Emo’s 2013 calendar

We made these for a calendar and I couldn’t resist sharing them here.  Which one is your favorite?

Viaduct/Alaskan Way tunnel: part 2

The SR 99 tunnel project has been chugging right along since my last post about it in April.

2012 in review

Although our year has been documented by this blog, I can’t resist the chance for a good summary.

Emo, the Korat cat from the frat

In 2009 we adopted a cat. 

two-letter words: both classy and cheap!

For the last few months, I've been playing Words with Friends on my phone.  The biggest difference from a physical game of Scrabble is the possibility of trial and error.  I often doubt my spelling, so this is quite a boon for me.

Two-letter words are essential to competitive play.  This is a list of the accepted two letter words, with the words I would consider to be legitimate, outside of the game in pink.  

AA

AB

AD

AE

AG

AH

AI

AL

AM

AN

AR

AS

AT

AW

AX

AY

BA

BE

BI

BO

BY

DA

DE

DI

DO

ED

EF

EH

EL

EM

EN

ER

ES

ET

EX

FA

FE

FI

GI

GO

HA

HE

HI

HM

HO

ID

IF

IN

IS

IT

JO

KA

KI

LA

LI

LO

MA

ME

MI

MM

MO

MU

MY

NA

NE

NO

NU

OD

OE

OF

OH

OI

OM

ON

OP

OR

OS

OW

OX

OY

PA

PE

PI

QI

RE

SH

SI

SO

TA

TI

TO

UH

UM

UN

UP

US

UT

WE

WO

XI

XU

YA

YE

YO

ZA

I am not above playing "qi" and "xi," and I recommend memorizing this table!

the Smith tower from season to season

I spend my days walking in circles around the Smith tower. 

Columbia Tower – wow(er)

On Saturday we went up to the Columbia tower observation deck.  The views were spectacular and we enjoyed seeing our current neighborhood and our future neighborhood (the Central District).
north, including the Space Needle and my new hat

we are landed

Jack and I are really excited to say that we now own a tiny patch of land.  It's in the Central District, just east of downtown Seattle.  In a few years we'll be building a wonderful, small, tall house with a western view of downtown Seattle.  

hiking report 1

We've been enjoying hikes in the beautiful northwest.  I don't trust myself to remember where we've been so I'll occasionally track it here.

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/pratt-lake

November 2012 – Rachelle & Cari – We planned on rain and hiked up past where the rain turned to snow.  It was a nice gentle path with parking immediately off of I-90.  I got to use my new thermos.

http://www.hoytarboretum.org/files/6512/9261/1646/4_mile_walk.pdf

October 2012 – Jack & Cari – We saw some neat trees and got a bit lost.

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/mount-pilchuck

September 2012 – Janet, Steve, Jason, Cari & Jack – It was a bit challenging with all the rocks near the top, but on a clear day the view must be spectacular.  We were in a cloud the whole time, so we need to do this one again.  The drive there was not straightforward.  Someday we'll impress Jason with a good view of mountains.

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/wallace-falls

September 2012 – Glenn, Jasmine, Rachel, Hana, Ethan, Cari & Jack – We had an excellent WVC reunion on a nice trail.  We managed to get a parking spot by going late enough (11 am) that some people were already leaving.

July 2012 - Rachelle, Katie & Cari - Somewhere off I-90...   Good company on an uneventful hike.

 

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/hoh-river

http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/hoh-river-trail.htm

July 2012 – Jack & Cari – We camped two nights on the river delta at Olympus and day-hiked to Elk Lake on the second day.  It was spectacular.

 

http://aglie.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html

May 2012 – Jack & Cari – We went on two exploratory hikes and managed to find our way back to camp.  I think we even figured out where we were on the Green Trails map we bought.

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/squak-mountain

May 2012 – Steve, Janet, Jack & Cari – The Mother's day company was good but there was no vista at the summit.

L'automne est un deuxième printemps où chaque feuille est une fleur.

People talk a lot about the beautiful autumn leaves in New England.  They have a point.

Above: Mount Monadnock, NH                                   Below: Provincetown, MA

Now that we've spent our first fall back home in the Northwest again, I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised.  In the suburbs, where we grew up, the maple trees were huge and old and native.  Their leaves were very brown and dull.  I still enjoyed raking them and playing in them, but they weren't at all impressive.

Now that we live in the city, it’s a different world of intentionally planted trees.  Clearly they are planted partly because of their stunning colors.  Jack informed me that the city even has a handy list of approved trees.
I think this has been one of the prettiest falls I remember, partly because I didn't expect any colorful trees.   Here are a few pictures from Seattle and Portland.

The difference between the leaves in the Northwest (cities) and the North East is not quality, but quantity.  Seeing a whole forest of vibrant trees is what’s special about a New England fall, so make sure to go for a hike there, if you get the chance.

escape to Portland

Last weekend, we went to Portland, reveling in the freedom of having a car, a smart phone, a credit card and someone to look after the cat.  I overcame my advance planning instincts and we booked a nice hotel for half-price using priceline in the car, during the drive down on Friday.

We'd both been through Portland before, but had never visited the downtown area properly.  Even if we had visited a lot during high school, it seems like nothing would have been familiar anyway because there's been so much recent construction.

We ate at Little Big Burger, which was tasty and cheap and seemed like a good pick until we both got sick from it that night...  The next day we had some great chowder and beer, including one with this irresistible description.

The transit looked great, but we just walked around downtown, the pearl district and northwest Portland, including 23rd (aka trendy-third).  The city really reminded us of other familiar river cities - particularly Pittsburgh and Providence (RI).

We also did some shopping (no sales tax!) and trend-spotting.  I enjoyed the owls, even if they’re old news.  My friend's upcoming mustache-themed 5k (http://mustachedache.com/) is spot-on with the mustache trend. Jack is pretty sure that holiday octopi are The Next Big Thing.

our ten year high school reunion

 

Last weekend we attended our first high school reunion. I really felt the advantage of marrying my high school sweetheart because it was fun for both of us.  I’ve kept in touch with several good friends from high school but seeing other people in such an organized way felt like a cultural milestone.

I dug out my letterman jacket and we went to the game on Friday.  I think they won and it even rained, for old time’s sake.

On Saturday, the main event was at a bar on Capitol Hill.  I caught up with some old friends and we took some fun pictures.

LEFT: Five couples from our high school.  I realized belatedly that we missed one other couple in attendance and two other couples we are friends with who couldn’t make it.  Interestingly, five of the eight couples I’m aware of involve guys who played baseball in high school.

RIGHT: About half of our group of girls from high school.

As Jack said, you can’t have a class reunion without class and not one, but TWO fights broke out Saturday night. One involved a girl from our class who reminds me of the infamous Snooki (from TV) throwing plates at a guy who wandered in off the street and punched some other girl from our class. There was one well-deserved bloody nose and the blow-by-blow was mostly amusing.

My friend Jessica, who I met in first grade, flew in and we had a great time walking around downtown in the rain on Sunday and eating pho.

In general, people looked pretty much the same.  Due to a pretty dense network on Facebook, I wasn’t really surprised by much.  On the surface, a few people had gained weight but a few people had also lost weight.  Maybe the 20 year reunion will hold more surprises.

greenies win! greenies win! greenies win!greenies win! greenies win! greenies win!greenies win! greenies win! greenies win!greenies win! greenies win! greenies win!

Back in 1997, I was hanging out at the Little League All-Star tournament at Highline East, watching two of the other teams play, before or after our game.  Someone hit a homerun, or a foul ball, and I went to go retrieve it.  Some littler kid, if you can believe it, got there first, and ran the ball back in to the organizers shack.  That lucky 7 or 8 year old was rewarded for his hustle with a prize!  A BOOK!  An absolutely huge, phone book sized book, filled almost entirely with numbers! 


Quite the pair

Apparently this book was so unpopular that, though it was produced in the early spring with the idea of being sold as a primer for the upcoming baseball season, they had so many left that they were trading them for returned foul balls at a Little League All-Star tournament… in July.  Some unlucky sot must have ended up with literally boxes of this book, because not only were they giving them away to terrified 5-year olds, but, at the conclusion of the tournament, all of the players (11 and 12 year olds) got one, too!  Or maybe that was just because we won? Go Burien!

Anyway, since that fated day, everything has been leading up to this.


YES, my fantasy baseball team, the greenies, has officially won my very competitive Boston Architecture fantasy league!  And it was closer than that 7.5 point lead might lead you to believe- my boys really pulled away at the end.  But with such a bad offense (when you have 3 Mariners something is wrong) I am sure glad the season isn’t any longer!

“Greenies” is a Ball Four reference, (meaning amphetimine) which Cari actually thought of… but only after her first idea (team name: Wedded Bliss) was vetoed by me.  I wanted to name it “The Process”
This is actually my fourth year in the league.  Previously I split a team (and the $250 league fee) with a colleague in Boston, to whom I should probably send a Dunkin Donuts card by way of a thank-you  Although some of our prized keepers from last year were quite disappointing (cough, cough Ackley) I was able to trade others for help for this year!  Greenies win!

So, Cari and I are celebrating the $1450 first prize with a bottle of moscato .  Now I can finally say that the baseball stats paid the rent (and then some). 

remembering Grandma S

 

This month, after a brief illness, my paternal grandma passed away.  She was a wonderful woman who was the rock of our family.  She lived her whole life in Washington, had long happy marriage, three sons, a career as an accountant and a full life.  I’m glad I got to see more of her this last year after we moved home.

Seattle anthropology

As I've mentioned Seattle is extremely dog friendly.  Jack's small office consists of three men and a French bulldog named, Cooper.  At our downtown YMCA, I regularly run into a guy who comes to the gym to work out with his dachshund who rides around in what can only be described as a stroller.  I've seen dogs in clothing stores and on the laps of cashiers.

I've just come across a great series about Seattle culture from a local radio station ( KPLU 88.5 ) which answers fascinating Seattle-centric cultural questions, including: Why does Seattle have so few kids and so many dogs?
.
Check it out!

Virtual Travel

(attn: Grandma – do not print this out, it is all pictures, and will look better on the  computer screen)

Sometime during our time in Rome, it became obvious to Cari that I had an advantage over her in navigation.  Sometimes I just knew where landmarks were and how to get to our destinations, when I had no business knowing.  I was forced to concede that although I’d never visited Rome, I had already spent hours and hours scampering around a video game version of it…  The same was true for Florence, Venice, and Jerusalem. 

Since then this blog post has been hotly anticipated (by Cari).  So, I present to you

THE GRAND ADVENTURE ASSASSIN’S CREED MASH UP POST

Assassin’s Creed is a popular series of video games which are set in some of the famous and interesting historical places of the Mediterranean world.  So if you are spending 6 weeks in Italy, chances are that your rout will overlap with the Assassin’s Creed world.  With the exception of Monteriggioni, there was nowhere that we went specifically because of the games, but for most of our time in Italy (and Jerusalem) I had this weird feeling of digital déjà vu.

The above map (click to enlarge any particular image) shows all of our destinations in shades of blue and green… And then the cities which I have traveled to through the magic of Sony are shown with red arrows.   In order of our itinerary, they were:

Florence

Showing that they correctly modeled a surviving landmark isn’t that cool; not as cool as finding yourself just knowing your way around between them, but it is an easy likeness to capture with one image.  Here we are in front of the Santa Maria Novella Church.

If you had asked me about the façade from what I learned in Architectural history class, I would have said that it was a late renaissance addition to a medieval church… but that would have only been partially correct, because here it is in Assassins Creed in 1499 or whatever.  And I trust that they got it right!  Early Renaissance it was!  No research was performed in the writing of this post.

Here is Cari and Ezio (a character from the game) around the back of the Pitti Palace.  No, nothing is exactly the same, but they got the right feeling.

Here’s a view WNW toward the Arno and the Ponte Vecchio.  We took the picture from The Piazza Michelangelo.

Same sort of thing.  The Video Game City is always much smaller than the real city, but it is so much more real than a map.

San Gimignano

There are the steps down to the main square in the center of town.  Scarily Similar.

The well in the center of the square where we sat and ate pizza was a historical FACT, just look at the picture of the game!  The only thing missing from the game were the 3-4 Medieval Torture museums in this small walled city.

Yup

Whoops, I can’t tell which one is from the game.

Monteriggioni

Cari took a day of rest in Colle Val d’Elsa and I walked to this tiny walled city- really the only destination inspired by the game.  It was the Assassin’s HQ, so how could I miss that?   The inside was actually disappointingly dissimilar (with such a small place, I would have though that they could just reproduce it exactly, but they didn’t), but walking up to the south gate felt pretty much the same in real life as it had in the game.

Rome

Yup, they did the Pantheon right.

This is me in front of Constantine’s arch.

Here is the view of the NE corner of the Palatine hill (sadly closed when we were in Rome.  But- it is so similar!  That gets me more than the single monuments (like the Pantheon).

This shows how the virtual version is shrunk down.  The Piazza del Popolo has an obelisk in the center and the double churches at the South end.  The two pictures show the distance between them… but in the game, it’s a little different.

Venice

St Marks Square looking North from the water

Looking East along the South side of the Doge Palace

Istanbul

I actually didn’t play the one featuring Istanbul until after the trip, leaving me helpless as a kitten (of which there were lots) in navigating. 

Here is Ezio and Me in the Grand Bazaar

Valens Aqueduct by night. 

Jerusalem

Here is the Dome of the Rock viewed from the entrance to the al Aqsa Mosque.  The game version of the Temple Mount was smaller, but very similar to real life… probably more similar than it was to real life ca. 1192.

Here is Cari and Altair in front of the Tower of David /Herod’s palace around the Jaffa Gate. 

Looking South from above the Damascus Gate.  I see it. 

Looking from the Armenian Quarter East across the temple mount toward the Mount of Olives.

So in conclusion, Video Games helped me navigate some of the cities we found ourselves in as tourists.  And all the trips which the computer modelers treated themselves to were not entirely wasted.