Towards Y2K9 (2): All Red

We knew we'd be completely jetlagged on arrival in Seattle - and we were, but there was still a good half a day to spend although our system believed it was already evening. We took a first look at the city and the waterfront, had a coffee, had some sleep. Then in the evening we met my old friend Ted who I hadn't seen for 15 years.

It must have been around 1990, in the old Compuserve days before the internet really took off that I "met" Ted - we discussed some R:Base problem online. At that time I worked for a company that was the German representative of Microrim, whose main product R:Base was the first relational database for PCs (MS-DOS and OS/2) - a really good product for its time. Ted and I had stayed in contact, he had visited us in Cologne in the early nineties, and I had visited him in Virginia in 1994, at the time when I finished my HOP screensaver. I still remember the day when Ted showed me Charlottesville's university computer department where I saw an internet browser (Mosaic) for the first time. My god, only 15 years ago!

Ted, his wife Letha and their 3 months old daughter came to pick us up and we had a fabulous dinner at an Indian restaurant. When we left the place, I was so jetlagged and tired that I could hardly stand upright.

The next day was spent running around in Seattle, doing some shopping - a new rain jacket, some books, some adapters for my computer and phone. We visited the famous market on our way to the aquarium ...

Seattle's aquarium hosts a number of species that actually live in the surrounding ocean, such as a colorful plethora of seastars that one could touch ...

... and a giant red octopus called "Buster" - the aquarium staff decided to keep the name even though they had found out that he was actually female. What an incredible animal ! on this photo Buster, usually all red, had just turned grey for a few minutes.




After all these excitements, what could be better than a coffee and some tasty cakes, looking out over the sea. I think I look somewhat grumpy on this photo but that was mainly due to the fact that I was still very tired and that the sun was so bright!