R and I are a bit sick, so last night we just wanted Pho. Well, living in Belltown... it is like the only neighborhood in Seattle without a Pho joint. Rather than go up to Capitol Hill, I decided to scour Urbanspoon and Yelp to look for a place downtown. Well, we found Cafe Pho at 3rd and Marion, but I never thought to check their hours. They closed at 5.

We then walked down to first and kept walking until we reached this Pho place that I knew existed, on Yesler at 1st, in Pioneer Square. I love Pioneer Square by the way. I love the tall trees, the old buildings, I love the history. I just wish it were less sketchy (not that Belltown is any better.)

Anyway, we went to Pho Ha. It was pretty dead, we were the only people there. They had a good selection of Pho and also other Vietnamese items. Ryan and I had spring rolls (which were huge) with peanut sauce, then he had beef pho and I chose the seafood pho. The only complaint I had was mushrooms were in my pho and it didn't say there were mushrooms anywhere. I should have asked, I usually do, but I forgot. All in all it was pretty good Pho, and I'd probably go back.

After being in Pioneer Square, we hopped on a bus headed back to my place, but stopped at Pike to go to Walgreens, as we are sick and needed Nyquil. Well, as we were walking back down 3rd... we noticed a Pho place on 3rd between Pike and Pine! Oh well, we will know for next time.

So last night R and I went to Wallingford Pizza House. It is this awesome little Chicago style pizza house on 45th in the city center area of Wallingford.

The restaurant was pretty cozy, maybe 12 tables? The walls are adorned with photos and drawings of Chicago, and they give you a carafe of water - which is good because I like to drink a lot of water. They have a good selection of not entirely ordinary beers, along with the ones you would expect.

R and I skipped the beer, but did order the spinach salad to start. The salad wasn't your ordinary salad, either. It was topped with parm cheese, walnuts, dried fruit, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.

We also each ordered a Dome pizza. They are a personal sized pizzas, cooked in a bowl with the crust on top, then flipped over and served like a deep dish pizza. It was so yummy! Ryan got the Fire one and I got the Tomato Basil. Both were very, very good. The prices were totally reasonable as we spent just under $30 bucks (without drinks) and we will definitely be back.

I have not explored much of Wallingford, but I am hoping to in the next few months. It's pretty conveniently located and there are a lot of cool restaurants, many which have taken up residence in houses on 45th.

After stuffing ourselves full of food, we went to R's and actually got to sleep at a decent hour... which leaves me wondering why I was so tired this morning??? ;)

So, I am obsessed with Twitter. I update what I am doing at the moment, it then shows up on Twitter, send it to Facebook, Friendfeed, Whrrl, etc... I am sure I annoy my Facebook friends with the constant status updates.

There are a ton of Twitter Apps out there to help you utilize Twitter in the best way possible. One of those is called TweetBeep.com.

Anyway, a Twitter friend of mine pointed out something weird... TweetBeep.com has uncovered a major Twitter Bug. Basically, if you want to read a users protected private Twitter posts, it is now possible with TweetBeep.com.

How to do this:

Use TweetBeep.com

When setting up a new alert, type the Twitter user name in the keyword box.

Uncheck the box "Search only text, not @reply name"




Now you can be a stalker and receive your friends/enemies private Twitter updates. Scary!

Oh, you can also follow me on Twitter - directions in the right column ;)

It was weird waking up today... fulling knowing that while things looked the same... everything has changed. And yet, it is so exciting.

I've voted in most elections since I was 18. That includes Millages, Senate races, Gubernatorial races and of course Presidential races. I like voting, I like knowing that I tried to support the candidate I believe will do the best job, and will best represent my beliefs.

Unfortunately, the past two Presidential elections, some of my local Michigan (yes, I still vote in MI for now) Congressional elections and a few propositions did not go the way I had hoped. That is a horribly frustrating feeling and I am very happy to say that this year that has not happened.

In the 9th Congressional district in Michigan, Joe Knollenberg (R) was knocked out (yea!), Gary Peters (D) won and Dr. Kevorkian even received a few votes. Proposition 1, which legalized the use of medical marijuana passed by quite a bit. Proposition 2, which will amend the state constitution to allow researchers to use embryos left over from fertility treatments to create embryonic stem-cell lines for disease research also passed. And of course, the Presidential election... well, even though I was not behind Obama in the beginning (I supported Hillary), I am excited he is in office, for a plethora of reasons.

I've heard 1 in 10 votes were from first time voters, most of them probably young. The majority of those votes went for Obama. It is so amazing how young people were able to get behind a candidate with such passion, such heart, and use their power to make him the 44th President of the United States of America.

Last night, as I was watching people march the streets of Seattle, as I am sure people were marching across the country, I was slightly reminded of the ad John McCain put out a while back comparing Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and other large celebrities. I thought about something, you know what... he is a HUGE celebrity that people love and adore, but not because he was in some stupid TV show or he is an heir. No, he makes us believe in our country, in America, in Change... He makes us have heart and that is why he is larger than life. I am not only OK with that, I embrace it and hope that this election will help people of all ages, races, religions and socio-economic status realize that politics are fun, interesting and one of the easiest ways to change the world.

It has been quite awhile since I have posted a blog. I have been very busy with work, with life, with travel, etc.

Right now I am home in Detroit. I arrived on Sunday, Oct 5, and am going home Oct 22, which happens to be my birthday. I actually had plans to spend my birthday in Atlanta, but changed those based on the fact that the friend I was originally going to visit got a little bit weird on me.

I am always a huge ball of stress when I come home. I am home for both work and personal reasons. My mom got reconstructive surgery on her ankle yesterday, so I am mostly home to help her out, cook for her, etc... but I am also working out of the office in Brighton, which is nice because sometimes it seems as if I am out of the loop when I am on the west coast.

Speaking of home... everytime I come back here it feels less and less like home. People have changed, some for the worse, and I have changed. Plus, the longer I am in Seattle, the more I become established there and the more it feels like home. Plus, I have something new in my life that makes me yearn to be there even more...

Just 13 more days...

So, McCain gave a shout out to my hometown:

"I fight for Americans. I fight for you. I fight for Bill and Sue Nebe from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who lost their real estate investments in the bad housing market. Bill got a temporary job after he was out of work for seven months. Sue works three jobs to help pay the bills."

OK, first... "Team Nebe", as they are called on their website, are Keller Williams (also the name of one of my favorite musicians) agents. Yes, real estate agents.

Second, I would have liked to hear something like... People from the upper middle class of Farmington Hills, Michigan who pays their bills on time, pay off their credit cards, even maybe save some money in 401K, IRAs, money markets, stocks, etc... are getting screwed because their house which was worth 400K a few years back is next door to a house that is foreclosing and selling for 200K and now they cannot sell their house.

Sadly, that is the reality for my mother, my father, my friends back home... and my hometown in general, as well as so many other hometowns everywhere. Fight for those people, not the real estate agents of these people... and their investment properties.

Oh, I wonder how much $$$ Team Nebe donated to the McCain camp in addition for a massive amount of hits on their website tonight. Nice advertising strategy.

I just took the Bills IQ Quiz. It only took about 4 minutes to take and it asks you basic questions about things like... Can you pay your bills on time? Do you have savings? It was very easy and you should check it out! I got a 90%, an A. I was able to compare my results to other people my age/status and in my state. I am doing better than most of them with my bill iq, yea!

It is a good tool to help you sort out what you should do, need to do, what you can continue to do, etc, to help save money and not be in debt.

I do want to buy a house soon, but as everyone knows that while Seattle is a buyers market, it is still crazy expensive! If it were Detroit I could afford like 3 houses for 1 Seattle house. I also like saving for my retirement, which yeah, I am houseless, but at least I'll have cash when I am old and will not be struggling then!

Bills IQ told me that I need to lower my credit card debt (which, yeah, it is correct) and have 6 months or more of a "rainy day" savings. I agree, but I need to make more money! Ahh, money, so stressful.

I HATE Millenium Cable/Broad Stripe Cable... whatever their name is these days!

So, it is late, I am not sleeping, but watching TV to try to fall asleep and started watching this show on CNN... it was a biography on the life of Barack Obama, which having been a Hillary Clinton Supporter I do not really know tons about him and it was pretty interesting...

Well, in the middle of it... all channels random turn to channel 2 - which is CBC. What? Why does this happen? This isn't the first time, in fact it is probably the 15th time this has happened, and I do not watch much TV. And I cannot even call them because they are closed.

Now, one might ask why I use them... Well, they have a monopoly on my apartment building and the only service I can get is Millenium/Broad Stripe. How are cable monopolies fair?

Blah. It's back on now.

Are you going back to school and need high speed internet and want a free laptop? Or what about a free Shell Gas Card?

Charter Communications is running a new contest - Charter Laptop-a-Day Giveaway. The contest runs the month of September and they are giving away 30 laptops in 30 days. The first winner will be announced September 1. That is a chance to win a laptop each day!

All you have to do is sign up for Charter Communications high speed internet and automatically you will get a Shell Gas Card valued at up to $100, and be entered to win a brand new New HP Compaq Presario C770US Notebook!

High speed starts at just $19.99/mo for 6 months. Phone and digital cable packages are available, too! Charter Digital Home™ & High-Speed Internet is $69.98/mo for 6 months and Charter Digital Home™ & High-Speed Internet & and Charter Telephone® at $99.97/mo. for 12 months

This is an amazing Back to School deal! Check it out today. The website is very easy to navigate, easy to use, and ordering online is a super fast and effortless. Plus, you will get a Shell Gas Card and with gas prices they way they are, we could all use some extra money!

I had yet another busy weekend... Sat.. after getting up and getting dressed, I headed over to Discovery Park... My friend Eric and I hiked around all the way to the beach area. It was a bit hazy out, but beautiful none the less. I love it here, and I love going places that make me say... Oh yeah, THIS is why I moved here!





After we went to SushiLand in QA for lunch, and I decided I could add that part a Queen Anne to my list of places to possibly move.

I went home, napped a bit, woke up to my friend Steve basically telling me to get my ass up and go to the M's game. So I hopped in the shower, threw on my M's shirt and we went to the game. We drank beer, watched the A's kill the M's... Then we went to Whole Foods to get sandwiches and took them to his friend, Sara's house. We played board games, which was surprisingly fun... Plus funny things come out of your mouth when you are drinking and playing a game like Taboo.

On Sunday my friend Chris called and asked if I wanted to go to the M's game.... So, I went and so did Steve. We watched the M's beat the A's this time, much to Chris's dismay, as he is from Oakland. Also, the M's are in 2nd to last place, only the National's have a shittier record.

I also went shopping this weekend and bought work clothes, and now I am all excited because I love new clothes... Now I just need new shoes, too... Hhhmmm...

I just want to post, that while making my last post, I came across a Spell Check Fail that was pretty funny...