Fall Fest photos

Finally got around to pulling the shots of the kids at the Fall Festival...clearly I screwed up the camera settings somehow, 'cause they ain't all that clear. Then again, the light was dimming since we were there late afternoon. Anyhow, enough with the excuses, on with the pix!

Logan and Maya on The Twister. Or maybe it was The Tornado. One of those.

Maya and her friend Lee on the roller coaster

Logan and Lee on the roller coaster

Some days are just too gorgeous to spend at work

Today was such a day. Next to last day of September, yet it was sunny and warm. I really should have been doing something out doors. Golf, maybe. Riding my bike. Going for a walk. Pretty much anything but sitting at my desk. Ah well...hopefully I'll sneak out early on Thursday and get some golf in. Unfortunately by then it will be back to 60 and raining, but since I haven't played in about a year that will give me just the excuse I need for my crappy play!

A gorgeous Sunday

Even more gorgeous than yesterday, I think. And to celebrate we walked down to Patty's Egg Nest for brunch, ate too much (Denver omelette for me, pancakes for the boy, and pancakes with berries for the wife and girl), then stumbled home to park it on the couch and watch football.

And you'd think that with the Seahawks having a bye weekend it would be nice relaxing football watching, right? Wrong. Thanks to Fantasy NFL it was roughly as stressfull as a Seahawks game day. Or, at least, for the first 15 minutes or so. Then it became clear that my team was yet again going to wallow in mediocrity and I stopped updating the Stat tracker software.

The other big event of the day was letting the kids go to the Fall Festival thingy on their own. We gave them some cash - enough for the "all access" wrist band thingy so they could ride the rides, with change left over to buy snacks - and Paige's phone, and sent them on their way. And amazingly they actually checked in fairly often. Not that we told them to, mind you, just on their own. I guess they wanted to share the joy of The Sizzler with us. Something like that, anyway!

A gorgeous Saturday

And a lazy one as well. Started out the morning writing notes begging for donations to my high school's annual fund (hey, someone has to pay for tuition assistance and whatnot...), then came home to host a play date for the daughter and later take the kids to the Fall Festival at the local Catholic church/school. 'cause nothing says late September like carnies and rickety rides!

In fact, the kids enjoyed it so much that we're sending them back tomorrow, only this time we'll spring for the all-access wrist band things so they can stay on the mini-roller coaster as long as they want. And we can have some peace and quiet around the house for once!

A day of slightly more clarity

At least by the end of it, anyway...

So as I posted last night, my company done got tooken over by JPM. And it wasn't really clear from the news reports whether all employees were now JPM employees, or if some of us would be reporting to the Fed this morning. So, as requested by an e-mail sent to all us now former WaMulians, I got up and went to work as usual this morning hoping someone would make everything clear.

That clarity finally came around 2:45 when we had a conference call with our CEO of 3 weeks and the head of JPM's retail operations who basically said "we're considering this a merger that we would have loved to do under any circumstances, things just got sped way up." Long story short, at some point in the future the integration plan will be ironed out and we'll know who's still got a job, but until then it's business as usual. So I did what anyone in a similar situation would do: left work early and went to a bar to drink and comiserate with co-workers.

Best lines of the day:

From a woman who came in today wearing a WaMu jacket: "I am SO yesterday..."

From a manager I know: "This is going to look great on my resume: Senior Manager in Credit Risk for the biggest bank failure in history."

From CEO Fishman: "Honest, I didn't take this job to sell the company."

That last one is a paraphrase...I didn't write down the exact quote, but that captures the gist.

!oooH ooohW

That, naturally, is "Whooo Hooo!" backwards, "Whooo Hooo" being the misspelled catch phrase in WaMu's most recent ad campaign. If nothing else good comes out of this Federal / JPM fire sale at least we won't have to watch those ads any more.

What does this mean for me as a WaMu employee? Well, um, I'm not sure. If I worked in a branch I'd be pretty secure, since JPM doesn't have any (or not many) branches in the Seattle market. But I'm not - I'm back-office, and they've got plenty of them in New York. In fact, I'm not exactly sure where I end up in the big mix: does my department roll with the banking assets to JPM, or are we now part of the FDIC? Am I a Federal employee? And if so, does that mean I can arrest people? 'cause that would be kind of cool...

Anyhow, if you want to read up on what business writers and AP journalists and whatnot are saying, here are a few links:

CNN: JPMorgan buys WaMu

AP / Seattle Times: JPMorgan Chase buys WaMu assets after FDIC seizure

Yahoo! Finance: WaMu becomes biggest bank to fail in US history

Seattle PI: WaMu seized, sold

Oh, and on a lighter note, PETA would like Ben & Jerry's to stop abusing all those Vermont cows they milk to make ice cream and instead start abusing Vermont women and make ice cream from breast milk. Don't worry, Boob-Berry won't be in your grocer's freezer section any time soon.

Another night of delicious reality

So as I tweeted earlier this evening, tonight is the finest night of the week: First the fashion, then the fighting. The male and the female, yin and the yang of reality TV.

In case it wasn't obvious, I'm talking about Project Runway and Ultimate Fighter. And they didn't dissappoint.

First up on Runway we had the finest of all challenges, the "design for the other designers" challenge, this time with a music theme. And since there are only 5 designers left, they were in full sabeautage mode, mainly aimed at Kenley. Because let's face it, the only musical genre that might have worked for Kenley is Doo-Wop. Or maybe swing. But definitely not Hip Hop. So the rest of the designers, who may have known a thing or two about Hip Hop, basically didn't contradict anything she wanted to do. Not exactly throwing her under the bus, but certainly not stopping her from jumping under it herself. In the end, though, it was Suede's inability to bring the rock (and annoying habit of referring to himself in the third person) that led to his being "auf'd". Poor Suede...

After my feminine side (or fashion side, or whatever side it is that likes Runway) had had it's fill it was time to bring on the testosterone. It's week 2 of Ultimate Fighter, and like last season they're starting things off with guys fighting to get in the house. And really, there's nothing that drives the fashionista out of your system like 8 MMA fights in an hour!

Further proof the world is spinning out of control

First we had the tale yesterday of the Portland construction workers complaining about the naked chick rollerblading (and if you want some photos of Earth Friend Gen there are some NSFW ones here...thanks to Cosmic Dave for digging those up for me!).

Then today we had dual stories of pigs on the rampage, first in Australia where a pig "the size of a Shetland pony" has trapped a woman in her house (which means she can't get to her out-door bathroom), and then in Berlin where the city is being ruled by wild boars. Both areas could use some help from Asterix and Obelix, clearly.

WTF?

That was the question I posed to my brother-in-law, a reporter down in Portland. I figured if anyone would know why Portland Construction workers would complain about a nude skater he would. But unfortunately he couldn't come up with anything. And as you can see in the video, she's not ugly. A bit of a hippie, sure, but it is a story from Portland, after all!

Second post of the day will not be as exciting as promised

Why? Because it's late, I'm tired, and I haven't got anything worthwhile to say. I was going to post some photos from last night's bout, but I didn't spend the time on the computer today that would have gotten them ready. Well, that's not quite true...I did retouch this fine shot of the crowd waiting outside in the rain:

The people on the right side were waiting in line for "day of" tickets. Turned out there were 30 of them, all for people 21 and over. The guy in the front of the line (not pictured) needed 2 adults and 2 kids. He was not happy to find out he'd been standing in the rain for over an hour for no reason at all. My advice to him: next time, buy on line.

All in all the bout was great. My beloved Throttle Rockets won the grudge match against Grave Danger, the Derby Liberation Front finished the season undefeated (as expected) with a win over the Sockit Wenches, and I got this fine photo of the Tamachio (sp?) sisters flying in formation:

Whoops!

Totally forgot to post last night. And it's not like I was super busy or anything...I spent most of the day sitting around the house doing minor chores and whatnot, then ran some errands, then went to the roller derby in the evening. You'd think I could have remembered to blorg about it all, but apparently that was too much to ask. So instead I'll post twice today, with this lame excuse for an entry first, followed by a far more scintillating entry in a couple hours. And by "scintillating" I naturally mean "longer". 'cause I'm pretty sure it won't be more interesting.

An interesting week...

I don't usually blorg about work, but damn...after this week it's tempting. And I'm going to succumb to that temptation. I was going to write it in piratical in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, but after about eight "Ye"s and a few "avasts" it got too dang hard. So instead, here's the blorg in plain ol' English:

For those who don't actually know me (and I doubt there are any...), I work for a bank. A bank to remain nameless in case someone from HR comes nosing around. Banks had a pretty darn bad week on Wall Street this week, and we were no exception. The highlight of the week, though, came on Wednesday when there were two news vans parked across the street. I'm fairly certain they were trolling for a new Lehman Brothers scene with the masses exiting the building carrying boxes. In fact, one of the guys on the floor offered to do just that to see what would happen, but the stock was already taking a beating and we decided it might not be a good idea to add that image to the market.

I'm not a financial guru, so I don't know if the anti-short actions taken by the SEC will have any long-term effect or not, but it was nice to have a couple days at the end of the week where the market as a whole rallied!

And that ends work chat.

Another sweet personal flight option

So there's this Swiss guy whose nickname is "FusionMan" who is planning to fly across the English Channel next week using a jet-powered wing attached to his back. So kind of like the Rocketeer, only not as handsome as Billy Campbell and likely without Jennifer Connelly's rocket bra. Or Alan Arkin as the quirky inventor. In any case, his plan is to get dumped out of a plane at 8,200 feet over France, then jet furiously across the channel before landing in Dover. I think the landing involves cutting the wing loose and parachuting down, but I might be wrong.

That part kind of kills the marketability of the jet wing dealy, however sweet it may look. Because let's face it, if I want to fly to work I'm not going to want to go find a plane first, let alone parachute in to the parking lot and then have to wander around trying to find my wing. So I'd probably opt for the coffee-cup jet pack thing unveiled back in July that's supposed to go on sale next year. I'll have to win the lottery to own one, but then that's probably true about the wing dealio as well.

A few observations based on the world of reality television

So I thought I'd share a few observations on personality and behavior that I have observed in my close study of reality television. Well, ok, so technically it's not a close study, more like a distracted study. And the observations are actually just based on two shows, Project Runway and The Ultimate Fighter, but that doesn't make them less true.

1. Cocky people can be really annoying. This is true on both shows. Designer Kenley is really cocky and sure of herself, which is annoying. Fortunately for me, she's also cute so I can turn down the sound and just ogle her. Similarly, Jodie (Jamie? Jimmy? Something ending in a "Y" sound) on Ultimate Fighter is insanely cocky, but he's also a badass and so I can just watch him fight. Problem solved.


2. Cocky people who don't put up go home. Again, true on both shows. Designer Joe was generally pretty cocky and he got "Auf'd" tonight. Last week they kicked off Terri who, while generally pretty good, was also crazy cocky and blew a few things. And tonight the guy fighting Jimmy/Jamie/Jodie/Whatevery was crazy cocky, comparing himself to Alexander the Great and Hitler (but in a good way...wait, there's a good way to compare yourself to Hitler? No, sorry, there isn't). He then pussed out after the first round when it was fairly clear that the Y guy was nearly gassed. Why? Well, according to his exit interview it was because he was pretty and didn't want to get disfigured. But maybe he just missed Mom's basement.


3. Just because you're a famous person's relative doesn't make you good too. OK, this one doesn't really have a tie-in to Runway, 'cause I don't think any of those people is Donna Karan's little sister or anything, but on tonight's Ultimate Fighter we had the brother of Rashad Evans (winner of season 2 of Ultimate Fighter and undefeated in the UFC), who I suppose was more unlucky than bad (he caught a bad kick and broke a rib). And then we had the brother of, um, I forget the guy's name but he's really fun to watch. Anyhow, bro is apparently around 30 and didn't really think "gee, I'm going to be on a show about fighting, maybe I should get close to my fighting weight." So he had to cut 10 pounds in a day and ended up cramped up, one pound over, and going home. Sorry, sucker, you blew your chance!
   

Global warming's effect on ice bergs

I couldn't possibly write this up as well as Metro.co.uk did, so I won't. I'll just quote them: "it is only a matter of time before an armada of penis-shaped chunks begin to break off the Antarctic ice floes, and then roam the oceans wreaking havoc and luring sailors to their doom."

Things I'm not too fond of right now

Not sure what's got my hackles up tonight, but it seemed like a good time to bitch for a few minutes...

1. Banking / Financial / Credit / Housing crunch. I work for a bank. We're getting pounded. I've been there for almost 7 years, so I was there when all the crappy loans were being made. At the time I, and other people in the risk departments, said "hey, you probably shouldn't loan money to people without making sure that they can pay it back..." but the powers that be ignored us (well, ok, not actually me, but other people I knew) because that was where the profit was. Short-term profit, long-term pain. Oy.
2. The Seattle Seahawks. Man, two straight painful losses. I'm so disgusted by the level of play that I'm pondering not going to the game against the Rams next week so I can turn the TV off if it gets too painful. I'm hoping this one will rectify itself over the next few days, but I'm not too convinced it will.
3. Calls from the DNC. Please, people: I'm in a blue state. And while we're more of a swing state this time around, I'm in the bluest of blue counties in the state, and in the bluest of blue districts in that county. My Representative is practically a communist he's so far to the left. You don't have to keep calling me to tell me to vote for Obama. Spend your money calling someone in a more pivotal area. Oh, and don't ask me for any money either, 'cause did I mention I work for a bank?
4. Fantasy NFL. Two straight losses, much like my beloved yet frustrating Seahawks. And worse yet, I was obliged to draft TO this year because he's really good. Obnoxious and hateful, sure, but damn good at that "catch the ball and run in to the end zone" thing. Unfortunately he's not saving the day.
5. People who really, really, REALLY need to bitch to me about Sarah Palin, or John McCain, or Dino Rossi, or anyone else on the right and how evil they are, how only stupid people will vote for them, etcetera etcetera ad nauseum. I get it. I'm not voting for them anyway. You don't need to convince me. And really, talking about how you're smart because you're voting for one person, while other people are idiots for voting for the other guy is insulting to everyone. So please review #3 above and move on to something worth talking about, like the upcoming season of Ultimate Fighter. Or whether you'd kick Kenley out of bed for that Godaweful laugh. And if you MUST talk politics, can we please focus on some actual issues like, oh, abortion, or the war, or the economy? Because the whole "she doesn't have the experience to be Vice President" thing is a complete waste of my time.
   

Thank you for your attention. You may now return to your countdown until the new season of The Office.

Spoke too soon

Or posted too soon...one of those. I ended yesterday's post with the phrase "since we're playing the 49ers there's a pretty dang good chance we'll actually win the game." Don't know what I was thinking.

Oh wait, yes I do. I was thinking that the Seahawks were a reasonably good team. Apparently I was wrong. Whether you blame the injuries to the starting receivers, the lack of a decent offensive line, the weather, it just doesn't matter: they have managed to stink it up two weeks in a row.

The running game wasn't too heinous today - Jones rushed for 127 yards, mainly in 3 and 4 yard carries. He got a TD, as did Duckett. But the passing game blew (top receiver was, I believe, the Tight End), the special teams were mediocre (a vast improvement from last week's abysmal performance), and the defense spent all their time containing running back Frank Gore and as a result let the quarterback light them up for 321 yards (first time in 4 years the 49ers have had a 300-yard passing game). This from a QB from the noted football factory of UC Davis.

Let's try it again: Next week the Rams come to town, and they've proven over the last two weeks that they suck. So again, there's a pretty dang good chance we'll actually win the game. We'd darn well better...

A weekend full of entertainment

Man, busy times this weekend. Let's see...started things rolling on Friday by sitting on the couch surfing the Internet and watching Ike slam in to Texas. I must say, being a Northwesterner and in no way affected by hurricanes (other than gas and fruit prices) I really enjoy hurricane season. And the Ike coverage was prime. The Weather Channel had a guy in Galveston, a guy somewhere inland, and a lady in a parking garage somewhere else. And it was windy and raining. And they had apparently been on the air for about 12 hours in a row and were running out of things to say. Genius.

CNN was spotty in their coverage, 'cause they had other things to run. Same with CNBC and MSNBC, but I hit paydirt with Fox News. Yeah, it's Fox News and as a liberal-leaning guy I'm supposed to avoid them like the plague. But there's something about Geraldo Rivera standing on a beach, his lips moving completely out of sync with his voice, that draws you in. Sure, you're only drawn in because you expect him to be washed out to sea any minute, but still...gripping. That and the liberal use of Google Maps and Google Earth to show us how dang narrow Galveston Island is, or where exactly the other person was standing.

Anyhow, after that excitement I spent the morning being yelled at by my daughter while we tried to get her to pack her bag for her Girl Scout camping trip, then went desk shopping for the wife. Then it was back to the couch (that shopping is exhausting!) and some Halo for a bit before we loaded up again and went out to dinner with some friends. Dinner (at Divine...highly recommended) was delicious, the company was great, and we completely dominated the conversation with tales of my eye injury and surgery and our great summer trek.

And the excitement won't end there, oh no. 'cause tomorrow is the home opener for the Seahawks, and since we're playing the 49ers there's a pretty dang good chance we'll actually win the game!

It doesn't happen very often...

...but on occasion something comes up that makes me wish I lived in England. Having a yoghurt and thinking about how much better they are over there, for example. A sudden urge to drive on the left. Or wanting to go out and re-chalk a giant penis.

If you're reading this and you're in England, please go and let me know how it was. If you're not in England and think I'm making it up, here's a photo of the Giant Penis Man.

Eye photos

Man, these ones are boring when you compare them to the ones I took right after the surgery, let alone those taken the day of the accident! As you can see, I've only got a little pink line next to the eye. That and some lingering (but improving) numbness around the lower eye lid and twinges when I wince (or put on swim goggles that are too tight...wonder if that will limit my snorkeling the next time I go somewhere warm enough to snorkel?) are all I've got left to remind me about the crash. well, that and a smashed-up helmet...

Today's head shot, minus lower chin

Close-up with the eye open

Close-up with the eye closed...teeny pink line is pretty much it!