++ JOKE(S) OF THE DAY

what do cobras study in college?
.. .. .. hiss-tory.

what do you give a snake with allergies?
.. .. .. anti-hiss=tamines.

saw fog here in seattle for the first time this morning. yay. exciting. uh huh. whatever jay.
and the blue angels are in town this weekend, overhead right now practicing for their show this weekend. so every few minutes you hear an f/a-18 scream by overhead and since we don't have air conditioning (as is the same with most every building in seattle) we keep the windows open all day in an attempt to induce air flow and cross ventililation throughout the office (which never happens) and its really loud. but it reminds me of home (well more so wright patterson afb) but that may as well be home with fighter jets and airplanes flying low overhead all the time (especially when there is a hurricane coming and they have to move al lthe planes). i think its lunch on the roof today to see them practice. ++

++ VISITORS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME at the place. you have only to put up with pre-school toys everywhere and posters on the wall depicting what a vegetable is, etc.. craig came into town yesterday. man i haven't seen that boy in a long time! i mean i've passed him or ran into him maybe 3 or 4 times in the past 4 years, but i really haven't seen him since 1st year in college when he was a roommate. and that was quite a while ago. (relatively speaking. .. relative to what? ..) so craig emailed me yesterday afternoon from the seattle public library saying he had arrive in seattle and was looking to get together or if possible stay with us for the evening. (of course you can stay with us for the evening. you could stay with us for two or three evenings if you'd like!)

so craig is in school with me, just on the opposite section, so he has option quarter right now and he's using it for travel. (where?) across the entire united states in one (well actually two) long road trip(s) to see not only the parts of the u.s. he hasn't seen (which he says was more or less the entire western half) and to see a baseball game in every baseball stadium. i think there is 30 or 32 and he has about 13 left to go, which is pretty cool if you ask me (but then again who would .. and if you did, who would care?) he says he wrote every team and told them who he was and what he's doing and if he could have a free ticket. 9 teams replied and gave him free tickets. how awesome is that! (wait that was a question which i ended with an exclamation point. oh right, who cares.) he's seeing the M's play a day game thursday and then he's off to sf, oakland, la, anaheim, san diego, arizona, arlington, houston, florida, atlanta, and i think i may have missed one. (he still has to make up pittsburgh, which was rained out).

i wanna go on a road trip. .. .. oh wait, i am going on a road trip! woohoo! i forgot all about that! in about a month and a week .. portland, sf, san diego, joshua tree, phoenix, arcosanti, antelope canyon, mesa verde, great sand dunes, collegiate peaks, garden of the gods, colorado springs, denver, and finally home! ++

++ MUSEUM OF GLASS doesn't really have all that much glass in it. true it does have a glass making studio (which btw is pretty cool) but as far as glass on display, not so much. and isn't dale chihuly from tacoma? and he doesn't even have one piece of glass actually in the museum? are you serious? (ok maybe there were some, but if there was i didn't see it.) ++

++ MARINERS 6 ATHLETICS 0 . that was the score last night at the baseball game i attended .. for free, thanks to 'mr. patcraft' carpets product rep guy who gave away four free tickets which were raffled off within the office and i won. jeff, brian, and heather accompanied me to row 19 of section 114 at safeco field. i think yesterday was the most i have ever not paid attention to a baseball game. it wasn't that it was a bad game. quite the contrary. m's pitched a 2 hit shutout and ichiro saved a homerun with an outstanding catch in right field. they looked great. good company i guess makes the game seem not as interesting and more fun to just goof around with and share inside jokes while being loud and obnoxoius.

name theory .. (whoever thought this could actually be a real theory with people actually philosiphizing the significance of the meaning of words and names.) .. ..

do you notice different people with the same first name having similar traits. sometimes its a personality trait. sometimes its a physical trait. sometimes its the way they act around people or some mannerism. but i always find people with the same first name who somehow are grouped by some similar trait. maybe its just because i'm looking for some way to relate them together? i dunno.

why is it humans always feel the need to classify or quantify things? seriously. does everything need to be classified? can't things just be what they are without something attached to it? we can't be just individuals anymore. we have to be an individual of a group. we can't just be a individual. ++

++ IT WAS CHRISTMAS last night .. uh .. right. no, actually it was just a bunch of glasgow and man.u. fans. a whole whopping 66,722 of them! they say its the largest crowd to attend a sporting event ever in the pacific northwest beating theprevious record set by the women's world cup the last time it was in town. manchester united beat the glasgow celtics 4-0 with ruud van nistelrooy being named man of the match. the game was awesome. the pitch looked great. the play much different from american soccer. the fans not rowdy, only fanatical about the game. the weather perfect and the sunset incredible. what great night for a european soccer match.

overheard at work ..
"i thank you for your work and will see to it that you get credit toward helping humanity."
.. and i thought i worked in an architectural office .. little do i know. ++

++ THE EIFFEL TOWER caught fire.
and i'm going to see manchester united (sans david beckham) play glasgow celtics tonight 1 2 at the seahawks stadium.
both stories of which have absolutely no relation or correlation.

and lance is winning le tour de france

..
..

sooooo .. what's your favorite movie? .. ++

++ HEATHER GOT A NEW COMPUTER!!! a new shiny 17" powerbook g4! and holy wow its a big screen. i on the other hand .. don't have one. ++

++ THIS PAST WEEKEND was a hiking weekend at mount saint helens, which now that i think about it, we never actually hiked on the mountain. but we did hike all around the mountain and it was super cool. we visited the ape caves, which is soooo super cool! it is actually a lava tube (which for everyone who isn't a geologist) is when the lava flowed down from the mountain and then cooled on top and all the lava on the inside drained out, leaving this tunnel which is more or less all cooled lava. the hike we did was through the upper part and it was pitch black. we rented a butane lantern and the only way to get a good shot was to stand perfectly still and shoot with a 10-15 second shutter speed to capture as much light as possible. it was so much fun hiking around and crawling and climbing through this cave and yet barely any good shots to show it.

brian and jeff went with us and we all camped out, which is always fun. i think i have camped out every weekend for more or less the past 2 months. oh and the food. we usually just cook small meals over our camp stoves, but recently we have been going to the store and making some killer wicked good foil packs with onions and meat and potatos and carrots, a little seasoning and toss it on the coals in the campfire and 20 minutes later .. yum yum, thats some good dinner.

do you ever wonder if you should leave the toilet seat up or down? yeah me either. for those who do, thank brian.

weapons of mass destruction. ++

++ I WAS DRIVING around last night down in ballard along the beaches and i saw tons of cars and tons (and by tons i don't mean their total weight .. or the literal number of ton) of people walking toward the beach. i kept driving and found where they were going. they were going to the beach where the campfires were to 'hang out'. apparantly seattle has some ancient law where everyone is allowed to burn campfires on the beaches. .. .. which is cool (because fire is always cool, right?) but not very eco-freindly (or safe? but then again it is fire on top of sand .. right next to a huge body of water ..) i thought it was cool. it was a lot cooler last night when i saw it. and it sounds pretty lame now that i am writing about it. oh well. volleyball tonight. ++

++ AN OLD HIGH SCHOOL friend of mine got engaged on the 4th .. well maybe it was the 3rd. i'm not sure exactly. it was right around midnight 'their time' (ohio time .. eastern time zone) so i'm not sure if it counts as the 3rd or the 4th. anyway .. oh right its jon kippins and kiera .. i'm not sure what kiera's last name is .. so i was driving .. on my way to smith .. in bend if you haven't cought that already .. and it was late and dark out and ring ring .. well acutally buzz buzz and vibrate vibrate (because i was trying not to wake the passengers who were sleeping while i was driving! bastards.) and i picked up the phone and said hello. jon goes, "hello? jay?" i knew it. (well actually he told me he was going to do it about a few weeks before and he sounded pretty sure of it, so i knew it a while ago.) but still still i knew it. but i was still excited and wowed when he said he was engaged! holy crap! am i getting old? my friends are getting engaged! (well actually i've had a friend who has been engaged before, but still .. ) and not even friends of friends . no we're talking one degree of separation here. wow! holy wow!

CONGRATULATIONS JON KIPPINS! email him and congratulate him if you know him! ++

++ I GOT A flat tire yesterday and its causing me all kinds of trouble. luckily it didn't puncture, so i didn't even have to get it plugged. apparantly there is a problem with the seal of the tire to the rim and it leaks there..but ever so slowly. poop. and its costing me $30 to get it fixed.

although .. duck dodge tonight .. which means its sailing tonite! woohoo! ++

++ THE ACTUAL FOURTH of july was hot, as it is all the time in central oregon .. better known as the high desert. although i'm not sure why. it's not that its really all that high. mt. hood which is not quite central oregon sits at 11,000 feet, but thats the top of it. the base is only something around 8,000 and smith rocks state park is only around 3,500 at its highest point. i think most of central oregon sits around 2500-3000 feet above sea-level. but like all deserts it's hot in the day and cold and windy at night. its almost like ohio .. except not really at all .. well kind of minus the humidity and mugginess and muggings (if you are in cincinnati) and minus the sucky pro sports teams and minus the big air force base (better known as wright patterson air force base) and (for all the western people who have never been to ohio .. or anywhere remotely east of the mississippi corn and wheat .. because thats all there is in ohio. its one big field of corn interrupted only by one big field of wheat .. interspersed with cows .. everywhere). but except for those minor almost non-descript even non-noticable differences, its almost the same. except for the tumbleweed and sand and lack of mountains. the same i tell you. all the same. and overcast sky. you'd never even know you left ohio.

we picked up tony on the way out to smith rocks. he's a climber. and he's better than me. (which isn't hard i know.) actually he's way better than me. and its not just abour the whole skill level thing. its more so about 'da balls and the lack of fear of falling. (which if you know me i've experienced once or twice, so i am a little afraid of falling.) (and if you don't know me, i've fallen from real high up once and so i am afraid of falling.) together (together meaning tony climbed hard stuff and heather and i watched .. and then top-roped the hard route he did) we climbed quite a few hard things. we did some sport stuff, some bouldering (well he did, heather tried and watched, i tried and fell mostly), and a trad route. (well i did a trad route .. my very first trad route mind you! which may not mean squat to anyone else, but i did it and i was proud and ecstatic and scard all at the same time!) (granted it was an easy 5.5, but it was trad and it was me. yay. go me.) we camped three nights (thurs, fri, sat) and climbed two and a half days and it was a blast. i can't wait to go back. smith is a great place. go there. even if you don't climb. its spectacular.

the drive back home (home being seattle still) was long (only 7 hours? how's that long. ohio to seattle=44 hours. ohio to sf=36 hours. ohio to denver=18 hours.) the traffic was horrible. (luckily i only drove part of it) and everyone (ok not everyone, but close i swear) left seattle for the 4th to go somewhere else and all decided to head back the same way at the same time on the only north-south highway which winds through the state of oregon and washington.

oh yeah, since we were climbing and camping we didn't get to see any parades and we didn't get any free candy, but we did get to see fireworks .. from 30 miles away and they were about an inch big from our vantage point. poo. although some guy next to our campsite was watching the same one inch fireworks we were and after the finale he said aloud and i can only assume he was talking to us and said, "hey guys. i'm a war vetern and i'd do it again. cheers." all we could say in return was, "cheers". we heard him walk to his truck and turn up his cd player. it blared, "born in the u.s.a." by bruce springsteen. the song ended. he turned off his radio. his light. went to his tent. and went to bed.

i can't even say i was born in the usa. ..

.. and isn't that an anti-american song? ++

++ FOURTH O' JULY

amy to jeff ..
Hey – if you aren’t doing anything – and are interested….we’re again havin’ folks over on the 4th…..not as many people as in the past. – jessie and brian and a couple of aaron’s co-workers, a few friends, neighborhood cats, etc…..but nothing too extravagant. We’ll bbq some burgers and brats. That’s as much planning as we’ve done so far.
But, let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll let you know when we figure out what time this will all go down.
If not, have a good holiday.
Amy

jeff's reply to amy ..
my schedule seems to be clear. my ‘spokane crew’ was supposed to ‘represent’ this weekend but i haven’t heard from them ‘on the down-low’. so worst case scenario i may be accompanied by a family of 3. also, during a festive match of duck dodge last month i pointed your place out to Jay & Heather (jay’s ‘boo’) and hyped-up your ‘crib’ (as if it needs any hyping) as the premiere fireworks vantage point. i believe they say a prayer every night hoping you would take pitty on their poor souls and invite them as well…not sure about brian. as for their non-ARC function ‘down-ness’ i believe all of the above parties have put a significant amount of ‘impin in the pimpin.’ thank you for your time.
ps. jay does like fire and burning things, may need supervision if sparklers are involved.
-jeff

amy's reply to jeff. cc'd to jay and brian ..
Jay can come, too, but only if he brings sparklers. Heather can come only if she brings Jay, who brings sparklers.
Brian can come, too, but only if he promises to keep Jay from burning the place down. (assuming he even has any interest in attending….. if not, you’re in charge of babysitting Jay.)
We’re thinking 5 or 6-ish, if you’re interested in eating. We’ll be featuring a modest menu of said burgers and brats and a few sides and a few beverages. Bring anything else you wish to grill (which will be interesting on Aaron’s tail-gating size mini-grill.) and/or anything else you wish to eat or drink. I think the pyrotechnics (not jay’s, but the official ones) start at 10.
Parking figures to be her usual bitch, so let me know if you wanna try to arrange something before-hand. I’m not sure what that would be, exactly, but we could work on a plan.
Overwhelmed with patriotism,
Amy

jeff's reply to jay and brian ..
4th of July plans? see above ..
-jeff

jay's amy, jeff, brian, and heather ..
Actually, I’ve moved my pyrotechnics show to the campgrounds of Skull Hollow for the July 4th celebration. I heard a rumor they were indeed without a fire-starter consultant, so I’ve decided to be a good samaratin (doubly) by providing my much needed skills to the (TRANS) res(I)d(ENT) rock climbers of Bend, Oregon and Smith Rocks State Park for the weekend and providing those attending the aforementioned party at the humble abode of Amy with additional food and beverages by not being there. The Jay Pyro-Show Office Co. Inc. ©, where our motto is, “Always Courage under Fire In the Line of Fire without Grace under Fire or Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” wishes to thank you for your understanding and commitment to the best-show-ever, even if it’s not his and it’s without him.
Thanks again. See you after the Holiday.
Jay

amy's reply to jeff ..
Jay’s (and Heather’s) presence, albeit seemingly dangerous, if not just very hot….will be missed. Have a good holiday.
(okay, lobster-boy – in reference to the color of you skin, not your claw-like appendages – you are now burdened with the duty of providing sparklers….there’s got to be a renegade fireworks-stand or two in lawless West Seattle………)
(okay, okay…..really, I guess we’ll let you in to the party with or without sparklers…but not without your sparkling personality.)
(that was a totally cheesy thing to say.)
Amy

brian's rsvp reply to amy ..
I guess I never rsvp’d to this whole shindig, but assuming there’s still room to come, what are the requirements?... – I can promise no pyrotechnics. However, I am a kung-fu master. I don’t know if that helps. I also have an incriminating video of Jay-C taking out a rival arsonist only known as “Billy.”
Brian

++

++ EDUCATIONAL NERDINESS OF THE DAY:

there are two different kinds of cherries sold here in seattle: the bing cherry and the rainier cherry. apparantly there are bunch more but no one ever sells them .. like the lambert cherry and the lapins cherry and the van cherry and a whole slieu of other cherry varieties which i have no idea about. well there are these fruitstands all over washington with people who sell fresh picked cherries, mostly bing cherries, but sometimes ranier cherries. well its no scam at least from what i can tell. the cherries are real cherries (and they're really good) and legit cherries (versus illegitimate cherries?) and not 'hot' cherries (so to buy a cherry direct from a store would be a 'cold' cherry?). oh yeah and they sell for pretty cheap. a little box like thing of them usually cost $1. a box big of cherries big enough to feed two people is $5 (or big enough only to feed me if its for me). i think in the store bing cherries usually sell for about $4/pound and rainier cherries usually sell for about $6/pound. the fruitstand people sell them probably for approximately half that. pretty good deal. yum. thank goodness for street fruitstand people. ++

++ I SAW FOUR segways running around all in a little group yesterday on the way to the climbing gym. i couldn't tell if they were a family or a bunch of friends who all decided to buy them or just some people taking it out on a test spin. those things baffle me though. its not so much the actual segway which baffles me. i actually kind of understand it. its more about this whole health kick the united states is going through. there is all this talk about taxing fatty foods and then someone comes out with the segway. ok. i lost my train of thought.

..
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i want to try a segway.

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..

ok. really lost. now. yeah. bye. ++