Here in the PacNW, we’re known to be pretty hard on those who commit Party Fouls.
Truck hits, kills Tacoma man who dropped pizza.
You don’t even want to know what we do to folks who spill their beer.
Here in the PacNW, we’re known to be pretty hard on those who commit Party Fouls.
Truck hits, kills Tacoma man who dropped pizza.
You don’t even want to know what we do to folks who spill their beer.
When we left our intrepid wannabe collegiate (aka: Me), he had been advised by the college’s “Welcome Center Adviser” to contact the head of the Social Sciences Department to get advised on his course work. The question needing answered was: Is Geography an AA or AS degree?
This went on for two days until the SS Dept. head finally stated that he didn’t know either and was at a loss to advise me. On the plus side, I did get invited to meet with him in person to go over course possibilities. Even better, he was finally able to contact the Geography instructor and get him to exchange a few emails with me.
After a couple days of emails I finally got my answer: I was unknowingly asking a trick question. Geography can be both an “Art” and a “Science”. The key to the decision is how much physical geography you study. Anything involving physical geography would involve a fair amount of courses in Geological science.
During the past couple weeks I’ve been winding my way through the process of being admitted to and registering for college. I’ve come to the assumption that they have made it a multitude more complicated than it needs to so as to employ as many people in the process as possible (all union jobs, you see).
The Admissions process is relatively painless. You give them your information and, providing that you’ve been honest and don’t have any disqualifications, they admit you. I did mine online. It cost $10.
A simple panorama from 5500ft with Mount Tahoma just in front of Mount Rainier, who is wearing a hat for the day, both of whom are standing behind by Governor’s Ridge.

(click to enlarge – I also have a larger version of this one)
Enjoy!
Hemorrhagic swine flu in Ukraine….
We’ve “cycled through” our 3-month food supply by eating it all over the last few months. (Didja know that canned pork’n’beans tastes great with canned spaghetti? I didn’t either.) I’m gonna try to do a Costco run next week to get us back up to at least 30 days’ worth of supplies. Gotta do some juggling on the monthly budget/cash flow spreadsheet. And the spare gas cans are empty, and we used up much of our flu supplies over the summer with basic colds… still have three weeks’ worth of Tamiflu, though. But the time to restock the rest of it is right now.
I attended a national law firm’s Preparing the Workplace for Pandemic Flu seminar back in May. Have we implemented any of the recommendations at our workplace? We have not, and that’s basically my fault. Time to squeeze that into my workweek somehow….
Oh, California’s 10% tax hike withholding increase (to be “refunded” on next year’s tax return) isn’t helping. Saw my reduced paycheck hit the bank this afternoon and immediately decided the wife and I will be presenting our respective payroll departments with revised W-4s tomorrow. 9 exemptions here we come. Why? Because I fully expect that, just like this year, I will get a four-figure tax refund IOU from the state that I can’t redeem until October. Screw ’em.
* for the Captain Trips reference, see here.
On our way back down from Chinook Pass, I ventured a bit down Hwy 123. Hwy 123 connects to Hwy 12 and takes you on into Yakima. The Hwy410-123-12 loop is one of the most gorgeous drives any time of year and I highly recommend it.
This is Shriner Peak.

(click to enlarge – I also have a larger version of this one)
One more tomorrow.
On the way back home I took a detour, or what The Wife likes to call a “Don’t you get us stuck out here” road.
Because I wanted to get this pic of this valley

(Click to embiggen – I have a larger version I can email if any of y’all like this one)
This is at about 3800ft looking west atop Buck Creek Road looking out over the upper White River valley. If someone hadn’t gated Slippery Creek Road, I would have been able to get both Tacoma and Seattle in the same frame.
4th of July nights used to be specatcular up there.
New Jovian Thunderbolt found something very kewl: the Internet Movie Firearm Database. Hie the hence.
Home for lunch and turned on MSNBC to hear the whining. Host just quoted a poll of Dems: “would Democrats be doing better at the polls today if health-care had been passed?” Answer: Yes, which just shows their cluelessness, especially because the host followed that up by saying the Word is that the health-care bill will not be passed this year but put over into 2010.
I’d say somebody’s getting the message, wouldn’t you?

I’m off to vote and then go to the range.
Or, maybe I’ll go to the range and then go vote.
If I was in Chicago, I couldn’t go to the range, so I’d have to vote twice!