Honeymoon

As Sophia and I drove off from our reception in a 1964 Chevrolet Corvette we embarked on our honeymoon.  We drove up to Bellevue for the night and sayed at the Westin Hotel which is right across the street from Bell Square Mall.  Our family packed us a basket full of food and of course which included the yummy cake from the reception.  When we checked into our hotel room we were exhausted and hungry!

Saturday morning although we tried to sleep in our bodies were so used to waking up early and being ready for the day.  We ate breakfast at a little cafe in Bellevue that we both strongly recommend “Gilbert’s on Main.”  After our breakfast it was off to Coeur d’ Alene Resort in Idaho.  At the Westin the night before Sophia told the hotel staff it was our honeymoon and they upgraded our room for free.  So she continued to share with everyone when we came into contact that it was our honeymoon anticipating anything free.  As we drove across the state it was nice to be in the car with Sophia and just talk about things at the wedding.

We arrived at the Coeur d’ Alene resort with a list of things we wanted to do: Silverwood Theme Park, go for a hike, para sailing, rent jet ski’s, lay by the pool and most importantly get our couples massage at the hotel spa (Sophia’s #1 priority).

We have heard from friends who have just recently went on honeymoons that you end of getting bored and you want to be around people you know.  That was not the case for us.  All the plans we had we threw out the window (besides the massage of course, Sophia was not going to miss that) and we just stayed in our room, rented movies from the hotel, ordered room service and slept and slept.  I think I gained seriously 10 pounds.  I think we averaged about 2 hours a day outside our hotel room, we went shopping in downtown Coeur d’ Alene and walked through the park but that was about it.

After 3 days of sleeping, eating and watching tv we drove to Jeff and Julie Iunker’s Cabin which was on the East side of the lake by Harrison.  The weather was not very cooperative as it was overcast and raining.  This was a great opportunity for me to start reading New Moon the 2nd book in the Twilight series.  I liked it a lot better then the first one and I read it in 24 hours.  Sophia was very impressed!  One thing you must know about my wife Sophia is that she loves Twilight!

While at the Iunker’s we went out to dinner and drove the boat across the lake to Black Rock Marina to Shooters.  Shooters is one my favorite places to eat as it is directly across the lake from the Iunker’s Cabin.  It is always fun to ride in a boat to dinner compared to driving a car.  After our 1 night stay with the Iuners it was back to real life.  We drove back across the state and I went back to work at Art Gamblin Motors and Sophia at the Enumclaw Hospital.

We wish we could go back to our honeymoon!  Wish it was longer 🙂

University of Washington Football

Just before you begin to read this, I am not a huge UW fan and that does not mean that I am a WSU fan.  I would say that I do find myself cheering for the Purple and Gold a little more then the folks from Pullman.  I do however love football and I am very sad to see a couple of things happening in the Northwest.  College football has seemed to died and ran away.  Local high school athletes have been jumping across state lines instead of playing for local Universities.

I went to the UW saturday night practice not because I am a huge UW fan but to see how the coaches are doing changing the culture, attitude and identity of UW football.  (If Pullman was not so far away I would have visited a practice but I had more important things to do like getting married).

So lets start with Coach Sarkisian or should I say Coach Sark – Coach Sark Twitter.  The new age of social networking and social media has not stopped at professionals, actors or even famous athletes even the coaches are getting in on it.  (I am pretty sure a GA is getting getting his school paid for to be Coach Sark’s twitter and social media marketer)

I like to twitter it up and one of my favorite people to follow is Coach Pete Carroll. Yes Pete Carroll from USC tweets it up. Currently Rich Rodriguez the head coach from University of Michigan has been pleading with Big Blue fans trying to get up there in followers with Pete Carroll who has about 36,000+ followers. Rodriguez has a lot of catching up to do as the coach from Ann Arbor, Michigan only has about 9,000+ followers.  I think Rich needs to get Michigan to a bowl game first and the followers will come.

Not to many people are thinking bowl game in Seattle.  The Dawgs got a long way to go.  After watching the practice the players played with high level of energy.  The tempo was amazing, the way the athletes went through drills and executed their drills.  The athletes ran around with a purpose and actually showed confidence in what they were being taught.  I found it hard to believe seeing confidence from players who did not win a game last year.  While at the practice The defense was the dominate force when we were there.  Coach Holt had his kids fired up and flying around.  The Offense looked a little out of sync.  I was really disappointed that coach Nick Holt does not have a twitter account because I could only imagine what he would say, that guy is intense!  Jake Locker is sure an impressive player to watch.  He would give a D Cordinator nightmares.

I really think this coaching staff and under the new direction of Coach Sark that the Huskies will be back in the mix in the next couple of years.  As for the Cougars I wish the same, but I do see the Dawgs getting there first.

House Painting

Sophia Testing Paint Colors

We are back from our honeymoon and life has not slowed down for Sophia and I.  Our first major task is preparing our new home before we move in.  Although our house is in great condition we wanted to do two things before we started piling our stuff into the house.  1. Paint and 2. Clean the Carpets.

I first told Sophia when she got the color wheel that I did not car and for her to just pick out 3 colors that she liked and I would decide from there.  I should have known better.  I of course went against what I said and started having an opinion.  I really had no idea I cared about colors.  Choosing paint colors is hard!  Everyone else when they are painting make it look so easy.  I was prepared to just walk in the pain store get a couple buckets of paint and go on my little way.

I would definitely say that deciding between a shade of tan vs a shade of tan with a hint of green in it is very stressful.  Most people just have a few color options when decide to put colors on the wall.  Our house right now looks ridiculous with lines all over the walls.  We have over 10 I believe and Sophia knows each one by name, she is very impressive.

We finally today decided on our colors and our scheme.   Now with that done we will begin to paint shortly.  We will be moving in shortly, fingers crossed.

2010 Camaro SS Red

So Art Gamblin Motors got a red 2010 Chevrolet Camaro. This Red Camaro did not last long, alright less then 24 hours before it found a new home besides the dealership. We had it long enough for me to take a few pictures before this beauty peeled off the lot. This was our first Camaro SS with the 6-speed manual transmission which produces a jaw dropping 426 Horsepower. Not only was this our first 6-speed SS but was also our first Camaro in red.

I must say I have seen many of these Camaros not only at our dealership but on the road as well and they still catch my eye every time. This red was a nice change of pace from the previous Camaro’s we have gotten in recent weeks.

Check out the pictures.

Picking Wedding Music

This quite be my favorite blog that I will write.  I know this is going to be very time consuming.  I love music.  When Napster first came about when I was in High School I downloaded so much music I crahsed the Gamblin Family computer.  One of my favorite things to do related to music is to find obscure bands.  Unlike my sister Hillary once a band becomes popular and in the main stream music scene she decides they are not longer cool for her.

One of the things I learned in college from my freshman roommate was to become a fan of artists and their albums.  It is so easy to have a favorite song but it is another to have a favorite album.  So my Ipod is filled of music almost 10,000 songs.  Majority of which are full complete albums of bands.  I will admit I do like to just listen to a song here or there but nothing is better then a full album (guilty pleasure Lady Gaga song Just Dance).  The most recent album I purchased is the Kings of Leon, “Only by the Night.” Fantastic album.

What Sophia put me in charge of for the wedding was music.  I was suppose to give Ian Bran(our DJ at the wedding) our play list.  This was no easy task and of course I procrastinated till the week of the wedding to get my play list in order.  While at dinner my family discussed some music that we should have played at the wedding.  I have always thought that my CD mixes were great as I put thought in how each song would flow into the other.  So a play list for a wedding was no easy task.  Picking music to dance to is always so difficult.  You end up going back to the classics and avoiding the Macarena at all costs.

Yes I just put a youtube video of the Macarena!  Here is a list of some of the songs that made the cut and did not.

I will not have the YMCA played at my wedding only if Wayne and Garth from Waynes World 2 come dressed up like in the movie

I also will not have the chicken dance, the electric slide, nor the Cha Cha Slide. The hard part for me is the music I would love to listen to is stuff that not everyone will be willing to dance to. So here are some songs that definitely made the cut and are playing at the wedding. I gave the DJ 300 songs on a play list that could be played at the wedding.  I must warn you, I am a huge fan of 80’s music and have hosted many 80’s dance parties in my day.  Majority of the 300 songs that were on the list were from artisit either populare during the 80’s or a hit song during the 80’s.  Here are some of the songs that the Tyson and Sophia must play list. 

Rocking out in 80's gear! Hair and All!

Footloose
Purple Rain
I Want To Dance With Somebody
Man in the Mirror
Billy Jean
Shook Me All Night Long
Don’t Stop Believing
Hey Ya
I’ll be There
Brown Eye Girl
Twist and Shout
Shout
Final Countdown
With or Without You
This Years Love
The Way You Look Tonight
Your Song

Finally My Home!

Getting our keys and preparing to move in

We finally got our house.  After months and months of wishing and hoping the dream finally came through today!  We officially closed on our house.  I will now live at 270 Bongard Ave E.  At least it is short for me to remember.  The house buying process started about 9 months ago for Sophia and I.  I have to thank my real estate agent Lisa Williams with John L Scott Reality for being persistent and always quick to help me.  You have to understand the story of why this home is so special to me as this is the 3rd house that I have bought in 9 months.  Let me explain: It all started in January with a new subdivision going into town by NW Home Tours.  The subdivision was the remaining lots in Elk Meadows from Cambria Homes.

With great pricing and beautiful home designs building my own home seemed to good to be true.  Well it was to good to be true.  It seemed one thing after another seemed to go wrong with my first experience building my home.  It all started with cancelled builder meetings, building plans that were not approved by the city, re-engineered plans that I had to pay for and a builder who lost his financing.  After 3 months of nothing to show for but a lot of emails, paperwork and meetings I was no where closer to being in my house.  But in that 3 months span my life had drastically changed as I took Sophia one afternoon to the site where I was suppose to build my first home and asked her to marry me.

Sophia when I proposed at our future home

After builder #1 had lost financing and I was re-assured that builder #2 from the development would honor my current contract and everything would be fine.  I felt comfortable that things where heading in the right direction.  Not to soon after I was back re-negotiating price as the conrtact that I thought would be honored was no longered honor.  So with a price increase things were all back to the beginning.  Soon to come was the approval from the city of the house, days went by, weeks went by and soon months.  Still no approval of house plans to be built.  6+ months of negotiating, signing contracts and agreements we were still no where close to build.  Everything happens for a reason we have come to say!

A house already built in the neighborhood of Elk Meadows price lowered to where it was in my range.  So after deep thought about what to do and not receiving plans that were supposed to be delivered to us weeks prior it was time to move on and decide that building was not the way I was suppose to head.  Of course with my luck this house would come with its own set of challenges.  It was a short sale.  We had to postpone the auction date of the house 2 times to make this work.

During the loan application process I think I signed the rights away to my first unborn son and also my daughter.  The paperwork was never ending.  So after months of waiting and getting excited is now over.  Moving in day is here (well till after the wedding).  The best part of all this is now when Sophia and I walk in our neighborhood we can point to a neighbors house and say hey we got engaged there, hopefully they will let us have dinner their on our anniversary.

2007 Chevrolet Corvette

Art Gamblin Motors just got a rare beauty in its inventory the other day.  This 2007 Chevrolet Corvette only has 2,200 miles.  My father, Alan Gamblin, was so excited about it that he decided he wanted to make a video of himself talking about it.  Attention all Gamblin Family:  Alan Gamblin is on youtube now!  I must say that my dad put his experience in the “Happy Hands Club” in high school to good use in the video.  He did the video in one take.  As much as I want to make fun of my dad for his use of talking with his hands he did a pretty good for his first youtube video.

I of course got to drive the Corvette convertible, I would not be blogging about it if I did not get the chance.  The car was a blast to drive.  Here in the state of Washington we are having the most unusual of weather and have not seen rain for weeks upon weeks.  With the top down, open country roads at the base of Mt Rainier in a sunny Enumclaw, Washington you could not ask for a better scene to really cruise.

The one thing that I still marvel about the Corvette is its handling and suspension.  The ability to sink in corners and push the car down instead out, it is a feeling you will never forget when you are pulling G’s in the corner.  One of my favorite parts of this car was the Heads Up Display and it had a G meter so you could see how big the G’s where when accelerating and cornering.

I will be honest I did not really drive the car to hard as it is the dealerships and a future Corvette owners.  I could not let a car like this go to waste and not write about it.