I just had a really great Seattle weekend. 
Yesterday was the Amazon.com summer picnic, which was held at Mountain Meadows Farm in North Bend, about half an hour east of here. The picnic was lots of fun – it was nice to meet colleagues away from work – but the big attraction for me was the location: at the foot of Mount Si. As you can see from the pictures, it’s a very photogenic mountain.
Of course, being in North Bend meant that I wasn’t here in Seattle for the Seafair events. 
But never mind: the Blue Angels were scheduled to perform on both Saturday and Sunday. Rather than trying to get to the shore of Lake Washington, I decided to watch from the 12th Avenue viaduct across I-90, just below the PacMed building where I work. It’s a great location, with photo opportunities limited only by the overhead wires for the trolleybuses that run up Beacon Hill. The first few photos show the Patriots aerobatic team, then “Fat Albert” ((the Blue Angels’ C-130 support aircraft)) made an appearance, and then the Blue Angels did their thing for about 45 minutes.
When the show was over, I headed downtown, intending to do a little domestic shopping. When I moved here a year ago, I bought so many things in such a short time that inevitably I made a few mistakes. Most of my household items came from IKEA, and in several areas I opted for convenience (and low price) rather than quality. And quality matters. So today I picked up some really good kitchen knives ((though not ceramic – I’m still a little hesitant about that technology)), and a couple of really thick bath sheets, and some Bodum double-wall glasses. Oh yes, and a decent cocktail shaker – because even though I’m living above a store that sells a hundred different varieties of sake, there are times when a martini is the right choice.
And finally, I stepped into a bookshop (yes, I know…) to pick up a magazine, and I heard some strangely compelling music being played. I asked who it was, and the saleswoman said “Regina Spektor”, with the eager smile that people have when they are glad to have shared a favourite. So I decided to treat myself, and bought a copy of the album (“Begin Hope”).