Showing posts with label Seattle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seattle. Show all posts
Thursday, May 24, 2007
The Northwest's not so wet after all
I came across an article about rainfall in various cities. Apparently, the Northwest isn't that wet after all. The wettest cities in the country are mainly in the Southeast. They don't rain as often, but they do it really well when they do. The first Northwest city on the list is Olympia, WA at number 24. Seattle and Portland don't show up until 41 and 42, respectively. The northwest is well represented in number of rainy days, however. But if you've ever been here in the winter, you know that. The study didn't even get into number of gray days. For any statistics nerds, the actual report from Weatherbill is here.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Lately...
This weekend started off pretty well. We drove up to Seattle for the Mizz's cousin J's 1st birthday party. There were maybe 6 kids and 20-some adults. Lots of food and drinks and birthday cake, although J was not impressed. He especially didn't understand when the whole room started singing the same song at him. I can see how that might be weird.
We stayed overnight in the city and toured the Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park Sunday morning with J and the Mizz. They were mainly interested in throwing rocks into the water. Dad and I had fun throwing rocks too, but we were also aware of some art. It's actually pretty cool. They've built it up so it bridges over a street and a set of railroad tracks and runs along Puget Sound for quite a way.
We enjoyed the time we got spend with my sister and her husband (and J) since we rarely get to see them when it's not at a huge gathering with lots going on or when one of us is in a hurry to get somewhere. And Mizz got to play with his cousin, and more importantly, all of his cousin's toys, many of which are different than his own. Which is way cool.
The ride home became quite a bummer. All three of us had started feeling a little crappy through the weekend, but Franny got pretty sick on the ride home. We had to stop several times while she desecrated the various trees of the great state of Washington with what was left of dinner. I felt pretty bad for her, but in the middle of nowhere, what can you do?
Monday, we all took a sick day. Franny was down for the count, and Mizz had a miserable cold. I wasn't exactly in top form, and although if it was just me, I probably would have gone to work anyway feeling terrible, I was happy to take the day off to babysit. Franny was careful to note that it's not babysitting when it's your own kid, but when both of you aren't doing well, it can feel that way.
Franny still wasn't feeling so well today, but she was improved, so I did make it back to work. Judging by the state of the house this evening, it wasn't such a good day -- not for her at least. It looks like Mizz had the run of the place. He even stuffed the first wrong thing in the VCR this morning. Luckily it was a CD and not a PBJ sandwich. The VCR survived just fine, but the CD is pretty scratched.
It was a good one too. Shishskabob by Fighting Gravity, which has the background music from the underground hit video, Sweeper of Skaville. Luckily, I had already ripped (or per the RIAA, "pirated") it, so I still have the music. Which is cool, as this is one of the local bands from when I was in college, so there're some memories there, and unlike The Dave Matthews Band (maybe the biggest thing to come out of Charlottesville since me), I don't run across Fighting Gravity very often.
We stayed overnight in the city and toured the Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park Sunday morning with J and the Mizz. They were mainly interested in throwing rocks into the water. Dad and I had fun throwing rocks too, but we were also aware of some art. It's actually pretty cool. They've built it up so it bridges over a street and a set of railroad tracks and runs along Puget Sound for quite a way.
We enjoyed the time we got spend with my sister and her husband (and J) since we rarely get to see them when it's not at a huge gathering with lots going on or when one of us is in a hurry to get somewhere. And Mizz got to play with his cousin, and more importantly, all of his cousin's toys, many of which are different than his own. Which is way cool.
The ride home became quite a bummer. All three of us had started feeling a little crappy through the weekend, but Franny got pretty sick on the ride home. We had to stop several times while she desecrated the various trees of the great state of Washington with what was left of dinner. I felt pretty bad for her, but in the middle of nowhere, what can you do?
Monday, we all took a sick day. Franny was down for the count, and Mizz had a miserable cold. I wasn't exactly in top form, and although if it was just me, I probably would have gone to work anyway feeling terrible, I was happy to take the day off to babysit. Franny was careful to note that it's not babysitting when it's your own kid, but when both of you aren't doing well, it can feel that way.
Franny still wasn't feeling so well today, but she was improved, so I did make it back to work. Judging by the state of the house this evening, it wasn't such a good day -- not for her at least. It looks like Mizz had the run of the place. He even stuffed the first wrong thing in the VCR this morning. Luckily it was a CD and not a PBJ sandwich. The VCR survived just fine, but the CD is pretty scratched.
It was a good one too. Shishskabob by Fighting Gravity, which has the background music from the underground hit video, Sweeper of Skaville. Luckily, I had already ripped (or per the RIAA, "pirated") it, so I still have the music. Which is cool, as this is one of the local bands from when I was in college, so there're some memories there, and unlike The Dave Matthews Band (maybe the biggest thing to come out of Charlottesville since me), I don't run across Fighting Gravity very often.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Some More Travel Notes
We eventually got back to my folks' house before we left. We had to return the minivan. That's actually a pretty good vehicle, despite it minivan-ness. Does that make me old or just boring? I got to dig through a bunch of old stuff with Mom and Dad to help with the sorting and packing and such before they move. Over the years I've grabbed or gotten rid of most of my stuff, but I still had a few things there, mostly toys.
Mom and I went through my old Adventure People, our old-school Fisher Price Little People stuff, and my Matchbox Cars. (Incidentally, I've always called them that. Some people use Hot Wheels. I know both are brand names, but are they regionally preferred?) Looking through this stuff, I wonder if we didn't chew on stuff as much or if our parents just didn't like us. Lots of small parts and breakable things, most of which were broken.
Dad and I looked through what was left of our camping gear. Again, I've already taken most of what I wanted, but there were a few things left. It really brought me back to my old Boy Scout days. Some of that stuff seemed cool at the time, but from what I've seen of Firefly's Appalachian Trail gear, camping technology has improved quite a bit. Dad was able to give what we didn't want to some current Boy Scouts, who were apparently very appreciative. I remember using a bunch of stuff that was older than me and now it's my turn to continue the trend. Back to my previous question, I guess I'm old.
Travelling home turned out to be quite an adventure. Due to ice falling off trucks causing accidents, we were much too late to catch our flight out of BWI last Friday. And due to the ice earlier in the week, the best we could do was a three-legged trip the next day. (THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY STORM! Seriously. That's what the papers called it. Slow news cycle I guess. It was pretty bad further in the Northeast, but it wasn't THAT bad around DC. Wimps.) Our second flight out of Detroit (where it was actually snowing) was delayed about 45 minutes for deicing. This meant that after taking 3 different trams to get from one end of Seatac to the other, we missed the hop to Portland. And again due to the ice storm of the friggin' century, the flights were full for several more hours (which wasn't apparently normal). So instead, we decided to eat a few more dollars and rent a car for the rest of the trip. Even with a stop for dinner on the way, we still got home a little faster than if we had sat around the airport trying to entertain the Mizz for hours after he was supposed to be asleep. He slept in that car instead, and we got some quiet time. In the end, we got to claim planes, trains, and automobiles for the trip home, and we've decided that we definitely want to drive to the Family Reunion this summer.
The only good thing about renting the car was that we found we didn't really want a Subaru Forrester after all. That was one of the cars we had been looking at last summer, but after driving one, it's not as cool as we thought. It's pretty noisy, and although it hugs the road like a sports car, you feel the road like a sports car. It also didn't seem to have enough legroom, and neither Franny nor I really need much in that department. Franny was cramped in the front passenger seat and neither of us would have been comfortable in the back seat. It's a fine performing car, but it's not for us.
Mom and I went through my old Adventure People, our old-school Fisher Price Little People stuff, and my Matchbox Cars. (Incidentally, I've always called them that. Some people use Hot Wheels. I know both are brand names, but are they regionally preferred?) Looking through this stuff, I wonder if we didn't chew on stuff as much or if our parents just didn't like us. Lots of small parts and breakable things, most of which were broken.
Dad and I looked through what was left of our camping gear. Again, I've already taken most of what I wanted, but there were a few things left. It really brought me back to my old Boy Scout days. Some of that stuff seemed cool at the time, but from what I've seen of Firefly's Appalachian Trail gear, camping technology has improved quite a bit. Dad was able to give what we didn't want to some current Boy Scouts, who were apparently very appreciative. I remember using a bunch of stuff that was older than me and now it's my turn to continue the trend. Back to my previous question, I guess I'm old.
Travelling home turned out to be quite an adventure. Due to ice falling off trucks causing accidents, we were much too late to catch our flight out of BWI last Friday. And due to the ice earlier in the week, the best we could do was a three-legged trip the next day. (THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY STORM! Seriously. That's what the papers called it. Slow news cycle I guess. It was pretty bad further in the Northeast, but it wasn't THAT bad around DC. Wimps.) Our second flight out of Detroit (where it was actually snowing) was delayed about 45 minutes for deicing. This meant that after taking 3 different trams to get from one end of Seatac to the other, we missed the hop to Portland. And again due to the ice storm of the friggin' century, the flights were full for several more hours (which wasn't apparently normal). So instead, we decided to eat a few more dollars and rent a car for the rest of the trip. Even with a stop for dinner on the way, we still got home a little faster than if we had sat around the airport trying to entertain the Mizz for hours after he was supposed to be asleep. He slept in that car instead, and we got some quiet time. In the end, we got to claim planes, trains, and automobiles for the trip home, and we've decided that we definitely want to drive to the Family Reunion this summer.
The only good thing about renting the car was that we found we didn't really want a Subaru Forrester after all. That was one of the cars we had been looking at last summer, but after driving one, it's not as cool as we thought. It's pretty noisy, and although it hugs the road like a sports car, you feel the road like a sports car. It also didn't seem to have enough legroom, and neither Franny nor I really need much in that department. Franny was cramped in the front passenger seat and neither of us would have been comfortable in the back seat. It's a fine performing car, but it's not for us.
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