I’ve finally started to post some photos from this past summer in Seattle. Fear the cute fuzzy marmot.

My housemates’ Memorial Day BBQ was a rousing success. Four grills, about sixty-odd people, and an ark or two of edible animals made it meateriffic. Four kinds of wings, three kinds of hamburgers, untold varieties of sausage, marinated chicken bits, steaks, a leg of lamb, tempeh kebabs, marinated garlic shoots, ribs n’ collards, king salmon with dill, tiger shrimp, and a lot more. I died five times of joy before I had my final slice of plum pie.

I’m falling in love with Seattle. After a great first week at Amazon, my future cousin-in-law Keith invited me out to go sailing with his friends Friday evening. We just went for a few hours out to Bainbridge and back, but it was gorgeous. Almost no other boats out on a perfect evening before Memorial Day weekened, which of course adds to my suspicion that the world is, officially, retarded.

This is our house, in the First Hill area of Seattle. It’s a pretty nice, non-ritzy neighborhood, and I’m feeling a mild kick of culture shock. Most of the houses are attractive, and a lot more architecturally daring and eclectic than what I’m used to. A house painted iris-purple with dark blue accents next to a reproduction of a Parisian apartment building. Lots of lush foliage and exotic plants growing in yards. It’s a lovely place to walk around, if a bit damp at the moment.

To my friends who aren’t invited: my sincere apologies. Unfortunately, it’s a small town, it’s very far away, and we had a strict limit of 120 people (including both of our sizable groups of friends and my gigantic Catholic family). Unfortunately I had to be somewhat arbitrary when deciding who to invite. My parents will be hosting another celebration in DC some time in November, and I’ve been thinking about having a big party around our first anniversary next year.

In general, planning for this has been a spiky roller coaster with flames shooting out the sides. I just didn’t have much time to devote to it earlier in the Spring, and it caused Alison and I quite a bit of tension. Now that I’m done for the semester I’ve had a burst of productivity on wedding stuff, and of course next week I start work at Amazon. Feh.

My apologies if the RSS feed on LiveJournal floods your friends list. Sadly, there’s not a whole lot I can do about that — blame LJ.

Justin Alexander, another activist for Iraqi civilians who “walks the walk”, has some personal memories to share.

Unlike Justin, I can’t say I sympathize much with Ms. Ruzicka’s politics or choice of heroes. However, the fact remains that she did more for our efforts in Iraq than the entire 101st Fighting Keyboarders combined.

Marla Ruzicka fought passionately against the war. When she lost that battle, she showed where her values were — she flew to Iraq and risked her life countless times to help the Iraqi people rebuild and recover from the worst of the “collateral damage”.

That pampered coward in the White House never gave half a toss about anything the way she did. He relaxes on vacation, and she dies in agony.

It’s been a while since I was good and pissed about Iraq. This may seem trite and self-centered, but thank you, Marla, for being my conscience.

(Yes, it’s unfair that pretty blonde casualties get more press than the 19-yr-old trooper who caught a round through the hips)

(I drove down that same road where she was killed, about once a week, with the same amount of security)

Daily Kos remembers her.

You can make a donation to her organization here.

(And, true to form, the cowards on the far right are already pissing on her grave)