Magnolia Park

During the summer, Kevin and I always play tennis during the weekends, sometimes weekdays in the early evening if not too tired from work. After we moved to Seattle, we were looking for tennis courts to play. We found one that is close to our apartment, and that place is at Magnolia Park. They have two courts. If this courts are full, we often go to other courts that they have about half mile up ahead.

However, at the beginning, these courts were not that great as we thought they would be, as it was kind of old and rusty. It was because there were many dead leaves everywhere on the edge around the courts and had few cracks on courts. After a few weeks, we noticed that someone did clean the courts to get rid of leaves. It looked much better but still had a few cracks. It was okay to play for awhile. A few weeks ago, we passed this courts to go to other courts, and noticed Magnolia Courts were closed. Also, the nets were deattached. We started to wonder what was going on. While playing tennis at other tennis courts, we like to play at Magnolia Tennis Courts better than others. Others have courts that are not even. The court is little slight downhill from the top, and the balls keep rolling down to the other court, not ours. We had to run down to get so it would not be in others' way. It was pain in the neck. After a few weeks later, the other courts were full, so we decided to go to Magnolia Park to see if tennis courts were open. It finally opened so we went into the courts. Oh my gosh, it looked brand new and looked much better! Whoever did fixed the cracks and repainted the courts. We also noticed that someone did cut down a few trees by the courts fence. Maybe the trees were dying and cutted down or was probably in the path's way while people walk back and forth.

The past few years, Kevin always beat me. I had a hard time to beat Kevin. He did well on playing tennis. This summer, it is about time we are on the same level to compete with each other. Our score totals for this summer are tie. I am getting better this summer. Hopefully, I will beat Kevin a big time by next year. Cross fingers!

Above: Kevin and Elzbieta served.

Above: Elzbieta and Kevin postured with tennis racquet.

Tucson, Arizona

On the weekend of August 23-27, I was visiting my good dearly friend, Renda Gauwitz, in Tucson, Arizona. She used to be my trainer for horseback riding lessons when I was about nine years old. Kevin had to stay in Seattle to work on his GO LIVE project the whole weekend. I would be boring on the weekend without Kevin being at home so I went to Arizona to visit. In Tucson, I saw many interesting plants such as different kinds of cactus all over the desert. One interesting thing about the Saguaro Cactus that Renda researched and told me is that if you see Saguaro Cactus with branch (arm) curving upward is about over 75 years old! Image if they have more than one branches, it must be over 150 years old! That is amazing! I often saw few small lizards running around. Also, it has a beautiful mountain of Catalina Foothills. One of these days, Renda and I were driving ahead of the mountains/valley, and saw big lightning struck behind the mountain. It was beautiful and awe-inspiring! I couldn't believe my eyes to see that. Anyway, I had a great time in Tucson, AZ even though Renda had to work half days (last minute): the company at where she works was short of people to work over the weekend. While she was at work, I was outside lying down by the swimming pool to get some tan most of the days. You all know how Kevin is dark, but I was hoping I would beat him. It didn't happen. Darn it! Haha! It felt great to get into the swimming pool and relax. Sometimes, I let the dogs outside. This guy named Todd owns the house where Renda stays at. Todd's dogs were the ones who I often took out for potty while Todd and Renda had to work. Two of dogs loved to jump into the swimming pool to catch the tennis ball! It was fun to watch them jumping in and got all wet!! Todd also has three horses on his property. Two horses belong to him and his wife, but one they will sell. The third one named Tuffy is to take care for the owner who lives in North Dakota (I think). The reason the owner wanted their horse to be in AZ because of warm weather all year. Tuffy is over 30 years old and is not good to be in cold weather in North Dakota.

Saguaro Cactus

On Friday, Renda had a day off so we had errands to do. Once we got home from errands to do, we gave all 4 dogs a bath! It was fun to bath them even though it was a lot of work. Afterward, we jumped into the swimming pool to cool off. It was sunny and hot outside!! At 4 p.m., we had massage appt at "Massage Envy" for one hour which I looked forward to. I never have been to massage before. Once I got massage, oh my gosh... it was so wonderful!! I almost fell asleep. I felt much better after the massage. Now, I know what massage is like. In the future, I am curious about going to SPA what they are like! Hmmm... Afterward, Renda, Todd, and I went out to Mexican Restaurant. It was delicious food. Yummy.

The day of Monday was heartbreaking and crushing. When I was packing and getting things ready to go to the airport back to Seattle, Todd found Tuffy lying down by his stall and dead while he went out to feed the horses! It was heartbreaking for the owner and Todd! Todd mentioned that Tuffy was fine the night before: he assumed he died overnight. Tuffy is very old like over 30 years old. I saw it, and it was my first time to see horse dead like that. It impacted me, as I imagined how people felt when they got bond with horses who they love deeply. However, Todd had to call the owner and already took care of the horse. The good thing was that I was not bonded to Tuffy because I didn't know Tuffy at all. I will be deeply heartbroken if something happens to Renda's horses because two of them and I are very bonded, and I have known them for a long time!

Later, I arrived in Seattle/Tacoma Airport, and was thrilled to see Kevin cuz I missed him deeply. I felt like I haven't seen him for a long time while I was in Tucson. Kevin gave me a beautiful bouquet of colorful of callie lillies! He knows that it is my favorite ones. I was surprised to receive it from him. He was so sweet and romantic!

Archstone Belltown Apartment

In downtown Seattle of Washington, Kevin and I were living in Wall Street Tower Apartment for about over 6 months. Before we moved to this apartment, we were looking for other one-bedroom apartments. They all were so nice and had a wonderful view but were very expensive! We liked other one which was Neptune but it was far from the Swedish Hospital where Kevin works on his project. Wall Street Tower was the only one that is close to Kevin's work (about less 2 miles away). However, Wall Street Tower had a great deal of rate to pay rent monthly. We both know that we will not live here longer so it doesn't bother us.

A few weeks ago, Wall Street Tower were purchased by other company, Archstone Belltown. We heard the information about Archstone Belltown, and they sounded wonderful. The new staffs are working on to remodel apartment. Anyway, our lease is coming up expired by end of September. We received lease paper with rates for any months people want to sign for a new lease. We were shocked and were not happy with this rates. The rate went up big time! We were like.. there is no way this rate would not match to this kind of apartment. Once we discussed what to do about it, we decided to look for other apartments with good rate.

Today, Kevin and I made appointments with two apartments to tour and made decision. These two apartments are M Street and Neptune. These apartments are wonderful and are even better than the Archstone Belltown. M Street is very close to Kevin's work, and it is only four block apart. So, I made chart for each of these apartments with pros/cons to discuss. Our final decision is that we like M Street better than Neptune. We haven't apply yet but will soon. If apply approved, then we will start moving to M Street at the end of September before our Archstone leases expire.

From the aboves, this is the Archstone Belltown Apartment where we currently live. As you can see the picture from right, the Space Needle is about a few block away from our apartment on the left side of the picture. It is nice to walk there. We haven't been there yet but will go there sometimes during the weekend.

From the above, this is the front entrance of the Archstone Belltown.

This is the view of downtown Seattle from our living room where we live on 15th floor. The pictures on left side show the view right straigh ahead. The left ones show on the right side view from our apartment.

Safeco Field

Kevin and I decided to buy baseball tickets yesterday to attend the Seattle Mariners vs Chicago White Sox game today. GO CHICAGO WHITE SOX!!!! It was our first time to attend Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington. The stadium was awesome, and we had a wonderful view from our seats in level 3 at the top. Safeco Field has a roof that closes and opens from the outside. Today was rainy, so the roof closed, which was nice. We didn't have to worry about bringing an umbrilla or anything to prevent rain and from getting soaked! Whew... During the game, we were bummed with Chicago White Sox because Seattle had a lot of home runs in the 1 and 2nd innings. We were so disappointed! Later in a few innings, White Sox finally got some scores but didn't catch up to beat the Mariners. Maybe they were not hustling to win the game becuase they know that they will not be in playoffs. HOW SAD!! By the way, Kevin and I had a great time at that game.

For your information, Kevin might not be as disappointed with Chicago White Sox losing the game because he is a big fan of CHICAGO CUBS!! Kevin was so patient and sweet to root for CHICAGO WHITE SOX with me! Isn't he such a wonderful husband?

One more thing, I did root for Chicago Cubs with Kevin and his brother, Dan, and family in L.A., California. As some of you know I hate CHICAGO CUBS! I had no choice. Guess what, they expected me to wear Chicago Cubs T-shirt that Kevin bought for me. I cannot imagine to wear that in my lifetime but i did it. What can I do? Am I also the wonderful wife to root for Chicago Cubs for Kevin? By the way, hope CHICAGO WHITE SOX will win the world series next year! Keep fingers cross and root for them!!! HEAR ME!