That's more like it…

From the BBC:

SECOND TEST, DAY TWO, ADELAIDE: Australia 8-1 v England 551-6 dec
Paul Collingwood became just the third England batsman to score a double century in Australia as the tourists took charge of the second Ashes Test.
He and Kevin Pietersen shared a record fourth-wicket stand, worth 310 when Collingwood fell for 206 on day two.
Pietersen was run out for 158 but Andrew Flintoff helped England reach 551-6, declaring with 10 overs left.
Flintoff then had Justin Langer caught at slip for four in the second over of Australia’s reply in Adelaide.

UPDATE: But… good grief! How could such a wonderful start have led to this debacle???

SECOND TEST, ADELAIDE, DAY FIVE: Australia 513 & 168-4 beat England 551-6 dec & 129 by six wickets
Warne took two wickets and helped in a run out in the morning
Australia won the second Ashes Test by six wickets and went 2-0 up in the series after bowling England out for 129 on day five in Adelaide.

Unprecedented? Absolutely: “No team in history has lost after declaring on a higher total than England’s 551-6 batting first in a Test.”
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…..

WiFi update

Just over a week ago I reported that I was having problems with my WiFi network here in the apartment. I think I may have solved the problem. I bought myself a Griffin Technology AirBase, and since then I’ve been getting a consistently good signal.
Griffin AirBase
Basically it’s just a heavy base with a power cord and a slot that the Airport Express snaps into. According to Griffin, it “increases effective range and signal efficiency for your network and AirTunes by raising the base station up into the room. It also makes it easier to check the network status light at a glance.” And it seems to work. I guess that hiding the Airport Express unit away, plugged into a power strip behind the set-top box and DVD player, wasn’t such a good idea….
(Even though the Griffin Technology website will sell the AirBase for $24.99, you can do better. I paid $13.83 at Amazon.com, and some places have it even cheaper.)

Too much of a good thing is wonderful….

Chris blogged that he’s going to see the Tallis Scholars tonight, and mentioned that they’re going to be playing here in Seattle tomorrow, Saturday, at the Town Hall. True, but that’s not the whole story. It turns out that they’re appearing at 8pm on both Saturday and Sunday! On Saturday they’re performing “Renaissance Masterpieces”, and on Sunday “Music from the Sistine Chapel”. What on earth shall I do? Go on Saturday? Sunday? Both?!

Heads-up: I'm heading across the pond

I’m heading over to the UK for a week, starting this Wednesday. I’ll be flying from SEA to LHR via ORD, getting in around 6am on Thursday. From Thursday through Saturday I’m going to be staying in Oxford, visiting my mother and brother (and hanging out in the city). Then on Sunday I’ll take a train in to Paddington, tube to King’s Cross, and a GNER train to Edinburgh. Amazingly, this is only my second visit to Scotland. (The first was a day trip in about 1975, when I was a post-grad student at Newcastle-on-Tyne.) On Monday and Tuesday I’ll be at Amazon.com‘s Edinburgh Development Centre for a variety of meetings. (Long-time readers will know that I’ve always been interested in the challenges posed by distributed development.) And I’ll fly home on Wednesday: BMI from EDI to LHR, then United LHR-ORD-SEA.
Now I just have to work out the crazy (and constantly changing) rules for carry-on bags on flights to and from the UK….
(It would be great to pop down to see some of my old mates from SunUK, but I don’t think the schedule will allow it. Plus I’m going carless on this one; I’ll be taking the bus from Heathrow to Oxford. Maybe next time.)

The wettest month on record

From The Seattle Times

Puget Sound-area residents spent much of Wednesday bracing for another anticipated snowstorm…. But the predicted snow was interrupted off and on with rain and November became Seattle’s wettest month on record. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport reported a monthly total of 15.37 inches late Wednesday, breaking the previous record of 15.33 inches….
At 10 p.m. Wednesday, snow was still falling in many parts of the city. Queen Anne Avenue, the major thoroughfare on Queen Anne Hill, was closed because of snow and police officers were chaining up the tires on their cruisers…. But by [Thursday morning] rain [will be] starting to wash away the snow that had accumulated since Sunday.

Seattle articulated hybrid bus
I must say that this is the first time I’ve seen snow chains on the rear wheels of bendy buses. Quite impressive. I wonder what happens to the bending mechanism if one of those buses starts to skid…..

Massachusetts drivers may be notoriously bad, but at least they can drive in snow

Back in the north-east, a couple of inches of light snow would barely make the front page of the local section of the Globe. But here in Seattle….

Drivers inching their way through the evening commute cursed the snow that returned to the Puget Sound region this afternoon, shutting down at least one highway and essentially turning others into parking lots for several hours.

Police couldn’t keep up with cars careening across freeways, chain-reaction fender benders and motorists abandoning their vehicles on suburban roads. For the first time in at least a decade, Highway 9, a major thoroughfare in Snohomish County, was shut down much of the night because it became “a complete sheet of ice,” said Trooper Keith Leary.

Hmmm. Don’t they have sanding trucks around here?

UPDATE: Well, I was probably unfair to Seattlites. It looks as if things turned to freezing rain, which is no fun in any location. And with these steep hills…. Apparently some people who went to last night’s football game found themselves unable to get home. The office is really quiet this morning, and there’s been a steady stream of “WFH” (working from home) emails coming through.