2008 in Pictures

Since Anya and I don't send out Christmas cards or the typical annual letter, we compiled a group of our favorite pictures from 2008 and added descriptive comments. If you don't regularly look at all the pictures we post (or even if you do), this will be a good overview.

Although this set contains a nice variety of landscapes (mountains, beaches, forests) and cityscapes (Tokyo, Amsterdam, Paris), mainly these photos represent good memories of times with friends and family in 2008.

Happy New Year.

Skiing season begins

We were finally able to kickoff the skiing season yesterday. The 4 of us - including Anya's parents - went to our regular place (Crystal Mountain). They'd had ~30 inches of new snow in the last few days and probably 90% of the terrain was open. The skiing was fantastic; we got knee-deep powder shots in a few places. We took a few pictures of the day.

The morning was beautiful and sunny, but by afternoon it clouded up and starting snowing. By the time we got back to Seattle it was like being in a blizzard - we got about 6" of snow overnight; the worst snow storm to hit Seattle since 1996.

With more sleet & snow in the forecast for both Seattle & Minneapolis, my trip to MN for Christmas this week is starting to look like it's in jeopardy.

Seattle shut down

The snow last weekend turned out to just be a taste of things to come. It's been snowing now in Seattle for the last 12 hours or so, with about 3" of accumulation in our neighborhood.

By Minnesota standards, of course, it's nothing. But for a city with no snowplows and no capacity to put sand or salt on its hilly streets it means that everything basically shuts down.

Luckily Anya and I have been able to work from home, and her parents are enjoying their visit despite the weather. We can't wait for things clear to up; the skiing is going to be great!

After the snow

Although it's still bitterly cold in Seattle (in the upper 20's), at least the sun came out. This shot is downtown Seattle & the Olympic mountains seen from Bellevue this morning. Credit goes to the Seattle Times.

Snow in Seattle

It's unusual for Seattle to receive snow and even more unusual for it to stick. Nevertheless, we woke up this morning with a dusting of snow in our garden. It might actually stay around for a while, too: we're supposed to have high temperatures of ~30 degrees for the next few days.

The bright side is that the mountains got hammered and the ski areas are opening. Anya's parents arrive today for a 3-week Christmas & New Year's visit. We're excited to see them and show them around (it's their first visit to Seattle).

Rainier pics

Check this out: http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog/35631614.html

Thanks, Matt, for finding this.

Mice update

Our infestation of mice is finally under control. We think we figured out how they got in and had our builder come plug the holes.

Since apparently it's likely that you, dear reader, will have your home invaded my mice some day (or at least that's what they say), I thought I would share what worked for us.

We tried 4 different mouse-catching devices:
1. Old-fashioned mouse traps. These things are next to worthless: we tried more than a dozen of these (2 different brands) over the course of a week and only caught 1 mouse. Mostly the mice just ate the peanut butter bait without setting the trap off, although many times they were able to trigger the trap without getting caught.

2. New-fangled traps (jaws-like things). Same problem as the old traps. Caught 1 mouse with these over a week using 4 traps.

3. High-tech mouse-zapping box. They crawl in to get the bait, step on 2 metals plates to close a circuit and ZAP! Sounds cool. The only problem is, our mice never crawled in. Deployed for one week without catching a single mouse. At least the bait wasn't missing, though.

4. Glue traps. The mice walk onto the traps and get stuck. The least humane technique, but the only really effective one. We deployed 6 glue traps and caught 4 mice in 24 hours. Infestation gone. I know what I'll be buying next time.

Eastern Washington

My parents have been to Seattle quite a few times, even before Anya and I moved here. Over the years they've seen and done a lot of the stuff the area has to offer. We had to find something new to keep them busy, and one of the big things they'd never done was cross the Cascades to visit Eastern Washington.

To those of us who live in the verdant strip of land between the ocean and Cascades, "Eastern" Washington is a mythical land: a dry, sunny, deserted (both meanings of that word) place where people come from, not go to.

I'm mostly kidding, but there is a divide - both in the land and in the people. Sage brush replaces towering pines. Towns have rodeos. People wear cowboy hats without irony. "Regular" and "decaf" are the only types of coffee available.

These types of cultural learnings aside, the purpose of our trip was to visit two places that cater exclusively to tourists - most of them from the wet side of the mountains.

Cave B winery is a place Anya and I visited last year with great pictorial results. It's in a spectacular location high above the Columbia River about 2.5 hours from Seattle. Unusually, it was cloudy when we were there. Oh well - the views were maybe a little less spectacular, but the restaurant still served great food and the wine still tasted good.

Following an overnight in the orchard-surrounded town of Wenatchee, the self-proclaimed "Apple Capitol of the World," we moved on to the faux-Bavarian village of Leavenworth, WA. Apparently when the railroad business dried up in the 60's the town languished until someone had to idea to transform it into a tourist trap. Aside from the architecture and lederhosen it doesn't really bear much resemblance to the real Bavaria. Judging from the hordes of people getting off the tourist busses to admire the Christmas lights, the plan worked nonetheless.

It continues to impress me how one can drive only a short distance from Seattle over well-maintained passes and end up in an environment that's so different. Mountains are remarkable things.

Because it was cloudy we kept our photo-taking to a minimum. The ones we did end up with are here.