Exciting coverage of the Cardboard Tube Fighting League at Seattle’s Gas Works Park. “The CTFL was created out of a desperate need to better train and arm citizens with cardboard tubes.” The 3-foot-long tubes (similar to what you may find inside a roll of gift wrap) are provided for participants. You cannot stab your opponent, the goal is to break their tube with yours.

There are too many construction projects going on in Bellevue, WA to keep track of, but when we’d drive by the site of the Bellevue Lexus dealership the ever-increasing size of the structure was mind-boggling. What were they planning to do with all that space, park their entire car inventory indoors? The dealership opened this week and it is indeed huge, 275,000 square feet. Inside it caters to its luxury customer base with artificial putting greens, a baby grand piano, escalator, a kids playroom with video games, a lounge with a fireplace, and, of course, free Wi-Fi.

In 2005 Starbucks launched a Chantico, a chocolate drink that failed to capture tastebuds and was off the menu a year later. Now the company is partnering with Hershey’s to create Starbucks branded chocolate products. Hershey’s Artisan Confections Company subsidiary was cited in the press release as the source of the “the premium expertise” for this alliance. So we should expect chocolate on par with the high-end Joseph Schmidt and Scharffen Berger divisions that make up Artisan Confections. However, there’s no word yet on whether they will attempt another chocolate beverage beyond the mocha syrup-laced drinks already on the menu.

As usual, the Iowa State Fair in August will boast of a butter cow. That’s a 600 pound butter cow, mind you. This year, Sarah Pratt, butter sculptress, is providing company for the cow in the shape of a butter Harry Potter. The butter gets reused each year until it goes bad, so parts of Harry could be constructed out of last year’s butter Superman. Back in the 1950s they also made lard pigs.

Camp Blaze is a firefighting camp — for girls! The 16- to 19-year-olds who are accepted spend a week at the Fire Training Academy in North Bend, Washington learning firefighting skills. The camp is free and women firefighters from many states donate their time as instructors. The young women are pushed physically as they put out car fires wearing heavy gear. They climb ladders, rappel out of buildings, and learn CPR. There’s also time for typical camp activities like putting on skits. Camp Blaze provides a unique and intense team and confidence building opportunity.

Highway 520 is within earshot of our house and this past weekend the Washington State DOT took advantage of the annual closure of the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge to resurface a half mile of 520 with two types of quieter pavement. Wilder Construction installed stretches of rubberized asphalt, polymer-modified asphalt (containing cellulose fibers), and a control strip of the standard asphalt. We walked over on Saturday to watch the crew and machines in action. The two quieter asphalts will be monitored for noise and how they hold up in this environment. There are ongoing results posted from a similar project on I-5. The rubberized pavement performs best at the start but as the surfaces age and the weather changes it’s not a slam dunk winner. We’ve noticed a significant reduction in highway noise in our neighborhood. Driving over the quiet asphalt is nice too, though it’s jarring when you hit the old loud pavement once again. (photos and longer writeup on my Vox site)

Actual toddler conversation transcript from the “why phase”:
Him: “Why? Why? Why?”
Me: “Can you be more specific?”
Him: “Why… Mommy?”

I haven’t paid attention to IHOP since college and I’ve never been to Applebee’s, but it still caught my eye that IHOP is making a bid to buy out Applebee’s. Their CEO, Julia Stewart, used to be an Applebee’s exec, which must be helping things along. The $25.50 per share bid comes to $1.9 billion plus IHOP will assume $155 million of Applebee’s debt. The company will partially make up that huge $2 billion debt by selling company owned Applebee’s to franchisees. Stewart took over IHOP in 2002 and the stock has gone up 75% since then.

I’ve picked up on mentions of a new frozen yogurt trend. It started with Pinkberry in the L.A. area, which likely got its inspiration from Korea’s Red Mango. I thought it might take some time for this new fro-yo wave to reach Seattle, and then even longer to cross to the Eastside, but today I spotted a little place in Kirkland called Shnoo. It’s the same concept, down to the two yogurt flavors: plain or green tea and a selection of toppings featuring fresh fruit. A little web searching also turned up Yoberry, a new fro-yo place in Seattle. Red Mango’s site says Bellevue Square and Alderwood locations are coming soon. The fro-yo wars are beginning again (remember when TCBY got sued by I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt?). (Yelp: Yoberry, Shnoo in Kirkland, Shnoo in Seattle)

Amtrak is going upscale. GrandLuxe Rail Journeys (formerly American Orient Express) is attaching its luxury cars to selected Amtrak trains starting in November. Passengers who pay the premium price will be able to travel along regularly scheduled Amtrak routes in fancy refurbished cars from the golden era of train travel. GrandLuxe typically operates luxury tours spanning ten days of rail travel in scenic locations such as the Grand Canyon and Pacific coast. This partnership will allow them to offer shorter, more affordable trips, though many will still balk at the $789 per night pricing.