Stuck

Just a few miles from home and stuck sitting on the Mercer exit due to a severe accident in the tunnel and we are in the heart of it with police, fire and WSDOT on the scene.

Weekend Wrap-Up

The weather was perfect this weekend. Oh, how I love Seattle in the summer! The highlights of my weekend:

• Slept in on Friday morning. I'm really growing fond of the whole Friday's off, 3-day weekend bit.
• Worked a volunteer shift at Kirkland Uncorked on Friday afternoon. I was assigned to the *Winery Check-In* area which means that I unloaded boxes of wine, loaded them onto a hand-truck and rolled them over to the refrigerated trucks. Needless to say by the end of the day, I couldn't move my arms.
• Fought horrible traffic to get home to Seattle and when I did get home I took a shower put on my pj's and watched movies on the couch.
• Woke bright and early to do, that's right, LAUNDRY! :-)
• Attended the Mariners game at Safeco field with Don, Kat and Ian. They lost to the Cleveland Indians but we had a great time thanks to the beer, the sun, the beer, the good seats and the beer.
• Had breakfast on Sunday morning at The Original Pancake House in Kirkland with Don prior to walking down to the waterfront to enjoy the downtown festival and Kirkland Uncorked.
• Tasted some really yummy wines and soaked up more sun.
• Enjoyed the deck at McMenamins in Mill Creek.
• Took Kat to the airport for her evening flight to Europe where she will be traveling on business this week.
• Got home and realized that weekend was over. Wow, it goes by so quickly! And now it's Monday!

How was your weekend?

Weekend Wrap-Up

A bit later than usual but it's been a crazy busy Monday thus far. The weekends highlights:

• Raced out of the office Friday afternoon to beat the majority of the traffic headed northbound to join Kat for an early dinner at Outback. It worked as the commute only took a little over an hour complete with 1 work-related stop.
• Tossed and turned Friday night worried about pulling everything together for Saturday night's Fondue Party.
• Woke early Saturday morning (likely a result of the tossing and turning) to organize my grocery list for the 26,476th time and get ready to face the day.
• Had breakfast with Kat at the Queen Anne Cafe.
• Pampered ourselves (Kat & I) with a much needed pedicures.
• Purchased all of the food and gathered all of the *stuff* for the Fondue Party and with Kat's help got everything packed up with time to spare.
• Successfully pulled off the Fondue Party with the assistance of my P.E.O. sisters and a whole lot of wine. Only minor glitch was the damn chocolate fountain which if it continues to make me crazy will be thrown off the Aurora bridge it utter frustration.
• Fell into bed totally exhausted from the business of the day and tossed and turned again, this time thanks to back pain.
• Woke early again on Sunday and laid in bed and watched the movie Little Miss Sunshine.
• Picked up Kat at 9 a.m. and headed to breakfast at the Crystal Creek Cafe where we agreed after a brief discussion that pancakes should never be put on the same plate as the eggs.
• Bought a few essentials (codeword for undergarments/kitchen gadgets) at the Seattle Premium Outlets in Tulalip, WA.
• Made the mistake of going to Radio Shack to purchase an adapter for the Mini SD card in my cell phone. Ended up buying something that will not work in my phone that I have to return. Also had to endure the WORST sales pitch for switching my cell phone from Verizon to Sprint or AT&T (which he is still calling Cingular) in the history of the world. He had to look up the answers to every single technical question that I asked about the phones/plans etc. Yo dude, Rule #1 in sales - Know Your Product!
  
• Watched the first three of the Love Comes Softly movies that my TiVo had picked up on Saturday when Hallmark Channel had a marathon. I liked the movies but as sequels often go the first was my favorite and they went downhill from there, I have 3 more sitting on the TiVo and am still undecided if and when they will be watched.
• Went to bed early to get ready for the week ahead.
  

How was your weekend?

Seen on the evening commute

It takes a big man to ride a pink scooter.

Missed Opportunity

I was behind this van on the way in this morning, I contempated following it for the beer. Now that I have been at work for a while and am completely annoyed, I wish I had gone with the beer guy.

Bad morning commute

After sitting in traffic for nearly an hour I ended up right behind my favorite Cayenne who is always in the way.

Record Breaking Weather

My first 9 months in Seattle the weather was fairly mild/normal but since December of last year we have had several instances of extreme weather and have broken numerous records. And for the record, I am tired of record breaking weather.

First it was January. It rained nearly everyday and we were well on our way to breaking the *most consecutive days of rain* record but missed it when it failed to rain on day 29 and we needed 32 consecutive days for the record.

Then came July when we broke the record for the *warmest low temperature* day on July 22, 2006. The end of July was just miserable in general is was hot and muggy and all you could do was lay around and sweat.

Then came November. The beginning of the month was full of record rainfall and at the end we had snow, ice, lightening and thunder. It was crazy and when it was all over we had recorded the wettest month in 115 years (since they started keeping track) with a total of 15.63 inches.

I was really hoping for a *normal* December, but this week has been another week of extremes. We have had three storms all of which have have brought rain and wind. The worst was the storm that began mid-day yesterday. It started by dumping 2.17 inches of rain (setting a new record, the old was 1.24) and causing urban flooding and ended with a new record wind gust of 69 mph.

As a result of the storm 3 people are dead, so far. Two died when trees hit their cars and one woman actually drowned in her own basement.

Getting home last night was incredibly challenging. I-5 was flooded with excessive rain fall and was closed for a short time and then later one lane was opened. As a result of the game traffic and people choosing alternate routes Hwy 99 was a parking lot. In previous cases when I-5 and 99 are not an option I will go around the west side of Queen Anne hill but that wasn't an option has night due to a mudslide. Just prior to my arrival at home they announced that Mercer St. was closed because of 4 ft of water. I couldn't believe it and thought they were surely exaggerating on the radio until I saw it myself (pictured above, courtesy of the Seattle PI). This flooding is a mere 4 blocks from my house. I was super patient and finally after nearly 2 hours of traffic and trying different routes, I made it home. The lights flickered and everything rattled all evening long and in the end I was very lucky; I never lost power.

With daylight came the end of the storm and the race to clean-up. Over 1 million people in western Washington are without power and everyone has just begun to assess the damage. Many business and most schools are closed today. I sincerely hope that we can finish the year without setting any new records in the weather department.

Idiot of the Day

My commute took 94 minutes this morning. I first encountered fallen trees at the junction of Hwy 99 and Hwy 599 and then I sat on I-5 on South Center hill for an eternity. It turns out that at 5:30 a.m. a truck carrying an oversize load hit an overpass at the top of the hill and partially destroyed an overpass. They had the freeway narrowed down to 2 lanes. I took this picture as I was getting closer to the overpass. When I passed underneath the overpass the highway was covered with little chunks of concrete. The truck was sitting on the right hand shoulder and the state police were inspecting it and talking to the driver as I passed.

One would think that this type of accident isn't likely to happen this day in age with signage and information plastered all over bridges and overpasses, but it did. Hence the Idiot of the Day award is given to the truck driver. Ugh!

Peanuts and Monday Randomness

I met with a client at Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue this afternoon. I parked in the north parking garage and used the underground access tunnel to get into the main hospital. The tunnel is filled with shops and feels a whole lot like you are walking through a mall. Overlake is a beautiful hospital and exactly what I expected.

The drive home was an adventure. It took over 90 minutes and I crawled most of the way (see previous posts). My ankle was sore when I got home from 90 minutes of braking action.

I watched the Charlie Brown specials on ABC tonight. I love Charlie Brown. I have always loved Charlie Brown. Tonight's lineup included the classic A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and a new classic He's a Bully, Charlie Brown. I heard an interesting tidbit on KOMO 1000 while checking traffic on the way home. The voice of Charlie Brown in the new special is the voice of a local kid. It's amazing how much he sounds like Charlie Brown.

I liked the new special, although I felt like some of the characters were not portrayed in their true light. The beauty of Charlie Brown is that he screws up yet everyone learns a valuable lesson. In the new special he doesn't screw up and Lucy has a great deal of difficulty believing it.

Every year I try to catch the Halloween and Christmas Peanut's specials. It's been years since I have seen the Thanksgiving special and a whole hours of Peanuts got my brain going, here are some random thoughts and observations.

As a kid I always thought that I was *just like Lucy* and as an adult I am totally disagree. She is the oldest girl with two younger brothers but she is a bit more bossy than me (although my brothers would most likely disagree.) The official Peanuts website describes her as follows and after reading it I can only hope that I am nothing like Lucy.

Lucy Van Pelt works hard at being bossy, crabby and selfish. She is loud and yells a lot. Her smiles and motives are rarely pure. She's a know-it-all who dispenses advice whether you want it or not--and for Charlie Brown, there's a charge. She's a fussbudget, in the true sense of the word. She's a real grouch, with only one or two soft spots, and both of them may be Schroeder, who prefers Beethoven. As she sees it, hers is the only way. The absence of logic in her arguments holds a kind of shining lunacy. When it comes to compliments, Lucy only likes receiving them. If she's paying one--or even smiling--she's probably up to something devious.

Why does Marcie refer to Peppermint Patty as "Sir?"

In the Thanksgiving special when Marcie is making peace between Charlie and Patty he uses their proper names, Charles and Priscilla. Yet when Patty is referred to by her proper name in the new special they call her Patricia. What is the deal there?

Lucy didn't go to camp in the special because she much more important things to do that go to camp. Lucy loves to be the center of EVERYTHING, it just wasn't camp without her.

Would Peanuts be the same without the music?

Hope you are having a good evening!

Only took an hour

I have achieved the speed limit!

Woo hoo!

Finally going over 10 mph.

Slow drive

For over 40 minutes I have been averaging less than 5 mph. ugh!

Bad Day

The stars have aligned today to make this a really bad day.

• I got 4 hours of sleep.
• My carpool buddy was late.
• I still don't have a fuctional cell phone. (Verizon Wireless sucks!)
• My palm pilot is on my desk at the office.
• I failed a pop quiz in my lab this morning (1 out of 5 correct).
• I got caught up in the traffic trying to leave campus as everyone was trying to get to the game.
• Some of streets in my neighborhood were closed down due to a gas leak and traffic was a nightmare.

I totally understand why kids have meltdowns when they overstimulated, annoyed and tired because I feel like having one right now! AAAAHHHH!

Off to bed I go.

Highway Guard Dog

This dog barks every time a car passes. I turned right and pulled alongside this truck and didn't see the dog. So when he turned on the guard dog parking it scared the crap out of me.

Thursday Morning News

My commute home last night took 1 hour and 48 minutes. Ugh!

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It's a miracle! The delete key on my keyboard works again! :-0

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Sarah McLachlan was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night. She is promoting her new album, Wintersong. This album is like a dream come true for me! I love Sarah McLachlan and I love Christmas music. The two mixed together I am sure will send me to the moon! I am going to run out and pick it up this weekend.

Following her performance I was lying in bed and my thoughts naturally went to Christmas music. I LOVE Christmas music. I LOVE Christmas music so much that in college I created a mix tape called Merry Melodies and gave it to my friends and family for Christmas. The following year I made Crazy Christmas Cheer. Last year I recreated them on CD's and gave them as gifts.

I decided years ago that it was perfectly acceptable to begin listening to Christmas music as soon as Halloween was over. It drove my friends and family crazy and it never failed that by Christmas Day I was stick and tired of it. I hadn't given any thought to Christmas music thus far this year. Maybe I have been too busy with school and work and life, I don't know, but last night got me thinking about it and despite my excitement I have decided that I am going to hold out this year and not listen to any Christmas music (except when working on my Christmas CD mix for this year) until Thanksgiving weekend.

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The construction project on my blog is nearly finished. I reviewed my "to-do" list last night and was pleased that it was nearly complete. YEAH!

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Happy Thursday!

How come?

Everytime I go to Ballard and begin the journey home the bridge goes up. My timing sucks.

Thursday Morning Randomness

I am surprisingly upset about the demotion of Pluto’s planetary status. I realize that we know a whole lot more about planets then we did when we declared that it was a planet so many years ago and I realize that Pluto doesn't meet the criteria to be classified a planet, but can’t we just “grandfather” little old Pluto in and leave the universe alone.

I remember when I memorized the names and order of the planets; I had trouble keeping them in order so a friend taught me a sentence to aid my memory.

My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizza’s.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

How does that sentence help now? What about the textbooks, maps, posters, movies and encyclopedias used in schools all over the country? And, has anyone asked Pluto how he feels about the whole situation.

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This message is for the jack&*# driving the J and L Excavation truck on southbound I-5 this morning (cause I am pretty sure that he is an avid reader).

The left lane is for passing! It is not appropriate to enter the freeway, immediately veer across 3 lanes of traffic and then drive along below highway speed in the left lane. I don’t care if you are positioning yourself to be ready for the left hand exit to 405 because it was still 3 miles away.

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Today is a day that has been nearly 7 years in the making. We are launching our new *dishwasher* today. I will be running around like a crazy woman this morning ensuring that bows are tied, boxes are wrapped, champagne is chilled and everything is spotless. Then come 1 p.m. I will be in charge of the launch and am just hoping that everything goes perfectly. Wish me luck!

Vacation Envy!

My little brother is traveling through Europe catching as many World Cup Soccer games as he can right now. It's been a dream of his to do this for quite some time and he has made it happen! I just received the following update from him.

"Another amazing day in Deutchland. On an overnight train to Paris. Went to the Brazil vs. Croatia game in Berlin tonight. What an experience!"

I am thrilled for him but also a bit envious. I have never been to Europe but know that I will get there someday. I would probably have a much more severe case of envy if I weren't leaving on a long awaited adventure of my own in just 15 days!

Weekly Update - Monumentally Bad April Fools Morning....

Hi all!

I had a fairly normal and boring week last week and I was thinking to myself on my way home from work on Thursday night that I didn't have much to report in my weekly update, but that was before April Fools Day and now I have quite an adventure to share.

April Fools Day is a weird holiday. I rarely am able to successfully pull off a prank on anyone, but nearly every year I fall victim to a prank. This year proved to be no different because I feel victim to a prank in a early-morning phone call from my old roommate and friend Lyle. But that was after I had the worst commute since moving to Seattle.

I left for work early on Friday morning because I wanted to get in early so that I could catch some night shift folks at my hospitals. So I was headed along my normal route and was atop a "bridge-like" overpass when all of a sudden, a crashing bang scared me and steamy smoke began pouring out of the front of my car. The engine was off, but I have enough momentum that I am coasting along absolutely stunned. Of course the first thing that pops into my head is that I am going to be on every traffic report in the city as "stalled car on 99 South blocking right hand lane" which is not necessarily how I wanted to make my debut in the Seattle media! I got to the side of the road, called a tow-truck and had them take it to the dealership. I made arrangements for them to diagnose the problem and then one of the service guys gave me a ride back into downtown Seattle so that I could catch the bus to work. So my commute was quite the adventure, including 5 forms of transportation (my car, tow truck, dealer car, bus and my feet) and took nearly 3 hours. Around 1130 I got a phone call from the service manager with good news and bad news. The bad news was that he informed me that it was indeed a blown head gasket which had cracked the block and the car was, in one word.....terminal. The good news is that they were willing to give me money for it as a trade in on a new one. Well it took me about 10 seconds to figure out that I was buying a new car this weekend!

I spend 5 1/2 hours at the car dealership on Saturday and after test driving 4 different cars and asking more questions than they ever thought possible I purchased a Chrysler Sebring Sedan. You can check it out at http://www.chrysler.com/sebring_sedan/ It is silver and really fun to drive. So all in all a really bad day turned into a really good weekend. Now I don't have to deal with the headache of registering a car in Washington, because the dealer did that for me.

The remainder of my weekend was spend showing off the new car. Don and I celebrated my purchase at Rock Bottom on Saturday night and I ventured to "the other side of the pond" to Port Orchard on Sunday to share it with Kristen and Dave. I had a lot that needed to get done this weekend (like paint the bathroom) but none of it was completed because my weekend was consumed by the new car.

Hope this finds you all well!

Weekly Update - Spring in Seattle

Hello all!

It's been unseasonably warm here in Seattle, and not much rain for my first week, although we desperately need it. Spring is here! I am looking out the window at daffodils in full bloom, and the trees outside my bedroom window are alive with pink blossoms, CRAZY!

Everything is good, actually everything is VERY GOOD! My first week in Seattle was exhilarating, joyous and exhausting. Here are some of the highlights.

I love my new job! I survived my first week without ending up completely overwhelmed, which is a miracle considering that everything is new to me! I am learning a lot about the company, the products and have jumped into a project for branding the company name/image with both feet. There are only 23 employees including me, so I knew everyone by the end of the 2nd day! It's a big change from St. Mark's, but refreshing. I will continue in training mode for another week or so and then begin my regular duties.

My commute is better than I anticipated it being. It takes me about 25 - 30 minutes, but I travel at an
average speed of 50 - 60 mph. I made a few wrong turns early in the week, but by week's end it was smooth sailing.

I stayed with Dave and Kristen through Tuesday and got to experience a commute via ferry, which was fun but made for very long days. I signed my lease on Tuesday evening and the movers moved everything in on Wednesday afternoon. Once again, my couch tried to be difficult to maneuver around the turns and up the stairs, but I was not going to take it and we managed to squeeze it in! All of my furniture fits well and looks great. My friend Don helped me get the bed, dresser and couches set up on Wednesday night. I have worked hard to get the unpacking done and I am very, very close, I only have a few office boxes left and then it is all done! I promised to send pics in a
future message when everything is put away.

I spent the weekend unpacking and getting settled it. I explored a bit on Sunday and ventured out to Jiffy Lube, Home Depot, Target and the grocery store. I ended up a few places that I didn't plan on, but in the process discovered a few fun places. Last night I took a walk up to the top of Queen Anne hill just in time to see the sun set over the Puget Sound, it was beautiful!

Hope this finds you all well!