3 March - Very Rainy Valley

Wow, did it rain that day. I mean, we're used to having a sort of ever-present drizzle, but this was out and out downpour lasting pretty much all day long. It's been pretty cool watching as the valley has started to fill up, especially where we're high enough above it... fields are becoming ponds and ponds are becoming lakes. Right now the area is on flood watch and there are a few roads south of us that are closed due to water... and there's a bit of worry for some of the major roads across the valley:


( Traffic camera photo from this morning, under the cut. )

That's not a river next to the roadway... those are flood waters this morning, which is why I'm really glad we live on the west side... not nearly as likely to get cut off from the rest of the world!

( Rain-drenched Valley. )

Crossposted from my Livejournal

4 March - Armful of Cats!

I've mentioned it before, but even after all these years, we have a hard time believing how well our current cats get along. Our old cats, Cymry and Polly, got to a point where they could tolerate each other... but we actually had to feed them in separate parts of the house or they'd fight.

( We certainly could have never done something like this! )

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

5 March - Theater in the Basement

I very nearly skipped ahead and posted this one yesterday... When we bought the house, we loved the huge room downstairs because we knew it would be perfect for building in a Library. We were pretty surprised when we saw that it also had a movie screen (powered to raise and lower to cover some windows... the ones where we just put in new blackout blinds, in an effort to make the room work better for what we want) and a rather nice, if old projection system. ( Blathering about projectors, under the cut to spare everyone. ;-) )

So, yesterday, the new projector arrived and Rackham cobbled everything together and set it up on a stool to give it a test run. And it. Was. AWESOME. And, of course, we had only one choice for the first movie to play on the new theater system...

( A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... )

So, yes, we're a bit excited... this is the sort of thing that I don't think we would have ever thought to do on our own, but since the screen was already set up, it was too much to resist! And you can tell how excited I am, because I'm going to inflict more photos one you.

( Rackham standing next to the screen in the dark. )

And something Rackham has been positively itching to do... ( Play Xbox on the big screen. )

I still need to see about getting some footage of it, but Zoë (our cat who already likes watching television) is absolutely riveted by the big screen... she would even start walking toward people on the screen when they appeared and then stop, sort of puzzled. It was really funny! I think the size of things is really confusing her.

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

Flooded Valley

As I've mentioned, we've been getting a LOT of rain lately... and it's been fascinating watching the valley below us fill up with water, to the point where it's actually starting to look like a giant lake in spots! The Snoqualmie River is at flood stage and some of its tributaries are swelling enough to start overflowing the roads. Earlier today, one of the major routes into Duvall was closed when what I'm pretty sure is Adair Creek finally crested the roadway. While we don't have to cross the valley to get home, we do have to take the road northbound that leads to the other major route into Duvall, so we get to deal with at least some of the backup, too. By the time I headed home, Woodinville-Duvall Road into Duvall was backed up all the way across the valley and up the hill, meaning no one was really moving on the northbound road either... and it only got worse. It took Rackham an hour and a half to drive a route that normally takes him about 35 minutes.

( Road closed. )

Crossposted from my Livejournal.