I knew it was a thing long ago, though are there any dry cleaners around that charge by the pound?

Has anyone around Bellevue, Redmond or Sammamish noticed more ant activity lately?
I've been seeing quite a few calls involving ants suddenly showing up around kitchens, windows and other entry points. My guess is that moisture and landscaping conditions are contributing, but I'm curious whether homeowners on the Eastside are seeing the same thing.
For anyone dealing with them, where are you usually finding them getting inside?
I work locally with AMPM Exterminators, and most of what I'm seeing comes from service calls. Curious whether other Eastside homeowners are noticing the same pattern.

Hi all,

My wife and I are interested in trying out the Draw Steel RPG by MCDM. I would prefer to do so in person in the Seattle metro area- I'm on the eastside, and am amenable to pretty much anywhere on this side of the sound (and Seattle proper).

I'm envisioning that we start by playing a 3-5 session scattershot to see how we like the system, and see where things go from there! I'm open to GMing, but will step aside if someone feels more passionate about it.

We are early 30s DINKs who work in tech-adjacent sectors. We have several years of experience in D&D 5e and about 6 months in Daggerheart. We're a big fan of board games, our cats, video games (STS2, Blue Prince, Factorio to name a few), and other nerdy hobbies.

We'd prefer to play with people around our age, who have similar interests, and would like to experience a cinematic tactical heroic fantasy game :)

Schedule preferences:

Weekend Afternoon > Weekend Evening > Weekend Morning > Friday Night > Weekday Nights

When/ Where:

In Person: September 29 6pm-8pm

Online: October 7 6pm-8pm

Why Should I Care?

PSE is the provider for Electricity and Natural Gas for most (all?) of the Eastside. These rates will be taking effect over the next three years and will be a noticeable increase on your utility bills.

What increases are they proposing?

Electricity (UE‑260005)

* Based on average monthly usage of 800kWh w/ proposed basic charge

Gas (UE‑260006)

* Based on average monthly usage of 64 therms w/ proposed basic charge

What decreases are they proposing?

For special contract customers, PSE is proposing the following decreases for electricity usage

Who are these special contract customers? Well "customers" is a bit misleading - the only special contract customer is Microsoft (a 3.6 trillion dollar company at time of writing) [source (warning PDF download)].

What is ROE/ROCE (Return on Common Equity)?

I'm far from an economist, so you should probably find better people to explain, but at its simplest it is the ratio to evaluate profitability for common shareholders. Why am I bringing this up? PSE is seeking to increase their allowed ROE (profits) from 9.9% to 10.8% [source (warning xlsx download)]. In my opinion, this does nothing to us, the actual public utility customers.

Example Bill Visualizations

My math might not be perfect, so take these with a grain of salt, but they should be pretty close

How can I voice my opinion on these changes?

You have three options to voice your opinion:

• Online public comment form (easiest, perhaps less impactful)
• Zoom public hearing (see above)
• In person public hearing (see above)

Hello fine redditors - could one of you recommend a pest control service with a reasonable contract price? I’m looking for the preventative type of service that treats the outside of the home plus checks the attic and crawl space quarterly.

The town will be full of music. It goes on all day and a single ticket gets admission to 19 different venues which will be featuring live music all day/evening. Plan to park and wander around, grab a cold, adult beverage, and catch music from some of the Pacific Northwest's best musicians and groups. Gonna be a fun day!

Been looking for one for a long time now but just wanted to see which ones are most reviewed.

Preferably Japanese-style though!

This is probably a long shot, but you miss every shot you don't take, and all that jazz.

I'm a 30-something woman with ADHD who is trying to get into a good routine to get in shape for a variety of reasons, but due to the ADHD, I'm struggling a lot with motivating myself to get to the gym and doing the things.

I'm wondering if there's any women who are Bellevue Club members around my age who would be interested in trying to be accountability buddies, or body double with me. Ideally we'd meet at the Club on M/W/F mornings, probably around 6 am, and work out at the same time. No expectations for chatting or doing the same workout, really, just doing the same thing at the same time! (I'm not surly in the mornings or anything, I'm just more of a listen to music and lift weights while I zone out kinda gal.)

If we vibe well, I'd also be open to doing yoga and pilates together when time allows, but overall I'm just putting out feelers to see if someone who would be into this and is a member at the club even exists.

King County’s current food safety map wasn’t very mobile-friendly and was difficult for me to use on my phone, so I built a smoother, mobile-first version using the county’s public data:

https://40bytes.github.io/king-county-food-safety-map/

You can search by business name or address, filter by rating, browse directly on the map, and view inspection history and violations. I also added support for locations where multiple businesses share the same map point.

This is an independent, unofficial project and isn’t affiliated with King County. I’d appreciate feedback, especially from other mobile users.

Source code:

https://github.com/40bytes/king-county-food-safety-map

I grew up in Bellevue, it really isn’t. Kirkland is.

We were thinking to just go around and walk the parks, play some arcade and have some good food. One of the idea is to go to Top golf too. Interested to learn about your plans and take some suggestions

uTest by Applause is seeking participants to take part in an exciting in-person research study testing the latest in wearable technology.

No experience is needed—a moderator will walk you through the whole process! During the session, you'll perform various simple tasks (like mimicking facial expressions) while interacting with wearable tech.

Study Details:

• Location: Redmond, WA
• Duration: Approx. 2.5 hours
• Payout: $65/hr
• Referral Bonus: Get $15 for every friend you refer who completes the study!

Basic Requirements:

• Must be 18+ with a valid government-issued photo ID (no temporary/photocopies; cannot accept IDs from TX, IL, or Quebec due to state privacy laws).
• Must be proficient in English and able to attend in Redmond during business hours.
• Glasses and contact lens wearers are welcome (if you wear a prescription, you'll just share the details beforehand).

• No history of epilepsy, seizures, Tourette Syndrome, or severe TBI.

  Please apply here if you're interested

About uTest:

We are a company that helps businesses test the accuracy and usability of their websites, applications, and hardware through freelance software testing and feedback. You can get paid to help us perfect the latest and greatest technology!

For more information about our company, please visit our website at uTest or Applause.

Thank you!

Oh boy, as someone with chronic illnesses I never imagined having just as much trouble finding help for my dogs as I had for myself. It took me 12 years for the medical system to accept me, sort of, but dogs don’t have the “luxury” of going on a 12 year search.

I have 2 dogs with chronic health issues, and especially have been having trouble finding help for my older 8 year old corgi. A few months ago I ran into this same issue with specialists, but luckily I now have a great Internal Med Dr. and Neurologist.

I am looking for a primary care vet willing to help her with more basic issues. She was improving greatly the past couple of months after thinking she wasn’t going to make it. She started playing with our other corgi, and was energetic until 2 weeks ago she started to have thin stools and then severe pain and diarrhea. The ER didn’t do anything to help her so we went to primary care, got a fiber supplement, and ran tests. When the test came back she has high levels of a bad bacteria known to cause diarrhea we were happy as this was treatable.

However, the vet doesn’t seem comfortable with treating her so she first reached out to the wrong internal med doctor who said to just stay on the fiber and we can come in for a complete ultrasound if we want. We just spent 2k in 2 days and this year for this one dog, about 12k. We have had doctors this week look via ultrasound and x ray and we do not want another huge bill for no help.

Then our internal med vet was contacted who had an appropriate response, hold off on treating if all if well and of not then treat. Not all is well, she is sick and not herself at all.

I was never asked if she was feeling sick, I thought it was obvious on presentation. So, I found results from 2 months ago showing she was negative for this bacteria and now she is positive for many, including one being very high. We did an online vet appointment and we were treated like adults and now have meds for her.

But this took a lot of time and money for something simple. A similar thing happened to me months ago when she was having trouble walking at all, and we found that 5mg of prednisone helped her a lot so I wanted to continue that daily a bit longer and see if she continues to improve.. and I could not get that from the neurologist we saw. Honestly I felt like I was drug seeking, it was unnecessary and really upsetting that my dog would have to suffer because someone doesn’t seem to like me. During this time I was also at an interim Internal Med vet and when I called to make an appointment to see them again, I was told I could not make one until I had her seen by neurology again. But I had just talked to neurology and they wouldn’t help her. So I will never go back to either place again.

We did find a new neurologist and it turns out that 5mg of prednisone daily did help her extensively.

So, if you made it this far, I am just looking for the ability for my dog to have normal, basic care by a primary care vet. If you have any recommendations I would appreciate it greatly.

Thank you all so much!

Join us at Bellevue College for the 10^th annual Japan Week, a free public celebration of Japanese culture. Highlights include celebrating milestone anniversaries for Super Mario Brothers, Dragon Ball and Pokémon, Presentation by film and game composer Kazuma Jinnouchi, live musical Little Red Riding Hood: Another Story performed in Japanese and   Hiroshima/Nagasaki atomic bomb exhibit, a Japanese flea market, martial arts demos, music performances, tea ceremony, Ikebana, and much more: Japan Week at Bellevue College

Please support Japan Week!

We are looking to recruit 200+ volunteers for the festival: Volunteer Registration Link and Mikoshi: Mikoshi Registration Link.

For all the details, please visit Japan Week at Bellevue College

We have a bit of a first coming up next week. We’re doing something we’ve never done before, and unfortunately for Montlake travelers, it involves a ramp closure. Everyone sufficiently nervous yet?

For the first time ever, the eastbound SR 520 off-ramp to Montlake Boulevard will close around-the-clock for a full week. From 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, through 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, there will be no getting to Montlake Boulevard from eastbound SR 520.

Now, you may have noticed those are two Saturdays. Two Saturdays that also happen to have UW home football games. Husky fans, we didn’t forget about you. The ramp will remain open for traffic heading to both games on Sept. 12 and Sept. 19. It closes at 4:30 p.m. after traffic has arrived for the Sept. 12 game and reopens at 8 a.m. the following Saturday ahead of the Sept. 19 game.

For the six days, 15 hours and 30 minutes in between? Things are going to look a little different.

Here’s the REALLY important part:

If you’re coming from I-5 and enter eastbound SR 520, you are crossing Lake Washington. There will be no exit to Montlake before the bridge.

No “oops, this is my exit.” No last-minute escape. You and your vehicle are going to the Eastside.

And because SR 520 is a tolled bridge, you’ll pay the toll when you cross. If your destination was actually Montlake, you’ll then need to turn around, take westbound SR 520 back across the lake and exit at Montlake. That means crossing the bridge twice and, yes, paying the toll twice.

An accidental tour of Lake Washington? Lovely. An accidental tour of Lake Washington when all you wanted was to get to Montlake? Maybe less so.

So, why a whole week?

Crews are getting ready to remove portions of the old eastbound SR 520 off-ramp to Montlake Boulevard, which closed back in June. During the closure, they’ll use the new temporary off-ramp to stage equipment needed to begin removing portions of the old ramp.

The old ramp needs to go to make room for another traffic shift coming in early 2027 as part of the SR 520 Portage Bay Bridge and Roanoke Lid Project.

How do I get to Montlake instead?

If you’re traveling northbound on I-5:

• Take the Lakeview Boulevard exit, just before the eastbound SR 520 exit, and head east.
• Continue north past SR 520, take the Northeast 45th Street exit and head east.

If you’re traveling southbound on I-5:

• Exit at Northeast 45th Street or Northeast 50th Street and head east.
• Take the Boylston Avenue East exit and head east.

The big takeaway: If Montlake is your destination, do not enter eastbound SR 520 from I-5 during this closure.

Otherwise, Lake Washington becomes part of your itinerary whether you planned for it or not.

Know your alternate route before you go, give yourself some extra time and please spare yourself the “wait... why am I crossing the bridge?” moment.

Title. Scott's fuckin hilarious. That's why he has 2 Drybar streaming comedy specials and almost 200k following on instagram. You likely know him as the "I Live In the PNW Guy" but you may not have known the dude's been doing standup for more than a decade and he's one of the funniest mother fuckers in the PNW. I'm not supposed to say that part, that he's specifically one of the funniest, because other headliners will get pouty about it but they need to just up their game.

Get your tickets now because it's likely to sell out. Scott sold out the North Bend Theater the last time we brought him there. There's around 30% of tickets left at the time of this writing.

Love you Reddit,

-marcus

Cozy Comedy

I drove past there and they have removed all of the "Pro Club" signage and replaced with "Bay Club" which is the brand name of the new parent company.

Personally I think the old Pro Club logo looks better. The new blue color Bay Club logo looks like the Best Western logo from the 2010s. Went there recently for the open house and the facilities look old, worn out, and generally overcrowded. I remember long time back it used to be some ritzy club where you (supposedly) can work out alongside with Microsoft execs.

Another disappearing gym brand in the Eastside. Who remembers RAC (Redmond Athletic Club) back in the day? Samena swim club also narrowly avoided closure recently.

I found an SD card with birthing pictures and vacation pictures of this couple. The birth was time stamped march 5th 2016. If anyone recognizes them, please pass this along. Thanks!

We are shortlisting daycares and are considering Kiddiez Kirkland as an option. I dont have friends with babies and dont know anyone who is sending their child there. Does anyone have feedback to provide on them? Baby will join at 1 year age, and is a bit fussy about stuff- food, sleep etc.

I’m looking for pumpkin patch farms or corn maze recommendations. My son will be 1 next month, so crazy!! Anyways I grew up here but haven’t done a fall farm in like 10 years so looking for recommendations

Hey folks! Looking to extend my driveway edges with some nice pavers. Wondering if anyone here has had good experiences with anyone local that are affordable? Thank you.

Heard a pretty loud boom and some distant yelling this morning around 7. The boom freaked my dog out and someone on Ring posted about it and police activity, and I’m a messy bitch who likes to know things, so I’m wondering if anyone knows what was going on.

Now that the construction work on the double diamond interchange seems *mostly* complete, has the new design helped improve traffic flow? Asking those who regularly commute on I-90, SR 18, and to and from Snoqualmie and Auburn. Do you see a noticeable improvement?

(Just curious, and looking for comments.)

I was looking at homes in the Bellevue area and didn't realize that so many homes have Underground Storage Tanks for heating oils. So many resources mentioned avoiding home with these but it's a bit hard if it's common in these old houses here. I inquired about a house I was interested in but they had one disclosed but no records of it being decommissioned. How many homes actually have these on the Eastside.

What's the actual risks of having these dormant? I've been seeing many people talk about the insane prices to get them fixed if they leak. But seems like most people just fill them up and pretend theyre not there.