While Dad and Mom were visiting, we spent a couple nights in a rental house out on Lopez Island. It was the first time any of us had been there and I really enjoyed it. It’s one of the smaller islands, and while none of the islands are “busy”, this one was very quiet/local. Highlights included some nice, quiet beaches and a short hike out to a rocky bluff where we could watch a LOT of seals. Our best meal was at Southend General Store and Restaurant. It’s not a place you would drive by and expect to have good food, but I think we would all be happy to eat there again.
I took a bunch of Photosynths. There’s the view from the deck, the park with the seals, and one showing the inside of the house.
Thanks to Dad and Mom for renting the house and letting us crash the party!
For quite a few years, NASCAR has had internet subscription models for watching and listening to the races. But now, for the first time, NASCAR surprised me by offering all of the remaining races this season for free on YouTube (after the race is over.) That’s an especially cool deal for me since some of these races are on ESPN which I don’t pay for anymore. You can check out the 
I’m continually amazed by people merging in front of big trucks and semis, especially as traffic is coming to a stop. I see it every day. Why do you think the truck is leaving that space? It’s so they don’t kill the people in front of them. I wonder if it would help to add a “big rig ride along” day as part of driver’s ed. Students would go ride with a professional driver for an hour or so. Drivers would learn a lot about how long it takes to stop a truck and what cars do that is dangerous around trucks. There are likely a lot of legal and liability issues with that idea, but if implemented correctly, it might improve our overall safety.
The rematch of last year’s Super Bowl proved to be quite a bit more exciting and suspenseful than the Super Bowl itself. Peyton Manning drove the Broncos down the field for a touch down and two point conversion to tie up the game with seconds remaining, but then Russell Wilson matched him and led the Seahawks to a game winning OT TD. Oh and by the way, Peyton Manning is making more than 22 times as much money as Russell Wilson this year.
You can never have too many outlets in your shop. I finally got fed up with running extension cords all over the place so while Dad was visiting, we got our electrician on. Three new outlets were added inside: one near the bottom of my shelves to power the air compressor and the battery tender for the motorcycle, one by the irrigation clock, one up in the rafters by the IR light and the security camera. We also added two more outside that are on the same timer circuit as my outdoor lights: one is near the ground and one is up under the eaves. Why do that? For Christmas lights of course! I’ll have easy places to plug them in and then I’ll be able to control them with our 
After about a year of flying cheapo RC planes made out of foam board from the dollar store, I feel like I’m ready to attempt my first “real” RC plane. A huge thanks goes to Tyla for buying me the 
Ouch. Tough game for the Seahawks. It stands to reason that they weren’t going to run through the season undefeated but I wouldn’t have guessed that San Diego would have taken them out. San Diego played a pretty solid game though aside from some poorly timed penalties. Hopefully Pete Carroll can turn this around and use it to encourage the team.
I-405 Project
I had thought that after the change, we wouldn’t be able to get onto 522 from 160th St anymore but it looks like they have accounted for that in the design. That’s great for us because it means we’ll be able to head out that way without driving through the traffic mess in Woodinville.
The people who bought those townhomes right along the new braided exit ramps are going to be treated to an enormous sound blocking wall right outside their balconies. They’re going from having a view that had about 3 or 4 rows of trees between them and 405 to seeing a concrete wall 10-20 feet away. Ouch. At least the real estate market is starting to recover around here so some of the decrease will be masked.
And since I mentioned real estate, here’s a semi-related factoid: the guy who bought our condo from us sold it a few months ago. He sold it for about 20% more than he bought it so he made a little money after all the fees and taxes. Our house has gone up about 3-4 times as much as that condo did though so I still think it was a good financial move. (And it was a great move for many other reasons.)