If the sniff and visible-mold test isn’t palatable for your leftover food checks, the DaysAgo timer will count the number of days that have passed since you stuck that container or baby food jar in the fridge. It comes with either a magnet or suction cup attachment and a pack of two is about ten bucks. You can of course use it for all sorts of day-timing situations, watering plants, cleaning the kitty litter, anything up to 99 days. Here’s a Gadgeteer review from last year.

Trivia to please the shock absorbers of Seattle cars: “Crews from the Seattle Transportation Department say they have set a record for the number of potholes they’ve filled in a week — 1,589, which beats their weekly average of 1,335.” They call ’em the “Pothole Rangers.”

Will a posh movie theater with $35 tickets actually succeed in the affluent community of Redmond, WA (home of Microsoft)? The Australian company that’s opening this venture in the U.S. is taking over the location of the plain ol’ movie theater that just closed. Someone has to explain to me the economics and lifestyle behavior of a community that can’t support a regular ol’ $10 ticket (plus snacks $) theater, but can support a $35 (plus gourmet food $) movie theater with a luxury experience. Will it be supported by parents who want a fancy night out without the kids but don’t want to talk to each other over dinner? Or by companies who rent the theaters out for employee events (they only seat 40)? Maybe it’s for people who just want to feel rich. The folks that can afford this treat regularly already have very nice home theaters. Or maybe I’ve just lost touch with what I’m supposed to be spending my disposable income on.

Is it a trend yet? Altec Lansing has decorated earbuds with crystals, essentially turning them into earrings.

I was feeling a bit nostalgic for the ol’ fashioned world wide web so I did some quick searches to find personal sites for: a sugar packet collection, a tea bag collection, and an eraser collection. Remember when the web was just real people with home pages? Oh, and their cats.

Wikipedia lists more than ten variants of Mahjong and I have no idea which one I was taught, though I have some idea of which ones I wasn’t.

For baseball minor leaguers from Latin America, developing the experience to get to the major leagues may be their main goal, but learning how to get by in American culture and the English-speaking environment of airports, restaurants, and baseball terminology is also important. It’s deemed so critical by the Seattle Mariners’ management that their new Latin American players and prospects attend mandatory classes on how to assimilate into the culture. Instructor Becky Schnakenberg teaches them how to navigate airports, menus, umpire calls, and even dating.

If the falling dollar isn’t discouraging you from visiting Europe, Rick Steves has a round-up of what’s new in the old world. New museums, closed museums, changed museum hours, “rangers” at the Cliffs of Moher, new non-smoking laws (even in France!), faster trains, new funiculars, it’s all in there. The ABBA museum opens in June, by the way, and you can book your tickets online now.

Lots of fascinating marine animal data is showcased at the Tagging of Pacific Predators website. The different types of tracking tags are described halfway down the About page, and there are of course maps and data galore on the 11 species currently under surveillance. One of them is the juvenile white shark released by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in February who apparently high-tailed it down to Cabo in time for spring break.

Chef William Belickis is closing Seattle’s famed Mistral Restaurant (we’ve actually eaten there), but don’t panic, he has plans for a new place. According to a P.I. food writer, he’s thinking of a place with different areas for different types of dining: short stops for a drink & snack, a relaxed meal with friends, fine dining, haute cuisine, and a place in the kitchen for the severely serious foodies.