Long Overdue Updates

A month and a half without an update.  Certainly not for a lack of things to write about.  

Curling

Curling season ended the first week of April, but over Memorial Day weekend, I went down to a summer bonspiel in Hollywood.  It was a nice way to spend the weekend, and my team managed to nearly win, only losing in the A finals for a 2nd place finish.  Not so bad!  But now I'm definitely done curling until the fall.  

Never-ending Car Challenges

This story could be a 5-page blog unto itself, but here it goes.  I loved my car, a 2001 Nissan Altima, built like a tank, over the past almost 7 years hadn't had a single breakdown, no major expenses other than routine maintenance, and most importantly it was reliable.  Until recently.  Back on Christmas Eve, driving home over the horrendously icy roads, my dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree (festive, right?).  I make it home without any trouble, still perplexed as to what the problem was, though by the indicators, it seemed to be something electrical.   Day after Christmas I decide to drive over to Schuck's to get a new battery, assuming that was the problem.  Just as I get a block from the store, one-by-one every electrical component in my car starts to shut down.  As I pull into the Schuck's parking lot, the car dies completely.  I replace the battery in the parking lot, and the car starts up again, but no difference in the dashboard lights.  The guy there brings out his tester and determines that my alternator is dead.  I had enough in juice in the new battery to get me over to the Nissan dealer, and I got the alternator replaced, and thought all was fine.  Then two days later, I'm at home and try to start my car, and the battery is dead.  I get it jumped and go back to the dealer that replaced my alternator, and they claim the problem was the battery (that I bought new at Schucks).  Instead of messing with it, I had them replace the battery and I would just take the defective battery back to Schuck's.  I tried that, and they hooked it onto their tester and said everything was fine.  Something didn't add up, the chain of logic wasn't there to me, but I went with it.  The car proceeded to work flawlessly.  

Fast forward to May.  First free weekend I'd had in months, I decide to get up and drive to Canada in search of some Olympics merchandise and just a nice drive.  Had a great time, start to head home, when I get stuck in stop-and-go traffic getting out of Vancouver.  After about 30 minutes of the traffic, my car starts acting strange.  Next thing I know, one-by-one every electrical component in my car shuts down.  (Sound familiar?)  Moments later, my car is stranded in the middle of a 4-lane street, in who-knows-where suburb of Vancouver in another country.  Resisting the urge to panic TOO much, I call AAA, which automatically gets routed to the CAA offices in Vancouver who take care of me just as if I were still in the States.  Just as I get on the phone with them, a tow truck pulls up behind me, just passing by.  The nice guy reaffirms the obvious that this isn't the best place to be stuck, and he drives onto a side street, unhooks the car he already had on his tow, and then comes back and tows me off to the side street, rehooks the other car and goes on his way.  At least now I'm not in the line of traffic anymore.  Of course, it's 5pm on a Saturday, and every shop in town is closed until Monday.  The best they can do is send out one of their CAA mechanics, who jumped the car and determined that the alternator was undercharging, but if I kept the revs up on the highway, I should make it home.  Lo and behold, that's exactly what I did.  The next week, I took the car back to the Nissan service folks, who proceeded to find ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH THE CAR.  

For the next 2 weeks, I don't know if it was just my own skiddishness worrying that my car was going to break down on me or what, but my car did not run happy.  I'd get stopped at a red light for more than a minute or two, and the engine would start to rev funny, or something else would make me think there was a problem.  I just didn't trust my car.  I was constantly feeling sick whenever I got into my car, no doubt having mild panic attacks worrying about whether it was going to break down in a horrible place again.  

I'd had enough.  I'd been considering getting a new car for a while for other reasons, but this was the last straw.  So that's what I ended up doing.  I bought American this time, and got a 2009 Dodge Journey with about 12,000 miles on it.  Never heard of it?  I hadn't either, but our used car guy who hasn't led me wrong before knew it was what I was looking for, and I think it is.  Though I have to admit, I miss my Altima, at least I trust my car again.  So it goes.  

Muppets

I previously mentioned the new Jim Henson exhibition at EMP|SFM this summer.  Well, as it turned out, I obviously needed something more to add to my summer schedule, so I am now volunteering there once a week.  What they have set up is a puppet stage where people can use some of their specially-made Muppet-like puppets (in the style of famous rock musicians, of course) and try their hand at what it's like to be a Muppeteer.  The volunteers are staffing that area and basically having fun playing with puppets and helping other people doing so.  For the most part, I'll just be there on Wednesday evenings from 4-7pm.  The exhibit is pretty amazing, and well worth seeing!  

Well, I guess I'm caught up with the major stuff, time for more random blogs in the future. 

Cats

Last night I saw the musical Cats at the Paramount.

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!

Folks, I go to musicals for great music, and usually an entertaining show to go along with it. This show had neither.

The musical originally opened in London in 1981. The music was probably bleeding-edge at the time: almost entirely synthesized. What a waste!

Of course, the plot line... oh, wait, there isn't one. The entire script (with a couple of exceptions) are taken from some poems by T.S. Eliot. Somehow this became a legendary musical still making national and international tours after nearly 30 years. You've got to be kidding me.

To cap it off, it contained the staple of classic musicals, the one thing I abhor more than anything else in musical theatre, the utterly painful presentation -- the 10-minute dance number.

The rest is a waste of space, here's my ratings:

Music: 2 stars - replace the synthesizer with real music and you might make 3.

Technical: 2 stars - entertaining set with lots to look at, but nothing more.

Cast: 3 stars - adept and generally impressive, too bad they were in THIS musical.

Script: 1 star - spare me

Overall: 2 stars - I do not need to see this again.

Updates

I didn't realize it was so long since my last update. Sorry, avid readers... the daily routine has left something to be desired, I suppose. Here comes the roundup:

Curling

Well, I made it home from the Olympic Trials in Denver, and back to the grind. Hard to believe there are only 2 weeks left in the season. Once again, the season flies by and spring should be near. Someone tell the weather that. Fortunately, my teams managed to make the playoffs in both the leagues I play in. We've made it to the semi-finals of the B division on Thursday night, and, well, we're the second-from-the-last seed in the Friday B division, but we have high hopes... to be out early and done. :) What will I do when the season ends? I'll have so much free time.

Huskies

The Huskies finally made it back to the NCAA Tournament. We're a #4 seed in the West Region, but somehow must have drawn the ire of the selection committee with our matchups. Thursday we kick it off against Mississippi State, who made the tourney by knocking off Tennessee to win the SEC Championship. The Dawgs are 5.5-point favorites as far as the Vegas oddsmakers are concerned, but somehow I think this will be one crazy battle. If we get past the Bulldogs, we'll likely match up against the 5th seeded Purdue, followed by the potential rematch with top-seeded UConn... again. I predict that if the Dawgs can make it past Miss St. tomorrow, they'll clear all the way to the Elite 8. I'm not exactly certain how a potential matchup with #2 Memphis would work out though, but at that point, I won't care. Tomorrow's game is key... I'll be taking a late (and slightly long) lunch for the 2pm game. :)

Economic Tips

In these difficult economic times, I have managed to find a fool-proof way to keep costs down. Of course, I stumbled onto this without realizing it when I opened my natural gas bill to find that over the past month I used exactly zero cubic feet of gas. A few interesting things with this... I still pay just over $10 for the privilege of having gas hooked up to my house. Furthermore, I am impressed by the fiery orange glow my fireplace provides when there's apparently no gas flowing into it. Doing a bit of investigation on my own, it's apparent that the dials on the gas meter haven't moved since sometime around the end of January. Sadly, I'm too honest of a person and rather than letting PSE finally figure this out on their own, I called them up. Of course, you get their customer service people who incredulously assume that you're calling up to complain about something and put up their rough exterior. I simply pointed out that "I believe my gas bill is too low." She looked up my account, and began with, "Well sir, it appears in the last month you used... uh... I see, let me transfer you to our meter department." They were of course closed for the evening, and I'll await a call back from them today. Personally, I'm in no hurry for them to fix it at this point, but I have done my duty to promptly inform them of the situation. I am however curious if they will attempt to estimate my usage and backcharge me for the prior month. More to come on that...

Work in the Down Economy

My company continues to coast along... just barely. Reducing fixed costs and financial liabilities seems to be the chief goal, in an effort to reduce or eliminate the need to lay off employees. As we recall back to December, we had a mandatory office shutdown for 1 week between Christmas and New Year's, requiring every employee to take 4 days of paid vacation, in an effort to reduce vacation balances and their associated financial liabilities on the books. Well, yesterday we were informed that in this and next quarter each we will have additional 1-week shutdowns. This time they are a bit more flexible, however, in that in lieu of actually taking the designated shutdown weeks, we have the option of simply using 5 vacation days anytime during the quarter and designating that as our "personal shutdown". (my words, not theirs) As it works out, this won't affect me too much, as I nearly had enough vacation already planned for the next 6 months, with a few days planned in April, and a week in Orlando planned for August. Others I work with are hit a bit harder, as some of them had extended multi-week vacations planned for the summer, and this cannibalization of vacation by the company is wrecking havoc on their schedules. I suspect they'll work something out, but it's a dangerous trend messing with employees' hard-earned vacation time. As it is now, those employees who earn 3 weeks of vacation annually have basically just been told (along with last December) when they must take all their vacation. We'll see how it ends up.

It's in on the P-I (website)

I leave with just a brief memory of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I've actually always been a Seattle Times reader myself, but the loss of a Seattle icon is always disappointing. Strangely enough, my fondest memory of the P-I is the plexiglass paperweight (I guess that's what I'll call it) that my grandpa made and enclosed the P-I headline and masthead from the day I was born. I've wondered where that is... I know I don't have it anymore, so I presume it's in some box or desk drawer at my parents' house. On the one bright side, the Times has assumed a few syndicated bits from the former print P-I, including some of the best comics around.

Denver - Day 7

A late night and an early morning.  I think I got about 6.5 hours of sleep, and morning came around way too soon.  We had the last men's draw this morning, followed by one women's tiebreaker that was necessary for seeding.  At 4pm today we have one men's tiebreaker as well, followed by the 8pm 1v2/3v4 playoffs for the women.  Fortunately, I don't have to work until the 8pm draw tonight, which means naptime is coming up soon. 

And things are getting a bit hectic around here, as NBC just arrived and they're going to start getting things ready to broadcast the semi-finals and finals live on UniversalSports, their new all-Olympic sports station.  You can find it in Seattle on Comcast channel 115, or over the air (if you have digital antenna) on 5.2.  Check local listings for other stations.  For reference, the schedule is:  

Women's Semi-Final: Friday 4pm MST (3pm PST)

Men's Semi-Final:  Friday 8pm MST (7pm PST)

Women's Final: Saturday 10am MST (9am PST)

Men's Final:  Saturday 3pm MST (2pm PST)

I'll be on the ice working the Friday 4pm and Saturday 10am draws, so feel free to look for me if they get bored showing coverage of the teams and I happen to walk by. :)  

Denver - Days 4-6

So busy I haven't had much of a chance to blog updates.  When I've been in the hotel room, it's been mainly to sleep.  But I have a few minutes here so I thought I'd update the past few days.  

Monday was business as usual, working a few draws and finding times to eat and sleep when it was convenient.  

Tuesday was my day to go do some things around Denver.  I started out by heading down to the U.S. Mint and taking a tour.  After going through a fairly intense security screening just to get in the door, we were taken on a short (about 20 minutes of actual stuff to see) walk through a observation deck where we could see the presses churning out pennies by the thousands (through some hefty glass, so we couldn't get our grubby little hands on them).  It was interesting to see the mint in action, and quite a bit of historical coinage and artifacts were on display, but overall I was unimpressed.  The tour was so constrained, there wasn't a whole lot to see and it just wasn't really worth the trouble, I think.  But I did it, so there.  

After that, I walked back downtown to the 16th Street Mall, which is the main shopping street through the middle of downtown Denver.  It's a pedestrian-only street, with the exception of some extremely convenient shuttle buses that continuously travel up and down the street, so you can just hop on and off as you want to quickly get from one end to the other.  Quite impressive.  

I went to the far end of the street, where I found the Colorado State Capitol building.  As it has become one of my quirky trip traditions to stop at every state capitol I come to, I went inside and wandered around the entire place.  Being a weekday, the house and senate were both in session, and I wandered into the viewing gallery to see a bit of the Colorado legislature in action.  They have a partial museum up in the lower part of the dome of the capitol which I went up to see, though unfortunately you can't climb all the way to the top of the dome, there was a viewing deck at the bottom of the dome.  Pretty interesting.  State Capitols are always fun to visit.  

I did some shopping on the 16th Street Mall and worked my way down to the other end of the city and over to Coors Field.  Not much going on there, but it was good to stop by and see where it was.  Finally made my way back to the car and left downtown.  Upon additional recommendations, I decided to drive all the way up to Fort Collins to check out the New Belgium Brewery.  Just a mile away from it happens to be where one of my sisters works.  I stopped by but she had already left for the day.  In any event, I've been on quite a few brewery tours, but the New Belgium brewery tour was by far the most entertaining I've ever taken.  Just a fantastic place.  

Tonight after I finished officiating at the early draw this morning, I drove back to Loveland, just south of Fort Collins, to meet up with my sister and have dinner with her.  It was good, mainly because if I went to Denver and didn't meet up with her, I'd never live it down.  :)  But we had a good time, and then I came back and here I am.  Now heading back over to catch part of the late draw at the trials before finding some more sleep.  Pictures to be posted later, it's always something.

More to come...

Denver - Day 2 and 3

It's been a relatively uneventful first couple of days here at the Olympic Trials.  Getting into the groove and not getting too much relaxing in at this point.  My initial impression that this wouldn't be much of a vacation has been so far true.  I put up a few pictures that I snapped tonight.  Nothing too exciting there either. I'll try to take some better and more interesting shots later in the week.  

This area (Broomfield, CO) is actually quite nice.  I definitely ended up with a winner with the hotel here.  Free made-to-order breakfast every morning (unfortunately, I'm not much of a breakfast person, so it's not exactly the most thrilling feature, and this morning I actually had to be out of here before they even opened), but the biggest advantage is that I'm not more than about 3 minutes away from the ice arena.  Brilliant.  I haven't had too much time to see much else, but expect to make it into the city on Tuesday.  The high altitude hasn't affected me much at all, though fortunately drinking lots of water and staying hydrated I think has helped that a lot.  What HAS bothered me is the dryness.  My hands especially are getting chewed up, and I need to constantly remember to put lotion on them or else they will die.  

Time to get some rest before the 6:30am alarm goes off.  Why is it always that I get up earlier when I am on vacation than when I'm not.  Something is seriously wrong. :)  

Denver - Day 1

Thus begins a series of blogs on my 8 nights in scenic Denver, Colorado.  I'm here primarily to officiate for the US National Curling Championship / Olympic Trials.  I worked the day today then caught a 6:45pm flight, which departed a few minutes late, but other than that was relatively uneventful.  

Arriving in Denver, I was greeted with sub-freezing temperatures.  All indications were that it had snowed earlier in the evening.  So after my luggage finally coming out, I headed outside to catch the shuttle to the rental car place (which is not so conveniently nowhere near the actual terminal).  After waiting outside in the 22-degree or so cold for about 15 minutes, the shuttle finally came and we made our way to the cars.  I ended up with a red Prius hybrid, at least that's what I think I unearthed when I froze my hand brushing off the layer of snow and then scraping the ice off the windshield and ungluing the wipers.  10 minutes later, I figured out how to turn on the silly car and how to use the 50 bazillion buttons and knobs.  I swear, I think this thing is more complicated than the space shuttle, and at night it looks like mission control, with the actual dashboard, plus the whole touchscreen that controls all of the audio/climate control/engine status, and then my life-saving GPS that I threw up on the dash next to it.  Finally we had liftoff, and I zipped out of the parking lot and on my way (getting something on the order of 40 mpg).  So then I had about 35 miles to get to Broomfield, not realizing that the shortest distance between two points involved toll roads.  $13 in tolls later, just after midnight local time I managed to made it to the hotel.  

Now the hotel I got on Hotwire.  If I was going to be here 8 nights, I wasn't going to pay a whole lot a night.  So with my luck, I ended up with an inn just a mile away from the ice arena where the competition would be.  The front desk closes at 10, but they had left an envelope with my room key out front (there are only 16 rooms here) and I made my way into the nice warm room without any problem.  This room is about as nice as some studio apartments.  King-sized bed, sink, microwave, minifridge, couch, gas fireplace, internet... can't complain too much for the $45/night I'm paying when the going rate for the room is about $129.  I'll take some pictures later.  

Well, at this, I need to get up in just over 7 hours.  Day 2 will continue tomorrow with the opening ceremony and first day of competition.  It should be interesting to see the arena all set up for curling.  

The Lion King

Last night I attended the touring production of The Lion King at the Paramount.  While this show has been around for a while now, this is actually the first time I've seen it.  While some shows have brilliant music (which tends to be weighted much more highly in my reviews than other factors), this show definitely had what I would consider one of the greatest theatrical experiences I've seen.  

As I think back to when The Lion King animated movie originally was released--which turns out to be 1994 believe it or not--I can't tell you how many times I've seen the movie over the past 15 years.  I'm pretty sure I have the original movie soundtrack on CD somewhere around, though haven't listened to it in ages.  But if you're expecting the musical to have the same music as the movie, you're partially mistaken.  Sure the big numbers from the movie are still there, but a handful of new material has also been added, which frankly contributes a lot to the musical production.  Obviously the story line is mangled a bit for the stage, cutting out some filler from the movie and adding some new material to tie up the loose ends.  

I so often use the term "theatrical spectacle" to describe shows that may not have the greatest music or story lines, but more than make up for it in the visual stage experience.  This show is the rare package deal, with great music, a reasonable story line, and the show to go with it.  It's no surprise, given that Disney produced the stage show, that the experience is as amazing as it is.  As a connaisseur of the finest theme park attractions Disney has to offer, think of this show as its own 2.5-hour ride that they delivered to the theatre.  

Despite all of the great things I have to say about it, I can't say it's the best musical I've seen, or even one that I'd choose above others to see again if given the option.  In this case, it's definitely a show I'd say everyone should see once, but now I've seen it and don't really need to see it again.  Not that I wouldn't, but I wouldn't be chomping at the bit to see it.  

Onto the ratings...

Music - 5 Stars - The songs were great, and you could listen to them again.

Cast - 4 Stars - Rafiki, Scar and the young Simba were definitely the high points.  

Technical - 5 Stars - The mark of a true Broadway spectacle

Story - 4 Stars - It is what it is

Overall - 4 Stars - But you should see it anyway. :) 

TV Commercial Roundup

It's been a while since I did a roundup of interesting TV commercials.  So once again for the benefit of you Tivo users who may not have seen any of these, here's what you've been missing.  

Now, this is an old one now, part of PEMCO Insurance's "We're A Lot Like You" campaign.  This was probably the first of the series that I remember seeing, which is why I remember it so well.  But here's the twist, I just saw this commercial again today, and they've renamed it "Relentless Recycler."  Other than that the commercial is identical.  Was some obsessive-compulsive recycler not flattered by the commercial and wrote a nasty letter to PEMCO?  Has "obsessive-compulsive" got such a negative connotation that it's an insult?  One must assume...

Premiering during this year's Super Bowl, Jack gets hit by a bus.  No surprise for a company that has constantly thrived on its creative advertising campaigns.  As expected, this latest twist has it's accompanying website hangintherejack.com, and is sure to follow with a whole series of related commercials.  

Another Super Bowl ad, but this one gets credit for a different reason. MacGruber, a recurring sketch from Saturday Night Live parodying MacGyver, broke out of late-night and into the world of television commercials.  Being the big MacGyver fan I always have been, I've found these sketches quite hilarious, but the added bonus this time is the appearance of Richard Dean Anderson himself... and can I just say, MacGyver does not age well.  Oh yeah, and there's some product promoted too, but that seems irrelevant. 

Venturing into the world of infomercials, I hate to give Vince (more popularly known as the ShamWOW guy) any more credit than what he doesn't remotely deserve, but suffice it to say... he's baaaaaaaccckkk!  Yes, this time with SlapChop.  Forget the fact that you've seen this exact product advertised before under a different name.  Ignore the fact that this guy thinks he's the next Billy Mays.  And join with me in hoping this is the LAST infomercial he does.  "'Cause we can't do this all day." And someone can strangle him with that ridiculous headset mic he wears.  That's all.  

Jim Henson exhibit coming to EMP

Opening May 23rd at the EMP/SFM at Seattle Center, Jim Henson's Fantastic World.  As described on the website: 

The exhibition features 100 original artworks, including drawings, cartoons and storyboards that illustrate Henson’s talent as a storyteller and visionary. Among the variety of exhibition objects are puppets and television and movie props, photographs of Henson and his collaborators at work and original video productions, including excerpts from Henson’s early career and experimental films. 

Very cool.  This will definitely be a must-see for me.  Only running for a couple of months, from May 23-August 16th.  Check it out.  

Olympics Tickets = Legalized Extortion

This morning, CoSport, the exclusive US ticketing agent for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, "released" their "remaining" (or so they claimed, at least the tickets they didn't think they could sell as part of "hospitality packages") allotment of individual tickets for the games.  

Almost immediately, the ticketing website was completely bogged down.  By now all of the individual tickets are gone, leaving only the "hospitality packages" to choose from.  

Ah the Hospitality Packages.  So obviously I took a look at the Opening Ceremony package, which consists of:  

• (1) ticket to Opening Ceremony, category A
• (1) additional event ticket "of your choice" (to be chosen from a few underwhelming events that nobody really cares about)
• (1) ticket to the Sunday Victory Ceremony
• (1) pass to the "Hospitality Area" (to eat and drink with all the other rich people who paid too much)

All for the low, low price of Four Thousand Twenty-Three American Dollars.  $4023?!  So if you have 4 people who want to go, that comes to just over $16,000.  YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS!  I honestly believe that you could get a better deal from the ticket scalpers!  

Absolute, certain, no-doubt-about-it, 100% extortion.  On President Obama's route to untangling the mess of the BCS, I might recommend he make a stop at the USOC and see what he can do about money-grubbing ticket brokers.  

Absurd.  

Jury Duty - Done

To finalize the uneventful story, after another hour of waiting, by around 2:45pm, just as I expected, the final case of the day was not needing a jury, so we were all happily dismissed and thanked for our service (in my case, two days sitting in the room).  

If I had anything interesting to add, I would.  But alas, I'm more just tired from sitting around the past two days.  Well, tomorrow we're back to normal.  Thank goodness.  

Jury Duty - Day 2

9:30am - We're still waiting in the jury room to be called up to the courtroom. I have this suspicious feeling that it will be a long long day today.

9:33am - No sooner have I written the last update as we're informed that they issued a continuance on the case, eliminated the need for a jury at this time and we're all back in the general jury pool again. That being the case, this might be a long and boring day today afterall. I can now say that the "very directed questions" on the supplemental jury questionnaire all related to history / experiences with child molestation with strong indications that a long trial might ensue. We'll see what new and improved cases are left on the docket today.

10:00am - And here we continue to sit. Oh the excitement. No announcement yet though just by nature of me saying that I'm sure we'll hear something in the next minute or so.

10:55am - The natives are getting restless. No new news since the break so we're all still sitting around. Though it is becoming a little more active around here. The gentlemen behind me are swapping old jury stories... just like swapping old war stories but with far less death and destruction. I proceeded to do as much work as I could from here, which mainly consisted of following up on email. I wish something would happen too. I left my laptop in the car this morning, expecting to at least be sitting in court all day. Perhaps I'll fetch it at lunch. My iPhone's battery may not hold up all afternoon anyway.

11:30am - Two cases left on the jury docket today.  They thought they'd be ready to call juries before lunch, but now the wheels of justice have turned so slowly that's no longer the case.  So we're out to lunch until 1:30pm.  Fully expecting that at 1:30pm we'll have at least one jury list called, and hopefully I'm not selected. :)  

12:30pm - Went across the street to get some lunch at Chipotle, stopped by my car and picked up the laptop bag, and now I'm relaxing in a very empty jury assembly room working.  It is now I commentate on the privilege of excercising my civic duty.  If only I weren't so busy, I would have no problem at all being on jury duty.  In fact, usually I'm not so busy that I can't take a few days to do it every couple of years.  But in fact, this time it's not the best time at work to not be there, and it's busy.  But my being here is necessary to make sure the system works fairly and as it was designed to in the Constitution.  If everyone who had to work avoided it, we'd have juries of the unemployed and retired deciding cases, and if I were the accused, that sure wouldn't sound like an impartial jury of my peers.  But is it wrong of me to hope, just a little, that I don't get selected for a jury this time around?  That my mere presence in the jury selection pool is upholding my Constitutional mandate?  Is it indeed an honor NOT to be selected?  We'll see.  

1:35pm - Back from lunch, no news is good news?  No announcements, save the lady sitting next to me repeatedly popping her gum and making noise with her little handheld sudoku game.  Do these things not have sound-off switches?!  I digress... waiting for more news of the final 2 jury panels.  Oops, a bailiff just walked in delivering something, that's not a good sign.  And here comes the jury clerk to make the announcement... 35 names this time.  5 names down, 10 names down, 15 names down, 25 names down, 30 down, 35 down!  Not me!  Dodged another one!  One jury panel left to be called, "sometime this afternoon."  All I need is for this to get delayed at least until tomorrow, and it becomes someone else's problem.  Tick tick tick.  

Jury Duty - Update 2

1:30pm - back from lunch and immediately they're ready to call the next juror pool, 50 names this time.  10, 20, 30, 40, 50 names called and I dodged the bullet again.  Yes!  Sounds like that should be the last for the day.  

2:30 - The 50 are finally heading out the door, but wait there's more.  They have one more case with 50 more jurors.  Shoot.  Well, that makes 164 names for the day, and I hardly think I can dodge the last 50.  10 names down, 20 names down, 25 down, maybe I have a chance of avoiding it again!  Nope, juror #26 out of 50.  The 50 seems strongly to imply that this will be a criminal case of some sort, in fact, we get a special extra questionnaire form to fill out for this trial.  Now, I shant make any comments regarding the nature of said questions until after I serve my jury time, however, let's just say the questions were all of a similar nature lending strongly to the subject of the case that we may be a part of.  But fortunately, after collecting said forms, we're informed that they will need time to review them, and we were all dismissed until Tuesday.  We can only assume that on Tuesday we'll have quite the voir dire to whittle us down to what I presume will be 12 jurors + 2 alternates.  If my calculations are correct, only 12 people need to be challenged out ahead of me in line for me to move into the top 14.  Unless of course, I can be challenged out of the pool, THAT would be stellar.  But I wouldn't count on it.  The problem also is that it sure sounds like this trial will last more than a couple of days, which could be a mess.  Oh well, until tomorrow morning.  

Jury Duty - The next adventure

You know what's sad? When you have jury duty so many times that your blog has it's own category for it. Welcome to my world. Mildly senimental having this jury duty at the same place I had it the very first time. Furthermore the wifi Internet access here is just as terribly unreliable as it was 4 years ago. So this blog post is courtesy of my iPhone and the oddly more reliable wireless network.

Here in Kent it's pretty boring, also as it was last time. We apparently have 3 cases on the docket today and that bodes well for abou half of the 200 or so jurors sitting around me. As it works out, about 10am they called 2 case pools of 34 and 30 jurors each. I'm 0/64 so far. But I am still here hoping that perhaps they'll soon call the third group then send the rest of us home for the day. That would be nice. Of course either way could be a win if I'm lucky. Luck isn't usually on my side.

11:10am - No more cases before lunch.  We're released now until 1:30.  2.5 hours, I think I'll just relax a bit and do some shopping at Kent Station and maybe find some lunch.  More updates later.  

Seattle Symphony 2009-10

Today the Seattle Symphony announced their 2009-10 season schedule. Just like the holidays, it seems like this happens earlier and earlier each year. Looks like another season of good concerts, this year celebrating the 25th anniversary of Gerard Schwarz as the symphony's Music Director.

[As an interesting aside, on the second page of this year's subscription brochure there's a photo montage of Schwarz over the years, which I've replicated here, left-to-right from top, his first year back in 1983 "young", 1988 "dorky", 1992 "serious", 1998 "intense", 2001 "Dan Rather", 2005 "profound", and finally 2008 "old".]

As usual there are some concerts that on first look seem to be the "not-to-be-missed" of the season. The Seattle Pops series, once again led by Principal Pops Conductor Marvin Hamlisch, kicks off in September with The Fabulous '50s, followed by December's Holiday Pops Spectacular this year featuring Cirque de la Symphonie. The rest of the season includes a tribute to Stephen Sondheim, an appearance by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and finally highlights from The Music Man. Yet another amazing season lineup.

On the classical front, highlights include December's "Swan Lake & Festive Holiday Classics" slated to include The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Prelude to Hansel and Gretel, Smetana's The Moldau, in addition to Tchaikovsky's Suite from Swan Lake, among others. Additional concerts of note include Beethoven's 5th in April, and numerous other classics. (What isn't a classic, these days?)

Season subscriptions are on sale now, single ticket purchases will begin in September. Hard to believe we're already thinking out to the spring of 2010, I thought we just hit 2009. Fortunately, having not received most of the Olympics tickets I requested, maybe I'll support more of the symphony this year. It might be more satisfying in the long term.

Wanna get away?

The bad economy is yours to gain, if you've got a little vacation time to throw around and can scrape up a few pennies to fly somewhere.  Airfares are about as low as I've seen them in, well, as long as I've cared about going places.  Now admittedly, if you factor in the $15+ most airlines will charge you to check a bag, it's probably only as good as some previous steals of deals, but it's still pretty amazing given the current economy.  

Southwest Airlines currently has 50% off all flights to/from Seattle.  Which can make some deals downright a steal.  Southern California or Vegas from about $65/each way, Bay Area for about $47/each way (with taxes that comes to just $115 round trip).  Or to the East Coast (D.C. rated in at about $211/RT all-in).  As noted on the website, book by 11:59pm PST today for travel through May 31st.  

Amazingly enough, there are actually some other airlines deals which are already even better than the 50% that Southwest is offering.  Seattle-Birmingham as low as $135, Orlando around $200, or anywhere else you care to travel is downright cheap through April.  This is the time to go somewhere.  

Now I just need to figure out where I want to go.

Blog Roundup

My blog articles tend to all come in groups, today is no exception. So you get three completely unrelated items of interest today:

Inauguration Excitement

Well, yesterday was probably the most excitement and fanfare I've ever seen for a Presidential inauguration. Being a big fan of the pageantry of such events, I'm always excited to watch these things, but this was even more exciting than usual. Most of my office gathered in a conference room to watch the webcast. Though I did find it somewhat funny that we were requested not to send out an e-mail about it, but we could still do it. I think some people don't understand now that the Inauguration is not political, it's patriotic. Democrat or Republican, like him or not, Obama IS the President of the USA. If you're an American, he's YOUR president. There's nothing political about it. You respect the position, even if you don't agree with the man in it. The same goes for the recently-departed President Bush. Like him or not, agree with him or not, he was President, and you show the position the respect it deserves. Somehow, I think so many people don't share my sentiment in that regard. But I digress.

Of more interest to me was the musical piece performed by Perlman, Ma, McGill, and Montero right before Obama's swearing in. This was a new composition by John Williams, "Air and Simple Gifts," borrowing the classic shaker melody most popularly used in Aaron Copland's Appalchaian Spring. Music geeks of the world unite in enjoying this, not only because it was great, but because it's nice to see John Williams write something that doesn't sound like everything else he writes. :)

Husky Stadium - To Fix or Not To Fix

Now, I'm biased. Having spent literally thousands of hours in Husky Stadium over my college and post-college career, I've been in every ominous corner of that stadium. From the terrifying restrooms, to the press box with its long, narrow hallways seemingly hanging by a thread from the roof. And if I didn't have such a sentimental attachment to it, I'd probably be saying "why bother?" But my journeys have also taken me to dozens of other college stadiums around the country, and I can honestly say few if any rival the gameday experience at Husky Stadium. As such, I'm greatly concerned with preserving that in any stadium improvement plan. Imagine my surprise when I found the latest artist rendering of a "new Husky Stadium" (above). It's spectacular! They took the rundown look of the current stadium, and wrapped it in a beautiful new layer. But it still LOOKS like the Husky Stadium we know and love. Absolutely amazing. I can only hope the UW can scrape up the money to make it a reality.

The Unit

And finally, I don't think I've fully extolled one of my newest favorite shows on television: The Unit. I started watching it this season, only to get hooked and find out this is Season 4! Where have I been the last 3 years?! In my own defense, its first season was a mid-season replacement, with only 13 episodes, and its third season was cut short by the Writer's Strike that left it with only 11 episodes. But for Christmas, I was fortunate enough to receive the first 3 seasons on DVD in order to catch up, and last night finally finished them to get me all the way to this season. What a spectacular show! If you've never seen it before, I highly recommend it (Sundays at 10pm on CBS). One nice thing is that it follows a semi-serial format (as did one of my other all-time favorites The West Wing), where story lines do continue throughout the season, but each episode individually contains its own distinct plots that wrap themselves up nicely by the end of the episode, so you don't have to worry about having not seen previous episodes in order to keep up. (Lost and Battlestar Galactica could take a lesson in that. One of the biggest reasons I've never really picked up either of those shows.)

And that's all the news that's fit to print for now.

I love the Olympics... slightly less than I used to

For as long as I can remember, I've always loved the Olympics.  Two weeks every other year when the likelihood of calling-in sick to work goes up exponentially.  The pageantry, the competition, the 24-hours of always having something great to watch on TV, even if it's delayed or rerun.  

Think of how excited I must be to have that biennial spectacle taking place a mere two-hours away from where I live!  I can actually GO see events live!  And maybe, just maybe, I can score some tickets to the Opening Ceremony, historically the most elaborate and exciting event there is to see!  Then, watch that excitement get shot down when we learn of the dirty reality of the Olympics and their ticketing process.

Ron Judd, in his Seattle Times Olympics Insider blog, provides his rant and background on the ticketing process, and it's enough to give you bad dreams.  Don't read if you want to keep your visions of the Olympics as the "Disneyland of Athletic Competition."  The truth is, as with anything else, money drives the whole thing.  

It's no surprise that demand would outpace supply for tickets, especially for the bigger events.  I'm not just a bitter fan who requested Olympics tickets (that I'm fortunate enough to be in a position to "afford" though even that's questionable) and was almost completely denied.  Really, it's the process that I find appalling.  I requested tickets to several events, including the Opening Ceremony, but received only one of my requests for some curling tickets (though my credit card is quite relieved).  The so-called "ticket lottery" appears to be nothing more than a way for CoSport to offload a ridiculously small amount of tickets with the appearance that any Olympics fan could get some tickets.  

As always, now the ticket scalpers, whether professional or just "Joe lottery-winner" who happened to get their hands on a few high-demand tickets, are turning them around at what can only amount to a ridiculous markup over the already ridiculous markup they paid for the tickets in the first place.  It's enough to make my stomach turn.  

Maybe I am a little bitter about it.  But I really just wish there was a more fair and honorable system to it all, one that wasn't driven by greed but by making an honest effort to provide anyone interested the chance at reasonably attaining tickets to attend a part of the Olympic experience.  

Will it stop me from watching the Olympics?  Of course not.  But I can't say I feel the same way about them that I used to.  And who knows, maybe my proximity to Vancover will allow me to capitalize on someone trying to dump some tickets at the last-minute at a reasonable price?  I can hope.  On the bright side, the Opening Ceremony will probably look even better on TV anyway... yeah, I will at least pretend to believe that.  

Updates!

Well, it's been a long and eventful holiday season... one that has had countless situations I've been intending to blog about, but never the motivation to do so.  Trying to summarize all the way back to the snow will be a challenge, but I'll try to give you the highlights. 

Christmas was good.  The traditional family gathering on Christmas Eve was postponed due to the trecherous driving conditions and snow, but I did make it down to my parents' house for the day.  My car performed admirably, until on the way home after dropping my sister off at her house, a mere mile from my house, the lights on my dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree and I knew something must be wrong.  But more on that later.

Christmas Day the entire family came over to my house.  It was a nice day, despite even more fresh snow falling in the morning.  I took my morning to shovel out a couple of parking spots on the street, and then everyone showed up for the day.  Lots of food, good times, not much to complain about I'd say.  

Day after Christmas, it was time to address the car issues that I knew were going to be a problem.  Determining that there was some sort of problem with the electrical system, I considered the distinct possibility that my car battery needed replacing.  The battery was original to the car, which is now about 8 years old, so it's reasonable to assume it's time to be replaced.  Driving over to Schuck's, I made my way through the slushy mess that was the street, and as I was a block away from the store, heard my engine begin to sputter, as one-by-one each electrical component in my car began to shut down.  Pulling into the parking lot, the car died completely, not to start again.  With the help of some folks, I was pushed into a parking space, where I proceeded to buy a new battery and replace it there in the parking lot, as the snow began to fall again.  After finishing that, the car started up just fine, though the warning lights on the dash remained.  The worker at Schuck's brought out a tester, and determined that as I had suspected likely, my alternator was certifiably dead.  On battery power alone, I managed to get my car driven over to the Nissan dealer just 20 blocks away, where I had taken my car before to solve the great Window Regulator Debacle.  Of course, as I attempted to pull out of the parking lot at Schuck's, my tired got stuck in the slush, necessitating me pulling the shovel out of the back seat and digging out the tires again.  But at the dealer, they took my car and I found my way to walk across the street to the transit center, grab a bus to get me within 1.4 miles of my house, where I proceeded to walk home through the snow.  Later found out that I had both a dead alternator, and a cracked radiator hose (no doubt from driving over some ice that jabbed into it).  They fixed them, and the next day I paid $750 to get my car out of hawk, and all was well.  

My week off from work was reasonably enjoyable, though I did work a couple of days to stock up on some comp time, and New Year's was also fun.  Then we come to last weekend, where my comp time came in handy as I took Thursday and Friday off to be Chief Umpire for the USCA West Regional Curling Qualifier for the Olympic Trials.  As my math works out, I was at the curling club for about 65 hours over 4 days, but had a good time for the most part.  Met lots of great curlers from around the country, and despite the average of about 6-hours of sleep each night, managed to enjoy myself.  

And now, after a month where I had so little downtime it's hard to remember the last time I took a night off, I have a night off.  But I leave you with this random rant:  

Do the legislators in King County have anything better to do than pass these ridiculous laws requiring calories information posted on menus in all restaurants?  There is nowhere I can go without seeing ridiculous information I have no desire to know, let alone care about.  I do not want to know how many calories there are in my large curly fries from Jack In The Box.  All it makes me do is go "hmmm, that's interesting" and proceed to order them anyway.  Knowing fast food is bad for you didn't stop me from eating it before, so why would I stop eating it now that I see this (admittedly large) number posted on the menu.  As far as I'm concerned, the only number I should see on the menu when I pull up to the drive-thru window is the one with a dollar sign next to it.  

So listen to me King County.  I'm going to thank you.  Not for trying to use numbers to try to dissuade me from eating foods that might be bad for me, but for giving me the power to use those numbers to know exactly which foods I WANT to eat.  From now on, I'm going to religiously look at those calories numbers, and know definitively that the higher the calories, the tastier and more satisfying the food will be.  And that's what it's all about.  

Winter Wonderland

Continuing my photo journey... here's some pictures:

Looking down my wintery street...

At least, I think there's a street there somewhere...

December Snow

Snow... in December... in Seattle... that doesn't happen!

More pictures of my Christmas lights in the snow

Christmas Lights

I guess I've reasonably finished decorating the house for Christmas. Since I promised to post a picture, here's the outside of the house. If you want to see the inside, you'll have to stop by and see it. :)

Holiday Pops

Last night I went to the Seattle Symphony's annual Holiday Pops concert.  This being the first one since Marvin Hamlisch became the principal Pops conductor this year.  What a concert!  I always have claimed the holiday pops concert to be one of the best of each year, and this year was far and beyond better than any past.  I think what makes Hamlisch's pops concerts standout so much is that it's more than just a lot of great music, it's usually much more of a stage show.  As is usual, there was a sing-a-long portion, which the entire audience was implored (er, required) to stand up and sing it out.  And, as always, the music was spectacular.  Benaroya Hall was packed, and at the conclusion after the encore, the applause wouldn't stop, so Hamlisch comes out for one final bow, and this time drags the concertmaster off the stage with him.  :)  Even more so than usual, next year if you make it out to see one concert, this is the one that is a must see! 

I thought I was done decorating...

... until I stopped by Lowe's on my way home tonight to pick up some purple Christmas lights, and found that starting today all of their holiday decorations are 50% off!  AND they had purple, gold, green, blue, red AND white lights... all at $1.20/each on sale.  Let's just say, I stocked up big time.  And bought a whole bunch of other Christmas decorations at half off, AND I get to enjoy them before Christmas!  

Excited, excited... AND more excited!!  

Time to put the tree up! 

Weekend Update

Back to work, and time to take a few moments to update on the activities of the past weekend.  

Wednesday we got out of work a bit early, as is the standard operating procedure around here the day before a holiday weekend.  It was a very good thing because it gave me a chance to make it to Safeway (which was crazy) and then home to bake cookies for Thanksgiving.  Of course, I neglected to purchase one key ingredient necessary for the cookies... butter.  That required me to take a nice walk the 2 blocks from my house to Safeway to pick up some more, but on the brighter side, pretty much every cooking / baking product was on sale, so I stocked up!  And the cookies turned out, well, different than usual and I'm still trying to figure out why.  But I actually liked them better!  Just as tasty!  

Thursday I actually slept in a bit, which was nice.  I got up though, and did some work around the house before I went to catch the ferry to my cousins' house on Vashon Island.  Part of the reason for the delay was that Andrew was coming into town to visit (and to spend Thanksgiving day with my family) so I was waiting for him to get in from the airport.  He rented a car and drove up to meet me at Fauntleroy.  We were originally going to combine into one car and drive over, but once we saw how long the lines were and how easily parking was, we just parked there and walked a block to get onto the ferry.  My mom and uncle drove down to the Vashon ferry dock and picked us up.  It worked out well (and we saved the extra $10 by not taking a car on the ferry).  Thanksgiving was nice as usual, with the whole crazy family.  Food was great, nothing to complain about, it was all good.

Friday Andrew left to drive over to Richland to visit one of his brothers, and I went down to FW to visit the parents.  We proceeded to unpack all of the Christmas decorations from the garage, and I went through and found what was mine / what I wanted to take now that I have a house of my own to decorate.  Now I just have to put the decorations up... hmmm.  But that was fun.  Went to dinner with my parents and then eventually headed home.  On the way home though, my sister called and was heading out to check out the new Snoqualmie casino with a few of her friends.  I wasn't wanting to either stay out late, or spend much money, but I did want to see the new casino in the middle of nowhere, so I joined them, where I proceeded to stay out later than I wanted to, but on the bright side, made a killing and won about $525!  Not a bad way to start the holidays.  :) 

Saturday morning I went up to help out with Christmas decorating at church, before heading home to do some Christmas decorating of my own.  Yeah, like that actually happened.  That was the plan anyway.  I managed to do about as little decorating as I could, before I decided I was still tired and it was time to take a nap.  Later in the evening Andrew made it back from his trip, and we decided to go get some Mexican food for dinner at Chevy's in Lynnwood.  Little did we know until we arrived that Chevy's went out of business!  SO disappointing!  I still have a craving for chips and salsa now.  But we went over to the Old Spaghetti Factory instead and that was mildly satisfying.  

Sunday I went Christmas shopping with my sister.  We were very productive, after going to Alderwood, Costco, and finally ending up at Northgate, we had taken care of Christmas presents for mom, dad, both sisters, and the niece and nephew.  It was a big win all around!  Now I can just worry about a few other Christmas presents and I'm done, almost a full month before Christmas, and let me tell you, that's a first. :)  That night after I got home, Chris and Jonell came over and we had pizza, while waiting for Andrew to get back from his afternoon/evening with some other friends.  Of course, he was later than expected, so we had pizza and hung out without him. :)  As expected, he arrived about 15 minutes after C&J left. 

Monday I took the day off of work, and it's a good thing.  Andrew helped me put up Christmas lights on the outside of my house, which currently looks pretty awesome, if I do say.  Though I am slightly unimpressed with some of the LED lights I got because they just look too... what's the word... freakish.  I used them to outline around the door of my house, but they really just look out of place among the rest of the regular non-LED lights I used on the trees and bushes.  I think I'm going to do a bit of reworking some of it and limit the LED lights to the shrubs where they might be a bit less obtrusive.  But first, I must point out that in this city it is next to IMPOSSIBLE to find purple lights.  I think everyone buys them up and I can't find them anywhere.  OK, so the only place I really have looked was Target, I do mean to look elsewhere eventually, but whatever.  I'm sure it won't be so bad.  But I need about 4 or 5 sets of them, so hopefully it isn't too hard to track some down.  Spent the rest of Monday hanging out with Jonell and Andrew, before he caught the red-eye out last night to head home.  

Now I'm back to work, pretty tired, and oddly hungry even though I shouldn't be.  Maybe I need a snack, but it's nearly lunchtime.  Either way, I should work.  

Muppet Whatnots

Freakin' awesome:

http://www.fao.com/catalog/boutique.jsp?parentCategoryId=98&categoryId=793

They'll name a street after him someday...

Ever wonder where some of these street names in the city come from?  Sure, some of them are obvious, but others maybe not so much, especially for we younger generation who may not have been around the city for as long as some.  So I decided to do a little research and found some interesting stories that really tell a bit of Seattle history.

Royal Brougham Way - Few can go to a Seahawks or Mariners game without seeing a loss crossing Royal Brougham.  I, for one, have always wondered "what's a royal brougham?"  Imagine my surprise when I realized the question should have been "Who?"  He was a sportswriter for the Seattle P-I for nearly three-quarters of a century, and a local legend.  Appropriately, the street running next to, at the time, the Kingdome was named after him.  Fascinating reading:  "The life and times of Royal Brougham"

Edgar Martinez Drive - Fortunately for those of us who have been around Seattle in the last decade know Edgar Martinez.  In 2005, the city took the street just south of Safeco Field and renamed it after the man who spent his entire 18-year career with the Mariners.  

Denny Way - It's hard not to find references to Denny throughout Seattle geography and landmarks.  The Denny Party, led by Arthur Denny, sailed to Alki Point, before eventually relocating to Pioneer Square around which would become the city of Seattle.  Denny Way, though, was named after his younger brother David Denny, who staked claim on the north end of the settlement.  Also members of the Denny Party?  William Bell who claimed the area now known as Belltown, and Denny's brother-in-law Carson Boren.  Later joining them?  Henry Yesler and Thomas Mercer.  

Office Excitement

The biggest, most exciting thing that's happened around our office in years is about to happen...

... that's right, after 5 1/2 years working here and having next to zero food options around our building, other than a couple of over-priced delis, or a long walk to Taco Del Mar...

... a Subway is opening right across the street from the building on Westlake.  

It's glorious.  It's spectacular.  That Subway is going to get a LOT of business. :)  

Now everyone's walking down the hallways doing the $5 Footlong hand gestures.  OK, maybe not, but that'd be hilarious.  I think I might start that. :)

Paint the Town - Leg 7

And without further ado... we're off on Leg 7.  Who will be eliminated next?

Looks like we'll be staying in India for a while longer.  First off to a big apartment complex, to find the next clue... what the heck?  

Roadblock - Holi Festival - Run thorugh a bunch of powdered paint-throwing locals having fun and celebrating and find your clue.  What a mess.  Hilarious though... and colorful!  Oh no, Starr doesn't want to smear her makeup too much.  Whatever.   Oh wow, the paint throwers seem to have gotten more and more aggressive with each successive racer.  And ONCE AGAIN the Divorcees misread the clue and make it much harder than it needs to be.  No wonder they're divorced.  And human tie-dyed.  We can only hope the next stop on the race is a shower.

Detour:  Bleary Eyed or Teary Eyed.  Count numbers on electric lines, or haul bags of dried chilis and grind into chili powder.  This is a toss-up.  Both seem incredibly hard. 

In the Speed Bump for Ken and Tina, their penalty for coming in last in the previous leg, they have to help serve holy water to all of the temple goers.  Easy, but time consuming task.  And hopefully it consumes enough time, because I'm becoming even more sick of these two and their incessant bickering. They now have to make it back to the detour.  

Off to the Pit Stop.  

OK, let me take a bit of a sidetrack here.  It seems to be they used to have a bit more puzzle-like challenges throughout the race.  These days it's nothing but physical challenges with really simple things that must be found.  This either says something about a lack of creativity by the producers after 13 seasons of this, or a lack of intelligence by the racers.  :)  

"Nick and Starr, you're team number 1!"  again... and you win a fabulous trip to Hawaii! 

Toni and Dallas, mom and son, team number 2.  

Back to the action... the Divorcees and the Frat Boys are still counting numbers, and both are failing miserably.  The Divorcees perhaps would be slightly more productive if they actually GOT OUT OF THE CART AND WALKED instead of being lazy.  AND the Frat Boys offer to work together, and the Divorcees DECLINE saying they'd rather work alone.  These two are quickly surpassing Ken and Tina on my "need to be eliminated" list.  And then Ken and Tina help the Frat Boys figure it out.  Good karma points there.  

Andrew and Dan are #5 - that leaves only... Kelly and Christy, Team #6... and they are eliminated.  And I'm not the least bit disappointed.  Onward!  

Car-in-Green Delhi - Leg 6

Just 2 hours before tonight's episode, I'm finally getting around to watching last week's episode.  Here we go...

n-1 teams remain... who will be eliminated next?

And all teams are headed to Delhi, India.  Dallas and Starr trying to flirt, how touching.  

Welcome to India.  Lots of horn honking.  Animals walking down the highway.  Traffic.  Roadblock.

Go Green - Paint the tram Green, after masking the yellow parts with newspaper.  Don't worry, the producers have obviously paid these guys enough money to fix any of the bad paint jobs the racers do.  And Ken and Tina are so lost... because Tina couldn't stop talking. 

Off to the Ambassador Hotel.  Looks fancy, but it's also the middle of the night by now... and the frat boys have taken the lead.  But somehow they got lost, and the siblings made their way there first.  

Detour:  Launder Money or Launder Clothes.  10 Rupee notes adding up to $780... so some quick math, not knowing exactly what denominations I have to work with would be... 7 $100's, 1 $50, 1 $20, 1 $10. I'll presume that works.  

What was that again?  I believe Tina just said "Si" to the taxi driver.  Sorry, wrong language, Tina.  

Baha'i House - is the pitstop.  Will this week finally be a non-elimination leg?  Who knows, but Nick and Starr are Team #1, and each of them won an electric car!  Well that's pretty cool.

OK, I'm sick of Ken and Tina, probably almost as much as they're sick of each other.  Too bad the frat boys are still trying to iron clothes at the detour.  This looks like a close finish, but I suspect it's less close than it appears to be.  NO!  Andrew and Dan are team #5!  

I take back everything I said... i hope this is an elimation leg... PLEASE be an elimination leg!  Ken and Tina you are the last team to arrive.  NOOOOOOOOO... they stay in the race.  There will be a speedbump on the next leg of the race, that only they must perform.  Well, I can only hope the other teams stay ahead of them.  We'll see.  

Rock on... and in another hour, we'll have Leg #7. 

Random Update

A week's worth of updates crammed into this space now:

Saturday night went and saw Bill Cosby at Benaroya Hall.  I don't think I've seen Benaroya that packed in recent memory.  Certainly there are some rather full symphony concerts, but not usually like this.  I must say, Bill is looking a bit old, but sounds just like he always has.  The show was basically Bill coming out, sitting in a chair, and telling stories for 2 hours.  It was uproariously funny, in that Cosby kind of way, since he is indeed the master of just telling stories in a funny way.  It was definitely worth seeing him live.

Those who know me know (or for all I know I've had a rant somewhere in this blog at a point in the past) that I have had a long standing stance that I need my cell phone to do one thing:  make calls. I've held similar resistance to the iPod and everything that comes out of Steve Jobs over-enthusiastic mind.  Well, friends, I've crossed over to the dark side.  The allure of Apple engineering has bitten me, and over the weekend I got an iPhone.  Once the price no longer became a determining factor (and my sister offered to buy me one for my birthday), I really had no excuses left.  And I must say, this phone really is as cool as everyone says it is (and as I've found by playing with other folks phones).  

Election mayhem is finally over.  And the excitement of election night was definitely worth it.  I don't think anyone fully expected the post-election Obama-mania that happened seemingly everywhere on Tuesday night.  But really what made me more excited is the initiative and proposition results.  Tim Eyman's horrendous initiative failed handily 60/40, though I'm sure Tim's already got some way to spin that into a moral victory for him and his supporters.  In response, his next initiative will be to support changing the state constitution to require only 40% support to pass initiatives, which he will call a "super-minority".  Look for it next year. :)  More excitingly, Prop 1 for Sound Transit is leading with close to 60% support.  Light rail will stretch to Northgate, Bellevue, and almost Federal Way by 2020.  Now, I guess that's 11 years from now, but hey, by then who will really want to be driving in that mess?  The one thing we can count on next year, another 0.5% sales tax in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, bringing most parts of King to 9.5%, except restaurants which already have an extra 0.5% tacked on (in KC only) which will make dining in restaurants in King County hit the magic 10.0% Sales Tax threshold.  That's the small downside to big transportation projects, which I think is actually worth it.  But yeah, cost of living is high here, but still not as unreasonable as some states.  Only California, Arizona, and Alabama have higher sales taxes on some items, all of which also have state income taxes, and Alabama is the only state that does not offer an exemption of sales tax on groceries.  Personally, I'll take our sales tax without any income tax, thank you very much.  

Finally, I give a hearty endorsement to my new favorite streaming internet radio website:  Pandora Radio (www.pandora.com).  You create your own radio station by telling it what artists/songs you enjoy, and then it finds other songs with similar characteristics to create a radio station of all the music you enjoy (or might enjoy) without the crap you don't want.  If you like a song, give it a thumbs up and they'll find more like it.  If you don't like a song, give it a thumbs down, it'll immediately move on to the next song and you'll never hear that song again on your station.  Brilliant and worth checking out.  

That's all the news that's fit to print for now. 

Broadway at the Paramount 2009

The Paramount announced their 2009 Broadway Season last week, and it looks like it should be another interesting one:  

The Lion King (February/March) - I missed this last time it was in town.  By all accounts this will be a Broadway spectacle beyond all measure.  Looking forward to this one.  

Cats (April) - This is a one-week engagement, not part of the regular season.  Another I've never seen, but tempting to get tickets to this one since it is indeed a Broadway classic now.  

Frost/Nixon (May) - Every so often they throw a non-musical play into the mix, and this is the most recent.  From the synopsis:  "Direct from Broadway, Frost/Nixon tackles the question:  How did David Frost, a famous British talk show host with a playboy reputation, elicit the apology that the rest of the world was waiting to hear from former President Richard Nixon?"  Tony Award nominated, should be interesting, if also from a historical prespective.  

RENT (June) - Yet another return engagement, but this time Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, from the original Broadway cast, return to reprise their roles.  I always say this is a must see everytime it comes to town, and this is definitely no exception.  

Wicked (September/October) -  Returning again after just two seasons ago, but this time for an entire month.  This received an "unconditional 5 out of 5 stars" in my previous abbreviated review, and you absolutely must see this when it comes to town.  If you don't like it, there's something wrong with you.  

August: Osage County (October) - Highly praised, yet I've never heard of it.  Probably because once again, it's not a musical.  Read your own reviews.  

Fiddler on the Roof (November/December) - Numerous classic songs in this, from "Tradition" to "If I Were a Rich Man".  Hard to argue with this one as another great one.  

Should turn out to be a heck of a season, I'd say.  

Boring in Cambodia - Leg 5

When we last left the race, we were in New Zealand... 7 teams remain, who will be eliminated next?

I'm thinking we're reaching the point where we'll have a non-elimination leg to spice things up a bit.  Either way, I'm thinking some twist will happen on this leg... but I've been wrong before.  

6:03am - Ken and Tina kick off the leg heading to Cambodia.  

8:19am - Terrence and Sarah - over 2 hours behind to start the leg.  

9:32am - The Divorcees - another hour behind...

10:15am - Mom and Son depart...

11:34am - Nick and Starr depart, her arm is fine, despite the drama of the last leg.  

12:44pm - Frat Boys, 6+ hours behind the first team.  

3:04pm - Aja and Ty - 2:20 behind the next to last team.  

Quite a stretch between teams, but I'll expect that they'll all bunch up again before the next pitstop.  

Terrence and Sarah are pulled over by the cop in New Zealand, going 117km in a 100km zone.  Just hearing the cop say you were going 117 was oddly hilarious.  But they should be back to catch the 1st team on the same flight.  

And as expected, all but the last team will arrive in Cambodia at the same time.  This is going to be quite a stretch for Aja and Ty to catch up... but you never know.  

Boring boring boring... blah blah blah... OK, seriously, these ASU frat boys obviously did not choose Arizona State for the education, ehem.  

Detour:  Village Life or Village Work.  Pick up 3 items and deliver them to the dock.  Or find 2 fish traps and deliver the fish to the dock.  OK, this is an interesting cultural view of Cambodia, but still rather boring.  

Roadblock:  search the Angkor Wat temple for the chamber of echoes.  Wow, this would be fun, if only you knew where the heck you were going.  Very cool.  Now it's a race to find Phil.  

"Nick and Starr, you are team number one!"  As expected, they're right in the race.  I believe this was another case where the video editing made the race seem closer than it really was.  It looks like teams 1-4 were relatively bunched together.  5 close behind. The frat boys somehow managed team #6, and as expected, the deficit was unsurmountable and Aja and Ty are going to end up the last team to arrive.  And though I didn't expect it, they were indeed eliminated from the race.  

In the epilogue, we find that Terrence and Sarah will be assessed a 30-minute penalty to start off the next leg for their little speeding incident.  

I'll rate this leg of the race a C.  Seeing Cambodia was fascinating, it's not exactly a tourist destination you always hear about.  But the elements of the race itself... zzzzzzzzzzz.  

Birthday Recap

Well, yesterday was my birthday, which most people know means very little to me.  Everyone's excuse is "but you're one year older," to which I respond "everyday I'm a year older than I was a year ago."  

But that's not to say I don't appreciate all of the birthday greetings I received.  It's always nice to see everyone come out of the woodwork who you rarely hear from otherwise.  

In other news, my company gave me a birthday present yesterday too... a 5% salary cut.  In an effort to cut costs and prevent layoffs, they decided to cut the entire company's salaries 5%.  This actually was a reasonable solution, and they handled it well, but it still sucks.  In addition, they are going to be raising our health insurance rates, and the office will be shutting down the week between Christmas and New Year's, forcing all employees to take 4 days of vacation.  I guess that's not so bad, I've got a lot of vacation I didn't have major plans for anyway, so it's not such a big deal, and it might be nice having December 24-January 4 off as a sort of winter break.  I haven't had one of those since college!  Maybe I should make some fun plans that week.  

Last night to celebrate my birthday, I went curling as usual.  Had a good time though.  All does seem to be well in the world.  

But so far my Friday has been less than stellar.  I hope it improves.  

To the Land of Phil - Leg 4

8 teams remain... who will be eliminated next?  Time to leave La Paz, Bolivia.  

More drama between between the Divorcees and the Siblings during the pit stop.  Seriously folks, spare me.  And we're off to Auckland, New Zealand... now that's a long trip from Bolivia... and one that's sure to put all 8 teams essentially even to start out the leg.  

I immediately sense that this is going to be a rather boring leg... because there's a lot of wasted time just getting to the airport.  Aja & Ty exhibited the first "relationship breakdown" we saw so far, but looked just like a little sleep-deprived frustration.  Nothing too bad.  If the producers had to squeeze every ounce of drama out of that, things must have been pretty peaceful around. What it must be like to be one of the cameramen whose only job is to videotape every teams most dramatic conversations.  Must be quite the experience.

And wow, that flight to New Zealand took all of about 5 seconds.  Impressive video editing. Ah, and we're back in rental cars with the teams driving around and getting lost... oh, and the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car, nice.  Aja and Ty got a flat tire... too bad.  

Untie the Gordian Knot to find the next clue... the summit of Mount Eden... AND we have a Fast Forward option:  go to the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere and climb this maintenance ladder from the top to the VERY top of it.  Nice.  I'd totally go for that... as long as I was in first place.  

Roadblock to find the warrior with the tattoo that matches the picture.  Ha.  Not as easy as it looks.  But not so hard.  

Has anyone else noticed how many times the teams have to get their clue from someone who pulls it out of their pants?  

Is it just me or are the roadblocks not nearly as difficult as they've been in the past?  Usually there's at least one that's physically demanding or a scary challenge, but we've just had some pretty bizarre mental challenges for the most part.  

THE GNOME RETURNS.  In its first appearance of the season, Travelocity's product placement of the Roaming Gnome becomes the next challenge.  Use binoculars from the top of a building to find a roaming gnome somewhere in view, and THEN go and get it.  This is a big challenge.  One of the better ones using the gnome.  I think we'll call this a new route challenge, the Gnome Hunt.  Because really, that's almost always what you have to do... find the gnome in some bizarre way or other.  It's like a lifesize Where's Waldo? puzzle.  

Oh yeah, the blondes are STILL trying to find the Gordian Knot and untangle it.  So, when the rest of the teams were doing this challenge, it was the middle of the night, and now the blondes are doing it in the day.  I'm pretty sure they're a LONG way back.  It's these other teams' race to lose now.  

Ken and Tina successfully captured the Fast Forward, and got to take a helicopter to the pit stop... not bad for transportation!  :)  And there's Phil on the magic carpet... and only appropriate with Phil in his homeland of New Zealand that joining him as the local ambassador is... Phil's Dad! Hilarious!  

Back to the rest of the racers, who did not fast forward:

DETOUR:  Matter of Time or Matter of Skill.  Stomp kiwis, make juice, and then drink a glass.  Hmmm, can't say I've ever had the honor of enjoying a glass of kiwi juice.  Matter of Skill has to assemble a blowcart and ride it... whatever.  Giant lifesize puzzle.  Who cares, let's go back to watching the teams meet Phil's dad, that's more fun. 

Starr thinks she broke her arm after crashing her blowcart... ow, that looks painful. 

It all comes down to Aja & Ty, and the Blondes... both of which must be at least 5 hours behind the other teams, based on my assessment of the amount of daylight left (which by now is zero).  Aja and Ty are shocked to come in 7th.  As Marisa and Brooke arrive on the magic carpet crying, Phil's dad looks like he has tears in his eyes too.  And they get a hug from Phil's dad.  How cute.  But alas, they are eliminated.  

I admit it, I was wrong.  This actually was a really good leg, probably the best of the season so far.  Now I'm kinda excited for next week.  

Didn't I Say "Remember the Clues"? - Leg 3

When we last left off, we were in Fortaleza, Brazil.  

Apparently some pit stop drama kept the excitement going in the meantime.  Rarely do they show anything that happens from the time the teams hit the mat to when they start the next leg, but apparently some drama between the divorcees and the siblings was too good to pass up.  This could get ugly.  But that's what the race is all about, I think.

Off to La Paz, Bolivia.  Once they arrive, they have to find the morning paper to find their next clue hidden in the classified ads.  Well that sounds like it would be easier said than done.  :)  

Terence and Sarah just realized that all the other teams are out for themselves, and that this isn't a popularity contest and they need to compete against the other teams.  HELLO?!  If you're just now realizing this, you have NO right to be in this race.  Seriously?   What did you expect, the Miss Universe pageant? 

La Paz is high altitude, so the endurance factor may be important here.  Though how will that affect the airhead blondes?  Only negatively, no doubt.

OK, so the classified ad says they need to go to a hat store and buy a hat.   They also have made it very clear that you must hold on to your hat.  (I presume this will be required at the pit stop or before.)  I will guess with certainty that some team loses a hat and get some sort of penalty for it.  Let's see.

Detour:  Musical March or Bumpy Ride.  Collect musicians and form a band, or ride a wooden bicycle and go down the cobblestone streets where you need to.  U-Turn ahead, forcing a team to go back and do the other detour.  Oh the advantage of being first here.  Though if these teams are smart, they won't use the U-Turn.  With this many teams, if you're in first you have no need to.  One team took a cab when the rules specifically stated they couldn't.  I sense another potential 30-minute penalty enforced at the magic carpet. Oops, they figured it out, and they're heading back to the start to do it on foot.  They might have been better taking whatever penalty they were assessed.  

Collecting a marching band along the way, awesome.  If I were in this race, I'd have a hard time not choosing the musical march, even if I thought the bumpy ride were faster, which I think it is. But maybe not so much.  That was a funny detour.  The Divorcees are having a bumpy road on the bumpy ride, if only because they can't seem to ride a bike.  

And the U-Turn, Starr wants to U-Turn the Divorcees, which by my estimation would effectively guarantee their elimination.  But Nick disagrees, and they avoid it.  

Mom and son managed to pass the divorcees in last place.  Oh, but it's a roadblock.  Fight a girl.  HA.  This is a stretch and kinda stupid.  I don't care if it's cultural or whatever, it's dumb.  ...  I take that back, that was funny... once, but not any more than that.  

Pit stop... Ken and Tina arrive first!  This isn't much of an exciting finish.  Except that I must have missed the fact that one of the other teams also took an illegal taxi to the detour.  Mark and Bill incurred a 30-minute penalty, they were the second-to-last team to arrive, and due to the penalty they were eliminated from the race.  I have to say, there have been a fair share of time penalties throughout the seasons of the race, often resulting in a loss of position, but I can't recall a previous time where the penalty directly resulted in elimination.  

Next week should be interesting.  

Things that surprisingly annoy me

• People who pronounce "taco" like "TACK-o".
• People who use "u" instead of "you," "r" instead of "are," and "thx" instead of "thanks" outside of a text message or IM.  
• People who use "heart" as a verb.

Vacation Wrapup and The Week Ahead

Without much trouble we made it back home from the islands, and never have I been more pleased to have 50 degree weather and a distinct lack of sun.  :)  Unfortunately, now I have a half dozen things to do in the next three days, not counting getting back up to speed with everything going on at work.  Running down the highlights of the calendar:  

• Tonight I need to make my way over to the curling club to meet my Thursday night team who wants to get some practice time in so we might be able to win a few more games this year.  Should be fun, hopefully I'm still awake by then.  
• Tomorrow I have a meeting for the Husky Band Foundation, followed by the customary pop culture trivia night at Jillian's.  That'll be fun and a nice break from work, but unfortunately, all these other things have to be done too.
• Friday kicks off the curling season with, of course, the league I manage.  So as usual I've got the next two days to figure out who all is planning to curl on Fridays, get a rough idea of how the teams will be all organized, and hope that nothing falls through the cracks.  Looking at my recent registration lists, I can see that there'll be plenty of the usual last minute people who didn't see fit to register early, and I'll have to shoehorn them into the roster in some capacity.  Why can't everyone in the world be more organized?  Seriously...
• Saturday I volunteered to help out with another curling open house, so I'll be back up there teaching folks how to curl again.  At least that'll be fun and fortunately with the Huskies bye this week, I don't have to worry about juggling that with a UW football game. :)
• In things without an allotted time, I need to do laundry from my trip sometime.  
• I need to figure out what Vancouver 2010 Olympics tickets I want to put into my order.  I've got about a month to figure that out, but I want to iron it out sooner than later, mainly because it's fun and it'll be cool to plan what I want to try to get tickets for.  How exciting.  And how ridiculously expensive can tickets to the Opening Ceremony be?  Oh, anywhere from $700-$1300 each.  Ouch! 
• Any number of other things I've forgotten.  What a week, what a week...  

Closing out the Week - Days 6 & 7

Sunday was a day of recovery.  We all had originally planned to get out and do things, but instead decided to spend the day around the house, playing in the ocean, and actually cooking and eating some of the food we had bought.  It ended up being a spectacular day.  

Monday Carley, Chad, Maija and myself made our way down to Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial.  Last year when I was down here, I was too lazy to wait around for 2 hours in order to do the film and trip out to the memorial, but today we arrived around 11am and got tickets for 1pm.  That gave us 2 hours to leave and go over to Hilo Hatties to procure some fine Hawaiian merchandise before grabbing lunch at McD's and making our way back in time for the 1pm entrance.  

By the time we made it out of Pearl Harbor it was about 3pm and we decided to just head back to the house, having accomplished everything we had planned for the day.  We picked up some last minute provisions at the store before getting home to relax a bit then start making dinner.  We managed to use most all of the food we had bought at Costco, and everyone seemed to enjoy it all.  

After dinner, and making some BBQ smores, we took some time to do some tidying up around the house before we leave tomorrow morning.  I still need to get some packing done tonight, but besides that I think we're pretty much ready to go.  A successful and restful week of vacation is nearly complete.  

I think my internal clock will be a bit askew for the rest of the week trying to get to work on time, but thankfully I tend to adjust better traveling east than west, so I may be OK afterall.  

Aloha and Mahalo.  

Remember the Clues - Leg 2

[I'm writing this one as I'm on my own Amazing Race... well, with one destination: Hawaii.  I think I'm in the lead, but I haven't been able to find Phil and the magic carpet yet... ]

We're in Salvador, Brazil.  We're flying to Fortaleza, Brazil.  Brazil is big.  I think someone should have to take a train or something.  But apparently not.  

"I can't control everything and I want to control everything," says Starr... sounds like my sister too.

Terence... totally drama.  Rarely is the guy drama, but in this case it's definitely so.  Oh, I think Sarah is drama too, so maybe they're a good team.  

Wow, Ken and Tina made impressive work convincing the airline to switch the early flight to a bigger plane so there's more space.  I don't think I've seen that happen before.  But the airport drama is even bigger as now Tina believes that they should be first on the plane because they're the reason everyone's on the plane.  "What's fair is fair."  Hmmm, last time I checked, just because I check in first doesn't mean I board first... well, unless I'm flying Southwest.  "DING!  You are now free to race around the world."

OK, point of order... in Brazil, they speak Portuguese, not Spanish!  Save the three words of Spanish you know for a country where they might actually understand you.  I'm sure you'll hit one sooner or later.  "RAPIDO! RAPIDO!"  Seriously?  Every season I think I make my Rapido rant, and this is the first, and probably not the last.  

Doom Buggies across the sand... then detour..Beach It or Docket.  Maneuver a heavy boat across the beach, or search a shipyard for a specific container you're looking for.  In this case, I think Beach It is probably going to be faster usually, but I'd totally do Docket because it sounds far more fun.  The Southern Belles meant to do Docket, but went to the Beach It because they apparently couldn't follow the GIANT signs that said "Beach It" or "Docket".  Too bad for them.  And the other blondes attempted to do Beach It using the Docket instructions.  Wow, the producers have outdone themselves this season.  

Mark and Bill are total geeks.  Anyone who can speak Yoda better than Yoda himself... 'nuff said.  However they ARE the only team to choose Docket.  

As we reach another commercial break, and I'm watching live so I can't fast forward, I reflect on the amount of team drama this season.  Maybe that's just because the other teams aren't featured much yet, because they aren't doing anything stupid. :)  I tell you, friends, especially in the early legs, the Amazing Race is NOT WON BY SPEED.  It's won by NOT DOING STUPID THINGS!

And the first road block of the race...  find the name of your next destination on the giant wall.  This one's just plain tricky.  But smarts and creativity prevails, as the nerds write down every name on the wall in hopes one is right.  Success!  Other teams think too hard.  This is brilliant work by the producers, because everyone is starting the race thinking that these puzzles will be complicated and tricky, and this one's nothing more than simply reading off the wall until you get it right.  

Ken and Tina are separated... seriously Ken should run as far away from Tina as he can... but that's for after they get eliminated.  Despite it all, they find the magic carpet first and are team number 1.  The geeks come in right behind.  

What a mess.  Phil seems to be enjoying the mayhem.   Teams 3 4 and 5 arrive at practically the same time.  5 teams remain.  "I don't mind playing dirty as long as I'm the one who benefits from it," says Nick, but successfully the siblings come in #6.  Yeah, remember that when one of the other teams benefits from it.  :)  

Finally we reach... Anthony and Stephanie... who were as unmemorable as their elimination is.  We'll see you at the finish line with the rest of the losers.

It's odd that these first couple of episodes have been much more focused on team drama than having many actual race elements.  I guess that's expected considering the teams are still new and we have much to learn before we completely start hating them.  Hopefully they get the race moving before too long or I might get uninterested like I did last season.  For now I'm still entertained.  

The Wedding Day - Day 5

Saturday finally brought about the reason we all came here, Nick and Christie's Wedding.  Those of us spectators enjoyed a nice morning at home, and managed to catch the first quarter of the Huskies terrible performance before heading down the street to the wedding.  

I have to admit, this is the first beach wedding I've ever been to.  The weather cooperated, as we were just out on the beach behind the house Christie's family had rented, and it was slightly breezy with occasional clouds shading us from the sun.  The ceremony was rather quick, and quite nice, but I think we were all glad to get out of the hot sun once it was over and made the drive down the island to the reception.  

The reception was at Ko'olau Golf Course, which also has a large conference center/ballrooms connected to it.  Everything went perfectly (at least as far as I could tell) and everyone had a great time.  

They say a picture says 1,000 words, so go look at the pictures and I'll space you rest of the words.  

What has become a tradition at most of the Husky Band-related weddings I've been to in recent memory, as the evening wears on and the glasses compound on the table, my attempt to fashion a musical interlude was once again successful.  This time though we managed to get it on video for everyone's enjoyment.