Archive for the 'Seattle' Category
It was a pretty busy Saturday for me. After picking up a DHL package from the West Seattle Post Office - yes, a DHL package delivered by the USPS - i went crabbing at Shilshore Bay Marina with a bunch of Smelly’s co-workers. I knew that it was possible to catch Red Rock crabs off docks/piers but i never thought it was possible to trap Dungeness crabs from the same areas until this morning.
This is the first time that i have gone crabbing. The concept of shrimping and crabbing is very similar when using pots. The idea is to attract crabs with some bait into a trap that they cannot get out of. Crabbing offers some additional advantages over shrimping. The most important one for me is i do not need a boat. Because it is possible to harvest crab off a dock or pier, less bulky trap like the ring net can be employed. On Saturday, we had two crab pots and a ring net.
Preparing the bait cage for the crab pot with some razor clams. (Picture courtesy of Smelly)
We filled the bait cages with some leftover cans of salmon-flavored cat food from my shrimping trip last year. We also tried using the leftover razor clams as well. Both types of baits worked quite well but i think a solid bait like the razor clam is probably better because it does not disintegrate into little pieces from being thrown around numerous times.
Tossing the ring net. (Picture courtesy of Smelly)
With crab pots, once they are dropped in the water, they can probably remain there for a very long time since any crab that get into the pot will not be able to get out. With the ring net, it has to be checked every 15 - 20 minutes. Our first keeper was a male Red Rock crab caught using the ring net.
Holding down the big Red Rock crab. (Picture courtesy of Smelly)
Ian showing us how to identify the sex of the Red Rock crab. (Picture courtesy of Smelly)
Ian - the crab meister - in action. (Picture courtesy of Smelly).
Ian hauled up two Red Rock crabs. (Picture courtesy of Smelly)
We caught several other Red Rock crabs but they were legally too small to keep. Washington state law requires a minimum size of 5″ for Red Rock crabs (male or female). For Dungeness crabs, they must be at least 6.25″ wide and only male crabs can be kept. The male crab can be identified by the narrower abdomen at its underside.
Mike measuring the size of the catch with a crab ruler. (Picture courtesy of Smelly).
Crab to me: You want a piece of me?
Smelly and i had to leave earlier because we had an appointment with Leslie Engen of San Jo Shibas. This was to be our final visit for our Shiba puppy prior to picking him up the following weekend. Yes, the puppy has been selected out of the four. More on that in another post.
After dealing with the blood vessel-bursting traffic from the East side back to Seattle, due mainly to the shutdown of SR520, Smelly and i walked about two blocks for the annual West Seattle street fair to have some food. The food selections appeared to be lesser than the previous year. I had a pork bratwurst from Ziegler’s Bratwurst.
Janet standing in front of Ziegler’s Bratwurst at the annual West Seattle street fair.
Munching down a pork bratwurst with Sauerkraut and onions. (Picture courtesy of Smelly)
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I didn’t do grocery shopping this past weekend so i had nothing to cook last night. Smelly and i decided to try one of the restaurants near the Alaska Junction. I suggested Garlic Jim’s Famous Gourmet Pizza since Smelly loves garlic and i was out of idea what to eat for dinner.
The Garlic Jim’s near the Alaska Junction was quite empty when we arrived there. In fact, only one table was occupied when we stepped foot into the restaurant. That was one clear ominous sign that i wish i had not ignored.
We ordered some garlic wings and a garlic chicken pizza. The chicken wings showed up like it had just been swimming in a pool of grease. When the garlic chicken pizza was brought to our table, i realized that i forgot to tell the waitress that we wanted the thin-crust version of it. In fact, i think the waitress should have told us the options available, just like what she did for the wings. I am not a big fan of thick-crust pizza. It was not the worst pizza i ever had but it was close. The honor for the worst pizza goes to Pizza Hut. Both the garlic wings and garlic chicken pizza had absolutely no trace of garlic! Normally i will be burping like there is no tomorrow when i eat something with garlic. Trust me, you don’t want to be anywhere near me after i have consumed the garlic-potent Shish Tawook at the Mediterranean Kitchen in Bellevue. After the supposedly garlicky meal last night, i had one burp. Yes, only one stinky - not literally - burp.
If the name of your franchise includes the word “garlic”, your menu better have something that taste garlicky. Unfortunately, the only thing garlicky about Garlic Jim’s entrees are their names. Gourmet pizza? Not even close.
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For the past 11 years or so, my jobs required me to constantly travel. I had never taken a bus to work. Early this year, i switched to a non-traveling job but i was still driving to work. I wanted to take the public transportation to work but it was just too much hassle. To get to work, i would have to take two transfers on three different buses. If i don’t miss any of the connecting buses, it would take me at least 90 minutes. Even when i drive my car to work, i have to leave my car at the parking lot in Magnuson Park - leased from the city by my employer - and then hop on a shuttle bus that drops me off about ten blocks away. My work location has a parking lot but since the parking spaces is limited, the spots are assigned by “seniority”. From what i found out recently, the next available spot will go to someone who has been here since the middle of 2005.
On 6/30, my employer started a GreenLine shuttle service that runs every 15 minutes from Pacific Place to where i work in Sand Point. I greeted this news with great excitement because for the longest time, it really bothered me that i could not take the public transportation to work even though i am working in the same city where i live. This morning, i took Metro bus 54 from West Seattle to downtown. Then i walked about three blocks, waited several minutes and got on the GreenLine shuttle bus. The journey from home to work took a little more than one hour, which is just about the same amount of time that it takes me to drive to work on a day with bad traffic. I was listening to music, checking my email, surfing the web on my iPhone throughout the commute. In fact, i managed to catch some Zs on the shuttle bus! Now, with gasoline prices at all time high, this shuttle service could not have come at a better moment. It not only keeps some of the gasoline money in my pocket, it saves me from having to deal with the horrendous Seattle traffic!
Life is great!
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The temperature displayed in my car after being baked in the late afternoon sun for about an hour.
Yesterday’s high of 92 degrees fell a little short of the record of 93 degrees set in 1987. But it was hot enough for both Smelly and i as we rode on the Cedar River Trail.
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I was at the Seattle Municipal Court again for the second straight day, performing my jury duty. During the morning, three groups of juror who were selected the day before were called up. I, along with the remaining jurors, waited at the jury assembly room. I brought my work notebook and did some work. When i got bored, i decided to start reading the book - Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” - i brought along with me but i fell asleep soon after. Around noon, an announcement was made to the effect that my service was no longer needed since cases that were scheduled for the rest of the week were settled.
Before i left the Seattle Municipal Court, i decided to take some pictures of the 12th-floor rooftop garden.
Seattle Municipal Court rooftop garden.
I do not see a single weed in the garden. May be it is difficult for weed to land on a garden twelve floors up.
Then i looked across the street at the rooftop garden on top of the City Hall.
Unhealthy-looking rooftop garden on top of Seattle’s City Hall.
It does not appear that the City Hall rooftop garden is well-maintained at all. Considering the amount of rain that we had been getting prior to this week, i was expecting the garden to look greener than what it was.
The new Seattle City Hall.
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I received a summon for jury duty about a month ago. According to the summon, i “have been randomly selected to serve as a trial juror in the Municipal Court of Seattle.” I had to get up way earlier than my usual time in order to arrive at the Municipal Court before 0830. The daily compensation for each day of service is $10. That’s barely enough for lunch. When i signed in on arrival, i decided to donate the $10 to Childcare Services of Seattle.
Seattle Municipal Court.
After watching an 18-minute video on a juror’s duty, one of the two ladies explained that the length of the Jury Service is Tuesday through Thursday. What ??!!! I initially thought it was a one-day deal. RTFM, it was printed in bold on the summon, right under the huge title “INSTRUCTIONS - READ CAREFULLY.
Basically, i am in a pool of about 30 jurors. Each time, they will randomly call a group of about 10 jurors. The bailiff will lead this group of jurors to the judge. The judge will tell them about the case and introduce the jurors to the lawyers and others who are involved in it. After taking an oath to answer all questions truthfully, the judge and the lawyers will question the panel to find out if the jurors have any knowledge of the case and things that may make it hard for the jurors to be impartial.
No one was called up before lunch so everyone was let out at around 1130 for a two-hour lunch. Since i had so much time, i decided to walk over to Salumi, a restaurant owned by Armandino Batali, father of celeb chef Mario Batali.
Long line of lunch crowd waiting outside Salumi.
There was a long line waiting outside Salumi, about 30-people deep. I must have waited in line for at least 45 minutes before i was able to make my order. I ordered the special of the day, Marco Polo, an East meet West sandwich with a prosciutto-wrapped chicken marinated in Wasabi sauce, loaded with Wasabi dressing and hot peppers. It was a huge and delicious sandwich.
I spent the whole afternoon in the jury assembly room, waiting to be called up. Four groups of jurors were called up and i was not among them. I fell asleep several times during the afternoon. By 1530, they let everyone who was not called go home.
Two more days of this to go.
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Above & Beyond at the Showbox. Photo courtesy of givanov.
Above & Beyond, a trance trio from the UK was in Seattle last Friday. Two out of the three members - Paavo Siljamäki and Tony McGuinness - were here for the energetic two-hour set, in support of their new release Anjunabeats 100. Above & Beyond are currently ranked #6 in the DJ Mag top 100 poll.
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Update: The Mariners were beaten 6 - 2 by the Nationals.
Update: Throughout this season gone horribly wrong for the Mariners, Seattle Times’ Geoff Baker has written some deservingly critical posts on the Mariners organization. In his latest post, he wrote about who’s going to be dumped in the next round of firing.
I am taking a break on my bike ride from Gas Work Park to Woodinville. I have just checked the score of the last game of the series between the Mariners and the Washington Nationals. So how bad and how pathetic are the Seattle Mariners? The Mariners are in danger of being swept at home by the worst team in the National League, four runs down in the bottom of the 9th inning.
Several weeks ago, I wrongly predicted the firings of manager John McClaren and GM Bill Bavasi. They are still holding on to their jobs. The only firing that Mariners did was to let go of the sacrificial hitting coach Jeff Pentland. One of the many players that should have been released - Richie Sexson - is still playing, just as badly as before. The past two games with bases loaded and no out, Richie struck out and the Mariners could not even get a single run home.
This 2008 team is the most over-rated and the most under-achieved team among all the past Mariners teams. It may not be sufficient to just let all the coaching staff and all of the front office go, the current core of players must be traded or released since they are all accustomed to the culture of losing. They do not know how to play as a team to win. In this fire sale, no single player, including the popular Ichiro, should be under the illusion that they are allowed to stay unless they are able to commit to playing as a team to win.
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