Coming home to the snow in Seattle

My trip home wasn't uneventful, but I got home and that made me happy. The office in Glendale is pretty close to the Burbank (aka Bob Hope International) Airport, so I was able to get there quickly. I had some time to spare, but I couldn't remember my T-Mobile wi-fi hotspot account user name, so I responded to emails off-line.

About thirty minutes before the flight's departure time, people started lining up. Normal practice on South West, but I was flying Alaska. It was weird. And then, in another display of strangeness, they announced that they would load the aircraft from the rear to the front. It makes perfect sense. I was sitting towards the back of the plane, so I got to get on quickly - all those people in line had to step aside.

The airline also announced that our "non-stop flight to Seattle would make an intermittent stop in Sacramento to refuel." Evidently, the winds were high and we needed to take off on a short runway. With the plane as full and heavy as it was, we wouldn't have made it with a full tank of gas. It delayed our flight by about an hour. It sucked, but there were some advantages. Fewer crazies on the streets when we got here.

Listening to the news, I expected it to be a real challenge driving home. It was 19 degrees outside and my MINI needed snow brushed off and the windows scraped. The driver side door handle had frozen shut, so I had to crawl in through the passenger seat. I was happy because I found a watch cap in my trunk and the seat heaters were warm!

The interstates were all clear, but wet - obviously salted or some thing done to keep the ice from forming. As I got closer to Bellevue on 405, there was sometimes a build up of ice between the lanes, but people drove appropriately. It was no big deal.

Once I left the interstate, it was a different story entirely. I don't think the roads in Issaquah or Sammamish were salted, plowed or otherwise. There really were cars just stopped in lanes, abandoned. I even saw a car with tire chains abandoned on the side of the road. I had no issues driving, stopping or turning - my MINI is front wheel drive and that makes a world of difference.

The roads were icy but not undriveable. I can see that school buses would have difficulty and school was canceled again (text message received while I was on the airplane letting me know school was canceled today).

It is supposed to snow more tonight and record lows are supposed to be broken. Ah, this is really winter! I like looking out my window and seeing snow covered bushes, lawn furniture and mountains. I like this.

Snow day!!!

At 4:10 am my phone started ringing, receiving a text message. School is canceled! But darn it, I'm not there!

I understand it was pretty nasty at home yesterday - it took over 2 hours to get home from swim practice last night. I hear that there is over 8" of snow at my house!

I hope they stay warm and enjoy the snow.

Post holiday travel

This was written in my Moleskine while waiting for my flight to Burbank to take off.

Since we moved to Seattle (and kept my job in Oakland), I have started to travel quite a bit. Today, I begin a series of trips. For the next three weeks, Monday, Tuesday and sometimes Wednesday, I'll be somewhere else.

But with all this traveling, I've begun to notice some things about my fellow travelers.

Usually, the first flight of the day is primarily business travelers. Sure, try to carry as much in a carry on as possible, but they are ready or laptop screening or already have their gels, liquids and toothpaste in a ziploc bag. They move through security quickly. They get on the plane and pull out the Wall Street Journal or Fortune magazine.

This trip is right after Thanksgiving weekend. These travelers are different. I'm on the first flight to Burbank, Monday morning and this plane is full of college students going back to school. College students have the same gadgets as business travelers, but the security lines are slower. Instead of business publications, it is text books: Introduction to Neuro Science, Italian Songs and Arias. Instead of leather briefcases, it is nylon backpacks and messenger bags.

This trip was oversold - something I haven't seen in a while (since my last ill fated trip right before the Fourth of July). Unlike what I've seen on Airplane, the guy who was bumped was polite and understanding as he was moved to standby on another oversold flight. Considering that he was at the end of the jetway, almost on the play, his behavior was pretty exemplary.

As we wait for de-icing, the plane has a certain quietude to it, sort of like a library: the rustle of papers, an occasional quiet whisper. Which decays as we roll into 15 minutes late for departure.

Remember the Milk integrated with Google Calendar

Remember the Milk has been my to-do list manager of choice for a while now. It has some really great features:

• Reminders by Instant Message, email, text message
• Multiple lists with priorities
• Create to-dos via email or text message
• Share or send tasks to others
• Publish your task list via RSS or iCal
• Supports the use of tags on tasks
• Tasks can be associated with URLs or locations and laid on top of a Google Map
  

It easily integrates with Getting Things Done and I use this service on a daily basis. On top of all that, it is free. On a daily basis, I live and die by my RTM task lists.

But they have taken it one step further. Google Calendar has some functionality to display web content. Google has created some calendars that show the weather for your location or the phase of the moon. Emily, Omar and Bob T Monkey at RTM have just released RTM for Google Calendar. It uses one of these web content calendars to show your tasks that are due on a particular day.

It gets even better than that! You can add and complete tasks as well! From the looks of it, it is based upon their recently released Google Gadget for the Google personal homepage or Google Desktop sidebar.

Remember the Milk is an excellent Web 2.0 task list. Though still in beta, it performs excellently and the team keeps adding new functionality and is quick to provide support! I can claim identifying at least one bug.

I recommend this service. You should use it. Google should buy it and integrate it into their services.

Thanksgiving day re-re-visited

We had a free turkey from Safeway.com!
So we did it again tonight; turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing. It was an abbreviated Thanksgiving day.

It is still snowing!

So, it has been snowing since about 4:30pm. The snow flakes are pretty big and it doesn't look like it is going to let up. I'm going to the airport tomorrow morning, so we'll have to see how it is then (maybe I'll get a mo-blog off).

But the kids are enjoying it!


Here is a longer one! And for those of you privacy minded (paranoid) this one isn't in the public search! How about that!

Keeping the reflexes honed

Chase: Dad, I want to show you something upstairs.
Me: Okay, let me grab my coffee.

Chase leads me upstairs. Up the stairs strewn with stuff they have thrown about.

Me: I hope you don't want to show me the dirty stairs.
Chase: Lets out small laugh

As we reach the top of the stairs, the boys leap out from the either side of the landing, armed with light sabers. Only then, I realize the thing that she was carrying was a samurai sword.

Quickly, I put my coffee down and grab the arm of the littlest one. I can use him to block their attacks, while I disarm him, so that I can begin the best defense - an offense.

My skills as a swordsman allow me to drive off the three attackers and give them the admonition, "It is okay to ambush me. Just don't let me bring my coffee and make sure I am armed."

Yes, this is my house.

Postscript: As we walked back from the after Thanksgiving games, our kids ran ahead and turned down our street before my wife and I made it. I noticed the littlest one, darting from bush to cars in driveway, using cover and concealment and 3 to 5 second dashes to get to our house. I'm not sure who he was maneuvering on or if he was moving tactically to remain hidden from us, but he is practicing good techniques. Start young!

We've had snow!

For the last two days, when I wake up, there has been snow on the ground at our house. Not a measurable amount, but only collecting on the colder parts of the ground (no grass, on top of the shed, etc.).

This is interesting, for our second winter, because this time around it is all happening earlier.

But in true Seattle fashion, it is here one minute and gone the next. The snow will have melted by 10 am and most likely the sun will come out.

Yesterday, I left the house at 7:45 to take Alec to swim practice in Kent. By the time I was half way there, the roads were dry and I wished I had brought my sunglasses. Such is life in the Northwest!

Today, it is quite windy. Hopefully, trees stay upright, the roads stay open and the power stays on!

Help defend me from false claims of libel

My wife has made public claims that I have libeled her, by writing that her Sweet Potatoes were actually Sweet Potato Casserole.

The Free Dictionary has the following definition:

cas·se·role (ks-rl)n.

1.

a. A dish, usually of earthenware, glass, or cast iron, in which food is both baked and served.

b. Food prepared and served in such a dish.

Is this blue dish a casserole?
We're putting this one to the people of the internet! Help defend me! Feel free to comment here or on the accuser's blog.

Zagat guide for Seattle

I am a big fan of the Zagat's surveys. No, it isn't about listening to the voice of the people; I think that the Zagat's survey's are good honest reviews. My opinions are similar to the that of the combined reviewer, so I must have something in common with the Zagat demographic.

One of the many things that excited me about moving to Seattle was that it had its own Zagat guidebook. I'm pretty good about reviewing restaurants that I've been too. And I'm not ashamed to admit it, I like the fact that participants in their surveys get a free copy of the guide for the area that they reviewed.

Over the years, I've gotten the San Francisco and Seattle editions. This year, they didn't publish a Seattle guide. In one way, that makes me sad, sad that there aren't enough participants or restaurants reviewed to make a full guide book. But on the other hand, they sent America's Top Restaurants instead. I'm okay with that. I've been doing some more traveling lately, so having a more encompassing guide book is attractive.

But get out there residents of the Northwest! Review restaurants on zagat.com. Even if you do it for the free book! There is such great food here in the Northwest.

Thanksgiving

We had a very nice Thanksgiving Day, shared with lots of friends. And when I say lots, I mean on the scale of what our family gatherings were when we were in California.

We were invited to some friends' (made by way of kids in the same class) house, then to the movies (warning: movie spoilers included) and then to another family's house for dessert and games.

We shared the dinner preparations; Heather and I brought Risotto with Butternut Squash Pancetta and Jack Cheese, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato Casserole and Pumpkin pies. The rest of the nice dinner was prepared by the Sansings.

It was never my family's tradition to go to the movies after Thanksgiving dinner, but it was Heather's and evidently the Sansing's as well. I now understand why it makes a good tradition - two dessert courses.

Usually, I would eat a gigantor dinner and then a gigantor dessert and then I would just want to roll into a corner and take a nap. This time, I ate a gigantor dinner, followed by a moderate dessert and then a break for the movie. Then, I was able to come back for a second dessert after the break. Twice as much dessert!

We went to see Happy Feet as our break movie. The first half of the movie was pretty cute, about Mumbles the penguin was different (he couldn't sing and couldn't find his heartsong, but boy could he dance). Then it started to get dark and environmental and political as Mumbles went on his quest to find the aliens who were taking all the fish. Mumbles even ends up in a zoo after floating up on the beach in front of an oil refinery. It got dark enough that I was really wondering how they were going to get back to the cute penguins and finish the kid story.

After the move we went to another house and there were easily 50 people and kids there. There were tons of desserts and I didn't see my kids from the moment they walked in until they were told dessert was going to be put away.

I met a whole lot of new and friendly people and even played adult games. No, not adult games, but games with adults! No Hi Ho Cherry O here!

One of the really nice things about the day was getting to see other people's houses. Our house is pretty plainly painted on the interior, all white walls, white carpet. It is nice to see what other people have done in terms of earthy reds, greens and yellows on the walls. I think that this has also helped us decide that we want to replace our kitchen counter tops with granite. Yep, that is quite an expensive project, but we are thinking about it seriously. I'm sure it will turn into a blogging series.

Happy Thanksgiving to every one!

Tea and sweaters

I'm getting old! Or, if you ask my wife, I'm turning into my parents.

Since it has started to get cold, I've begun to wear sweaters. I have desires to drink tea instead of espresso.

I was bummed out at the last pre-school meeting because there was some Chai, but I didn't get to have any because we shortened the break time.

This morning, I had some espresso when I sat down to work, but promptly decided I wanted some chai tea. Strange.

Or maybe it is just winter time and I'm compensating for the cooler weather.

Confessions and coercion

I haven't ran in a week and a half. It started the previous weekend; we stayed up too late and didn't have Alec come to swim practice last Tuesday. I slept i and that was the breaking point. This morning, it was raining and I just didn't feel like it.

That is my problem. I like to run but sometimes I just lack the motivation to get out and do it. Then, I take advantage of the little things (like the rain or the lack of sleep) to get out of it.

That's my confession.

I know I won't be running on Thursday either. There are pies to be made and risotto and more. We'll be sharing Thanksgiving with some of our friends in the neighborhood, so I'll need to run afterwards...

On to the coercion part:

Last night, I went with Heather to the monthly co-op preschool meeting. I volunteered to go with her (maybe with the hope that we'd go out for coffee afterwards). During the meeting, the teacher leaned over to me and asked me, "How did you get coerced into coming here?"

Heather was at the meeting and sure, there were only Mom's there (the lone father who was attending the meeting came late).

No coercion here!

I must be careful

Now that Heather blogs, my every action and innuendo is available for public scrutiny. Btw, other than the boobie flash I didn't get lucky this morning.

--

Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

It's a record week!

Because I get up so early, I was able to get a jump on a blog review/comment of a new Google feature. This time, my blog posting actually linked to the Google Blog entry and it made it on the trackback list.

Having my posting there brought me record amounts of traffic. I had 69 pageviews, just on Thursday! If only I could get 69 every day!

So far, this week is topping out at 123 visitors and they didn't all read one page and leave! Four people actually read my post about Google and read other pages! I'm pretty excited about that. Maybe I can covert 1 of them into a regular reader... Well, I can hope.

On the other neat factoid, these visitors came from all over the world! The United States, Canada, the UK, Israel, Australia, Germany, Austria, Philippines, Malaysia and India all were represented in my visitors. That in it self is pretty neat.

To the early bird go the visits!

Civic processes

The city in which I live has been planning on building a Town Center for a while (in strategic plan from 2002) and is now in the public feedback portion of their development plan. Last night, I attended a public meeting to discuss... something - maybe the amount of retail space and the potential sales tax revenue. I dunno.

By the way, the Director of Community Development, Kamuron Gurol, is an excellent facilitator. I was impressed how he was able to respectfully answer people's questions even when he didn't have an answer or was walking back in the process many steps. I had a flash back to high school civics when he was explaining the length of the public feedback process to some woman.

But I digress. I really wasn't there for the Town Center project. My wife is somewhat interested and involved with it. I was there because we were planning on going out to coffee afterwards. Now that is a way to get people involved with civic processes - tempt them with hot dates with hot women!

It turns out that Sammamish rolls up the sidewalks at night. At 9:30 pm, most everything was closed! So, we'll try again for a date, but this time not one involving civic processes!

She's gone and done it now!

My wife, Heather, finally did it! No, we didn't try out that freaky new position in the latest Cosmo, she started a blog!

I've been suggesting that she blog for a while, because she has an outlook, which is sometimes funny, sometimes inflammatory, and always all her own - all of which contribute to good blogging.

You can also tell we are related. On her first day of blogging, she talks about pooping, much like I spoke about being regular. And as you will read there, some of the things I have made comments about, she has commented on (or even planted the seed).

Welcome to the world of blogging, Heather! I love you.

Now, instead of watching TV together, we can blog together. Isn't that romantic?

Now if only I can get her into texting and IM....

Google's done it again - click to call

Google has introduced one more neat feature on Google Maps - Click to Call!
Read about it here. And try it out - it really works.

There are several services like this, JaJah is one that charges a small fee to connect your phone to somebody else's (but does it internationally). This is a great step in telephony and computing and just being connected.

Already, through VOIP, if you call my work phone, it gets forwarded to my home office and simultaneously rings on my cell phone. With instant messaging, VPN and wi-fi, any place with internet and cell phone connection is just the same as my office.

I don't use any soft-phone service like Skype, but I am tempted. I still like being able to walk away from my computer and through a smaller more portable device (like my cell phone) still be connected.

Google recently launched Java based Gmail client for phones and it works on my phone. They also just released Google Maps for mobile devices. They both work great, although I need a bigger data plan.

This is what Web 2.0 and 3.0 are going to turn into. Sweet.

Power is back!!!

Update: Heather just called me to say that the power is back.

Now it brings up an interesting question? Will they un-cancel school? They've communicated the closure via email newsletter and the school district website...

I think that they can't un-cancel it.

Power outage!!!

Yesterday, I spent the day at the MINI dealer (Northwest MINI) with my car in service. It wasn't bad (the day) because I was able to work at the dealership. Not working on cars, but they have wi-fi in their customer waiting area and several desks at which to work. They even drove me to a restaurant to pick up lunch. About 4 pm, I was out of there, my credit card debt a lot higher and my MINI all fixed up.

There were several things that needed some fixing, so it added up. But that's not what all this is about. That was just setting the stage.

Evidently, the power at my house went out at about 1:30 pm, yesterday. When I got home, after waiting at swim practice, the power was still out. This was at 8 pm. I had talked to Heather and she asked me to bring home something fast for dinnner. The main road in was also closed because trees were down, mingled with power lines.

We ate by candle light and shortly there after went to bed.

Because I was out all day, my cell phone had died and my laptop battery was low. Both of these, I was planning on charging at home! I have a watch, that I rarely wear, that had an alarm. I have never used the alarm on it before, so I'm a little wary of trusting it to wake up.

The power was still out when I woke up at 5 am. I heated some water for Heather and the kids on my backpacking stove so they could have hot oatmeal or coffee instead of just warm oatmeal or coffee. We headed out to swimming - where I knew the power to be on - 3 cities east of us. The road was still closed, but the power was on on Mercer Island.

I'm writing this post from here and charging my cell phone while I wait.

The power is out at my kid's school (it is right in our neighborhood, so on the same power lines). While poking around on the web, I found a really cool school emergency notification system. It is the Public Schools Emergency Communication System and seems to be somehow affiliated with SchoolReports.org. They show emergency information for school districts and have email and pager/text message notification! Pretty cool! Our school is closed today!

I'm going to have to figure out how to work today (or if I really need to work today - I haven't checked my calendar yet). There is wi-fi at the library, some stores in Issaquah and yes, of course Starbucks.

It will be an adventure.

I'm so proud

For two days in a row, when I've woken up my 4 year old (5 in January, for perspective), he has gotten out of bed and started to make his bed! He has also taken off his pajamas and put them in his laundry basket!

For the quality control people, yes, two days doesn't make a trend, but it starts one!

Cascade Ridge Veterans Day Assembly

At my kid's elementary school, there was a Veteran's Day Assembly today. It was a nice assembly, the kids sang patriotic songs, read some writings about why they are proud to be Americans, and honored veterans by singing the service songs.

There were 8 veterans representing the Army, Air Force and Navy, and they all had some connection to the school, either parents or grand parents. As one of the parents/veterans, it was a nice display. The kids all performed very nicely.

It also made me think of a lot of things. Firstly, my wife had mentioned that this would never have happened in California. Sad, but I agree with her. Our schools never did, but I also think that the political climate is different in California. Secondly, whenever I hear the "patriotic" songs, it makes me think of all the people I know and I don't know who have served. Sure, I served, but I was in a peace time army, nestled between the Gulf War and current war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have an understanding, and maybe a better understanding of what our soldiers are doing, but I still don't know. But what I do know, is that it is tough, dirty and requires a lot of sacrifice, both on the personal front and for all of their loved ones.

I'm glad I live in a country where we are free. We have so many things, things that we see as everyday, that others don't have.

To those who have served, thank you.

Integration with other Google products

I wrote and tried to post this from with in Google Documents and Spreadsheets when I originally wrote it.

Today, after writing about some funny news article, blogger told me that they now support posting from Google Docs and Spreadsheets! So, this is the test of it. If you are reading this, it means it was successful. If it isn't succesful, I'm not going to re-write this (or copy and paste).

Gmail just added the feature to be able to open spreadsheet attachments with Google Docs and Spreadsheets! Nice feature, no need to download to my PC and then open them with Excel upload to Docs and Spreadsheets to view them.

I like how Google (and other Web 2.0 businesses) continue to add new features to their products. This is a good development in software evolution. Who wants to wait 4 or 5 years for the next version? Why not add features incrementally?

Now, they need a better name for Docs and Spreadsheets - I've written it too many times in this posting.

This is a way to collect taxes

Dancing eunuchs taxing red-faced shopkeepers

Check this out. This is some way to collect back taxes. It sounds like state sponsored sexual harassment. It is a strange world.

Now the thing that I find most interesting...

Eunuchs are still common in India, where they live in closed-knit communities. Some are castrated men but others are transsexuals and hermaphrodites who have been ostracized by their families.

Also known as hijras, they are widely feared and move around towns and cities in groups and demand money on occasions such as marriage or the birth of a child. They are believed to have occult powers.

So, in all actuality, the government hired a bunch of thugs (or at least people that inspire fear) to go out and induce people to pay up.

In the US - black helicopters, windowless vans, SWAT teams kicking down your door.
In India - bands of eunuchs.

Get your quivering beaver at Burger King!

This post is rated PG. Although, there is adult humor cleverly concealed in here.

Some times, when you go to a really fine restaurant, the food can be described as causing intense emotional excitement.

That same experience can be reached at Burger King. Yeah, that guy looks kind of creepy, but hey, he must do it for somebody.



This is the promotional toy for Open Season, some new animal themed movie. I want to know what the moose will do!

I have an innie

It took some coaxing. I have an innie belly button and it took some coaxing for it to want to make an internet appearance.

The belly button now works as it should!

Don't stick your finger in my belly button

Evidently there are sites where you can create your own buttons.
Here is my button and my belly button. Yes, this is really a link to my belly button. Every time you push it,. it makes me feel weird.The link goes to the site that helped me create it, but it is really all about how the cursor changes.

Edit: I posted this really quickly, because I had to rush my kid off to swim practice.
Here are some more links:
Button maker
Steal These Buttons!
Brilliant Button Maker

Thanks omninaif and Helen for turning me on to these sites!

Wishing it were the weekend

When my alarm went off this morning, I started to think through what I needed to do today and if I could afford to snooze the alarm (for 7 minutes). I thought about how I needed to wash the kids soccer uniforms for their games, how the soccer games didn't overlap and the games weren't until 11 o'clock or so.

No need for me to get up right away.

I went back to sleep for my 7 minutes and when the alarm went off the second time, I realized it was Friday, not Saturday morning.

Drat.

And so, I'm up.

Yogurt and Granola

I enjoy granola with yogurt for breakfast. You may call it a little European, but there are quite a few other European things that I like too.

But granola does not go well with Pina Colada yogurt. Berry yogurt, yes. Peach, yes. Pina Colada, no. And I bet it doesn't go with lemon either. Or Strawberry Kiwi.

Special sandwiches

Yesterday, I met my wife and youngest at Pine Lake Park for a picnic lunch. She picked him up from pre-school and I made lunch. Not a great lunch, but I made special sandwiches.

Let's travel back a few more days, back to Saturday, the day of soccer games. Soccer games come with snacks. Snack on this day was a Smucker's Uncrustable, a strange, obviously crust-less, peanut butter and jelly sandwich sort of shaped like a ravioli. They were interesting in that neither the peanut butter nor the jelly squeezed out of them when you bit into them. My wife thought that they were strange, why not just make your own peanut butter sandwich. But after she had some of it, she said that they were special in that they had peanut butter on both sides of the bread-like substance.

Return to lunch yesterday with me.

Yes, there is peanut butter underneath the jelly. I did this on both sides of the bread, doesn't it look tasty? I don't think that the picture does it justice.

My apologies if this picture appear six times on my blog later this evening. I took the photo with my phone and tried to send it moblog style, but it didn't work. With just my luck all copies will eventually catch up, even the one I sent to my Remember The Milk to d0 list!

It's fall, no winter!!

This morning, as I headed to Mercer Island for my kid's swim practice and running (and this really won't be a running post, although I did run further this morning), I noticed that it was very fall like. Trees were turning colors and leaves were blowing in the morning breeze. It was quite beautiful. I was hoping to enjoy it more after the sun rose.
It was lightly sprinkling by the time I got back from running. By the time I pulled Alec out of practice, it was really raining. It rained for the rest of the morning (but it appears to have lightend up or stopped, as I look out the window right now).
So, I guess winter is here. In Alaska, fall would last about two weeks (which I never saw because I was always deployed someplace for those two weeks). Evidently in Seattle, it just barely lasts a day.
And thank goodness that I replaced my windshield wipers earlier this week!

Dinner with Erik

Tonight, after the swim meet (both kids did very well again), we met Erik, one of my college room mates, for dinner. He was here at the beginning of his annual hockey road trip. We went to I Love Sushi in Bellevue and had an enjoyable dinner, but it was the company that made it enjoyable.
The food was surprisingly sub-par. The restaurant has excellent presentation (I really like the Caterpillar roll, it looks like a giant fuzzy caterpillar), but the food just didn't have that regular, good taste. The edamame just weren't fresh. The service was sub-par, our waitress would disappear for lengths of time. The kids were not on their best behavior. I still don't understand how they spilled the glass of ice... in Heather's shoe.
On the good side, it was great to catch up with Erik. It has been about a year since we've seen him and though I read his blog and he reads mine and we email and IM periodically, it is great to talk in person.



We talked for a long time, probably part of what pushed the kids over the edge. It even got so far that Chase ate the eyeballs off the tempura shrimp heads so that we would leave. She ate three eyeballs!
This is where it goes downhill. If you are sensitive of stomach, please stop reading here.
Through out dinner, my tummy was getting rumbly. By the time I got home, I needed to get to the bathroom. Badly. Evidently, I could be heard through the wall.
I finished up and came to my computer to start this entry and my daughter came and grabbed me by the hand and dragged me upstairs to my crying youngest son. He, too, had a similar upset stomach, except he didn't get seated in time.
I don't know if this was due to Quizno's at lunch or not so fresh sushi for dinner. I guess we'll find out, based upon whether our lunch mates or dinner mate has similar results. As I go to bed, my wife is telling me her stomach is beginning to feel burbly. Not good.
Good night!

How to tamp for espresso

I really enjoy espresso and if I had a little cash, just laying around, I would have more MINI mods and a new espresso maker. But I digress, as I am oft to do.

I periodically read CoffeeGeek, a website targetted at lovers of all things coffee. They target both the professional barista, home consumer and that in-between pro-sumer categories.

With some of the project work I've been doing, I've been going into the office a lot recently, where there is a lovely, little used manual espresso maker. When I first moved to Seattle, I downloaded the manual and learned how to use the machine. I was never successful at making good coffee. It was drinkable, sometimes. I mastered the mechanics of making espresso, but not the art. With my trips into the office and working with new people on my team, I was able to get an education on the art points.

We have a new demand planning diretor, Chris, who is a pretty good guy (good taste in music, enjoys coffee and has a tech geek leaning in him). It turns out that he too enjoys coffee and has a manual machine at home. I took advantage of his presence and got him to show me how to tamp - something I knew to be my weakness.

My shots had a dramtic improvement just from his lessons (it turns out that I was seriously over-tamping).

The ironic thing is that CoffeeGeek had recently published an article on tamping. And many of the points that Chris offered up are in this same article.

I like irony.

Boy did I feel dumb

On Saturday's in the fall, we have soccer games. As you might recall, I am the coach for both my oldest son's and daughter's soccer teams. But swimming season has also begun, which they both participate in as well. And as you can guess, there was a conflict this weekend. It wasn't really tough to overcome, but I screwed it up.

Warm ups for swim meets usually start at 8 am. Back that up for finding parking, getting to the pool, getting the stuff you need to entertain yourself and your non swimming kids, eating breakfast, and dragging kids out of bed that means that a swim meet day starts just about as early as a work day.

The boys soccer game was in the middle of the first day of the swim meet (I forgot to mention that, didn't I - some are two days), so we took two cars and I would go to the soccer game with out my son, since he was swimming. No problems here, I left the pool right on time and got to the field on time for soccer warm ups.

The soccer game was a great game. The boys really worked on playing their positions and it payed off. We were playing on a dirt field and I don't think they like it very much, but maybe this game will help them overcome that. I called my wife after the game and found out that the swim meet was done and she was going shopping to find a birthday present for a party our youngest was going to.

We were supposed to be at the girls' field at 1:30 for a 2 pm game. Heather didn't think that there was enough time to buy birthday stuff and eat lunch at home before we had to leave, so we decided to meet at Chipotle. I was supposed to go home and get my daughter her soccer gear and meet them there. This is where things started to go down hill.

I get home without incident and took off my soccer cleats before going inside. With this being fall soccer in the rainy North West, cleats get muddy or help pick up the cut grass, depending if you are playing on dirt or grass. My wife frowns (rightly so) on either of those substances in the house. My daughter's soccer stuff was right where she told me it would be and I zipped back out to Chipotle. It turns out, I left my cleats at home. Mess up #1.

I went to Chipotle and they weren't there yet. I found them shopping still and finished out the trip with them. I took the booster seat so that I could take my daughter to soccer and asked if she wanted to change in the bathroom in the restaurant. She wanted to change in the car. Mess up #2, but I didn't realize it at the time.

We had a nice lunch and I though I needed to leave at 1:20 to get to the field, which was pretty close. Everything went smoothly and we got the field just before 1:30. My daughter changed in the car and we walked out to the field. I walked up to the other coach and he said he wasn't the one we were playing and asked if we were at the right field. I thought I would wait for people to show up, but by now it was 1:35 but the kids and parents are timely.

I checked my Google Calendar reminder and learned that I was at the wrong field! Mess up #3. And there was only a slight chance that I would make it to the other field before 2pm. We run back to my MINI and as I'm driving, calling the team parents. Unfortunately, the roster I carry around with me only has home numbers (mess up #4). Luckily, one of the families also list their mobile number on their home answering machine. I called her, but she had dropped off her husband (without mobile phone) and daughter at the game. She was closer to the field than I and offered to return to let them know that I really was on my way.

We got to the game at about 1:56 and sprinted to the field. The parent's told me they were all warmed up and ready to go. I assigned positions and put the girls on the field and the ref came to me and asked if I had a pinnie for the goalie. I did, but they were in the car. Mess up #5. I sprinted back to the car and grabbed a jersey. On the good side, I don't really think that the game started late (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

The girls game was great and the ref was really good (It is nice to have a ref that cares at the younger kid's games). The ref was probably also a good role model because she was a teenage girl still playing soccer.

So, amidst my mess ups, which count 5, there were some good points. My son's swim meet went very well and both soccer games went well. In the end, all's well, that ends well, right?

Before and After

Before, originally uploaded by beau.raines.

Today, we changed out the chandelier in our dining room. The one that came with the house just wasn't our style. I'm no design expert, but I think it falls into the Rococo style and that just isn't our thing.
It was quick to take the chandelier down and assemble the new one, but the chain was a pain in the neck. Heather wanted to do the chain links and they were tough. I think that is what happens when we go from a brass chain to a nickel chain.

After, originally uploaded by beau.raines.

I wired it quickly (without shockng myself, either) and we were back in business. I think that the new one looks much nicer than the old one.

Running on Sunday!

It was sprinkling and overcast at 7 o'clock this morning, but I went anyways. There weren't as many people out as last Sunday. I ran 2.7 miles today.
It is almost ingrained into my schedule - run on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday!

Running, day 3

Today, I ran 3.455 miles (thank you again, Gmaps Pedometer).
I found a better route on Mercer Island, where I can run most of the way on a trail with some lighting and no cars. I only have to run about a third of a mile on unlighted streets in the shoulder. What an improvement.

Buh bye, Writely

Google recently acquired Writely (if I were a true journalist, I would specify the date and the amount of the purchase) and under the cover of darkness two nights ago, released a new service Documents and Spreadsheets. This new service combines Google Spreadsheets and Writely documents all into one portal.

I really like Google's venture into the web based applications with Spreadsheets and Writely. I think that they provide some great opportunities for collaboration - I've used them to publish soccer team rosters and some required documents for games. It makes it easy for the other coaches to have the same set of documents that I do, with out having to email them back and forth. Think of disk space savings, when we all look at the same document online.

Some changes

1. Consolidated user interface - all in the Google blue and white scheme
2. One web portal for all documents
3. The ability to tag documents has been added to Spreadsheets. I really like tagging and find it to be superior to folders. I bet I could write a whole blog posting on that. Maybe...

This is cutting edge, the web based Office 2.0 applications and I think that this evolution of the Internet will be pretty neat. There have been several articles on ZDNet about the ubiquity of Internet access, offline access to web based apps, and more. This is the future.

Lunch of champions

Been on the phone since 7:30 this morning.

Feeling athletic

Let's see. My last post was October 3rd, a week ago. My to do list has the task "Going commando blog posting." I have some catching up to do.

We just moved the kids to a different swim team, King Aquatics, for a variety of reasons (none of which will be covered here). This has resulted in a significant number of schedule changes and revisions to how we live our lives.

I am coaching my kids' soccer teams (yep, soccer and swimming) and for a week, swim practice conflicted with soccer practice. Heather would take the kids to swimming and I went on to practice. On the day of the first afternoon practice, I got ready for soccer (cleats, socks, soccer shorts, spandex shorts under the soccer shorts for comfort, and a t-shirt). I was half way to practice when my wife calls that Alec had forgotten to pack his swim suit. Pack his swim suit, you ask? The kids were picked up from school, having supposedly already gotten their swimming stuff ready. Unfortunately, turning around and going home wasn't an option, because they would be late for Chase's practice. So, the troubleshooter I am, I offered up my spandex shorts to Alec to stand in for his jammers. Helen, how does that fit into re-wearing rules?

They decided to try out that plan and I did a last minute lane change and took my shorts off in the Fred Meyer's parking lot to hand them off to Alec. So, for those of you who don't play strip poker or aren't keeping track, now I was down cleats, socks, soccer shorts, and a t-shirt. Everything was covered and decent, but less comfortable. Plus I had that fear and I would kneel down to tie some little girl's shoe that I would be exposing myself to them. And then, I was worried about how late the boys practice runs and I just lost one layer for when the sun starts to set and a chill sets in.

Luckily for me, there were no indecent exposures and it didn't cool off too much. Luckily for Chase, she wasn't late for practice. Unfortunately for Alec, the shorts were too big for him. Unfortunately for Alec, the board shorts that were recovered from the lost and found, were still too big for him.

Another change that has come with swimming for King is morning practices. Now, at first glance, it doesn't seem to be a big deal because this year, school starts really late. Except that it is a 25 minute drive to the pool and then however much time (averaging 8 minutes) in the locker room and practice is at 6 am. So, now on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I am on Mercer Island just before 6 am. Heather comes shortly after with Chase and the rest of the crew, but do the math. 6am Mercer Island. 5:25 departure from house. 5 am wake up with time for my morning chores. Earlier if I continue on to work and have to be presentable.

So, I've decided to turn that morning time into running time. This is where more of the athletic feeling comes in. This week, I ran on Sunday (at home, not Mercer Island) for 2.2 miles. Today, I ran 2.7 miles. It is a great way to fill that time in the morning! I'm not opposed to running in the dark (it is strangely reminiscent of my time in the Army, running before the sun comes up). However, the roads on Mercer Island are twisty, narrow and have tiny shoulders, if at all. I need to acquire some more reflective materials and find some convenient routes there.

I plotted out a route (thank you Gmaps Pedometer - a google maps mash up for route measuring) and unfortunately, I neglected to look at the elevation gains. I found a nice route, except it was far too steep for day 2 of getting back into running.

I plan on continuing this and hopefully I can get back in shape! I'll keep you posted.

Hot Starbucks cups

See the find print? Her nipples are showing. Hot.

It's a scary world

The news lately has been full of bad news about school shootings lately.

The Guardian Unlimited provided a list and here is the excerpt of the last six weeks. Six weeks, can you believe it?

- Oct. 2, 2006: A gunman took about a dozen girls hostage, killing at least three of them, at a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County, police said. The shooter was among the dead, and a number of people were injured.

- Sept. 29, 2006: 15-year-old Eric Hainstock brought two guns to a school in rural Cazenovia, Wis., and fatally shot the principal, a day after the principal gave him a disciplinary warning for having tobacco on school grounds, police said.

- Sept. 27, 2006: Duane Morrison, 53, took six girls hostage at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colo. Morrison, sexually assaulting them and using them as human shields for hours before fatally shooting one girl and killing himself.

- Aug. 24, 2006: Christopher Williams, 27, went to an elementary school in Essex, Vermont, looking for his ex-girlfriend, a teacher. He couldn't find her and fatally shot one teacher and wounded another, police said. Williams also killed his ex-girlfriend's mother, according to authorities. He shot himself twice in the head after the rampage and was arrested.

This isn't a case for gun control - we've got restrictions placed and they aren't working. But whatever it is, it is a little scary.

But this is the world in which we live - Domestic terrorism, wars, child abuctions, and more unpleasantry - but regardless of that, we still need to do what we need to do to be happy, safe and productive. That's what helps us all drive on in this world.

Red flyer

How could I not buy this bottle?

The return of moblogging

When Blooger went beta, moblogging was a feature that was lost. Recently they announced that it was back. This is the test of its return.

It will be nice to post (and pics, too!) from my phone again

--

Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Edit: Um, I got burned by the fact that my Razr will make a long message into two text messages. Unfortuantely blogger only recieves it as one message. I had to edit this post and retype about half of it. Oh, well. It is still good for a pic and brief text!

Resurrection Weekends

Those that know me really know I like to listen to music.

Back in college, when I was going to sleep earlier than my room mate, the music would still be going. I'd fall asleep to KMFDM's Money that I'm afraid it might trigger that same response today. I don't own that album out of that fear.

We would also set one particular track of the Warlock Pinchers on repeat and head down to the Dining Commons. We lived on the eighth floor and you could hear it from the bottom. We were some of those people that contribute to people wanting to leave the dorms.

I've been using a computer for years and when streaming audio first came out, I couldn't understand why someone would want to listen to music on their computer - they should be listening on their stereo. Better amplification and speakers and all that.

Then, I started working and bandwidth (in the Army) was precious, so they encouraged us to not use streaming media. I started then to rip music to my computer. Not alot, but enough to keep me satisfied during the day.

When I first worked for Dreyer's, my cinderblock office had no windows and no radio reception. As I write this, I also recall that my office had a lake (the Clean Out of Place room shared a wall with me and on Wednesday mornings, it would leak under the wall into my office). My Army experience came in handy here, I would deftly mop it up... But back to music. At Dreyer's I started to rip more and more music. Then things like mp3 players started coming out.

Now a days, my entire music collection is digital. Everything has been moved to computer (able to stream to the stereo) and I'm a big iTunes/iPod fan (even being a Windoze user). My iPod holds my entire collection (and there is still about 20GB free for future additions) and I buy all my music on iTunes now.

It is rare that I go someplace without my iPod. I've got iPod integration (ice>Link Plus) in my MINI, I've got iPod speakers on my desk and a docking station to run it through my home audio system.

I hardly listen to broadcast radio any more. Except for Saturdays. The local alternative (or whatever the genre is called), The End, has resurrection weekends.

This morning, I've heard 88 Lines about 44 Women, Dancing with Myself, Holiday in Cambodia, Never Say Never. The Smiths, They Might Be Giants, Blondie. Just great music. A lot of the music lives on my iPod, but just the weekend's show putting it all in one place makes listening to the DJ's blather and the ads worth it.

It's a new season!

The weather is changing in Seattle. It has cooled off and has rained for most of the week. But that isn't the season I'm talking about. Plus, it looks like it will be nicer this weekend.

The new Fall TV season kicked off this week.

So far, there are really only two shows that I want to watch: Robot Chicken on Adult Swim and my guilty pleasure of Desperate Housewives. I might watch Gray's Anatomy, too, as long as it isn't on too late (like it was last season).

In previous years there have been more good TV shows. Alias (with the exception of the last season), X Files (with the exception of th last season) come to mind. I'm glad that there are fewer this season, because the time investement will be less.

And thank goodness for Tivo, I can watch it when I want.

If anybody has suggestions on what I should watch, comment here!

My pirate name

Yesterday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day. It took a while to find a good name, but here it is.

Some of the name sites were just plain dumb. This one took an indepth look at your personality and gave you a name.

My pirate name is:

Iron Roger Bonney

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

It worked!

On Sunday I posted about tracking a friend of mine down. It worked. On Monday, I got a response.

I need to do a better job keeping up with people. Writing a note once every ten years just doesn't cut it.

So here is to breaking the cycle - I wrote him last night!

Today was International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Ahoy, mateys.

Shiver me skivvies, this posting is a bit late, but just the same.

Today was International Talk Like A Pirate Day.

Pirates are cool. I hope ye were able to work some of the old pirate lingo into your day today.

Check out the official site here and make sure you mark it on your calendar for next year, September 19th, you scallywag, lest I make you walk the plank.

It's a good thing I can touch type, it is hard to see wearing an eye patch.

Mint Chip Ice Cream

A while back, I got an ice cream maker and I've been slowly trying out some recipes.

Vanilla - two thumbs up
Guiness Stout - thumbs down, bad recipe
Lime and Mint sorbet - okay (much better with rum)

On Sunday, I made Mint Chocolate Chip with a Williams-Sonoma recipe that I got from the Contra Costa times. The recipe was pretty specific about how to know when the milk and cream had been warmed enough (small bubbles forming around the edge and ripples in the middle of the pot). The recipe called for a cup (that is a lot) of mint leaves and when my wife saw the bunch of mint I had cut she asked if I was cutting back the mint to prevent it overrunning our garden.

Last night, I got around to eating some. The little tastes I while I prepared it were nice, but it didn't seem anything special. When I scooped it, I actually said out loud (I was alone), "This is different." Most of the other homemade ice cream gets really hard, this still had the soft, creamy texture of real ice cream. It did melt a little faster, but when I tasted it, OMG, it was really good. The mint taste was quite nice. It was a little sweet because I think the newspaper has some problems transcribing fractions on to the web ( -1/3 really means 1/3, don't assume the 1 got lost from 1-1/3).

I melted chocolate chips and let them harden about 1/8 inch thick and cut it into chunks for my inclusion. Heather said that she really liked them and they had a Ben and Jerry's feel to them. It really was a comment, although I had to take it in context, being a Dreyer's employee.

I learned some great methods with this and for recipes that require egg yolks, I'll most probably repeat it.

Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream is in no danger, but over the life time of my ice cream maker, I've packed out 2 gallons.

Getting back in touch

This morning, I was making blueberry muffins and my mind wandered back to college days. I do know why, the recipe I was using was given to me in college by a friend of my mom's. My roommates and I put together a recipe book and most of the time, we cooked dinner together.

I keep in touch, loosely, with Erik (one of those roommates), but kind of lost track of the other, Alex.

I decided that I would track him down...

It was much easier than I thought, because he has published a few academic papers, so a Google search on his name turned up him and somebody in Austin. It was easy to figure out which one was the right one and I sent him an email.

I told him some of the things I had been doing, told him about my MINI, told him about my blog. I stopped, because it began to sound like a personal ad and I'm already taken and not looking.

So, yes, Alex, if you check, this blog entry is about you.

Hey, we went there!

An article from today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Borracchini's Bakery robbed

This is where we went to enjoy cake with some of Heather's friends for her birthday. I'm sorry to hear about this kind of a situation, although it is neat to read that 4 hostages escaped.

It seems that the world, even close to home, is getting more violent.

S'mores, in the microwave?

I was doubtful, but it really did work! I had proposed ice cream for dessert and it was soundly decried, being "too cold." So, we were thinking of other ideas and Heather came up with s'mores.

We only had mini-marshmallows, so they weren't going to be roasted on any skewers (maybe toothpicks, but there would be roasted fingers, too). And, however blasphemous it may be, the only chocolate we had were chocolate chips.

Heather came up with the idea of making them in a microwave. I was dubious, but we tried it out. Since we were playing it all by ear, Heather asked the kids how long they thought it would take and their estimates ranged from 30 seconds to 1 minute. 18 seconds is all it takes!

They ended up quite yummy and so I decided I would capture the method here. Who needs a campfire when you go camping now! Just bring a microwave. Who needs a s'more maker at a girl scout meeting. Just bring a microwave.

Step by step instructions

1. Take a graham cracker and break it in half and place it on a microwave safeplate.
2. Arrange mini-marshmallows on one half of the broken graham cracker.
3. Arange chocolate chips on top of the marshmallows. I maintain that the expanding marshmallows help melt the chocolate chips. I tried to make sure that I get chocolate chips between the marshmallows.
4. Microwave for 18 seconds. Your time might vary depending upon your microwaves power rating. Observe it so that the marshmallows don't over expand and make a mess. I perfer a crisper graham cracker, so don't microwave it. They become more chewy if you do microwave the cracker.
   
   
5. As soon as the microwave is done, place the top graham cracker on. The marshmallows cool quickly, so they won't be as melty.
6. Enjoy!

ZUG: TSA and security checks

This whole site is really funny, but here is a funny article (if you can call it that) about the TSA and Security Checks.

This guy has got gumption!

And the toll road one is funny too!

High Performance Driving Course

This Monday, I spent the day at the tracks. No, I wasn't gambling away my hard earned ducats on the greyhounds or the thoroughbreds, it was high performance driving. Not racing, mind you, but a great educational experience in a controlled environment.

Pacific Raceways, in Kent, is home to the ProFormance Racing School. There a talented staff, under Don Kitch Jr., teaches people the fine art of "driving a car, not just to be passengers in a motor vehicle." Being a member of the local MINI owner's club, Puget Sound MINI, I was able to participate in a club event at the school. Sure, we got a great deal -thanks to North West MINI, the local deal, but the event was MINI's only. There were 28 MINIs and that was a blast to be with that many other owners.


The morning was spent learning the capabilities of our MINIs and commit some actions to muscle memory, so that, in an emergency situation, we can react, just the way we've been trained. We did several exercises to learn High Vision (to see both the near and the far) and how the car handles under ABS braking conditions. The slalom and ABS braking aren't something that you get to practice every day, but man, do these cars handle well and stop quickly. There was another exercise where we were supposed to use the anti-lock brakes and avoid a cone in the roadway. It was funny to hear the instructors say, "These cars can just avoid the cone at these speeds," (60mph).

We then spent some time practicing emergency avoidance through lane changes and coming off the shoulder and another exericse of braking into a turn. Both of these are scenarios that you could find your self in just while driving around town.

The morning was great and we walked away with a better understanding of how our cars react and how to keep them under our control.

The afternoon was even more fun. We were paired up with an instructor and he drove two laps around the track, describing the reference points, the braking and turning points and the apexes of the curves. We then switched and I drove, at a low speed, around the track while the instructor provided more instruction. We were in two groups and the instructor then went in another car while we visualized the track.

Then we got out and drove. This time, we were wearing helmets with mic and headphones so we could stil talk to each other. First was a lower speed and all the while, the instructor was giving feedback. It was so much fun, just driving as fast as I could. Keeping to the line makes such a difference, because how fast you get on the straightaways is directly related to how fast you exit the curve.

We did 3 of these lapping sessions and it was so much fun! The fastest I saw I was going was 110mph and I passed several other drivers. I got passed, too, so it all evens out in the end. It was great working the shifter as low as 2nd in turn 3 and up to 5th coming out of turn nine. I never made it into 6th gear. Passing was only allowed on the straight aways and only when an instructor waved us past - all in controlled situations.

It was such a blast. I don't look at turns the same way anymore and I know I'm a much more competant and comfortable with the way my car handles.

I'd recommend the ProFormance Racing School. It was a fun learning experience (any count of how many times I said fun?).

My 6 year old daughter thought I went to a race and she asked, "Did you win your race?" The youth soccer coach in me came and my answer was, "I learned a lot and had a whole lot of fun." "When are you going back." "Soon."

Cedar Butte

Last weekend, we made another attempt at hiking to Cedar Butte. And this time, we made it!

We started out on the Iron Horse Trail and there were a lot of mountain bikers and since it was an old logging road or railroad grade, Heather didn't think it was real hiking.

The trail was a general incline up and Parker was getting a little impatient with it all. It wasn't like it was steep or anything. We stopped and ate the lunch that Chase made for us - nutella or peanut butter sandwhiches. I was lucky and got a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich. Just before we stopped for lunch, I came to the conclusion that a slight navigational error let us walk past the trail head and we needed to back track some.

Using the guidebook's descriptions as a reference and the topo map I had, I entered the coordinates of the trailhead in my GPS and we set off back down the trail. My GPS told me that we were at my waypoint about 10 feet from where the trailhead was - now why didn't I do that the first time?

Evidently, when we had passed it the first time, Heather had said, "I wonder where this goes?" But look at it, the markings are so slight... And the trail was very narrow; the brush on each side of the trail was always touching us. It looked like the trail hadn't been used in a very long time, the brush was so thick.

This trail was uphill and it was steeper than the first trail. But we put Parker in the lead and he moved at a good clip. The trail had some steps built into the steeper parts and moved us through the brush, always heading up.

At about 1300 feet, the low shrubberies thinned out, but Parker was ready to keep going. We had to stop here to put some moleskin around a hotspot developing on the back of Heather's foot, but that didn't stop us for long.

There were a final series of switchbacks to the "summit" (if you can call it that). Two surprising things occurred as we got close. First, Parker said "we must be close to the top, there are no more trees." How about that for the powers of observation of a four year old? Secondly, we heard people talking. After walking all that way, on a trail that didn't look used, there were poeople on top.

Parker lead the way up and was greeted by cheers and clapping from the people who were already there. I bet they didn't expect to see a 4 year old hike leader.


After eating some snacks and enjoying the view, we headed back down. We dallied in Boxley Creek for a while and then headed to the car, where there were cold cokes waiting for us.

It was fun to get out and go hiking - it was relaxing to get into the outdoors. It was great to actually make it this time.

My picture set on Flickr.
Somebody has put together a webpage about Hiking Cedar Butte.

Dinner tonight

For all the new parents in my family, No, it is not a bowl full of infant excrement. But it does look like it.

I am making Chorizo and Shrimp Quesadillas with a Smoky Guacamole and the guacamole is more of an avocado puree, with a little sour cream and chipotle peppers (giving it the smoky taste) in it. I've made it before and the sauce was nice, but chipotle peppers come in adobo sauce, and I thought, "well, if the peppers are packed in the adobo, why don't I put a little of that in too."

Now, we all know why the recipe just calls for the peppers. It still tastes good and you could use it to gross out all the new parents you know.

Rested, finally

I've been exhausted for the last week and tired longer than that. And I know that my co-workers have been pulling long hours and have to be tired, too. This weekend is the first one in a long time where I won't need to work. I'm looking forward to it.

The trip to the Bay Area was fun, but tiring. It was a lot of work and then when I got back home, I put in a lot of hours catching and finishing up. On top of all that, all week long, I didn't sleep well. One night, I went to sleep with a headache and woke up with the same headache the next morning.

We had talked about making a summer camping trip this weekend to the Olympics, but it's just not going to happen (obviously, since this is Saturday morning that I'm writing this). We'll go hiking tomorrow, but everything is going to be mellow.

We went to the swimming pool last night and when we got back, we watched a movie. After it was done, Heather and the kids stayed up and watched TV. I went to bed. I slept until 6:45, then went back to sleep for another 30 minutes. For me, sleeping to 7:15am is pretty late (sad to say, but it is true).

But I feel rested. Finally.

This could have been us!

Amtrack train derails near Tacoma

I'm glad that no one got hurt in this accident, only 6 days after we went over the same tracks.

I bet that there are going to be delays from this one. But Amtrak won't be that concerned; they don't guarantee on time performance.

I overheard an attendant telling another passenger that "your guess is as good as mine" when asked about delays. How do you think that would go over?

Imagine, if you will, the moments immediately after the derailment.

Passenger picking themselves up off the floor, "What was that giant crash? Why is our car tilting to the side?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

No more trains for us.

My very earnest mother just served us nine....

CNN.com - Pluto gets the boot - Aug 24, 2006

Tears in the fabric of reality. Now there are only 8 planets in the solar system?

What about the kids (and grown ups too)? How are they going to remember their names? The nemonic device no longer seems to work right. My very earnest mother just served us nine.....

Nine what? That doesn't make sense. We're going to need a new device to remember them.

What's next? Deciding violet isn't a color in the rainbow? Goodbye, Roy G. Biv!

Random thoughts and recent learnings

1. Excel is not a very good database. It is a great spreadsheet, though.
2. Caffeine makes the world go round.
3. When iTunes adds Podcasts to your iPod, it plays them in the order they were downloaded. This can be problematic when you are catching up on podcasts after being gone for a week, or longer.
4. iTunes doesn't share network connections with itself, so I had to manually download several podcasts (see above).

Oh, and evidently because I've migrated to the beta version of blogger (more integration with Google Accounts), comments can be made by beta version users, "Other" or "Anonymous." Old skool blogger accounts might have an issue with making comments. I apologize for the difficulty - so migrate to the beta!

Taking Amtrak

Last week, I had a business meeting in Oakland and we made a family vacation out of it. There are three new babies in my wife's family, so we took this opportunity to see them. To keep costs down, we took Amtrak. Boy, was that an adventure. And I think something that we won't repeat.

Going there

Our train was scheduled to leave downtown Seattle at 9:45 am Friday morning. We made it out of the house with plenty of time to make it to the station. With out incident, we found the station and, with the help of a baggage cart, got all our luggage into the station. I parked the car in a local garage and we were good.

I went back to the station and tried to get our tickets from the ticket kiosk. No such luck. I had to stand in line and get them at the counter, evidently because of a coupon code we used. Heather was in the process of checking our bags and discovered that my bag was a few (maybe 10) pounds over the 50 pound limit. I dumped a bunch of my work shirts, pants and 3 shoes (not pairs, but shoes) in a box we were bringing and got under the limit.

As we got all our bags checked, they announced that "due to a service interuption, service to Portland will be by bus." It turns out that the train never made it to Seattle. Not a good sign - I was planning on being on several conference calls after we boarded the train and working on things I had to present at the meeting (I had heard that AC power was plentiful). The bus was the bus, but I used up most of my laptop's battery and my bluetooth headset started to die.

A few hours later, we got into Portland and waited for the train there. As it got closer to the the scheduled departure, two lines formed in front of the door to the tracks. As departure time arrived, two train employees came to a desk on one side and meekly said, "Please form one line." Kind of hard to do once you've got over 100 people and luggage already in two lines. Then they assigned people to cars, by hand! Once we got to the assigned car, another attendant assigned us seats, again by hand. We were given a hand written 3x5 card showing our seat numbers. Because it was all by hand, it was a slow process.

Once we got on the train and settled in our seats, another attendant came by and re-wrote the seat card with our destination and how many seats in each row were occupied. It threw the attendant for a loop, because the seat numbers we were assigned got tucked underneath something and she had trouble grasping that there were 5 of us. Once we got that sorted out, I discovered that there was not plentiful AC power.

The kids were generally happy on the train - not the novelty of the train, but the fact that they could get up and wander around and that the seats were spacious.

My phone eventually died as did my laptop. The lady who "had" the AC outlet had recently broken her foot, so I went to the lounge car and picked up some food for her, and this formed enough of a relationship that I was able to drap my phone charger and then my laptop power supply over her chair and into our row.

As I worked off and on and into the night, I eventually fell asleep and woke up with the same freight train next to us. Eventually, I learned that we went nowhere during the night and were stuck behind a broken down freight train. After sitting there for several hours, we headed out.

We made it to Emeryville at just before 5 pm, 9 hours late. When getting our checked baggage back, the box (with the shirts and gifts for new babies) wasn't to be found. While Heather was taking care of that, I walked over to Avis and found that it closed at 1:30 pm (shorter hours on a Saturday). We were supposed to be there at 8 am, so it shouldn't have been a problem.

Amtrak called us a taxi to take us to our hotel and told us that we could work with customer service to be reimbursed for it, but that we should wait until the end of the trip, in case there were any more delays and additional costs.

The train delay also caused us to miss the scheduled family events on Saturday, which kind of sucked.

On Wednesday, I called Amtrak to see about upgrading to a sleeper car for more privacy and AC power. It would have cost an additional $700, over twice what we had already paid for our tickets. The kind lady also told me to expect up to 4 hour delays on our return trip. So, instead of an 11 pm arrival, we were looking at a 1 am arrival. I wasn't looking forward to that.

Going Home
We had to return our rental by 6 pm and our train wasn't until 10:12 pm, so we had some time to kill in Emeryville. We checked our bags, returned the car and walked over to Bay Street. There, we ate dinner and saw Monster House. The kids liked it and it was a great way to kill time. We walked back to the train station and only had about an hour to wait for the train.

The return train ride didn't seem so shocking, maybe because our expectations were already low. We did have to stop in Klamath Falls for about three hours, so we got off the train and wandered around. Klamath Falls has a nice county museum with interesting tidbits of local history. It looks like it was based upon people's collections - geology, Native American history, local politics, the Japanese internment and World War II (I didn't know that the Japanese used ballon bombs and repeatedly bombed the west coast).

It also turns out that the parts that were in the night and on the bus (for us) on the south bound trip were very pretty. It was nice to see parts of the North West and California off the interstates.

We got back to Seattle some time before 2 am (it kind of didn't matter anymore) and headed home. It was nice to finally sleep 1) flat on my back and 2) in my own bed.

Benefits of taking Amtrak

1. Very large and spacious seats - larger than first class on an airplane
2. Low cost - what we paid for train tickets would have only gotten two of us there on a plane
3. You can get up and walk around - there was an observation car, a lounge car, a dining car a kid's play area...

Disadvantages of taking Amtrak

1. Very slow - driving is faster
2. They are always late - 4 hour delays appear to be the norm and our experience showed that up to 9 is possible.
3. They will substitute a bus for a train - it sucked to be the guy going from Seattle to Portland and was looking forward to his first trip on the train and got the bus instead

For us, these disadvantages outweighed the benefits. I can see it being great for retired people with lots of time to travel and see the sights. We won't be doing that again.

Trends I've noticed

Using Google Analytics, I've begun to see some trends in how my blog attracts readers.

1. I have a dedicated readership (most of my readers are returning readers). Thank you!
   
2. They are spread throughout the US
3. When I post something, I get more visitors and page views

So, just to give you a teaser of what is to come, we are all travelling right now and we took the Amtrak train. And it was quite an adventure.

For me, this is a work trip, and I really haven't had much of a chance to blog. So, I hope you'll accept this and wait for the whole story.

My house is for sale

Okay, it is an alarmist title, but it brought you here. Our old house is for sale.

Redfin - Property Details for 5047 BRONCO CT

It is being sold at a loss and the photos in the listing are the photos we listed the house with. That is our patio set in the backyard pictures and it is in Washington right now. I wonder if there are any rights to the images that the our agent would hold. I wonder if the yard still looks like it does in the picture. I bet it doesn't.
Reviewing the listing, you'll note that the washer, dryer and refrigerator are all going with the seller. We left all of those in the house. Hmm. Maybe that is how she is going to make up her $20,000 loss. Nah, they were nice appliances, but not that great.

On a side note, Redfin is a very cool realtor site. It has a map interface (I think Microsoft's mapping solution) that highlights listings that meet your search criteria. That is the way I like to search now that map data is readily available on the internet. It is only limited to the Seattle area and the Bay Area, but those are the areas I'm most interested in.

Gonna party like it's your birthday.

My wife Heather's (as opposed to my other wives?) birthday was this weekend and after years upon years of her guessing what was going to happen, I was successful in keeping it a secret. Maybe it was just years and years of making her think all my plans were transparent and then flipping it.

We started out my going to the Herbfarm in Woodinville for dinner, just the two of us. Now, that is a dining experience - Garden Tour (and cute pigs) before hand, menu and wine pairing presentation by the Chef and Sommelier. They grow many of their own ingredients and everything that the purchase is all locally produced, sustainably farmed and really, really good. The theme for the night was basil and the tomato aspic and essence of corn soup were super. All told, it was a 5 hour experience. And a very nice one at that.

On the drive there, Heather kept trying to guess where we were going. Somehow, she came up with dinner at a winery (close) and a Morrissey concert (since we were kid free for the evening). Speaking of kid free, one of our friends watched the kids for us (that was a nice birthday gift in itself) as our regular babysitters were unavailable.

It was late when we got back home, so we went to bed.

The next morning, Alec and I headed out to the store and got some locally purchased berries and flowers (from the closest grocery store, a QFC) and made madelines and berries for breakfast.

We then went on a picnic lunch at Lake Sammamish State Park and went paddle boating. Okay, she did guess that one when we drove into the park (damn that sign!). Paddle boats are fun, but boy are they an inefficient boat. With five people in them, wakes from big boats and the current (and probably the wind, too), it was some work getting that boat around.

We then went to Borracchini's Bakery (read about it in Roger's blog) and had a few of Heather's friends meet us there. While this was a surprise (and telling one kid part of the events and another kid other parts, helped spread disinformation and doubt), I did have to spill the beans because there are only so many surprises I can get away with. Also the fact that both of our butts were wet from the paddle boat didn't help make us any more presentable.

That was enough surprises for the day and while I had thought about going out to dinner someplace in Seattle, since we were already there, she (and I) were ready to go home and just take it easy.

When we got home, we watched a French movie, He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, which was pretty good and had the typically French (non-Hollywood) not so happy ending. There are some twists and turns (no plot spoilers) that take the viewer for a bit of a ride, but it was creepily enjoyable.

Happy Birthday Heather!!!

Talk about hot boxing!

Baking cookies in your car, can you belive that!
N.H. Woman Bakes Cookies on Dashboard
That has got to be the best smelling car after baking them.

So, that really won't work here in the NW - we've been having great weather. Now there is a reason to complain about it cooling off, no cookies in your car.

Restoring faith in mankind

Tuesday night, neither Heather nor I felt like doing anything for dinner and it kept getting later and later. At 9:10 pm, I presented Heather with some Chinese take out menus and started to place an order. The lady taking the order warned me that they closed at 9:30 and if I wanted to order, I'd have to be there to pick it up in 10 minutes.

So, while still placing the order, I slipped on my shoes and headed out the door. It wasn't a big deal; the restaurant is only 6 minutes from our house and it was one more opportunity to get out and drive my MINI.

I got there and had sometime to chat with the hostess. She said that this restaurant posts a 9:30 closing, which means (at least from their point of view) that they leave at 9:30. That's a little different from most other restaurants. She was also impressed by the fact that I really was there inside 10 minutes. She said that most people don't actually make it on time when they are closing. She said that it was nice and it started "restoring her faith in mankind."

I don't know if my punctuality has faith restorative powers, but if you are telling me dinner is ready in 10 minutes, I'll be there.

No eels in my ice cream

Check out this article - it does require free registration with the NY Times.

Creamy, Healthier Ice Cream? What

Can you believe that? Protein cloned from the blood of an eel-like Arctic Ocean fish, the ocean pout. Not in Dreyer's Ice Cream. Not in my ice cream.

The ice cream I make at home is all natural stuff. That I buy from Safeway.

I really like Slow Churned Ice Cream. It is rich and creamy and delicious.

Does this need a fine print disclaimer?

My muse

Heather has become my food muse. She suggested making Lime and Mint sorbet, to be the foundation of a mojito sorbet.

And it is good.

The sorbet took a long time to freeze up - I think I might not have cooled the simple syrup enough - it was about 45 degrees. Evidently, that wasn't enough.

I'm just waiting for her next casual idea.