Torch Carrying Mob

Mourning in New York

2011-09-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

Guest Writer: Will Lewis

I arrived in New York City on September 15th, 2001, en route to a trip in Europe for a conference and meetings. I was supposed to have arrived on September 12th, but obviously that was not possible. On September 16th, I hung out with friends uptown, but went downtown Monday morning, September 17th. Following is my story from that morning…

Mourning in New York

I caught the 6 down to its new terminus, City Hall. C trains weren’t running at all. B trains ended at 34th. The 1 and 9 didn’t make it to South Ferry.

I walked south on Nassau. Barricades and police lined the streets to the east. National guardsmen occupied most corners, adding to the presence of uniforms. It was disconcerting seeing armored vehicles on the street. Humvees and troop carriers. In America. In the middle of New York City.

At Fulton I heard in the distance what sounded like a band playing, but as I continued south, I realized I was hearing canned music. Familiar tunes grew louder, playing from speakers somewhere overhead. The Star Spangled Banner. God Bless America. Grand Old Flag. Other patriotic tunes.

Near Liberty Street the music ended, as if on cue. The acrid smell of smoke filled the air. A woman police officer was handing out masks for passersby. Like those that painters use. I took one, and put it on. Others did too. Some guardsmen and police officers had full gas masks on.

A shopkeeper was cleaning the windows of his business, which were layered in dust. He wore a mask too. There were signs in the windows, obviously advertising his wares, but I couldn’t read them. Perhaps he fights a losing battle.

Some shops had cracked or broken windows. The entrance to one building was blocked by police tape. “Police Line. Do not cross!” Was this a crime scene? Had someone been killed here?

Missing person posters were everywhere. They were taped to phone booths. They lined bus stops. Light posts. Walls in subway stations. Shop windows. Missing: Arnold Lim. Missing: Roger Mark Rosweiler. Missing: Lucy Chafias. Missing: Lars Qualben. Missing: Paula Morales. Is it false hope or grief that motivates these signs? Or maybe they express reluctant farewells? We knew you. We don’t want to forget.

There was a large crowd at that corner of Liberty and Nassau, all looking east. When I got there, and could look, I knew why. There was all that remained of the South Building. Just one small piece of its southern wall. Nothing else was left. Smoke rose to the north, as fires continued to burn. I tried to stop to take a picture, but was brusquely told that stopping was not allowed. I took a picture as I walked.

The markets opened today, the first time since last Tuesday. The NYSE had a large American flag draped above its entrance. American flags also flew from posts outside. Traders, in their blue coats and suits and ties, stood outside side entrances to grab quick smokes. Like any other day, really. Except the tiny trails of smoke from their cigarettes were hardly noticeable amidst the larger clouds. Cigarette smoke would have been a welcome change of smell.

I headed east on Wall Street, following the flow of people who were all channeled by various obstructions, animate or otherwise. Eventually I ended at Trinity Church. A large crowd gathered there, looking northeast. Many were taking pictures. For a time, I couldn’t figure out what they were taking pictures of. Not the church, but something else, something beyond it. It used to be darker at this corner.

American flags abounded. Some people wore them as headwear. Many carried small flags as they walked. Some carried big flags. The rare car, usually police, had flag stickers in the windshields, or flags taped to antennae. Patriotism, long out of favor in this country, was suddenly vogue. Especially here.

I headed north and west again, stopping at a little coffee shop to buy a pastry. The place bustled with business and talk. Many still talked of the week’s events. Most talked of other things. Life in here seemed normal. Almost.

The bull at Exchange and Broad had flags taped to its horns and one in its mouth. A few kids were trying to scale its sides. They screamed and giggled at the virtual impossibility of the task. But still, they tried. A national guard humvee sat in front of the bull. Several guardsmen watched the children play. One smiled. It was a pretty day.

A lot Worse than I Thought

2009-04-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

My computer is still having problems. I know I'm not an avid blogger anyway, but there really is a reason for the delay. Here is a picture of something much faster than my computer:

Two Days!

2009-04-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

This OneCare scan on my computer has been going on for two days! It's seriously slowing my computer down. I'd end it, but I've already invested the two days. Trip pics up soon.

Did I mention I didn't sleep last night? I think I'm only blogging right now because I am grumpy and with Will still gone there is only Donny the kitty to talk to. He responded to my fatigue by curling up and falling asleep.

Where Am I?

2009-03-08T05:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while so I thought I'd put a little something up.

Below is an awesome picture we took, but was unwittingly tarnished by a camera shutter that failed to open. Oh well, at least it makes the blog. The blog doesn't judge.

A wallaby on the beach, where could we be?

Not a Soccer Pic

2009-01-25T16:41:00.000-08:00

Luckily I didn't get the silly notion to resolve to blog more, so the pressure is off. I am hoping, however, to improve my rate from last year and to beat 2007's and to include substance as opposed to what seems like substance abuse. So here is something pretty:

[The two LeAnn's (for a middle name, that is) - Me and my niece]

I doubt anyone notices, but see those track pants I have on? Yep, I pretty much wear those all the time now. Look at my last Christmas post, two different days, same pants. They are just too comfortable and with my thighs fluctuating as a result of too much soccer, then too much food, then no soccer but still too much food, I can't be bothered to buy actual pants since I don't know what size I will be in a month. My point: just get used to the track pants. It'll be like Where's Waldo with the exception that my pants will be obvious.

2008 Year in Review

2009-01-01T20:10:00.000-08:00

What is that you say? You visited the blog a week ago and this post, which says it was posted Jan 1, wasn't here. Sorry, can't help you there.

So I had a few missed opportunities to post during 2008, so I am giving myself a second chance with the year in review. As I write this I am trying to think to think of something that occurred every month, but I don't think I'll be as successful as last year

January: Will broke his ankle skiing. I went to Tahoe to ski a week after (sorry). He was in crutches and an aircast for most of February. Fun times for a guy that lives for the outdoors. With all of his visits to the orthopedist, I decided to get my easily injured left ankle checked out, and interestingly it was me who he said may need surgery! Luckily neither of us had surgery, Will was good and did physical therapy, I tried it as well, but bailed after they gave me an ice massage, Yikes!

February: I scored my first league play goal. Despite my many years of soccer, I never got a goal because I always played defense -blessed with great speed but no real ability to dribble. I started to learn the forward position this season, and finally scored after 6 games. I'm still most comfortable playing sweeper, but sometimes it's nice to play forward and get the glory of scoring rather than the shame of letting the opposition score.

March: Will and I took a little in State break and visited the Long Beach Peninsula. I enjoyed making fun of the place more than anything, but did find a gem Astoria, OR.

Pics in Ocean Park/Long Beach:
[Saying it like is it, We's a bunch of okies]

[and we don't care about no grammar!]

[Will in heaven at playing pinball, the place had over 20 games]

[Me playing soccer with William Clark, from Lewis and Clark]

April: Started a new job, as a result not much else happened in the next 6 months. Less than impressed with something that could be run better. Would write more, but with the search engines and all...I'll give you the real deal via email if you want.

May: I really don't know what happened this month. I think I went to a few Mariners games and they played pretty poorly. I knew it would be a bad season after that, good for the Angels, but even I wasn't enjoying the Angels beating the Mariners, it's like watching someone beat up on the disabled.

June: Oh no, another month and I don't know what happened. Uh, I did...stuff.

July: Our first anniversary, July 5, which we celebrated at the romantic Prufrocks Bed and Breakfast in Carpinteria, CA.

August: Our 3 year anniversary of living in Seattle. I don't think we did anything/noticed, and I only mentioned it because I don't know what we/I did in August. Let me take this opportunity to say there is good Mexican food in Seattle at Mr. Villa's, at least by our California standards. We also like gelato at Bottega, coffee/tea/baked goodies at Zoka and the very local Black Cat Espresso, Spanish at Bilbao, Italian at Cafe Piccolo, bar/pub fare at Fiddler's Inn, Indian at Mysore, Thai at Thai Tom, Pinball and dogs at Shorty's, the Japanese version of French Crepes at Unicorn, and the best damn brewed root beer in the world at Snoqualmie Brewery. I'm sure I missed some, but those are a few of our favorite dining places in the greater Seattle area.

September: Birthday at the cabin in Mt. Baker. It was our first visit there. Sadly, the friend who was letting us stay there is selling the place. Here are a couple pictures nearby:

[Nooksack Falls]

[Not good picture of me, be nice, but the bird is cool]

October: Ended the employment I took on in April. Boy was the aftermath with a certain person there newsworthy! Again I can't really go into it on the blog. I can probably write a book about my 6 month experience, I'm thinking comedy or psychological thriller.

November: The cabin again, this time with friends. We didn't do much outside this time since it was too cold and rainy. Much X-Box and board games and introduced to our new ~~obsession~~ favorite board game "Settlers of Catan".

December: You need only to read the post before this to get the summary, however, for the update...We finally were able to get out Christmas day. I tried to dig my car out first, but I was stuck in a hole my tire dug a few days before. Will successfully dug his out, and we slid our merry way until we reached a plowed main route. Unfortunately the return trip wasn't as easy as we were not able to slid back up the hills. Parked at a school about 1/4 mile away. The post office did not deliver anything the 26th or 27th; Fed Ex went AWOL during and after the storm; and our last pickup of the year from Waste Management was December 11. Here is a picture the day before they finally picked up the trash (recycling and compost followed almost a week later) on Jan 2 (ignore the posting date, I rigged it):

[3 households worth of trash and recycling, growing since December 11, not seen: compost bins to the left]

The Annual Christmas Post

2008-12-24T12:48:00.000-08:00

I'm not as bad of a blogger as I thought. In the 3.42 years I've had this blog I've managed to wish you all, my loyal readers, a Merry Christmas: 2005, 2006, 2007. And much like 2006, I have nothing better to talk about than the weather. In fact, I'm not sure what the fine citizens of the Seattle area would do without the weather to talk about. Not that I am mocking them in any way.

So Merry Christmas! For everyone I updated my last post to include my teammates (yes, I have teammates) and will now go on to talk about the weather. Yep, I'm a freaking Santa,

The snow started falling Sunday December 14. Not much fell. Our cat Donny was the only one who wanted to play in it, and by play I mean "try to run as fast as he can to get his paws out of the snow "

Scoping it out:

Screwed:

Then that Wednesday a big storm was supposed to hit, but Seattle was in some sort of 'snow cone' so instead we got rain, all surrounding areas got snow, and our snow melted.

[no photo, as if this post isn't boring enough]

Finally on Thursday we got our snow! And as is the case in Seattle, no one can go anywhere because we are all too afraid to drive in it. Given the terrian and information later in my post, I don't blame them. Will and I luckily can both work from home. Yay, well, sort of.

Not working, but walking to the park:

The park and frozen pond:

Since the weather people were completely wrong about Wednesday's storm, I didn't heed their weekend warning and figured I could wait until Friday to send out my Christmas packages and "cards". So when the snow kept falling and the temperature kept dropping I knew I screwed up (note: if you did get something from me and it arrived on time, you can thank Will for busing it to the post office on Thursday, unfortunatley I didn't have many addresses on hand nor many presents wrapped so I got a grand total of three "cards" sent).

We got somewhat of a break on Friday. It didn't snow, but the high was below freezing and not much was melting off the road. Day 2 of the confinement by snow.

On Saturday I was desperate to get some gifts mailed so I braved the icy roads to get to the post office (note: if you got something from me sent the 20th you can thank my sense of adventure or stupidity, depending on the perspective).

That night it began to snow, then snow, then snow, [Enter Sunday] then snow, then snow... pretty much a foot of it, which is quite unheard of in Seattle, and it was light an fluffy to boot! It was deep enough that Will got out the old cross country skis and skied the bike trail. I would have joined him but I slept until 10 instead. Oh do I value my sleep. Anyway I'm veering off topic

Below is the Burke Gilman trail which I spoke of in this post. See, I told you I would post a picture of it:

All the while the temperature didn't rise above freezing, so here are more snow pics on Monday.

Shoveling our walkway, but really I only did it in hopes to burn off some of the 5000+ calories I had been consuming of since I all I did snowbound was eat. Later, I ate a handful of truffles:

Will heading out to the trail again. I'm not sure why I didn't go with him this time. Since cross country skiing is a much better form of exercising than shoveling. I must have really wanted those truffles:

Our neighbors shoveling our shared driveway:

Now for the complaining...

Guess what our street looked like on Monday?
Yep, just like the driveway. I know it's there, but where?

Snow storms are rare, so Seattle has a whopping 24 snowplows to cover the entire area. Since they cannot possibly help us all out they focus on the arterials (in English: main roads). That doesn't help when you are half a mile from an arterial but have to drive down a steep, snowy and icy downgrade. It also doesn't help when you are .2 miles from another arterial and have to make it up a very steep snowy and icy upgrade to get there. Even if you can get to an arterial here is Seattle's, or more appropriately, Mayor Nickles' way of dealing with that: Seattle refuses to use salt; roads "snow packed" by design. Although I can sum it up with these quotes:

The city's approach means crews clear the roads enough for all-wheel and four-wheel-drive vehicles, or those with front-wheel drive cars as long as they are using chains.

The icy streets are the result of Seattle's refusal to use salt...

That leaves many drivers, including Seattle police, pretty much on their own until nature does to the snow what the sand can't: melt it.

And to help us all sleep at night:

The city's patrol cars are rear-wheel drive. And even with tire chains, officers are avoiding hills and responding on foot...

Alright I'm done with the complaining...Finally we got some relief on Tuesday. The roads were still crap, but the city was above freezing, and there was no further accumulation. We still couldn't drive, but Will was able to get to work and I was able to go to the store. These were both great accomplishments.

A ghost town AKA Microsoft around late December:

The question now is, if I was stuck inside for days why didn't I catch up on emails/facebook/other blogs or post anything until now...oh the mystery.

More of the Same

2008-12-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

It's December and I am not ready so I am posting more soccer pics because that is all really know how to do. We just played our last game of the season yesterday (photos not shown). I have no idea what I will do to stay fit in the meantime. My ankle has given out and the gym is way too boring these days. Poor me. Well, I may post something of relevance...someday

(These are high res photos, click on them if you want a closer view. I know you all want to see my sexy back.)

We were up by 5 so I tried my hand at goal. I gave up one (that photo not shown):

I got it:

Taking a goal kick with really bad form and not sure what's going on with my thigh:

Was bored in goal, had to get back out on the field:

I'm having soccer withdrawals already, better go eat some chocolate to make myself feel better.

UPDATE - MY TEAMMATES:

Candy Critic - Lite (and Late)

2008-10-31T17:53:00.000-07:00

Already Halloween and I can see trick or treaters outside the window, but I'll be damned it I don't do my yearly (as of last year) review of the newest candy.

Unfortunately, I'm a little short on time, but since TCM is keeping on the skinny side anyway a short review is okay.

I only found one new concoction, and maybe it wasn't new, but I only saw it this year and that is Candy Corn Kisses. It looks nice as you can see from the picture below, but taste...yuck! It's as if Hershey's idea was to add sugar to vomit and make it look like a cute little Kiss. Okay, I am exaggerating a little about the taste, but it did not, in any way, taste like candy corn or a standard Kiss. Don't be fooled by the pretty packaging and chemicals they added to make the "stuff" look like candy corn, 'cuz candy corn it ain't.

Now to balance out the negative review, if you like candy corn it's good mixed with peanuts.

Starting to Feel Better

2008-10-18T17:22:00.001-07:00

Since I don't communicate with anyone via the blog, email, social networking sites, the telephone, or text messages you probably didn't know I was sick at all. Well...I was and kind of still am. In keeping with my minimalist approach to blogging, here you go...

Yet another team I play for:
[Before game]

[Throwing it in]

[After first half, down by two, check out the sweat and nasty hair]

[Look who's representing the Tbot]

T-Bot

2008-10-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

My promise of more posts didn't quite pan out well, did it? This is attemt 37 for consistent posting: shorter posts. Less talk, more shock...oops...wrong audience. TCM: We get to the point.

Here is my post:

T-bot.

1. If you use instant messaging you need to use Windows Live Messenger? Yahoo Shmahoo, Skype is Tripe, and AIM is archiving your messages for later exposure. Done.

2. Now that you have all your contacts on Messenger, message away! But, wait, what about your friend in Mexico whose English is horrible (assuming your Spanish is just as bad). You'd love to message them, but oh what a headache that would be.

What's that T-Bot, you say you can help?

(My head head peeking in above)

Yes, that is right, T-bot will translate for you, no need to speak the same language! In the above example, I'm only conversing with T-bot ('cuz' no one else is up at this hour), but he can be added to any instant messaging conversation and will act as a translator. For a much better decscription of T-bot's utility check out this page MSR Team Blog, but before you do that T-bot has a message for you:

Rant

2008-09-18T21:11:00.001-07:00

In what seems to be the only consistent thing on my blog, here I am posting before my birthday. I suppose every year around this time, I feel the need to assure myself I'm on top of things and in control of my life. I'm getting older and can't leave life for later. So naturally, I hop on to the blog and post away.

Now for rant:
I was going to post a decent picture of myself since, in the pictures on the main page, I probably didn't shower the days they were taken; I am dirty, sweaty (sometimes bloody) from whatever physical activity I was engaged in; and I look like a dude in one of them. If you can't tell already I'm a bit on the vain side. I was able to get over myself enough to post the unflattering pictures, but with my current posting rate those pics have remained in the front. (No that wasn't the rant, just a subrant). However I am having to forgo that plan because I have two huge pimples on the left side of my chin! WTF? Freaking acne! (Now I am at the rant) I am almost 32, I am aging, I am developing wrinkles (I can't see them yet, but I know they are hiding somewhere in development stage) there should be no room for acne. As my good friend Sarah says "It's not fair to have both" (more of a paraphrase than a quote, but I'll keep it quoted anyway). I would be less worried if they were external (using vague language to avoid visual description the universally repulsive sebaceous surprise), but no, they are the lousy, internal red ones that hurt when you touch them and take a week or so to disappear. Note to physical self: You are old, don't let the soccer playing, need to party, and general immaturity fool you. This body is done with acne!

Yeah, I'm Here

2008-08-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog readers,

I miss you. I hope to be blogging again soon. Need to put blog in my outlook calendar.

Here's another soccer pic with another team. Be nice to us, we played a rough scrimmage:

Kiddos

2008-07-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I've been a loser of late. I hope to provide more life to this blog soon. In the meantime, below is some new life. I am officially and aunt X 12!

Brother Brian and Sister in law Emily's 3rd, Aubry:

Brother Carl and Sister in law Lora's 7th (I stole this from her blog), Cora LeAnn (I dig the middle name):

Be Very Afraid

2008-07-02T00:20:00.000-07:00

What 'football' team has Euro Cup champs Spain shaking in their boots?.....

Oh yeah!

You Should See The Other Girl

2008-06-19T22:33:00.001-07:00

The title of this post is a bit misleading. It would be nice if I could blame my latest little wound on someone else, like another player tripping or shoving me down, because then I'd know I was doing a going a job of shutting them down earlier. Unfortunately, my latest injury on the soccer field is completely my fault. With my awesome sense of coordination I managed to trip over myself and slide face first across the carpet-like turf. The leftover blood in the nose however was the product of another player's hand to my face, so I'm still hard, I'm still cool.

I'm bloggin'!

2008-06-08T13:28:00.000-07:00

Sooooooooooo, I've been super duper busy and haven't had much online time at all. Sort of like living in the 80's all over again, minus the music, Reagan and Soviet spies, which is what made it a decade worth living in (no booing from the left, Reaganomics could have worked!). So to my fellow bloggers I'll be visiting you soon and to my non-blogging readers, Hi!

Here is a true, illustrated story for you to celebrate my return.

Will and Carrie went on a hike somewhere in Ellensburg. Will found a four leaf clover.

Later on in the hike, Carrie fell and scraped up her right knee. You can't really see it here but I'm sure that's not why you are here anyway, at least I hope.

(I know that looks like a Corey, but that really is in fact the Carrie)

A week later, after wearing the same sweatshirt she has worn on her hike (not in any pic) to bed, she found a tick on her leg the next morning.

After 20 or so minutes of struggling to remove the lousy tick, Carrie finally got him loose, although he took some of her skin with him and tried to get away (Click on pic to enlarge).

No one takes Carrie's skin and lives, so she sentenced him to death by alcohol.

While it was Will that found the four leaf clover, Carrie is the one who pulled it out. So, if you find a four leaf clover, be sure to have someone else do the dirty work of ending its luck bestowing life.

Random Hillary Quotes

2008-05-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

"Clinton is acting like a cornered animal...it's disgusting" - Will Lewis
"She's a bloodly liar...she needs to be honest...people are much smarter than she gives them credit for." - Janani Mathur
"Oh, no I'm good, I don't have a strong opinion" - Abhinav M.
"The Hill be the pill and not the good one." - C. Lewis

April?

2008-04-19T10:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry for low quality photo, but it's the best I could get with my phone (the camera, along with the Will, are in another continent at the current time).

Now if you can direct your attention to the white blur in the photo, that would be snow, and that would be yesterday, April 18. I did in fact speak too soon. We are still waiting for spring.

Lame Pic for Lame Game

2008-04-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

I went to my first, but not last, Angels v. Mariners game of the season yesterday and contrary to the title it wasn't a lame game. Thanks to the mistakes on both teams (Anaheim needs you back soon Lackey!), it was a nail biter up until the 7th inning. Unfortunately, the Angels didn't recover from their mistakes as much and they lost.

In my attempt to be cool or funny or something I had Will take a picture of me in my Angels gear with my newly received free Mariners' calendar. It didn't turn out so cool or funny, AND it is poorly centered AND Will's fleece even makes its way into the lower left corner of the picture. This is same man that takes photos like this:

Me:

Yep, not too much effort put into that last one Will. The Angels must have been ahead.

TIRED

2008-04-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

Update: I wrote this on the day listed above but did not post it until 4/12, because I don't like the cold. I wanted to post a picture of the kitty, Kitty, but the wireless didn't have enough 'umph' to upload the large file. My options were to post sans pic or go downstairs to the frigid, dark basement (where Will also kindly set up my office!?) and connect directly to the stronger cable. I chose option 3. In a related note, spring may have finally arrived in Seattle.

Old News:
I've started my new job and I am still teaching. Luckily, I'm not in school this quarter or else I'd probably be too tired to tell you I am tired. Informative posts are on their way. Here is the preview:

Our brief vacation in hicksville (not bad, really)
Chino post (I'm still going to write it even if no one cares)
You decide what I write about! (I'm thinking I'll probably pretend someone suggested a topic)

For your pleasure, here is a picture of my poor kitty, who is also named Kitty. I'm a bad mother, I abandoned Kitty for a man and now I make my parents take care of her. Actually the real story is that she lived the life of luxury in Chino (in her picture she is on her futon/bed, what cat has a real bed?) and she was living the hood life in Fresno. She loves hunting, but in Fresno I couldn't let her out of my apartment because of the animals that weren't properly trained. And that includes some high ranking, top of the food chain members of kingdom Animalia, if you know what I mean. So after a semester, I returned her to my parents where she could roam free again. Unfortunately, I never introduced her to my then boyfriend Will's cat Donny. So when it came time to move to Seattle, I didn't want to risk taking her along and finding out the two cats didn't like each other. Sadly, I left her in California. I am sure writing a lot for being tired, so here we go...

Raymond, Washington

2008-03-28T18:33:00.001-07:00

Damn you Raymond, Washington! Damn you all to hell!

I give up on this whole sticking within the speed limit business. I tried, I failed. I was so good while on the 101 highway, staying within the 55-60 mph limit, but then the 101 crossed through the city of Raymond and the speed limited dropped to 35. I didn't see the sign and accordingly didn't adjust my speed until Will hinted that I may be going too fast for the conditions. Too late, the copboy had already nabbed me. It would have been nice if copboy could have given me a warning, considering it was a holiday, but there was no mercy for the blonde Carrie (he lists me as blonde even though my license says brown, he was on drugs).

I want my 'damn you' to sound much like Charlton Heston's "damn you...damn you all to hell", so if you don't know what I am referring to, watch the clip from Planet of the Apes, then reread my first line again, because that is about the intensity I'm going for. Although if you haven't seen POTA and don't want the ending ruined for you, don't watch it. Either way, no me gusta Raymond, WA.

I know I've added a few generic clips of late, but rest assured I don't plan on making this blog into a you-tube fest. I just knew I couldn't surpass Heston's 'damn you'

Vacation

2008-03-23T08:19:00.000-07:00

Will and I are taking a brief vacation to the Long Beach Peninsula. Google, no don't google, perform a Live Search of it and you will see we are not going to California, which is what almost everyone thinks when we tell them where we are going. Now if I wrote my post on Chino I could have said something funny here, but as is my life, it's in the to-do queue. Though in brief, the only reason we'd head to Long Beach, CA is to join a gang or buy a gat.

So I may or may not post anything, since Will has something against vacations and computers, but I'll take some pictures.

While deleting photos, I found a dorky, unflattering picture of me (and Will's office) before my first soccer game last September. Enjoy!

Quickie Update Again

2008-03-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

I was reading the comments in my last post, and you are right Sariah, updates are surely lacking. I only have time for a quickie (stinkin' students and their demands that I teach them, j/k). The big news is, I got the job! This will bring some stability to my ever changing schedule, but less vacation time. Although since my time off = not being paid for however long I am gone, I was more temporary unemployed as opposed to vacationing. I'll write more about the new job when I start working in April, because honestly, I don't know what I am really doing there. I hope they do!

I still plan on posting the 'missed-the-mark' defense of Chino and some pictures. Yeah, that's right, it's picture time!

Here is something totally unrelated. For some reason the exaggeration of poverty in this old cartoon has always made me laugh. I'm heartless.

The Return

2008-03-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

You may not have noticed, but for the sake of myself esteem, let me pretend you all have been wondering for weeks where I vanished.

The story is I didn’t vanish. I’ve been here, but the last two weeks have been the regular work and school mixed with a new job opportunity (more on that if it actually happens) and way too much soccer playing.

Here are some pictures from two weeks ago, just a few bruises on the sides of my right knee. I have no idea how they got there:

I’ve been searching for a new team to supplement my other two. Yes, I know I joined the second to supplement the first, but that was not enough because I see even more flaws in my performance. So, I’ve been literally playing the field. Unfortunately every team I have played for has been short a few players, so I don’t just play a few quarters like a normal “looker”, I play the entire game. This last weekend I played everyday, Saturday to Wednesday. My deepest apologies to the Wednesday team, because it only took 5 minutes into the game for me to become exhausted.

The upshot to all this should be better skills and a firmer body, but I’m pretty much doing whatever I can to prevent the latter by oinking out the days I’m not playing. In fact I went to sleep last night with a very upset stomach after devouring my entire fish and chip dinner, then getting ice cream later. But fish is healthy and ice cream has calcium right, so never mind, it’s all good.

Another benefit of the marathon-type playing is that I’ve gotten a taste of my 70’s with the inability to get out of bed in the morning because of aching joints. Figuring this is not normal for a woman of only a few decades, I saw the orthopedist. Besides the torn ligament in my left ankle (which apparently has been torn for 10 years), my joints are fine, just a little too used. But because I am a young, non-professional athlete I still shouldn’t have so many problems, so he recommended physical therapy. To be fair the doctor didn’t really say that when he prescribed PT, but it sure made me feel old.

All of this has inspired me to bring back my phone character, Grandma Applebee, annoying/entertaining the young co-eds of BYU from 98-99 (and I must admit, made a few appearances in Fresno and Seattle). So if I can manage making a legal recording of her, she shall make her appearance on the Torch Carrying Mob.

Still to appear…”Chino Farmers: the Equal Opportunity Cow Slaughterers”

Obama

2008-02-25T13:05:00.000-08:00

My very own Will, and local delegate for Obama, made the opinion section of the 2/26 Christian Science Monitor. Although our politics don’t always agree, I agree with every word he says here:

Superdelegates' damaging potential
Regarding the Feb. 20 article, "Backlash to superdelegates' role in picking nominee": I think it's important to recognize Barack Obama's strong support among young people, especially among 18- to 30-year-olds, and the fact that this constituency is turning out in record numbers to caucus and vote.

Should Senator Obama succeed in getting the majority of "regular" delegates, which looks increasingly likely, but have his nomination "overturned" at the convention by superdelegates' votes, the Democratic Party could conceivably be damaged for a generation. His disaffected young supporters may seek to throw their support elsewhere (that is, to some other party), or worse, leave politics altogether.

I think the superdelegates, being party leaders and officeholders, should carefully think about the long-term consequences of their respective decisions.

Personally, I think I may throw my support for Obama as well. Since the Republican nominee was already determined by the time it was our turn to vote, I voted in the Washington State Democratic Caucus and was one of the many that helped Obama win this state. While it’s true his words most of the time lack substance, and I’m not a fan of his economic and some social views, if he really can deliver positive ‘change’ (measured by economic growth and improved foreign relations) then I won’t regret my choice. I can’t say the same for my 2000 decision.

I’m not a Republican anymore, but I still lean right. Here are some other righties behind Obama.

Ike’s granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower, supporting Obama

Republicans for Obama

Bad English

2008-02-25T09:26:00.001-08:00

I had to take time out of my important, high profile, fast paced, busy schedule (note: one or more of the schedule modifying adjectives may be completely false) to show you some lousy English. The following isn't Engrish from Japan, it was a location-tracking advertisement link on Project Playlist which is geared towards the young, hormonal Myspace audience:

I have parsed the sentence "We have Tracked One of Your Friends Likes You" every which way and it still doesn't make sense or follow any American English grammatical standard. It's either missing a relative clause or a comma or conjunction or pronoun or something, it just "ain't right".

So my guess it that the originator of the link and/or site (which probably is an attempt to get personal information or payment from the naive user) in not a native speaker, or even in the United States. Even those of below average intelligence still have mastery of their native grammar, so I don't think it's the mistake of "the dumb in-law we had to hire". It could just be a typo at the hands of a native speaker, but you'd think they'd proofread before displaying it to millions of users. The error itself should act as a warning that the site is dodgy.

BTW, I updated the posting I made below.

The Votes are In

2008-02-20T08:46:00.000-08:00

Thank you to the 7 voters who went against my vote, "proofread before posting", and voted that I add more personal, real life photos to the blog. There are no super delegates to throw your vote away, so pictures there will be! I have a few posts that I hope to write this ~~week~~ month (updated 2-25), here are the titles:

1. "Chino (my hometown) has made national news!" (and in some related news, stay away from beef for a while)

2. "Clinton out, Obama in" or "Say 'bye, bye' Baby Boomers"

3. Some article to fit whatever picture I take

Until that time enjoy Hoppy and Choppy (frog and tiger, respectively) below. Sadly Hoppy is living on his own these days as Choppy got a new owner at Microsoft today.

Some Ramblings while TCM is being remodeled

2008-02-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

I’m backing Obama!

I’ve accepted that the 2008 Presidential Primary will not produce a candidate I’d want for president. Even when I supported Giuliani, I had to ignore his ethics and just focus on his ability to win, which was artificially inflated. Now all that’s really left are McCain the warmonger; Romney the flip flopping panderer; Huckabee, whose supporters represent the reason I left the GOP; Clinton the lobbyist dream come true; and Obama whose answer to everything are the empty phrases, ‘change’ and ‘hope’. Ron Paul, the only GOP candidate for true limited government, is not in my dump list because I like the guy, but he doesn’t have a chance and his supporters could use some meds.
I’m being petty here, but I do have sound, logical reasons why I’m hoping for an Independent to emerge from the circus. Betting that that won’t happen, I’ve figured out how I’ll vote assuming the following combinations given the Repulican frontrunner McCain wins the GOP's nod:

McCain/good vice v. Obama/good vice
McCain

McCain/Huckabee or another bad vice v. Obama/good vice
Obama

McCain/Huckabee or another bad vice v. Obama/bad vice
Obama

McCain/good vice v. Clinton/good or bad vice
McCain

McCain/Huckabee or another bad vice v. Clinton/good vice
Get drugged up then vote Clinton

McCain/Huckabee or another bad vice v. Clinton/bad vice
Get drugged up for four years

Quickie Update

2008-01-31T11:19:00.000-08:00

Will is still hobbling along and now he is sick, with a 101+ temp. Nurse Carrie contract has been extended indefinitely. Jan 2008 will not be forgotten.

My ankle is doing better. I joined an indoor soccer league to supplement my outdoor adventures. Will post pics of various bruises as they occur. Right now I have two big toes without toenails. My apologies if you were eating while reading this.

I was temporarily relived of my nurse duties last weekend for a weekend of skiing in Tahoe! Yes, I left the patient to enjoy the same activity that crippled him. But, I made the plans much earlier and it was to see the Sarah and clan. That should be reason enough. Anyway, the snow was excellent (not quite the powder of Utah, but the best I've seen since I left that state), and because it was Sarah's first time skiing, I have a great story to tell. Something about a beginner on an intermediate slope, a rescue dog, and a snowmobile.

And as always, here is the usual unfulfilled promise of new pics:

The Update

2008-01-24T15:26:00.000-08:00

WARNING : Thier our alot of mispeelings and grammer errors below. I did not edit before posting the rushed update. Get a point for every mistake you find.

In our first ski trip of the season, and in our second run of a nice, sunny day, Will bit it, and bit it good. Sadly, I can’t say I really saw what happened. We were at a stopping point at the top of a slope, where it’s relatively flat. I paused as I eavesdropped on some older women (I know I will regret calling them older when I reach my 40’s, but until that time, they were older) nervously dare each other to go. We were on a blue run (intermediate), but on the more expert end, with about a 40% grade, so the women’s fears were understandable if they were expecting a lower grade. One woman told the others its part of the initiation for the “425”. The 425 being the area code on the somewhat wealthier, suburban Eastside (or Snohomish county, strange area distribution I must say). This piqued my interested more, because city girl from the “206” wanted to show them how to fearlessly make it down (Seriously, I have nothing against the Eastside or 425, but we do have better restaurants, nightlife, and culture in general, ha ha). Ok, no more tangents. So, the last thing I heard was one woman saying she was afraid of falling, then, as if it were timed, I see Will rolling down, body twisting, but with his telemark skis still attached to his boot and in a stationary position. A scream accompanied the twisting, and since I had never heard the man scream before, I knew he must be in pain.

I rushed over to him. Surprisingly, after witnessing the fall the women must have developed some courage, because they immediately took off. We tried to move somewhere other than the center of the run, where we were, but Will couldn’t put any pressure on his left foot without excruciating pain at his ankle. I was going to ski down to summons the ski patrol, but I couldn’t leave the injured alone. It seemed like forever before anyone came our way, but eventually an older couple (a real ‘older’, looking in their 70’s) offered their help and alerted the patrol.
I followed as he was being transported to first aid, which had us cutting through snowboard jumps. I felt guilty as I enjoyed skiing along the sides of the jumps. At least I had the decency not to attempt any jumps while my husband wondered if he even has a left foot anymore.

First aid diagnosed it as an ankle fracture and insisted he seek immediate medical attention. The ER diagnosed as an ankle sprain. Ahhh, I was relieved, I am the queen of ankle sprains, not only do I know what to do with those, but he’d at least be limping in a week. Then the ER doctor called a few hours later, after the specialist’s review of the x-ray, they called it a fracture.

So a week has past. Will spent the weekend bedridden, except for our escape Saturday night for this yummy place with friends: WANN . Getting him to and from there was kind of an ordeal, but well worth it. Will got an aircast on it Monday and can put some slight pressure on it, although he’s still on crutches.

[picture here if I can manage to take a shot without him knowing]

And in some related news, I twisted my ankle on Sunday. Jealous of all the attention Will’s left ankle was getting, my left ankle decided to malfunction during a soccer game. It must be jealousy, because there was no other reason for it to twist. I didn’t have the ball, I wasn’t trying to get the ball, and I wasn’t even near a player. All I was doing was turning around and then…twist. But I had the final laugh because I just played on it anyway. It didn’t stop me at 10, so I’ll be damned if it stops me at…uh…25. Will it stop me at 40? I don’t think I’ll have any ligaments left at that point.

Update Soon

2008-01-20T15:13:00.000-08:00

I've been playing this part the past few days...

Because of this...

update soon.

Boo to Boston: 'Pawt' two

2008-01-14T10:10:00.000-08:00

I’m not a big football fan, in fact, by default I just root for the local, if any, team, or the last local team I know. With the Seahawks out, all that’s left to cheer for are the San Diego Chargers, my self-adopted childhood team (like when kids who have an abusive parent [the Raiders], a loser one [the Rams], or one that abandons them [Rams and Raiders] have to find a substitute parent to cling to). Though, I don’t want the Patriots to lose just because they are playing the closest thing I ever had to a local team. More importantly, I just want them out of Super Bowl contention. They broke some record, good for them. Now they need to go home to their frigid little city. So you don’t read my last statement the wrong way, I love Boston, but the last time I was there the high was 10 degrees, thus frigid was the lasting impression.

Anyway, back to my point, the Red Sox won the World Series and the Celtics have the best record in the NBA right now (Basketball is another sport I don’t care for and thus root local, so go Sonics, even though they pretty much suck). All this number 1 business for one city (technically the Patriots are in Foxborough, MA, but close enough) and small state is too much in my opinion. They already have a large concentration of the best and brightest scholars, why dominate the sports world too. Will calls it a Californian inferiority complex, but, call me a commie, I just think the good fortune should be spread.

If the Patriots do in fact win the next two games, then former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney should be feeling pretty bad if he doesn’t come out on top after Super Tuesday. He’ll be the only thing to recently come out of there a loser.

My pick for Super Bowl: Chargers or Giants
My pick for NBA whatever: Sonics
Hockey pick: Ducks
Professional sports teams v. Local sports: local
Democratic Pick: Kucinich
Democratic Pick with a Chance: Obama
Republican Pick: G-man Giuliani

The not so Little Bro

2008-01-02T11:09:00.000-08:00

Today was going to be the day I was going to post a picture of me and my brother somewhere touristy in Seattle...but it will have to wait . My brother was supposed to be up here for a month long LSAT course, but his instructor quit at the last minute because he found out he has brain cancer, now the Rob has to take the class in California. I feel really bad for the guy, the teacher, but I also feel guilty for being upset at the guy for disrupting our plans. Hopefully I can still convince the boy, my brother, to at least apply to law school up here.

The good thing about him not coming up this winter is that at least when he does finally visit us the sun may be out and the temperature may be moderate, then I can lie and tell him it's like this all year round and he should consider moving up... ha ha, my evil plan may work after all.

The Robman:

2007 Year in Review

2007-12-31T13:40:00.000-08:00

It is time for the much awaited year in review for

As I reflected upon 2007, I realized that nothing much happened most of the time. However, I want to fill in an event for every month, so I may borrow stories from the news and just change the names around so I can pretend I was involved in the story.

In general I am happy to say I did not work for scam of a school ITT this year. I’ll be devoting a post to that experience in 2008, but in summary don’t even consider associating yourself with the school, be it as a recruiter, administrator, instructor, or student.

January – Probably my most traumatic month, my hard drive died. Let me back up a little. I didn’t use the old clunker all that much, instead opting to use one of Will’s computers (despite that my using it wasn’t an option in his list, but I can’t help that is was an option in my list). And, well, I guess I used it too much because the power cord/adapter stopped working (for the second time). While I waited for the newly ordered cord to arrive in the mail, I was forced to use my laptop with a non-functioning screen and a fan whose sound pressure was that of jet engine’s. Because of the lack of a screen I had to hook it up to a desktop screen, further forcing me to remain stationary as I worked in my cold, dark dungeon (office) in the basement. (Okay, enough complaining, I must have your sympathies by now.) Well, long story short, my hard drive decided to croak as I was working on a program due the next day. At the same time Will was racing against a deadline on a paper, so his computer was out of the question, and the power to his other computer still had not arrived. I ended up helping another classmate with his assignment in exchange for the use of his computer. I finished my assignment and made a new friend.

February – I won the lottery! Actually, I didn’t quite, I just beat some really low odds. I was on my blog obsessing over its ghettoness when I decided to hit the ‘Next Blog’ link that is in the upper left hand corner. I often check other blogs out to get ideas or to just plain steal their ideas. Well, the “next blog” was that of a college roommate and good friend I lost contact with and hadn’t seen in 11 or so years! So after shaking for about a half hour, I wrote the totally awesome Sariah, aka S-dawg, to say ‘long time no see’. Even then, I found out my email went into the spam folder. I beat the spam odds too. I am that good!

March – I won $20 in Blackjack. A married couple that I teach wanted to experience an American casino, and trying to be the best damn teacher I can be, we took a trip down to the Muckleshoot Native American casino. The environment was pretty depressing, so we only played a few games before they wanted to leave, but every game I touched I won, with a profit of $20 (that will probably be the most I ever win, so I felt I should mention in my YIR). I promised them that Vegas was not like Muckleshoot. Vegas hides the desperation and despair of its regulars with simulated cities and eras and artificial lights.

April – I have no idea what happened this month. I even looked back at my old posts for that month and found nothing meaningful. I enjoyed life in April.

May – I got what I hope is my last speeding ticket. I’m bitter about every ticket I have received. I will admit that I was guilty of every infraction, but I dislike the sting operation type ticketing. I don’t get my tickets going 100, which I have done, nor dangerously weaving in and out of traffic, which I haven’t done but have seen. I get my tickets where cars and pedestrians are sparse or non-existent; it’s just me, open road, and some cop hiding behind the bushes.

June – I got my second visitor, the one and only Sarah. It was towards the end of the month, but it still occurred in June so I’m counting it! In my almost 2 years of being in Seattle, I only had 1 other visit from my friend Mari. Everyone else comes up to visit Will, no love for the Caredog. Seeing the Sarah was great and I will return the visit with a trip to Ireland. I WILL be there Sarah

July – I got married! July 5. Although, I have no idea who Carrie Lewis is. I also don’t know why this is my shortest review.

August – Mariner Month. I attended a lot of games this month, much more than I have attended in a month for the Angels in Anaheim. However most of the games I went to were Mariner v. Angels, so that should count for something. The best game was on Mariner Monday, where the Angels kicked some Mariner a$$, ha ha. My apologies to the B-man though, the guy I went with. He’s a good Mariner fan, but I think he got booed along with me because of my Angels paraphernalia. I’ll make it up to you next season B-man.

September – I became another year older. The birthday bash was fun. I can’t say I remember much of it anymore. I was told I sang happy birthday in French to my fellow Virgo friend Janani and I still have the receipt for 5 popsicles I bought around 2 in the morning. Popsicles?

October – I started school in September, but October was the darkest month. The material in one of my courses was so novel and tough that despite my starting my assignments as early as possible, I usually finished them with only an hour or 2 to spare. In retrospect, the mental anguish was useful, as I am now well prepared for the prerequisite class I skipped, but I hated life at the time.

November – I managed to escape Seattle for a weekend for the sunshine of the California shore. Sure, I only saw the sun from my window most of the time, but I have learned to appreciate any exposure I can get to the rare golden orb.

December – I successfully completed my first quarter at the UW! My sleep cycle is still recovering.

What does 2008 have in store? We shall see…

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T01:07:00.000-08:00

Copying everyone else, I have posted a picture of our Christmas tree. As you can see ours is not even in the same plantae division as a proper Christmas tree, but we had to improvise. Neither of us are Christmas tree type people, I grew up with a fake one and Will sometimes didn't even have one, so a tree was pretty low on the holiday to-do list. Also, do you see those Christmas lights in the background? That is pretty much the full extent of our Christmas decor. Next year you'll decorate, Carrie, next year.

The cat in the background in none other than Donny, our food lovin' kitty. I had a hard time getting him to look at me. He knows his name, but being a cat, he only responds when it suits him. I finally got him to look at me by saying "food".

This isn't much of a Christmas post, but Merry Christmas anyway. I'll post my year in review as my final post of 2007. Also, now that I have some time, my OCD is back in action! Look for revisions and perhaps some order and organization to my posts. The rambling and ranting will remain however.

Sushi Attempt 11

2007-12-16T16:52:00.000-08:00

I left the photography up to the photographer in my tiny little family, but I made the mistake of not feeding him first. He was way more interested in me hurrying up then allowing me to properly place my "art", or even pick out the pieces that are worth photographing. He just took a quick pic of what I had on the plate thus far, grrrr. My apologies to those in the art of sushi, as I think I am breaking the rule of not displaying your rejects, never mind that I am breaking another rule by not using a mat.
Although, out of respect, I am not going post the full plate pic, it really is too ugly, rather I just cropped a few pieces out. Still lacking in the art department, but I'm going to ignore the little voice that is telling me not to put any pictures up.

Salmon Roll w/Avocado

BFF's Philly Roll (My first try at it at the Salmon/Cream Cheese combo) and Seared Salmon Roll

And just so you don't think your computer screwed up and didn't load photo2, that is what photo2 looks like. Note to self: learn to photo edit in spare time.

Update 12.07

2007-12-12T17:35:00.000-08:00

As of today I am officialy done with my quarter! Hopefully the next few quarters won't be as much of a brain shocker. I'm all about prerequisites now.

The big question now is did anything else happen in my life besides school and whining about my difficult class?

My answer to that is not really, but I'll come up with something...

My soccer team went 1-??-1 this season. Yeah, I lost count of the games we lost. We're hoping for a better season this winter. As for me, I am no longer playing the beloved right defensive position I played as I youngster. I'm now usually the center midfielder. It's hard for me to let go of the control freakiness that made me a good defender, so I still spend a lot of time in the defensive line, and then I run my heart out to catch up to the offensive line when we get control of the ball. It's a good workout, but probably not best for the team to have an exhausted center. Sorry team, I'll get over it the defense obsession soon. Will has yet to attend a game. He's a fair weather spectator, and well, Seattle isn't exactly known for fair weather, but when he does attend, pictures there will be.

I postponed my reception type thingy, which was to be held in November. After spending my first week of school chained to my computer, I concluded that any partying would be eclipsed by my obsession over whatever program I was working on. Date of reception type thingy TBA. However, we still had tickets to California in November, so we flew to Burbank and stayed in Carpenteria instead. The main theme of me in front of the computer remained the same despite the change of location, but I occasionally rewarded my self with a nice run on the beach. I got out once to Santa Barbara to see our old friend Hector. Below are the high quality pictures of the occasion:

And in family news, there will be a new addition in June, and it is NOT coming from me. My brother Brian and his wife are expecting child #3. With Carl's 6, Brian's 2, and Will's sister's 2, I'm a busy girl this Christmas, but I'm not complaining.

Now, for a preview of the exciting topic of my next post...

Above is how it should be done. Check the blog out Sunday for how I do it.

I Have Returned

2007-12-07T02:07:00.000-08:00

Click on the pic for
some dancing action!

I am done!!! Well, not quite yet. I still have a final to take next week, and I need to clean up some of the code I just completed...then it's a done deal. I'm just hoping the electricity doesn't go out in some freak accident and that I don't lose what semblance I have of self discipline, by going to sleep when I really ought to 'clean up'.

This was a quarter like none other. I enrolled in the social life exterminating course without one of the prerequisites and concurrently with the other prerequisite, for reasons unknown to even me. I shall now return to the life I once knew 3 months ago.

A Confession

2007-12-05T13:12:00.000-08:00

If you heard about the recent floods in the Northwest, then I'm going to let you in on a little secret...I caused the flooding. I finished one of my assignments way ahead of schedule, thereby disrupting the balance of the universe. My sincerest apologies.

I hope to return next week

2007-11-16T11:01:00.000-08:00

in the meantime, I gots to finish implementing this...

Probably simple for the experienced programmer, for some reason I can't seem to get it right and I trashed a day's worth of code, leaving me well behind the pack now. Oh well, if I have to stay up late it just gives me an excuse to indulge in the seasonal peppermint mocha. There is a bright side to everything!

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T15:49:00.000-07:00

I don't know who is scarier, this mummy boy above (my eldest nephew, Clay, don't worry I'll put some normal pics up later) or me after 2 days of sleeping only 3 hours each night. I say me. Luckily I only need to wear all black today, my pale, lifeless face and deep dark circles are will be enough to achieve the fresh from the grave look.

Candy Review II

2007-10-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

My life has obviously been disrupted when I have only purchased 3 bags of candy in 2 months, with 2 of those being last month. But I must go on with life and proceed with one review, which sadly is negative.

Given my satisfaction with the Dark Twix, I decided to continue my journey into darkness with Snicker’s Dark. Now, before I say anything about the candy, I must express my dissatisfaction with the bag. It’s supposedly a variety pack, but the proportion of regular Snickers to the two other versions (Almond and Dark) is about 5 to 1. It may as well be just a Snickers bag that exclaims “With 3 or 4 of our limited edition, DARK!” My complaint may sound hypocritical given my problem with bagged candy, but I feel I should still be able to pilot my own demise. So with that said, my review is based only on an exclusive 5 pieces.

I’m sure the reason for the limited number is that they don’t want you to realize the Dark version tastes the same as the Milk one. Yes, about all I can say about Snicker’s Dark is that there is a slight difference only when you first place it in your mouth. This is related to the reduced sweetness of the Dark, so of course it’s going to stimulate a different set of buds. The coating is just not prominent enough to influence the overall flavor, which is a mix of nougat, peanuts, and caramel. Perhaps a thicker coat or more subtleness in the inside would have made a difference. MilkyWay, did a great job creating their dark version by eliminating the chocolate nougat, and replacing it with a contrastive vanilla.

So if you are looking to buy candy for your trick or treaters and want leftovers you can still eat or if you need to take the “yucky ones” away from your kids. I’d go with the lower-in-fat original 3 Musketeers and MilkyWay Dark.

Did Carrie from TCM fame pass away?

2007-10-25T09:28:00.001-07:00

For the last two weeks I would have said 'yes'. I don't recall a time I've been busier. Most of this is due to my two courses. Well, more accurately, one. The workload of one of my classes is quite reasonable, and I feel my programming classes adequately prepared me. But the other class...oh boy. The lectures may as well be given in Russian, except with Russian I actually understand a few phrases. My only consolation is that past students have felt the same way. Supposedly it makes better sense later on in the program. We’ll see. In the meantime I must be content with the 20+ hour assignments, where ¾ is just spent deciphering it all.

But enough complaining…I have a candy review to write, a nephew to show, and the Red Sox to take a jab at. Actually I can do the latter now, the Red Sox have the second highest payroll in baseball. If they win the World Series it should be of no surprise, just as you expect McDonalds and Walmart to outperform the local competitors.

Go Rockies, but if you are 0-3 by Sunday, at least do something to injure the ever annoying Manny Ramirez!

UPDATE: In all fairness, the Red Sox are not like McDonalds. The latter uses inferior ingredients, the former has good players and an awesome pitcher. It's just that the former has the money to buy the best to quash the competition. I still stand by my call of violence on Manny though.

Boo to Boston!

2007-10-07T15:56:00.000-07:00

My picks now that my beloved Angels have been swept by the Red Sox:

Rockies v. D-Backs: Anyone is fine, both are from the West and the favored teams of my Mother and Mother-in-law respectively.

Red Sox v. Indians: Go Tribe!

Red Sox v. Yankees (if they can pull off that miracle): Sox!

AL v. NL(World Series): NL, Rockies or Diamondbacks

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

2007-10-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

...but the fire is so delightful

and since we've no place to go

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..,

hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
{humming the next line}

WAIT!!! What am I doing? Oh yeah I remember, this was the song that was playing when I was at the store today and I can't get it out of my head. This song is annoying enough, but in early October!?! There are two holiday themes before Christmas people. I know there aren't many Halloween or Thanksgiving songs to play during that time, but that doesn't mean you have to go right on to Christmas music. Please, go back to the cheesy Elton John stuff.

I can't blame the store completely. They were probably confused since it seems Western Washington pretty much gave up on doing autumn this year. It was all prepared coming early in September, but I think it got bored and let old winter take over. Get out the coats, it's going to be a cold one.

Mid Page News

2007-09-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well I suppose I do have some relevant news but nothing to write of it yet. I just started school again, this time at UW. I am now in the computational linguistics program, so we’ll see how well my programming classes prepared me. My only observations thus far are the political views on campus, or should I say ‘view’. Every new university I attend is more liberal than the previous, though it’s hard not go anywhere but left from BYU. Fresno was mixed, you had the Jesus freaks preaching to you between classes, anti-war meetings in the afternoon, and minority type marches in the evening. I have yet to spot the elusive college Republicans at the UW, but I saw numerous left of center groups, each with their own effigy of their most hated Republican. So where is this diversity you speak of UW? Well I don’t know about you, but I am getting bored just writing this, so on to the next point.

I joined a soccer league a month ago! We’ve played two games so far and are 1-1; I don’t know what to say about that yet. Either way the season goes I like my team, I’m having fun, and it’s a great workout. I’ve been running and doing weights for quite a few years, so I thought I would be in shape, but I was exhausted and my muscles in pain after both games. I couldn’t have been ignoring that many muscles, could I’ve been? I’ll put some pictures up as soon as I allow Will to attend one of the games. Yep, I’ve forbidden him until I get at least some of my skills back. Maybe this weekend…

Candy Critic

2007-09-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

For the lack of anything better to write (or pictures to accompany my post), I’m going to review some new Halloween treats that I’ve tried.

3 Musketeers snack size, variety pack (Mocha Cappuccino, French Vanilla, Strawberry): If you have a sweet tooth and want to lose weight this is the candy to eat. 3 Musketeers is one of the few chocolate concoctions that are relatively low in fat. Unfortunately, that’s not why it’ll help you lose weight. All three flavors taste nasty. Not only will the candy never make it down, but your lunch will be coming back up, especially after the Mocha one. My guess is that they combined their standard nougat mixture with a chapstick of each respective flavor. Even 3 Musketeers is remaining silent about their newest confections, without even a mention of the pack on their website.
Twix snack size, variety pack (Original, Triple Chocolate, Dark Chocolate): I’m not a big fan of Twix. I never cared for the cookie part. If I wanted a cookie I would buy a cookie, not a candy bar. Nevertheless, in order to get the bags of candy at $2.50, I had to buy two. Also, the two new flavors intrigued me.
Triple Chocolate – Well it’s a Twix. It tastes slightly different than the original. Yet, I am still asking why. Without the caramel in a Twix, one just has a chocolate covered cookie, so why add chocolate caramel to the cookie and coating when one who likes Twix probably does so for the caramel + cookie combination. The chocolate caramel adds no contrastive properties, just more chocolate upon chocolate. It’s like Snickers using chocolate covered peanuts instead of regular ones.
Dark – This one was actually decent. The paring of bittersweet chocolate and sweet caramel makes it an easy pleaser in my world. And, I must remember that I am in the United States, where good chocolate is as rare as a sunny day in Seattle. So Twix Dark ranks high when buying ‘American.’

More reviews as I buy more candy for my young students (or so that is the excuse).

For the Birthday

2007-09-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

I'm posting some pictures of my oldest niece Catie, aka CatieBug, still in the single digits at age 9 (double digits are overrated my love).

Workin' it on the dance floor...

Showin' it...

Throwin' it...

The TCM Returns

2007-09-18T11:10:00.000-07:00

As I said in my last post, there are times I’d love to have a mob on hand, mainly to deal with people, companies, or situations that annoy me. Last Friday (and now today as well) was one of those days.

I haven’t seen a doctor in years so I decided I needed a complete check up. Among the tests was a blood draw, something I absolutely fear and hate. Even writing about is getting me lightheaded, but I will toughen up for the sake of my readers.

The sight of human blood makes me queasy, but when I see my own leave my body into a tube, it’s unbearable. I told the nurse, as she was gathering her tools, of my distress. Every time I have had my blood drawn, my statement of discomfort prompted the nurse to talk to me. As mindless as the chatter may be, it gets my mind off the impending draining of my lifeline. I learned to look the other way myself, but most have also directed me to a poster to stare at.

This nurse acknowledged my statement with a quick grin and complete silence. She started to preparing my arm, and not a word was spoken. I knew then I must fend for myself. I was within stretching distance of a magazine, so stretching for dear life with my free arm, I managed to grab a fashion magazine. Such a desperate act should have been indication number 2 that it’s critical I get my mind off of the draw, but she didn’t react to the very clear number 1, so it was no surprise that she still said nothing.

I rummaged through pages, finally landing on a makeup review (note to self: remember to check out Chanel blush). I survived the ordeal, but less than optimally. It’s much harder to direct my mind towards a passive activity, like reading, from an actively worrying state. In addition to reading, I had to shake my left leg to divert the attention away from my constrained right arm. Isn’t that all a bit weird to you nurse lady!

But, whatever, it was over, my blood was being sent away to the lab, and I could finally break my 12 hour fast. …Well, I thought way too soon… I should have waited a week for such a positive thought. I was informed today that someone screwed up. There was a blood mix up, and I have to go in again to get it drawn all over again. I thought blood mix ups only happen in movies and to OJ Simpson?!?

I much more frightened than ever before. One, I figure the nurse was silent because she needed the concentration, which makes me think she is inexperienced. Now I am worried she’ll have trouble finding the blood vessel and/or she’ll inadvertently inject some air bubble into me and kill me. Two, who mixes up blood? Not in the history of me or Will (since he has been around longer than me) have we had such an experience. I’m betting it was on this nurse’s end. I don’t want to go back!

To make matters even worse, I really need to get it done this week. I start school next week, and just don’t have the time. So my choices are Wednesday, right after the physical torture of the dentist, and because I’ll have to fast, that pain and distress will by accompanied by hunger and a hunger headache; Thursday, my birthday and a busy work day, but since I’m worried she’s going to kill me, it seems too morbid to go on that day; or Friday, the day of my and my friend’s party. That last day is only an issue, because usually I am in a zomibified state after any medical work. That is completely my hypochondriac self’s fault, but still…Damn you woman!

------------------
Going back to last Friday, though, there was another thing that annoyed me, selling via guilt. A lady came by around 8 and gave some schpeel about second chances, and how she has cleaned up her life and wants a second chance. According to her, her second chance requires me to buy magazines off of her. I told her we already have what we need and wasn’t interested. She proceed to explain that it’s not about buying magazines you’ll actually read, it’s about helping her get back on her feet again. She then showed me pictures of her kids. I wished her luck and said she would probably have no problem finding other buyers on this street to help her meet her selling quota, but I just wasn’t interested. That’s when she really tried to play the guilt card, and asked if I had kids. I stole the bait and threw the line back to her. I told her I didn’t and that she could come back when I did. She left in a huff.

I’m usually more polite to salespeople as I know it’s their job, but I don’t like it when one’s sales strategy is emotional manipulation. Now, if she had tried to sell me something I needed, like chocolate, I would have been more receptive. However, if she had told me I had to buy it for the survival of her and her kids, I’d still turn it down.

Well, that’s it for whining. My next post will have a much more cheery tone.

The Big Anniversary

2007-09-10T22:19:00.002-07:00

Get out the champagne or sparkling cider, because it’s celebration time! Not only was it the two year anniversary of my blog last month, but it was my two year anniversary of being in the great city of Seattle. Now it’s September, but great things have happened in September, so we can celebrate this month too. So what did I do to celebrate the anniversary…well, basically nothing. That’s why the time is now.

So I promised I would do something a little different. I didn’t say it would be cool or astonishing, just different. So the big difference is that I link to some old posts and a few new ones. Whoo hoo! I know you can just scroll down or hit the appropriate archive link to find them, but I’m just saving you the time. It’s the least I can do.

On the topic of celebrations you can view some wedding photos here. I took way too long to put these guys up so they are being relegated to a link on the main post. Also, honeymoon 1 is here.

Lastely, I will now finally answer the big question as to why “torch carrying mob” (TCM asks: Has anyone actually asked that? Carrie: That’s not really important).

I created the blog while taking a break from packing all of Will’s junk (yep, that’s right Will’s, not Carrie’s, she packed her stuff in no time. In all fairness, though, I did delay the whole ordeal a week by getting pharyngo-conjunctival fever, then passing it on to Will). Originally I think I named it Caredog’s Adventure and intended to keep a log of my departure and arrival in Seattle. I gave a final farewell to Fresno in my first post here and a summary of my first few days in Seattle here.

However, somewhere between Fresno and Seattle the image of a torch carrying mob came to mind. I believe it was after 12 hours of driving and a couple energy drinks. The image made me laugh because the kind I had in mind is the type from movies and television. The mob usually consists of local yahoos trying to run the person questioning their beliefs out of town (TCM asks: So you’re entertained by the thought of idiots with torches and pitchforks. Carrie: Yes, I’m easily amused.). Secondly, I wouldn’t mind having my own torch carrying mob, though the educated variety, to threaten real foes like ITT, or minor ones like the barista who failed to decaf the mocha I ordered around 8pm two weeks ago.

With that I was going to turn the blog into a vigilante-type sounding board, but it never took off. The name, however, still remains. Maybe someday…

Weddin'

2007-09-10T22:19:00.001-07:00

I held on to the wedding photos so long that I don’t like any of them (it's the makeup I can't get over). But I shall share a few with you anyway. Some may be replaced, like the one with my parents, so I’ll wait until November for that one.

To start, I almost didn’t make it to the “laid back” wedding (I think laid back only occurs when you elope). I had my nails and make-up done by my stylist on the Eastside in Kirkland. On a normal day that may spell disaster if I want to return to Seattle in a timely matter, since during the afternoon rush hour it usually looks like this -where black means you’re SOL:

It was the Independence day holiday weekend so I figured the roads would look more like this:

But, since weddings aren’t supposed to be relaxing and everything ran smoothly before that point, someone got into an accident on the westbound lane of the bridge, and the traffic situation looked more like picture 1, but worse. Reduced to one lane, it took me an hour and a half to get to Seattle. By then it was too late to go home, change into my wedding gear, get my rings, and find the number and name of the judge that was to marry us. I had to get to the courthouse as is and hope my parents and Will were able to not only take an inventory of what I needed, but to also find it....was everything found or did I get married in jeans and a dirty t-shirt???

Okay enough with the writing. Here are some pics.

What did we just do?

Sexy Sarah

Sexy Sariah

Makeshift Wedding cake

We had to dance at least once

Honeymoon

2007-09-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

For our honeymoon we backpacked along the northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula. It's a national Marine Sanctuary, meaning no development whatsoever, preserving 135 miles of a coast rich with sea life. My pictures with bad lighting nor my poor choice of words can capture the beauty.

Along the way a soccer ball washed up on shore. Good job orchestrating that one Will. I was stoked!

It looks like just a picture of rocks below, but if you click on the picture and make it larger, you can see the back of a bald eagle perched upon the far rock.

New Phone

2007-08-30T17:56:00.000-07:00

So I ran out of time for my Blog Anniversary post, too much ~~baseball~~ work in the way. I'll still post it when I get back from my backpacking outing, but it'll be anti-climatic. I know you have all been at the edge of your seats since I announced it.

I got a new phone and new phone number. I'll be sending emails and such with all the details. I took a couple pics with my camera. One of me at the "library" and one of Donny. Now that I see the pic up close, looks like a stain on the chair. Bad Donny!

Mariners Monday

2007-08-27T08:45:00.001-07:00

So Mayor Greg Nickels declared Monday, August 27, 2007, as "Mariner Monday". Here's an article about it from the Puget Sound Business Journal:

To support one of the most important homestands in recent Seattle Mariner history, Mayor Greg Nickels has proclaimed Monday, Aug. 27 as "Mariner Monday."

The Mariners, currently second in the American League West division, open a three-day homestand against the division-leading Los Angeles Angels in a series with postseason implications.

On "Mariners Monday," team officials are urging Seattle residents to wear Mariner caps, jerseys and T-shirts, as well as Mariner blue items, to work and school.

"We'd love to see a sold-out Safeco Field filled with Mariners Blue for that crucial three-game series with the Angels and give the Mariners a true home-field advantage," said Chuck Armstrong, Mariners president and COO, in a statement.

All I got to say to that is Bah! I prepared for today and the entire series (you bet I am going to at least one of the games this week!) with my red Angels gear. I really do like the Mariners, but those guys must know where their place is, which isn't in first. I wish them the best of luck in the wild card race.

And killing two birds with one stone (so violent), here's a pic of the niece for the month. It's Alaura, but I have her up again for obvious reasons. Her Dad done learned her right!

Voter Pamphlet

2007-08-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

It’s voter pamphlet time! In California it wasn’t a big deal, but I have found the King County pamphlet quite entertaining. I can always count on some assortment of freaks running for office. I suppose that happens when you don’t see the sun. However, they must have had some success at the mental clinic since the last pamphlet, because there were only two nutzoids this time around.

First is Goodspaceguy Nelson, running for a seat on the Seattle city council. He was in last November’s election for the United States Senate, so he’s obviously on a mission to get his ideas out. He’s a sci-fi fan and he refers to Earth as Spaceship Earth. I like sci-fi, though I wouldn’t consider myself a fan, but the whole Spaceship Earth thing kind of scares me. Don’t believe me, check out the link to his page http://colonizespace.blogspot.com
I suppose he makes some good points in his King County message (not the Senate one, he is 80% freak here), and he’s a libertarian, but the name and the references ('sheeple' for people)… I try to tell my friends libertarians are normal, but I really need you libertarians to help out by actually being that.

Next is Edwin B Fruit, running for the director’s position in the Seattle School District no. 1. This is what Edwin had to say in his statement. You know, where you say what you are going to do and why you are the best candidate for the position:

As a candidate of the Socialist Workers Party I present a working-class alternative to the Democrats and Republicans.
Workers face an unrelenting offensive by profit-driven employers who are driving down conditions of life and work and seeking to undermine solidarity among working people.
The imperialist wars from Iraq to Afghanistan and all theaters of the “war on terror” – are an extension of these assaults on the living standards of workers here.
The resistance today by working people to these assaults – shown by the May Day mass mobilizations for legalization of immigrants in the last two years – points the road forward: rely on our collective power and organize independently of the capitalist parties to advance the interests of toilers worldwide. I invite you to get involved with the Socialist Workers Party campaign. Visit the Socialist Workers Party campaign newspaper at www.themilitant.com.

That’s great Mr. Fruit, just what the school needs! By the way, how about changing the last name to Nut?

Don't mix the S and P

2007-08-21T08:06:00.000-07:00

or youz going to hell http://torchcarryingmob.blogpsot.com/

Question

2007-08-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

TCM: So where is this new kind of post you promised us today on the 2nd Anniversary of your blog?

Carrie: It's coming...but how about we call it blog anniversary weekend?

More multiple personality evidence:

Soon

2007-08-14T17:46:00.001-07:00

...what a meaningless word in Carrie's world. But seriously folks, I'm going to upload the promised pics and do something a little different for my 2 year blog anniversary on Thursday. Yep, 2 years and I still haven't given my blog any particular focus or personality (unless you consider multiple personalities a personality), but hey I warned you it was lame and may remain lame. Personally, I think it's awesome.

Copying my awesome friend Sariah, who always puts pictures up on her post, here is a pic of Will and I at a Mariners game two weeks ago. My shirt was actually pink, but we sat up so high it became the color you see. J/K, I'm an Angels fan (but I do support the M's when they play other teams) and I was just showing some love for my guys. Unfortunatley they lost, but they tied it up with 3 runs in the 9th and forced 3 more innings. Ha, ha to all you who left in the 8th thinking Seattle had won. Okay, maybe they still beat Anaheim, but not as soundly as you thought. See what I mean about the multiple personalities.

An Angels fan and a Mariners supporter sharing a rare moment of friendship

A Summer's day

2007-08-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful August day in Seattle

Temp Post

2007-08-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

So, I still haven't done the wedding, honeymoon post and it is now past our one month anniversary. I figure if I get a few things out that will be progress. Honestly though, I don't care for most of the wedding pictures. Either I'll look good in it or Will will, we don't seem to have any where we both do. Oh well, that gives Summer some work. So here is a sneak preview...

You_Don't_Know_What_You_Got_Until_it's_Gone

2007-08-01T08:30:00.001-07:00

My_Spacebar_doesn't_work!

Not sure what to title this

2007-07-26T08:48:00.001-07:00

The issue isn't that I am lazy, rather it's a similar four-letter word that starts with b, ends with the same letter y, and for all you language geeks, shares the same voiced dental fricative when expressed in speech, but in writing the graph is a the voiceless one. Ooh, the mystery and excitement of linguistics! NOW READ THE CORRECTION AT THE END OF THIS POST.

I'll get some pics up of the wedding and related items while it is still somewhat relevant, even though it probably isn't anymore, soon. By soon I mean this next week. This is an improvement in my use of the term 'soon'. Usually it's anywhere from 1 - 6 months. I'm slowly working on making the soon = 'less than a week' coorespondence real.

I'd talk politics but I still have nothing to say. Sadly, the only thing I've done in that direction was rank the candidates according to their looks. Some distracting link I pressed while checking my Yahoo mail. I'm so behind on paperwork, but yet I couldn't resist. But just FYI, my top 3 were 1 Gen. Clark, 2 Mitt, and 3 Edwards. Bottom 3 were Dodd, Richardson, and Fred Thompson. Wonderful, eh? Who needs to be informed when you can just go by looks. At least that takes Clinton out of the running.

So in the meantime, here are some more niece pics. I am taking a break from my eldest brother's kids since there are so many and moving to my other older brother's (also, my number 2 bro SIL rarely sends me current ones, so I actually have some now that are relatively current rather than newborn ones of Aby). The young one is year and a half year old Abygail, "Aby". The blondie is 6 year old, uber gregarious, Alaura. Do all my 8 nieces and nephews have thier names start will either an A, C, or L? Yes. I'm going to have a kid just to break it up.

Left: Aby watching from the sides.

Right: The Girls

****CORRECTION: One must wonder if English is my native language and if I really did teach a writing course when they are subjected to the ill-formed nature of my prose. I have no idea what I was "on" when I wrote the following:

The issue isn't that I am lazy, rather it's a similar four-letter word that starts with b, ends with the same letter y, and for all you language geeks, shares the same voiced dental fricative when expressed in speech, but in writing the graph is a the voiceless one.

It should read:

The issue now isn't that I'm lazy, rather it's a similar sounding four-letter word. This newer word to describe me starts with a b; ends with the same letter as the old word, y; and, for all you language geeks, when spoken, the third sound in both terms share the same voiced dental fricative. However in the new word's written form, the graph is the voiceless one.

Sounds just as geeky but at least it makes better sense, and now I can relax.

Lazy

2007-07-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

After 2 weeks of not working and a honeymoon, I am beyond lazy. I can’t even believe I managed to write a sentence or two. While my honeymoon consisted of a lot of physical exertion (It’s not the exertion you are thinking of, I do maintain some class on this blog. We were backpacking), there was little mental. Now I’m having trouble accessing my cognitive functions, as they liked the break as well. Oh well, I'll find them soon.

So in the tradition of laziness, here are a couple pics from the actual laid-back (that wasn’t so laid-back, story and more pics to follow sometime) courthouse wedding. I am too lazy to get the ones off our camera, so I am using ones my friend sent me. Also, were are not taking our wedding pictures until our November party, I've left the professional stuff to my talented friend Summer, so they are all pretty amateur until then. In the meantime don't be surprised if you see poorly doctored up versions. Doctoring there will be.

Do you want to play 'Let's get Married'?

Okay!

Single

2007-07-04T23:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I had to write something on the last day of my singlehood or singledom (I think the proper suffix is -ness, but I'm all about language change). However I don't really have much to say. It's been busy these last 3 weeks, I'm not sure how I could have handled a full-on wedding. I feel excited, though nervous, nervous about expressing my emotions in front of people. Well, this is getting too serious (I can't even express anything to my imaginary blog audience) so here are couple pics of my retro hippie friend Sarah and I picking and eating berries on a recent hike.

Sarah's a-pickin' and I'm a-n-eatin':

Can't really see the Sarah, but she's one hot lady. Here's one of the both of us, but I look weird and high. I was high on nature, I promise.

Lacey

2007-06-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks Sariah for reminding me of my niece/nephew feature. It’s good if I can follow through with at least one thing in my life. (BTW to those I have recently emailed, since this is somewhat related, when I say tomorrow I usually mean anywhere from a few days to a week).

I haven’t received any real recent pictures of my niece Lacey, aka Lace Face, but here are some from a few months ago. Lacey, almost 7, is number 3 of 6; a true middle child with an older brother and sister, twin younger brother and sister, and another younger brother. She’s a girly girl, but she has a roughneck side of her as well. I remember when she was younger, any new toy she had would eventually turn into a weapon to be used against her unsuspecting older siblings.

Right : Lacey with her baby Brother (he almost looks bigger than her)

Left: Lacey and friend at a dance. She gets out more than her aunt.

Freedom at Last

2007-06-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

I have finally completed my quarter from hell! I must say, I’ve never spent so much time on one
course, and still not get an A. Yes, despite my good efforts I don’t think an A is in the future. I turned in all but two fully functional programs, with the incomplete two missing a few specifications here and there. I could go into it but I’m sure I would bore you if I haven’t already, but just imagine if you had a computer game and it only ran once. One try and that is all you get. Yep, that was my program.

While this certainly won’t be the most difficult class I will have had to take on my road towards geekdom, this class will be the largest leap. The course is designed to weed out programmers from non programmers. When I couldn’t fully complete my third and fourth assignment, I feared there would be a hoe in the horizon. I would have to quit programming and begin a life of prostitution. Oh wait, I was being metaphorical, I thought I was a weed and feared the garden hoe, but I was reassured of my floral status on subsequent programs.

I know to most people in this course, passing was not a big deal. To me, however, it was a much needed boost in confidence. I gave up some dreams when I decided to pursue computatonal linquistics (misspelled on purpose), and I knew, coming so late into the game, I would probably never be a stellar programmer. I like to excel and stand out, and I chose a path that will make that difficult. I wasn’t the best in this course, but I’m happy I was among the survivors. Now just remind me to delete this post when I start looking for jobs. Because I, Allison Johansson from Detroit, Michigan don’t need this coming back to bite me.

There was some unfortunate fallout from this course. 1. I gained a pant size. Well not quite, but I’m bursting in them. My lean muscle mass has decreased and I’m gaining weight. Yes, you may blame my love of ice cream, chocolate, and cheese on it too, but I’ve been eating that crap for years. While I was taking this course I barely worked out and spent most of my non paid time in front of the computer. I need my exercise to maintain my junk food lifestyle. 2. My friends got married in February and I still haven’t sent them their wedding gift. 3. I am addicted to the worst form of caffeine: coffee. Sodas couldn’t quite deliver, and tea was just too healthy. Coffee transforms me into a nervous freak, but it does wonders to me in the idea generation department. 4. I decide to get married in early July. I figured any date after this course was over was plenty of time. It’s less than 3 weeks away, what was I thinking! My apologies in advance if the party consists of a bunch of pizza, but hey, everyone loves pizza right?

Pictures accompanying this post were provided by the Will man.

Real Update

2007-06-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, so finally the real update. I’m getting married on July 5!!! I’ve known since May 14 but have been super slow about getting the news out. So it’s high time I made it official on Torch Carrying Mob. If it’s not on the TCM, it’s just not news.

The wedding itself will be pretty low key. We didn’t even do any announcements. We’re just getting married in the courthouse, with my parents, a couple friend of ours (we were their witnesses), my cousin, and hopefully one of my brothers attending (the other two couldn’t make it with such short notice :-( ). I had the choice to delay the event and have a real wedding some time next year or just git hitched a.s.a.p., I picked the latter. Actually, I allowed both sides to argue their case, but only my practical side showed up. The fanciful and imaginative one must have been sleeping (…for past 30 years).

However, we are always up for a party, so we’re having two of them. Again, they won’t be big events, not even really a proper reception. The first one we are holding at our home that Saturday, July 7 (at least that’s the plan thus far) for friends here. The second one will be held months later in California for both his and my friends and family. The first one may include crazy, drunk guests, and the latter one will be sober. So, basically one for him one for me.

One quick blurb about how he proposed: He’s about as romantic as I am. He proposed to me while I was eating breakfast. I looked nasty, so he must love me. I had my morning hair do, and was wearing my super thick glass with the right lens missing, and my right eye closed. Sexy!

So who is this mystery man I am marrying? Yes, I’m finally putting a pic up! His name is Will Lewis, which I think totally cool, because I’m going to start going by C.W. Lewis, mistress of C.S. Lewis, j/k. The one and only reason I never mentioned his name or put his picture up was that he had not told some of his colleagues about our relationship. Oh wait, I better back up here. So he was a professor at a university in Fresno, which is the same one I attended, and somehow we met and fell in love…then he took a two year visiting professor position at some college here in Washington, but his real job still resided in Fresno. However upon his impending return to Fresno, the political turmoil within the department worsened (Long Live Formalism!) and the university made a move that caused Will to question his decision to go back. So, just to test the waters, he tried for an industry job and got it! It’s with some big tech company in Redmond, I hear they have some well known operating system. So, with that all taken care of we can officially out ourselves.

So here’s a pic from a few months ago. His expression is that of “what are you doing to my camera?” and is pretty much the same expression he has in all pics I take of him. Mainly because he takes awesome photos and I take bad ones. I’m serious, I’ll freely admit I’m crappy behind the camera. I’ll upload some of his pics in a later post.

Insurance Update

2007-06-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I have a big update, but I don’t have all the details to write it yet, something about getting married. So here is a brief update about my insurance. I’m sure you were at the edge of your seat waiting for this bit of news.

My insurance rate has just been adjusted with one accident as a surcharge. I had no idea how the other half lived until this point. I never knew monthly payments could be in the double digits. I never knew I could have an insurance payment lower than my car payment. I never knew there was such a thing as discretionary income. Now that I have seen this world I want to become a part of it. Unfortunately, I will only catch a glimpse of it, before I am cast back into my bad driver prison for 3 years.

If I'm going to be a lousy driver, why oh why can’t I distribute my traffic infractions. In California you can prevent a ticket from appearing on your record by attending traffic school, but you can only do so every 18 months. I got all 4 California tickets within that 18 months, receiving the last ticket 1 month shy of 18! In Washington you are allowed a deferment every 7 years (WA is bit more strict with their drivers), and are given a period of one year after the deferment to display proper driving skills. I got another ticket within 6 months of my deferment, which puts both tickets on my record. I prefer California’s method; at least you get one guaranteed ticket removal. I wonder who has the higher accident rate.

Ticket: The Final Chapter (I hope)

2007-06-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

So I went to a mitigation hearing for my latest traffic infraction. A mitigation is different than a contesting hearing, in that you admit to the offense, but want the penalty reduced for some mitigating reason. I’ve always just paid my tickets (yeah, that’s right, tickets) so this was a first. It was a…uh…uh…experience.

The Bellevue courthouse itself wasn’t even in a proper building. It’s near a small park, so I wasn’t sure if I was walking to the courthouse or the park’s bathroom. The building was tiny and outdated, perhaps 60’s or 70’s; parts of the cushioned benches in the waiting room were torn. I wondered if I was still in Bellevue, the sanitized neighbor of Seattle, or East LA. It didn’t help that over half of my fellow traffic violators were of Hispanic origin. The room the hearing was held in was also quite small. If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll know I have zero spatial skills, so I can’t tell you how small, but I’m almost certain you have a closet that is bigger. Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit, but it was small.

So we all filed into the tiny room, the judge went over the rules, and then she called us up one by one to explain the mitigating circumstances. This was probably the third time in my life I was happy to be at the bottom of the alphabet, because she was calling us up in alphabetical order. This not only ensured that I wouldn’t have an audience, but I was able to asses the tolerance of the judge (which appeared to be at a negative 10), learn from the mistakes of my fellow defendants, and see how far back the dirt she had on us was (appeared to go back at least to 2005, this was important because I got three tickets 2003).

There were two types of defendants, repeat offenders and first timers. I felt kind of bad for the repeat offenders, I say only kind of because they were pretty foolish to think they could get a reduction since they obviously aren’t learning anything, but I understand the desperate attempt. They would explain circumstances of their offense, then the judge would explain this was their 3^rd (sometimes more than that) similar offense, give the date of each offense, and then state there would be no reduction in the penalty. The defendant would keep talking and then the judge would yell at them, and call out the next name. All the first timers got a “deferred finding” (if the driver doesn’t get another ticket in one year, the charge is dropped and does not appear on their record, I had one, but I got another ticket within a year :-( ) and the judge was pretty nice to them, so no entertainment there.

Right before me was native Mandarin Chinese speaker, whose English was at an intermediate level. The guy was trying to describe why he was speeding, but the judge couldn’t understand him. However, because of my extensive exposure to imperfect English I understood him quite well. I thought about saying, “Limited English is my second language, I can translate.” But I had a feeling I’d get yelled at. After his description, despite not really understanding him, she wasn’t going to reduce the penalty. He then asked for a deferred finding instead. Since you’re supposed to ask for that before you describe the events, she yelled at him, told him to see the clerk to pay his fine and called out my name. Either the guy really didn’t understand or he is a genius, because he didn’t move, he just stood there. The judge again told him he needed see the clerk, but he started describing the event again. She said it was clear there was a language gap so she ordered a new hearing with a Mandarin translator present. So hopefully he does is right next time and asks for the deferment.

Now it was my turn to be slaughtered. I knew before I even marked the box asking for a mitigation hearing, that I had no case whatsoever. I had already received a deferred finding via letter for my first infraction. Then, for this infraction I was going 45 in a 30, but the cop gave me the penalty for one going only over 5mph over the speed limit. There was really no way to reduce the fine. The only reason I asked for the hearing is that it buys some time before it appears on my record and activates my last infraction, which was previously in deferment. I want to delay the process because my insurance rate is about to be adjusted and I am loosing two previous tickets I got in 2003. I’d like to see how it is to pay a somewhat normal premium (I still have the accident on my record). Let me enjoy life for 6 months, then I’ll suffer the next 3 years. Without the hearing I would have paid the fine and it would be on my record by now

So as I was saying I had no reason to be there. If I was smart I would have spoke some broken English in a German accent so I could delay the inevitable even further, but I wasn’t too quick on the toes. Instead I tried to play dumb, and asked if I was eligible for a deferred finding. She looked at her computer and said no. I then figured I’ll try to fight the good fight and explained that the only reason I was driving at my law breaking speed was that I did not see the speed limit sign which, upon returning to the scene, I noticed is hidden behind tree branches. However, if I were hooked up to an interpretation device that translates lies into truths, the machine would have outputted “You could have posted the speed limit on the bare, muscular chest of a hot guy standing in the middle of the street, and I still wouldn’t have adjusted my speed.” Luckily those haven’t been invented yet. She then said she would not reduce the penalty because I was already receiving the fine for a lesser infraction and sent me to the clerk to pay.

At the clerk’s desk I asked it they take credit card, then before I could open my mouth to say “I’ll get my checkbook from the car” she handed me a paper, said I could mail in the payment, and left. Ahh, got to love the service you get from government employees.

Dye, No Dye

2007-05-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Making this post made me sad. I saw myself age over the years and it prompted me to reflected upon the context in which each picture was taken, ahh the memories... Anyway, enough with the cheese I need some advice. I don't know if I should dye my hair again or just let it go natural. And, if I should dye, should I do highlights or the real deal?

Below are some photos of my hair at different times in my life, and each with a distinct hair color and style (or lack of one). Try to only pay attention to the hair. I'd love to have the youthful face in '99, but it ain't happening.

Here is my virgin hair in 1999, 2 years before I ever dyed it:

I first dyed my hair in 2001. My hairdresser said he only highlighted it, but when I came back to the states my other hairdresser said it was dyed completely, then highlighted. Here are two pics of it completely dyed in 2002 while I was living in Japan. I didn't cut the people out of the picture on the left, because they are just too sexy to cut out, especially my man in blue. Also you can see that my friend/roommate has the same hair color as me even though we don't have the same natural hair color, so our hairdresser was definitely doing some funky stuff.

Pictures of my grad school days are stuck on one of my broken computers, and all the pics my boyfriend has of me are with my hair up. I did manage to find a sent picture of me at my graduation. So this pic should represent 2003 - 2005. I had a great stylist at the time, so it's unfortunate this all I have to show. He actually divided his time between NYC and Fresno. Why anyone would want to devote any time to Fresno is beyond me, but I don't judge. He did a proper highlight

Here's the only pic I could find in 2006. Dye-wise I hadn't touched it since 2005. Looks like I haven't touched it with a hairbrush in a while either. I guess that's my natural stuff on top. This was a year ago.

Lastly, here are some current pics. I need a haircut too. You can get a closer shot if you click on them. Looking at the one on the left, it appears that I have a funky right eye (my right). I didn't know that and was a little disturbed. I hope it was just a camera trick. However if I do have a funky eye, why wasn't I informed? This isn't the first time I've been left in the dark about some physical defect. No one bothered to tell me for years that I had an odd gait. Although, now that I know, I still walk strangely. Anyway, so I provided another picture I took of myself in the mirror. What do you think? Be honest. Oh yeah, I'm talking about the funky eye not the hair.

So again, looking only at the hair and my skin tone, should I dye it?shave it completely? get a weave? leave it alone? See a shrink?

If I spammed you and asked you to comment about my hair on my blog, my apologies, but since you're here...

The Next Ramones?

2007-05-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

This will probably only make sense to a select few of you, but below is a (enter any adjective you see fit) punk rendition of a primary favorite. This apparently was for a ward talent show. I feel so cool to know the bassist, my eldest brother. I don’t think I need to point him out if you read my post about his twins. This is also the same brother who’s an optometrist. With the latter information, that may make him difficult to find, but yeah, this is the same guy who checks out your eyes.

The name of the band is Advancing Reverence, so the attempted mosh among the primary children in their encore performance makes total sense. It’s difficult to see, but in the very far left corner you can sometimes see my eldest black-haired nephew in a blue shirt “fighting” with a blond, red-shirted boy. This sure beats pounding the seats after each line like we used to:

Friday Night "Fun"

2007-05-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hey Sariah and other interested parties I have a real story for you. No Seattle Grace interns though. When I ask people how to get there they always direct me to the psychiatric hospital.

So let's start the story on Friday night/Saturday morning at 2:00 am. There was much excitement before then, but not relevant to the current story. Though, some relevant background info is that my boyfriend was out of town, and I was a designated driver amongst many drunks (sorry to my drunk friends that evening, but I'm calling you drunks for dramatic effect). Somehow, however, I didn't take home a single drunk at 2:00 am, instead I got the one stoned guy and that is where the story begins:

Actually we don’t even need to start the story from where I took him home, we can start it in the parking lot of his apartment (my memory isn't all the good anymore, so the conversation is only meant to represent the gist, I don't know what was all said):

Boy: So you wanna come up?
Carrie: Hmm…no I'm kind of tired.
Boy: You can just stay here. Just park right here.
Carrie: (not planning on staying, but park there).
[Next Day Carrie says: Why did you do that?]
Boy: So are you going to come up?
Carrie: That’s probably not a good idea. I'm in a relationship.
Boy: I don’t have any social skills so I don’t know what to do right now.
Carrie: (avoiding his last statement, and wondering why he didn’t exit at that point) Too bad you came when you did, you missed all the fun the first 4 hours…(some mindless chatter, still doesn't leave my car, so I ask his age)?
Boy: 23
Carrie: Wow. You look older. I think it's the mustache.
Boy: There's a lady on the bus that has a mustache going. I wonder what it's like to have something like that and know people are looking at you.
Carrie: Maybe she doesn't know. I don't like it when I get a pimple because I know everyone looks at it, even when they don't want to. I do the same…(more chatter, I wonder if he will ever leave, I talk about California somewhere)
Boy: So what brought you up here?
Carrie: I followed my boyfriend up.
Boy: I don't have very good social skills.
Carrie: Yeah, I know how it is. I work with geeks all the time.
Boy: So you wanna come up?
Carrie: I need to feed my cat. He hasn't eaten all day.
Boy: Well here is my number.
Carrie: Thanks.
Boy: (FINALLY EXITS CAR!)
[Next Day Carrie says: Why didn’t you just tell him to leave in the first place? Being polite is not always a good thing.]
[Previous Day Carrie says: There was a good explanation for my actions, I just can’t explain it. ]

Okay, that really wasn’t a story at all. Just a snippet of a real conversation that was very odd. I got lazy.

NOTE: In case the guy in the conversation happens to check the blog, no offense or anything, but you must admit you were being pretty weird. Also, here's a social tip with chicks: Don’t tell them you don’t have social skills even if it's true. In fact, it's probably not the best strategy to point out all your flaws. Honesty is good and all, but let others figure out your weak points.

A Twofer

2007-05-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

It’s a two-fer weekend! I was a bit busy this week, so to make up for it I am posting twice for the price of one. Check out the post below this one if you want to hear me rant about the latest development in my accident that occurred 6 months ago.

I’ve shown these guys before, but never as my new monthly feature. So here you go, almost 3 year olds, Luke and Leia, my brother Darth Vader’s twins:

Brief Update: I’m officially returning to academia. I got into the Computational Linguistics program I applied to. Now if only I can get my fractal program (an extension of the lousy graphic program I had to write) to work… I soooo hate graphics.

Accident, Part 2

2007-05-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

In the continuing saga of my car accident (yup it’s continuing), I recently received a $2100 invoice from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) for guardrail repair. This was a low impact accident; there is no way I caused $2100 worth of damages! Physics is telling me my car would have been in worse shape had I caused extensive damage to the metal guardrail, but perhaps my car defied the laws. I didn’t know he was such a rebel! I’ve given my schpeel to the claims adjustor, so I’m hoping the repair estimate is substantially reduced, it’s added to the initial claim, and I don’t have to pay another deductible. For some reason I’m thinking the last two won’t happen, but a girl can dream can’t she. In a semi related note I got a speeding ticket yesterday, which this time I deserved. I tried to start crying by telling him of my last undeserved ticket, but the cop went ahead and wrote me one.

All in all, I just want justice to prevail. I’ll pay money for speeding, but not as an involuntary benefactor of some WSDOT lottery where they are just waiting for someone to damage their property. Did I mention they only investigated the site 6 months after the accident?

I Live in a One Dimensional World

2007-04-23T22:20:00.000-07:00

I’m distracted again and I’m finally working on a program that I absolutely hate. Usually when I get a programming assignment I start right away, then I make a million changes to it to make it more optimal because I’m an obsessed freak (but that’s another post). This most recent program is dealing with graphics; I have to create some shapes, along with a user interface to interact with them.
The problem is I can’t create graphics. I have no spatial knowledge and I’m thinking I’m well past the age I should have acquired it. When I hear about a Cartesian plane, I ask if they fly to California.
To see my spatial skills in action, you should watch me parallel park, that is, if I don’t run you over, just don’t think you’re safe on the curb.

Here’s the much awaited pic of my boyfriend:

Ha, Ha. Give me a few weeks and I think I’ll have more detailed pic of him up here. There is a reason why there is no trace of him on here (minus a link to a page of his. Ooh, I said too much already), including even mentioning his name, but I can’t go into it. We’re both hoping it will be a non issue soon.

Carrie

2007-04-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

Well, by popular (popular = any number greater than 0) demand I am posting some recent pictures of myself. Here are some pics that were taken at Gas Works Park in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.

The park was just one of the destinations on our tandem ride, but it was the only time the sun was out when we stopped. That's what I love about this city. It was cold and rainy when we began our ride, and once my face had thawed out, I swore to the man that I would never ride in such weather again. Then, 20 minutes later I'm having to squint in a photo because my sunglasses are off. NOTE: Click on the picture for a closer view. You can actually see the holes in my shirt. There are so many yuppie riders that I'm all about the bum look when I ride.

Lake Union and parts of downtown Seattle in the background

I was trying to do a cool pose, but it obviously didn't work out

If you do a close up you can actually see my squinting face. Anyway, here is the famous
tandem, a full view of the downtown skyline, and my backpack down below. I'm also
wearing a rainbow ankle strap, but I'm neither a lesbian or member of the rainbow
coalition. Note to self: buy new strap.

Sorry, those aren't the best pics, but, it's all about working your way up, right? In the next ones I post you shall see my hair. Actually, I'm thinking about dyeing it again after a 2 year hair dye drought. So I'll show you my recent, almost natural color, and let you decide.

Another Picture (not of me)

2007-04-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

I'm working on an essay right now and all I want to do is anything but the essay. It must be completed tonight, so I don't have a choice. I can, however, make the choice to be distracted, which I am choosing to do now. When writing, I invariably feel compelled to complete other tasks, such as bestowing my loyal readers (if any) with invaluable information, except for the task at hand. If I were writing a dissertation, I have no doubt I would have remodeled my home by now. So without further ado here is a picture of my youngest nephew, at 5 months old, Christian. He may be the youngest, but he doesn't have to be the lightest!

I have 8 nieces and nephews and there are 8 months left in the year. So I'll make this a new feature of my blog, provided my sister-in-laws keep me updated.

Special Note: Sorry Sarah, I know I said I would stop posting the kiddie pics, but essays do crazy things to you.

For your Listening Pleasure or Pain

2007-04-04T10:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not going to exert any creativity. I'll just borrow from our good friend YouTube and not so well known Radio Blog:

If you have had the unfortunate experience of hearing the Black Eyed Peas "Humps" , Alanis Morissette has done a parody which doesn't sound too bad. Actually hearing the words in Alanis' rendition you validate your earlier thoughts on the lameness of the original version.

Now onto decent songs that became awesome (my retro word of the month) after being covered, but not as a parody:

Warning : They are so well done they are depressing, so listen to after at least 3 days of sunshine.

Pretty Good
Nine Inch Nails "Hurt"

Awesome
Johnny Cash "Hurt"

Okay
Tears For Fears "Mad World"

Awesome
Gary Jules "Mad World"

FREE BLOG

2007-03-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

This post is absolutely free! I’m sure there were a lot of other people today that made you pay for their services. Take comfort in knowing there are some people left in this world that know when and what to give.

Take for instance an Australian sounding guy I heard on the radio. He made billions and now he wants to teach you to do the same by listening to his free tape. Yeah, a free tape! Cassette, VHS, I don’t know. I’m glad he didn’t waste his time digitizing anything. That’s more time he can spend revealing his money making secrets, which must obviously be connected to the tape player market.

Then there was some kind of college advertising, It was Diver’s Institute, Bryman, or something like that (BTW, in case you came upon this article through a search of ‘Bryman’, RUN! Not from me, but from the school, it’s a scam school that will accept anyone, real employers don’t take students from that school seriously, all you will get is debt. Go to a community college. ) which told me I could get a free brochure or something similar. Wow, free information about the school! …wait, I don’t remember EVER having to pay for school information.

After that ad I was told to call a number to get a free computer. So the tape and brochure were lame deals, but a free computer! Just sign up for a no-name ISP at $40/month for 3 years, and endure the ad-ware actually built into the system, and you got yourself a…uhh…hmm, no mention of its processor or RAM…you have yourself a running computer.

Well, I’d write more, but I got a check for $8.50 from my credit card company that I’m going to cash. Take that you no good freebies! At least my CC company knows how to give. The $8.50 will come in handy when I’m billed the $16.95/month for the program that I'll be enrolled in for cashing the check.

I Can't Afford to be Thin

2007-03-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

I’m going to post this while it is still relevant…

NOTE: Yes, I’m complaining about something petty. I should be thankful for the problems I have.

My wardrobe is about 5 years old. A few tops or bottoms make it in or out, but I would say the average age of any article is 5, with a standard deviation of .4. There are various reasons it’s so old. I’ve been in school for a while so I don’t have a new one in the budget. I generally take care of my clothes and buy quality so that they last. I like to dress simple and traditional, which translates to ‘I don’t really have any fashion sense’. Then, I don’t care for fads so sometimes it’s slim pickins’ when it comes to shopping, unless the fad just so happens to match my preferences.

However, recently (recent = 1 year) I’ve become extremely bored with my wardrobe. The ritual now is to spend 30 minutes a day trying out different combinations, and then to not be pleased. Usually I just end up wearing what I finally convinced myself to wear the day before, hoping I don’t see the same client as the day before. I do that until the outfit begins to smell, stain, or unthread. Also, the 30 minutes I spend redressing in front of the mirror is the same 30 minutes I have allotted myself to get to my appointments. So, this is a serious problem.

Keeping in mind the shopping problems mentioned earlier, my inability to create a new wardrobe is either completely my fault or is exacerbated by the lack of reasonably priced, quality clothing for young adults in size 2 (I can pull a 1 at some places, but the truth is that’s size inflation. Are you going to shop where you are a 4 or a 6?). I told you it’s petty. There are worse things and I don’t mean to lessen the plight of those who struggle with their weight (I myself was once 30 pounds heavier); but seriously, go to a shop, any shop, cheap or refined, you’re not going find anything cute in size 2 or less that is not geared to a teenager or worth its material. Here is my experience:


Boutiques - Out of my price range. I CAN occasionally 
find cute clothes here, but I don’t make enough in a 
week to afford to breathe on them.

Mall stores/Department stores - Two problems here.
    1.)  I fit in teenage clothing (they haven’t given 
    up on America) but I don’t want to look like a 
    teenager.  I don’t want to look 30 either, but a 30 
    year old trying to look like a 15 year old is an 
    even sadder sight.
    2.) The rest of the clothing retailers figure if you 
    aren’t a teenager then you you can't be anything 
    lower than a size 4 because that is the closest size 
    I can find. Not that size 4 isn't small, but it still 
    looks like a clown costume on me.  The United States 
    is 2/3 overweight, so I have two theories:  
      A.) Clothing manufacturer’s follow the population 
      trend and make 2/3 of the clothing in large sizes. 
      They just don’t know their market, because 
      obviously the same proportion is not buying the 
      clothing and they are wasting material.  That 
      explains the plethora of larger sizes in 
      clearance racks (additionally there are usually 
      plenty of purple, polka–dotted orange concoctions 
      in size 2).   
      B.) More thin women shop at malls/departments 
      stores than less-than-thin women.  Manufactures 
      make bank off the stick ladies by limiting the 
      supply. They are always sold at the top price.
      Sounds snobby, but based on my inability to find 
      anything decent and affordable, I’m going with 
      theory B.

Walmart, etc -  Yes, I’ve even tried there.  Even worse 
than the malls.  Anything else I say about this experience 
will be offensive.

Now, I write this while eating chocolate chips. I was going to make cookies and was only going to take a handful, but I am pretty much at mid-bag right now. Looks like no cookies for my student, and a problem solved for Carrie.

February is too short

2007-02-28T19:41:00.000-08:00

I haven’t written anything for February yet. I want to keep my resolution of writing in this at least once a month {reads note passed to me that says my resolution was to write once a week…looks around, crumples up note}, to entertain and inform my friends. I have much to write about. I want to complain about poor clothes size selection in stores for size 2 and under, but I keep gaining weight, so it probably won’t be issue in a couple of months. I want to expose a lousy school and its ilk but I’m waiting until I absolutely don’t need them for any type of reference. And then I want to write about something I can’t even give you a clue as to what it is about. I want to talk about the presidential races, but I am so uninformed it’s pitiful. But just FYI, I’m thinking Giuliani, he’s the most moderate of both bunches. I’ll probably vote Libertarian anyway, so this topic may be moot as well.

Instead I’m just going to complain about Window’s Live Mail. It’s in beta, so I should have known better, but if you're the type that reads and sends email, you should stay away from it. Most of the time I get the “Loading Your Messages…” message, along with a colorful little rotating circle to make me think it actually is loading my messages. “Just one more rotation and my messages will appear” is a thought I often have, alas, never realized. Now, I’ve come to hate the little circle; I’ve projected my frustration upon it and feel it’s the only thing preventing me from getting my mail.

I shouldn’t blame the circle. It may be a result of some interaction between my internet setting and WLM, or perhaps WLM and Internet Explorer (it screws up differently when I use Firefox) or WLM, IE, and Vista, or maybe WLM interacting with anything. Sorry, I’m getting mad at WLM again. The real reason I shouldn’t complain is that I can change back to the old version at anytime, but I am too lazy to do so.

Now that I have finished that, here is a brief update on my life:
- Still living in Seattle
- Still in school learning to program(now with Java)
- Still with the same dude I’ve been with for 3 years
- Still cant drive well. I scraped the left front end of my newly repaired car
by driving alongside a pole
- Speaking of driving, I got out of my ticket for getting into the accident. I
just have to pay the court $100 and they will drop the charges. I know, in
some countries that is called bribery.

Stayed tuned for more excitement in March!

RIP "Runway"

2007-01-21T21:20:00.000-08:00

Runway is the name of my Computer. It was a Gateway laptop with a fan so loud I always thought I was next to an airport runway. Pictures of Runway to follow. It's hard drive began failing around December of 2004, but lasted until January 2007. Runway also suffered from an LCD screen crack in the Summer of 2006, but appeared to work well with an external monitor. Runway was a trooper.

Runway
[picture here when I get a chance]
May 2005 - January 2007

Happy New Year!!!

2007-01-13T22:45:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I'm a little late in the celebration. I was greeted with a stomach virus for the new year. So I spent my new year groaning and making frequent trips to the bathroom, just like all the drunks.

I am now enjoying my time back in freezing Seattle. We got yet another ice storm and the city had to shut down again due to the icy roads. I tried making it up an icy road yesterday and rolled back down. Although "rolled" doesn't quite capture my terror as I realized I had no control. Luckily, my car made an almost perfect 180 and I headed down.

I'm going to be different and try to gain weight for my New Year's Resolution. Given my SAD and lack of self control (I made ice cream today, despite the cold) I should have no problem keeping with this the entire year.

Now for the resolution to break, I'm going to write something in my Blog once a week.

Christmas

2006-12-24T21:05:00.000-08:00

Well it's time for the annual Christmas post. I wish you all happy holiday, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

Here is a post I wrote a few weeks ago during the blackout in Western Washington. I didn't publish it at first because I didn't have power. Then, once I got power, I decided I didn't like my description of the latest storm. It was poorly worded and too anti-climactic. I was going to fix it, but I never did, but I shall give it to you on this generous holiday:

STORM'S A-BREWIN'

If you were wondering why I informed you that I wouldn't be posting while optimizing my project when I don't post all the much anyway, it's because I planned to share the recent, unusual weather besetting Seattle (well, it's been plaguing much of Western Washington, but I'm a Seattle snob, so I need not be inclusive in my terminology).

In November the Pineapple Express delivered record breaking rain, causing massive flooding in a region equipped for rain. The deluge was so powerful that it destroyed or disabled areas at Mt. Rainer N.P. It's been a month since the first flood, and the park is still closed (yet another record as no National Park has closed for more than two weeks).

After the intense rain, November decided it hadn’t quite left its mark. So in its last week rather than the usual rain and flooding, it turned down the temperatures a notch, just to give us some snow. “Whoo hoo! Snow in the city, that means much more in the mountains for skiing.” I’ll admit it was nice for a while, but then it tricked us. After the Sunday snow, it cleared up Monday morning. Monday was even sunny for a while. Then, right around the afternoon rush hour it started again, and like the old energizer bunny it kept going and going.

The problem with this level of snow is that Seattle is not a snow friendly city, which is something I learned while driving in it. That is, if you can call taking your foot off the brake every 5 minutes to move up an inch driving, then I was driving in it. I was stuck in Redmond (see picture) with all the Microsofties leaving work and went at a pace of one mile per hour (no exaggeration). The snow had the western half of the state at a standstill, but why?

If you know the topography of the western portion of the state, you’ll understand why. It’s not exactly flat here. In fact, just to get home after exiting a freeway, I must drive down at least 2 steep grades, and up 2. That, mixed with slippery roads makes for a difficult driving. Secondly, I think drivers here are content with water pouring down, but that white precipitation really takes them out of their comfort zone.

Like a lot of people, I gave up. I was at a student’s house in Redmond, so I just stayed the night. Some of those stuck on the freeways slept in their cars or ditched them for who knows what.

Unfortunately, that was not the worst of it. During the night the temperatures dropped even more and Tuesday morning welcomed us with frozen roads. Again, much of city was immobile as an ice covered road offers no traction, flat or steep. I wanted to go home, so I decided to brave the icy roads. I just had $5000 worth of repairs on my car, why not. I just put my gear in 1st, raised my foot over the brake, poised to pump it, and slid on my merry way.

The latest storm, which is occurring as I type this (as of 12/24/2006 not anymore) dumped buckets of rain with strong winds. The problem with this type of storm is that the saturated soil has become soft, leaving nothing for roots to grasp and trees falling in the wind. The problem with that is that they’ve been falling on power lines. As I write over a million are without power, including your humble author (I discovered later I was one of the lucky ones, I had power within a day, some had to wait over a week).

So to all my friends, come on over, the worst is over. Ignore the big volcano and fault lines.

Crappy Post

2006-11-28T19:54:00.000-08:00

If you are wondering where I disappeared to, and I know you are, I am currently obsessed with program I am writing for my C++ class. If you didn't know already, Microsoft has gotten the better of me and I want to enter the tech field. I'm starting late in the game, but luckily there such a thing as a Computational Linguist. I'm working on earning the former title, but I first need to learn a thing or two about programming. If you're by chance a techie and are laughing at my choice of language to start from, C++ was all that was offered at the introductory level. Next one, C#. Ha, ha. That is for you anti-Microsoft techies (yeah, I know I sent a TCM on them a while back, but I had a change of heart). Actually, though I'll probably try Java next. I need a language I can actually use. So, the program is due Thursday and I'm confident I'll spend every hour I have available to make it work better.

OCD + Programming = Bye Bye normal Carrie

Sleepy

2006-11-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

I read my last blog entry and I can't seem to determine its meaning. I was quite sleep deprived (as opposed to my normal sleep deprived state) when I wrote it. Don't trust any post written after 11:00 pm and before 6:00 am. It may not be "me" writing it. One exception is the "Accident" post. My mind was still clear.

Now to update my eager readers...my car can be fixed! When is the big question. Whoever guesses right wins a prize. An added bonus if you can guess the repair cost. I'll play the game too, because I don't know the answers either.

Elections

2006-11-08T00:11:00.000-08:00

Well, I have much to say, but no time to write, and by the time I have the time, the elections will be old news. I was hoping at least one of the state of Washington candidates would promise to fix all my problems, but they didn't. I still have my underpaid, overworked position. I got back at those candidates that refused to listen, I didn't vote for them!!! I wrote myself in instead.

Here a few thoughts:

I'm most pleased with Lieberman winning. Indy's mat have a chance at being a real third party.

I'm indifferent to congressional shift of power. I remember being ecstatic about the shift 12 years ago. Change is good, I suppose. I haven't been too happy with the Republican's lately, so let's see what the Democrats have to offer. I've become so cynical that I don't see the difference much anymore, but at least these "guys" have some concern for the environment.

That time of year again

2006-10-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

Standard Daylight Time

The Sun has escaped,
leaving the gray clouds to linger.
SAD sets in.
Off to the chocolate shop!

(Note: This is a work in progress. Constructive
Criticism encouraged.)

My First Accident

2006-10-19T00:07:00.000-07:00

I got into a car accident today. I don’t know if you can call it a car accident, no one else was involved except for me and a guardrail. It was raining and I was getting off at an exit I don’t normally take. I was going about 30 (I really don’t how fast I was going, that’s part of my general driving problem) and had to turn around a sharp curve. I couldn’t make it at 30 so I tried to slow down, but instead of slowing I hydroplaned into the guardrail, totaling the front left side of my car. I was shaken, but I thought the damage was only cosmetic, so I pulled over to the side the best I could and called my boyfriend.

As I was recounting the accident I began smelling an odd fume. I thought it might be a leak so I wasn’t concerned. I hung up with by boyfriend and began calling AAA for a tow. That was when I noticed the smoke rising from the hood. I rushed out of my car and then saw the accompanying flames. My car was on fire!!! I don’t know cars very well, so I don’t even know what part of what under the hood is prone to fires. Whatever it is I successfully ignited it. I called 911, but before any emergency service arrived a trucker spotted the fire, and quickly extinguished it.

Had the story ended there I could have escaped with a questionably totaled car. But, my call brought the troops out. The fire department was very helpful in disabling the stuff (I told you I don’t know cars) that needed to be disabled to prevent further damage, and the police were nice for a little while. They asked me to detail the incident; they then told me not to feel so bad because it has happened a lot there (hmmm). Well, after I took their advice and decided not to “feel so bad” they tried to console me even further with a traffic ticket. What!!? I didn’t cause any damage to the guardrail (at least I don’t think I did). They wrote me up for going “too fast for the conditions.” So now I may be out of the car I bought only 4 months ago, and my insurance is going to be outrageous for the next 3 years.

I don’t want to end on such a negative note. So here is a lollipop smiley for you:

October

2006-10-10T23:44:00.000-07:00

It's October and I haven't posted anything yet. So here I am posting. It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's that I don't have time to write it. There is a reason for that, but I can't go into it right now. However, if you know me (and I figure anyone who reads this does, if not, I'm very sorry if you happened upon my blog with a pickfork and torch in hand) you know a certain company sucks, and I am not at liberty to reveal that yet. After that there's gunna be a mob, and maybe a hangin'. Ooh, that sounds a little KKKish. I take back the hanging, just a good old fashioned mob.

Here is what I have learned this month:

1 - 30 really is all that bad.
2 - "Age defying" or anything similar means absolutely nothing.
3 - Contrary to what I used to think, apolitical people aren't stupid.

Getting Old

2006-09-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

I went shopping in sweats yesterday. Not grocery shopping, it's normal to take a less than casual approach to gathering your basic needs. I shopped for some clothes (unsuccessfully by the way, a post on that later, I promise) and books at an upscale plaza. It didn't bother me too much, except that it didn't bother me. Where has my vanity gone? I'm still 29 (and yes I am counting down the hours; I was born the 20th of September in 1976 at 8:15 AM Pacific Time, so I have 22 hours left), I should still care!

Backpacking

2006-08-02T11:03:00.000-07:00

I'm backpacking somewhere in those mountains in the background (the Olympics). Be back Friday with my usual weekly report.

Retro Hippie

2006-07-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

I've decided to become a new age retro hippie.

World Cup - Final Post

2006-07-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

The Italians have played better, and as much as I don't like the French team they played a better a game. But, Zidane's an asshole and I had to suffer an Italian loss in shootouts to Brazil in '94, so I am excited to announce that the Italians are the new World Champions.

World Cup - Post 3

2006-07-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

I'm not as big of an Italian fan as I thought. Germany lost and I'm upset. I'm still rooting for the Italian team, but my enthusiasm for the Cup has waned. Luckily I missed the painful loss in the final minutes of overtime, I was making a cake. I would have loved to see the Germans crush the French. They still can if France loses to Portugal. Go Portugal! Now, don't be thinking I dislike the French and that I am a freedom fry loser. I just don't like the team. Well, I'm much to upset to write more. See you the tomorrow if the French choke.

World Cup - Post 2

2006-07-02T00:30:00.000-07:00

HA, Post 1. I thought I would have at least 5 by this point. Oh well, things are better in small doses anyway, and you certainly get that with The Torch Carrying Mob. I am very pleased with semi-final lineup. While my two favorites will have to battle it out, at least one of them will make it to the final. I couldn't ask for more. But even better is that Brazil is out of there. Zero, nothing, nada for the little Selecaos this time around. Yes, they are a good team, and yes, they are the true soccer artists (see Post 1 where I attribute it to the Italians); but they've won 2 of last 4 and they've come to expect at least making it to the semi. It's fun watching them suffer, especially Ronaldinho.

.
Yep, you lost

As far the Italy v. Germany game, I'm all for the Germans. The World Cup is the only event where my ancestral loyalties surface. I don't know why really. I still find the Italians sexier, if that is anything.

See you after Tuesday.

World Cup - Post 1

2006-06-17T21:29:00.000-07:00

World Cup 2006

I'm a huge fan of the Italian team. Their finesse brings art to the sport of soccer; Being so damn sexy makes them nice to watch as well. BUT, I was happy to hear the US tied them. The US Men's soccer sucks so I usually don't waste my time watching them bumble with the ball, but the way they played on Saturday has given me some hope that we may one day have a team that makes it to the finals.

Carrie's Favorites: Italy, Germany

Smart Kids

2006-05-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

They overtook my computer

And got to this web site all by themselves

Okay, so really I'm just lazy

2006-05-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

I really do plan on writing in this on a consistent basis. I just haven't scheduled it into my life yet. You see, I'm a bit anal so I have a set schedule for certain things. For example, I only work out in the mornings. I can't stand going to the gym at any other time, even if I have the time. It's not because there are more people around, I just don't like going at any other time. I have a similar routine with food. It can't be too late or early, and I have to eat about every 3 hours. I don't like meals that fill me up because it kills my routine. However I'll eat ice cream at any time. I do have some spontaneity.
Well, the point is stay tuned. I'm not giving up on my blog just yet, not until it becomes too uncool; then at that time I'll jump on another bandwagon.
Here is another picture. This is Alaura, niece 4 of 7, 4 of 5, 1 of 2. If you can figure that out, good for you.