Saturday, April 1, 11:45 a.m. - You should be grateful that I resisted the temptation to put a picture of the Dome from last April here as the obligatory April 1st joke.  You are welcome.  Work is really taking shape on the rubble.  They are methodically building up the original big pile o' rocks.  Remember the bunker things they built for the explosives?  They are totally gone now and the rock pile has moved into their territory.       Today is the first game of the year in Safeco Field.  It's an exhibition game that starts at 1 p.m. The rubble is drawing the pre-game crowd, complete with cameras.  It's a real parade. Oh, there's another site that has daily pictures of the dome and really good ones from a different perspective.  Plus lots of other Kingdome stuff.  Check out Charpy's place.

Sunday, April 2, 1:30 p.m. - We had such thick fog today - it only lifted about an hour ago - that had the implosion been set for today instead of last Sunday, they would have likely had to have changed their plans.  The CDI guys said that the only weather that might cause a change in plans was fog.  Yesterday all was quiet until 9 when the chompers all started work.  Then at 5:30, they all stopped.  Today only one was working for a while this morning and it stopped about 11.  All is quiet now.

Monday, April 3, 4:30 p.m. - Today's photo features the rock pile.  It's wild and really growing.  The chompers continue to build it up.  We've got a couple of new pieces of cool equipment out there today.  It was a beautiful day to be working outside in Seattle today!

Tuesday, April 4, 4:30 p.m. - This picture covers a bunch of bases (pun intended).  The opening game of the Mariner season starts in about 30 minutes.  You can see the crowds making their way to Safeco Field.  And, you can see, that due to the weather (see sky), the roof on Safeco Field is closed.  I'm not going to the game - I'll watch it on ESPN.  But, you can bet it's going to be cold enough there tonight to make someone wish that maybe the warm and comfy dome was still standing!! The other thing in this picture is the flat surface they carved out of the pile of rocks today.  Quite curious.  They have the original mound (just off the picture) but the rest have been flattened out to make kind of a serving platter of rocks....  Interesting.  Stay tuned.

Wednesday, April 5, 4:30 p.m. - Today's photo has a red circle and a red square - I'm getting fancy.  The red circle shows how far into the Kingdome pancake (which is what was left after the implosion) the chompers have worked their way.  The red square shows the center (the flagpole that you can't really see in the photo).  They apparently flattened the rock pile yesterday so they could add more to it!

Thursday, April 6, 5 p.m. - A bit about the times. The time in the individual entry is the time of day I took the picture. It's not always the time of day that I get it up onto the website.  I took today's picture at 5 p.m. but it's now 7:30 and I'm just getting around to updating the website.  Today more rocks on the rock pile and a few little piles of rebar.  I'm not sure why they are mixing it.  But there is less and less of the dome every day.

Friday, April 7, 10:30 a.m. - They have cleared a spot to the ground where the dome used to be.  I put a red rectangle around it.  Interesting.  Mike Go wrote that he heard on the TV news last night that the flag pole was originally put on top of the Kingdome by the American Legion and since it is still kind of standing, they now want to grab it and put it up in Discovery Park.

Saturday, April 8 - Got your attention with this photo??  Ok, I cheated - it's a little nostalgia from December 14, 1998.  Here's the deal.  I'm on a big project at work that has to be completed by 3 a.m. Monday.  I ran home today at noon to shoot today's photo and I somehow managed to bungle it.  But, I didn't have time to check it until now (9:30 p.m.) and it's too dark to recover with a new shot.  So since I already screwed up today and tomorrow's not going to be any better, I'm going to take tomorrow off from the Kingdome cam.  Back Monday with a new shot and the latest news.  Please forgive.

Monday, April 10 - 11:15 a.m. - Holey Monkeys!  You don't watch for two days and stuff happens!  They've installed a cool conveyor belt kind of thing with a big funnel on the end for crushing all the rocks.  It's behind the big rock pile and I've drawn a red rectangle around it but you still can't see it too well.  There's a haze out today.  I may try to get a better picture later in the day.  They've made huge progress into the main rubble pile and part of the flagpole is missing (the top part)!  I can tell they are doing something different out there by the noise but I can't see what it is.  It's more of a pounding than the regular crushing.

Tuesday, April 11, 2 p.m. - They are still making progress.  It looks like they are beginning to do some placing of construction elements in addition to the general rock grinding.  They are also constantly wetting down the whole site.  They have trucks that go around spraying and yesterday they had this very cool sprayer on top of the rock pile.  I'm guessing this is to keep the dust down and it seems to be working fine.

Wednesday, April 12, 4 p.m. - The big circle shows the water plume watering down the rock pile.  The little circle points out the little tiny worker guys on the rock pile.  There are a lot of guys crawling around the rock pile today - hope they aren't looking for something they lost.  The two rectangles are new construction!  They are tall metal things that look just like parts of my brother's old erector set.

Thursday, April 13, 4:30 p.m. - Turns out the erector looking things are likely pile drivers... Today there is a little farm of sawed off telephone pole looking things around each one.  And the rock crusher is working full time.  You can't see the nice pile it is making in this picture... I'll get it tomorrow.

Friday, April 14, 1:15 p.m. - Would you just look at this sky?!  Isn't it amazing?  If you look really carefully at the stuff in the red ellipse, you can see the pile of small rock and the conveyer belt thingie (that's a technical term) that is carrying the bigger rock into the crusher.  The noises are getting louder and more different every day.  While I can't always see exactly what they are doing, I can tell they are doing new and different stuff by the noises.

Saturday, April 15, 1 p.m. - Warning!  If you click on today's thumbnail, the resulting photo is twice as big as usual.  I thought it was a good time for a full shot.  They have moved across the original pancake that the implosion created. The second shot is the first rubble giveaway...  They announced that today, and on two other Saturdays from 9-3 p.m. they will be giving away one piece of rubble to each person who stands or drives in line.   They have one line of walk ups and one line of drive ups.  It's pretty funny to watch.   And they aren't giving away pebbles.  I saw this one kid struggling away from the line with a chunk of concrete that was about half his size.

Sunday, April 16, 11 a.m. - It's a quiet day in Rubble-ville.  It's actually kind of eerie.  No machines are moving.  The only human I've seen is a guy in the guard booth.  There aren't even any looky-lou's taking photos.  Wonder if I missed a memo about a meeting on the other side of town....

Monday, April 17, 4 p.m. - Ok, I just gotta say - look at this sky!  I have lived here since January of 1992 and I don't think I will ever tire of watching the Seattle sky out my window.  It is always different and most always amazing.  Today's red ellipse points out the rock grinder spitting out the little rocks onto the now three big piles of little rock.  I have read that this will be used for the foundation.  The pile drivers are really getting those poles banged into the ground.  I was home for a minute about mid-afternoon and watched one of them going in.  It is unbelievable how much of that post they jam into the ground.

Tuesday, April 18, 4 p.m. - Today's photo shows just how much progress they have made in chomping up the Kingdome.  When it was first imploded there was this pancake like piece left and now there is not a whole lot left of that pancake.

Wednesday, April 19, 4 p.m. - Today's picture is the Tale of Two Rock Piles.  The big rocks (which are really the middle sized rocks) are in the front and the ever growing piles of what happens to them when they are crushes are in the piles behind them.  There are still some really big rocks - chunks actually - where the Kingdome used to be but a whole lot fewer than before!

Thursday, April 20, 5:45 p.m. - Today's red circle shows the last of the big chunks.  Looks like this is the last week of any semblance of the Kingdome!  There is a bonus photo tonight because my cat, Jake, decided he needed to check out the action and  I still had the camera in my hand.

Friday, April 21, 4:30 p.m. - No big news today and the picture is kind of ordinary, but, hey, you can't have headlines every day!  They are still doing a fabulous job of keeping the dust down.  Although we've had rain in the forecast every day this week, it never got out of the forecast.  If they weren't doing such a good job of dust control, I'd be covered by now!

Saturday, April 22, 1:45 p.m. - Quiet work today.  It's mainly the concrete chompers moving rocks around.  I guess the pile drivers get Saturday off.

Sunday, April 23, noon - It looks like what most people think is the typical Seattle day, doesn't it?  But, actually, I caught this photo is a squall that killed the sun of this morning but seems to have already passed and left clearer skies.  No one is working - at least so far today - on the job site.  A picture note:  My camera adds the date to each shot automatically.  Last Thursday's picture carries Tuesday's date and I have no idea why.  I promise I took the picture on Thursday. I have no idea how it got the wrong date.... camera gremlins?

Monday, April 24, 4:30 p.m. - More rocks moved today and the spot where the Kingdome was is really beginning to look like something they could really build on.  Spring is bringing out the leaves on the trees in front of my terrace and they are getting in the way of my clear view! Ok, with some help, I have determined that the date error last week was definitely BKAC*.  I grabbed the wrong photo on Thursday.  So sorry.  I'll try to keep it from happening again!  (*BKAC - Between Keyboard And Chair)

Tuesday, April 25, 4:30 p.m. - They are down to the ground in many areas where the Kingdome was.  It's kind of strange to see.  Unfortunately, my camera can't really get that level of detail.  You'll have to trust me.  I bought a hammock today so that I can spend the Summer comfortably watching them all work....

Wednesday, April 26, 4:30 p.m. - Ok!  Today we have cement trucks!  This is the first time I've seen them on the site... A thrilling discovery, don't ya think?  Ok so maybe not thrilling...

Thursday, April 27, 4:30 p.m. - Today was a big rock pile day... The red line shows where the pile ended yesterday so you can see how much was added.  The circle shows another load being put on top.  The fun never stops.

Friday, April 28, 5 p.m. - Lots of pile driving today and the cement trucks are multiplying.  There are still a few chunks of big rubble left but it's beginning to look more and more like a construction site instead of a destruction site.

Saturday, April 29, 5 p.m. - Today was another rubble giveaway day and the lines were long much of the day and constant.  No, I didn't go stand in line to get a rock but lots of people did.  Not a whole lot of work on the site (other than filling up the free rubble bin) today.

Sunday, April 30, 6 p.m. - A quiet day on the site.  Nothing happening at all.  But, I did drive by the other side this afternoon and it is even more cleared out than it looks like from my normal perch.  Next week should be interesting.