Willem – Page 229 – Willem's Planet

June 11, 2013

Tuesday/ another day in the Iron City

We are at it again this week with work sessions to get ready to construct the new SAP system that we will implement for our client company.

Back at the Marriott hotel across the street (very convenient), I picked an Iron City Beer to celebrate the end of the day. From the http://www.pittsburghbrewing.com/ web site : ‘Iron City Beer is a classic American lager established in the rich traditions of Pittsburgh, PA. Built on 150 years of brewing experience, Iron City Beer boasts scents of sweet corn and wheat, smooth crisp pale malt flavor, and a dry finish with very little bitterness.

June 10, 2013November 14, 2022

Monday/ Seattle to Pittsburgh, via Minneapolis

I’m out in Pittsburgh again, and I arrived via the Minneapolis/St.Paul airport on Delta Airlines.

The MSP airport is a lot nicer than Chicago’s O’Hare (sorry Chicago ..) : not as crowded, more modern inside, and with nice stores and food offerings.

6-10-2013 10-27-50 PM — Here’s what my trek across the country looked like today : Seattle to Pittsburgh with a stop in Minneapolis/St.Paul’a airport.

IMG_6990 sm — This is the early morning view to the outside from the Seattle airport’s food court in the main concourse.

June 9, 2013June 9, 2013

Sunday/ T-Rex is trying (hard)

Here’s a t-shirt I saw on Saturday. It shows two face-to-face T-Rexes and the phrase ‘T-Rex hates high fives’. Aww. Turns out there is a whole slew of T-Rex is trying to (do something for which it needs longer arms). Check out the link below the picture for Morgan German’s collection of pictures. Some of the ‘T-Rex is Trying’ memes are very funny! http://pinterest.com/morganrosegerms/t-rex-trying/

June 9, 2013June 9, 2013

Saturday/ Black Jack burger

IMG_6968 sm — Coastal Kitchen’s ‘Black Jack’ (black bean) burger is not bad at all, but not quire as good as the veggie burgers they serve up at The Elysian (our regular Friday night place).

Coastal Kitchen web page — Coastal Kitchen specializes in seafood and oysters. (The web page is http://coastalkitchenseattle.com/).

On Saturday night we tried to get into the Rione XIII restaurant here on 15th Ave (a reference to Rome’s 13th district), but we were turned away. We need reservations; they only keep two open tables, explained the host at the entrance. So off we went, and ended up at Coastal Kitchen a few steps away. I had a black bean burger and everyone else had something fishy with even a fresh oyster thrown in.

June 7, 2013

Friday/ to Seattle

It was another very early start to the day for me with a 6.30 am flight out of Pittsburgh airport. I almost did not make it onto the flight. The check-in area was swamped with people when I got there at 5 am. I just had to drop my bag at United, but there was no bag-drop line. So by 5.45 am I was still in line and I yelled as politely as I could ‘Ma’am! I’m on the 6-30 to Chicago!’ . That got me to the front to dump my bag and I was off to the security line. Mercifully my return flight was marked ‘TSA Pre’ as well, so I could scoot through there in a few minutes and make a dash for the gate.

Here’s the obligatory picture of the colorful underpass between Terminal B and Terminal C at Chicago O’Hare airport.

IMG_6934 sm — The dinosaur skeleton at gate B8 is peering down at the humans waiting to board the flight to Seattle. It’s a fibre-glass replica of the 40-foot-high, 75-foot-brachiosaurus that roamed around in Colorado 150 million years ago. The real bones are in the Field Museum in Chicago.

IMG_6930 sm — Here is our Seattle-bound Boeing 737.

IMG_6931 sm — And here is the iconic Space Needle on the display at the boarding gate. 4 1/2 hours to Seattle : a long way to go.

June 6, 2013June 6, 2013

Thursday/ is this thing on?/ The Pirates

pirates2 — The Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball team has been around a long time : since 1887 as the shirt says. They are five-time World Series champions.

.. the ‘thing’ being my Prius rental car that makes no vibration, no peep, no nothing as it sits at the traffic light. Put then you step on the ‘gas’ (cannot say that, have to say step on the ‘accelerator’), and it moves. It’s magic.

We’re done with the workshops for the week, and heading back home. My flight out to Seattle with a stop in Chicago is early Friday morning.

It was Seattle weather all day in Pittsburgh on Thursday. The rain is welcome, though. The locals say it has been a dry spring in western Pennsylvania.

June 5, 2013June 5, 2013

Wednesday/ coming up for air

The beer! Grab the beer! says the guy in the leaky boat to his diving bud. ‘Lower de Boom¹‘ is an 11.5% strong a/v beer from the 21st Amendment Brewery² from San Francisco CA. (I didn’t drink any, just took the picture in the Giant Eagle grocery store here in the Pittsburgh area).

¹Belgian-born ship owner Cornelius DeBoom set sail for San Francisco in the fall of 1848 when the news of the discovery of gold in California arrived.
²The Twenty-first Amendment (Amendment XXI) to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 5, 1933. The 18th Amendment had mandated nationwide Prohibition on alcohol on January 17, 1920.

I have facilitated two days of workshops with one more to go (yay), and by tonight (Wednesday) I feel that I can come up for air for the first time. We have participants from Sweden and the UK that came in on Monday night, so while I felt the three hour time difference from Seattle on Tuesday, they had to deal with even more jet lag. But everyone was in better shape today.

IMG_6908 sm — Lower DeBoom is a strong barley-wine style craft beer from California.

June 3, 2013

Monday/ TSA ‘Pre’ and Cranberry

It was a shock to my system to roll out of bed at 3.30 am after a fitful few hours of sleep to get ready for my 6 am flight out to Chicago and then on to Pittsburgh. It helped that I was selected for ‘TSA Pre’ treatment at the airport. ‘TSA Pre’ is a program for frequent travelers that allows them entry into a special lane at the security checkpoint. The traveler gets to keep on shoes and jacket, and liquids and computers in the bag. Wow! But don’t get too spoiled! It will not happen every time even if you travel a lot.

IMG_6895 sm — My United Airlines boarding pass says I am ‘TSA Pre’. (Short for pre-checked. You have to opt in, and already be enrolled in a pre-check program such as Global Entry and use a participating airline. And even then, selection is random and not guaranteed every time ! ).

IMG_6897 sm — Here’s my cranberry-colored Prius hybrid rental car that I drove up to Cranberry Township (a 30 min drive north of Pittsburgh).

June 2, 2013June 2, 2013

Sun-day

It was a gorgeous day here in Seattle, with the sun out and the temperatures mild and perfect for a walk outside.

These flowers are on 23rd Avenue here in Capitol Hill. I should know what they are but the name escapes me now, and I have to go to sleep since I am getting up very early !

And here are some diners on the sidewalk basking in the late afternoon sun on 19th Avenue at the Kingfish Cafe. They serve Southern food such as crab cakes and hush puppies (fried cornbread balls). The construction of the apartment building in the background in coming along nicely.

June 2, 2013

Saturday/ University District

I went up to Seattle’s University District on Saturday afternoon in pursuit of my out-of-print and not-on-Amazon book from 1966 that the Central Library said they would have here – but it turned out they did not, either. But it was all worth the trip because I bought two nice books at the Half Price Bookstore close by. I will write about them in a later post.

IMG_6879 sm — The entrance to the Seattle Public Library’s University Branch. The library is modest in size, but has a nice atmosphere and a reading room.

IMG_6878 sm — Here’s Fires Station No 17; it’s located at 1050 NE 50th Street.

June 1, 2013

Friday/ black flowers

I found these little black flowers on the sidewalk a block or two from my house. I don’t know what they are called !

Here’s the Volunteer Park conservatory at dusk (9 pm) on Friday night, its little lights turned on to add a little festivity to its appearance. It was long closed by 9; I will try to remember to get there before closing time one of these days.

Is there such a thing as a black flower? I wondered as I found some on the sidewalk Friday night that certainly appeared black. Alas, no – there is not – says Interflora’s web site. ‘Black’ flowers merely have very dark shades of purple or red. So soot-black flowers are the stuff of fantasy and fairy tales.

May 31, 2013

Thursday/ Skagit River Bridge update

It’s been a week since the collapse of the Skagit River Bridge on Interstate 5 north of Seattle. Washington State Department of Transport (we just call them ‘wash-dot’ here on the news) has dredged up the bridge section and vehicles from the river, and is getting ready to put a temporary section in place. I see Wash-DOT splashed out on Yahoo’s photo site (called Flickr) with detailed pictures. Here is the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157633665218854/

May 30, 2013

Wednesday/ Von Trapp

Here is a Bavarian beer coat-of-arms that was on the wall. ‘Hofbräu’ translates to ‘yard brewery’ (or courtyard brewery).

Wednesday night found four of us at the German-style beer hall Von Trapp on 12th Ave. I had a pilsner and a chicken schnitzel sandwich (breaded and fried chicken on pretzel bread) with fries. I know it’s not the healthiest meal but hey! : this was an exception to all the veggies I cook and eat on all the other days of the week.

It’s 8 o’clock on a Wednesday at the German-style beer hall Von Trapp on 12th Ave. We are looking at the bocce courts, and were fascinated by the big ceiling fan, probably 10 ft in diameter (above the clock).

May 30, 2013

Tuesday/ it’s summer (unofficially)

Here’s a nice view from behind the overhand of a maple tree onto the pavement on 15th Ave, seen as I went for a little walk late Tue afternoon. The leaves make a nice camouflage pattern (the French word derived from camoufler, to disguise). After Memorial Day it’s ‘unofficially summer’ but the warm and dry weather still has to arrive here in Rain City.

May 27, 2013

Monday/ Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a somber holiday here is in the USA, a difficult day for families that lost loved ones in a war. CNN has a page that shows the names, the home locations and the battlefield locations (here http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/index.html) of the coalition troops that have been killed in the Afghanistan and Irag wars. The toll for these two wars now exceeds 8,000, with some 50,000 wounded. The war in Iraq is over, of course .. but the figures for Afghanistan show 23 casualties as recently as May 20.

May 26, 2013May 26, 2013

Sunday/ trip to Westport

On Sunday Bryan, Gary and I made a mini-road trip out to Bryan’s family in Westport. Westport is a seaside town on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula. It’s about 2 hours one way.

Seattle to Westport — It’s not a straight shot out to Westport since the Puget Sound is ‘in the way’. We went south on I-5, and then used an assortment of State Routes to get to Aberdeen and then to Westport.

IMG_8621 sm2 — Here’s the Nisqually River bridge on our way south on I-5, a ‘polygonal Warren through truss’ bridge that was constructed in 1967.

IMG_8629 sm2 — This is a draw bridge over the Wishkah river in the city (town) of Aberdeen. This bridge was constructed in 1924. The town of Forks is further north on the Olympic Peninsula, now a tourist destination for ‘Twilight’ fans (a TV and movie series about teenage vampires, with the town of Forks as its setting).

IMG_8637 sm2 — And is this a light house? Nooo .. it is the Westport Winery, in fact. We made a stop here to pick up a carrot cake for a dessert to the lunch we were planning, at the bakery inside.

IMG_8650 sm2 — We’re done with lunch, and here is what the Westport beach looks like. It was great to walk on the sand and smell the sea ..

IMG_8648 sm2 — .. and check out the sand dollars that are plentiful! I picked up these five on the beach in no time. They don’t have the ‘key hole’ slots of the ones we have in South Africa, but the five leaved ‘flower’ pattern is the same. They are called ‘pansy shells’ there, after the flower with the same name. (It’s not really a shell, since its the skeleton of a flat urchin. In the live urchin there is a velvet-like covering of fine bristles on the skeleton).

IMG_8660 sm2 — And here is a real lighthouse : the Grays Harbor Lighthouse close to the beach that we walked on. It was built in 1898 and is adjacent to the Westport Light State Park on Coast Guard property.

May 25, 2013

Saturday/ the Seattle Central Library

It’s been many years since I had been inside the Seattle Central Library on 4th Avenue, and today I went there, also in search of a 1967 Time-Life Sciences book. (The book is long out of print and has pictures of an Einsteinian ‘relativistic’ train robbery in that I am very fond of.) Alas, I did not find the book, but I took some pictures. The library opened in 2004 to mixed reviews, some criticizing it for being relatively isolated from 4th Ave and 5th Ave and not easy to get into and out of .. but its current usage is actually double of what was estimated when it opened.

IMG_6764 sm — The side view of the library (the back) on 5th Ave in Seattle’s downtown.

IMG_6779 sm — This is the 7th floor where I was hoping to find my book. This book of city scapes was on display and had a nice picture in of Cape Town, South Africa.

IMG_6782 sm — Here I am making my way up with the neon yellow-green escalator up to the 10th floor.

IMG_6786 sm — Some library souvenirs for you? The studious rubber duckies are cute.

IMG_6795 sm — This video art work is on the escalator between the 3rd and 5th floors. It’s a little creepy – but then I suppose that’s what the artist wanted it to be?

IMG_6793 sm — Here is the view from the 5th floor down to the ‘commons area’ on the 3rd floor.

May 25, 2013

Friday/ the drops are blobs

I spotted these ‘bloplets’ on a leaf on Wednesday night by my friends’ house before we went out. The leaf surfaces are waxy, of course, and so the water forms big blobs instead of droplets. The Wikipedia entry has an interesting video clip of a water droplet on a superhydrophobic surfacs getting cut in two by using a superhydrophobic knife. Here is the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_tension.

May 23, 2013May 23, 2013

Thursday/ yikes! the bridge is out

From Kiro7tv.com : The Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River at Mount Vernon collapsed Thursday evening, dumping vehicles and people into the water shortly after 7 p.m. Here is a link http://www.kirotv.com/gallery/news/i-5-skagit-river-bridge-collapses/g9w8/#last.

Three people and their cars ended up in the river, but was pulled out and seem to be doing fine. At this point there are no known fatalities. The bridge was built in 1955*, and is some 65 miles north of Seattle, and the four-lane structure sees an average daily traffic of about 71,000. So this spells trouble for the immediate area. There is an alternate route and a newer bridge, but it was not designed for nearly as much traffic.

*Designated ‘functionally obsolete’ on its most recent inspection reports but apparently that does not mean the bridge is unsafe. (Sounds as it was overdue for an upgrade or replacement, though).

c7bridg2 — Here is an aerial view of the Skagit River bridge on I-5 some 65 miles north of Seattle that collapsed Thu night after a too-tall truck struck the overhead trusses.

IMG_6738 sm — Here is my first official Tesla sighting in Seattle, today Thursday. I was across the street and the white Tesla (brake lights on, middle of the picture) came right by -stealthily as these electric cars do – and turned into the Starbucks on Olive Way to pick up a woman with a latte (I’m guessing) in hand. I want one! (A Tesla).

IMG_6734 sm — My friends and I like to go to alehouses, and here is Wednesday night’s pick : the Tippe and Drague Alehouse in Beacon Hill. I had a Gigantic Vienna Lager. (Regular size, the gigantic is part of the name of the beer).

May 22, 2013

Wednesday/ tornado damage

Here is a map of the damage brought by Monday’s tornado in Moore, OK. (This is just a section of the 17 miles in total that the tornado traveled). The map is from the New York Times website, with pictures as well. State officials have lowered the death toll to at least 24, revised down from Monday’s estimate. If anything, it’s amazing that not many more people lost their lives in the buildings that collapsed and the flying debris. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/20/us/oklahoma-tornado-map.html?ref=us