There's an art to caring for cast iron, and it means, among other things, avoiding soap and liberally seasoning the pan when it looks like it needs it.

When you season the pan, given what you've now put it through, I would recommend seasoning it at least twice. The classic trick in our house is to either warm the oven, or turn the stove on medium/low, and wipe the pan with a generous amount of cooking oil. Let it heat up and absorb the oil, then let it cool. Wipe out any remaining oil with a paper towel. Repeat as necessary.

When cooking with the cast iron pan, avoid highly acidic foods (like tomatoes) because they'll cut through the seasoning and cause your pan to rust. It's best to use these for frying/sauteeing. Whenever you're done, give it a rinse/scrub with hot water only (no soap), and then wipe dry with a paper towel. The people at LODGE have good advice here on care and feeding: http://www.lodgemfg.com/use-care-seasoned-cast-iron.asp

Final note: Do NOT heat a cast iron pan on the stove that still has water on it from being washed. I did this once, and my parents' beautiful cast iron pan cracked into two pieces. We think the water got into a hairline fracture and as it expanded, broke the pan.

My thought is a jewelry repair shop. There's a place up on Queen Anne called Rhinestone Rosie. I suggest it because I know one of the owners is a metalsmith and makes her own amazing jewelry. Maybe call and ask?

So, I'm not an expert, but I would say that getting attached to a house not-yet-in-foreclosure that still has people living in it is a bad idea, for lots of reasons, not least of which that the current tenants/owners may have more legal process up their sleeve than you'd think. Buying a house is already a HUGE commitment, and you're falling in love with a place that may have questionable infrastructure/history, be woefully undermaintained, and is probably still a year from being uninhabited.

That said, have you looked at other properties around? Do you know what the house is actually worth compared to others in the neighborhood? Does it meet your realistic needs? Have you done your homework on your own finances -- what you can afford, etc., etc?

Ok, if you've done all that, you might want to find a way to approach the owners about a short sale. If they're interested in selling, you'd give them an easy way to get out from their debt, and the bank wouldn't see the house as a total loss. You might not get it as cheap as at an auction, but the sooner a bank can find a better buyer, the happier they'll be.

As a starting place, I'd recommend getting a good plant guidebook for the Pacific Northwest. I have this one that I love: http://www.amazon.com/Plants-Pacific-Northwest-Coast-Washington/dp/1551050404

It's great, especially if you spend a lot of time in the woods. There are a ton of edible native plants and berries, and the book lists out the historic uses for many. That said, I would also recommend getting a book specifically on edible plants for the NW also, and checking one versus the other.

Some of the things that I know grow here that are edible:
-nettles (once steamed or boiled)
-salal berries (can be made into a jam)
-oregon grape berries (belive these used to be used in a kind of pemmican)
-varieties of mountain sorrel
-certain lilies, like tiger lily or avalanche lily

Ooh, I just found this website -- not an exhaustive list, but a good starting place: http://sharedsurvivalknowledge.com/2011/07/01/wild-edible-plants-of-the-pacific-northwest/

That video. Whoa.

I've definitely seen people using the foam roller at the gym - men and women - and never once thought of it as sexual. Pretty sure that the standard pelvic thrust exercise is waaaaaay more sexual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDAVQcreQ6g

I have a WP7 phone. Works for me. Sometimes the route calculation is a little slower than on an iPhone (that might be my service with T-mo), but otherwise, it's pretty solid. It also has a hands-free option, where, once you select your route, you can hit Start, and it'll read the directions aloud to you and re-orient your map each time you get to a turn. Bing Scout can be useful, too -- when you're looking at a map, if you hit it, you can look at local restaurants, bars, cultural stuff, etc. I'm not sure how complete their listings are, but it can come in handy.

I've had a WP7 phone for almost a year now, and I am surprised at how much I love it. To be fair, I had an early-model Android before, and have only occasionally used friends' iPhones. I LOVE the integration with the calendar and my myriad accounts (including work email), and really, really love that it shows me my next appointment and location on my home screen without having to log in. I also use Zune, and that's been pretty seamless too. The Office integration is pretty sweet, too, though I really only use the OneNote feature.

If there's anything I wish they would splurge on, it's a really great camera. My camera sucks (both hardware and software), and I am not holding out hope that the next phone I get will be any better.

Important disclaimer: I do work for MSFT, but my feedback is based on my experience with WP7 and other phones. I have colleagues who are Mac geeks, and swear by their iPhones, so each to their own.

Yep. Going to join the chorus of people and say that no one cares about your GPA.

The only company that has *ever* asked me for my GPA was Google, and it was such a dumb-ass competitive and pretentious thing to do that it totally turned me off possibly working for them. (Although, now that it's been a few years, I've met a couple engineers at Google who did not even graduate from college.) There are many, many brilliant people in this world who were kind of fuck-ups in college. Did you get your degree? Will your university attest that you got your degree? Fine. That's all they need.

(Side note: I went to school in Canada. For my last employment background check, the employer tried to verify that I graduated. My university told them that the information was private, and that the employer should request a copy of my diploma or transcripts from me. And I thought privacy was dead!)

As for the mental health thing...no way. Do not mention it at all. It's illegal for them to ask. It is also illegal, by the way, for them to ask your age. Don't mention it, and don't worry about it! Be brave and confident.

One last thing: I work as a technical writer now for one of the companies you mention. If you'd like some tips or general advice, feel free to reach out directly: heartsandletters (at) gmail (dot) com.