The Straw That Broke The Camel’s Back

I’m afraid yesterday’s tragedy in Newtown, CT is the last straw for me. I have now given up all hope for America. The American people seem unable or unwilling to discuss the difficult but available choices they have to end gun violence…

Thoughts on the Occupy Movement

The one thing I haven’t understood about the Occupy Movement is its obsession with permanently ‘occupying’ a physical space: New York’s Zucotti Park, Seattle’s Westlake Park, etc. To my way of thinking this simply plays into the hands of the 1%. By constantly engaging with local authorities in petty turf wars the occupiers lose focus on the bigger picture: the plight of the 99% they claim to represent.

East Link – At Last Sanity Prevails

This may be old news but since I previously posted my views (here and here) this latest development deserves coverage. Last Thursday (July 28th) the Sound Transit board (“ST”) threw down the gauntlet by voting 15-2 to proceed with East Link based on the previously selected B2M/C9T alignment. This vote, once signed-off by the FTA, essentially moves the light rail project out of the planning phase towards construction. Now the fun really begins…

East Link – The Saga Continues

To be a transit advocate in Bellevue, particularly for light rail, is a frustrating ordeal. As time passes the East Link project approved by voters in 2008, instead of getting closer,  slides further away. I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever ride a light rail train from Bellevue in my lifetime…

Service Pack 1 for Windows 7

For a change my post has nothing to do with Fueled by Beer; it is my take on Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7. Just over a week ago Microsoft released this long-awaited important update to their latest desktop operating system; I have since installed it without any problems on four different machines…

BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse

Before we moved to the Seattle area BJ’s had a different meaning for us: OK, you can take your mind out of the gutter; I’m referring to the chain of warehouse stores à la Sam’s Club and Costco. While there are no BJ’s Wholesale Clubs over here there is an (unrelated) BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, and we recently checked it out.

Portland’s Voodoo Doughnuts: Is The Hype Justified?

A few months before we knew we would be moving to the Pacific Northwest we watched an episode of the Travel Channel’s Food Paradise series on a growing phenomenon around the country – gourmet doughnuts. Among the places featured were Seattle’s Top Pot Doughnuts and Portland’s Voodoo Doughnuts.

Could Puget’s Perfect Pint be a Larr (gasp from crowd) Gerr?

In my recent post “Return to Georgetown…” I mentioned a wider topic – seasonal and specialty brews – that I would cover in a separate post. Well, this is that post.

Seattle, We Have a (transit) Problem…

In the interests of balanced reporting it is necessary not only to post my positive Fueled By Beer experiences but also those instances that did not go according to plan. A recent Friday evening for instance; when I dragged the poor unsuspecting spouse and daughter halfway across Seattle by bus on a miserable rainy night. Our destination was the previously unexplored Greenwood neighborhood, the location of Naked City Brewery & Taphouse.

Endangered Species Found in Bellevue

Strange as it might seem, considering all the polar opposites I could name, every now and again a parallel between our old home in Boca Raton, Florida, and our current place of abode, Bellevue, Washington, pops up.