Category Archives: walker

Getting used to this place

September 11, 2012

So I realized something yesterday as I was trying to navigate around this city and get comfortable here. I’m am having a bit of culture shock. When I moved to Austin 4 years ago it was the first time I had ever lived outside of Michigan. I thought I was moving to the big city! Turns out Austin isn’t all that big city. Sure there are way too many people for such a small place but overall it has a nice mix of downtown and neighborhoods and for the most part they don’t mix too much. I lived in a neighborhood in Austin and it was quiet and I felt very comfortable indeed. I was surrounded by houses as I took my daily walk to the post office. It’s a totally different story here.

This is a big city. I have never lived in a big city. We are surrounded by noise and surrounded by apartment complex after apartment complex, there are so many people, tons of restaurants and little shops on every corner, buses all the time, construction, there is a lot going on. This would be a shock if I had come right from Austin but as we all know I moved here after getting comfortable again in rural Michigan. Basically it’s going to take some time. Bear with me.

There are some things that I found that are helping quite a bit though. The other day I met Walker downtown and he showed me my first peak at Mt. Rainier. On our walk home he took me to this little market with the cutest shops and I bought some of my favorite cheese. The library is about a block from your place and I’ve really stocked up on books and movies. Also for the time being I’m using their internet. We have also been cooking quite a bit which has been fun. We both choose a meal and then we both cook it and we’re set for a couple of days for lunch and dinner.

I’m still working on getting a daily routine which I imagine will be easier when we get internet in our apartment. It sure it nice sitting in the fresh air and using the librarie’s wifi. I can’t complain too much.

 

Baseball!

I’m not the biggest sports fan around but it’s pretty funny that in my first week here I’ve been to 2 baseball games already. This past Friday Walker got box tickets to see the Mariners play and I was super excited about it. I’ve never been to box seats of any kind and I like feeling fancy once in a while. The box we were in was right next to the manager’s box! Wow!

We enjoyed dinner and snacks while watching the game from way up high behind home plate. It was pretty enjoyable. The only part I didn’t enjoy was walking the 3 miles home from downtown. Man was I tired by the time we got home.

Making root beer

September 7, 2012

I mentioned the other day that Walker and I stumbled into a neat little shop that sells all sorts of herbs and things. We picked up all the roots we needed to make some root beer and got the process going to other evening. It’s a little like making actual beer as in you need sugars, something to boil (in this case roots), and a starter. Then you let it ferment and bottle it which makes it bubbly. There are lots of options for starters and we chose bakers yeast which I’m thinking I won’t like too much. It’s a trial and error kind of thing though so we’ll just see how it tastes. I’m skeptical…but excited to try again. I love homemade root beer!

Earlier this year I got Walker a book called The Art of Fermentation and there all are sorts of different ideas in there. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more of our experiments along the way.