Month in Review

I haven't posted in quite some time, but it's been an interesting few weeks, so I thought I'd present some of my traditional walls of text for your perusal.

Three weeks back, sheeplass and I went up to Mt. Rainier again, for the first time this year. Ever since our trip to New Zealand a couple years back, we've been interested in exploring more of the natural beauty around the Seattle area -- it's very nice up here, with a lot of mountains, forests, etc. And we've both gotten in vastly better physical condition in the last several months, and realized that at this point we're in shape to actually do something about it.

It turns out that Mt. Rainier National Park suffered serious damage last autumn, when a massive rainstorm flooded the park. A lot of bridges were destroyed, including the major road through the park, making our usual drive-around-the-park impossible. However, the southwestern portion of the park was open and repaired, and that's a beautiful area, so we gave it a visit.

We drove up near Sunrise, and then took a short trail (very short, 0.1 miles, but severely sloped) down to a waterfall, and from there got onto a Wonderland Trail segment that lead to some reflection lakes. We only traveled around 3 miles from there (I think 1.8 each way, if I recall correctly), but it involved ascending and descending some 1700', so it was strenuous. A good time was had by both of us, with the only negative being that we discovered that while the Seattle area seems very free of annoying and biting insects, the woods of Mt. Rainier is not. It was, however, cool being far enough into the woods that there was literally no sign of civilization -- not the slightest human sight or sound. Well, other than each other. We'll have to do it again this summer.

Two weeks back, my parents and sister came to visit us in Redmond. It was good to see them again; last time was Christmas for me. Like visits from my parents always are, it featured a whole lot of eating out, which was pleasant (hey, expensive seafood for free!) but also involved eating a lot more than usual. sheeplass and I have been eating smaller, healthier portions for so long now that restaurant meals every day is just way too much food. We (by which I mean my parents & sister now) also went to downtown Seattle for the usual tourist spots, like the Pike Place Market and the waterfront, and went shopping a decent amount (it seems to be my sister's favorite activity.) Their next-to-last day in town was also my sister's birthday, so we celebrated with ice cream cake, and played some Apples to Apples -- as much as that game is ubiquitious in gamer-geek circles, it seems to be unknown to people like my family. :) I also introduced them to Chipotle Mexican Grill, because how can people survive without tacos? I think we ate a bit too much Southwestern food for my mom and sister, but then, such are the perils of visiting my wife and I.

After my parents left, sheeplass finished up her first job contract, so she took me out to Daniel's Broiler to celebrate. Daniel's is a stakehouse reputed to be the best on the Eastside, and after eating there I have to say that the reputation is well-deserved. The steak there tied for Best Steak I've Ever Had (the other being one from The Steakhouse At Camelot, a restaurant in the Excalibur hotel in Vegas.) I also had a very nice red wine whose name escapes me. In any case, it was a great meal.

Speaking of Vegas, this week, I'm attending two major security conferences, BlackHat Briefings and DefCon. Because of this, I was going to be in Vegas from last Monday until this coming Sunday. Since sheeplass and I love an annual trip to Vegas, she came out with me for the weekend before the conference started. We had a lovely weekend together, as we always do. We stayed in Caesars Palace, as that was where the first of my conferences was, and thus we had a heavily discounted conference rate. We ate a lot of good food, walked along most of the Strip (including picking up some souveneirs from all the hotels we've previously stayed at), and went to a show (Stomp Out Loud, which was fantastic.) One of the meals was at Nero's, the steakhouse in Caesars Palace, and while it was probably the 3rd best steak I've had, it didn't really come close to Daniel's the week before. On Monday, I bid my wonderful wife farewell and went off to my conferences.

And as this seems a good stopping point, I will put the conferences in separate posts.