Thursday, September 30, 2021

Back to Strange Loop

These days it seems that other than holidays, the Strange Loop tech conference I go to every year seems to be the only occasion with the gravity to pull me back to St. Louis. It's mostly an excuse to go back and see my friends and family though so I think it's all good in the end.


Being an eternal cheapskate, I volunteer at the conference every year in exchange for free entry. The opening party event type thing is held at St. Louis' quirky City Museum every year. I think the weird randomness of the conference and the museum match up pretty nicely.





This loose Latin translation of "always wear underwear" was actually an extra credit question on a test in theology class one time in highschool. Oh, Catholic school. Where would I be without you?




When Seago and I finished handing out people's conference credentials we hit the museum's bar. In the early days beer used to be provided but it seems they've cheaped out and now it's a cash bar. Sad!



4 Hands' City Museum Pilsner is the correct beer to order when on the premises.



I can't get enough of Union Station's Grand Hall Light Show.











I'm not going to lie, putting a cool sounding or recognizable company name on my conference badge in the hope I'll see someone I used to know is a non-zero percent of the reason I like attending.

Sunday, September 26, 2021

A Busy International Day

So on our first trip to the Washington State Fair we were unable to secure the delicious Fisher brand fair scones. That was unacceptable, so I bought a mix and made them at home.






Success!



We checked out the Festa Italiana in the Seattle Center.





So festive.

















A big draw for me was a barefoot grape squishing competition. I've always thought that this looked amusing.




Next we headed to the International District. I want to say the occasion was a postponed Lunar New Year festival... something to do with covid. 



The strong Asian influence was one of the things that drew me to move to Seattle in the first place.





I've seen this McDonald's food truck out before and mocked it. Then I realized they are solely there to give food away. I'm lovin' it!











We were crazy people today and the next stop was the Frye Art Museum. There were a lot of events happening all at once and we just said: I'll take one of each please. 



Gabriel von Max' Botaniker(The Botanists) ca. 1900-1915.






We then returned to claim our free Kirkland Oktoberfest free volunteer tickets.





We met up with another new couple of friends at this festival: Michael and Miriam. Miriam is also a teacher so she and Lydia could talk shop.



I was impressed with the giant horn this German band was rocking.



Saturday, September 25, 2021

The Kirkland Oktoberfest Bamboozle

At this point there wasn't really a booze festival volunteer opportunity that we were prepared to turn down. Kirkland has several tasting events throughout the year and they are always conveniently within walking distance from our place.


There's this part next door to the library that is comically well used. People of all different walks of life are using the park in different ways and it reminds me of a like architect's imagined sketch of a place he wants to build.







A nice thing about these festivals is they always give you a volunteer t-shirt. Kirkland Oktoberfest was no exception. My clothing budget is pretty flush right now.









The t-shirt goat character was done by local big deal artist Ryan Henry Ward. He has a distinctive cartoon animal style that I see everywhere.







Speaking of serving no purpose, we had nothing to do at this festival. We talked to our handlers about it a couple of times and they moved us around to different booths but they were all fully staffed. We finally just stopped asking and sat on a bench and chilled for a while.



We then took a drastic step of sneaking out, buying ice cream at the nearby QFC, and went home to eat it. We then snuck back in right before our shift was over to clock out in an excellently executed caper.