Category Archives: Seattle

Seattle related posts

The Taste of SAM

This weekend Lauren and I flexed our underutilized membership and had a cultural Sunday afternoon at SAM. They have a fantastic exhibit on Roman art from the Louvre that opened this weekend.  I was surprised at how extensive the exhibit was (large enough that I’ll have to return for a second go around before it’s through on April 6th).  They also have three panels on temporary loan from Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise. All ten panels have been under years of restoration, and they are on a final run before returning to a hermetically sealed chamber in Florence (at the Musee dell’Opera del Duomo).

We also stopped at TASTE (the new restaurant at SAM) for lunch. TASTE is all about local organic ingredients, with a bunch of soup, sandwich, and salad options at lunchtime. I thoroughly enjoyed my tomato soup w/grilled cheese. I also snuck a taste of Lauren’s squash soup, which was delicious. I plan to return for dinner and we’ll be sure to bring our camera 🙂

New York State of Mind

Gio and I saw Billy Joel last night at the Key Arena. Wow. He still sounded great, had great crowd engagement, and even hit his own high notes on An Innocent Man. First concert in awhile where I’ve been on the younger side of the audience though 🙂

A Chef Walks Into a Puzzle

This weekend, Lauren and participated in a geek event at Microsoft called Iron Puzzler. It involves a day of writing two puzzles (one “paper based” and one “non paper based”). Game control released the four “secret ingredients” on Saturday morning (of which we had to incorporate at least 1-2 of in our puzzles):

  • Spoon
  • The letter L
  • Clock
  • Mercury

For our non-paper puzzle, we wrote a text-based adventure game (think something in between Zork and Monkey Island).

It got rave reviews by the participants of Iron Puzzler, so if you want to check it out (and trust me enough to download an exe :)) I’ve posted the game and README. Be ready for mass amounts of silliness!

Our text adventure game

Daily Show meets MSFT

Every year or so, the College Recruiting Team sets up a fun video about life on campus here in Redmond. This year, they got Ed Helms (of Daily Show fame) to provide an on-scene report. Check it out for some laughs.

I had some bonus fun watching Julie get interviewed by Ed, and catching a cameo of Aaron walking through the Red West hallways. Which puts my rough estimation of the filming date at last September or so (prior to Aaron’s ’round the world trip)….

"12" at the top of the Needle

Ever since Lauren and I decided to get married at the Space Needle, we’ve been looking at it a little more often. The other day we noticed a blue and white flag with a “12” on it. We had no idea what it meant. After a little research this morning I discovered that “the Seattle Seahawks 12th Man Flag, a fixture at Qwest Field’s south endzone, has been raised atop the Space Needle to salute Seahawks fans and the team during the NFL playoffs. On December 15, 1984, the Seahawks officially retired jersey #12 in honor of their fans, the 12th Man.”

Turns out that the 12th Man is common terminology in American football for the home team crowd.

Seahawks 12th Man Flag on top of the Space Needle

Bienvenidos a Miami

I’ve been very bad about posting, my apologies. It’s been a busy few weeks since Thanksgiving. Lauren and I have been working hard on wedding plans (we recently hired a band and a florist to complete our list of core vendors). It’s pretty exciting to have all the big details finally coming together just in time for us to leave on vacation.

Iguazu FallsWhich is another item that’s kept me pretty busy — final details for winter holiday in South America 🙂 Lauren and I are heading to Miami on Friday, then spending 3 weeks in Argentina and Chile. This trip has been in the works for awhile (it was originally intended as an Australia/New Zealand trip, and when that was foiled by the airline miles gods we redirected to an alternative southern hemisphere destination). I’m really excited for the vacation — it’s been over a year since our last big trip.

The first week includes Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls. I expect we’ll get a good amount of shopping in Buenos Aires, and try to hang with the locals who start going out around 1AM. One of Lauren‘s co-workers is getting married while we’re there, so I’ll be packing my suit for an Argentinian wedding. Serendipity at its finest.

Hanging Glacier at Parque QueulatThe second week we’re heading down to Northern Patagonia in Chile. We’re spending my birthday on a catamaran to the San Rafael Glacier, one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world. Then we’re indulging for the next few days at Termas de Puyuhuapi and Queulat National Park. Turns out that once you go south of Puerto Montt transportation is a little hard to come by, but the region looks stunning. So we’ll be taking planes, minibuses, and boats as necessary to make our way through the territory.

Rio FutaleufuBefore we leave the Austral region, we get to spend 2 days rafting class V rapids on the Rio Futeleufu. I had always dreamed of rafting the Rio Bio Bio with my father (both because the rapids looked awesome, and because the name was rad). Alas the Bio Bio was lost to the ENDESA in 1998 when they finished the Pangue dam. With the demise of the Bio Bio, the “Fu” is the latest Chilean rafting hot spot. It’s harder to get to, but supposedly well worth it. There have been rumors that the Futaleufu is next, though it’s managed to evade the hydroelectric-mongers so far and I’ll keep my fingers crossed for them. We get to spend New Year’s celebrating and camping on the river. Should be very, uhm, tribal.

The last week is in Chile’s Lakes Region. We’ll be staying in Puerto Varas and relaxing by Lake Llanquehue.

On our way back to Seattle we’re stopping in Miami for 2 days, where my very excited mother is throwing us an engagement party at her house. Hopefully we’ll have some new Argentinian duds to sport at the event 🙂

A touch of California in Seattle

At long last it looks like Washington State is getting on the no-smoking bandwagon. I-901 (Clean Indoor Air) was put to a vote, and with 94% of counties reporting, the current results have it passing by a wide margin (>63% in favor). Looks like I won’t need a special “bar jacket” anymore! 🙂

For those following along at home, the Secretary of State here has a great site for all election-related information.

Stick 'em up!

Never a dull moment in Redmond, WA. At 5:30 I pulled out of my garage to scoop up Lauren and head home. And hit bumper to bumper traffic right outside my building (for the first time in 5 years). About 10 minutes (and about 1000 feet) later, Lauren informed me that there was a robbery at a nearby bank. First time the FBI has laid foot on Overlake plaza I bet!