First it was severed feet washing ashore, now it is empty bottles of rat poison. The bottles, which have thus far been empty, have been washing up on Washington shores since last fall. That spring trip to the coast is sounding less appealing every day. more ›

Behind our couch lives what we refer to as our "third cat." Much more well-behaved and definitely lower-maintenance, petting-wise, than the two actual cats from whence it came, but more or less inert unless there's a breeze. When we sweep behind the couch every three or four years we generally don't carry the third cat down to the Sound and chuck him in, but that's what storm runoff is doing right now to a lot of people. more ›

Remember SimCity? Seattlest had some incredible towns built in that game, with commercial and residential districts packed full of shiny, tall towers and trains and street traffic all flowing as effortlessly as rivers. Scroll way over to the left to the edge of the city grid; now that is a healthy industrial district, perfectly bisected by a pollution-eating green belt. The landmarks sprouted everywhere and the money and accolades poured in. Of course, it took many hours to bring the little guys to the pinnacle of urban development, and then, since the game never ends, it took another many hours to tinker the place into slums and ruin, rezoning here, tearing out a transportation hub there, until finally you had to unleash natural disasters upon the land just to keep yourself interested. more ›

-More ex-Mariners in the news, but this guy's still playing ball. Sort of. The Mets signed Brett Boone to a minor league contract today which could net him up to $1.5 million for next season. Oh, how the O-ver-Ra-ted have fallen. Boone earned almost $10 million while getting cut from the Mariners and Twins last year and batting .221. Seattlest earned -$300 to get cut from our summer softball league last year with the same average but with an apparently more imperfect ass. more ›

If you are running a bit behind on your Washington State estate tax forms, you'd better start preparing your excuse for the extension you're going to have to file. "My dog ate it," is, of course, the classic, but is unlikely to prove very effective. Seattlest suggests "My computer got a worm" as a good tack to try. You should find some empathy with the bean counters in Olympia with that one. more ›