Vegas Baby!

Today is the first post of several to come between now and New Years, when we roll into Vegas.

I'll keep it brief with a link for those that plan to venture away from the poker tables and maybe catch a sight, eat some food, etc.

Design*Sponge has a travel guide for Vegas worth taking a peak at. If you scroll down to the Downtown section it has links to some of the more interesting non-huge-ass-casino-resort-megaplex stuff. "Worlds largest" vintage clothing store?!

I've also been perusing the TimeOut Vegas website, and has anyone else noticed that this seasons Top Chef is located in Vegas? And have you noticed the heavy hitter chefs that have been opening restaurants in Vegas?

Coco Before Chanel

I heard a story on NPR the other day about this movie, it sounds interesting. Beyond the fact that Audrey Tautou is dreamy... Coco Chanel had a fascinating life.

Honestly, I am surprised I didn't hear about it from Monty first... I will eagerly await her review

Combo

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

A bitchin graffiti/mural animation. I think it repeats itself at the halfway point, but I didn't watch the repeat all the way through.

The Road, she is a Cruel Mistress

If you bicycle long enough, its almost a given that you will learn the pain of road rash. I put some real miles on this summer, and I paid my dues this weekend.

Saturday started nice, with a ride out to the Red Hook Brewery on the other side of Lake Washington. It's a fun, easy ride, about 20 miles each way. We had a beer and split some appetizers, then headed home.
The ironic thing is, I had a crash not long after leaving the brewery that could have easily resulted in injury. The trail led through a park, and a little kid rode directly across the trail and t-boned me right behind my front wheel. I wasn't going very fast, but my feet were clipped in and I had already started turning away to avoid him. When he hit I came to a complete halt, and fell right on top of him. Fortunately neither of us was hurt...it could have been bad. (side note, Katie, seen above, crashed while trying to avoid us. She is scraped and bruised.)

It wasn't until I was almost home, at the bottom of Stone Way (leading up the hill to my house) that I crashed in earnest. Again I wasn't going very fast, and to be honest I'm not sure how it happened. That stretch of road has a lot of dirt and loose gravel, and I was crossing from the trail on the left to the right side of the street. I must have hit some loose gravel and started a slide. All I remember clearly is seeing the curb coming diagonally towards me, and not being able to do anything about it. I think I slid sideways into the curb...I know I did a face-plant into the sidewalk.
My chin took the brunt of the damage. You can't see it very well, but there is a dime sized chunk of skin at the bottom that is torn back. I also have scrapes and bruises on my shoulder, knee, and both hands...but the chin is definitely the beauty. Thankfully this picture doesn't do it justice, because in person it's pretty disgusting.
I went to the doctor this morning to have him check out the wounds. I was also concerned because I almost passed out in the shower Sunday morning. It wasn't because of the pain, nothing really hurts that much. I think I may have had a mild concussion. The doctor checked everything out, but wasn't too concerned. I got a tetanus shot as a precaution, and some antibacterial for the wounds. As for the bike, everything checks out except I need to re-tune the rear derailleur.

Oh well, it's my sacrifice to the road. Hopefully my account will be paid in full for some time to come.

Roommate wanted

We are back in the market for a roommate. So far we our leads on friends of friends hasn't worked out, so today we turned to Craigslist, reposting the same add we used about this time last year. So far we've had 15 responses in 6 hours, and I expect more as the evening goes on.

The fun never ends

Now that the weather is starting to turn, we have to grab as many of the nice weekends as possible.

This weekend started with a bike night. I met charlie under a freeway overpass to Future Tense, a once a month gathering where a bunch of fixie guys were doing tricks, racing etc. I didn't get any photos, but the tricks were pretty badass.
After that we headed over to the Bicycle Film Festival to catch the short film section. There were some great animated shorts, but I haven't been able to find them posted anywhere for sharing. I did find some of the footage that was used in a compilation of Lucas Brunelle's short films. He straps a camera on his helmet and rides alleycats, etc. The music starts at about 1:00, and after that it gets pretty intense.

NYC Drag Race- Lucas Brunelle from paddy conroy on Vimeo.

You can see some of his other videos here.

After the films we got our bikes out of valet (yeah, bike valet) and headed over to Flowers, a bar on the ave better known for the vegetarian buffet. It was pretty cool to see the outside of the bar surrounded by bikes. The picture isn't very clear, but they were stacked about 4 deep along each wall, plus every available post in the area. They were hosting the Goldsprints, roller racing that puts two competitors head to head on bikes hooked to monitoring equipment that projects their speed and time. The races are about 200 meters, and the fasted guy did it in about 23 seconds. At times these guys were averaging about 50 mph.
Saturday was a bit calmer, a solo ride that included a stop for coffee and some reading, then the Michigan-Notre Dame game at the house, then Wonka Poker (candy in place of money) for Matt's birthday.

Sunday was so beautiful we had to hit the water. Our captain Katie (in black) is checked out to rent sailboats from the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union.
The wind was come and go, so we didn't exactly tear around the lake. Still it was nice just being on the water, checking out the houseboats, etc.
Top of the day with a dinner party focused on chantrelles and wine, and you have what I'd call a great weekend.

Model Making

When people see architectural models they often marvel at the detail, and claim that they could never do something like that. In truth it isn't that difficult, but it does involve a great deal of time and patience. After lunch I switched over to building the base for another existing building on the site we are studying.
I started by cutting out two copies of the ground floor footprint
Then I cut out two copies of the upper floor plans, because they differ from the ground floor
The next step is to cut spacers equal to the combined floor heights. In this case the footprint involves 2 levels of below ground parking and a ground floor of retail. Above this are 4 floors of condos, which are essentially carbon copies stacked on top of each other. Once these are all assembled, I have an armature on which I can begin building the exterior walls.

All told this took about 3 hours, and it barely resembles the actual building. This is what separates a well constructed model from a quick slap together job. Most people would probably start with the walls, throw them together and then wonder why the whole thing is wonky and nothing lines up.

The next step is to start building up the walls, at which point it will be at the same stage as the model I showed earlier. That is all I will do on these models for the time being, but eventually I will add another layer of wall, this time adding another layer of detail by cutting out the doors and windows.

Like i said, its a time consuming process. Honestly I think it is my favorite part of architectural practice, and if there is any aspect of my life that is pure OCD, this is it.

The telecommute will be live-blogged

Step One: set up the workspace.

(note the Fresno coffee mug...a gift from bstigs i think. the sewing machine is an innocent bystander)

Today I'll be working on a site model from home. You can see the beginnings of an existing building. Over the course of the day I hope to cut out most of the topography and build another existing building... pics to follow.

Part two

after finishing the tricky part of the roof (which has led to obvious drainage/leaking issues) I moved on to the topo model

Step one, lay out the drawing on top of a full sheet of cardboard (e-flute = 1/16th inch)
and cut along the line. Pretty straightforward, not to exciting.Its only after several sheets are put together that it starts to make sense. Each sheet represents one foot of elevation gain...I have t cut out about 50 feet.

stage c: interlude

The girl in the office next door told me that I should do something I couldn't normally do at work. Of course my first thought was to work in just my underwear, but I'm modest by nature and the dinning room has a large bank of windows. I decided to wear clothes and take advantage of the kitchen instead.
As the weather starts to turn, there has been a lot of talk about soup, and the basis for any great soup is a great stock. I keep a ziplock in the freezer to gather vegetable trimmings, and all I needed to do was throw it in a pot (with an extra onion) of water and check on it every once in a while. Tonight I think I'll make a black bean soup.

entertainment:

and what does one listen to while working alone at home. For things like model making, where it is important not to get too worked up, I try to avoid the type of music that I would like to listen to in the office but don't. For example, its hard not to start bumping the head while listening to Girl Talk (going to the show this weekend), which doesn't lend itself to cutting straight lines.

Instead I listen to such fascinating things as a recent interview with Fresno singer/songwriter Abigail Nolte, the latest episodes of This American Life, and an audiobook about Roald Dahl's time in the British Secret Service doing propaganda and spy work in Washington.

gloomy weather = homemaking ???

I can't really think of any significant cooking, cleaning or building projects I've attempted over the course of the summer. Clearly the great outdoors have been too much of a draw. I guess it's a good thing that this holiday weekend has been pretty overcast, because it's gave me a chance to reacquaint myself with the house. It started in the basement (where I discovered the savaged saw blade) for some cleanup that involved setting up a bike maint. table for my upcoming bike build (more to come) and some picture framing.

Then it was up to the kitchen. Rainy weather just screams out for a hearty chili and cornbread, both of which are in the making for tonight's dinner. But why stop there... anyone can make chili. To up the ante and truly dive back into the kitchen, I decided to break out the Charcuterie cookbook. The result? Duck Prosciutto!
Usually I play pretty fast and loose with seasonings, etc., but for this I decided to keep it simple and follow the instructions. This is preserved meat after all, and it will end up hanging in the basement for a week or so and I don't want to do anything to screw up the taste.
The recipe starts with a salt cure, basically packing duck breasts in salt. The salt draws moisture out of the meat, as well as dehydrating the microbes within the cells, microbes that alloy decay and bacterial growth.
The breasts will cure in the salt pack (in the refrigerator) for 24 hours, and will then be wrapped in cheesecloth and hung in the basement for a week.

Admittedly, the idea for attempting this recipe didn't emerge this weekend. I've been planning on trying it ever since I saw it described on The Paupered Chef. Their blog has inspired several of my cooking adventures, and is well worth following if you have any interest in food.

Adam knows, Adam understands

Oh the frustration!!!

Given the crappy weather, I decided to spend the day in the basement. One the my activities was to make a picture frame. I started running some wood through the table saw, and I couldn't figure out why it was tearing the crap out of the wood.

wait a minute....as I was cleaning off the saw I noticed a piece of wood with some nail remnants...

yes, someone decided to cut through some nails with my finish blade.
The iphone doesn't take very good close-ups, but you can see the piece of wood with some finely trimmed nails.
you can also see that several of the teeth are rounded over and bent...nice!

The blade is from Home Depot, so it's not as if it was super expensive, but that's not the point! There are other things I would like to spend $20 bucks on, but more important is the idea that tools should not be abused like this. I have a reciprocating saw with blades that are meant to cut through metal...it was sitting on the workbench next to the table saw!

Lesson learned, always take the good blade off the saw and put the crappy rough cut on. At least that way if someone destroys it, I can still do some decent work.

The Cube

"..undiluted Tokyo chic.." NYT

Anyone who has ever rented a car knows that, regardless of what car you sign up for, the first thing they ask you out in the parking lot is what kind of car you would like. When my roommate told the college kid that we wanted anything pink, I think he realized that here were two boys he could convince to drive out of there with a bit of flair. Hence the free upgrade to the Nissan Cube.
This thing looks like it escaped from a bumper car ride in toontown.
Note the oval windows...and the wrap-around rear window .
I did like the convenient location of the coffee cup holder...
...but I'm not sure how I feel about the shag carpet on the dash. I suppose it is meant to hold your cell phone, etc. I don't have a grippy case on my phone, so it shot right off its shag home.

Rumor (via wikipedia) has it the interior is inspired by a jacuzzi, to promote a comfortable and social atmosphere... um, ok... maybe I should have taken off my shirt and kicked back with a beer while it was on cruise control.

The vehicle of the future got all sorts of crazy looks, which would normally bother me, but was pretty funny.

Wisconsin Wedding

Last weekend I finally made it to the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin, for the summer's final wedding. We flew in to Minneapolis, rented a car, and drove about 5 hours up to Lac du Flambeau in Wisconsin.

Right after we crossed the border into Wisconsin we stopped in a charming little town called Hudson, and had lunch at a pub called Barker's. Brendan was happy to find that they served a beer (can't remember the name) that Michiganders swear by.
Doesn't he look pleased with himself...
Of course we weren't disappointed with the extensive cheese selections to be had at the grocery store, as well as the availability of cheese curds, even at the gas stations.
Sadly we were disappointed with the weather. It was really windy driving through Wisconsin, and we could see what was waiting up the road. It proved to be a wet weekend.
The wedding was held at Dilman's resort on Lac du Flambeau. Dilman's had a bunch of cabins of various sizes spread around the resort. Brendan and I, being cheap bastards, crashed on the couches in the cabin some friends were staying in. The cabins had clearly not been redecorated since they were built. The downstairs bathroom was intense. The counter looked like bowling ball material, and the floor was was a bit much after an evening of celebrator imbibing.
on the plus side, it matched my socks.
The crappy weather meant the wedding had to be moved indoors, so we scrambled to set up the tables under a tent, and guests sat at the tables for the ceremony.

It was a bit chilly, so traditional wedding attire was augmented by jackets and scarves, and eventually all the girls had gone back to their rooms and changed into tennis shoes. Finally, the guys in suits aren't the ones to suffer though a summer wedding!
On the way home I couldn't resist a quick stop at the Mall of America. Apart from the Nickelodeon themed amusement park in the center of the mall, it really wasn't all that interesting. I've seen similar sized malls, and I've seen much nicer/fancier malls.
The final excitement (if you could call it that) of the trip was my first ride on Seattle's light rail from the airport to downtown. It's not all that it could be, since the actual airport station will not open until December which meant waiting for a bus from the airport to the closest station. While it was quicker to take the light rail to downtown and a bus from there, it was still a long trip home from the airport, and at that point it is worth it for a $25 cab ride.