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.

A Little History

Michele and I have been together now for 12 years. We met while in Americorps NCCC based out of Denver. She despised me at first, but I'm just so damn sexy, how could she resist? This post isn't really meant to be about Michele and I, more about where we met. I was digging around in our old photo boxes a few days ago looking for a specific picture to put up on Facebook and just started pulling out a bunch of pictures from that time that I really liked. Now I just feel like sharing.

These are not in any particular order.

Feb. 1997 - This was a a Boys and Girls Club overnighter about a month before we actually started dating but you can tell things were clearly set in motion already. I'm pretty sure it's the first picture ever taken of just the two of us.

Oct. 1995 - This was at the LSU geology camp in Colorado Springs, the sleeping arrangements were not all they were cracked up to be but we made the best of it. This lasted for about a week until a foot and a half of snow made it impossible to drive in, requiring us to hike about a mile through the snow to the camp to pack our stuff out.

Summer 1997 - Goddamn my hair looked glorious for a while there. This was during an Denver Urban Gardens/Colorado State University gardening with kids project.

Winter 1995/96 - Progress being made on the Aiken Canon visitor center for the Nature Conservancy. This was my first big project in the corps, for the most part it was a pretty good one.

Spring 1997 - Team photo taken in Lubbock, TX. We were there working for the South Plains Food Bank, mostly on the farm and in community gardens. I loved Lubbock, most people don't, I think it had a lot to do with the rock star treatment we got when we were there. Let's just say there are a lot of slow news days there.

July 1996 - The fourth. Tamara and I posing by a plaque nowhere near where we wanted to be. We spent much of the day looking for the South terminus of the Appalachian Trail, or locked out of our van at the South terminus of the Appalachian Trail. I should mention that we were in Atlanta for three months working in preparation for and during the Olympics. We also worked he Paralymipcs before heading home.

Fall 1996 - One of the few night I got stuck with desk duty. I was not meant to stay up for 24 hours at a time and my partner that night was find her own ways to keep herself entertained.

Summer 1997 - Our last day as corpsmembers. That's Michele, me, Loretta, and Johnny K. "the doctor of love" taken either right before or after our graduation ceremony.

Still in Seattle

There hasn't been much in the way of blogging happening here at TYOTB headquarters. Mostly it was because I was without a computer while in Portland and busy with Michele when at home. Recently it's because our main computer took a dump. The keyboard went to shit and it's since been sent back to Lenovo for warranty repair. Hopefully we'll get it back the first part of this week and all will be right in the world once again. The backup computer(that I'm using currently) as a screen on the fritz. Thanks to Paul I've got a external monitor hooked up and I'm making it happen.

The plan was to head back down to Tim and Lucy's today and tie up loose ends this week. They aren't ready for me yet so I'm now finding myself still in town with a week to kill before school starts. Have I mentioned that I'm going back to school? No? Maybe? North Seattle Community College is only a short walk from the abode and the state's paying my tuition, so what the hell. I'm taking drafting classes and the related coursework for the next five quarters, it'll wrap up just about the time that Michele's done with residency and ready to start pulling down the dollars. Maybe the construction job market will be better then. Maybe it'll be time for me to put some time and energy into a house of my own for a change. Maybe something else so cool that haven't even thought over it yet will happen, hopefully involving hovercrafts.

Anyway, I've got a couple of goals for the week, get books, finish a little furniture repair for Paul and Sean, prepare for garage repair, and ride my bike. I think I might just be able to handle it all.

I've got a couple of pictures to share, nothing special just some pictures I like from my brief hiatus from the blog.