Natala la la la ... ... ...

Saturday, December 16, 2006

escape to CA 

According to King 5, there are about 500,000 people in the puget sound area still without power. I have found the likely source of my power outage -- a set of downed trees and electrical wires on 3rd Ave. I'll flickr the picture later. It's complete madness. Apparently the east side is a complete mess. Campus may not be open on Monday. People may be without power for 3-5 days more across Putget Sound. I'm powered by Seattle City Light which has some good information on their site about the outage -- and the impact to Seattlites. Like this quote:

"Currently, City Light has approximately 57,188 customers without power, down from a high of 175,000 earlier Friday morning when approximately 50% of our customers were without service. A total of 65 feeders in our above-ground system went off line. Currently, 33 feeders have been restored, or partially restored. Feeders are the lines that bring electricity from substations to neighborhoods. Feeders can carry 2,000 to 4,000 customers each. As City Light works to restore service, be advised that some customers could be without power for as much as 48 - 72 hours.

Restoration of the main distribution lines in the northern and southern parts of our system continues, with the southern end having sustained more damage. As the backbone distribution lines are repaired the utility will shift efforts to restoration of the lateral feeds off the main distribution lines. There is significant lateral feeder work to do on both the northern and southern parts of our system, and lateral damage usually takes longer to repair.

Restoration Priorities (Order of restoring power)
1. Critical Infrastructure – Hospitals, etc.
2. Main distribution backbone (Feeders)
3. Largest Customer Count
4. Longest Duration of outage "

yeah, it's nasty stuff, so....I am escaping to CA for 22 hours on a pre-scheduled trip* to drop off Cuba for a few days and meet up with a slew of family members before we disperse for the holidays. I am sooo looking forward to a warm shower and hot curry. I can only hope that my home will have power restored by the time I return tomorrow.

* yes, this was pre-scheduled so i could get to the next status level on my mileage program.

Friday, December 15, 2006

seattle storms = wind party 

so, we are in the midst of one of the most severe wind / rain storms to hit seattle ever. King 5 is all over the storm. I can't accurately describe the madness. There are trees blown over. There are loose electrical wires. There is rain. About 1 Million people don't have power. I'm one of them. It really has been madness.

It started yesterday, around 2:00 pm. I decided to avoid the traffic madness (some people were in traffic driving from redomd to seattle -- 14 miles -- for 3 hours). and go to a friend's house in redmond. While i was there the lights went out (luckily they have a generator) but then the trees started to fall down so I decided to head home before there was greater havoc and the 520 bridge closed! Yes! They closed the bridge!! Driving across it was pretty eerie. First, it was raining buckets. Second, no one was there! I guess everyone tried to avoid the traffic and went home early so for once i really benefitted from leaving work late. I picked up cuba from Sam and Steve (her god-dog parents). She loves them. Anyways, we camped out in the living room to watch the storm. At about 2 am my power went out (Cuba was pretty excited by this and barked at the lightning). It's almost noon and I'm still without power but my friend and co-worker Jenn has power so I'm over at her place. Cuba is loving it because she can play with Jenn's micro-dog tobey and their cat, Sam. They closed the microsoft campus so we are testing out the impromptu seattle office concept. My co-worker Gabe is at Tully's grabbing internet and power. Apparently they are doing brisk business while the starbucks across the street sits in darkness.

Anyways, i've got to get *some* work done. There's three of us here now - Jen, Leslee and me -- plus the menagerie. It's pretty cozy.

Here are some links to other bloggers chiming in on the seattle madness:
Impromptu Three Day Weekend - That Kid in the Corner
Windpocalypse 2006: The Aftermath - Seattle Metroblogging
The Morning after the storm - Phil Holden
Crazy Seattle Windstorm - Jasmine Park (A Clean Well-lighted space).

Update: They are now saying that it might snow.

Update2: Some pictures (via King 5):

snap! 

I just added snap previews to my blog. Now when you hover over a link you'll get a preview of the web page that the link will take you to. I love these! Here are some links to enjoy!

cuteness
vitamins
snowflakes

Sunday, December 03, 2006

it's december already? 

how did that happen? Things have been crazy!!! Let's see:
- i got a micro-dog (look for an upcoming blog post titled the Cuba FAQ). She's awesome.
- i've been travelling like crazy: DC, NYC, CA, Vegas and more vegas...
- i hosted my entire family and then some (14 poeple and 3 dogs!) for thanksgiving. it was awesome. I learned a lot. My family is pretty cool.

I'm now sick with what seems to be my annual winter cold. I actually can't talk -- which is pretty hillarious for those who know me. My cousin is here and she finds it funny. I'm passing her notecards. yep.

Ok, we're off to brunch. I promise to blog soon!