Amazon Black Friday Deals

Some great deals available today at Amazon Black Friday Deals. And I get to stay away from the mall.

An early Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I'm sure Happy Thanksgiving is politically incorrect in most of this country, but screw it, its a day to reflect on what's positive in our lives and be thankful for what we have. Looking forward to a day with friends, family, three football games, hoping the rain holds off until the turkey is done, and plenty of giving thanks.

dahlia lounge review

I'd capitalize "dahlia lounge," but dahlia lounge is simply too cool to be capitalized. Or at least they don't in their restaurant.

I'm a n00b to Seattle, so far be it for me to know what are good restaurants or bad restaurants, or what is famous in this town. In general, putting it nicely, the food sucks in this town, which is actually a good thing as it forces Amy and I to eat in most of the time. And we've been burned so many times by recommendations by the locals (for example, that crappy Woodman Lodge in Snoqualmie, argh) that we've learned to not even bother with trying new restaurants in this town - just ain't worth it.

Three years ago my boss at Amazon gave me a gift certificate to dahlia lounge for Christmas, telling me it was his favorite Seattle restaurant. Amy and I sat on it for at least six months, simply not trusting recommendations from the locals. We were sorry we waited so long.

Located on the corner of 4th and Virginia in Seattle, dahlia lounge is the first restaurant that has earned my trust in putting something on my plate I can't spell, pronounce, or describe, and yet I will taste it. Namely because everything they make is amazingly good.

For example, Amy and I went there Saturday, and one of the appetizers was listed as "(some word I don't know) cheese, white toast, (three words I don't know) mustard, and (two words I don't know) onion jam" for $10. Any other place, and I'm going "ewww". Instead, Amy orders it, and it was un-friggin-believable. That's right, an amazing taste from cheese, bread, mustard, and onions, whoddathunkit. I wish I would have ordered enough to make an entree out of it.

They always have a simple menu (just two short pages) based on what's in season, with the two consistent offerings that Amy and I can detect being their crabcakes and their Peking Duck - both are awesome. Upon request, they'll turn their crabcakes into an appetizer, so you can enjoy both signature items. Not that I've done that a couple times or anything.

dahlia lounge is on the pricy side - $30 or so for entrees, $10 for appetizers and desserts. Plus the service is always excellent so you're ponying up 20%+ for a tip. Brings it to $75-$100 a person depending on your drink of choice (their wine selection is excellent, including half bottles).

Next time I'm not sharing my "cheese/bread/mustard/onion thingy" with my wife... she has to order her own.

Amazon Toy List

Pretty cool way to shop for toys. Just hope Spencer and Garret don't find this URL...

Snoqualmie Ridge 5k Turkey Trot

I was out of breath, sweating profusely, dying for a break, but when I reached the finish line, I was proud of what I had done - I had successfully walked the 3/4 mile from my house to the school.

Seriously, the Ridge held their annual 5k today, which Amy ran, as well as a 1k for kids, which Spencer ran. Spencer started in the front row with a bunch of his friends, and ended up near the end with him and one of his buddies walking it in :) I'm proud of his effort and seeing this through. I had the chance to run with him, and I said no effin way. I did join him for the pancake breakfast, though.


Spencer out of the gate.


Spencer and his buddy Parker, both having decided that running just ain't worth it.


Spencer crossing this finish line - great job champ!

Happy 4th Anniversary...

... to my personal blog. Proof positive that Web 2.0 is a failure. Funny, when I created it, I was so late to the blogging game. But I'm glad I started when I did as it has really helped with indexing in the major search engines.

And despite my heavy investment in micro-blogging (Twitter), my blog isn't going away any time soon. I think the two compliment each other very well.

Here's to four more years of opinionated crap.

The new Snoqualmie Ridge Supermarket

Just got an email that the new Ridge Supermarket opens up on the 19th, in time for Thanksgiving. Excellent! Hoping they run a better store than the previous owners, there's such a demand for a decent grocery store on the Ridge.

I hate Christmas...

... anytime it surfaces before Thanksgiving. Actually, I don't hate Christmas. I love December and the Christmas time of year. I hate any mention of Christmas, any advertising of Christmas, any decoration of Christmas, that occurs before Thanksgiving. 1/12 of the year dedicated to Christmas is enough, we don't need 1/4 of the year or 1/6 of the year dedicated to it. Christmas can start after Thanksgiving. Heck I don't even mind when it spills into the New Year. Just let Thanksgiving have its props.

I also hate "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" or other politically correct mumbo-jumbo so that someone doesn't have to hear the horrific phrase "Merry Christmas." In fact, the last few years, I've been saying Merry Christmas in public, and find everyone returns the same "Merry Christmas." So apparently I'm not the only one with a little bit of contempt for the politically correct police. I mean, I don't get how "Merry Christmas" (or "Happy Haunukah" or whatever) equates in any way, to any one, something offense. "Eat shit and die this Christmas!" is offensive.

Who's with me?

And don't think the hypocrisy of me talking about Christmas before Thanksgiving isn't lost on me.

Now, off my pedestal and back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Spencer gets his Red Belt

Spencer continues to work hard and move up the belt ladder, last night earning his red belt. His Black Belt Club did a very cool form with Nunchucku, but I didn't get a good video of it. I did get a video of him breaking a board, with his familiar Ax Kick, which seems to be his favorite.

Snoqualmie River Water Level Gauges

I just think these are so cool. Yes, I realize that makes me a dork. But they're still cool. Just amazing how fast the river can rise, and not because of heavy rain... just drizzle over a couple of days that feed the mountains that runoff into the rivers that coalese in the foothills.

From USGS
From NOAA (I just found out they had one)

City of Snoqualmie at Flood Level

Glad I live on the Ridge, but sympathies go out to those living in the flood plain.

Stop the bailout insanity

Once again, the American auto industry crying for help. Please, let capitalism do their jobs, let these companies that can't make cars consumers want die, and free up resources to put energy into companies that CAN make companies that consumers want. I'd rather see a bigger Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen than throwing money down the drain at the Big Three.

No more bailouts!

A big thank you to our Veterans

Very glad Veterans Day has achieved first class status as a holiday, our soldiers deserve our respect and honor.

Wow did I anger the football gods

The Lions and Purdue are a combined 3-16. Wow. And very few of those losses between the two teams have been close.

To pour salt in the would, the gods have made sure I can't follow a local team either, as WSU, UW, and the Seahawks are a combined 3-24.

As I ranted last night...

... Sarah Palin gets rave reviews from Republicans. Now, in my cynical world, I would have to say that these same Republican voters have been putting RINOs in office for a decade (self included in that group), so perhaps take with a grain of salt, but I stand by the best chance to get back to the sane world of the 80s/90s is to get conservatives to lead the Republican party, and Palin fits the bill.

I'm still angry

One of the reasons I've been posting less frequently the last three months is the downright raw anger I've had at our federal and local governments. Across they board they have just pissed me off to no end. Between local idiots putting stupid taxing measures on the ballot that everyone knows will fail, to our wonderful public servants in Washington ignoring calls of "drill here, drill now" and "say no to bailouts," I'm just downright pissed.

The bailout was the straw that broke the camel's back for me and the Republican party. My assumption for several years was that we were sliding down a slope but somewhere the GOP would course correct and find its way back to Reagan conservatism. I couldn't have been more wrong, and the broad support from the party on the bailout is pure evidence of that.

I sat on election night about 9pm local time when the call was finally made for Obama, and I just thought "wow, you retards just lost everything that Reagan built through the 80s. Rewind to 1976." For the last eight years the GOP has been anything but conservative, in a country that is still, as a whole, right of center. And in doing so, completely destroyed the gift-wrapped legacy and public support left by Reagan and even the 90s Republicans that initiated the Contract with America in 94.

It would be very easy for me to fire shots at those that voted for Obama asking "what the hell are you thinking? (or rather, 'why aren't you thinking?')" But I can't - the GOP gave them no choice. Why would one vote GOP these days? If you want to vote for fiscal irresponsibility, against personal responsibility, etc, the Dems have them beat hands down.

By the way, I have news for the old GOP guard: Sarah Palin is going to kick ass in 2012. And she's not going to play the game you want it to be played. You better wise up to that or even more of you are going to be out of jobs as constituents flock to her. McCain totally blew it with the best asset he had - turning Palin loose. Instead, he asked her to play ball according to his rules. Idiot. Not that I wanted McCain to win, but this typifies the arrogance of the modern GOP - they are way out of touch with the base, which is why their base is dwindling.

As if I needed yet another reason to be against the bailout

Sorry, not bailout, but rather welfare for the shithead-people-and-companies-that-created-a-global-recession.

I found this site tonight. Wow, talk about pissing away our tax dollars and watching our gov't tried to hide the details.

Boy, can't wait for Obama to redistribute my wealth and piss more of it away. Sigh.

Life is getting creepy

And no, I'm not just talking about President-Elect Obama. (Seig Heil!)

My neighborhood and house is now on Google Maps. Which means some schmuck from Google drove around our neighborhood taking pictures.

Go to maps.google.com, enter my address, and you can see our house on the street view. Can also move around the neighborhood with an easy to use interface.

The experience is excellent I might add.

Just creepy. Kinda like the Obama kids singing (shudders).