Mmm, Baconnaise! Genius!

Was taking a break from work to get my weekly dose of Savage Love in the Onion, and spied an A.V. Club Taste Test product I just have to try: Baconnaise. As most of my friends know, I'm a fan of all things bacon (I even have an "I love bacon" pin), so this is right up my alley. According to the makers' Web site, their products are available at QFCs and Albertsons, so I'll have to go on a pilgrimage next time I need groceries so I can pick this up. As an added bonus, all their bacon-related condiments (which include Bacon Salts and bacon-flavored lip balms [which may be too much, even for me]) are vegetarian and kosher! Of course, I'm a purist in that I'd just rather have real bacon in my food, but this is a good option for when one wants to eat healthier or doesn't want to deal with preparing/cooking bacon.

If you want to read the A.V. Club's review of Baconnaise, click here.

Can't wait!!

Do I need to seek psychological help?

Hi, my name is Pooja, and I'm an addict. An addict of....the smell of dishwasher detergent. Yes, friends, I must come clean about my little habit. For years now, after I fill up the dishwasher tray with powder detergent, I have to give the box a little whiff before closing it and stashing it back under the sink. No, I don't spend five minutes huffing it -- it's a very delicate sniff -- but I just love that fresh, clean smell. I don't know how I managed without it in the dishwasher-less house I lived in for a few years before I moved to my condo!

Thanksgiving!

Every year when daylight savings time ends, I can't help getting a little excited, as it means Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year. My family has a long-standing (18-year??) tradition of heading to a family friend's for dinner every year. The family friends are another family with daughters close in age to me and my sister (we know them because the dad of that family used to work with the dad of my family). The guest list has quite expanded since we first started going, as their older daughter is now married with two young boys.

Anyway, the night was really great, as usual. My favorite memory was when the mother, Marilee, my sister and I were peeling potatoes. Scotty (Marilee's older grandson; I think he's five?) said to his mom: "Grandma's playing with her girlfriends." Love it!

That night, my sis stayed at my house and we were up at 5 a.m. to head to Target and hit up their Black Friday sale. We went mainly so I could get Guitar Hero World Tour Complete Guitar Edition for my Wii; it was $40 off. Having done our BF outings up in Lynnwood the previous years, we expected the Northgate area by my house to be completely clogged, so we decided to walk over instead. Of course, just our luck, there was plenty of parking available. Once we got in, I headed straight for the video-games area, while my sis went to pick up some $5 DVDs. The Guitar Hero games were almost flying off the shelves, but I was able to snag one. After we paid for everything, I decided to head downstairs into Best Buy to see if they had Rock Band on sale (as I bought GH, I started thinking that it'd be more cost-effective to get RB, which comes with all instruments, rather than keeping the GH I had bought, which only had a guitar). I talked to a Best Buy dude, and he said without hesitation, "Buy Rock Band." "RB 2" is out, but not yet for the Wii. And apparently the only difference between 1 and 2 is the music (no upgrades to the instruments), so I only need to buy the disc once 2 for the Wii is released. So...we trekked back up to Target so I could return the GH I'd bought maybe 30 minutes prior (likely Target's fastest return ever!), and buy the on-sale RB instead.

Finally, my sis and I headed to the mall. We stopped in JC Penney to pick up this food-warmer thing for my mom. Then, at about 6:45 a.m., we started the walk back to my place. It was a bit of an ordeal, as we had to lug both the Rock Band box and the food-warmer thing. Now we know to bring a car next time! Oh, and of course, we found out a couple days later that my mom didn't want the warmer thing after all; she went to look at it at Penney's later in the day on Friday, and decided the burner spots were too small.

After getting home around 7 a.m., we both went back to sleep until about 10 a.m. My sis headed out a few hours later, and then I hooked up Rock Band and ended up playing it for like three hours. So much fun!! But then I had to put it down so I could head out for some grocery shopping, as I was hosting my family and some family friends for dinner Saturday night.

Anyway...that's the gist of my long weekend. Saturday night's dinner gathering was a success -- all the food turned out great -- and my sister and I got quite a kick out of watching the older adults try various games (including, yes, Rock Band) on the Wii. Sunday was a recovery day, doing dishes and watching a lot of football.

And now it's suddenly December, which is crazy. The weather here is gray and wet, but definitely milder than I'd expect for this time of year. Though, I guess we've been getting more extreme weather in January the past few years.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

When an iPhone becomes a party saver

So on Saturday evening, I headed south to Mt. Baker for my friend/co-worker Ben's annual Grand Autumn Gathering (he makes some homebrew in its honor). I'd been to Ben's once before, but it was several months ago, so I used Yahoo! to give me driving directions and wrote them down. They looked a bit more complicated than I remembered, but I'd entered Ben's address correctly, so I just shrugged it off.

Once I got off I-90, I took a few turns off Rainier Blvd. After I'd gone several miles, I suddenly came upon the on-ramp to the West Seattle Bridge. Yikes! I'd obviously gone waaay off course. So I pulled over and fired up the Maps program on my iPhone. It pinpointed my location, and then I entered Ben's address, and it mapped my route to his house. I made a U-turn and was on my way, keeping my phone in one hand so I could turn it as I followed the route (the little pin that marked my location moved in real time on the map). I was even able to improvise a bit when the route dead-ended on a road that was closed for construction.

Finally, about 30 minutes after I'd intended to show up, I made it to Ben's for the party. Yay for the iPhone! And yay for Ben's party!

REI-sale find: My new favorite pants

I got a flier in the mail earlier this week announcing an upcoming REI sale. Being that I have a chunk of vacation I need to use by Dec. 31 or it'll expire (this is on top of the three weeks I can carry into '09), I decided to take a day off Friday and use part of the day to hit up the sale. I mainly had my eye on a North Face thin fleece jacket I thought looked perfect for cooler-weather hiking (plus, as most of my friends know, I'm a sucker when it comes to all things North Face). I ended up getting one in an awesome plum color; it's really soft and comfy.

I hadn't been looking for pants, but I happened by a rack of REI-brand fleece pants that were on sale as well. And, bonus of bonuses, they were available in petite, regular and long sizes (being that I'm 5'4", it's incredibly hard to find pants of any kind that I don't need to wear heels with). To my further surprise, a pair in the regular length actually was the perfect fit for me. So I ended up getting those in black. I wore them to parents' last night, and I love them even more. They're a thin microfleece, and actually look somewhat flattering, which is hard to do with fleece.

Anyway, the sale is going through Dec. 1. More details here. Head on over there and get stocked up for winter!

I have a hand crush

OK, maybe this is TMI, but in the past few years, I've suddenly developed a fascination with people's hands...mostly guys' hands. I think it centers on someone I met a few years back (the famous "MHR" some of you have heard of); he was someone I got a little crush on right off -- just based on his looks and personality -- and then I also noticed he has really nice hands. Part of my interest in even checking out a guys' hands has to do with the fact that I myself have large hands, and get a bit weirded out by the thought of being with someone with smaller hands than I have. Anyway, MHR's awesome hands now have me checking out the hands of any guy I meet or see whom I find moderately attractive. Everyone's got their little quirks, right?

BTW, if you're curious, here's a pic of one of my hands. My handspan from pinky to thumb goes from about the letter Z to the letter P on my ergo keyboard (which has a bump and some extra space in the middle of the keyboard). I think it measures out to be like nine inches.

I would've put a shot of MHR's hands, decided not to in case he happens to ever pop by Poojaland...

A change is comin' (FINALLY!!)

Well, it's now two days after Tuesday's historic election here in the States. And I still have my "Obama '08" button on my bag because it still hasn't quite hit me yet. I guess I was quietly hoping for the best, but expecting the worst just out of self-preservation, and based on how the past few elections have turned out.

Anyway, I drug myself out of bed at 6 a.m. (40 minutes early) so I could zip down to my local polling place around 7:30. There were probably 20 volunteers and about 30 voters in there, but hardly a line, as they had set up a lot of little booths. I was voting using a provisional ballot because I discovered at the last minute that the voting office still had my old address on file, so I spent a few minutes just filling out the various forms. Then, I filled out my ballot, put it in the two envelopes, stuck it in the voting machine, slapped on my "I Voted" sticker and walked back out into the rain.

And then...the waiting game began. On the way home from work that night, I was checking MSNBC.com on my phone every 15 minutes or so, watching as results from the East coast started coming in. I stopped at home to freshen up and get my car, and then I was off to Luau to meet up with some friends. I walked into the restaurant at about 6:45, and the place was quite festive -- red, white and balloons everywhere, tons of Obama posters (I'm SO glad to be living in a devoutly blue area!) and two blaring flat-screen TVs. As we ate, we kept an eye on the TVs, commenting to each other as Obama picked up state after state. I don't think we were even done eating dinner when they announced that Obama had gone over the magic number of 270 -- I think the West coast had just closed its polls maybe 10 minutes earlier! The whole place went crazy, cheering and clapping and high-fiving. We all quieted down for McCain's speech, which was actually very good (and sounded quite practiced, I must say ...), and you could've heard a pin drop when Obama finally took the stage for his acceptance. I must admit I got misty-eyed, not over just his speech, but what his election represents to those of us who are minorities. It's just an amazing feeling to know that someone who's nearly fully non-White was elected to the highest office of our country, and to a post that's of such importance to the world as a whole.

Interestingly, though that day and the day or two prior were typical fall Seattle days (gray, cold, windy, rainy), Wednesday dawned beautiful and sunny. Definitely a sign that the world is getting back on track again!! (Today, of course, we're back to the doom and gloom.) Personally, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off our collective shoulders. Yes, Obama won't be sworn in until next year, and it's going to take him a lot of time to undo this mess Bush has gotten us into, but man, it feels SO GOOD. I'm so excited to be an American (of non-American descent) living here and able to have participated in this amazing event. Here's to the next four (eight, even) years!

Fantastic 10-mile fall "hike"

This past Sunday, Chrissy had the great idea of taking advantage of our surprisingly clear and sunny fall weather and going on a hike. This year has been unusual in Seattle in that we've had a true fall season, where it's been cool/cold, but clear and sunny. Leaves have changed color and are still on their trees -- usually "fall" is like two days, and then the rains come in and the leaves end up on the ground in a soggy, ucky mess. But the scenery around town lately has been just gorgeous.

Anyway, Chrissy, Tina and I left the city Sunday morning and headed east to Big Creek Falls. En route, we discovered that Chrissy's state-parks permit, which we needed to park at the trailhead, had actually expired a couple months back. I then whipped out my oh-so-handy iPhone, and found a gas station in North Bend where we could buy a $5 day pass. After going through North Bend, we had to rumble down a 10-mile gravel road, that was peppered with potholes. Apparently Chrissy enjoys that sort of driving... ;o) We finally rolled up to the trailhead at about 11; there were only maybe 10 other cars in the lot.

It was pretty chilly -- mid-40s -- so I pulled on my oh-so-sexy bandana/headband/ear-protector thing, two fleeces (one light, one mid) and some gloves. Then we set out for the 10-mile "hike." (I put "hike" in quotes, because it's basically flat; you gain 700 feet of elevation over the five miles.) At the beginning of the hike, we crossed and then walked along the Taylor River. Here and there, we had to cross tiny, low streams, but for the most part, it was a pretty easy ramble. At the three-mile mark, we came across Marten Creek, which had a little waterfall. A couple miles up, we came to a cairn (basically a pile of rocks that act as a marker) on the side of the trail. We scrambled about 100 yards up a hill, then went down the other side and came to the base of Otter Falls. Otter Falls was really amazing -- basically a sheer rock face, with a tiny trickle of water coming down it. The Falls end in a tiny, serene lake. After snapping a lot of pictures, we sat down for lunch. Here are some pics of the Falls; you may have to squint to see the water coming down...

Then I pulled out my handy-dandy Joby camera stand and mounted the camera on a tree branch so we could take a self-photo. That tree behind Tina was so beautiful. (BTW, I turned on the "Autumn" setting on my camera at this point, which made the leaves' colors really pop, but washed out our faces a bit.)

After eating, we found our way back to the main trail, and continued on for maybe a mile or so to our turnaround spot, Big Creek Falls. Here's a shot of Tina, Chrissy and me in front of the falls:

And then...back we went. In total, our hike was about 10 miles. I've never walked that distance before, so my calves were definitely a bit achy the last mile or so. But what a great outing -- the perfect weather, mild exercise, good company, etc. It was almost rainforest-like most of the way, with moss everywhere:

I highly recommend that y'all head out to this place once spring rolls around. Here's a great, detailed description of how to get to the trailhead and what to do/where to go from there: http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2008-10-23.8354142965.

Finally, I leave you with a pic I snapped on the drive home; it shows off more beautiful fall foliage. So glad we took our trip when we did -- the rains are a' comin'!

Fun Halloween activity: Haunted Trails

If any of you, my handful of readers, are looking for a fun Halloween-related activity, I highly recommend the Haunted Trails at Bastyr University in Kenmore, Wash. The students of the university put it on to raise money for trips abroad. It costs $10 ($8 with a can or dry-food donation), and involves walking in groups of 10 or so through the trails on the university's grounds. Along the way, people in costume jump at you, ghosts on strings fly around and so on. Last year was my first year going. As we waited to embark, the "guide" told us that "there will be no touching," which meant that any time a scary person started toward me on the trail, I would reflexively wave my hands around in front of my face and say "NO TOUCHING!" Yeahh... I'm weird. Mostly, I'm just not a fan of being scared!

Anyway, since I was toward the back of our group, I didn't get truly spooked too often. But despite that, along with the crazy cold, drizzly weather, it was still a lot of fun. Someone in our group brought a big thing of hot cocoa -- spiked with butterscotch schnapps -- which we sipped on after our adventure. Yum!

This year, the Trails will run from 5:30 to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday Oct. 17 and 18, and Friday and Saturday Oct. 24 and 25. They're quite popular (last year they had 4,000 folks), so I recommend going early (and of course, dressing warmly). There's also some side events going on for small kids.

More info on everything can be found on Bastyr's Web site. I'm guessing my friends and I will go again this year, but we haven't pinned down a date. If any of you (and by "you" I mean my real-life friends in Seattle ;o)) want to join in, just let me know.

Windy city for a day

Late Saturday morning, I peered out the window to see trees bending back and forth, and leaves blowing all over. I'd thought it was going to be a relatively mild (well, rain-free) weekend, and though it wasn't raining, the wind looked pretty intense. I could even hear the whir of it from a couple feet from the window.

Anyhow, my day was pretty open, so I pulled my hair into a ponytail, topped it with a baseball cap, and put on one of my two awesome North Face Windwall jackets and some comfy tennis shoes, and hopped the bus to the U District.

Several times, I felt like I was in a wind tunnel; I even had to slam a hand on my head to keep my hat from taking flight. Loose pages of the Stranger (a local alternative newspaper) were blowing around by the traffic lights at one intersection I waited at. At one point, I walked past a guy who was approaching his parked car with two 10-12" pizza boxes and some other assorted stuff in his hands. He set the boxes on his trunk so he could pull out his keys. I'd nearly walked past his car when I heard a thud, followed by "F*CK!" I casually looked back, and only saw one pizza box sitting on his trunk. I couldn't see to the far side of his car to see if one of the pizzas had been ejected from its box, but gauging by the strength of that "F*CK!" I'm guessing it did. Sorry, dude!

Buster goes to the dentist

Several weeks ago, I noticed that Buster was hardly eating his dry food. Nothing had changed -- the brand of his food (both dry and wet), location, bowl, etc. -- and after I started mixing about a teaspoon of it in with his wet food twice a day, he did eat it. But he was no less hungry, and being that I'm at work for most of the day M-Th., I started getting alarmed over the thought of him only eating around 7:30 a.m. and then 10 p.m. when I gave him the wet/dry food mix. Since his appetite hadn't waned, my immediate thought was that he had some sort of tooth issue going on that made it painful for him to eat the dry food. Otherwise, he seemed completely normal, though a bit more lethargic than usual (due to eating less).

After about a week and a half of his weird eating, I was able to take him to the vet. Sure enough, he had a couple teeth that needed removing. He hadn't been to the vet in a couple years, so he also was due for a couple vaccinations. Buster was pretty good throughout the entire appointment; he was really squirmy and obviously scared, but he didn't hiss or yowl or scratch anyone. On the drive home that morning, I had his carrier on the passenger seat with the open part facing me. The carrier had this fuzzy blue pad/carpet on the bottom, only affixed by a couple strips of glue. Post-vet trauma on the ride back, Buster was able to pull the pad up and crawl underneath it to hide as best he could. I snapped a pic of him at a stop light. Poor guy!

Anyway, Buster had surgery a couple days after that appointment to get the teeth removed. Now it's about a week and a half later, and he seems to be fully recovered. He's back to eating dry food, but not as much as before; I think he got spoiled by the five days or so both pre- and post-surgery when he could only eat the wet stuff. No way am I only feeding him only that, though; that'd add up really fast. Plus, he of course needs food at hand when I'm in the office, and I can't leave wet food out all day as it goes sort of plasticky.

Long-awaited (long) rafting recap

Well, it's been a long couple of weeks, so I apologize for the lack of blogs... That's not to imply that there's been a lack of things to blog about! I've just been short on energy to sit down and actually start typing.

Anyhow, one blogworthy event was the camping/rafting trip I went on last weekend. We went on the Tieton River, and camped nearby in Naches, Wash. (about a three-hour drive from Seattle). Most folks arrived at the campsite on Saturday, so they could raft both weekend days, but I'd had a busy week prior to that weekend, and Nicole was heading down Sat. afternoon, so I jumped in with her. I hadn't been camping in about eight years at that point (I think the last trip was with co-workers from the Science Center to Mt. St. Helens), so I was nervous about what to pack, and the experience itself -- mostly my fear of needing to pee at 2 a.m.! Having been on this rafting trip a few years before -- though minus the camping -- I knew that there were no toilets at this particular campsite. I borrowed a down sleeping bag from Derek, and swung through REI to get some microfiber/quick-dry towels and a sleeping pad. I even found a cheap $14 water-proof "action" camera, that straps to your wrist; it's also reloadable -- bonus! Luckily, I didn't have to deal with the tent issue, as Chrissy took her "big" tent, so Nicole and I were going to crash in with her.

Nicole and I rolled up to the campground just after dark, probably around 8:30. There were about 20 folks there, sitting in chairs around a roaring campfire. Due to my paranoia about the whole peeing thing, I declined any alcohol and just sipped from my water bottle as I got covered from head to toe with amazing amounts of ash from the fire. One dude was playing bits of songs on a guitar, but would snap at people when they tried to direct him or make a request ("I'm trying to figure this song out! Give me a minute!"). This lady next to him had obviously had several drinks.. Chrissy made some comment about having a crush on Michael Phelps, and two minutes later, this lady (I'll call her T) was saying Chrissy looked like Phelps! Um....right. At some point during the evening, T asked if I was Indian, and I confirmed it. A little while after the Phelps business, T suddenly said to me "I love that you're from India! You're like a bulldog! You know, with those instincts, and ..." WTF?? She then went into some rave about Ayurvedic medicine. I was like "Lady, I take Advil!" Whatevs.

Around 11:30, Nicole and I drove about 1/2 mile down the road to a neighboring campsite to use their facilities (a "luxury" Nicole usually doesn't engage in, so ... lucky me this time!). Then we went back to camp to set up our sleeping gear in Chrissy's tent. I slept better than I thought I would, but not that great. Even though I had on fleece pants, two pairs of socks and a long-sleeved tee, it took me a good half hour to get warm. Because the air in the tent was so cold, I ended up sleeping almost entirely inside the bag (it was a mummy-style one, thankfully).

Nicole and I rolled out of the tent around 9, and headed down the road to freshen up (BTW, putting in contacts with ice-cold fingers is NOT fun!). Then we joined most everyone else around the fire (a much smaller version of the night before's) for a delicious breakfast prepared by a camper who's a chef in real life. There were biscuits, hash browns, bacon with potatoes, eggs and biscuits. Nicole and I contributed some apple-spice bread and fresh raspberries.

We sat around and talked some more (Paul, the guy who would later be our main guide on the river was drinking Sparks beer -- which is caffienated -- nice!), then slowly started getting ready for the trip. A few folks who'd rafted the day before headed back home; as I was going to just wear standard undies within my dry dry suit instead of a swim suit as most everyone else, I went ahead and changed back in the tent. Then the remaining 13 or so of us crammed into a couple cars for the ~15-minute drive to the "put -in."

Once there, we pulled the rafts off the top of Paul's truck and rooted around in the bed of his truck to get enough life vests and paddles for everyone. Anything that couldn't go into the rafts was left in Paul's truck (which included my digital camera) and then two cars (including the truck) were driven down to the "take-out."

Here's a shot of me before I stashed my digital camera away. Behind me to the left is one of our rafts; behind me to the right is the actual put-in spot and the river itself.

The rest of us were left to lounge around the put-in for probably a good 30-45 minutes, as I think the take-out was at least 15 miles away. The guys left the truck there and came back in the remaining car.

The first half of the trip was fun, as expected. Chrissy, Nicole and I were all in the same boat. We mostly lazily floated down the river, paddling a handful of strokes every 50 yards or so. Most folks were guzzling beer or hard lemonade from the cooler, but I was of course *not* so I wouldn't have to deal with peeling off the dry-suit to pee mid-trip. Paul was our main guide, but this woman Katie was getting trained by him, so she did most of the vocalizing to us ("All ahead!" "Back left!" etc.) and manned the rudder. About half or two-thirds of the way through the ride, we came upon the dam. The buildup is a little alarming, as there are these "Danger! Dam Ahead" signs that precede it. But I'd been on the river before, and going over the dam had just been like a big rapid. This time, however... I started getting alarmed about 10 seconds before we hit it, as Paul was saying to Katie, "OK, you need to get them going faster." Then he said to us, "C'mon guys, paddle HARD!" We approached the dam, went over the ~4-foot drop, and then WHOOSH, we got pulled under the spray and our raft tipped up. Paul yelled, "HIGH SIDE!" so we all lunged to the side of the raft that was in the air, trying to get the raft to level. But it didn't work; water was pounding into the raft. Paul yelled "Hold out your paddles!" so I grabbed the rope on the outside of the raft's high side and stuck my paddle into the water with the other. Still.. nothing. Paul's two 11-year-old nephews had been in the front of the boat, and I could periodically hear them whimpering. But mainly, I just heard the roar of the water. It was pounding us so hard that I was literally short of breath.

Normally, in these situations, whatever's happening to you happens so fast that you don't have time to process any thoughts. But we were stuck under the dam for probably almost two minutes, so I distinctly remember some thoughts that went through my mind:

1. "If this goes on much longer, maybe I should let go. But hmm.. I'm not even sure what way I'm facing. I've seen those shows on TruTV -- if I also get pulled into the flow of the dam, I'll go under and basically get pounded to death by the combine of the churning water."
   
2. "I wish we'd worn helmets."
   
3. "I know I'm being REALLY stupid by holding my paddle and the raft's rope in one hand to adjust my visor [it fell over my eyes], but I need to be able to see" (I actually did this three times!)
4. "HOLD ON TO THE PADDLE!" (Rule 1 of rafting, as it's much easier to get rescued if you can extend your paddle to a rescuer)

During those heart-pounding minutes, I didn't scream or say anything (or whimper, thank god). I was having those thoughts, but I also focused on Paul's voice, as he yelled things like: "C'mon boat!" "Just keep hanging on, everyone! We'll get through this!" "C'mon, we just need a good surge!"

Eventually...thankfully...we got that surge, and our raft was pushed out from under the flow -- with everyone still inside and my Action Camera still attached to my left wrist. We floated another 100 yards or so down river, "Oh GOD"-ing all the way, then pulled into an eddy where the folks in the other raft -- which'd been in front of us -- had pulled over to wait for us. My knees were definitely shaky when I got out to stand in the water. Paul said he felt our situation had come about due to a number of factors: 1) we weren't going fast enough, 2) our raft was a little under inflated and 3) we got snagged by some sort of rock after we went over. He said that on his numerous trips down the river, he'd never had that happen. "You're a true rafter now!" Chrissy told me.

On the right is the best pic of the dam I could find online (thanks to www.alpineadventures.com/tieton.html), though it really doesn't look all that daunting...I could've sworn the drop from the top to the bottom was closer to five or six feet, but this pic makes it look deceptively tame!! Again, I think it was just a fateful combination of factors that resulted in our little experience.

The rest of the trip was after that was uneventful. I think our total time on the river was a couple or three hours -- maybe 14 miles? Poked around online, and apparently the Tieton is the steepest river in the state, as it drops 50 feet in elevation per mile. Anyway, we pulled up to the take-out and dragged the raft out of the river. Then we deflated the rafts and loaded the back of Paul's truck with people and gear to head back to the campsite. Once there, we all just broke down tents and loaded up the cars. I was once again riding with Nicole; Chrissy had come with Ben.

After making one final stop down the road at the facilities, we hit the road around 6. We stopped in Ellensburg to have Mexican for dinner; I was still a bit disbelieving about the day's events, so I self-medicated with a yummy raspberry margarita. We got back to Nicole's around 10:30, and I stumbled into my own place about 40 minutes later.

Nicole was getting over a cold when we left for the trip, and lucky me, I caught her bug in the middle of last week and am still enjoying the last bits of it (mostly the cough and man-voice bits). I was especially bummed about still having the cold this past weekend, as a bunch of folks actually went back to the Tieton for a day trip yesterday (Sunday). I'd been invited on the trip late last week, and kept putting off calling Nicole with my yea or nay in the hopes that I'd get back to 100%. But alas...it didn't happen, so I called her Saturday evening to tell her I was out. Apparently there's still good rafting there through the end of September, so I've got my fingers crossed there'll be another day trip. Despite that scary adventure, I can't wait to go again!

Whew.. typer's cramp.. I'll leave discussion of my new Wii and iPhone (yes, I got both!) for another time ... Oh, and I'll get pics from the trip posted once I get them developed (if the quality is good). I think I still have about six exposures to use up on the roll.

A fun Saturday-morning outing

My sister and I went on a fun in-town outing this past weekend -- a tour of the Paramount Theatre in downtown Seattle. Even though I've lived in Seattle nearly my whole life, and have been to numerous shows at the Paramount (of both the musical and stage variety), I still found it very interesting.

The tour's free, and lasts 90 minutes. They of course give you the background of the theatre, and talk about the upgrades that were made in the early '90s, thanks to a $35-million private (!) donation by a former Microsoftee. But you also get to go under the stage to see the "trap doors," a swanky lounge-type of place for VIPs (with its own catwalk to the seating area, so stars can sneak in at the last minute), the "star dressing room" with bullet-proof glass where Bill Clinton spent some time during the WTO riots in '99 and even the projection room. Apparently we got sort of a unique treat in that "Phantom" is starting a run this week, and we got to be in the theatre to see it half set up (the famous chandelier was all strung up, but was in it's "down" position near the stage floor). We couldn't take photos of anything in there, unfortunately. Oh, and the Paramount has one of the three remaining original pipe organs in the U.S.

To the right are a handful of pics I shot with my phone; first is the player-piano, which I believe is usually covered up. It's also original to the theatre. A guy gave us a demo of how it works -- really interesting. Though I must say those pianos always freak me out; looks like a ghost is playing, you know?

The last two pics were taken in the projection room. Whereas underneath the stage are framed posters of shows signed by the stars, the projection booth is where all the behind-the-scenes union workers leave their marks. You can see the souvenir from "Young Frankenstein," which previewed at the Paramount before heading to Broadway in New York.

The same volunteers who run the tour also do the same thing at the Moore on the following Saturday; I'll have to check that out sometime. For those who want more info on the tours, head here.

Strange sightings

This sign has recently popped onto most Metro buses; it shows a scary, stretched-skin hand and long, red fingernails. I'm not sure why the folks who made the poster couldn't have just used a picture of a REAL hand?? I almost feel like it should actually say "Hold on! The being with this hand has been snatching humans off Metro buses just like this one. Don't be her next victim!"

While I was waiting for a bus earlier this week, this guy got off another bus and then sat on a nearby bench. On first glance, I thought "Hmm, not bad," but then ... I looked down. Wearing Crocs is one thing, but wearing hot-pink ones? When you're a guy?? (I snapped the pic while pretending to make a phone call.)

There's a family of raccoons hanging around my complex. One night, I was getting out of my car; I turned around as I was hefting a bag and saw a raccoon by the front door of my building. I stood there staring at him for a minute, and then he started ambling toward me. I got nervous and jumped back into my car (when he was about 12 feet from me) until he wandered off.

Last weekend, I saw four raccoons in my complex's back yard; they were actually really cute -- rolling around, grooming, playing..

What every Seattleite needs

How cool is this umbrella?? It's pricey ($48 for this one, $35 for a folding one), but I'm sure it'd be quite the pick-me-up on a gray, soggy day.

Dealing with a smelly man and wild weather

A couple days ago, I hopped a bus downtown to hit up the REI sale that just started. About two stops after I got in, this guy sat down next to me. Hoo lordy, he had AWFUL body odor coming off him in waves. I tried breathing through my mouth, but then I started getting a head ache. Then I turned to my left until my nose was nearly pressed against the window, but that wasn't too comfortable either. Finally, I rested my elbow on the window ledge and had two fingers right under my nose in sort of a "thinking woman" pose. That seemed to work the best. Anyhow, every time the bus came to a stop, I mentally crossed my fingers that the guy would get up, but he sat next to me for the next 20 minutes, and got off when I did at REI. Ick! Funny bit -- a guy two seats in front of me was sitting next to a lady. A seat opened up behind him (and directly in front of me), so the guy moved back a row to have his own seat. But a few stops later, the lady got off, and he moved back up a row to that now-empty seat. I'm convinced it was because he was trying to get away from the rank odor ...

This morning -- thankfully during the handful of hours it was warm and sunny out -- I met up with my good friend S for some breakfast in Wedgwood at the Sunflower Bakery. The food was great, but our eyes were WAY bigger than our stomaches, so even though we split two small dishes (1: two buttermilk pancakes, along with a side of bacon for me; 2: a smallish cheddar-cheese omelet with potatoes and toast), we only made it through one pancake each and about half of the so-so omelet. Cool place, though. Anyway, around 1:30, it suddenly started pouring down rain. I was twitchy to get in a walk after the heavy breakfast, so when the sun peeked out again about an hour later, I threw on a hat and a light raincoat and headed out to walk to WaMu to deposit some checks. I was just heading back from the bank when the heavy rain came back. I had to deal with the lovely feeling of rain sliding down my collar, and by the time I was halfway home, the thighs area of my jeans was so soaked that the fabric was sticking to my skin. Normally I'd take an umbrella in heavy rain like that, but I was thinking I'd be dealing with light showers at the worst, and I hadn't wanted to hold anything in my hands (or over my shoulder). Ah well, no harm done! The pic is a shot of the damage after I walked in my condo. Just another lovely Seattle summer day!

Icky, Sticky, Uncomfortable

So we're in the middle of a mini-heat wave here in Seattle right now -- it's been in the upper 80s and low 90s. Call me a wuss, but I'm a true Seattleite in that 80/90-degree temps are just too much; I like milder weather. I generally am always on the cold side, but when I'm outside in direct sunlight, I heat up pretty quickly (the brown skin and black hair are sun magnets). On top of that, I'm not comfortable jetting around town in skimpy clothes, so the end result is that being outdoors in this type of weather is really, really uncomfortable. I did get in some fresh air today, though; Anuja and I met up for some tennis, but although it was somewhat early -- 9:30 a.m.-ish -- it was nearly 80, so we only lasted maybe 40 minutes. Then I made a quick run down to the U District to drop something off at the dry cleaner. My condo's windows all face north, so I don't get a ton of direct sunlight in the summer, but after a couple days of 80-plus temps, it definitely starts warming up in here. So I've got a fan going on low as I'm watching the Olympics.

Speaking of the Olympics.. right now this event called the steeplechase is on. Who comes up with these things?? My understanding is that the athletes do seven laps of a track. En route, they jump over like five hurdles per lap, including one where they step onto the hurdle and jump into a big puddle of water. Huh? I'd like to submit my own Olympic track and field event... you do one lap of the track.. then you stop at a booth and have to knock down three tiers of bottles with up to three beanbags.. then you run another lap.. then you come to a puddle of water, but have to get through it by walking on your hands.. then you do another lap with seven hurdles.. then you have to throw a football through a tire.. then you do one more lap and you're done!

As John Stossel would say: "Gimme a break!"

Twinkie carnage

Over the weekend, my sister sent me home with some leftovers from her birthday party that took place the weeekend before that: two chocolate Hostess cupcake things, and a package of Twinkies. (I haven't had either in years, but they looked mighty tempting, and she didn't want them, so ...) I took out one of the Twinkies last night for a little dessert snack. After hearing the rustling of the plastic wrapper, Buster (my cat) immediately came over to see what I was doing. Out of curiosity, I put a little piece of the Twinkie on my palm, and lo-and-behold, he snatched the thing up. I gave him a couple more pieces, then told him to bugger off so I could eat the rest. I left the other Twinkie in the package; I folded the open end underneath, and left everything on my coffee table.

Woke up this morning and padded into the living room to check e-mail, and there on the floor next to the coffee table was that second Twinkie! Buster had pulled the package off the table, gotten his paw into it, pulled out the Twinkie (no easy feat, since it was stuck to a piece of cardboard within the package) and started munching. He didn't make it as far as the filling, but he did an impressive amount of damage. He likes the junk food, just like his mamma! Here's a shot of the Twinkie, post-Buster:

Don't worry, I don't go feeding Buster people food; I just get a kick out of seeing what all he'll eat. Some examples: avacado, mini marshmallows and whipped cream from a can (as soon as he hears the "whoooosh" of the can, he comes running). Funny guy.

Band-Aid addiction and a scary mannequin

Hello. My name is Pooja and I'm an addict ... a Band-Aid addict.

Yes, it's true. I think it's largely due to the germophobia I've developed over the past couple years.. anytime I get a cut or scrape, I have to put a Band-Aid on it immediately -- with Neosporin, of course. So partly, I don't want germs to get in there, but another factor is my clumsiness and forgetfulness; a Band-Aid helps me from absentmindedly scratching a paper cut (those things itch nearly as bad as mosquito bites) or getting hand-soap suds into an open wound. I can't tell you how thrilled I was to find Band-Aid variety packs at Costco a couple months back. Each pack had large Band-Aids, waterproof Band-Aids, medicated Band-Aids... I was in Band-Aid-addict heaven!!

BTW, the pic was taken earlier today; I got a papercut while rifling through some papers on my desk, so I immediately hit up the First Aid kit in the kitchen for one of their dingy band-aids and some antibiotic ointment.

On a completely different topic -- I was going through some recent pictures on my phone and came across one I took in the waiting area of Cafe Veloce last month. CV is a great little pizza/pasta place in Kirkland, but they have this car-racer lady mannequin thing by the waiter-station that freaks me out every time I go. I keep forgetting she's not real, so every time I see her in my peripheral vision, I snap my head around to see who's staring at me. Every time!!

Was I in upside-down world?

In the late afternoon today, I set out on foot to run some errands. First up was my doctor's office to pick up some prescription refills. Being that it was late afternoon on a Friday, I figured it'd be super busy at the pharmacy, so I packed a book in order to avoid dealing with out-of-date, grimy magazines (the book was "The End of Faith," which I've been reading sporadically for at least a year. It's got WAY too many endnotes, and is a little too high-brow for my tastes; I'd recommend "The God Delusion" over "TEOF" if you're looking for something in that genre). Once I got to the pharmacy, though, there were only a handful of people. I took a number -- it was number 94. I looked up, and they were on number 93! So I had to sit for a grand total of about one minute before I was called up to the window.

Then I headed on down the street to the mall. One of my stops was an official AT&T store. Usually, you only need to be within shouting distance of a cell-phone store or booth before you've got someone coming up to you to "help," but this time, I actually had to wait several minutes. And this was after I wasted about 10 minutes by slowly walking around the store and pretending to examine each phone. Yeesh! And it wasn't that they were overstaffed -- in fact, I think they had at least eight employees in there -- they were just really busy. Anyway, once I finally got some help, the employee confirmed what I'd feared: I'm not eligible to upgrade my phone until mid-September. I know I mentioned a couple posts back that I was obsessed with getting either a Wii or an iPod Touch, but now the Touch obsession has been replaced with an iPhone obsession. This is mainly because the idea of having an all-in-one device (phone + mp3 player) is really appealing, not to mention the idea of being able to access the Web and e-mail while I'm on walks or the bus, or waiting at a bus stop (I'm doing a lot more of all three now). Plus, a co-worker gave my officemate and me a little demo of his iPhone and it just looks like so much fun.

So unfortunately, I'm now forced to engage in one of my dad's favorite situations: "delayed gratification." Yay. I guess the silver lining is that as I also mentioned in a previous post, mid-September is bonus time at work. So maybe I'll get a Wii sooner to satisfy one obsession, and the iPhone later for the other! I've obviously been without a new toy for a little too long..

Shoe shopping by flashlight

I walked over to Northgate Mall Saturday afternoon with the intention of swinging through Nordstrom to pick up some shoes (part of the Anniversary Sale). Once I got inside the mall, though, I got sidetracked by the "70% OFF SALE!" sign outside Ann Taylor Loft. I ended up picking out a few items to try on. Went into a fitting room, took off my T-shirt, and then whoooosh! The lights went out! Some back-up lights popped on right away, but it was definitely dim. (Nobody screamed, for those who're wondering. There were just a lot of "Whoa!"s and laughter.) I decided to go ahead and try on a couple of the tanks, and then wandered out. Turned out power had gone out across the whole mall, and stores were asking people to leave and pulling down their security fence things as customers exited.

I was of course bummed that I hadn't gone directly to Nordstrom (the sale shoes tend to go quickly during the sale, and I have an average shoe size), but I decided to wander on by there just in case they weren't kicking people out. Well, Nordstrom employees and customers sure are a hardy bunch! The lighting was even worse in the shoe area, but it was business as usual -- though everyone was using either flashlights or cell phones for light. The store was unfortunately out of the color of shoe I wanted (burgandy), but had my second choice (black), so I tried those on, using the helpful employee's flashlight to check myself out in the mirror. I ended up buying that pair; they had to ring me up using an old-school carbon-copy receipt thing. (Of course, I was still obsessing over those red shoes [the color is much better in person], so the next day I called the Alderwood store and had them try to order a pair from another store for me. Fingers crossed! They're so classic and classy, I know I'll get my money's worth.)

As I left the mall around 2:30, I heard that power had also gone out at the Target/Best Buy complex across the street. The traffic light at the busy intersection of 5th and Northgate was also out, leading to lots of honking and bad driving (i.e., three drivers going one behind the other, rather than treating it as a four-way stop as you're supposed to). I read later that some City Light workers had inadvertently caused the outage; not totally surprising with all the construction going on in the area. Apparently the power finally came back up around 5:30 p.m. By then, I'd long since left the mall and headed to the U District for some medicinal bubble tea ;o)

I can be your (Guitar) Hero, baby

So I finally played Nintendo Wii for the first time on Friday night, and now I'm completely obsessed with the idea of getting a console. The scene was my friends L&I's house (they're married). They got their Wii only about a month ago, and were already pretty enamored with it, so part of the tease of the dinner invite was the promise of some Wii action afterwards. It was kinda late by the time we finally got around to firing it up -- 11:30 -- but they were game to let my friend Lara and me give it a try. First up was Wii tennis. So great! Especially since I play in real life. Though, I lost all of the four or so games I played, two of which were against Lara (who also plays tennis). Then we played some other random games.. one where you're on a cow knocking down stuff on a raceway, a shooting game (which I won vs. Lara -- handily) and laser air hockey. But then....we busted out Guitar Hero. Now that was SO much fun. I played two songs on the Easy level (which has you using three of the six [?] keys), and I hit 96% of the notes on the second one! Yeah, it's only three keys, but I still felt a great sense of accomplishment. I also loved the parts when I got to rock out and pull the neck of the guitar up. Ha, and my sense of accomplishment was increased when Lara tried a couple songs and got booed off the stage within about 20 seconds!! (Sorry Lara, but it was only right after my having lost at many other games earlier that night ;o)). I think what I love about the Wii is that it's so simple and easy -- you don't have to worry about what eight buttons mean, or remember how many bullets or grenades you have left, or keep track of some intricate backstory. It's just unadulterated, straightforward fun.

Anyway, I was at Costco this afternoon with my mom and talked up one of the employees about the Wii. Apparently they sell out of the consoles amazingly fast after stock up (they were of course out today). If I were to get one, though, I'd almost certainly get it there, just because of the great warranty and return policy, and apparently, according to the dude, for the ~$300 you plonk down, you get two controllers instead of one, and an extra game or two. Unfortunately, Guitar Hero isn't one of those games; L&I said it was about $100 for the GH game and guitar thing. Ouch! So we'll see. At the very least, I'm hoping I'll be getting more frequent dinner invites from L&I so I can periodically get a Wii fix!

I should mention also that for the tail end of last week, up until my Wii-velation, my obsession was the idea of getting an iPod Touch, mainly because a co-worker brought in his iPhone to show Eric and me and we were just enthralled. But then we did the math on how much more a month we'd be shelling for our cell-phone plan, and we just couldn't justify it. I mentioned that my dad has an iPod Touch that has a lot of the features that the iPhone has, it just needs free WiFi to use them. So we were all fired up about getting one of those. Problem is, they're mucho expensive -- even at Costco, around $389 for the 16G, and $489 for the 32G.

Though.. my iPod Touch obsession was revived a bit this evening when I was at my parents' for dinner and my dad gave me a little tour of his iPod Touch. It's super slick! So now I have to let my obsessions simmer and we'll see if and when I end up buying one of the two. Hm...maybe I'll buy one now, and the other when bonus time rolls around at work in early September...

Emerging from a wedding daze

Julie and I show off our henna (photo stolen from Julie)

Well, it's been a non-stop week! Early last week, I was busily getting work done in anticipation of taking some time off and the July 4th holiday. Half of the week had been set aside for festivities related to my good friend R's wedding (I've decided to censor unique names here and there, just for my friends' privacy). Wednesday afternoon was the mehndi, or henna. R got elaborate designs on her hands and feet, and most of the rest of us ladies got a simple design on the back of our right hand.


Here's a shot of a bunch of us (who all went to high school together) and the bride (in red) (photo also stolen from Julie):



Thursday night was the sangeet at a waterfront hotel on the East side. There was drinking and eating, and then some singing and a LOT of dancing. There were three choreographed dances (one with little kids, one with a handful of R's girlfriends, and one with about five adult couples), and then the guests were turned loose on the dance floor.

M and I took advantage of the open bar (photo stolen from M)..



Oh, and on the right is a shot of me with one of the groom's cousins from London (thanks M, for snapping it). He had, of course, the great British accent, along with a really deep voice. Plus he was very good looking, and seemed to have a good sense of style the one time I saw him in Western-style clothes. We chatted a couple times at various events, but sadly, that was the extent of our romance.

Thursday afternoon was a relatives/wedding-party July 4th BBQ up in Everett (I guess since I staffed the gift table, I was an outlying member of the wedding party). It was a beautiful backyard, and beautiful weather, though the sporadic winds kept sending paper plates and napkins flying across the lawn. I cruised out of the BBQ in the early evening to give a tried friend a ride home (she'd flown in from New York in the wee hours of that morning) and then stopped by my parents' for a quick dinner. Then it was off to Julie's for a mellow evening in -- snacks and "The Hunting Party" (which I never really got into).

Finally...Saturday was the day of the wedding, which was held downtown. We got there a little early, and since we weren't going to be getting any food or drink until 6:30 (it was 4:10 when we arrived), we stopped at a Starbucks to get some snacks to tide us over. We headed across the street to the hotel right at 4:30, assuming we'd be in time to see the groom arrive on the traditional white steed, in all its finery, but we unfortunately just missed him. We did see the horse being led off, though. I bet all the tourists and shoppers were quite confused!

The wedding itself was very elegant. It was a bit overwhelming in sheer size -- 400 guests!! -- and the ceremony went a bit long at nearly an hour and a half. But the alcohol was a-flowin' (several open bars), and I had a great time reconnecting with high school friends and some out-of-towners I hadn't seen in some time. At the end of the night, there was, of course, yet more dancing!

I was supposed to go on a long (11 mile) hike with Chrissy the next morning, but it was about 12:30 a.m. by the time we finally saw the newly marrieds off, so I told Chrissy, who was also at the wedding, that I was going to pass. Good thing, too -- I didn't pull myself out of bed until 11 the next morning! But I think some four-odd hours of dancing the week prior will make up for having bailed..

Taming Tiger Mountain

So we had nearly record-breaking temps here in Seattle this past weekend -- topping 90 both days. I'm a true Seattleite in that I prefer all weather types in moderation, so normally I'd be staying out of the sun as much as possible. But this time around, I got in more fun in the sun than I'd expected.

Saturday morning, I had plans to meet up for some tennis with Anuja and her co-worker Jeff for some tennis by my place. Due to a time constraint on Jeff's end, we couldn't meet until 11 a.m. Since our recent "sunny" days start out overcast and then clear up by mid-afternoon, we figured it would be great tennis weather at 11 on Saturday, though they were predicting high temps. Wrong! It was quite steamy. We all slathered on the sunblock, but I think we only stayed out there for barely an hour. Afterward, we lounged around in the partial shade on the side of the court and chatted, waiting for our energy levels to rise. I was invited to a couple barbecue parties Saturday afternoon, but I was still feeling drained even after eating lunch, so I was in no mood to stand around outside in the hot sun and make conversation. So I bailed on both events.

Sunday, I got up at 6:20 (ouch!) to get ready for a hiking outing to Tiger Mountain with some girlfriends. The bridge I'd usually take to get to Chrissy's (we were going to carpool) was closed for the Seafair Marathon, so I gave myself 30 minutes to take the alternate route around Lake Washington. Due to barely any traffic, I made it to Chrissy's 10 minutes early, only to find out that she'd slept in and had sprung out of bed just a few minutes prior. So I played with her cats and dog while she got ready. We made it to the mountain around 8:10 and met up with the other three girls in the dusty parking lot.

Stacey (top), Jill and Jax (sp?), Jill's dog

The hike up was more strenuous than any of us (including Chrissy, who mapped our route) had anticipated.. to avoid the crowds, we steered clear of the main trail, which I think is the West Tiger 3 trail, and instead went up the Nook/Section Line trail(part of which is marked "unmaintained") to the top. The last half or so of the hike was really steep, so the three of us in the "slow" group (we were also a bit back from Chrissy to keep her dog Maggie away from Jill's dog) were stopping every five-10 minutes through the worst of the worst sections to catch our breath. At one of our stops, these two older (early '60s?) men passed by with a quick "hello," then after they were about 50 feet past us, they turned around and said, "You ladies are all Obama supporters, right?" Talk about the REAL campaign "trail."

Chrissy, Maggie (dog) and me on the summit

Once we finally stumbled up to the top, the view was a little anticlimactic -- in the sense that there really wasn't a view to speak of, as it's mostly blocked by trees. (Though, I should admit I didn't wander around the entire summit area.) To continue to keep the dogs apart, we squatted in two sections of the summit to rest and eat some snacks. After about 15 minutes, we headed back down. Due to Stacey's and Jill's bad knees, we went down via the busy West Tiger 3 trail, because it's much wider and softer and has less of a grade. En route, I saw a co-worker of mine walking up the trail with his girlfriend (I think) and some kids. I waved and said hello; he waved back, but I don't think he recognized me, as I was in sunglasses and had my hair pulled back into a ponytail. So I did my Clark Kent move and raised my sunglasses to reveal my eyes, and he said, "Oh! Hi!" and we had a quick chat. Also on the way down, we encountered a man in a hiking outfit I'll never forget: a gray polo T-shirt tucked into neon green, tight running shorts with a funky black-splatter design. Yikes!! We were all holding back our snickers as he passed by us.

I had been madly drinking water through my hydration backpack the entire hike, so by the time we were about halfway down, I was getting really twitchy to relieve myself. Luckily, though, I was able to make it to the bottom where they had toilets. Then we all copped a squat in the shade by our cars in the parking lot to have some chilled drinks and fruits that Stacey had thoughtfully brought along. Turned out on our hike up, we'd gained about 2,000 feet in elevation over two miles, which is quite a respectable (and difficult) hike. On the way down, our alternate trail was longer at three miles.

So all in all, a difficult but ultimately rewarding outing. Two days later, I still feel some stiffness in my quads when I stand and walk after having sat for a while, and I'm still occasionally scratching the six mosquito bites I had the misfortune of getting -- one on my left ankle, one behind my left knee, three on the back of my right shoulder and one on the back of my right hand. I'm just really glad I didn't get one on my face!

That's just how I bowl

Went to the Garage on Capitol Hill last week for a work event. It was the first time I'd been there, and my first time bowling in...jeez, probably at least eight years. Interestingly, I got my best score in the first of the four games we played: 127. I think I got two strikes. It was a ton of fun; I hope I go bowling again in less than eight years! Just seems like it's hard these days to get enough people together to make it worthwhile. I actually had my 16th birthday party at the somewhat seedy Kenmore Lanes by my parents'; my main memory of that day is from when it was my turn to bowl, and in the process, I accidentally stepped over the line into the lane. I fell right on my ass! That sh*t is slick! And my parents got it all on video -- niiiice.

Anyway, here's a shot of me mugging for the camera (as always), snapped by someone else on my team. Can you tell which ball was a wee bit (four pounds) heavier? ;o)


I'd gotten a ride to Cap. Hill from a friend at work, but then I decided to be adventurous and hop the bus home. I'd written down the timing/bus number, and the intersection I need to go to, but I walked three blocks in either direction on Madision, but couldn't for the life of me find Boren. I usually am paranoid and make myself a little map so I can easily find my destination, but I was overconfident in this occasion, largely because on all my previous bus adventures, the stop is within a couple blocks -- or sight distance -- of where I'm leaving from. Luckily my sister was by her phone and a computer, so she pulled up a map and informed me that I was close -- just needed to go an additional block or two in one of the directions I'd already gone. This was an unusual bus situation in that the walk was longer than usual (I'd also obviously forgotten to write down the walking distance Metro's Trip Planner had given me). The bonus part was that the bus I caught only went another few blocks/stops into downtown, and then hopped the freeway, making it only about a 10-minute trip back to the Northgate Transit Center (which is walking distance from where I live). Most buses I take from downtown or Cap. Hill wind back to Northgate on city streets, and usually take about half an hour, so that was quite a speedy trip.

Did you go #1 or #2?

Was in training for a couple days last week in a newer building on campus. They have these awesome efficient/water-conserving toilets where you flush it one of two ways depending on whether you went #1 or #2. It was so funny, I had to take my phone in there to snap a picture of the instructions on the back of the stall door. Oh, and for those who are curious (I certainly was) -- it sounds the exact same when you flush, no matter which way you "push" the lever. Yes, I did a little test ;o)

30 is the new 24

Last week, I turned the big 3-0. It was definitely daunting; I felt like it was sort of a milepost marker, prompting me to review my life up until that point, and compare it to where/what I thought I'd be as recently as five years ago. Instead of wallowing in thoughts of what I feel my life is "missing," I'm trying to focus on the good things, because on paper, I really do feel proud of what I've accomplished so far in my life, and the type of person I am.

Aaaanyway, I took a couple days off from work, which was nice -- especially since the weather cooperated. Anuja came over on my actual birthday, and we bused down to the U District to get my birthday bubble tea at my favorite BT spot (it's kind of silly, though; for your "gift," you buy a BT and then get a coupon for a free one on your next visit). I went there last year, and asked the owner (who knows me by name) how old he thought I was. His response? 22. I still chuckle over the memory of the look on his face when I said "Actually...I'm 29" I gave him a little leeway as I was wearing a ballcap, had my hair in a ponytail, and was wearing glasses. This year, though, I didn't have any of those things going on. And his reply to my "How old do you think I am?" query? "24"!! He was completely shocked -- again -- when I revealed my true, advanced age. Hilarious.

Saturday night, some girlfriends and I met up at the Zig Zag Cafe in downtown Seattle to celebrate. It was a really fun time, as you can see.. I never met a camera for which I didn't ham ;o) A friend was nice enough to give me a ride to and from ZZ, so I didn't have to turn down any of the three martinis I was urged to drink. I didn't get drunk, but I definitely had a good buzz going. I highly recommend the ZZ for anyone looking for a chill, funky place to do an outing like this -- or even just drinks/light dinner -- though the setup was a bit weird, as they only have round tables, so our "table" for 12 was four round tables shoved into a chain-bubble line. Oh, and as far as parking -- there's a parking garage on the right as you go down Western behind the market that only charges $3 if you park after 5 p.m. ZZ is about another blog down Western, off the Pike Place Hill Climb stairs. Originally, my outing was going to be at the Purple Cafe downtown, but by the time we called to make a reservation mid-week last week, the only one we could get would've been for 10:30 (yawn); apparently they were overrun with reservations due to UW's graduation being earlier that same day. I was bummed to miss out on Purple -- always a great time -- but still had a fabulous time at Zig Zag. Here's to a new, exciting decade of life!

'WFL,' Sweeney's 'God' and the Twilight Court

Last week, we had a work party at Lincoln Square in downtown Bellevue, where MSN has some offices on I think the top half of Lincoln Tower. The food/drink portion of the party was held in the cafeteria, which is on the top (28th) floor. They have an AMAZING view up there, looking out over part of Bellevue, and across the water to Mercer Island and even the Space Needle. Here's a shot from the patio outside the cafeteria:


We were all invited to go downstairs to Lucky Strike to either bowl or play pool, but I decided to cruise out at that point to hop the shuttle back to my office (my smaller team has a bowling outing next week as well). Anyway, Josh and I decided that we're going to start a new triend: WFL. That means "Working From Lincoln," an offshoot of the more traditional WFH (Working From Home). Though I don't think I'd ever get used to that view..

Friday, I went to see another movie at SIFF: Julia Sweeney's "Letting Go of God." It's a film of her one-woman show about her journey from being Catholic to being an atheist (or, as she calls it: a "naturalist"). Though the format (just her, in a living-room setting) got a little tiring at times, I was pretty absorbed the entire two hours, as was the sold-out audience. Julia was there herself (she's a native of Spokane) and got two standing ovations, one after the film, and one after the Q&A. For me, it was just kind of comforting to be in that sort of environment with other non-believers. I just get tired of how god-centric the world is, even in relatively liberal, open-minded Seattle.

Finally, Anuja stopped by on her way home from work this morning for some tennis. We played at the courts at North Seattle Community college. The funky benches they have there never fail to crack me up. How can more than one person sit comfortably on this thing??


Here's Anuja and me, posing for what Anuja dubbed a "Wes Anderson shot":


And then.. in yet more weirdness.. on the adjacent court, there's a green, wood backboard with a white horizontal line to simulate the net. It's a practice area if you want to "play" solo. There was an envelope taped up backward on the backboard -- with nothing inside, and nothing written on it. Then, a couple feet away, was a blank Post-It. Maybe the writing washed off in recent rains (though you'd think either or both items would've fallen off).. weird.

Non-bulked 'Hulk' and the dreaded 'overreactor'

Saw "The Incredible Hulk" last night. Overall, it was okay; a good popcorn/matinee flick. I enjoyed the scenes with Norton as Bruce Banner, but I couldn't get into the over-the-top action scenes when he was Hulk. It was also a little hard to remember that Norton was the Hulk, because he's super scrawny (especially from the waist down) and the Hulk bears no resemblance to the actor. I've never seen the TV series, or 2003's "Hulk," so I can't make any comparisons there.

We had the misfortune of sitting in the row in front of the type of moviegoer I've decided is an "overreactor" -- after a fight scene ended, she would loudly sigh "Whoa!" and during a funny part, she'd laugh (again, loudly) and then still be laughing two seconds after the crowd's laughter died. She would make exclamations; i.e., when Stan Lee appeared for his standard cameo, she guffawed and said "Stan Lee!" When there was a cameo at the end of the film by the star of a current box-office draw, she was laughing and exclaiming so loudly that we completely missed all of the guy's lines. The worst outbursts, though, were before the movie when they showed the trailer for "Hellboy II: The Golden Army." Only five seconds into the trailer, she yelled "YEAH! HELLBOY!" and then was "woohoo"-ing every 20 seconds throughout the trailer.

After the movie, in the restroom -- the door of my stall randomly opened before I was ready for it to be open. I sat there dumbly (I won't go into further detail about what I was doing at the time) for about a second, and then stood and lunged for the door. Luckily I was in the end stall, furthest away from the line of ladies in waiting, so no one came wandering over to enter the suddenly available stall.

Finally, I must comment yet again on our crazy weather. It felt like October last night! I had to wait for the bus outside Pacific Place downtown for about 10 minutes. It was super windy and really cold (I'm guessing 40s). Everyone at the stop had their hood on, even though it was (thankfully) not raining. I wore a scarf this morning -- on freakin' June 10! Thankfully it's going to warm up the next couple days. The Times said last week was the coldest first week of June in Seattle since they started recording the weather in the early (?) 1800s.

Cherry pickin'

In my previous post, I forgot to mention another funny weekend event -- I went to Fred Meyer on Saturday afternoon to get some groceries. I went to the fruit section to pick up some cherries. They had the cherries out in little bags. I grabbed a plastic produce bag and started rifling through the bags of cherries, picking out small handfuls to transfer to my own bag. All of a sudden, this 40-ish man appears at my side and says in a semi-accusatory manner: "What're you doing?" I was sort of taken aback, but replied: "I'm picking out cherries. They're for sale by the pound, not by the bag." Then I pointed to a rotting cherry in one of the bags and said, "See, you have to be careful." He paused, and said, "Oh." Then he randomly picked a cherry, popped it in his mouth, said "Mm!" and was gone. A minute later, a lady came up next to me to look over the cherries. She started shooting me these angry glances. I was so tempted to say "Lady! You buy them by the POUND, not by the BAG!" Jaysus!

The story popped into my head a few minutes ago as I was eating some cherries with my lunch. None of them had bruises or holes -- who's laughing NOW, bitches?!

SIFF reviews and more bus talk

Took a day off last week, and hopped the bus downtown in the morning to take in a SIFF media screening of "The Great Buck Howard." The draw for me was mainly the cast: Colin Hanks, Tom Hanks, John Malkovich and Emily Blunt. I was a bit bored during the film, though I thought both of the Hanks and Malkovich did a good job with what they were given. The plot, in short, is that Colin Hanks is a law-school student who has dreams of being a writer. He drops out of law school and takes a job as the road manager for "The Great Buck Howard" (Malkovich). Howard is a "mentalist" whose main claim to fame is that he was on the "Late Show With Johnny Carson" like 60 times. The film follows Howard as he does shows around the country. I decided later that it was either truly a boring film, or so deep and metaphorical that it was over my head and I didn't get it. I'm scratching my head a bit over the Seattle Times' critic's review of the film in the Times' SIFF blog; the woman said she predicted it would be audience favorite, and also called it "short, snappy, and unexpectedly sweet." Well.... OK! We'll see what the public thinks.

Saw a couple more SIFF films over the weekend -- "Man on Wire" was a fascinating documentary about French high-wire artist/tightrope walker Philippe Petit, who put up a tightrope between NYC's Twin Towers and walked across it in August 1974. The film tells of his early days getting into his passion, but mainly focuses on the planning of his big feat, his accomplices (it was, of course, completely illegal) and how everything went down in the end. The film was successful largely due to the unique nature of its topic, along with the sparkling charisma of Petit and everyone else involved. It was really, really eerie to see the footage of the Towers being built, though, knowing what was in store for them some 30 years later. Too bad the documentarian never asked the film's subjects to speak on that. Anyway, Petit was arrested immediately after his feat -- after going between the towers eight times -- and the film's title comes from a phrase written in the arresting report.

The other movie I saw was "Be Like Others," a documentary about Iranian men who are gay (though they carefully skirt around that label; they claim to be women inside men's bodies, basically) and undergo gender reassignment surgery to reveal their "true selves," as homosexuality is punishable by death in Iran. It was quite sad to see the process these young men (mainly in their early to mid 20s) go through. Most have no support from their families -- one was nearly poisoned to death by his father -- and are disowned by their parents after the surgery. Post-operation, one "woman" told of how she had to do "business" (aka prostitution) to make money. When the interviewer asked if she ever thought she'd fall in love she said "No. I've killed all the love in my heart." Truly heartbreaking. But ... I guess that's the price they pay if they want to become their "true self." One funny part was when one of them talked about how he heard (and this is my best paraphrase here) "they [gay/transsexual people] can do anything they want in America. But getting it from behind is still wrong." That got a good laugh from the crowd.

Got in some hiking (St. Ed's) yesterday with Chrissy, and then some tennis with Anuja right after. It ended up being a pretty gorgeous day, but it was windy, and this white cotton-type stuff was coming off trees everywhere -- it looked like it was snowing! I must admit I was kinda glad to get indoors in the early evening so my allergies could subside.

So I'm trying to take the bus a lot more these days when I have the time to, just because it's more relaxing and of course, saves on gas/parking money and hassle. Plus, I have a free bus pass from work. On Wednesday, when I went to the screening downtown, a woman across the aisle from me was cutting her nails; it was really grossing me out. Every time I heard that "click," I almost physically cringed. She cut them for like 20 minutes, and then stopped. But about five minutes later...it started again! Yew. Then there was this other guy on another bus I rode who was blasting his Discman (yes, Discman) really loudly, and said "Hi!" to every person who got on the bus. The two screenings I went to over the weekend were at the Egyptian on Capitol Hill. It was my first time taking the bus over there, and though I had to take two buses, it only took about half an hour total. After the last screening, I decided to walk several blocks down Broadway and do some window shopping. Once I got to the end of Broadway's main drag, I approached a construction area (not a rare thing on Capitol Hill right now!). I saw one of those temporary bus-stop markers -- the short, bright-orange stantion thing with a white sign on top that said "Bus only." Now, I've never stood at one of those temp. stops before, but the thought did cross my mind that maybe it was a bus layover area, and not an actual stop. That thinking was confirmed when a few minutes later, the bus I wanted breezed on by me. Whoops! So I walked back another block and found the true stop, which was unfortunately right outside this Pho restaurant that was loudly blasting top 40 hip-hop/R&B. Lovely.

Anyway, that's the recap on recent events. Tonight I'm seeing "The Incredible Hulk," which I'm cautiously optimistic about...

Black Bottle and Wallace Falls: Two thumbs up

So I have a new bar/restaurant recommendation for other Seattleites: Black Bottle. They call themselves a "gastro-tavern," and they serve mainly tapas/small-plates type of food, though their portions are definitely "shareable," as their Web site also claims. A bunch of us met up there for Marivic's surprise 30th-birthday party. They accept reservations, so we had a table for about 20 set aside for us in the back/side room. Though the room got super loud as the night went on (mostly due to its high ceilings), I really liked the place. I had this flatbread dish with cheese, roasted chicken and dried cherries that was really delish. I ordered an apple martini, and they served it to me in a slightly small martini glass, but gave me the shaker that contained the leftover alcohol (initially, I was really excited about this, but I tend to sip at drinks, so by the time I got to that extra bit, it was pretty watered down by the ice that was also in the shaker). Price-wise, I think the mixed drinks were all around $8, and the dishes seemed to range from $8 to $11. Even better -- BB is located on the corner of 1st and Vine, so it's on the outskirts of the super busy Belltown area, and parking was pretty easy. They're online at www.blackbottleseattle.com.

Sunday was a hike at Wallace Falls with Chrissy and Matt and Nicole and their adorable 10-month-old boys. It was a perfect day for this sort of outing -- clear, but damp with threatening skies (it never did rain). We all hiked together for a couple hours to the Middle Falls:

From left: me, Chrissy, Nicole, Teagan (in carrier), Matt and Korbin (in carrier).

Then Nicole, et al, had to head back down as they didn't want to tire the boys out. Chrissy and I continued on up. I think we had to go about another mile up, and it was all switchbacks (fun). Though I definitely was slow going up them, I'm proud to say I didn't stop once! So the lungs are getting in better shape, slowly but surely.

Here's the view we enjoyed once we got to the top of the falls:


We put a couple plastic bags on a damp log and sat down for some quick lunch. I say quick because about seven minutes in, Chrissy saw a large (10-12-person?) group on a log below us start packing up, and she was worried we'd get stuck behind them on the way down (she had a bit of a time constraint to meet her family for her brother's birthday outing). So I crammed everything back into my pack, and finished up my cherries as we trekked down, spitting out seeds on either side of the path along the way. Our shoes and pants' hems were pretty muddy by the time we got to the car, but all in all, another great outing.