Cool town.

Things that are bad: Traffic. It really is dreadful. Doesn't really matter what time of day or night, you might find yourself stopping dead in your tracks on the highway. Because of geography, there aren't a lot of north-south thoroughfares. And, if you need to switch between said thoroughfares, you're pretty hosed.

Rain. It's rainy. That's the end of it. Sometimes, water falls from the sky.

Things that are good: Airplanes. Lots and lots of airplanes. There is a whole lot of aviatin' going on in this area. When we drive to Seattle from our place, we often drive past Boeing Field, which runs parallel to I-5 south of Seattle. There are almost always neat airplanes on the apron. Today, we saw an AN-124 cargo plane. No idea what it was doing here, but it sure was huge and impressive. Read more about big airplanes here.

I've also seen two Lamborghini Gallardos on the street near my house. Not a clue what their owners do for a living, but I sure am curious.

Puget Sound is awesome. Ferries are awesome. Seeing ocean every time you turn around is awesome.

On the whole? Big fan of Seattle. Yay new environs!

Today, I was perusing engineering drawings of airliner ventilation systems in order to write manufacturing plans for some metal brackets and gubbins we need to procure in order to make components for said airliner ventilation systems.

I really am digging it. I'm learning how to interpret the drawings, and learning how to write instructions on realizing those designs.

Imagine under the hood of your car. Consider that somebody had to draw an excruciatingly detailed drawing of every single one of those parts in the engine bay. Somebody had to envision the form and function of tens of thousands of individual bits. They had to come up with the design, and then communicate it in text and pictures, to somebody who could make it.

I once observed to my Main Damie that lindy hop is a language. It's a physical communication between two people (one in which I happen to be only barely conversational). These engineering drawings are a language too, and a stupendously rich and engaging one.

I really, really, REALLY like learning to speak that language.

The thing that really torques me is their email disclaimer.

This e-mail (including any attachments) may contain privileged and confidential information and is intended solely for the above-mentioned recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient you must not retain, use, copy, print, forward, distribute or disclose the information contained within this e-mail (including any attachments). If you have received this e-mail in error please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Canadian International School (Singapore).

Thing is, it's taken me a month of responding to each of their emails to actually convince them that no, I am not in Singapore, nor am I the mother of a Canadian child.

I really detest those email disclaimers. They're far more annoying than the ridiculous warnings on Preparation H tubes. Is there anybody who seriously believes that their emails are secure enough to warrant such threats of mayhem if they're "compromised"? In the best case scenario, email is about as secure as a postcard. Doesn't mean it's not handy...it's just not secure.

You all knew that, right?

The super power I want, is to be able to freeze a wheel bearing. So, when the little kid is rocketing across the floor on those Heely sneakers, or when (as happened tonight) a bunch of teenage jackasses in a convertible were taking video of their friend skateboarding down a big hill...

(you'd think that a kid on a longboard in a tuck would be able to go faster than about 30 mph. You'd be wrong. Slo-ow.)

Anyhow, when I see somebody doing something seriously annoying and/or dangerous with wheels, I want to be able to stop that wheel. Suddenly.

OK, and my other superpower, I want to be able to take pictures of that.

Tow vehicle, pulling an off-road pickup, carrying a little kiddie ATV. I bet if we really tried hard, we could get at least four more vehicles on each end of this train...
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/moofie/1370484828/)

"Redneck Matryoshka" by moofie

It's been a big year. Last October, I married the coolest girl on the planet. (Did I mention the girl? I really can't express how astoundingly awesome my wife is. One of these days, I'll have to come up with a blog post about how ridiculously stupendous she is, but that's an exercise for another day. Wife==rad.)

This spring, we moved to Auburn, WA because said cool girl got a cool job. Couple months later, and I am now employed at a company called Precision Aerospace Composites.

You read that right. I am now a professional engineer.

I'm not sure what the locus of my responsibilities is yet, but I'm going to be involved with manufacturing planning and process design for the fabrication of fiberglass and carbon fiber parts. I have a lot to learn, and I'm pretty excited about the opportunity. Small team, young team, and I'm a noob...But I think we're going to accomplish a lot.

And, to top it all off, look what followed me home last night:

Can I keep it? (Do you think it's the right color?)
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/moofie/1295071982/)

"Look what followed me home..." by moofie

You might notice that it's even the right color to be a cherry on top of the ginormous ice cream sundae that is my existence right now.

(If you haven't seen a Miata in this particular color, you really have to check it out. It is Arrest Me Red. It is "Oh my GOD is that a Red Car" red.

All. kinds of red.)

Oh yeah, and it's got the six speed transmission. (Reverse is down and forward...down and forward...down and forward...gotta remember...)

Seriously, folks: My cup runneth over. I have lost count of my blessings, and I have the life I want.

wow.

Apparently there was a magnitude 2.9 quake with an epicenter about three miles from where I'm sitting, and I didn't notice it. Barb did, and the cat did, but I was oblivious.

I'm a little disappointed, you know?

So what's in Mr. Bento right now?

1/4 c hummus
1/4 c tzatziki (I have no responsibility whatsoever to spell that word correctly.)
1 Chicken breast.
1 Apple.
1 Orange
3 Mini pitas

Lunch. Yum.

Oh yeah, and I lost six pounds last week. Go me.

What's in other people's Mr. Bento? Look here. Mr. Bento apparently has a posse.

I was standing in the stern of a dugout canoe, with two other people
paddling. Not sure who they were. We were overtook a couple of
eight-person rowing shells (which is pretty impressive for a dugout
canoe). Then, one of the other people in my canoe mentions to me that the
next part would be easier if our paddles were stronger, or something along
those lines. (That's why I need a dictaphone by my bed, to record these
pithy things the people in my dreams say.)

The next part involved a chasm, a waterfall, and a tree on the other side
of the chasm with some black widow spiders. Somehow, I managed to leap
from the canoe across the chasm. After I catch my breath, my eyes focus
on the tree branch I've landed in...which has a couple black widow spiders
crawling around. Not MILLIONS OF SPIDERS...just two or three of them. I
manage to mash one that's crawling on my hand, and then I wake up.

and have to go to work.

Some mornings, I would rather take my chances with the spiders.

So, fast forward to Saturday. At this point, I'm assuming that the ugly light fixtures in the bathroom just need to be replaced. We picked out some nice fixtures at the Home Despot, and brought 'em home. I grabbed my trusty digital multimeter to go downstairs and repair the lights. (I wanted to use the multimeter to triple check that the circuit was cold). Before I head downstairs, I stick the multimeter in an outlet upstairs to test it.

Guess what.

POP! Blue spark. Everything goes dark. B says "Uh, what just happened?"

Crap.

So, the main circuit upstairs that runs the front room, the TV room, and all the ceiling fixtures (including the kitchen) is now out of commission as well. Oh goody. So, now we're running around trying to figure out what to do next.

At one point, we look at each other and say "HOME WARRANTY!" which was one of the contingencies we required when we bought the house. Woot. Now we just need to find the paperwork.

not woot.

We look everywhere, and we can't find it. B is frustrated, I'm annoyed, and it's no fun. So we sit down, have a grilled cheese sammich (yum!), and try not to think about it (which is the way to find things that you're looking for).

Then B be's a hero. She recalls the name of the warranty holder. She finds their web site. She finds our contract number. And she submits a ticket to them, requesting they contact us and schedule a repair.

Wo-oo-oooot. She's a hero.

So that's where we're at. We've got extension cables running the critical hardware (that's the Tivo and our laptop charger), and we're OK. It's kinda dark.