Friday, August 31, 2007

Officially a Sousa

Woo hoo. I'm now officially a Sousa. Strange. With it being a Friday before a 3-day weekend, I knew work would be pretty slow so I decided to head into work a tad late to complete this errand. I first stopped by the King County Marriage Records department and got 3 certified copies of our marriage certificate, just in case. That was very easy. Then I drove over to the downtown DMV and literally waited for 45 minutes to an hour in line--I was #92 and it was #65 when I walked in. Again, once it was my turn, it was really easy--just showed my certificate, my old license, they took a new photo and boom: now I have a new drivers license number. Next was the more official change--over to the Social Security office which I've never been to. Again, I had to wait about 20 minutes or so but once it was my turn, it was less than 5 minutes. Now I just have to wait for my new drivers license and SS card to be mailed to me.

I'll be taking care of the passport in a few months so that I can travel with it (I've already booked 3 flights under my maiden name). I'll also need to update bank, accounts, magazines, bills, etc. [sigh]

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Ah, Labor Day

I'm looking forward to this weekend because we are........GOING CAMPING! Funny, Matt and I have never gone camping together so this will be a first for us. (Tells you how long it's been since I last camped) Together with Asayo, Matt and Yoko, we've got quite a busy weekend ahead of us---we're going down to the Hood River area and we've already booked a Whitewater Rafting Trip and then some Windsurfing Lessons on the Columbia River. Can't wait! If time allows, we may swing by Mt. St. Helens on the way back. Below is a map of where we are going:


Sunday, August 19, 2007

Celebrity Sighting

Last night, Matt and I went over to Havana to celebrate Gary's 30th and within 5 minutes of walking in, we noticed Conan O'Brien's figure in the doorway. He's a tall dude and his hair really does stand up pretty high too. His party went over to the corner booth and he remained there throughout the evening with his back turned to the majority of the club such that no one would realize he was him.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Welcome to the 30's

I forgot to mention another big milestone that hit me in the last month----I turned 30! It was a great day---after getting lunch at Le Pichet with Matt downtown and just walking around, he gave me a gift of a new camera (my other one had started dying while we were in Tahiti) along with a matching underwater case. I'm sooo excited about this so that I can start taking photos on our scuba diving trips from now on. For dinner, Matt took me to dinner at Mistral which was exquisite. Check out this meal that we had:
1. Himachi Sashimi topped with celery foam
2. Fresh corn soup with seared diver sea scallop
3. Alaskan Halibut on pureed califlower with mushrooms & pine nuts
4. Seared Hudson Valley foie gras on a rhubarb-strawberry reduction sauce
5. Lamb chop on a bed of pureed fingerling potatoes
6. Plate of cheese and figs
7. Fresh coconut and passion fruit sorbet
[Bonus Birthday Dish] Chocolate Souffle with coffee and vanilla ice cream

Probably one of the best dinners we've had in Seattle.

Later in the evening, we headed over to Ibiza Dinner Club where a good handful of friends showed up, dressed up, and ready to celebrate. I had an amazing evening. Here are all the photos I took that night.

I'm ba-a-a-a-a--ack!

Wow, it's been nearly 2 months since my last post. Even then, I hadn't been posting much. Now that the wedding is finally over, I can resume my normal blogging routine though I have to admit that many of my updates are now consumed by Facebook.

The last few months have been amazing. Our wedding was fabulous and the day could not have been more perfect. Despite our fears that the weather would be a bit drab (considering Seattle's history of Independence Day weather), the weekend turned out to be one of the hottest ever in the summer---with it getting nearly 100 degrees a few days later (which is pretty crazy for Seattle). The whole wedding was a whirlwind and it was over before we knew it. We didn't even dance after our first dance--haha! Anyhoo, check out all the photos that I know about here---and hopefully in a month or so, we'll get our professional photos back. I can't wait to see those. Our photographer, Joey Hong, is so incredibly talented.

Our honeymoon in Tahiti was also absolutely wonderful. It was 10 days of peace, bliss and beauty. These islands are gorgeous and just like the postcard. We had great food everyday---lots of poisson cru (lime and coconut marinated tuna fish) and I indulged in foie gras any chance I got. And of course we took advantage of the many water activities----we went scuba diving 4 times and saw incredible underwater life: sea turtles, eagle rays, black tip sharks, lionfish and tons of coral. We also went on an excursion to feed sting rays and sharks upfront and close---crazy when I think about it now. One of the more unique experiences was actually swimming with a dolphin--yup, literally grabbing the dorsal fin as it pulls you down under for a swim. Anyway, only pictures can describe this incredible trip:
Pictures from Bora Bora
Pictures from Moorea

It's funny that with the wedding over, it seems like anything wedding-related should be over....but there's still a few things to do! We're still working on our Thank You Notes, purging our kitchen inventory for new gifts that we got, updating marital status on insurance and I need to follow up with photographer and videographer until we get the photos and video back. Most of all---to be a Sousa or remain a Tang, that is the question. Yes, I still have not decided what to do with my last name---and of course if I do decide to change it, there's a bunch of work to do to officially change it. What to do what to do....