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Well, I was feeling OK about all the growth in Ballard --

Until the powers-that-be developing the new condo units across the street ordered trees to be cut down. Fuck those guys.

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I was browsing the Seattle P-I real estate headlines and came across "Sleepy Ballard wakes up to disconcerting growth" with the subhead "Wine bars displacing fishermen."

Ballard is bustling, but not everyone's happy about it, I guess. The growth is astonishing.

The Wives and I live north of Market St., in between the two red squares, and one of those two blue squares at the bottom of the map is going to be a new Trader Joe's. Yay!

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It's been a stressful past couple weeks, but the first round of The Bigger Dance is now complete and my bracket is looking good. My Final Four -- Katherine Heigl, Scarlett Johansson, Elin Nordegren and Jessica Alba -- are all still in it.

I did take some hits though. Paris Hilton, how could you not beat that dumb broad Jessica Simpson? Evangeline Lilly, you know I needed you to upset Jennifer Aniston. Elliott Spitzer's hooker, I had faith you could beat Ali Larter and you didn't. I guess hookers aren't meant to be Cinderella's.

Tomorrow's the beginning of the second round. My picks for the day:

  • #1 seed Katherine Heigl over #9 seed Molly Sims.
  • #5 seed Kim Kardashian upsetting #4 seed Angelina Jolie.
  • #2 seed Eva Longoria over #7 seed Stacy Keibler.
  • Lastly, I don't care if #3 seed Carrie Underwood beats #11 seed Ana Ivanovic because Monica Bellucci lost in the first round and that screwed up that leg of my bracket.

Regardless of the outcome, these women are all champions in my... eyes.

UPDATE:

DEFEATS

My Gold Medal Region is screwed. #9 seed Molly Sims destroyed #1 seed Katherine Heigl. The report from the field:

(FERNDALE) -- Unbe-*#@$%-ing-lievable. Katherine Heigl is out. The number one seed in the Gold Medal Winner Region lost to nine-seed Molly Sims in a blowout. In one of the most shocking finals in Bigger Dance history, Sims obliterated Heigl 46 to 27. Brackets are being torn up all around the world.

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While at Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill yesterday -- testing out a couple high-end lenses I rented for the weekend to shoot a coworker's engagement session -- I struck a photo goldmine.

It's not everyday you run into a large group of guys uniformly dressed like referees.

This was actually a bachelor party for the dude in the white hat. I caught up with them when they first arrived at the park and expressed my appreciation for their great taste in party attire. They soon organized a football game and I started snapping photos.

Click here to see the entire set.

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This morning I took advantage of McDonald's "free latte Friday" promotion to try their attempt at scooping marketshare from Starbucks.

Considering the convenience, I also bought a breakfast sandwich. My total for the latte and sandwich was $2.61. This would have been an $8 purchase at Starbucks. Sure, quality of coffee was nowhere near that of my favorite local cafes, but for a quick drive-thru trip and considering the cost, McDonald's hit the mark.

...Somewhere Howard Schultz trembles...