Halloween Nightmare In Oakland For Seahawks

After a win on the road against the Bears and a victory over conference rival Arizona, the Seattle Seahawks seemed to take a step backwards against the Oakland Raiders, losing 33-3. The Raiders amassed 545 yards for the first time in their glorious history and also set a record for having their second game in a row with over 5oo yards of total offense. Running back Darren McFadden ran for 111 yards. As for the Seahawks, their offense was horrible with only 4 yards of total offense in the first quarter. The 'Hawks take on the Red Hot New York Giants next week at Qwest Field.

Happy Halloween!

Get Out And Vote

In this impassioned plea, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann's explains the the dangers of a "Tea Party" takeover this Tuesday.

The Apprentice Hits Broadway

This episode begins with the men's and women's team chilling in the boardroom. Mahsa has some definite opinions on who should be fired from last week's task. No one at this point knows who was fired from last week. Liza and Stephanie returns and all of a sudden there is a big fight. The women are telling Mahsa to be quiet. We later find out that this will play itself out in this week's boardroom.
This week's task is to create a presentation for a specific Broadway play in order to get corporate backing. Liza steps up to lead the women, but has never actually seen a play nor does she get the concept. The men have to deal with David, after calling him out in last week's boardroom. The big surprise is that David is good when it comes to this work. Apparently his "acting out" masks a very creative streak. Although Steuart (it's actually spelled like that) is PM, he gives David full reign as soon as he sees that it will work in their favor.
The task takes second stage in this episode with the boardroom. Stephanie and Mahsa are in charge of creating a flier to promote the play. It is a miserable effort with no contact information, should an investor be interested in backing the play. Stephanie says that she has a music background and had studied for years in a conservatory. Trump asks her why she did not step up as PM. She said she did not know it was a musical. Trump calls her bluff and suddenly it looks like she may be fired. She retracts her story. Trump is suddenly angry with Mahsa because she cannot give a straight answer to one of his questions. Pretty soon the women are piling on her, it is revealed that on last week's task, Mahsa told the Men's team what her team had made. She says that she did so after the men shared their information. The men's team, who had been watching at the suite are enraged. They come back into the boardroom to protest what they say is a fabricated story. No one in the boardroom will back Mahsa up. She is fired to the relief of everyone, including, it looks like, Trump's receptionist.

Omare Kicks Seahawks Into First Place

Olindo Mare kicked 5 field goals as the Seattle Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals 22-10. The Seahawks scored their only touchdown in the second quarter on a 2 yard pass from Matt Hasselbeck to Mike Williams.

The Seahawks will travel to the Bay Area next Sunday to take on the Oakland Raiders.

Lee Vs Lincecum In World Series Opener

The two outstanding pitcher's who oppose each other in Game 1 of this year's World Series have Northwest ties. Tim Lincecum grew up in the area and attended Liberty High School in Renton and the University Of Washington. Cliff Lee, is kind of a stretch, he spent the first three months of this season as a Seattle Mariner. The two pitchers are a contrast in styles, Lincecum is long hair and has an unorthodox style, Cliff Lee is button-down and business. Amazingly though, Lee is the journeyman playing for his fourth team in four seasons. Lincecum has been a Giant his entire career. Both men have won the Cy Young, Lincecum won his second last year. The Rangers are seeking their first World Series championship, the Giants have not won a title since 1954 when they were the New York Giants.

Local Man's Presidential I-Pad Autograph May Be First

Sylvester Cann, with whom I worked with on the Dean Willard campaign, has garnered national attention. Sylvester attended a rally at the University Of Washington featuring President Obama. When Obama went into the crowd, Cann asked the president to sign his IPad, it may be the first IPAD autograph of a president.

The Apprentice: Whose Got A Ticket To Ride?

The men are looking to regroup after a disasterous presentation last week, presenting a fashion show. The task this week is for teams to set up a pedicab business in New York. Anyone who lives in or near a city were pedicabs are employed, know that they are used primarily by tourists, mostly for fun, rather than a basic need of transportation.

Kelly, who thinks her team made her look like a weak player, steps up to run the women's team. Anand, who has been under the radar all season, will be PM for the men.

The Men's gimmick is to dress like gladiators with swords and promote the cabs as chariots. Wacky David seems to be a unifying factor on the team, they all want him gone. The men set up outside of Trump Tower.

The women run into problems right away when two of the members fail their riding tests including PM Kelly. That seems to be when she lost her team. She does not like the location that is picked (Wall Street) , but says nothing and seems to fade into the background. The women's team decide to sell sex appeal, calling their team "babes on bikes". When Eric Trump comes to check on the team, Kelly points out a couple of team members that she thinks have been doing well, this angers the other players as they all seem to have a "me first" attitude.

When the teams come back to the boardroom, Clint immediately calls out David for his bizarre behaviour. Everyone on the men's team backs him up, but Trump says the men have won and he cannot fire someone from the winning team. Of course, most viewers know that he could and would had he wanted to. The women have lost badly and everyone points a finger at Liza. Liza didn't do much this week, but Kelly thinks that she threw her under the bus on last week's task. She also fingers Stephanie for picking a bad location, Trump agrees that it is a terrible location, but thinks that Kelly was a poor leader. He fires her.

Fall Evening

On a clear night, you can see the full Moon above the Issaquah City Hall.

The Bell At l'Ecole No. 41

Our one winery visit on our trip to Walla Walla last weekend was to l'Ecole No.41. l'ecole means school in French and the winery is in an area known as Frenchtown. Visitors to the winery are invited to ring this bell, formerly used when the winery was actually the Lowden school. One of the first wineries in the area, the winery was started by descendants of the Baker family. The same Baker family who started the state's oldest bank.

Seahawks Sneak Past Bears

Congrats to the Seattle Seahawks for getting their first road victory. The 'Hawks beat the Chicago Bears 23-20.

Toy Store Mural Upsets Walla Walla City Government

It did not seem so long ago that what would be big news in Walla Walla, Washington would be of little consequence anywhere else, but thanks to the reach of the world wide web and a newly acquired reputation as the wine capital of the Northwest, a story about a legal battle between a locally owned Downtown toy store and the city has attracted attention from around the world.

It's all because of a mural posted above the Inland Octopus (top picture), located at 7 East Main Street. The notice is posted on the front door (bottom picture). It says that the store will be fined 100 dollar per day until the mural is taken down.

The Apprentice: Men's Team Angers Trump!

This week's task is to put on a fashion featuring Rockport shoes. Women will put on a show featuring men's shoes. Men will put on a show featuring women's. Wade is PM for the men, after failing to step up as he promised on the previous task. Stephanie, a highly motivated candidate volunteered to be PM for the women. Stephanie had already shown leadership in previous tasks.

Stephanie tells her team to focus on the task at hand. She leads with an iron hand. Wade does not seem to show any of the leadership that he talked about in the board room a couple of weeks ago. He has Gene and David emcee the event and does not have a rehearsal. As a result, the men's show is a disaster. The women have Brandy emcee and although she said that she had not done it before. The event goes on without a hitch.

Trump is so angry with the men's performance on the task, he let's the women go and does not even let Wade pick 2 people to come into the boardroom. He lets them all have it and fires Wade and Gene. He could easily have fired the whole team.

Rusty In The Winner's Circle

A proud Mom poses with Rusty who has just won First Prize for Savy Senior in the Fido Fest.

Bye Bye Branch

The Seattle Times reports that Deion Branch has been traded back to the New England Patriots. Since giving up a 2007 first round draft pick to acquire him in September of 2006, Branch was frequently injured and was unable to play a full season.

Former Walla Walla Padre Tony Gwynn Facing Cancer

It has been a lousy fall for fans of San Diego baseball, the Padres did not make the post season after leading the National League West for almost the entire season. Now Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn who spent his entire career with the Padres, has been diagnosed with cancer of salivary gland. Gwynn of course, began his professional career with the Walla Walla Padres in 1981.

Movie Review: The Social Network

For anyone wondering how Mark Zuckerberg became the world's youngest billionaire ever off a service that is offered to it's customers for free, The Social Network offers little information. For those seeking a drama based on how facebook was conceived, this movie delivers. On paper, it is 'matter of fact" in the Aaron Sorkin style rather than Oliver Stone's "in your face",yet,it somehow keeps your attention as it shuffles between court dispositions and the evolution of how facebook became the cultural phenomonon that it is now.

Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg is the main character, a brilliant but socially awkward young man. He is not someone who you would want to have a beer with or have sympathy for. After posting rude comments on the internet about the girl who had just dumped him and about the women at Harvard in general, Zuckerberg seems oblivous to the disdain shown toward him. Zuckerberg's partner-in-crime Eduardo Saverin (played by Adam Garfield), on the other hand, is a very likable sympathetic character who tries to keep Zuckerberg down to earth while seeking advertising revenue to make Zuckerberg's venture work. Eduardo's personality contrasts to Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake), the founder of Napster, who seems tries to encourage Zuckerberg to expand big, think later. The preppy athletic Winklevoss twins were both played by Armie Hammer. The Winkelvosses are fellow Harvard students who are suing Zuckerberg claiming that he stole their idea for a campus link up site, after inviting Zuckerman to bring his technical expertise in the early stages.

The main attraction of the movie is that we are all familiar with what facebook is today. Even a movie of this quality would probably not work if it was about an unknown product.

The Apprentice:The Men Pop Back

This week's task was to promote Popcorn. According to Trump, 17 billion quarts a year are sold. Popcorn, Indiana sells the product in stores and this week's task was for each team to create a viral video to promote the brand. .

The women come up with what seems to me to be a lame idea, showing people in a health club eating popcorn while they work out. It looks to me like an invitation to choke to death.

The men on the other hand, come up with an idea that can at least attract attention, they stage a popcorn fight in the middle of Manhattan. David, the weekly problem child for the men, winds up sitting another task out, this one due to his breaking a tooth.

After two losses in a row, the men win this task. Clint is the winning project manager. Mahsa, the angry DA, is the loser. She picks Tyana and Liza to go into the boardroom with her. Tyana did not get on board with Mahsa's idea. Ultimately, it was the losing idea, but Trump thinks that she has lost favor with the team and fires her.

Seahawks Lose Traction In StLouis

The Seattle Seahawks may have started the season undefeated at home, but they have yet to find a way to the win column on the road. Rookie quarterback Sam Bradford threw for 289 yards and two touchdowns as the StLouis Rams defeated the Seattle Seahawks 20-3. Matt Hasselbeck was sacked 4 times, was intercepted once and had a fumble in a losing effort. The loss ended a streak of ten consecutive victories that the 'Hawks had over the Rams.

The Apprentice Goes To The Dogs

This week's task is to set up a day care and spa for dogs. This was a problem for Mahsa because she is terrified of dogs Judging by the fact that Donald Trump did not come to see either team, my guess is that she was not the only one not comfortable around the furry friends. For the past couple weeks, James (above) has been called out in the boardroom. He is always clueless and shocked when that happens. When he steps up to be PM, you already know the results. The toughest part of running Octane is David. I don't know what is up with him, but he is the wild card. It is clear that he will be fired sometime, just not right away. After a couple of shout out sessions, James tells David to go back to the suite to spend the days watching game shows, soaps and perhaps old reruns of "The Apprentice". It is the first time that I can remember a PM firing a candidate on a task.
The Women of Fortitude have problems of their own. They won a task after throwing Liza under the bus and she cannot let it go. Furthermore, Tyana (the PM) and Mahsa, who got along so well in the first task are now bitter enemies. There is absolutely no cohesion in the women's camp either.
The judge of the competition is Celebrity Dog Trainer Caesar Milan. Why he would want to put his name on this is beyond me. Perhaps he is graduating to training people, because these candidates are a bigger mess then any dog would be.
The women win. The men lose for the second week in a row. James picks David (of course) and Wade to stay in the boardroom. Firing David would be way too easy, it is clear that although James is smart, he could never lead the team and he is fired. David will return to wreak havoc next week.

Stan Barer On Front Page Of Seattle Times

Cousin Stan Barer (left with side to camera), who is on the University Of Washington Board Of Regents, is shown here greeting interim UW President Phyllis Wise.