Life in the Garden Part 47: Trading Beer for Beans

Oh, the sacrifices we make for our gardens. For three days, I have surrendered beer for my pole beans.

I planted the starters 10 days ago, and all was well. Last year, the pole beans were one of my easiest crops. All I had to do was plant the seeds and they took off.  I had snacks available every time I stepped onto the deck.

Late last week, it looked like my arch nemesis, the aphid, was back. Those little green suckers have chomped way too many leaves on me in the past. I rushed out to the nursery and grabbed a bottle of Neem Oil and was ready to go to battle the next day.

But the holes in the leaves seemed a lot bigger than they should have been. I doubled down on the spray in the daylight. On Sunday evening, as it got a little darker, I realized the aphids were a mere distraction.  

My attacker this time was bigger.

Slimmier.  

Sluggier.

Slugs. I founds a slug on a leaf.  

In damp, dark Seattle, slugs are as common as Thai food and coffee. But I don’t have ordinary slugs. I have industrious slugs.

Caffeinated slugs.

These slug in my pole beans didn’t just crawl over from the neighbor’s yard or the nearest salmon run.  My pole beans are planted in a big container. On a rubber covered deck.  60 feet in the air.

And they got up there.

I don’t know if they hitched a ride on a bird, snuck in with the plants from the nursery, or scaled the side of the building.

Fortunately, if there’s one thing we learned from The Simpsons, it’s that beer is the perfect solution to any problem.

Slugs like beer, and slugs are dumb. I built slug traps.

To deal with slugs,  you can dig a small hole in the dirt, and bury a small yogurt container up to the rim, and pour in some beer about a quarter or half way and leave it overnight.  The scent of beer will attract the slugs. The slimy bastards will wiggle their way over to feast on the beer. They’ll slither down the side for a sip, reach the beer, dive in, and drown.  The beer gorging is like 1:00 AM at a Capitol Hill bar with cheap pitchers and unlimited chicken wings. Only most bar goers don’t drown in their meal. Most.

My new nightly ritual involves dumping the previous night’s flat beer and dead slugs into a zip lock bag, which I then drop drown the trash chute. Then I open another beer and [sob] refill the container.  Then I drink the rest of the beer.

Tonight I took it another step. I added a small, formerly-juiced-filled bottle on its side with more beer bait.  I have to get more creative with these slugs.

Because I think the slugs are getting bigger. They’re starting to level up. Again.

Westlake Christmas Tree Lighting

On Black Friday I opted out of shopping (I've served my time in retail). In years past I've gone to the Holiday parade, but this time, the idea of sleeping late was just too appealing.  Besides, I've taken lots of pictures of the parade over the years:

• 2009
• 2008
• 2007
• 2006
• 2005

Normally it's rainy and on TV anyway.

This year, that turned out not to be the best solution.  It was oddly bright and sunny, and for some reason, no one saw fit to broadcast it on TV this year.

Despite the rough start, the day got better and the GF and I went to the tree lighting in Westlake Plaza. We were just two people among the 15,000 who turned out for the event.

The tree and the Macy's star were all set up and ready for the evening to start.






After and hour of sun setting, crowd plowing, musical renditions, a mayoral greeting (of course people boo'ed the Mayor), the finally lit the tree, carousel, and Macy's star. Then the fireworks started:




And then the cell phones came out. It's amusing how any major event these days is surrounded and captured by dozens or hundreds of cell phones, many of which are likely to do a poor job preserving the event. But they still come out.










The other iconic element of any major Seattle event remain the infamous pile of Starbucks cups. They tower on top of trash cans for miles around as a beacon for the Ghosts of Coffee Consumed.




But don't worry. It's okay. We recycle, tool.




Cell phones and Starbucks are not the only Holiday traditions we have in Seattle.  The season would be nothing without annual protesters.  Elements of our city were objecting to consumers and corporate dominance long before Occupy Wall Street made is cool.




Overall it was a fun evening and a swell day. It was a great way to green-light the rest of the Christmas season.




You can see a few more pictures of the event here.

Not much has changed in 90 years

My Mother and I visited the Museum of History and Industry last week, and it is a fascinating look back at Seattle through the years.  They currently have an exhibit called Now and Then, which showcases historical photos of Seattle next to the an image shot from essentially the same location today.

They showed classic images of the opening of the first floating bridge across Lake Washington.  Years later, it would become part of I-90.




What struck me most was the placard next to it.





The first line reads:

After 20 years of debate about whether to build it, and where and how, the first bridge across Lake Washington took 18 months to complete.

Twenty years.

Twenty years to make that simple decision.

The most frustrating thing about Seattle and probably what will keep Seattle from ever achieving its potential is its inability to make a decision and do anything in a timely manner. The Seattle characteristic that drove the city to discuss this bridge for 20 years in the past is the same reason why we don't have a significant rail system today. It's why we have 3 yes votes before having a no vote and scrapping the monorail.  It's why we're still arguing about how to get light rail to the east side and why we're still arguing about replacing our crumbling viaduct that was severely damaged in an earthquake 10 years ago.  The contracts are signed and we still may have another vote on it.

I guess it's reassuring to know that this is not a new phenomenon.  Seattle has never been able to make up it's mind about infrastructure in anything resembling a sensible time frame.

I guess this also means it's never going to get any better.

Woodland Park Zoo Wins Award for Penguin Exhibit

Apparently, Seattle is a good home for Humboldt penguins.  According to the Seattle Times:

The penguin exhibit at Woodland Park Zoo has won one of the most prestigious awards in the zoo and aquarium industry.

The Association of Zoos & Aquariums honored the zoo with the Exhibit Achievement Award, according to a news release from the zoo.

"We are honored that our peers at AZA have recognized our goal of encouraging our zoo guests to explore and discover more about the Humboldt penguins' natural history and their plight in the wild, the birds' connection to people and the collaborative work underway to help this endangered species," Woodland Park Zoo President and CEO Dr. Deborah Jensen said in the release.
...More

I'm not surprised.  It's a nice exhibit.  The GF and I visited it last August.  It's outdoors, but it let's you see the penguins both on dry land and swimming under water.  Unlike the more traditional and mechanized displays at Seaworld, this one is filled with twists and turns. It has round windows and Plexiglas barriers. The top is open, so while the penguins can't fly or jump out, other birds can visit.  The penguins don't seem to mind.  I guess they're friendly hosts.

Here are some pictures I took during that visit in August, 2009.

There aren't an penguins in this picture, but it is from the penguin habitat.  The sun shined through the windows to cast this refraction.

It's easy to pass an hour or more at the penguin exhibit, watching those critters go about their business.

You can see more penguin pictures from this exhibit here.

Sheriff's Helicopter -- N407KS

During the President's visit to Seattle on August 17, very few aircraft flew over the city.  The King County Sheriff's Department helicopter was one of them.  It was a gorgeous earlier in the day, and much more conducive to photography than when Air Force 1 lifted off later on.  Here are a few pictures I took of the helicopter.

More pictures are available in this set.

Looking back on it, perhaps standing on the roof with a zoom lens pointed at an aircraft while the President was in town may not have been thine wisest choice...

Goth in Training

Seen at the Soltice parade:

Naked Self Confidence

Note:  Links in this post go to pictures of naked people.  You may need to sign in to your Flickr account to see them (If you don't have a Flickr/Yahoo account, you can open one here).  I don't know if that will encourage or dissuade you from clicking, but hey, the more you know...

The Fremont Solstice Parade happens every June in Seattle.  It's best known for one of its unofficial element -- the naked bike ride that leads it off.  Hundred of people don bike helmets and body paint to welcome the summer weather.  Or in the case of this year, the drizzle.  You can see all my pictures from this event here.

You can easily see different the different comfort levels some people have with their bodies.

Some people are comfortable enough just to don a full costume of paint and ride with friends.

Some are comfortable enough to ride by themselves.

Some will let loose their inner rebel pilot.

Some are willing to forgo most of the body paint.

Some are comfortable enough that if they are late and miss the starting point, they'll still enter the parade.

Some are comfortable enough to stand around in crowd of clothed people, chatting with their friends while wearing only body paint.

But it takes real confidence to sit down in a restaurant after the parade and have lunch while you enjoy your body paint.

Props to all those riders who entertained the thousands of onlookers.

Podcasts and Authors

In the same week I listened to podcast interviews with two of my favorite authors.  Chris Hardwick of The Nerdist interviewed Scott Sigler, while Matt and Shannon of Seattle-Geekly interviewed Marjorie Liu.

If you are a fan of geek culture at all, or the process of stand-up comedy in particular, you should be listening to The Nerdist podcast.  Add Seattle-Geekly if you live in Western Washington.

The problem with the interviews is that they barely talked about the books I read.  The Sigler interview was fantastic, covering both culture and process. Sure, Sigler was there to promote Ancestor, but I wish they would have spoken more about Infected and Contagious.  I suppose spoilers could make it problematic, for new listeners, but I still wanted to hear more.

The Liu interview seemed to be more of a missed opportunity.  I'm guessing that Matt and Shannon were not too familiar with the Hunter Kiss series. The books take place predominantly in Seattle, and Liu lived in Seattle for many years.  Rather than just exploring Liu's geek nature (which is still awesome), and her new video game adaptation, I wish they would have spoken more specifically about Seattle and the influence the city has had on Liu's writing.  The strength of the Seattle-Geekly cast is the local tie.  Instead, the interview (while still good) could have been done by a podcast in most any other city.

Despite those concerns, these were both good shows. Ancestor is the next book I need to read, and now I need to add Feed to my list (thanks to the podcast).  Plus, the latest Seattle-Geekly episode just introduced me to some awesome geek musicians. The shows are worth subscribing to.

Friendly Pets

The Fremont Solstice Festival is always entertaining.  It's best know for the parade and its collection of naked bikers (mildly NSFW pictures here). While looking at the "official" entertainment, though, don't ignore the crowd.  The people watching is awesome.

For example, folks crowded around some beautifully (and weirdly) decorated cars at the Art Car exhibit.One woman had a cat on her shoulders.  The cat was very calm, climbing all around her head.  That started to draw the crowd away from the vehicles as people wanted to pet the cat.  She smiled gleefully.  Suddenly her other pet poked out from her hair and crawled around her neck. 

Then it started to lick her teeth.  Woman, cat, and rodent all seemed quite happy and pleased with the attention.  And the gathered crowd tried to make sense of this alternative little family.

Flying into Seattle

One of the best things about living in Seattle is flying home. 

If the weather and ATC are cooperating, you get some beautiful views of the city.  I fly into cities all over the country and none of them compare to the view you get when landing at SeaTac (SEA) from the north. 
I took this pictures from a seat over the wing on 2010-04-29, on an Alaska Airlines flight from Las Vegas.


(Not much skyline in that one, but the cloud looks like someone lying down on their back)

Art pecking at the Needle

I took this shot on 2010-03-18 while walking through the Olympic Sculpture Park.  I didn’t realize how it would look when the camera flattened my three dimensions into two.

Spend money on infrastructure now

Seattle is getting ready to start work on the replacement for the SR99 viaduct through Seattle.  We're still not sure if it's going to be a bridge, a tunnel, a boulevard, or a wormhole.  As soon as a plan is locked someone decides we need to talk about it some more.  Come on people.  I don't care if it's not the best solution, as long as it's good enough.  Just shut up and dig!

But that's a rant for another day.  Today I want to highlight some good news from the Seattle Times last week.  It concerns the first phase of the construction.

The low bid for the Sodo section of the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement came in Wednesday morning nearly $40 million lower than the state's estimate.

Skanska USA, of Riverside, Calif., was the apparent low bidder at $114.6 million. The project, from South Holgate Street to South King Street, features a large interchange that connects the two sports stadiums to the planned tunnel, as well as tourist and shipping destinations on Elliott Bay.

The project will create about 600 construction jobs, the state says.

There were six bidders for the work, all of whom were below the state engineers' estimate of $153 million, a reflection of the recession making construction companies hungry for business.

...More

I continue to see calls from various activists to reign in government spending because of the recession.  That is exactly the wrong thing to do.  I made a similar point just over a year ago.

We should spend money on durable infrastructure NOW.  Why now when budgets are strained and people are out of work?

• Interest rates are low so financing is cheap.
• Steel and construction materials are less expensive now than in a booming economy.
• Construction companies want more work are willing to build for less.
• Labor is readily available.
• Land acquisition is cheaper.

That's why it's cheaper to build now, and that means better long term savings for the tax payers.  We can get a bargain on stuff that will last us decades.  That's what we see in the first phase of the SR99 replacement and in a few other construction bids that have gone out.

Why else should we do it? 

Well, it's a great way to get people working -- to get money into the economy for the benefit of all of us without increasing the welfare roles.  When construction workers make money, they spend money so those dollars don't just stop at the city/state spending it.  Additionally, we also have to remember that we get a chunk of that pay and construction costs back in tax revenue.

Why shouldn't we just wait until the economy improves and "we can afford it?"

First of all, we'll need the infrastructure once employment and commerce are back to their roaring pace.  If we don't start building until then, the projects will all come on line just in time for the next recession.

Second, it's bad for big business.  When the economy is strong and big business is building its own infrastructure, it makes less sense for government to compete with business for materials and labor.  Trying to do major public infrastructure and major private infrastructure at the same time just drives up the costs for everyone.

Building major public infrastructure in the recession and at the tail end of a recession is good for the city/state, it's good for the unemployed, and it's good for big business.

The economy is improving.  The window on this recession opportunity it closing.

Start digging now.

Star Wars in Georgetown

On Friday, The GF, her former roommate, and I had dinner at The Georgetown Liquor Club Company.  It's a pub in a mainly industrial area of Seattle, just north of Boeing Field and right next to a set of active train tracks.  You know they best thing about this place was?  This:

It's the vector graphics Star Wars arcade game introduced in 1983.  It's probably been 15-20 years since I've played it, and it's still awesome.

In it you pilot Red 5's X-Wing fighter through a dog fight with Tie Fighters, across the surface of the Death Star against a series of gun turrets, and finally through the Death Star trench blowing up more turrets and dodging inconveniently placed beams until you finally drop your payload into that exhaust port that surely got some architect fired.

My favorite way to play this game was in the sit-down cabinet version they had at Electric Avenue in the Green Acres Mall.  But for now they stand-up version will be fine.

The food?  That was surprisingly good, too.  It's a vegetarian pub.  I'm not anti-vegetarian, but I am suspicious of that cult.  The food here was quite tasty though.

And raise your Geek flag higher, because it's all geek themed, with dishes named for Star Trek characters, Land of the Lost inhabitants, Penny Arcade denizens, and Battlestar Galactica profanity.  Check out the menu here.  And to top it off, they have Guinness on tap.

Good music, video games, tasty food, nice beer selection, and geek-friendly?  Throw in some bacon and beef and you may as well forward my mail.

Elysian Brewery

To celebrate my turning 27 for the 13th time on Wedneday, the GF and I went to the Elysian Brewing Company on Capitol Hill.

I'm sorry to say that I've lived on First Hill for 8 years and today was the first time I've been there.  I'm only starting to explore the close by, east-of-Broadway aspects of my neighborhood.

We had a nice, low-key dinner.  No one had the Delmonico.  I had a smoked mozzarella ravioli dish; the GF had a burger and fries.  We started with Nachos, which came covered with a layer of cheese so thick it resembled a comforter for the chips.  The entrees were good, but not spectacular.

We did have some fantastic potato and bacon soup, though. Order that if they have it the next time you're there. (For more on Bacon, click here;  for more on Bacon shoes, click here.)

Most people don't go there primarily for the food.  It's all about the beer.  They had a number of interesting looking seasonal brews, but I kept it simple and went for the Elysian Sampler.

It was a great way to compare some excellent beers, and something I don't get to do often. 

I've been a Guinness drinker for a while, and I've always been a fan of Stouts and Porters.  The sampler was a good opportunity to confirm that.  In the back of my head, I sometimes wondered if I preferred them because it was "cooler" or "tougher" or "more macho" to drink dark beers.  Those are normally not things I attempt to achieve with my food preferences, but I needed to be sure.

And yes, I did confirm that I still prefer the Porter from the sampler. It simply tastes better to me.

It is a deeper flavor than the other brews.  It lack the sharp bite of the Pilsner or the aftertaste of the IPA.  The Jasime had a pleasant floral scent but lacked the roundness of an Apricot Ale.  The ESB was my second favorite with its clean taste that stays with you.  And they were all good; there're no bad beers here.

But the Porter remained my favorite with it's thick, warm coating.  That slight, complex smokiness rounded out the dinner nicely.

It's the kind of beer I could see drinking at a corporate retreat at a ski lodge.  After a long day of meetings, followed by a few hours in the snow, I could see myself sitting off the side drinking the Porter.  5 to 7 people would be sitting in the room discussing and then arguing about some business problem.  And I can clearly see they're all missing the point.  I sit back, slowly sipping my rich beverage and finally know I have to put a stop to this.  I take another drink of the soothing elixer, wipe my lip on napkin, and stand up.  I step into the group and call for an end to the argument.  Then I explain the point they were all missing.  I may not solve the problem, but in choosing that moment, I bring the disucssion around to where it should have been in the first place.  And everyone goes back to working through the issue.

That's how the Porter feels.

More to come in the next few days about some of the nifty gifts I got.

Bike stolen

This is the sight that greeted me when I pulled into the parking garage this afternoon.  It's the remnants of my bike lock.  Apparently, someone stole the bike between 4:00 PM and 5:15 PM Monday afternoon.

It's frustrating because, while it is a secure garage, it's not too difficult to slip in and out as cars come and go.

Fortunately, it wasn't a terribly expensive bike.  I paid about $250 for it new on 2006-09-03.  My intent was to start out cheap because I hadn't owned a bike in several years and haven't ridden regularly since the Reagan administration. I thought I wanted to ride, but wasn't sure if I would get off my tail and just do it.

I haven't ridden it since I bought it.  I always planned to, but I haven't really been in the physical condition required to ride up the hills in my neighborhood, and it has been too many year for me to ride comfortably in traffic without a bit more practice.  To ride I would have had to drive it to a bike trail or other suitable area, unload it from the car, put the wheel back on, ride around, load it back in the car, and drive home.

I never quite got around to doing that.  Instead, it took up space in my apartment, and then later chained to the fence in my building's garage.

This summer, there was probably a 25% chance I would actually get out an ride.  I expected I'd feel like I was in a little better shape, thanks to the Wii Fit, but it's just as likely the hassle would have discouraged me.

Now I have to think about this project again.  Do I want to try actually riding in meatspace again, or should I just stick to the digital world?  Should I try another bike, or will it mainly end up as furniture?

In the meantime, maybe the thief will ride out into traffic illegally and get run over.  I just hope that in the process he doesn't damage the car that hits him.  Because that would be sad.

Splitting the city in two

Fights over infrastructure in Seattle are not new.  This article takes a brief look back at the creation off I5 and how it split the city in half.  That simple strip on concrete has become a sharp dividing line in the city, separating one neighborhood from another and really setting the bar for the cultural distinction between Downtown and First Hill/Capitol Hill.

Few Seattle construction projects have caused more headaches these last few years than the vital but weak Alaskan Way Viaduct. But go back a few decades, and we suffered the weight of a much larger concrete beast -- one that tore up neighborhoods and split the city -- quite literally -- in two.

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2009 Seattle Macy's Holiday Parade

Once again, the GF and I trudged down the hill, bellys sloshing with last night's dinner, to the Seattle Macy's Holiday Parade.  Ours is the day after Thanksgiving, which I guess fits in well with the whole Black Friday - Shop Downtown thing.  The parade is mostly the same each year, but it's still fun.

Last year, I shot pictures with my Sigma 70mm - 300 mm lens on my Pentax K10d, but I wasn't satisfied with the result.  Too many images were either underexposed from the more limited aperture or blurry from the long shutter speed. This year, I used my Pentax 50mm f1.4.  I figured I could get the exposure right, I could always crop images to make up for the lack of focal length.  I last wrote about this lens here. The focus wasn't always ideal due to the shallow depth of field, but I'm satisfied with most of my results.

Of course each parade has its share of cheerleaders and school bands.

I'm not sure if this piece of candy has a cold ear or an important cell phone call.

Not everyone appeared thrilled to be marching.

The Connect All Stars put together a pretty impressive demo of tossing women.

 

 

 

 

 

Several of Seattle's professional sports teams were out on this chilly morning.

The Seagals rode on the front of a giant football helmet like the statues on the front of old ships.  But happier.

They led the Seahawk mascot Blitz and the Seahawk band through the streets of Seattle.

The Sounders, our professional soccer team also had a substantial presence, led my mascot Dopler, who was followed by their marching band.

The Mariners, befitting their current stature in Seattle, brought the Moose and a van.

Seattle is know for having more dogs than children, so even though the dog clubs may not yet out number the marching bands and drill teams, there were still plenty of dog clubs marching, celebrating St. Bernards, Scottish Terriers, Old English Sheep Dogs, and Dalmations.

 

 

People stuck in the snack world may be a metaphor for modern American culture, but they also make neat parade attractions.

 

The unicycle riders were impressive.

 

This rider is jumping rope on her cycle.

I'm not sure what's more interesting here.  The fact that these two riders trust their friend's skills so much, or the shocked and appalled looks on faces of those in the crowd.

We had dancers dressed as Poinsettias.

 

The fire department brought out the big ladder truck.  I lucked out with this shot.

Of course what parade would be complete without a snow globe prisoner.  I like how the downtown skyline reflects in her glass cell.

And lest there be any doubt, Santa Clause is, "Innovative. Real. Groundbreaking."

We followed up the parade with some piroshkies.  I'd call it a successful morning.

You can see more of my parade pictures here.