More Fibonacci, less paparazzi

Sometimes I wish I had better control of the things that my brain remembers. I can spot actors and remember their entire body of work within a nanosecond, but the other day, the name Fibonacci came to my mind and I was frustrated. I had the words "Fibonacci" and "sequence" linked together in my brain, and I knew that it was number-related, but I couldn't define the sequence, and it frustrated me greatly.

How come I can name three Kardashians but I can't remember things I really want to, like some sequences of a program I use at work, or anything mathematical. I had to look up the war of 1812 five years ago because I couldn't remember what the war was about...(impressment, if you've forgotten) and it just made me so upset that these things I would rather be able to recall effortlessly I can't, and things I really absolutely do not want to remember, I do. (For example, I read somewhere once three years ago that the front man of the Killers, Brandon Flowers, had a son named Alma. I DO NOT WANT to remember the name of the front man of the Killers, and while I'm sure his son is a fine person, I really don't care what his name is.)

Why does my brain do this? grrr.

food prep breakfast musings

To wake up early in the morning and make someone else hot breakfast (or peel peaches for their cold breakfast...essentially, anything that involves food prep) is the mark of true love.

Pianos in the Park

I went on a piano safari on Saturday. A few friends and I traipsed through Seattle. It made me almost hurt to walk through all the places I used to frequent, knowing that I wasn't just a few minutes from home, but that I had to go back across the lake. There are lots of good things about where I live now, but I definitely miss my time in the city.

 

We started at the Seattle Center, and I think this was my favorite of the lot. With the cityscape and Mt. Rainier, as well as the moon in the sky exactly how it might be, it's a beautiful work of art. 

Next we went to Denny park, where we saw the KEXP piano. It looked a little like it came from Venus.  -->


<-- Then we went to Westlake Park, which has nothing green in it except perhaps 420, and saw the most underwhelming painted piano ever (painted as a piece of art, anyway). I felt like a five year old could have been more inspired. Also, the person sleeping behind me could have been more inspired in his (or her? it was a little hard to tell) choice of equilibration location.

We also made a stop at AllSaints. I'd never been in, but the sewing machines are pretty cool. Bucket list item crossed off! Another bucket list item is to see the traveling goats in action. People in Seattle rent out goats and then the goats eat all the blackberries and brambles and stuff and then the people who had stuff they wanted gone are happy because the goats do their job.

Then we went down to the pier (we had an adventure; we went the wrong way). I got fun of because I said the restaurant name it was by "eye-vahrs" instead of "eye-vers." Not funny, especially since one of the people I was with called the market "Pike's place." It is NOT Pike's place. The market is at Pike. It is not possessive!
The piano there looked like it might fit better in South Lake Union, what with all the computer parts it had on the side of it. I thought they were supposed to be a map -- it almost looked like a map of the city...but I was assured that it was "just a tree." We investigated the piano more and then it started to really pour. It actually hailed in some places. It was weird, because I heard the thunder, but I thought it was the Blue Angels (since they were in town), and then thought, "But it's too early for the Blue Angels to be flying." Yep, I was right. Just really beastly thunder even though it was really sunny outside. In fact, see to the left how sunny it actually was. Those white specks are actually raindrops. falling. Big, cold ones. They made a line, like paint, along the overpass we were walking under. (See above.)



While at the waterfront we investigated the boats that were in town for Seafair. The gun on the deck holds 5" shells. That's about what I thought it could, but it doesn't really seem like something in a 5" could really do that much damage. Except it occurred to me that due to physics, having a ginormous gun doesn't really do anything for you except in close proximity anyway, so in that respect, perhaps 5" is best. They had a line to take a tour of the boat, but I wasn't willing to wait in it, as it was about an hour and a half long at that point, and some times of the day, the Navy guy on the pier told us, had waits of up to 3 hours. I informed my companions that the ships looked like alients. They actually kind of do...robots. Look at all that equipment on them. I wonder how old they are. Each ship holds about 300-400 people on a regular basis, and it doesn't seem like they're that big. I wonder how many feet below water their plimsoll marks are.

Then we went to City Hall (the piano is, in fact, at City Hall, and not at City Hall park. It actually made me sad to walk through that part of Seattle..Pioneer Square is really dilapidated. It could be so vibrant! But it's overrun by homeless people and it really doesn't feel safe at all. I actually thought the figure on the side of the piano was a unicorn and not a man, at first glance. Maybe I just had unicorns on the brain...

The last park we went to was Hing Hay park. Someone playing the erhu had handwritten a sign saying "Piano closed between noon and 2pm." We honored the sign, but I thought it was really lame and not very well done.

All in all, it was a good excursion. And we even helped some lost teachers find their way to the Seattle Center on the way back, and I got to cross something else off my list: riding the monorail!