Awesome/Not Awesome

Awesome: Holiday weekends. Sleeping in. Spending time with good friends and family.

Not Awesome: Waking in the middle of the night to the sound of your cat heaving and puking right next to your head.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Fluids Lab

Every now and then a few of us at work like to meet at a local watering hole for drinks and maybe dinner. We call it "Fluids Lab". Yeah, it's a dorky name for having a few beers but, not at all ironically, we're all engineers. Anyway, tonight we decided to call a lab session and it was worth blogging about. Picture 4 guys, me being the youngest by at least 15 years, all crowded around a Foosball table, while the IPAs are sliding. I must say, even though I haven't played serious Foosball since college days, these guys were pretty good. One of the guys on Team Washington was bragging that he beat the best WSU has to offer last weekend while he was visiting his son. Whatever. Team Dakota (my partner was also an NDSU grad) defeated team Washington three straight games. It wasn't really even close. But the best part of the evening was that we didn't even drink the beer from the bar we were in. One of the guys (the fellow NoDaker) brews his own beer and he brought a backpack full of it. We kept going from the Foosball table back to our normal table and discretely poured his brews into the bar's glasses under the table and drank that instead. It was actually really good stuff. Apparently he's been brewing his own for decades. But it was so bazaar. I almost felt like I was underage and sneaking beer from someone. I think I'll be looking forward to the next Fluids Lab.

Part of something

Today is election day 2008 and Barack Obama has just become the President-elect. I feel like I am part of something big, kind of like a kid looking into the heavens on a crystal-clear night sky. Examining the headlines around the world, I sense the world is about to undertake a sea change the likes have not been witnessed since the founding of our nation over 200 years ago. It will be more than can possibly be achieved by any one man but one man will be the catalyst that drives the people of the world to reassess where we are and where we are going. Combining self-responsibility with fresh opportunity I anticipate the beginning of a level of prosperity not witnessed in generations if ever.

This must be how the people of the Republic felt after the Emperor was deposed in The Return of the Jedi.

Actually this was filmed by a friend in downtown Seattle and it looks exactly like a couple of those scenes. Wow.


Of course, I could be drinking the proverbial kool-ade or just be completely wrong. Time will tell...

Election Day 2008

Since tomorrow is election day, I thought I'd throw out a few of the things to watch:

• Obama should easily win all states John Kerry won in 2004. If any go to McCain, it could make for a much more interesting election.
• If any two of the following states go to Obama, he'll win: Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Colorado, or Nevada. He'll also win if he gets either Ohio or Florida and none of the others. W won all of these states in 2004.
• Keep a close eye on Georgia. In 2004, about 3.3 million people voted and so far this year, just under 2 million have voted early. Throw in the fact that the presidential race is a statistical tie in that state and you've got a recipe for a surprise.
• If Mitch McConnell (Kentucky Senator) loses his reelection bid, Democrats have a good chance of gaining enough seats in the Senate to break a filibuster.
• Assuming Dems win the White House and Congressional seats convincingly, and almost all signs indicate that is very likely, they will bear a huge responsibility to prove they are capable of leading this nation back to prosperity. If they don't, I predict you'll see a god-awful swing back to the right in 2 years.

Slow News Day

Here are a few police capsules from the Mukilteo Beacon newspaper. This is totally real, honest.

Animal Complaint
A caller reported seeing a cougar near the west entrance to Court Yard Apartments. Officers searched the area, but no cougar was located. An officer contacted the caller who pointed out an object in the parking lot which was determined to be a traffic cone.

Civil Problem
Responding to a report of an assault at the AM-PM, officers learned that a customer had felt "disrespected" by an employee over an incident with a garbage can. No police action was taken.

Suspicious
A caller reported that one of his tires was about 10 PSI below recommended pressure. There was no damage to the tire.