Note to Self:

You Know That Feeling...

...when someone kicks your $100 helmet across a classroom where someone else nearly steps on it? No? Well let's pretend that you do. So my back up helmet is at my parents place in the 'nix and Shannon took care of my back up's back up, so I picked up this little gem for future trips to school. ABS shell and super cheap means that I couldn't give a shit if it gets kicked around a little.

Looking as sexy as I do with it on is just a bonus.

So It's Come To This...

Open comments have come to an end. In the last two days I've gotten some 13 comments inviting me to join some group, save a prince, or see Natasha naked. Whether or not I want to see Natasha naked aside, the spam comments are not welcome here. From here on out I'll be moderating comments. As far as Natasha is concerned, that's what Google image search is for.

The Condos

Yesterday I took my parents to the opening of the condos that the company I used to work for just completed. The project was a partnership between the owner of the construction company and the architect and is rated LEED Platinum. I like a lot of the details that went into the project but my favorite is the half green/half deck roofs with solar hot water systems that supply both radiant heat and tap. A lot of people tend to blow off solar in Seattle thinking that it just doesn't work very well. There is some truth to that with photovoltaics but solar evacuated tubes work extremely well even in this climate.





It's funny, I have to catch myself all the time still. I keep refering to the company I used to work for as if I was still around. It's a really great construction company, it's too bad things are so far in the tank right now.

Disco Park and the Great Blue Heron

Michele, my parents, and I spotted this guy while out walking in Discovery Park earlier today. He was about 30' away from where we were stopped and wait a whole minute or so before taking flight.

Dumb Poem Wednesday

I mailed the app
all filled with fear
with little research
I gave up a year

My life packed away
in a duffel bag
I touched down in Denver
with no jet lag

To the dorms we traveled
in big white vans
that big brick building
with old ceiling fans

Jocks mingled with vegans
reminiscing about home
I felt out of place
and sat all alone

We were assigned teams
Ben, Edna, and Ted
along with ten others
this group I did dread

The pay was not much
hardly a wage
I had made 5x more
at a much younger age

South we traveled
with all of our gear
and there we'd remain
the last month of the year

Together we toiled
outside in the cold
at night in our cabin
our bodies felt old

All bunked together
in our one room hut
we quickly fell into
a comfortable rut

Turns we'd take
in preparing our meal
clean up was always
let's make a deal

At night in my bag
between Francie and Rob
I was so very happy
I loved my new job

Two Posts in One

This post is covering yesterday and today all run together and it's pretty picture heavy so I'm going to go light on the words because I've still got some other shit to accomplish tonight in preparation for my parents arrival tomorrow night.

After I finished my project Michele and I headed downtown to the aquarium. We've never been and at $16 a head it's not hard to figure out why, but with a 2 for 1 it's not so bad.

Michele checking out the giant tank of fish.

Oh come on, don't be such a wuss and just touch it already!

Mmmm, jelly.

Shark. This was taken at the big tank where three divers were in the process of feeding the fish.

Michele just doesn't measure up to a six gill shark, for shame.

Post aquarium visit to happy hour at Taste, top two happy hour for me in Seattle. Not exactly cheap but totally awesome.

I mean the salt comes with a little spoon so that you can just eat it. Right the fuck on.

After arriving returning home Michele and I hopped on our bikes and headed around the hamster wheel. Michele wasn't really sure why.

Ice cream in Wallingford, of course.

Loving the cruiser more every day, even though I did have to hike it the last 100' of the hill on the return trip. Oh well, still kicks ass.

This afternoon I jumped on the most inappropriate bike in the garage for urban adventures and headed off to post a letter on the other side of the hamster wheel. You couldn't want for a more beautiful day, the sun was out, the winds calm, and not too cold.

Did someone say I rode the wrong bike? MTB gear is not a pavement gear but TBFKaU sure is purdy.

Mmmm.

I'm not normally one to ogle, not overtly anyway, but the woman in red that made for my first bikini sighting of the year was really something to behold(and hard not to ogle), and I totally fucking missed the shot!

Oh well, I was still having a good time.

I rode a little bit of trail at least.

Nothing helps homework go down easy quite like a couple Stellas and three tiny little burgers(at happy hour prices anyway). That brings up up to present and now I'm off to clean some house.

I've Got Wood...

...and all for under $20. Thanks for the suggestion Jay.

Weirdness

Michele and I went out to SST yesterday.  It was Michele's first ride in quite a while and my first ride on something other than the tank in a couple of weeks.  Wow, the first 15 minutes on El M. was really weird.  My hands were too far forward, my seat too high, and I kept forgetting that I could beack pedal without locking up the back tire.  Avoiding the shifter still felt completely natural.

Michele just riding along.

I thought I was taking a picture and got snagged on a blackberry bush.

Michele sure does love those airplanes, so long as you don't ask her to ride on it.


Perfect place for a post ride evil salad and a beer, unless of couse you're not feeling like drinking.  Salad's still okay.

What's New?

I've been on the tank everyday for a week now and I'm loving it. It's only a 1/2 mile(exactly!) from my garage to the bike rack at school, seven times a week. I'd say I've got about 10 miles under my belt so far with on the new hotness. I'm going to eat through the back tire pretty fast the way I've been laying down patches, this sucker is a full on kick in the pants. So here's what I've done with the bike to date. Keep in mind that I don't really want to drop any more money on this bike, so it's all items from the garage at this point.

Sticker from a box of rice candy that I got at the market before seeing Fast & Furious this afternoon. Two crabs, I don't have a fucking clue what they're doing.

Squeaky post that came off of El M. not long after I got it. The throwback post that came with the bike was a bitch to adjust, so greased the hell out of old squeaky here and put it on. Still not completely silent but close enough.

Swapped the 32T ring that came with the bike for this 34T leftover from my ISIS days. Still a touch short but the 44T that was originally spec'd would be way too tall for the hills around here, not to mention the fact that I don't have one just laying around.

My Fast Freddie headset cap from way back, it was pulled from service before I even started this blog.

Crank Bros 5050s, I got them right about the same time I brought on the El M. The stockers had zero traction when wet. These grip solid regardless of conditions.

I cut up a length of chain that I used for locking up larger tools on the jobsite plus some of the 2" tubular webbing leftover from the kayak build and I've got myself something more practical that the 3 1/2' chain that came with the lock.

Ding ding bell. I found it in the parts bin when I was looking for the 34T ring. I don't ever remember even seeing this bell before. My guess is that it belonged to Mark and somehow ended up with my stuff in the last big move, it certainly wouldn't be the only bike related item that I got in the divorce.

I was really hoping that I could use my old Shadow Conspiracy chain, but as you can tell it's just too far gone. I'm not sure why it's still floating around if I'm not going to be able to use it, maybe some sort of craft project down the road.

I don't have a better seat in the pile but this one will work just fine as long as I don't start getting too ambitious with my riding of this beast. I also have a taillight but that's only on when I need it, no headlight except for an old undersized Planet Bike blinky, real headlight might help but I'm not sold on the need yet. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the tank, it serves it's purpose quite well and I can't see a reason that I'd ever need to walk to school again.

Like a Kid Again

Holy shit this bike is fun! It's been a long time since I've ridden anything with a coaster brake, I mean a really long time, as in childhood. I certainly forgot how touchy they can be, not a whole lot of play between slowing down and a full on power slide. Oh, how I love that power slide. The bike itself a full on tank, tipping the scales at 38 pounds and even with an easy gear I get a little burning in the legs on the 1/2 mile flat ride home from school. On the plus side, drifting the tank through wet grass is just about the most fun thing I can think of. Now where in the hell can I find some cheap fenders that will fit over 26 x 3.0s?

Thinking About The Future

I made a quick trip down to Portland this last weekend to tie up some loose ends. Driving around with Pat on Friday I decided that I should start looking at what I'm going to want in a home of my own. Okay, that's not really true. I've been thinking about it for a long time, filling notebooks for the last few years in fact. I really like the look of this house that's just a couple of block away from Pat's although I'd definitely need to swap out the clear cedar lap siding for rain screen. I do love that little touch of cedar.

This however is a bit much for my tastes, not to mention that clear cedar ain't exactly cheap.

Gotta dig the location though, situated right on the bluff in the Overlook neighborhood.

I'm down with VG fir too...

Welcome To The Fold

I made a killing on the Cowan. I essentially got more than I was asking for it and scored a pristine Humuhumu-nukunuku-apua'a at the same time. Now I've got something I can lock outside the school that I'm not so attached to that I have to worry about it growing legs. Sweetness.

Bike For Sale!

All done and ready to be sold. Act now because these deals won't last long. Inquire within.

Getting Ready for Market

I'm laughing because I just got done doing something really stupid. If you look closely you'll notice there are no brake cables and no brakes, just levers. The Cowan just got an uber cheap wheelset and gears and I wanted to make sure everything was working alright. As you may recall, I live on a steep hill, and without brakes going up is clearly the way to go. Of course, I've got to get back home after verifying that the shifting is cool, why not just ride back down the hill? Oh yeah, those levers aren't connected to anything! After some foot dragging and a ghost ride into the blackberries around the corner I came away unscathed. At this point all I need is one brake cable and housing and the Cowan is ready for Craigslist. Here's hoping for a quick sale.

2nd Wedding in a Row

A week ago it was Chad(another of Michele's co-residents) and Beth's wedding. This weekend it was Jeff and Kate(my cousin)'s wedding. In another month or so it'll be Star and Eddie's wedding. My cousin Lizzy's wedding is also on the horizon. They're coming fast and furious now, who knows what wedding will be next.

Anyway, the Jeff and Kate wedding was a small affair at the Lake Union Rowing Club, there was only about 50-60 people there for the short ceremony followed by brunch.

I only got one halfway decent shot of Kate and Jeff together.

I love this shot of Kate and her brother Chuck dancing together.

The weather has been great here in Seattle the last few days and I'm hoping it will hold for at least a little longer. Wednesday is the earliest I'll be able to ride and I'd like to find sunshine and dry trails when I do.

I Had A Plan

I was going to drop Michele off at work, come home, load up, and head out. The idea was that I would drive to Fauntleroy, park and ride my bike onto the ferry to Southworth. From there it's only a few mile to Banner Forrest and as we all know, there's a lot of riding in them there woods. That was the plan.

Instead, I got sidetracked when I got home and the rain wasn't stopping(yeah I'm a bit of a wuss) so I worked in the garage for a while. Just about lunchtime the sun came out and I fanally got my ass in gear. The lateness of the hour made St. Eds the place to be. I got a full two hours of riding in on some very wet but only mildly muddy trails. I've really got to start getting out more.