Greg

phantom power outage in Eastlake

I had that "something isn't quite right but I can't put my finger on it" experience last night - we had been out at a movie (Ocean's Thirteen - OK, but don't feel like you need to go out of your way to see it), and on our way home something felt off.  Like the power in Eastlake.  It was strange because once some places still had power but most appeared not to have power.  Half of the traffic lights worked, half didn't.  And it was the first time that we've really been at home or awake when the power was out.

Stranger still?  I can't find any mention or explanation of why the power was out, how long it was out for (we know when it came back on but not when the outage started), and how much of the area was affected.  That's right, we were hit by a phantom power outage...

my most recent TSA experience

We just got back from a long weekend in Oklahoma and it started off a little strange - on our way out from Sea-Tac the TSA folks weren't belligerently yelling at everyone in the security line while we were waiting to be checked.  Have they gotten the message that we're pretty annoyed they think 1/4-inch thick flip-flops are harboring a lethal weapon (all the while they didn't check the dagger-like hair-clip of the woman in front of me)?  And that yelling at everyone that "catch and release time is over" isn't helping our desire to respond positively to their questions and requests?  Not that anyone with any intelligence is going to mouth off given that the TSA agents have the ability do deny entrance to the boarding area or request a fully-body search...

The thing that helps calm me down every time I have to go through the search is that a couple of years ago I saw Ted Kennedy in line in front of me having to take his shoes and belt off and go through the full rigamarole that rest of us do.  If a 70+ year old US Senator is treated as poorly as the rest of us, then at least their poor service has to be getting recognized at the congressional level.  Maybe someone will actually do something about it.  Of course, my patience for the checks isnt' really helped by the fact that I accidentally brought my swiss army knife with me to Europe last summer.  In my carry-on luggage.  And it was caught THREE COUNTRIES after my first flight.  Oh well - I hope the nice Italian police man is enjoying my knife and cutting and opening a lot of things with it.

Anyway, back to last Thursday night.  The only words any TSA rep in Seattle spoke to me the entire time was "please step forward" when I was supposed to go through the metal detector.  No "3-3-1" announcements.  There weren't even any pre-recorded announcements taking the place of being yelled at.  Maybe we were all expected to have read up before we showed up to the airport?  Maybe they were all just tired?

the perils of not living on the top floor of the building

I was re-potting our balcony planters yesterday evening due to the destruction of the baskets. While trying to hang the planter back out over the railing I lost my grip on one side of the it.  And so potting soil rained down on our downstairs neighbors who were in the midst of enjoying a dinner al fresco.  Until their dinner became a dinner seasoned with dirt.  I think they may have been just about finished up (or so I keep telling myself), but still, it's not the greatest way to end a nice evening spent outside your condo while eating dinner.  It's probably safe to say we're off their Christmas card list. 

We periodically have the excess run-off from our upstairs neighbors watering their planters, but at least so far they've kept it to water and not showered us with dirt mid-meal.

Summer Concerts at Marymoor

Last night we headed out to Marymoor Park for a Tragically Hip concert as part of the Marymoor Concerts series.  How was it?  Well, it was a great way to spend a gorgeous evening outdoors.  The weather was fantastic (as soon as the sun started dipping down :)), and it wasn't over-crowded.  The beer was even suprisingly reasonably priced. 

What it wasn't was a concert that was nearly as good as when we saw the Hip at the Moore Theater earlier this year.  I think a lot of it was that the crowd wasn't necessarily as engaged.  A lot of people, myself included, were just kind of kicking back and listening and sitting or lying in the grass.  Not standing up and dancing and singing along and so on.  It also seemed a bit less crowded than the Moore, which could be that the venue is bigger or just that it's more spread-out since you aren't in a row of seats packing people together.  There were also probably a few folks scared off by the dire warnings about the heat, and another set of people who go to shows at Marymoor just because they can sit around.  An outdoor version of going to the pub.

Would I go to another concert at Marymoor?  You betcha :)  I just won't expect to be blown away by a musical experience.

Beating the Summer heat...

If you haven't heard, Seattle has been having a bit of a heat wave this week.  And if you haven't heard, it means you aren't local because clearly nothing else is going on in the world if they're able to devote this much local air time to the heat.  It's also the hot topic in the hallways, kitchens and elevators at work.  And on local blogs like Seattlest and MetroBlogging Seattle.

It's times like this that help me realize how much our bodies adapt - after a reasonably short time in Seattle what was once a hot day but nothing to really complain about has been very uncomfortably hot for me.  Which is one of the main reasons we recently aquired a portable air conditioner unit.  If you haven't ever seen one, the best description that I can come up with is that it looks like a reject robot from Star Wars.  A trash-can looking thing with two rubber-hose arms coming out of it.  It's also not the quietest thing I've ever come across...  But it does a fantastic job cooling down the bedroom :)  Last night we had the timer kick it on a bit before we got home and when we got home the room was ready to get into bed.  Excelleeeeeeent.

What else do people in Seattle do to beat the heat?  Head to Alki Beach, apparently.  This week's PubNight was at Cactus on Alki and let's just say we weren't the only ones that had the idea of a nice sunset and a margarita.  I'd recommend everything about the place except for the extremely poor service.  I know that it's a busy night, but that doesn't mean that the waitress needs to repeatedly forget our requests.  Just come by a little less frequently and do what you say you're going to...

Lake Union's Big Day

It's the fifth of July which means that Lake Union's annual "big day" is over - the "WaMu Family Fourth of July".  It's the one day of the year that we have an amazing amount of traffic and parking restrictions in Eastlake.  This year we didn't have a party for the fireworks and instead went over to a friend's place in a new condo building in South Lake Union.  It turns out that because of the height and location they have a better view for getting the full picture view of the fireworks, plus you get to see some of the Elliot Bay fireworks (the "Fourth of Jul-Ivar's").  What you don't get is the same visceral feel of the fireworks where the boom of the fireworks is felt throughout your body.

I didn't really expect to get to use the camera but brought it just in case.  Sure enough, space was available for the tripod and I got some fairly cool shots of the fireworks over Lake Union. 

Some photos are online now, more will come in the next week or so.

a slightly misleading demo experience

I was shopping around for a new PC this weekend and was playing with the ones on display at Best Buy, Costco, etc. and noticed something funny - none of them had UAC enabled (this is the technology that sparked Apple's "cancel/confirm" Mac/PC ad).  I can only assume that a decently high percentage of people are buying their shiny new Windows Vista(tm) computers, taking them home, and immediately wondering why loads of prompts are coming up when nothing they tried in the store caused the same thing.  Or maybe all they tried in the store was solitare and minesweeper?  Is the first thing they learn how to do to disable UAC?

Ummmmm, why is there a helicopter over Lake Union?

For some unknown reason tonight there was a military helicopter was over Lake Union.  Then it would leave.  And come back.  And leave.  And come back.  This went on for a half hour or so.  I even have photos as proof :)  What gives?

Administrativia - Site Upgrade Completed

If you visit the site in person you may have noticed that it looks a bit different - I've finally upgraded to the latest version of the software that runs it.  Please let me know if you see anything that doesn't seem to be working quite right...

recap of a long weekend (and some of the stuff to do in Seattle)

It's been a couple of weeks since the last time I posted here - basically because we've been really busy in work which has translated into being really busy after work and on the weekends.  This past weekend though, Clodagh and I both took Friday off and made it into a long weekend :)

So, what'd we do?  Our goal was to do some "Seattle Tourist" things that we wouldn't ordinarily do.  We partially succeeded when we took a day-trip to Bainbridge Island - I won't call it a full success because we didn't read carefully enough about the Bloedel Reserve and got denied entrance at the gate.  We did have a very nice lunch at the Harbour Public House and a nice walk through the main strip and drive around the island.  Plus it was great weather to be out on the deck for the ferry rides and taking some pictures of the Seattle skyline

What else did we do?  One of the other things was heading down to the CWB's Wooden Boat Festival 2007 - the highlight was probably the Coast Guard's 'rescue swimmer' demonstration.  It looks like that was a one-time thing, but for anyone in Seattle that likes being able to see uniqueish boats, it's a worthwhile use of an afternoon (particularly if the weather is as nice as it's supposed to be for the next few days).

Bunches of photos from both things - a few highlights will be making their way online in the next week or so...