Progress (with a nod to ed)

I can check one thing off my list!

Today I rode to work in 47 minutes. I brought a clean shirt to change into, and I don't think I stunk the place up too much, so I may try to make it a weekly thing in addition to taking my bike on the bus. On the ride in I even got a compliment on my bike. Every once in a while people that seem to know what they are talking about tell me that I have a nice frame (Bridgestone X0-5) and I'm not sure what to say. I don't really know much about bikes or what makes a good frame. I bought this off Craigslist because my roomate said it was a good bike. According to the inter-webs is is the most idiosynratic of the xo series, the xo-1 being a cult favorite. It works for me.

One of the reasons I enjoy riding so much is the beautiful scenery. These pictures were taken on the bridge crossing Lake Union from Queen Anne to Wallingford (my neighborhood) near the end of my ride home yesterday.

View north towards my house
View south towards Capital Hill with downtown and Mt Rainier in the background.

Summer Goals

Over the weekend we were talking about goals for the summer.
My list in progress:

-Visit San Juan, Shaw, and Orcas Islands
-Camp on the Olympic Peninsula
-1000 miles on the bike odometer by July. It hit 500 over the weekend. I started using it about the time I got the bike in August. (It lived in the garage all winter)
-Ride to work and back. I'm putting this on so I can check something off right away. I ride home occasionally, but I never ridden to work. Usually I take my bike on the bus, so that i don't get all sweaty on the way to work. I have the office to myself tomorrow, so I don't have to worry about stinking the place up all day.
-Build a bed. I've been rocking the mattress on the floor since I moved upstairs, since the bed and box-spring do not fit up the stairs.
-Find the best burger in Seattle. Katie (one of the weekend trip organizers) is leading the charge on Tour de Burger, and we will not rest until we have declared a winner. I'm told there will be t-shirts.
-Buy a seersucker suit. I have 3 weddings to attend this summer, and i plan to rock the seersucker at all three.

Bathroom art

Continuing the series on "scenes from a bathroom"

The Islander Waterfront Restaurant on Lopez has some trouble maintaining the bulletin board at the urinal.
They seem to be encouraging it, what with the "you keep punching, we'll keep replacing" comment.
Notice that the arrow is pointing to the 2x4 stud. Looks like the puncher saw through the trap.

Lopez Island

This weekend I went out to Lopez Island in the San Juans with friends. We drove up to Anacortes and biked onto the ferry. Fortunately the campsite was only about an hour from the ferry, so we were able to ride with our packs.
Charlie demonstrates how to hike and bike

The view from our campsite
For some reason there was a big gun at the campsite (anti-aircraft?) so Charlie and Sean practiced protecting us from the Russians.
Lopez is fairly flat, but has some nice rolling hills. Even though it was Memorial weekend, the tourist season hasn't really started, so the roads were pretty quiet.
Charlie Lane found his home.

Just because we were on bikes doesn't mean we can't do a beer run. (Katie, Erin and Lauren)

It was a great trip, relaxing and exhausting at the same time. We did about 65 miles of biking over the three days, which isn't too shabby.

Another fun video

http://www.sorry-im-late.com/watch.html

In response to Ed

Ed posted a couple beatbox videos over on his blog, so I had to pass on the video Lisa sent me.
Its a little long, and bogs down a bit midway (it's unfortunate that one of the guys thinks he can do James Brown) but it's worth watching all the way through. Stick with it, these guys are amazing!

update

I realized that it has been ages since I've actualy posted anything. I ment to, really I did. In my mind I composed a rambling treatise on tulips, including the history of the dutch tulip trade crash in 1637, the naming of tulips, and the varieties of tulips as relates to personality types.

but in the end i couldn't be bothered.

here is a picture of tulip fields from a bike trip i took in Mt Vernon a couple weeks ago.
And here is a cool sign in a window across the street from the pub we stopped at for dinner.
I haven't been posting because I want to start putting a little more thought into what I am writing. I would like to reflect on some topic or other, or have a short post about something that interests me that others may not know about. For example, I have become interested in printmaking, both as something to learn and something to collect. There are several types of printmaking, (letterpress, screenprinting, linocut, etc) that I want to find out more about.

However, I know that I love looking at my friends blogs to see what they are up to, and I hope that they come to mine for the same thing. In that spirit I will try to post more, at least a little something now and then. So on to the update....

Now that summer is here, I've been trying to spend more time on the bike. I managed about 40 miles of hilly city riding this weekend.

View on my ride home from work. I ride from near where this is taken (West Seattle) across the waterfront in downtown (the view) and over the hill to Wallingford. Its 10-15 miles depending on the route I take.
I went to a Mariners game recently. It was flashback day, so they gave away Seattle Raniers hats. I gave mine away to some highschool kid that got there too late. Better him than a dark corner of my closet.
I've also been on a reading kick lately. Today I started Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I haven't read the original, so I'm not sure how much of it is strageticly replaced words, and how much is whole lines/paragraphs of new text. In any case I'm enjoying it so far.

Thats all for now. Given all the riding, sun, and playing (pitch n putt and softball today) I am beat. It's always better to be exhausted on Monday because of an exciting weekend than because of the drudgery of returning to the work week. Next weekend biking and camping on Lopez Island in the San Juans!

Happy Mothers Day...

...to all the moms out there.
My own of course, but also to the new moms, Becky and Malissa.
I can't wait to meet your babies.