Used auto parts are all but impossible to find, as far as I know, in King County these days. The Brightwater Sewage Treatment Plant in Woodinville used to be a sprawling salvage yard called Fitz's, that shut down suddenly about a decade ago.

I was told, and this may just be urban myth, but I heard it a number of times, that the owners of several local car dealers got together and bought Fitz's to shut it down and eliminate competition.

Last time I even tried to get parts for an old domestic rig in the greater Seattle area I went to Whitfield's off Highway 9 in Snohomish. That was easily a dozen years ago. A quick google search makes it look like they may not be in business anymore, but I drove by a month ago and there were still plenty of cars out there. Unsure if they are just rusting in the rain, or still part of an active salvage lot.

I do know that Gundies way up in Whatcom County is still going strong, and has just about everything you could ever want, but it's a hell of a drive from Seattle. They are the only functioning wrecking yard I know of still in operation in the greater Puget Sound area. http://www.gundies.com/ Their website says that they offer free delivery to Seattle and Portland.

Also, just FYI, and you may know this, the days of taking your toolbox and "browsing" the wrecking yard are long gone. F***ing lawyers ruined it. They can look up and check if they have a specific part, and if they do, they'll pull it for you, but I don't know any commercial yard that still lets you go out onto the lot.

The only exception to this that I've ever encountered is Lummi Auto Recyclers, out on the Lummi Reservation in Whatcom County. This place isn't so much a wrecking yard as it is a few acres of broken down cars in the grass and bushes. There, you still do take your tools and go pick. You then go to the trailer at the front of the property and haggle with the friendly folks who run the place. It's like Mexico, it's kind of expected that you'll haggle on the price. I went out there three years ago for a truck part, they said $30, I said $10, we settled on $20.

They don't have a website, just a phone number: (360) 758-2061 and the address is 2544 Cagey Road, Bellingham. Also, I don't know how familiar you are with Native American culture, but they operate on "Indian Time." They're open when they're open, they're shut when they're shut. Call before you go.

Also, if you can't find it locally, try Ebay Motors. I found an impossible to find rag joint for my 73 Ford in New Jersey on ebay motors.

Sorry I don't have any King County resources for you. Whatcom County is the only place I know of that has any of this stuff left. You would think there might be something in Pierce County, but I'm not as familiar with that neck of the woods. Perhaps somebody else here on Qland knows of a Seattle-area resource that I don't. Otherwise, you might plan a trip North.

Good luck.

Hey Russ, I relayed your question to KIRO via twitter and here's what they told me, verbatim:

"Here's what happened with "Face the Nation": At the start of the season, FTN announced they'd add a 2nd half-hour (1/2)"

"We Already had set our schedule for the season, so we found another place to put the 2nd half-hour (2/2) ^PB"

There you have it.

The Berliner Pub in Renton is awesome. http://www.berlinerpub.com/

I'm not really qualified to judge if it's the "best" happy hour in the area, because I haven't been to a lot of different joints in that neck of the woods, but the Berliner is an awesome place to go have a few brews with friends and enjoy some authentic German food. I highly recommend it.

I'll leave it to others who know the specific neighborhoods you mention better than I to offer tips on specific establishments. I want to offer this general tip: Sports Bars are great for the single patron. Head into any sports bar for a pint during a game and you'll make fast friends. When I'm on the road and don't have anybody to hang out with, I always head for a sports bar. I've made fast friends in sports bars watching the Seahawks play in Boise, the Senators in Ottawa and the Patriots in Providence. By virtue of being fans, you have something in common with the person next to you, and therefore, something to talk about.

My laptop crapped out last night with 24 hours to go on a monstrously important project. Mercifully all of my mission-critical stuff was either stored on paper, or in the cloud, so I didn't lose anything that's going to derail my project.

Not having much of a choice (I'm up against a hard deadline), I made a beeline for Best Buy and bought a new Toshiba Satellite C675D-S7109 for $358 with tax out the door.

I'm a writer, I run Chrome and Word 2003 (and that's pretty much it), so I don't need a machine with a lot of horsepower. So far, I'm happy with this one, here are the specs:

Memory: 4.0 GB
Hard Drive: 281 GB
Processor: AMD E-300 APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 1.30 GHz

I don't know if that meets your specifications, but that's what you can get for $329 plus tax at Best Buy. It's what I bought today.

Anyway, good luck. I've got to get back to work!

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!

It depends on how messed up the side of the car is and how good you want it look when you're done. "Someone I know" hit a birch tree backing out of a driveway in Kirkland and completely ripped the mirror off the side of a Ford Taurus, taking large chunks of the side of the door with it. It was mangled super bad and cost several hundred dollars to fix. Really that car should have been designed to let the mirror break away with less damage, but I digress.

On the other hand, you can do it yourself for cheap if you don't care what it looks like. Until recently, I owned a piece of shit 1973 Ford pickup. It was parked on the street in front of my house one day some asshole drove by and knocked the driver's side mirror off. For the police report I got an estimate from a local shop of $175, that was on the high end, but the mechanic ended up having a spare mirror lying around that he sold me for $20. I drilled a new set of pilot holes in the door and bolted it on. It looked like shit, but it was fixed and street legal for $20.

Also, this is probably covered by insurance if you carry comprehensive. If not, Kirkland Auto Body does great work and offers good prices for cash customers. I've taken several cars to them and the price has always been reasonable and the repairs perfect. 639 9th Avenue, Kirkland, WA 98033 / (425) 822-8030 http://bit.ly/JkvCWT

My brother and his girlfriend live in Bellevue. Whenever we visit we go to What The Pho. Best Pho I've had in Washington. Love it. It's so good my boyfriend now pretty much refuses to eat pho anywhere else.

10680 NE 8th Street
Bellevue, WA 98004
Phone: 425.462.560

http://whatthepho.net/