nbdog
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Mariners Home Opener
Posted in Entertainment, Golf on 13-Apr-2010
I’ve never been to an opening day baseball game so it became one of the things on my retirement To Do list. In spite of the Mariners’ inept offense and the 4-0 loss it was great fun. I got to Safeco Field early to see all the pre-game festivities highlighted by Randy Johnson‘s first pitch. Ivar’s fish and chips weren’t bad either. I began the day with a pleasant eighteen holes at Mt. Si. The weather was almost more fall like than springy. But the cool air and chirping birds provided a relaxing few hours and a reasonable 89 put me in good spirits for the rest of the day.
DJIA at 11,005.96
Who woulda thunk it? The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 11,005 today, up 4,458 points from the close of business on March 9, 2009. I remember thinking around that time that it would be five years at least until we saw DJIA at 10,000 let alone over 11K. This all reminds me of the 1987 crash when the market dropped 500 points to close at 1,738. I was attending a trade show that day at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim and figured my tiny little savings and incipient 401k account would never amount to much. But here I am just a little over twenty years later planning on living on those savings.
What’s Wrong with this Picture?
Posted in Around the house, Entertainment, Weather on 8-Apr-2010
After a record mild winter, we’re having a rather dismal early spring. We’ve had some rain or showers almost every day since March 21 and today… what a surprise! A dusting of snow decorated the trees –and surprised our ducks– early in the morning. Throughout the day we’ve had periods of bright sunshine, rain, sleet and snow. I did some yard work early in the day and then settled in to watch the first rounds of the Masters Golf tournament.
Landscaping Madness
Posted in Around the house on 29-Mar-2010
In addition to the twelve rounds of golf, I’ve used my first month of retirement to work on some landscaping projects that have been percolating in my head for several years. Although it’s a smallish area of our lot, the revisions called for some 12 yards of top soil, 1400 pounds of boulders, and dozens of new plants. That’s in addition to clearing the random old-growth of small trees, sallal, ferns and weeds. The result has been great, however. In a couple of years when our youthful rhododendrons, heathers, flowers and grasses mature it should be quite a spectacle of color and texture. The area in this photo was just sallal and rocks a couple of weeks ago. Now the little mound is planted with pulmonaria, various ferns and beesia. The section below the boulders (all new) is home to three rhododendrons and chocolate colored Corydalis. On the other side of the mound is a new heather garden with red, lavender and yellow colored heathers as well as a few perennial grasses. I’m also very pleased with the new hand-made cedar bench.
One Month into Retirement
I celebrated my first month into retirement with a round of golf at the very challenging China Creek course at Newcastle. I got through the first seven holes at just five over par; a solid start on a course where I’ve never broken 100 before. I managed a 95 when the day was done but the golf was the least of it. Hearing the miserable winter weather in most of the rest of the country I so very much appreciated the lovely setting we had for the last Friday of March. That’s Seattle and Lake Washington in the background
Last Day at Microsoft
Posted in Personal on 27-Feb-2010
I don’t know if 14.5 years can “fly by” but it sure doesn’t seem like I spent that long at Microsoft. The last day went by in the blink of an eye too. For some reason I visited my very first office then set about doing final weeding of email and saved files. By then it was the traditional farewell event with cake, wine, etc. And what a delightful surprise. Folks I hadn’t worked with for years took the trouble to stop by to say good bye. Here I am just a hour or so before final check out. I must say, it felt very strange leaving the building without an employee ID. It’s definitely going to take some time to adjust.
Evergreen Indexing Launched
Posted in Personal on 2-Feb-2010
I set up my book indexing web site today: EvergreenIndexing.com. I registered the domain and put together the web pages with GoDaddy.com. I’m using this photo from last winter as the company logo. With Kindle, the Nook and the iPad, printed books may soon be dead but I hope they hang around long enough for me to do a few indexes. It has always been my favorite task. I recently purchased SkyIndex and used it to compile an index for Dave Pelz’s Damage Control, a tome on how to recover from all those terrible golf shots we hackers make.
Where’s Winter?
Posted in Weather on 1-Feb-2010
It’s official… it was the warmest Seattle January ever. The average temperature was 47 degrees and it didn’t get below freezing even once at the official Airport weather station. The typical January average temperature is 41.3 degrees and last year it was a bit cooler than that. Even with the mild weather, the persistent rain and short days resulted in just two rounds of golf for the month, well short of the four to five I usually get in.
Two Years
Posted in Personal on 8-Jan-2010
It was two years ago today that I has prostate brachytherapy surgery.
Quiet End to ’09
Posted in Holidays on 1-Jan-2010
Trisha and I spent a calm final 48 hours of 2009. On Wednesday, we stopped by the Bellevue Square Mall to get a new toaster, had lunch at Cheesecake Factory, then saw Avatar in 3D. The movie was visually stunning; I especially enjoyed the creative, colorful flora. New Year’s Eve was equally exciting. We began with an easy workout at the gym, had a light lunch then watched the Sherlock Holmes film. I didn’t think much of this incarnation of the famous sleuth but there was lots of action and the popcorn and Twix bar kept me alert. My favorite Holmes is still Jeremy Brett’s portrayal for British television. We finished off the day with a home-made pizza and a couple of hours of the Dog Whisperer.
Nutmeg50@hotmail.com 