My Fifth Thursday Conjecture

Winter is for Hibernation

2012-01-21T15:28:00.000-08:00

I know there are a lot of people out there that like winter but I'm not one of them. The cold sucks. The snow makes for pretty scenery but I'd be fine seeing it in a photo. Somewhere back in prehistoric times I imagine that humans hibernated much like bears still do. But then some jerk decided that they could get a leg up on all the normal people by being active during this time of year. When the normal people awoke they found themselves months behind and had no choice but to be active, too. In that way it's all very similar to what we're seeing today with more-and-more people being compelled to work during our holidays. And that's not to mention the work related sleep deprivation many of us deal with throughout the year. You'd think that our "advances" would have been geared toward making our lives better but in many ways they're costing us more time and making us less human.

Before Boarding

Earlier this week I needed to travel to Salt Lake City for a corporate event. My flight was planned for Wednesday morning right, as luck would have it, when a big snow storm hit the Seattle area. I went to bed the night before thinking that my flight would probably be canceled. I woke up at 4:00a and found that Delta flight 2050 was still listed as "on-time". Unfortunately, the bus that I usually take to the airport was listed as experiencing weather related delays and I knew that I couldn't count on it. That meant I would have to hike up to the Kent-Des Moines Park-and-Ride to catch my alternate bus.

Aboard the Plane

So I grabbed my bags and headed out. About 6 inches of snow had fallen overnight and it was still snowing lightly. The distance from my condo to the Park-and-Ride is about 2 miles, almost all of it steeply up hill. I made it there in about 30 minutes only to find that my alternate bus was now no longer stopping there due to weather. So I started walking again, another half mile to the other side of I-5 where I could catch the "A Line" bus that serves International Blvd. That bus got me to the airport in plenty of time. I boarded the plane "on-time" at 6:30a and stayed there on the tarmac for more than 4 hours. At 11:00a they were finally able to de-ice my plane and we took off but the whole experience that led up to that had me convinced I was experiencing the last few hours of my life...

I returned home yesterday and caught my normal bus back home. It is about a mile walk from the bus stop to my front door... very flat. But even though the temperature had risen, the Seattle area was still a mess. It took me close to 45 minutes to walk that mile because footing was so bad and I had to dodge so many fallen trees. Several times I found myself falling through ice covered slushy snow, occasionally submerging my feet in freezing cold water. When I reached the entry to my neighborhood I encountered a convoy of power line trucks that were leaving the area. I thought that was a good sign... they probably just restored power to my condo. But when I reached my complex there was nothing but darkness. It was clear from the absence of cars that the power had been out for a while and most people had left long ago. I went inside and changed out of the clothes that were soaked during my walk home. Then I did what we do in the backcountry when it gets dark and cold... bundled up and went to sleep. Power was restored at 8:15a... evidence from my DVR and wireless routers suggests it had been out since very early Thursday morning.

You may be wondering why I didn't call a taxi on Wednesday... well, I don't think you'd wonder if you've ever been in the Seattle area during a snow event and saw what the roads looked like that morning. I'm sure the taxis had more than they could handle that morning and I knew my best bet for getting to the airport in time for my flight was a bus that didn't have to traverse any hills.

There used to be Greatest Hits

2012-01-06T22:49:00.000-08:00

The Best Greatest Hits Collection Ever

In years past this was the time of the year I got to reflect on noteworthy greatest hits compact discs that I picked up over the course of the year. But 2011 was almost completely devoid of greatest hits releases. R.E.M.'s "Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage" career spanning retrospective was the only thing that even piqued my interest. I opted not to buy it because I already own two of their other collections that have almost all of the same songs. I actually did get one... the Good Charlotte collection was made available about a year ago but it was publicized so little that I didn't notice it had been released until it was summer.

There was news this week that, for the first time in history, music distributed digitally via download surpassed music distributed by physical media of which the compact disc is the majority. Yep, 50.3%. I still have yet to purchase any music digitally. My digital music has always come from the CDs that I bought. Whenever I'd pick up a new greatest hits collection the first thing I would do is rip it to MP3 so that I could listen to the songs on my iPod and then I would put the CD in one of the remaining slots of my 400-disc Sony changer. Now I have to accept that my discontinued changer may never see a day where it is completely filled (I think it still has around 50 empty slots). I also have to accept that the music format—and my hobby of collecting greatest hits—will both soon be a distant memory.

I really miss the way it used to be... I guess that's probably to be expected when you reach your 40s, huh? :(

Bleak Friday

2011-11-25T14:25:00.000-08:00

I spent this Thanksgiving in my hometown, Richland, Washington. Having watched the news I was well aware that some retailers chose to open their doors on or immediately after Thanksgiving Day. The Black Friday sales typically draw huge crowds in big cities but my sister and I were curious what kind of crowd would form at the Target in Richland, a city where until just recently the traffic signals switched over to flashing yellow at precisely 9 PM.

What we found was kind of shocking and sad, but not altogether surprising. We arrived about 10 minutes before midnight and there was a line of people that stretched the length of Target's large parking log. I estimate there were at least 500 people standing out in the cold and wind. Some, I'm sure, were there for curiosity or simply to be able to say they participated in a Black Friday store opening. But many were there to unwittingly affirm how badly consumerism has eroded the quality of our lives. Americans are now so easily manipulated that people have completely lost sight of what should actually matter.

We watched as the doors opened and people sprinted through, presumably to grab one of the limited "doorbuster" specials that didn't seem overly special to me. The parking lot at the Walmart across the street was also packed having opened at 10 PM on Thanksgiving. Elsewhere someone unleashed pepper spray on other shoppers to score a cheap Xbox and another person was shot by someone trying to rob them of their Black Friday purchases in the parking lot.

It's all a very disappointing commentary on the era in which we live. I'm convinced that it will never be as good as it was and few people will ever see the significance of what they've lost. We had a handful of days each year where the only thing there was to do was be with family and friends... and learn to appreciate what actually matters.

Baseball Never Forgets

2011-11-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

I never met Greg Halman. I'm not sure he ever played in a ball game that I saw in person. But he played for my Seattle Mariners. I rooted for him. I wanted him to succeed. I remember watching him on television, noting that he had a lot of tattoos. I also remember that he started off this season on fire and thinking that he looked the most promising of the M's young outfielders. Very sad what happened to him. Glad that he got to realize the dream of playing in the major leagues, though.

Halman is the first Mariner player to pass while an active member of the team. Fortunately most of the Mariners alumni are still with us. I remember many of those who are not and, like Halman, I remember rooting for them and wanting each of them to succeed. How many do you remember?

Greg Halman, OF 2010-11 (44 games), d. 11/21/2011 (age 24), homicide
John Marzano, C 1996-98 (130 games), d. 4/19/2008 (age 45), fall related
Russ Swan, P 1990-93 (152 games), d. 4/26/2006 (age 42), fall related
Rod Scurry, P 1988 (39 games), d. 11/5/1992 (age 36), drug related
Ivan Calderon, OF 1984-85 (115 games), d. 12/27/2003 (age 41), homicide
Al Cowens, OF 1982-86 (545 games), d. 3/11/2002 (age 50), heart failure
Todd Cruz, IF 1982-83 (201 games), d. 9/2/2008 (age 52), drowning
Dave Roberts, P 1980 (37 games), d. 1/9/2009 (age 64), cancer
Rick Anderson, P 1980 (5 games), d. 10/5/1989 (age 35), heart failure
Joe Decker, P 1979 (9 games), d. 3/2/2003 (age 55), fall related
Wayne Twitchell, P 1979 (4 games), d. 9/16/2010 (age 62), cancer
Larry Cox, C 1977, 79-80 (240 games), d. 2/17/1990 (age 42), heart failure
Joe Lis, IF 1977 (9 games), d. 10/17/2010 (age 62), cancer

Although the above list is a bit morbid curiosity it shows that, even when it comes to death, baseball keeps records better than anyone. Baseball never forgets... and neither will I.

Cleveland Rocks!

2011-11-02T17:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much to blog about so I thought I would post something about a bit of sightseeing I did in Cleveland. I heard mostly negative things about Cleveland but I didn't think it was all that bad of a place. I worked some late nights during the weekdays while I was there. The baseball regular season had ended so there wasn't an opportunity to see the Indians at Progressive Field—I did see it from the freeway so it joins Coors Field and Kaufmann Stadium as ballparks I've seen first hand from the outside.

Arguably the most well known attraction in Cleveland is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum so I'd planned to go there before my visit. Some of the locals told me it was a waste of money and that you "really have to like music". Well, I really like music so I didn't let those opinions dissuade me and went anyway. I spent around three hours touring the museum. I think it has 6 levels. The basement level traced the history of rock with displays representing each of the most influential periods via a timeline... Memphis, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, and the one I lived through... Seattle. There were also big exhibits for Elvis, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. On one of the mid levels there was a theater that looped year-by-year videos for all of the Hall of Fame inductees. There was a ramp up from there with a glass wall that had all of the inductee's signatures followed by showcases for this year's inductees. At the top was a special exhibit called "Women Who Rock" which was really cool. Every female musician I could think of was represented with a display case that typically contained a dress or other outfit that they had worn on an album cover or music video. Shakira's outfit from her Wherever, Whenever video was there :) As was the meat dress that Lady Gaga wore to the 2010 MTV Music Awards. It was all kind of an emotional experience because so many of the featured artists are no longer with us but they still speak to you in their songs.

After I had finished with the R&RHoF, I went to the Cleveland Museum of Art. One of the people I had been working with in Cleveland recommended it over the R&RHoF. Turns out it is a great museum, too. I spent another three hours there (until the museum closed) and saw artworks from virtually every era of mankind. I saw paintings from Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh, Renior... you name it. But they also had Egyptian artifacts... Greek artifacts... armor from Medieval Europe... and an exhibit for a Chinese artist named Fu Baoshi whom I'd never heard of but it was interesting nonetheless.

Baltimora

2011-09-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

I was working in Maryland for most of this week and got a chance to check out the ballpark that established the "retro" trend for every ballpark that has been built in the past 20 years, including Safeco Field. My visit to Orioles Park at Camden Yards was excellent. Hurricane Irene had battered the area just days before but you'd never have known it. The temperature for the entire game was perfect and the often oppressive east coast humidity was nowhere to be found.

Having watched games on television, I always thought the giant warehouse that is the signature of this park was across the street but it is actually the boundary to the center-right field concourse which is very cool. On that concourse (Eutaw Street) is where I located the marker commemorating the titanic home run that Ken Griffey Jr. hit during the 1993 All-Star Home Run Derby. It was a little hard to find because there is now an awning over the doorway beside it. It appears as though every home run that reaches the concourse gets a similar marker, but Junior's is the only one on the wall of the warehouse (he has one on the ground from the beginning of the 1994 season, too).

Across the concourse from Junior's marker is where I found Boog's Barbecue and Boog Powell himself actually signing autographs—I didn't see a need to get one for myself. I did, however, buy one of his barbecue sandwiches which was really tasty but nothing I couldn't live without (remember, I'm no foodie). I walked the perimeter of the stadium and chose to climb stairs to the upper deck rather than ride the longest escalators I've ever seen. Below the press box hung the number 46 in remembrance of Oriole pitching great Mike Flanagan who had passed less than a week earlier.

The ticket I bought for the game was in the first row of center field and there ended up only being about ten thousand people in attendance. Everyone else missed a pretty good game. There were early home runs from Brett Lawrie of the Blue Jays and Matt Wieters of the Orioles. The Orioles blew a one run lead in the top of the 9th and allowed the Blue Jays to score the go ahead run in the top of the 10th. But they came back and won it in the bottom of the 10th on a walk off single from Ryan Adams. The final score was 6-5 and with that, Oriole Park at Camden Yards was officially my 12th away ballpark.

Maui Jim Rocks

2011-08-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

Four and a half years ago I was in Maui compliments of T-Mobile and the PEAK Achievement award I had won in 2006. It was quite a celebration but by far the best swag I took home from there was a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses. They were unusual in that they were hinge-less but I liked that because I could wear them on the bill of my Mariners cap without having any worry that they would fall off my head. I knew these weren't cheap sunglasses so I took special care to avoid wearing them if there was any danger of them being lost or damaged... I have a cheaper pair for those occasions :)

A couple weeks ago I went to put on my Maui Jim's just as I had several hundred of times before and... SNAP?! The glasses fell to the floor while both temples remained in my hands :( They must have simultaneously reached their design life for flexing fatigue cycles. I was bummed. I really liked those sunglasses and they reminded me of good times. Maybe I can get them fixed, I thought...

So I checked the Maui Jim's web site. It looks like they no longer make sunglasses with the flex temples... not a good sign. But I used their web form to tell my story to their customer support. Within an hour or so I had a reply that said I could send my broken glasses to their location in Peoria, Illinois and that they would repair them for a $10 processing charge, assuming they still have the parts in stock. There is hope!

I carefully wrapped the lenses of my broken sunglasses in a microfiber cloth and put them in the case along with the no longer attached temples. Then I took them to the downtown post office nearest my house. They had a small Priority Mail box that was almost the perfect size, just a little too flat for the case, but I crammed it in and the package seemed to stay shut with the self-adhesive tape it came with. The postman stuck an extra piece of tape on the seam which made me feel better... the last thing I wanted was Maui Jim to receive an empty box and have my broken sunglasses find their way into the trash a post office somewhere. I didn't figure there was any sense in insuring the package since the glasses were broken and essentially garbage if I couldn't get them repaired. So that cost me $5.70 with the delivery tracking I added.

Yesterday I received a package from Maui Jim. I opened it to find my sunglasses, good as new, with flexible temples attached to both lenses :) All told it only took two weeks and less than $16 to get them repaired. Pretty impressive. I'm grateful to Maui Jim for repairing them even though they were clearly out-of-warranty. They come with a limited 2-year warranty and they'll be 5 years old next February. Hopefully they make another four years, but even if they only make it half that I won't have any reservations forking out the money for a brand new pair of Maui Jim's.

Definition of Old

2011-07-24T22:02:00.000-07:00

When I was in college I told my mom that you are officially *old* when there are no longer any Major League Baseball players younger than you are. Carlton Fisk and Nolan Ryan were 45 and 46, respectively, when they retired in 1993. But it was 46-year-old Charlie Hough whose retirement in 1994 finally signaled the end of my mom's youth.

After watching 44-year-old Tim Wakefield hand the Mariners their club record 15th straight loss this afternoon it dawned on me that I'm probably getting very close to *old* now myself. I was actually a bit surprised to find out how close... according to a posting I found on the MLB Trade Rumors site, as of May, there were only 11 active players who are older than me: Miguel Batista, Craig Counsell, Jason Giambi, Darren Oliver, Arthur Rhodes, Mariano Rivera, Takashi Saito, Matt Stairs, Jim Thome, Omar Vizquel, and the aforementioned Tim Wakefield. Batista has since been released so I'm down to my final 10... and, judging by their stats, Counsell and Stairs will probably be the next to fall...

The Great HOT North

2011-07-22T16:57:00.000-07:00

I got to take a last minute trip to Ontario this week. I flew into Buffalo and got there with just enough time to get across the border and do a drive-by of Niagra Falls before sunset. The falls are a very impressive sight but the town is an over-the-top tourist trap that reminded me of everything I loathe about Las Vegas. One thing that surprised me was the direction of the falls—the high side is to the south. I guess I naturally thought it would flow from north-to-south not south-to-north, but it makes sense because the Great Lakes eventually outlet to the Atlantic Ocean.

I spent a few days working in a city about 90 minutes from Toronto. It was hot but temperatures in Canada are reported in Celsius so I wasn't exactly sure how hot until I did the math. I also heard the term "humidex" for the first time while I was there. Apparently that is how hot it feels with the humidity; sort of the heat analog to "wind chill". It reached a record 35°C (95°F) with a humidex of 47°C (114°F) the day I flew home...

On Wednesday night I drove into Toronto to see the Mariners play the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre (formerly Skydome). The roof was closed during batting practice due to the heat but it opened before the game and that was a nice bonus to get to see. The Mariners came into this game riding a 10 game losing streak so I was hoping to be their good luck charm... not so much. Jason Vargas was wild and the Blue Jays had a 4 run lead by the second inning. That, combined with our horrible offense, meant the game was pretty much over before it began. I had a seat out in the first row of left field so I was in a prime spot to hear fans heckle Mike Carp in the outfield. The best part about that was almost every heckle ended with "eh, Carp?"... gotta love Canada :) Final score was 11-6, the M's lost their 11th straight, and I visited my 11th away ballpark.

What's in a Birthday?

2011-07-04T13:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I joined the ranks of those who are 40 year old and, just like my grandma said, I don't feel any different than I did the day before. My mom, my sister, and a few of my closest friends treated me to a surprise celebration on Saturday night at The Ram (which was also "born" 40 years ago). And on Sunday, my mom treated my sister, my brother, and I to fine dining at Palisade in Seattle... I had king salmon, yum :) And afterward I got a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone from Baskin Robbins :)

July 3rd. What's in a birthday? I've known for a while that my exact birthday happens to be the very day that The Doors lead singer Jim Morrison was found dead in Paris... "3 Julliet 1971" according to his death certificate. Just today I discovered that Julian Assange, the eccentric founder of Wikileaks, was born on the very same day as I. The Find-A-Grave website lets you search for famous deceased people who were born or died on a particular day... looks like my birthday is more noteworthy for deaths. The New York Times and Wikipedia have events listed for every day of the calendar year, too... Tom Cruise and I were born on the same day but he's 49 as of yesterday. The most historically significant (and tragic) event that I remember happening on my birthday was the USS Vincennes shooting down a commercial plane from Iran. July 3, 1863 was the end of the Battle of Gettysburg according to the The History Channel.

Without a doubt, the very coolest thing about my birthday is that it is the same as my great grandfather's. Yesterday would have been his 109th birthday if he were still alive. I think he was 72 in the picture below.

My Final "30 Something" Fifth Thursday

2011-06-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Today is indeed the last Fifth Thursday before I leave my 30s behind. The day is half over and I can't point to any noteworthy events. I think I'm going to walk to the store after work and buy some lottery tickets since the foundation of this blog is a theory that this is my lucky day (or my unlucky day but let's be positive). I'm going to spend exactly $5 and buy one Powerball, one Mega Millions, one Lotto, one Hit 5, and one Match 4. I'm sure the person who rings me up will think I've got a screw loose but my odds of winning are actually better that way. I go from no chance at winning anything to a long shot at five different games. Contrast that to spending all $5 on one game... those five chance are effectively the same long shot as one chance but I only get to play once. This is why I only ever spend $1 on lottery tickets when I buy them... going from zero chance to some chance is the only time your odds increase significantly.

UPDATE 6/30 @8PM
So I found that the Match 4 tickets actually cost $2. I could have said I didn't want it and gotten a Daily Game ticket instead but since the the ticket was already printed I decided not to risk giving up a ticket that could already be a winner. I figured having 5 tickets was the most important part to stay true to my lucky number. Then, on my walk back, I found exactly 5 pennies laying in the street... hopefully 5 lucky pennies, but we shall see.

UPDATE 7/1 @8AM
Match 4 numbers... my ticket: 02-05-11-19... drawn: 14-15-18-23...
Result: not winning :(

UPDATE 7/2 @10AM
Mega Millions numbers... my ticket: 06-07-20-35-48 13... drawn: 12-17-30-35-47 26...
Result: matched one number but that's still not winning :(

UPDATE 7/3 @11AM
Hit 5 numbers... my ticket: 05-08-12-18-39... drawn: 01-14-27-30-31...
Lotto numbers... my ticket: 05-14-20-27-41-48 and 11-18-34-36-40-42... drawn: 07-10-24-26-41-44...
Powerball numbers... my ticket: 15-19-25-44-55 17... drawn: 01-11-18-29-51 32...
Result: seriously not winning :(

The Perfect Woman

2011-06-22T23:15:00.000-07:00

It seems that every few months Shakira releases a new video and I am reminded why she is the perfect woman. She can sing, she can dance, she's smart, she's a humanitarian, and she's naturally beautiful. I don't understand half of what she's singing but that's not important. I think "rabiosa" means "rabid" and "bite me en la boca" translates to "bite me in the mouth"... need I say more? I'm even digging the new short dark hair :)

So Shakira's greatest hits is officially my most wanted and it would have a track listing something like this:

Turkey, Bacon, other stuff and some Avocado (paste)

2011-06-08T23:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted anything to the old blog so I decided I would write about my dinner tonight. A few days ago I saw an article in the USA Today which was soon followed by a television blitz all about Subway offering their Turkey & Bacon Avocado sandwich again. I actually was going to try one of them several months ago but found they weren't on the menu by the time I got around to it. So now that they're most definitely on the menu I walked to the Subway near my house and ordered a footlong—total cost just under $10 with tax.

What I quickly learned was that avocados must be as valuable as gold because rather than put a couple of healthy slices on my sandwich, the Sandwich Artist spread a very thin layer of avocado paste on one half of my sandwich. I'm not kidding when I say that there ended up being more of every other item I requested on the sandwich than there was avocado.

The sandwich was pretty good but definitely not worth $10. I think the last time I was at Costco they were selling bags of 6 avocados for a few dollars less than what I paid for my entire sandwich... perhaps someone needs to clue-in Subway that they can either be a lot more generous with the 'cado or they can stop charging so damn much for it.

Hotlanta

2011-04-24T21:45:00.000-07:00

One of my first stops on this new adventure turned out to be Atlanta. It was my first ever trip to the state of Georgia, although I got very close on the Miami road trip. I must say it was nice going from the 50 degree temperatures of Seattle to the 80 degree temperatures there. Of course, it wasn't all perfect... a couple of weather "events" moved through Atlanta while I was there. One was bad enough that there was a tornado watch for most of the evening. The worst only lasted about 30 minutes where I was but the sky turned very dark, the winds swirled, there was thunder and lightning, then heavy rain and hail, all of which combined to knock out the power at my hotel for about an hour (it took down the hotel's Internet access for most of the week). Most of the time it was really nice and warm, though.

The bad storm was fortuitous for one reason. It caused the Braves game that was scheduled for that Friday to be postponed until Saturday and I had already purchased tickets for the Saturday game which, of course, meant my first ever doubleheader! Turner Field is very nice, like most of the new era ballparks, but unlike the others they have a Hall of Fame museum that is truly worthy given their unparalleled success over the past two decades. In there I got to see the 1995 World Series trophy that should have belonged to the Mariners ;)

The games were pretty good but about half of the fans left after the first game. The Braves won both, the first on four solo home runs (two by Alex Gonzales) and the second was a 2-hit shutout. The Mets looked pretty sorry, having sort of the opposite problem that the Mariners have—decent offense, poor pitching.

Before the games I visited a few of the tourist attractions downtown. The World of Coca-Cola is basically a museum of the history of Coke. It was pretty cool although I had seen the mobile version in Vancouver at the 2010 Winter Olympics. The strangest part was at the end where you go through an area with soda fountains dispensing 64 different flavors of Coke from all around the world. There were kids running around everywhere, obviously on a sugar high, and about every three minutes one of them would vomit all of the stuff they had been drinking... my black Reeboks had a near miss before I got the heck out of there. I also went to the Georgia Aquarium which was nearby. If you've seen one aquarium, you've kind of seen them all but they had a few exhibits I thought were pretty cool—a glass tunnel under one tank allowed you to see huge whale sharks swim overhead, the best seahorse exhibit I think I've ever seen, a crazy looking thing called a Weedy Sea Dragon that I'd never heard of before, and the Giant Japanese Spider Crabs were impressive, too. After the aquarium I walked over to Centennial Olympic Park which was featured at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

The Next Chapter

2011-03-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I decided that it was time for me to leave T-Mobile. I had worked there for 6 years and 4 months. I didn't leave because I wanted to make more money somewhere else, and I didn't leave because I was in a bad situation. I left because I simply needed to let go of the job specific knowledge that I had accumulated over all those years. Now that I am a former T-Mobile employee, I can confirm that the relief I feel is as great as I had imagined. Of course the timing of my departure may have also been fortuitous for another reason... just before I started my final work week AT&T announced they are acquiring T-Mobile—the announcement came on the 2,300th day I had worked for T-Mobile and that's another 5 for any numerologists keeping score ;) Did anyone notice that today is a Fifth Thursday?

On Monday I will be starting at Venafi as a Professional Services Technical Consultant. Venafi is responsible for the high quality Encryption Director product that enterprises use to centrally manage encryption keys and security certificates. I personally had worked with them as a customer for the past five years and had long considered Venafi a company for which I would have liked to work. I never gave it much thought, though, because they are headquartered in the Salt Lake City area and I have no desire to relocate. Then a few months ago I noticed a few job postings listing "Continental USA" as their location (because they involve a lot of travel) and I realized that I am unlike a lot of people in that there is almost nothing preventing me from traveling all the time. I think that, plus my familiarity with Encryption Director, helped me to get the job.

So I should get to see a lot of places I've never seen before and that is pretty exciting. Along the way I might be able to cross a half dozen or more ballparks off my list this year, too. I'm also looking forward to seeing how other companies do business and the challenges that come along with implementing and integrating enterprise security solutions. It's a new adventure that should be full of new adventures...

I put together the above map to show which of the United States that I have been to. Green states are those in which I have spent more than 7 nights. Blue states are those in which I have spent more than 1 night but less than 7. Purple states are those in which I have spent 1 night or less. And gray states are those in which I have never set foot. Contrast that with my map from the year 2000... I wonder what it will look like in 2020?

I was able to visit all those other states over the last decade primarily because friends and family moved away :( Marathon road trips to Miami in 2003 and Chicago in 2009 added several states in a very short time.

11 Years and 41,191 Miles Later

2011-03-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

Eleven years ago this weekend I was a proud graduate of the Washington State Motorcycle Safety Program. I spent a Friday evening and most of the adjacent weekend at Shoreline Community College learning how to ride a motorcycle. I took the course for a couple reasons. I wanted to see if someone with questionable coordination like myself could do it. And I was interested in improving my commute and saving money on gasoline. I ended up buying a brand new motorcycle a few weeks after passing the course and rode it nearly incident free for the past 11 years.

Today I posted my motorcycle for sale on Craigslist at a bargain price, more than $200 below the "Trade-In" Blue Book value:

2000 Suzuki SV650 Motorcycle (blue) - $1,200

Original owner giving up motorcycle riding for awhile. Well maintained, stock sportbike used mostly for commuting has just over 41K miles. Running well but due for oil change and tune-up. New battery last October. Minor damage from low speed drop; safely traveled 9K miles since then. Great first bike. Current Blue Book value is $1,435 to $2,150.

Includes innovative "Luggage Locker" bag which zips on passenger seat, Battery Tender Jr. trickle charger, and Kryptonite sprocket lock.

Cash only, no trades please.

Within three hours, a half dozen interested people had contacted me. I decided it was only fair to take them in the order which they contacted me. The first person, an older, retired gentleman, met me at a nearby Kmart parking lot which I thought was a good place because it is very public and the parking lot provides ample room to go for a test ride. I told him everything good and bad about the bike, checked his drivers license and then let him ride it around after which he agreed to buy it for my asking price.

Nearly all of the 41,191 miles my SV650 traveled were with me in the saddle. It was a very good motorcycle and I'm glad that I followed through with having one. But changes are well underway for me now and they make having it both impractical and unnecessary. I'll also be turning 40 this July and had long considered that milestone would be the end of my motorcycle riding days for awhile. No question that my family are relieved that I no longer have it, too... but I won't guarantee there won't be a second motorcycle era later in my life ;)

Greatest Hits of 2010

2010-12-29T18:40:00.000-08:00

It's time to recap the top Greatest Hits compilations released in 2010. And, yes, I'm still buying CDs...

Steve Winwood—Revolutions: The Very Best of Steve Winwood

I've waited years for this CD and it did not disappoint. Steve released a weak greatest hits collection called Chronicles at the end of the 80s and a 4-disc boxed set called the Finer Things in the mid 90s. Chronicles includes a total of 10 songs but only 5 of them were ones I wanted. Finer Things included too many songs I didn't care about and was too expensive. Finally we get Revolutions which includes all of his major hits. My Fave... "While You See A Chance"... Take It :)

Dixie Chicks—The Essential Dixie Chicks

I've always liked the Dixie Chicks, even when I was still anti-country music, but never bought one of their albums. The Essential is actually more than essential, it is a career complete collection of all of their best songs including hits: "Not Ready To Make Nice", "Long Time Gone", "Ready To Run", "Cowboy Take Me Away", "Goodbye Earl", and "Wide Open Spaces". My Fave... "Easy Silence"

Bon Jovi—Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Collection

Back in the 90s, Bon Jovi released a very good single disc collection called Cross Road. So I wasn't immediately sold on a new collection. But Bon Jovi have had several more hits since Cross Road, this collection is two discs, and the only song being sacrificed was "In And Out Of Love" from their not so successful second album. This collection adds "It's My Life", "Have A Nice Day", "We Weren't Born To Follow", and "Who Says You Can't Go Home". My Fave... "Livin' On A Prayer" (a classic)

P!nk—Greatest Hits... So Far!!!

P!nk has been a machine when it comes to turning out hits so it didn't come as much of a surprise when this collection was announced. This is one of the rare times when literally every song on the disc is a bonafide hit (excluding the second of the two new songs which won't be a hit because even its title includes a starred out F-bomb): "Get The Party Started", "Don't Let Me Get Me", and "So What". My Fave... "Please Don't Leave Me"

Nelly Furtado—The Best of Nelly Furtado

This is another artist I've liked but not enough to buy any of their albums. Some might consider it a reach for Nelly Furtado to put out a greatest hits collection but she did choose to call it a best-of so let's give her a break. This collection includes: "I'm Like A Bird", "Turn Off The Light", "Promiscuous", and "Maneater". My Fave... "Say It Right"

I didn't really pass on any notable Greatest Hits collections this year. There really just weren't many and that trend will likely continue as CDs are phased out in favor of single song digital music downloads. I'm still hopeful that AC/DC (they came close with the Iron Man 2 Soundtrack), Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Nickelback, Coldplay, Shakira, and John Mayer will release CD collections in the near future... perhaps 2011 will be the year?

Seattle's Best

2010-11-13T17:09:00.000-08:00

This past Wednesday Seattle Mariner fans like me lost the one constant we had through all the years, Dave Niehaus. Though I never had the honor of meeting him, I feel as though I've lost a very dear friend. Perhaps that's because countless hours of my life were spent listening to Dave tell stories. Until about the mid 90's being able to watch the Mariners on television was a pretty rare thing. Fans listened games on the radio and actually got to use our imaginations to visualize what was described by gifted storytellers, none better than our own Dave Niehaus.

When the Mariners announced there would be an open house today at Safeco Field for fans to gather to remember Dave, I considered going but wasn't sure. I've never been a particularly religious or spiritual person but I decided that if there is a heaven and people like Dave are able to look down on the world they've left behind, I wanted him to see that I appreciated him taking me out to the ballgame so many times. The Mariners did a nice job putting something together with very short notice. They played some of Dave's most famous calls interspersed with music from my favorite movie, The Natural. Behind home plate they displayed his Hall of Fame plaque and scorecard from the very first Mariners game. In the broadcast booth they hung a home jersey that read "Niehaus 77". Rick Rizzs and Dave's children were there to greet people after they moved passed the home plate display. And at the end of it all there was a table with rye bread, mustard, and salami dedicated to "our friend Dave Niehaus".

Life and baseball will go on, but we'll never have it as good... rest in peace, Mr. Niehaus.

Stormy Sunday

2010-09-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to go to a Seattle Storm game for a few years now. I tried repeatedly to get my brother to agree to go with me but he stood firmly behind his male chauvinism with regard to sports and refused. So when the Storm reached the WNBA Finals again this year I decided to go it alone. At today's game the majority of the fans were indeed women and children but I was far from the only male in the crowd. In fact, NBA legend Bill Russell sat courtside next to Fred Brown. Lenny Wilkens was there, too, along with current NBA players Nate Robinson, Jeff Green, and Jamal Crawford.

The game itself was great but a bit over-officiated in my opinion. The refs basically decided that Swin Cash wouldn't have an impact in this game and that's the thing I've always disliked about basketball—let the players decide who wins! I've heard people say that if you want to see good fundamental basketball you should watch women play because the men's game is overly physical and often a dunkfest. I tend to agree. There were a lot of misplays in this game but there were also a lot of really impressive jump shots and defensive plays. The Storm ended up winning 79-77 on a Sue Bird jumper with less than three seconds remaining. 2010 WNBA MVP Lauren Jackson led the scoring with 26 points.

Maybe after all these years I finally saw a championship team in Seattle. We'll know in a few more days...

The 40,000 Mile Club

2010-09-01T22:58:00.000-07:00

It's a little hard to tell from the picture but my Suzuki SV650 and I crossed the 40,000 mile threshold this morning. I reached the milestone passing through Bothell on northbound I-405 only a short distance from the exit where I had my only real motorcycle accident early last year. Almost all of those miles are from commuting although I have taken it to Sequim (twice), Leavenworth, and Richland. Based on those experiences I wouldn't say it's the kind of bike you ride for long distances but it's perfect for 30 or so miles to-and-from work.

The bike is still running well but it is definitely showing its age (I guess you could say the same for me ;). The tires are starting to crack so they need to be replaced. I think the brake pads are probably due, too. There's also the overheating problem I've had for a couple years. The fan never comes on so either there's something wrong with it or the thermostat has gone bad—I've done surprisingly well to avoid traffic jams in hot weather that would put me in jeopardy of overheating, though. I haven't had it serviced this year so it is also overdue for an oil change and tune-up. Hopefully I've got 6-8 weeks of riding left in 2010 and then I'll figure out what to do.

Chelan Sawtooths

2010-08-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

If I had the choice to be one living thing I think I would choose to be a Larch tree perched on a granite ledge overlooking a beautiful alpine lake. On the ledge I'd never have contact with people and it would take a direct lightning strike to set me a blaze. Sure I'd have to deal with frigid winters, sometimes strong winds, the heat of summer days, and my foundation slowly eroding away, but I can't think of a more peaceful and majestic life... can you?

Last week my dad and I completed our annual backpacking trip together. We ventured into the Chelan Sawtooths to an area that neither I nor my dad had been to before. We spent an entire day at each of our primary destinations, Bernice and Cub Lakes, which was a needed rest having carried 50+ pounds in our packs. There is a decent trail to Bernice Lake but it is unmapped and not maintained by the Forest Service... unfortunately the trail is about two continuous miles of steep ascent :( When we left Bernice our route took us down the Prince Creek trail and eventually up another very steep ascent into Cub Lake. The fishing activity was good in both lakes but my dad was disappointed in the size (not the 17"+ monsters he's seeking). Cub Lake was probably overpopulated because it had smaller skinner trout which meant we had to fish longer to have a proper dinner.

We covered 35 miles in five days of full-pack hiking and had good weather except for our final day which we spent at Upper Eagle Lake—it got really windy making for a colder and mostly sleepless night. Fortunately, the six and a half miles back to the trailhead were all downhill.

This was another good hiking adventure although I'm still not sold on the week long duration because it means carrying about 10 pounds more in food, fuel, and clothing. One very nice thing was not having to spend so much time in the car getting there. I met my dad in Pateros where I left my car all week. After all of the "fun" I've had with my car this year, I had a few nightmares about what could be happening to it but they didn't keep me up all night because I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I was relieved to find a bird poop the only thing that happened to it while I was away.

Thirty Nine Candles

2010-07-12T00:58:00.000-07:00

This year my birthday celebration spanned two major cities and lasted an entire week. Here are some of the things that made it memorable, one for every year I've been alive:

In line with Jack Sikma—I was going to tell him my grandpa always through he "dogged it" but didn't because he's a big dude ;)
Robots, the first priority after a nap
Bison Burgers
Tilted Kilt
Racquetballs and Swimming Pools
Bocce Ball with 1, 2, 3 Margaritas
Engagement News and a Mexican Wedding across the street
Fish Fry
Monsters Inc. and Ice Cream Birthday Cake :)
Miniature Golf in the Sun
Seymour, Kim, and Aaron
Marching to the Bolingbrook Golf Club
10 Minutes of Soaking in the Rain
30 Minutes of Spectacular Fireworks
Miller Time!
Italian Sausage Wins but Brewers Lose :(
Hidden Oaks and Hidden Lakes
Morton Arboretum Picnic
Cribbage Lessons—I will be able to compete next time ;)
All Smiles at Swimming Lessons
Sweltering Heat
The Liberty Bell
Unknown Soldiers who died to give me Freedom
Franklin Court and Grave
Independence Hall
Duck Boat Tragedy
2nd Row Phanatics but Phillies Lose :(
Sesame Place
Another Birthday Cake :)
Grandma and Grandpa Fong
Rocky Steps
Torrential Downpour
Man vs. Food
Betsy Ross' House and Grave
Mütter Museum
Cheesesteak "Witout"
The Master of Parallel Parking
Franklin Mint Chocolate Chip
Flying with Raul Ibanez—I told him I'm a big fan and shook his hand before we boarded the plane :)

Many thanks go out to my wonderful friends Jason and Shana for taking such good care of me in Chicago, and to my wonderful sister Kristin and her boyfriend Marshall for doing the same for me in Philadelphia. There were also two very sweet little girls, Chelsea and Penelope, who made this birthday extra special by reminding me of the joy, wonder, and silliness of being a child.

Now it's back to reality...

Not My Day... Again

2010-06-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

There are days when you wish you never got out of bed. Some so bad that you wish you were never around to live through them in the first place. But what's really bad is when those forgettable days start happening so frequently that you start to wonder if there is such a thing as a "good day".

Today started out like most others but I had arranged for a plumber to come out inspect my master bathroom. Since the hot water lines were replaced last summer I had noticed a slow decline in the hot water pressure but only in my master bathroom—guest bathroom, washing machine, kitchen sink, etc. all had good pressure. It had finally gotten to the point where only a trickle of water would come out if I turned on both faucets and the shower at the same time. Based on the evidence I suspected a blockage and the plumber who was dispatched eventually reached the same conclusion. He offered to try to clear the blockage by blowing out the line with compressed CO₂ and that sounded like a good plan to me. We went down to my garage where he proceeded to disconnect the outflow from the hot water heater and connect my garden hose to it. I unrolled the garden hose out my garage, alongside my car, as far as it would reach. We then went back upstairs and he connected the compressed gas cylinder to one of the hot water lines below my sink. He opened the valve and immediately there were disconcerting noises within the walls. That's when I got concerned. If there was enough pressure coming out of that cylinder to make the pipes inside the walls sound like that, what was it going to do to my hose?

My worst fears were realized when I made it out to my driveway. The compressed gas had caused the hose to whip violently and the only thing it hit was the side of my just turned one year old Corolla. The metal end of the hose struck at least five times leaving golf ball sized dents near the front wheel and driver's side door. After impacting, the end of the hose wandered back-and-forth all along the side panels leaving long scratches in its wake.

I have hot water in my master bathroom again but my poor car paid a horrible price for it (a nearby body shop estimated $1,200 to repair the damage). In hindsight I now think I made a big mistake buying a new car. I really like this car but my Tacoma was to the point where damage like this would have been merely unfortunate. What happened today made me wonder why I ever bother getting out of bed in the morning...

Yes, I'm still here, Blogosphere

2010-06-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging much this year. Unfortunately that's as much a testament to my life becoming devoid of interesting things as it is to being busy (with work). After too many farewells it looks like I may finally have a friend moving back to the Seattle area soon, though. Very much looking forward to that...

I mentioned two years ago in a post that Greatest Hits releases have become really scarce these days. In that post I noted a few that I hoped were forthcoming. Since then, the Foo Fighters and George Harrison (posthumously) delivered the quality compilations that I requested. The Dixie Chicks recently delivered one, too, though it isn't quite as complete as I had hoped. I've still got my fingers crossed that AC/DC and Metallica give in and release retrospectives. And as long as CDs don't completely disappear I think the odds are good we'll see ones from Nickelback, John Mayer, Coldplay, and P!nk in the not too distant future. I just picked up the much anticipated Steve Winwood offering yesterday. Revolutions: The Very Best of Steve Winwood is an excellent career encompassing collection that's missing only one minor hit song I wanted, One and Only Man. Here's the track listing:

Gimme Some Lovin'

I'm A Man
Forty Thousand Headmen
No Face, No Name, No Number
Dear Mr. Fantasy
Low Spark Of The High-Heeled Boys
Glad
Can't Find My Way Home
While You See A Chance
Valerie
Spanish Dancer 2010
The Finer Things
Higher Love
Back In The High Life
Roll With It
Dirty City
Don't You Know What The Night Can Do?

Mr. Treat Goes to Washington

2010-04-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago my grandparents offered me the opportunity to visit Paris, France, as a gift for graduating high school. I respectfully declined because I felt (and still feel) there are plenty of places within the United States that I would be more interested in visiting—our Nation's Capital being at the top of my list. Needless to say my proposed alternate destination was dismissed and I wound up spending that very difficult summer working in Tacoma instead :(

This week I finally made it to Washington, DC. The primary motivation for my trip was to attend an oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court. The High Court has fascinated me ever since learning about it in high school and recent documentaries by PBS and C-SPAN only piqued my interest in the institution that gets the last word. Then there are the nine justices who are equally as fascinating—brilliant people with colorful characters and the ultimate in job security. Of course, any time I visit a city that has a major league baseball team I also have to be able to see a game in their home stadium. It turns out there is only one week each year when the Supreme Court has oral arguments and the Washington Nationals are playing at home, so that made the decision of when to go very easy.

I left Seattle on a red-eye flight to Chicago last Saturday night. United Airlines altered my original itinerary, changing what was to be a one hour layover into a three-and-a-half hour layover. The change was fortuitous for me though because it meant I got to see the Zimmerman family who woke up super early Sunday morning just to bring me breakfast and chat outside the ticket counter at O'Hare.

I decided my first stop when I got to DC would be the Supreme Court because I wanted to attend Monday's oral arguments and needed to gauge when I needed to get in line. A group of ten law students from Pennsylvania were already in line and they warned me that a "large" group was expected to show up around 6:30 PM. That immediately concerned me, knowing from the research that I had done that only the first 50 or so are guaranteed to get into the arguments. I still had hours before that group was supposed to arrive so I stuck to my plan and spent the next several hours walking around to see all of the monuments and memorials on the National Mall... Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, George Mason Memorial, FDR Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and WWII Memorial. From there I walked to the hostel where I was registered and checked in. I decided that, because going to the Supreme Court oral arguments was my primary reason for being in DC, I had to do whatever was necessary to guarantee I would get in. I took a quick shower and donned the business casual attire I had packed specifically for the court visit. Then I picked up a sandwich at a nearby Subway and hopped in a taxi which dropped me off at One First Street NE.

Only two people had joined the line by the time I returned at around 6 PM. John and Jordan, law students from American University, were particularly good to me considering I was really only equipped to spend a few hours on the sidewalk, not an entire night. They loaned me several spare blankets and a Thermarest mattress which actually made it possible for me to get some sleep during that long, cool, and breezy night. At around 1:30 AM, sprinklers came on and soaked the first part of the line but, fortunately, I was spared. At around 6 AM a policeman informed everyone that the sidewalks needed to be clear of everything before they would march us up the steps. So everyone packed up and jammed their belongings into cars that were given only one minute to park in front of the Court. Unfortunately this is where Jordan erred and nearly lost his opportunity to get into the Court. At around 7:30 AM we were marched up the steps of the Court and given numbered red placeholder cards. At 9 AM the doors of the Court opened and I finally made it inside the building.

There were two very interesting cases on Monday, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (a First Amendment case involving a college that denied recognition of a student organization that excluded members based on sexual orientation) and City of Ontario v. Quon (a Fourth Amendment case involving a person whose employer disclosed sexually explicit personal text messages transmitted to/from their city issued pager). My worst fears were nearly realized before the CLS argument when I was given an obstructed view seat. I could only see two thirds of the justices; the others were blocked by a large marble column. Thankfully many of the attendees left after CLS and I was able to move closer for Quon. It was truly an amazing experience to be there. Justice Thomas remained silent but the other justices were every bit as entertaining as I expected and these were real life cases so I had no trouble following either argument.

After the Supreme Court, I visited the National Archives since it was on the way back to the hostel. There I saw what remains of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. One thing I noticed about those historic documents is that they would be very hard to read even if the ink weren't faded because of the script they used. After browsing through some very interesting exhibits, I returned to the hostel where I got myself cleaned up and took a brief nap before taking the Metro to Nationals Park.

Nationals Park is very new, very big, and very empty. Fortunately it was a nice evening and I got to see a good game from my seat down the right field line. The Nationals won 5-2 behind the solid pitching of Craig Stammen, a 3-run home run from Willie Harris, and an overall shoddy performance by the Colorado Rockies. Nationals Park is my eighth ballpark on the way to 30 and the home team remains undefeated when I'm in attendance.

I woke up Tuesday relieved that I had already successfully completed my two primary objectives. There was no time to rest, however. Several months ago I requested tours of the White House, U.S. Capitol, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing from my congressional representative, Adam Smith. His aide was able to schedule all three for this day, starting with the White House. The White House tour wasn't really a tour so much as a walk through (they referred to it as a "self guided tour" you enter through the East Wing). The White House itself looked like any other well maintained 100+ year old house I'd ever seen. It was cool to know that I was occupying the same space that dozens of presidents had. It was also neat to see where the President addresses the nation from inside the White House... down the red carpet in the Cross Hall leading to the doorway of the East Room.

Unlike the White House, the U.S. Capitol building tour was guided. It began with an introductory movie called "Out of Many, One" (E Pluribus Unum) after which we were lead to the Crypt, the floor directly below the Rotunda and what was at one time intended to be the entrance to George Washington's tomb. From there we were taken up to the Rotunda where we could see the mural painted on the ceiling, and another mural painted around the perimeter. And finally we were taken to National Statuary Hall, the historic home of the House of Representatives. Apparently every state gets to have two statues in the Capitol building; Washington's are Mother Joseph and Marcus Whitman. When the tour was over I went to the House Gallery. This is where the First Lady and other dignitaries sit when the State of the Union speeches are delivered to the rest of country. The House Chamber is no where near as large as it looks on TV. After waiting there about 30 minutes, the House returned from a five day recess and I was able to recite the Pledge of Allegiance along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Then I moved over to the Senate Gallery where I heard impassioned speeches from Lamar Alexander (regarding our need to re-embrace nuclear power) and Christopher Dodd (cautioning Republicans against filibustering the Wall Street reforms he has been championing).

My day of tours concluded at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This was also a guided tour but I didn't find it all that interesting, probably because I'd previously seen shows on PBS or the Discovery Channel on how money is made. I did rather enjoy seeing the workers deal with a paper jam in one of the machines during my tour, though ;)

I dedicated my last day in DC to the museums which worked out perfectly because this turned out to be the rainy day. I managed to visit the Smithsonian museums of Air and Space, American Indian, Natural History, and American History in the time span they were open (10 AM to 5:30 PM). Really too much to absorb. It was cool to see the actual Wright Flyer and Spirit of St. Louis, the Hope Diamond, the American flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, dresses worn by most of the first ladies, and the top hat President Lincoln wore that infamous night he went to Ford's Theater.

I didn't see everything but I am satisfied nonetheless. I skipped the art museums out of necessity but I did visit Union Station, the Library of Congress, and the Holocaust Memorial Museum between my tours on Tuesday. I didn't make it to the Kennedy Center, Arlington National Cemetery, or the Pentagon because those were really all too far from the National Mall and I did my best to walk almost everywhere.

All-in-all I had a great solo adventure. I accomplished both of my primary objectives, I didn't get mugged (like Kal Penn), and I didn't really spend much money. The hostel was nothing to brag about but it gave me exactly what I had hoped, a safe and convenient place to sleep and take a shower.

STOP 0x0000003B: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

2010-01-29T21:08:00.000-08:00

For a Windows System Administrator there's nothing that can ruin your day more than a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Worse still is a server that goes into a BSOD loop and neither Safe Mode nor the Last Known Good Profile get it to boot into the operating system. I worked on such a server earlier this week. As part of my troubleshooting efforts I googled for clues as to what exactly the SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION error was supposed to be telling me. I never did find the exact solution to my problem, but the error pretty clearly referred to a device driver. A round of Windows security patches had just been installed and that turned out to be at the heart of the problem. This particular server had a defective hardware driver that caused it to periodically crash and one of those crashes occurred while Windows was in the midst of configuring the updates that had just been installed. The poor timing of the crash rendered Windows unbootable with the BSOD loop.

Here are the steps that I used to recover this Windows Server 2008 Enterprise SP2 x64 server:

Boot from a Server 2008 DVD or a "Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset" (DaRT) 6.0 CD
Allow Startup Repair to run even though failure is expected
Select "View advanced options for system recovery" and open the Command Prompt
Change directory to C:\WINDOWS\WINSXS
Rename pending.xml to pending.bad, then eject the media and reboot (a BSOD may occur if the server is SAN attached due to the defect described in KB961891 so power-cycle if necessary)
Attempt to boot Windows normally but don't be surprised to see the STOP 0x3B again (this step is needed to trigger another Startup Repair)
Boot from the Server 2008 DVD or the DaRT 6.0 CD again
Startup Repair should work this time so let it run until it finishes, then eject the media and reboot
Server should now boot into Windows but any attempt to install a Windows update will fail
Log on and run regedit
Export the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\COMPONENTS key and save the file to a temporary folder (in the unlikely event you need to rollback the next step)
Delete the AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving and PendingXmlIdentifier values from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\COMPONENTS key (see KB946414)
Reboot one more time to validate the issue has been resolved and Windows is happy :)

Greatest Hits of 2009

2009-12-26T14:39:00.000-08:00

It's the time of year when most of the media does their lists of the best or worst things that happened this year. One that you're not likely to see reported anywhere else is the top Greatest Hits compilations released in 2009. In the age of digital media, CDs are now passe but there were still a number of quality Greatest Hits releases this year including a couple that I specifically wished for in a previous post.

Annie Lennox—The Annie Lennox Collection

The lead singer for the Eurythmics released her first solo album in 1992 that included the hits "Why", "Walking on Broken Glass", and "Little Bird". She really only had one other hit after that, "No More I Love You's", but those are all good songs and the other material on the CD isn't bad. My Fave... "Walking on Broken Glass"

Fall Out Boy—Believers Never Die: Greatest Hits

If you want to set my brother off on a tirade, just mention this CD to him. I'm sure he'll argue that you can't have a Greatest Hits if you don't have any hits but the only valid point he may have is that they haven't been around long enough to justify it. There are some really good songs on this disc: "Sugar, We're Going Down", "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race", and "America's Suitehearts". My Fave... "I'm Like a Lawyer with the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off (Me & You)"

Foo Fighters—Greatest Hits

This was one of the compilations that I pointed out was long over due a couple years ago. About the only complaint you can have about this disc is that it has two versions of "Everlong" (studio and acoustic) but doesn't include "I'll Stick Around". My Fave... "Everlong" ...studio version, of course ;)

George Harrison—Let It Roll

This is the other Greatest Hits that I wished for on this blog. It is a career encompassing collection that is simply perfect. "My Sweet Lord" and "Got My Mind Set On You" are both here as are good live versions of the Beatles hits he wrote, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun", and "Something". My Fave... "Any Road" ... if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there ;)

Janet Jackson—Number Ones

I owned her Design of a Decade CD but this two disc collection included everything from Design plus a bunch of good songs released in the subsequent decade. It also includes harder to find duets "Diamonds" (with Herb Alpert), "The Best Things in Life are Free" (with Luther Vandross), and "Scream" (with brother Michael). My Fave... "Again"

The Wallflowers—Collected 1996-2005

Another artist that really only had one hit album but it was a monster featuring "One Headlight", "6th Avenue Heartache", "Three Marlenas", and "The Difference". They had one more hit with "Sleepwalker" which makes this compilation just a tad better than the original album. My Fave... "One Headlight"

The Who—Greatest Hits

The Who have probably released more Greatest Hits compilations than any other artist. I had their My Generation: The Very Best of The Who CD but this one caught my eye because it has "Behind Blue Eyes", "Love, Reign O'er Me", and "Eminence Front". So basically I traded "Join Together" for those three which is a trade that even Jack Zduriencik would be proud of. My Fave... "Eminence Front"

Anyone who followed the Pause & Play CD Front would have noted that Madonna and Britney Spears both released new Greatest Hits collections this year. I already own three Madonna collections and although her Celebration would condense it down to two, I didn't find it compelling enough considering the songs I'd be giving up. Same goes for Britney; her The Singles Collection isn't significantly different than her Greatest Hits: My Prerogative which I already own. It has several of her newer hits but I think I like her older (pre-meltdown) stuff better.

In Zduriencik We Trust

2009-12-18T14:57:00.000-08:00

If you consider yourself a Mariners fan and you aren't excited right now, I've got bad news for you... you're not a Mariners fan! This has been a crazy week in Marinerland but I can't help but be giddy with optimism for the first time in years. Here's why:

Ken Griffey Jr. was re-signed. A lot of die hard M's fans didn't like this move but I think it's great. Griffey had a mediocre season last year but he didn't hurt the team and he gave everyone something special to see when they watched a game. He will always be the most important player in the team's history and he should finish his Hall of Fame career in Seattle... hopefully with a World Series :)
Chone Figgins was signed and the only thing I don't like about him is the way he pronounces his name ;) It's going to be very hard for opposing teams to keep both he and Ichiro off base and from running wild when they get there.
Cliff Lee was acquired from the Phillies for three minor league prospects. Lee is easily the best pitcher the Mariners have ever landed (either by trade or free agency). He's probably only going to be in Seattle for one season but that's fine. He and Felix give us the starting pitching we need to not only contend but go deep into the playoffs... right now! Plus players generally step it up the year before they become free agents and the M's will most likely get two first round draft picks as compensation for his departure.
Milton Bradley was acquired from the Cubs for Carlos Silva. The only negative to this trade is that Bradley could lose his cool and ruin the team's chemistry. But it could also payoff big if he keeps his cool because we need his offense. Silva had no place on the team so just getting rid of him for someone who could benefit us is huge.

You've got to give a ton of credit to Jack Zduriencik. I didn't think it would be possible to turn the team around this fast but I really think he has. Not only that, he's managed to do it without mortgaging the future, either by decimating the farm system (Woody Woodward, Pat Gillick) or by locking us into questionable multiyear contracts (Bill Bavasi).

Designated Hitter ✔... Third Baseman ✔... #2 Starting Pitcher ✔ ... Left Fielder ✔... The only thing left on my Christmas list is a Russell Branyan re-signing... Go M's!

Cinco Años

2009-12-01T23:18:00.000-08:00

5 years ago today I went to work for T-Mobile USA. A perfect opportunity that came to me by way of a Mexican wedding... or, more accurately, a wedding in Mexico. I happened to cross paths with the friend responsible for me being at T-Mobile on my way into the office this morning. It was nice to see him but kind of a strange coincidence considering he no longer works there...

Seems like someone should have a lot to show for 5 years with a company but I can only think of a few really significant or otherwise memorable things. I was featured on my department's "Big Six" poster back in 2006 and later that year I won the PEAK Achievement Award. I was part of the sandbagging crew that tried to prevent one of the data centers from being flooded back in 2007. And just a few months ago I was one of the first people ever to be promoted to the position of Windows System Administrator 5. I think I've done some good things for T-Mobile. I've solved a lot of little problems and a few big ones. And I'm pretty proud of the handful of internal web applications I've developed... my teammates sometimes refer to them as "Treatware" :)

Not sure whether I'll make it another 5 years, but I would have said the same thing if you asked me that 5 years ago. You never know...

Howard Hanson... Damn!

2009-11-15T18:37:00.000-08:00

For the past nine months the media has been talking a lot about the Howard Hanson Dam. There's really only one reason you care about a dam... because you live downstream from it and it isn't being all that it can be. This dam was built in the early 1960's and since then it has mostly prevented the Green River from flooding. No flooding translated into lots of new development for the cities of Auburn, Kent, and Tukwila. My condo sits only a few hundred feet from the levee that has kept the Green River at bay for each of the nine years I've lived here.

Last year's record rainfall event (15 inches in 12 hours) pushed the reservoir behind the dam to an extreme that apparently weakened the earthen abutment which ties into the actual concrete structure. Dye testing revealed that the dam was leaking prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to place restrictions on the amount of water the dam would be allowed to hold back. In the fall, they pumped massive amounts of grout into the abutment to stabilize it but initially set the odds of flooding in the valley at 1-in-3. The repair work and forecasts of an El Niño prompted them to slightly lower the odds to 1-in-4. Those odds scared the cities along the river into taking action, installing miles of "super sack" sandbags along the winding river; effectively closing the Green River Trail indefinitely. After that work was nearly finished the Corps concluded that their "grout curtain" solution was effective enough to lower the odds of a flood to 1-in-25, where it stands today.

Here is a sampling of the Seattle Times coverage of this story. Only Mother Nature knows if there will be more for them to report...

I live in a second floor condo so I'm not concerned about property loss. Most of what I have in the garage is on a loft that is six feet above ground. I didn't buy flood insurance (but my HOA did and that covers the building). My main concern is that I may be without a place to live for a few days—maybe even weeks—this winter. Hopefully it turns out to be a big non-event. Either way, you can monitor both the Howard Hanson Dam and the Green River online while you keep your fingers crossed for me :)

Torching Victoria?

2009-11-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

Longtime followers of this blog may have noted that October 29, 2009 was a fifth Thursday. So it is my duty to report what I was up to on that day (albeit a week late)...

The final week of October 2009 was also my fifth of six semi-forced vacation weeks. I've spent parts of those previous vacation weeks in Illinois, eastern Washington, central Idaho, and New Mexico, so I needed to continue the trend of getting out of town, which I did by traveling to Victoria, BC where I already had lodging courtesy of my mom and her Administrative Professional's conference. Victoria was the first and only place I'd visited outside of the United States for almost 30 years. My grandma took my sister, Kristin, and I there a few times while we were in Port Angeles visiting during our summer vacations from school. During those trips we took in all of the kid friendly tourist attractions including the Royal London Wax Museum, Miniature World, Pacific Undersea Gardens, and the Royal BC Museum. We also made sure to stop at Rogers' Chocolates to pick up treat to take home to my grandpa.

This time around I didn't have to go all the way to Port Angeles to get to Victoria; there is a passenger only ferry, aptly named the Victoria Clipper, that makes one round trip from Seattle each day this time of year. I didn't find there was much to see from the ferry but it was clean, comfortable, and only took 2 hours and 45 minutes one way. My mom was waiting for me when I arrived in Victoria and from there we set out to explore the downtown and window shop. We were surprised to find that the city's Chinatown (second oldest to San Francisco) only spans about one city block. I got up very early to catch the ferry and it was especially cold that day so after we had dinner at The Noodle Box we decided to go back to the Empress and watch the World Series.

Thursday morning my mom had her conference so I slept in. I left the Empress in the late morning and went for a nice long walk. Kristin arrived via seaplane in the early evening and I met her at the dock. By then my mom's conference had finished for the day so the three of us walked to Sen Zushi where we enjoyed a nice sushi dinner and the company of our close family trio.

It turned out that the last day I was in Victoria coincided with the arrival of the Olympic torch for the Vancouver 2010 winter games. Kristin and I watched the torch arrival ceremony from the grass in front of the Parliament building. There were brief speeches by a dozen or so people including the British Columbia Premier and the Canadian Prime Minister (both of whom were heckled). We stood in the crowd beside the Premier's opponent and a long jumper from Canada's 2004 Paralympic team. After the ceremony concluded and the 106-day torch relay began, Kristin insisted that we revisit Miniature World which I unenthusiastically agreed to. As expected, it wasn't as neat as I had remembered from my childhood visits but I appreciated the Canadian history lesson that I had previously overlooked and the work of whomever assembled each of the tiny scenes.

My mom had an afternoon break from her conference so we had a late lunch at Nautical Nellie's before I had to catch my ferry back to Seattle. The trip back was a bit rougher than the one coming up and I had to go through US Customs twice (once in Victoria and again in Seattle) but overall I have no complaints about the Clipper.

Mom, thanks again for sharing your Victoria adventure with your "twins" ;)

Santa Fe Style

2009-10-03T14:11:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. Seems like I've been stretched pretty thin lately but this has been a good week—my fourth full week of use-it-or-lose-it vacation (two more to go before the end of 2009).

Rather than stay home and do nothing I asked my friend Tammi whether she'd be interested in having a visitor for a few days. She was and so I spent the first half of this week with her down in New Mexico. It was my first ever visit to the Land of Enchantment. On my first full day, Tammi gave me a tour of historic Santa Fe that included an adobe building purported to be the oldest house in America, the San Miguel Mission (oldest church in America) and the St. Francis Cathedral, probably the jewel of Santa Fe. Then in the afternoon we attended the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk (Tammi is a NM board member) and just before darkness fell we took a hike around the Borrego/Bear Wallow loop trail with her dog, Gaia.

The next day we traveled from Santa Fe to Taos so that we could go for another scenic day hike. We hiked from the Ski Valley parking lot to Lake Williams putting us directly below Wheeler Peak, which I later learned is the highest point in New Mexico. We ate lunch by an ice covered waterfall before hiking back to the car. On the drive back we stopped to check out the view from the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge... the roadway is a full 400 feet higher than that of the Golden Gate Bridge! A nice lady snapped a picture of us from the bridge with my cell phone camera.

Tammi had to work the rest of the time so I got to entertain myself during my remaining days in New Mexico. That included walks around Santa Fe with Gaia and some handyman jobs around the house that she's trying to sell. I got a couple of yummy home cooked meals in return so no complaints here. On my last day in New Mexico we traveled back to Albuquerque in the morning and Tammi lent me her car since my flight didn't leave until the evening. I spent a couple hours at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History and the rest of my time at Sandia Peak. Unfortunately the tram was "on standby" that day due to high winds. It eventually started running but I opted not to chance getting stuck at the top and missing my flight. Instead I put on my hiking boots and did a few hours of hiking alone on the trails up there...

Back to the Crags

2009-09-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

I went back to Idaho last week for on another week long backpacking trip around the Bighorn Crags. I opted not to take my camera this time... every ounce really does count when you're carrying more than 50 pounds. This year's group included my dad, his friend Don, plus Don's friends Mike and Barbara. They also brought their ten-and-a-half year old golden retriever, Draba, who I must commend for being one of the most well behaved dogs I've ever met.
This year my dad decided to hire the Bighorn Outfitters to carry our packs into Reflection Lake on the backs of their mules. Met we had to go 12 miles the first day but that was a cakewalk with only a daypack to weigh me down. We made camp at Reflection Lake for three nights, making day trips to the nearby Buck, Doe, Fawn, Twin Cove, Echo, and Turquoise Lakes. Overall the fishing wasn't as good for me this year—I only caught two fish that were big enough to keep but I estimate I caught-and-released more than 40 over the course of the week. Don and Mike were able to land some impressive trout in the 18 inch range using their fly rods. They caught a couple of fish that size in Buck Lake that had deformed and/or stunted tails, likely the result of Whirling disease. I could only fish for 2-3 hours each day before getting burned out; the others were generally at it twice that long.

On the fourth day we packed up and backtracked two miles to camp near Skyhigh Lake which we fished the next morning. On the fifth day we hiked back over the ridge to Welcome Lake and the sixth day we spent at Cathedral Lake. We made camp on the ridge overlooking Cathedral Lake this year which cut in half the steep ascent we had to do the final morning.

The weather wasn't as nice as last year but it wasn't as bad either... it was pleasant. No subfreezing nights or scorching hot days. I'm not sure about going back again. That drive is a killer. I ended up spending close to 20 hours in the car last weekend, about 4 hours of which was due to the 20 mile back up on I-90 caused by an RV fire :(

Feeling Kinda Old

2009-08-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

I've had a lot of reminders about how old I am recently. One being my 20 year high school reunion which took place a few weeks ago (at a funeral home, no less). It really is strange for me to think that I've lived 38 years because I never imagined being this old. My parents almost had two teenagers by the time they each turned 38 (actually, my mom did).

My coping mechanism for most of my life has involved working hard so that when I got to a milestone I could check out knowing I did my best. Of course, I graduated from high school, turned 18 and didn't check out... I graduated from college, turned 23 and didn't check out... 30 came and went, too. I kind of thought the motorcycle would have done me in by now but I came closer on a bicycle, a few days after turning 36.Right now I've got my sights set on making it to five years with T-Mobile (only a few months away). That will probably come and go, too. I sometimes wonder if it isn't unfinished business that keeps us here. And when you've finally done everything you were meant to do...

When I was in Wenatchee (on my roundabout trip back to the reunion), I stopped by the first home I ever had. My grandpa's slides included a photo of the house right after it was built in 1973. I snapped a quick picture from the road for comparison, 36 years later.

It could always be worse... I could have been incarcerated for the past 18 years like the guy in the Tragically Hip song about this dubious age.

Perfecto

2009-07-27T14:27:00.001-07:00

About six years ago my cousin Jayson moved to Boise. He, along with my friend Jason, and I made up a group we referred to as the "Thirds"—each one of us being just as important as the other two. We used to get together at least once a month for a guys night out but that's not exactly practical when you live hundreds of miles apart. So we started a tradition of getting together during the summer for a long weekend of good times. For four years we met in Boise to float down the cold Boise River in the sweltering summer heat and enjoy the downtown nightlife. It was the fourth year that I suffered that horrible bicycle injury and for whatever reason we didn't do anything the following summer. Now that Jason has moved to Chicago it became all the more important to reunite the Thirds this summer.

I flew a redeye from Seattle to Chicago last Tuesday. Jason picked me up at the airport and we went to breakfast. I was pretty worn out but we did manage to do some active things in the park near their house. We got a stunt kite flying for the first time and invented our own game of frisbee golf.

The next morning Jason, Shana, Chelsea (my one year old girlfriend), and I travelled to the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower. We had to wait in line for about an hour but then we were at the top after a one minute elevator ride. The perfect view of Chicago was only obscured by a few hazy clouds but it was pretty spectacular. The newly opened glass balconies didn't end up being all that scary to me... it was neat to look straight down. We were joined at the top by the Papa John who was apparently doing some kind of promotional appearance for his pizza chain. He looked pretty bad without his television makeup, prompting Jason to term "Papa John" as the epitome of ugliness—a recurring reference for our weekend. Jayson got to Chicago in the early evening. He had gone through several of his Southwest drink vouchers on the way. We stopped by the house for a shot of tequila and an unexpected pellet gun shot from a neighbor. In response, Jayson delivered the mortally wounded stray rabbit to the vigilante's back porch. Then it was off to the bar so Jason and I could catch up. We eventually ended up at Tailgaters where they were serving $1 Bud Lights. Our cab ride home from there would cost about $30 more than it should have when Jayson mistakenly gave the driver a $50 bill thinking it was a $20... oops :(

We were all pretty hung over Thursday morning but we got up as planned and drove to US Cellular Field to see the White Sox play the Rays. We had our tickets from the rained out April game and I was ready to throw a fit when they didn't let us exchange them... but they let us exchange them without any fuss. We got seats out in left field. Josh Fields grand slam in the second inning landed five rows directly in front of us. Then about the fifth inning Jayson and I started wondering if the Rays had any hits. The only scoreboard that showed hits was directly behind us but sure enough, no hits. The game continued to the ninth. We couldn't remember if anyone had reached base but the way the batting order lined up made us wonder if Mark Buerhle was flirting with perfection. A spectacular over the wall catch by Dewayne Wise followed by a strike out and a routine ground out sealed the perfect game. We had just witnessed baseball history and in doing so joined a very special fraternity of people who have been present for a major league perfect game. Still basking in the euphoria of what we had just seen, it was time to go to Lou Malnati's for some authentic Chicago style pizza. I thought it was pretty good but I'm not much of a food connoisseur so take my assessment for what it's worth.

We got up even earlier on Friday and headed to Wrigleyville. We weren't able to land Cubs tickets earlier so our plan was to buy tickets from a scalper. Almost immediately after Shana dropped us off we passed a young guy offering good tickets for face value. That should have been our first clue something wasn't right. The tickets looked legit but not having ever seen a Cubs ticket left me at a disadvantage. At $75, the tickets were also under the $80 threshold we had set for ourselves. We gave the guy $225 and he gave us the "tickets". Within a couple minutes he was gone which was another bad sign. We had a ticket broker across the street look at the "tickets" and he told us they were counterfeit. Then the Wrigley Field box office confirmed our fears but told us we could wait in line for standing room only tickets that sell for $15. So that's what we did and in the end we made out okay. Our standing room spot ended up being against the back wall on the lower concourse just to the left of home plate. The cheapest tickets the broker was selling were $130 each and they were in the upper deck near the left field foul pole. We checked and found the seat numbers on the fake tickets didn't even exist. But we got to see a good game that featured 5 home runs, including one from Reds starter Aaron Harang; the Cubbies won 8-5. After the game we started bar hopping. We went to Harry Caray's but it was more of a dance club than the sports bar I expected. Then we went to the Houndstooth and it was there I met Elizabeth, my perfect girl because, like me, she one day hopes to see games in all 30 major league stadiums. We moved on to the Dark Horse for some dinner and I eventually reunited with Elizabeth. Later we took a combination of train and taxi back to the suburbs. Our cab driver told us he is the last white cab driver in Chicago... Jayson dubbed him "Lawrence Dangerfield" because he cracked jokes similar to his more famous "brother" Rodney.

Our last full day in Chicago was pretty mellow. We played around in the park a bit. Jason barbecued yummy steaks for dinner. Then we went back to Tailgaters looking for the laminated "Katrina" and hoping to play some "Bags"—a bean bag tossing game that judging by what we saw is the official pastime of Chicago. Unfortunately, Tailgaters does live music on Saturdays so we had to settle for video Bags. From there we went to the movie theater and watched The Hangover which I thought was funny but overhyped by all the people who told me about it. After the movie we went to White Castle to pick up a few sliders. We only went because I'd never eaten White Castle and now that I have I'm pretty sure I can live the rest of my life without eating it again.

Jayson and I flew home on Sunday. I opted to take a bit of an adventure and volunteer when they asked for people to give up their seats on my original overbooked flight. I almost made it on the next direct flight to Seattle but they gave the one standby seat to the second guy on the list (I was first) because my boarding pass wouldn't print. It ended up taking me 7 hours longer to get home but I wasn't in any hurry since I'm on PTO through the end of July. Southwest credited me the cost of my ticket ($182) plus $200 in the form of a voucher. So that basically paid for my entire trip travelwise.

Despite a few bumps in the road I think this was a pretty perfect guys weekend for the Thirds. I'm pretty sure that Jason and Jayson would agree.

To Friendship

2009-07-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

My friend Allen was in the area this week to manage a variety of job related projects. I was happy that he managed to take time out of his busy schedule to get together and catch up on the year plus since we'd last seen each other. He didn't come alone, though. He came bearing a gift that he'd read about on this very blog... a bottle of Cabo Wabo Anejo! We toasted to friendship and did a shot before going out to get some dinner at my favorite local eatery, Pizzeria Fondi. Kind of amazing that I've known Allen for almost 20 years now. He was one of the first people I met at the UW, an engineering classmate, fellow music aficionado, and genuinely good person.

It's always nice to have visitors. My life has become so solitary and routine that I don't know what I'd do without that pleasant interruption. The Zimmerman family came back to town for a weekend in May and my friend Tammi was here in June. Allen this month and I just heard from my friend Will that he and the Harkrider family are planning to visit in August. And that's not to discount visits from my mom and my sister... I think my place qualifies as their second home but they're always welcome.

My Non-Patriotic 38th

2009-07-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

I decided to leave the country for my 38th birthday. My sister Kristin invited me up to celebrate it with her in Vancouver, BC. It was a little odd to be out of the United States on Independence Day... the only fireworks we saw were on TV.

We had planned to tackle the Grouse Grind again on the morning of my birthday, but we woke to news that it had been temporarily closed due to falling rocks. Fortunately Kristin already had an alternate plan... Mount Seymour which is the closest mountain peak to Vancouver and a popular ski area in the winter. The trail to the peak was only 4 km from the trailhead but we opted to stop at the "Second Pump" since at least half of the trail was covered in snow and I wasn't prepared (running shoes and no sunglasses). The view from the top of the was spectacular... the rest of the Pacific Mountain Ranges, the Burrard Inlet, and the City of Vancouver from high above. This was the first time I've been around snow on my birthday and probably the first time I've done any kind of hiking on July 3rd.

We returned home after our hike to get cleaned up. Kristin also broke out the Sauvignon Blanc and munchies that included the smoked salmon she was given as a gift when she became a permanent resident of Canada. After finishing off one bottle and a glass each from another it was off to Yaletown for dinner. I had asked for clam chowder for my birthday so she took me to Rodney's Oyster House. We shared a sampler platter of raw oysters (yum!). I stuck with the mild cocktail sauce but Kristin decided to try the "Back from Hell" sauce on one which she quickly learned was a mistake. We ended up spending the rest of our evening there with Kristin deciding her favorite waiter based on his appearance, age, and whether or not he had any children. She also spent a fair amount of time fending off an Australian dentist but I guess I was too drunk or preoccupied to notice. I sat beside a pretty 27 year old doula (no, I didn't know what that was) who was treating her 19 year old sister to a night out. She thanked me for being the only guy in the bar that wasn't trying to pick her up and challenged me to Name that Tune using the restaurant's soundtrack. She was good but even intoxicated, I was better. Just before we left, one of the waiters gave her a note telling her she was the most beautiful woman that had been in there all night. *Gag* He obviously hadn't considered Kristin because she was there with her older brother who would have put the smack down on him ;)

We managed to walk back home and crashed. I may have rearranged some of the furniture getting between the bathroom... got a little sick from the spins that went on when I tried to lay down. We both woke the next morning with hangovers although Kristin seemed to have it worst. Eventually we recovered enough to walk down to the nearby Jazz festival to get ourselves a greasy hamburger and listen to some music. We were still pretty slow but it was soon time to jump on the water taxi to Granville Island for our dinner cruise. The cruise was aboard a rustic ship whose main deck served as the dining hall. The upper deck was open but we found it a little too cold after the ship had been moving for a while. The food was what you would expect for feeding all 50 people on board at the same time. The cruise went out as far as Stanley Park and then back through False Creek passing by the villa that will house the athletes during the upcoming Winter Olympics.

All together this was a pretty excellent birthday and I'm very thankful that I got to share it with my "twin" sis...

You call that Plumbing?

2009-06-30T23:13:00.000-07:00

The plumbers finally made it around to my condo unit yesterday. Apparently the original builder installed the hot water pipes with clamps that have been found to chemically react with the pressurized PVC the pipes are made from. My Homeowner's Association sued LSP (the maker of the "Acousto Clamps") and won a settlement large enough to replace the effected plumbing in all 25 units.

Yesterday they cut several holes in the drywall throughout my unit; three in my garage ceiling, one near the top of my stairwell, and two more on either side of my washing machine. Not really that big of a deal. I gave them stern warnings in advance about protecting my carpet. They laid down a thin plastic carpet runner throughout most of my condo and so far I don't see anything to be concerned about.

Today I found they installed some of the new plumbing below each of my sinks and I'm not happy about it. They punched straight up through the floor and the base of the cabinets. It looks funky but what really has me upset is that I'm going to have to modify the custom made drawers in both cabinets below my bathroom sinks in order for them to avoid hitting this quick-and-dirty plumbing solution. They should have cut holes in the already exposed drywall behind the sinks and run the new lines up there. Now I'm pretty sure they're going to leave the old plumbing in place which is going to look pretty amateurish, too.
This is looking like a job that will pass inspection and qualify as "good enough" but it's total crap in my book. If I ever did want to replace any of these cabinets they've just made it a whole lot more difficult. Dammit!

Goodbye Tacoma, Hello Corolla

2009-06-05T16:10:00.001-07:00

I said goodbye to an old friend today. Yes, my 1998 Toyota Tacoma is an inanimate object but it took me a lot of places in the 12 years I had it. It was the first vehicle that was truly mine, unique in that it was purple (Mystic Purple Mica to be specific), I bought it new from Toyota of Vancouver (via broker) on July 28, 1997. It saw four states (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana) and two countries (United States and Canada). It moved countless friends and family members into their new homes. It sustained an old man backing into the side of the bed and a forklift ramming into the tailgate. It needed an exhaust manifold and a starter replaced but it never left me stuck along the side of the road somewhere. I had always wanted a four wheel drive pickup truck when I was growing up and I got a good one...

I decided a few years ago that when it was time to get another car I would get a Toyota Corolla. More practical for commuting, better gas mileage, and more garage space. In 2009, when Toyota changed the body style, I started thinking it might be time but I have a rule about buying the first model year so I waited until the 2010 model was available. I chose gray (Magnetic Gray Metallic to be specific) because I think it looks the best of the colors they offer (the blue isn't dark enough). I chose the "S" model because I like the sportier look that the side fairings and spoiler give it. I got another 5-speed manual transmission because it is at least $1,500 less and I don't feel like I'm really driving in an automatic. I also bought the car through the Costco Auto Program who set me up with Bob Bridge Toyota, and the experience was every bit as "no hassle" as they advertised.

Here's hoping for another 12 years of ticket free Toyota reliability...

It was 20 years ago today...

2009-06-03T21:42:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago today marked my first day as a high school graduate. Unfortunately, it was also the day I left home for what turned out to be a pretty difficult summer living and working in Tacoma.

My high school graduation was memorable, not because there were any great speeches or goofing off. It was memorable because Hanford High School experienced a power outage right before the commencement ceremony. Things went on pretty much as scheduled... in the dark. All of those people crammed into the gymnasium made for a very hot and uncomfortable hour plus. It really should have been held outside with the gym as the contingency plan for bad weather. Oh well. I think the best part was the letter I received from my principal, Jack Smith, a few days later apologizing for the adversity and referring to my class as "the best to ever graduate from Hanford High". Yeah, whatever dude.

So twenty years ago today, the day after my graduation, my parents drove me to Tacoma but we took a bit of a detour. Nolan Ryan was in Seattle pitching against the Mariners and being a big fan of both, I was stoked to be going. Nolan ended up one hitting the Mariners (Harold Reynolds lead off the game with what turned out to be the only hit) and I thought it was great even though the M's lost. My mom says it was the most boring game she's ever seen. After the game we walked back to where we had parked but found no car. Apparently we had parked in a fire lane on property owned by Amtrak and the car was towed away to Lander Street. So we walked a couple miles from the Kingdome to the Towmasters lot, then paid a couple hundred dollars to a guy in a booth behind bulletproof glass, and we got the car back.

Now only if we had recognized those events were a sign of things to come in Tacoma...

Xtreme Roadtrip

2009-05-03T16:28:00.000-07:00

Question: How long does it take to drive a Toyota Corolla from Seattle to Chicago at the end of April? Answer: About 30 hours.

Last weekend my friend Jason and I proved it can be done. We began the 2,100 mile journey on Friday, April 24 at 9:00 AM Pacific time and arrived at our destination on Saturday, April 25 at 5:00 PM Central time. We alternated driving at each fuel stop, driving for 4-5 hours each time...

Leg #1—Jason picked me up at home and we made a brief stop for some beef jerky at Green Valley Meats before officially hitting the highway. He drove all the way to our first fuel stop in Kellogg, Idaho; smooth sailing all the way.
Leg #2—I drove about 100 miles from Kellogg to Missoula, Montana. Unfortunately I didn't notice the speed limit dropped from 75 mph to 65 mph and got caught in a speed trap consisting of 6 to 8 Montana State Troopers. The trooper clocked me at 85 mph which still seems a little fast to me considering I was cornering at the time. He issued me a citation and ordered me to pay the $40 fine immediately with cash or travelers check (I don't know what they would have done if we had neither). Then I drove the rest of the way to our second fuel stop in Livingston, Montana.
Leg #3—Jason drove as night was falling so I tried to get some rest but I didn't get much. I woke up when the Garmin Nuvi GPS we had directed us to an exit that briefly took us off I-90 somewhere past Billings. Jason drove very fast during this leg which decreased our gas mileage. We were now also in a more remote area so we became more conservative with our fuel stops and decided to make our third fuel stop in Buffalo, Wyoming.
Leg #4—It was 11:00 PM MT when I took over driving. The outside temperature was now around 32°F according to the the car's thermometer. Every other sign along side of the highway was a warning for deer crossing, and we saw a few of them hanging out near the road during this leg. When the temperature fell to 30°F, I found the car losing traction on every overpass I hit. Needless to say I had to slow down and be careful to maintain a straight trajectory on the overpasses. By the time we reached Rapid City, South Dakota (roughly half way to Chicago) the road conditions were pretty treacherous. We had to stop (which required the ABS brakes) due to a major accident on a bridge entering the city. Not far beyond that a car had spun off of the highway after crossing another bridge. We lost a lot of time during this leg but I got us safely to our fourth fuel stop in Kadoka, South Dakota.
Leg #5—Jason took over driving at about 3:30 AM MT and faced much the same road conditions as I had until we got within about 60 miles of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The speed limit dropped from 75 mph to 65 mph as we reached the suburbs of Sioux Falls. Not wanting to repeat my Montana experience, Jason slowed to just under 70 mph. We drove by a sheriff parked in the median at that speed... and the sheriff proceeded to pull us over for what he initially claimed was speeding. After being handed Jason's drivers license and registration, the deputy asked Jason to join him back in his vehicle which was an SUV with a police dog in the back. The deputy interrogated Jason for a good 10 minutes before coming back to our car to "check the VIN" but in actuality he came to check my story against Jason's. After about five more minutes the deputy let us go on our way. Apparently he suspected we were transporting drugs because that was the basis for most of the questions he asked Jason (while the K-9 barked in his ear). Jackson, Minnesota would be our fifth fuel stop.
Leg #6—I took over driving here having now been mostly awake for 24 hours. I was tired but with daylight and a cup of coffee I was alert enough to make it through to our sixth (and final) fuel stop near Mauston, Wisconsin.
Leg #7—Jason drove the rest of the way to Chicago. He had left his other car at his office so we had to go there before going to his house in the suburb of Bolingbrook. Traffic got really heavy when we reached the Illinois border and I was glad I wasn't driving. I was even more thankful when it started to rain; and, boy, did it ever rain! It was probably the hardest rain I've ever seen and visibility got pretty bad. Then we saw a massive lightning strike directly in front of us. Jason did great driving through it but I about gave myself an ulcer in the passenger seat. Fortunately by the time we reached his office, the rain had subsided and the drive from there to his house didn't require any freeway changes.

We both only got a few hours of "sleep" while the other drove but we were surprisingly alert when it was all over. We got ourselves cleaned up and then went out for a shot of Cabo Wabo tequila and Mexican food. Then we picked up some Corona and rented a few movies which we watched on the big projection screen in the basement of the house. One of the movies was Tropic Thunder which we both thought was terrible; several people told me it was funny—what were they thinking?

Shana and Chelsea flew in on Sunday. We picked them up at the airport in the new Nissan Murano and later had some authentic Chicago deep dish pizza for dinner. On Monday, Jason and I drove into the city to go to the White Sox vs. Mariners game. It rained much of the day but stopped when we got to US Cellular Field. We had time to walk around the ballpark, enjoy a couple of beers and hot dogs, but then it started to rain again. They put the Ace Hardware tarp over the field and it never came off :( The game was postponed and unfortunately that meant I was out of luck because Jason couldn't afford to take any more time off work.

Monday Motorcycle Mishap

2009-04-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

Monday was a very warm day here in the Seattle area so I decided to ride my 2000 Suzuki SV650 to work, just as I have a couple hundred other days. I had to cut my motorcycle season a little short last year due to some fuel delivery problems that were causing it to run very poorly. I took it into Hinshaw's where they diagnosed the problem as a clogged carburetor and just under $400 later I had it back running like a champ.

The ride in Monday morning was uneventful though all of the layoffs have resulted in greatly improved traffic so the commute time advantage is not as significant as it had been. I left work that night at about 8:00 PM and stopped at the light before the on-ramp to I-405. It was dark and a Metro bus pulled up beside me in the rightmost of the two turn lanes. The light changed to a green arrow and I began my turn. As I was about half way through the intersection a light colored minivan (or SUV) reached the intersection coming from the opposite direction. The driver had a red light but did not stop before turning right (probably trying to beat the bus). There are three lanes on this particular on-ramp and the driver of the minivan cut across all three. I had no choice but to veer toward the shoulder. Unfortunately a winter's worth of sand was there waiting for me. Still leaning from the turn, my motorcycle got squirrelly and went down (no, the driver didn't stop). I struck my left knee as I flew over the handlebars but landed on my belly much like you would if you were doing a headfirst slide in baseball. I was wearing all of my gear and landed in a spongy grass covered area, so thankfully I was fine. It took me three tries to get my 400lb bike upright since it came to rest on a downhill slope. The left side was a little scratched up but nothing major. The real damage was to the speedometer-tachometer which took a direct hit with the front wheel turned to the extreme left position and the bike going beyond horizontal. The shifter pedal also snapped off as it had one other time when I dropped the bike.

Aside from the broken shifter, nothing appeared that it would prevent me from riding it home. I decided that if I was careful I could still shift with the side of my boot. I made it all the way home doing just that—traffic was pretty light so I didn't have to shift much.

Four parts suffered significant damage in the crash: (1) the shifter pedal, (2) the speedo-tachometer housing, (3) the speedo-tachometer baseplate, and (4) the tachometer cover. List prices for those parts tallied nearly $200 so I decided it was worthwhile to try to repair them.

LEVER ASSY, GEAR SHIFT (SKU 25600-33E00) ... $56.87
LOWER CASE (SKU 34111-19F20) ... $48.42
COVER (SKU 36383-19F20) ... $12.95
ORNAMENT, TACH (SKU 34211-19F20) ... $43.55

I had thought about using a simple nut-and-bolt to repair the shifter the last time I broke it off but opted to buy a replacement instead. When I found a tip on sv650.org that matched my thinking, I was convinced it would work. I had to buy a 5/16" bit for drilling through metal, and 4-packs of the tapered bolt and acorn nut I needed, but that only totaled $12.The white housing for the speedometer and tachometer was badly cracked and the stem that tachometer cover screws into was broken off. The black baseplate only broke in one place but it was right along a 90° bend. Both the housing and baseplate are made of polypropylene (PP) which is difficult to glue because it is a "low surface energy" material. But with a little research I discovered a couple glue options, SuperGlue Plastic Fuse and Loctite Plastic Bonder. Home Depot had the Loctite product so that's what I used. I also bought some Gorilla tape to add a little reinforcement to the glued joints (which seem to be quite strong on their own). I bought a small screw to reattach the stem for the tachometer cover from the other side. Cost for the glue, tape, and screw was about $9.

The most difficult part to repair turned out the be the tachometer cover. It is made of ABS plastic and the Loctite glue I bought didn't work on it. It was also "sprung" so it would naturally be working against any glue. I decided a mechanical fastener was necessary. I drilled small slots on both sides of the crack and used five of the smallest cable ties I had to pull the gap closed. That wasn't going to keep water out so I sanded the entire part and applied a rubberized coating with a product called Plasti-Dip which cost $6 for a spray can. Yeah, it's black (not silver) and I'm not sure how well that coating will hold up but I think it's okay.
The only actual part I had to replace was the bulb that illuminates the tachometer. It cost $2.

Turn the Page

2009-02-28T22:55:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks have been tough. Not so much for me as an individual but rather for the things that mean a lot to me personally...

The reality that my friends Jason and Shana were leaving town really sank in. Everything that could possibly have kept them from moving ended up falling away like a row of dominos. Jason left on Thursday and drove wintery roads all the way to Green Bay. Shana and their daughter Chelsea will be following in a few months to move into their new home in Chicago. For Jason it's an opportunity to pursue the career he's always wanted so I'm truly happy for him. But I'm also sad because it leaves a huge void in my life. They have been so good to me over the years—including me in so many of their activities and making Sunday Dinners with me so common that the term became part of our shared vocabulary. A lot of people around here are going to miss them, but it's hard for me to imagine anyone will miss them more than I will :(

There was one tiny bright spot, though. Not on a personal level but it did make me smile a little. Ken Griffey, Jr. came back to the Seattle Mariners. For a while I thought he would but when Mariner management kept focusing on other free agents I became understandably pessimistic. I became even more so when I heard the Atlanta Braves entered the picture. But Griffey did the right thing. Not the easy thing, and probably not the most lucrative thing, but he did the right thing in returning to the city that grew up with him. I'm looking forward to seeing number 24 take the field. It's almost a fairytale and maybe if we're lucky it will play out that way for the Mariners in 2009.

Adventures of B.C. & Outlaw Treat

2009-02-08T20:50:00.000-08:00

Ever since my sister moved to Vancouver, I have been hoping Kristin (a.k.a. B.C.) would find a way to get Canucks tickets... and this weekend she did.

I decided to leave straight from my office in Bothell on Thursday night since I was already 30 miles closer to Vancouver than I would be from my condo. When I reached the U.S.-Canada border at about 9 PM there were less than 10 cars waiting for the four open lanes. After a couple minutes I was the next in line and noticed all four of the border patrol officers converging on my lane. That seemed a little odd but I didn't think too much of it since I had noted all of the other cars had Canadian license plates. My lane cleared, so I pulled forward and handed the officer my passport and drivers' license. She asked me all of the standard questions like where I live, where I was going, and whether or not I had any drugs or weapons. But then she threw me a curve and told me to pull to the left because they needed to "verify the accuracy of my statements". So I drove over to the left where another officer took my identification and the keys to my truck. He told me to go wait in their office and as I was walking toward it, he drove away in my truck! Inside the office there were six other civilians. Three were guys in their late 20s who were being interrogated over their arrest history, drug possession, and gang affiliation. The other three were Asian and didn't appear to speak English but they were being called up to the counter one-at-a-time to pay money for something. Thirty uncomfortable minutes passed and the officer who took my truck returned and told me I was free to go. Needless to say I was totally frazzled by the whole experience, and pissed that they didn't have the decency to at least say they were sorry for inconveniencing me.

Kristin had been at a business function that night and in an odd coincidence I arrived at her apartment building at exactly the same time. She poured me a glass of wine to help calm my nerves and then I went to sleep on an inflatable mattress in her living room. Unfortunately it wasn't a very restful evening. It got bitterly cold and I didn't have enough blankets so I had to get up in the middle of the night to put my coat on :(

On Friday, I assembled a new file cabinet from IKEA while Kristin was at yoga. Then we met her friend Gary for lunch (Kristin had her favorite, "fish dicks") and afterward I got a brief tour of her office and then followed her around while she did a little shopping on Robson street. We met Gary again for a drink before driving to West Vancouver to meet up with her friend Nancy for dinner at the Beach House restaurant.

Kristin did yoga again on Saturday morning and I did some work on my laptop. When she returned, we walked to the nearby Tartine bakery for some lunch. On the way back we checked out the Vancouver International Boat Show but kept walking when we learned it wasn't free as Kristin had thought. The afternoon passed and it was time to walk about a mile to GM Place. This was my fourth Canucks game but Kristin's first. Turns out she landed a lot better seats than I had ever had before. They were in the lower level about half way up behind one of the goals.

There is something about hockey in Canada that feels so much different than anything I've experienced in the United States. Take for example the singing of O C anada!; after singing the first verse the singer lowered his microphone and let the crowd loudly and enthusiastically belt out the second verse. We kind of saw that in the U.S. for a short time after 9/11 but this is how it has been at every Canucks game I've been to spanning many years. The game was a fun one with the Canucks beating the Chicago Blackhawks 7-3. The first two goals were scored very quickly and we had a great view of both. I enjoyed things so much that I decided to buy a jersey and officially commit to the Canucks as my favorite hockey team.

Despite what you might think, Kristin's self chosen nickname, "B.C.", doesn't stand for British Columbia. It stands for Butter Chicken which is apparently an Indian dish that she enjoyed with our mom last weekend. That of course makes me the "Outlaw" which we derived from the soundtrack for our adventure—Bruce Springsteen's Working on a Dream album, specifically the first track—and the fun time I had getting into Canada.

Thanks for another fun and eventful weekend, B.C.
—Outlaw Treat

ShoWare Shootout

2009-01-09T23:09:00.000-08:00

I treated my brother Eamonn and his friend Earl to a hockey game tonight. The Seattle Thunderbirds new home in Kent just opened last week. This was the Tri-City Americans first visit and the first game I've attended as well. Eamonn showed up sporting my old school Americans jersey with both he and Earl still supporting our hometown team. I told them I'm wavering because the T-Birds are now within walking distance of my condo and I've now spent more of my life in the Seattle area than I have in the Tri-Cities. So I was a neutral fan tonight.

The game was good even though the Americans have a much better record. It ended up going into overtime and was eventually won by the visitors 4-3 in a sudden death shootout. Apparently the rules have changed some since I last followed it. There are no more ties, which I think is cool... a shootout is a great way to decide a close game. We also saw a penalty shot (that didn't score) which is rare enough I don't recall ever seeing one at any of the other games I've attended over the years.

The ShoWare Center is nice. Never having to worry about where to park (or having to pay for it) is totally awesome. At $22, I think the seats are reasonably priced but the arena was only a little over half full (today's Boeing layoff announcement probably didn't help). Food and beer was consistent with Safeco and Qwest... overpriced. They had a contest in the 2nd intermission called "Chuck-a-Puck" where you pay $5 for three orange foam pucks and try to throw them into the sunroof of a car at center ice for a chance at a money prize. Neither Eamonn, Earl, nor I came close.

Snowed in Seattle, too

2008-12-22T19:25:00.000-08:00

I got up this morning fully intending to drive my 30 mile commute from Kent to Bothell. But I decided to call the official T-Mobile Work Site Information Hot-Line first and to my surprise I heard my office was... closed. It was actually the first time in my four years I've heard that (the office may have been closed on Thursday and Friday but I was already planning to be out those days). So today I battled a few thousand other employees for bandwidth and worked from home.

Another 4 inches of snow fell overnight making the total depth somewhere between 7 and 8 inches at my condo. I'm pretty sure that is the largest accumulation I've seen in my eight years of living here.

I made it to the Seahawks game on Sunday by riding the Starline shuttle. I'm glad it was running. Nice not to have the stress. I also got to see another win which raised my final 2008 record to 2-2 (versus their 4-11 overall record). It was a pretty cold and miserable game but I was glad I was there to see coach Holmgren make his thank you march around the stadium when the game was over. He's a good football coach but he will be missed more for his heart and character away from the sidelines. Much like Lou Piniella, it may be a number of years before we have another coach as endearing and successful.

Snowed in Seattle

2008-12-20T23:24:00.000-08:00

I've always liked snow but I've always hated driving in it. The Seattle area has been getting hit hard the past few days. I haven't gotten behind the wheel for 3 days now. I have gone for a couple walks. It's so bright and peaceful at night. It would be during the day too if more people would use common sense and stay home. It's that reason that I have little sympathy for anyone who wrecked their car today. Hopefully they got a traffic citation, too.

I just took this picture of my front door a few minutes ago. About 4 inches of snow has fallen today... a little surprising to me because the snowflakes tonight have been tiny.

I've got a ticket for tomorrow's Seahawks game... hopefully the shuttle buses will still be running from the Park & Ride.

Maybe Halloween Isn't So Bad

2008-11-03T22:50:00.000-08:00

Last year I posted to this blog about how much Halloween sucks but you can consider this a bit of a retraction...

I returned to Boise this year for my cousin Jayson's fourth annual Halloween party (I also made it to the inaugural Boise shindig in 2004). Knowing my opinion of the holiday Jayson and Jen took some of the pain out of things by taking care of my costume. I went as Riff Raff to Jayson's Frank-N-Furter and Jen's Magenta; all characters from the classic "B" movie: Rocky Horror Picture Show. My costume didn't fit all that well—especially the wig—but at least I didn't have to dress up in women's underwear... kinda scary!

The party was fun but without Andie I doubt I would have changed my opinion of Halloween. She dressed up as a One-Night-Stand and won best costume just as she had at the last party I attended (Marie Antoinette). Andie is a great singer. The two of us sang karaoke and danced our way into the wee hours of the morning. It was a little bit crazy at times but Andie made it fun...
Why does this kind of thing always have to happen to me so far from home? :(

V-O-T-E

2008-10-27T22:56:00.000-07:00

I voted this weekend via absentee ballot. I voted absentee one other time—back in 1992 when I was at the UW. That year I had the choice between George Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot. Not much to choose from. I voted for Perot because I thought he would do something completely different. Of course, we all know that Perot didn't win and Clinton went on to be a pretty good president (even if he didn't exactly shake up the government).

I mention the fact that I voted by absentee because it marks the end of something that I always liked. Inconvenient as it may have been, going to the polling place was something I really enjoyed. The elementary school around the block was almost always staffed by smiling senior citizens and I think they truly appreciated seeing a young person come to vote. Of course, I'm not so young any more but I think it's pretty safe to say that young people don't vote. My brother Eamonn isn't registered to vote. He says his vote wouldn't matter and I don't dispute that. That's not why I vote, though... I vote because it is my right as a citizen of the United States of America and it is, quite simply, the right thing to do.

Hopefully better days are just around the corner...

21st Century Television (Finally)

2008-10-11T00:02:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I've posted anything here. I guess the last six weeks haven't been all that interesting. I got tired of watching a decade worth of earnings evaporate from my 401(k) so I decided to get something for my money and enter the 21st century by upgrading my television. I bought my last TV in August 1994 with my first paycheck from the job I started after graduating from the UW. It was a 27" Sony KV-27V55 and it lasted 14 trouble-free years.

Deciding what to buy this time wasn't as easy as I had hoped. I decided early on that I wanted a 46" LCD. I decided against a plasma because my living room is so bright and has windows directly across from where the TV is located. I was also pretty sure I wanted to buy the TV from Costco because they add a second year of warranty for no extra charge. I didn't want to spend a ton of money for fear the TV might not last very long. So I was interested in the Vizio brand. But when I actually went to Costco and looked at them their pictures didn't look as nice as some of the other TVs. Then I almost convinced myself to buy a Sharp. It was somewhere in between Vizio and Sony, and it was also on sale at the time. But when it finally came time to buy, I changed my mind again and decided it was worth several hundred bucks to go with a Sony that had a better picture and a good history of reliability with me. Unfortunately, Costco only had 40" and 52" Sonys in stock... bummer!

So I ordered my new TV online from Crutchfield whom I'd bought from before but never a big ticket item like this. The TV that I got is a 46" Sony KDL-46W4100. It supports 1080p and their (probably overhyped) "MotionFlow" 120Hz anti-blur technology. I also ordered the BDI Vista 9960 stand which allowed me to mount the TV relatively high without having to put holes in my wall. It wasn't cheap but it has a small footprint and is narrow enough that I was able to fit my old school Polk S10 speakers nicely along side it.

I've only had the TV for a few days now but so far I'm happy with it. I ran into an issue with the universal mounting bracket that came with the stand, though. It was so long that it covered most of the inputs on the back of the TV. So my friend Jason volunteered his die cutter (and his father-in-law) to help me cut it off. My brother Eamonn and his friend Earl helped me mount the TV and assemble the stand.

I haven't upgraded my cable TV package to get more high-definition channels yet. Most of what I watch is on the broadcast networks and I get the HD versions of them with my expanded basic package. I'm hoping that when the February 2009 deadline finally rolls around that Comcast will make more HD channels available without needing to have the cable box.

The Bighorn Crags

2008-08-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

I spent the past week off-the-grid backpacking in central Idaho. The area has several names including the Bighorn Crags, the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, and the Salmon-Challis National Forest. A crag is a steep rugged mass of rock projecting upward. Frank Church was a senator from Idaho who was instrumental in the creation of the wilderness area.

As usual, all of the planning for this trip was done by my dad. Having never been to the area he planned our route with the help of Margaret Fuller's book titled Trails of the Frank Church: River of No Return Wilderness, even going so far as to contact her with the help of her daughter who happens to live somewhere in the Tri-Cities. He also got information from Don Evans who posted a trail report to one of the lakes we would visit on the web.

I drove back to Richland after work on Thursday so that I could have lunch with my grandma. Turned out my uncle and his boyfriend were also in town so the four of us went to Anthony's at Columbia Point. A few hours later I arrived at my dad's house, ate dinner, and spent the night.

DAY 0: I woke up at around 6 AM and we were on the road at 6:30 AM. About nine hours later we were in Challis, Idaho where we met my dad's friend Don and bought fishing licenses. We ate our "last supper" at the Challis Village Inn Restaurant, loaded our gear into Don's pickup and headed off to the trailhead. It was approximately 50 miles from Challis on rough road so it took more than 2 hours for us to reach the Crags Campground. We slept there, opting not to pitch our tents because there was no threat of rain.

DAY 1: After repacking our sleeping gear and filling our water bottles we hit the trail at about 8:30 AM, our destination: Welcome Lake. Much to my chagrin, my pack weighed in at 52 pounds (about 8 pounds heavier than I'd ever carried before) due to the food and fuel required for a full week. We arrived there sometime before noon after hiking roughly 7 miles from the campground. We set up camp and tried fishing but Welcome Lake was clearly overfished as one of the most common destinations for all who come to this area. Mosquitoes were terrible here so after eating dinner we all retreated to our tents. Before trying to sleep I spent 20 minutes squishing all of the mosquitoes that had followed me in.

DAY 2: We left Welcome Lake for Reflection Lake and were fortunate that the trail climbing out was on the shady side of the mountain since it hadn't cooled off much over night. We hiked 5 miles and set up camp on the northeast of Reflection Lake. Don and I spent most of the day fishing Reflection while my dad ventured off to check out Echo lake. He returned to report great fishing there and was surprised to find that Don and I were struggling to catch anything big enough to keep. I also lost my only #2 Mepps lure in a log at the south end of the lake. But we still managed enough for our first trout dinner.

DAY 3: This was the only day in which we did not move camp. We bushwacked our way up to Echo and Turquoise Lakes since there are no established trails. Neither was difficult to reach considering we only had daypacks. Fishing at Echo and Turquoise was indeed great and would turn out to the be the best of all of the lakes we visited. Most of the fish we caught were fat and in the 12" range. We returned to camp at Reflection with all the trout we needed for dinner. My dad and Don then went off to check out Twin Cove Lake. I decided to go back to the south end of Reflection and wade out in chest deep water to retrieve my lure and wash off three days worth of stink in the process.

DAY 4: We packed up and backtracked 1.3 miles on the trail we had taken from Welcome Lake. There we bushwacked our way 0.5 miles to Skyhigh Lake. We set up our tents at the north end of the lake since that was going to be the next day's starting point. All three of us then fished Skyhigh with varying degrees of success. Foul weather that included heavy (but brief) rain and gusty winds made it a challenge. As usual, my dad found the sweet spot on the lake and caught good sized trout on 10 consecutive casts. Most were released since we already had kept enough for our third trout dinner. Cooking the fish also proved challenging due to the wind but my dad pulled it off.

DAY 5: We broke camp and climbed about 300 feet over a saddle and then dropped about 600 feet over 1 mile until we reached Barking Fox Lake. I tried a few casts there and caught two fish before losing my #2 Mepps lure for good on a cast caught by the wind. We continued on for another 1 mile reaching the Terrace Lakes. We set up camp at the second of the four lakes we encountered. By then it was getting colder and the wind more fierce. We spent the next few hours catching enough fish for dinner (including a 15" whopper that my dad caught and few that were gold, possibly rainbow/cutthroat hybrids), eventually returning to our tents to take shelter. Unfortunately the weather never calmed down that night so we were forced to bury the fish and eat one of our freeze dried meals instead. Don had a watch with a thermometer and it read 37° F when we retired to our tents for the night. I was wearing nearly every piece of clothing I had brought with me.

DAY 6: I awoke to find the window on my tent frosted over. When I emerged I saw that the entire northfacing side was also frosted. Don's watch said the temperature had fallen to 24° F but fortunately the wind had stopped blowing. I rolled up my icy tent and we departed the Terrace Lakes for Cathedral Lake, our final stop before departing the wilderness. Our route would cover 7.9 miles, passing by Heart Lake and connect up with the trail we first came in on near Welcome Lake. We dropped about 600 feet from the main trail and chose a campsite on the north side of Cathedral Lake. Our later arrival at this lake (due to the longer distance we traveled) meant we needed to start fishing as soon as possible. By this time I was running on empty and only managed to catch three fish, two of which I released because they were sardines. The one I kept was marginal but I had hooked it through the eye so it was a keeper. As usual my dad compensated for Don and myself so we could enjoy our fourth and final trout dinner.

DAY 7: We woke up at 6:30 AM and started packing. Unfortunately, it took more time for me to get ready because I had to tape up my heels to prevent blistering (which actually worked great using white athletic tape—my first backpacking trip without blisters, yay!). My dad and Don were both ready before I had my tent down so they headed up the trail. I followed about 5 minutes later but I had burned a lot of energy on the rush pack job and didn't get a chance to eat or drink anything. Needless to say, this day sucked for me but 4.2 miles later we were back at the trailhead. Don drove the rough road back to Challis and had another hamburger before parting ways. My dad and I arrived back at his house in Richland at 9 PM.

If you do the math I think we hiked about 30 miles with 7,000 feet of elevation change. I enjoyed this hike but it was probably a day or two too long for me. It is nice to be completely cut off from the unnatural world we all live in. Not getting any blisters on my feet was really nice (in addition to the tape, I used a pair of gel heel cups my dad gave me). My separated shoulder didn't cause me any problems other than difficulty sleeping that I have even when sleeping in a bed.

Note to Self: Stay off Bicycles

2008-07-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my bicycle accident. I decided last Wednesday that it was time to exorcise (and exercise) those demons and climbed on a bicycle for the first time since. I rode up the Green River trail to Southcenter and back the Interurban trail. It was uneventful.

So today I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and repeat the loop that I've actually done numerous times in the past. I cut the loop short due to trail maintenance being done on the section of the trail near the Riverbend golf course. That meant the last part of my ride would involve a short stretch of travel on a busy section of James Street where there is no bicycle lane (between the new Kent Events Center and the West Valley Highway). Unfortunately for me, I crashed yet again... an SUV traveling the same lane barely gave me any room which forced me near the curb. On this particular section of road the transition from asphalt to cement is not flush. The cement section is about an inch higher and my wheels caught it causing me to fall off the bike and on to the sidewalk. My hands took the brunt of the fall but I also have some pretty good scrapes on my right knee and a knot on my left shin where it impacted the crossbar of my bike. I rolled up on my bad shoulder, too. Not enough to tear my t-shirt but enough to cause a bit of road rash.

This was nothing compared to my Boise accident but it was bad enough to leave me a bloody mess by the time I peddled the last mile to my condo. It's pretty likely that I sprained my wrist again and probably reaggravated my shoulder.

Maybe it's time to retire the old bicycle?

ANY WAY

2008-07-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

This has been a great month. I got to see my friend Reid for the first time in 20 years at the beginning of the month. On Thursday I had lunch in Pioneer Square with my friend Adrienne whom I hadn't seen in 12 years (even though she's been back in the Emerald City for almost 2 years now). Unfortunately there is one friend I haven't seen in around 15 years that I can't reunite with...

I was very much alone when I started college at the UW. I had a half dozen classmates from Hanford High starting there at the same time but none were really more than acquaintances. Fortunately for me I was befriended quite quickly by my now long time friends Bill, Will, Tim (now Allen), Adrienne, and Fred. Fred was a senior still living in the dorm. That might have seemed odd to some but it really wasn't. I spent 3 of my 5 years at the UW living in the dorm. It offered a sense of community that you don't get when you live off campus in an apartment. But any way... one day I was in the McCarty Hall 3rd/4th South lounge listening to my walkman and this guy asked me what I was listening to. I told him the Scorpions and right there a friendship was born. That was Fred's favorite band and it turned out he shared much the same taste in music that I do.

At a time when I really needed a mentor, Fred was the big brother I never had. I spent most of my time that first year hanging out in his dorm room—like many others from our floor because he had all the coolest stuff. Fred graduated after completing summer school that year and spent the Autumn quarter of my sophomore year working in the basement of the ROTC building. He had moved into an apartment off campus which he frequently offered up to me as refuge from my horrible second roommate. He bought a black Ford Mustang after graduation with a license plate that read "ANY WAY" (his favorite saying). He drove me back home to Richland in it one weekend and met my family. I can't remember who said it but someone told me that he "was the kind of friend I would have for the rest of my life".

Fred eventually left the Northwest for nuclear submarine school in Norfolk, Virginia, but I kept in touch with him for the remainder of my UW experience. He stopped by to see me in Richland again one summer on his drive back east. It was that trip that he gave me one of my most treasured possessions, the 87-92 era Seattle Mariners jersey that had been given to him by a former girlfriend (and Mariners ball girl).

Not long after I graduated from the UW, Fred called to tell me he was very sick and being treated for Lymphoma. It was the last time we spoke. He died about a month later...

Today would have been Fred's 40th birthday, so while I'm on house arrest (waiting for someone from work to call) I'm rocking out to the Scorpions and wearing that very special jersey in his memory. I miss you man.

One Birthday... One Long Overdue Reunion

2008-07-08T20:32:00.000-07:00

It's kind of hard for me to believe I'm old enough to have gone 20 years without seeing my best friend from grade school. But that's the sad reality...

After my parents divorced, I changed schools to Sacajawea Elementary and started claiming my grandparents' address as my home. Reid lived a couple houses up the street from theirs and I spent most of the time I wasn't in school hanging out with him. We spent countless hours mastering the Atari 2600. We rode our bikes down to the Bookworm to buy comic books, up to 7-Eleven for a Slurpee or Big Gulp, and over of Leslie Groves Park to fish for trout in the Columbia River. We rocked out to OK95 and on special days we made it out to the Wild 'N Wet water park or Chuck E. Cheese.
Unfortunately, somewhere around the time we graduated from Sacajawea my parents moved to Kennewick. Reid and I still attended the same schools but there was less time for us to do things after school and since I was old enough to take care of myself I no longer spent most of my summer vacation at my grandparents' house. Reid was still my best friend and the only friend who came to visit me at our Kennewick house.

Reid moved to Lacrosse, Wisconsin at the end of our sophomore year. We wrote each other letters throughout the remainder of high school and he made it back to the Tri-Cities for a few weeks during the summers. But after graduation I went directly off to work in Tacoma and I lost track of my best friend. I barely came home to Richland before I found myself a freshman at the UW. I finally regained some composure about a year later but by then I didn't know how to contact Reid. In hindsight I should have just sent another letter to his parents house but I guess I figured that, like me, he had left home and wouldn't be there to receive it.

A couple years ago I received an email. It was a little vague but I was pretty sure that my old friend Reid had found me again. We've been exchanging emails ever since—catching up on all the years we missed. Then, a few weeks ago, Reid invited me to join he and his family at Camp Lookout State Park where they would be spending the 4th of July holiday.

I arrived in the early afternoon and saw my friend for the first time in almost 20 years. He, his sons Hunter and Chase, his girlfriend Shannon, and Scott (another old friend from school) were all down on the beach enjoying the first "warm" day of the week swimming in the ocean surf. They welcomed me into their camp, making sure I was well fed and "hydrated". The boys gave my shoulder a good workout with the Frisbee and Scott keep us entertained with his guitar while we sat around the camp fire.

Thank you, Reid. Because of you my 37th birthday was one of the best birthdays I've ever had. I will never forget it, just like I never forgot you during all those lost years.

The Ugliest Catch

2008-06-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

I spent last week in tiny Gustavus, Alaska. My dad took me on a 5-day fishing adventure where we caught king salmon, ling cod, yelloweye, and (lots of) halibut. If the Discovery Channel had a show on halibut fishing in Alaska it would definitely be called The Ugliest Catch. Not many creatures have an eye that migrates from one side of its head to the other...

Our trip was through True North Charters. We fished from two boats, Pioneer and Judy B, and had two fishing guides, Forrest and Ross. Forrest is The Man when it comes to fishing in Gustavus. Ross is new to the area but had a ton of youthful enthusiasm for fishing brought all the way from Florida. We stayed at a log cabin bed-and-breakfast called the Growley Bear Inn owned and operated by Caroline and her dog Coco. She made sure that we were never hungry, preparing lavish breakfasts and dinners as well as boxed lunches for our fishing excursions. Our stay coincided with that of two very generous veteran anglers from the San Francisco Bay Area. Tom and Roger were in Gustavus fishing for the ninth consecutive year.

My dad started the fishing off by landing a massive 160 lb halibut. My first halibut was around 60 lbs and it helped me realize my arm strength wouldn't be up for much more of a challenge. The bigger halibut are often found in stronger currents where 3-to-4 pounds of lead are required to hold bait on the bottom. Jigging the bait by repeatedly raising and dropping the sinker helps to attract the fish. I found my arms worn out from the jigging motion alone :( On the second day my dad hooked another giant halibut but it was strong enough to entangle the line in the rocks so we didn't get a chance to see exactly how big it was.

We made two successful trips to the "outside" (ocean) in search of king salmon. Landing a king was something my arms could handle because they're not as large and don't require you to touch the rod until they strike. The kings we caught were close to 20 lbs. On our way back from the first day of salmon fishing we each collected one ling cod and one yelloweye. We actually caught a lot of ling cod but most were well beyond the 30-35 inch size you are allowed to keep. The yelloweye are interesting because they basically die as they are reeled in. The gas bladders they use for buoyancy explode as the pressure decreases so you have to keep the first one you catch.

After three days we had already filled five 50 lb boxes of fish (vacuum packed and flash frozen by Pep's Packing), so our final two days were spent trying to limit out with our third king salmon. Poor weather kept us on the "inside" (not the ocean) where there are fewer kings and not surprisingly we came up empty. We also spent time catching and releasing more halibut. For the week I think I brought up four halibut in the 60-80 lb range and several "chickens" (less than 40 lbs). Anything I hooked over 80 lbs was eventually handed over to my dad or Ross because I simply don't have the strength in my forearms :(

It was colder than normal in Gustavus but it only rained one day. Not much to the town, it exists almost exclusively on the charter fishing and sightseeing business. Wildlife was plentiful. We saw dozens of bald eagles, humpback whales, seals, otters, sea lions, porpoises, and even one brown bear on the shore. Snow capped mountains surrounded the area. We were able to see the glow from the lower portion of Mt. Fairweather on our trips to the outside.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

2008-05-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

That's right, I spent an extended Memorial Day weekend down in Houston visiting the Harkrider family who moved down south about the same time last year. Will, Lea, Brennan and Ada welcomed me into their home and did a great job helping me to forget about my everyday life for a few days.

It was pretty hot in Houston. 80's and 90's the whole time, even early in the morning and late at night. Definitely more humid that Seattle but not really all that bad (yet). I was prepared for humidity like I saw late August in Florida, so I was pleasantly surprised... I ate a ton of good food on this vacation. Lea cooked some wonderful bay shrimp for dinner one night. For another dinner we had some authentic Texas barbecue brisket and ribs from Rudy's. There were a number of tasty breakfasts and lunches, too.

The family just invested in a Nintendo Wii so Brennan and Ada got to work me over pretty good. Yes, it's true, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't beat a 3 year old girl at boxing. I was also introduced to one of their favorite television shows called Code Lyoko. Apparently it's French Anime and every episode consists of something going wrong and the kids "returning to the past" to make it right again. It also has a very infectious theme song...

Will and I ventured into downtown Houston on Saturday. We drove by Reliant Park and its neighbor, the Astrodome, which hardly looked like the Eighth Wonder of the World (more like the Tacoma Dome's older brother). We visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science to check out exhibits on both dinosaurs and energy. But the main reason we were there was to attend the Astros vs. Phillies game at Minute Maid Park. We got there early enough to wander around and see just about every angle of the ballpark. It is a very nice stadium and the game was great, too. Darin Erstad threw out Pedro Feliz at home to end the game and seal the Astros' 4-3 victory. Believe it or not, their 7th Inning Stretch includes cowgirls dancing on the dugout while they play Deep in the Heart of Texas over the loudspeakers.

On Sunday we all crammed into the 4Runner and traveled to the NASA Johnson Space Center, the place where failure is not an option. After checking out a Space Shuttle and the evolution of the space suit (among other things), we continued on to Galveston and Moody Gardens where we toured an aquarium and a rainforest enclosed in two of three large glass pyramids. We drove back along the seawall and could barely make out a few distant oil rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico.

Will let me test drive his 2008 BMW 335i which is far and away the most powerful automobile I've ever driven. So much so that I wasn't too comfortable driving so I left most of that to Will. He demonstrated the car's power and handling on the freeway by playing what he referred to as "Traffic Tetris". It rode so smooth you'd have a hard time guessing how fast you were going. The car has crazy features like a key that doesn't need to go in the ignition to start the car, radar the shows you exactly how close you are to objects when you are backing up, mirrors that fold in when you park and automatically tilt down so you can see the curb when in reverse. Of course I was the jerk that did the unthinkable and spilled gasoline down the side when I was filling it up! For some reason the pump didn't automatically shut off. Will said the clear coat should protect it but I really suck for that one...

Will and Lea, thank you again for your hospitality. I hope my visit was as positive experience for you guys as it was for me. I'm looking forward to sport fishing in the Gulf on my next visit ;)

Vancouver Choo-Choo

2008-04-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

I took advantage of a rare work-free weekend to ride the Amtrak train up to Vancouver to visit my sister last Friday. It was the first time I had taken the Amtrak and although it takes close to 90 minutes longer than it would to drive, I enjoyed not driving. The only thing that sucked was that the train leaves King Street Station in Seattle at 7:30 in the morning which meant getting up a lot earlier than I'm used to.

My mom was also visiting last weekend so both she and my sister picked me up from Pacific Central train station when I arrived in Vancouver. We then went to Joeys for lunch and were treated to a view of hazmat teams cleaning up a meth lab in the neighboring building. We left there and headed up Robson Street where they shopped and I followed along. Eventually we made our way to a bar and met up with one of Kristin's new friends from Vancouver for a few drinks. Exhaustion set in that evening so everyone called it a night relatively early. I stayed up long enough to see it snow hard, a good thing since barely a trace remained by morning.

Saturday we decided that the weather was going to be good enough to participate in the Vancouver Sun Run so we headed down to B.C. Place and registered. A bit more shopping afterward including a stop at Granville Island, followed by lunch back at Kristin's apartment while watching the Water Horse DVD my mom brought from home. During the movie we were distracted by a potentially sac religious scene unfolding on an adjacent balcony—a 40-something woman making out with what honestly appeared to be a 70-something priest. He wore a necklace adorned with a cross and all black clothes with the exception of a white collar. Their lip lock concluded with the woman in tears and they eventually moved indoors where Kristin swears she saw him removing his belt before going out of sight. Free of the distraction, we resumed watching the movie which left my mom in tears. Then it was off to Earl's where we met up with Kristin's friend David who treated us to dinner.

Sunday was race day and a cold one at that. We left Kristin's apartment a bit over an hour before the 9 AM start time. Of course with almost 60,000 participants they had to stagger the start. Kristin was in the "green" group, my mom and I in the "white" since we were walking. I eventually crossed the start line about 30 minutes after the race began and completed the 10K in 1 hour and 15 minutes. There were so many people that everyone was nearly brought to a halt at several bottlenecks. Kristin complained about the number of slow runners and walkers that she had to dodge along the way, mainly because they should have entered themselves in a slower group. I even struggled to get around people and I was walking. After the race we got sushi at a nearby restaurant called Honjin. The last stops were to drop my mom off at the airport and me back at the train station.

How's that for a full weekend? Now I'm sore, exhausted, and facing a week on the night on-call shift...

First Grade Redux

2008-04-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe that it has been 30 years since I was in the first grade at Jefferson Elementary School in Richland. I had a terrible teacher that year, probably the worst of all my years in the educational system. Her name was Miss Schneck and, with a name like that it's hardly a surprise that she was a first-class bitch. I struggled those early years in school. My nuclear family was falling apart. I couldn't cut a circle out of a square piece of paper. I was too slow at math "time tests", but I always got the answers right. It didn't help that I couldn't see the chalkboard until I got glasses in the third grade...

Life is wonderfully simple when you're only 6 years old. I had potential. I was actually social—the polar opposite of who I am today. So would I throw away the past 30 years and start all over again? I would. But would it matter? Wouldn't I be doomed to repeat things in just the same way if I had no knowledge of what was to come? Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of the person I've become. I've done well both academically and professionally. I've made friends with people of exemplary character and heart. I even experienced a bonafide miracle when my college dormmate turned out to be the long lost cousin I probably would never have known.

But I would do it all over if for no other reason than to get back the future that I no longer have...

Back from Land's End

2008-03-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

I spent last week down in Mexico... Cabo San Lucas to be precise. I was there with my sister and my parents who used three years worth of their timeshare points to get us all a week in a nice one bedroom unit at the Fiesta Americana resort. We were there in the midst of Spring Break so there were more high school and college aged people than normal. We also learned that it was Semana Santa (Mexican holy week leading up to Easter Sunday).

The mid-80's weather was perfect (although my mom—a.k.a. "Juan B."—would argue with that assertion because offshore winds dropped the temperature into the 60's on two evenings). We spent most of the time at the resort by the pool or on the beach. We ventured into the city four times. The first two trips were by rental car driven with skillfully and without incident by my stepfather, David—a.k.a. "el Red". The car was mainly so we could stock up on cerveza y agua (beer and water) at the local Costco, and so my mom could shop at a nick-nack shop along the highway (twice!).

On our second trip into town we ate breakfast just off the beach at The Office. In all, we ate three dinners downtown. The first was sort of by mistake because the restaurant my mom really wanted to go (Marisco's Mazatlan) to had moved up the street. We corrected that by eating at Marisco's on our last night. The best dinner we had in Cabo was at Mi Casa where we went to celebrate Kristin's birthday. The food was great and Kristin got a surprise shot of tequila from our waiter while the Troubadours sang ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! (Happy Birthday). After that we stopped at Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo where my mom and I each enjoyed a shot of Cabo Wabo Añejo which I have to say was the smoothest, most enjoyable shot of tequila I've ever had.

This was easily one of the most relaxing vacations I've ever had. A big thanks goes out to my parents for providing the accommodations and most of the food, and to Kristin for covering the airfare for her favorite U-Haul truck driver ;)

March 11, 1921

2008-03-11T00:08:00.000-07:00

Today would have been my Grandpa's 87th birthday. As I went through the slide photographs he took over the years I came across a very special one of him with me when I was only a few weeks old...

The Other Recession

2008-03-07T20:23:00.000-08:00

The country might be in an economic recession right now but I'm actually referring to the dearth of Greatest Hits on the release calendar. I may be the only one paying attention but the future is looking pretty bleak for Greatest Hits releases. Those are pretty much the only CDs I buy because they are the best value and they make great additions to shuffle through my 400-disc changer.

Here are a few holes I'd like to fill in my collection... some that are woefully overdue:

AC/DC easily has enough material to justify a 2-disc greatest hits collection. At a minimum it would have to include: Back in Black, Dirty Deeds Done Dirty Cheap, Hells Bells, Highway to Hell, Jailbreak, Moneytalks, T.N.T., Thunderstruck, Who Made Who, and You Shook Me All Night Long.
Metallica probably also has enough material to justify a 2-disc collection (although one disc of the really listenable stuff would be fine with me). Start with: Enter Sandman, Fade to Black, Master of Puppets, Nothing Else Matters, One, Sad but True, The Unforgiven, and Until it Sleeps.
Foo Fighters released an album of new material late last year but there's no doubt they're ready for a retrospective that would include: All My Life, Best of You, Big Me, Learn to Fly, Monkey Wrench, My Hero, and Times Like These.
Dixie Chicks are very un-country when it comes the best-of album. Most acts with their tenure are already working on their third collection. I'm waiting for a single disc that contains: Cowboy Take Me Away, Goodbye Earl, Long Time Gone, Not Ready to Make Nice, Ready to Run, Travelin' Soldier, and Wide Open Spaces.
Nickelback has been prolific this decade. I think it's time for a collection that includes: Far Away, Feelin' Way Too Damn Good, How You Remind Me, If Everyone Cared, Photograph, Rockstar, Savin' Me, and Someday.
Jewel will release her first country album in a few months so I don't expect a greatest hits anytime soon. She could put together a pretty good one with her existing repertoire: Down So Long, Foolish Games, Hands, Intuition, Standing Still, Who Will Save Your Soul, and You Were Meant for Me.

There are also a few artists who have already released collections but could benefit from releasing a more concise and/or complete offering:

George Harrison released The Best of Dark Horse in 1989 but inexcusably left off My Sweet Lord. I definitely would have bought it were it not for that omission. Perhaps they could also include Handle With Care and End of the Line from his days with the Travelling Wilburys.
Steve Winwood released a collection of his solo hits called Chronicles in 1987 but there were a paltry 10 songs on it. Then in 1995 he released a 4-disc boxed set called The Finer Things. I'm hoping that someday he'll release a better collection of solo hits that includes, well... pretty much everything on disc 4 from his boxed set.
Tom Petty released a quality Greatest Hits album in 1993 but went on to have several more hits on future albums. As is often the case, there was a change in record labels but hopefully one day we'll see a 2-disc career spanning retrospective.
Elvis Costello released a 2-disc collection aptly titled The Very Best of Elvis Costello in 2001. In this case all of the songs I want are there but as a casual fan I'd really prefer a single disc collection that includes his biggest hits plus a few others.

Cinnamon Girl

2008-02-24T14:12:00.002-08:00

A year ago today I watched the sun set from an authentic Hawaiian luau in Maui. From what I've heard the Old Lahaina Luau is the best luau around. Rather than just a bunch of hula dancers performing randomly, this luau told the history of Hawaii. The food and drink was only so-so but there was a pig roasted in an underground oven so I guess that was enough to make up for it.

Of course the reason I was in Hawaii in the first place was because I was one of T-Mobile's PEAK Achievement winners for 2006. The prize was a trip for two—a no-brainer for anyone in even a semi-serious relationship, but for me it could have been a problem. Fortunately I had a friend who was single at the time and whose birthday happened to fall on the day of the luau. Tammi accompanied me to all of the T-Mobile events and at each one did a great job compensating for my social ineptitude. In fact, she did well enough that T-Mobile's CIO remembered her name even though he couldn't remember mine when I spoke with him several months later.

It turned out to be tougher than I expected to explain who went with me to Hawaii after I returned. It is really unfortunate how difficult it is for most people to understand how two friends of the opposite sex can go on a vacation and not be romantically connected. Granted that isn't the norm but it isn't impossible. Obviously those are people who don't know me well—I am kind of an enigma when it comes to being a member of the human race, you know? The sad thing is that it became easier for me to say I took my attorney than to say I took my friend :(

I enjoyed the trip and I think it was a good for Tammi, too. She's really amazing and a great friend for being my partner on that week long tropical adventure... Happy Birthday, TK!

Please Remove Your Shoes

2008-02-09T21:16:00.000-08:00

It didn't go quite as smoothly as I'd hoped but the new carpet project for my condo is complete. I bought the carpet from Costco based on a recommendation from my mom. They sent out a designer from their In-Home Design Service who measured everything and gave me an estimate right before Thanksgiving. I pulled the trigger just before Christmas, the carpet was ordered and an enormous charge was put on my Costco American Express (more about that later).

I opted to tear out the old carpet and padding myself because there were issues I needed to resolve underneath (it also saved me about $300). The builders did a shoddy job when they did my stairs. They left a half inch gap between the drywall and the side of each step. As a result my old carpet had become permanently soiled in that area due to "drafting" from the unfinished area below the stairs. I stressed about how to fix it over Christmas but eventually decided to use Great Stuff expanding foam. I'm glad I did because it worked great even though it can be really messy stuff. All told it took about a week to complete the repairs on the stairs.

The carpet installers arrived on the Monday following New Years. They weren't here 10 minutes and the lead installer told me they didn't have enough carpet to cover the whole space. He told me they'd leave the stairs for last just in case his prediction came to fruition—which, of course, it did. Since the shortfall was the designer's mistake I wasn't liable for any additional costs. Costco called me about an hour after the installers left to apologize and to tell me they'd expedited the order for the remaining carpet. It came about a week later and the installers returned to do the stairs. Unfortunately, I was working from home that day and not able to pay as much attention to what they were doing as I should have. They ended up misaligning the pattern on two steps which I didn't catch until after they left. So I had to call Costco back to complain and about 10 days later the installers were back to redo the two steps. Fortunately there was enough carpet left over or it would have been a real headache.

The carpet is made by Shaw who coincidentally just opened a warehouse less that a mile from me. The pattern is called "Eye-Catching" and the color is called "Ash Blonde". I was a little worried the pattern might be overwhelming and the color too dark, but now that it is installed I think it was a perfect choice. Of course, new carpet means a new No Shoes policy. It also inspired me to buy one of those fancy Dyson vacuum cleaners which I found on-sale at Target for $80 off. It does a great job. Lots of suction and no bags to change.

Now back to the American Express... it is the special Costco Cash Rebate Credit Card that advertises up to 2% cash back on all purchases. After reading the fine print I found that the rebate is actually based on your total annual purchase so you only get 0.25% for the first $2K, 0.5% for the next $3K, and then 1.5% for spending in excess of $5K. The additional 0.5% only factors in when you revolve a balance. So in reality I would only have gotten a 2% rebate on the carpet if I had already charged more than $5K for the year (which I hadn't) and didn't pay off the balance every month (which I always do). What a crock.

Is 2008 the Year of the Serpent?

2008-01-30T15:23:00.001-08:00

Last Sunday my brother Eamonn and his bandmates premiered their band, Year of the Serpent, as the headliners at Studio Seven. My mom, sister and I were among the special few who were on hand to see their inaugural performance and we were not disappointed. Although they would be classified as a hard rock or heavy metal band, their songs were very listenable and at times infectious.

Eamonn is the band's lead singer and rhythm guitar player. The performance lasted about 30 minutes and consisted mostly of original songs he wrote. I videotaped most of the show. Their song Judgement Day was my sister's favorite so I'm posting it here for readers of this blog to see:

My only disappointment with the show was that the band opted to cover Judas Priest's Living after Midnight rather than my suggestion—Riverbottom Nightmare Band (from the late 1970's classic Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas). Hopefully, it will surface in a future performance...

Nice job, Cho.

Goodbye, Grandpa

2008-01-01T18:40:00.001-08:00

The world lost a very wonderful person today, one who I was blessed to have known my entire life... There was something about my Grandpa that I'm not sure words can describe. He was simply one of the neatest people I've ever known. Instantly likable and charismatic, he loved people who had a sense of humor and always had a good joke or two to tell. He was a very active person who loved to bicycle, ski, and hike. He always had a new hiking adventure for my sister and I when we would visit him during our summer vacations. He loved music and enjoyed playing his favorite Big Band and Jazz songs on his saxophone for adoring fans up until only a few weeks ago.

I like to think my Grandpa and I are alike in many ways, including putting the needs of others before our own. We both appreciated a good pair of black Reeboks. We also shared an aversion for dogs and spicy food. He said dogs could sense that in people which explains why we're always the one they run to in a group. As for spicy food... why wouldn't you want to taste what you're eating? I only wish I had a little of my Grandpa's endearing charm and personality.

I spent the weekend before the Christmas holiday with him, just the two of us. We watched the Sonics and Seahawks lose but the final score wasn't important. It reminded me of the games he took me to while I was in college. That's when I learned the reason you brought binoculars was so you could check out the cheerleaders :)

The following video clip is from a television program that used to air in the Seattle area called Jack Eddy's Ski-In. This episode followed a group of skiers from Port Angeles to the Big Mountain ski area in Montana. The clip is an interview with the trip organizers and my Grandpa.

The following is a picture of him with my sister and I at Thanksgiving in 2006.

Goodbye, Grandpa. I love you and I miss you.

Pineapples and Flood Water

2007-12-12T21:24:00.000-08:00

It was a year ago today that everyone in my office building were called to the lobby for a special announcement. Most of the office had already gathered by the time I broke free to join them. A few moments later I was handed a pineapple from (then CIO) Bruce Brown who proceeded to congratulate me on winning the PEAK Achievement Award. It was a surreal moment.

The year that followed has been a trying one. There have been a lot of changes, but none that have helped to decrease my workload. Winning the Award has a definite demotivational side when you realize you've reached the top and the best you can do now is to try hard to stay there. Winning the Award also comes with the baggage of feeling like you're letting everyone down if you don't constantly overachieve. I work an average of 60 hours per week now... and recently discovered the word karoshi which is Japanese for Death from Overwork.

A week ago Monday it took me a record two and a half hours to get to work. By the time I arrived, the city of Bothell was ordering all of the buildings in our office park evacuated. The creek that weaves through the area was approaching flood stage. I decided to stay and help with the sand bagging and water diversion activities. I stayed for almost 16 hours and, although water breached the levees, our efforts helped to prevent any water from entering the building.

I actually made it on KING5 Evening News that day, but you have to watch closely. There are shots of a shovel scooping up sand and filling a sand bag. You can see the Livestrong bracelet on my left wrist as I shoveled, and my signature black Reeboks covered with sand as I filled the sand bag. I'm also visible from a distance, wearing yellow rain gear with a navy blue baseball cap.

Canada Goose to Weather Lady

2007-12-02T14:57:00.001-08:00

My sister, Kristin, decided that this was the weekend to move her belongings from a storage unit in Kent to her new apartment in Vancouver, BC. She figured out a way to save thousands of dollars on the move... have her brother and parents help her.

Friday afternoon we picked up the U-Haul truck in Renton. She ordered a 24 footer but all they had were 26 footers which, according to their literature, are large enough to move a four bedroom house. I drove the truck from U-Haul to Public Storage in Kent and the four of us proceeded to load it up. Fortunately, there were only a few bulky and/or heavy items—her mattress and box springs, and her leather sofa. The storage unit was empty and the truck loaded in just under an hour. We barely stacked anything so a 24 foot truck would have been fine; even a 17 footer would have probably been okay. I then drove the truck to my condo complex where it needed to be parked until morning. We really lucked out because there were a string of empty parking spaces near the clubhouse large enough for me to back the truck into.

We woke up at 6:00 AM on Saturday morning and hit the road just after 6:30. Of course, that's about the time the snow started to fall. I drove the truck with our parents following close behind, each of us with a walkie talkie for communication—the Canadian Goose with the Weather Lady on our "tail feathers". Light snow fell on-and-off all the way to Vancouver. We stopped twice for gas, the second time to top off the tank before entering Canada. Getting into Canada was easier than expected. The border agents didn't even want to look inside the truck. Driving the truck in Canada wasn't fun. The streets are more narrow and small cars wouldn't stay in their lanes (bad drivers), but there were no collisions and no parked cars losing their mirrors this time.

It took a little longer to unload the truck and move its contents to my sister's 7th floor apartment because a freight elevator was involved, but we did it. My parents and I left just before noon to drive back to Seattle. That's when the winter weather really showed up. Total carnage between the border and Bellingham—a couple dozen cars slid off the freeway; a few resting on their sides with their windshields smashed and emergency crews attending to the injured. Slow going but we made it through unscathed. The snow picked up again as we neared Everett. The whiteout conditions delayed our return to Kent until about 3:00 PM. Based on the weather forecast my parents decided that the pass conditions were only going to get worse on Sunday so they left almost immediately for Richland. They made it over Snoqualmie Pass before chains became required and arrived back in Richland sometime after 8:00 PM. A really long day for them.

My sister saved thousands of dollars but I hope she learned that moving in the winter months should only be considered under the most dire circumstances. Canada Goose to Weather Lady, out...

Fifth Thursday 11/2007

2007-11-29T23:45:00.000-08:00

Nothing magical to report today. I worked late and picked my sister up from the train station on my way home. Might be about time to alter my conjecture... maybe only 1-in-5 Fifth Thursdays are special?

Acrobatic Ancestor

2007-11-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

During the Thanksgiving holiday my Grandpa showed me a newspaper article from the 1930's about an old man who was once a featured member of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. But this was not just any old man, William Belknap was my great great grandfather—my grandpa's grandpa. The article itself wasn't all that well written but it did give a glimpse into his life. A transcribed version of the original Bridgeport Life newspaper article is available to download here (PDF format).
Apparently young William was obsessed with acrobatics. He did everything from hand springs and somersaults to vaulting over ponies and hanging from a trapeze. Eventually his talents led him to team up with two other acrobats to form the "La Vina Brothers", a name that they made up to make people think they were immigrants because all the "good" acts were. Their name soon morphed into "The Lavinias" and they landed a starring role in P.T. Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth. It's not clear from the article how long he was able to perform but like all good things it came to an end when he injured his shoulder attempting to somersault over a row of elephants. His career in entertainment over, William went to work for the Belknap Manufacturing Company, his father's business which was already well known for producing high quality valves. He eventually took over as president of the company, the position he held at the time he was interviewed for the article.

I'm sure that if you go back far enough most people have a famous (or infamous) relative in their family tree. It's kind of cool to know that one of mine was a circus performer. Too bad I didn't inherit his talent for landing on his feet—I really could have used it this summer :(

Urban Spice Goo

2007-11-21T10:33:00.000-08:00

I think I now the own the last of this year's Greatest Hits compilations. I picked up the Goo Goo Dolls and Spice Girls last week. I bought Keith Urban's on Tuesday.

The Goo Goo Dolls collection is titled Greatest Hits Volume 1: The Singles. It is a complete retrospective of their hits but has one unfortunate flaw. They recorded a new version of Name for this disc that is really sub par. Apparently they were not able to license the song from their original label, Metal Blade Records, with whom they released the track on the "A Boy Named Goo" album. For some reason this disc is selling below the typical price so I guess that makes up for the imperfection. My favorite songs are Slide and Broadway.

I actually had to go to Victoria's Secret to buy the Spice Girls Greatest Hits. Could very well be the first and last thing I ever purchase from that store. Anyway, this CD has all of their hits as well as some other songs. Their new song titled Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) isn't great but it's not bad either. I like that you can still detect the British accent in the voices of the five Spice Girls but I'm really more impressed by the songwriting—Pop Music perfection. My favorite song on this disc is Say You'll Be There.

I wasn't originally going to buy Keith Urban's Greatest Hits but then I realized there were half a dozen songs on it that I knew and liked. One is even a song that was sung at my friend Courtney's wedding—Making Memories of Us. Mr. Nicole Kidman isn't my favorite country music artist but this is the type of country music I like, weaving sentimental stories with the lyrics rather than playing off stupid puns or metaphors. Somebody Like You is my favorite track on this collection.

By the way, if you're interested in how it is that I almost never miss a greatest hits release, the secret is one awesome website: Pause & Play. Greatest hits are listed in the light blue "Old Stuff" section (not everything listed is a greatest hits collection, many are simply reissues).

Apple Cider Time

2007-11-05T12:37:00.001-08:00

I went home to Richland this weekend to make apple cider. This has been a tradition in the Treat family for generations as you can probably tell from our cider press which is easily 100 years old. It was originally owned by an older woman who was a neighbor of my great grandparents. She used to rent it out every year to her neighbors so they could make cider from their apples. When she took ill, she gave the press to my great grandfather for all of the years he maintained it for her.

In past years I have helped my dad pick apples but my schedule prevented me from doing so this year. You're probably wondering where we get the apples since we don't have a family orchard, right? My dad has made friends with a couple of the local farmers who let him go through (free of charge) and gleen apples from their orchards after they have been harvested. The apples would otherwise go to waste and it is surprising how many they leave behind on the trees. My dad and his friend Jack did all of the picking this year. They collected 18 boxes in roughly 5 hours (6 boxes of Red Delicious, 4 boxes of ripe Fuji and 8 boxes of green Fuji).

When I arrived on Saturday my dad and I cleaned all of the apples. This consisted of washing the apples in a large washtub of water, using a knife to cut out any bad spots, and discarding any that were rotten. We only encountered one rotten apple so the pickers did a good job this year. The weather in Richland was unseasonably warm which made immersing your hands in cold water a little more bearable.

The actual cider making took place on Sunday. The process is for one person to turn a crank connected to a large gear while another person feeds apples into the hopper where they are ground up and fall through into a basket. The basket consists of several wooden slats held together by two metal bands. When the basket is sufficiently full it is repositioned under a threaded shaft. A circular wooden disk is positioned over the top of the basket and the wheel is slowly turned to press the juice from the apple pulp. The juice collects in a basin and exits through a hole in the front where it fills a metal bowl. The contents of the bowl are then carefully poured through a strainer and funnel into a juice container. When the containers are full they are rinsed and placed in the shade until all of the apples have been pressed. Then the containers are reopened to remove the foam that rose to the top. The void left behind by the foam is filled with more cider.

It took about 4 hours to grind/press all of the apples and fill the containers. My dad estimated that we made 34-35 gallons of cider this year.

If you're wondering how my separated shoulder faired, well... it actually did fine. I only turned the crank for 4 baskets full but I think I could have done more. My wrist actually bothered me more from the heavy ladle I used to fill the containers. I did the majority of that task since it is easier for me to get up and down off the ground.

Boo, Halloween!

2007-10-31T22:47:00.000-07:00

I am seriously not a fan of Halloween. It has to be my least favorite of all holidays. I even like Columbus Day better and it doesn't have any redeeming value either.

Halloween used to be for kids. It was time to go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood and bring home a big bag full of candy. Of course, the candy rotted teeth and contributed to the obesity epidemic in America. And let's not forget about the psychos who put sharp objects or drugs in the treats they distributed. I guess that's when Halloween stopped being polite and started getting real.

Today Halloween seems to be more of an adult event. It's the one day a year that people are allowed to pretend to be someone or something they're not. An excuse to throw a huge party and drink the night away. I heard on the radio this week that Americans will spend $5 billion this year on Halloween. Wow. I'm happy to say that not one penny of that $5 billion came from my pocket.

Boo, Halloween.... you suck!

Once Upon A Time, 3 Months Ago

2007-10-25T22:17:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it has now been three months since I had surgery on my face. Unfortunately, I can't say I've noticed much of an improvement the past two months. My lower eyelid may be a bit more animated but I still have a fair amount of discomfort in that area. My mouth still doesn't open a normal distance. I've tried stretching it manually but that ends up causing a lot of soreness in my jaw which in turn prevents me from sleeping. I discovered recently is that my salivary gland is overactive which leaves me to occasionally spit all over myself when I'm talking. I completed 6 weeks of physical therapy for my shoulder but have since completely abandoned the exercises in the hopes my sprained wrist will recover. My wrist is better but I can still tweak it pretty good with something as simple as a handshake. One positive is that I can sleep on my right side again. I still have to move carefully but putting weight on my shoulder is pretty much okay now.

I've returned to the wasted days where all I have time to do is work. Anything I do beyond that comes at the expense of sleep. I've asked to work four 10 hour days. That would give me a chance to have a life outside of work. But I don't think that's going to happen. Sad. I've given so much of myself to work—you'd hope they'd want to give some of it back to me.

I look at my life as though the first chapter ended on July 20, 2007. I wish I could say I'm optimistic about the second chapter but pretty much all I see are gray skies ahead...

Matchbox Twenty and Sara Evans

2007-10-10T20:40:00.001-07:00

What do Matchbox Twenty and Sara Evans have in common? Not much other than both recently released greatest hits compilations on CD. I bought both and have listened to each several times...

The Matchbox Twenty offering is called Exile on Mainstream and includes what amounts to an EP of new tracks along with a full disc of their greatest hits. The track titled How Far We've Come is getting a lot of airplay now. It is a good song and I would have preferred if they would have included it on the greatest hits disc. It's going to get zero airplay in my condo because I'm not loading the EP in my "Greatest Hits Only" CD changer. My favorite song in this collection is If You're Gone.

Sara Evans went the traditional route and called her collection Greatest Hits. Country music makes up the minority of my collection but this is a welcome addition. Sara has a nice voice to go along with her good looks. At least half of the tracks are new to me. The twang in the vocals is subtle and none of the lyrics seem to have been written by a redneck. My favorite song on this disc is A Real Fine Place To Start; not surprisingly, one of her biggest hits.

Upcoming greatest hits on my watch list: Goo Goo Dolls, Spice Girls, and Keith Urban (the first two to be released on 11/13/2007; the Goo Goo Dolls at your favorite music retailer and the Spice Girls exclusively at Victoria's Secret. The Keith Urban collection should be released a week later, on 11/20/2007).

Fall Mood

2007-09-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

My semi-professional painting crew (mom and sister) were in town last weekend to paint the only walls that haven't seen paint since I bought my condo. You may recall that the living room and dining room were sponge painted several shades of brown. Some people liked it, others hated it. But when they installed the new window alongside my couch this summer I was pretty much forced into abandoning it... there was simply no way I would have been able to replicate the sponge painting.
I made several trips to Home Depot before finding the right color. The first one was called "Jute" but ended up being way too orange. I don't remember what the second one was called because it was too light and therefore barely made it to the wall. Fortunately I found the color I liked with my third choice, a chocolate milkshake brown called "Fall Mood"—a timely choice given the season.
I made a couple more subtle changes to help rejuvenate my condo. I took down all of the metal rings around my ceiling lights and spray painted them white. They were originally white but over the years they had yellowed causing them to look kind of dingy. The smoke alarms had the same yellowing problem so I replaced all five of them. The last thing I did was to replace all of the electrical outlets in the freshly painted areas with the "Decora" style. That's something I had done in the bedrooms right after I moved in because the previous owner was a sloppy painter and basically ruined the original ones.

Next on the home improvement agenda will be new window shades and carpet...

I am THAT Fish

2007-09-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has gone fishing has probably caught a fish that was a little messed up from a previous encounter with an angler. Often the fish has a torn mouth from where it was caught-and-released or able to shake a hook loose on its own. Time allowed the fish's mouth to heal but it was never the same. The injury may have caused it to eat, see, or perhaps even swim, abnormally. Metaphorically speaking, I am that fish.

It's been a while since my last post. I've been working the night shift this week and I am literally running on fumes. You'd think that someone who doesn't sleep well would have an easier time dealing with being woken up all night but that hasn't been the case. I've found that I basically can't sleep at all until my shift ends at 5:00 AM. So I end up sleeping away most of the daylight hours to recharge just enough to do it again at 5:00 PM.

Not much to report on my recovery. I think I hit the proverbial "wall" several weeks ago. No noticeable improvement on any front. Things actually have gotten a bit worse. I went into the orthopedist on Thursday and though I'm doing well with my shoulder rehab I now have a moderately sprained my wrist. I think I did it doing the "wax on, wax off" exercise in physical therapy. My eyelid remains a problem and I managed to give myself a minor black eye by working it too hard trying to loosen it up. I visited the dentist on Tuesday and he doesn't believe I have damaged my TMJ. He advised me to stretch my jaw muscles by periodically prying it open with my fingers. I need to gain 5mm to be on the low end of normal so hopefully this will work. On the plus side, the numbness in my face seems to have decreased—well, either that or I'm getting used to it feeling that way.

Uneventful Fifth Thursday

2007-08-30T22:21:00.001-07:00

Bet you thought I forgot, didn't you?

Today was the fifth Thursday of the month of August. Unfortunately, I don't really have much to say about it. I've been on-call for work this week and I'm pretty exhausted. Being on-call has always taken a lot out of me, but this round has been compounded by my poor health and general inability to sleep. Strange that I was also on-call the last Fifth Thursday.

After I got home from physical therapy this evening, I forced myself to go for a walk to get some exercise and to do something outside on what was a very nice day. Just as I did on the last Fifth Thursday, I bought a couple lottery tickets at 7-11 (to test the luck factor) and then continued on to Kent Station where I treated myself to a smoothie from Jamba Juice.

When I got back home I turned on the final pre-season game for the Seahawks and proceeded to paint a couple walls in my living room to see if the "Jute" color I picked is going to work. The jury's still out on that one—it might be too dark and not enough of a contrast to the trim.

The next Fifth Thursday will be November 29th, one week after Thanksgiving and also my Dad's 61st birthday.

Disfigurement Week 5

2007-08-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

Five weeks have now passed since my accident; 30 days since the surgery on my face. People tell me that I look pretty much normal now. Of course, that's when I'm not squinting or smiling.

Some swelling is still keeping my face from being pseudo-symmetrical. It is still numb, though I don't think it is as numb as it was a few weeks ago. The doctor told me to give the numbness a year before conceding defeat.

I have become somewhat concerned about my lower eyelid. It is essentially paralyzed and there is much more of a void behind it than I have below my right eye. The area below the eyelid has firm soft tissue whereas there is very little of anything between the skin and cheekbone on my uninjured side. My dysfunctional eye is probably the biggest giveaway that something is wrong with me.

I am also concerned about the degree to which I can open my mouth. The gap between my front teeth measures 30 mm when I open my mouth as far as I can. A normal adult can open their mouth 35-60 mm. I suspect that my temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is damaged and may require additional surgery. I had to cancel a second dentist appointment because they're not sure I will be able to comfortably open my mouth wide enough for them to work.

My shoulder was feeling pretty good on Tuesday, that is until I had my physical therapy appointment. They started me on a series of new strengthening exercises. My shoulder was too sore for me to do them on Wednesday but I managed on Thursday. I had another physical therapy appointment today where they added "wax on" and "wax off" from the Karate Kid to my treatment.

Still not sleeping well... I probably miss that more than anything.

The King

2007-08-16T07:56:00.000-07:00

Thirty years ago today, Elvis Presley died. Four years ago on this day I was at Graceland—touring his home without any idea it was the 26th anniversary of his death. It was a planned stop on the fourth day of a six day road trip from Seattle to Miami. My friend Tammi was moving to Miami for law school and I tagged along to help with the driving and to see many parts of the country I'd never seen before.

Graceland itself was pretty much what I imagined. A large house with 70's decor. Of course, they've turned a lot of it into a museum of Elvis' life. They didn't allow flash photography indoors so none of the pictures I took in there turned out. Fortunately the photo I took of Elvis' flower adorned grave did ;)

We ate lunch at the diner while we were waiting for the tour. I hadn't been feeling so well since our stop in Denver, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to try Elvis' favorite—a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich. It was actually pretty good.

I'm not a huge Elvis fan, but I enjoy listening to his 30 #1 Hits CD. My friend Courtney talked me into using the 31st song on that disc, a remix version of A Little Less Conversation, as the soundtrack for my Survivor application video.

Long Road to Recovery

2007-08-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

Progress is tough to measure these days, but one thing is clear... this road to recovery is a going to be a long one.

My face remains numb and mildly swollen. My eye has mostly cleared up but the swelling below it remains the most severe. Soreness in my jaw has become a real issue. Hopefully that's just a matter of stretching out those muscles. I'm presently only able to open my mouth about half as wide as I could before the accident.

Moving my shoulder has become a little less painful but quick movements can still be excruciating. Most of the time my shoulder simply feels tight. I seem to have pretty good range of motion, though it would be more correct to call it slow motion at this stage. I have a physical therapy appointment on Tuesday.

I worked half days this week without too much difficulty. I'm about ready to start driving again. I have the most difficulty shifting my truck into 5th gear or reverse. Probably won't have to do much of either thanks to the freeway construction going on in Seattle.

Not the only Ryan Treat

2007-08-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

What is one of the first things people search for when they discover search engines? Their own name, of course. Googling the name of a new acquaintance is now a commonplace activity for a lot people. Without a search engine about the only thing you can do is take a chance on the domain name and since I own ryantreat.com I figured it would be an interesting exercise to see how many other Ryan Treat's I could find.

My name isn't really common but it's certainly not unique. According to the 1990 U.S. Census, Ryan is the 49th most common first name (for a male) and Treat is the 4,953rd most common surname. I'm not going to do the math but it's pretty obvious that the odds of being named Ryan Treat are not great.

Google alone isn't the best tool for the Internet detective. The fact that "treat" is also a verb means that it will return a lot of false positives... Why did Ryan treat her so badly? There are a number of people finders on the Internet, but most seem to be based (at least indirectly) on the Intelius database of public records. An Intelius search of the entire U.S. returns 25 matches for Ryan Treat (one of which was me). Alumni web sites like Classmates are also good places to look. Classmates returned listings for five different Ryan Treat's (including me).

Even with all of this information it's hard to say how many Ryan Treat's there are in the country. Neither Intelius nor Classmates is likely to return data for anyone under than 18 years old. Turns out that MySpace is another good source but the information isn't quite as clear or accessible, especially to someone without their own page.

Here are five of the more prolific Ryan Treat's (myself excluded) that I found—the details are inferred (perhaps incorrectly) from various sources on the Internet:

CONNECTICUT

Ryan C. Treat is an accomplished baseball player having played for Montville High School from 1994-97, the University of Connecticut from 1998-2001, and currently in the Eastern Connecticut Major League (ECML) which he may have had some role in founding. It appears that Ryan is now employed by the Travelers having participated in the Financial Management Leadership Development Program earlier this year. Treat's Pools & Spas may be a business owned by his parents as they are one of the sponsors of his ECML team. Unfortunately, I was not able to locate Ryan's picture despite the wealth of other information.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Ryan R. Treat is a 2006 Clinical Counseling graduate of the Citadel who not only spoke at his commencement ceremony but also co-founded the school's Student Government Association (SGA). Ryan's MySpace page is private but it did include a photo.

NEBRASKA

Ryan D. Treat is a police officer with the Lincoln Police, having previously served with the Blair Police until early in 2005. He attended Southeast High School from 1991-94 and the University of Nebraska Law School from 1994-98. He participated in a "polar bear plunge" to raise money for the Special Olympics and is married with two children. Ryan caught one 1.54 pound bass in this year's Lincoln Bass Club tournament.

NORTH CAROLINA

Ryan Treat is a 2005 graduate from the Hickory Grove Baptist Christian School. He is a young entrepreneur who co-founded a business called "Remuv-It" that specializes in junk removal and recycling. He and his girlfriend have a shared MySpace page.

FLORIDA

Ryan N. Treat is a 1996 graduate of Osceola High School who served in the U.S. Army from 2000-04 where he earned the rank of Sargent. He is currently working as a waiter at Miller's Ale House in Orlando while studying to be a paramedic at Valencia Community College. His MySpace page indicates that he is married and a proud parent.

Two Weeks Since Crash

2007-08-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

It has now been two weeks since my accident (nine days since surgery). Most of the swelling in my face is now gone and my black eye is much less pronounced. Much more white is now visible in my eye although it is still very red underneath my lower eyelid.

I met with my surgeon on Wednesday and he seemed pleased with my progress, saying I should be "looking good" again in a couple weeks. He said that he installed one small titanium plate between my eye and nose to hold my cheekbone in place. He also said to keep my fingers crossed that normal sensation would return to my face.

I am optimistic about my face. I'm still pretty numb in the area extending from the corner of my mouth, to the side of my face (just above my ear), to the bridge of my nose, and down to the center of my upper lip. I think my eye will clear up in a couple more weeks. I started breathing out of my right nostril a couple days ago—the first time I've been able to do so since the accident.

My real concern is my shoulder because it hasn't gotten much better these two weeks. From what I've read, this injury typically takes 12 weeks so I shouldn't be discouraged. Still, the deformation of my collarbone is pretty obvious (especially when you look at how my arms hang down along my side) and it is anybody's best guess as to what I will no longer be capable of with this ailment. I've got another week before I put it to the test by driving again.

Surgery + 5

2007-07-30T21:55:00.000-07:00

It has now been five days since I had facial reconstructive surgery to repair my fractured cheekbone. The swelling has gone down quite a bit now but most of that area remains numb. I'm now feeling pain from other parts of my face and experiencing some headaches. The surgery ruptured most of the blood vessels in my eye causing it to be much worse off than it was, though it too seems to have improved in the days since the surgery. Time will tell how much of this is permanent.

I was told on Friday that I have a Grade III Shoulder Separation but it does not require surgery. The only lasting defect will be that my collarbone will stick up higher than it used to, but I should expect a full range of motion when everything heals. The doctor prescribed two weeks of rest (no driving) and physical therapy thereafter.

$5.20

2007-07-23T21:56:00.000-07:00

It's crazy how the little things we decide to do can change the course of our lives.

Try something as simple as choosing to ride a bicycle over a $5.20 taxi ride. It was that very decision that earned me a concussion, a fractured cheek bone, a separated shoulder, and too many scrapes to count.

On the evening of July 20, 2007, I hopped on a mountain bike and headed for downtown Boise, Idaho. The road was relatively steep, windy, and surfaced with rough pavement sometimes called a "chip seal". I had been casually drinking beer for most of the day. I wore a brand new button-up J. Crew shirt. I did not wear the bicycle helmet I had brought all the way from Seattle...

I don't remember much about what happened. I think I recall being uncomfortable with the speed of my descent. I think I remember applying the front brake... too much... locking up the front tire and flying over the handlebars. Apparently I crashed in the middle of the street after managing to negotiate a turn and avoid a guardrail. Apparently crawling to the side of the street was my last conscious act. The next thing I remember I was on my way to the Emergency Room at Saint Alphonsus. I moved in-and-out of consciousness for several hours as they x-rayed my body and CT scanned my head.

All things considered I was lucky. The only bone I broke was my cheek (a.k.a. Zygomatic) bone, but it was fractured in all three places. My brain seems to be okay. My shoulder is definitely strained but will hopefully only require physical therapy. Now outpatient facial reconstruction surgery awaits on Wednesday...

It's crazy how the little things we decide to do can change the course of our lives.

Six Squared

2007-07-03T20:54:00.000-07:00

Thirty six. That's old enough to have been born and graduated from high school two times over...

Unfortunately, compared to most, I don't have a whole lot to show for my adult 18. Seven of those years were spent taking one test after another eventually leading to two Bachelor degrees. The last ten have been spent working hour-upon-hour for three different companies, Optiva Corporation, HCM International, and T-Mobile USA. Sad to think about how little I made of the time outside of class or the workplace. I'm sure I slept at least half of it. I know I spent a ton of time stuck in traffic, too... I'm averaging 21 days-a-year for my current job which I know is ridiculous.

If there is one great thing that has come from the second half of my life, it's my friends who always treat me better than I am. Not sure what I've done to deserve them. I completely lost touch with everyone from my adolescent 18 until my childhood friend Reid found me last year through the magic of the Internet. I guess that was kind of inevitable given that my classmates really only knew me from school because I lived over 14 miles away from my high school.

I've lost most of my hair now. My left leg is so messed up I can no longer walk without pain. I've lost enough hearing that no matter how hard I concentrate I can't hear what someone right beside me is saying if there's any significant background noise. I'm two inches taller and weigh a few pounds less than I did when I was 18... probably because I'm malnourished having to feed myself most of the time ;)

Today I begin my middle-aged 18... wish me luck.

Bobbleheaded Fans

2007-07-01T15:33:00.000-07:00

It took four games but I finally saw the Mariners win on Friday. It was a good game and was close to the best time to be at Safeco Field... when the weather in Seattle turns the corner toward summer (which it actually did early this year).

Eamonn and I decided to go to this game so that we could get the best of this year's bobbleheads... Kenji Johjima featuring a removable catcher's mask. It's actually a very cool bobblehead but it's crazy how many people buy tickets just for the doll. Only the first 20,000 fans get them so I knew we needed to get to the ballpark pretty close to when the gates opened at 5:05 PM. Traffic sucked and I got down there about 10 after. As I walked toward the stadium I must have passed at least two dozen people headed the other direction with their bobblehead. Some may have been going to put the thing in their car, but I'm sure a fair number were going home. What kind of fans are they?

We learned before today's game that Mike Hargrove is resigning as the Mariner's manager. Kind of strange. He claims to be tired and to have lost the passion, but you don't walk away from a team that's winning unless something is wrong in your personal life. Perhaps he or his wife is battling a serious illness. Or perhaps Ichiro told management that he wouldn't re-sign with the M's unless they got rid of Hargrove. Dismissing him now would give them a month to re-sign him before the trading deadline. Like most things, we may never know the true reason for his departure.

Loggers of Buckley

2007-06-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

Yes indeed. I attended my first Buckley Log Show on Saturday with my friend Jason. I guess you could say it was an experience like no other. We spent most of the time packed into the beer garden with your stereotypical flannel and suspender clad logger types. The garden bordered about a quarter of the actual event "arena" and featured cans of Coors Light for only $2. Didn't really see much until they started climbing the spar poles for the Tree Topping event... also managed to get a pretty good view of the Unlimited Hot Saw competition which was quite the spectacle. These are literally car engines with chain saw blades mounted on them. Once they've got them running, two guys heft them up just high enough to lay the blade on the end a big log laying horizontally. Only two of them were competitive slicing through the tree in less than 2 seconds. One of them actually caught fire about a third of the way through—apparently fueled by the nitrous oxide they were using!

We kept the Coors Light flowing through our livers well into the night at Firehouse Pub. A local band called Black Dog was on hand to perform their own versions of several classic rock songs. I thought they sounded okay but it was loud and I was drunk so they could well have been terrible.

Welcome Back Junior

2007-06-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

I just got home from Safeco Field. Tonight was Ken Griffey, Jr.'s first trip back to Seattle since forcing the Mariners to trade him to Cincinnati in 1999. There was some speculation that Junior would be booed a la A-Rod, but he actually received an ovation as big as any in the history of Safeco Field. I was kind of hoping the M's would use the opportunity to officially retire his number 24 but I guess they're saving that until his playing days are over.

No player has ever screwed the Mariners worse than Ken Griffey, Jr. He demanded a trade while at the same time saying he would only accept a trade to the Reds. The trade brought Mike Cameron and three others to Seattle but an elite player like Griffey and was worth more. To his credit, Junior accepted less money to go to Cincinnati and injuries caused his career to tank since leaving Seattle. I'd like to think that he knew he was becoming more fragile and got out of town to help the Mariners. I know that's a stretch, but I like to think it anyway.

The M's ran a highlight video of Griffey as a Mariner before his pregame speech. The video affirmed his status as the most important player to wear the Mariner uniform. He was a young, talented, clutch performer who was at times spoiled and whiny, but he always seemed to be having fun and it's clear that permanently endeared him to both teammates and fans.

I really hope that when Junior retires and is elected to the Hall of Fame that he is enshrined as a Seattle Mariner. There's little denying that his best years were with Seattle.

There was also a game tonight (if you want to call it that). The Reds crushed the M's 16-1.

Canary in a Coalmine

2007-06-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

Last week, I picked up the new double disc Police greatest hits compilation, simply titled The Police. I bought it to replace the single disc Every Breath You Take: The Singles compilation I got when I was in college at the UW.

People who know me know that I have been a collector of greatest hits CDs for years. In my opinion they are the best value and simply more listenable than your typical 3-hit album. That's not to say there aren't some great albums, but those are definitely the exception and probably soon to be extinct thanks to iTunes and other music download services.

For the Police, I had to decide if the additional 16 songs in the new collection were good enough to justify the duplicate purchase. Of course by now you know that I decided they were. The additional songs are definitely lesser hits, but "Driven to Tears", "Canary in a Coalmine" and the two "Synchronicity" tracks are really good. Plus the new compilation has the original version of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" (the older disc included a remixed '86 version). The audio quality of the new discs is also noticeably better; not a surprise considering that digital mastering has come a long way since 1986. And yet another selling point... no live tracks, just studio recordings!

I'm not sure why but if you ask me my favorite song by any artist it will probably be one of their lesser known hits. I think my favorite Police song is "Canary in a Coalmine" (not a Top 40 hit) followed closely by "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" (reached #3 in 1981).

Escaped from Alcatraz (Again)

2007-06-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, not really. I did the Alcatraz tour last year so no need to do that again. I'm back home from a weekend visiting my sister Kristin down in San Francisco. My mom and my brother Eamonn also made the trip. This time the getaway included a couple lengthy walks along the waterfront to the Golden Gate Bridge, several loops around the Union Street Festival, and a ride on the BART to Oakland to watch the A's play the Twins at McAfee Coliseum.

On our second walk to the Golden Gate Bridge we actually walked up the trail to the south end of the bridge. Kristin and I only made it about an eighth of the way across because her fear of heights got the best of her. I have to admit that it is kind of scary being that far up with only a waist high guardrail between you and certain death. I could have kept going but she was truly afraid so we turned around and headed back. When we started the walk the bridge was partially obscured by clouds but it was almost fully consumed by the time we were actually up there.

Kristin lives in an area known as "Cow Hollow" which is only a couple blocks up from Union Street. The Festival is pretty much like any other street fair or arts & craft show. Mostly people selling their artwork, handmade jewelry, or clothes. They also had a pretty decent variety of food; unfortunately all of it was overpriced. I didn't buy anything other than food.
I've wanted to visit all of the Major League ballparks for a long time now. I visited AT&T Park in San Francisco for a Giants game last year so I wanted to go to Oakland this time around. McAfee Colesium was pretty much what I expected. Lots of concrete reminiscent of the Kingdome. The playing field is huge but well maintained. The thing I enjoy most about the other parks that I've visited is being around real fans. I like the fans beating drums and waving large flags out in left field. And the chorus of "oh no's" that rang out as each of the umpires were announced. We all agreed in advance to leave the game at 8 PM so that we could get sushi at Wasabi & Ginger back in San Francisco. It turned out to be a very fast game in which the end of the 8th inning arrived at 7:50 PM. That's when Kristin decided it was time to go. So we missed the final out even though the game wound up ending before 8 PM. The A's beat the Twins 1-0.

Although the temperature wasn't as warm as last year, it was another nice trip. I still could never see myself living in San Francisco. Too much concrete and asphalt. Too few trees.

Fourth Wednesday... Not!

2007-05-31T18:58:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo! Today is a Fifth Thursday!

I've been on-call for work this week so I've been waking up at 5 AM which is a real drag. Today's on-call shift was probably about average. Pretty quiet in the morning due to a Q2 "All Hands" meeting. Then I got kind of beat up with call outs in the afternoon. The hardest part was dealing with the heat wave and the workers hammering the crap out of my deck while I tried to listen and/or talk on the phone.

When my shift ended at 5 PM, I walked down to 7-11 and bought a lottery ticket to test my luck on this Fifth Thursday. I decided to spend $5 on the newest lottery game which is called Hit 5. I've never spent more than $2 on a lottery ticket before since your odds only improve significantly when you go from zero tickets to one. The drawing is on Saturday and the jackpot is $220,000.

I was already half way there so I walked the rest of the way to Kent Station and treated myself to a Peach Perfection smoothie with an Energy Boost from Jamba Juice. Pretty yummy and very refreshing on this 80 degree day in Kent. It even cost me exactly $5 (after I tossed the spare change in the tip jar).

Even if I don't win the lottery I did have a bit of good fortune. My mom was able to get me upgraded to first class for my flights to-and-from San Francisco this weekend. Even though first class isn't what it used to be, it's still a comfortable seat and two hours of free cocktails.

Got a Washington State Quarter!

2007-05-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

It took me nearly two months but I finally got one of the Washington State quarters in change today—actually I got two ;) I think our state's design is one of the better ones.
Yep, I am one of those people. I store the quarters in a giant map that I picked up for cheap from a closeout bin. I'm really not all that concerned about the condition of the coins (unlike most people who collect coins). Every quarter in the map has been circulated and came to me as change from a random purchase. I've simply select the nicest quarters I've come across for the map. Hard to believe I started collecting these eight years ago.

Only eight more states to go... Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii.

Bubble Boy

2007-05-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

They tore all of the siding off my condo this week. Part of the ongoing work to correct construction defects left by the original builder, Polygon Northwest. The West Bay Homeowners Association settled for somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million but that is not expected to be enough to cover the work required for all 25 buildings. I should be getting hit with an assessment any day now...
It's a little strange. I've now lost the ability to open my windows just as the warmer weather arrived. I can tell that it's day or night, but I can't tell too much else.
I've watched the work progress on other buildings and I suspect it's going to be about 6 weeks before mine will be done. At some point they're going to replace the window at the end of my couch with one that opens. But until then... I'll be the Bubble Boy.

It's Snowing Again in May

2007-05-24T20:25:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the year again when the white, cotton-like stuff is blowing around everywhere. Why is it that I don't remember this crap from 10 years ago? Are the trees that produce it some kind of invasive species? What's weird is that for all of it blowing around you'd think you'd see trees with it dripping from their branches... but I've yet to see a tree that looked like the source. Best I can tell from searching the web, it is produced by a Poplar or Cottonwood tree.

I took this picture along a trail near my home...
Fortunately, I don't think I'm allergic to this fluff. It's still no fun to be inhaling it when I'm riding my motorcycle home from work, or out on a walk around the neighborhood.