A Little Ludwig Goes A Long Way

William Brent’s Search for Cleantech — good summary from William Brent

Marcello is running this Seattle Startup Index — 200 Seattle Startups – November SSI — kind of cool

• Awesome Local Deals Content in Seattle & Atlanta at Starting Up by Rahul Pathak — Rahul talks about latest Judy’s Book release — the content is starting to vastly improve…
• Phil’s Blackberry app gets some good press coverage\
• The opportunity for Network Magic — home networks are just way too frickin’ complicated
• Marine forecasts for the San Juans — thanks Rich
• Rich also on how to read charts … I learned all this as a kid on Georgian Bay but a good refresher
• Brett finds the best guide to the west coast trail — good luck brett!

Brian Ruby at Carbon Nanoprobes. Smart guy.

MAKE: Blog: Seattle Power Tool Drag Race Workshops at the Hazard Factory. — this looks stupidly fun.

• Tong Family Blog: Best Seattle Restaurants — I use SeattleWeekly for recos but this is a good list too. Remember when CitySearch nee Sidewalk was actually useful for restaurant reviews?
• Lala’s music streaming plans get covered in TechCrunch
• Phil keeps knocking out Beyond411 features. And the app hasn’t bloated!
• Rich offers guidance on indoor sports photo lenses. I was super happy with my setup for lacrosse this spring but I will need to do something for basketball.
• Rich’s guidance on media players. VLC has saved my ass as well.

• Walax | The Source For Northwest Lacrosse — for chatter, standings, etc
• Official state info
• Sportability standings
• Directions to team fields on sportability, also in here on walax

• CrunchGear ? Blog Archive ? Tivoli Table Stereo for Audiophiles — these tivoli products seem way cool.
• 181 things to do on the moon — why to go back
• nanotext to fight counterfeiters — kind of cool, but how does the clerk at the 7-11 check for nanotext?
• Are You Watching This? — what is hot in sports tv right now
• Ignite Seattle — Hey I think Ignition should be an honorary sponsor
• Mapping Books — i love anything that is bookish
• wikicalc goes 1.0 — must try this
• the time fountain — i love stop-action photography
• Folded lens — simple yet awesome

Bob’s totally awesome HDR pic of Pike Place Market — Pike Place Market in HDR and B&W - Bobsplanet and his tools reco

Fittings Inc. Everything you could want and more.

• Woodland Park Zoo Pumpkin Prowl — might be fun to stop at
• Seattle Times’ list of events — the bastyr event sounds good
• The PI’s list and more PI

Brett on Stuff — great collection of ultralight backpacking and general outdoors stuff. Thanks Brett.

We had a great weekend. Some people that made it possible:

• Paraclete Charter Service – Your charter and ferry service to the San Juan Islands, Washington
• Everyone at Greene Partners — great job on our place. Just a great design at every level that really worked for us, and super people who helped us with so much more.
• Jennifer Randall & Associates — also a great job on our place. Everything from broad schemes to little details were just awesome, and again great people.
• Ravenhill Construction — also a great job on our place. The workmanship, fit and finish were all great.
• On-Site Island Services — super job getting everything ready
• Vita’s — awesome takeout and a nice wine recommendation
• Alwyn at Rhythm Auto Repair — provided us with wheels, very appreciated.

Can’t wait to get back.

I hit Rattlesnake ledge this am at 630 — Rattlesnake Ledge Hike – a photoset on Flickr (not my photos) — a good wakeup hike. Saw no one on the way up, 2 people at the top, and then passed 40 people on the way down — it is going to be crowded up there today! Great to hit it while it was still quiet.

My close-in park of choice for quick hikes is Cougar Mountain, but Soaring Eagle looks like an interesting choice too. Thanks to Steve for the tip. And thanks also to King County for their killer online trail maps and info

Martin came by and updated us on Imperium Renewables today (nee Seattle Biodiesel). Sounds like they are hitting on all cylinders, man I wish I’d been smart enough to invest.

Rich finds some great places to visit in BC. I hear King Pacific Lodge is nice too. And Eaglenook might be fun.

OK I have no idea if this is the best of Yakima but it is what I found in 4 days there:

• Where to stay — we stayed in the Hojo’s, it was merely adequate. Locals tell me that the Red Lion and the new Marriott Courtyard are nicer
• Dining — Zesta Cucina was great! The find of the trip. Great atmosphere, and they handled our huge group (45+) well. We also dined at the Olive Garden — it was yet another Olive Garden — and at Tequila’s — standard chain Mexican but in converted railroad cars downtown so kind of fun. Both the Garden and Tequila’s also did a good job with our mob. In all cases, do the restaurant a favor — have one person pay and figure out how to break it up later.
• Lunch — El Grullense (near the Sundome) is a fine little taqueria. And Miner’s (also near the dome) is classic burger drive-in fare.
• Recreation — well of course if you are there for a high school state tournament or a state fair then you will spend a lot of time at the Sundome. Note that they have some fairly restrictive rules about fan behaviour for high school events so you might want to dig into it before you go – signs, bodypainting, too much standing, boomboxes — all prohibited. As is outside food of any sort.
• Other recreation — the riverwalk along the Naches and Yakima rivers is a pleasant walk. And you can get into the Cascades to the west in a half hour for hiking etc. The Naches Ranger Station on Route 12 is a great place to stop and get current condition info, maps, etc. Based on my experience – bring snowshoes if you are heading out in early march, because there aren’t many trails clear yet.

I drink coffee. I am addicted to crosswords. Hence the perfect contest for me — win a cup of coffee a day for 50 years. I finished today’s first puzzle — not very hard — the equivalent of a monday or maybe tuesday NY Times puzzle — I wonder if they are going to ramp up.

Man these look great — look at the scenery around the fishhook and bench sites — i am jealous.