Archive for the ‘seattle’ Category
Over the 4th of July weekend, we decided to take a trip up to Whidbey Island, for a few reasons:
- It is close, only an hour or so away (including ferry time), so it was easy on my back for travel.
- Our friends Shannon and Damon have an amazing house they built on the Island - and by that, I mean built by hand: “hammer, hammer, saw, saw”. It was great to see them and spend time with them, and their new son, Griffin (and their dog, Ebey). They are great college friends, who we do not spend nearly enough time with.
- Because we stayed with them, I knew I could rest as much as my back needed to; taking breaks regularly to lay flat, etc… and not feeling obligated to do too much.
- We happen to just really like Whidbey Island - artsy, beautiful, friendly, and close.
- And of course, get Molly away from the loud bangs of illegal (and legal) fireworks.
- In particular, Greg and Clodagh had called out, on a past trip, the wonders of Double Bluff Beach’s off leash dog park on Whidbey - a few mile long open beach for off-leash access. We wanted to get Molly into the water again.
- I have been cooped up in the house for a while now - I was looking forward to just getting out of here for a weekend as I move back into working more.
It was just what we needed - it fit all of those goals above, and we are really super-appreciative of the Arndt’s for hosting us. Molly had a fantastic time too - she got to run around their property, go swimming, get lots of fun new treats, and just be one happy (and tired!) dog.
Pictures - click for larger ones as usual:
People:
Dogs:
Arndt House:
Videos - might need to visit the actual blog post to view:
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Reminder to the kids (and parents) at the park across the street
04 Jul
Posted by: aaron in: seattle
Private fireworks are banned in Seattle. You could go to jail. And piss us off. And stop us from sleeping - you were going all night, after all, for the last 4 nights or so. And scare all of the dogs in the neighborhood. And hurt people - according to the news, at least 3 amputations last year from fireworks in Seattle alone. Not cool. So stop!
Private use, sale, or possession of fireworks is prohibited in the City of Seattle. The private use of fireworks without a permit in the city of Seattle is punishable by a fine and possible time in jail.
(Not just Seattle by the way - most of the rest of the state of Washington also bans fireworks).
Happy 4th! Enjoy your safe, public fireworks. And stop annoying me!
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RedFin just posted a blog entry about archival photos of Seattle. Cool! I’ve previously posted about the Washington State Archive photos (see here and here), but hadn’t heard of the Seattle Municipal Archives before. Just checked it out.
There’s nothing showing our house directly, but as we have the West Queen Anne Playfield just across the street, they have a bunch of photos that show our house (albeit small). Here’s a sample - for all of them, see the Seattle Municipal Archives Photograph Collection
| 1965 http://tinyurl.com/3q2kva |
Jan 26, 1968 http://tinyurl.com/6hwhxk |
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If you notice on the top of these pictures, there’s a community center across the street. There are some awesome pictures from the late 1930s during the Works Progress Administration construction of said community center (or shelter, as they called it then)
| Dec 21, 1936 http://tinyurl.com/3pvdpr |
Mar 24, 1937 http://tinyurl.com/4kx2t5 |
Mar 24, 1937 http://tinyurl.com/3stwdj |
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Also, I found the Sherwood Park History Files, which has a pretty cool pdf of the old plans for the playfield - see http://www.seattle.gov/parks/history/QueenAnnePF.pdf for it in all of the full glory.
And for final good measure, here’s a 1938 view of Queen Anne Ave (the main street by us) just a block or two from our house (i.e. right in front of Blaine):
| 1938 http://tinyurl.com/6elhdl |
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I love this old stuff - can you notice I am not working yet? Spending 15-20 minutes at a time surfing the web, and this is what I end up with :)
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While my mother was in town (she left on Friday), I was trying to make at least one jaunt out of the house per day in the car, just to build back up the sitting strength for that position. In trying to find errands to run, we decided it would be a good idea to get oil changes for Joelle and my car’s - it had been a while for both.
I knew we didn’t drive a lot, but after looking at our paper work to figure out when we last changed our oil, this is getting ridiculous:
- My car: It had been 9.5 months since my last oil change, and I only went 1800 miles. My manufacturer (Saturn) recommends every 3 months/3000 miles. So on the mileage number, I still had a while to go.
- Joelle’s car: It had been about 14 months, 3500 miles. Her manufacturer (Scion) recommends every 5 months/5000 miles. So she also had a ways to go, and it had been a year-plus (a little before we were married!)
How do we drive so little?
- Both of us bus to work every day
- Grocery shopping is mostly done around our neighborhood (Queen Anne, Seattle) - Trader Joe’s, Safeway, and Metropolitan Market (and 7-Eleven, while we are at it, though we never go there) are all within 4 blocks - so we walk to all of them
- Most dinners, by ourselves or with friends/family, are on Queen Anne Ave or at our house
- Even our doctors are either 5 blocks from home or right by work. Some of the specialists I saw were a little farther away, so for those, we did drive.
- Given my back situation, I haven’t driven a car in 3 months! That helps keep things down :) Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things…
Needless to say, the rising gas and oil prices hasn’t had a major impact on our direct budget, thankfully. Chalk one up for the urban density crowd!
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scanning is easier than typing - so here’s a nice surprise we got in the mail today (slightly redacted for privacy):
Greg, Joelle, Shay (woof!), Molly (woof!) and I spent some quality time at the dog park on Saturday - and then we got hungry for dinner. We spent a bit of time researching where to eat that would allow dogs to sit with us (since we had the dogs with us, and it was so hot out, we didn’t want to leave them in the car). We ended up back at Norm’s, the only place we know of that allows dogs both inside and out. Luckily, we were able to get an outdoor spot, so both us and the pooches were happy with the choice.
Rather than always going back there, I spent some time looking up additional places around Seattle that are dog-friendly. Found a couple of a articles with good links
- http://www.chowhound.com/topics/520235 - recommends Norm’s, the Islander, Tutta Bella, and Volunteer Park Cafe (so far, more likely coming). (Note: Broksonic, who replied, is me - I use that name on some sites. I think it was the brand of a TV I had a while ago, or something like that - I’ve been using it forever)
- http://community.livejournal.com/seattle/5202948.html - recommends White Horse Trading Company, Norm’s, Wayword Coffeehouse, C+P Coffee, Lava Lounge, Tin Hat, Stumbling Monk, Summit Public House, Edmonds The Dining Dog Cafe & Bakery. But then digresses into arguments over dogs and food, also links to DogFriendly’s and Citysearches list, but I called a few of the places on there - I wouldn’t trust those lists.
Good to have options!
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On a follow-up to my last post, here’s a good link to a write-up of Seattle dog parks: http://www.nwsource.com/recreation/match-your-pup-right-local-leash-area
And a good map of all of them: http://www.coladog.org/olas/COLOR_MAP_MUDBAY07.pdf
We’ve tried Golden Gardens and Woodland Park, as I stated previously. Northgate’s is also really close. Once I can walk well again (more shortly), we’ll have to try that one out…
But more importantly: Come on Lower Kinnear Park - get the dog park built there already! (I just sent an email to Citizens for Off-leash Areas to find out more on the status of this - the last public info is circa 2006).
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(Aaron again)
Reminder to myself for the future: https://fortress.wa.gov/lni/bbip/search.aspx
Been looking into getting some electrical work done, so this is helpful to make sure the people I speak with are licensed (and for how long they’ve been doing their stuff…)
While I am at it: http://web1.seattle.gov/DPD/permitstatus/default.aspx - look up Seattle Permit History on a house or building
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We’re at war!
Washington University declares war against University of Washington
“On behalf of the student body, Student Union has declared war on the University of Washington,” said SU President Neil Patel. “We’re tired of being confused with the University of Washington. We’re in St. Louis, dammit.”
Best line of this article (and no offense to my Husky friends is actually meant):
They are also distributing free T-shirts emblazoned with, “University of Washington wasn’t even on my list of safety schools.”