I had a great Time in Seattle with my family. Pictures of our adventurous adventuring can be found here. We visited Pike's Place Market and watched the people who throw fish around. There were a ridiculous number of LSU people in town for the game, and they were all decked out in LSU gear. Seattle's economy probably had an insane bump Labor Day weekend with PAX, Bumbershoot, and the LSU-UW game crowds. We took a ferry across Puget Sound on a clear enough day to see some of the Olympic Mountains as well as the Cascades. The next day also had pretty good weather, so we went up the Space Needle to see the sights. I love all the free telescopes they have to let everyone enjoy the view. We visited a glassblowers studio and watched them work for a while before perusing all the really awesome and way too expensive for me to even consider work they had for sale.

Since Dad's birthday was at the end of August, we had delicious cake and ice cream for him while in Seattle. It was the only time Mom, Dad, Karen, and I had all been in the same place since Christmas, so we thought it was a good time for cake.

On the day of the game, we went with a group of family friends to Snoqualmie Falls and ate at this really amazing restaurant call Salesh Lodge. The falls were cool to see, but the salmon hash really made the drive worthwhile. Mmmmmm. On our way to the game, we passed a car that was on fire. Firemen were already on the scene but hadn't put the fire out yet. I was rather selfishly pleased about that as this is the first time I have ever seen a car on fire in real life. The game itself was a much closer match than we had been expecting, but I was happy to watch an actual competitive match up that the Tigers totally won. Husky Stadium overlooks Lake Washington, so we could see a veritable flotilla of boats all hanging out for the game.

Sunday we visited wineries. One of them had a peacock roaming the grounds. We tasted some nice wines, but I didn't think any of them were worth the hassle to transport back home. Monday we went to the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. I'm not sure why, but they are connected and share an entry fee. This is a totally cool thing, and I recommend these museums to anyone going to Seattle. The EMP has an awesome collection of electric guitars and basses (even stand-up basses) that date back to the 1930s. There is also a bunch of recording studios set up with instruments and tutorials on how to play them. I now consider myself a drumming and rhythm guitar expert after spending upwards of 10 minutes on each tutorial. The Science Fiction Museum lacked any sort of hands-on fun (I'm not sure what it would have been anyway.), but I was quite taken with the general shiny awesomeness of the whole thing. Unfortunately they were very strict about the no pictures policy, so you will just have to imagine the wall of various sci-fi weaponry from various movies and tv shows. There was a section on robots, too.

Overall I enjoyed the trip and spending time with my family very much. One week is a sufficiently long trip though, and I am happy not to see them again until I go home in October for my cousin's wedding.

1. One of my coworkers died last night. She had lupus, so her death was not completely unexpected, but it did happen rather quickly.

2. Someone shoved the men's bathroom door open hard enough to break the thick, textured window. When I heard the sound of breaking glass, I went to the hall to see what had happened. It took me a bit to figure it out because there was no one in sight. I asked one of my male coworkers to check the bathroom in case whoever broke the window had been hurt, but no one was there. Whoever did it took off in a quick hurry. Boss's Boss said he saw a guy go into the bathroom crying about 5 minutes later, but he didn't look injured. We still don't know what exactly happened. It took maintenance 45 minutes to come clean up the glass, but they had new glass set in the door within 2 hours.

3. It snowed heavily for ~15 minutes even though there had been 0 chance of precipitation. Brooke said it didn't snow at all in Arlington. The rest of the day was bright and sunny, too.

4. The heating/cooling building that controls the temperature for our building and several others across the street had large plumes of smoke/vapor pouring from the roof for about a minute. I had gone to look out the window because it sounded like low-flying aircraft. Again, I have no idea what happened. I assume it was nothing bad because the heat in our building didn't shut off.

5. I'm in a 5-way tie for 3rd in the office football pool. I have a chance at winning money if Florida wins tonight.

All before lunch.

Only one weird thing happened after lunch. On the way home, I passed a guy who looked like Bill Clinton with a full beard.

I don't know whether to hope tomorrow will be more surreal or less.

I had a really great trip home over Veterans' Day weekend. The only downer was seeing all the blue tarps flying into Houston and Baton Rouge. My parents' house still has three tarps on it.

Friday afternoon, I got to see Ru's cats. This is particularly entertaining because Kai, a long-hair, had just got back from being shaved at the groomer's. He looks really dumb. Since only his body was shaved, it looks like he's wearing leg warmers. Bijou, one of the two Hemingway cats Ru fostered, has grown quite a bit since June. She is also a long-hair and hopefully will not have to suffer the indignity of being shaved like Kai did.

Saturday, Dad took me tailgating and to the LSU-Alabama game. It would have been the most awesome day ever if LSU had won, but it was still a really good game. The food at the different tailgates was very delicious as well. One surreal moment from tailgating came when I saw two boys sitting to the side of their tailgate and reading. One looked 10-11 and was reading a Kingdom Hearts II manga. The other looked 8-10 and was reading Twilight. 0_o? I just don't understand kids today. After the game, Dad took me to Coffee Call for hot chocolate and beignets. Of course, I got powdered sugar all over myself, but at least I managed not to inhale any this time around.

Sunday, I had my awesome birthday party with bbq, dobage cake, and homemade butterfinger ice cream. I highly recommend Voodoo BBQ for anyone in the Baton Rouge area. Ru and Stelly came as did most of my Dad's family and some of my Mom's. I got way more presents than I was expecting. It's been a while since I had a big family birthday party like that. Since I only brought a carry-on for the trip home, there were some gifts I couldn't bring back with me. The electric knife being the main problem. I don't think airport security would have been ok with me wandering on a plane with that. I started to build a stack of stuff to be brought home at Christmas since Brooke and I will be driving and will have lots of room for stuff.

Monday, Mom and I visited Grandmother since her busy social calendar kept her from being at my party. I had gotten her one of those personalized puzzles for her birthday. You give the company an address to be the center of the puzzle, and they create a puzzle that is a map of a 4 mile by 6 mile area centered on the given address. Grandmother went on and on about how much she loved it and how it was so interesting. It's a good feeling to know that an unusual gift is appreciated. That afternoon, Mom and I went to the mall, so I could pick out a jewelry box for Christmas. I've never had a proper jewelry box, and I've been getting tired of having my things strewn about my vanity or crammed in the gift boxes they came in. Mom and I both found jewelry boxes we wanted on sale at JC Penny's, so I had to take Dad back later to buy Mom's for her present.

Tuesday I flew back to DC. Wednesday I did nothing on my actual birthday. Thursday, Brooke and I went to dinner with one of my uncles who was in town for training. The food was really good, I had leftovers, and my uncle paid. All in all a very satisfactory evening.

Yesterday, I went to the Join the Impact rally in DC. Unfortunately my camera batteries died after about 30 minutes. At that point I found out that my backup batteries were dead, too. Not that it really mattered, 15 minutes later the torrential downpour started. I wouldn't have kept my camera out in the wind and the rain anyway. None of my pictures really show the size of the crowd. The AP story estimates the crowd at 500+, but other sources say the number was 5000+. I think we were probably somewhere in between, maybe 2000 people.

Still not in a really chatty mood, I think being out of the office and off my usual schedule does that to me. The current conference is very interesting for those interested in statistical methodology, boring for everyone else. I did have a problem understanding one of the presenters. He had a very thick Indian accent and spoke with his back to the audience half the time. Next week's conference in Baltimore will focus more on programming, so it will be very different subject material from the conference I'm at now.

Work got really busy last week. Outside companies often want the data we put out analysed in a different form, and we are perfectly happy to charge them for the information. My section got two of these requests last week, and they are both for surveys that I'm in charge of. I was editing a big paper for Boss, finished it today, and I still have all my regular work to catch up on because of the conferences this week and next week. Everything should get back to a normal work load after Thanksgiving. It's not really that any of my projects are that time consuming; it's just that everything seemed to hit at once.

Dad came to visit this weekend since he couldn't make it last weekend. We had a great time. The weather was perfect the whole weekend. Dad came in Saturday midday. We ate Ethiopian food (first time ever) for lunch, and it was really good. We were the only non-Ethiopians in the restaurant! The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to football. We met up with Jim and some people from work at a sports bar to watch LSU beat Alabama. Sunday Dad and I toured Mt. Vernon in the morning then ate lunch with bakanaonna. Then the three of us went to the top of the Washington Monument which was a first for everybody. We couldn't quite see our apartment, but we could see the Air Force Memorial which is close enough. The view is really great, and the elevator stops at certain points on the way down so that you can see some tribute stones inside the monument. After we went to the Natural History Museum because Dad wanted to see the Hope Diamond and Brooke wanted to see the dinosaurs. We ate a wonderful Italian dinner and had leftover cake and ice cream when we got back to the apartment. Monday morning, Dad and I had a leisurely breakfast before he went off to the Holocaust Museum and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and I went to my conference. Dad said he walked around the monuments and the White House as well before flying back in the afternoon.

I have been testing out my new noise-reducing headphones, and I think I'm going to keep the pair I got. They do a fairly good job of noise-reducing, and they aren't uncomfortable. My cobalt blue Kitchenaid mixer arrived, but I haven't used it yet. Maybe I'll make something this weekend. It's so pretty and awesome. I'm tempted to buy the flame stickers to put on it, but I don't know if I'd rather get more attachments first.

Last weekend I wasn't going to do anything but sleep. This plan was shot to hell when I found out that the Kennedy Center had an open house Saturday. Free mini-shows! Jim came with me. We saw the National Symphony Orchestra and Blue Sky 5, a swing band, before Jim left to watch football. Then I saw the Suzanne Ferrell Ballet company, the US Navy Country Singers, and Ben Kweller. The ballet company did excerpts from their upcoming November performance. They were very good, but I could tell the real performance wasn't for a while. They still had some timing issues to work out. I do think I want to see the show. Apparently this Ben Kweller guy has a following already. There were kids with his concert t-shirts. Many people in the audience were singing along with his songs, and I heard several people mention how amazing it was that they got to see him for free. I'd never heard of him. He was listed as an indie rock/alt country act. He sang one country song in the whole set. It was good, but I wouldn't classify him as a country artist. I liked enough of his songs to buy one of his cds off iTunes. He's a bit weak lyrically on some of his songs, but I like all the music. He seems pretty talented and really dorky. He wrote all the songs himself, and he plays guitar, piano, and harmonica. After the concert I went home and caught the end of Notre Dame's loss to Penn State. Yay. Then I watched LSU's crushing defeat of Virginia Tech. Big YAY.

Sunday bakanaonna and I finally saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I enjoyed it. The cast got exponentially hotter. It was a bit jarring to see Daniel Radcliffe looking ~21 when his character's 15, but I got over it. Imelda Staunton did an amazing job playing Umbridge. I do question the sudden multicultural explosion at Hogwarts. Where did all these non-white kids come from? Did they simultaneously transfer in a quarter of the student body from other schools?

Last night I went to the DC United - Real Salt Lake match with Stewart. United won, but they didn't play as well as they should have. It didn't help that the ref was calling everything on United and nothing on Salt Lake. 6 yellow cards were issued. Three of United's best players will have to sit out the next game because they have too many yellows. Boo. Luckily DC's already secured a spot in the playoffs, so a loss won't hurt them too badly.

This weekend I'm planning on going to Mt. Vernon for their craft fair. There will also be demonstrations of some period handwork. Brooke is definitely not going as she developed a childhood aversion to craft fairs. I'll probably go by myself early Saturday to avoid more of the crowd. I get in for free since I got an annual pass last time I went. Unfortunately there are no football games of great interest to me this weekend. I might watch the Michigan-Notre Dame suckfest, but I won't be upset if I miss it.

In other awesome news, I'm going to visit my friend Jenn over Columbus Day weekend. Woot! I'll get to see her new apartment and hang out in Raleigh, NC. I've only been to Raleigh for about a day to visit NC State to see if I wanted to go to grad school there, so I really have no idea what the city looks like.

Also I put all my Labor Day weekend pictures up on my flickr gallery. I finally finished captioning all my Florence pics and uploaded all my World Cup ones. Next step is to caption the 400+ World Cup photos.