jaq’s blog

Practical devices

nobody@vox.com(jaq) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:33:58 -0700

We have two inexpensive torchere-style lamps that the bases of fluorescent bulbs simply would not fit into - the wide part (ballast maybe?) of the compact fluorescents are just too wide for the way the lamps are made. I was buying compostable Bio-bags on Gaiam and spotted these socket extenders. They arrived today and work perfectly, allowing enough clearance that I can put those CF bulbs to use and ditch the incandescents. You can probably find these at a local hardware store too.

By the way, if you live in an area that collects compostable garbage separately (as we do - Cleanscapes has special, less expensive, bright orange bags for it), or if you have a compost pile but want to collect a few days worth of scraps, the 3-gallon sized Bio-bags are terrific. We drink a lot of tea and so have quantities of wet leaves (in addition to all the greasy cardboard pizza boxes and paper sandwich wrappers and various food waste) - they are collected in a Bio-bag lined covered dump bucket and removed to the special orange bag in the chest freezer every few days. Once the bag is full, it's hauled out to the alley for pickup.

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Indoor weeding

nobody@vox.com(jaq) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:07:50 -0700

So, if you decide to get a Smart Catbox (which really is working out very well for us) or go my DIY route and construct a draining litter pan that uses sunflower or safflower seeds for the litter, don't think that just because your cat has peed on the seeds they won't still sprout. Because if you let a few wash down the sink or shower drain, soon you'll have a tiny green forest, right in your bathroom fixtures.

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Sounds of silence

nobody@vox.com(jaq) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:15:57 -0700

Whoa, sorry about the lapse. Things have been awfully busy. Work demands had me living in soCal for most of November and a big chunk of December and led to my resigning effective mid-January. I've since begun consulting again, and that's going well. Debt pay-off is also going very well - overall debt is down to $93k (from a max of $105k), and I've paid off 3 credit cards (two that were incredibly high interest, the third had a low balance). The average interest rate on my debt is approximately 18%, and the balance is dropping steadily every month.

Being self-employed means having to find my own health insurance, which wasn't too onerous. I do still need to talk to a CPA to make sure I've set everything up correctly, but I've found a few on-line resources that have been helpful. Since I don't have inventory or employees, the business and accounting structure is straightforward. I have to work on rounding up the necessary self-discipline to actually work at paying work instead of playing Scrabulous all day long, but I'm fairly motivated by the stacks of bills.

I'm also participating a group cooking blog: Is That...Pie? We just started last month; come take a look.

One last note before I disappear for another 4 months - one of our cats now has diabetes. Not fun, but hopefully manageable with a change to high protein food.

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Square living

nobody@vox.com(jaq) — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 09:14:19 -0700

I know I keep saying this: I love living downtown. Love love love love it. After work last night - what should we do for dinner? Order pizza? Oh, we also need soap. Let's go up to the market, maybe Soapbox is still open. We can eat there too, at the brewery maybe?

And so we go. Catch the bus across the street (any of them will do, and it's still Free Ride time). As we lurch up 1st Ave, a ginormous parade of bicyclists come straight at us! Is it the Dead Babies???? Is our favorite bicycling guy Tion among them??? R. thinks he spots him, right up front, but isn't certain. The bicyclists keep coming, the entire block is filled with people on bikes. They are stopped at a light - oh, not Dead Babies then? No, they are far too many, a veritable swarm. Several in costume - a handful of bunny ears are spotted, a zombie, others. It was delightful, from our bus-borne perspective.

The Soapbox is closed when we get there just after 6. We walk down to the brewery, past shops closed and closing. Dinner is served by a bald giant with a booming voice and a theatrical bent, and the place is just loud loud loud. The food is fine: braised brat with garlic mashed and apple sauerkraut for me, spicy chicken sandwich for R. No beers for us though, just a diet soda and a rum and cola. When we leave at 7:30, free bus rides are over for the night, so we walk the slightly downhill mile to home. Life's pretty good here.

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Meat, the press

nobody@vox.com(jaq) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 19:48:37 -0700

So, I started a buying club for pastured meats a few months ago - this is for a farm we've been buying meat from for about 8 years, and their meats are all excellent. A few other people at my place of work were also interested, et voila! The South Seattle S.O.L.E. Buying Club was hatched. Now, the company I work for is relocating to Mercer Island, and the carnivores in the company were asking if they'd have to give up their monthly fix. So now, I'm the contact person for 2 outlets for Thundering Hooves meats.

Today, in the Pacific Northwest magazine, the cover story featured Thundering Hooves amazing heritage turkeys and I've been swamped with requests for info on how to buy these birds in Seattle. Trouble is, they've been sold out for weeks. They are well worth the year's wait though, and I hope everyone who wants to try one this year tries the beef, pork, lamb, goat, and chicken from Thundering Hooves and gets their order in for a Thanksgiving turkey in August 2008!

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In the neighborhood

nobody@vox.com(jaq) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 11:59:52 -0700

I had to be gone to the LA area for 9 days for work, and was so glad to return to cool, damp Seattle. Things I love about our new neighborhood: all kinds of food availability a few steps from our front door and Elliott Bay Books just across the street. We had lunch yesterday at a pho shop (next to Marcus's Martini Heaven) - so terrific having a tasty soup restaurant just down the block, especially in the fall and winter. Good fresh rolls too.

Last night we went to hear Harry Shearer (the voice of Montgomery Burns and others on the Simpsons, and the bass player from Spinal Tap) read from his novel Not Enough Indians downstairs at Elliott Bay Books. His talk was interesting, especially his comments about New Orleans, and the questions that followed from the crowd were lucid and not too gushy-fanboy. I have a feeling the book may be funnier to listen to than to read, but bought a text version anyway. Things were over by 9 pm, and we stood in the signing line for a little while. But I was too hungry to stay, so we bailed and wandered out into the early part of a Pioneer Square Saturday night.

There are huge crowds in our blocks of 1st Avenue South most evenings, but moreso on Friday and Saturday nights. 20-somethings surge out of the J&M and Central Tavern and the dance club south of Washington, jostling, smoking, posturing, playing rough, on the sidewalks. Indian food sounded good, and we walked up to Flavor of India, which worries me because it is almost always empty and I want it to stay in business so I can get my curry fix sated at will. The A-board outside said they were open until 10, but it lied. At 9:15, they decided to be closed. The Longhorn barbecue outpost next door was also closed. The Taco del Mar was open, but well, no. Thanks anyway, not tonight. So we headed to our favorite new old standby, Trattoria Michelli, which is open until 4 am on Friday and Saturdays. Bless them. We shared a hot loaf of bread, drizzled with pesto and filled with thick creamy goat cheese, drank several glasses of the Michelli red (it is just brilliant that we can just ~~stumble~~ walk home!), and some tasty pasta dishes. I had calamari added to my penne puttanesca, and it arrived with a giant pile of battered and fried goodness on top. Mr. Jaq had something creamy and chickeny and sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts on fettucine. Our waitress was dealing with what sounded like a wild crowd from Snohomish county in the next room, who were really whooping it up (they kept yelling at each other "INSIDE VOICE!!! INSIDE VOICE!!!"), at least until their food arrived.

Today, there's a 1 pm Seahawks game, so it will be mayhem outside from 9 am (when the bars open) until about noon. It's quiet in our apartment though, since our windows are on the alley side of the building. We are definitely happy to be here.

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so moved

nobody@vox.com(jaq) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:52:15 -0700

Photos here.

Even if you do it every year, a person can forget how hard and traumatic moving is. Things still aren't settled, but progress has been made.

What I can't tell is, are we getting any sleep? It should have been Heavy Metal Monday last night at the Central, and this morning I couldn't remember hearing any music at all. Am I living in a hazy fugue state now, brought on by music every night and green flashing lights in the alley at 4 am every morning and not being able to keep the cats off the bed?

It's possible.

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Movin' on up

nobody@vox.com(jaq) — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 09:53:39 -0700

That's right, in addition to all the other craziness in our lives, we are moving AGAIN. This time, to a loft space in Pioneer Square, the heart of downtown Seattle. Part of the impetus is cost-saving - though the rent is the same as our current space, the utility costs are either included in the rent or more easily controlled. The utilities for our current space run between $400 and $500/month.

Another consideration is location. While our current space is relatively handy to our work (we both are currently working in south Seattle), we find ourselves constantly driving into town, because everything we want to do happens there. Our current neighborhood will eventually be more convenient to town, once the light rail is running, in 2009. In the meantime, we are missing the liveliness and possibilities that living urban offers - lots of things in walking distance of the new place (bookstore, library, waterfront, restaurants, bars, clubs, music venues) and the new place is in Seattle's free bus zone, so it's a quick, free trip up to the Pike Place Market and the art museum and a just a bit of a walk to Seattle Center from the edge of the free ride boundary. We will also be close to the bus tunnel (which is scheduled to re-open this month), so a bus commute to work for either of us will be straightforward.

The new place is directly on the "Ride the Ducks" route and that of the Seattle Underground Tour. When you come visit, be sure to wave (or quack) near the intersection of 1st and Washington.

All the books, records, and CDs are packed. We get the keys on Tuesday and the movers are scheduled for the next Monday. There are many boxes never unpacked from our last move, which beg the question "Can we just throw them out unopened?"

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Something special

nobody@vox.com(jaq) — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 08:32:08 -0700

Yesterday, I was asked to write something about why my town is special. There are so many things I love about Seattle, but I chose to write about the absolutely most mundane: the weather.

" I live in Seattle, a town that by virtue of geography is special. Lakes and ocean and mountains are all within striking distance; the weather is mild, made temperate by large bodies of water with winds muted by both the Olympic and Cascade ranges. It's a place where people are pleased by the sun, or the appearance of Mt. Rainier in a blue sky,or the way Lake Washington sparkles and froths from a floating bridge. I've lived in other places - the hot and humid, the hot and dry, the cold and icy. In those places, whatever their other charms, the weather was generally seen as an enemy during some part of the year. In Seattle, while it's not exactly an ally, it is never nefarious. It's more of an annoying little brother - the one you have to take with you to the movies or to the park because your mom said you had to. There are times you feel affection for him, and there are times you deny his existence and there are times you roll your eyes at his tantrums. But Seattlites don't have to fight him or fear him, not like they do in tornado alley or the Sonoran desert. It aids equanimity, to be able to let the weather simply fade to background noise. That is special, and I for one like it."

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I'm convinced

nobody@vox.com(jaq) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:31:19 -0700

Arguments for streaming/downloading music vs. buying vinyl/cds etc

1) Better for the planet.
2) More room in the house.
3) More cost effective
4) Easier to get rid of embarrassing tracks/bands you used to love and now make you cringe.

So, check out Rhapsody - you can listen to 25 tracks for free every month, or sign up for $13/month for completely unlimited listens. I've streamed close to 250 tracks since I signed up on Monday. Very good value.

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