jenk

I'm kind of assuming I'm retired at this point, but still have my rut.

Example 1: Exercising at least 3 times a week, using treadmill, hand weights, and body weight. This is made more complicated by poor lung cooperation (like, staying in 'aerobic' mode more than N minutes doesn't work) but I persevere.

Example 2: Making use of my county library card to check out ebooks. The Libby app lets me download books to my phone or tablet. Often I can read in the Kindle app or Libby's; I generally prefer Kindle for copy/paste purposes. Agatha Christie published 66 novels under her own name, plus short stories, some other books as Mary Westmacott, and a few travel books. Kerry Greenwood is still writing Phryne Fisher books, plus a contemporary series.I've also dabbled with Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and other authors (I already owned all of Dorothy Sayers mysteries.) SFF reading includes Ann Leckie, Octavia Butler, John Scalzi, and Mary Robinette Kowal.

Example 3: Silly tablet apps like June's Journey and Lily's Garden.

Example 4: Checking on how much power our solar panels are producing and when will the electric utility recognize we have sent power to the grid.

Example 5: Household maintenance like laundry, cleaning, and other chores.

What's up with y'all?

Wonderful, good music, good fun. Yay for days off. *snore*

FYI, it looks like downtown Seattle traffic on Tuesday is going to be a bit hairy. In particular, there will be a parade down 5th Avenue from the Space Needle to the Pine Street.

Altogether, some 12,000 members of the Lions Club — known best for its programs that help the blind and improving eye care around the world — will march from Seattle Center to downtown Tuesday morning. Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau believes it will be the largest parade in city history, said David Blandford, bureau spokesman. [...] The parade and convention will have a big impact on traffic, too, with some 20 bus routes to be rerouted to make way for the marchers on Tuesday. There will be 90 private buses shuttling conventioneers around the city throughout the convention.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015487364_lions02m.html

If you don't like crowds, consider yourself warned. Officials are telling residents to expect heavy traffic and swarms of tourists in downtown, where the event will be held at the Washington State Convention Center and KeyArena.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Largest-ever-parade-comes-to-Seattle-next-week-1444502.php

There's a lot of talk on my flist about high temps. Seattle's even warming up, though why we had to go from 60s to 90s in one week is a little confusing. A Floridian offers some tips on coping with heat.

No, really? "Boy Injured by Firecracker Urges Caution" was the print headline, but they updated it a bit online.

Prince says the Internet "is completely over." Wonder why I'm not convinced.

k_crow, who lives across the street, called to tell me that there was a car in my front yard.

Yes, a CAR in my FRONT YARD. Oh, and the big locked mailbox that was bolted to the sidewalk just south of our driveway had migrated to the driveway. (The driveway, btw, is south of the front yard.)

So naturally I headed home to check out the carnage. As it happens, there really wasn't much by the time I got there. What appears to have happened is:

1. A neighbor's car was parallel parked on the street, south of the mailbox.
   
2. A big silver PT Cruiser heading south tried to do a U-turn, miscalculated, and hit the neighbor's car.
   
3. Neighbor's car popped its clutch and sprang forward. It knocked the mailbox into our driveway. The car itself went across our driveway and landed in the yard.
   
4. Several neighbors heard it and called the cops.

Fortunately, no one was in the parked car. No houses were hit. None of our vehicles were hit. The PT Cruiser died in the road and had to be towed. One neighbor thinks the driver was going to drive away (?) but also said the driver wanted to pull to the side of the road. There's some speculation that the driver may have been under the influence. I mean - it's a cul-de-sac. There's loads of space to make a U-turn.

The post office sent someone up to get the remains of the mailbox and the cop gave him the PT Cruiser's insurance information to pay for a new mailbox. Oh, and here's what the mailbox looked like before the excitement (courtesy of Google street view). It's made of sheet metal and was bolted to the sidewalk. Yeah...suddenly I'm glad we have a rockery-type thing in our front yard; if the car hadn't stopped on its own, it would've hit the rocks before the house. By the time I got home, the PT Cruiser had been towed and the owner of the other car had re-parked it and swept up a bunch of the debris. I did chat a bit with the post office dude and the cop and determined there wasn't really anything for me to do. So...excitement in Redmond. I'm back at work, trying to let the adrenalin wear off.

• 11:00 Note to self: Check if local PO is open late on April 15th before agreeing to mail extension for a friend at 9pm on the 15th. #
• 11:00 Also double-check address given in @SeattleTimes for open post office with post office site. #
• 11:00 The @SeattleTimes stated Riverton PO is Seattle tinyurl.com/y5ek5cm but it's in Seatac! Thanks @komonewsradio for CORRECT INFO. #
• 11:10 Note to self: Also useful: husband who has number for @KOMONewsRadio memorized. ;) #
• 12:30 Yum: Juicy orange. Oops: Orange squirts juice at my shirt. #
• 18:54 Kitty plays with iPad. *dead of cute* www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NP-AeKX40 #
• 21:20 Checked the airline website to confirm @xaritech is back in the Seattle area. Start to tweet that he's here and he calls. :) #

Copied from http://www.twitter.com/jenk3 via LoudTwitter cause it's easy :)

As an update, I did hear back from @SeattleTimes - they updated the article in question.  Of course, now it's the 16th, so not sure how useful that is...

• 15:14 Discussing how I make cassoulet with Jesse. It doesn't have an exact recipe, more like "need some sausage, some veggies, lots of beans." #
• 15:15 And: "It's supposed to be a bean stew. Is it mostly beans? If not, add more beans." #
• 20:37 @seananmcguire @hsifyppah @vixy OMG you have GOT to see this: www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1644 #
• 22:06 @hsifyppah A CUTE lizard that craps coffee makes me think of Seanan & then you. I like imagining how you'd use it at work. ;) #

Copied from http://www.twitter.com/jenk3 via LoudTwitter cause it's easy :)

... is not where you expect to wake up to a light dusting of snow, with a forecast of "possibly more snow" in the evening.

What do you wear for possible snow / possible spring weather? Layers! In my case, black lycra/spandex leggings under black cotton slacks; purple 3/4-sleeve jewel-neck top; big acrylic long-sleeve v-neck sweater; green and blue plaid polar fleece coat. At the moment the coat is in the car, the sweater is on my desk, and I am comfortably sipping "Lemon Lift" tea.

1) I have been busy, mostly with work but also with life. It happens.

2) Despite busyness, this past weekend I saw Tricky Pixie twice. Also Vixy & Tony and Clint McCune's band.

3) Yes, this was a Very Good Thing. Loved all of it. Except maybe where Clint teased me with a portion of a Bruce song during sound check and then didn't sing it during the concert.

4) You can see last night's show at http://soultribetv.com, along with the Kitten Sundae (s00j , stealthcello , vixyish & tfabris ) show on 3/21, and the Bone Poets show on 2/12.

5) I am not feeling guilty for not doing work stuff on Saturday.

6) I enjoyed helping dianthus drink the bottle of viognier she got on Saturday.

7) I liked the Mandolin Cafe, even if it got a bit recursive to have Alec playing a mandolin in the mandolin cafe.

8) I enjoyed the look on Alec's face when I surprised him with a bow on Sunday.

9) I did not enjoy getting an asthma attack yesterday while helping skydancer setup sound gear. Haven't had to use my albuterol in months, damn it. (Wah!)

10) ...I would say that means it's really spring, except that it could also have been from going from wet outdoors to warmer-drier indoors and back and in and back and in and back and in.

11) Not sure my white rosebush is still alive, but the red one is covered in new growth. This is the exact opposite of last year.

12) Two days. Two days and I will be prepping for Norwescon instead of at work. I am pleased.

13) Sunday's "Zits" reminds me of my Friday evening. (My reaction was rather like Connie, not her son's.) ( Image and transcript gets kinda long, so )