Monday, July 28, 2008

Show a Little Love

St. Eds after work today, since Michele's got the small camera there's no pics. Turned out a quick seven miles on the Bike Formerly Known as Unit. Note that I took the wussy way out and skipped the water.

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Yum

Oh hell yes.

Museum, x2

I've been wanting to make a visit to the Museum of Flight since we moved here and I finally convinced Michele to go. As a matter of fact she actually wanted to go.

She how she completely bogarted the SR-71 cockpit, can you see the disappointed look on that kids face? You know he's just thinking, 'Get the fuck out already'.

Aerocar, awesome.

No, that's not a SR-71, it's a M-21, and that's a D-21 drone mounted on it's back.

French made Spad XIII.

Very exciting stuff, no? With all the great things happening at the Museum of Flight who wouldn't have fun. What did Michele think?

Afterward we headed back downtown to the SAM. Happy hour at Taste(the museum cafe) is probably one of the better happy hours we've been to. Quality of food in relation to discount is quite good, especially when you factor in additional member discount.

Beer.

Bye.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Pedicab

Cool shot from the ride back from the restaurant yesterday.

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BTW - I got everything I wanted out of my meeting with the countertop people yesterday, all is well in the world of Sean.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

I Needed That

Michele and I made a trip to the Snoqualmie Middle Fork yesterday. I rode, she hiked.


It was good.

Friday, July 18, 2008

WWPD

I have a sub that fucked up, fucked up big time. Thursday I had many thousands of dollars of very custom countertop show up at my site cut incorrectly. So wrong that I spotted the problem before the installer killed the engine on his van. So wrong that of the ten pieces delivered, only half were usable. This is not the sort of thing that goes over well on any jobsite. Normally, as a sub you would hope and pray that if you're going to fuck up, you fuck up on my site. No big drama, no throwing tools, no screaming, just a simple, 'How do we fix it and move on?' I'm a pretty rational and mellow guy. This time I'm not so sure.

Phone calls were made, everyone involved not standing directly in front of me refused to talk to me. No one would meet me on site, word got to me(through the installer) that the templater said that the mistakes were done at my direct request against his better judgment. Now I'm a little pissed. A meeting is set up for Friday, on site, with me, the templater, and the templater's boss to figure out where things went wrong. I sit and stew the rest of the day, getting a little madder as the day wears on. By the end of the day I'm ready to wring someones neck.

Friday morning, I get a call from the countertop company, the templater called in sick, so no meeting. Sick my ass. Lets do the phone call reenactment shall we.

Sean: This is Sean.

Countertop company lackey saddled with the chore of calling the angry contractor: Hi, Sean. ______ called in sick so _______ (______'s boss) has pushed the meeting to Monday between 10 and 1.

Sean: I'm sorry, did you say that ______ called in sick?

Lackey: That's correct.

S: Is he actually sick or just scared?

L: I don't k...

S: He's not sick he's scared, as he should be.

L: Uhh...

S: Here's the problem with his strategy of avoiding me today. All I've done since yesterday is sit and stew and get more angry. All he's done is get more scared, so scared in fact that he chose to use a sick day to avoid seeing me today. Now my anger is going to continue to fester and grow over the weekend and so will his, now more than ever, completely rational fear of me. By the time we finally see each other I will be the maddest I've ever been about anything and he will be the most scared he's ever been, so things will not be better better for _____.

L: I don't kn...

S: If this meeting doesn't go down Monday, I don't know where this is going to go because we currently taking my anger into uncharted territory.

L: I'll relay the message.

S: Thanks.

This conversation is of course somewhat edited for space and memory, but I do know that articulated myself much the way it's spelled out here and for me, that's pretty impressive. I'm usually not so linguisticly good on my feet. So that brings me back to the title of this post; What would Patrick do?

This pure strain of evil wrapped up in human form, spawn of Satan(sorry mom), capable of making grown men hand over off limits children's toys with a single stare. On a oversold airplane he always has an empty seat next to him. He once whipped an employee with a straightened coat hanger for taking an extended break. He's been accused of creating a hostile work environment(I think he's teflon because the boss is scared too). I have literally seen people cross the street when walking towards him. No joke, I've seen attack dogs go nuts only to get within strike range and then cower in front of him. For some reason the elderly gravitate towards him and love him(protection maybe?).

So as angry as I am, how much worse would this be if you were to replace me with Patrick? What would _____'s future hold? I shudder at the thought.

Monday, July 14, 2008

WTF Of The Day

I saw this guy hauling ass on the 520 this morning. Not exactly legal and apparently he's not taking the exit.

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High, King?

No no, I don't walk, run, or hike for fun. I ride my bike. Of course when I'm stuck on the peninsula with a bike I can't ride I've gotta do something to pass the time.

On Saturday Michele and I loaded up and drove out to Ozette for the only hike I really remember loving during my youth. It's a good ninety miles from Sequim(and I do mean a good ninety miles BTW). We didn't do the full nine mile loop, opting for the six mile out and back instead.

Michele on the boardwalk through the prairie.

Now Michele's doing her best to make good choices on behalf of a slug(notice the Camelback).

Me on the beach(notice the lack of a pack, Camelback in Seattle with the rest of my gear remember).

Thanks to my need for a post hike nap Michele got to enjoy the return drive. We finished out the day by checking out the food situation in Port Angeles and then hitting up the Working Girl Wines for a little vino.

Yesterday went went out for one more. Just a short little two miler to an overlook above the Elwah River. Here's Michele, striking a pose, I guess.



Ahh yes, a little hiking with my lovely wife, not too bad after all.

Note to self: Hiking may occur as a result of forgetting bike gear, never again forget bike gear.
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Saturday, July 12, 2008

Further Proof...

...that I am an idiot, as if you needed it.

Yesterday in my mad dash to get the hell outta town and catch a ferry, I left a whole bunch of shit behind. Nothing that Michele needed mind you, just my stuff. Tools, camelback, bike shoes, gloves, and my helmet. Oh I sure remembered my bike though. Awesome.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Hurry Up and Wait

Only took me 3 1/2 hours to drive the 60 miles home.

Lots of people wanting to get back home at the same time as me.

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Saturday, July 5, 2008

You Win Some, You Lose Some...

...and I'm one and one on the day.

I started out by heading up to Dungeness-Gold Creek in the Olympic National Forest. It should be only a 15-20 minute drive from the place Michele is staying but I got a little lost along the way(don't ask) and it took me nearly an hour and a half before I was satisfied that I had found what I was looking for. Right out of the gate shit got crazy steep. I easily spent more time pushing than riding when headed uphill and it soon became perfectly clear to me that the whole loop was not going to happen today, so I turned back before I got too far in. I spent just under an hour on the trail and left the lot with my tail between my legs.

Nice bridge.

Beautiful river.
Back on the highway I knew I needed to do something to redeem myself so I drove to the Miller Peninsula trailhead and did a quick 7.5 mile lollipop. The trail is fast and mostly smooth. Makes for an easy way to bolster my self esteem after such a disappointing failure. I'll give Dungeness another shot one of these coming weekends while I'm visiting Michele, I'll just have to drive directly to the trailhead and allow myself plenty of time.

After a quick shower back at the room, Michele and I rode over to the Alder Wood Bistro for lunch. Oyster Poor Boy and Truffle Fries, good stuff.

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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Only I Can Screw Up My Ride

Yet again, I fucked up. Last week it was my helmet, today it was my Camelback. Not enough to keep me from riding but still enough to fuck with my chi. After picking up some water along the way I hit the trail in the usual way. Straight to the water right out of the gate as always. The way back up was a bit tough since I was on the Bike Formerly Known as Unit and it's the first decent ride on that bike in a while. About halfway up I started to think only about how thirsty I was and nothing else. I took a hit off my water back at the car and then started over to Finn Hill. Again, all I could think about was the water I didn't have. It really sucked all the fun out of my ride. I kept my ride to a short lollipop loop and headed straight back. Lesson for the day , don't forget shit.

On a different yet slightly related note I picked up a new back tire for the El Mariachi today. You, the reader, can now look forward to no longer listening to, or rather reading, me bitch about my ass end traction woes.

I'm not getting near enough cred out on the trail, this should help in letting the people know.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Even The Best Of Us Are Not Immune...

Michele made it to Sequim safe and sound.

The car, not so much...


Of course she didn't do near as good of a job as I did(I still blame Yuri BTW). From 70 miles away it sounds like her bike and the rack fared ok. Minimal car damage, I'm predicting a cheap repair.