iStrain

Lunchtime Wiring Project

2009-12-28T15:50:00.000-08:00

When we bought out paradise dream home, we knew that it wasn't perfect. Opulence aside, there were a few issues we would need to work on in the coming years. One of those is the wiring, which wasn't quite finished up before we moved in.

The previous owners were kind enough to leave me a number of electrical puzzles. The most interesting so far has been the three way switch, which they attempted to wire with two-wire rather than three-wire on one leg. That took about six hours to sort out; we still haven't gotten around to doing the actual work.

But they threw a curve ball today. Or maybe it was a sinker. We have three outlets in the dining nook that were unpowered. I checked the nearest three outlets for a loose connection, but none of them looked to be powering these three outlets (one was a dead end, the other two were connected to each other). Of course, in checking those outlets, I discovered that they didn't leave me enough wire to pull the outlet out. What should have taken a few minutes total took twenty minutes just to reassemble.

Anyway, I gave up (for the second time) and returned to work. When I was sufficiently distracted by SQL my subconcious reminded me how a previous puzzle turned out to be a wire run from one outlet to the other, but it was not connected at all. I decided to have a second look at the nearest outlet (that appeared to be a dead-end).

I took out the outlet and stared for a second. No loose wires. Then, I got on my belly.

Coiled on the roof of the box was the wire I was missing. Connecting that up took less than two minutes, followed by flicking the power back on and -- success!

Some day, I want to build a house and put all these kinds of puzzles in it for the next owners. My dad and I spent a lot of time in the walls of his old house. I think it's our turn to start playing tricks.

I've got to wonder what then next little surprise will be!

Cooks' Dinner, 2009

2009-12-14T20:13:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I introduced Tom to Simon. Tom, as you might remember, was the last person I reported to at Insightful before the layoffs, merger, and my new overloads took over supplying me a paycheck. Tom, however, is much more than a boss -- more like a life-long friend that happened to show up at work one day.

Simon is the husband of Vena, my first friend in Seattle (I met Rishi shortly after, both at the Pearl cafe). He trimmed our trees recently, and has impressed me with his culinary skills at Vena's parents' house years ago.

We invited these to boys over for dinner, and they ate politely, and we had a very good time. They made it clear they would be back, and not to eat. To cook.

Tom and Simon convinced Quincy and I to host a dinner where they would do most of the cooking. They like our stove. So, we did. First, we invited Megan and Scott, friends of Quincy who I just can't get enough of. Scott is a talented musician and Megan is a brilliant blogger and crafter (check her stuff out at Not Martha). They had gotten along swell with Vena and Simon at our house warming. I like inviting Jake to any gathering, because he is the consummate mingler; one of the best party attenders and hosts I have ever met.

Of course, we invited Maggi and Jeff & Rishi and Jamie, but their schedules were booked. Vena and Simon invited Vince, a talented musician and soft soul.

As a surprise, Megan and Talina were in town for the weekend, so they joined us. At this point, the quiet panic was in our bellies, and Quincy and I have never put on a dinner for so many people. So, we stopped inviting!

Simon prepared an exquisite trout main course. I can't possibly describe it, you'll have to see it for yourself. There was bacon and cherry tomatoes and lettuce frizzle involved. Simon also baked more than enough polenta cakes with roasted veggies as a side dish, which are so good I've been trying to limit myself to only two slices leftover per day.

Tom has the most intense side dish I have see in the making: a chestnut, celery root side that had subtlety and depth. He also fried us up some green beans and sliced almonds for color. There was not a single bit of either of those sides at the end of the night.

Quincy and I threw together a salad and a dressing from a Jamie Oliver cookbook. Quincy baked rolls, which also were consumed at a frantic pace.

For dessert Tom make a walnut cake swimming in some sort of sauce that I wish I could describe! I must get the spelling of the French words that mean "melted ice cream from heaven." There was one slice left over, but only because I hid it behind the microwave.

As if the food, conversation and company weren't enough, Vince and Simon set up with guitar and drum box and blessed us with mellow, soulful, relaxing ambient music at the end of dinner.

Overall, this first Cooks' Dinner was a huge success. We missed a couple things, and the "front of the house" fell over; but we'll get it right next time. Simon is lobbying for dinner for 30 -- I guess it's time to buy some comfortable kitchen chairs!

Check out all the photos on Flickr .

Wedding Blog

2009-11-29T13:28:00.000-08:00

Well, our wedding web site is up and running. It's pretty sparse right now, with just a landing page and a blog, but we'll be putting more information up as we go. We sent our Save the Date cards out last week, and a couple of Seattle locals have already received them.

www.jasonandquincy.com

I bought the domain name before I knew that a woman's name always goes first for wedding related things. Oh well!

So, there's a couple of blog posts over there, and I'm overdue here, but that's how these things go. When all other procrastinations fail, blog; but we're not procrastinating anything!

Engaged Again!

2009-09-02T09:41:00.001-07:00

Engaged Again!

Quincy and I have been diligently working on our wedding planning. This time, we’re having a lot more fun. Last night Quincy surprised me with a re-engagement ring. I’d been hinting that I was jealous that she had a “taken” ring and I still looked single. Well, now I look married!

Here’s to another crazy year of a big project. I can’t wait to see how it all turns out!

Selling and the whatnot

2009-08-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

I've been away from the blogging circuit for a while. We've been settling into our new dream home and making good progress on selling my previous house. We're just waiting for the buyer's financing to finish up.

I'll miss 906 quite a bit. I'm doing my best to make the buying experience positive for the first-time homeowners who are taking over. I fixed everything on my original home inspection report, and countless other things, in the lead-up to putting it on the market. Since then, I've been keeping up the garden (more on that later). Once the buyers handed over their requests, we said yes to all of them (they were modest and reasonable) and added a few other things from their inspection report to the mix. Really, some things should just work when you move in, even if the previous owner didn't know they were broken.

All in all, we're really fortunate to be in this spot. There are a lot of houses still on the market, and a lot of folks had to drop their asking price considerably. We did not, and with any luck we'll be closed in early September.

I know, that's not much of an update. Once the rains come back I'll pick up blogging. We've got a nice backlog of garden photos and adventures to relate.

While you're not reading what I'm not posting, you can check out my friends' Vena and Si blog: they're building a house on Vashon island -- themselves! I have the most amazing friends. http://vashonbyhand.wordpress.com/

Grete's new game

2009-07-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

On the first afternoon we spend at our new house, Grete learned a new fetching game. I toss the ball from the balcony, she goes down the stairs, through the yard, and brings it back. We had the master bedroom door on the first floor open, so sometimes she'd run through the whole house on her return trip.

Yeah, the video is lame, but it shows the trick!

New Truck

2009-07-05T21:58:00.001-07:00

2002 Ford Ranger Edge

I did it. I finally broke down and dropped by less-than-five-grand requirement for a new truck. Rishi found this 2002 Ford Ranger Edge on Craigslist last week, and I finally made the purchase on the 3rd of July.

The truck is two wheel drive, but the Edge Premium package included the 4x4 suspension, so I can haul a bit more and have a higher ride. It has premium Panasonic Tremor sound, four doors, extended cab, color-matched canopy, rubber bed liner, and low miles. It was a good deal, even if it was a little more than I wanted to spend on a truck

There's a few more photos of the truck sitting at the Evenston Pea Patch on Flickr (click through the image above). I'll take some more photos once I get it all washed and whatnot.

Good day

2009-06-19T11:34:00.001-07:00

Today is setting up to be a very good day. The last few weeks at The Company have been an experiment in focus and behavioral modification -- care less, do more. It's beginning to pay off as I am returning to the center of action without any tangential antagonism. Today a conversation with the Boss Man left me feeling empowered and appreciated. Also, my directs were supportive of my plans, which in this environment has been an ongoing challenge. Also, folks really love my charts and data visualizations -- adoption rates are increasing and productivity is, at least on paper, getting better. The phrase "better living through reporting" has been circulating. Love it!

To top the workday positive changes, I'm buying a new-to-me truck today. Pictures to follow, of course. It's a red 2002 Ford Ranger. Quincy and I decided that the new house expenses squashed the hopes of a new Toyota Tacoma, so we went for the inexpensive, reliable, frill-free used Ranger option. The pickup will come in extra handy in the Biggest Move Ever coming up in a couple of weeks.

And really, we're moving into our dream home. We spend a good part of last night pouring over graph paper sketches, trying to fit couches in rooms and fences in the yard. So much fun. We close on July 2nd; we have July 3rd off from work; we scheduled the movers to come to 906 on July 11th. I'm picking up boxes from coworkers this weekend and next week -- with my new truck.

As for the drop-in buyers of 906, that's all still pending. There has been considerable interest, but I think I might end up listing with an agent once we move. If that fails, renting is still a very viable option -- especially for just a year or 18 months. Worst case, we'll rent and rescue some of our plants to the new place as the front yard fills in more and more.

I went for a run yesterday. Only 2.5 miles of run/walk, but it really raised my spirits. First real outdoors exercise in a while. Considering Seattle just tied the all-time record for consecutive days with no rain (in May-June) at 29-days, it's hard to believe I haven't been running more.

But we have been eating well. Our garden has produced an outstanding amount of snap peas, which are just as good as a snack as they are in a stir fry. We've probably eaten three pounds in total, with many, many more on the vines. Strawberries are starting to ripen, as are the raspberries. The tomatoes are bushes with many small blooms. Our garden will be missed!

So, that's my news. I'm going to eat some gluten-free quinoa pasta in peace (most of The Company went out for a goodbye lunch at a Jason-unfriendly restaurant) and work on test plans.

Long story short: 906 is on the market

2009-06-14T20:16:00.000-07:00

As all of you know, Quincy and I are buying our dream home (all is going well) and selling or renting our house in Greenwood. Until all the deals go through, I'm not going to blog about it. You'll hear plenty of stories later.

But, we did post our house in Greenwood on Zillow. From that early posting, we had a buyer drop in and ask to see it. Today they viewed the house. Today we upgraded the listing on Zillow to "For Sale" (from "Make Me Move") with more photos. Redfin picked up the listing as well. Already over a hundred views have been logged.

Check it out. We're really pleased with the way the photos and listing turned out.

More later!

Duck Dodge

2009-06-09T21:35:00.001-07:00

Quincy gave me sailing lessons at the Center for Wooden Boats for Christmas, and Rishi and I have so far taken four lessons and one classroom session. We've been up and down lake union practicing our tacks and jibes, heave-to's and man-overboard drills. Tonight was a special challenge. Our lesson was during Duck Dodge!

Duck Dodge is a post in itself. Check out this page for the lowdown on this crazy, crafty, close-quarters, three-class sailboat race up and down Lake Union. When I told our first instructor that I wanted to learn to sail mostly because of Duck Dodge, she thought I was a little nutty and certainly an adventure seeker.

We went out for the fourth time in a Blanchard Jr Knockabout. The winds were between 5 and 11 mph the whole time we were out -- the best wind we've had so far. We got out to the middle of the lake by about 6:30 when our of nowhere dozens of boats, many with pirate flags on their masts (the theme of the evening) sailed around us. Our instructor Scotty had us sail up even with Gasworks where we worked on our jibes and tacks in close quarters with a rowing crew, jet skies, kayaks, sailboats, a tug pushing a barge of dirt, and motorboats. It was by far the most stressful of all our sailing lessons.

Twice we came pretty close to much, much larger sailboats. We did good, though, and kept our paint to our own hull.

I highly recommend Sail Now! sailing lessons through the Center for Wooden Boats. This has been a trip! We have one more lesson next week, then we'll do our "check out" and be ready to rent and sail out on our own.

Thirty-eight

2009-05-27T21:43:00.000-07:00

On Monday we saw a home up in Meadowbrook, a neighborhood we've been considering for a while, that made our heads spin. It was outside our price range, but we made an offer Tuesday anyway. Today, after a lot of wringing of hands, we heard back from the sellers with a counter-offer. We accepted!

There's still inspections, final paperwork, and probably 30 days of more hand wringing. But the biggest hurdle has been cleared: we've found a dream home and have an accepted offer.

Of course, I am presently posting over a hundred photos of the place. Mom, check out those windows and floors! Dad, check out the 6' spaced outlets, modern wiring, and sturdy stairs. Rishi, check out that entertainment space. Megan, check out the massive gardening opportunity. Baba, check out that kitchen! (we'll have to replace the range, it's actually a commercial unit that shouldn't be in there.) Regina, check out those subway tiles!

It's a dream home for us.

Please have positive, house-closing thoughts for us over this month. If all goes well, my fourth-annual Dependence Day BBQ will be at "Thirty-eight." And, just for kicks, we're pretty certain we're going to have our wedding in the back yard!

Goodbye Subaru

2009-05-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

Cars are like people and pets. As they get older their flexible parts become less flexible and require expensive maintenance or replacement.

Cars are not like people or pets. They are replaceable themselves, and often the newer models get better gas mileage.

This past winter the great mechanics at Smart Service Subaru predicted that my car would die on a hill or mountain soon if expensive maintenance was not performed. The price of the work was more than what the car was worth. Add to that our thoughts on getting a new car for Quincy, and I was really wondering if I wanted to keep investing in the car.

Well, sure enough, driving around in Normandy Park pushed the eleven year old wagon to the edge of brokenness. The engine temperature spiked a couple times -- the mechanic's prediction of final death throws. The next trip up to Woodinville left us stranded in a place called "Thrasher's Corners." Here's all the photos from my last minutes with her, while we waited for a tow truck to save us. (Jeff, Maggi and Scooter saved Quincy, since the tow truck was not dog-friendly.)

Following the advice given to me by Rishi a while back, I decided to donate the car to charity. There are a couple places you can work with to get the money to any charity you want. I used V-DAC because their website was easy and linked from Goodwill, a charity I had considered supporting recently. I would have used Feed the Children or KEXP or KIVA, but they weren't in the V-DAC database. They get my money anway. Oh, I digress.

So, the car is gone. I don't really miss the Subaru wagon, per se, but I do miss having a hauling car. Rishi and Jamie want me to get a luxury car. Quincy would probably be happiest if I bought her car from her. I want a small, electric pickup -- sadly those don't exist. I am thinking about a used Toyota pickup or, my dad's favorite, a Ford Ranger.

What do you think, internets?

Elsa Hotel

2009-05-12T18:14:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, Rishi has been working on a big project the last few months. He's puting together a business plan for a small, boutique, budget hotel in Capitol Hill. The hotel is named "Elsa Hotel." I've been blogging a bit about his experiences so far at www.elsahotel.org. I'll admit, we haven't hit the really juicy stuff yet, but if you're into following Rishi's progress on his dreams, I suggest subscribing.

The most recent update highlights some of his Google SketchUp drawings of some of the rooms. He's super excited to be able to play around with this. It's a great break from grinding out number on water usage and P&L and marketing strategies.

So, check it out! I try to get in a post a week or more; I'm sure as things heat up I'll have more to write about.

www.elsahotel.org

Whidbey Island Dog Parks

2009-05-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

The dog parks of Whidbey Island are legendry around these parts. Maybe it’s the crowdedness of in-city parks that drives us all to dream of acreage. I’m always a little hesitant around dog parks, not being a natural dog person, and wide open spaces don’t really add to my comfort. A dog near me is a dog near me – the only thing space might add is a the distance between the dog and its owner. But, so far, at all these dog parks we’ve only run into the sweetest dogs ever. Maybe city owners are just not as careful about socializing their dogs?

We took two trips to the expansive Double Bluff Beach Dog Park. It located in such a way as to point back to Seattle, this two mile stretch of wide, open beach is a dog’s dream. We played some long-fetch with the dog both times. Grete loves the tennis ball more than anything, and flying disk/Hurley action just didn’t cut it. She chased a couple big birds, one of them a heron, but being a city dog she never gets close before they take flight.

At the end of the second day, Quincy and I tested Grete’s desire to swim out to sea. I think she just doesn’t swim. Eventually, we were able to goad her out as far as she could touch; but once the ball was thrown farther than that, it was lost. It was a little sad to see our dog hunting around for anything resembling a tennis ball on the walk back to the car. Maybe this will help her learn?

My new favorite dog park is Patmore Pit, about half way up Whidbey Island, near a huge naval air station outlying field. It’s touted as about 40 acres of wide open space, and it certainly is! There are tress in the middle of the park, and a small agility field fenced off in one corner, but other than that, it’s just wide open, flat, grassy field. Grete fetched like there was no more tomorrow. She jumped, bounced, ran, flew. Man, it was fun. We all had a great time in the sun. The park was nearly empty, too, so we had our pick of the most scenic fetching field. Even when other dogs strolled by, it felt like we were just passing in the Plains. (In the photo below, Grete can barely be seen in the center.)

We didn’t hit up any other dog parks on Whidbey. I don’t know why they have more! With the expansiveness of both, a dog owner can choose between clean dry fetching or dirty beach romping. Either way, on our last day of the trip, Grete was so tired (and I imagine sore) that she wouldn’t run even a tenth of a mile with me in the morning. She was still smiling from the day before!

www.tweenbots.com

2009-05-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

I happend upon this little social experiment via rebel:art yesterday. I have to admit, and maybe it was from being in the sun all day, it kinda brought a little tear to my eye. I find it a very reassuring note on humanity -- especially the humans that live in big cities.

From the site: "Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal."

Love it.

The Inn at Langley

2009-05-10T10:00:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Q and I took the short ferry ride to Whidbey Island to celebrate her birthday. We took Monday and Tuesday off to make a four-day weekend out of it. There are a number of dog-friendly inns and bed and breakfasts on the south end of the island, but since we were in a celebratory mood, we stayed at the best of the best: The Inn at Langley.

The Inn lived up to its reputation as a destination in and of itself. We brought enough cheese for a party of 40, and ate dinners of cheese, wine, Scotch, fruit, bread and crackers in the room all three nights. We took full advantage of the free breakfast, eating more fruit and breakfasty things in the room each morning. The warmer days, we were out on the balcony overlooking Puget Sound. The rainy days, we ate by the fire.

We thought ahead and brought the must-haves for a romatic getaway like this: ample CDs, candles, wine, and reading material. We spent a lot of time sitting on the balcony or soaking in the huge tube (with a view).

Of course, being a trip with Grete, we hit the two biggest and best dog parks. That could be a post in and of itself. Actually, that's a good idea.

We took a day trip up to the top of Whidbey to hike a little around Deception Pass. The park is great, but northern Whidbey is just like North Seattle -- where the south is very beautiful and coutry and folksy, the north is strip malls and six lane roads.

You can check out our favorite few photos here. There's a pile of photos of Quincy and I, and our vistas here. Then, there's, like, 200 photos of Grete jumping and shaking here.

Wall zero, Baba one

2009-04-27T19:03:00.000-07:00

My dear grandmother, Baba, fell the other weekend. She probably tripped and smacked her forehead into a concrete wall in her sewing room in the basement. My grandfather, Champ, rushed her to the hospital for a once over. A few scans later they determined that she was spunky, resilient, and mostly uninjured. The next morning she woke up with two black eyes and a nasty bruise on her head. Apparently, that's just where the blood goes.

That concrete wall got me once. I was a little kid and a slipped (probably rushing) down the basement stairs. I don't recall it well, but I don't think I was stoic. I'm guessing I balled my eyes out.

The worst thing, in Baba's opinion, about this fall was that it happened right before Russian (Orthodox) Easter. She wasn't able to go to all the ceremonies and sermons, which is very disappointing. Easter is her favorite holiday.

Champ's birthday just came and went again, as well. I called to wish him well, and in classic Baba, ended up talking with her about her run in with the wall for most of the call.

My coworker remarked that there's just something special about that generation. They seem to take everything in stride. I'm willing to bet generation X (or whatever I am) will not end up being known for its stoic demeanor in the face of adversity.

Rock on, Baba.

House Hunting

2009-04-12T09:40:00.001-07:00

It has been nearly six years since I hunted for a new home. Last time, the market was crazy fast. Houses were going for 20% over their value on the same day that they went on the market. Bidding wars knocked me out of six houses before I was lucky enough to land here. I love this house. It has spoiled me for future houses. The doneness of it has no connection to the constant upgrading and remodeling of my childhood home. I spend my weekends in the garden, not in the crawl space.

It all started with this little 1911 house down the street. It's very pretty, it's on the perfect lot, and none of the infrastructure has been up dated in my life time. Wiring, plumbing, sewer, foundation, bones, roof... they're all needing work to support the 21st century.

In order to see the house, we engaged Wendy, Quincy's amazing realtor. She's fantastic. Wendy brings a kind of honest energy to the search that I wouldn't expect from someone working on commission. Yesterday, she drove from Brier to Normandy Beach to show us a few houses.

Before heading to the deep south, we headed back east to a little bump off I90 named Preston. It's 20 miles outside of downtown (8 from Issaquah). The house blew our mind-- beautifully updated in every way. The lot was odd, with a creek running through it and gently sloped in every angle, but the owners have 10 acres and might be interested in changing the boundaries. But, it was far. And, it up a wash-out prone never-plowed road that would be impossible to traverse in the deep winter. Sigh. Back to the city we drove.

Here's what we saw with Wendy:

This updated house held a lot of promise. The back yard was in bad condition, but with a few grand in retaining wall/drainage we could get a big practice field. The neighbors had a huge garden. But, there were invasive weeds everywhere (think blackberries on steroids), it needed a new roof, it was priced for a view (but it didn't have one), and there was an unfinished bathroom off the bedroom.

This house had substantial yardage. There were flowering trees everywhere, and a few 200' cedars (that maybe should be cut down). No view, and the lot was heavily shaded by all those beautiful trees. The basement was recently remodeled, but they split up the space oddly and left us imagining opening it all back up again. For every interesting plus (outside fireplace) there seemed to be a strange minus (tiny entryway/sitting room).

We drove up some really steep hills into Seola Beach, nearly killing my car (so much for never having seen the overheating predicted by the mechanic). This house was pretty, but no usable yard. We started thinking that a view might not be possible with a yard. Then we remembered that views weren't on either of our lists.

Or maybe it was at this house that we remembered the view thing. Who knows, they all blended together. The concrete block house listing at 559k was incredible -- big lot, hideous unmaintained unupdated house, HUGE view. I mean, HUGE view.

Either way, by the end of the day, we drove out of Burien in my overheated Subaru tired and hungry. We made gluten-free pierogi and steamed broccoli. We watched the fantastic movie "Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist" and ate popcorn. Next week, less hunting, more house.

House Hunting

2009-04-09T18:25:00.000-07:00

Quincy and I have been looking at new houses. This is not news to those of you who see us often. We spend probably an hour a day each combing through the recent and not-so-recent listings on Redfin hoping to find our dream home. We’ve been regularly meeting to discuss our core requirements and nice-to-haves. Our dream homes look very similar – sadly, we have expensive tastes. (I remember my dad telling me that I always would voice enjoyment over his Asian-influenced dishes when he used better cuts of beef.) In a nutshell:

Core: Yard big enough to practice agility with two dogs (60’ x 40’); separate yard for gardening with good southern exposure; enough space in the house to store our stuff comfortably; two bedrooms + office; good light; safe neighborhood; access to gluten-free food; no more than 45 minutes to Seattle downtown via mass transit; affordable enough so that one of us can quit our job.

Flexible: Master bathroom off bedroom; gourmet kitchen (or budget to remodel kitchen); neighborhood with sidewalks (if in-city); close to businesses; views (sunrise/sunset); yard big enough to run a real agility course (100’ x 50’); out-building storage for agility/gardening equipment; mudroom; room that can support a pool table; front porch; feels-like-home architecture (hard to describe, we know it when we see it); space for ornamental plants and veggie garden; posh neighborhood; near a PCC grocery store; house sits above street or shielded from street; affordable such that both of us can get out of this crazy industry forever; not surrounded by industry or developments.

Yeah, I know we're crazy. All dreamers are.

This week we swung by our first house with Quincy’s amazing realtor, Wendy. The house is only a few blocks from our current home, in Greenwood. Here’s the listing. We were immediately drawn to the yards and the tallness of the house.

We were both a little disappointed in what we ended up seeing. The second floor was a converted attic that did have 540 square feet of floor, but most of the volume was taken up by the roofline. The three bedrooms were tiny. The views were beautiful. The basement was also a disappointment: what was listed as a spate apartment was nice, but also very small. The rest of the basement was unfinished and mostly just knee-wall storage and crawlspaces. It’s listing of 760 square feet is at best generous. The main floor was exactly as called out: 760 square feet of usable, beautiful space. The den was very small, but would actually be a great computer room for one of us. Converting the basement apartment into a “man cave” or TV room would be very doable.

In seeing this house, though, we both added a new requirement. This house was built in 1911 and was nearly 100% knob and tube wiring. Rewiring would require ripping out the walls, as there is no way to access anything with so many finished ceilings and floors. Quincy realized that with her entire life savings in the house, she wasn’t comfortable not having earthquake insurance. Since we’re overdue for The Big One, a retrofit and insuring would be required for her piece of mind. Again, with the walls finished and the extra story, this would be both expensive and invasive.

So, in the end we walked away from the house. I am still thinking about it daily. I wish it were just a little different. I wish the earthquake retro fit wasn’t necessary, and that the knob and tube wiring would magically update itself. At the price they are offering, we can’t afford to pay someone to do both, and do the other work the house would require (like a kitchen remodel, etc).

Back to the hunt, I guess. I am worried we won’t find a house that matches our expectations. I am more worried that the search itself is driving a considerable wedge between us, and I push for a shorter commute and Quincy dreams of acreage.

Wish us luck.

Giving away the farm

2009-04-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

Today I handed off nine of our Yellow Pear Tomatoes to coworkers. We’ve had great success with the starts so far. We’re keeping seven plants and giving away sixteen! I just up-potted them into environmentally friendly 6” coconut fiber pots.

Last night we walked down to Fred Myer to get some larger plastic pots for up-potting the brussel sprouts and shallots (and maybe the dill and some basil). I’m wishing I had saved all those unrecyclable plant pots from all my initial plantings in the front yard! I would have had so many pots of all kinds of sizes. Currently, we’re using 2” square pots saved from last year and washed in the dishwasher. I’ve got a few 3” pots and a couple 6” pots for up-potting. With 36 more 3.5” pots from Fred Myer, we’re ready for the summer!

Of course, everything will go into the garden soon. The last frost date is upon us! Tonight I’ll up-pot whatever is ready, and plant the sunflower seeds in coconut fiber 3” pots. These guys will start inside, but then move to the porch, then outside quickly. I have had very good luck with sunflowers, so I don’t worry about them.

Also to arrive last night were two new sea holly tubers (or plants, I can’t tell). We’ll try to stick those in the ground tonight or at the latest this weekend. I’m sure Quincy is psyched.

Here’s to the sun!

Beautiful Weather, Beautiful Weekend

2009-04-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a blur! Quincy was out of town with her girlfriends in the mountains. I spent the weekend with Grete and the gardens.

I pulled up all the weeds in the back yard beds, redid all the edging, put up a new fence to keep Grete out of the beds, planted three new plants, put down a yard of mulch, mowed, and repotted/staked all of my indoor succulents. In all, I spent about 16 hours in the garden.

Almost the whole time Grete was by my side, dropping the ball and chasing after it. She got pretty good at bringing it close enough so that I didn't have to move from my weeding spot. As a reward, we went to the Green Lake dog park for some long-throw fetching. The weather was perfect all weekend.

On Monday Quincy and I woke up with headaches from all the pollen in the air. We decided to stay home and take it easy. This lead to a trip to Marymoor dog park, which led to me going to Fremont for lunch at Silence Heart Nest, which led to us washing the cars.

In other news, we found a house we like. And... it's right down the street! More on that later, we're going to stop by tonight to check it out with our realtor. We're not getting our hopes up, but after seeing the back yard, Grete is already packing.

Ta-ta for now!

Business End

2009-03-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com Widgets

Quincy and I have been talking about exit strategies. We'd love to quit our jobs and do, well, other stuff. Part of that for me, at least, is getting back into running my own business. Or, just exploring other business ideas. I figured there was no reason to wait.

The first thing I wanted to learn how to do was to start up a web site. I hadn't figured out an excuse for a while. So, I started with someone else's idea.

A few of us were sitting around the cube bay the other day, talking about our corporation's golfer. That's right. In these tough economic times with layoffs and budget cuts, our parent company FTI signed a 8 million dollar deal with a B-rate golfer. He has to wear a hat and shirt with "FTI" on it. You might be thinking: what does your law consulting firm have to do with golf? Nothing.

The joke was, since no one has any idea of what FTI is, when they see this PGA golfer wearing the FTI logo, they'd have to Google it. If our site showed up with all the burried news clips, and folks clicked on it, we could surface ads to them and hope to make, say, $2 on ads. Or a million, should our golfer make it big.

I saw this as a perfect opportunity to learn how to make a website. I ran back to my desk and registered FTIGolf.com. The other guys tried to as well, but I beat them to it. I registered through GoDaddy. I wouldn't do that again (too expensive and they charge for every extra). Once I had the domain name, I needed a hosting site. I thought I might be able to use my Comcast space, but that's not how DNS works. It's just an IP address. So, off to 1and1.com recommended by Megan to buy some hosting.

I was surprised to see that the site hosting and the DNS registration actually took a few days to kick in. While I was waiting for all that internet rerouting to happen, I set up my Amazon.com Associate's account. This is the free account that Amazon.com lets anyone set up to track ads. Long story short, when almost anyone who clicks through ads on my website to Amazon.com, and buys something, I get a 4% kickback.

But that's not really why I did this. It would be nice, actually surprising, to make any money at all on FTIGolf.com. I wanted to learn how to register a domain, set up forwarding and email, set up a hosting site, add ads for Amazon, and be ready for when my next (or someone else's) idea happens. Now that I know how easy it is, I'm psyched.

You'll notice I've added a couple Amazon.com ads to this site. Feel free to click on them and buy a new Kindle or M. Ward CD
. The more you buy, the more I earn. Better yet, set them up for your site! We can trade traffic. Good luck!

Dancing Bear and M. Ward

2009-03-17T09:27:00.001-07:00

If teh internets have taught me anything, it's that having nothing to say is no excuse for not saying anything.

In other news, Quincy and I went to an M. Ward concert last Friday. We had a fantastic time, and the Showbox is always a great place to see a show. I've seen M. Ward there before, but his sets are so different now that he has a full band and plays mostly up-tempo songs. It was nothing like the time I angled into the KEXP studio to see him perform four songs live (just me, the sound mixer, the deejay, and M. Ward).

Here's a video of the title track to his newest album.

Agility Class

2009-03-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

Quincy continues training with Grete for dog agility. It's a hoot. I visited a lesson this weekend and shot some video with Quincy's camera. The video above is a series of small exercises that they were working on. Grete is just getting the 6-pole weave poles. She still runs into the tunnel with her reward!

Below is a video of the longest course (I think) that Grete and Quincy have run. They didn't quite get it, but the one jump they missed was really tricky and tripped just about everyone up. She gets it the second time!

Here are some of Grete's friends, posted mostly for their owner's viewing pleasure, but also in case you're interested. Hoover is really fun to watch walk it! Zoooom! It took me two tries to keep the fast little guy in the frame. Hoover is in advanced training.

Molly and Luna are in Grete's class.

Rug Adventure

2009-03-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Quincy and I have finally broke down and done it -- we bought a rug for our hallway. Local friends will know that I had an affinity for cheap IKEA rugs and runners when I bought the house. All of these rugs are falling apart and shameful compared to the beautiful rug Quincy brought to our living room. So, off we went.

Every Tuesday Quincy and I pass a little rug shop in Fremont called Caravan Carpets. It's run by a man with a thick accent, Reza, who has energy rivaling Rishi. Reza wanted to know if we were going for color or size, as all of his rugs are original, so you have to start somewhere. We went for color, choosing quickly between two beautiful, light, vegetable-dyed runners. The whole experience took less than twenty minutes and we had a blast.

Reza's prices are good, too. We couldn't find a similar rug online for less than twice what we purchased it from Caravan Carpets. And, Reza insisted we try it out. How? First, you open a bottle of find wine. Then, you light some candles and open the windows to allow natural light in. Then, you reveal the rug in the space it is intended for. Then you sit and watch the colors.

Now that's a salesman. We did open a bottle before the reveal (with shades open wide). And the colors were breathtaking, but the rug was 2" too wide for our hall.

So, we have to try again. Since we would have had to bring the rug back for (free)padding anyway, no loss. Still, we love the Talish rug's colors. Reza promises that he'll have a number of rugs of the correct size for us to look at from the warehouse next time we come by. I might buy two.

Organic or Inexpensive

2009-03-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

The debate continues to rage at the Page\Hunt estate: do we buy organic veggies at PCC, or the unknown origin fruits, roots, and vegetables at Lenny's: God's Gift to Greenwood. The price difference is substantial: On any given day the same (visible) quality vegetable will be 1/3 the cost at Lenny's compared to PCC. For some veggies, like my favorite red, yellow and orange peppers, the price difference is 5-fold.

Well, a new piece of evidence has arrived: Hammy the Hamster. The cleaver video below (via Megan via BoingBoing via Geek Dad) clearly demonstrates that there is a difference between organic and non-organic.

The debate will rage on.

Gluten-Free Pierogies: Long Time Coming

2009-02-27T23:10:00.000-08:00

My grandmother loves Pierogies. As do all her children and their children's children. For me, they are the sacred, comfort, feasting, holiday, every day food of my youth. When visiting their house to this day, my grandparents serve up pierogies almost as quickly as they do hugs. And I won't soon forget the magical afternoon three of my closest friends and I spent making pierogies from scratch in my current home: three expatriot Pennsylvanians (and one native) cooking soul food. We ate nearly four dozen pierogies that day.

My grandparents serve up pierogies in lots of butter, onions, and cabbage. It's a simple dish that warms my heart and tummy. A side of thick, heavy bread and horseradish; or if for brunch with potato pancakes and sour cream.

I opted for the former: boiled for 7 minutes while a diced onion simmered in an ungodly amount of Smart Balance butter, drain pierogies and add to butter/onion mixture. I kept them on the burner while we finished our creamed corn side, browning each pierogi on each side. It's not the same method Frankie used (just straight up frying), but it's more conducive to the frozen variety.

Since the whole celiac diagnosis, I have been pierogi free. This is a crying shame. For a Valentines Day present, Quincy purchased six bags of Gluten-Free pierogies from an east coast producer, shipped to our house one-day freezer pack.

The only brand of gluten-free pierogies Q's found (so far) are (sort of) available on Amazon (of course): Conte's Gluten Free Pierogies. As you might guess, a giant ravioli filled with mashed potatoes and cheese and onions isn't difficult to make without wheat, and the end result is a gluten-free pierogi that does not stray from the Mrs. T's standard. We're encouraged now to try it ourselves, from scratch. I might have to fly in Frankie and Regina; while I'm at it, Baba and Champ.

Ten Acres Enough

2009-02-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

(For Q, in the style of the book she is reading from the Seattle Public Library: Ten Acres Enough; published in 1864. I'm not done writing about the wonderful experience of eating Pierogies yet, but figured I could post the side-dish blog first.)

The side dish was, at least at first before the run of groceries necessitated by a surprising shortness of onions and of our lifeblood, Diet Coke, decided on in agreeable fashion based on the the meager contents of our fridge, freezer and cupboard in the category of "vegetable," which being late in the grocery shopping cycle -- despite our considerable and largely successful efforts to stock up on shelf-stable staples -- left us with wilted carrots, frozen bags of peas and corn, and canned artichoke hearts that quite possibly predate our initial meeting at the base of the hill at Gasworks Park, that summer day nearing two years ago. While creamed corn is not traditionally a side accompanying pierogies, we are not in our minds a tradition-bound couple. To that, I submit our zombie-voiced cat and affinity for odd books.

While I slaved, though good spirited for certain, over the left side of our Viking gas range (the envy, I must say, of the neighbors who go without for trade of boat and towed camper) over the twelve precious pierogies, Quincy began the preparation of the creamed corn. Many would assume she shucked, grated, cut free of cob, and washed the kernels from fresh ears, but being a woman of much learning, and a specific frugal nature for things which frugality does not harm (mind you, she is not such the woman to be penny wise and pound foolish, sparing no expense to ship the frozen pierogies from the East Coast overnight to ensure proper freshness; she does know that winter corn would fly great distances beyond which crispness cannot hold), she opened two cans of organic corn kernels. With those rinsed quickly, she turned to the right side of the stove and mixed a small amount of organic half & half and Smart Balance butter, thinking to spare at least in part my heart for future meals and life-long love, in a small pot. To this she added incremental half-teaspoons of corn starch, and eventually, the corn and a measured dose of sweet sugar.

This woman I so admire stirred my soul as the stirred the pot: the rich, sweet smell of summer wafting through the kitchen -- my mind might have wandered to the un-sewn sundress in the sewing room and, again, our first meeting and the bright orange t-shirt she wore, her puppy dragging her towards me -- but my concentration was not lost so much as to allow my own portion of the meal to go burnt. She loves me for my practical nature, for certain. Let us remember, finding a woman with such dedication in honest nature, with qualities suggesting design by Higher Good, is not to be taken in a light manner, nor thought about in such detail as to stifle.

To summarize:

Two cans of organic corn kernels
1/2 cup of Smart Balance butter (to taste)
1/4 cup of water
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup organic half & half
2 tsp corn starch
1 Organic Quincy

Gluten-Free Breaded Mack and Cheese

2009-02-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

In the back of my head there's an unofficial and likely corrupt list of things I haven't had since being diagnosed with celiac. On that list is breaded macaroni and cheese. Actually, the list entry just says "breaded."

Quincy had the idea of saving the butts and stale slices of her homemade gluten-free breads in the freezer. On Saturday night we broke them out to indulge our cheese needs.

Here's the basic recipe, since neither of us really keep track.

16 oz (2 boxes) of Ancient Harvest Quinoa pasta (elbows)
8-12 oz of freshly grated Tillamook medium sharp cheddar
8-12 oz of grated mozzarella
4 oz of freshly grated Parmesan
2 medium vegetarian-fed, hormone-free eggs (I can't wait until I have my own hens.)
1 large head of chopped broccoli (makes the dish look like it might be healthy. It's not.)
1 large red onion, copped
2 cups of gluten-free bread crumbs
2 tbs Smart Balance buttery spread
Salt and Pepper to taste

We boiled the pasta for about 5 minutes, half the time recommended on the box. While that's going, we put a little corn oil in a big, deep pan and cook the red onions until transparent and yummy looking. We remove the pan from heat and drop the drained pasta in and add the chopped broccoli as well. I moved a big glass baking pan over the burner that warmed the past and dropped in the butter.

In the mean time, we've combined the mozzarella and cheddar with two beaten eggs to form a gooey mess. We added a little Parmesan at this point, but only a little.

We use a silicon basting brush to spread the melty butter in the class baking pan. We spooned about half the pasta-veggie mix into the pan. Then, over top of that we carefully dolloped and spread about 2/3 of the cheese-egg mix. We added a thin layer of bread crumbs (the smallest ones, almost dust). Then, the rest of the pasta and the rest of the cheese goo. On top we sprinkled the Parmesan and the bulk of the bread crumbs.

We baked it uncovered for about 40 minutes in a well-preheated 375 degree oven. Some parts were crunchy, that's how we roll.

This dish would cost a small fortune if it weren't for the frozen leftover bread. To turn the hard butts into crumbs, Quincy used our cheap food processor. She microwaved a small bowl of ends and chopped. Repeat until done. Brilliant! This would have taken forever any other way. And we were left with a bag of bread crumbs for our next breading project. mmm.... maybe shrimp?

Weekend Gardening, continued

2009-02-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

The planting of four new species might have been the highlight of my weekend of gardening, but it wasn't the bulk of the work. I've got a fantastic grassy weed that I like to pull up for exercise. Great thing, that weed. Good thing it's invincible and everywhere.

One of my oldest plants is having a rough go of it. This rosemary is from The Home Depot about 8 years ago.

I bought it as one of those "living Christmas trees" in a red pot while living up the street in my last apartment. I think it was Christmas 2002. After moving to this house in 2003, I planted it near the stairs. Ever since it has been wrapped in lights each Christmas season, even though it lost its dainty Christmas tree shape years ago.

Last summer I cut back about 25% of the plant, because there seemed to be major die off. It thrived through the fall and winter, only to have the same sort of diseased death thing happen again this spring. So, back with the loppers, I cut it back very, very harshly. It looks windswept and Bonsai-like now. We'll see if it survives.

There's a lot of open space around it thanks to the pruning. (I scooped up about 4 pounds of fragrant needles.) I brushed off the dozens of bulbs coming up and relocated a hydrangea (also a veteran of at least 4 years) near it. I moved out an oppressed heather (pink, I think) to the back fence for rehabilitation. I think Quincy would like to see it go... but with so much space (and an embedded scarcity complex) I almost never through a living plant out.

The next to move was a little tree from the center of the front yard to the back yard near my (newly cemented) fence post. It might act as a deterrent for Grete's gardening efforts -- or it's just a good place to hide a struggling plant.

Another heather moved a few inches to fill in the gap. I pruned back our exotic, non-hardy creeping fuschia, which likely won't come back. Let's take a moment to remember the fallen from this season of frost:

Two flax plants, a handful of hens-and-chicks, our purple-flowering lavender, the creeping fuschia, three delicate rushes, and the purple-star-flowering Ipheion uniflorum are all mostly like in a better place. Or mulch. Whatever. Unlike all the fish I killed while trying to keep a decent fish tank, I feel no guilt for killing off plants. It's what vegetarians do!

What I find is that after the first thirty minutes in the yard, pulling and trimming and digging, I stop clenching my jaw and start getting way more in tune with my body and my surroundings. I can walk carefully or quickly, think about something or nothing at all. Gardening is one of the few times that my brain really does go quiet. It's probably the closest I'll ever get to meditation. This weekend's exercise ran from 9am until nearly 3:00pm on Saturday. In all, I moved a dozen plants, did major clean up, and planted four new plants. Plus, I poured some concrete. More on that later.

Four New Front Yard Plants

2009-02-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

This last weekend I put in a few plants that we purchased at Swanson's during the second day of their late winter sale. The bare root deals (up to 40% off) are killer and the trees and shrubs are 25% off as well. Plus, it's much safer to transplant a dormant (or nearly dormant) plant than a root-bound potted flowering plant.

We have four new arrivals. We purchased both Blizzard Mockorange (philadelphus lewisii 'blizzard') and Blue Bird Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus 'blue bird') bare root, so I don't have any photos of those. I soaked them for 30 minutes in a bucket of water. Then they were put in decent sized holes with a mound of packed dirt supporting the root ball in the middle, back-filled with the same dark, rich soil. While I was soaking them I dug the holes and (finally) buried the low voltage line for the lights. I also installed a 20 watt spot for our new tree.

We've been looking for a tree for the southwest corner of the yard. Something tall and evergreen, flowering, and eye-catching. Those criteria create a short list. High on that was a Magnolia. We almost bought a dwarf last year, but the price seemed high. We scored a $70 8' Alta Southern Magnolia (magnolia grandiflora 'TMGH'). This is a beautiful tree that will gracefully drop a few leaves at a time, staying green and textured through the dark months of winter. Also, the huge white flower are both fragrant and beautiful. Quincy's first home in the UD had a huge mature magnolia tree.

Last but not least, we replaced a fallen favorite. Over the winter, during either the snow storm or the ice storm or the deep freeze, our Pittosporum engenioides lost all its leaves. I think it's dead, but I'm not positive -- there were signs of life in the roots. I moved the poor thing to the front of the fence (pictured) and hope for the best. Its replacement is a Pittosporum tennifolium; I thought it was exactly the same, but apparently they're slightly different. Still, the end result is a plant that looks like our old plant, just one year's less growth. I'll cover it this winter during any freezing or icy or snowy times.

The Seedling Process

2009-02-22T09:40:00.000-08:00

Everything I know about starting seeds I learned from Quincy, Cisco Morris, or Willi Galloway of Diggin' Food. Cisco is my gardening hero. Because of him I remembered to soak our bare-root shrubs before planting. Someday, I hope he will be the officiant to marry Quincy and me.

There are a number of keys to getting great starts from your seeds. Unsurprisingly, the top two are, generally speaking, water and light.

You can find good seed starting protocols all over the web. I won't bore you with details on starting mix or the Ordering of Things. Starting guides I find in line with Willi's talk can be found at Organic Gardening and Avant-Gardening (and I'm sure there are others!).

Using a starting mix instead of soil provides more appropriate absorption of water. There's no need for fancy fertilizer or nutrients, as the seed provides breakfast for our little plant. Pre-mixing the seed-starting mix in a bucket with water until lumpy and batter like prevents flooding. Last year, I carefully dolled out two seeds per cell in my trays, only to have the flooding from my first watering float them haphazardly. A trick we are using this year to avoid such a disaster is watering with only a spray bottle (brand new, cleaned). Covering the tray with a plastic lid (this year) or plastic wrap supported by chopsticks (last year) will keep the humidity high. So long as the medium doesn't dry out or start molding, you've got a good chance at successful seedlings.

We like to chart and graph, so we labeled our plants pretty well. We're keeping track of first planting, first sprouts, first cotyledons (baby leaves), first real leaves, when we harden and when we plant. From there we'll probably track first buds and edibles as well. All of this can be used next year to adjust our seed starting to accommodate our own micro-climate (micro-climates are real -- we get lots more snow than the other side of Phinney Ridge just six blocks away!). Since all those plant names don't fit on the little plant labels, we made a hash table that identifies them and gives us plenty of room for notes.

I built two grow lights (more on that later) for helping our seeds along. I don't really like the idea of using electricity to grow our plants, but in the dark Seattle spring, there's really no alternative. Also, we don't have sunny southern windows with a place for plants. The grow lights are placed only a few inches above the seeds (or tops of sprouts) to encourage stout plants. Last year all my plants were very leggy and leaned badly (no grow light and set out on the porch). We're giving these guys 16 hours of 26 watts. And here they come!

We decided not to use a starting mat (heat pad for dirt) because they're so pricey. If we don't get good results, we may change our mind for next year... but so far things are right on schedule.

So, that's what we're doing up to date. I'll write more as we do more.

I had mentioned that we knew when to start the seeds. Charts for figuring when to seed and set out plants based on last frost date can be found at Mother Earth News and Organic Gardening.

Seedlings

2009-02-21T08:45:00.000-08:00

This month marks the beginning of the beginning of spring planting. When one works backwards from our common last frost date (Mother's Day weekend) and accounts for germination periods and the such, the first of the seeds need to be started in mid February.

This is my second seed starting year. Last year I tossed some seeds in dirt (mind you, not soil or medium), threw plastic wrap over them, and waited for sprouts. I did this mid-spring, well after the last frost date. Everything I planted grew, but with limited success.

With the addition of Chief Researcher to my garden's staff, we took a completely different approach this year. Quincy found a free seed starting class offered at Molbak's in Woodinville by Willi Galloway of Diggin' Food. She's no Cisco, but I think they might be related. Just a bit.

The talk was a fantastic trove of information. We left with exactly everything we needed to have a chance at successful starts and a bumper crop.

When I posted about our 2009 seed collection, I really had no idea where we were going to put all these. Now, with all the starts starting, I wonder even more!

Last weekend we started 24 Shallots, 24 Dill, 24 Yellow Pear Tomato, some salad greens and 72 Super Sugar Peas. We did so per the instructions of Willi (next blog post). Already this weekend we're seeing many sprouts poking their heads above the soil. Quincy marked down the various sprouts on our handy grid. We turned the grow light on last night for the first time. So exciting!

What Grete dreams about

2009-02-18T11:35:00.000-08:00

In lieu of a real blog post, I thought I'd share this photo from Getting Stitched on a Farm. I'd probably prefer goats, but I'm sure Grete would love some lamb herding.

I'll be back up blogging soon. My computer contracted a winter virus which I'm finally going to get around to fixing tonight. Much to catch up on!

Laughing Buddha.

2009-02-11T20:56:00.001-08:00

Laughing Buddha.

Well, for a devout Christian, my dad sure has the classic Buddha belly-laugh down pat. And, as Quincy is apt to point out, he and I share a lot of quirks and traits. That's probably why she likes him -- because she actually likes me. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree... nor does it have a flattering hair line.

My dad and I embarked on a series of projects around the house during his recent visit. We accomplished:
- changing the back door dead bolt
- changing and fixing the front doorknob
- adding a deadbolt to the front door
- adding a coat rack near the front door
- installing the electrical for the Insinkerator garbage disposal unit
- and investigating the joist scabs in the basement and external low voltage lighting solution in the back yard and bathroom venting idea

Not bad for two days' work. On Friday, we rested and ate and ate and shopped and ate. Quincy and Deb, of course, joined in. There was a dog park in there somewhere, too.

Pictured: the much-awaited hole in our 83 year old front door. While the finish my be melting on the inside, this is a classic door that I did not want to ruin. With my dad's guidance, I did not. Here's what I learned about drilling a hole in an old door.

First: start from the outside. If the door is really old and solid core, you'll get about 2/3 through at most. From there, continue to drill the pilot hole through to the inside. Then, drill out the core from the inside. All the while you're best to keep the drill moving slowly, and have a person stand by your side to help you keep the drill level on both axes (up/down and left/right). Don't even try this with a cordless "drill;" you need power.

When drilling out the holes in the door frame, measure, double measure, have someone check your work, and then measure again. I did two measures (my standard) from the wrong starting point. Sure enough, i ended up with a bigger hole than I needed for the deadbolt (easily fixed, but frustrating nonetheless). This would have been a disaster if my door frame wasn't made out of old growth 4x6. Seriously. Kick this door in? You're more likely to break your foot.

As for the lessons learned in the coat rack, they're pretty standard. I'm always ready to try different non-standard solutions to a problem I used an insert in the hanging bolts as a makeshift locking nut of zero-width; this turned out to be the solution to an uneven lath and plaster wall with a slightly warped oak coat rack. This project was scheduled for 30 minutes and took nearly two hours end-to-end.

Actually, everything took longer than expected. We had an expected but unfortunate drilling adventure with the power line for the garbage disposal; we had a totally unexpected adventure with the knock out in the disposal unit (picture my dad banging on the unit's underbelly with wire nose pliers and a mallet for 30 minutes). And, the previously described door jamb debacle.

In the end, everything was done to our exacting standard. And, I have all I need to finish a few other projects, including one I already finished (I finally installed proper ducting to vent the bathroom to the outside, instead of the attic).

What's next? How about a fence post, some lights, and reinforcing joists?

Wild Nights (or rather, how we sewed a liner for my hamper)

2009-02-03T20:48:00.000-08:00

Tuesday evenings for the last three months have served as a special time for Quincy and I. We always have dinner together in Fremont. We always arrive home at the same time. I always drive her home the long way. (Sometimes we stop at the Flying Apron for snacks; sometimes we go to a movie; once we went to the liquor store.) I've avoided making plans with others and so has Quincy. It makes for a nice break in the week. Most nights this winter we've collapsed on the couch and watched Media-Center-recorded teevee. Tonight, after dinner at Tawon Thai and picking up pet food at Mud Bay, we had some energy, so we kept the TV off.

Quincy decided to fire up a laptop and work a bit for Big Retail. I decided to embark on Sewing Project #2: a liner for my wicker clothes hamper. (Project number one involved sewing two fuzzy-soft pieces of fabric together to make a massive snuggly blanket.) You might ponder, "what happened to your evening together?" Ha! You think I know the first thing about sewing?

As the photos show, much success was had. Quincy helped me figure out that a hamper liner was just a rectangle and a circle sew together. she helped me measure out her linen fabric so that it was fairly square and the right size, and gave some crucial pinning advice ("one piece at a time"). In the end, my circle was (by design) just a little too big around for the rectangle-sewn-cylinder. I ended up pleating the circle, which gave the liner a pleasant baggy quality often lacking in store bought versions.

In all, the project took less than two hours. I could make another in about 30 minutes, now that I know the patterns, how to pin, and how to sew in a circle. Oh, did I mention Quincy also set up the sewing machine, found the scissors, and reminded me to put the foot down? Yeah, maybe I should say that Quincy made the liner! (while I was blogging this, Quincy sewed a dog toy. I have much to learn.)

Lists

2009-01-28T20:34:00.000-08:00

At some point, probably pretty early in life and certainly before I left home, I gave up resisting the early Saturday morning projects and began to embrace them as a way of life. The proper, normal way to live was to make a list of things to do, then check them off as you do them. Preferable before lunch.

My dad and his wife Deb are visiting Seattle this week. As a course of habit my dad and I do small projects around my house during his visit. The running joke is a true story from his first visit to my new Seattle home: we worked seven consecutive, long days pulling out old knob-and-tube wiring and replacing with proper modern electrical work (to code, my dad is an electrician by trade); my father left Seattle having never seen the garage or back yard. Yes, we're driven. We had a list (actually, three) and everything was checked off at the end.

In subsequent visits we've made time for our other hobby, pool. We've eaten out more and seen the city. We've also updated attic insulation, built shelves, fixed a dryer, added lights, fixed plumbing, and painted. This time, we're working on three projects.

First, we're updating all the locks in the house. We're moving from the single cylinder deadbolts to double cylinder deadbolts, so that would-be robbers can't just break a window and unlock the door. We're adding electrical support to the newly installed sink garbage disposer. We're installing a wall mounted coat rack, hanging some heavy frames, and changing the bathroom vent to actually vent outside the building. We should have time for a few racks of pool on Friday. I put it on the list.

So far, we've done two trips to The Home Depot. We have one more planned tomorrow (we just made out BOM (bill of materials) for the rest of the projects). I bet we'll go at least one more time after that. Heck, it's only 25 blocks away. That's a lot closer than Pennsylvania. It's times like these that I can really appreciate how much advantage those who stay near home enjoy. Parents and other family members can add so much information, experience, and fun to mundane projects. Those of us who have chosen to move far away, well, we have it just a bit harder. Except when the dads visit.

Downturn

2009-01-28T10:12:00.001-08:00

This economy is getting me down. I've been forced to check in with my 401(k) (should be renamed to 201(k) at this point) and other accounts to prep for taxes. I've been reading the news on the bus on my phone, which is very unhealthy. News. Bus. Phone. All not good for me. And yesterday, once again, I had to be a conspirator in the laying off of very good people. Two guys from my team had their stint at The Company cut short by some accountant somewhere who decided we had five too many people.

I'm sure it gets easier later in one's career. Presently, letting go fathers or mothers or sole bread winners gets me down. Unlike the Insightful layoffs, I can't guarantee we'll find new jobs quickly for them. You might have heard the big M has been doing some pruning as well.

Good people. Hard workers. Productive people. The chaff blew away months ago. It makes me worried about the times ahead. If good people are getting laid off now, how long before all of us should worry? I'm just a middle manager -- I can't believe I survived this cut. I doubt I'll be so lucky next time. I am focusing on showing business value with everything I do at work in these times. Still, if some accountant says we have five too many...

Quincy and I were going to buy a car last weekend. We decided to wait a bit. This is exactly what you're hearing on the news. Two rich yuppies, worried for the jobs and comfort, curtail extra spending and large purchases. Slowly, bit by bit, the economy collapses. Clearly operating in our individual best interest might not get us out of this collective jam. But I'm not going to be the first back into the car lot.

Hard times? Not yet for most of us. But this is a downturn; that word is all too perfect. As we face the inevitable slope falling away from us, we pick up speed, worry more, and I at least feel helpless in fixing it.

Heck, even Birkshire Hathaway is down 40% from last year. What's an investor to do?

Agility Photographs

2009-01-23T12:59:00.001-08:00

Jumps!

I’m still getting used to taking low-light photos using my speedlight. Fortunately, Quincy and Grete provide me practice and encouragement (not to mention photogenic content).

This week we went up to a gym in Lynnwood where Quincy and some of her dog agility classmates practice. While the gym has standard lighting, it turns out it’s way too dark for non-flash, quick shutter photography. I found this out the first time I joined them (there were no useable photos… just too dark or too blurry). This time, I brought Quincy’s D90 (which has higher ISO settings) and my speedflash.

I found that all the research I did on proper technique really paid off. Oh, right, I didn’t look up anything at all. That must be why my photographs fell into two categories: washed out and dim. I was at least able to stop the action. Quincy loved it, of course. We learned that Grete curls her toes under her on jumps; some dog curl, others stretch. I would have bet her a stretcher, given how often she’s sprawled out on the bed in every direction.

I’m thinking that distance is a great factor in these types of photographs. Zooming in and out with the 55-200 lens doesn’t change the brightness of the flash much; but moving physically closer to the action (or the action moving closer to me) does impact quite a bit. I’m thinking that I might have a setup for close, medium, and far shots. What knobs to widget I have no idea. I guess I’ll just have to look something up!

You can see more photos on Quincy’s Flickr page (linked from the photo above).

Yay for Fire Drills!

2009-01-21T15:55:00.001-08:00

PIC-0035

We just had a fire drill at the building. They had everyone walk down the stairs 7 floors, then back up. We had our own safety marshals lurking in our midst -- who knew?

Working downtown is loads of fun!

New Energy

2009-01-21T09:45:00.000-08:00

We have the White House. An era of responsibility and accountability begins today. President Obama has already made bold moves (New York Times). I overheard a correspondent say that most of the Great Work done by previous presidents happens in the first year of his first term. Our new President seems to fully understand that his political capitol will likely never again be this abundant. The illegal prison in Cuba is closing; terrorist trials are reset; former President Bush's executive orders are all halted until full legal review can be completed; and the Joint Chiefs are asked to prepare a 16 month withdrawal plan for Iraq. It's noon on his first day.

I am giddy, I say giddy, with anticipation.

Traveling with Celiac Disease – Part 2

2009-01-20T20:20:00.000-08:00

After 36 hours of meat, the company let me loose on New York City at 3pm. I immediately hopped on the N to 61st and Lexington to Lilli and Loo, a Chinese restaurant with a gluten free menu.

Chinese food is often made with soy sauce and Hoisin sauce. Both of these are almost never gluten free. In Seattle, I have yet to find a Chinese restaurant that can accommodate me. I haven’t had any Chinese in over six months, easily the longest I’ve ever gone in a life filled with fantastic Chinese food.

Lilli and Loo also had a dish that I haven’t had in years: General Tsu’s Tofu. My local Chinese place stopped making it for me because it was too hard to keep the tofu intact. I begged and begged, but after more than two years of making it for me they stopped. Then, celiac. Lilli and Loo’s GTT was sweet and a little spicy. The tofu was medium-firm and a little crunchy. The sauce was thin, but dark. I was wonderful. I ate it all, even though I had just crammed three plates of crappy salads down my gullet at the hotel lunch buffet. I ate alone, and the restaurant was empty except for two Japanese students picking at an appetizer.

After that, I headed up to Harlem to meet Regina at her house. She had planned dinner at ___, a Risotto-centric tiny restaurant. It turns out that they are a Mecca for celiacs. They have four different gluten free beers, all their desserts are gluten free, all their bread is gluten free, nearly all their risottos are gluten free (gorgonzola is not gluten free), nearly all their appetizers are gluten free, and everything is labeled on the main menu. Moments after we arrived and said yes to the 30 minute wait, a couple came in behind us. The man was visibly excited about the prospect of gluten-free beer; when the hostess began to tell him about the menu and desserts, his enthusiasm grew almost feverish. This was a guy who clearly hadn’t been expecting much. I know the feeling.

This was the first time I encountered another celiac in public. We didn’t exchange conversation at all, but I felt so much better. Look, here’s a tall, hunk of a man getting giddy over gluten free cookies and weak beer. I am not alone. We sat down and I couldn’t help but overhear “celiac” and “gluten free” from table after table. I looked around and saw at least six gluten free beers (there’s only nine two-person tables in the whole restaurant). The table came with two gluten free breadsticks. Then they brought more. I didn’t cry but I could have.

The risotto was good. It was filling and warm and flavorful and cheesy. Quincy will love it. But the atmosphere was a real treat. I felt normal and welcome, not just tolerated and accommodated.

On my last day in NYC, Regina took me to Lili (not actually associated with Lilli and Loo, from what I can tell) on 57th near 7th. They also had a gluten free menu and General Tsu’s Tofu. I also ordered “rock shrimp tempura” because I hadn’t eaten tempura in 7 months either. Regina ordered a small flotilla of sushi. Our food was awesome. The appetizer was to die for (I almost ordered more). It had a coconut sauce and a little tangy spice. Oh, I miss it already. And the GTT was spicy, thick, a little too sweet and made with soft tofu perfectly fried, balancing moistness with flavor with crunchiness. Next to us, a fellow celiac ordered dumplings, a stir fry, and tea, double checking every order as he placed it and as he received it. The waiter prefaced, for me as well, every item with “your gluten free” so there was absolutely no chance of confusion. He also prefaced items just for Regina wish “and this is just for you” or “and this has gluten.” It’s small, but the shift from accommodating to fully accepting as a course of action is incredibly freeing. I got a little misty eyed again. Quincy would have cried, I’m sure of it. Unlike Lilli and Loo, our Lili waiter told me not to eat the fortune cookie.

In all, New York City obviously has a strong GF community. It inspired me to work on that in Seattle. I’m not sure how much effort I want to put into it, but I am going to at least start a dialog with the three Chinese restaurants in our neighborhood.

Traveling with Celiac Disease – part 1

2009-01-19T16:00:00.000-08:00

Quincy hid her worrying about me well. I don’t really worry. I probably should have, and I appreciate that she did.

My plane flight, my first since being diagnosed with celiac disease, was a nonevent thanks to two Think Thin protein bars, a bag of Rice Chex, and four homemade gluten-free M&M cookies. All of that was Q’s idea. Well played.

My first 36 hours in NYC were to be dictated by the ebb and flow of classic hotel conference – 72 degrees and fluorescent and coffee that had me pining for NesCafé. My only escape was my first dinner. But, I arrived at the hotel at 10pm, so my options were limited by how far I could get in 15 minutes. I walked down the street to an Italian place that had a Risotto special.

The Risotto was good, but I didn’t expect muscles around it. The salmon in it, certainly Atlantic, tasted an awful lot like chicken and had a texture similar to balsa wood. Still, the meal was huge, nourishing, and I didn’t have to explain anything since Risotto is nearly always safe. I burned my tongue on the first bite, thank goodness.

After that, I was at the mercy of the event planner’s communication with the hotel kitchen staff. She took up the task vigilantly, finding me before every meal and making sure there was something for me. At breakfast I had some fruit (all the hot food and pastries were off limits) and coffee. At snack time, I had fruit (all the desserts and bagged munchies were unsafe) and coffee. At the buffet lunch the first day I had a dry salad, a shrimp salad (questionable) and raw veggies. And coffee. At lunch the second day, I fared very well with potatoes, a safe shrimp salad, and mozzarella/tomato salad. I ate three full plates. And a cup of coffee.

For the one dinner, which by all accounts was a dreadful arrangement of cafeteria food supplemented with fantastic conversation, I was served a medium-rare steak and steamed vegetables. Obviously, something went wrong. But, I played it cool and tried to eat a little of the cow. Yeah, not so much. The woman sitting next to me was amused. I couldn’t have the dessert, though I was offered fruit after everyone was done. I took the coffee instead. We headed over to a Scotch bar across the street and sampled a few different Scotches until 2am. I ate every gluten-free item in the minibar when I returned (one can of mixed nuts).

I ate, in total, seven Think Thin bars on this three and a half day trip. Fortunately, the pain I endured at the conference was repaid with a treat, a surprise, and a surprise treat.

DiSC ®

2009-01-18T18:28:00.000-08:00

I’ve been to a couple management training seminars. And of course, there’s my time invested in PSI. I figured that FTI’s “Director/Manager School” would be at best a refresher, at worst a disheartening corporate-speak snoozer. But, I bucked up, dressed up, and opened my mind to the possibility that the experience would be worth my time.

It was. DiSC is one of many work-style assessment and awareness training systems. It starts with 75 words that the student grades from “never” to “always” in applicability to their work-style. Purportedly statistically sound algorithms categorize your style into four categories: Dominance, Influence, Conscientiousness, and Steadiness. This breakdown is similar to the Controller-Promoter-Analyst-Supporter roles in PSI. You may place dead center in a category, or close to a second category; you may place near the center (easy to shift) or high on the edge (born natural).

Surprise everyone: I’m a high Di! Modes I tend to exhibit: Drive, Active and Encouragement. Yeah, shocker. My polar opposite (or perfect counterpart) would be a classified a Reliable Objective Supporter.

So, it’s easy to generate a pile of stereotypical, useful strengths from this information. Generally speaking, almost every attribute we drilled into for D and i fit me pretty well; most of the others didn’t really apply to my core work style, though certain I have supported, analyzed, collaborated, and been reliable. The most useful bit was next.

After spending an hour or so examining the basic behaviors and stereotypes of each grouping, we started to dive into exactly how each group does (generally) and could (ideally) interact with each other group in some common managerial scenarios.

For example, the most interesting to me is how a D or an i could interact with a C. Many QA engineers are C’s (or S’s), and often the very best at the technology and the methodology are naturals and far from the center. The customized personal report described exactly what I do – sadly, the description was under the heading “Potential problems when working together.” But there is hope. I knew that C folks like to have logical, fact-based goals and that they like to work alone; what I didn’t know is that they often prefer written communication to my fly-by face-to-face drop ins and may perceive my checking in as a lack of confidence (in them), an annoyance or even bullying. They prefer to go over options slowly (something I’m not sure I’ve ever done intentionally) and need to know that they will be given the time and space to complete their tasks to their high quality bar.

So what will I change? Certainly I’m going to focus more on fact-based goals and remove some of the emotional/political/collaborative language that I so love using. Doing work to get so-and-so out from under water is probably less attractive than doing the same work to increase product quality. Heck, same same. Also, I’ve got to stop bothering them. No wonder I get those looks sometimes!

There was much more, but all in all I found the specific advice about interactions across category lines to be helpful. I’m no idiot; I know people are more complicated than just four work-style types. But learning how to motivate, delegate, develop, and collaborate with certain stereotypes will be a handy cheat-sheet for the office.

Relationship Economics 101

2009-01-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

It’s rare that a speaker can plow through material of any kind and leave me behind, or even lagging. No matter the depth or pace, I usually can keep up with the parts that I find interesting. This afternoon Mr. David Nour wasted me.

David was hired by The Company to give a 120 minute motivational talk titled “Relationship Economics.” His recently published book of the same title (Wiley, 2008) has been turning heads. This guy’s background story is head spinning as well. He arrived in the country from Iran in the early 80’s no knowing a lick of English. Now he is paid by Fortune 100 C-level executives to help them build their business networks and encourage their own professional growth. A 1st-generation immigrant story of the nth degree.

There was a lot in David’s talk. I had little hope of absorbing much new material at his breakneck speed. I jotted down a few new concepts, but mostly I was reminded of some of the lessons and best practices of my own professional development that I left behind in the last year.

First, I have not been growing my personal relationships. I have been growing one with Miracle Grow, Full Spectrum Lights, and attention, mind you, but my network is slowly fading to the background through starvation even as my relationship with Quincy grows daily. There’s absolutely no reason why I can’t do both at the same time. David brought up a number of quick tricks that I plan to make habits of. Personal notes; grooming my LinkedIn; finding reasons to connect with geographically distant friends; spending work-hour downtimes like lunch growing internal relationships; and most basically, doing something for others more often – these are just some.

As y’all know, I’ve been looking for more meaning lately. All it took was a couple months of decent blood flow and I’m ready for the next big thing. Maybe the next big thing is a thousand little things.

Or more accurately, maybe the next big thing will be the result of a thousand little things. My last 90 goal was to take over the QA department of The Company. Even though I worked pretty half-assed at it, the Universe still managed to plop most of the department and a promotion in my lap in just over 90 days. My next goal is for something different: I’d like to get offered a job of higher rank. I have yet to be recruited for much of anything. This is a direct effect of a starving relationship portfolio. Heck, I’ve ignored emails from people likely to offer me a job in the past just because I wasn’t in the mood or thought I knew I wouldn’t want it. I’ve got a few grade-A connections, people who I actually like as well, that I have been ignoring. Time for me to step up.

And, you all know me. Once I set my mind to something, even if I put it on the back burner, eventually I get exactly what I want. Or better.

But now, it’s time for dinner. Here’s hoping it’s less exotic fishy than last night’s course!

Savagely

2009-01-12T22:30:00.000-08:00

Gay bars in Seattle, by and large, are not scary.

My first experience being a tourist in such a strange land was in Wilkes-Barre at a bar called Twist (I had to look that up). It was positioned such that my college apartment was halfway down an alley between it and the only full nudie bar in the city, Toppers (I didn't have to look that up). It created a general weirdness vortex under our fire escape where we learned that human poo outlasts winter snows and wrote a punk song called "don't pee on my house" to serenade our late night visitors. Anyway, my old friend Tyler and I swung by Twist after being asked to leave an Irish Pub for not fighting. It was late - very late - and the bartender gladly made two "Mind Erasers" for the tall blond and young kid. From what I can vaguely recall (the drink lived up to its name) we were followed out of the place by two lonely, likely married (to wives), men who very much wanted to give us a ride home. I'm sure they had the best intentions. Tyler and I had a good laugh, then chucked on his carpet.

This weekend I accompanied a few of my friends to show support of the Capitol Hill scene in the face of a crazy threat from a deranged or lonely person. Apparently, and I'll let the FBI handle the details, some nut job sent letters to most of the gay bars on Capitol Hill (and one to The Stranger) threatening to spike 55 drinks with ricin. Which would not be nice. Anyway, the gay community answered in the best way they know how: they threw a party and called for a pub-crawl.

I'm not much for crawling, and neither are my friends. We actually camped out at Purr most of the night on big, cushy leather couches. Dan Savage dropped by. He sends his regards. He's much cuter in person, but I'm still straight.

So, my friends and I talked at the top of our voice while tall beefy men and obviously-not-ladies women danced and flirted somewhere on the other end of the bar. None of us are dancers (though I believe one has a thing for them).

Long story short: at least so far the threat is as empty as the threater's head. I hope it stays that way. The news camera outside of Purr Saturday night made my skin crawl. Too much attention to such a despicable act. Why can't we all just get a long?

Allison

2009-01-09T10:29:00.001-08:00

DSC_0249

Man, nothing warms the heart like a baby in hip-slogan apparel. One of my coworkers welcomed his second bundle of joy, Allison, into his home a few weeks ago. Nick's shares my love of hockey... heck, his love is bigger than my love (but he's Canadian and had a head start). I figured this slogan was appropriate. Here's to the NHL's future goaltender!

Anyhow, after that last blog post, I figured I needed to change the energy. This should do the trick!

By friend, I mean creepy Russian mafia-looking dude

2009-01-07T22:40:00.000-08:00

I'm not easily startled. But today I got a good little rush of adrenaline on my way home.

I had a drink and dinner with Megan at Vessel and Purple downtown after work. I walked over to the bus stop outside Macy's at 3rd and Pine to wait for my bus. While standing in the rain under the awning with 40 other people, I noticed the guy next to me staring at me. I made brief eye contact and went back to staring straight ahead. It's not unexpected to encounter strange people at the bus stop, and the stop at Pine at 7:20 is not exception. The 358 pulled up and I boarded. So did my new friend.

I picked an elevated seat midway back in the bus on the driver's side. He sat at the sideways facing seat closest to the front door. I did a quick plan of action in my head in the off chance that this guy was going to follow me somewhere. I rehashed his description in my head as well, so that I would remember later.

He stood about 5'11" and weighed about 180 pounds, maybe a little more. He wore brand new glossy black Adidas track shoes, brand new orange and black track pants, and a brown knit cap with white stars (or snowflakes). He was very Slavic looking, probably light hair and probably dark brown eyes. He was clean shaven and wore a flat expression the entire encounter.

As the bus ran its route, he looked towards the back of a bus now and then. Everyone does that. I stared straight ahead mostly, not really looking at him. Once the bus passed 70th, he looked directly at me at every stop. I made eye contact a few times, and he always quickly turned his head back towards the front of the bus. I considered multiple options, and decided that my stop at 100th was likely the safest bet, with the well lit Subway and Burger Master nearby. I figured I'd keep to a crowded area until he went away, with my cell ready for 911 should I need it.

As I prepared to exit the bus via the front door, he stood up normally in front of me and exited before me. He went north, towards HT Market; I went south towards Burger Master. After 20 or so steps, I turned back and spotted him turning back towards me. Maybe I spooked him? He took off running towards HT.

Now, it was pouring rain and gusting wind, so running towards cover didn’t strike me as too suspicious in itself. I crossed 100th and waited for the light to change so I could cross Aurora heading west; I stared back towards where I last saw him. Sure enough, a few seconds later he reappeared. We exchanged eye contact and flat expressions.

I pulled out my cell phone (dialing 911 but not pressing the call button) and walked across Aurora very slowly. He walked faster, then crossed 100th well in front of me and jogged towards the awning and the tanning business and cigarette store. There were two men smoking there. I walked passed the building about two steps, turned around, counted "One. Two." then took two confident strides back towards Aurora into view of my new friend. Surprisingly he was walking quickly back towards me as well! Okay, now we were following each other.

I lit up my cell and made it obvious, walked sorta backwards across 100th towards Aurora and kept him in view. As soon as he saw me he ran passed me (not too close) to the awning of the motorcycle shop, staring at me almost the whole way. Two seconds later he ran towards the alley behind the tanning/cigarette shop building and disappeared into the shadows. At this point, I was sure that 1) he was following me and 2) I spooked him away. I was also sure where he disappeared was between me and my house on an unlit empty street. Sigh.

So, I waited in the pouring rain until two other people appeared out of nowhere to walk up my street. I walked up with them, keeping my eyes peeled. When I got home, I stared down the street waiting to see if he followed. Nothing for 30 minutes. Yeah, he spooked me too.

All in all, nothing happened. If I needed to, I was always within 20 meters of a populated well lit area. I wonder if I did the right thing? At one point, when we were closest and he was running, I realized that dialing 911 was going to be very slow (though I had it pre-dialed at that point). He was very fast and bigger than me. I was depending on the kindness of strangers a little too much for my liking. But what were my other options?

I've been attempted to be mugged once in my dumpy college town. It was just some old druggie who didn't have a weapon and was too chicken to call my bluff of a fight. I've also averted a few confrontations by simply addressing the person in a friendly matter right away, eliminating the element of surprise (they just walked away). I felt young and invincible with nothing to lose. This was different. Maybe he just wanted my cell and wallet. I'd freely give those up. Maybe he was unarmed or maybe all of this is just my imagination. The only lingering uneasiness I have is that now I'll never know. It's unresolved, like some sort of independent film.

Sorry for the long post. I wrote all this up in detail to pass on to our neighborhood watch committee, and our local Police officer. I figured blogging it couldn't hurt.

Happy Birthday, What's Next?

2009-01-05T22:49:00.000-08:00

There was a time in my life, let's call in the 90s, that I believed any good night in January would count as a celebration of my birthday. I have had birthday parties thrown for me before. Toni and Tyler did a splendid job surprising me on my 21st; Regina and Rick put up with me talking up a Secret Service agent for hours at the bar next to the Pearl one year; and of course childhood is filled with all kinds of warm fuzzy nostalgia. But, the real break was the surprise party Rishi threw me four years ago. We had just rekindled our friendship after the Liz Years, and he absolutely blew my mind with a well executed everyone-I-know-shows-up-on-time-except-me party at the Garage. I actually lost the ability to speak. Can you imagine? It happened. There were many witnesses.

Since then, I've celebrated turning 30 on a beach with 15,000 in Thailand; at 30,000 feet with the woman I'm going to (eventually, really) marry; and this year, a rousing party at my house thrown by the same amazing woman.

It's all about the people. Again this year I lost words. I had written down the night before some things I wanted to say to everyone. I had imagined a smaller crowd and, well, Lou Reed (I was tired and listening to Howe Gelb, okay). I think I ended up saying something like "thanks for coming - er - it's all about the people." Then I ate my gluten-free cupcake.

So, it's no surprise I'm taking my good time getting to the point here, too.

Friends are the family I choose. I'm not saying this to disparage my family; on the contrary, I would consider life a success if I could surround myself with people of the same caliber as those who raised me. And, well, I think my life is a success. Whatever gets thrown at me, I seem to be able to keep my footing pretty well (with a little help, for sure).

The last year, my 31st*, was one of taking and being supported. I didn't realize the energy I lost. My life blood was thin.

Rishi pulled me aside at my party and asked me what I was going to do this year with my renewed energy. I mentioned my two days volunteering with the Food Bank. Never impressed, he pressed me to do more. Why not organize a larger group? I can't say I haven't been thinking that already. My energy is my greatest gift, and continuing on this path of mediocrity is cheating everyone. Today, Quincy shared a blog written by a line cook. Again, I feel like the universe, through my friends, is pushing me forward.

So, with another calendar year comes another life-year comes a chance to do something different (and, with any luck, reap different results). Here I go!

Now, some party pics, again, thanks to all those friends:

* actually, it was my 32nd year. Funny how that works.

Olympic Ice Hockey Tickets

2009-01-05T17:15:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, it seems forever now, I put in my request for Olympic event tickets with CoSport, the only vendor to the US for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. I requested way more tickets than I wanted (heck, more than I could afford) in hopes to get at least a couple men’s ice hockey tickets in the lottery.

I got word today from CoSport that the lottery results are such that I have purchased six pairs of hockey tickets and two pairs of curling tickets! I’m stoked. Quincy is already researching a place to stay. It’ll probably mean a few days away from Grete, but it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity (when else will I live so close to a Winter Olympics host city?).

I got more tickets than I expected to get. This means that I have too many and I’ll be looking to sell or trade some of the events. We got events for a Sat, Sun, Mon, and Wednesday, so I’m going to try to find a non-hockey ticket for the free day.

We did get a Quarter Finals hockey game, which is super exciting. I didn’t even try for the metal games (while they’re super-exciting and guaranteed to have the best teams, they’re expensive and the odds of getting any were lower). We won’t know our exact seats (though I did get the best sections for each of the games) until later this year. We won’t know which teams we’ll be watching until right before hand (or in the case of the Quarter Finals, the night before).

I want to sell a pair of tickets to three different men’s ice hockey games and one pair for a curling match. If you know someone who is interested, I’ll be selling them for exactly what I paid for them. If you know anyone who has their own tickets to sell, please let me know.

Oh, I can’t wait!

Seeds!

2009-01-04T10:05:00.000-08:00

Quincy and I spent two hours the other night pouring over the Territorial Seed catalog. Megan's mother suggested them as a great resource for local (well, Oregon is fairly local) seeds, starts and plants. We tried to stick with the seeds for now, but we will take Megan's mom's other suggestion, the Basil Perpetuo plant:

So, for our reference and your reading pleasure, here's what we're going to try to stick in the ground this summer:

Basil

Dill

Cucumber

Helitrope

Fennel

Brussel Sprouts

Shallots

Giant Sunflowers

Infrared Sunflowers

Teddy Bear Sunflowers

Yellow Pear Tomato

Super Sugar Peas

White elephant party

2009-01-03T08:25:00.000-08:00

Maggi & Jeff hosted a super fun white elephant party this year. Quincy got stuck with, er, won, a seven-days-of-soap pack. I smell a re-gift. I held onto a super-cool apron for a moment, but lost it in the fray. Much fun was had, and if Maggi & Jeff's party wasn't going on 4+ years, I'd host one next year. The photos from the party are here.

Quincy and I themed our white elephant gifts on gaming. I brought along an Atari joystick that had been converted to include, in the joystick itself, 12 games. Along with that I included an old master-mind-like electronic game from the early 1980's (you try to guess the 4-digit combination the computer randomly generated). Quincy wrapped two sets of Magic: The Gathering cards, two Shadowrun books (the Seattle expansion; oooo) and a Star Wars role playing book. I think we geeked the heck out of the joint. There was a modern board game version of Mastermind at the party as well.

Since I missed the Insightful holiday party this year, it was good to get my White Elephant gift exchanging out of my system. Go tack!

Some assembly required

2009-01-02T17:35:00.000-08:00

Ever try to assemble something from IKEA? Or worse, Sears? Frustratingly sparse instructions, tabs that don't fit into slots and cheap plastic or fake wood parts drive me batty. Well, actually, I take it mostly in stride. Still, this year Santa (read: Quincy and Megan & Talina) gave me a couple of gifts so easy to assemble that I felt the urge to blog. Really.

The first piece to assemble was the Misco Home Garden 2-shelf Greenhouse. These shelving units are meant for sprouting seeds in spring. Last year we searched everywhere, but they were sold out long before March. This year, Quincy got a jump on the competition. The shelving unit is made up of metal tubes, plastic connectors, metal wire shelf racks, and a vinyl cover. The instructions were simple, the tubes fit snugly, the racks were just set on the shelf, the vinyl fit perfectly, and the whole thing went together in less than 10 minutes, including unwrapping it. There wasn't too much wasteful packaging (just some thin plastic around the tubes and a few cardboard spacers). In the end, the shelf looks sturdy enough to hold our plants after the sprouting season. Was to go, Q!

Megan and Talina outdid themselves this year with a wonderful, thoughtful gift. I've been jealous of Megan's balcony gardens since I first gazed upon the jungle she created. Her tomato plants are so big they act as privacy shrubs. In small part her success was due to the automatically watering (there's a reservoir in the bottom) Terrazza planters, which are legendary in their ability to turn a small tomato start into a forest of lush branches and leaves. The entire product is made from a hard plastic that looked like it was never going to fit together. But, following the easy instructions the dang thing snapped together in just a few minutes. Everything was so perfectly fitting that I'm confident it'll last for years. After all, Megan did move hers from one apartment balcony to another, with dirt, without them falling apart.

Both gifts were absolutely wonderful. Well thought out and in the end completely satisfying. Wait until you see all the seeds we sprout and all the tomatoes we harvest! Best of all, I didn't spend an afternoon putting them together! Woot!

2008 in thumbnails

2009-01-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

This year started off auspiciously with a backwards repel down a waterfall in Costa Rica. I came back sore and wondering what the heck I was thinking. That was January 1st. The 365 days that followed stayed in the same theme: exhilarating and sometimes painful. Overall, it was one of the busiest and most eventful years of my life.

My dad visited in January, followed by a nontraditional wedding between two of Quincy's best friends, Maggi and Jeff. I spent January through March unemployed by choice, preparing the house for Quincy, Grete and Gesso to move in, and relaxing for the first time in years. Rick moved out in February after four years of living in my basement -- it was both sad and happy, as he is now in Portland with more room, more light, and more music in his life.

Rishi, Omar and I went to Vegas for the Super Bowl ('nuf said) and Grete spent her first weekend at my house. Quincy and friends spent long hours ripping up the floor in her kitchen, preparing it for an eventual sale which would be both stressful and ultimately rewarding.

Quincy, Grete and I met my mother and Eileen on the Oregon coast for a long weekend of hiking and beach walks. I was getting weaker and sicker at this point, and visited the doctor for more blood work. Still no idea what it could be, we traveled to Pennsylvania to meet my family and to South Dakota to visit Quincy's. I swung up to Vermont to see Brian wed Becca, certainly one of the most beautiful weddings I will ever witness.

Quincy and Grete ran their first 5k. Quincy moved in and we started gardening in earnest in the middle of the summer. By July, I was finally diagnosed with celiac disease. Just one month later, with a fresh supply of oxygen in my blood, I asked Quincy to merry me (the day before Vena married Simon, another beautiful gathering of friends and family).

We dog sat DJ & Emily's Lola and hosted a super-fun game night in the fall. Megan and Talina got engaged this summer as well, so we spent a few nights sharing our wedding planning. I continued working at Attenex, taking the bus every day, and re-learning how to manage stress (now that my energy returned, so did much angst).

Parties (with DJ & Emily's new baby!), outdoor lights, and snow capped off an amazing year. Quincy and I have absolutely no idea what next year will hold for us. After all that we've done so far, I know we're both hoping for a little breather. So, who wants to take bets? hehe... I didn't think so. Let's go sailing!

Let's Go Sailing

2008-12-31T11:54:00.000-08:00

Quincy and I have been thinking about boating. Well, I've been dreaming and she's been researching. That's how we divide our work, mostly. Anyway, I love the open sea. And by the open sea I mean the protected waters of Lake Union or Elliot Bay. One of my favorite things to do with guests is to take a trip with Let's Go Sailing. Although I missed all the races last summer, I also really love watching the Duck Dodge from Gasworks Park in the summer.

Turns out boats are not only expensive to buy and maintain, but also move and store. I don't think the gig is up, but I do think me getting a boat next summer is out of the question. Trailers and storage and tow packages on new vehicles -- oi. Quincy, being both practical and loving, gave me a sunset cruise trip with Let's Go Sailing for Christmas. Yay! Just my style: a 75-foot racing yacht.

Still, I wonder if the late-winter/early-spring doldrums would be less dull if I had a boat to ready. Even better if the boat has a small cabin for cold-weather cruising. And, as much as I love the look of cigarette boats, they don't seem practical for dogs and friends. I'd love to get my hands on a little tug like Hulgar has, or a beauty like Chuck's cruiser.

What do you think? Trading a summer wedding for a boat is, frankly, not a new idea to us. As we walked to a caterers a few months ago, we passed a boat shop. Quincy said, "We should just get a boat, it'll cost less." We laughed. We paused. We looked at each other, and for the moment anyways, steeled ourselves for the wedding. Now? Let's go sailing.

Helicopter maiden flight

2008-12-27T19:18:00.001-08:00

Helicoper's maiden flight

For Christmas, Quincy got me exactly what I wanted: a helicopter!
I work with a guy that builds and flies a variety of mini RC toys, and watching him zip his helicopter around the cubes got me thinking about flying my own. A quick conversation later, I realized that even toy helicopters are 1) hard to fly, 2) often expensive, 3) require a lot of maintenance if you crash (see characteristic 1).
Except, this super small super light mini RC: The Air Hogs Havoc Heli. After two 5-minute flights, I got the hang of controlling all three axes. It's not too difficult, since this helicopter only give you control of two variables: spin and acceleration.
It works by having the 'copter spin slightly in the clockwise direction. When not spinning, it moves (increasing fast) in the forward direction. By controlling the amount of spin (and when you control the spin), the helicopter can be roughly pointed in a direction and kept stable. Acceleration take you up and down.
To get more forward movement, you can stick one of their tiny weights (basically a piece of tape, which is what I used) on the front of the aircraft. This will bias the craft towards a constant (unstoppable) forward motion; since it will still spin in the air slowly, it will just go in small (or big) circles.

Battery-wise, about two 5 minute flights can be taken an hour. It takes the 'copter about 20-30 minutes to charge fully; a 15 minute cool-down sessions is suggested after flying before charging.

Mistakes were made. Crashes happened. There were no near-misses in the first two flights -- every miss was dead on. I crashed into the floor, ceiling, walls, doors, range, fern, cat, Christmas tree, blinds, couch, heating vent, door frame, carpet fringe, and fridge. And that was just the first flight. In the second flight, a crash against the controller (which caused me to drop the controller nearly on the falling RC) caused some bending in the main rotor pole. This de-stabilized the craft so badly it could not take off. I re-bent the pole (carefully) and got it flying pretty well again. I can see that I will be lucky to get 5 flights out of this before I break something that I can't fix. The good news is that it is so light that it doesn't hurt anything (or one) but itself when it crashes.

So, overall I rate this toy a 9. Since I don't ever rate toys, that means absolutely nothing. Regardless, the Havoc Heli's gentle learning curve and robust crash-worthiness wins me over. I wouldn't necessarily get this for a little kid (who might be disappointed when it breaks), but for adults snowed in for weeks, it's keen.

50-year storm

2008-12-26T17:40:00.000-08:00

This has been a strange winter in Seattle. For those of you not living here, I'll give you a quick recap. It snowed, then sleeted, then snowed, then snowed, then froze, then flurried then snowed then rained then snowed. Presently, the clouds are dropping an indecisive snowy sleet-like frozen rain. Clearly this weather front has been in Seattle too long, and is picking up the passive-aggressive nature. Please leave!

The blogosphere has been rife with picturesque icy photographs and red hot flames about the city's response. So, being that I've got nothing better to do because I still feel snowed in (once the temperature drops below freezing at night, I do not trust the wet, slushy roads), let me expound on why I think we're in this snow drift, and why I don't think it's a bad thing.

First, it does not snow like this in Seattle more than twice a century. Given we clean out our city counsel and mayoral office every couple of elections, the political decision horizon trends towards the quarterly or yearly outlook; not a whole lot of very long term planning happens (evidence our non-existent mass transit system; our lack of sidewalks; our crumbling bridges and viaduct; our two-city suburban sprawl; our unlinked architecture; et cetera). So, who's going to vote for a teacher pay cut to invest in a dozen plows we're only going to use once a decade, at most? Come spring, everyone will be complaining about sidewalks, crime, schools, traffic, and potholes again. Frankly, those perennial Seattle issues impact each of us on a far greater scale.

And voting. Don't get me started. From what I can tell, any nut case with a few followers or million dollars can get an initiative on the ballot. That means we can hamstring the city government when they pass unpopular laws. Long term vision is almost always unpopular -- take a look at what the mayors in Chicago and New York City went through as they fought crime. (They're now regarded as, in some circles at least, heroes; heck, one ran for president. Sort of.) So let's say the mayor does feed more money into snow-removal and ice-prevention systems. I there would be an initiative blocking that funding faster than you can say "Where's my monorail?"

I won't claim (as a few have recently) to understand all the facets to the road-salting dilemma. Our mayor has decided to err on the side of environmental safety and not salt our roads; apparently there is risk of damage to the Puget Sound. Fine with me, frankly. There are other alternatives (though more costly) and the salt is bad for cars. It's possible we'll do more environmental damage fixing all our potholes that are due (in large part) to snow tires and chains (on buses, rigs, trucks, and even yuppie Priuses). But, when the math gets that hard, I can promise you this: there's no right answer. Fuzziness begets waffling begets status quo. Maybe China had it right: mandate everyone off the road for the good of the people (and the city) for a short time.

So, Seattle, you couldn't do all your Christmas shopping this year. You might have been forced to cancel your travel plans. You might get a little cabin fever. You might even have to walk to the cafe in your own neighborhood for once, instead of driving to Ballard or Capitol Hill. The "badness" in all of these inconveniences is all in our mind. The price we would pay to guarantee we'd never be faced with such hardship again is very high. I say, put on your boots, walk down the street for a cup of joe and a gallon of milk, and spend a little time with your family. Maybe if you're lucky, the power will go out and you'll actually get to talk to each other.

Then again, I'm just a punk blogger. And if we've learned anything new this century it's this: don't trust what you read in the blogosphere.

Christmas Eve Pie

2008-12-26T17:00:00.000-08:00

This year we were planning on visiting Fran and Ed, an aunt/uncle pair on Quincy's side of the family, in Kent, for Christmas Eve. I ordered a pecan pie from the Flying Apron bakery in Fremont. Sadly, a second (or was it fourth) snow storm came through and made the driving very sketchy. We decided to brave the afternoon roads to Fremont as a test run to see if we could make it to Kent. It was difficult driving on any side streets, and things were beginning to freeze back up on our way home. So, we didn't go.

This is the first Christmas I've spent in the states without seeing any friends or relatives on Christmas day. Well, of course except for Q. It's a little strange. Still, we're looking forward to braving the trip to Kent now that the roads have melted and (at least the arterial) been plowed.

I hope I don't have to eat this pie all myself. It's fantastic (though the gluten free-crust is very crumbly) and super sweet. Flying Apron has the best gluten-free pasteries in the city. I live six blocks from another gluten-free bakery, but their goods are shamed by the very professional, always fresh, often vegan(!), Flying Apron. Even some of the my gluten-friendly friends stop by there. On Thanksgiving weekend they make hundreds of pies. mmm... pie.

2008-12-25T17:52:00.000-08:00

I had mentioned just a few days ago that one of my favorite Christmas songs was recorded by Eartha Kitt. Sadly, she passed away today, at 81 year old. Sounds like she had a pretty good run. And here I thought I was the only person who had ever heard of her; my favorite Christmas song just went Gold!

In other news, Christmas was both white and silent. Quincy and I spent a wonderful day without leaving our property. (Someday we hope to be able to say that and feel like we've gone somewhere, but when you only own <4,000 sq feet, cabin fever is a real risk.) After opening presents and making breakfast and lunch, we've mostly just played with our new toys (I got a helicopter!).

I hope your Christmastime was warm and filled with friends and family. Thanks for reading!

No power

2008-12-24T15:15:00.000-08:00

well, for the first time this winter the power went out at our house. it happens a few ti.es a year, usually because of ice or wind. current, the weather is miserable: icy rain falling on ankle-deep slush, surrounded by banks of browning snow. white Christmas? maybe. still, our spirts are high... we picked up stocking stuffers for the pets and a pecan pie from Flying Apron for me on our long wet walk. i think it's time for a fire. btw- this post comes to you via my phone and my overpriced soon-to-be-canceled data plan. go technology!

Merry Christmas, Calvin & Hobbes style

2008-12-24T12:14:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas, Calvin & Hobbes style

My mom's favorite comic strip is Calvin and Hobbes. Growing up, there were always new comic books under the Christmas tree for her, and eventually they ended up in the bathroom for our reading pleasure. I think I memorized about 10 of those books. We always enjoyed the snowscapes that Bill Watterson would draw. My mom had the last strip matted, showing Calvin and Hobbes sledding away in search for new adventures.

So, in honor of that (and the millions of other) warm motherly memory, I present to you my quick interpretation of Calvin's idea of a Christmas card.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Swim streak ends!

2008-12-22T11:43:00.000-08:00

I'm sure I'm not the only person who's surprised that it's finally over. Michael's famous and renown consecutive-days-swimming-in-Lake-Washington streak is finally over. After more than two years, through ice and snow and rain and heat, it's hard to believe he missed a day. But, the snow here has been crazy. Check out his website linked from the photo (I took it at his first swimaversary).

For me, I'm about to brave the roads and break the cabin fever. Lunch or bust!

Still snowed in

2008-12-20T13:21:00.001-08:00

NEPA the gnome covered in snow

While practically speaking I could probably drive safely anywhere in the city, I've decided to lay low again today. The side streets are covered in snow still, and in many place are just thick ice. NOAA is calling for more snow and rain and sleet and freezing rain tonight.

So, today we cleaned the house from top to bottom. And, last night Quincy pulled out her copy of Civilization IV for me. I'm addicted, but that's a story for when the barbarians aren't at the door.

Until then!

Under 20

2008-12-19T08:25:00.001-08:00

Under 20

When I let Grete out 5 minutes ago, the temperature (in the sun, mind you) was 19.9 degrees. This is the first time I've noticed the tempterature fall below 20 in Seattle (though I'm sure it has while I've been here).

A few seconds after snapping the photo, the temp rose to 20.1. Break out the shorts!

Another work from home day today. There's no way I'm waiting for a bus in that kind of cold, and the street our house is on is a sheet of ice.

Update! The temperature stayed above 20 for less than 10 hours today. Moments ago, returning from our evening walk with Grete, I saw the temp fall.

Ice Scraper

2008-12-18T14:11:00.001-08:00

Jason clears away snow

What the heck? I left NEPA just to stop this sort of madness. Actually, the snow clearing is pretty easy when you don't have sidewalks. The scraper I'm using was my parents. They gave it to me when I left PA back in '99. It sat in the trunk of the Corsica for years with minmal use. Now in the back of my Standard Issue Seattle Subaru, it comes in handy a few time a year. I'm really glad my parents sprung for the delux scraper. The big blue brush and curved ice-scraper make short work of both cars.

I have spent most of the day copying work files from one firewalled network to another. Working with people in Austrailia is a trip.

Snow Day and a Broccoli Flute

2008-12-18T12:28:00.000-08:00

It's a snow day here in Seattle. We're about to go for a second walk and pick up some milk. But, in the spirit of the season, I want to share this amazing video (Thanks Megan!):

Business Casual

2008-12-17T14:18:00.000-08:00

I am still not sure what factors matter most in determining whether a workplace will be hellish or heavenly. I’ve had my share of both in my short career. As best I can tell, at least one major factor is what I bring into the office each day. I certainly don’t imply that my wishing the jerks away or simply ignoring them is the same as working with best friends. But I am noticing that the less I react to the jerkiness the more likely new coworkers (or entire offices) will become friendly.

For my part, about two months ago I started wearing Jackets, slacks and a button down shirt nearly every day to the office. I had to purchase some new pants anyways (given my return to fighting weight), so I went with grey and black dress pants from, of all places, Target ($20). I added a brown jacked to the mix (H&M, $69). I dry cleaned ($15) my Thai tailored shirts (that Rishi brought back last year for me as a Christmas present) and upgraded my hangers (The home Depot, 5 for $5). I finally broke down and purchased a silver-colored watch by Swiss Army (Nordstom Rack, $200). I bought lots of new black, brown and grey dress socks (Target, $4-$8 a pair). I didn’t buy a Burberry blue/grey jacket that I fell in love with (Nordstrom Rack, $399 down from $799), which in my mind financed the whole shopping spree.

I still have some holes in the wardrobe (new brown pants, brown leather gloves, anything for the summer season) but generally speaking, when I wake up groggy to select my attire for the day, there are enough combinations to make dressing up a mundane task.

What does any of this have to do with an enjoyable workplace environment? I’m not certain. I know that it’s easier for me to act professionally, to separate my self with my work product, when I’m rocking the business casual. Also, it gives everyone an opportunity to kid with me; excluding (most days) The Company’s Supreme Leader, I’m the best dressed guy in the office. This is a radical departure from most test managers (who report to work with holes in their shirts or coffee stains on their sweatpants).

Lately, I’ve enjoyed coming to work a lot more. I waste 30 minutes a day at the dart board with a few folks. I chat with the receptionist. I go for coffee when asked. Today Attenex gave me (and 7 others) a wonderful recognition in the form of an award. It’s the first time that I’ve been singled out (even with 7 others) for my work in general (and not tied to just putting in long hours in the course of a software release). Honestly, I’m barely productive here – I certainly have yet to do my best. Still, attitude accounts for so much.

I hope the new year finds each of you in a fulfilling workplace.

New Phone

2008-12-16T22:31:00.000-08:00

Those of you who know me well (that means both of you readers out there) know that I hate, above all else, cell phone UI. I hated my first cell phone (how slow is this??), my second cell phone (did they even test this thing?), my last cell phone (even Windows CE is bloated) and every cell phone in between. There is no consolation for those who listen, because upgrade after painful upgrade, the fact remains. I hate cell phone UI.

But, last week I dropped my Windows Mobile 8525 (free loaner from Megan. It replaced my Motorola Razr V3, also a free loaner from Megan. Actually, I think my last three or four phones were free.

Why buck a trend? Thanks to my fiancees Internet startup (a.k.a. Amazon.com) I scored my new imitation Blackberry for one cent. Thanks to a bug in their UI (not her fault), I didn't even pay shipping. And, thanks to AT&T, I'll probably have a huge surcharge on my bill for all the times I accidentally browsed the web tonight.

So far, the UI isn't that bad. That's a high compliment from me. I was able to change the home screen easily to a rather slick layout. I figured out how to set up speed dialing, updated my contacts, and took a background photo (of Gesso) in less than twenty minutes. I answered call, changed ring tones, and played a solitaire game.

It came with a data package, which I'll drop this month for sure. I don't find myself needing the internet to float around me at all times. And the rare times I really need to look something up, Q and her iPhone can rescue me.

That's my update. A new phone. Finally. For the record, my last phone lasted almost two years. Before that, I hung onto the Razr and the phone before that for years as well. It seems no matter how annoying something is, I would rather stick with it than change. Well, you know what they say, a devil in the hand is worth two in the bush.

New camera in the family

2008-12-16T21:40:00.000-08:00

Those of you who follow Q's blog or Flickr stream have certainly notice that she's gone and purchased herself a new camera. She settled on the D90, two steps up from my D50, but still in the consumer area of Nikon's offerings. The next step up into the three didget range (D200, DX2, D300) brings more power, but also considerably more weight. Also, the aspect ratio changes, meaning our lenses would need to be upgraded. So, the D90 it is.
I was hesitent at first, thinking it more practical for Q to just borrow mine whenever she wanted it. Silly me. The new camera is great, and now we can both play with shooting at the same time. Also, the D90 is more than just a couple notches up on the feature totem pole; it's also two generations of technology younger. The CCD is fast, so fast that the ISO goes up to 6400, then a full three more steps from there! Holy cow. We've taken a number of acceptable low-light (grainy) shots that come out black with my camera. Also, it's very, very fast.
If you want an actual review of the camera, the lens (18-105), etc, I recommend www.dpreview.com.

Christmas Music

2008-12-15T21:17:00.000-08:00

This Christmas I impulse purchased on emusic a slew of new jingles and jangle to brighten by bough'd halls. After one afternoon of the noels, both Quincy and I were ready to drink ourselves into a spiked-eggnog induced stupor. Still, for at least the first few days, Christmas is my favorite season to indulge in annoying music. (Those of you unfortunate enough to live through my Winter of Drom or Múm-soaked Fall might disagree.)

[I'm a big fan of emusic; they have a fantastic monthly and yearly subscription and a wide selection of strange and indie music, as well as some music that is (gasp) mainstream. All songs are DRM-free and you can download them as many times as you need, from wherever you need.]

First up, it's not Christmas without John Denver and the Muppets. From his duet with Rowlf on Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to the rumpus-room We Wish You a Merry Christmas, I smile like a six year old and welcome the flood of shag-carpet-sitting puppet-watching memories.

Since I never sit still, I also like my Christmas playlists to be a spiked with some swing to keep me moving. The collection Swingin' Christmas released on Membran Ltd. / The Orchard hits the spot. Benny Goodman, Fats Waller, and Louis Prima never fail to deliver that Yule tide zip.

For those quieter, fireside moments, I go to an old standby of mine: John Fahey's album A New Possibility. I find the quick picking and slick runs soothing. I might be alone on that in this house, though.

Sometimes, though, I just need Christmas crack. That's when I dip into Fantasy / Milestone records' classic collection Vintage Christmas. And, you guessed it: from track one (Bing Crosby's Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town the album delivers exactly what all good boys and girls deserve. If there's a perennial not on this album, I don't know it.

Speaking of perennial favorites, the year that The Squirrel Nut Zippers put out Christmas Caravan I was still in NEPA, a few months from graduating myself from college. Every year since it's been dusted off for a spin or two (or thirty). [Too popular for emusic, the link goes to Amazon.com.]

Lastly, another modern classic from Fantasy / Milestone records: Christmas Songs. With a name like that, it's either going to be a standard or a flop. I vote that this one is the former, with the likes of Chet Baker and Ruth Brown reminding us what the season is all about: nostalgia. (I heard someone quote this: Family is a group of people who feel nostalgia for the same imaginary place.)

Also in rotation are albums from Low and The Blind Boys of Alabama. I was fortunate enough to befriend someone with a record player and an extensive rare music collection years back, so I supplement the mix with three CDs of rare and strange Christmas classics like Tiny Tim's I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and Eartha Kitt's Santa Baby (quite possibly my favorite Christmas song ever).

Whatever you're listening to, I hope you're enjoying it. For me, I've got about four hours of Christmas music listening left in me, so I'll be saving it up for Christmas eve and day. Or, maybe it's time for another diddy from Doris Day.

Christmas Decoration

2008-12-14T12:58:00.001-08:00

Mom '08

Christmas is my most favorite time of the year. Well, my favorite holiday at least (it's hard to compare fire-side warmth with full sun hammock napping). Every year for at least the last decade my mother has sent me a new Christmas tree ornament. Most years I remember to label the bottom or back with the year info. This year I decided to capture most of the decoration on the tree.

This is our first tree together, and my first real (and purchased) tree. A few years ago I chopped down a cedar sapling that was growing far too close to the house. It was a very Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

This tree we purchased from down the street. We probably paid a little more than if we had gone to The Home Depot, but we got to take Grete and some photos. Best of all, this tree can support actual ornaments and a topper.

Nepa the Gnome is cold

2008-12-14T12:48:00.001-08:00

Nepa the Gnome is cold

Last night Quincy and I had a wonderful, gluttonous dinner at Cafe Flora before seeing Megan sing with the Seattle Woman's Chorus. The production was fun a lively. I enjoyed most of the original pieces (though, enough with the Jingle Bells, I get it!), especially "I got a Fluffy Sweater," "Duerme Negrito," and the central piece "Neighborhood." The main theme was Seattle neighborhoods at yule time. Favorite part: watching Megan actually show that she was enjoying herself in the second act. Not a stanza went by without her smiling broadly or tossing her hair. Yay for the happiness.

When Quincy and I returned from the show around 10pm, the snow just started. I went out to the front yard with the camera, and Quincy to the back yard with Grete. Most of my exposures were over 6 seconds. I'm glad I bought a good tripod years go. It was easy to adjust and light enough to be mobile, but heavy enough to sit still.

Today it's been bitterly cold (for Seattle). All the side streets are icy with no chance of thawing before tomorrow's commute. I'm not looking forward to it!

Grete in the snow

2008-12-14T12:39:00.001-08:00

Grete in the snow

Grete is in love with the snow. We had her outside in the back yard last night as it was coming down. This morning, I tossed a few snowballs and frozen tennis balls around with her. I can't believe that she doesn't mind the coldness on her nose and teeth!

Lost more snow photos on Flickr.

New Template, Fresh Pancakes

2008-11-28T10:44:00.000-08:00

A little less than one person a day actually visits by blog. Most folks do it through a reader. Today I updated my blog template with a minibox template. Thanks to that blogger for figuring out all the layout code. Now, much to my happiness, I can post straight from Flickr without resizing their images to fit in my thin column. Anyone reading on a 800x640 resolution might not be able to see the whole blog; they should buy a new LCD, IMO.

Quincy is wizard with the pixel pushing. But today she was cooking breakfast -- from scratch! So, the Internet came to my rescue for my templating needs. Then, pancakes and coffee appeared!

Quincy made gluten-free Buckwheat pancakes. They were delish. You can read all about it on her blog.

Gesso knows

2008-11-28T09:11:00.001-08:00

Gesso knows

For those of you who know the bounds of my love for cats, you may be wondering why I've posted so many photos of Gesso lately. Well, frankly, she and I have been getting along better recently. She sleeps through the night an doesn't pee on anything. And, she is a natural plush heating pad. But the real reason for the photos is Grete's and Quincy's hatred of flash. See, they run when I pull out my speedlight. Gesso, on the other hand, seems impervious to the explosion of light, so long as she's getting attention. In this photo, I'm less than nine inches from her head.
Ah, macro photography of the local wildlife.
When did I become that person who only posts pictures of his pets? Oi.

Four Day Weekend

2008-11-28T09:01:00.001-08:00

Goofing around in the basement

This morning I wrestled with Grete in the bed. Dog wrestling, once reserved for the country bumpkin and backwoods Pennsyltuckian, has now moved into the urban areas. At least at our house. There's something satisfying about rough housing with a well behaved dog. She doesn't nip or use her mouth at all. But at 50 pounds, she's not exactly a light weight.
Yesterday I did something strange to my back. Couldn't get out of bed for more than an hour. It was very painful. I still feel like I've taken a baseball bat to the shoulder blade, but at least I'm mobile.
More holiday weekend photos and posts to follow. I'm doing my part to make sure Cyber Monday is unproductive for all.
Now, get back to shopping.

Gesso hunts at night

2008-11-24T20:23:00.001-08:00

Gesso hunts at night

I like to get Gesso exercised before Q and Grete get home. Reason? Some people say dogs shouldn't play with laser pointers. Especially neurotic breeds. (Not that Grete is neurotic. Noooo.) So, I only get to play with Gesso and the laser pointer in that short time I'm home before Q.
This photo was a first technically, as well. I used my off-camera speedlight and Quincy's new remote. Fun!

Not change, just chance

2008-11-23T09:45:00.001-08:00

Not change, just chance

Just in case I have any Republicans in my readership, which I can't imagine, here's a photo from Irish Paul, from the Czech Republic.

A Man on a Mission

2008-11-23T09:35:00.000-08:00

I am not an economist in any regards, but I am very excited to hear that President-elect Obama is planning a stimulous package similar to the Great Works projects of a bygone era. No more "spend our way" out. Regardless of the details, music to my ears: Obama will have the bill to congress on his first day in office.

Rock on, new guy.

Now, to the dog park with me.

Love is Orange

2008-11-22T09:13:00.001-08:00

love is orange

Jake's birthday party was, as it always is, a resounding success. We chatted up with musicians and artists and coders and writers... but I guess that's no different than any other weekend. In my book a good measure of a man is the quality of his friendships. Jake's a great man.
And look how cute we are!

Working from home

2008-11-21T12:05:00.000-08:00

Today I've been burried in emails and doc reviews, but at least I'm doing it from the comfort of my own home. There's a lot to be said about 20 minutes of fetch at noon and home brewed coffee and buckwheat pancakes. Quincy took the bus into work and Grete has been rockin' the sleeping-at-my-feet. Well, for like 20 seconds. Most of the time she plops down in the living room waiting for Q to come home.

But, I'd bet anything she enjoyed the fetch. More photos on my flickr.

Chainless Bike

2008-11-20T08:38:00.000-08:00

I haven’t ridden my bike in over a year. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with my bike since the first day I climbed from Fremont to Phinney in that big, beautiful, painful gear. My bike, built mostly by Irish Paul with limited help from me, was one of the sexiest on the streets of Seattle in its day. The handlebars were bare aluminum and less than 2’ from end to end. This wickedly increased the coolness and instability of the machine. Turns were a force of will, and pumping up hill was an exercise in futility. Baby blue with white highlights on the saddle and head, she streaked through the city at breakneck speeds (partially due to the ridiculous design of only having one break, located on the back rim for optimal coolness and dangerous. It started slow, stopped long, couldn’t turn and had the potential to gore a hole in me had I ever tossed it. But, despite all that (and the insane speeds which could be reached on the downhill morning commute), she lived into old age. Now, she sits in the garage and likely dreams of the morning dew splattering against her frame.
I’m not sure when my love of the machine passed into one of my many used-to hobbies. I still love riding, I’m sure. Now that I’m healthy again, Fremont doesn’t look nearly as intimidating. But, my live isn’t worth risking on such a dangerous machine. Seriously, of all the compliments paid that bike by passersby, commuters, and bike messengers, the sentiment was always the same: that looks so dangerous.
Maybe I would enjoy a new machine. The geek in me that relished every episode of the first three seasons of Junk Yard Wars longs for this new hotness. It’s a chainless bicycle that uses similar technology as motorcycles use. No more slipping or grimy fingers from reseating the chain. My beautiful bike was notorious of dropping the chain, mostly like due to the unnatural gear ratio.
Best yet, these new bikes come with two breaks.

The Snowball

2008-11-18T09:43:00.000-08:00

I’m reading a biography of Warren Buffett. The biography is The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder (Bantam press, September 2008). After seeing an end-cap display of supposed Warren Buffett biographies in Barnes and Nobles, which did not include this volume, I thought I should weigh in. The blogosphere needs me, I though. Well, that, and nothing happened today.
Buffett selected Schroeder as his biographer and gave her unprecedented access to his papers, people, and time. Schroeder, former managing director at Morgan Stanley, is able to weave together detailed stories of acquisitions, mergers, and business makeovers with personal accounts of Buffett’s obsessive behavior, complete neglect of his family, and close personal and business friendships. I’m only 500 pages into the over 900 page book, but I already feel as if I have known a friend of Warren Buffett for years.
Let me say this about Buffett: as with every other genius I have had the pleasure of learning about or living with, obsession, dedication, and impossible focus appear to be requirements for true greatness. Without them, a person is simply smart, intuitive, lucky, successful, or learned. Buffett’s single mindedness with business allowed him to form incredibly deep working relationships, a fundamental understanding of gauging the health of a business, and imaginative ways to grow his own share of the wealth he created for his partners, family, and friends. Even when framed in a life of world travel and a child-rearing, Buffett’s dedication to his money obsession is perfect.
Even when asked about his estranged wife today, he didn’t fully seem to grasp how he had lost her. Back in the 70’s, he didn’t understand that her move to San Francisco was estrangement (and that she had chosen and installed her replacement to care for him).
Over all, when I dump this heavy book down on my grandfather’s bedside table, I can’t help but think I’m just not pulling me own weight. Sure, Buffett is a genius and driven and unbalanced; but the first step is so simple: start a business. When it fails (or succeeds), do it again. In my case, I think I’ll pay a lot more attention to my partner, though.
Now, where did I put that idea machine?

Home Cooking

2008-11-17T19:56:00.001-08:00

Wedding Planning Night

Tonight I made mashed potatoes, golden gravy, and some veggie burgers. Other than the strange and wonderful gluten-free Wildwood Tofu Veggie Burgers, this meal really brought me back to Thanksgiving in Jermyn, Pennsyltucky, at my grandparents house. The smell of boiling potatoes and congealing gravy is enough to make me consider flying home for the holidays. Don't worry Q, I came to my senses before I even dished seconds.
The other night, we made a fantastic gluten-free pasta bake with ricotta cheese, mozzarella, fresh shaved Parmesan, eggplant, roasted red pepers, fake Quorn chicken, and onions. Last week, Quincy and I made me a gluten-free lasagna with Rice noodles.
All this home cooking comes to us thanks to a regular schedule and stress-free evenings. We haven't been going out more than twice a week, and only once a week on weeknights. We've got a cupboard stocked with yummy ingredients, and best of all, we're cooking together. Nothing makes the winter's early sunsets bearable quite so much as a warm kitchen, a shared meal, and, what's next on our plates, a trip to the gym to work off all that home-style cookin'!

Dramatic Grete

2008-11-15T20:37:00.001-08:00

Dramatic Grete

I bought a speedlight, finally, a few weeks ago. Today I got my extention cable to allow me to do off-camera flashes. Grete, she does not approve.

GAIN North

2008-11-13T12:53:00.000-08:00

This morning we spotted the GAIN North group walking past our house on their neighborhood walk. We joined in with Grete for a slow walk through our 10x6 block area boarded by Greenwood, Aurora, 105th, and 95th. We found out that our block is still on the list for potential side walk additions, that the tree planting went well (look at all those saplings!) and that speeders on Dayton is the issue de jour. Greenwood is a nice neighborhood to live in, though it is a little car-centric. Not as bad as the east side, but with spotty side walks and all the businesses on Aurora or at 85th and 100th, it's no Fremont or UD. Still, I like it quite a bit.
The best thing about getting involved with GAIN North has been the newsgroup where I get to listen in on the chatter. The recent string of daytime robberies encouraged me to keep the cars in the driveway and install an extra lock on the back door (and, of course, keep an extra eye out). Tagging and traffic are always the hot-button issues, until someone brings up sidewalks.
I encourage you, if you haven't already, to get into your local neighborhood community. Often they have fun little event and volunteer opportunities (that don't require driving!). Best yet, every effort I've put in I've received 10-fold back (the two organizers still refer to me as the "flyer guy" for my one-time distribution of 500 or so fliers).
It's sunny out! Time to go outside and tend to the fall garden.

Coat Racks

2008-11-13T12:11:00.000-08:00

I’ve often said that in meeting Quincy I was able to check the box next to every item I was looking for in a woman. From “likes to run but doesn’t need me to run with her” to “owns puppy” through to “can remember what exciting things I’ve done, even if she wasn’t there,” Quincy hit the mark perfectly.

One thing I didn’t know I wanted, but now I’m not sure how I’d live without it is, is a natural born researcher. Best yet, under stress, Quincy researches even more! For example, today I got the word that she posted a blog with a number of coat rack for my browsing pleasure (we’re finally, finally putting in a coat rack by the front door). Of course I knew to expect a long , annotated list. Here is Quincy’s list (in brief):
1 Good round-up of ideas. This is where I started.
2 I think this is cool, and it might look good with the metal mirror.
3 4 Really like both of these. Not sure what we would spell.
5 6 Might be fun -- but probably not for the front entry.
7 Cute - but might not hold coats well. Neat site though.
8 9 10 Many simple options.
11 Hoodoo is just fun to say
12 Not really our style - but kinda both ironic and hip - kinda
13 Cool stand alone option.
14 Funny - but scary funny.
15 16 17 Again - funny - but scary funny.
18 Probably too rustic for our style - but kinda neat that you can just keep the mountain range going and going and going...
19 Too expensive. Very cool. Too expensive.
20 Available in gun metal and white. Not sure what color would look best.
21 22 I like that these fold away.

Like a good boy, Here are my top picks from her list:
A Something draws me to this. I’ve always wanted to live in an arty loft. Or the forest.
B Not a coat rack, but I so want this. I want to just toss my keys onto it. For Halloween, we can glove it.
C D Y’all know how I love to tessellate in my spare time. This would satisfy both that and act as a coat rack.
E This wasn’t in Quincy’s list, and probably wouldn’t make any practical sense, but I love the optical illusion (slow page, small, expandable graphic).
* This isn’t even a coat rack, but I like the idea. Of course, it would mean we’d have to get new pots (ours are generally unsightly). But, I know just the shopping resource to engage (pun intended)!
If you have any coat rack ideas for us, please let us know… then get back to work.

The Garage and The Parlor

2008-11-12T22:40:00.000-08:00

Bellevue, oh Bellevue. All the riches in Washington, the best wine, the best booze, the finest overdressed underpaid underweight cocktail waitresses, how did you become so? Ah, yes, that’s right, you sold your soul.

Yesterday evening Rishi treated me to an early-winter-hum-drum-healing outing to a new-to-me pool hall, The Parlor. Located in downtown Bellevue in the Lincoln shopping center (named for the street, surely, and not Abraham), The Parlor offers all the amenities of a 1950s era classy shooter’s pool hall. There’s a dress code, even. Sadly, it is not restrictive enough.

The host walked us to our table and even racked the first rack of balls. A light above a giant martini glass would indicate to our server that we required attention. Tables were wiped down between guests; barstools were reorganized constantly; and the menu was classic American fare. At first, I was in love with the private room in the back, the lounge, the lighting, and the atmosphere.

But, I quickly came to my senses. Outside of Disneyland or Vegas, the Parlor was the most vacuous place I’ve enjoyed myself in years. The music was too loud and repetitive top 40. The carpet was right out of a casino. The felt was worn, the table unlevel, and there was no hand chalk available (though, they did offer to sell us some; good thing we brought our own). The tables were oddly close given the wide walkways and open spaces for eating. The company, save Rishi, unbearably was Microsoftie. The dress code, sadly, did not limit undersized team sweatshirts or un-tucked seersuckers.

I was longing for the simplicity and hipness of The Garage on Capitol Hill in twenty minutes. The Garage just opened their expansion, and it’s beautiful. The new smell is prevalent, and the money they spent on keeping the design theme consistent with the existing structure is well spent. The lanes are gorgeous, well lit, and surrounded with cool colors and designs. The beams are majestic; the hardwood floors a delight to clip-clop across. The two tan-felt tables in the middle of a lounge (complete with bowl of carnivorous plants) are positioned perfectly for those who want to watch and be watched. The staff is as friendly as you will find anywhere in Seattle.

I’m looking forward to next week at The Garage already: new tables and new views, in a building that looks as if it could be a historical landmark in Seattle. But for now, get back to work.

Gym

2008-11-12T09:26:00.000-08:00

A strange thing happened shortly after being diagnosed with celiac disease and going on a gluten-free diet. I started to gain weight rapidly. They warned me of this; I scoffed the idea. I said: I've been between 140 and 150 pounds for more than half my life, I don't expect that to change just because I stop eating pasta and pizza. (Incidentally, I eat far more pasta and pizza now than ever before; it's just gluten-free.)

Sure enough, here we are exactly four months later and I've gained nearly 30 pounds from my low of 140. For those of you who like numbers: that's a 20% weight gain. I seem to have stabilized just short of 170. Still, I'm always one bag of chips from feeling overweight.

Actually, I feel overweight all the time. Go figure! I'm still slim, but I'm no longer svelte, scrawny or thin. I have pectoral muscles. I don't know where they came from, but here they are. Also: biceps. I mean, I'm no weight lifter, but even hitting the gym 1.5 times per week and occasionally working out at home, I have put on more muscle mass than all the rock climbing I did the last three years.

Moreover, not one pair of jeans that I purchased less than three years ago fits. I mean, I can't even get them close to on. This weekend, I finally gave up on a pair I bought in 2005. They were my tightly fitting jean then, now they're almost lewd. Shirts hand correctly on me. I no longer swim in my jackets. All of my watch bands and belts are using notches never before used. I can barely wrap my hand around the thinnest part of my wrist!

It's not all positive. It's all a big change to absorb in such a small amount of time. As the darkness of a Seattle winter begins, I'm feeling down and out about not being that lean, svelte American anomaly. Not that I couldn't go right back to it... Just a quick bowl of wheat pasta or a loaf of bread would probably take 5 pounds off me. An uncomfortable week of that and I'd be noticeably thinner for sure. But, the energy and luster I have would likely fade with the weight. Besides, no one likes being tied to the bathroom. Ew.

So there you have it. I'm no longer skinny. It's strange to me. It's a little strange to my fiancee. No one else seems to care, thank goodness. And what do we do when something we have strong feelings about goes unnoticed by the world? We blog!

Now, get back to work.

Left onto 7th

2008-11-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

I've been riding the bus to and from work most days for about six months. Yeah, I recently began bumming a ride in a few times a week from Q, since my office is on her way to her office. But other than those rare, tranquil rides with my fiancee and puppy, I'm on the bus.
Today, for the first time while I was on the bus, the bus driver missed a turn. He was headed on Blanchard and he blew right by his left turn onto 7th. I'll cut the guy some slack, as he was being cut off by a car right after being cut off by a TRM ghost bus (the worst kind). Anyhow, the guy started laughing at the wheel, thought better of backing up a double-long bus on a busy street, and started to head around the block. He got on the speakers (I unplugged my ER6i's from my ears) and said, "Next stop on the 358 express." chhhht, "Tacoma." Then he giggled on and off the mic. All of the twenty or so people I could immediately see in front of me gave a good laugh, smiled at each other, and for a few minutes, the bus had almost a snow day like atmosphere. People started to talk to each other, one woman showed a man her phone (with map?) and even a guy with baby traded obvious jokes with Smelly Homeless Guy Who Sits in the Front of the Bus Probably All Day.
Sometimes I think the majority of the value I add during normal business hours is pointing out something is about to, or has, gone horribly wrong. The worse the misstep, the more points I score. But the simple idea that a mistake could turn a bunch of cold, solitary bus commuters into giggling school children warmed the cockles, you know?
Anyhow, that was my day. There was work stuff before it, and some fine Glennfiddich after, but the only thing I'll remember in two days is the bus driver missing a turn he's probably taken a thousand times, and the bus riders acting like children.
I bet there's a lesson in there somewhere. Get back to work.

Election Night Remorse

2008-11-09T22:54:00.000-08:00

Where were you when you heard the news? Nearly all of my friends and family have reported they were with their friends and family. A few industrious souls were at work. It wasn't until I talked to my friend in the Big Apple that I realized I might regret, years from now, staying home and watching the debate in HD with the love of my life, our puppy, and our cat.
During the video montage ABC ran over cheers and light commentary after announcing Barack Obama was being declared the winner, some editor in some control room decided to cut to Seattle. I didn't know it was Seattle; I jumped up and said: "That woman's holding a Pabst and, and, she's wearing flannel! That's Seattle." Sure enough, woot, there we were.
Meanwhile, my friend was actually at the Harlem location that ABC shot. Harlem! Can you imagine? I had to. Cause I was at home.
I don't mean to say I didn't choose completely of my own free will to stay home. I had plenty of options. I just regret it. There, I said it. I regret it. My only consolation is that I won't really remember the evening in 20 years... only what I see on TV in retrospectives over the next two decades. But I bet if I had been out there, out with the crowds, I'd remember a feeling at least.
Get back to work.

Lexulous

2008-11-07T21:07:00.000-08:00

I play too much Scrabble. Well, technically I play too much Lexulous, as the Hasbro trademarked boardgame Scrabble has a really underwhelming UI, and the former Facebook darling Scrabbulous, post-lawsuit renamed Lexulous, is intuitive and well designed. I play with my Big Apple friend and a whole slew of strangers. Not to brag, but I'm kinda okay at it. In 10 minute games (each player gets 10 minutes plus 10 seconds per turn) I usually score nearly 300 points against a similarly skilled player. Sometimes the games are very close, and in a really nerdy way, exciting. Once, the game ended in a draw. How strange is that?
Anyhow, now that I'm all lame and domestic now, this is what I do.

Total Games Played 66
Games Won 42 (63.64%)
Games Lost 23 (34.85%)
Bingos per game: .6
Bingos:
STUDIER 96
WiLDINGS 94
DeNSEST 89
SQUInTED 86
PUNCHES 86
GOATEED 85
RANDIES 83
CODGERs 81
GAITING 79
SINKING 79
CHiNNED 77
RATTLED 77
GENDERS 75
QUIETUS 74
GROANED 74
SNIpPETS 72
LUNCHeRS 72
BLURRED 70
ANCIEnT 69
SURLIER 69
FRETTED 69
BLONdES 69
tINNIER 69
TENNErS 68
rEOILED 68
ROASTEr 68
DIRTIER 68
RELIABlE 67
EATINGS 67
ROOTING 66
LuLLERS 66
NASTIER 65
TeENIEST 64
TAUNTERS 61
UNDARING 61
SALTINGS 60
ANOThER 60

Get Back to work.

Shooting in the Streets

2008-11-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

Matt Stuart got it right when he started focusing on the optical illusions in his street photography. It's hard to tell how much of his work is posed, or even edited in Photoshop, but after falling for Andreas Gursky I just don't give a damn. Art is as art does.

When I started playing around with photography after college, I was a purist. I read Ansel Adams and his Group f/64 and wondered if, even though I loved colors, I should be shooting black and white film in my Nikon F3. I had an actual hand-held light meeter, average gray card, and little boxes of slide film. I printed my own color from negatives for a short while, struggling with the technical aspect of printing as well as the expense. Then came a fully automatic Nikon F 100 into my life, as the F3 left with a well meaning (or just mean) ex-girlfriend. This changed everything.

No longer bound to calculations of apertures, I was just clicking away. I burned through film faster than I could scan it in. Around the same time I upgraded my computer and borrowed my first illegal copy of Photoshop with all the bells and whistles. I learned how to airbrush in color and out clutter. I thought: my tainted photos are much better than my pure photos. Huh.

Not long after spending a camera-body's worth of cash on film and developing from a northern European trip, I switched to digital completely. And, like everyone else, I've never looked back.

I've considered taking my camera out for street photography more from time to time. The real skill here being open to being stared at, I think. Well, and always having the camera ready. I mostly just shoot my own dog and flowers because they seem to do better when observed in detail. Any they are very accepting of my efforts.

I doubt I'm going to jump up and start shooting people in the streets, but I am looking for something more creative to do with my glass. Stay tuned.

Man on a bridge

2008-11-03T10:41:00.000-08:00

Today, Quincy and I had the displeasure of sitting in traffic for an hour as we headed southbound on 99, then Stone, then Fremont. We stopped at the Lighthouse Roasters cafe in Fremont, then decided to head home. In all, with Grete wining softly in the back seat, it was an slightly dour Monday morning. To be honest, though, Grete's wining is sweet song compared to some of The Company's employees' wining.

The Phinneywood blog informed us that the hold up was a man contemplating ending his life via the sudden stop under the Aurora Bridge. He chose poorly, in the end.

There have been plenty of times in my life where I've considered an abrupt end. Sometime in the 90s I figured out that there are other, more interesting, full escapes from one's life. A Plan B that doesn't involve pearly gates or brimstone or void. Sure, I'll bring all my problems with me wherever I go. But what's to say that I wouldn't also bring them to the afterlife?

Plan B: Borrow, scrounge or steal enough cash to make it a tropical island, where even my crushed spirit's drive would outpace the locals' ambitions. Build bungalow; watch the sun set; become local.

Now, I used to say I'd move to Poland, learn Polish in an intensive state school, and start anew. Do you have any idea how cold it gets there? I have no clue what I was thinking.

For now, though, in a time of small turmoil and weak eddies, I am looking for some small change. Minor change. I moved my Martin guitar (purchased in Bethlehem, PA, outside the Martin factory, when $600 was a million to me) to the den. I've sent some old friends emails. I've started writing again. Hopefully I'll be able to stave off that tropical island. But, at least I know that as bad as it gets, the worst case is pretty 72 and breezy. Get back to work.

Sunbreaks quantified

2008-10-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

While I fully believe that we make our own futures by visualizing results, I also understand there are underlying natural laws that cannot be overcome by positive thinking. So where visualization fails, I call forth data visualization. Being an amateur follower of Tufte, I fear the chartjunk prevalent in most weather sites. That cute little icon of the sun peaking out behind the cloud does me no good when deciding between dog-park-then-breakfast and breakfast-then-dog-park.

As always, Q to the rescue. It turns out part of my tax dollars goes to pay for a basement of meteorologist nerds. And, they turn out hour-by-hour predictions of exactly what I can expect. The chart to the right is from that basement Uncle Sam likes to call NOAA. The chart above is a snap from NOAA where you'll see the forecast for my backyard and surrounding dog parks.

I love data. There is no shortage of sites in the blogosphere capturing the latest nifty charts and tables. I won't bore you with links or reviews. I'm just glad that NOAA exists. Now, get back to work.

The National

2007-11-10T21:46:00.000-08:00

I held tightly to Q as we zigzagged around October puddles, mildewy beggars and hipster teens towards The Showbox entrance. I kept good hold of her, because everyone at The National show was dressed just like us - the days of each boy coming of age in Seattle being issued a goatee are over; now he gets a gray hoodie, indie tee, and Chinese military cap. We managed to arrive early enough to see the last song of the opening act (a regrettable and barely recognizable Beatles medley which must have jostled John in his grave).

Following the show, I flew across the country to, in part, carry my grandfather's ashes from a funeral home to an SUV back seat. I don't say that to be dramatic, I wasn't close with him, rather to set the scene: thirty hungry, hot, sticky Pennsylvanians scooping beans, seven kinds of pasta salad, meet slices, fried things, and condiments onto flimsy paper plates. The demographics were as uniform as they were diverse: my aunt and uncle (three- and two-years my junior) are tiny waifs while half the group is clinically obese. Cops chatted up familiar robbers; proud gold coin holders hugged late stage alcoholics; folks who had been to church six times that week mingled with those who haven't been in decades. I couldn't stick out if I tried - besides, half the men had my nose.

Q and I played a game with the roadies: we tried to guess which hipster was the lead singer (or even in the band). It was too close to call as Q bet on the flannelled, army-capped, bearded man. There were at least six microphones and six guitars on the stage, flanked by three keyboards and a full drum set. The lead singer turned out to be a dead ringer for Sting circa 1990. Whatever their set would hold, I knew we'd cut them a lot of slack based on their adorableness. Q admitted a crush on the lead singer, but really, who doesn't love Sting? Half the band unintentionally looked like Muppets. This was going to be a great show.

My grandfather has been in ill health for years, and in some respects his passing was a blessing. Also, the man was cantankerous, contentious, mean-spirited and outright antagonistic. I'm not being harsh. Less than two weeks ago my father found him with a black eye - apparently another nurse went fist-to-fist with him. A man who could barely lift both arms, having only one leg, missing internal pieces, and on every medication known to man managed to pick a fight a week before his body finally gave up. I'd hate to see the nurse; I bet she's in worse shape.

Bands with only one album face an uphill battle on stage. The National have one 43-minute full length album (Boxer) with many quality songs, though I wasn't sure how their mellow vibe and fathomless vocals would translate to the big stage during a 90 minute set. Sure enough, they vamped the tempo a bit for the slow pieces and extended the solos a few bars. Besides that, the album and show were identical twins raised on opposite coasts. The National pulled off a polished, tight set with a quick encore and enough energy to get the crowd singing along for a good part of the concert. Their catchy hooks helped.

Sonically, they rocked. The lead singer belted out his vocals in spastic stances while he disassembled the microphone stand. Unfortunately, the deepness of the singer's voice made it difficult to understand most of the lyrics. (Even though I know all the words to Fake Empire, I barely recognized a line from the live version.) The violinist had the most energy of the bunch (and the least melodic subtlety), though the drummer and lead guitarist made the best faces. I'm a big fan of music faces. The guitarist wriggled his jowls left and right, the drummer sported Animal expressions to compliment his Muppet-like hair.

My father was sitting on his couch when I came downstairs with my packed luggage. His face was blank. It often is. I could see his shoulders slightly creeping back up with the weight of his father's illness finally lifted. He's been busy with the arrangements. He did an amazing job organizing the family. He hasn't had time to miss his father yet. He didn't want to talk about much other than the money and the family's responsiveness to his leadership - they were uncharacteristically easygoing about the arrangements which met his budget by less than $100. He looked up from a laptop and over the blaring television shyly smiled at me. I miss him, too.

The National has a long way to go before they can claim mastery of the live show. After their warm-up trilogy of songs they picked up the volume and began what was to be an annoying ritual. Each song ended with a short, loud, frantic, all-chord jam. Much like sex, it was surely more rewarding creating the noise than watching. The violinist danced, the guitars jumped a bit, and the lead singer clapped at the drummer and contorted his arms. They repeated this enough times that Q and I decided to skip the final crescendo of the final song; we got the picture. While The National were light on crowd interaction, I can forgive all transgressions. As we settled back into the Subaru, we threw in Boxer because the music, after all, is what drives the us.

Electing Omar

2007-11-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

Campaigning at the local level is, as far as I can tell from my three days on the Omar Ahmad for San Carlos City Counsel campaign trail, mostly about walking door to door and waving corrugated plastic signs at commuters. In the end, in the wee hours of the morning overlooking twinkling lights of the bay area to the north and the grey fog silently filling the valleys of San Mateo County, campaigning became about a Wi-Fi connection, homemade Chai, faithful friends and most of all, the drama of the last-counted vote.

The election was touted as a sleeper by all accounts. Low turnout was expected across the county, as no major initiatives were on the ballot, and San Carlos was no exception. Both incumbent City Counsel members had decided to not run, leaving two seats open and four candidates: favorite and former-soccer coach Randy Royce, non-campaigner Alex Phillips, perennial contender John Hoffman, and newcomer Omar Ahmad.

The only hot-button topic in San Carlos was the turf battle – the growing need for more soccer fields with nighttime lights and year-round artificial turf pitted against city-wide NIMBY. Omar was the only candidate to take the stance of “let’s discuss,” rather than just agree to build the turf fields in the hills of precinct 24.

The night of the election, Omar and his supporters began gathering at Campaign Headquarters (a local restaurant) at around 7pm. The results of the mail-in ballots were to be announced at 8:05. Following that, the county would update the website every 30 minutes with vote counts from whatever county precincts had been certified.

We expected to be done by 9:30. With only 28 precincts and less than 3,000 voters expected to turn out, we were not pacing ourselves. 35 people were present eating an abundance of fried food, drinking sparkling cider, and mingling in high spirits. A musician played classic rock covers on an acoustic guitar.

At 8:05 I manned a laptop with a borrowed Wi-Fi connection. The first results were in. Randy was indeed in the lead comfortably. Hoffman held the second open seat, with Omar trailing him by 190 votes. Phillips trailed by twice that. Omar walked over to me, and we showed him the results. He paled. We all paled. This was going to be close.

We suspected Hoffman would lead in mail-in ballots as his supporters were generally older than Omar’s and likely to vote by mail. It seemed only seconds later the 8:30 results were posted. Only 8 total votes in one precinct were added to the count, putting Omar down by 191. We were hoping for better (and more) news.

Omar’s friends took charge, and brought out a huge celebration cake with dozens of candles. A speech was made; then Omar thanked his supporters and took off his candidate name tag. Spirits were still high, but we were all nervous.

I went back to the laptop. 9:05: only a few precincts were added. Omar trailed Hoffman by 161. He made up about 10 votes per precinct. I started doing math. There were 17 precincts left to report, he needed to gain 161 votes, at about 10 per precinct. I predicted the race would be within 15 votes. Omar’s eyes widened, and he went back to making rounds with supporters.

By 9:30, many of the supporters had gone home to watch the results on their own computers and TVs. We started to clean up. I worked the web site and discovered I could tell which precincts were going to report in the next update. Seven more would be reported at 10. We waited.

At 10pm Omar closes the gap to 109 votes as seven more precincts reported. We took down the balloons and banners after the 10:30 update, moved to Omar’s house atop the San Carlos hills. As eight of us left the restaurant, Omar trailed Hoffman by 89 votes with seven precincts left to report.

At Omar’s, we gathered on leather couches and made chai. Omar paced and fretted. I was still hovered over the laptop and, as it was the whole night, at least two people eagerly peered over my shoulder. Refresh. Refresh. “Did you refresh yet?” Refresh.

11pm. Omar trails by 68. There are five precincts uncounted. I work the website again, and find a way to get a breakdown by precinct. Those left to report: 5, 7, 17, 24, and 25.

11:30. Precinct 25 reports. Omar trails by 61. We do the math again and again. It’s going to very close. Omar keeps saying: “24 is going to be big for us. That turf thing, they really supported me when I said I’d talk to them about options. 24 is going to be big.”

Midnight. Only precinct 17 reports. Omar trails by 49 votes. It seems like a lot, with only three precincts left to report results: 5, 7, and 24.

We fret. At two minutes past midnight I see that they have certified all three remaining precincts. The next update will have the final results. The room discusses the possibilities as we go over what we know. We’ve been catching up at a rate of just under 11 per precinct. We need just over 16 per precinct. The vote count is about 1,500 votes for both Omar and John Hoffman. The race is the closest in the county. We Google about recount options and election law. Someone is praying upstairs. The eight of us, close friends and family only, look to Omar for a sign. He’s pacing and holding his breath.

I refresh the browser constantly. Everyone is standing around Omar in the middle of the room. At exactly 12:30am the names I have been staring at all night, “Randy Royce; John Hoffman; Omar Ahmad; Alex Phillips” change order. Omar has taken the lead by 12 votes, all precincts reporting. His name is above Hoffmann’s for the first time that night.

The room erupts in screaming and hollering. We jump around and hug everyone. Omar falls to the ground. Flashbulbs flash. The men take photos of the web site results. We pass the laptop around. Omar calls his parents on the East Coast on speakerphone and we all cheer. This goes on for an hour. Phones erupt with ringing – everyone is talking to everyone, it seems this is the biggest race in the world. It feels important. We blog and update Facebook pages. Omar fields calls from reporters, candidates, and supporters.

Early into the morning the excitement is palpable. This was, after all, a city council position in a small town outside of the bay area. But this was also a community scoring a big win, a man scoring a personal victory, and a whole heck of a lot of suspense. It turns out that precinct 24 was big: Omar beat all other candidates in that precinct, even Royce, and made up 40 votes on Hoffman.

Honorable Omar Ahmad City Counsel Member sat down on his favorite leather chair and ate a large slice of cake around one-thirty am. He smiled broadly and gave out a big belly laugh.