Yes, it can be a scary place, but my interests are many and varied. On this page, I present some pictures, links and documents that touch on a few things that grab my attention.
Many of the documents linked on this page are in .PDF format and as such, require Adobe® Reader® to view.
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Most people that
have come to our shop here at Northend Rental have seen my pepper plants. The
jalapeño plants are 7-9 years old and continue to produce
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I enjoy cooking, but I like to do... not exotic, but maybe - uncommon things. I like to make stuff that some people might consider a little more difficult than mac & cheese (although good mac & cheese does take a little touch!) I occasionally get caught up in the cooking show America's Test Kitchen. They do some fabulous things and they really go about perfecting their recipes in the way I would if I had more time, space, patience and money! Below, there are links to some of my favorite recipes, including my salsa recipe, which took about 8 batches to fine tune to the way I like it - hot and limey! The Roast Pork Loin in Horseradish Crust was actually found and done repeatedly by my wife, Jennifer. It is tasty!
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These are my four furry girls! Not all of them are still walking the shop floors in body, but they are there in spirit!
OK, fine - we've got a couple of cats too...
Here are a some great doggie-type links:
I also like these:
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Yeah, ferns. Is that a problem? I have had up to 130 different varieties of ferns growing in my yard a one point in time. However, the past several winters have really taken their toll. Some ferns I thought were tough have died off, and some that I thought were a bit delicate still poke their heads up each year. Go figure. Sooner or later, I will add a page showing all the ferns I've tried at on point or another and how they've faired. Probably picture too.
Here are a some links to some great organizations:
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Athyrium anagustum forma 'Rubellum' Lady In Red Fern |
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Cabinetry, furniture and just generally building stuff! Seriously. I love it. Once again, sooner or later, I'll get some pictures of some of my projects posted... |
Genius wood carver from Venice Italy |
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Queensrÿche! (Well, duh! Are there any other bands? ...aside from Journey?) Here's the link to the Queensrÿche fan club. Progressive rock? Whatever. All I know is these guys have been doing it at a high level for a bunch of years! They have a sound for every mood and lyrics that can engage your brain. Plus, they put on a helluva show!
Queensrÿche are:
* I do not think that Parker is considered a full member of the band - perhaps he is an associate member?
Former members:
Other musicians:
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Geoff Tate wailing! Queensrÿche
Queensrÿche at the 2010 Norway Rock Festival
Steve Perry Journey |
| Queensrÿche Discography |
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Dedicated to Chaos 2011 |
* Images 'borrowed' from the Queensrÿche fan club website... |
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American Soldier 2009 |
Take Cover 2007 |
Sign of the Times 2007 |
Mindcrime at the Moore 2007 |
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Operation: Mindcrime II 2006 |
Art of Live 2004 |
Tribe 2003 |
Classic Masters 2003 |
Live Evolution 2001 |
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Operation: LIVECrime 2001/1991 |
Greatest Hits 2000 |
Q2K 1999 |
Hear in the Now Frontier 1997 |
Promised Land 1994 |
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Empire 1990 |
Operation: Mindcrime 1988 |
Rage for Order 1986 |
The Warning 1984 |
Queensrÿche (EP) 1983 |
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A couple of my other non-standard favorites are:
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Jackie Evancho After a couple of previous attempts to get on America's Got Talent, Jackie finally made it as a YouTube entry on season 5. She was 10 years old at the time, and a true singing sensation. She has since gone on to release a Christmas album followed by her first "crossover classical" (whatever that means) album, both produced by Grammy-winning producer David Foster. He also accompanies Jackie on the piano. |
O Holy Night (EP) 2010 |
Marié Digby Marié (mar-e-ay) was "discovered" on YouTube in 2007 covering Rihanna's "Umbrella". She has several other covers on YouTube that all showcase her talent wonderfully. I thoroughly enjoy her entire 1st album, "Unfold", but am not such a big fan of her second.
Regarding Marié's YouTube fame, Wikipedia says, "Digby is recognized on YouTube for her simple popular |
Unfold 2009 |
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Dream With Me 2011 |
Breathing Under Water 2010 |
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On her album, Jackie sings duets with Susan Boyle and Barbra Streisand and has a song accompanied on the piano by Conrad Tao.
Jackie's voice - whatever her age - is truly amazing! |
music covers, which include Linkin Park, Game, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Maroon 5, Incubus, Lady Gaga, Usher and Nelly Furtado, as well as her original compositions. She has over 290,000 subscribers and her channel has been viewed over 7 million times. Her videos have amassed over 102 million views, the most popular being a cover of Umbrella by Rihanna, which has gained over 19 million views." |
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Geoff Tate & Three Rivers Winery: Insania On the side, Geoff Tate likes to dabble a bit in wine. He collaborates with Holly Turner of the Three Rivers Winery in Walla Walla, Washington (the town so nice, they named it twice!) to make Insania wine.
Three Rivers Winery, Walla Walla WA Three Rivers Tasting Room In late December of 2010, Geoff and some of his Queensrÿche pals - past and present - played a couple of sets in the Three Rivers Winery banquet room, dubbing themselves "The Fedoras". Geoff quipped "It's not the name we wanted, but it's the name we've got." It was an intimate little party celebrating the mid-winter barrel tasting of the new Insania vintage during Walla Walla's wine festival. We spent the day rubbing elbows with Geoff, his wife Susan and his fellow band-mates, sipping wine and chatting. Then, later that night, about fifty of us enjoyed a wonderful meal followed by another performance by Geoff and 'The Fedoras'. We met some wonderful people, including a couple that drove up from California just for the evening. It was an extremely enjoyable evening that seemed to end far too soon - can't wait for next year! |
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5641 Old Hwy 12 Walla Walla, WA 99362 (509 )526-9463
Tasting room is open daily 10am-5pm Closed major holidays, no appointment needed!
Friday night music series, 2011 On select Fridays, May through September... See their website for more information. |
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Geoff Tate & Holly Turner |
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Anya |
Renzo |
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Tanya |
Dani |
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Jason |
Jerry |
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Bethany |
Lance |
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Sarah |
Mishka |

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Sam |
Juliana |
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Leroy |
Levi |
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OK. So if you'd told me a year ago that I would be able to dance - let alone actually enjoy dancing - I'd have thought you were nuts. Or drunk. Or something. Fast-forward to today. Jennifer and I go to the Arthur Murray Dance Center, Everett Studio pretty much every weeknight. We take 3 or 4 private lessons per month, 8 group classes per week and attend a 'New Student Practice Party' every Tuesday and a 'Dance Party' every Friday. That doesn't count seminars, events, and the occasional Saturday class. I even own dance shoes. I'm pretty sure the world is coming to an end. (Unlike some people though, I don't want to name a specific date!)
The Everett studio, along with the
Shoreline studio, is owned by husband and wife Sam and Anya - two
fabulous dancers in their own rights! The studio manager, Renzo, and Anya
travel to participate in national competitions where they perform quite
well. Tanya, our teacher, is a bottomless fount of enthusiasm and
positive energy - not to mention patience. When Jen and I are dragging, we
are able to get recharged by just seeing the smile on her face!
Jennifer and I currently have 6 dances in our program: Tango, Waltz, Rumba, Cha-cha-cha, Salsa and Swing. We are adding Foxtrot too. On Wednesdays, we take the open-level Argentine Tango class, usually taught by Jerry. Jen and I both really enjoy the challenge. Some of the other dances we have been exposed to in group classes include: West Coast Swing, Samba, Merengue, Hustle, Country-Western Two-Step - even a Quickstep.
There are are four main levels in the Arthur Murray program: Foundation, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Bronze is further broken down into four more levels: Bronze I, Bronze II, Bronze III & Bronze IV. I believe that Silver is also broken down into sub-levels, but do not know for sure. And Gold??? Jennifer and I have recently graduated from Bronze I into Bronze II. It took us about six months of work, but it was well worth the effort and gave us a pretty great feeling of accomplishment! Look out Bronze III - here we come! |
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What to say about Second Life (SL)? Well, it is a free to play, 3-D virtual world created in 1999 by Linden Labs out of San Francisco, CA. In SL, the term 'sim' or 'simulator' refers to a section of virtual land that is 256m x 256m x 4096m. You can either buy your own sim, or, you can rent a portion from someone else. SL has literally tens of thousands of sims representing almost anything or any setting you can imagine - from companies to universities all over the world. In a typical 60 day period, there are 1 to 1½ million people that log on to the SL grid. You can actually take classes from many universities in SL. It is also an excellent place to socialize; especially if you have trouble getting around in the real world (RL). Age, race, creed color; there are no limitations in SL except what you choose to put on yourself. |
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There are a
couple of different ways you can connect to the SL grid. You can use the
standard Linden Labs viewer, which can be downloaded for free from
here. Or, you can use any of several 3rd party viewers. Jen and I use
one called
In SL, you can buy or make anything you can imagine. From clothes to flowers to spaceships to pirate ships. Imagination is the limit. There are tons of places to shop for just about anything and that, in turn, drives a real economy. I saw a show on the History Channel about video games. It was a five part series and they discussed the current trend of MMUs (Massively Multi-User), like SL, in the last show. What really grabbed my attention was that not only was SL free to play, but a person had pulled out one million dollars in real money from SL. She bought, sold and rented out land and she made clothes. Virtual clothes. The unit of currency in SL is the Linden or L$. You can buy approximately 250L$ for one US$. Then you can spend it how ever you like. Or, if you sell products, you can accumulate L$ and exchange them back into US$ whenever you like - about 270L$ will buy you one US$. If you get the right product, you can really make a serious amount of money.
Jennifer and I have made several great friends in SL. People that we now see in RL once or twice each year - a couple of them, even more. These are people that we associate with us because we have the same attitudes about the things that are important to us. And neither age nor background are of any importance. We hang out because we have fun.
There are lots of things to do in SL, lots of games within the game that you can play. Card games, dice games, board games and others that are unique to SL or have a distinctly SL flair to them. There are two main sub-games that Jen and I play regularly, one is a pyramid-type game called Tiny Empires, the other is a fishing game produced by Neo-Realms.
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Tiny Empires (TE) is a HUD-based (heads-up display) game created by Ultralite Soleil. You belong to a Kingdom (or Queendom) - or have your own, if you can make it far enough - and you try to get subjects below you or below your subjects and so on... You can have up to 10 direct subjects. You benefit from everyone you can get below you. The goal is to gather acres of land, up to 2000, and gold up to about 2 billion. This is not necessarily difficult, but it does take a while. QUITE a while.
The Queendom
Jennifer and I belong to is called Camelot. It was the second Queendom
established, although it is the oldest remaining. The last time I checked
(and snatched the graphic below) there were 207 major Kingdoms. A kingdom is
considered major when it has at least 20,000 acres. Camelot has spawned 7 or
8 other
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Tiny Empires Links
Queendom of Camelot! |
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One of the other things we like to do in SL is fishing. Now, SL fishing is very different than RL fishing... First of all, you don't need to be near water of any sort. The fishing system we use is made by Neo-Realms:
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University of
Washington Huskies
Go Dawgs!
Seattle Seahawks
Seattle Mariners
Snohomish Boys & Girls Club
Flag-Football Jets

Undefeated Champions
Spring 2011
My Favorite Teams
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Dan Jr.'s Brain |
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