Last night I attend a Seattle city council debate sponsored by The Stranger. It was held at UW. Mike and I decided to go so we could see the candidates in action. The following candidates showed up: Judy Nicastro, Peter Steinbrueck, Zander Batchelder, Tom Rasmussen, Margaret Pageler's husband, Heidi Wills, and John Manning. The person running against Judy did not attend as Judy is enthusiastically supported by The Stranger. The same goes for Heidi's opponent. Peter is running against Zander. Tom is running against Margaret. Although Margaret did not make the debate she sent her husband in her place. The Stranger is a big fan of anyone running against Margaret Pageler.

After hearing the debates I understand why The Stranger likes Judy Nicastro and Heidi Wills, both are smart and well spoken and I generally agree with their positions. They both get my vote. On the subject of John Manning I could not disagree more. The man was arrested for domestic abuse on his wife and he had the nerve to talk about how little we do for victims of domestic violence and how he would make sure this changes. Can you say hypocrite? As I don't like his opponent either, I will be abstaining from this race. Tom Rasmussen an openly gay man who is running again Margaret Pageler an openly bitter old woman has my vote. I thought he was very thoughtfull in his answers and good heartedly received a lap dance from a female stripper during the debate while his husband watched. Too funny! That brings me to Peter vs Zander. The Stranger supports Peter Steinbrueck but I have to disagree. On paper he seemed fine but in person at the debate he seemed pompous and not very insightful. While Zander is obviously just trying to make a statement by running without raising any money for his campaign, I actually thought he had alot of good answers to the questions posed by the moderators and audience. I think he gets my vote.

As far as the initiatives on the ballot this election, I am voting No on initiative 841 to repeal state ergonomics regulations. Mike is out of work today and can never be a programmer again because he developed repetitive stress injury in his wrists and elbows. This was a direct result of programming for many hours on end for years in non ergonomic conditions.I am also voting Yes on charter amendment 5 to elect city council members by district. This just makes sense to me. It is the way the rest of our politicians are elected, why not the city council.

That is it for me. Don't forget to vote on November 4th.

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I haven't blogged in a while. You would think it was because I haven't had much to say but it is probably just the opposite. I have had a lot of extended family shit going on and I haven't felt like writing it all down. Mostly because it is embarrassing to know that your parents are crazier than you. I have been trying to help my mom through her third divorce and the more I find out about the situation the less I want to know. My sister hears the worst of it because she lives in the same town as my family. (I smartly live across the country.) Every 6 months or so I get a call from my sister or mom telling me about the latest crisis. I’ll spare you the details but every time this happens I scramble around for days trying to figure out how to help. I am a very practical person and it drives me crazy when they don’t take my help or advice. So I have decided to stop trying to help. This is not as easy as it sounds though. They keep calling and instant messaging me to find out what is wrong with me. I just want to scream at them. In fact I took that approach with my sister this weekend which didn’t go well so now I am just ignoring everyone. What fun!

By the way, I lost another pound so I only have 16 pounds to go.

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Hello from Dave's office. Dave is so cool and wishes he could blog too!

Dave says he will be seeing you soon. So long for now from me.

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As of my last weigh in (Wed night) I have lost a total of 6 pounds. It has taken a while with several set backs (ie lthe ong weekend in New Orleans) but I am finally making progress. Only 17 pounds to go.

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I just finished a 5 mile run, walk, jog. It was awesome. There was a 1/4 mile track around the soccer field Mike was playing on tonight so I decided to do some intervals. I started with a 9 minute mile warm up. Then I walked a 1/4 mile, sprinted 1/4, walked 1/4, and so on for 2 miles. My sprint 1/4 mile was consistently about 2 minutes (not bad). Next I did a 1/2 mile walk and 1/2 mile jog and then ended with a mile walk to cool down.

The other thing to note tonight is that I am writing this blog from my dining room table. Mike finally got the wireless router working so now my laptop works anywhere in the house. Woo hoo! I can now check e-mail while sitting on the john (not that I would mind you, I'm just saying that I could.) That's it for tonight. I need a shower.

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It is raining like crazy today. The roads are overflowing with water and people are driving like crap. It took me forever to get into work. Some white Ford Explorer cut in front of me in the fast lane on the highway and then proceeded to go 50 mph. Grrrrrr! You would think that it never rains here.

The other thing that is strange about Seattlites is that they never use umbrellas. It is like they have just resigned themselves to the fact that they are going to get soaked. I guess I'm no different. My rain coat is all the protection I get from the rain. As a result, my hair is a mess today. If only I had a picture phone to show you. :(

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