marylou

I'm in the P-I today. You can say you knew me before I was famous!

No women's tees? HEY WE WANT THEM TOO!!! excpeshully the skull one!!! Edit: the skull one us such a big design it's probably gonna look better on the back for the ladies version.

Hence my recent switch to a Gore/Softshell hybrid jacket for city use. Gotta try to stay foxy when the raindrops are a'fallin'. Hopefully it will be a good ski piece too, we'll see.

Probably about the same, given the cost of the fabric.

I think that jacket makes your head look big.

I think Pattagu' kills the competition with a nicer cut on the down liner jacket, which is important to women especially. It's warm because it fits right. I have a couple of Montbell insulating pieces and they are warm, but not in the right spots for my fat female body. I don't have a Pattagucci down sweater yet, but it will be a contender next year when I look for an insulating piece that fits correctly. I will also look at FF, but I doubt they have a women's jacket, and besides I wonder who are their customers? I bought a down bag a year and a half ago and it didn't come with a differential drawcord. I have been waiting for a year for an estimate on putting one in, and after several emails, gave up on getting the information. I can only assume they have enough customers that they just don't care about stuff like this any more. I know they are a small company but I would assume repeat business still matters. I hate to bring this up on an internet forum, but it seems like they are more attuned to cc.com then they are to actual customers who walk into the store. Full disclosure: I did buy my bag on pro deal, so I saved around $75. Still, most companies offer full Customer Service on gear bought that way, and surprisingly, a lot of companies offer full CS on stuff sent out on media sample, whether you tell them that or not. Osprey recently made me a "Frankenpack" made of a men's packbag with women's suspension. They gave me a PD on it, but told me they would do the exact same thing for a regular customer is it was asked for. I've had Patagonia test gear fail on me and gotten a replacement, no quesions asked. I think a lot of people buy Patagonia based on that excellent Customer Service.

My busts are not as perky and taut as they were when I was younger, but I would say they definitely have not expired yet. They are still a valid form of entertainment.

This is a little o/t, but why was there firefighting going up there anyway? Don't we have a 'let it burn' policy on naturally started fires (e.g. lightning strikes) in areas like this? Admittedly, I'm a bit ignorant on fire suppression policy.

McNett has a new product called "quick fresh" that seems to work really well on odors. An old trick from theatre: spray bottle loaded with straight vodka, the cheaper the better. Spray on, let dry, smells gone. The wardrobe ladies do this with costumes all the time. I do not know what the advantage is over rubbing alcohol, but I know they use vodka and not rubbing alcohol and there's probably a good reason for it. I have not tried the vodka on shpoes, but I would expect it to work fine.

The reason the NCNP deals with the NCCC is because if they don't, the NCCC sues them. It's too long a story to write down on the interwebs, but I'd be happy to share what I know about this history over a beer. I probably would support this project if we could look at it costing a number other than 6MIL. In the context of road repairs, that's just too much money. Sorry, no. I think the impression that this matter had been resolved by the Park is based on the fact that they did an EA a couple of years ago and said they weren't going to do the project. It would be easy to make that assumption based on the findings of the EA. That's sure what I thought until Hastings introduced the legislation. There are so many informed opinions on this discussion that I'm sure I'm not the only one who would agree that the person who was the Superintendent of the NPS in 2006 was a highly skilled politician who could make a citizen feel like there was hope for their pet issue.

Don't let that stop you!

This, I will say, is merely a theory, HOWEVER, the following information makes it procedurally difficult or impossible to use the existing quarries. I would *think* it would probably take an EIS or at least an EA, to fully reopen the quarries. I haven't researched this properly, but I suspect the need to ferry in sand and gravel is related the the 1995 Record of Decision establishing a Mgmt Plan for the park as required by the 1991 consent decree between the NCNP and NCCC -- the elements of this mgmt plan are part of the legal requirement placed on the NCNP by the courts as set forth in the consent decree. To wit, the 1995 NCNP mgmt plan states (in particular note the phrase "material beyond this limit or for new construction will be imported"):

The former quarries in that valley have been partially decomissioned. I have some more information on that, let me see if I can find it. It's great that this guy thinks he can do it on the cheap, but the NPS has rules and policies in place that make this impossible.

As I explained to Blake in PM, the funding jurisdiction of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee covers roads in both the NPS and the FS. If Blake or anyone else needs someone to explain this in further detail, I'm sure there is someone in Congressman Dicks's office who will take the time to go over this. Just because it seems counterintuitive to Blake does not make it incorrect, sorry.

We're super-special here with our watersheds though. It's quite uncommon. So we have this great water here and then living in Ballard it runs through crappy old pipes and it no tastey good any more.

Fluoride's carcinogenic, isn't it? Sounds like a zero-sum equation to me.

Oh, I'm over that now. Wearing casts is so October, 2007.

The gay sasquatch has a tattoo.

I don't think it actually snowed here last night, but it sure felt like it was a'gunna.

It is just about to start right here.

Jens, there's one at the VW. I'm sure they would let you use it whenever.