99.9% of all things suck...: photos Archives

November 15, 2006

my new bike

, originally uploaded by meloknee.

Posted by meloknee at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2006

Why we seattlites put up with the rain...

because days like this are hard to find anywhere else.

More photos of our beautiful ferry ride on flickr.

Posted by meloknee at 10:25 AM | Comments (3)

April 13, 2006

There's nothing like a trip to Fresno...

...to make you appreciate where you live. Now please, don't be offended; don't take it the wrong way. I had a really nice time in Fresno. It happened to be beautiful there this last weekend. The grass and fields were green, you could see a little bit of the mountains, the clouds were gorgeous, but it's just so flat there. Not to mention, it's rarely that green there, spring only lasts a couple of weeks. Plus it had been raining for a month straight before we got there.

It's nothing personal, and I think a lot of people really like it there, it's just not for me. Every day here in Seattle I walk to work, I look at beautiful views constantly. There is a view from almost every place in the city. You can't get that very many places. If the air quality in the Valley wasn't so horrid, there would be beautiful views there; I remember them from when I was a kid. I remember driving out to Takahashi fruit stand, back when it was actually a stand in the middle of nowhere. You could see the Sierra Nevadas in the distance. I remember it actually feeling like a looong drive. Little did I know, not 5-10 years later, my family would be buying a house even further out than that fruit stand. And, that very fruit stand would buy property and build a fancy store that made their produce overpriced. From our new house, you were lucky if a few times a year the smog would blow out of the Valley enough to see those mountains that were only a matter of miles away.

Tuesday night in Fresno, Alex and I were wandering around the Tower District. I was showing him all the places that formed who I am, my teenage stomping grounds. It broke my heart, none of the places that I hung out in were still there. The buildings were there, but the businesses were long gone. The Tower used to be the one place where Fresno held onto its history (at least Piemontes is still open). I can't believe the Java Cafe closed, Butterfields Brewing Co., and the Daily Planet. I remember when the Tower neighborhood committee sent around petitions trying to stop Blockbuster from moving into the hood, it didn't work of course. That was the start of the chain stores taking over. Luckily, I must say this, kudos to the many business entrepreneurs that are taking the chance to open new restaurants and bars. Restaurants in Fresno have a reputation of opening and closing rather quickly.

I continue supporting Fresno and its residents in their quest of rebuilding the downtown. I try to follow the city planning and the opening of new galleries and artist lofts. I think it's fabulous that people are working to make Fresno a city that is worthy of its residents, artists, writers and musicians that are born and raised there.

However, until the sky turns blue again and there is at least one apartment building that's over 10 stories high, I can't imagine living there again. Sorry Mary and Heidi, I'll just have to visit all the time!!

Posted by meloknee at 06:21 PM | Comments (2)

March 28, 2006

5th Grade Softball Photo

This picture is from my first year of playing softball. I was in the fifth grade, 11 years old. My dad is the guy on the left, he was our assistant coach. The other guy was my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Volpa. I think i remember a total of three of these girl's names. I only went to this school, Robinson, for fifth and sixth grade. I didn't really like it there much. I was active in my school though. I played softball, volleyball, basketball, ran cross country, was the school historian, participated in the spelling bee (pics to come), and won many different community awards -- what a dork!

Posted by meloknee at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2006

Doggie Update

My life has been fun lately with the two dogs. I love it. If Brandy would just stop barking, life would be absolutely fabulous. Her and aggie aren't playing together yet, but they'll share their beds and sniff each other, no fights at all. Brandy is learning the rules very quickly; she is one smart dog. She loves to play so much it's just crazy, hard to believe she's nine years old. She makes up games to play if I don't have time to play with her. She will hide her ball from herself and then "try" to find it. It's hilarious.

Today was doggie haircut day. Aggie was so fluffy she looked twice as big as she really is. Brandy had chaps. Here are comparison pics:

Brandy looks SOOOOO much cuter without the long ear hair and chaps!!

I've also uploaded more pics of them at flickr.

Posted by meloknee at 09:31 PM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2005

Boston

So, our trip to Boston was fun. We drank beers with politicians, ate lots of food, listened to the lounge singer in the hotel bar, watched people slip on ice, had lots of free wireless internet, bought some super sweet shoes, met crazy JFK conspiracy theorists, and hung out with good friends.

Oh, and if anyone knows a republican politician that looks like Kevin Nealon, let me know who it is.

Posted by meloknee at 12:14 PM | Comments (3)

November 29, 2005

My brother & my boyfriend...

Getting Down at the Summit on Doug's Birthday!

Thanks Dan!

Posted by meloknee at 12:34 PM | Comments (2)

November 22, 2005

TGINIHSAD Final Installment

I have got to say, I couldn't find anymore embarrassing dance pics, so i give you a variety here. I'm not thrilled with my choices; next year I'll have to scour the parents pics and my old high school stuff that's packed away in storage.

Left to right:
1) Summer of '95 me in the middle with all my dirty skater friends
2) The week after HS grad, the tall one on the right was my BF
3) Fall of '92, freshman year-I Hate This Picture!!
4) Me and a friend '93 at the mall!!
5) Me, summer after HS grad
6) Group of my friends my junior year.

Posted by meloknee at 01:57 PM | Comments (5)

Senior Prom

This is senior prom 1996. The only reason I had any fun at all was because my friend Erica went with me. She's the hot blonde on the right. We spent the whole night trying to avoid our dates. Mine was nice, but I asked him to go with me as a friend because I didn't hang out with any guys that were still in high school and he had graduated a year or two before from a different school. Well, he thought that I liked him, which I guess you could infer that since I asked him to take me on a date, but i didn't. I had my eyes set on a different prize...

Anyway, Erica and I just recently got back into contact and it's been fabulous. These pictures are making us crack up!! I think our senior year we were together nearly every day, through some really, really hard shit. I'm glad to have her back in my life because we went through so many things that year no one has ever been able to understand it. Now, I have someone to testify to part of the reason I'm as crazy as I am :)

Posted by meloknee at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)

Thank God I'm Not In High School Anymore Day

For the early risers, I give you this, but there is more...yes much more, to come.

So the update: These pics are both from my sophomore year in high school, which would be 93-94. The first pic, I had braces, the second they were finally off!!!

As a sidenote, the boy I am with in both pics was my bf my whole sophomore year. He was a senior, I dumped him in a very, very NOT nice way a week before this prom, his senior prom.

I will forever feel like an evil selfish little bitch for that. Especially considereing my 16th bday was just two weeks before this and he had thrown me a phat partay.

Posted by meloknee at 12:18 AM | Comments (12)

November 10, 2005

Found Photo

I was walking to work this morning and found this picture on the sidewalk. It reminded me of two things. One, how horrible those family trips to portrait photographer were. Oh, how I dreaded them. My mom would make me curl my hair and put make-up on. We'd have to wear matching outfits - okay, that never happened, but we had to go with some color theme. No one wanted to do it, and it's no wonder. They aren't even hanging up in my parent's house. They don't even like them, everyone looks fake. I think the last one we did besides all the weddings since then was when I was 16, ah, the awkward years, at least we get to remember those. The pictures I take every Christmas with my tripod and 35mm camera are much better (especially when either my dad or I would fart and make everyone laugh so hard).

The other thing it reminded me of was when I was a kid I wanted to be a detective. I'd go around the neighborhood and look for "clues," old pictures, receipts, just random things on the ground. I'd collect them all and then make up a story about these things and a mystery I needed to solve. Maybe this explains my obsession with Robert Parker's novels, especially the Spenser ones. Spenser is my hero, he loves to drink, eat and cook delicious food, spend time with his gorgeous woman, solve crime and read books just so he can quote form them and sound smart. That's why when I read a quote somewhere from a research librarian that she felt like Spenser: For Hire, I knew that's what I should do with my life.

Posted by meloknee at 01:06 PM | Comments (9)

November 09, 2005

You can't completely hate working here...

Yesterday, one of my nice, sweet coworkers came back from vacation and left a bowl of candy on the counter with this sign:

In response, today someone left this:

Posted by meloknee at 12:41 PM | Comments (2)

November 01, 2005

Spy vs. Spy

Spy vs. Spy, originally uploaded by meloknee.

The Summit had a free BBQ for Halloween. It was awesome. Not that many people dressed up, but it was a lot of fun. I ate a bacon, grilled onion, cheese, and mole sauce sandwich. YUMMY.

This was definitely the best costume there. Too bad I didn't get a pic with both of the spies.

Posted by meloknee at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2005

halloween dorkiness

Posted by meloknee at 12:14 PM | Comments (4)

October 06, 2005

Open your eyes

It's amazing what you see when you actually look around. Today on my walk home from work I walked on the "other" side of the street. There was a house in an alley that was completely covered in individual paintings. It was really cool.

Posted by meloknee at 06:20 PM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2005

More aggie

I gave Aggie a new haircut on Sunday:

It made her tired and she gave me a good squeaky yawn.

Then, tonight, I decided to rearrange my apartment.

Because a week ago it looked like this:

Posted by meloknee at 11:25 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Aggie the Precious One

Look at how cute Aggie is sleeping under the covers in my arm.

Posted by meloknee at 11:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 11, 2005

fake scream

fake scream, originally uploaded by meloknee.

i [heart] the giant dipper.

Posted by meloknee at 11:25 PM | Comments (4)

Giant dipper

Giant dipper, originally uploaded by meloknee.

The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk was super-duper fun.

Posted by meloknee at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2005

Drinking beer at Fresno State

We were totally breaking the law.

Posted by meloknee at 10:31 AM | Comments (1)

Alex picking nose

I don't know who this is a sculpture of,
I remember thinking it looked like William
Saroyan, but I was drunk and looking at it
now, if it is him, it's not very good.
We were walking around Fresno State
dinking beers and went to my old art
department, we found this.

Posted by meloknee at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)

Mel, Theresa & Kathie

Here we are in front of "'stones,"
one of my old hangouts.
Oddly enough, didn't see anyone I knew.
Good thing I talked Kathie & Theresa
into coming to visit us!!

(notice the finger in the lower right-hand corner. that's alex.
both of us had serious finger-in-picture problems, i blame it
on the $15 camera)

Posted by meloknee at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)

July 23, 2005

Cool stuff

Thanks to Alex and R.E. Load Bags for my new backpack, I love it!!

With matching laptop bag and all.

Posted by meloknee at 07:46 PM | Comments (2)

May 17, 2005

New Burger King Ad

This photo has been going around for a while, however, with the introduction of Carl's Jr.'s new ad campaign starring the scantily clad Paris Hilton, I though Burger King might want to take advantage of it...

Burger King Ad.jpg