2 weeks in Seattle, now

It's been a little over 2 weeks in Seattle now. I am slowly settling down. Sandhya was over here during the weekend. We went house hunting, or rather, apartment/rental hunting.

I had already started looking at homes before Sandhya came over and had started negotiations for a home in Bellevue (located in what's called the Eastside in the Seattle area). This was a home near the Factoria Mall, south of highway 90 and east of highway 405.

We started out quite leasurely on Saturday morning. By the time we got out, it was 11'ish in the morning. We first drove over to "Downtown Seattle" and then to where the office building where I work (in China town--sorry, International district). Sandhya wasn't super impressed. She made a striking remark. She said there were no people, for a downtown! I said, yeah, you're right! There were actually not too many people downtown (Eventually, the two of us came to the conclusion that it was like a town that was abandoned because of some strange event).

Anyway, I showed her the Condo that I was thinking of renting. She was Ok with that. I said I liked it because Smokey would be able to go out (and beat up the competition, of course). She agreed that it was a good idea to allow him to do so. Anyway, I always think of how to accomodate the little rascal (otherwise his whining will drive me up the wall).

Bu this time it was around 12:30 in the afternoon. I was getting a bit hungry. We decided to go inside the Factoria Mall. In the parking lot there were lots and lots of cars, and we had a hard time finding parking. Naturally, we thought the Mall would be chock full of people! Visions of the Great Mall in Milpitas, CA were swimming around in my head. I was ready to start complaining bitterly about too many people, etc, etc.

But surprise, surprise! There were not nearly as many people as we thought there should have been, given the lack of parking in the lot. In any case, we went up and down the Mall (which took us a total of 20 milliseconds -- of course, I'm joking, it was more like 10 min).

We headed out to the Japanese place, where I had the Sushi Combo. Sandhya had some Udon something or the other. Good food. Would be worth trying again.

Then we decided to drive on to a place in the middle of nowhere--Issaquah--where there is an Avalon community. Nice place, quiet, with a good view of the Cascade Mountains. We got there, had a look at the apartment. Seemed like a nice place. I called April (my agent for the Factoria home) and told her I had the possibilty of renting a better apartment for a lower rent. She said I should go ahead, because her contact hadn't responded with any responses. I took an abrupt decision (without actualy asking Sandhya if it was Ok--dunno why) to take the Avalon apartment. Smokey will be happy. Lots of country side and not too much competition. A Montrea/California "Goonda" like him is likely to become the Lord of the area!

We forgot to take my Camera. I'll post pictures later when I go over there over the week end to get the Keys.