Anthony and I leave for Brazil in four days!! We are VERY excited. Preparing for my vacation at work has been surprisingly easy so far. I always get nervous that something catastrophic will happen while I am gone… but maybe I have an inflated sense of self importance.  =)

Anthony and I received our visa for Brazil and we leave in just over a week for South America! I am very excited for our trip. The sad thing is that we won’t be able to post pictures until we return. Internet on the ship is $60 for two hours!!!!!!! Needless to say, that is crap and we won’t pay it. You can also get it per minute, which is nearly $1.

Tonight, Anthony and I saw a sneak preview of 30 Days of Night. I really liked the movie. Something that I thought was strange was that the vampires, who spoke a different language, sounded Russian. They also looked a bit slavic… it sort of reminded me of early 80’s films where all the bad guys were Russian. Remember that good ‘ol cold war propaganda? Has it started again?

I am sitting on Trabant in the U District, sipping a pumpkin latte. Minding my own business in the top level. Now, three men have sit at a table next to me. At first I thought they were old friends. Then, they started introducing themselves and talking about their “spiritual backgrounds.” At first I was like, oh damnit, why here?! Then one guy said that he wasn’t Christian, not quite athiest, not sure. Almost sighed relief. Then his story progressed to his “slow path” to the lord. One guy got kicked out of his house, was in trouble, was homeless, got arrested… found god. If the discussion wasn’t about faith, I would totally think that they were on a three-person date. It is very odd and very distracting

I just wanted to sip my pumpkin latte in secular peace.

We are still selling our house. It has been a slower process than first assumed. However, there has at least been interest. The frustrating part is waiting… and waiting. My biggest annoyance is that people haven’t been taking off their shoes. So I put up a sign telling them to…

School started back up and work has been hectic. So many odd issues arise at the beginning of the year that I was unaware of. It is, however, nice to have an active campus again. It is almost eery in the summer when the campus is empty.

Anthony and I are going on a South American cruise in December (the southern hemisphere’s summer!). We have to get a visa to enter Brazil, where the cruise begins. There is this stupid rule that if a country requires a travel visa for it’s citizen to enter, then they will require visa’s of that country’s citizens (reciprocal visas). So, in addition to the expense of the cruise, we have to pay roughly $160/person for a visa (or $100 to fly to San Francisco and do it in person).

Anthony and I have decided to sell our beautiful home. It is sort of sad and exciting at the same time. It is probably a stupid time to sell, but we figure that we would rather do what is important to us, rather than sit on a house and wait for the light rail to be finished.

An interesting phenomenon that we are currently experiencing with the sale of our house is moving company telemarketers. I have been called several times at work about getting moving quotes. How in the world are they getting this information? I know that they can find our address on MLS sites, but how are they getting my personal phone number?

So, I have become addicted to espresso. I thought this would never happen. Then, we go to Italy and I have yummy espresso every morning (cause it was complimentary with our housing). Now, six months later, I am having an espresso almost every day! The funny thing is, I don’t feel any more alert when I drink it than when I don’t drink it.

I will say this, I don’t drink plain coffee. That still grosses me out. It doesn’t taste like espresso to me… more like bitter water.