Daily Nonsense

Two Interesting Things on the Radio Today…

While I was driving in to work today I was listening to KOMO radio AM1000 and I heard two things which were notable.

The first was the start of a news bite that mentioned a huge demonstration and news conference was being put on by Microsoft at the NASDAQ Stock Market to announce . . . . And then the newscast was interrupted by Test Message 2 of the the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS). It wasn’t until later that I discovered that Vista and Office 2007 were being released for sale to business clients. For some reason the whole thing made me laugh out loud. With all of the money that MS and Bill Gates have they can still be preempted by the EBS and the Department of Homeland Security.

The second report stated that the I-90, an interstate highway that goes all the way through Washington State form Seattle to Spokane, was being closed for about an hour at 9am this morning so that Avalanche Control personnel could set off explosives to help remove some of the 12 inches of snow which had accumulated in the past 24 hours. The move would make the I-90 corridor safer for motorists. Being from Florida I guess the very existence of and Avalanche Control team caught me by surprise. I’m sure I must have heard of them before, I just can’t think of when or where.

Monday, November 27, 2006 · Last updated 7:29 a.m. PT

Avalanche control closing Snoqualmie Pass at 9 a.m.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HYAK, Wash. — The Transportation Department plans to close I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass at nine o’clock for avalanche control work. The closure is expected to last about one hour.

Technicians will set off explosives above the east snow shed to bring down about 12 inches of snow that accumulated in the past 24 hours.

Traffic will be stopped until about ten o’clock eastbound at Gold Creek (milepost 56) and westbound at Price Creek (milepost 61). [Thanks Seattle PI]

Home, Safe and Sound!

Well, I made it. I was able to turn the truck around (on a HILL!) and head down to Aurora. I kept it in 4WD mode until I got to 85th Street. I realized that the roads were going to be clear so I pulled off and went back to 2WD. Which is probably just as well, if the truth be know, because my Kia only has the horsepower and torque of a Briggs & Stratton 5hp engine.

I was able to get home just as easily after making a quick stop at the QFC for some groceries. Now I’m just waiting on Brooke to get here. She should have no problem. It’s not snowing (YET!) and the roads are still clear. The do predict another 1 – 3 inches tonight. Thankfully I don’t work tomorrow.

It’s Gonna Be a Work Day!

It’s still bitterly cold out today, 22° F. But part of my street has been sanded and Aurora is clear alll the way to Seattle. I think I can head into town and then head back up to my store. I hope so at least. I’m going to leave a little early and try. Wish me luck!?!

Icy Excitement

It’s Tuesday and the excitement of watching the cars slippin’ and slidin’ on the hill out front hasn’t lost it’s charm. We’re still knee deep in cars out at the corner. A little while ago we had one of the handicapped access buses stuck. He was actually blocking about 2/3’s of the road. We’ve seen a minimum of 20 cars get into trouble today.

I called in today. I couldn’t get the car out of the parking spot let alone either up or down the hill. Celeste was very understanding.

SNOW!!

So, it’s Monday, I’ve got a post in the drafts about our weekend, there’s a bunch of photos to upload, I’ll finish it tomorrow.

Anyway, it’s been snowing and I wanted to make a quick post about the cars that have been sliding up and down my street. We live on a hill, it’s not very steep but with the frozen snow and slush going on outside it’s really slippery.

Brooke and I left work at about the same time. I drove, she took the bus. It took us both about an hour to get home. I ended up in 4 wheel drive tooling along at a brisk 5 miles per hour. I was still slipping a little bit in the curves.

Anyway, we’ve had some pretty interesting free entertainment watching the cars try to get up and go down the hill. Our street has a light on the corner of Aurora Avenue and we get a lot of traffic from people ‘cutting the block’ trying to get onto Aurora without waiting at the longer lights on either Holman Road or Greenwood Ave. There are normally quite a few close calls even when the weather is nice because the drivers really don’t know how to act at traffic circles.

Today has been much better than the norm. I don’t think there have been any fender-benders but we’ve seen a few cars slide off the road. Pretty exciting.

Thanksgiving Weekend in a Nutshell (Part 1 of 2)

Well, the holiday weekend is over and everyone is getting ready to get back to the daily grind. That won’t be as easy as normal due to the snow. Seattle got caught by mother nature yesterday with a very unusual snow storm. Brooke and I were on our way back from the Olympic Peninsula when we first noticed signs of snow. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.

Friday (Black Friday)

After the wonderful dinner I mentioned in my last post we spent a quiet Black Friday here at the house. Brooke and her team have an on-call rotation schedule and she had the chore on Friday. We sat around the house and just kind of hung out while Brooke work her e-mail and job ticket queue. I got a little involved in the news of the Black Friday happenings around the US. There were some places that opened at MIDNIGHT! There was a traffic jam on a highway heading to an outlet mall somewhere near Chicago at midnight. Go figure…..

We decided to head into town. Brooke wanted to work from the office for a bit and I figured I could study there as well as anywhere else. We both spent the latter part of the morning engaged in our respective pursuits. Just after noon we walked about six blocks with a friend of Bee’s to a little joint in the International District called the Szechuan Noodle. There we broke fast with a delicious green onion pancake and bowls of chicken noodle soup. Not at all pricey and VERY tasty.

We headed back to the house soon after and just relaxed for the rest of the day.

Saturday Morning

Saturday morning we packed up the truck and headed west toward the Olympic Peninsula. I had found a hotel on the main drag in Ocean Shores that accepted dogs and was able to make a reservation. (That’s not too surprising considering the time of year.)

The trip was mostly uneventful, traffic was light through Tacoma where we normally notice a sharp slowdown. We got on the 101 just south of Olympia and finally got onto the peninsula proper.

We passed the Satsop Nuclear Power plant (which I understand was never actually in operation (but I could be wrong about that).

Soon after I pulled over for an emergency Pit Stop (which Brooke was kind enough to document).

Then we stopped at the Elma Espresso for a warm drink. Brooke had a Hazelnut Cappuccino and I had a Vanilla Bean Cappuccino. Quite tasty and frothy.

Once in Aberdeen I made a wrong turn and had to backtrack a bit. We saw this sign on a fence at a ball field. Made us both go “HUH?!”.

We eventually arrived at Ocean Shores and as we came into town we saw a handy beach access road right in front of us. We decided to wait on checking into the hotel and headed out to the beach so Bowie could run his butt off. I mean, that is one of the major reasons we chose the Coast trip to begin with.

Brooke and I enjoyed the beach almost as much as Bowie. We felt the cold a lot more than he did tho. We came across this enormous pile of seaweed. I tried for a pic with Brooke behind it but a wave came up and soaked her legs. I’m so sorry I didn’t get a pic of her expression when she figured out what was happening! I did get this pic of her and Bowie crouching in front of it tho.

End of Part One

Thanksgiving Weekend in a Nutshell (Part 2 of 2)

And we continue with our coverage of the Thanksgiving Weekend trip to the Coast.

Bowie just couldn’t get enough of the freedom the large and mostly deserted beach allowed him. He ran in circles like a whirling dervish. There was so much to explore. The seaweed, clam shells, dead bits of things that I’m afraid to imagine that had washed up on shore. A buffet of sights, smells and (Yuck) tastes for the canine member of the family.

After we all caught our breath we decided it was time to go find our hotel and check in. Cold and damp we loaded ourselves back into the truck and headed into town.

It was only a few blocks after the beach access turn-off that we caught sight of our hotel. A more welcome sight couldn’t have awaited us. In just a short few minutes we had checked in and found our room. And what a room it was………

New carpet, a love seat, queen sized bed and the most unexpected mural covering one wall. There was also a handy coat rack on the wall next to the door to hang your wet stuff, a TV with cable and a bath. The room itself was very spacious and comfortable. And the bathroom had been ‘Sanitized for our Protection’ by the management.

When we walked into the bathroom we discovered one of those toilet banners which proclaimed that the bathroom was ’sanitized’. What a relief!

Once we got ourselves and Bowie situated in the room the decision was made that it was time to go get something to eat! We loaded ourselves into the truck and headed out into the unknown culinary wilderness that is Ocean Shores Washington.

We had literally just pull out of the parking lot when Brooke spied a little joint next door to the hotel named Our Place. She indicated that a more ‘homemade’ lunch would suit her just fine so I pulled on in. Total travel time for the hotel to the diner? 1 minute. We actually had to drive across the street due to the median in the road, go down half a block and pull a U-Turn.

We entered and found a very austere dining establishment that proudly proclaimed that they served breakfast all day long. The sign on the door gave the hours as 6am to ? How great is that. After a quick perusal of the menu we both decided on the “Backwoods” Burger with chips. The choice with sandwiches was chips or homemade potato salad.

The backwoods burger was an amazing concoction with a thin chicken fried steak and a ton of cheddar on two pieces of grilled sourdough bread. What an amazingly good sandwich. I’m calling it the best sandwich I’ve EVER eaten.

Once we finished lunch we headed out to take in some shops and take more pics. The first place we stopped was the Cutting Edge Kite Shop conveniently located in the same block as our hotel and the diner. I saw a lot of cool kite stuff but didn’t buy anything. We headed out to the nearby state park but the wind and the rain kept me and the camera in the truck so there we not very many worthwhile pics from that outing.

The day ended with a decent pizza for all three of us from Dugan’s Pizza . We had the Dugan’s Special with canadian bacon, peperoni, sausage and black olives. I’m only giving the pizza a 6.5 out of 10. Decent but not great.

Sunday

We got a late start on Sunday. We slept until almost 9am. Once we got Bowie walked in the rain, had showers and cups of latte and cappuccino from the hotel lobby it was time to check out. We headed down to the South Point of Ocean Shores. Brooke had read in one of the tourist takeaways that it was an exciting place to watch the waves and surf as the water streams into Grays Harbor. The place was very cool. There is a large stone jetty jutting out into the Pacific Ocean and all of the beach was covered with stuff. Whole trees, more seaweed and fishing nets.

When we got there we faced a pretty stiff wind but decided to brave the elements and let bowie run around some.

Both Brooke………..

And I clambered up on the rocks so we could see the waves crashing into them and throwing up spray. We are both very happy to have been wearing our rubber, fleece lined raincoats and our rain pants. We got drenched when one particularly large wave threw up a wall of water that was at least 20 feet higher than we were. I saved the camera by shielding it with my body and as such didn’t get a picture of it.

Once we got safely off the rocks we headed up the other way a bit so Bowie could get a few more minutes of fun. The we headed back to the truck. When we were about half way there we got hit by a sudden squall and as we scurried into the truck I thought the wind was going to rip the door out of my hands and off of the car. That about did it for us. We were wet again and hungry too. We took a vote and the “Backwoods” burger got a unanimous vote for lunch. So we headed back. Really, it was that good.

On the way back to the diner we saw a deer grazing on the front lawn of a beach house. Here we are in a town on the coast of Washington and there are deer grazing on waterfront property.

After that it was time to head back to Seattle.

The start of the trip back was pretty uneventful. I took a couple of pictures of the scenery from the window of the car and we stopped once so I could get this framed picture of Grays Harbor.

We stopped for gas in Aberdeen and headed east towards Olympia.

Little did we know that the snow we noticed on the side of the road was a harbinger of things to come. We made pretty good time until we hit the outskirts of Seattle. Then it started to snow. Big, Ugly wet flakes that seemed to be sticking. We got home with little delay but it was definitely snowing hard at this point.

Our front yard 30 minutes after we got home.

And the backyard…..

And finally Bowie and myself after a short walk. Just look how we’re covered.

And so ended our Thanksgiving Weekend Adventure.

Thanksgiving Success

Brooke and I have much to be thankful for this year. We’re new home owners, are both gainfully employed, I’m studying for my MCSE (computers are my passion!) & we’re both healthy. Who could ask for anything more?

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with Kevin and Bryce and thier respective families. We had a wonderful time and ate like there was no tomorrow. Above is a picture of the turkey that Kevin prepared. It was wonderful and succulent. The menu was as follows:

• Various appetizers including two varieties of pickles from Kevin & Bryce’s garden.
• Spiced Pear Bellini’s
• The turkey
• Homemade gravy
• Bryces’ AWESOME Stuffing (Jimmy Dean Breakfast Sausage, Bacon, & Macadamia Nuts in a bread base!)
• Mashed potatoes (with buttermilk)
• Mashed Sweet Potatoes
• Green Bean Casserole
• Sweet Potato Casserole
• Home made cranberry sauce
• Homemade corn relish
• Butter-flake rolls
• And FOUR homemade pies. Three pumpkin and one blackberry.
• Pecan tarts (the infamous Brooke creation)

Below is a picture of the beautiful table upon which we gorged.

XBOX on Amazon

So, I didn’t win the opportunity to buy an XBox for only $100 at Amazon. At 11:00am I clicked on the refresh button and went into “Waiting for Amazon.com” mode from which I never recovered. Oh well, I guess I really didn’t need one anyway.

If you want to buy one at full retail, here’s the link:

Thanksgiving Day

Well, here we are, Thanksgiving morning and the kitchen is hoppin’. Brooke and I have been invited to Kevin & Bryce’s house for the big meal but we’ve been commissioned to bring pies, rolls & sweet potatoes.

So, right now I’m baking two pumpkin pies and Brooke is starting work on her famous pecan tarts. I’ve also made some Spiced Pear Bellini mix that we’ll add some sparkling wine to as pre-dinner cocktail.

I kind of cheated on the pies. I used the pre-made pie crusts (not the frozen ones mind you) and the pumpkin pie mix sold in a can. You add 2 eggs and evaporated milk and bake it. Pretty tasty and a lot less hassle.

I’ll post some pics here later in the day or tomorrow.

My Thoughts on OJ & “The Book”.

OJ Simpson has suffered a reversal of fortune in recent years, spending millions on his defense for murder, losing the civil suit to the tune of $33.5 million dollars and effectively being banned from Hollywood. Is he Guilty? Innocent? It’s not for me to say, and never was. What IS for me to say is that this most recent attempt to grab some cash with a sensationalist book is sleazy, even for him.

I can only applaud Rupert Murdock’s decision to kill the book and the interview. But I really have to ask why they decided to try something like this in the first place? IMHO it was a really bad idea.

Some news I’m glad to hear…..

News Corp. Cancels Simpson Book
by Rachel Deahl

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has pulled the plug on the upcoming Regan Books title from O.J. Simpson, If I Did It. A tell-all of a different variety, the book, which was to be Simpson’s outline of how he might have committed the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, was scheduled for release on November 30 and was to be accompanied by a two-part TV interview to air on Fox on November 27 and 29.

After the book was condemned by booksellers (many of whom said they would donate proceeds to the victims’ families), media critics and even pundits from Fox News, News Corp. announced in a terse statement that the book and TV special have been dropped. Murdoch said: “I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project. We are sorry for any pain this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.”

So, we’re here relaxin’ at home after our outing to Half Price Books and Old Ballard for a birthday gift Brooke wanted to buy and what does Brooke come across on the TV? Comcast Channel 21, the Seattle Channel is airing KEXP – Live from the Triple Door. And the performer is Billy Bragg. Pretty nice acoustic/folk set going on. He just played a cover of Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.

Billy is a pretty accomplished artist and author. Check out his essential album

I had the pleasure to hear the most recent Amazon Podcast (Amazon Wire) this weekend and was thrilled to find out that a question I had suggested was used in the Sting interview. Sting has been seen and heard recently promoting his new album ‘Songs from the Labyrinth’.

Songs from the Labyrinth is a collection of John Dowland (1563-1626) tunes which are played by Edin Karamazov and Sting. It is quite the departure for Sting, ex Police head-banger and rock demigod.

My question had to do with a possible Sting and Santana collaboration. To hear the answer to my question you can hear it here!

Amazon Wire

We went to half price books today and I was able to pick up a copy of Infernal Devices, a book by K. W. Jeter from 1987.

It’s starting out pretty well, somewhat reminiscent of “The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters” by Gordon Dahlquist.

If you haven’t read The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters I encourage you to do so. This book is very interesting. The publisher got it wrong (IMHO) by linking this book to the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Those books are historical fantasy, but with good dose of romance mixed in which would make them unpalatable to many fantasy readers. Anyway, it’s a good read and the used prices are pretty sweet right now.