Jen,

I know this post was from 6 months ago, but came across it while I was searching for a place that is going to show the Cotto vs Mayweather fight.

Piecoras on Capital Hill usually shows big MMA fights there. However, I contacted them and they are not showing this fight. It's a pretty big fight, so based on that I'm guessing they do not usually show boxing.

The Spitfire Grill over on Belltown is showing that fight, but I don't see any other boxing on their schedule. Maybe check with Cappy's or one of the other boxing gyms and see if they know of anywhere that shows fights regularly.

"Very Straight" Sports Bar is (sadly) probably redundant, even in Seattle. Gay\Straight, I don't care. I just wanna watch a good fight and drink a beer. :) Much more fun then sitting at at home yelling at the TV, plus it upsets the dogs. ;)

Hope that helps!

Kelsey Creek Farm Park is relaxing, 5-10 min from downtown Bellevue, and pretty empty. There are a couple miles of trails.

http://www.myparksandrecreation.com/ParksTrails/Details.aspx?pid=23

Dennis Mace is good and in Seattle.

What area of Bellevue are you working in? Bellevue is rather large.
Im going to assume that you are in the downtown area, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Downtown Park is a lovely little area across from the mall.

Meydenbayur (sp?) Park is a nice strip of land on the lake. (also close to the mall)

Robert McCormic Park is just north of the library and has a nice little path.

If you are willing to take a short drive down Bellevue Way, the Mercer Slough Nature Park is about a 5 minute drive south of downtown. This is a much bigger area and lots of paths. Very peaceful.

Bellevue Downtown Park is pretty cool. It's 20 acres right in the middle of the city located at 10201 NE Fourth St. It's just a bit open space with a bunch of waterways and fountains. Definitely worth a visit. It was one of my favorite Eastside parks as a kid. There's not a lot of information about it online, given that the name is so generic it's pretty much ungooglable, but there's a wiki page and a City info page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellevue_Downtown_Park

http://www.bellevuewa.gov/downtown_park_and_rose_garden.htm

Mercer Slough is also very cool. I took my canoe up there a bunch of times as a kid growing up on Lake Washington. The park is 320 acres and has tons of great trails through the wetlands. http://myparksandrecreation.com/ParksTrails/UserFiles/file/bellevue_park_info/trail%20guide%202010/trail_guide_mercer_slough_nature_park.pdf

It's a crying shame that there's no public access to the water on Meydenbauer Bay, but I hear the City of Bellevue is finally trying to get a public park built there. In the meantime, head over to Kirkland if you want to spend a little quality time with Lake Washington. Marsh Park, David E. Brink Park, Marina Park, Waverly Park, Kiwanis Park and Juanita Park all offer excellent waterfront access, but they might be too far for a lunch break. Kirkland really has one of the best park systems in the area http://www.kirklandwa.gov/depart/parks/Online_Parks_Guide.htm

Also, probably too far for a work day, but worth checking out on a weekend is St. Edward State Park. This place is an absolute gem. It's 316 acres of absolutely pristine public woodlands on the shore of Lake Washington. The park was once a seminary, and is now home to Bastyr University. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Edward_State_Park

http://www.parks.wa.gov/parks/?selectedpark=Saint%20Edward

Happy Trails!

I've found that the larger and more anonymous the store, the less likely they are to ask for my ID. Target, for example, doesn't care. Most chain grocery stores don't care. Individually-owned places do, and will card me. That informs where a thief goes.

Get into the thief's brain for a moment. They have a card that's not going to be good for long. You need to take advantage of it, fast. The very first place a lot of them will stop is a gas station. They can fill up their tank, avoid any face-to-face interaction by paying at the pump, and it's a very fast, easy way to tell if the card is good or not. If it's good, they're off and running.

In the interest of money longevity, one good way to get the maximum return off a stolen card is to buy gift cards. You don't waste a lot of time in the store, and you've got currency that's good long after the card's been killed. What places won't bat an eyelash over someone buying hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards? Big-box retail, including sports.

My debit card got swiped in a small NM town in 2003. They drained my account within days, and I was out in the field and didn't notice. The statement was a small list of purchases, all round numbers. Hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards, all at two stores: Wal-Mart and Big 5 Sporting Goods.

So, the short answer to your question is yes, I think that sports retail attract a little more fraudulent business than average.

And after that incident, I got a lot less impatient when carded by merchants.

Most stores are likely to demand ID when presented with a credit card versus a debit card. More likelihood of stolen/cloned cards and chargebacks.

"when they actually violate Visa and MasterCard merchant policy"

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs15-mt.htm#2b

"While merchants may ask a customer for identification, in most situations, a merchant may not condition acceptance of a Visa or MasterCard credit card upon the customer presenting identification. In other words, you can refuse to provide identification, and the merchant still must accept your credit card. Many merchants are unaware of this rule or simply choose to ignore it."

Asking is not violating TOS.

I can see why you'd need ID to buy tickets to a big game. A savvy scammer could easily buy tickets with a stolen card and scalp them later for a tidy profit. Scalpers can also buy large numbers of tickets to sell at a markup. Checking customers' IDs might scare potential scalpers away when they attempt to buy large numbers of tickets or come in multiple times to make the same purchase.

Sporting goods stores might be especially susceptible to return fraud. Because they sell expensive items that legitimate customers might need to return, they're probably an easy target for thieves who buy at item with a stolen card and return it for cash.

This is just a wild guess. I've never worked at a sporting goods store and I don't know their policies. I do know that they tend to stock pricy, popular items that would be very easy to resell or return.

This is not exactly an answer to your question but my friend J. thanks cashiers for asking for additional identification. After her cards and checks were lifted from her purse (but wallet left intact which made the theft harder to notice) the perpetrators ran around and charged all types of stuff, as well as emptying her bank accounts. Can you believe that Key Bank allowed withdrawal of a large sum of money from another bank's account instead of just sending the person down the street to the actual bank that held the account. We almost wanted to go down there and see which teller had "stupid" written on their face.

If reported quickly enough there is limited use time of a purloined credit card. There are certainly many high prices items at sports retail stores and I could see where such goods/tickets might be the preferred loot obtained from stolen cards as they would be easy to sell on the street, etc.

Ballard pool. Or troll google maps and stake out people's houses till they leave. ;)

It's surprising how the mystique of a hot tub makes us think that they are the only source of a hot water soak. (I'm not knocking it, just being realistic.)

Have you considered drawing a bathtub full of hot water for a good, hot water lay down? (You did state that ambiance wasn't important to you...)

Are you looking to avoid chlorine? Colman Pool in Lincoln Park is an outdoor saltwater pool. It has a reputation for being much easier on the skin than than regular chlorine pools.

I'm not sure if it's chlorine-free, or just operates with less chlorine, thanks to the saltwater. Either way it's closed for the season, but might be worth checking out this summer. http://www.seattle.gov/parks/aquatics/colman.htm

You know, there just might be a segment of the population who get off on sitting in mainly man ball juice sweat, too!

I don't worry too much about a large, chlorinated pool, but I will not go into a public Jacuzzi. They are usually way, way over-chlorinated and unfortunately, they have to be...all that warm water sizzling in butt cracks and other questionable regions and who knows what's happened in it. So, call me a clean freak, but "no, thanks" to the hot tub.

Yes, but hey - the denser the water the more buoyant you'll be ;p

Crypto is pretty much the only thing you really need to worry about. http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/rwi/illnesses/cryptosporidium.html.html

Kristen, the tone of your question implies a lack of respect for the long, hard hours of ball juicing that are put in by city employees to provide you with your piscine pleasures.

Please try to be more considerate of the ball juicers.

It depends on your definition of "filled" If you mean do public pools "contain" ball juice then, yes. If you mean public pool water is composed "primarily" of ball juice then, no.

Here in Seattle pools are filled from the same taps as our drinking water. That water flows down the mountains collecting fish poop and sits in reservoirs collecting bird poop. It is already pretty gross before it gets augmented with ball juice and that is the stuff we drink. Swimming in it seams relatively non-nefarious.

Take the ferry out to one of the San Juan islands , no snow and pretty scenery. Someone else here can probably pin point a good one depending on what kind of terrain you want

The Beach Boys sang of a "bushy, bushy blonde hairdo, and Marichi Sandels too..." in Surfin' USA. A quick wikipedia search reveals that these were mexican sandles made from tire treads. Not a lot of foot support, but long lasting and very beach bum style for a while.

I attempted to make a pair, however, there is some art to the craft...and you have to find cordless tire tread that isn't ripped. Also, finding the right length/type of strap to go over the toes and through the sole is very important for comfort as well.

Hope this helps. There are pictures on Instructable.com

I want to say "the flayed hide of the first man who treated me wrong" but that is just a sick twisted idea that skipped through my brain on reading your question.
And not really helpful to you!

Or put some empty Kleenex boxes on your feet and call it good. That's what I would do. But in all seriousness, it depends on where you wear them. The soles can be made from a more durable leather or even sealskin. I'd also try checking out filson industrial fabric store in sodo

Seriously, buckskin. I suppose you could use a thick suede - you need the thickness for the structure. Are you looking for a non-animal-based alternative? I suppose you could use a thick wool felt.

I can't answer for Seattle, but there are a few in Victoria in lower BC the may work for your. The Subaru Victoria Triathlon would be a start on June 17th 2012. For a listing of more BC races check out the events calendar at following website www.everything-triathlon.com , as well here you will find articles and ideas on how to prepare for your first race. Good luck...

I've always used mitts when snowboarding. They're far easier to get on and off when your hands are wet/cold and are the perfect for using with handwarmers. Getting in and out of bindings doesn't really take individual fingers, and even zipping and opening things gets easier once you adjust to using your lobster claw of a hand. I used gloves maybe once or twice before I switched to mitts and even though I don't snowboard anymore I still wear mittens when doing any winter activities. Overall just much happier fingers.

You would be right, mittens do a much better job of keeping your fingers warm. I have and use both (usually use the gloves for warmer days sometimes mittens do a little too good of a job), and I don't seem to take the mitts off anymore than the gloves.
Strapping in might take a bit of getting used to but it's not really any harder. If you do a lot of grabs then that may be something thing to consider.

I haven't used mittens snowboarding, so take it with a grain of salt when I say that mittens are probably better than gloves. Most things that you would have to take off your mittens to do -- pulling up a zipper, reaching into a pocket, etc -- would also require that you take off your gloves. As a plus, it's much easier to get mittens back on when your fingers are cold and wet.

In principle, mittens should also be easier to insulate and waterproof, because they don't have all the fiddly seams required in gloves.

The only reason I don't switch to mittens is that my snowboarding gloves do double-duty as winter cycling gloves, and I don't feel like spending the extra money for separate snowboarding gear.

Second Ascent is the right answer. They're great, their stuff is name brand but last season. I got a pair of OR gaiters there a few years back for half off.

Also, you can RENT snowshoes from them for about $15, and keep them for two nights. Renting poles runs around $8, I think. A new pair of snowshoes (for our terrain) will run you upwards of $250. If you're not sure it's the sport for you, rent a few times so you get the feel. I did this a few times last winter, and it worked out great.

For things like layers, hats, gloves, etc., Second Ascent can be a good place to look. I also check out the REI outlet online, as well as Sierra Trading post. If you're a member of REI, don't forget to check their Garage periodically (in the basement of their flagship store) -- this stuff isn't returnable, but there are some screaming deals. I've also had very good luck with Eddie Bauer's Ascent line of outdoor gear -- I just got two new sets of baselayers discounted some 50-60% that were from last season.