is running like shit.

Here are some photo's from X-mas.





















































At Christmas Jessica and I decided to drive to Rainier and wander around a little bit since it was very nice and sunny.

On the way to Paradise Inn (the motel about 1/3 of the way up Rainier) we ran into the little Fox guy. He wasn't afraid of humans and seemed very comfortable getting his picture taken, possibly a little to friendly. I had to say "Get in the Car." very forcefully to Jessica, who had gotten out of the car for some of the photo ops.

Little Foxy might be friendly but he's still a wild animal who apparently doesn't fear humans could be a slightly dangerous little fellow.

Here are the rest of the Rainier photo's.









The ones at the end are Caramel Topping and Dough for Cinnamon rolls. Mmmmmmm.

I have more photo's to load and post from the Tofino trip but I've spent a long time getting those loaded. It's going to be a day or three before I get the rest loaded.

I actually have a lot to blog about some I'm going to try and post a few times this week. Things I'm aware of:

Great Urban Race.
Tofino.
Seattle in the Summer.
How awesome beer is, especially in growlers.
The upcoming drive to the Midwest.
How awesome wine is, especially in bottles?

New Post

I just realized it's been nearly two months since I posted anything. That's awful. I'm going to work on posting on a new night. When I blogged the most often is when I got into a routine of posting on Sunday nights. That's fallen by the wayside obviously so I need to figure out something new.

Blog update

Things worth mentioning in May. I went to PA for work, Vegas for a bachelor party, and Spokane for my cousins graduation from law school. Melissa is a 2nd cousin once removed and Vicki, her mom, is a 1st cousin twice removed. There wasn't much else happening May besides some Mariner games. It is still cool here, a standard spring so to speak, so there hasn't been much going on weather wise.

The month of June should be more exciting though. Jessica and I are going to NYC next weekend for her award ceremony. Jess won a "Webby" so we're going for the award ceremony and dressing all fancy schmancy and stuff. It promises to be a good time.

A few days later we're going to Tofino BC for a few days to relax on a secluded beach on the Pacific. I'm a big fan of this trip because it involves a seaplane (or is it a floatplane???) and an enormous island that nobody really lives on. It should be a fun trip and there should be plenty of photo's to put on the blog, should I be ambitious enough to load them. It'll happen eventually.

Probably the biggest thing going on is the lease on my car is coming due in a September, so that means I have to either get a new car via trade, or get my current car to Wisconsin somehow in September. What to do, what to do. I think I'm going to put it off for a few more weeks because that's how I do things.

Technically I turned 31 in May as well. Yay me.

May Post

Just wanted to post something in May. More to follow.

Iceland Photo's Part 2

So with all the news lately about Iceland's volcano that I'm not even going to attempt to spell I figured I would update on where Jessica and I were in Iceland in relation to the volcano and various other things.

This is a link to Boston.com and some of the photo's of Iceland and the eruption. They are pretty fantastic but photo 8 should look pretty familiar to people - here is my version of photo 8 from September.

From Iceland

I would not compare my photo skills but the contrast in color is pretty amazing. Mine is the mostly green middle of fall variety and their photo should be white winter/spring but the dull gray and soot look is fairly overwhelming.

The volcano/glacier is called Eyjafjallajokull and the waterfall shown above actually comes from that glacier.

Here is the location of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier marked with the "A".


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If you look to the right you can see the finger like glacier coming down close to the road. That finger is glacier that Jessica and I were on in this picture.

From Iceland

Underneath that glacier is the "Katla" volcano that you might have heard mentioned as the volcano with the potential to be a massive eruption resulting in massive air traffic disruptions.

The photo's from Boston.com are pretty crazy if you ask me.

Last night we to a Tacoma Rainiers game and watched the Marinier's AAA team take on the Salt Lake City Bee's. It was a little cool but it's fun to watch baseball on clear night with a sparse crowd. There were about 5 chances for a foul ball from out seats but a couple of bad bounces cost us. Maybe next time there will be additional chances. I did get a Red Rainier's hoodie that is pretty cool; classic logo's and lettering make me happy.

There were no major news flashes recently but I did have to buy some family and/or friends on the East Coast toilet paper for a work related project - so if you happen to get a free case of toilet paper from me - you're welcome. I'm expensing it so enjoy the free TP.

Since I blogged last, which is nearly a month ago, Jessica and I went to Vancouver BC with some friends over Easter to attend a Canucks vs. Wild hockey game. The Wild got lucky and managed to tie the game with almost no time remaining, sending the game into OT, where the Canucks quickly ended things. It was a fun trip but it was a little weird spending Easter in Canada. I think I ate a Japadog on Easter.

Here is a picture of me eating a Japadog from a previous trip.

From Blogger Pictures

Mmmm. Daikon radish.

The next big event is a weekend trip to Spokane WA. My cousin (2nd once removed) Melissa is graduating from Gonzaga Law School and it should be trip over the pass into desert country. They have good wineries over there as well. Mmmm.

The next little event is in a couple of weeks. I'm going to Vegas for a night with some Seattle buddies for a bachelor party. 12 hours on the ground in Vegas should be enough time to have fun but I'm sure I'll be ready to leave when it's over. Jason is getting married in July. Whoo - weddings.

The next big trip is in June, Jessica and I are heading to Tofino BC, halfway up the West coast of Vancouver Island.


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Without getting to deep into details we're taking a Seaplane from Seattle to Victoria BC, renting a car and driving the rest of the way. It promises to be full of wildlife and my attempts at picture taking. If I'm lucky I'll have 1/6th of my photo's turn out to be usable.

I've been to 2 Mariner games, a Seattle Sounder soccer game, a Vancouver Canucks game and a Tacoma Rainier game since I blogged last. I'm quite the sports guy in the last few weeks.

That's it for now.

Trip to Milwaukee

I need to blog about something since I've been lacking a lot in this area lately. Last Wednesday (the 17th) I flew to Milwaukee with my buddy Aaron and watched a lot of college basketball with David, John, Jay, and Mike periodically. As John called it, it was a retro weekend with a fair amount partying and old school video games. N64 James Bond Goldeye in particular. We even busted out the old TV set up with one game strictly for video games and another for watching college basketball. Sadly enough Marquette couldn't win the game they had against my current hometown team, the UW Huskies. Que Cera I guess.

Work has been, well, work. It's been hard to get caught up with work after a few days off but it's been going. It's a fast moving place and tomorrow will be the 3rd anniversary of my start. It does seem strange that I've been in Seattle for three years now but when I look back lots of people have gotten married, had kids, and bought houses so I suppose it makes sense in some ways. I'm not looking to leave anytime soon either because the winters are mild and the mountains are high.

In two weeks, over Easter, a bunch of us are going to Vancouver for the weekend to watch the MN Wild take on the superior Vancouver Canucks. We had to overpay for tickets to the game and I'm stilling waiting on a bunch to get shipped over the border. Blah. Since the game is on Sunday night (Easter) it means that I'll be enjoying my Easter in Canada rather than at my aunt Vicki's place on Lake Martha. It's an interesting trade but I'll make a concerted effort to go to Vicki's some other weekend.

It's 40 and rainy here again. This is the worst time of the year to live in Seattle if you ask me. It's not terrible weather at all it's pretty mild, actually it's just like regular winter but the problem is it's spring almost everywhere else and it stays somewhere between 40-50 and rainy all the way through May and it stinks. I'm not really complaining but this is the hardest time of the year for me. I need to go hiking or something to remind myself that the outdoors are fun and close by.

Vegas Recapped

My friend from Marquette, Matt, lives in Las Vegas and got married over the weekend. Being the doldrums of winter/spring here in Seattle, it seemed like a good time to take a few extra days to enjoy the sun in the Sin City. Jessica and I went down a little early and stayed an extra day at the MGM Grand to get some extra time in the sun. It wasn't super duper warm with temps in the mid 60's but is was sunny most of the time and it felt warmer than it was. Good times were had at the wedding and there was a good amount of Marquette people in attendance so it felt like a mini reunion of sorts.

The next big trip for me will be back to Milwaukee in a few weeks to attend March Madness. Marquette is the host site so I got tickets and I'll be heading out for a long weekend there as well. It won't be in the mid 60's I'll bet but it should be a fun weekend and I can only hope Marquette isn't playing opposite the game(s) at the Bradley Center. I'm really hoping MU is a Thursday / Saturday site as opposed to Friday / Sunday.

I just finished a book called Tokyo Vice and it was a non-fiction work written by a white, Jewish, journalist about the seedier side of Japanese culture and from the perspective of someone who isn't 100% familiar with the culture. It's a solid but sad book. You find yourself rooting for the author even when you sort of the know the result that is coming. I've been reading a lot lately but I might have to look into getting Kindle as I'm going to either need to get rid of paperbacks or buy more bookshelves. Getting rid of the paperbacks from high school like The Siege of Ocean Valkyrie which is apparently so "rare" Amazon doesn't even have a picture of it. By "rare" I mean a pile of crap. Included in the pile of Crap is The Edge which I must have bought from Jenny, the bookstore lady in Lisbon when I was obsessed with Tom Clancy. Speaking of which, does he even write books anymore? The last two were plain awful and the last one came out years ago. Maybe I should do both: get rid of the crappy books and get a Kindle.

I'm trying to think of other things to write about right now but I'm falling short at the moment. I feel like I should keep more notes because I always forget the topics that sound good during the day or week.

LIKE THIS! On the way to Las Vegas we took the cheap flight option and had a connection in LA (LAX) for a few hours. The LA airport is enormous and Jessica and I just headed towards the nearest watering hole for a few a beer to kill time. When we sat down there wasn't a lot of space so we took the only open seats and ordered our drinks. After a while I noticed I was sitting next to a tall white guy with sweats pants and hoodie pulled down low over his eyes. In LA, that screams moderately famous, and since the guy was trying to be low key that made me want to catch a glimpse of his face. Once I saw him I recognized who he was but I needed to make sure and was about to ask "hey, are you who I think you are?" but around that time somebody went up and asked for an autograph and saved me from making an ass out of myself. I was sitting next to 14 time gold medal winner Michael Phelps, and in the "Stars" they're just like us category, he plays online poker and was bitching about being delayed to Philadelphia on what sounded like a redeye flight. I used the quotes "stars" because I can't think many real stars fly redeye's but maybe that's just me. He is fairy tall and seemed sort of dickish but then again if I was delayed on a cross country overnight flight I'd be complaining a lot myself. Drew, he was drinking a dark colored beer but those were the only calories I saw him intaking; he had a long way to go before he hit 10,000 calories but it was 10 at night so it's hard to say if those were calories 2000 through 2400 or 8400 through 8800.

His girlfriend seemed sort of cute at least.

In Las Vegas

I just ate a steak and decided to blog about it with my mobile phone. Yea to steak and weekends in Vegas. If you need a bet made please let me know. I like to gamble on sports.

Avatar

What the hell was that?

Could James Cameron have been any more heavy handed with his political and enviroment messages? It was hard to watch at the end because the dialogue and plot got borderline unbearable. I don't mind subtle plot points and the occasional lecture but Avatar was so over the top I groaned several times during the movie, bah. The special effects were pretty good and worth watching on the big screen AND in 3D so I would go see the movie just because of that (which is why I did) but don't expect a lot from the plot. I don't think this movie will stand the test of time like Star Wars has simply because it's going to get passed by quickly with movies that have much better plots.

Our team party was on Friday and it was held at a small glass blowing company called glassybaby that sells high end candle holders and glasses (tumblers). I bought two just so people would stop hassling me but at $40 a piece I wish they would have come with $20 worth of something to offset the insane cost of 2 at $88. SOB!

After missing Big Brother / Big Sister for a few weeks due to x-mas vacation, my trip to the midwest, and various other school holidays, I got back to elementary school for the second time in 2010. He's a good kid who needs somebody to talk too and he seemed genuinely excited to get a fridge magnet. BBBS is a neat program with various levels of involvment and I would recommend it to people who want to volunteer in small way. It's one long lunch a week.

I need to post pictures soon. I'll try to do that this week.

Back from the Midwest

That's right. I went to the Midwest two weeks ago for what is turning into an annual pilgrimage to see a Marquette game and hang out with friends. Jessica came along with me as we celebrated a 201 and friends X-Mas. Good times were had by all and MU won a game against Providence easily. After Milwaukee we went down to Chicago and stayed with David and Emily and their wiener dog puppies, they're so cute. The rest of the trip was a leisurely drive through along I-80/90 to the Akron OH area, where I have an aunt and Jessica has family. It was a long but fun week.

To anybody I missed on my short trip through Milwaukee, I'll be back in March for the NCAA tourney so let me know and maybe we can meet up then.

I should probably post some of the pictures from the trip to the top of Rainier from a few weeks back plus any pictures I can steal from Jay of the 201 and friends X-Mas. I'll try to do that in the next day or three.

A little notebook is something that I have to look into purchasing because all these great ideas to blog about during the day escape me on my walk home. I do know that Broadstripe Cable sucks and if possible it should be avoided at all costs. The managed to miss an appointment TWICE, screw up and install, and only managed to correct said screw up after a few days and multiple phones calls to tech support by me. Awful.

The Vikings game this weekend took a few days off my life and left me feeling numb inside in a way that hasn't totally gone away yet. Brett Favre - I still haven't made up my mind how I feel but the lack of interceptions during the regular season was a red flag for me. Somehow, someway, he was going to throw a pick when it mattered and SOB, there it went.

Drew hates American Idol, and while I don't really like it, I do enjoy the early rounds when people are delusional and have no idea they're really, really, bad singers. Oblivious people make my laugh.

Blog written and I'm out.

New Year, New Me

It's 2010. It tends to feel a lot like a few days ago but I'm pretty OK with it so far. 3648 days from now I probably will know quite a bit more about what this decade will be like but I'm unimpressed to this point.

I had a solid X-mas with presents and such, including a delivery by the Post Office at 2PM on Christmas Day. It makes me wonder what went wrong. New Years was very low key this year. Fireworks made sure I was awake for the New Year but it was significantly less insane that 1999 was. I was in college and there was lots of partying involved and this year I struggled to stay awake. As I asked in my last blog post: when did I get old?

One thing has already changed. Dubai can't pay their bills and got a loan from Abu Dabi but they did complete and will soon open the tallest building in the world. Forgive the weird angle, it is Google maps afterall.


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The Burj Dubai is taller than even the TV tower in North Dakota. They might not be able to pay for it, but darn it, you're going to enjoy seeing miles and miles of sand in the middle east. I'll give Dubai credit, they might not be able to pay bills right not but at least they spent their oil money building a bunch of crap rather than hoarding it and enriching a few people. It's just to the East of the World in this map.

Flight is booked to Milwaukee for a few days before heading off to Jessica's family in Ohio. I fully intend to drink beer and eat German food in Milwaukee while going to a Marquette game.

Homemade tacos might be the finest food ever. I don't care if they are "easy" because I love them and I could eat tons of them before I get full. Gorging myself on tacos was an outstanding way to spend New Years Day. Mmmmmmm, tacos.

Blogging for today complete.