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September 19 Weird Pizza ExperiencesAll pizza experiences are weird, because I'm probably only buying a pizza to binge because I'm not in a healthy mood to begin with... and worse, it's almost always for inexplicable reasons. Yesterday was one of those nights when I wanted a pizza. I drove by Papa Johns on 10th in Bellevue and saw this sign, "only deliveries after 10pm". It was 10:30pm and I was there... So I googled their phone number on my PPC phone and called the number. I was parked outside the store. So the store guy picks up and phone and takes my 'delivery order'. He was standing right in front of me talking - and it was like a real live conversation, except we had a glass door between us. And oh, he didn't know that I was the guy right in front of him outside the door. At the end of the conversation, I said, "Instead of delivering in 45 minutes, can you just give it to me when you're done baking? I'm right outside the door". He looked at me and went "Oh!". His face lighted up very very strangely and he looked at me in amusement and in a 'How weird is this' sort of way, and agreed. I got my pizza in about 15 minutes - a really cute gal bought it out and I tipped her for nothing. At least I got to eat a whole pizza all by myself. I hope I remember to visit the gym today...
May 01 Reese Witherspoon Sighting..Sitting in the Kirkland Pancake house on Saturday morning wating for our oh-so-good break...err brunch to arrive, we saw a chica who looked almost like Reese Witherspoon. Well, with what can be done with makeup these days(rather, since always...  ), she might indeed have been The Reese, but who's to say? She was sitting there conspicuously lacking in male company, I was almost tempted to wonder if perhaps it was the famed Midwest who's actively looking for a breakfast partner. Perhaps it was a tryout session that I chanced upon... September 10 The Tumbling SpannerAfter listening to how my crashed car has been declared a total loss, and my dev box crashing one day before I was about to fly out to Pune (and keeping in mind that I'd taken a fall at the skate camp trying to fly off from a launch ramp), my boss remarked, "You seem to be crashing everything. So what next? A bird crashing into the propeller?". He was close (and he might yet be proved right - I still have 4 more planes to catch!)
As the Enterprise shuttle turned into SEA-TAC airport, I noticed unhappy Northwest Airlines employes holding placards that went like "Are you sure your NW flight is safe". Not having read any news about NWA in the last...er..forever, I simply ignored them as unionists taking out some stupid ire at the management. Turned out they were deadly serious about it!
As the crappy Amsterdam to Mumbai plane took off, I tried to switch on my reading light by flicking the switch on the handrest. It didn't work. Damn! I've been suckered, and I want my money back. This plane doesn't even have a personalized menu-based entertainment system, and the movie they're about to show (Guess Who!) is a silly comedy (in other words, I've already seen it!). I wanted to read my Sci-Fi Anthology. Little did I realize that it wasn't only me who was facing difficulties. No one could operate their seat electrical switches. No way to switch off already-switched-on reading lights, and no way to call the attendant by flicking a switch. Many passengers had to sleep with a light shining on their beautiful faces. And I just read my book with the help of the dim glow from all those reading lights no one seemed to want :D
I went by the kitchen and started chatting with a stewardess. As I was about to throw an empty cup into the garbage and pick up another cup of water, she stopped me and offered to fill my already empty cup. She said, "Let's not waste the cup. NW is in trouble so let's try to economize and recycle". That was my 'Aha!' moment. Images of NWA employees holding placards near SEA-TAC, a stewardess with decades of experience considering early retirement who wants to save a cup of plastic, non-functional seat electricals -- Of course! Grumpy NWA mechanics did this deliberately! Not only this, the difficult to start entertainment system in the 330 from Seattle to Amsterdam was also likely the handiwork of unhappy ground crew. I asked the air-hostess what she thought of my guess, and she agreed with me without blinking an eyelid. Ground crew-men are being downsized and crew from Delta and other airlines being borrowed to make up for the crew on strike.
Then the nasty thought came to my mind -- what if there was a loose nut somewhere, or a freely tumbling spanner banging around the landing gear? I kept the thought to myself, but an overzealous and unhappy employee could easily do something like that! I still have two NWA planes to catch - I wonder if my boss' prediction is going to come true anyway -- but perhaps it will be a tumbling wrench instead of a cute birdie! Oh let's wait and watch.
September 05 Gee! I went Hydroplaning!!It's Labor Day weekend - which means summer is officially over. Not to mention the Bumbershoot festival is going on in Seattle and everyone is rightfully expected to carry umbrellas because it will rain. (Out here, we never say it could rain, we always say it could be sunny, the sky could be clear etc., but whenever we mention the rain, we talk about it in very definite terms - it will rain!).If its not painfully clear yet, yeah it was raining when I started driving out to Capitol Hill to meet a friend.
I get off 520, make the crazy turn in Montlake boulevard and start going off 24th when all of a sudden I feel like I'm floating! And then the next second, I realize that my car is smoothly sailing on the wet road, and slowly veering off towards left, into potential oncoming traffic! I frantically look around and there are no cars on the road on either direction. I tell myself then, "Whew! it's going to be okay". I vaguely remember the ABS light switching itself on, I start hitting the brake, then I suddenly remember, "Oh crap! you aren't supposed to hit the brakes when the car is hydroplaing. Pump it!" and then, "Oh never mind, I can hit the brakes all I want. The ABS thing is going to override me and do its own thing anyway" and so I hit the brake harder! And then my hands are trying to steer the car left, which didn't quite work, so they were trying to turn it right, and overall, the car started to act really funny with the hydroplaning, ABS and strange patterns being palyed out on the steering wheel. Oh yeah, I remembered that I wasn't supposed to do crazy things with the wheel, be calm etc, but I also remember telling myself, "Sitting tight ain't gonna work! Gotta be in control and stop this thing, never mind all the sage advice of wise men" and thus went Don Quixote charging on the windmills.
And a windmill did come in the way and put a stop to my cars ballet! After doing almost a 360 and maybe a bit more, I was facing the opposite direction on the other end of the road (which means all was well,and I could have just kept driving and reached home safely), but alas, the backside of my car hit a fire hydrant and the whole thing came to a rather abrupt stop! What a bummer, this was the shortest ever roller coaster ride I've ever been on.
Oh well, I started my car over again, parked at the nearest spot, called up the Insurance guys and got an incident number, body shop address and some more data that I don't quite care about. I still managed to meet up with my friend about 30 minutes later than I wanted to, went to Dilettante's and really pigged out on desserts (which is my first lapse in eight long months! ). The car is ugly, but thankfully, it drives just fine. And oh, no bruises on my body at all which is a plus. Now I only hope I can drop off my car at the body shop and go away on my trip, and it will be all ready to be picked up when I come back ;-) |
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