Weekend Wrap-Up

I'm actually posting this on time, that never happens! It was a productive and busy weekend, here are the highlights:

• Took Barney to the vet for his second distemper vaccine.
• Relaxed at home and caught up on the backlog on my TiVo.
• Waiting anxiously for my new cell phone to arrive.
• Played with my new phone for hours. It's so different, but I love it.
• Ran to the grocery store to pick up a few needed items.
• Organized my contacts and synced them to the phone.
• Spent 30 minutes on the phone with Verizon to see why my short code messages aren't coming through and in the end they couldn't figure it out.
• Set the new phone down long enough to get some sleep.
• Deep cleaned the dining room and living room.
• Watered, fertilized and shined the leaves on all my plants.
• Finally watched the second and third Presidential debates. Now I finally understand why everyone was so annoyed by the "Joe the Plumber" references.
• Ran to the grocery store, again.
• Baked a carrot cake from scratch and made Chicken Enchiladas.
• Hosted a birthday party for my friend Christy.
• Stayed up past midnight which is a very rare occurrence for me, man am I getting old.
• Took Barney on a long walk around the Seattle Center and enjoyed the sunshine and fall leaves.
• Deep cleaned my bedroom.
• Organized the magazine holder, I still had magazines from 2005.
• Cleaned the fans (which I have to say is a truly disgusting job) and put them away for the season.
• Got ready for the week ahead.
• Relaxed on the couch and watched Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy before heading to bed.

How was your weekend?

The Autumn Test

Your Autumn Test Results

You are a energetic, warm, optimistic person. You approach everything with a lot of enthusiasm. When you are happiest, you are calm. You appreciate tradition and family. You enjoy feeling cozy. You prefer change to come slowly. You need a long transition period when your life changes. You find hard work to be the most comforting thing in the world. You like the feeling of accomplishing something. Your ideal day is chill and uneventful. You prefer to kick back and take it easy. You tend to live in the moment. You enjoy whatever is going on, and you don't obsess over the past or future.

The Autumn Test

10 reasons to enjoy the rain

I stumbled across this article on my bloglines feed this morning. Ken Schram is KOMO TV's often commentator. I thought this was really funny and felt like sharing with all of you. Enjoy!

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Ten reasons to enjoy the rain

By Ken Schram

SEATTLE - I'm sometimes asked how come I don't come up with an occasionally positive commentary.

Seems some people are under the mistaken impression that I'm always grumpy, cantankerous and sarcastic.

Well, just to prove them wrong, I've decided that today I want to look on the bright side of things.

With that, I humbly offer the top ten reasons for why we should actually be enjoying all the wind and rain we're getting

Number 10: The storm has washed away the word "MetroNatural" that was painted on top of the Space Needle.

Number 9: It's fun to splash pedestrians as you drive down the street.

Number 8: Can't get enough of that video of salmon crossing the road.

Number 7: Fewer panhandlers because cardboard signs just get soggy.

Number 6: No more door belling by political candidates 'cause they're weather wimps.

Number 5: Not as many bicyclists to share the road with.

Number 4: Ducks swimming in Seattle's pot holes look so darn cute.

Number 3: We need more mud right before the election.

Number 2: Traffic hardly sucks more than when the sun is in our eyes.

And the number 1 reasons to enjoy all this rain: All the crack-heads and hookers stay inside which means if you really want to, you can actually use that $700,000 toilet down in Pioneer Square!

There... how's that for positive!

Post Election Mania

Today is November 8th and the election is over, thank God! I sat down to watch my favorite TV shows on Sunday night and every single ad on television was one of the candidates blasting the views of the other. I hate campaign ads and I really hated them this year.

I use reliable sources (voters pamphlet, websites) for information to make my decision about which candidate I am voting for and specifics about ballot initiatives. I sat down over the weekend with all of my research and finalized my decisions. And then the TV ads really got on my nerves. All I heard was that Maria Cantwell is against the war, Mike McGavick wants to privatize social security and was a bad leader at Safeco, Dave Reichert votes with Bush 90% of the time and Darcy Burner will raise your taxes. AAAHHHH!

The most annoying of these races was the race between Reichert and Burner for the 8th Congressional District. I watched the local political shows about this race, endured the ads on television, radio and the discussions at work only to learn when I went to prepare on Sunday that I don't live within the 8th Congressional District. I live in the 7th Congressional District. At least I didn't have to decide between Burner and Reichert.

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I fell asleep watching the news last night. I saw the beginning of the results for Washington but was sound asleep before the majority came in and I didn't hear a thing about the races in Utah. I mentioned this to a co-worker who moved here recently from Utah and he hadn't heard either so we pulled up the Salt Lake Tribune to find out everything we wanted to know. The first thing we found out was that Sen. Orrin Hatch had retained his office. This began a conversation about our "run-ins" with the Senator. I shared my encounter with him and subsequent learning what the word "smarmy" meant. And then my co-worker shared with me that Orrin Hatch had a CD out. I didn't believe him so I googled it and sure enough he has a Christmas Eve CD. You would think that I would have surely known about Christmas Music, but I did not. A further google search revealed a website titled The Music History of Orrin Hatch. When we pulled this page up were we immediately saw a picture of the senator with Barry Manilow. Who knew that Orrin was such a pop music fan. It doesn't change my opinion of him. I still think he is s smarmy jerk.


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The same co-worker as listed above and I decided that our new favorite 4-letter swear word is WAWF. It's a government acronym which represents another horrible ugly government website that is impossible to navigate. UGH! Our tax dollars at work.

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It has finally stopped raining but not much of the region is flooded. I have one co-worker who could not get home last night because the once small town she lives in is now an island. I wonder if that will increase their property value? I teased her about it this morning and she remains in good spirits despite the circumstances. The danger is not over yet. Many of the rivers continue to creep above flood stage and hundreds remain in shelters.

The good news is that it appears like we will have a couple of dry days.

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I was saddened to hear that Britney Spears and Kevin Federline were getting a divorce. Boy I really thought that was a marriage that would last.

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I think that enough griping for one morning. Have a happy day!

Rain, rain, rain.... everywhere!

The "Pineapple Express" hit Seattle on Friday and in the last three days Seattle has had nearly 5 inches of rain. The most intense period of rain began last night and they estimate that we will get 2-6 inches of rain today. If today lives up to what the forecasts say it could go down as one of the 10 wettest days in Seattle history.

This is the most intense rain that we have had since I moved to Seattle. I watched the news and weather forecast but I learned long ago to now put too much trust in them. It has been pouring since I woke up this morning. It hasn't slowed down, it's constant and steady and I am beginning to wonder where it's all going to go. I didn't drive from Seattle to Kent this morning, I hydroplaned. I knew that puddles could form on flat roads, but did you know that they can form on slopes too. The concept of "urban flooding" is right outside my office window. There are huge puddles everywhere and the reservoir that was built on the empty lot adjacent to our building is completely full and spilling into the adjacent land.

It's going to be an interesting afternoon. Hope you are dry wherever you are!

Monday Morning Catch-Up

I have been reminded by a few of my regular readers that I have been a bit of a slacker on posting lately and they are right. I think it’s been the combination of battling a wicked head and chest cold, starting a new semester and being totally overwhelmed at work that has left me with little imagination and initiative to post anything.

It’s not because I don’t think about it. There are always several points in each and every day when I think… “I should post that!” but alas I haven’t.

So to those who have been disappointed the last 2 weeks, please accept my sincere apologies and I promise to get back in the groove starting right now…

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I had a great weekend. The weather is absolutely perfect right now. The days are warm, sometimes rainy and sometimes sunny and the nights are cool. I have broken out a few of my sweaters. The leaves are turning bright shades everywhere you look. Oh, how I love this time of year.

I took a walk around Queen Anne yesterday instead of going to the gym. I love my neighborhood. I passed several people out working in their yards and move than a few homes that were proudly displaying jack-o-lanterns and Halloween lights.

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Today is Columbus Day. Everyone I know is working today. Besides the employees of the federal government does anybody else get Columbus Day off? On second thought I guess the bankers are off today too. (

It’s kind of an odd holiday. Nobody really celebrates Columbus Day (except New Yorkers) and nearly everyone works but there is no mail delivery and you can’t make a deposit.

I think one of the DJ’s on my favorite radio station said it best this morning, “It’s not a real holiday if the meters aren’t free.”

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I saw a story on the evening news that made me sad, Tower Records is closing. The parent company has been purchased by a consolidation company and they are liquidating all of the assets of the company. They have credited iTunes and other online music services for their decreased sales.

I have frequented the Tower Records in my neighborhood numerous times over the past year. The staff is friendly and helpful and I have always found what I wanted. I am sad that they are closing but somewhat excited to shop the sale.

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I am feeling like the SDOT and anyone else who has the power to stop traffic has something against me personally. It seems that everywhere I try to go is under construction.

The last two weekends they have been diverting the traffic from the Mercer Street exit so that they can lay the tracks for the South Lake Union Trolley. I have not been hung up in the mess but have had to take longer route to avoid it.

There is a new building going up on Taylor Ave between Roy and Mercer. I have been told that the ground floor is going to be a Whole Foods and then the floors above will be condos. For the last 3 weeks they have had Taylor Ave reduced to one way and forcing all of the southbound traffic west and around the block. Going around the block is a pain because I always get hung up at the 2 stoplights. I was patient the first few times because I realized that the construction crews needed the extra space but now it’s getting really old. This morning it took me an additional 8 minutes to take the detour. I found an article complaining about the construction obstructing when turning onto Mercer so I am not the only one that is complaining.

Also getting to and from the gym has proven to be more and more of a challenge because of a cleanup project on Westlake Ave. They are cleaning up a huge spill that happened 25 years ago and will have it dug up until January of 2007.

It’s all incredibly frustrating.

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The suction cup holder for my razor decided to fail me again. I am battling it on a daily basis again. Ugh!

Colors!

It's fall on my street and the trees are alive with color!

Monday Morning Mania

All of the members of my team are out of the office today. This means that the responsibilities of the entire department fall on my shoulders. In the first 80 minutes of the day today I dealt with a customer complain, and out of box failure, four purchase orders and someone needing additional information about preventive maintenance. I finally had enough time to run and grab a cup of coffee at 9:20 a.m. and to my delight one of my co-workers had brought in a box of donuts. Forget the oatmeal, I am having a donut.

As a kid I disliked Old-Fashioned donuts. As an adult I think that they are fabulous when dipped in coffee.

I had a pretty low-key weekend as I am still fighting this horrible head and chest cold. I canceled my plans on Friday night and crawled into bed early. Saturday afternoon and evening I attended an Oktoberfest party at the home of a friend. The beer was awesome (Harvest Moon Festbier), the brats were grilled and smoked to perfection, the scenery was exquisite complete with purple mountains majesty and before I knew it 6 hours had gone by. Everyone had planned to camp out so that they didn’t have to drive but I didn’t think I was up for sleeping outdoors with my cold, so we opted to head back to Seattle. Sunday I was a complete bum and really tried to knock the cold with 2 naps sandwiched between 2 really good nights of sleep and it helped. A few more days and I think that I will be back to normal.

The other nice thing about hanging out at home this weekend was that I finally had a chance to listen and absorb some new music. On September 12th two of my favorite bands introduced new albums. I purchased both but had not really had a chance to listen to them. I had heard several of the new songs from the Carbon Leaf album (Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat) when I saw them in concert in August. The album is complete with clever lyrics and catchy tunes. I don’t love it like their previous album Indian Summer yet, but I think it has the potential. The other album is the new one from the Barenaked Ladies titled Barenaked Ladies are Me which was exactly what I expected it to be. I had heard a few of the songs on the radio and the album lives up to the hype for sure.

The other album that I am really enjoying right now is the debut album from New London Fire. I heard the song “We Don’t Bleed” on a podcast while at the gym a couple of weeks ago. I loved the song. It was like a flashback to my senior year in high school because their sound reminds me of many of the bands that I loved back then. They are touring right now.

The nice thing about being alone in the department today is that I get to listen to my music! So I am enjoying a new mix I created yesterday with songs from the above mentioned along with favorites from Snow Patrol, Death Cab for Cutie, Eastmountainsouth, John Mayer, KT Tunstall and of course, Vienna Teng.

Speaking of Vienna Teng, one of my friends attended the Madeline Peyroux concert at The Moore Theatre on Friday night. Vienna Teng opened for her and I told my friend not to miss the opening act. We spoke this morning and not surprisingly Vienna put on an amazing show and has won another fan!

I guess that is enough random manic information for this coffee break. Have a good day!

Friday Thoughts

I haven’t been in much of a “blogging mood” this week. I started presenting with symptoms of a head cold on Sunday evening and no matter how hard I fought it with Airborne and Vitamin C, when I awoke on Monday morning it had taken over. I greatly dislike being sick, in fact, I hate it. I tend to gripe a lot and wish I weren’t sick.

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Quote of the day…

"What can you say about a society that says that God is dead
and Elvis is alive?"

--Irv Kupcinet

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Remember my top dollar day from a few weeks back? Well all of those orders are shipping today (or are supposed to). The truck will be here at 3:00 p.m. and I will be really surprised if everything is ready to go.

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I got a new headband for my hair last weekend. I should have been suspicious of the extra-thick heavy-duty rubber bumpers on the ends because when I have it on my head I feel like my head is in a vice. Ouch!

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I finally got the suction cup razor holder that came with my razor to stay put on the side of my shower. For the past several weeks the suction cup holder and I have been playing a daily game. I get in the shower and stick it up on the wall only to find it lying on the shelf when I get in the shower the next day. I don’t know what I did differently but when I got in the shower this morning it was still stuck to the wall!

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Obviously this has been a slow and boring week from my lack of anything of real substance to share. I hope you have a good weekend. My plans include plenty of fluids and sleep, schoolwork, an Oktoberfest party and organizing my home office.

Monday Mutterings

I bought a box of cereal at Target on Saturday. This is only a big deal because I cannot remember the last time I purchased a box of cereal, but think that I have only purchased 1 or 2 boxes since moving to Seattle 18 months ago and it was when I knew that guests were coming.

So you may be asking, "Why don’t you buy cereal?" Well it’s a number of reasons really, here goes…

1. I remember a disgusting tid-bit from “the college class that ruined me” a.k.a. Microbiology 210 about the FDA setting a limit to the numbers of mouse parts and pieces that can be ground up in the cereal. I don’t know if it’s true or not, I have never taken the time to investigate it, but it’s disgusting to think about.


2. I would eat it far too often if it was readily accessible and in my home. I fear that I would never cook because I could just come home and “have a bowl of cereal.”


3. I often don’t know when to stop. Sometimes with the super-sweet cereals that we were not allowed to have as children I can completely over dose and then find myself suffering from a total sugar high.


4. I think that as a rule cereal is over priced.

All that said I am a HUGE oatmeal fan and eat it nearly everyday. It’s just the cold cereal that I am talking about. Anyway… On Saturday I purchased a box of Vanilla Yogurt Burst Cheerios and I loved them. Last night I goggled the “mouse parts” rumor and cannot find anything to substantiate it so I think cereal may start appearing on my grocery list again.

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I received several (3 to be exact) bug bites on my left arm on Saturday while at my brother’s house. They are still itchy today. I hate bug bites.

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I cleaned my entire bedroom and closet yesterday. I moved the furniture out of the room and vacuumed and dusted and cleaned out drawers, closets, EVERYTHING! It feels really good to have a clean and organized space, I love it. Tonight I am attacking the kitchen pantry.

The bad thing about this project was that 4 hours into it, I could no longer breathe. All the dust made my asthma act up and gave me a raging headache.

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My new boss has made plans or has already taken everyone on our team to lunch except me. Two weeks ago I noted this fact but was far too busy completing 2 really big projects that I deemed it an oversight on his part. He is back in the office this week and has still made no mention of it. If I weren’t doing such a kick ass job I would certainly think that my head was on the chopping block. It’s really bugging me, so I am going to say something to him about it.

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Engineers ask WAY too many questions.

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The weather has cooled down and bit and as far as I am concerned it’s perfect. Towards the end of the week it is going to be rainy. YEAH!

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The leaves on the trees near my house are already changing colors.

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Last.fm is pissing me off! I have the software on my computer and it’s supposed to track the songs that I listen to and report them to their website. I love the statistics and reports, but not if they are incorrect. The reports don’t include any of the songs that I listen to on my iPod, only those that play through the iTunes on my computer. I have checked the message boards and have tried the patches made by others but nothing is working. I sent an email to them last week ask for some assistance and have heard NOTHING back. Ugh!

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I said “no” to something I would have said “yes” to a few weeks ago today. I think that is proof that the doormat recovery program is working.