Raincharm’s Weblog

And what a week it has been.

I am an engineer, but I don’t do too much engineering any more.
I am supposed to do planning, but anything that I planned to do this week did not get done.

This week I did everything from act as a pseudo General Manager to Human Resources to Receptionist.

Really. I performed all of those functions at some time during the week.
Sometimes way more than I ever wanted to. (Receptionist can be fun.)
And that’s about all I can say about that.

Today’s work was a seminar.
About setting rates.
And I was about that excited about it.
It did have some interesting bits, and I managed to sneak in a review of some other work for a bit.
They provided a pretty good lunch, and there was time enough to take a stroll around the grounds of Bellevue City Hall.

Because it was in downtown Bellevue, I took the bus.
Carl gave me a ride to the starting point in the morning. Raining and cold, so that was a nice gesture.
Coming home no choice but to walk the less than one mile home.
Not a bad walk.
It was raining again, and then it turned into bouncing white rain showers.
Not sure I would call it “snow”, and it didn’t quite qualify as “hail”.

So Carl had the in-class part of his Excel class today and got 80%.
And there was one question that was on a subject he had never seen before, so maybe they will adjust for that.
I am a proud wife.

I spent a fair amount of time myself over the last few days playing with Excel, and Access.
And I learned something from Carl’s studies. Alt+Enter will insert a line break into a line of text in an Excel cell.
I did not konw that, and it is a bit of information that will be very useful.

So – for all of the pain and suffering, well at least suffering, I am causing Carl – there is good to be found.

Next – PowerPoint.

Tonight’s weather was our entry to the winter storms. We started by briefly losing power this morning. Enough to interupt the computer, but not close the gate. (Power failure default position.)
Leaving the cocoon of the building exposed me to the slush falling, really pouring out of the sky. The white was in contrast to the leaves blanketting the parking lot 1 day’s worth). I was actually happy for the slow traffic as we negotiated our way over the road white with hail.

Sun, a golden orb, fading to yellow as it rises in the east.
Mountain, skirts rising, majestic peak hidden from view.
Waves breaking from the south.
Clouds laden with rain encroaching from the north.

Leaves everywhere.

 Today.

As in that is what I have been doing.
And what I will be doing for the foreseeable future.

So I have been delinquent on this blog.

Did see the eagle driving to work yesterday.
And am fitting in this brief blog on the way to work today.

Thanks for driving, Jim.

Today was, as it turns out, the last MLS game for the Seattle Sounders in 2011.
It was also the last game for Kasey Keller. And he got a shut-out.
It was also Seattle weather in spades. Or in raindrops. So the season ended as it began on Opening Day.

It didn’t just rain. It poured.
There was a brief time when it was not raining quite as hard, but then it started up again.

The game was incredibly entertaining.
The Sounders really gave us their full 90 today. 99 if you count extra time.
They were running hard and fast, and it was just like energy unleashed.
Real Salt Lake played defense and falling down.
Kasey had a few easy saves, and a one-on-one spectacular save. (Any 1 v 1 save is spectacular.)
The first half was 0-0, and then in the second half the Sounder’s got 2 goals!

Unfortunately they needed 3.

This was the second leg of a two leg game, and Salt Lake won the first game 3-0.
I really did not like the way RSL played, or their attitude. But, none-the-less, they will be moving on.
But I will not be rooting for them.

And on a carl comic note, link here.

We put a pumpkin out yesterday.
Carl carved a face, but it was lacking passion.
Carl has been lacking passion for the holiday as it is becoming so overblown.
I think I saw somewhere they quoted $6 Billion dollar holiday, and that the average family buys $40 in candy. (And not the expensive kind for most.)

We did have candy here to give out. One package of single Resses Peanut Butter Cups, and some homemade packages (baggies) of candy corn. This was because one person on our block said that was their favorite candy, and the store only had big bags of the stuff. So Carl made our own. Of the 8 or 9 little ones that actually stopped at the house (in 3 groups), the candy corn was a big hit. Since most of them know of us, hopefully they will actually allow the eating of the hand (never touched by human hands) bagged candy. [Really, he poured it from one bag to the other. Didn’t touch a kernel.] So, even with the paltry amount of trick-or-treaters, we did not have too much left. I believe 9 pieces was the final count.

Earlier in the day Carl took his two charges on a downtown Ballard trick-or-treat adventure. I didn’t realize that so many businesses participated. And they were going to go out later in the evening as well. (Carl was King Felix with a King Felix shirt, pink cape, rainbow wig and a crown. And I did not see him, so no pictures.) The kids were Star Wars characters, Jangofet and Darth Vadar.

Today at work there was the usual pile of candy brought from homes. Including a large pile of Full-Size candy bars.
Our office snack shop will be lacking any new funds today for sure. I resisted most temptation, and only had one (full-size) Three-Musketeers bar. There was a pile of candy in the Managers meeting, which lasts 3 hours. I just couldn’t resist.

And then, my Manager notes that I am picking the candy bar apart as I eat it. That is eating the chocolate off of the top, sides and bottom, before eating the middle part. But that is what I like about Three-Musketeers. Everybody had a good laugh.

On a side note, I do remember my father remarking that I would pick my food apart as I was eating it. Why couldn’t I just eat it? I guess some things never really change. And yes, I was a picky eater, but I don’t think that is what it usually means.

And so we can move on to other pursuits.

Like Soccer. The Sounders are into the MLS playoffs. Unfortunately our shrine must have been lacking as they are now down 0-3 after the first leg of the openning session.

Sounders' Shrine, with a touch of Cardinals still up

Outside of a short walk and some mushroom picking destroying in the back yard, we were pretty much homebodies over the weekend. That is not to say we were not busy.

Unfortunately, most of my busy time has been focused on work.
Fortunately, working from home with few distractions has allowed me to jump into a project that should have been started last February. I may try closing my door at work on Monday, and see if I can continue to make progress.

Carl has been working on his projects, and house cleaning.
And – so cute – one of his former charges, now a kindergartener, missed him and wanted to see him. So her family came over for a short visit on Saturday.
That was after we walked to the Post Office and Carl did his homework.

The post office was necessitated by the deep freeze and snow in the Northeast, including NYC.
Ashlan allowed as how her winter wear was essentially nil, and could we send some her way.
Boots, hat, gloves, scarf, and jacket are now winging their way east. Hopefully they are not delayed by the weather already in place.

Homework has moved from WORD to EXCEL.
It seems to be an easier start. Maybe it will prove to be more intuitive.
I spent a good deal of my work time this weekend in ACCESS.

Now that was a baseball game worth watching.

At the risk of getting it all wrong, let me be brief.

They were up, they were down, they were tied, they were down, they were tied, they finally won.
They being the Cardinals.

The game lasted a LONG time. I don’t know exactly how long.
We started late (getting off work and to a watching location just doesn’t happen by 5 PM). Luckily we have a TiVo friend. Then there was a break to cook, get the food, ice cream from the new shop (the ice cream shop – and it did not turn into ice cream soup). And yet, we still finished the game watching it in real time.

Maybe the shortened time (no between innings commercials) added to the exertion. That is if you can call sitting on a couch exertion. Yells of joy, of agony, joy, stomping feet, agony, then joy. Really, how many errors should be committed in game 6 of the World Series. I am assuming it was cold, and that added to the inability to cleanly pick up a ball. But you really should not be running into your teammate. Other than maybe a consistent strike zone, the umpires seemed to get the calls correct.

But neither team was willing to let the game go, and go home. They each kept putting on the pressure. The fans and players all seemed so into the game.

We pulled all of the tricks out of the bag. Or rather put our toys back into the bag.
This is called packing up.
You never pack up before the game is over (fat lady singing – it is not over until that happens, so don’t tempt fate by assuming a win). But we have found that fate doesn’t pick up on which team you are hoping will win, so if you start packing up you can induce a come-back.
We did. Twice.
And they did (come back). Twice.
And then they actually got the Rangers out of an inning without allowing a run.
And then they scored.

And this is where it get strange.

At the beginning of the game Kevin said he had a dream that Freese hit a walk-off home run to win game 7. Close enough.

It is hard to imagine how tomorrow’s final game will match tonight’s’ game.
It has been 9 years since the World Series went to game 7.
If it even approaches game 6, it will be worth watching.

Just past noon today they breached a dam in Washington.
This is a breach through the bottom of the dam. Just a big hole to let the water flow out.

A better comprehensive report

Here is a brief snip from the news, and the accompanying article.

I watched it live during my lunch at work, and then kept it playing for a few hours into the afternoon. (I have two computer screens).

The initial blast of water was cool, but I thought the longer term roaring flood, followed by the receding edges was almost more interesting. And the most interesting was watching the upstream pool of water get lower, and lower, and lower, until it was just a muddy river. I only wish now that I could find coverage of the slug of muddy water meeting the Columbia River.