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!