So... Dino Rossi supporters are running this ad against Govenor Gregoire:



It doesn't make any sense. They're accusing her of essentially taking a bribe for indian casinos, but she VETOED the bill they WANTED her to pass (it even mentions it as a negative because that money could have gone to medical or education expenses... which one is it guys?)

So effing retarded!!

Here's some landscape photos, plus some odd ones of Sarah and me.


This was a shot I rescued of the Wai'ale'ale valley. The entire vallery floor was super-dark, but I was able to lighten it up quite a bit, and I'm quite pleased with the results.


( ~~ Landscape Gardeners ~~ )

I really didn't have enough waterfall photos to support a Giant Photo Post of Doom for Waterfalls, so it's a Moderate Photo Post of Doom


This one's coming back from Secret Falls... it's hand-held, and (thank god) Auto-focused, because at this point I was without glasses (I harp on about that a lot, don't I?)


( ~~ Down Down Down ~~ )

I had enough photos of the luau to make it's own post... starting with the rather confused Peacock who was displaying at the rooster... sadly the ones where the rooster was in the shot didn't come out at all.



( ~~ Let's Get It On ~~ )

Welcome to the first installment of the Giant Kauai Picture Post of Doom series Part 1... all the random miscellaneous stuff that didn't really have a home with any other topic.


These statues of Mermaids I really loved. They look very Hindu to me, but I have no idea what they're called, or what the story is behind them, but they're really cool.

( Giant Photo Post-O-Rama )

I just finished The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie. It's the story of a young blonde-haired blue-eyed travelling wastrel who calls himself Mogor Dell'Amore comes to the Moghul Emperor Akbar The Great and claims to be his uncle, a claim so ridiculous that the Emperor demands to hear the story. The ridiculousness disappears quickly as it seems that the Mogor Dell'Amore has uncovered the story of a hidden princess, Akbar's great-aunt who was stolen from the family as a spoil of war. When a Persian Sultan freed her from her captivity and attempted to return her to her family she refused to return, and Akbar's grandfather erased her from history (actually, that part of the story is actually historically true).

It's an amazing and, er, enchanting story, told centrally by 2 main characters perspectives, Akbar and the Mogor Dell'Amore. What's rather interesting is that even though essentially the story is ABOUT the hidden princess, known as Qara Koz, she only really makes an appearance about 2/3rds the way through the story for any length of time. The story really focuses on the relationship between Akbar and the Mogor Dell'Amore, and then subsequently the story of 3 Florentine friends who later fascilitate the destiny of Qara Koz.

Once again Salman Rushdie has written an incredible book of truly epic proportions, and I love this one.

Yay... we got early-admission tickets to Bumbershoot for Saturday. So far that day had the best line-up. Here's the highlights thus far:

!!! (better known as Chick Chick Chick)
Anti-Flag
Band of Horses
Beck
Grynch (who I've not heard, but they were raving about him on the local music thing on KUOW the other day)
Kinski
M. Ward
Nada Surf
Neko Case (totally excited to see Neko... only seen her with The New Pornographers, but not her solo stuff)
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down
Throw Me The Statue (as seen yesterday on my awesome band names post)
The Walkmen
West Indian Girl (really excited to see these guys too)

Sunday also looked pretty awesome with The Blakes, who I've been dying to see, The Black Keys, The Shackletons, Sons & Daughters, Stone Temple Pilots, and These Arms Are Snakes.

Monday was pretty weak. The only band I'd really like to see I've already seen, which is Mark Pickeral and His Praying Hands (Mark, by the way opened for Carrie, when we went to her record-release party... he's also her drummer, so he played on stage all night). Oh, Arthur and Yu and Blitzen Trapper are also worth a look. Del The Funky Homosapien I can take or leave. Oh, Minus the Bear, Mike Doughty, The Offspring, and the Old '97s are also playing on Monday, but it's definitely the weakest day for us.

Ooh ooh.... just heard on KEXP that The Sonics are gonna play The Paramount on Halloween.

*bounce bounce bounce*

So originally I had planned to break up these photo-posts by topics. This topic just happens to be a pretty random selection of composite images from the whole trip.



King George

This was kind of a cool quadtych I had the idea of doing while I was actually following King George about. All in all it came out quite well I think, but the middle two images sort of fall apart at full-size, which is a bit sad, really.

( -- Bunches More -- )

So I posted several weeks ago that I did some jogging with some guys at work, one of whom is an Olympic-level 10K up to Marathon runner. Before we went to Kauai, I made it about a mile and a half out and walked and ran the mile and a half back, for 3 miles total.

Since we've been back from Kauai I've done that run where I made it all the way there and back (once last week), one where I only made it there and half-way back running (Monday). Then yesterday I made it there, we did a half-mile loop through the park at the end, and made it back. Today we went a completely different way up to Bridal Trails. According to Google it's 2-miles to where we stopped and headed back. But that's a very UPHILL 2 miles. I don't think Google takes into account hills, so I think it was actually more like 2 and a quarter miles each way.

I'm pooped beyond words right now, but also feeling good.

So yesterday and this morning at work I was doing inventory on programs that are on my work machine, and the last guy installed a program for his phone which syncs with windows or something like that. Anyways, it's 100% useless to me, so I wanted to uninstall it. Which meant I had to INSTALL the uninstaller. What the hell?!?

They installed the uninstaller installer on the computer when the program installed, but they didn't install the uninstaller!!!! My brain hurts now.

There are some pretty awesome band names out there right now makin' some noise including:

Natalie Portman's Shaved Head
We Were Promised Jetpacks
Mark Pickerel & His Praying Hands
Fire On Fire
A Place To Bury Strangers
Tokyo Police Club
We All Have Hooks For Hands
Vampire Weekend

Tose are sort of the best-of-band-names right now that I'm hearing on the radio. Anymore to add to the list?

Saturday we got up fairly early (for the weekend) and headed down to The Paramount. We donated some money to the theater assosciation that does all the upkeep on both the Paramount and the Moore theaters, and the give their donators special back-stage tours, which was pretty awesome. The last of their summer Silent Movies set is today (Monday), it's a Zorro flick, and we were going to go see it, but we're both pretty beat, so I think we're going to end up skipping it and going to some of the Silent Horror Movies ones they've got going on in January. What's cool about it is they actually accompany the movie on the Paramount's original Wurlitzer Organ from like 1923. They showed us a video all about it, and it's an amazing instrument and the guy who plays it is just awe-insprining. It's kinda-sorta like a big church pipe-organ, but it can play an insane array of musical sounds, whistles, drums, sirens, trumpets, woodwinds... it's just crazy.

Afterwards we went out with bbcaddict to Pho up on Capitol Hill, which was pretty awesome, then we followed her down to Freemont because she had discovered this chocolate factory there, which has the most amazing chocolate evar. It's pretty much all dark-chocolate, which I don't normally like, but they totally dress it up and make it amazing. They had a curry and coconut one which just knocked my socks off... never tasted anything like it before. It's chocolate AND curry!!!

Then Sarah and I headed homewards and went down to the Edmonds beach and dipped our toes in the water and got some reading done in the sunshine and heat.

After that we went out for Kori's birthday with some of her friends and family at the Tulalip Casino. Sarah and I didn't get any gambling done because we were both pretty pooped from all the walking around in the heat we did earlier, so we just hung out for about a half hour after dinner and watched people play the slots.

Then on Sunday we got up at a more reasonable time and headed down to Northgate to meet up with bbcaddict again because she wanted to come with us when I went to go get my new tattoo. She also served as the Official Photographer for the event. She promises to post photos as soon as she can find her USB cable, which she's apparently lost (just like a woman :) - don't kill me please)

Afterwards we went over to Ikea because they have amazing Swedish Meatballs... Ikea never struck me as a place to go to eat, but they are delicious, so now you know. Thanks again, Dannica for lunch!!

Finally Sarah and I went out to dinner at The Snappy Dragon for our Anniversary Dinner, and then went back to the Edmonds Beach and dipped our toes in the icy Puget Sound. It was wonderful. Then went back home, played some more Lego Star Wars 2, and then got out the blow-up bed and slept downstairs because the upstairs was ridiculously hot. It was the first time we've ever done that and it was kinda fun camping in our own living room :)

Only kidding, I love you Sarah... Happy Anniversary!

Seeing your post forced me to post this early.

We were looking for an Elephunt for you in Hawaii, and couldn't find a single one... except this one. Sadly we chose not to get it, but we did snap a photo:

Fornication Animalia!!!

Hey, all... for all of you who are interested but don't have my beautiul wife's journal in your list.

I went through and gave her a bunch of photos of King George to write about, since he was her BFF for a while.

Meet King George

Sarah found this on Craigslist today :)

--------

Ferocious attack kitten is available for adoption to any home willing to accept him.

This destructive kitty has been trained as a proud warrior and will fiercely defend your house, even against you. Well-trained since 10-weeks of age to attack anything in his presence, he will protect your family from evil things, including the following:

* insects

* other trained attack kittens

* babies

* toilet paper

* anything under a blanket

* unwanted house guests
* paper bags

* floor rugs

* Chuck Norris

* Feet.

Great with children (assuming you don’t like the children). Probably best used for professional catfighting. He is housebroken, but only because he wants to be. This attack cat has trained himself to seek out his food anywhere you hide it and rip the bag open to feed himself, great for those who travel extensively. Also trained to drink water out of toilet bowls and dishwater from items in the sink. Knows how to open some doors. He will find you wherever you hide.

Neutered (trust me, you wont want to him to procreate). Has not been declawed, but you'll figure that out really fast.

Understands and responds to a variety of vulgar and profane verbal commands. Has a very soft and furry belly, like a teddy bear - however he will bite your face if you try to touch it.

Willing to accept trades. Potential adopters must have experience with trained attack-kittens... please be prepared to show scars.

For the love of God, someone please take this thing out of my house.

For those of you who don't know The Sonics.... I give you the original punk rockers



I wish I could get the clip of Strychnine to play, but it just wont :(

Apparently McDonalds Has Ripped Off Devo For American Idol Promo and called it "New Wave Nigel".

Hilarious.



I don't see the resemblance at all.

Reposting for local Seattle people who don't read shaenin's posts:

Adopt-a-cat