I watch the ships going to and from Tacoma and they belch out a disturbing amount of smoke. It just hangs there and the Olympics(tm) turn brown. So, yes I do worry about the air quality.

NO!

It is completely, 100%, absolutely wrong. I'm talking "squirrel on pig sex" wrong.

The only acceptable names are "Pike Place Market" or, simply, "The Market."

I'd suggest a bar in, say, Kent. Someplace where the rest of us won't have to see you. :p

I haven't been there since last summer, but Meridian Park on Meridian Ave. and N 50th St. in Wallingford has nice swings. Possibly too many kids.

I used to live right by a park in upper Queen Anne that has great swings. After 6 or so the playground is usually deserted, and the swings are set apart from the big play structure.

In my opinion, the best swings in Seattle are at Magnolia Park . There isn't a big playground there, so there generally aren't that many kids. Plus the park has free parking, AND one of the most beautiful views in the city. I also haven't been there in a while, and sometimes parks fall victim to evil neighborhood groups who think big swings are dangerous, so I can't guarantee they're still there. But if they are, they're worth the trip to Magnolia.

This site is pretty handy:

http://seattle.wifimug.org/

Since it seems to be down at the moment here are a few off the top of my head:

* Stumptown: http://stumptowncoffee.com/
* Online: http://www.onlinecoffeeco.com/
* Vita: http://www.caffevita.com/
* Tuogo: http://www.tougocoffee.com/
* Bauhaus: http://www.bauhauscoffee.net/
* Joe Bar: http://www.joebar.org/

You're going to have to balance what's most important to you. Seattle, as a whole and compared to other metro areas, is a pretty safe city as long as you practice a little common sense, ie not walking home drunk at 2am by yourself wearing a rainbow striped banana hammock, (which I'm sure you'd look delightful in...) But, if you have a nice car, (and I'm assuming as an Ohioan, you WILL have a car)you'll want to avoid parking your car on the street in certain 'hoods and might want to look for an apartment with safe parking.

As for money, that might be a large salary for most of Ohio, but it's not that much in Seattle and you sound frugal and judging by your age, you might have big student loans/car payments to make. Obviously, the most desirable neighborhoods for you are going to be more expensive than the cheap and dull neighborhoods. If you get a $650 apartment at Northgate, you'll be spending a lot of time in your car driving to the fun stuff on Capitol Hill and looking for pricey parking, which isn't fun. If you're a healthy, happy, single 'mo who enjoys a little nightlife then you'll be doing that a lot, so it might make more sense to spend $850 or $900 a month to just live on the Hill and have access to all the gay and gay friendly stuff and cut out all the hassle.

And, as for other close to Downtown hoods, Fremont is too straight (and pricy), Wallingford is boring, the UDist is full of idiotic students AND crime, Ballard is cold, old and too far away, lower Queen Anne is ok but not very gay, upper Queen Anne is REALLY boring, Belltown is the same as downtown and too urban, unless you like that sort of vibe. But, you'll have to look to find the best spot for you and the life you want to live...good luck.

SEAF was great. The few photos that you might find outside of the artists' sites are probably on SEAF's website, but they don't allow cameras, which means that coverage is limited. This makes sense, when there's so much nudity and erotic-related stuff going on - it's fertile ground for all sorts of copyright violations and liability lawsuits.

l don't believe there was one particular theme or focus this year, other than the costuming themes from one night to the next. lt was well worth it, though, and a great time.

Why were you unable to make it?

According to Pollstar.com, these are the "comedy" acts currently scheduled for Seattle:

7/01 - Paul Merrill at Chop Suey

7/07 - Derek Sheen at Showbox (and again at Chop Suey 8/05)

9/26 - Lewis Black at the Moore

10/17 - Bo Burnham at the Moore

10/23 - Mike Birbiglia at the Moore

11/14 - Lisa Lampanelli at the Paramount

(Warning: I can't vouch that all of them are funny.)

Bellingham is nice for day trips. Take an Amtrak and it will drop you off in the Fairhaven neighborhood, a historic district with lots of great shopping and food. It's also a quick walk down to a beach park from there, or a quick taxi ride to downtown Bellingham, where you'll find Bounary Bay Brewery, lots of history, and more good shopping, restaurants, and bars.

Do you mind long bike rides? You could start at Golden Gardens and take the Burke-Gilman and Sammamish trails to Woodenville, then hit up some wineries or the Redhook Ale Brewery.

I'm also partial to a ferry ride to Bremerton. You'll get some stunning sound views, then as the ferry nears Bremerton you'll be treated to a slow meander along some beautiful Puget Sound coastline. You don't even have to stay in Bremerton, though there are some bars and other things within walking distance. If you time your return trip so that the sun is setting over the Seattle skyline, you won't be disappointed.

Any ferry ride works, really. Bremerton is a longer ride than Bainbridge, so you get more time to enjoy that. On the other hand, Bremerton is kind of a ghost town, BUT none of the Bainbridge attractions are close to the ferry terminal like in Bremerton. You have to hike up a bit of a hill to get to the Bainbridge town center from the terminal. As others have pointed out, Vashon is good for biking.

Well, there's always Pike Place for fresh produce and such. They're open seven days a week (but close around 5:30 or 6 pm, I believe, so you don't have a lot of time to get there if you work 9-5.

According to localharvest.org (which lists farmers' markets across the nation) most are on weekends, but Phinney has one Friday afternoons from 3-7 pm and Columbia City's market is on Wednesdays from 3-7 pm.

I'm unimpressed. I think it's a good idea in principle, but in practice it only seems to raise the confrontation index. If I thought the people participating in the rides were all calm, level-headed people who can take a shouting or a honking with good humor and even calmly explain their position to an angry motorist, I'd be more supportive. But it only takes a couple of hotheads to turn things ugly.

Like it or not, cars have been and still are the way most people get around. The real problem is awareness, and you're not likely to change any motorist's mind by pissing them off (or slashing their tires, or going at their car with your bike lock). In fact, you're more likely to do just the opposite.

The way I see it, any event that ends in violence or vandalism undoes the positive effect of ten events that don't. Like it or not, I associate Critical Mass with violence and vandalism now.

Critical Ass , on the other hand, has my full support.

I know it is time consuming, but you might want to consider just walking around the neighborhood you are interested in living in. You can get a great idea of what the building is like (i.e. if it is maintained at least on the outside) and there may be places that you would never find by looking online. All of the good places I have found by walking around and all the not so good by going online. Probably just dumb luck, but it is worth considering.

In retrospect, the contributions of disco are vastly more interesting than those of Jello Biafra.

Most "intellectual" disco-bashing revolved around the notion that since disco was mostly created by producers working in the studio with session musicians or even just tapes, it wasn't "real music", played all together, like a band. Specifically, a punk band. This ignored the fact that (a) most "real bands" recorded in parts when they got to the studio too, and (b) if the record sounds good, who gives a shit? And yes, there was a massive amount of homophobia and racism involved. I know, I was there.

"Hipster" doesn't connote a type of music. Sure, there are some kinds of music that are thick with hipsters, but far from exclusively. Being a "fucking hipster" has very little to do with music at all, really.

Hipsters are completely ridiculous, of course, but it is the perogative, indeed the NECESSITY, of succeeding generations of young people to struggle to annoy the crap out of clueless old people, and that struggle almost always takes you through many zones of ridiculousness.

The real menace to the well-being of youth culture isn't hipsterism, but seriousness. If you're having a good time, you're doing it right, no matter how silly Mr. Eddie Bauer Pants thinks you look.

This is a net pen for raising juvenile hatchery coho salmon as part of an effort to improve fishing opportunities in Puget Sound.

After a certain amount of time, both hatchery and wild juvenile salmon will migrate from the stream (or hatchery) where they were born out to the saltwater and begin their life of wandering around before returning back to the freshwater, where they spawn and die.

The fish in this net pen were hatched in a land-based hatchery, then transferred to this net pen, where they will grow a bit more before being released.

Holding the juvenile fish in a saltwater net pen before release makes them imprint on Puget Sound and makes them less prone to do the big traditional migration out into the Pacific. So they'll spend their lives wandering Puget Sound in search of food -- and becoming food for people and critters.

They're for bikes. You place your front wheel on the T and generally it triggers the sensor to change the light for you. Not all of them work, and often lights that don't even have them will still work the same way.

I'll generally only run a light if absolutely NO ONE is around, and usually only at night.

The catch is that their in-theater service is terrible, particularly for sold out shows. They generally have one server--MAYBE two--for the entire theater.

I even went to a show that they KNEW was sold out, and they STILL only had one server.

For weekend/full showings:

If you want food, show up really early so it doesn't come halfway through the movie. You'll get the best seats that way, plus they usually have some short films or cartoons playing before the movie.

If you're drinking beer, order pitchers. If you just get a pint, the server won't be back for a LONG time, possibly just to bring you your check.

P.S. There is one in Redmond called "Big Picture", but I can't think of any others in Seattle.

I got nailed to. You can go to court and contest it. They won't let you off but they'll reduce it to $30. And be more careful in the future because those guys just LOVE to nail jaywalkers.

Magnuson or Matthews, if you're also looking to swim (though l'm not sure the water's warmed up quite that much yet), Golden Gardens, Gasworks.

Also plenty of places with patios around town if you're looking to drink/eat and chill. Most advertise they have one, and you can always check on Yelp for reviews.

The Seattle "n"ice phenomena is real. Lets talk about it over lunch sometime....

Sorry, I can't do it tomorrow.

Maybe this weekend...

Ummm, I'll get back to you later....

Thanks! It was great talking with you!

I wouldn't say "not too rowdy/packed" fits the definition of "best place to watch the Sounders" -ideally, if you can make the games you'd want the next best thing, loud and rowdy. But I degress. Here's what I've found so far:

Downtown
-Fado's is the official gorilla soccer HQ. It's packed pre-game and they charge admission post-game, but during the game its oddly calm. This probably is what you're looking for.

-Kels sucks. Shitty service, over priced, not Sounders focused.

Ballard
-Bad Albert's is a cheap dive with decent food and ok screens. Meets your definition above. But if you want atmosphere...

-The Loft- finally, I justify the existance of a sports bar. Last week's game was PACKED -couldn't even stand- and all but one screen was on the Sounders (the other one was some basketball game).

-Snoose Junction dedicates their TVs to soccer, has good pizza, decent beer and recently Hard A. And they're a cool place, too.

-The Wine shop on 24th and 60th: super tiny featuring all local, all organic wines (and all expensive), it's pushing the itself as a Sounders venue. I think I'm heading here for the next game.

Those are all the places I've been to so far. I hope it answers your question. As the Sounders get bigger, I've noticed more and more places showing them, so have fun!

I'm pretty sure it's all gone from the stores. It was getting hard to find a year ago, which was the last time any was shipped. We have some -- if you're desperate, shoot me an email. It's expired, or nearly so, naturally.

That's for Spectra and 600 film only. Pack film -- the peel-apart kind -- is still available, made by Fuji -- and it's way better than the Polaroid stuff was anyways. You can pick up an old Polaroid 100 folding camera for pretty cheap these days; I still see them in thrift stores occasionally.

Fuji is also selling an instant camera with integral film, called an Instax, which you can buy online for $50. Film is about a buck a shot, just like Spectra or 600 was.

There's a group of former Polaroid engineers trying to start something up, but there's nothing available yet.

There's some kind of Mariner's shop on 4th and Stewart, kind of...like...right in the crotch of where Stewart splits off into two streets if you're heading west...

...Kind of a sexy shop, too, if you stare at it at the right angle...

But, uh, I haven't been in that area for awhile, so don't kill me if the shop's not still there - Anyone willing to verify?

AMEN!

My downstairs neighbors, whom I have a casual and neighborly acquaintance, narced on me to the landlord about noise complaints instead of just coming upstairs to ask me to turn it down.

How passive aggressive is that? And then when I run into them they try and make pleasant small talk. YEAH RIGHT!

That's really a good place to find them, and Value Village, if you're talking cheap that is. You can also go to re-store in ballard: 1440 NW 52nd St
Seattle, WA 98107

your jalapenos, tomatoes, and basil are going to want a lot of sun. i've tried to grow peppers for the last 2 years and haven't been able to get decent sized fruit because they can't get like 12 hours of sun per day.

depending on what type of tomato plant you have, you may consider pruning to get rid of any new suckers as they grow. I like to keep my plants to 3 vines. The reasoning is that if you prune the suckers, the plant will focus less energy on creating vines and more energy on putting out fruit. Here's an article: http://gardening.about.com/od/totallytomatoes/qt/Tomato_Suckers.htm

give the seattle tilth gardening hotline a call with any questions, they're very knowledgeable and provide a great service to the city: (206) 633-0224 or you can also submit questions online now: http://www.seattletilth.org/learn/hotline/question-for-the-garden-hotline-1

you can also go to your local p-patch on any given sunny day and talk to some of the gardeners there. Most will be happy to chat about their tips and tricks.

good luck!

I am going... Its my first time ever going to Slog Happy and I am kinda scared and nervous cause I dont know anyone, but I cant miss the chance to get to help write Savage Love and well everyone seems so awesoem I figured I have to get over it and go. So I guess I will see you there.

Wet my pants. I have two neurological conditions; l can blame it on that. At least that way l could get sympathy. lf you're throwing up on the bus and you're not legitimately sick, that will probably be obvious with the lack of sweating, eyes rolling back in your head, etc. What will likely be more obvious is that you're drunk, since it took you ten minutes to stumble up the steps, pay your fare, and get to a seat without falling over.

Plus, if you puke on the bus, you run the risk of setting off a chain reaction around you, in which case everyone will hate you, no matter how sick you say you are. lncontinence can be blamed on all sorts of things; puking can only really be blamed on a couple.

Well, we bought our couch at Macy's and we're very happy with it. You may be able to find one under $1000, but we paid more and got a nice, ample, quality piece of furniture. We've been down the Ikea road -- which can be unsatisfying quality/durability-wise, and I've had my fair share of used/free couches. I can say that I felt like we got our money's worth buying a new, well-built sofa.

The upsides of Macy's are their sale discounts are good (keep an eye out), you can sign up for a Macy's credit card and save another 10% by buying your sofa on their card, they offered a 0% interest plan for a doable time frame, their customer service is excellent, and they'll deliver it.

i've gone to the tropical tan on LQA in the past and really liked them. friendly (not dumb) staff and their prices are pretty average.

Bellair Airporter also makes trips between Anacortes and downtown, but it'll cost you -- $32 one way, $57 round trip. http://www.airporter.com/shuttle/anacortes-to-seatac-airport-seattle