Me: Help me remember to bring Scrabble with us in the car tonight.
He: …
Archive for the ‘Pictures’ Category
We welcomed some new animals to the aquarium last week, but they’re not otters (I’ll get to that). We now have two juvenile wolf eels, which will grow to be big, ugly and scary-looking. Here’s one resting at the bottom of his tank:
Throughout my shift, the two little wolf eels were facing their own reflections in the side of the tank, swimming toward them, getting freaked out, sharply wincing back, and promptly forgetting why so they could do it all over again. It was so cute I took video of it with my new iphone, which I didn’t realize I was holding the wrong way (derp).
I also volunteered at Seattle Tilth with the Junior League. Since it was a chilly day, I offered to be a multch shoveller/transporter. I got a nice little workout and managed to take a few pictures as well:
View all the pictures of Seattle Tilth!
The auto show was in town, so I checked out the newest Cadillacs (among other cars). The photo below shows me in the latest CTS. I was disappointed to find there were no Ciels for me to drool on.
View all the pictures of the Seattle Auto Show!
And it’s always fun to play a tourist in your own town. After taking this picture, I went into the store and bought some Seattle-themed tchotchkes.
Cool insurance, bro.
Yesterday was a complete shitshow for just about everyone. Steve Jobs felt the cold hand of death. 25 people were arrested for exercising their right to assemble during the “Occupy Seattle” protest. An accident on 405 caused a giant pile-up and wedged a car under a semi. My coworker’s dad chopped his hand off. Just about everyone is in a funk.
No need to trivialize my silly problems, world. I read you loud and clear.
Thankfully, I got to hide out at the aquarium for a few hours. Despite my very brief appearance at the volunteer appreciation party last week, I won these little guys:
Speaking of having a bad day, things weren’t going well for these two:
But I guess the keyhole limpet snacking on the one on the left was happy. Here’s the smug cephalopod responsible, appropriately named Mayhem:
I decided to try my luck at traveling by commercial aircraft and spend a short weekend in San Francisco. Sea-Tac reorganized the security line for the N/S gates, so it’s no longer “choose your adventure”. This freaked me the fuck out, but I didn’t get selected for a scan. After the Great O’Hare Grope hot on the heels of Grandma’s funeral, I was ready to simply not fly at all. I’m still not too crazy about the idea.
My first stop in the Bay Area involved a Cal-Train ride to Palo Alto. The amount of transit happening that day was bizarre. I took a train to Sea-Tac, a plane to SF, the BART to the Cal-Train, and John’s car to Advantage Aviation where we flew over San Jose and Santa Cruz. That’s where Zoey and I would take weekend roadtrips and eat fried oreos on the boardwalk. Mega-nostalgia in effect.
Then John and I headed to the Fark party. It was yet another reminder than internet people in real life are still internet people. Although I’m no stranger to internet meetups, I like that Fark parties don’t happen as often and tend to be more special affairs. We always douse a lot of that “getting to know you” crap in alcohol so it’s not as painful.
I stayed at the weeeeird Hotel Vertigo and took a foggy walk to Zeitgeist to reunite with the group. After some kielbasa and a breakfast beer, we did a little tourin’. Most notably, we attended the Folsom Street Fair, which made Seattle’s Capitol Hill look conservative and uptight. Most of the pictures in that link are not safe for work, and some of the undocumented stuff I witnessed was not safe for just about anyone. But people were having fun, and that’s what matters.
Although I didn’t participate in ass-slapping, name-calling, mask-wearing hoopla, I let Kink.com leave their (removable) mark on me. Since I haven’t messed with fake tattoos since I was a kid, I didn’t know I’d need to scrub it off my body to get rid of it, so I walked around like this for about about a week.
For awhile I forgot I was even wearing it, but for those who recognize the site, it probably looked more like an advertizement for the wearer rather than the company. I probably looked as obnoxious as those people who walk around with their underwear sticking out in attempt to look sexy. I was mostly in dark rooms covering Decibel Festival anyway, so I doubt people noticed.
When I do it:
When you do it:
I think they meant to put this sign by the white wine (my liquid courage of choice).
The seahorse exhibit has some distant cousins visiting for the summer: three alligator pipefish. (Yes, the link from the Shedd Aquarium was more informative and had better pictures than the Wikipedia article. Their amazingly full collection of sea life is one of Chicago’s few saving graces.) Not surprisingly, these fish look like a cross between a seahorse and legless alligator. They have prehensile tails and eat the same stuff seahorses do. Welcome, alligator pipefish!
Now that it’s summer, the aquarium is jam-packed with strollers, hyperactive kids, screaming, crying, etc. I went out to the pier to get some air and an elderly lady approached me.
She: “Can I ask you a question!”
Me: “Sure!”
She: “I was interested your volunteer program. There are so many nice volunteers here and it’s just wonderful!”
Me: “Thanks! It’s a great program. We have a pool of about 700 total, and that includes regular shift volunteers, life sciences, beach naturalists, program leaders, and teen volunteers.”
She: “So do you think you’ll pursue marine biology after this?”
Me: “Well, I’m 30, and I’ve been working in the technical field for the last 10 years, so I’m pretty sure I’ll stick with that.”
She: “I thought you were a teen volunteer!”
Some slightly uncomfortable laughter and many looks of shock on both our parts were exchanged. I thought the youngins are supposed to flatter the old ladies, not the other way around. Then, like the mature adult that I am, I went inside and had a teen volunteer paint a seahorse on me:
I am the toughest mermaid under the sea!!!
I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about such a seemingly insignificant holiday. Oh wait, yes I can. Flag Day 2010. I made flags for everyone, and it was awesome. But currently, I’m having a great time getting into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit. I started by decking out the car yesterday:
Both outside and in:
(Close enough.)
And JLS hosted a cookie decorating party at the YWCA:
Who knew cookie parties could be so fun? Me, three years ago.