Watching the sailboat races
Nothing like a nice quiet no-excitement evening. Ahhh.
Woodland Park Zoo with the Orcmids
After a rainy start to the day, it was sunny for a trip to the zoo this afternoon …
Cat toys from Marsha
Marsha sent a box full of cat toys today. So far the cats have tried the catnip (which affects Megan too, it makes her giggle and snap pictures) and the bunk bed. There are lots more toys for tomorrow. Thanks, Marsha!
A couple more photos from today …
Time to run
Man, where did the last two years go? This job is really a great way to kill time. 
Megan and I jogged around Seward Park this morning. I did that several times in the two weeks before starting at Microsoft (sometimes two days in a row), and then started slowing down as work ramped up. This now this makes twice in the last year. Or was there a time over the winter? Maybe three times, I guess.
I’m just posting this publicly so I’ll feel shamed into going again tomorrow. And the next day. Although it may be a while until I go so early in the morning that I can go home to get my camera and come back to take pictures of the sunrise, as I did in the linked post above. Those were the days.
Local news for Doug’s World commenters
I’ve seen a few news items in the last week that reminded me of a few of my favorite commenters. This isn’t a complete list, mind you — some of my favorite commenters aren’t included, because I didn’t see any news items recently that reminded me of them. And Marsha, I just couldn’t bear to write about Genarlow Wilson or Michael Vicks, so Atlanta won’t be mentioned here.
OK, on to the local news …
I’ve subscribed to a bunch of IBM developers’ blogs lately, so that I can follow the news in their world. I do this for the same reason Rush Limbaugh subscribes to DailyKos. Anyway, yesterday my list of RSS feeds for IBM software developers fed me a story about the Cubs, which reminded me of Tom and Scott, of course. And then, in a Chicago two-fer, today yet another IBM developer posted a story about the L!
George, the owner of the highest single-hole score ever recorded in Golftrak (my personal golf-score database) — a 33 on Waveland’s 9th hole, starting with 9 OB tee shots in a row — has also lived in Chicago, but he originally hails from Venice. Not that one … the one in Florida, where golf hazards can be truly hazardous.
And then there’s the Spo-Vegas commenter contingent, Nick and Michell. I miss them, but there are some things about Spokane I don’t miss. I was at that anti-war protest, although I didn’t walk past the video camera.
Speaking of Spokane, Bruce sent me a link to the story of the death of one of Nick and Michell’s favorite customers. Working in the software business, full of “lifeless suburban gasbags” (as it says on a blog I won’t mention), I rather miss those used-car salesmen.
Raccoon on the porch
I always keep my trusty D70 within easy reach, because the cats sometimes do crazy things without advance warning. This evening, that paid off when Megan yelled from the living room “hey, there’s a raccoon on the porch.” The light was low (it’s been raining, and it’s nearly dark now), but I got what I could in the 30 seconds or so that he was around …
He disappeared into the hedge. One more reason Fish shouldn’t be staying out all night.
Wordpress upgrade
Well, I’ve upgraded my Wordpress and it seems to be working. I went from version 1.5.2 to version 2.2.1, so I skipped several versions. But I’ve always felt that knowing which versions to skip is the key to minimizing computer hassles. Well, not knowing; guessing, really.
The upgrade was really smooth. I continue to be impressed with Wordpress’s approach to deployment and upgrades. For example, I’ve customized the hell out of many things in this theme, and I did nothing to move those customizations forward. Apparently version 2.2.1 still works with the version of the “Vanilla Mist” theme I installed two years ago, and everything just seems to work.
The really big question now is whether this ugprade has corrected that error everyone has been getting after posting comments. Can’t wait to find out …
American soldiers in Iraq
For an “embedded” report, this one’s pretty real …
Thanks to Juan Cole for the link. (And it has the usual annoying YouTube thing where you have to click the Play button twice to get it started.)
Bellevue in a spotlight
I’m taking a few days off, staying at home and hiding from the world. After all the travel and other activities lately, that sounds more exciting than any exotic vacation. Megan’s working this week, but she worked from home today and I managed to talk her into going out to a liesurely lunch with me.
It rained today. What a drag. I was trying to decide whether to take a bike ride, play golf, go on a photo safari, or all of the above. Instead, I stayed indoors. But man, the home office is really tidy now. Sigh. Maybe tomorrow.
Oh yeah, the pictures above. Nice twilight this evening, with dark shadows all around except for two spotlights where holes in the clouds west of Seattle let the sun shine over our shoulders. One spotlight hit Bellevue, and the other hit I-90 coming off Mercer Island.
And here are a couple more photos that don’t really fit in anywhere: Megan and Fish (he’s starting to win her back), and me walking around DC waiting for my hotel room to be available after the 24-hour trip from Delhi a couple weeks ago. That’s a shot taken with my new phone, and about as good as it gets with that camera.
With any luck, I’ll have more interesting photos to post tomorrow.
