A picture and a thousand words

My parents flew out from Boston on Tuesday, and just left this morning after a great four day visit. It was so fun to be able to show them around and give them some context for my life now. I’m glad that they’ll have pictures in their heads when I talk about my apartment, or what the lake looked like, or the traffic lights getting back on 405 in Seattle. It just makes the story more complete.

We had a great visit. We played tourist at Pike Place Market, the Underground Tours (great fun, see the picture below), the aquarium and on a harbour tour. I love the aquarium. They’ve added a ton since I was last there two years ago, and with my new marine aquarium knowledge the older exhibits were even more interesting than before. Plus, they have great crowd pleasers: They fed the octopus and it turned red! All the little kids were looking at the clown fishes swimming in their anenomes and saying “nemo!” (Pixar, way to go. You’ve successfully brainwashed an entire generation.) We got to see the otters and seals! 🙂 It was a fun trip.


 

We went to the Yarrow Bay grill (immediately after the picture below was snapped) for their $25 menu — utterly satisfying, as always. It’s a great special event restaurant. We’d gone there originally when Sharon and Mom came out to visit two summers ago, and I’ve been back a few times since, mostly on Microsoft’s dime.


 

On Friday, we went to the Chittenden Locks, the Essential Bakery, and then over to the Chateau St. Michelle and the Columbia wineries in Woodinville.

The only sad part of the week was that Kevin was at work during the day. I missed him! On the whole, though, a great visit. It’s also great that I don’t even have to be sad that it’s over, since I’ll be flying home for Thanksgiving soon!

In a rather shocking discovery last night we found that our live rock was full of little white worms that came out once the lights went off. I immediately went into spider mode (goosebumps everywhere) after finding the first three. Early results in a google search made us think that these were parasites, so we did a freshwater dip for the live rock to kill them off. Post-dip search results made them seem benign, if not beneficial (and revealed that a highly concentrated salt dip would have been more effective than the freshwater dip). When we were putting the rock back in the tank, we noticed that there were already little worm corpses everywhere in the tank, so it seems like if anything we just speeded the process along. With any luck, they’ll help ammonia levels build, since we’re still looking at a rather resolute 0 reading.

Funny, this sounds like such a gross post. It really wasn’t supposed to be! 😛

In a great find on Thursday, I came across Blue Sierra Exotics in Issaquah and their awesome Anniversary Sale. We headed over before Kevin’s football game yesterday morning, and came away with 70-some lbs of live rock (about 80% Fiji, the rest Marshall Islands), 80 lbs of substrate, 2 maxijet 600s, a power filter, a return pump for our sump, 2 heaters to replace the faltering one that came with the tank, an overflow box, and tons of tubing and sponges for about $650. We were both extremely pleased. This will bring our pre-fish total on expenses to about $1080, which is about half of what we were told to expect for a 55 gallon tank. Not bad!!

I have to personally commend the Blue Sierra folks. The store was packed, and even so we never waited more than two minutes to talk to someone. Everyone we talked to was knowledgeable, helpful, and took their time answering our questions. (Best of all, they talked to *both* of us, instead of doing that obnoxious “converse with the male in charge” thing that’s happened at other fish stores, car dealers, etc. Their eye contact was split 50-50% — way to overcome one of my biggest peeves!!) They had a good selection of brands, the prices were reasonable, and their fish all looked happy. I’m definitely going back. If any Seattle area fish people are reading this, I recommend them highly.

When we got back, I spent about 3 hours washing the substrate. You can see the milky water in the bucket along with my 3 handfuls of substrate. It continued to look like this for about 7 rinses, and then the water would gradually get clearer.



I gave up after about 30 lbs worth due to rubbed-raw hands. Kevin did the last 10 lbs or so when he got back from the game. Thank goodness substrate is one of those one-time things in setting up the tank. We still have another 40 pound bag, unopened. I think another 10 pounds or so of the stuff would probably look good, but between having to wash it out and the prospect of getting $45 dollars back for returning it, I think that bag may stay unused.

Kevin spent a bunch of time this afternoon buying more tubing and setting up the protein skimmer, sump, overflow box, and return pump. Everything’s flowing well now, although we have a lot of tiny bubbles. Hopefully those will settle down as the water gets a chance to run. Here he is with the tank as of last night (the water looks so cloudy due to the substrate. It’s settled down a lot since, and now our only cloudiness is coming from the bubbles.):

We’re both so excited about this.

Woohoo, here they are! These were all taken as a break from washing substrate, so the light’s a little orange, but you’ll get the idea. 🙂

Many thanks to Jessica for organizing the mini-Rogue-along!!

I leave you with a parting shot of the hem:



For all of my worrying over the biasing and curling, it came out beautifully and was so so easy to sew flat.

I miss working on this — I’m sorely tempted to start a second Rogue as a zippered cardigan…

When I was in ninth grade, I put this song* on every mix I made and would leave the tape in my radio so that I could rewind and listen to it first thing in the morning every day. Knowing me, I probably rewound and listened twice. 🙂 And now there’s Itunes and the “Repeat this song ad infinitum” button, and everyone’s happy.

In other news, I finished Rogue (pictures will follow when I’m less sleepy), worked on the bookshelf for a while (I’m becoming a woodworker!), actually sent out my resume to a company, and went to knitting at the Essential Bakery. A very satisfying day.

Also, I’ve discovered the wonkette, who is basically a mirror that bounces back every tidbit of liberal news. She posts about twice a minute. Procrastination hell. But, nonetheless, fun links and a more worthwhile waste of time than some of the other options.

* Note that I can say “this song” and you’ll know what I mean (if you listened to music in the early to mid nineties) because he only really had one. For the soul-less few, “this song” = “Life is a Highway”

Wow. I am not a fan of Bush’s re-election. It isn’t often that I completely disagree with everything that a person does and stands for, but in Bush’s case, I do utterly. I think that his educational plan is misguided and purposely underfunded. I think that his views on science, technology, and incorporating lots of international influence into higher education are extremely flawed and that he purposely ignores evidence to the contrary. I think his environmental record is scary. I disagree with his international posturing, the secrecy of his government, the blatant lies that he tells, and the way that he pushes states to fund federal measures. I disagree with his views on gay marriage, on abortion, and on the civil rights of Americans. He is to blame for the people held indefinitely at Guantanamo. He is to blame for the increased polarization of the country. He is to blame for the deficit (built from surplus), for the state of social security, and for cutting funding to popular programs that provide essential safety-net services. He has a McCarthy-istic view of terrorism, and all evidence shows that his policies and war have increased its source, rather than rubbed it out. I think that Bush is dangerous for our country, and I am horrified at the prospect of four more years. The senate and house gains are also disturbing.

So, there really isn’t much to be happy about today. For those of you who also feel this way, the only thing that I have to offer is this. It at least offers some perspective.

Like a good red sox fan, I have two things to say about the election before heading to bed:

1. I still believe.

2. Should #1 not work out, let’s start our own nation.

Here’s hoping.

Yay! One of my favourite holidays!

I actually dressed up this year, as we were invited to a costume party. It’s good to know that I’m not too old. I went as a Girl Guide (really, I just wish they’d still let me earn badges. They’re so pretty.) in my uniform from fifth grade. The thing’s a tent, so it wasn’t too tight a squeeze. 🙂 I bought some age-appropriate rainbow colored ribbon to replace the belt, popped into knee socks and sneakers and was good to go. I still say the best costumes permit sneakers. 🙂 True when I was five, still true now.

Kevin went as Johnny Damon (woohoo red sox!!!). In the pictures below, you can see the yarn wig, beard, and mustache I made him in the hour before the party. I’m way proud of them. 🙂

We only got a pair of trick-or-treaters tonight, and they looked to be in middle school. Is that custom completely dead, or do we just live in a block with no kids?? It made me sad. And now we have to eat all the candy. No love.

In other news:

• I’ve sewn both sleeves to Rogue and attached one. One more attachment and sewing the sleeve and bottom hems and then I’m done!!
• We set up the fishtank tonight for real! It looks great, but we need to buy salt mix, powerheads, a pump, live rock, and substrate before we’re really in business. Also, our second-hand heater isn’t acting like it’s doing anything. Keep your fingers crossed.
• Went to Lowe’s to buy stuff for the fishtank (plywood, a tarp, a ground fault interupter) and also stuff for our bookshelf-to-be. I would like to personally thank Colin for making approximately 25,000 cuts in our plywood with his electric saw. Seriously. The kid rocks.
• My parents are coming out in a week and two days! Yay!!

Kevin and I went to Essential Bakery tonight to read and get coffee, and I just have to say that it was delicious. I got a salad, he got tomato soup, I got a cinnamon roll, he got a chocolat pain thing, (we were there for a while) and mmmmm. All great. Plus it’s a great atmosphere, PLUS the chairs and tables are comfortable, *PLUS* they gave us a free loaf of Pan de las Muertos for the day of the dead (nov 1st?). I give them five stars. 🙂

 

An inning after my Dad called to tell me to go out and look at the moon (which I didn’t capture at all in the photo above), the Red Sox won the series. 🙂 I really have nothing else to say that hasn’t been said: it’s an awesome team, they played so hard, and I’ll miss watching them in the evenings. Here’s hoping that they’re back to watch next year, and that all of my boys with up for grabs contracts (Veritek, Lowe and Cabrera especially) stay with the team. Yay for believing!

While the Red Sox were winning their final game, I was forced to dig my sports scarf out of the box it’s been relegated to since football season ended last winter. I didn’t have anything left to knit on Rogue, and needed something for my fingers to do. The red scarf seemed to work for the Patriots, so it got the green light. At the very last out of the ninth inning, I cabled the wrong way (As can be seen in the photo below). I’m leaving it, as a reminder of the night the sox won. Red moon, red scarf, red sox, woohoo!


 

This morning, I’ve been reading all of the commentary, and hoopla, and plans for the parade. It sounds like it will be a huge city-wide group hug. I wish that I was there to join in. For me and for anyone else who wishes that they could be there on Saturday, here’s a picture of the Patriots rally in City Hall Plaza (right outside my old office!) last winter: