"Clothes Line!"

This slab also comes from my previous project, Park Lane.  See my earlier post if you're curious on the interesting details of this development.

To set up the scene, our office occupies the entire 32nd floor and most of the 33rd floor of Rainier Tower.  On each floor, we have low walled cubicles surrounding a single narrow walkway; if you're walking around the office in this walkway you can see everyone hard at work in their cubicles.  In your cubicle, if you're facing toward the window - which I do - then your screen is also visible from this walkway.

Once again I was hitting a rough patch in my slab design, and I decided I needed to take a break.  I got up, turned around, and instantly made strong eye contact with a heavy hitter passing by in the walkway, Robert.  He, like most of my co-workers, is absolutely brilliant.  He's personally responsible for the complex analysis of some inspiring buildings going up in the world.  But he also seems like a really cool guy cuz I've overheard him casually swear a lot.  Plus he's from New Zealand, so he sounds even cooler doing it.

While I was quickly thinking to myself of the appropriate response for our mistaken and sudden eye contact,

1. Head nod?
2. "Hey Robert."? - are we on a name basis?  Probably not.
3. Look away quickly and pretend it didn't happen?
4. Casually smile and - 

he interrupts my thoughts and points at my computer and in his Kiwi accent says, "Clothes line! Your model looks like shirts hanging on a clothes line."

He came over to my computer for a closer look, and sure enough the slabs and the PT tendons I was designing looked like Waldo-striped shirts hanging on a clothes line.  We had a good laugh about it.  Then I showed him Sully's face from a few weeks earlier and we had another good laugh.  By the end of this I felt comfortable that the next time we made eye contact in our walkway I could say, "Hey Robert," if I wanted to.

Before I wrap this up, I just want to take a moment and express how much I loved Waldo as a kid.  My parents got me all the books and it was endless entertainment for me.  I found him over and over again, until I had all the pages memorized.  Then I'd still find him over and over again.

I have a vivid memory of dressing up as Waldo for Halloween Christmas.  As a family we all dressed up as Waldo (they were all posers, I was the real Waldo) and we went Christmas caroling around the neighborhood.  I remember loving it so much.  Judging from the picture, I don't think Tyler or Tally liked it at all.  What you can't see from the picture is that the only one who might be enjoying himself more than me in this moment is my dad.

So all in all, I bonded with Robert and I found Waldo that day.  That's a pretty good day.

P.S. If you're interested in finding Waldo, check out my friend, Brett Smith, from Thunder Bay, Canada.  I met him and his friends in Pamplona, Spain as they were starting out a big European vacation.  He is posing as Waldo at every single major European tourist attraction, and with every picture I feel a pang of jealousy that I didn't think of doing this first.

Update: Brett's facebook page is on lock down.  If you want to see all the Waldo pictures from all over Europe (they're pretty good), just friend him - he'll add you.