As the year 2013 careens toward March 1st, the US Congress’s latest self-induced budget/spending/deficit/call-it-what-you-will crisis (oh, it’s called ‘The Sequester’) is about to kick in. What is it? It is $85 billion of spending cuts across the board. So everything gets hit proportionally : teachers and schools, work-study jobs, kids in Head Start, the military, law enforcement, child care assistance, vaccines for children, public health programs, nutrition assistance for seniors, the STOP Violence Against Women Program, clean air and water programs. It’s a very dumb way to cut spending – but the United States of America has to find a way to start spending less money and at the same time get more money into Uncle Sam’s coffers through tax reforms.
Some perspective around that $85 billion amount of money. I found this mouth-watering pie chart (or stomach-churning, looking at the numbers?) on the Investors Business Daily website. The artist is Michael Ramirez. P.S. The pies are actually not comparing the same numbers. Did the cartoonist know that in 2007 – with his comment in parentheses that the Republicans controlled Congress – President Bush’s two $1 trillion wars were still funded ‘off the books’, outside of the official budget? Pres. Obama insisted in 2009 that ALL military spending be brought into the budget. Hence the apparent percentage difference in the deficits shown in the two pies.
Here’s the sauce on the grocery shelf. It’s very affordable, about $3.50 for these bottles. And with me a little will go a very long way !I found this picture of international space station astronauts on meflyrocket.wordpress.com. Check out the sriracha hot sauce against the white wall ! Bloomberg Businessweek writes it’s been name-checked on ‘The Simpsons’, is featured prominently on the Food Network (used for sauces and soups) and has inspired a cottage industry of knock-offs.
Sriracha sauce is a hot sauce product by Huy Fong Foods, created by Chinese-Vietnamese founder David Tran. Now 68 years old, he came to the USA in 1979, started out in Boston, found little climate comfort in the snowy winters there and soon moved his family to Los Angeles. He created the sauce at first by grinding jalapeno peppers out by hand. The original sauce that he made of jalapenos, vinegar, sugar, salt and garlic, has changed very little since that time. His brand of sriracha – it is now a generic term like ketchup – has become shockingly popular in the USA.
So when I saw it on the grocery store shelf here, I bought a small bottle. I squeezed just a little dab into my rice for dinner tonight, and it’s very hot for my taste buds, but I will hang in there and try it a few more times.
I am no Oscars-host expert, but I am sure Seth MacFarlane made a record number of non-politically correct jokes last night. Some were downright offensive, I thought.
First Lady Michelle Obama made a surprise cameo by announcing the Best Picture award via a video link. Movie producer Harvey Weinstein is said to have arranged it. My first reaction was – oh my, is this not going overboard given that Argo* is about the US government, Hollywood, and the link between the two? And of course political commentators on the right made a lot of hay about the First Lady’s appearance at the Oscars. But as someone said today, she is everyone’s First Lady, the 2012 election is just behind us, she did not invite herself, and Ronald Reagan and other presidents have also made cameo appearances at the Oscars.
*[From Wikipedia] Argo is a 2012 American fictionalized thriller film directed by Ben Affleck. This dramatization is adapted from the book The Master of Disguise by CIA operative Tony Mendez, and Joshuah Berman’s 2007 Wired article ‘The Great Escape’ about the ‘Canadian Caper’ in which Mendez led the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran, during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.
7 a.m. at Pittsburgh airport. Our Being 737 is getting ready for the flight to Chicago. That’s a regional United Express jet across from us.Approaching Chicago airport .. Lake Michigan has snow and ice around the edges.Taxiing to the gate at Chicago’s O’Hare airport .... and going from Concourse B to Concourse C with the underpass to catch my flight to Seattle.
It was an early morning for me! Got up at 4 am Eastern time for the 7 am Pittsburgh to Chicago flight. On the way there I took a wrong turn and swung by Pittsburgh downtown – instead of taking the more direct route to the airport. The airport was very busy with check-in crowds even at 5.30am; it must have been all the travelers that could not get out on Friday.
There was still lots of snow on the ground in Chicago, but the runways at the airport were clear. The ground crews are well-equipped to handle snow, though : about 20 trucks with snow plows were lined up on the side of the runway.
My rental car for the week was a Chevrolet Cruze.This Fentimans orange juice ‘jigger’ is British, old chap. Very fancy and fermented, it tastes like an orange cider. And a cute doggie on the bottle cap as well.Yuengling is the local brewery, the oldest in the United States. But should I drink beer that a GOAT would drink as well ?And a foo-foo offering from Anheuser-Busch, unheard of when I worked there in the 1990s : a Michelob Ultra with dragon fruit and peach.I love this Czeh beer’s label. And stand back, all the upstarts – the label says the beer has been around since 1004. Whoah. More than a thousand years old.How about the ‘Canine’ Winter’s Ale from the Flying Dog brewery? Its 7.4 % alcohol content will make you forget those sore muscles from a days skiing in no time.
It feels like I worked day and night this week, so I was happy to come back to the hotel and relax for just a little bit this afternoon. The weather here was really not bad at all – not much came of the ‘wintry mix’. I took my Chevy Cruze to the Giant Eagle (grocery store) for a dinner from their hot buffet, and then I strolled through the store’s vast beverage selection to check out the beers from all over the world.
There is more snow in the Midwest : trouble for my connection tomorrow through Chicago, and United Airlines has cancelled my flight. There is an alternate routing through Houston available, but it gets me in so late on Friday night that it’s not worth it. So I will travel back home early Saturday morning. The ‘wintry mix’ – snow and ice and rain – will catch us here in Pittsburgh tomorrow (Pittsburgh sits under the pink MIX on the map).
The mug is from Starbucks’s ‘city icon’ series (no, I didn’t buy it, too bulky and I don’t drink 16 oz of coffee at a time, yikes! ) .. but what is the icon on the mug, I wondered? Is it a tree? And why is it not one of the city’s nice steel bridges that’s on the mug, I wondered. Well : it’s a fountain, the one in Point State Park at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, forming the Ohio River. I’ll have to go check it out, but – it’s quite a drive to the city from the offices where we work, and the weather is pretty darn cold, dipping into the teens today.
Happy President’s Day! It was a travel day for me – I left Seattle very early at 6 am for Chicago, then on to Pittsburgh.
Waiting at my gate in Concourse C at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. Yes, you are in my picture 🙂 .. to the unknown guy on the left looking at me.And here I’m sitting in my seat. The luggage handler on the right is dispensing a last few bags onto the gravity chute so that it can be picked up below to go into the cargo hold.
Protect the tree! says the green sign taped to it. And someone added a little blanket to the tree as well. Yes, we are a bunch of tree huggers in Seattle !The Capitol Court apartments right next to the construction site is only a few years old. This is on 19th Ave in Capitol Hill.
It was nice enough today at 46 °F (8 °C) to go for a walk just before the sun set at 5.37 pm, and that’s what I did. My Capitol Hill neighborhood has a lot of apartments due to extensive construction early in the 1900s through the 1950s – and right now several new ones are under construction as well. Average studio apartments here now goes for $1,200 per month, one-bedrooms for $1,500 p.m. and two-bedrooms for $1,950. Not cheap, but hey – we’re not San Francisco or New York City. Check out the New York City apartment map from below from http://www.nakedapartments.com.
I often walk by the old Fire Station No 7, on 15th Ave in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. It now houses a video rental store. It is usually cloudy and rainy (especially this time of year). So on Friday afternoon when I looked at the doors, I thought ‘Man! Did I know the doors are that violet (and violent!) blue color? I guess I know now!’.
Old Fire Station No 7, on 15th Ave in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, basking in the sun under a cloudless sky on Friday.And here is the old No 7 Fire Station as it stood in 1921. Check out the two Ford Model T’s parked on the side street. (Photograph courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives .. but I actually found the picture on a blog called vintageseattle.org).
A tweet from Pistorius from 79 days ago (that shows how concerned he was for his safety at home?). It is said that he slept with a pistol and a machine gun next to his bed.
So – what to make of the shooting death of South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius’s girlfriend? I’m just catching up on all the background information.
The facts : there was a domestic disturbance at Pistorius’s home inside a gated community at 1.30 am Thu morning, and gun shots were heard at 3.30 am. His girlfriend and model Reeva Steenkamp, was found dead with gun shot wounds to the head and arm at the property in Pretoria shortly after that.
So Pistorius is now in custody, charged with murder by the State. He and his family say it was a tragic accident.
Here is what the British ‘The Guardian’ says about guns in the home in a report they title
Fear and Self-arming in South Africa
Despite efforts by the government to limit it, the level of private gun ownership remains high in South Africa, with some estimates putting the number of firearms at almost 6 million – or 12 for every 100 citizens. South Africa ranks 17th in a world league of gun ownership. In 2000 the government introduced a Firearms Control Act, introducing a competency test to restrict gun ownership. But anti-gun groups say that domestic shootings remain an inevitable outcome of allowing gun ownership. “For many South Africans having a gun in the home is about protecting them against the stranger-intruder but data both in South Africa and elsewhere shows that you are four times more likely to have a gun used against you than to be able to use it successfully in self-defence,” said Adèle Kirsten, spokeswoman for the anti-gun group Gun Free South Africa (GFSA).
Meanwhile, here in the USA we have Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association (NRA) writing in an on-line op-ed called ‘Stand and Fight‘.. no wonder Americans are buying guns in record numbers right now, while they still can and before their choice about which firearm is right for their family is taken away forever. After Hurricane Sandy, we saw the hellish world that the gun prohibitionists see as their utopia. Looters ran wild in south Brooklyn. There was no food, water or electricity. And if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark, or you might not get home at all.
So La Pierre is tapping into the survivalist and ‘Obama-is-going-to-take-your-gun-away’ sentiments of his supporters – and totally distorting what really happened during Hurricane Sandy. Yes, there were reports of looting. Yes, there was no food, no water and no electricity. But there were no marauding gangs of criminals, and no deaths attributed to crime, only due to drownings and the storm.
A group of nine of us went out to Von Trapp’s tonight : a new German-style bier and bratwurst hall right here in Seattle’s Capitol Hill district on 12th Ave. The inside of the place is cavernous and comes complete will some bocce ball* courts as well. *closely related to bowls/ lawn bowling
This is at the entrance. I think the chandeliers are beautiful. They have the perfect industrial elegance for their surroundings in the beer hall.The picture is a little dark! .. the bocce ball courts are on the left. I like the giant clock with its clean markers and hands. There is a mezzanine at the back of it, one of two in the beer hall, with additional seating spaces.
I washed down my bratwurst andsauerkraut with a pils (of course : it’s my favorite type of beer), and also had a roasted beet salad with it. We all agreed that the food was not outstanding, but definitely worth coming back to. The place was packed with people and noisy! .. but I suspect that’s what patrons of these establishments like. The noise makes for a buzz of excitement, to go with the buzz from one’s beer!
The restaurant’s Facebook page. Paul in our group pointed out that there are Von Trapps in the classic ‘The Sound of Music’ musical. So from Wikipedia : Real-life Baroness Maria Augusta von Trapp’s story served as the inspiration for a 1956 German film that in turn inspired the Broadway musical The Sound of Music. Wikipedia
President Obama gave his State of the Union speech and I liked it a lot. Late Tuesday night the left-leaning New York Times already had an editorial out on line that opined ‘While many of the president’s proposals were familiar, and will probably be snuffed out by politics, his speech explained to a wide audience what could be achieved if there were even a minimal consensus in Washington’. Some of the proposals were : background checks for all gun sales and banning assault rifles, raise the minimum wage to $9 from $7.25, withdraw 34,000 troops from Afghanistan by this time next year, universal public preschool in every state, a tax code that encourages manufacturing, immigration reform, and improvements in the the voting system (yes, that means especially you, State of Florida*).
*Voters spent up to 8 hours in line at the November elections. Chris Matthews of MSNBC pointed out that he was in South Africa for the historic 1994 elections and that the longest
Here is Sen. Rubio stre..e.. etching for it ..
time South Africans spent in line anywhere in the country was 4 hours.
.. and taking a sip. ‘Marco Rubio’s Drinking Problem’ said Politico.com, and ‘water bottle-gate moment’ said CBS. (It was awkward to see, but not nearly that bad!).
Senator Marco Rubio ‘The Republican Savior’ addressed the nation with his response to the President’s speech saying ‘More government isn’t going to help you get ahead. It’s going to hold you back. More government isn’t going to create more opportunities. It’s going to limit them. And more government isn’t going to inspire new ideas, new businesses and new private sector jobs. It’s going to create uncertainty.’
Sunday was a beautiful blue-sky day. I went with my friends Bryan and Paul to the 50th Seattle RV* show in CenturyLink Field stadium (home of the Seattle Seahawks football team, and also the Seattle Sounders soccer team). Nearby is Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners baseball team. These two stadiums are in SoDo (South of Downtown) and maybe there will be a third one in a few years. The Seattle Sonics basket ball team may come back to the city, and may get a new $490 million stadium even though there is the KeyArena stadium in downtown that they could use. (Pictures of the proposed new basketball stadium here http://bizj.us/dfu85/i/6).
*Recreational Vehicle, also called motor homes sometimes
We just stepped off the train at the Stadium Station. This is Safeco Field, the Seattle Mariners’ baseball stadium with a retractable roof.The Seattle Seahawks’ CenturyLink Field stadium is on the left. The tall black building is Columbia Center, the city’s tallest at 76 floors.Here is the King Street train station’s tower again (I posted a picture the other day), with the city’s skyline as seen from the south.
The restored Oxford Saloon front in the main street of Snohomish houses a restaurant but is undergoing renovations inside.The town of Snohomish is about 30 miles north of Seattle.One of a dozen or so antique stores in the main street. Antique stores typically have spaces inside for exhibitors (vendors) to set up their own displays.The World’s Fair Edition of the Seattle Times (April 8, 1962) had a whopping 380 pages !A beautiful mechanical street clock on the main street.I love the colors in this Texaco gas sign.For the serious collector only : a Victorian age diorama.Will this winged cupid lamp post fit somewhere in my house? Should I spend $1,195 on it? (No).A set of eight 1962 World’s Fair shot glasses goes for $199.
My friends Bill and Dave and I drove out to the town of Snohomish today to get some lunch and to go check out the antique stores in the historical downtown.
Some of the antique stores are very large, with several floors of spaces for dozens of sellers displaying their wares. Everything from porcelain, crystal, books, art, advertising signs, clocks, collectible cards, figurines, toys and even clothes such as mink coats, is on display.
You don’t have to spend big bucks to come away with something cute such as this vintage poster for Champion spark plugs.
I know we live in the information age, but I am still impressed every other day with the information I can get to with the internet and my smart phone. Check this out, a run-down from last night.
7.01 pm We have landed at Chicago, in from Pittsburgh. The snow in Chicago has started falling. I can see that, don’t need the iPhone weather app to tell me that! But what is the temperature? If it’s not too cold, the snow will melt quickly and not be a big problem for the runway and the aircraft. Well, it is 34 °F. Better get out of here before it drops to 30 °F in the next hour or so, though.
7.14 pm We’re still on the tarmac, waiting for the plane at gate B5 to get de-iced so that it can move and allow us to pull up. Hmm. Let me check with United’s app if my flight to Seattle is still scheduled for an on-time departure. Yes. I can even see where the incoming plane is from (Washington, DC). It has almost arrived and is scheduled to arrive 9 minutes early, in fact.
8.06 pm We have gotten to gate B5. I just have to walk over to gate B10 for the Seattle flight. Almost time to board. If I’m lucky I will get upgraded to the big seats in first class. Have I been? Yes! .. the upgrade list that used to be classified information available only the sometimes-surly ground personnel, is now available to everyone (to obsessively check every 3 minutes if you feel you have to?). That’s me in seat 3E on the Upgrade List. (Later, before we departed, the guy across the aisle in 3B made a fuss when he discovered his seat’s overhead light was not working. ‘I need it to read, my Kindle is not backlit!’, he complained to the stewardess. I knew exactly what was going to happen next : ‘Will I be so kind to consider trading seats with him?’ she asked. ‘Alright, then’ I said (thinking : Good Grief, the way that guy is carrying on, they’re going to hold the @#$% flight to call Maintenance to get it fixed. Can’t let that happen).
8.30 pm Our turn to get some de-icing done. It has actually stopped snowing and is raining now, so we should be in good shape for getting out.
8.45 pm We’re getting pushed back from the gate. Four hours to Seattle, and 1,720 miles for an 11 pm Pacific Time arrival, two time zones away from Chicago’s Central Time.
And what is the weather like in Seattle? I forgot to check before we left in Chicago. This flight does not have in-flight internet, so I will have to wait until we land to know – which was perfectly OK. It was great to be headed home to the Pacific Northwest, far, far away from the Northeast which was about to be pummeled with the blizzard of the century.
The view out of the plane at gate B10 in Chicago, almost ready to depart for Seattle.
I was the passenger in my colleague’s rental car to the airport, so I could take a few pictures on the way out. It looks like my connection in Chicago is still good (without delays due to the large weather system forming in the northeast).
This is Neville Island Bridge (opened in 1976), getting us across the Ohio river on I-79 on the way to the Pittsburgh airport.Is an airport beaver the same as a regular beaver? (I guess that’s me : the airport beaver).The entrance to PIttsburgh airport. There is a US Air Force base nearby, with the 171st Air Refueling Wing (171 ARW) of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard that operates sixteen KC-135T Stratotanker air refueling aircraft..This live map shows arriving and departing flights. I think the blue blob is winter storm Nemo moving in!
‘Winter Storm Nemo is now poised to become the latest example of a powerful, potentially historic, February storm’, says the Weather Channel. I am located north of Pittsburgh, just outside the storm area but it’s going to come down heavily north and east of here. The word ‘storm’ when snow is involved, is often the equivalent of Roberta Flack’s song ‘killing me softly with his song’ : soft fluffy white stuff that just keeps coming down, and eventually snarling up traffic, snapping tree limbs, damaging power lines, and all that. And when I was working at a utility company in California, I learned that there was something called a ‘heat storm’ : a term for an extended heat wave also has potential for widespread power outages due to increased use of air-conditioning.
The temperatures are in °F, so we just below or just above 0°C (32 F) in daytime, and dipping below freezing at night time. We’re going to bail out on Thu night, hopefully ahead of the next snow shower.
We have a lot of documentation to complete for our Blueprint, and so we’re knuckling down and cranking out the documentation. It is cold and snowy outside, but Salt Lake City taught me that there is still a long way down if you’re in the 20s (°F). The Japanese TV channel in the hotel room reports that Ulaanbataar, the capital city in Mongolia, is sporting a withering temperature of -18 °F (-28 °C).
The day is done and we are arriving back at the hotel .. but it’s actually right across from the offices where we work !
