u/engamo22

Saw this place "Sumo Sushi" in Burlington had grand opening last year and I decided to try it out.

So it is all-you-can-eat format, where you order on your phone, and there is also a buffet bar with fried items, desserts, soups, sauces etc. For the items which you order on the phone, there is a robot waiter which brings the food to you. The menu is very huge and has all types of sushis, seafood, even other Japanese dishes like hotpot and grilled meats. I guess most of their ingredients (sushi-grade fish) are flash-frozen and won't spoil, so they can scale up the menu easily.

I went around 11 on weekend and there was almost zero customers there. The food took a little time to come out, maybe 10 mins, I didn't find it slow at all. I can imagine, when it is really busy or if you come with a big party, it will be a big hassle. Considering you are allowed to order 15 items every 15 mins.

For the buffet bar, most of the items were fresher/nicer than the other nearby Asian buffets.

For the sushi items, I mainly ate sashimi (the slices of raw fish, zero rice) and some appetizers. There are around 10 different choices for sashimi, which you can see on their online menu. It is primarily low-grade fish and you won't find anything fancy like otoro. The sashimi pieces were large and taste was good. The appetizers which I ordered (shrimp tempura, chicken karaage) were freshly fried, which was good, although they were 90% breading.

Every type of vegetable salad is slathered in some mayo-based sauce, so it is a bit uncomfortable if you want to eat plain vegetables. Even the tataki slices were slathered with mayo sauce. Also I felt like they added sugar to a lot of dipping sauces (I guess most restaurants do this).

The bathroom is clean and food safety seems fine as I haven't developed food poisoning a day and a half later.

In total, the cost will be around $40 after tax/tip. The price at the restaurant is slightly higher than what is written online.

In terms of cost-performance, for a comparison, Costco has sashimi platter for $35 for 1 lb (around 30 pieces) and you only get 2 types of fish (salmon and tasteless tuna). I have a small stomach in general, and I ate 21 pieces of sashimi at the restaurant. So a normal person will probably eat more than me. I think that makes the restaurant price worth it, if you enjoy sashimi. Plus you get to enjoy the other foods too.

Overall, I would go again to this restaurant if I were very hungry and craving for sushi. The price is a bit steep, but I guess eating out is just like this nowadays. The conveyor belt sushi place in Mt Vernon has odd opening hours on the weekend so I would have rather gone there if it were open.

I am talking about the "no right turn on red" rule those pedestrian "all-way" crossings. It is really a big fail due to lack of enforcement. Ever since around when the World Cup started, I see police sitting in their car at the downtown train station, or circling around RTC mall/Cleveland street. I mean actual police cars, not transit security. Saw plenty of people turning right on red at these intersections, right in front of the police, with no consequence. Also seen twice the case of some cyclists crossing diagonally in the intersection and nearly get run over by a right-turning car who probably isn't aware that diagonal crossing is allowed.

Recently lot of their Facebook posts are written with a lot of errors. Myself, as a non-native English speaker, even feels bothered by it. What happened to their editing team? Sorry, not to nitpick, but here are the two most egregious posts I saw within the last day:

Lot of typos: "Evidence of smoking founds near cite of massive fireworks explosion as Whidbey Island reckons with the damage"

Image caption which makes very little sense: "Theft suspect arrested when caught in the act"

Then, a lot of posts have small errors, like run-on sentences, missing capitalization/punctuation, etc.

The reason I am bothered by this is, a lot of non-native speakers read news as a way to improve their English (in fact it is even recommended by ESL classes in Seattle community colleges), so a prominent media outlet such as Kiro 7 should be expected to maintain standards...

I am near Greenbank and the nearest bus stop is 30 mins on foot, walking along highway 525 without any sidewalk. It feels a bit dangerous, but also not that horrible because not too many cars on the road. Since the bus route #1 runs along highway 525, can the bus stop anywhere, like in front of my house? Or does it only stop at official bus stops? I never tried taking the bus here before, so haven't been able to ask the drivers. I feel like the answer is 'no' because I have seen some teens walking on the shoulder before.

A place for weekend trips, peace and quiet away from the city, close to nature. Or some days of 'working from home'. Where would your ideal cottage be?

Personally I have lived in Central Whidbey and it is a nice area- scenic bluff trails, water views, rain shadow effect. Cons would be partial dependence on ferry and jet noise. Also, entirety of Whidbey island is too expensive for me and the cheap houses have dependence on contaminated groundwater.

I have spent time in Clark County (near Portland). It is a nice area, but requires a bit of a drive to nature areas such as the Columbia River Gorge, and you will be passing through congested city freeways to get there.

Mason County and Kitsap County also look nice and affordable. Close proximity to Seattle. I haven't spent too much time out there. Maybe even further north to Port Townsend or Sequim would be nice too.

I don't really prefer Pacific coast areas like Ocean Shores. Can't explain why.

Wenatchee area is quite nice. It benefits from the rain shadow, it has hiking nearby, and it is not windy like Ellensburg.

A bit of a niche question but has anyone visited the Tacos Tecalitlan restaurant in Auburn? I usually go to their original location in Burlington to eat, but the one in Auburn is slightly closer. However, the Auburn location has low reviews so I'm not sure if it is as good as the original.

I am a person who has relatively low self-discipline. I have been trying to stick to PSMF fasting diet. However the main issue is that my workplace has a lot of free chocolates and pastries, so I often snack at work and gain weight.

This week, I was scheduled to work remotely on Thursday and Friday. On Wednesday afternoon, I left the office and drove to an Airbnb, arriving in the late evening. I planned to stay in the Airbnb until Sunday. I only brought my work laptop and diet-approved foods.

The Airbnb which I booked is located in a rural area. So, there is no nearby restaurant or grocery store (no easy way to satisfy my cravings). Also the price is cheaper, since it's in the middle of nowhere. Luckily they had Starlink internet :)

My daily routine was simple and enjoyable. In the morning, I would go for a light jog (1 hour) outside. I would come back and make myself some green tea and take my supplements. During lunchtime, I would drive to a gym and do some strength workouts. Then I would drink a protein shake. In the afternoon, I would do some hiking nearby (1-2 hours). In the evening, I would have my "main meal" which consisted of precooked chicken breast.

Thursday and Friday were good. I didn't mind eating my chicken and I had high motivation. I guess I was busy with work, so not constantly thinking about food.

Saturday was tough. Since I had the day off, I drove further away to go on a longer hike. I felt light-headed and weak. My cravings grew stronger and I was in a bad mood. Driving back from the hike, I was on the highway and decided not to get off at the exit for my Airbnb, because I wanted to eat restaurant food and give up on my diet. I kept driving until I reached the city and I routed the GPS to a Korean fried chicken restaurant. I parked in the parking lot and saw that there was a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant right next door. I am not religious but I really thought God was sending me a signal. So I went to the sushi restaurant and grabbed only sashimi plates (which is mostly just protein). If you know how these types of restaurants operate, you can imagine that my final bill was enormous. But it was worth it to maintain my PSMF diet.

In an ideal world, I would book an Airbnb on an island with no grocery stores, so I remove all temptations. Nearby me, there are plenty of such islands which have a lot of vacation rentals, but they are on the expensive side. Anyways, I think staying in the countryside is the next best option. The only downside is you need to spend time researching where is the nearest gym. Lastly, I was having to go to the store to buy gallons of drinking water because I didn't realize the tap water would not be drinkable at the Airbnb, and whenever I walked into the store and saw the chocolate chip cookies and croissants from the bakery section, my cravings intensified. So, it is best to prepare all the food/drinks in advance, in order to avoid going to any stores. Airbnb is actually quite expensive, but for people like me with low self-discipline and extra cash to spend recklessly, I guess it is a worthwhile tradeoff.

I brought along an InBody (H3O) machine, so I also measured my stats:

Weds morning: 163lb bodyweight. This bodyweight is before having any food/drink for the day.

Sat night: 159lb bodyweight, of which 2.9lb is fat loss and the rest is muscle loss. This bodyweight is after eating my sashimi dinner.

BTW this is InBody H3O machine, which is not as accurate as the InBody clinical machines at your local gym.

I have visited Portland many times (from Washington), but only really got as far as the shopping mall on Hayden Island and some places in SE Portland. Today it's my first time to visit the downtown Waterfront area. I walked along both sides from 99W (Steel) bridge to Tilikum Crossing bridge.

1. Parking is very easy to find, even it was free due to the public holiday.
2. It is nice to have a completely separated pedestrian path on both sides of the river and on the bridges. And the path is very wide and well-maintained in all sections.
3. RiverPlace is the 'nicest' area with businesses directly on the waterfront. Otherwise most of the trail is quite devoid of businesses. Maybe the city can add some street vendors or food trucks or art displays or sculptures to look at.
4. There were a few iron bathrooms which were nice.
5. There were some people who were jogging/walking/cycling, but actually I would have expected way more, considering it's a sunny Friday evening around 6pm. So the trail was not too crowded.
6. There is a huge number of homeless along more than 70% of the trail. I never felt threatened but there was one guy who had trouble keeping control of his pitbull which was lunging at passers-by. I turned back and took a short detour.

Honestly it was a nice stroll and the weather was good. But it is just empty, even the downtown area was kind of empty and devoid of life. I don't know where the people are all at?

I drove around to a few schools in BG and didn't find any running tracks. Then I looked on Google Maps satellite view and realized BG schools just don't have running tracks in general. In all other nearby places like Vancouver, Ridgefield, even Hockinson, the middle schools have running tracks (they are open to the public when school is not in session). I only found one running track at BGHS but it is seemed occupied with an event, so I won't go there for jogging. And I also don't like jogging on the streets/sidewalks. Am I just dumb or is jogging just not a thing in BG for whatever reason? On the other hand seems like the local population is quite healthy compared to where I'm from.

After riding the train several times over the weekend in Eastside/Bellevue and sweating in the train due to lack of A/C, seems like today they finally turned on the A/C in the trains. I rode to/from the World Cup with the huge crowds and it was pleasantly cool even in the crowded train cars.

Hopefully they can keep it on even after the World Cup ends

The 1-Line disruption affected Redmond/Bellevue 2-Line and caused 30+ min delays. There is no service alert or any info at the stations. Luckily for people traveling in Redmond/Bellevue, there are lot of frequent local busses that provide redundancy. ST should advise of the huge delay so people will know to take alternative bus routes like 545 542 B-Line 221 etc

Is it a real cause for concern or just sensationalism? Is it still safe to drink tap water in Redmond? I am not a scientist, please help me to understand :(

According to city website, PFAS levels in tap water exceeds 2029 federal govt maximums. People who are living in downtown Redmond, Avondale Road, Costco/Whole Foods areas are receiving contaminated tap water.

Maybe I should buy a reverse osmosis filter but it is out of my budget.

https://www.redmond.gov/2314/PFAS-Information

I went to the food bank at Hopelink. Usually I get my food and leave, but this time they asked me to validate my income because they said they have new requirements to qualify for food assistance program. My last month's gross income is $6000, which is over the limit, I am no longer qualified for their food assistance program. It's too bad :(

I am not sure if my phone can receive calls. Is there any payphone I can use?

Tried to catch C-route today. According to Kotenia County gov website, there should be a bus stop in front of the USPS office on W Honeysuckle Rd in Hayden but I walked around and didn't find it. I asked the workers there and they had no clue what I was talking about. I waited around for a while but I didn't see any bus pass by on the road. Where can I get the proper info on the bus stop locations and schedule? Thanks in advance!

From Redmond Transit Center to Woodinville downtown area, it takes 15 mins by car but 1h30m by bus. Even pedaling on the bike would be faster than taking transit. Why is the bus service so lacking? Red-Wood road is jammed up every afternoon so it's not like there is a lack of demand.

If you google "Lynnwood WA", this picture pops up, but it is the only picture in the slideshow without a location tag. It kind of looks like scribner lake boardwalk but I haven't seen lush trees there.

https://imgur.com/a/OCsmWoy

I have a device which is eligible for unlock in T-Mobile. I want to unlock it so I can use other e-Sim for overseas travel. The website says I must call the customer service. My experience is, TMobile really do not want to do the unlocking.

1. Customer service agent asks me why I want to unlock, I said I just want to unlock the phone, he tells me if I plan to switch to another carrier then he can offer me XYZ discounts, I keep saying no no no I am not interested.

• Finally the agent tells me to go to the T-Mobile store for unlocking, as they prefer not to do unlocking over the phone call due to security reasons.
• The agent suggested a store very close from my house, I said: NO I am not going there.
• The agent suggested another store which is 30 mins from my house, I said NO.
• The agent asked me what is the IMEI number for my phone, I said let me check, he suggested for me to hang up and call a different number to find out. But i managed to quickly find the IMEI number via my phone settings app and i told it to him.
• The agent said my phone is not eligible for unlocking because I don't have 1 year of service with T-Mobile.
• I said: NO I have paid over $100 in cell service, which makes my phone eligible for unlocking according to TMobile policy.
• The agent asks me: do you have receipt numbers for these payments as proof?
• I said: NO, but can't you look it up on your system??
• The agent said OK, after putting me on hold for 10 mins he said my phone is eligible for unlocking.

Finally the agent said to wait 5 days and it will be unlocked. So, we'll see.

The bright side is, at least TMobile cx picks up the phone, unlike ATT..

I have been close friends with my cousin for over 10 years. She got married to her husband and I always thought the husband was overly nice and caring, but I never saw the red flags until now. Now I am wondering how to maintain the relationship with my cousin, if I don't find the husband to be a pleasant person to spend time around?

The husband is a kind of guy who does a lot of favors for you without asking for anything in return. For example, when my cousin invites me to eat dinner at their house, the husband volunteers to cook for us. When we go for hiking, the husband packs homemade snacks and drinks for everyone to share. When we hang out together, the husband drives us around, in the heavy traffic of our city. All the special days, like Christmas and my birthday, the husband will send me greetings. Their house is very close to the airport and I stay in their house before an early morning flight and the husband will volunteer to drive me to the airport at 5am.

Earlier on, I did notice some odd behaviors from the husband, like when the husband cooked me a burger one time, he said I shouldn't eat it with ketchup because he used some special grilling technique for the burger patty, and ketchup will mask the taste, but personally I prefer ketchup so I later put a little bit on, and the husband seemed a bit upset for the rest of the meal but he hid it behind a smile (why is it such a big deal?)

Recently, my cousin and I went on a day trip to the mall in a different city, and the husband went too. My cousin and his husband went to one store and I went to another store. We were supposed to reconvene for lunch at 12pm. The husband had a restaurant in mind that he wanted to eat at. At lunchtime, I was running very late so I just texted my cousin to go to lunch without me and she seemed OK with it. It is just a minor thing, right? So I just went off and ate my own lunch and met them later. When I met up with the two, the husband was visibly upset and wouldn't even talk to me (seems like childish behavior?). Later, my cousin told me that the husband thought that I missed lunch because I didn't like him. That was certainly not the case, but now I am starting to dislike him.

It seems to be a common occurrence that the husband gets upset when even small things don't go his way. I guess the husband seems to think that he deserves to have the final say in everything, because he is so nice and polite to me and my cousin. If we hang out and either me or my cousin picks an activity to do (e.g. minigolf), the husband will just give off vibes that he doesn't actually want to be participating in the activity and he is only participating because for the sake of our happiness. Although he is enthusiastic on the outside, I can tell that he is not enjoying himself based on his body language and some small remarks that he makes.

It is annoying because the husband usually masks his displeasure with a thick layer of fake-enthusiasm and niceties. Also I don't want my relationship with my cousin to be affected by the fact that I don't get along with my cousin. So, not sure what i should do here..

I want to understand. For the stretch between Marymoor Park and Idylwood park, there is clearly high volume of pedestrians but no sidewalks. is it structurally infeasible to build a sidewalk there? or just no budget? they have made improvements like grooved lines on the shoulder, so I guess it’s not a budget problem.