Greg

no more condo :)

Yep, the sale of the condo has gone through and everything is closed - we're now down to being proud to only own one property instead of two...  I'll have to admit that as things were coming down to the wire and I kept reading the steady stream of articles about the real estate market and the tightening credit situation I had a bad feeling that this was going to fall through and we'd be screwed.  Needless to say it's a bit of a sigh of relief over here in quietville.  Er.  I mean, Redmond.

the last hurrah

Well, not quite the last hurrah, but Friday was the last Fourth of July fireworks that we'll be able to watch from our condo on Eastlake.  There's a lot about living in town, and Eastlake specifically, that we'll miss over the coming months and the ability to watch the fireworks from our own place is definitely one of them...  I'll admit that past years the experience may have been a bit nicer due to having actual furniture and our normal BBQ and whatnot there :)  While we may have been down furnishings and trappings, the view (the important bit for a fireworks display) was same as usual  - now if only we'd managed to convince the neighors to trim that damn tree :)

Gardening Lessons by Greg - part 1 (of a neverending series)

I meant to post this last week, but ended up being a bit out of it this last week and weekend both because work continues to be crazy, and because I got some sort of a bug bite while weeding over the long weekend.  And then that bite got infected :(.  Suffice it to say that I'm starting to think it's the yard's way of fighting back :)

Anyway, I'm back and if full force, so here it is.  Gardening lessons by Greg.  Lesson 1 - Gardening is like the stages of grief.

Stage 1: Denial.  "I don't have to pull those weeds today.  They aren't that big and no one will notice them.  Maybe they're really plants that were meant to be there.  They blend in quite well."

Stage 2: Anger.  "What idiot decided that the lawn needed any planters instead of being all grass?  Why are these bugs attacking me?  Why are these roots so damn deep?  Argh!"

Stage 3: Bargaining. "If I just do this one more planter box, then can't I walk around the corner to find that the rest don't need to be done?  Can't they just last a little longer before the weeds come back?"

Stage 4: Depression. "It doesn't matter what I do - surely the weeds will just keep coming back.  Day after day, year after year.  Soon the whole house will be covered.  It'll be like a house that belongs in the hobbit village or something :|"

Stage 5: Acceptance.  This one could go either way...  Either it really is "OK, I give up.  It's time to call in reinforcements (a yard service)" or it could be "OK, I can use some time for this.  It's probably good for me and I may not ever have the best looking yard in the neighborhood but at least it will be presentable."

The reality of house ownership sinks in...

I wasn't sure how long it would take, but I think the reality of house ownership has hit me.  Not home ownership - that hit me that first full summer of the condo when multiple large kitchen appliances had to be replaced within the span of a month.  No, this is the reality of house ownership.  You know, with all of the extra work associated with a house.  Why do I say this?  One word: yardwork.

Last time I cut the lawn it was a quick affair since I had the mower at the tallest setting and left it in 'recycle' mode (tangent - was I was younger, I'm pretty sure we called these 'mulching mowers'.  How did this all of a sudden become a 'recycling mower'?  What kind of jumping on the watchword of the day is that?).  This time the grass was so long I thought that leaving it there would suffocate the rest of the grass and encourage more fungus.  So, brilliant me decides that I'll just bag the clippings and no worries.  That was great until ten minutes in when the mower had died three times because the grass was so tall and still a bit damp and kept filling the chute quickly.  Some people would be discouraged by this - they may have done yardwork more recently and aren't too naive to recognize the way the next several hours of their life is about to be spent :(.  Or would have thought about how they were going to get rid of the clippings - rather than relying on the smallest "yard waste" container our garbage folks provide.

Let's hope the optimism doesn't dim before we get rid of the woodchip pile (this will make more sense when photos are online).  I have a bad feeling it's going to be a lot more work turning it into a herb & vegetable garden than originally anticipated.  At least I'm planning in advance for trying to keep the rabbits out of the garden rather than realizing it after the fact...

Moving on over... to the eastside...

Yep, after years of derision directed at east side dwellers, Clodagh and I have packed our bags and headed to Redmond where we're now the proud owners of a house with yard and all.  And now a lawn mower.  And, I suspect, soon to be other yard-related tools too.  And many a Saturday and Sunday spent trying to get and keep it presentable.  Have I mentioned neither of us really know anything about a lot of house-related maintenance and/or yard care and gardening?  We seemed to do quite well with small pots off of the balcony though :)  Can you tell what's likely to be the source of a lot of blog posts over the coming summer? :)

How's the unpacking going?  Well, after a week or so here there's not a single room in it's "final" disposition, but at least the set of full boxes is getting smaller and smaller.  And we're now sleeping on a proper bed instead of an aerobed that deflates three times a night.

In the meanwhile, if you happen to be looking for a condo in Eastlake, I might happen to know someone who could hook you up.  Trust me, it'll be "friend" prices and all :)

Conclusions in news stories are right, right?

You can always trust the news right?  They'll give you the straight dope and you don't need to apply a critical filter questioning the source.  No?

Funny thing happened today.  I was on my way home this morning (ironically from the doctor) when I hear a story on the radio about how people concerned about the quality of medicine should be worried about living in Washington because in a new study just released Washington ranked 44th in terms of number of doctors disciplined.  This apparenlty is largely because of some quirks in the laws here that required a higher burden of proof, etc. etc.  You can feel good about going to Alaska where malpractice is taken seriously and they're at the top of the list of this survey.

Fast forward an hour or two and I had the news on while I was doing some work.  Lo and behold I was quite surprised to learn that we should all be feeling pretty good because a new study was out and it turns out that Washington ranked 44th in the nation in terms of doctors disciplined for malpractice - a list where you obviously want to be near the bottom.

Huh.

No. More. Painting. Please?

OK, maybe just a bit more...  We've been doing a lot of painting and whatnot over the last few weeks.  Or, more accurately, Clodagh has been doing a lot of painting over the last few weeks and I've been fairly useless except for this weekend and last weekend.  The good news is that I think we're nearing the finish line and we're looking around saying "why didn't we do this ages ago?".  Once we're done I'll have a serious desire not to do any more painting for quite some time, which is semi-funny for a reason that will be it's own upcoming blog post...

the best laid plans...

I've been slow posting because there's been a lot on lately - primarily in work.  We did get away to Whidby Island for the weekend last weekend and that'll be the subject of a (potential) future post.

Why is this called 'the best laid plans...'?  Well, I had a great plan to boost morale amongst my team at work by challenging them at pool during a recent morale event.  I presumed that since most of them were self-professed to be terrible, and I'd been playing better in league lately, that it may be tight but no worries.  So what happened?  Sure enough, the first game officially part of the challenge and I lost handily :(.  A week's worth of breakfast at our morning meeting on me :(.

Take aways? 

1. scout the competition before you open your big mouth :)

2. find out prices before you order - somehow I just ended up with bagels from somewhere that charges $1.50 a bagel !@#%#  What kind of crazy bakery price is that?  Shouldn't they be ~.50 a bagel or am I just living in the 80s?

administrativia: it's baaaaack...

Yep, the site is back up (thanks to Aaron for letting me know it was down).  Nothing to see, please move along.

Hooray for the nice weather!

I'm sure that every blog that's based in Seattle that you read is discussing the nice weather - but there's a reason for it.  When the weather is clear and you can see the mountain's ringing the area, the Puget Sound area has to be one of the most beautiful parts of the country.  And this early taste of Spring has just reminded everyone about it :)

So, what'd we do this weekend?  We ended up at the dogpark at Marymoor - far superior to the one in Magnuson, which in turn seems to be superior to every other dog park in Seattle.  It always amazes me how well that many unfamiliar dogs get along.

The other big accomplishment (I'm not counting losing twice at Careers as an accomplishment :)) was building out our new home server.  I've been trying to get one going for a while on old hardware that was lying around, and after suffering multiple HW related failures finally gave up and bought some new parts to complete the system.  Why have a home server?  For me the biggest benefit is the automatic back-ups.  I crossed over from where I was a few years ago where I didn't actually have any data that I cared about on my system - now I'd be a bit put out if I lost the gigabytes and gigabytes of photos :(.  This is the first time that I've put together a computer from parts in years (my last two computers were off-the-shelf) and I'd forgotten how satisfying and annoying building one out can be.  But hey, it's up and running and seems functional so far :)

Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.

It's like Yogi sez: "Nobody goes there anymore.  It's too crowded."

There are a few resturaunts that I try to go to occasionally and then am just not willing to wait as long as it takes to get a table.  The Palace Kitchen is in this boat, though they also have the fatal flaw of an uppity attitude "you're lucky to get to wait an ninety minutes to get a table".  No ma'am, I'm lucky to take my hard-earned dollars to another resturaunt with food that's just as nice and actually appreciates my business.

A couple of local resturaunts are regularly busy but are at least friendly about it and keep us going back or trying to go back :).  We tried to go to Sitka on Friday and were told it'd be an hour and a half to two hours before there'd be a table.  But they have an exciting new twist on the old "here's a pager, we'll buzz you when you're up" system where you leave your phone number and then they call you when your table is almost ready.  What a great system - we can head back home or to a larger place where we it's easier to get a drink at the bar or whatever!  Of course, it works a lot better when they eventually call you...  Not sure if my phone crapped out, the tables never emptied, or they just forgot about us, but no call ever came.  Good thing we'd decided to eat somewhere else by the time our "wait time" had come and gone :)

note to self: Mariners Fanfest should be called "Mariners Family Fanfest"

Carl and I headed down to Safeco to check out the Mariners FanFest today - it's an event where you can get a bit more of an inside look of what goes on in baseball.  You can see inside the clubhouse, hit at the batting cages, throw in the bullpen, shag balls in the outfield, hit over centerfield, check out what seats are available for season tickets packages and more! 

That sounds great!  So, will I be going back?  Nah, probably not.  Why?  Well, other than the clubhouse and seeing some of the seats, we really couldnt't have been bothered waiting in the long lines to hit in the cages or to throw in the pen.  And it looked like only kids were allowed to run the bases.  I will say it would've been cool to go to something like this when growing up :)

 Most important realization of this event?  Baseball season isn't that far away :)  Go Cards!

how'd you spend your most recent sick day?

Stayed home sick today - a cold that I've been feeling coming for the last while finally got here in the middle of the night last night.  I hate that feeling when you're not sleeping properly then you're achy and it kinda hurts to talk the next day :(  Hopefully I can go back to work tomorrow... 

So how'd I spend the day?  Well, honestly, I worked for most of it. Brief stroll with the dog so that she could have a "potty break".  Oh, and I confirmed that a) there's not any good TV on in the middle of the day and b) I'm not the target audience for what is on.  Unless I'm suddenly in the market for a "motorized mobility chair" or a bathtub that has a door on the side for easy entrance and exit.  Who knew Ed McMahon still did TV?!?!?!?

weak. coffee. ugh.

Today's kitchen lesson for those of you that don't make coffee often: the strength of the coffee is largely affected by the amount you put in compared to the amount of water.  So if you're really tired make sure you don't do what I did and put in the normal amount of coffee grounds and double the normal amount of water.  Ugh.

 Oh, and since this is my first post in 2008 - Happy New Year :)

the perils of home ownership (part 2? 3? 2^6?)

It's been a long time since I used that post title - I think last time was having to replace the refrigerator because meat was spoiling.  This time we decided to replace the washer because we thought it was contributing to ruined clothes.  Quick zip to the store after some research, install and delivery the next morning.  No problems right?  Except for the leak that started coming from the valve stem unit after the installation.  Which we later figured out was making it's way down to the first floor unit under us :(... 

It could be worse - I've heard nightmare stories of people taking up a bit of flooring or cabinets and all of a sudden having an entirely new kitchen.  This is just a couple of plumber visits and a couple of $10 parts that we hadn't anticipated.