Fremont Photo Stroll

I'm sure I've mentioned before my love for the book Washington Curiosities. My friend Meg-A-Roonie turned me on to it and is therefore the person who was forced to spent a day with me shooting some of the items on the list.

Fremont, as a whole, is a very interesting neighborhood. I  mean any neighborhood who calls themselves "The People's Republic of Fremont" says something about the folks who frequent it.  It's also known as the center of the universe. They even have a directional sign to prove it.

So besides of this wonderful little treat, Fremont has a lot, and I mean a lot to see. Great for people watching - especially for the summer solstice where a huge parade takes place and it starts with a throng of naked bike riders.

Now, back to the list of "curiosities".  The first on our stop was the HUGE statue of Lenin.

Meg-A-Roonie and I were eating grinders in the shadow of Lenin.  I wondered, as we sat there, "Why Fremont? Why Lenin?" It seemed far-fetched, but Fremont is nothing if not far fetched. So I looked it up. Turns out an American who was teaching in Poprad found the sculpture lying face down after it was toppled in the 1989 Revolution.  He recognized that it was significant art from a famous Russian artist and wanted to preserve the statue. He mortgaged his house to acquire the sculpture and eventually it ended up in Fremont.

After a brief conversation with Lenin, we strolled right on down Fremont Avenue.  Along the way we found some rather interesting street lights.

Its hard to tell, but there's a torso in that bulb thingy. The sun was shining so bright that it lit up the inside pretty well.

After that we meandered our way past a gelato place.  We 'had' to go in. Once in, the gelato took hold of us, smacked us around and FORCED us to have some. So we both ordered an Affogato - scoop of gelato and shot of espresso over it.

Once outside we stumbled into a doorway that had a bunch of broken mirrors in different shapes and designs.  It was quite fascinating.  I could have spent a good 30 minutes in there, but we had more important things to see.

We continued on our stroll. Eventually we passed the "Waiting for the Interurban" statues. People usually dress these guys up in all sorts of costumes. This day they seemed a bit "undressed" and I have a hundred photos of them from the 3 day.  I chose to not waste any of my memory on this stop.

Photo courtesy of the Internet.

From there we walked up a GREAT BIG HILL to get to what I think is the most interesting thing in Fremont...the Troll.

My favorite part is the VW bug he's holding on to.  It's a real bug, by the way. The Troll lives under the I5 bridge and is part of the Fremont culture. It, too, gets decorated every now and then.

From the troll we walked back down into Fremont and stopped into a Turkish café that had a bunch of Turkish stuff for sale. The smell of the coffee and spices drew us in. We had to walk through and check out what was what.  We found these fabulous glasses so bright and colorful. Meg-A-Roonie spent her honeymoon in Turkey and said this store brings back some good memories.

Finally we found our way to walk past the Rocket. Yes that's right, Fremont has a Rocket. A real one...or so we're told.

It was a hot and we were tired of walking. I asked Meg-A-Roonie if she wanted to go to Starbucks, naturally she was all in. What she didn't know, at first, was that I meant the Starbucks that was made of recycled shipping containers.  Yes, Seattle not only is home to Starbucks, a Green city and has a Starbucks made of recycled shipping containers.

Best...coffee...ever...

Or it could have been that we were hot and thirsty and the black tea hit the spot perfectly.

Anyhow, we had a great time and as always it was a blast getting caught up with Meg-A-Roonie. 

I checked off several items in the book and now have about a hundred left.  I'd better get going.

On Top of the World

Ever had something on your bucket list that is illusive and for some reason you never do it?

Yah visiting Mount Rainer was just that item for me.  Mount Rainer is an icon of Seattle. Its the mountain you see in every post card of Seattle. It's part of what defines Seattle's outdoorsy attitude.  Its majestic, a volcano and basically our backyard.

For years, YEARS, Blueberry and I have talked about going to Mount Rainer. Each year comes and goes and we don't do it.

This year I moved it to the top of my list that was a MUST. I put it on the calendar and I finally made it.

Mrs. Landlord and I took off early on Saturday and we headed south. Like with any roadtrip in Sparky the key is to get there without hitting the freeway.  We took the back roads through Maple Valley and into Black Diamond.  Once in Black Diamond, we stopped to have breakfast at this fantastic little bakery called The Black Diamond Bakery - clever huh. 

The bakery part of this restaurant was full of home made baked goods.  It was a bit overwhelming to see all the pastries and cookies and what not. 

We choose to have an actual breakfast. Both of us had the biscuits and gravy.  Delicious.  Absolutely delicious.

Once done with breakfast we hit the road. I had found a website that outlines a couple of different scenic routes to take. Each route this website lists has a bunch of stops they recommend. So Mrs. Landlord was the navigator and reader of what the stop was about.

First stop, Federation Forest State Park.  Turns out it's not actually a stop in as much as it's the forest area around Rainer.  Well, part of it. It's a 619 acre state park started by a group of women in the 1940s who wanted to preserve the old growth timber. We didn't stop - we drove through and did the obligatory OOOOh's and Ahhhhhh's.

Next stop Greenwater.  Greenwater is a funky little town that is essentially the last town before the mountain and one of our major ski resorts here in Washington, Crystal Mountain. The important thing to know about Greenwater is this is where the Nachez Tavern is.  We had lunch there on our way back down the mountain.  Talk about a bar with character.  When we walked in Toby Keith's song "I Love This Bar" was playing and I gotta say, if it needed a theme song, this was it. 

Parked out front were rows of motorcycles - which could only mean one thing - its a cool little joint.

Moving on - our next stop was the Mount Rainer Viewpoint.  Now I would have thought that this would be a location where you'd see a wide sweeping view of Mt. Rainer. At least in my mind that's what it would have been.  Turns out you get a "peak" of Mt. Rainer from this place.  I blinked an almost missed it.

Sparky looked good there though, so it was worth the stop.

The next stop was Suntop Lookout. Somehow Mrs. Landlord and I both missed the turn off so we didn't get a chance to check this out. Probably just as well since it had words like "gravel road" and "requires 4 wheel drive" in the description. 

Skookum Falls was our next stop.  These falls drop 250ft, into the White River.  The White River is what amazed me more than anything else. The falls had barely anything falling down them. In fact, I had to squint to even see the falls.  I expected these glorious falls, and got a dribble. Still it's beautiful.

So the White River water is actually white. It's like milk.  I stood and just stared at it.  I'd never seen anything like it. It's white because of glacier silt or glacier "flour" they call it.  It was one of the coolest things I had seen in a long time. It really sometimes are the simplest things that make me smile.

Finally we reached where we were headed the turn off to Sunrise.  Sunrise is a postcard perfect location to see the mountain.  It sits at 6400 ft and is as far as you can drive up the mountain. There's a small vista point on the way to Sunrise where we stopped to stare in wonder.  Mount Rainer in one direction and Mount Adams in another.  Then all around was the most glorious landscape I've seen in a long time.

Mount Rainer off in the distance.

Mount Adams is off in the distance.

Another beautiful vista from the top of the world.

Even Sparky and Daisy got into the view.

Once at the top of Sunrise there's a ranger station there that has a small museum with a ton of great information about the mountain. This time of year is a fairy tale of color up there with the wild flowers in full bloom.  It was glorious. Just glorious.

This totally reminded me of something Dr. Seuss would dream up

I really could go on and on about how beautiful this mountain is. And like anything of such beauty pictures really don't do it justice. 

And there's another side of the mountain to see!!! I'll be going to that side in a couple of weeks.  Can't wait.  I can then check "See Mount Rainer" off my ever expanding bucket list.

Job status, Health status and Sunday Dinner

On the job front, I had a great interview on Friday and am now just sitting and trying to patiently wait for a decision. The hiring manager is likely gone this week at a HUGE MS event so I most likely will not hear until after this week.

And I won't be just sitting back and waiting. I'm still actively searching for a job. July 31st is quickly approaching and I need a job.

On the health front...

I've been on Weight Watchers for about 3 weeks now (starting my 4th week) and I've not been 100% committed. I've been only half way paying attention, and logging my info, and not working out.  Two weeks now I've neither gained nor lost any weight.  That ends today.

Today I start with a plan. I've modified a meal plan I found online that one of my favorite bloggers is doing for her mother.  Each week now, 4 weeks in, she's posted a menu plan for her mom. It's perfect for me. I just have to use what she's already done. And so I've built myself a menu plan for the week based off hers. I adjusted it to meet my tastes and needs.

You'll notice, for example, Tuesday's dinner it says "Jaliscos". That's because I'm going out to dinner that night.  And Thursday lunch says "Out with Nancy" again - cuz that's what's on my calendar.

Everything else is basically what I'm eating for the week.  I'm not convinced the calorie counts are accurate, so I'll continue tracking in MyFitnessPal and the Weight Watchers app.  Eventually I need to just track in one, but for now, I'll do both. They both have help in a unique way. MyFitnessPal shows the calories, and WW shows the points.  Until I get comfortable with how many calories are about what the total number of points are for me, I'll keep doing both. At the end of the day, really, I'm still eating better and that coupled with working out, I should start losing.  As long as I stay the course.

See, here's the thing, if it's written out like this I'm WAY more likely to follow it.  I have a plan for every meal. There should be no surprises. 

The other key is actually prepping food ahead of time so you'll follow your plan.  For example, I cut watermelon this weekend and put it in individual serving containers. So when I'm getting my lunch ready to pack to work, I just grab a container. The same is true for the cheese/grapes and nuts/raisin snacks.  Its done. It's a simple grab and I'm out the door.

I'm feeling very motivated this week so I figured I might as well restart the Couch to 5K stuff again. I'll be starting with week 1 today and plan to finish the entire week and move on. I've already done this so there isn't any question as to whether I can or cannot do it.  Tighten up the shoe laces, get off the couch and run.

I'll keep you posted as the week progresses. I know you're dying to see how this ends.

On another note, Sunday dinner was last night. I kept it light, simple and delicious.  The light part is new and something I'd like to continue to try to do.  I use Sunday Dinner as an excuse to make comfort food often, and that's ok and I'm sure it'll happen again, but when I can make it lighter, I'm going to try.

I totally forgot Daisy or Sparkle for the photo last night. We were all so concerned about getting the animals to cooperate that I completely forgot the duck.

Goin' Underground

Hello campers.  Hope this finds you all having a rip roaring good summer. Summer is just really starting here in Seattle and I've kicked it off by going to the Seattle Underground tour with Mrs. Hotlanta. 

First - update on the job situation. I was really REALLY hoping for a job at a shoe company here in Seattle. It would have been a fantastic job for me. Sadly they chose the other candidate - according to the recruiter it wasn't that they didn't want me they just had two GREAT candidates and one job opening. There's a chance they'll call me back for a PM job, though no timeframe. So I'm still searching.

I've had some great leads and a good interview with another group. I'm hoping that something pans out before July 31st. While I'd love to take the month of August off, I'd prefer to do it on my terms and with enough $$ to not stress out.

Ok. Back to the tour.

The Pergola in Pioneer Square. This structure has been restored, hit by cars and trucks, restored again.  Its iconic to Pioneer Square and had there not been a bunch of homeless chaps standing around I would have taken more shots.

 

Mrs. Hotlanta asked me a while ago if I'd be interested in doing the Seattle Underground Tour. I had heard about the tour, but truthfully, I sorta joked about it being a cheesey tourist tour.  And it was, but it was a good cheese.

I'm not a fan of tunnels, or being in closed spaces, or tunnels...so I laughed at myself as I was standing in Pioneer Square waiting for Mrs. Hotlanta as I realized this entire tour would be "underground".  How that escaped me before I was standing there waiting is beyond me. I figured I could suck it up and just ignore the fact we were under ground.

The first stop was in Doc Maynards bar - shut down during the tour hours - where our "host" told us a bit of history about Seattle in the old days.  I ... LOVED... The history they told us. True or not, it was very interesting. After about 15 minutes of them yammering on, they split our group into 4 groups and off we went. 

Underground Seattle circa late 1800's. That garbage can - circa 2013.

 

Did I mention I'm not a fan of tunnels? Yah, first stop, long, musty smelling tunnel - or underground walkway.

 

So it turns out that back in the late 1800's when Seattle was starting out, they built the city on tide flats not thinking about the - well - tides. The city would flood twice a day.  Eventually the city burns down (The story was told to us as in 1889 a cabinetmaker apprentice overturned and ignited a glue pot. When he attempted to put it out with water it spread the burning grease-based glue. Conveniently the fire chief was out of town in San Francisco, and although the volunteer fire department responded they made the mistake of trying to use too many hoses at once. They never recovered from the subsequent drop in water pressure, and the Great Seattle Fire destroyed 31 blocks and they have to rebuild.)

 

When they rebuilt they decided to put the city higher. They put the roads higher which meant you had to climb up steps or ladders to go across the street. From street level, up a ladder, across the street, down a ladder. Not very convenient.

 

Eventually they "filled in" and built on top of it.  There are urban legends about what was found when they city started digging out the old city.  Things like bath tubs and small boats. The city workers were throwing anything they could in as filler.

 

The entire time I was underground I kept saying over and over in my head, "Please don't let there be an earthquake right now."

So in order to add light on the subject, the city planners put in these sky lights.  On the current street level of Seattle, these little gems look like sidewalk art and you'd never know they were sky lights.  Though at the time glass apparently had a coating of something...magnium?...and apparently there's a reaction when that and sunlight comes together and cause the glass to turn purple. 

This hallway cracked me up. It was the hallway of old mechanical things. I wondered if the stuff in his hallway was actually from the 1800's or if it was just crap they found laying around rusted and tossed it down here. No rhyme or reason to any of it.  Still it was interesting to see the different machinery stuff.

 

This little gem was on the wall as we left the tour and entered, you guessed it, the souvenir shop. As we approached it I thought it was a cement sculpture of some sort.  Turns out its tin.  Still pretty cool looking and worth a photo.

BIG story about the flushing toilet and gravity and muck and sewer. I'll spare you. But suffice it to say the founding fathers of Seattle learned a lot about physics thanks to the crapper.

If you're ever in SEattle, I highly recommend this tour. It's touristy, but fun. A lot of Seattle history is told. Probably most of it true. The tour guides were all amusing and had nice little puns throughout to, I'm sure, help me keep my mind off the fact I was underground. Oy vei!

Mid Year Check-In

Here we are with half the year over already. The older I get, the faster time flies. It feels like months are flying by as days.  My attempts to slow time have not been successful as of yet, though I'm gonna keep trying.

Around work everyone is readying for the new fiscal year. This includes updating goals and finishing reviews.  I figured since I don't have a work review to write, that perhaps I should check in on my annual goals. 

Let's have a look - shall we?

2013 Goals
1. Read more!
This I've done. We are in week 28 and I've read 25 books.  I'm on target to ready 45 to 50 books this year.  Some, I'll admit, at what I call "squishy" books - fast reads. Others have taken some time to digest.  For the second half of the year I'd like to add some personal growth or project management books.

2. Scrapbooking
My goal was to control my purchasing of scrapbook supplies.  In an attempt to "use what I have" I decided I was going to "stage" all my photos and then scrapbook them when I had time.  This meant taking a photo theme - say my birthday - finding the paper and embellishments that go with it and putting them all together for a future day of actually putting the page together. 

I've hit a bit of a wall with getting new kitties.  They are a bit too curious for the scrapbook room so in order for me to be in there I have to lock them in another room - which seems unfair. So I've not spent as much time in the scrapbook room as I would like.  That being said, they are older now and I've allowed them time in the scrapbook room. Once the initial curiosity wore off they were fine.  Though they found stuff to chew on that I wasn't happy about.

As for purchasing scrapbooking supplies. I think my real hobby is that I like to buy scrapbooking stuff.  I've done just okay with this goal and really need to focus on NOT buying.

3. Photography
This year so far I've gone out shooting just two times. Once with the PhotoGods to Georgetown and once with Meg-A-Roonie to Pike's Place Market.  I have, however, done a lot of shooting with the new kitties.  They're just so darn cute and wiggly.  I have a list of a couple of places I'd like to shoot still this year and really need to just get them scheduled so I do it.

4. Finances
Oh boy. I don't even want to discuss this one.  I've been saving through my 401K and what not. And have started a mutual fund. So that's good.  Still need to get the credit cards down and still need to save my 3 months worth of salary.  I'm about to be without a job again and really REALLY wish I had done this. I need to remember what this feels like to be without a job and worried about finances.  It's not a great feeling and I think if I tap into that I can push myself to save.  I've even been playing these little mind games with myself like, "If I get job XYZ I promise, PROMISE to save the 3 months."  Unfortunately I didn't get job XYZ, but I still think I can fill in "XYZ" with "ANY" and be in the same place.

5. Health
This is a good one. I'm back on WW and am really starting to think about what I'm eating.  I've found some interesting things out about my food nature and plan on writing about them later.  My specific goal was about jogging - or wogging as I like to call it - but that has been sorta derailed. My wogging partner broke her ankle and since she stopped, apparently I stopped. I need to just start all over and dig deep for that motivation.

6. Blog more.
Um...not sure if this is going well or not. I have a list of things I want to spend some time to write about and subsequently blog about, I just haven't sat down and worked on them.  So...watch this space.

There. My annual review is done. I'd give myself a 3 out of 5 cuz there is certainly room for improvement. But I've done something, and I think that always counts.