Things to Do in Seattle When It's Hot

It is unbearably hot here. UNBEARABLY. Over 100º. In Seattle. Where the average temperature in July and August is 75º. That's 25º over normal. That, in and of itself, is enough to make a body boil. Add to that the fact that air conditioning is not the norm here and most apartments and homes do not come with any sort of air conditioning. It is so hot that ALL of the hotels in the Seattle area are booked solid with locals trying to escape the heat. AND...there are no air conditioners or fans available in the entire Pacific Northwest.

The long and the short of it is that I got home tonight at a little after 8:30 pm and it was 94º in my apartment and 96º outside. At 11:13 pm it is now 83º. How am I supposed to sleep in that heat when I'm used to a low of 57º at night?

Well here's how:

I use the freezer, some water and A LOT of gallon ziploc bags.
Right before bed I take a super cold shower then eat a cherry popscicle.
I then take the ice pack and put it on my stomach or chest.
A frozen pillow case goes around my neck.
I take a frozen sheet and wrap it around my body.
Then I sleep for about 2 hours.

I get up and repeat.
Except I replace the ice pack and trade it for the melted bag o'ice.

Here's what my freezer looks like.

I have just about as much frozen linens in my freezer as I have frozen food.

When I'm not sleeping and not at work, I'm trying to accomplish things whilst in my apartment. Blogging, doing the dishes, doing laundry, talking on the phone, etc. How do I cope with the heat then? Well I take a body pillowcase out of the freezer.

After it's unwrapped, it goes around my neck for about an hour. I also have a fan pointing right at me.

So if you ever find yourself in Seattle when it's hot...I suggest you have a lot of extra bed linens and room in your freezer. Better yet, get an air conditioner before Summer sets in.

Oh puh-leez!

2 things made me roll my eyes in disbelief tonight.

First, I've never really thought about Katie Holmes. I knew of her, of course. I never watched Dawson's Creek, but those Pacey and Joey commercials were ubiquetous (though I still don't know which one was Joey and which was Pacey). And then when Tom Cruise went crazy she was the cause...or he has always been crazy and everyone finally noticed. Jury's still out. But Cat Deeley has been promoting her appearance on SYTYCD for what seems like 3 seasons now. Katie Holmes did a fine enough job on Eli Stone, so I was mildly interested to see what dance she would do with the Season 5 team. I figured it would be Broadway-something-or-other cause she did some show on Broadway and if I recall correctly the Eli Stone number was Broadway-ish, no?

How disappointing was that "performance?" She wasn't actually on the show. She taped a segment with Cat and then they ran film of her routine. I know I'm new to SYTYCD, but has that ever happened before? A canned performance like that, I mean besides the musical guests on Thursday nights that may or may not be lip syncing? I was looking more for something similar to last season when both Mary and Nigel danced with contestants or guests...on the stage...before the live studio audience. It was a let down and a complete waste of SYTYCD time. I would have rather seen The Door or one of the other Emmy nominated dances.

What I did like, however, was her skirt. I'm a sucker for pleats. And patent leather, which doesn't apply here, but still.

Second, the local news had a segment about a "Top Secret" Starbucks. They teasted it during SYTYCD so I recorded the news. I had visions of a VIP Starbucks that only people with a Black Card could get into or something super interesting like that. Gold plated coffee collars, beluga caviar in the pastry display, or Juan Valdez as barista. But no...turns out Starbucks is opening a new shop in Seattle under a different name...15th Avenue Coffee and Tea. And the people on the news were all up in arms that Starbucks is being so secretive. Saying the new shop was copying decor from neighboring stores, deceiving people being generally angry about the whole thing. I was amazed it was a news story. I mean, couldn't they have found something about Michael Jackson...that would have been more interesting...and I think I already know all I want to know about MJ. So a huge company is trying to diversify? Who cares? They already have a bit...it's called Seattle's Best Coffee. I don't understand why everyone is acting as if they've been betrayed or are so angry about it. Not just the people on the street interviews, but the anchors were even offended and the reporter confronted the Starbucks employees in such an accusatory manner that one would have thought they were serving baby penguins on the menu. Seriously?

Best thing I saw on TV tonight? Sean Puffy P. Diddy John Combs trying to explain what Malaria is "If you get Malaria it's not really good." and if it can be cured "We gotta get the nets." Go to MalariaNoMore.org or .com. Totally a HomeStarRunner moment. "It's dot com."

Top Gear

I've found a wonderful British show that I completely love. A few weeks ago I was up late working and whatever show I was watching on my Comcast DVR ended and the box switched over to whatever channel I was watching before, which turned out to be BBC America. I just let the TV play for noise while I continued working on the lappy and found myself laughing quite often.

Top Gear is the name of the show and it is about cars. Now I like a nice car as much as anybody else, I imagine, but I'm not so much into cars that I'd actually watch a show about them. But this show is hilarious. The three presenters crack me up. And the thing that got me laughing so hard and loud I thought my neighbors were going to come upstairs and ask me to be quiet was this bit with Mark Wahlberg. I've since learned that the show has a segment called Star in a Reasonably Priced Car where they have a star drive around their test track in a reasonably priced car as they are timed then ranked against all other stars that drove the test track in that same reasonably priced car.

The segment is about 10 minutes long, but the bit that got me hooked on the show as right around the 5:45 mark. (Be forewarned: there is beeped out swearing and a bit of off color humor, so if you'd like to skip that, just queue it up to the 5:45 mark and watch for about a minute.)

"We attend different churches"...I thought that was Marky Mark's way of saying: Come on you git, not all famous people know each other. And then when he busted out with: "I'm at the one with Jesus baby." Oh my gosh! That was so politically incorrect and absolutely hilarious.

Which apparently is what the show is all about. Their race from Switzerland to Northern England on one tank of gas was a hoot that I didn't think they could top...then this weekend I saw them race across Botswana. Not only did they show the beautiful sunsets but they then showed two of the presenters putting a cows head into the trunk of one of the other presenters so he'd have to endure flies bothering him during his entire drive. It's just useless drivel really, but it certainly is entertaining. I wonder if it would be possible to find an Oliver of my very own.

The Birds

Every Sunday morning I'm awaken at dawn by the sound of crows fighting over the garbage other residents have failed to actually put in the dumpster. I lie in bed half asleep trying to decide if I should get up and close the window or turn the TV on and hope it'll drown out the sound of the 30 or so crows that are keeping me awake.

At least I thought there were 30 of them. They were loud enough to be 30 of them. Turns out there were only 3 of them. Loud little buggers. They must be related to each other...cause they sure bickered a lot.

An Honest Mistake

A few weeks ago Kellye and I went to see Green Day. The Bravery opened the show. I remembered that I liked The Bravery. Turns out I only really like one song of theirs, the opener. The rest of the songs were enyah. I did entertain myself with trying to figure out why the bassist was wearing a devil's mask. And not just a face mask, but a full head Strong Bad style mask. Wasn't he hot? Was he recovering from some plastic surgery? Was it his attempt at making amends for previously exposing himself at concerts? Who knows.

The Green Day part of the concert was actually pretty incredible. I don't count myself among Green Day's fans and probably wouldn't have attended this show had Kellye not asked me to go with her...but man do they put on one great show.

Billy Joe swore entirely too much and I was only familiar with about 1/2 of the songs...knew the actual lyrics to 2 songs (Basket Case and Good Riddance). But even with that, it was one of my top 5 arena concerts. Billy Joe brought a little kid up on stage at the beginning of the show...totally made his day. And he didn't stop there. He brought several other people up to sing and dance then inviting them to jump off the stage and crowd surf. He borrowed audience member's sunglasses and when a 16 year old kid asked Billy Joe if he could play his guitar, Billy Joe let him, and the kid rocked it.

There were fireworks and actual fire. A huge video screen behind them that displayed lots of different things throughout the the show. Crazy antics throughout and an ending of millions of pieces of confetti being shot into the air. And the tickets were only $50. Why other artists charge upwards of $150 for a show ticket is beyond me...I'm looking at you U2.

Craggy Tree

Went on a walk tonight around dusk and saw this lone craggy tree on the top of one of the Newcastle Hills. It's a good 8 feet taller than the rest of the trees around it. Standing proud and Charlie Brown-ish for all to see. Good for you craggy tree...good for you!

Free Slurpee Day

Hooray for Free Slurpee Day!

A Pamplona hemos de ir...

Con una bota, con una bota

A Pamplona hemos de ir

Con una bota y un calcetín.

Let the running of the bulls week begin!