A beautiful spring day in the Pacific Northwest! This is the view looking out to Elliot Bay. The Island off to the right in the distance is Bainbridge Island which we are told is a perfect place for a nice day trip with art galleries, great eateries, a picturesque view of the city and a wonderful, quaint little winery.

I'm not sure what sort of flower this is but they are really beautiful and I don't know that I've ever seen these back in Michigan.

Cherry trees are blossoming everywhere! It's really beautiful. I took this photo on the typical walk route I take everyday with Buddy.

Hi all. So sorry that we haven't been better about updating the blog. Time flies when you are having fun! So, let's see...what's been happening in the world of the Tarchas? Since out last update, here are some highlights:
1.) Jeannette finally gave her job the boot after much lamenting and hours and hours of discussion with anyone who was nice enough to listen (thank you to all of you -- and you know who you are! -- for listening and supporting me as I struggled with this tough decision).
2.) We made our first trip back home for Eric's brother's wedding reception. It was a great week but went by entirely too quickly as we didn't have enough time to visit with everyone we wished.
3.) Jeannette just got a part-time job at the University of Washington as a copywriter in the Alumni Association and with my extra time I have decided to open up my own freelance Marketing and Communications consulting firm (aka Tapestry MarCom). I have my first client so I'm excited about the possibilty of trying my hand as my own boss (something I have always aspired to do!)
4.) Jeannette celebrated the big 3-1 and Eric will be joining me later this month (ha! ha!). How did we get this old?
5.) Jeannette is currently recovering from a freak appendectomy last week and Eric is rejoicing as he his finally free from playing nursemaid. He actually had his first taste of freedom on St. Patty's day when he celebrated a little too much and consequently was sleeping the afternoon away trying to recover from a little bit of a headache!
6.) Eric has continued his fishing conquests in Washington and we are both looking forward to the spring so we can take the canoe out for a trip or two! I even agreed to take Fly Fishing lessons...moving West has certainly brought the earthy Jeannette out!

That's really all we have been up to. The weather is beginning to get a little nicer so we have plans to take many trips this summer to Mt. Rainer, Victoria and Vancouver and Portland. Till then, all of you take care!

xoxo
Jeannette, Eric and Buddy

Merry X-mas and happy New Year to one and all! Life in Seattle is well as Eric and I are continuing to adjust and settle into our new home. The past several weeks have been pretty busy with holiday prep and celebrations. We purposely have been keeping ourselves really busy so as not to have too much time on our hands and dwell on the fact that we were not able to come home this holiday season.
Some of our holiday season highlights include:
- Volunteering at a gift wrap station with proceeds to benefit the local Make-A-Wish chapter (Eric was a little apprehensive about people paying him to gift wrap their packages but I must say he did very well. I'm proud of him and his gift wrapping skills!)
- Going to the Nutcracker on Christmas Eve
- Hosting some friends for a fabulous X-mas dinner (Eric made a lamb roast and pork loin and both were delicious)
- Being completely lazy one day and staying in our PJ's while taking naps, reading, playing with Buddy and playing Scrabble (Eric won :-(
- Taking a day trip to Whidbey Island (about a two hour car ride north of Seattle. I posted a few photos from this trip, though they really don't do it justice. It's really a gorgeous place that Eric and I are talking about going to camping (yes...I said camping and I have told Eric that I'll give a try.) Stop laughing for those of you who think this is humerous! This wide shot is actually about 5 photos that Eric stitched together with our camera. Pretty cool! What you are viewing is actually the beach (it's the end of Puget Sound and the beginning of the Straight of Juan de Fuca) as it over looks the San Juan Islands (there about 200 total islands in this string and one of them is owned by Gene Hackman! Crazy!!). Needless to say, we are excited about spending some more time there exploring when the weather turns nice in the spring/summer.

Eric also was able to get a few fishing trips in during his holiday break. We went to Carkeek Park in Seattle and also to a spot in West Seattle. Both occassions were a success for Eric as he landed several fish. While he was out fly fishing, Buddy and I spent hours exploring the nearby trails. Buddy was in hog heaven with all the smells he discovered in the woods. Good times!

New Year's was spent at a friend's house with a walk down to Kerry Park where we watched the City of Seattle's fireworks display at the Space Needle. It was a pretty cool sight but we were a little sad that we couldn't experience the New Year with our family and friends back home. Hope you all had a great evening and wishing you a wonderful 2007!

Hugs and kisses to you all!
Jeannette, Eric and Buddy

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Hope everyone out there had a great Turkey day filled with lots of good food and great company. This was our first Thanksgiving away from home and though we missed everyone we made the best of it and had a lovely dinner with our friends, Nick and Ann Marie, who were gracious enough to invite us to their holiday party. Eric made mac and cheese, I made a salad and my decadent peanut butter pie (okay...I know the mac and cheese coupled with the pie cross cancel the healthiness of the tossed salad but, it is the holidays afterall!). Good food and good times!

No big plans for the rest of the weekend other than doing some Christmas shopping and hopefully putting up the tree. I know it seems kinda early but I'm going to Chicago, Detroit and Phoenix for work before X-mas so I have to take advantage of the time that I am home. I'm particularly excited for my Detroit trip next weekend as it will be great to see family and friends, if even for a quick weekend, since Eric and I won't be back again until Feb. for Matt Tarcha's wedding!

Earlier this month, Eric and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary with a special treat to ourselves: a dinner out at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. We had both heard really great things about this place but had never been so we decided to give it a try. Without a doubt, it was the BEST dinner and service we had ever experienced. Top notch al the way and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to treat themself to something divine. Eric feasted on a T-Bone while I enjoyed the filet. It was a great way to celebrate our anniversary.

Buddy is up to his old tricks as you can see from this photo but still loving life out here with all the new adventures and "smells." Eric and I are considering taking him to doggie day care one day a week so he doesen't act out like he is in this photo (this is what he does at about 2 p.m. everyday...you know, once he wakes up from his morning/afternoon nap and I'm working).

Nothing else really happening other than that. Hope all is well!!
Miss you,
Nettie, Eric and Buddy

Jeannette and Eric's Westward Adventure!

Hi ya'll! Sorry it's taken us a while to make some updates to the blog (we'll try to get in the habit of doing this more regularly). Everything here continues to be going well. Eric and I are now completly settled into our new place and we have actually taken a few photos so you can see our new home (if you look closely at the one of the living room you can see Buddy nestled in his favorite place...the back of the couch and Eric has a funny look on his face...not sure why). Not bad though, I do miss the "spaciousness" (ha! ha!) of our old 1,200 square foot home. We are close and cuddly in our less than 800 square foot place! Yikes!!

The past couple of weeks we have been exploring our new home. We took Buddy to the Locks and to the beach one afternoon and between the new "smells" of fresh fish and water he is loving life! I guess we had never taken him to the beach before so he didn't know what sand was. Eric and I were dying laughing as we watched Buddy freak out and run as fast and hard as he could in the sand making the endearing "devil" noises as we call them. I'm laughing just thinking about it. He loved it!! Here's a photo of Eric and Buddy watching the fish swim at the Locks.

A couple weekends back, Eric and I decided to take Buddy for a romp in a dog park (there are lots of them out here) and he had loads of fun. He wasn't so much into the other doggies as he was all the great smells. Almost every day, he enjoys a car ride and going to pick up "daddy" from work. He especially likes it when he can sit on Eric's lap on the ride home and stick his entire head out the window (ears flapping in the wind, nostrils flaring, etc.) smelling all those wonderful smells.

Since then, we have been busy with our first visitor, Nick (Bowman), and our second visitor Doug (Delvigna). Doug came dressed in his best so we could show him the town. Nice teeth!

Eric and I also had a first...in the nearly 13 years that we have been together, we have never dressed up for Halloween. So, this year, at the spur of the moment we decided to go to the local costume shop and buy whatever was left (which wasn't much). We ended up throwing something together and went as "WT." Great fun and love the teeth and glasses!

Good news for me....I got a job!! I started last week for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America and I'm going to be a project manager for a huge marketing campaign that will roll out this summer. The best part about the whole gig is that I'll be working so that means I'll be in my PJs for half the day and comfy as can be. It's a huge step up for me career wise and I'm a tad nervous though I know it'll be old hat a couple of months from now. It's a temporary contract where I'll be on staff until the end of June and then both myself and Make-A-Wish will determine if we want to continue the relationship. I'm looking at it as something to get me through the next couple of months and then if I want to try something new then I can part ways and get on with it.

Eric's work is continuing to go very well and he is enjoying being gainfully employed (as am I!). Next on our schedule is a visit from our college partner in crime, Jamie Smythe. Anyone else want to come for a visit?!!

Miss you all!
Nettie and Eric (Buddy too)