April 2008 Archives
Yesterday, Ben & Jerry's hosted their annual Free Cone Day. As has become a tradition, Emily and I headed down to the Kirkland waterfront to participate in the festivities. Unlike previous years, the temperature was about 10-15 degrees colder. That being said, nothing would stand in between us and the dream of free ice cream.
You can tell right away that I had the crazy eyes of ice cream fandom. Don't worry, I wasn't double wielding two cones - one was for Cougar.
The other thing we love about Kirkland, besides the fact it has its own set of cougars, is the "take it to make it" flags. That's right people. When you want to cross the street, there are yellow flags that you take in order to make the journey safely. For all you east coasters that are falling out of your chairs laughing, the yellow flag is one of the most respected symbols here, second only to a dry-clean only tag on your favorite sweater.
Cougar loves the flags.
Just saw this article on the Seattle PI. Looks like the houseboat Tom Hank's character inhabited during the 1993 Film, Sleepless in Seattle is for sale. Despite popular belief, this blog and that film have no association.
Anywho, the 2,075 square foot house can be yours for a mere $2.5 million. Considering the location and notoriety of that house, it may not be a bad deal.
It's one of the nicest days yet this spring, and do you know how people spent it? Indoors, playing chess. For an intense 12 hours. The catering business Emily works for had one of their biggest events yet-- a grueling all-day chess match with 8,000 of the Northwest's finest geeks. They were lined up in long rows in multiple rooms like the one pictured below. Participants came in all shapes, sizes, ages, and likelihoods to ever speak to a member of the opposite sex.
Microsoft recruiters should have just set up shop.
After stopping in to visit Emily and assess the post-mortem lunch situation that had transpired from 8,000 hungry participants looking for more "brain food", I headed back to Seattle.
I keep forgetting how nice this place is in the summer months. Such a difference.
When I first put money down on a condo, it was a very strange feeling to know that I wouldn't set foot inside it for about a year. Slowly, but surely, the vague thought that I may actually have somewhere to move to this fall is starting to become a reality. The powers that be at my condo just posted a photo of the latest construction.
I guess I better start figuring out how I'm going to furnish this place. Never really thought about that before, mostly because every time I saw it up until now... it didn't even have walls.
I started reading Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking for the first time today. I know, I know... I'm way behind the 8 ball on this whole reading thing. That's alright, it just means that I'm discovering all the great nuggets of insight for the first time while the best thing most others can have is the re-read. I've done the re-read many times. I'm big on the re-read. But I decided it was time to start reading some new works, so it's off Dale Carnegie and on to others. This week, Malcolm Gladwell.
I'm just scraping the surface as I've only made it to chapter 3, but so far I've found some really interesting nuggets of knowledge. It is amazing how accurate some of our first blush reactions to something are. It seems that popular wisdom has us suppressing these natural capabilities. So many times at work I think that something isn't exactly as it should be, whether it's a product feature or a decision that is being made. But I find myself suppressing those thoughts, instead looking to back any such "irrational thinking" with hard data.
3 months and $20,000 from my marketing budget later, I often find myself with the same answer I had arrived at in that first moment. I'm sure it can be hit or miss, but I appreciate how the book is pointing out that sometimes when people garner a wealth of expertise in a subject, they actually become much better equipped for a snap judgement. It essentially becomes a "safe bet" for those individuals.
Being able to quickly size up a situation, in this case, is something that should be cherished, not necessarily disparaged. We'll see if there's a "but" coming... there usually always is.
Last week's episode of Scrubs introduced a concept called "Brinner". Put simply, it's having breakfast for dinner, ie, pancakes and a glass of red wine. Sounds appealing, no?
Knowing I wasn't ready to bring Brinner full boar into my life without a period of transition, I decided to start by moving breakfast from it's normal start time to one that is a bit later in the day. Some call this brunch. I call it delicious.
What better place for Em and I to visit than Anthony's Home Port in beautiful (and Beverly Hill-ish) Kirkland. There's no better place to spot some cougars, catch a view of the cloudy waterfront, and chow done on some culinary delights.
What I love about Anthony's is that they've still found a way to give us the equivalent of bread and butter, except with a breakfast slant. Check out the warm coffee cake with cinnamon butter and fruit with some sort of sweet mango dip. That was nearly a meal in itself. Note to self- don't even order next time, the coffee cake and fruit is plenty.
You can already see my face is fattening up. Maybe I'm ready for Brinner sooner than I thought.
It's been a pretty lazy weekend so far. I worked late last night, then Emily and I carpooled back to my apartment in the snow. Yeah, you read that right: snow. We're now in late April, why wouldn't there be winter weather, right?
But seriously, this is crazy considering the weather we had literally 6 days ago. The below is from a walk I took last Saturday. The temperature was in the high 70s, and I finally thought we were leaving the cold behind.
Oh well, I guess I bought that new pair of sunglasses a little too soon.
After a month or two of being of the grid, I'm finally paying attention once again to this blog. My apologies for being away, but it's really been a hectic time. Since I last posted I've launched a new product, done a keynote with the E&D prez Robbie Bach, and just now started work on a completely new team.
The new team is in stealth mode right now (to borrow a phrase from my friend Ford Davidson), but I assure you it's very cool.
Anyway, I'll be back to more regular posting now, for better or worse.
