I am posting from rach's blackberry while riding in the cockpit of a speeding ford explorer that is just passing mile 114 on southbound. i-5. I think I am ready to accept that my level of blogdom has reached a new high(or low?). This post officially puts me just above the simpsons comic book guy in the world geek rankings(WGR)
We're having a "heat wave" up here in the northwest, record highs around 90 degrees for the past few days. It may not qualify as a heat wave in most parts of the country but keep in mind......we don't do air conditioning in Seattle. Growing up in Omaha it was crazy to me how most every house lacks air conditioning up here. We don't really need it I guess, the basement is pretty cool and we installed a high-quality plastic wading pool in the back yard for mid-afternoon Miller Time. I found out this weekend that I am actually training for a full Marathon, not just the half. Sue came over on Saturday and we took our long run of the week. We did five miles down on Alki Beach in the middle of the day. I barely made it, WOW it was hot!! We spent the rest of the day doing much-needed yard work. I have about a truck-load of huge "feed me seymour" weeds that we tore out of Rachel's jungle of a backyard. Rach also put in a nice little stone patio for her fire-pit. The rest of the night was occupied by drinking around the campfire in our own backyard. Today was my first day of school for the summer quarter. I'm taking Psychology and Drawing. I'm really excited about the drawing class, it's pretty laid back. It's three hours of each day sitting in the studio listening to music and playing with pencils and charcoal.
The highlight of this weekend was the annual Fremont Fair and Solstice Parade. Hundreds of artists, dancers and exhibitionists unite and create a wonderfully bizarre experience. We found a great spot to sit right at 35th and Stone Way. The parade is traditionally kicked off by nude bicyclists, though this year they were accompanied by nude walkers, skate-boarders, unicyclists and an elderly scarf enthusiast(Crazy scarf guy, a local celeb). Even after the end of the parade people were still just hanging out at Gasworks Park in the buff. It's a one-day free pass where laws of public nudity are ignored. Obviously the nudity is a major draw for spectators but the rest of the parade is phenomenal as well. There was a really great zydeco float with some rip-roarin summertime music, a lot of people on stilts, a big creepy skeleton puppet and some steel-drum caribbean music. One of the floats involved the "weed police," though these weed police looked like they may have been dipping into the evidence locker for a little doobie break. Everybody was in such a festive mood, of course in Seattle we would throw a huge party celebrating when the sun finally comes out. It is a one of a kind experience and cannot truly be understood unless seen in person.
Stories like these are why I still bother to read the news......remember the naked pipes guy?
By Associated Press
Wed Jun 14, 8:36 PM
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - A marriage-minded man ran naked through his neighborhood, trying to show his hesitant girlfriend that taking risks is important. He got more than he bargained for when he ended up being chased and shot at.
So.........do you think he convinced her? Read the full article here
This morning I took my last final exam of finals week. I am happy this quarter is over, for one thing I have learned not to take a math class before 10 AM. I had Precalculus at 7:45 this quarter and the teacher was sooooo dull, made it really hard for me to wake up and be excited about school in the morning. I'll be transferring to South Seattle for the summer, it should cut my commute time by about 90%. I haven't even registered for classes yet......I have toured the UW Art School and am thinking about going after a degree in Industrial Design, there are a TON of hurdles to jump yet though. I'm just excited because that means i get to take a drawing course this summer! Also, I'm on week two of training for a half-marathon this fall. It's going well, I run about 3-5 miles three times a week with a longer run on Saturdays. I've put on some extra weight since the last time I was really into running and it is making a big difference. It's pretty hard on my body right now. I got my first shin-splints last night and am worried that I may be diving into the training too quickly. From all I've seen, the only real remedy for shin-splints is rest between workouts. Anbody have any advice?
Rach, Lisa, Rocky and I made another trip to Tahuya State Forest this weekend. We went up to drive in the 4WD Rally. This time we managed to get the campsite that is directly on Twin Lakes. BEAUIFUL!!!! I tried to give Rocky some swimming lessons, he's one of the rare black labs who is afraid of the water. He's a great swimmer, just scared though. I thought I was going to be driving alone but I managed to convince the girls and dog to join me for the 10.5 mile trek and we all had such a great time. A bunch of the local 4WD clubs put the event on and the grand prizes were all things that I NEED for my Jeep, though we managed to conquer the entire trail without having to push or pull on the Jeep at all. They had a new lift, an 8000 lb. winch and a set of lockers as the top three prizes. Along the trail there were five or six checkpoints and ateach one you had to answer questions and play little games for points. Lisa pulled through for us on the "guess what's in the bag" game, correctly naming five out of ten of the items. Rach's aim at the dart toss was dead on but, she made a pretty tight pattern but just missed the 40-point baloon, must have been the wind. We didn't manage to rack up enough points to be top three but we did come away with a handful of glow in the dark camping mugs, a new ballcap and some SUPER-cool camoflauge winch gloves!!! It was a decent trail, a few moderate hill climbs that tilted the Jeep pretty well and lots of watery mudholes to drive through. Not too bad though thanks to the finely honed skills of the driver..........heh heh. The next campsite over had a fun bunch of people, many of them active-duty Navy (Bubbleheads). We drank a lot of beer with them and talked shop. They are regulars at Kells' Irish pub here in Seattle so we may have to meet up with them sometime, they are the pound-the-table while hollering drinking songs type, woohoo! We also made friends with a local guy out there named Wild Bill. He ran a little shack out of his house where you could get cheap beers and good food, and lots of biker stories. This place was literally a shack, a bunch of pvc with canvas draped over it and Harleys parked in front, some of the friendliest people I've ever come across in a small town like that. Here's more camping pics from this trip:
I had my first delightful cultural learning experience today at work. A Mexican guy showed up to his appointment today drunk(we could smell him). I went out to the waiting area to put out some more pens and I walked by him and he looked at me and said "Pendejo," with a huge grin on his face. I smile and nod and think to myself, "wow, that must be a really fancy way to say gracias. maybe it means thank you A LOT." So, I go in and ask one of the spanish speakers on our team what it means, he says, "well, it means stupid, but, like, REALLY stupid......like stupid times ten. It's very derogatory, why do you ask?" "Oh, no reason," I nonchalantly respond. So then I look it up online when I get home in the urban dictionary(I am SUCH a white-boy). Here's what they had to say:
Pendejo
-Pendejo is a single pubic hair. In Mexico´s slang it is used as an insult like idiot or fool, but in Peru´s slang it used to describe a smart guy with few or no scruples.
I think I was happier being "stupid times ten" than being a single pubic hair..........man, I have a lot to learn at this job......I'll be ready for you next time drunk dude!!!!
Just a couple quick highlights from our first trip to Tahuya State Forest. This place is a gem! I stumbled across it while looking for good places to camp for our inaugural campout of the summer of '06. This place is a 4-wheeler's paradise. It is managed by the Department of Natural Resources and has tons of awesome trails marked off for dirtbikes, ATV's and 4x4s. You would think that would make for a lot of noise to disturb a peaceful campout. Not if you camp like Rach and I. We went to the far end of the land to a walk-in campsite called Twin Lakes. The fact that it is walk-in and there is no running water scares off a lot of the wussier weekend campers. We shared the whole campsite with only two other people! Rocky had fun testing his boundaries with us and we finished off a day of fishing with a bottle of Maker's Mark and a roaring campfire. We also met up with a 4-wheel club called the Quadrapaws. They are holding a rally up there this weekend so we will probably head back up there as soon as we finish drying out all the gear(it rained quite a bit on us overnight). Here's some pics:
