Blooming Christmas Cactus

 

After several false starts (buds that formed but then dropped off), my Christmas cactus that I started from cuttings 2 years ago finally bloomed! It may be only one little flower, but it sure is pretty... 

Seattle people are crazy... including me!

Last year I missed out on the opportunity to jump into frigid Lake Washington with some friends on New Year's Day, so this year I decided to do it. It was cold, but not the coldest water I've ever been in. Surprisingly, I didn't get chilled after getting out, but that didn't stop me from enjoying a nice hot shower when I got home.

As a souvenir of the experience, they handed out patches to everyone who went in at least up to their shoulders:

A belated Merry Christmas!

Unexpected consequences

When I voted for the Seattle smoking ban, I guess I didn't quite realize that would mean my walk home from the bus stop would involve walking through a cloud of smoke outside the Little Red Hen. I guess I'll have to cross the street if I want to avoid the two breaths of perilous second-hand smoke that I take while walking past - or just get over it.

640x480, baby!

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Originally uploaded by gecko_12.

Took this shot of downtown Seattle last night from Kerry Park (in frigid temperatures, I might add). Hooray for the camera phone!

New Phone

Finally bit the bullet and got a new phone! It was made much more palatable by UW's discount with Cingular, which is nice. As soon as it's charged for 8 hours (though it's already telling me it's fully charged) I'll get to play with it and see what it can do!

Boat

OK, so apparently my readership wanted to see a picture with a moving boat in the scene. As you can see, the foreground has some streaks of light - evidence of the moving boat, even if you can't see the boat itself due to the low light.

Seattle at Night

 
I stopped by Gasworks Park tonight to take some night photos of the Seattle skyline. With the weather being so clear lately, I figured this was a good opportunity. Many of my shots, however, were marred by the passage of decorated boats on Lake Union - they're pretty on their own, but during a 15-second exposure, they just end up putting a big light smear in the picture. In this boat-free shot you can see Seattle's newest high-rise going up - just to the right of the Washington Mutual building. 

Snow day in Seattle

It snowed today in Seattle, the entire duration of which I enjoyed from inside the Blue Flame building. The snow was in big, fat flakes, likely because it was still pretty warm. It didn't stick in downtown, but up on the hill in Tangletown it stuck a little to the grass and cars. Walking home from the bus stop I also saw that someone had made a tiny snowman - people always make snowmen, no matter how little snow there is... I guess it's just too tempting :)

Mountain photography

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Originally uploaded by gecko_12.

Every time I fly between the Bay Area and Seattle (provided there's daylight) I get obsessed with watching every mountain as it goes by from the plane window. Baker, Glacier, Rainier, Adams, St. Helens, Hood, Jefferson, Three Sisters, (Crater Lake), Shasta, and finally, Diablo. Last week when I headed home for turkey-day, we had to fly even farther west than usual due to an ash plume that St. Helens sent up earlier that day. Made for a nice shot with Hood to the left though!