Crazy weather

Frank Fujimoto
Oral History, Photography, What's Up

Seems we normally get one pretty good snowstorm every winter, with perhaps a second one. Some years we've gotten no snow. This year, however, has been truly different, with at least a couple times when we've had several inches on the ground, a couple other times when we've had an inch or so, and a couple others where the ground was at least white. The weather is warm enough now that even if it does snow, it doesn't hang around very long.

Light rail groundbreaking

Frank Fujimoto
In the News, Photography

The greater Seattle area will be getting light rail service starting later this year going between downtown and SeaTac airport. An extension was approved to extend service north to UW, and that project starts this year with completion targeted for 2016. Sound Transit held a ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony yesterday near Husky Stadium where the UW station will be. Of course, they didn't really dig into the ground...

Busy weekend

Frank Fujimoto
Family, Hobbies, What's Up

Every now and then the planets align and we end up doing lots of stuff over a weekend; this past weekend was one of those. We had dinner with some of my cousins on Friday night, did lots of stuff in the yard on Saturday, hung out with some friends on Sunday, and had dinner with another cousin of mine on Monday.

Shabu Shabu

Frank Fujimoto
Family, Food, Heritage, Oral History

Melody and I had Shabu Shabu for dinner last night. It's a little like fondue since everyone can put whatever kind of food they want into the pot, but instead of cheese (or chocolate) the liquid is a sort of broth (my mom used to do a fish stock, but I did a chicken stock last night). This picture is from 1987, and shows my dad getting ready. You can see several kinds of food on the trays and if you look closely, you can see a second pot on the near side of the table (there were several people at dinner that day).

Parallel parking

Frank Fujimoto
Photography

This picture was snapped quickly with my cell phone, which is why the quality isn't great. The house is on the way when walking between work and home. If you look closely you can make out that it's a car pulling into a garage. What's different about that? The garage is only about 15 feet deep, so the car needs to parallel parking into it. When the door is closed it looks like a normal two-car garage.

Planet Earth

Frank Fujimoto
TV/Movies

Melody and I finished watching Planet Earth the other day. We had actually finished the series itself in December but just recently got around to finishing up the "Planet Earth - The Future", the companion series talking about environmental and conservation issues. If you haven't seen the series, the photography is just as exquisite as you've heard. The version available on DVD is the BBC one narrated by David Attenborough, rather than the version which aired on the Discovery Channel with Sigourney Weaver.

Kiyo in the hospital

Frank Fujimoto
Family, What's Up

My mom went back into the hospital on Wednesday the 21st. From what I can tell she's still having dehydration problems, and this time it caused her to be dizzy and have problems with her equilibrium. She's doing better now, although she sounded a bit tired when I spoke with her earlier this evening.

Going on a cardboard hunt

Frank Fujimoto
Hobbies, What's Up

As part of our multi-year landscaping project, Melody and I cover up a lot of weeds and sod. Our landscape designer recommended starting with a layer of compost, a double layer of cardboard, then a thick layer of wood chips. This has worked really well for us; the old weeds and sod are pretty well suppressed, and all we need to do is pile on more chips every now and then. Sometimes the hard part is making sure we have all the parts necessary to proceed.

Pre-scanning at Costco

Frank Fujimoto
What's Up

I went to Costco tonight and picked up about a dozen things. I found a line which looked suspiciously shorter than the others - I'm always a sucker for those lines, even though it seems that many times they're slower than the other ones. At any rate, the guy before me was almost ready to start loading his stuff onto the belt when something happened that I had never seen before: I got pre-scanned.

No power

Frank Fujimoto
What's Up

Got home tonight at about 7pm and noticed the street light near our house was out. After I picked up the mail it dawned on me that our porch light was also out. Our neighbor to the east had lights so I figured this was one of those rare times it didn't turn on. However, it also didn't turn on when I flicked the switch. Our neighbors across the street, their neighbor, and the neighbor to the west didn't have power either, but all the other houses seemed to.

Travel plans changed

Frank Fujimoto
Family, What's Up

By the time this gets posted we had planned on being in Spokane with Melody's sister Celeste, but weather has changed plans. It would have been a slow drive over the pass, and we would have needed to turn around the next day and head back to Seattle. Instead, she'll sometime after the 1st, after travel is more sane.

Trudging through snow

Frank Fujimoto
What's Up

Even though the roads and sidewalks have been slick, Melody and I have been walking around in the snow to go to the store, hang out at a coffee shop, etc. The snow we got during the week only went away a little bit and we got more last night, to the point where there's about 6" on the ground right now, and the snow has started back up.

Snow-covered Seattle

Frank Fujimoto
What's Up

I went up to the top floor of the UW Tower today to take a look at how the snow we've been getting looked from above. Since there are only a few inches on the ground, it doesn't look completely white, but I still thought it was pretty.

Photo - First snow of the season

Frank Fujimoto
Hobbies, Photography

We don't get snow too often in Seattle, but it looks really pretty when we do. I suppose that's true almost anywhere, but it doesn't reduce our appreciation for the white stuff. It's not unusual for us to accumulate a few inches once or twice a year, but some years we don't get any and others we get a lot. We'll see how this year pans out - we apparently missed getting snow a couple days ago because of a low pressure system which ended up going to the north instead of through Seattle.

Christmas shopping with Uncle Easy

Frank Fujimoto
Family, Oral History

I was talking with my cousin Kay earlier this week and we talked about how this was the time of year when as a child I'd go out with my Uncle Easy to go shopping for toys for the younger members of our family. Being a bachelor, he would say he needed help picking out the right fits. When the planned day came around, Uncle Easy would pick me up and we'd go have dinner, after which we'd make our way to Toys 'R' Us and he'd ask "would this be good for so-and-so?", checking his list to make sure he had something for everyone. After we were done, we'd drop the presents off with Kay so she could wrap them.

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