Las Vegas 2009

I enjoyed my first Vegas trip in May. Highlights of the trip: lounging in the desert heat by the wave pool at the Mandalay Bay (our hotel), seeing the Treasure Island show, breakfast buffet at our hotel, riding the XScream at the top of the Stratosphere 866 feet above the Strip, seeing the Las Vegas lights from the top of the Stratosphere at night, riding in a stretch hummer down the Strip (Vegas is awesome), and spending time with five fabulous ladies.

View from the Stratosphere.
MGM Grand lion.
New York, New York.
Ballys, the Paris, and the Vegas strip.

Boston Bound

It's official, I finally booked plane tickets to visit my best buddy who currently lives in Boston. It took me two years to get around to it, but Boston, here I come! I can't wait to spend some quality time with my friend and see the great city of Boston!

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

This morning around 5 AM I woke to intense rolling thunder. Thunder is pretty rare in Seattle, and even more rare considering we were expecting snow to start overnight. I have seen lightning during snow storms a few times - it is an impressive sight - the whole sky lights up like a million fireworks are going off in the thick white clouds.

I woke up later in the morning for work and lay in bed wondering if it had snowed, and if so, how much. My house is a block down from the freeway, so from my bedroom I can always hear the faint roar of cars. It never bothers me since it's such a dull, constant, unobtrusive sound. But this morning I heard nothing. Just muffled silence. Which was one clue it was snowing and snowing hard outside. Then a text from a friend arrived saying "snow snow snow!" That was my second clue so I closed my eyes and drifted back to blissful sleep.
When I actually dragged my body out of bed I immediately looked out the window and saw there was almost two inches of snow and fat flakes of goose down floating from the sky. It's over five hours later and the fluffy flakes are still coming down.
Seattle is both one of the best and absolute worst cities for snow. Since we so rarely get real snow storms, Seattle is totally unequipped - we have very few sanding trucks and plows to clear the streets. Not to mention a lot of inexperienced drivers when it comes to snow and ice (myself included). Add in steep, treacherous hills, it can be a recipe for disaster and chaos. Yet largely as a result of these reasons, as a born and raised Seattleite, I can't help but love the snow.

The holly tree in my yard - it looks so Christmasy with snow!

Almost every instance of a snow storm during in my elementary and high school days meant no school. It meant sleeping in, playing for hours in the snow, snow angels and snowball fights, no homework, eating maple syrup with snow, drinking hot cocoa, and passing out long before my bedtime from sheer exhaustion and excitement. The city shuts down during snow, which means you have to forgo previously made plans and maybe use some vacation leave. But the snow is so beautiful that it's hard to stay mad for long - today I have resigned myself to the snow even though my office Christmas party was rescheduled and I probably won't see my friends tonight. It's hard to be unhappy when the world looks so clean and wintry and peaceful. And, this snow is perfect snowball snow. So... as long as there's no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let is snow!

My Subaru trying to blend in with its surroundings.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I carved a pumpkin for the occasion. Hope you're celebrating or at least eating a little candy corn. Halloween and Thanksgiving are two of my favorite holidays because they are so simple yet absolutely enjoyable - good times with friends and family.

Lake Chelan Wordle

I created a Lake Chelan word cloud (with wordle.net) from my Lake Chelan Vacation post. This one is just for fun - I love how "lake," "water," and "chelan" are huge. I cannot wait for my next opportunity to soak in the sun at Lake Chelan.

Left/Right Brain

A coworker shared this link with me today, and I thought it was really cool. It is a very simple test to see if you use more of the right or left side of your brain. Look at the dancer, what direction is she spinning for you? See if you can get her to change directions. It's pretty trippy when you get her to go back and forth (try focusing on her bottom, almost stationary foot).

Left Brain v Right Brain Test

I see the dancer turning clockwise, as does my dad. Most people I have showed this to see her turning counter-clockwise. This makes me feel kind of special (in a good way!). Though I think I fall in the left brain column for some of the qualities, I think I am right brained as far as: imagination rules, present and future, can "get it" (i.e. meaning), spatial perception, fantasy based, presents possibilities, and sometimes impetuous. I am definitely not a risk taker though. Hopefully my to-do list will help me broaden my risk-taking horizons.

Best Buddies

I am posting this photo simply because I have two amazing best friends. We parted ways after graduating from Santa Clara, and I miss them everyday. Love you girls! Life is not much without friends to share the ups and downs.

Cool Cat

There are a number of cool car shows around the Seattle area. Most recently, I went to the small Elks Car Show in Ballard and the Edmonds Car Show - "Hot Autumn Nites" - on September 6. Another one is the Kirkland Concours d'Elegance, which I missed this year since the Edmonds car show was pretty impressive. I love classic American cars, and like to tell stories of my dad's 1964 Chevrolet Impala SS (same color as the one below from the Edmonds car show) he had when I was still a babe in arms. Some other family cars include a 63 Impala, 66 Caprice, and Pontiac GTO. Someday down the road hopefully I will have my own classic car to cruise on sunny summer afternoons. But for now, marveling at car shows will suffice.

P.S. I hiked Cascade Pass on Sept. 13 - it was amazing. I took 300+ photos so I am still choosing the best photos for my blog post coming soon!

Get in my Belly!

I was reading a review on Yelp of the new Cuban sandwich shop that will be moving into where Gordo's was up until last month (on Seaview Avenue at Shilshole Bay in Ballard). I saw someone's profile that said "I wish I were a picky eater then I wouldn't be so poor." I thought that was funny, and too true for those of us who love pretty much any kind of food except maybe pickled pigs feet. Though I guess some of you might like them too.

Don't Judge a Plant by Its Leaves?

Any amateur or professional botanists reading? Any guesses what type of plant/flower this is?I have lived in my house since October 2007 and so am still discovering the array of flowers, bushes, perennials, and trees that previous tenants or landlords took care to plant. I enjoyed abundant daffodils in springtime, which was comforting during Seattle's long winter. One particular plant, near the car parking strip, looked for a long time like a giant weed, rather like stink weed. Early this July, the plant sprouted gorgeous yellow-pinkish flowers that to me resemble the tropical hibiscus flower. Though I don't know what type of plant it is, I appreciate arriving home to the beautiful blooms each day.

The Joy of Podcasts

So I think I am probably the last person in the U.S., maybe the world, to discover how cool podcasts are. The coolest part being that they are free (at least in iTunes). They also download faster than music and movies. Not to mention there is a plethora of podcasts from tons of radio and television stations available through iTunes alone. So I have been frenetically subscribing to podcasts, including the Best of YouTube, NPR: Story of the Day, This American Life, and more.

My favorite so far is NPR: Car Talk. Car Talk has been around forever (since "dinosaurs roamed the Earth" as they say on their Web site), but I guess I never really paid attention or stopped to listen. But these guys, brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi, are hilarious!

In the most recent Car Talk podcast, they explained in their thick Boston accents that Volvo drivers are generally crazy because they have purchased a Volvo for good, logical reasons and so feel entitled to drive crazily. A lady also called in because her three year old son had stuck a golf ball in her car's exhaust pipe and she wanted Tom and Ray's opinion whether the golf ball could shoot out of the exhaust like a bullet. Apparently, no. This radio show is entertaining, informative, and great for a good laugh, especially if you can listen while working on something tedious that simply has to get done.

Anyone have any podcasts to recommend? And anyone else a fan of Car Talk?

Up Close and Personal

So I am a big fan of the Woodland Park Zoo as you can probably tell already. A few months ago, my mom and I got to go on the Zoo's "Eye to Eye" tour, where we went behind the scenes to feed the hippos and giraffes. I love giraffes, and hippos are pretty interesting animals. We learned that they are responsible for the most animal-related deaths in Africa because they are extremely territorial. Also, their skin contains a natural antibiotic so when they get in fights with one another, the gashes in their skin heal in just a couple days.

Here are two of my favorite giraffe photos we took that day.Chomp, chomp, chomp.

House/Jungle Cat

I visited the Woodland Park Zoo on Thursday, July 3rd. I was lucky enough to get some very good views of the big cats, particularly the jaguar and lions. The big cats have always been some of my favorite animals, starting with cheetahs in kindergarten. My kindergarten teacher loved cheetahs, so we had "cheetah days" where we learned about the fastest land animal in the world (they can run 71 mph) and a face painter came and painted all our faces to look like cheetahs - tear lines and all.

Anyway, as I stood watching the jaguar sleeping just a few feet from me, I couldn't help but think of the similarity between our friendly house cats (Baxter and Tinker, below) and big cats of the wild.Life is hard for a cat.

Sun-Dried Brick...

What is Adobe?

Adobe Photoshop has a feature called "photomerge" (in File>Automate) in which Photoshop will automatically merge selected photos into a panoramic photo. I was on my way to a NW Girls Coalition meeting at Alki Beach, and wanting to try the photomerge feature, snapped a series of photos of Downtown Seattle. See below for some photomerge fun.

On a side note, I met some really interesting and talented women at the NW Girls Coalition Summer Membership Mixer (which I attended for work). One woman worked for a group called Powerful Voices that helps middle and high school girls in the public school and juvenile justice system by leading career training classes and offering numerous girl-focused activities. Another woman (a 2002 Holy Names graduate) works for YWCA Girls First, in which young women meet with freshmen girls after school from selected King County high schools to talk about social justice, racism, sexism, and other issues affecting their communities. Girls First also offers a number of field trips and leadership activities for the participating high school girls. It was a rewarding experience to talk with so many hardworking women dedicated to improving education and quality of life for girls in the Northwest.

Pirates on Elliott Bay!

I took this June 23rd from Alki Beach, West Seattle.

I Couldn't Help Myself...

The Swiftsure at the Center for Wooden Boats.