And they're back.

To be totally honest I wasn't super excited about The Office premiere this year.  I've been feeling a little 'done' with the show lately; it's just felt tired.  Then with the news that this is Michael's last season I really thought the show was on it's last legs.  However, at 9pm tonight my opinion changed completely. 

How did I make it through the summer without you?  Why did I ever doubt your comedic brilliance?  Tonight's episode was fantastic.  I am now super excited about this season even if it is Michael's last.  Here is a little taste from tonight:

Check out Ben's article from BuddyTV about the upcoming season, here.

Also his slide show of the 25 Most Awkward Moments.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Ben!

Bet you didn't know you share a birthday with the oldest man alive!! Here's hoping we get to spend our 114th year together! :-)

Reading. Commenting. Responding. Editing.

Ben finished his first week at Buddy TV on a high note; getting to interview the latest cast-off from Survivor! Yes, that means at some point he will get to interview Jimmy Johnson, retired NFL coach, if and when he gets voted off. Ben is being very coy about the whole deal, but I know he is loving every second of this gig!

Anyway, many of you have commented that it is hard to find all that Ben is posting on Buddy TV. I agree, when you go to his profile on the website one would think it would list all articles 'by Ben' but it does not. So I have created links on the right hand side of our blog that I will try to update daily with his new articles as they get posted. I hope this helps!

Go Huskies!

After watching the Husky - Nebraska massacre this afternoon I felt I needed to post the photos from the Husky - Syracuse game we went to last week; so I could forget about today's game. Ben and I attended our first (out of four) Husky game last weekend and walked away with a win! Ben was super excited about the game, I was too but also relieved that the weather cooperated and we didn't have to break out the garbage bag ponchos this early into the season. (It does tend to rain a bit in Seattle.)

The game was on Saturday, September 11th so emotions we a little heightened during the national anthem. It always amazes me when an entire stadium can become quiet during a moment of silence.

The Presidents of the United States of America played the half time show; she's lump, she's lump, she's lump, it's been in my head... ever since.

Huskies WIN! The outcome was better than todays game (56-21 Nebraska... BOO!) lets hope we can play more games like this one, against Syracuse, the rest of the season!

Reviewing the Tube

News for the Watson's : Ben has landed his *dream* job! He was hired last week to write reviews for a budding new website BuddyTV.com He is the official 'Survivor Guy,' watching, recapping, and reviewing Survivor: Nicaragua. So for all you Survivor fans (even if you haven't been one for a while) tune in on Wednesday's on CBS to watch the show and then go to BuddyTV.com to keep the conversation going with Ben.

Here is his first article, 5 Reasons to Get Excited About 'Survivor: Nicaragua'

He also writes TV News Stories (basically anything that happens with celebs from TV shows that the website thinks will draw interest to their site) here are links to some of his other articles.

Tim Gunn: Taylor Momsen is a Diva

'Bones' Spoiler, Casting News and Music on 'Gossip Girl' Just Got Better

'My Boys' Calls it Quits, Marlo is Back, and Oprah's at it Again

Most of the TV shows he's writing about I've never watched, but it's still fun and entertaining to read! Leave him a comment either on our blog or under the article on BuddyTV.com, I know he'd love to hear from you!

Deception Pass Tour

Ben and I love Deception Pass! When we have out of town guests, if we have time for the drive, we take them to the tall bridge to show off one of Washington's most spectacular sights. When Groupon (a website offering daily deals on local fare, entertainment, and more) advertised discounted tickets for a catamaran tour of Deception Pass we knew we couldn't pass it up!

The day we scheduled the tour our weather wasn't looking too good, but as we made the hour and half drive north the sun started shining! We boarded the boat in the sun shine excited to learn more about the area.

Blue Heron standing on the rocks.

This cliff side is the sight of an old prison rock quarry. In the early 1900's prisoners cut rock and loaded it onto a barge to be taken down to Seattle's waterfront.

A new perspective of the bridge that we've walked across numerous times.

Although the sun came out, some low clouds/fog remained in the area. The conditions made for some really cool spooky like photographs.

As we traveled west towards Deception Island (away from the bridge and mainland) it got foggier and foggier. At one point all we could see was few feet in front of the boat. I had no idea what direction we were going!

The tour was about an hour in length and was very fun! We learned all about the surrounding islands and why the water swirls and is very unpredictable in Deception Pass. It was a fun time and we'd recommend the tour to anyone visiting the area! (Especially if you can get a Groupon!)

After we got off the boat I wanted to get a picture of the two of us. So I did my usual, find a place to rest the camera, set the timer, and run. It was a little windy and my hair was all over the place, so I kept insisting we do another picture, and another, and another... I just couldn't get it right. Anyway, I think Ben was getting annoyed. We ended up taking about 15 shots before I was pleased. Below are a few of my favorites!

Summer Fast Forward

Whenever I've tried to write in a journal I end up forgetting about it after a few weeks. By the time I rediscover it the task of recapping everything that has happened since the last entry is insurmountable. So I give up.

I've felt like that about this blog lately, I've totally neglected it all summer. However, I have put far too much effort recording our monthly adventures for the past two years to never blog again. So I've decided to fast forward through summer.

It has been a great summer job wise. I've been at the pool practically everyday (who would trade that to be stuck in a building?) for swimming lessons with the kids I nanny. I think we ended up doing a total of 8 weeks of lessons! On the hot and sunny days we'd stay at the pool for free swim and I'd get a chance to get in the pool.

In July we had Ben's brother and wife (Adam and Carolina) visit for a weekend. We had a fabulous time filled with the quintessential Seattle sites. I think Adam and Carolina got a picture of all of us, but somehow I didn't. Oh well. Here Ben and I are on the ferry on the way home from Bainbridge Island. One of our favorite things to do with out of town guests. The perfect way to see the city!

We had some friends over on the 4th of July to watch the fireworks from the rooftop. Stacy treated us to a FANTASTIC Barefoot Contessa Flag Cake!

We made it out to a few Mariner's games. One against the Yankees and one against the Red Sox. They lost both, surprise, surprise. We had fun regardless, especially when eating the garlic fries!

Here we are at Safeco Field, please excuse the crazy hair... this was taken on one of Seattle's 90 degree days! We were melting. (I know, we're wimps!)

Graduation Continued... Again... I Know... It's Getting Obnoxious

About a year and a half ago Ben and I went to a cool movie theater in Seattle, called Central Cinema. At CC you can eat dinner, snack on gourmet popcorn, and sip on your favorite beverage while watching the feature film. While we were in the theater I was thinking "this would be a fun place to have a party!" As Ben's graduation date approached I recalled my movie party idea and thought what a great way to celebrate Ben's accomplishments, especially since his degree was Comparative Lit. with an Emphasis in Cinema Studies!

I decided we should rent a movie theater and view Ben's favorite movie, Breaking Away. I called Central Cinema only to find their rental rates were way out of my price range. After many long days of searching, brain storming new locations with my parents, and tons of hours on the phone, I found Stone Soup Theater. Not a movie theater, but with a projector and screen it was the perfect space for a few friends to get together and congratulate Ben!

My sister, Carrie, managed to arrange an old fashion popcorn maker to be in the lobby of the theater for guest to enjoy! Thanks Carrie!

I should also add that the party was a surprise! Even though I generally can't keep any surprises from Ben (he usually knows what all his Christmas and birthday gifts are 2 or 3 days before the day) I managed to keep the party a secret. I think he was genuinely surprised and excited to have an excuse to share his favorite film with everyone!

Thanks to all that attended, we had a great time celebrating with you!

Graduation Continued

I feel like all I do is apologize for never updating our blog lately. We're worried that our computer may be in it's last days, so uploading pictures and running more than one thing at a time nearly puts it over the edge. This one blog post has taken me an entire length of a movie (1hr and 40 minutes) to complete. So, we're sorry for those of you who check in on us and there is nothing to read! Hopefully we can get a new computer soon and update more regularly. In the meantime I will continue post about our summer as the computer allows. :-)

Thanks for reading!

I don't think any of us could have been prepared for the University of Washington's general commencement ceremony. We have lots of friends who have graduated from the UW who described a long ceremony with enough graduates to fill the football field. One friend said, "I'd really like to come and cheer Ben on but I sat through that ceremony for my daughter and I just don't think I can do it again!" That should have warned us but we, or at least I, went into it naively thinking: it won't be that bad, it couldn't possibly last the 4 hours it's schedule for, they are just estimating the 'worst case' scenario length.

Boy was I WRONG. The ceremony lasted 4 hours, not a minute less, and not a minute more!

We got to the stadium early because Ben needed to report for the big graduate line-up. We got in a long line and waited for the stadium doors to open. We were able to secure seats in the shade, which was great because it was a warm day for Seattle!

I'm not sure how long the procession of students, departments, and schools took, but they just kept coming and coming. Trying to spot Ben was like trying to find an individual ant on an ant hill!

Ben took a camera onto the field and took a few shots from his perspective.

Bill Gates Sr. delivering his commencement speech.

Matt, trying to stay awake during the commencement speech... :-)

I spy Ben walking across the stage getting ready to shake hands and become an official graduate! Congratulations Ben!

He came. He conquered. He graduated.