And the other semifinal is a rematch of last year’s consolation matchup. Will Seattle Daily Photo prevail again over West Seattle Blog?

UPDATE: The new system is stripping all sorts of code, including the code that links to the polls. So, if you want to vote in this, GO HERE.

Wednesday night at 9 PST, we’re done.

Meanwhile, the other semifinals — and the mudslinging fun that has broken out around it — continues.

Home stretch, folks. It’s almost over.

It’s widely agreed, even by people who don’t like paying public dollars for stadiums: UW’s Husky Stadium is a disaster waiting to happen.

While this may sound a bit like a Sonics-style “but MAAAAAAAAA, you SAID I could HAVE a new STADIIIIIIUUUUMMM with MORE BOXES and THAT KID’S LUNCH MONEY” whine, the Huskies have a bit more justification. Husky Stadium is nearly 90 years old. It shows. Rust, exposed rebar, dangerous wires, you name it: the stadium is a mess, and needs to be fixed.

All well and good, but somebody has to pay for the damn thing. We’re only heading into a recession here. Anybody got a few hundred million burning a hole in your pocket?

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Summer is getting closer and closer. Soon this area of Alki will be packed with people out enjoying warmer weather. What do you have plans for this spring/summer?

photo by ~wesa~

I found this container of XYLOL outside in the parking lot of the Seattle Cancer Treatment Wellness Center, 16th and Denny across from Group Health. They were closed, so I couldn’t let anyone know about it, but it was odd enough to catch my attention. In this day and age, I’m sure that notifying the authorities (through non-emergency routes) would have been the best thing to do. Any ideas?

Buster FoodCube

I love Mud Bay. This locally-owned company provides pet supplies for cats and dogs that are natural and healthy, so you don’t have to worry about what you are giving your little guys.

I started shopping at Mud Bay after we acquired our cat. Her needs are simple: catnip, dry food, and laser pointer. Since bringing home a puppy 2 months ago, I’ve been frequenting both Capitol Hill locations a lot more often. If I have any questions, the staff at Mud Bay are more than happy to give me ideas. If someone doesn’t work for us, they easily take returns without question.

I started taking the puppy to Seattle Dogworks for obedience classes. They recommended a few items that Mud Bay actually carries including the Buster FoodCube pictured above. Place a handful of kibble or treats in the cube and the dog has to work to get them out. This cube (and others) keeps my puppy occupied for 45 minutes or longer, advantageous when I am trying to finish a homework assignment or study for midterms.

I wanted to recommend this company to others in the region who have pets. Besides toys, Mud Bay carries a good selection of baked bones, natural treats (with an ingredient list that you can read), kits to grow your own catnip or wheat grass, and safer versions of shampoos, tick/flea remedies, and supplements.

There are a lot of locally-owned pet supply stores in our area, but I haven’t visited many others besides The Feed Bag (also on Capitol Hill). Any personal recommendations?

On March 4, 2008, numerous restaurants, bars, and coffee shops in the Seattle area will be donating 25% of your bill to aid relief efforts in Darfur. The event was so successful last year that this year they are expanding to many cities in Oregon as well.

Plan well and you can get your morning coffee at Caffe Vita, Top Pot Doughnuts, Trabant Coffee and Chai, or Seven Coffee Roasters, your lunch at the Jolly Roger Taproom, Pagliacci Pizza, or Agua Verde, and your dinner at Via Tribunali, Palace Kitchen, Linda’s Tavern, Quinn’s, or the Madrona Ale House, among others.

[Link]

During the week of Feb. 25 through March 3, 2008, the Seattle Animal Shelter will offer certificates for free spaying and neutering to pet owners in need of financial assistance to have their pets spayed or neutered. This offer ends at 5 p.m., Monday, March 3. For more information, call (206) 386-PETS (7387) or visit www.seattleanimalshelter.org.

This special offer commemorates the 14th anniversary of “Spay Day USA,” a national campaign sponsored by the Doris Day Animal Foundation to help reduce companion animal overpopulation.

Here’s how you can celebrate Spay Day USA and share the message that spaying and neutering improves pets’ lives in a number of ways:

o Raise money to help subsidize the cost of spay/neuter surgeries. The money (tax deductible) donated to the Pet Population Control Fund can be applied toward the cost of certificates for this event or the cost of surgeries after this event.

o Have an animal spayed or neutered — your pet; a free-roaming cat; a needy neighbor’s pet; or a shelter animal awaiting adoption. Encourage family, friends and neighbors to do the same!

o Submit a digital photo of your pet to the Spay Day USA Pet Photo Contest, sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States. The Seattle Animal Shelter and other humane organizations throughout the country will participate in the contest. For details, go to http://www.spaydayusa.org/

o Turn in a litter. As part of an ongoing program, anyone who turns in a litter of puppies or kittens to the Seattle Animal Shelter throughout the entire year is eligible for a free spay or neuter for the parent animal(s). The shelter guarantees the adoption of these kittens and puppies.

(Source)

Well, well, well. What a mess we have here. A bunch of folks who just have to muck things up for everyone. Vote spamming. Ballot box stuffing. Ballots that slip in after the buzzer.

So, I’ll tell you what. Lookout Landing, Huskies Fan, Seattle Bubble, you’re all in the semi-finals.

But here’s my first and final warning. If I even get a whiff that anything funny is going on, you’re all out of the tournament. Capiche? If one cheats, then I’ll assume that everyone is cheating.

With that said, vote early and vote often.

UPDATE: OK, what part of the above did you all not understand? I’m pulling the plug. You don’t know how disappointed I am with all of you.

And as a reminder, the other two quarterfinals are still running — West Seattle Blog vs. Kirida closes up tomorrow night, Seattle Daily Photo vs. Glitter Pissing on Wednesday night.

I really love the quote at the end of this story I found on Komo4.

“We were on routine patrol during rush hour this morning,” said State Patrol pilot Troy Davis. “Out of the corner of my eye, I saw this blue streak streaking down on the freeway on southbound 405. That really got our attention as he was passing a lot of traffic at a high rate of speed.”

Davis says his colleague in the plane used aircraft marks on the freeway to calculate the driver’s speed and clocked the man at 104 mph during the first check, then the driver continued to speed up to 110 mph.

Traffic was light, Davis said, and the driver was driving in the carpool lane with a passenger.

“He was able to get a nice long straight stretch and he really let it have it,” Davis said. “I’m sure all the cars around were wondering, ‘Gosh, where’s a trooper when you need one?’ Well, there was a trooper when they needed one — we were straight up in the air watching this guy drive like a jerk.”

Sure enough, the pilots were able to direct state patrolmen on the ground and the 23-year old driver was arrested for investigation of reckless driving and cited for driving without insurance.

photo courtesy of EQ3

2 years ago, my husband and I decided that enough was enough, we were sick and tired of hand-me-down couches. With some careful planning and a rather large bonus check, we picked out a nice couch at Area 51 on Capitol Hill. I am just as pleased with it now as I was the day it was delivered.

Recently we started checking out bed frames. There was a nice platform bed frame in the window of Area 51 for months that we had our eye on, but we ended up captivated by the Bossa Platform Storage Bed (EQ3) that Area 51 started carrying with the recent expansion of showroom space. We were initially interested in the “natural” mattress that came with it, but decided to shop around. This lead us to Soaring Heart, another local Seattle store. They specialize in natural mattresses and futons.
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