Is It Summer Yet?

It's days like today that make me think it might be okay to take the tire chains out of the trunk of my car. . .

Bagel!

Today, instead of the usual Friday donuts, we have bagels, which always bring to my mind the following scene from Homicide: Life on the Street:

Pembleton: (Holding coffee pot) Who-who finished the last of the...uh...bagel?
Lewis: Bagel?
Pembleton: Bagel. Bagel. BAY-GUL! Hot. Round. Liquid? Bagel.
Lewis: Oh, sure. Bagel.
Kellerman: You mean "coffee," Frank.
Pembleton: Th-that's what I said, isn't it?
Kellerman: Right, uh, the bagel.
Pembleton: (yelling) Who finished the last of the bagel, huh?
Lewis: (quietly) Kellerman.
Pembleton: (to Kellerman) You-you-you make the next pot, huh?

(Pembleton had a stroke, by the way.)

BAY-GUL!

The Trip to Portland Was All Right

Business trips to Portland aren't nearly as scenic as trips to Spokane. Car, not plane.

But I did get to stand on a roof eleven stories up in downtown Portland. A fairly nice view from there, even it was drizzling.

Shot from the Plane

Business trips to Spokane have their perks in the form of scenery:



Recognize these places?



Is it time to go hiking yet?

Semi-Connected Thoughts

Why don't we just annex Mexico and Canada, already? We can fit 92 stars on our flag without too much difficulty.



We're too content within our borders. Just like the fall of the Roman Empire, we're doomed unless we shrug off the shackles of contentment. Bread and circuses, remember?

China is the new America. They have the fastest growing car culture in the world. They have the fastest growing Christian population in the world.

If the USA wants to remain the biggest, baddest, best country in the world, we need to kick ourselves into high gear. What have you done lately to save our civilization?

At least we'll have the fall of Europe as a wake-up call. I fear it may be too late, however.

Oh, and let's colonize Mars. Send the Marines now! They're begging to go.

Subdivision, part 5

Today, I had my intake appointment that I scheduled a few weeks ago.

It went quickly, actually. When you schedule an appointment at DPD, it's not quite torture to be there.

For the 75-80 rule (I'll explain if you really want me to*), I had to give them a copy of the county assessor's map of the block. Also required were calculations (simple arithmetic). I had done the calculations beforehand, but figured there was a form to fill out. No form. I did the calculations in hand in the margin of the assessor's map.

I gave them eight copies of the survey. She made me date-stamp them for her.

They warned me that the garage may have to get torn down before the lots can be subdivided. You see, the garage can't be on a parcel by itself because then the land use would be parking rather than residential -- and that's just not allowed. Or maybe it will be, if the planner says it's okay. Or maybe we can draw in a "future residence" and it will be all right. As I said, it will be up to the planner.

But if we have to tear down the garage, that will be a tremendous waste. What more do you expect from government?

--
*Each of the new lots must be at least 75% of the minimum lot size for the land-use zone and at least 80% of the average of the rest of the lots on the block face.

Merry Christmas!

Methinks my Christmas cactus has been confused by the cold weather we've been having of late.

Quivira and Anian

Puget Sound was one of the last bits of sub-arctic coastline to be filled in on the world maps. No Europeans came this way till 1789 or so (Juan De Fuca was probably lying about his 1592 visit).

But until it was all mapped, the mappers needed to fill in the void, so they just made stuff up.

The northernmost point located by reliable sources in the 1600s and 1700s was Cape Mendocino, so anything north of that was imaginary, to say the least. But that didn't stop mapmakers from copying these imaginary places from one map to the next over the centuries. They usually kept the names in roughly the same locations, with the occasional wandering bay or river, but never mind that.

North of a major river near 50 degrees latitude was the Kingdom of Anian. South of that, but north of California was the Kingdom of Quivira.

The coastline itself was drawn wildly inaccurate, as well, but in the map below, I've tried my best to match their placenames with the true coastline.

And so, without further ado, I present to you the true and accurate map of Quivira and Anian:

(If you want to see it larger, just click on it.)

This Month's Photo of Chunlin

From the shoulder of Mt. Luxmore in New Zealand's Fiordland National Park, it's my very relaxed-looking, beautiful wife:

Where Our Time Has Gone

As one of you requested, here are some pictures of the refurbished basement, complete with a concrete floor, new plywood on the walls, and a couple extra lights.


Compare with the old:


I had to saw six or seven inches off the bottom of the stairs so they'd fit on top of the concrete. The landing, too.


Do you like the stripy plywood? It's a bit more expensive, but we think it adds a nice touch.


And finally, here's the room under the porch. I never got a good look at it before, since it didn't have a light. Even the insulating and plywood installation was done in the dark.


But today, we can't go barging back in there to fix stuff up. The rental begins now!

Do Sailors Get Drunk Before or After They Go Below the Waves?

It's time for a party down at Vasataté's castle under the sea! It's His holy day and He's really doling out the divine brew (more than on a typical day!). He's got ales, lagers, porters, stouts, hefeweizens, bitters, pilsners, and even some shirazes.

So come on down, under the waves, where everything is so much fun!

. . . and just a little bit wet.

Blue Pen Went a-Walking

And so I go a-walking for a blue pen.

Last Bits of Remodeling

Dealing with contractors can be a headache, but it beats banging my head against the wall trying to do home construction ourselves.

We spent almost the entire weekend at the Pinehurst house, trying to finish it off before the renters move in May 1. The only tasks left were to install insulation and plywood in the storage room under the porch and install lights, switches, and an outlet down there, too. We went to Home Depot and Lowe's about five times over the course of the weekend, plus another trip to the King County Transfer Station to get rid of the old plywood that we decided not to use.

Reminder: 48 + 18 ≠ 86. 48 + 18 = 66.

We hired a friend of a friend to help us with the electrical work. I thought we would hire an electrician, who would know what things to buy and all that, but we ended up doing the shopping and the physical installations of everything, and all the electrically minded guy did was connect the wires.

Apparently there's a tool to find out if a wire is hot, even when the copper is not exposed. He didn't have one, though. His cutters (or rather, our cutters) discovered the wire was hot with a zap. He wasn't hurt, but the breaker tripped. The wire we thought went to a closet light and a couple outlets actually went to an electric heater.

We left at 10 p.m. yesterday, but we still need to go back and clean up all the tools and such. The storage room looks nice, now that it has clean plywood and light. I hope our renters appreciate it. I want my weekend back.