Month: July 2011

I stopped by the Starbucks Center today in the SoDo (south of downtown) neighborhood, part of the industrial district.  The world headquarters for Starbucks, it is the largest building by floor space in Seattle, with over 1,800,000 sq ft (167,000 m2).   It is also both the largest and oldest building in the country with a national green certification.    I checked out the washers and dryers on offer at Sears next door, and I liked the LG models (hmm .. are the cherry red models on sale because of the color, or because of other shortcomings?).     The Amazon truck is on Madison Avenue on the way home.   (Odd to see DVDs on the short list with bread, milk and eggs!).    Finally, the quote on the lamp post by my gym is from JFK’s inaugural speech in 1960 — a statement sorely tested this weekend with the on-going talks in Washington DC about the debt-ceiling and the debt and what expenditures to cut.

Here is the inside of the Elysian Bewery on Capitol Hill (photos from their website), where Bryan, Gary and I go many Friday nights.    Tonight I had a Hydra Hefeweisen (wheat beer) and a Golden Boot (lager).   The other empty glasses in front of me were not mine! : )

The first two pictures are mine.  (I found the other two online).   They are of the entrance to the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park a few blocks from my house.   Those are Bactrian camels (two humps) found in Mongolia and China, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey.     We have had blue sky and tranquility out here the last few days .. unlike the massive dust storm that enveloped Phoenix AZ early Tuesday night, or the Orlando FL media storm after the acquittal of Casey Anthony, a mom accused of murdering her 2 yr old daughter in 2008.   (A guilty verdict was widely anticipated in the media and on cable news programs that made reporting of the case their main focus).    The acquittal is also compared to that of the OJ Simpson case from 1995.    That one was in the news not too long after I started working in the USA, and I remember that we all ran down to the cafeteria to see the OJ Simpson case’s verdict.

The USA is 235 years old.  (Or 235 years young, compared to Europe and the East).    Here are a few local Fourth of July fireworks pictures (brought to you from my television!).  A barge on Lake Union, just north of downtown is used as the staging area.  The TV cameras and on-lookers are in Gas Works Park, just about 2 miles from my house as the crow flies, so I could hear the booms as those big ones that fill up the sky were exploding.

Back in 2010, this fireworks display was in jeopardy after the slumping economy and the collapse of Washington Mutual Bank brought an end to the sponsorship of the city’s only remaining July 4 fireworks show.    But Microsoft and Starbucks each kicked in a reported $125,000 to get to the $500,000 needed to put on the display. 

I don’t have a motorcycle, but I have friends that do!  So I went along for a bike ride out to Carnation, WA (pop. 1,786 from 2010 census).  To get there, we took State Route 520 across Lake Washington, and then turned south on State Route 202 where it ends in Redmond.   Another 10 or 15 miles, and a left on NE Ames Lake Road got us to the city of Carnation*.   Any connection to the Carnation Evaporated Milk cans my mom used to bake with? I wondered (modern version of the can below).   Why sure .. in fact, Carnation refers to a nearby research farm which had been operated by the Carnation Milk Products Company.   The farm supplied the whole area with dairy products and was later bought by the giant food company Nestlé.

*In the USA even small towns use the term ‘city’ to describe themselves.   Settled in 1865, Carnation was officially incorporated in 1912, as Tolt (still the name of its main street).  The name was changed to Carnation in 1917, back to Tolt in 1928, and finally back to Carnation again on October 29, 1951.