Things that might be decidedly odd…

Comeback at Chop Suey

Green River and Interurban Trails

Saturday turned out to be such a nice day that Ben, Jeff and I went on a bike ride on the Green River Trail and Interurban Trail south of Seattle. We started out at Tukwila Park and Ride, went south on the Green River Trail until it ended, took the Interurban trail back north to the Park & Ride, continued on to the end of the Green River trail, then returned back to the Park & Ride. Both trails were nice, but the Green River was certainly more scenic. I was also impressed by how few other people were on the trail. Burke-Gilman can get quite crowded with cyclists and especially pedestrians on a nice day.

Mercer Island

Joe texted this morning around 8:30 or so asking if I was interested in going on a bike ride from Gasworks today at 10. At first, I thought there was no way I would make it since I was still tired from last night. However, by 9:15 I had changed my mind. I was tired and a little bit hungover, but I knew if I went riding I’d feel better.

I was just filling my tires with air right before Ben and I had planned to leave for Gasworks, when I heard the dreaded hissing sound of a flat tire Fortunately, I had an extra tube right there and proceeded to change the tire. I’d never changed a tire on this bike. In fact, up until this morning both tubes were the ones that came with the bike when I bought it. Upon inspecting the tube, a small fissure had formed near the stem so it appeared to be the result of material failure as opposed to some sort of sharp object. Changing the tire proved to be very difficult actually. I had a really hard time pulling the tire back onto the frame. I’m still not exactly sure what I was doing wrong, but after lots of grunting and swearing, I got it all squared away in about a half hour.

From Gasworks, we rode over to Mercer Island, went around the island on Mercer Way and grabbed lunch at Pert’s on the way back. From there, I parted ways with everybody else since I was heading home and they were heading back to Gasworks where they’d parked. I let my bike computer route me home from Leschi. At first, it directed me to turn on Fullerton but even from Lake Washington Blvd I could see it was a serious vertical climb. Instead, I passed by the turn and got rerouted onto Madrona which was still a decent climb but not as insane looking as the previous street. I not only made it all the way up the hill, but made it to Denny and MLK without walking. Unfortunately, one block past MLK, I started walking because it was just too vertical. There doesn’t seem to be any easy way of getting out of Madison Valley. Just walking up the hill, my heart rate got up to 190 which is about the maximum for somebody my age. From the top of the hill, it was mostly downhill all the way home though.

Definitely a good ride!

The Garmin Connect site for the ride is here.

A Beautiful Day

Yesterday’s weather was amazing–sunny and hot (high of 90F in Seattle). In the morning, I helped Robert move into his new apartment before in got too hot. Afterwards, Ben and I went down to Madison Park Beach to enjoy the warmth. I mostly people watched and went in the water twice (it was probably about 55F–so fairly cold). It was pretty crowded, but it was clearly the place to be on a day like that.

After getting home and all cleaned up, I joined Robert for happy hour at CC’s. That made two days in a row at that notorious establishment. As anybody who’s ever drank a mixed drink from there knows, the drinks are rather strong and cheap. From there, some of us grabbed some dinner at Bimbos. I then went with Billy and his new roommate to be, Brian, to let a friend’s dog out. Eventually, I made it to Glitter Bomb at Capitol Hill Arts Center. It was a fun time, although it would have been better if there were more people and it didn’t cost so much. I went because I was interested to see the fruits of the volunteer labor given by many of my friends for the event and it was something unique to do. Around 1am, things had wound down quite a lot and most of the people had left. I went over to the Cuff, but when I saw the long line to get in, I remembered all the things I dislike about the Cuff (i.e., the same old shit every Saturday) and decided instead to just go home.

Bike to Work Day Minus One

Today I rode my bike to work for the first time this year. Tomorrow is Bike to Work Day, but I didn’t even realize it until this afternoon. Had I known, I might have ridden tomorrow instead. So no free stuff for me but I’ll settle for a feeling of satisfaction I suppose.

Tonight, Ken, Daniel and I went to see Kids in the Hall at the Wamu “Theater”. I put theater in quotes because it was really just a large convention hall next to Qwest Field with a concrete floor, a stage and a bunch of folding chairs. It somehow seemed odd seeing it live instead of on TV, but it was a lot of fun. They brought back many characters from the old show such as the Kathys, the Chicken Lady, Budy Cole and of course the “I’m squishing your head!” guy. It was perhaps a bit on the short side (only about an hour and a half), but it was still pretty enjoyable.

Kids in the Hall

Last weekend, Ken, Daniel and I kept making jokes about Tammy. Come to find out earlier this week that Kids in the Hall are on a tour right now and are going to be in Seattle Thursday. Ken went over to the box office and gratefully picked up tickets for the three of us. Awesome!

Kraftwerk’s Mensch-Maschine

Somehow I rediscovered this album this week. Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Kraftwerk at work. I started bringing my ipod in and hooking it up to my speakers so that I can listen to my music while coding. Although I’ve had this album on my computer for years now, I just never really got into it until very recently for whatever reason. To me, Kraftwerk is one of those artists where it takes several listens before I really get into a song or album I guess.

Salon of Shame

Marc and I went to Salon of Shame tonight. Doors opened at 6:45, we got there at 7 and the show started at 7:30. The venue sold out before we could get in, but Marc was recognized from his outstanding reading 4 months ago and we were whisked inside to stand off to the side. We stayed for the first half, but left at the intermission because of the standing, sitting on the concrete floor and with the increasing stuffiness from all the people packed into the room. Still, it was supernice of the SOS folks to let us stand since they were turning people away. Marc will definitely need to read something good next time to make up for it

Afterwards, we headed over to Cafe Presse. I had the fish of the day, some fries and a Kronenbourg 1664. Marc had some sort of crazy macaroni and gruyere cheese item. In true French style, the food was tasty, small and filling.

Last Weekend at Q-Spring

Last weekend, I went to a retreat for gay men on Vashon Island. It was a fun time in a beautiful setting. I’d never been to Vashon before, but it was really nice. Pictures are here.

Random Fact of the Day

I’ve written about this before, but the thought occurred to me for some reason again on the bus into work today.

As a kid, I attended an elementary school named after a former mayor of Seattle. Now, this wouldn’t be bizarre if I grew up in or even near Seattle, but I did not. In fact, said school is about 1200 miles away from Seattle. Even more bizarrely, I’m not even sure there are any schools in Seattle named after former mayors of Seattle. Seattle is the only American city one of only a few American cities (thanks to Larry for correcting this–I’m not sure why I thought this was the only one) to have had a general strike and Hanson was mayor in 1919 during it. After his term as mayor, he apparently ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1920 then faded into obscurity as he returned to real estate development. Besides being known for handling America’s only general strike, he also founded the cities of Lake Forest Park (Washington) and San Clemente (California).

The school isn’t technically an elementary school anymore since last I heard there weren’t enough kids in the surrounding neighborhood to make it worth operating.