Maybe you’ve heard about the long delays in getting a US Passport. It’s been all over the news. Last week it was hard to tune to NPR and not hear yet another sob story of a newly married couple whose honeymoon was spoiled due to the delays in obtaining a passport.

So, like the guy who runs out to buy batteries just before the windstorm hits along with everyone else, I decided I needed to get my passport renewed. I have no travel plans or honeymoons scheduled but I just want to be ready. One never knows when he’ll need to travel outside the US on a minutes notice!

Well, I went to the official passport website to find out what I needed to do. I filled out the online form and printed it out. I attached 2 color photos of myself that I thought were acceptable after reading the instructions. I sent the renewal application, 2 pictures and my old passport in to be processed.

Today my old passport was returned with a letter stating my renewal couldn’t be processed because my pictures were not acceptable. The paper tells me to check out page 2 of the DS-82 form to determine why my pictures were not accepted.

But here’s the problem: They don’t tell me why my pictures were rejected. So I’m left to guess why they were not accepted. Maybe the background was too dark. Maybe they just thought I looked dangerous. Or maybe it’s because my smile was forced.

So I had Kim snap another picture of me and I’ll try it again. If they reject my application this time I guess I’ll have to make honeymoon plans in Boise.

Dave Winer linked to this video of flight patterns.

This makes it easy to see what times of the day are the busiest to fly.

I can’t think of many items I still possess after ten years but this picture is one of them. Kim’s brother snapped it just outside of the St. George temple.

Without a doubt this is my very favorite picture. I’ve taken it with me to every job I’ve had since we’ve been married which is at least half a dozen. I never put it in a frame, but I’d pin it to my wall or bulletin board. It’s hard to believe it’s held up as well as it has given its age.

The reason I like this picture so much is that it captures how I’ve felt about Kim the past 10 years.

The year was 1995. All of us were sitting on the edge of a queen bed. Our voices were nearly gone by now. Our hands were red from the high-fives we’d given each other for the last 10 innings.

This is the night that Seattle Mariners baseball transcended the sport for me. Rewind back just one month when the Mariner’s were trailing the California Angels by 13 games with just over a month left in the season. A combination of the Angels choking and the M’s catching fire down the stretch had the Seattle fans in a near frenzy.

I lived on Capitol Hill at the time and worked in the middle of the city at Wolfe Internet. The water cooler chatter was dominated by Mariner fans holding out hope that somehow they could catch the Angels. The games behind started to shrink…9…7…5 until Seattle caught the Angels at the end of the season to force a one-game playoff to see who would meet the Yankees in the American League Divisional Series.

The Mariner’s won the tie-breaker game 9-1 on an improbable bases clearing in the park home-run by Luis Sojo who was not known for his speed. This win setup the greatest game in Mariner history.

The Yankees took the first two games of the series, but the Mariner’s battled back to take the next two and tie the series at 2 games each. Game 5 was a back and forth affair that went into extra innings. The Mariner’s were down 5-4 going into the 11th inning.

At this time I was in the hotel room of my friend’s parents who were visiting from Utah. We’d piled up on their two queen beds to take in the game on a crappy 20-inch TV. But none of that mattered now. The M’s were down a run with 3 outs to go. The M’s leadoff hitter laid down a bunt and we cussed until he outran the throw putting the tying run on 1st base. Then Ken Griffey Jr. stepped to the plate. He was in his prime and even today, remains the most beloved Seattle sports figure. He’s to Seattle what Jordan is to Chicago. Griffey steps to the plate and drills a line drive into center field that nearly takes the pitcher’s head off. We all went crazy at this point. We were jumping on the beds, tossing pillows and screaming our lungs out. Could this really be happening? There’s no way the Yankee’s can blow the lead with their ace reliever, Jack McDowell, on the mound.

With runners on 1st and 2nd, Edgar Martinez steps to the plate. He’s arguably Seattle’s most consistent hitter. He takes a couple of pitches. Even fouls off a pitch behind the plate. And then magic struck. Edgar lined a sinker into left-center that rolled to the wall. Cora came around to score from second. The Yankee center fielder picks up the ball and tosses it the shortstop. Griffey is now rounding third having run from 1st base. The third base coach waves him home while the shortstop runs the ball towards the catcher who can’t get the tag down in time. I’ve seen the replay dozens, if not hundreds of times. It still gives me goose bumps. The hit, the turn around third and the dog pile with Griffey at the bottom flashing his trademark smile.

The city of Seattle goes absolutely crazy. My voice is gone. It was surreal. I couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.

So it was hard to see Ken Griffey Jr. return to Seattle this past week in a Cincinnati Reds uniform. He was greeted like a King by the Seattle fans. It’s been 7 years since he left the Mariner’s. If Yankee Stadium is the “House that Ruth Built” then Safeco Field is the stadium that Griffey Jr. built. Without the excitement generated during the 1995 season most people agree that a new stadium would not have been built, and there’s a strong likelihood that Seattle wouldn’t have a baseball team.

In the final game of the series this weekend, Griffey gave us another painful reminder of what we are missing by jacking two homers into the seats at Safeco, one of which careened off the 2nd deck billboard.

I will never forget that night spent with friends. That’s the night magic struck a team and a city.

It’s the night I become a diehard Mariner’s fan.

I find myself using Ask.com more and more these days. I think it’s by far the best designed search site. It’s clean, uncluttered and modern. Earlier this year I started using Ask Maps instead of MapQuest. I tried Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s mapping products and none worked at well as Ask Maps for me.

I haven’t used Microsoft’s Live Search very much because I don’t like how the search results are laid out. But it feels as fast as Google. Both Live and Google seem a little faster than Ask, but not enough that it matters to me.

I tried searching for “Nordquist” on each site. Asks lists my blog as the 4th result. Google lists it as the 6th result. Live lists it as the 1st result.

I don’t know that it matters very much anymore which search engine I use. I’m going to try using a different one for a week for all my searches. Currently, my mind defaults to Google. But I’m going to try living with Ask and then Live for a week and see if I notice any difference.

I didn’t include Yahoo in the mix because their home page is cluttered with news. Search is more an after thought which is probably how they designed it.

But if I’ve learned anything today it’s the Google’s dominance in search isn’t the same as Microsoft’s dominance in operating systems. It’s difficult to switch from Windows to Linux or Apple, not to mention costly. It would take me several days to migrate my work onto another operating system.

But how much work is it to switch from Google to Ask or Live or some new kid on the block like Mahalo? It’s just a click away. No pain, no cost.

1. Paris Hilton – go straight to jail, don’t pass go, do not collect $1 million interview money

2. Facebook – open API, platform, all the rage, turned down $1 billion, blah blah blah

I need a Firefox plug-in that removes every mention of these two over-hyped stories.

Nothing forces a little cell phone house cleaning like getting a new phone. I’m sure software exists that makes it easy to migrate from a Palm to Windows Mobile phone, but I like to do things the hard way and then complain about it.

So once I got my new phone activated I began pruning my contacts. Several times I came across a name and thought to myself, “What was I thinking when I added this person?”

It’s now been a few days and my contact list is now at a manageable size filled only with people I plan to call on occasion. The following card from Someecards felt appropriate.

I admire people who write well. Not people who can use huge words or string together complex sentences. I mean people like Dave Winer, Kathy Sierra and Scott Adams. They write clear and concise articles that don’t require the reader to keep a dictionary nearby.

I enjoyed this post by Scott Adams on the day he become a better writer.

10 small things about life that I enjoy:

1. Opening a new can of tennis balls
2. The perfect sized puddle to drive through
3. Pulling on brand new socks that haven’t been washed
4. The fizz sound of Diet Coke poured over ice
5. A warm sweatshirt, fresh from the dryer
6. The last few swigs of a Starbucks hot cocoa that’s mostly whip cream
7. Swishing a long 3-point shot that makes the net get stuck
8. An “I Love the 80’s” marathon on VH1
9. The shift from 3rd to 4th gear
10. Listening to Kim play “I Often Go Walking” on the piano

Our house sits on Lea Hill. A busy two lane road connects the older downtown area of Auburn to the homes on Lea Hill and the community college up the street. It’s a road we take every day either off the hill into town or up the road further where it connects to highway 18.

We’ve lived in our home for nearly two years and I’m surprised this is the first time I’ve noticed that one of our neighbors who lives on this busy street leading to the college have a hot tub on their front lawn. When I first noticed this a few weeks ago I figured it was a temporary placement.

Well it’s now been a few weeks and I’ve had a number of opportunities to drive past the not so private hot tub. Best I can tell the hot tub has indeed found it’s home in the front yard. The owners have secured it with an outline of cement. They have placed flower pots and other small decorations around the hot tub. But the event that tipped me off to its permanent placement was driving by after work one evening and seeing the owners cleaning and filling the hot tub.

What could possibly be the reasoning behind putting a hot tub on your front lawn, less than 10 feet from a busy street leading to a college? I hope they keep a cover on that thing or it could turn into the community party hot tub.