Another Christmas in Seattle

For the second consecutive year, I spent Christmas weekend mostly with the Tylee family. Tracy flew into town from San Diego on Saturday morning, and we spent parts Saturday and Sunday evenings and all of Monday hanging out with her family. As always, it was a pleasure to be in their company, and it didn't even feel all that different from Christmas with my family (well, without the Lucky Charms!). Tracy and I managed to squeeze in a snowshoe trip on Sunday afternoon, but as of this posting, I haven't any photos from that day.

Lots of big news in other parts of my life. My time at Groundspeak is winding to a close. I just realized that I have only one 5-day work week left with them before I leave the company in early February! Before then, we are changing offices to a spacious new place about four blocks from our current office, I'm having Lasik surgery done a week after that, and a few weeks later, my mom is coming to town while I celebrate my 30th birthday. Then it's off to Honduras...

Lots of people have asked me what I plan to do with my house, and it looks like that's starting to come together, too. I'm finishing up the last of my projects (the basement remodel), and preparing for the big move-out in late February. I learned today that both of my roommates are interested in sticking around, which is great news in that I don't have to worry about finding anyone and it's nice having a known commodity when trying to manage a rental property from 1200 miles away. I'm still looking for a third tenant, but that will be up to them as much as it is up to me.

Next up for me is a quick trip to the northeast tomorrow night through New Year's Eve, to celebrate a belated Christmas with my family. Looking forward to getting some of my mom's signature apple pie!

Filling in some gaps

I know many of my biggest fans have been wondering if I have fallen off the face of the earth these past few weeks (or maybe got flooded out of my house, frozen in the snow, or blown away in the wind). Fortuntately, none of these are true. I just haven't had anything noteworthy enough to write about. So, without further ado, I'll fill you in on some of the noteworthy events of the past few weeks (Christmas shopping notwithstanding).

Two weeks ago, I convinced my roommate Brian to go snowshoeing with me up at Snoqualmie Pass. We had just gotten through with an unusual week of late-fall snow, and conditions at the pass couldn't have been better. An added bonus was that we used a Sno-Park facility that was marked as "Closed" on the highway, yet was fully plowed and actually had a few snowmobilers. (For those of you not familiar with the Sno-Park system, these are basically winter recreation parking lots in the mountains that are plowed througout the winter and make great bases for snowshoe, skiing, and hiking outings. The ones around Snoqualmie Pass are predictably overcrowded on the weekends, given the close proximity to Seattle.) We were the only ones on the trail, and it was a beautiful day for it.

This past week, my company's Christmas party was Thursday night atop the Space Needle, and, as luck may have it, one of those "100-year storms" was forecast for Seattle -- heavy rain followed by record winds (up to 60-70mph). Where would you least want to be on the night of such a storm? Yeah, you guessed it. The party was great, as long as you didn't mind the constant rocking of the structure. Though I've never experienced one, it felt like an earthquake that just wouldn't end. By the end of the night, almost a million people were without power, including large swaths of Seattle, all of Mercer Island, and most of Bellevue. Me? I only lost my cable/internet service for about 2 days, and more importantly, my house held up just fine to the beating. Best news of the month so far.

The other big news regarding my house is that my basement work is almost done. This evening, in fact, I began installing the molding (which proved to be a chore, considering the floors aren't level). Even with the unevenness, it looks 100 times better. Here are a few pictures of the front room and the hallway:

A little "toilet" humor

One of my co-workers returned recently from a trip to Tokyo, and since she is one of those people with a very devil-may-care attitude (which I love about her!), she didn't hesitate to take these two pictures:



In case you can't tell, the first one is a controller for a high-tech toilet. My favorite part is the graphics (I guess they are for people who don't know either Japanese or English :)). I need one of these!

MNF in the snow

Tonight, I attended my first Monday Night Football game at Qwest Field, between the Seahawks and the Packers. Just as we approached the field at game time, the snow began to fall, and it made for an excellent backdrop to the game. I almost didn't even feel the cold. By the time I got done waiting in line for food, from the 2-minute warning of the first half until well after the start of the third quarter, I was sufficiently frozen in most parts of my body. Then, after the game was over and I waited in the hordes of people for the bus (I did escape the game early, but apparently not early enough), I began wondering if going to the game was such a wise idea. I made it home alright, though, and only wish that I had brought a pair of gloves or some long underwear to the game. Here's a AP photo from the game (who knew they even had snow shovels in Seattle?)

Thanksgiving

As alluded to in my last entry, I spent Thanksgiving weekend in warm and sunny Houston. It was certainly nice to take a break from the cool and wet weather we've been having in Seattle for the last 4 weeks or so, and even nicer to spend some time with my brother, sister-in-law, and two nephews (one of whom, Colin, I met for the first time).

After flying overnight on Wednesday (3.5 hours is too short a flight for a red eye, especially when followed up by a one-hour layover and one-hour flight), I needed a nap when I arrived in Manvel. Thankfully, dinner wasn't until 4:00, so after spending some time playing with Graham in the backyard, I hit the hay. Dinner was to be at Eric and Pam's friends' John and Sarah, who also have a young child (Hannah, who is 2.5). With so many little ones running around, this was unlike any Thanksgiving in recent memory. The food was *excellent*, as always, with some side entertainment provided by Graham, who managed to get the orange-colored cupcake he was eating absolutely everywhere. Our hosts were very sympathetic, though, and even though we never really got to sit down together for very long stretches, nobody seemed to mind.

Friday morning, Pam, Graham, Colin, and I went to the Houston Zoo. One of the nice things about this zoo is that they have free admission days throughout the year, and Friday was one of them. Lots of people joined us there, and we got to see some cool animals (including an okapi, and a bear that was actually awake and moving!). Afterward, we stopped by to have lunch with Eric at the hospital, before returning back to Manvel for the afternoon. I spent some time trying to install their new DVD-RW drive, and learn how to transfer video from their new camera to a DVD. That evening, we back to the hospital to see Eric again, and Graham had a wonderful time exploring the "aquarium" and fountain inside the hospital lobby. He definitely has a thing for water!

Saturday, we met up for lunch with one of Eric's med school friends who was in town, and then headed to the beach in Galveston. Prior to this point, I hadn't seen Graham smiling a whole lot -- he seemed a little uncertain what to make of me, and kept giving me funny looks. However, once he got to go into the water, everything changed. He had such a great time laughing and playing in the shallow waves and sand. Apparently, this was quite opposite to the way he behaved on his first trip to the beach, but he wasn't walking then. Saturday evening, Eric and I went out to a very fancy and tasty Brazilian steakhouse named Fogo de Chao. It had been a while since I'd been to one, and it was excellent. I'm sure I put on a few pounds this weekend! Here is a link to my photos from the weekend.

After failing in my attempt to give up my seat on my return trip to Seattle on Sunday morning, I arrived back in town to an unfamiliar sight. A forecast for snow. Sure enough, by about 3pm, the flakes started to fall, and continued to do so during the evening hours. I'm sure other parts of town got more, but lower Ballard received about one very wet inch of snow. Makes me want to break out my skis and snowshoes for the first time this season!

Breaking in with YouTube

I'm currently down in Houston for Thanksgiving weekend, and my brother and sister-in-law recently purchased a new video camera to tape their two young children. They also purchased a DVD-RW drive that needed to be installed, and then put me to work figuring out how to burn DVD's. After a few hours and some minor mistakes, I think I've got it. Additionally, now that I actually have some video that is worth sharing accessible to me, I've uploaded my first YouTube video to see how that form of sharing compares to sending out DVD's to the entire family. Here's my first test, for those interested. Let me know what you think -- is this a viable way to share family video?

San Diego, again

I would be remiss if I did not mention my recent weekend trip to San Diego. This will be my last trip there until Christmas, but I must admit I'm starting to like the place more and more. I shall call it, "the city of eternal summer". While fall has definitely arrived in the Pacific Northwest, temperatures in "America's Finest City" hovered around 80 degrees most of the weekend.

After an early night on Friday, we went to San Diego's Wild Animal Park on Saturday. I was hoping Tracy would publish the pictures, but she's now back into that whole "work" routine and I know how valuable time can be. The park was good but not great -- it was more a big zoo than a real "safari". We learned that greater San Diego has more endangered plant and animal species than any area of its size in the country, and I'd guess that many of them were roaming the open areas of the park ;-). I definitely enjoyed the train ride around the entire park, including the various African habitats where animals I had never heard of lived in harmony with other animals I had never heard of. That evening, we met up with Tracy's friend Emily for drinks in La Jolla after dinner at an Old Town Mexican restaurant. Eating out seemed to be the theme for the weekend.

Sunday was kind of a free-for-all, since we didn't have any concrete plans. We ended up going for breakfast in Mission Beach, followed by a driving tour of Ocean Beach and Point Loma, eventually ending up at the Cabrillo National Monument at the tip of Point Loma. Besides being an excellent viewpoint for gray whale migrations, it is also an ideal place to watch sailboats (a favorite pastime of mine, needless to say). On the way back into town, Tracy humored me by stopping by Harbor and Shelter Islands, where hundreds (thousands?) of boats are moored, and we even stopped into a club that allegedly is partners with my boat club here in Seattle. I think I'm really going to like the water sports available in San Diego. Aside from big boat sailing here and there, I intend to learn to windsurf and sail small Hobie cats, and possibly even get back in rowing or learn to scull. I'm thinking more and more that I've got to live as close to these facilities as possible!

In the afternoon, we did some more driving through neighborhoods we might like to call home once I move down, before dropping me off at the airport for my flight back. Upon arrival in Seattle, I was greeted with see-your-breath weather in the gangway, as temperatures were on their way to sub-freezing levels. While I love fall for all it's worth, it's still nice to be able to dial up summer at the end of October!

(11/2 update: Tracy has added this link to the photos she took at the Wild Animal Park)

Colors

Ok, so I think I actually need some feedback on this one. I'm at the point in my basement remodel where I'm painting walls. Anybody who has ever seen the colors of paint I pick out knows that my tastes are...well...strange. After painting two walls, I asked my roommate to take a look and let's just say he wasn't a fan of the colors. So, I've posted some pictures of the walls, and I'd like to know what my avid readers think. Too dark? Too dated? Just right? Bear in mind, these pictures were taken after dark in a basement with a flash, so they might seem just a little more washed out than they really are. Click on the image to enlarge.

Autumn in New York

This past weekend was a fun-filled, whirlwind 3 days in NYC. Friday night, I took the red-eye to Newark, arriving at 6am. I was planning on staying with my friend Lisa, in Manhattan, but since she was going to be out of town, she sent me her keys and let me stay in her place anyway. It turned out to be a very nice gesture, since a hotel would've cost me in excess of $300!

After checking in to Lisa's apartment, I tried to find my way down to Ellis Island. Even though I had never really navigated the city on my own, it seemed to be easy enough -- just take a green train to Battery Park. Of course, there was construction on that line, and I ended up having to do a few transfers to get to my destination. Fortunately, I ran across a family from Haverhill, MA, who was in town to visit their daughter at St. John's for freshman parents weekend. They also happened to be getting on at the same stop, and were also bound for Ellis Island, so at least I had some company. Turned out to be a good thing, since the lines to get on the ferry were about an hour and a half long. I was fortunate to be the last one on the 11:30 ferry, although it didn't look like my adopted family had made it. Ellis Island was a real treat. Given my late start, I didn't have nearly enough time to spend there. It was filled with history, pictures, and relics from the great wave of immigration, and I will have to come back sometime to see it in its entirety. After Ellis Island, I rushed uptown to grab a quick lunch with Jenn, who was in town for a job interview. From there, I made it back to Lisa's apartment to shower and change into formal wedding attire.

The wedding, for my friends Brett and Liz (from Dartmouth), was quite nice, held at the Union Theological Seminary near the Columbia University campus. The building reminded me of Hogwarts from Harry Potter -- very dimly lit and gothic architecture. Even the reception seating was a long, cafeteria-style tables. I saw a lot of familiar faces from my Dartmouth days, including many I hadn't seen since graduation. There was a strong Seattle contingent there as well, as Brett worked at Amazon for about five years after graduation.

Sunday morning, I met up with another Dartmouth connection, my friend Tracy, who was a freshman of mine when I was a UGA. Shortly thereafter, I met up with the rest of my family who came into town for a de facto reunion: Mom, Cari and Matt (and their children), Aunt M., Devin, Devin's girlfriend Kate, and Devin's friend Aly. We decided not to ascend the Empire State Building as first planned, as the lines were long, and instead headed up to Central Park and the zoo. Connor was very interested in finding the Balto statue, and the photo album below has several pictures taken there. After the zoo, we briefly headed down to Battery Park so that everyone could get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, and then headed to Little Italy for a sumptuous and filling meal. I returned to Lisa's apartment and, later that night, finally got to see her briefly once she got back from her trip to Vermont.

Monday was a short day, since I had a 3pm flight, but I managed to spend some more time with Lisa, and also got to have lunch with my friend Umesh, who recently moved to New York to work at Google. All in all, I managed to see numerous friends that I hadn't seen in a long time, as well as hang out with the fam. What a weekend!

Here are some pictures...

new_york_oct06

Why I love it here...

...even the bad-weather days are reason to get out an live a little.

Our recent string of sunny weather came to a close this weekend. I had reserved the boat for Saturday in hopes of heading to some other port for lunch, but a dense fog stubbornly refused to lift, and so I rescheduled for Sunday. The forecast for Sunday was a wet one. When the forecasters actually agree on RAIN (and not showers), it generally does rain. Sunday morning I awoke to pretty heavy (for here) rain, and a small craft advisory for marine traffic (which means over 20 knots of wind). Perfect day for sailing, right? As long as I was able to coerce people to join me, absolutely!

I found two hardy souls willing to venture out into the inclement conditions. By the time we got to the boat, it had turned to a light drizzle. Shortly after launching, though, a steadier rain returned, and with it, some fog. No worry, we had our sails set for Eagle Harbor, and the strong wind promised to get us there without delay. By the time we approached Bainbridge Island, the rain had stopped altogether, and sun actually peeped out along with a narrow patch of blue sky. All the while, we were cruising along as max hull speed.

After lunch, we had even better conditions -- 20 to 25 knots of wind from the south. This allowed us to reach 7.3 knots of boat speed (anything over 6.0 is very fast), and we made it back to port in just over an hour (record time)! The next day at work, I was reliving my splendid Sunday with people who couldn't even fathom going outside. Their loss!

Random musings about gas on a Saturday

I was at a gas station this afternoon and had a very strange series of experiences. First, I pulled in to find a traffic jam in the area of the pumps, perhaps because of the $245.9 (why always .9?) price. I tried to maneuver my car near a pump and got out to pump my gas. After inserting my credit card and selecting my grade, I tried to stretch the hose to my gas tank. No luck. So I had to cancel the transaction and was told to see an attendant inside. However, the doors to the inside were locked (strangeness #1). Then I went back to the pump, repositioned my car so the hose *barely* reached, and swiped my card again. By now, the price had gone up to $249.9 per gallon (strangeness #2). I, who always wondered who the unlucky people were that are at a pump when the prices change, learned first hand. Then I pumped my gas. A short time later, I noticed it spilling out my gas tank (strangeness #3). Since I was unaware of how the auto-stop mechanism works on gas pumps, I took Dr. Tylee's advice and looked it up. Here is the answer. Apparently, by inserting the nozzle at an awkward angle, I lost its ability to create a vacuum, and therefore got "hosed" by the gas pump. Haha.

The above link also provided a related link to how gas prices are determined. This is another informative read, especially for those who still continue to believe that those greedy oil companies are boosting the gas prices to whatever they see fit, at the public's expense. A friend of mine has shown me data that President Bush's approval ratings are directly correlated with gas prices, and he further opines that the most people's opinion of the economy is inversely proportionate to the price of gas. But I'd like to keep politics out of this blog as much as possible. If you're interested in reading more about gas prices, follow this link.

A week with Tracy

It's been a whirlwind week for me, starting it out by flying to Chicago to meet up with Tracy for one of her best friends' wedding, and then having her come back to Seattle with me and doing weird, date-like stuff for a change. We culminated the week with a backpacking trip to Mt. Baker (we did the north route last year, and the south route this year).

The wedding was quite fun. It was held at the Chicago Cultural Center, a former library located right near Millennium Park. It was moderately sized, and pretty fancy compared to the ones I've been going to in Seattle. Tracy was the Maid of Honor, the only female in the bridal party, and also got to give a speech at the reception (which was received very fondly).



While last weekend was more of a Tracy weekend, this weekend was definitely more of an Adam weekend. We went up to Mt. Baker Saturday morning with our camping gear, although the hike we planned was technically a day-hike. Mother Nature was shining on us, as we had a clear blue sky throughout the day -- up to the end when some storm clouds blew in. There were actually two arms of the hike, one (Railroad Grade) which went right up to the Easton Glacier on the face of Mt. Baker, and another that went up Park Butte, where there was a lookout tower and geocache which caught out interest. Railroad grade climbed quickly along the edge of a glacial ravine (or whatever they're called) up to about 6000 feet, where the glacier took over. Apparently it is a common route for summit attempts. We were entertained by some hedgehogs or marmots, who didn't seem to mind our presence at all. The other route, up Park Butte, was also pretty steep, but rewarding us with a lookout tower complete with big views and a bed to sleep in (if we so chose to stay there). As it was getting late in the afternoon, and fatigue was setting in, we decided to go back to our camp (halfway in between the two arms), and spend the night. Before we hit the hay, we were treated to a bear sighting a few hundred yards off the trail. Unlike many of the trails we've hiked, this one wasn't as deeply forested and allowed us quite a bit of visibility among the endless blueberry bushes.

With it being light out only till about 7pm, it was an early bedtime for us. Shortly after we zipped up, a light rain began falling which ended up lasting the whole evening. When we woke up, we were pleasantly surprised to find a fresh dusting of snow at our campsite. Only hours before, it had been about 70 degrees with clear blue skies (just look at the pictures for proof!).

Mt. Baker (Oct. '06)

Oct 7, 2006 - 38 Photos

Summer returns for a weekend

After two weeks of stereotypical Seattle weather (cool, gray, and drizzly), summer returned in a big way this weekend with two magnificent days, and plenty more forecast. I took advantage of it by checking off several things from my to-do list.

Friday night I started installing the railing on my deck. I hadn't yet bought all the wood, but I managed to stain and install the four railing posts on the landing (another four will need to be installed at the base of both sets of steps).

Saturday was the big day. I had reserved a UHaul cargo van in the afternoon in hopes of getting rid of the built up construction waste in my garage, and also to pick up the new lumber for the railing. Prior to that, though, I went to a Lasik center to get screened and see if I am a good candidate for the surgery (I am). After that, I headed over to my sailing club to take the exam for the coastal navigation class that I've be in these past two weeks. It took two grueling hours, but I passed. After discussing selling my boat (sadly) with the club's owner, I headed over to UHaul about an hour behind schedule. By the time I got back to my house and started transferring the waste from the garage to the van, I realized I wouldn't have time to go to both the dump and the lumberyard. I chose the former, and I'm glad I did. The loading took a long time, and by the time it was all said and done, I got rid of 780 lbs. of garbage. Quite a workout! That evening, I met up with a friend and we attended the Fremont Oktoberfest, a big beer festival filled with thousands of 20-somethings packed into a small space.

Sunday, I got up bright and early to head over to Dunn Lumber, and managed to spend quite a bit of money on not a whole lot of wood. The real kicker was the post caps for the railing posts -- at $9 a pop these covered about 1/4 of the cost (and about 1/1000 of the weight!). Who knew these were so expensive? After dropping off the van, I headed over to the marina to go for a daysail with m boat partner. What a perfect day for it! Temps in the mid 70's and pleasant wind made for the best conditions in months. We headed up to Kingston for lunch, and by the time we got back to Shilshole around 5pm, I don't think I was ready to get off the water. This was already my 7th day of sailing this month (my 8th will be tomorrow). I think it's a bad addiction!

Craigslist Rules

For those of you not familiar with it (where have you been hiding?!), Craigslist is a very basic-looking online classified website with local version in most major metropolitan areas of the country, Seattle included. Among things you could list/find there are jobs, housing, personals, and things for sale, not to mention adult stuff, and community stuff. Since I moved out here, I've used it mainly for finding roommates and housing, but I also found my current job on there, and have recently sold a few items. The thing that makes Craigslist work is that people know to go there, and the high traffic leads to an unusually high match rate for someone you're looking for (at least in my case). In many ways, it's a perfect exercise in capitalism.

Some people wonder how they got by without cell phones, or the internet, but in a smaller sense, I wonder how I'd solve some of my problems if Craigslist weren't around. In the last two weeks alone, I've found a buyer for my used laptop ($350.00 for a vintage 2002!), a new roommate, and also multiple plumbers for a slow drain that I have. In each case, I went into it worried that I was asking for too much (or offering too little, in the case of the plumber), but the result was that I got just the right number of replies (meaning I priced things correctly). Had I chosen an alternative route (not eBay, since I've been banned from there), I wouldn't have made out nearly as well. In essence, CL is like an odd mix of eBay and Priceline, where, even if you want a service done for you, you could still set a price and see who comes calling. Chances are, someone will.

Craigslist isn't perfect, of course. There's no quality control on the people that get in touch with you, and so there's the added risk that you might be wasting your time waiting for a buyer to come look at the item you have for sale, or maybe you get a bad plumber. I've experienced this for sure -- most of the time just trying to give away stuff for free, in fact. But the pros overwhelming outweigh the cons, and the result is that I could take care of things in a much more streamlined fashion, and it works out better financially to boot.

Let's hope that Craigslist sticks around for a few more years. It's big and getting bigger, and that means it will increasingly become a target for pranksters trying to take it down, and whiners filing lawsuits for the content it posts (some of which is certainly controversial). In the meantime, I plan on milking it for all it's worth!

Hiking Mt. Pilchuck

Mt. Pilchuck is a 5400' peak about a little more than an hour from Seattle. Allegedly it used to have a ski area on it (though from the looks of it, I'd have trouble figuring out just where!). It's in the same area as Heather Lake and Lake 22, both of which I've hiked in the past year, and it has the added benefit of having a fire tower at the top of it. I decided that this Sunday would be a great time to go, and I recruited my friend Todd to join me.

Given the close proximity to Seattle, the trailhead was crowded even though it was a post-Labor Day hike. What surprised me the most is the diversity of people. Normally on the trail, you encounter people that look like they belong on the trail: mostly guys, mostly 20-40, always white. Of the people we passed, though, I'd guess only about 20% qualified as "normal trail people". The rest were teenagers, girlie-girls (you could tell by their baby blue Nike running sneakers or Capri pants), and we even saw the rarest of rare -- a grandmother and her teenage grandson. It's not that it was an easy hike either, since the vertical gain was over 2000' in about 5.5 miles round-trip.

The thing that sets Pilchuck apart from the rest of the hikes in the area was the firetower at the top, and of course, the views that said tower affords. Despite the fog on the south face, we were able to see 360 degrees: Rainier, the Olympics, the Seattle skyline, Baker/Shuksun, Glacier Peak, and all the less famous Cascade peaks. What a view! An added treat were the wild blueberries that lined the upper part of the trail, very similar to the ones we found on Mt. Baker a year ago at this time. Note to self: hiking in September = good blueberries!

San Juans, Part II

As advertised, the second part of my weekend featured a trip up to the San Juans to return my boat to Seattle (my boat partner had sailed it up earlier in the weekend). The forecast was for warm and sunny conditions with light to moderate winds, about the best you could expect for early September.

Sunday morning, after missing the early ferry, my friend Kevin and I got to Orcas Island to meet up with Rick and his girlfriend around 11:45. He gave me the boat keys, and I gave him my car keys, and then Kevin and I set out for Sucia Island, north of Orcas. We had wanted to go here on the July 4 trip, but had a change of plans. This time, since we didn't have the inflatable canoe, we couldn't get to shore so it turned into one long motoring trip, returning to Friday Harbor to spend the night.

The next morning we got up bright and early to try to cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca before the afternoon winds and current hit. We made it about halfway across (it is about 15 miles north to south), before the waves started building up to the level of our July4 trip, where it got very uncomfortable. This time, with only two people on board, we had to tough it out as best we could, switching off on helm duty. Shortly after Kevin took the helm, we were in the midst of turning and the shackle that connects the main sheet to the boom broke off. This caused the boom to swing wildly to one side, and since the mainsail was still up, made it difficult to steer the boat. Though I was feeling a little seasick, I had to go up to the foredeck to drop the sail, and then tie it up as best I could, all while rolling along with six foot waves. Fortunately, nothing serious happened to the either of us, but it was sufficiently scary, especially because we still had about two more hours in the straits before we reached calmer water. When we arrived at Port Townsend that evening, I inspected the damage, and saw that the force was so strong it it literally ripped the shackle out of the boom, leaving a big hole in the bottom of the boom. I spent some time jerryrigging the main sheet to a different shackle, so that we could sail the next day if there was wind. Dinner and a few games of pool completed this wild day.

Today (Tuesday) was very uneventful, aside from the fact that we made it back from Port Townsend in just over 4.5 hours (record time!), mostly under motor but with a few stretches of sailing thrown in. I think this will be my last big trip on the boat, as I am ready to sell my share of it in preparation for the big move in a few months. It's been a fun ride, but I think I've gotten everything out of it that I was hoping for, and am ready to move on.

One Man's Trash...

Today, at the suggestion and with the help of one of my roommates, I participated in hosting a yard sale. This probably doesn't sound like a big deal, but I had never done it before, and so it was hard for me to put values on things I owned (or in some cases, were just left behind in my house).

Fortunately, I didn't have a whole lot of stuff to sell, and the stuff I did sell went relatively quickly. Within the first hour, I sold two of my "big ones" ($20 each). By the end of the day I ended up making $119 and, equally important, got rid of lots of extra "volume" in my house, which will help me when it comes time to move. The yard sale was even more profitable for the other two couples selling at it -- one made over $150 and the other over $500. They'll be back at it again tomorrow while I'm off sailing in the San Juans.

The first highlight of the day came when I tried to sell two shelving units that I had from Pier 1. Initially, I had listed them at $15 each, but later decided that I liked them a little more than that and raised the price to $20. Incidentally, one customer saw them at both prices and was shocked that I raised the price --that's unheard of in yard sales. I told her the early bird special ended, and she should've made an offer when she first them first. But the really funny part of the story is that they sold (for $20 each) about ten minutes later when the mailwoman, of all people, came to deliver the mail and decided she wanted them. She came back in about half an hour with the money and had me load them into the mail van. What a treat!

Aside from selling stuff, the really amusing part of hosting a yard sale was watching your neighborhood pass you by. As you may be familiar with from my past posts, Ballard has its share of eccentrics. While most of them stayed home today, I did get to witness a most unusual event right outside my house. Here's the situation:

A biker dressed up to look the look (picture a Lance Armstrong clone) was flying southbound down 17th Ave. NW. His complete opposite, an older African-American man was struggling up the slight grade northbound in a bike that had seen better days. He was riding on the left side of the street.

The downhill biker rounded the right side of the traffic circle at the intersection and, to my surprise, pointed directly at the man biking uphill, even though there were no cars parked on either side and the street is reasonably wide for two cars, let alone two bikes. They converged at the curb, right in front of me, with both bikes screeching to a halt. Predictably, the downhill guy screamed at the uphill guy -- complete with several expletives -- that he was on the wrong side of the street, even though he went out of his way to ride him off the road. Here's a diagram:




This gives yet more evidence to two of my recent gripes: (1) I don't like bikers that act like self-absorbed primadonnas who think that just because they're not driving, they're a superior human being, and (2) I don't like it when people bring it upon themselves to tell other people how to live. The poor uphill rider was literally attacked by the downhill rider just to prove some kind of silly point. Was he wrong for riding on the left-hand side of the road at about 2 mph? Perhaps. Should anyone really care? Absolutely not. But I guess those are topics for my other blog. :)

Adventures in Craigslist

So I now have a new laptop, have a new monitor on the way, and thought it would be a good idea to get a full-sized keyboard. Where else to look but Craigslist, right? Very quickly, I found one on their for the low, low price of $2. So I wrote to ask if it was still available, and whether it would be compatible with my computer. Below is an email transcript:

----------------------

(me) I writing in reference to the keyboard that you listed for sale. Is that still available? If so, can you tell me if it has a USB or PS/2 connector?

Thanks,
Adam

(him) It's for a computer and the conector fits the key bord slot on the back of a computer only

----------------------

That was reassuring! Guess I'll be shopping around a bit more. :)

Biking Mercer Island

With a beautiful Sunday in front of me, and not much else to do, I decided to bike over to Mercer Island, a well-to-do neighborhood situated in the middle of Lake Washington. I had never ventured very far off the highway exits, so this was new territory for me. It was also new for me to bike in the bike lane alongside I-90. As expected the island is filled with lavish houses and lots of vegetation. The most pleasant surprise was how the whole island smelled like ripe blackberries ('tis the season). Made me want to come home and make some blackberry cobbler for...me. Yeah, not so exciting.

Anyhow, the ride was between 34 and 37 miles (my bike computer and Google Maps disagree), and I was definitely ready to be done when I got home. It didn't help that as I turned the last corner to my house, the wind picked up to 10-15 mph in my face. The psychology of being close to the finish line is really quite strong.

I've tried to plot my route on a Google Maps mashup, but it didn't come out so good. If my GPS hadn't acted kooky (it had me somewhere over on Vashon Island), I might've just downloaded that track. But whatever.

Phase 2 of deck is complete

I built the patio back in May, now I've completed the landing, walkway, and steps. Phase 3 -- the railing -- will probably be the most challenging, since I admittedly didn't plan too well for where and how it was going to attach. I might hire someone to install it, since I don't think I have the tools to correct for my poor planning. In the meantime, here are some before and after pictures of where I'm at:

became

became

became

became and

My Weekend

I planned on spending this weekend working on my deck and taking a sailing class on Saturday, and I turned out getting a lot more than I was bargaining for, including a new laptop, softball game, and dinner with a friend I haven't seen in a while.

Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday I worked several hours on my deck, and I am happy to say it is coming along rather well. Building a deck is a lot like other things in life, where no matter how much effort you put forth in the planning process, something is bound not to go according to plan. I've had a few such snafus, including not measuring out the walkway width according to the decking width (steps need to be 36" wide, but 6 Trex boards, spaced at 1/4" apart, only gets 34.75", leaving a gap). The one that I'm currently dealing with is the fact that the deck necessarily needs to slope away from the house, so it is technically not level, and yet the steps need to be level, making it appear as though the steps are crooked. I'm think I'm just going to have to grin and bear it, since there's no going back at this point. Here are some pictures of my progress (still need to put the steps in):




A major surprise this weekend was that I ended up buying a laptop, the HP dv2000t. I say this was a surprise because I had configured it and added it to my cart about the middle of last week, but wouldn't pull the trigger for some reason. Then, when I got the Sunday paper today, the ads for HP seemed to indicate that the weekly special had changed, from something that was very advantageous for me to something that was barely impressive. Fortunately, since I had added it to my cart, the special from last week still applied (a bug, perhaps?), meaning that if I configured the same computer from scratch, it would've cost a lot more. Lucky me! So I bought it. I figured I've maximized the value out of my current machine, so I may as well sell it while it has value for someone else.

The other nice thing that happened this weekend was meeting up with Jonathan, my former roommate, for some grilled salmon a movie at my house. I hadn't seen him in several months, and he's actually going through a similar situation as me -- his girlfriend left Seattle for a job in NYC, and now he's got himself a good job in an ideal city and a nice house, and he's weighing what to do. We had far too much to catch up on, though, so I guess we'll just have to do this more often.

More grammar...

Grammar shouldn't really be classified under my "adventures", but I suppose one can have adventures in grammar, no?

First, I wanted to revisit the more/better discussion. I had a conversation about it today at work, and realized that it should be qualified even further. I believe that, in addition to "liking something more" (rather than "better"), there are lot of other interesting scenarios. Sometimes, verbs (such as those related to senses) -- need "better". E.g. "I feel better" or "I can see better when the lights are on". These examples have a different meaning entirely (yet still technically correct) if you insert "more" in place of "better". In general, "more" refers to quantity and "better" refers to quality. So why doesn't "I like red wine more than white" need "better" instead of "more", when we're talking about quality and not quantity? Perhaps it makes sense to look at the opposite: "I dislike the anchovies more than sardines." Clearly we wouldn't even think to use "better" in that, and yet it's the same construct. Off the top of my head, though, I can't think of many other verbs that require "more" as a rule (aside from the obvious other "feeling" verbs). Anyone have thoughts on this? I'd love to hear...

Today's grammar issue focuses on the correct answer to "How are you?". In my opinion, the only reason this question is answered with "I am well" rather than "I am good" is because there is an implied "doing" or "feeling" ("How are you doing?"). One does well but one is good. Of course, to answer "I am good" is equivalent to saying that you are "benevolent" or "virtuous", but I believe an adjective is the only proper answer to the question. When the verb "to be" is used as a primary very, rather than the auxiliary verb, whatever follows must modify the subject (a noun), and therefore must be an adjective. After all, we could just use any old adverb in place of well ("I am happily," doesn't cut it for me, unless "am" is the auxiliary to another verb: "I am happily writing a blog"). Now one could argue that "well" is actually an adjective in the case of "I am well", but there aren't too many other cases where that's true.

Stream of consciousness...one could "look well" and "feel well" and maybe even "seem well", adjectives in all three cases, so perhaps I've disproved my theory. If one is well, is that a matter of health? Because one is doing well, it has other connotations (such as being successful). So I guess my question really becomes this: Are "being well" and "doing well" the same thing? Or is "being" just an all-encompassing word that incorporates doing, feeling, looking, etc.? And just how does this all relate to "wishing someone well"? What part of speech is "well" in that phrase, and can it be replaced by anything other than an abstract noun (e.g. happiness, success)? I've never felt so confused by a word (and don't even get me started on the provincial, "I like it well"!)...

Lessons in grammar

Spending a lot of time in the car with a teacher can lead to some very interesting conversations. I had a feeling Jessica might be one of only a few people I know interested in a good grammar debate, and I was right. In the process, I got agreement on one of my controversial pet peeves, and got my other one shot down.

The first has to do with the replacement of the word "more" with the word "better", such as in the case of "I like red wine better than white wine," which some people like to pass off as being grammatically correct. Frankly, this usage of the word better has always hurt my ears. "Better" is not synonymous with "more" in this case. You could certainly say "Red wine is better than white wine", where "better" is the adjective that it should be, but it doesn't work so well (good?) as an adverb. However, as with many common grammatical errors, it's so infused in our lexicon that nobody even notices. Other than me, of course.

Feeling good about myself, I decided to fight the "I" vs. "me" argument in such sentences as "He is taller than me". I've always thought that the people who believe it should be "He is taller than I (am)" were using a lame excuse -- that the "am" is just implied. I argued that when it's not there, it's not there, but me is a capable substitute (see: "Who wants a cookie?" "ME!"). I tried to resort to such technical grammatical conventions as the "subordinate clause", which I hadn't used since diagramming sentences in 5th grade. However, Jessica soon pointed out the error of my ways by saying "She likes red wine better than me" (she had trouble changing her bad habit!). With the proper intonation, this doesn't sound as wrong as it may look (that she likes red wine more than she likes me). However, intonation is even more stupid to fall back on than implied words, and so the duplicate meaning of the sentence proves the point that it *needs* to read "She likes red wine more than I do." Case closed.

It's nice to get visitors

This past week, my friends Jessica and Mike from D.C. came to visit, since they just *had* to be part of my blog. According to Jess, she reads my blog occasionally when she wants to see nice pictures from the beautiful places I visit. This was a pleasant surprise to me, since I have no idea if anyone actually reads this stuff (or even looks at the pictures).

Anyway, they arrived late Tuesday night and stayed through Monday, barely missing out on the airport drama that happened in London. In the five full days they were here, I have to give them credit for seeing more of this state than most people see in a year. Wednesday, they hung around Ballard and went to the aquarium in the afternoon. Thursday, they headed to Mt. Rainier and got taken in by its beauty, despite the overcast weather.

Friday was the official beginning of my weekend. I took the day off from work and gave them a tour of Fremont (and Seattle) during the day, and then went sailing with them, my boss, and another co-worker on Friday night. I must say that it was a little strange giving out orders on the boat to my boss. Since this was the first time on the boat for all four of them, I was *really* hoping that there was good wind, but it turned out to be dead for much of the night. Fortunately, our patience paid off around 7:30 as the wind slowly and sporadically picked up for our last hour of sailing.

On Saturday we made the long (3 hour) drive down to Mt. St. Helens, and got a good education on volcanoes. I had been wanting to see it for some time now, and I'm glad this was their "gotta have it" activity for the week. The weather cooperated and magnified just how different this landscape is from the rest of the cascades. No Douglas firs, very little vegetation, and not a whole lot of water either.

Sunday was the icing on the cake, as we headed up to the North Cascades National Park for what turned out to be a fabulous hike through Heather Pass and Maple Pass. Once again, the weather was flawless and provided us with 360-degree views of some of the most rugged landscape the West has to offer. Our hike up to 7000 feet gave us views of two turquoise alpine lakes, and partially or fully glaciated peaks in all directions. Jess and Mike were particular impressed with the smurf-blue lakes in the park, and seemed adequately challenged by the 2100 vertical foot ascent.

All in all, it was an excellent weekend for me, and I think they would agree. August is a great time to visit this city, to escape all the heat and humidity elsewhere in the country. Why is it so hard to convince people to come then?

I'm hoping Mike will be nice enough to mail me the pictures he took with his digital SLR, which are no doubt much nicer than these!

Frivolity in the workplace

Have you ever had your company spend a ton of money on you (or even just a little bit), wishing that, instead of wasting the money, they would instead just give you the cash? Plenty of things come to mind -- free sweatshirts, backpacks, tshirts galore, and most importantly, business cards.

Yes, we got our business cards this week, in boxes of about 250. Now, I don't know how much these things cost. I've heard estimates as high as 80 cents, but I'll be conservative and say 50 cents. That's $125 worth of cards with my name on them that I'll never make use of. Sure, I may drop one in the jar at a local restaurant in hopes of winning a free meal, but for business purposes? I'm a software developer! I don't meet people. Certainly not anyone that would have any interest in contacting me at work. I've been working at Groundspeak for almost 10 months, and I've gotten maybe two phone calls at my desk (another waste of money on me), both of which were irrelevant to my job.

Over the years I've probably received 5 or 6 boxes of these cards (one company even gave me two boxes at once), and I might've used 1 or 2 cards for actual business purposes. And is there any particular reason that they always have to come in sets of about 250? Can't I get about 20 of them, and refill as necessary? It's almost as if there's an unwritten rule that you can't be a real business unless your employees have cards. What is this world coming to?

A weekend to savor

This was an exciting weekend for me on so many levels. It started off on Thursday night, when I got my shipment of wood from Dunn Lumber to complete Phase 2 (of 3) of my deck --a replacement landing, stairway, and walkway out to my new patio. I also had three parties to attend, which, for anyone who knows me, is usually enough for 2 months.

I got started on the deck on Friday night, and worked on it on-and-off throughout the weekend, eventually completing the walkway frame. This is a good place to stop, since my old landing and steps, though wobbly, are still in tact and usable. Here are some pictures of the big plan, and of my progress so far:




The first party I went to was a Dartmouth Alumni Club Blue Angels party at an alum's lakefront house in Medina. For those of you not from here, Medina is a very affluent and secluded suburb on the east side of Lake Washington, home to the Gates estate, among others. I was curious to go just to see what it was like on the inside of one of these beautiful homes, and I was not disappointed. The backyard was enormous, nicely decorated and perfect for a party of more than 70 people. It was also an ideal place from which to watch the air show, as the jets flew no more than a few hundred feet directly overhead. It's amazing what they're capable of.

After a brief stop at home, I went off to my next party at my friend Owen's, a former classmate of mine at the UW. It was more of a dinner party with very interesting people from very different backgrounds from the first party. While a lot of discussion at the Dartmouth party focused on investments, tax evasion, and other such topics, Owen's party seemed to be filled with people who worked in areas of conservation, marine science, and education. Between the two parties, I probably met 2 dozen new people, which is a drastic improvement from the wedding last weekend. Going to parties where you don't know anyone isn't so bad after all!

Sunday was the annual Groundspeak Blue Angels party at my co-worker Elias and his fiancee Karyl's house, on the Seattle side of Lake Washingtonn. This was a much smaller party, but I also knew almost everyone this time. It was very enjoyable, with lots of good food, wonderful hosts, and even a dip into the lake for me.

Throughout the whole weekend, the weather remained flawless, with afternoon highs into the low 80's with nary a cloud in the sky. What more could I ask for! My friend Jessica and her boyfriend Mike are coming to visit from D.C. this week, and the perfect weather is forecast to continue for the foreseeable future.

A Week of Firsts

This week has been a week of firsts for me. It started Sunday with the wedding of my friends Todd an Marie. No, this wasn't the first wedding I've ever been to, but it was the first I've been to solo, and to add to that, I didn't know another soul besides the bride, groom, and my ex-girlfriend (who introduced me to them). I admittedly had "a few butterflies in the stomach" as I approached the wedding venue, not wanting to stand out too much. I learned that people who attend weddings (myself included) tend to hang closely with the people they know, and it's hard for a stranger to break in. Added to this was the fact that most of the people flew in from the Tennessee and North Carolina, so they were especially groupy. No worries, though. A little wine loosened everything up, and Todd and Marie did a good job of placing me at a table with people of my age and shared interests.

The other first for me this week was my first attempt at wakeboarding, which I tried Tuesday morning before work on Lake Washington. For those of you not familiar, wakeboarding is essentially snowboarding while being pulled by a speedboat. My co-workers Bryan and Elias are big into wakeboarding and jet skiing, and they invited me out for a try. I requested that they bring a camera, just in case I was able to get going long enough to take a picture. Wishful thinking! After watching them master the wake so smoothly, I jumped in the water and tried 5 or 6 times to get up, to no avail. They telling me it was like someone pulling you up after you had fallen off your chair, and it all made perfect sense, but the forces were so great that I could find that balance point. Instead, I managed to swallow several gallons of the lake and ended up with a splitting headache. No worries, I will try this again sometime. I now have a much finer appreciation for those that could do board sports, since it doesn't come naturally to me at all. I used to think that I was athletic enough to just pick things up, but those pipe dreams are long gone. I'll stick to sailing!

The bike cops

Seems like I could just have a full blog devoted to my bicycle adventures, since these days there's rarely a dull ride into work. Today's ride featured not one, but *two* of Seattle's Finest patrolling a stop sign in Fremont, trying to catch bikers not stopping for it. Besides the fact that it's not even a major intersection (one street is a one-way and another is a parking lot exit), and the fact they were standing on the side where bikers approach it on the uphill, it just seems crazy that our tax dollars are going toward this. I know I've ranted about the guys at the airport drop-off, but this trumps that several times over. Is it bad of me to hope that there was at least a car-bike accident here that prompted this? Looks like it's just for traffic's sake.

Fortunately for me, the anti-cops actually bonded together enough to tape a sign on to the Burke-Gilman trail right before the street that has the stop sign, and two people on that street verbally warned me about the cops. Good thing I wasn't about a minute earlier, because they were detaining someone as I passed.

On a side note, they could've very well stopped me for not wearing a helmet as I biked within a few feet of them, but they let me go.

Sox games and swimming in Lake Washington

Never one to let a summer weekend slip idly by, I spent this past one attending two Red Sox/Mariners games and also spent my Sunday with friends on the boat, this time venturing into Lake Washington to do some swimming.

The weekend had been forecast to be a scorcher for some time, and it didn't let us down. Temps all three days were in the 90's, which is uncommon in these parts. The Friday night Red Sox game turned out to be the best, since the Sox actually won 9-4 (usually they lose when I go to see them play here). I attended with some friends from work, and was happy to see Red Sox Nation still alive and well in the Pacific Northwest.

Saturday's game was a bit less exciting, since the Sox only got four hits and lost 5-2. The upside was that Vince and I scored some Terrace Club tickets for free from Big Brother/Big Sister. On the way into the ballpark, we had a near-disaster when Vince dropped the tickets out of the envelope they were in. In typical Seattle fashion, another fan behind us passed by, asking us if we had dropped a ticket. These were $55 tickets face-value, and easily could've sold for $100, given the demand.

Sunday was definitely the highlight of the weekend. Ever since I got a boat, I've been wanting to take it into Lake Washington and swim off of it, since the Puget Sound waters are too cold, no matter how hot it is outside. For those of you not familiar with it, Lake Washington is a very large urban lake (the largest such lake, I think, in the country). It is accessible from Puget Sound via the Hiram Chittenden Locks, and requires me to have four drawbridges raised along a 5 mile route from the Locks to the UW.

The day was perfect: 85-92 degrees, without a cloud in the sky. I was hoping to see how many people I could fit comfortably on the boat for such an excursion. For sailing, I try to limit it to 8 people, but I figured since we wouldn't be doing much sailing, I'd try for many more. Turns out we eventually got 11 people on board, and by the time we finally reached the lake after about 2.5 hours en route, everyone was eager to jump in. And they did. Eventually, we did raise the sails for about half an hour, since the wind was really ideal for it, but the evening was approached with the long haul back, so we didn't keep them up for long. Can't wait to do this again!

Here is a link to Sunday's pictures.

So long Sadie :(

Tonight, I brought Sadie down to a place called "Wags 2 Whiskers", which is a doggy day care and boarding place downtown. There she will be staying until she finds a new foster family or forever family. It was depressing. She was all excited to be going in the car, so innocent. When I got there and saw where she would be living, I couldn't help but think of how much better she had it in my house. I won't be the least bit surprised if I get a call in the next few days/weeks saying she is not a good fit for there.

So what I've decided is this: she will not be going back to the shelter (which has been having to put down three dogs per day recently). If she has any problems at W2W, she can come live with me again on a foster basis, during which time I will definitely put her in formal training to help solve her aggression problem. If she succeeds, I'll give strong consideration to adopting her. Despite my loss of patience with her this weekend, I honestly believe that I'm capable of having a dog, especially one that has already been house-trained and gone to obedience classes.

We broke a stripper ring!

While out sailing last night on the Sound, we noticed a broken piece of plastic caught up in one of the lines. I realized that it broke off the winch, but I didn't know what exactly the part was called. After coming back and doing some research, it turned out the the stripper ring on the winch was broken. How's that for some sailing lingo? It's not nearly as dirty as it sounds...

In other news, I believe Thursday will be the last day I have Sadie in my custody. I'll be dropping her off at doggy day care place, where she'll stay until she finds a "forever" home. I have mixed feelings, but feel that this is the right decision for both of us. She does seem to enjoy life in my house, but I just can't meet all of her needs, and in the end, she lets me know about it. I will miss her.

Dogs are good for not backing out at the last minute!

This weekend featured not one, not two, but THREE people backing out on me at the last minute. Maybe it's the cell phone, call-from-anywhere culture that we live that makes people think they could just put you off on a moment's notice, but I *really* wish that trend would take a turn in the opposite direction. It's very annoying.

I awoke Saturday morning hoping to show Sadie off to a potential adopter at 8:30am, and then go pick up Vince at 10am to take him to Mercer Island to play a one of my work games/cartridges. However, the guy never showed up for Sadie, and when I came upstairs to check messages, I had a call from Vince saying that he had to mow his dad's lawn, and he was real sorry, and...hmmph. Sadie, during all this, had decided that the toiletbowl had more tasty water than her water bowl. Quite a morning.

I ended up going to Mercer Island anyway with Sadie, to meet up with Raine and his wife, attempting the play the cartridge (which I tested last Monday and it seemed awesome). Unfortunately, some changes were made between then and now which caused the cartridge to fail miserably. Making matters somewhat worse was the fact that I seemed to be the only dog owner actually adhering to the on-leash laws. Sometimes I wish Sadie would just bite one of them, since it's not uncommon for the on-leash dog to be aggressive toward the off-leash dog, and we all know Sadie doesn't need another reason to be aggressive! She enjoyed her swim though (she's getting much more comfortable in the water), so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Sunday morning I had intended to go hike Mailbox Peak with my friend Kevin, but he called to tell me he had been playing soccer the previous day and his knee was sore, and he'd have to back out. So once again, it was Sadie and me headed off to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness for a hike to Pratt Lake (about 12 miles R/T and 3,000 foot gain). This was actually my first hike of the summer, and I figured I could handle it, right? This happened to be the first hike I've ever done solo.

Well, it turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. I guess I'm just horribly out of hiking shape. By the time we reached the lake, I felt like I was done. Sadie, on the other hand was plenty happy to go for a swim (video clip here). Needless to say, hiking with her is more challenging than it is with most dogs, because she growls at just about every person and dog. She has appointed herself to be my protector, I think, and will stop at nothing trying to intimidate anyone we come across. My options in these situations are two: let her rush at the person/dog, barking, or put her on the leash and try to hold her back, as she chokes herself and barks anyway. Trails aren't so wide, though, so most of the time I went with the first option, which resulted in lots of scared people but no injuries. :)



The hike was beautiful, in part because the day was beautiful. It was one of those sunny, 75-80 degree days without a cloud in the sky that never seems to get mentioned much outside of Seattle. Our little secret, I guess. It was wildflower season, which meant that, aside from increased bugs, there were numerous exotic-colored flowers that I didn't take pictures of. We had a beautiful lookout over Olallie Lake toward Mt. Rainier (pictured), and some of the higher peaks still retained patches of snow (the sign of a good winter). We're both very pooped right now, and I was ready to go to bed at 7:30pm. What a day!

For pictures from the hike, click here.

Typical Seattle

Some people think typical Seattle is drizzle and coffee. Some people think it's a bunch of eco-freaks and computer nerds. Those are true, of course :). But I happen to think that one of the things that makes Seattle unique is how strangers you meet in public are so eager to tell you how to do stuff. It's not the same kind of snooty stuff you'd find on the east coast, but rather a genuine care in helping you live a better life. At least that's how it comes off, whether it's telling me I should wear a helmet when biking (what do you care?) or reprimanding me for getting plastic bags at the grocery store (I have a dog and re-use them!). People like to get into your business.

So it came as no surprise that the more yardwork I do, the more people will tell me how I *should* do things. I don't really mind -- I thinks it's funny (and sometimes helpful), so I usually listen. And given that I'm on a corner lot with twice as much frontage as most lots, I get a lot of advice.

Tonight was particularly humorous. I was edging a strip of grass with one of those Luddite manual edgers, and a guy walks by and the conversation goes something like this:

"Do you have a weedeater?"
"No"
"A gas-powered weedeater would have that job done in two minutes. I work for the Parks Department."
"Oh? That's OK, I can't justify it for the two times a year I might use it. Besides, it's good exercise" (it does make me sweat using the manual one)
"Well that's just a waste of your time"

...and he rambles off. Gee, thanks. Maybe I'll run out and get one now.

But here's the funny part. As soon as he left, I called Tracy to tell her about these people (he's not the first), and *while I'm on the phone*, not a minute later, another guy stops his beater car in the traffic circle, leans over to open up his passenger door, and proceeds to lecture me some more. "You should really get an earplug [for the phone]. Low level radiation from cell phones can cause brain damage to good brains like the one you've got. I do research at the University of Washington, and..." By this point I thank him and turn my back to return to work, suppressing my laughter. After all, this is the *second* time in the last month that this guy has stopped to give me a piece of advice while I've been working outside.

Welcome to Seattle.

San Diego Surprise

This past weekend was the only one this summer that Tracy had both Saturday and Sunday off, and therefore presented the best opportunity to maximize our time spent together. She told me about it as soon as she got her schedule, and immediately tried to talk me into coming down. The only problem was, I wasn't really that interested in rushing off again. After spending four days on the water last weekend, and having my hands full with Sadie and two major projects going on in my house, as well as a complete turnover of roommates, I was thinking that my time would be best spent at home, catching my breath a bit.

However, on second thought, I knew that if I didn't go visit this weekend, I might not see her again until a wedding in Chicago in late September. So, unbeknownst to her, I booked a flight down there that fit perfectly around my work schedule so that I didn't have to take any time (which I don't have) or sacrifice time with her. My scheme was to tell her I was going to a movie with Vince on Friday night, calling her right beforehand and saying I needed to go, would it be possible to call back after the movie (my flight)? It couldn't have gone better. She was going out with friends and actually cut ME short, and by the time my flight landed, a message from her said that I had about half an hour left before she was going to bed. A short taxi ride landed me on her front step, but she wasn't answering her phone! I considered breaking in, or buzzing some random person in her apartment building, but then she called me back and all was good. She was genuinely shocked to see me.

The rest of the weekend was gravy. We spent some time on the beach, drove around through some of the neighborhoods to get a feel for the city, had a date night (dinner and a movie), etc. By the time I left, I think I had garnered enough good will so that I won't have to do anything that drastic anytime soon (I was getting in the doghouse for my reluctance to come down!). Ironically, she had flirted with the idea of a last-second trip up to Seattle, but smartly decided that wasn't worth it. It's a good thing, since I didn't really have a contingency plan had she decided to go that route!

Cruising the San Juans

About a year after I planned my big sailing trip to the San Juans, it finally came to fruition this weekend (thanks to a rare 4-day weekend from work). I juggled around about a thousand different itineraries before settling on leaving late Friday night, heading toward Port Townsend for Saturday morning, breaking for breakfast, and then leaving for Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. Once there, we'd play it by ear to see what people wanted.

Night 0:

After dropping off a car in Anacortes (our ride home) the crew gathered at Shilshole at 2200 to load the boat and set sail for Port Townsend. On board were Holly, Chris, Kimmy, Adam B., Kevin, and myself. Fortunately, there wasn't a whole lot of wind, which meant a straight shot under motor (I'm beginning to hate the engine less and less with each passing trip). Clear skies and moderate temperatures were forecast for the whole weekend, and I couldn't be happier. Ask any Seattleite and they'll tell you how summer doesn't start till July 5. The trip up was uneventful for the most part. I stayed up the entire time, and my crew switched in out (people slept when not on watch). The most interesting happening came around 3am or 4am, when I came across Seattle-bound cruise ships in Admiralty Inlet. I spotted the port (red) light on the bow of the first ship, but couldn't believe he was taking such a broad angle down the channel, so I accidentally pointed my boat toward him (in an attempt to elude him). Naturally, he then pointed directly at me, so that I could see both bow lights, and given the his speed, I knew I might be in some trouble. I quickly changed course and headed toward the northbound lane (where I was supposed to be in the first place), and missed him by a few hundred yards. Scary! That's the last time I don't trust the textbook! Shortly thereafter, with Kevin as my watchman, I tried opening up the sails as the wind picked up. During our first tack, we noticed that the jib leech (the back edge) was getting caught on the port side spreader while the rest of the sail tried to come across, creating a large tear. Bad news for the first night out! After pulling the sails in, we headed into Port Townsend without further incident.

Day 1:

After a much needed two-hour nap in Port Townsend, we headed out for breakfast and sail tape before heading back to the boat to repair the sails. Around 1100, we set sail for the San Juans, which meant a crossing of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the channel connecting Puget Sound to the Pacific Ocean. I had never sailed this before, and was a little fearful of what the open-ocean conditions would bring. It turns out my fears were well-founded. After about half an hour of good sailing, we cleared the point and the swells began -- 4 to 6 feet in height, every 3 or 4 seconds. The waves were moving from west to east, and, since we were trying to head north, going directly at our target was not an option (too much rolling). Instead, we had the motor through the waves, first in a northwest direction, and then surf with them in an northeast direction. It seemed to take forever, although in reality it was only about 20 nautical miles and 4-5 hours. Most of my crew was seasick (I was not), and we unanimously decided that it was time to get off the boat for a while as soon as we could. Unfortunately, stuck in the middle of a vast channel without so much as another boat within view, we knew it would be a while. Eventually, the swells settled down considerably about a mile from the entrance to Cattle Pass, our portal to the San Juans that separated San Juan and Lopez Islands. By 5:30, we had safely arrived at Friday Harbor, exhausted, nauseated, and ready for the warm and serene setting that awaited us.

Night 1:

The first thing I wanted to do after we docked was lay down and soak up the sun. Even the cement float that we were tied to was comfortable enough for me, especially since I had slept only two hours the night before. It wasn't nearly as full as I thought it would be, given that it was a holiday weekend. The weather, as it did all weekend, cooperated wonderfully -- mid 70's with a light breeze. Mt. Baker to the east gleamed in the afternoon sun, and L'Attiude's crew went out for a brew pub for dinner and beer. More than one person admitted to feeling like they were still rocking while at dinner -- such is the effect of long sails. After dinner we convened on the dock for some sing-along guitar courtesy of Adam B., before hitting the hay shortly after nightfall.

Day 2:

We began the day with some bagels and a much-appreciated shower at the marina. After pumping out the holding tank and swapping Holly (who needed to work on Monday) for Owen (who took the ferry in from Anacortes), we were once again on the water en route to James Island, which is east of Decatur and Lopez Islands. From our guide books, we learned that James Island is a small, hourglass-shaped marine state park, with boat-in access only. Besides some good trails and campsites, its claim to fame was the bandit raccoons that call it home. This would come into play later in our trip. The sail itself featured on-again, off-again winds, but for the most part we successfully avoided using the engine. We were not fortunate enough to come across any orcas, but we did happen upon a school of porpoises, much to Kimmy's delight. Overall it was a very calm and relaxed sail, in great contrast to the previous day's voyage.

Night 2:

We arrived at the island at about 1700, and rafted up to a motoryacht at the island's dock. Kimmy, Chris, Adam, and Owen then unloaded their camping gear and cookware and moved it over to their campsite, where they'd be spending the night. Kevin and I were to sleep on the boat. Dinner that night featured grilled brats and zucchini, followed up by the obligatory s'mores over the campfire. The setting was awesome, with two eastern facing coves overlooking Cypress Island and Mt. Baker.




Day 3:

Even after all of our sailing/motoring, I was still eager to explore some new territory. So on Monday, after fine breakfast of eggs, bacon, and french toast, Kevin and I set sail for Doe Island, another marine state park about 10 miles to the north, just a stone's throw from Orcas Island. The other four stayed back to hang out on the island, which worked well for everyone. Our route to Doe Island took us through Rosario Strait, about which I had been warned by multiple people. No worries though. The wind was blowing at about 10-15 knots from the south, perfect for our course, and we our destination in just over two hours. Doe Island itself is quite small, and could be circumnavigated in about 10 minutes. Even so, it had a nice small dock to tie up to. Figuring that this would be the closest we'd get to civilization, Kevin and I attempted to get rid of our rapidly accumulating garbage by paddling it over to the Orcas shore. Kimmy and Chris had brought along an inflatable canoe that would transport us. This turned out to be quite an operation. Getting the canoe pumped up was a long and tedious process, and paddling the 50 yards to shore was even more awkward, given the instability of the canoe. Once we made it ashore, we weren't sure where to go with our trash, as it seemed like we were surrounded by water and private property. Kevin asked a woman, who was out on her back deck, where Doe Bay was (our intended target), and apparently we were one bay off, with no possibility of getting there. So we felt stupid as we paddled our trash back to the boat and headed back to James Island in a stiff 15-20 knot southerly.

Night 3:

We arrived back at the dock at 1910, about ten minutes past our intended time, which is great, considering the uncertainty of the winds. There was even dock space available, which seemed like a great idea at the time (we had initially intended to tie up to a mooring ball on the east side of the island, near camp, but after the ordeal with the trash and canoe, decided to play it safe). Dinner consisted of steak kabobs on the grill, and we played board games, guitar, and ate s'mores for the rest of the night. Around 2330, Kevin and I decided to turn in for the night. Upon returning to the boat, we were greeted with an arresting sight. Three raccoons had found there way into the cockpit, and we had to scare them away. Then I realized I had left the window to the aft berth open, and immediately feared the worst. Kevin opened the hatch and confirmed my worries. The raccoons had gotten *everywhere*, and had completely torn apart all of our accumulated trash, leaving eggshells, butter wrappers, etc. strewn all over the floor of the main salon. What a mess! Getting to bed that night took an extra long time, but eventually we got the mess cleaned up enough to sleep.

Day 4:

Our plan for the day was to get up and sail/motor back to Anacortes, about 9 nautical miles east of James Island, and hand the boat over to the next charter at noon. Surprisingly, everything went smoothly -- we fueled up, pumped out, cleaned out the boat, and handed over the keys right on time. I cannot overstate how excellent my crew was on this trip, during the long sails, food preparation, and cleaning up the boat upon our return. I couldn't have picked out a finer group, and I was impressed by their perseverance in some pretty tough conditions.

Overall, it was a splendid weekend. The weather couldn't have been better, the wind was ideal, and despite a few nicks, the boat performed admirably. For what it's worth, I never got to put my anchoring skills into practice, but that made things nice and easy on everyone. I thought this cruise would satisfy my sailing bug to the point where I wouldn't need to do another long trip for a while, but instead, I think it did the opposite. I could've stayed up in the islands for a week, and I'm much more inclined to do a similar trip to the south Sound, which is a lot closer than the San Juans.

For all the pictures from the trip, follow this link

Barry Bonds, a Road Race, and a suprise Playboy

This weekend started off with a trip to Safeco Field to watch Barry Bonds and the S.F. Giants visit the Mariners. My co-worker David invited me, and his girlfriend, Lori, and his Lori's nephew Jeremy joined us. Besides getting great seats (about 20 rows behind the third base dugout), we also got to see the alleged steroid abuser hit, which is always a treat (just ask ESPN, who broadcasts all of his at-bats live during SportsCenter). True to form, Barry hit a long home run to right field in his first at bat. However, in his second at bat he went down swinging, and with the Mariners up a run in the 9th inning with two outs, he came up again and went down looking, much to the delight of the 30,000+ fans in attendance. These fans surprised me by greeting Bonds with a chorus of boos, from an audience that *very* rarely does anything but cheer. Good for them.

Saturday morning got off to a very early start, as I prepared to run my first road race. I was a bit nervous, since I hadn't done running of any type for a few months, and outdoor running even longer ago than that. Thursday morning at the gym I attempted to run on the treadmill, but only succeeded in tweaking my hamstring. Is this a sign that I'm getting old? Maybe being a software developer isn't good for your body. Regardless, I still managed to complete my 5k in just over 30 minutes, much to my delight, and I wasn't in too much pain for the rest of the day. After the race, my group headed over to Fremont to watch the annual Solstice parade (the one with the nude cyclists) and also the USA/Italy World Cup match.

Also over the weekend, I began preparing my basement for being refinished, which involves removing all the 60's-era ceiling tiles (since many had been removed already during the replumbing). On Sunday afternoon, as I was getting to the last few tiles in the back room, I was greeted with a surprise. First, I found a crushed beer can in the rafters. Didn't think anything of it. Then I found some crumpled up newspaper from 1966. I figured that was "insulation" or something. Shortly thereafter, I found a page ripped out from a Playboy, and also an entire July 1968 issue of Playboy, in near pristine condition. Is this normal? Is it some secret tradition to leave items up with you put ceiling tiles on? Who knew Shel Silverstein wrote for Playboy in the 60's? Is it worth tearing off the tiles in my bedroom???

In other news, I have officially decided to make Sadie available for adoption. She's a great dog most of the time, and with proper training would probably be an ideal dog, but it's just too much responsibility for one person right now. She dictates everything I do, and I just haven't been sleeping enough since I got her. I feel better knowing that had I not fostered her, the shelter would have had a very tough decision to make during the first week I had her, when she came down with pneumonia. Needless to say, I wouldn't have let them put her down under any circumstances, but certainly not while she was in my care.