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.