Another big gap in posts - sorry, faithful reader(s). So much has happened and we've both been incredibly busy.
Beth: Flew her pretty behind all the way to eastern Europe, traveled her way to Georgia (think Tblisi and homemade wine, not Atlanta and Coca-Cola) and spent a month there as part of a UW study abroad program. She returned rejuvenated on life and full of fascinating stories. Sorry, you'll have to ask her to elaborate. Ask her to relate the story of the American college boys getting their first-ever authentic Georgian spa.
Seth: During the brief repast from inconsolable sobbing during Beth's jet-setting, dove in head-first to preparations for volunteer ski patrol this winter. This involved lots of classroom time for about three months as well as frequent trips up to Snoqualmie pass to practice our skills outside in the cold and rain (no snow yet). Two weeks ago I passed my final so I'm basically an outdoor EMT. It's a good thing that Beth is also trained in the first-responder arts or else she would have surely sent me to the hospital with my constant stream of stories and excitement about gross, gruesome and groovy injuries. Just this last weekend I attended a mandatory clinic up on the pass where among other tasks, we learned how to use an assortment of harnesses, ropes, suspended "chairs" and a modified rifle to rescue stranded skiers from a broken ski lift.
I now have a brief break in training until there is enough snow to open the resort, at which time I begin toboggan training - learning how to carry the broken folks down the hill on a sled. I admit I'm hoping for a couple of weeks before the snow hits just so I can get a break, but the Seattle weather is set to turn snowy as early as next weekend so we'll see.
Also, Halloween came and went. Again we had to skip the Davis-style pumpkin carve because it's just too cold to sit outside in October in Seattle. But we still carved a bit and put some indoor work into our costumes and hit the town. Photos below:
A few of us ready to hop into a cab toward Capitol Hill. Left to right, Matt's arm (sorry Matt), God wearing a Giants hat and jersey (preordained to win the series!), Juicy Fruit (the taste, the taste, the taste is gonna move ya!) and the lovely tragic French clown (or pierrot) - that's all sewing machine and glue gun, folks!
Out at the Comet, we met this mysterious luchador. Even though we knew his alter-ego, our instincts compelled us to wrestle - or run. Later this luchador took us to an odd party where we felt very old and superior and from which we were eventually invited to leave for being too old and superior. Clever move, luchador.
Kiss cover band! Those of you keeping score may recall that we saw this same band (in the same bar) last year. They were too much fun to miss and this year they had a Black Sabbath cover band opening. Both bands killed it!
The pierrot looking extra-sassy.
While the bands were fantastic, we found it more entertaining to loiter outside on the corner and interact with other costumed revelers - like John and Yoko here. Sidenote - as part of my Juicy Fruit costume, I brought along two packs of Juicy Fruit gum and passed out sticks to strangers. You make fast friends of strangers when you give them a taste that's gonna move them when they pop it in their mouths.
More outside costumes. This guy was a self-proclaimed "rave gimp." I couldn't get the photo to work out, but the bars on his shirt responded to sound so that if a nearby group yelled, the bars would jump. Just like free gum, a very social costume. This guy had a lot of people yell at him.
Party folk lined up outside for late-night hot dogs from the cart.
Innocent little angel needed the pierrot's help walking in high heels - and her help fixing his costume to "make my ass look good."
Poor neglected blog! Spring has stepped into Seattle and with it fun, adventure and more fun and adventure. Along the way, certain blogs get shoved aside and not given the respect they deserve. Will you forgive me, dear red-headed step-blog?
So what's been going on? Beth and I are still absolutely thrilled with the Seattle weather. This morning felt like a winter day - cool and crisp, overcast with wet roads and muddy berms testifying to last night's rains. (In this neighborhood you have to be careful crossing the berms because of occasional poo - but not dog poo. Yep, humanure. It's rare, but...yeah.) Now it's breezy and partly cloudy - oh and now it's both sunny and raining. Everything, everywhere is green. Monday I went for run on my usual route and then I repeated the route this morning to find that many of the trees have now grown enough to force me to duck my head beneath their heavy boughs.
A few weeks back we checked out our first roller derby bout at Key Arena. The bout consisted of two matches - one between the Sockit Wenches and the Derby Liberation Front and the other between Grave Danger and the Throttle Rockets. The gals have fantastic names such as "Sarah Problem?" and "Jalapeno Business." The first match was a blowout but the second was a nail-biter, right up until the final seconds. After the bout we met some friends at the Streamline Tavern (with the awesome beer can art by Mary), where Shawn was recounting the bout to another friend, going on about how the Derby Liberation Front were absolutely creamed. To our surprise, this tavern happened to be the hangout of said roller derby team - they're big, tough girls who don't much like being put in a negative light, especially in their home bar. A loud "Gulp" from Shawn and a round of drinks later and we were all friends.
We then made our way from the tavern to the Seattle Erotic Art Festival. Though the art was on display during the day, we attended the festival on Saturday night for full erotic immersion. On the stage was a mesmerizing show, including beautiful burlesque acts - both men and women - and some "aerialista" performance - think Cirque du Soliel meets burlesque. These performances were well-polished and impressive. A favorite was Miss Dirty Martini and her Garden of Eden act, which involved much peeling off of leaves and a finale with a magically-appearing apple (where exactly had she been hiding that fruit?). The crowd gasped and hooted and hollered. Much of the art on display was extremely well done and all of it was fascinating to peruse - never pornographic, but always suggestive or provocative. Some pieces really grabbed at our wallets, but we're not quite to a place where we can afford such luxuries - perhaps next year.
We spent another weekend down in Tacoma where we attended a wedding. As usual, the wedding was such a great opportunity to meet interesting people and to reconnect with old friends. It's always a bit sad when such weekends finally come to an end. Congratulations, Dan and Jen!
Each spring, the Seattle Yacht Club holds "opening day," which doesn't mark any particular "opening" but it's a day for boat enthusiasts to literally parade their monster yachts before the city. It's also a chance for rich old white people to wear fun sailor costumes. The parade is held just a few blocks away from our house, so we walked down to check it out, only to realize that our timing was wrong. But we caught the very end:
Float plane bringing up the rear
Fire boat hosing down the rear - click on the image to get a better view of the floating houses there across the water. Pretty cool spot eh? Again, we walked here from our house.
Police boat giving the parade's rear-end a proper final cleansing In font-nerd news, I'm wrapping up a typography course at the School of Visual Concepts (a big reason why the blog has been neglected). I'm wrapping up my final project this week and will post about that and the class as a whole then.
We continue to receive our produce box from Full Circle Farm and we're still figuring out how to make sure we eat all them veggies before they go bad (so many carrots!). Here's a colorful solution form a few nights ago: Russet and purple potatoes with carrots - all from the farm box - along with fresh oregano from our herb pot and some salt, pepper & olive oil. Pretty!
What else? So much! We spent a few weeks trying out a different happy hour each Friday. We're taking a break until Beth is done with finals, but will post our reviews here once we start up again. We've been out to new restaurants, out to see bands (Mr. Gnome!), out to the U-District Street Fair, generally out and about. We're healthy and happy and keeping busy.
Warning: The following post contains possibly crude and certainly infantile language. Proceed at your own risk.
My friends Sean and Ashley live in Montana - big sky country - and like good Montanans they ski, hunt, fish, drink beer and play hockey. They recently started up a team in a local league and (not surprisingly) named themselves the Rocky Mountain Oysters. If you're not familiar with Rocky Mountain Oysters, learn more (and find a recipe). They're also known as Prairie Oysters, Mountain Tendergroins, Cowboy Caviar, Swingin' Beef and Calf Fries. So, yeah, they're bulls' nuts and people eat 'em. Montana hosts an annual Testicle Festival where you can get 'em served up just about any way you can think of. The festival's catchy tag line is "Have a Ball!"
So, how do I fit in to this nutty scenario? Well, every hockey team needs a killer* logo for their jerseys, so Sean called up his most favoritest graphic designer to help design some jersey art for the Rocky Mountain Oysters.
*Totally unrelated side note: Apparently, surfer-speak use of the the word "killer" to market healthy bread is fraying the fabric of our society and putting our children at serious risk. No, really. From the April PCC newsletter's letters to the editor in regards to Dave's Killer Bread:
“Great bread, we love it. BUT we, and many others, are contemplating approaching PCC to discontinue your line because the use of ‘killer’ and ‘bomb’ are not amusing and should be rejected as marketing ploys. We are pondering a boycott because we don’t want to normalize these ideas for our children or promote this kind of thinking in our culture or at our table."
Hmmm. There certainly seems to be a lot of pondering and contemplating going on. Maybe, as Jello Biafra would say, they and their children were forced to meditate in school. For some perspective, read about Dave's Killer Bread, his marketing ploys and his bread jihad and I'll let you draw your own conclusions. (Thanks to Beth for the newsletter tip!)
Anyway, keep your eye on the ball, nutty professor. So Sean emails his request and ideas and I jump right in and grab the bull by the...eh... I created some preliminary sketches for the team, including a very scrotal "M" which I was certain would be rejected by Ashley, but I included anyway to give Sean and myself a middle-school snicker. You can take a look at the sketches below (as always, click it for a larger image): As expected, the design with the scrotal "M" was immediately cut (ouch!). They did like aspects of some other designs and I worked with them back and forth a bit to finally develop the finished product:
So, there you have it. Look out Montana, there's a new team in town and they're gonna put your balls on ice. And...testicle jokes ending in 1...2...3.
Though today is indeed April 1st, this is for real. Speaking of April 1, today marks six months since I quit the cigs. It's also now been about six weeks since I quit the gum. I'm nicotine-free, baby! Booyah!
Last weekend some friends and I took both Saturday and Sunday to immerse ourselves (literally) in another Seattle tradition - Sea Fair. Apparently, Sea Fair actually involves and entire month of aquatic-themed activities, but these events culminate in early August with a three-day whirlpool of hydroplane racing (those are the incredibly fast, spaceship-looking boats you see tumbling end over end on late-night ESPN) and an air show which included the Blue Angels. I'll point out that while the event is called Sea Fair, the major three-day event all happens on a fresh water lake. We spent day one on the shore overlooking the racetrack...er...race area, I suppose, since the racing is all water-bound. The scene was a NASCAR-like gathering of blue-blooded Americans and screaming boat motors. All branches of the military erected large recruitment booths, some with shiny spinning boxes - simulators I was told, though I never got so involved. Some photos from day one:
The boats rested on the wooden pier and were craned in and out of the water between races.
NAS-BOAT. They average around 135 MPH and displace some amazing misty waterfalls in their wakes. No blood and guts to be seen, though we did watch one spin out in a confusing spray of white water.
A 1959 champion boat on display at the event, looking very Star Trek indeed.
We spent day two out on the water in Cramer's boat. I enjoyed the freedom of the boat over the relative restriction of the shore. So many boats! Boats of all sizes and styles sped out under the air show flight path and turned off their engines and folks simply enjoyed the day. The frat boy contingent was high, some boats were sponsored by random vodka brands or Bunweiser, there were small bikinis and high school kids drinkin' and dirvin' daddy's boat (why would you EVER let your kid take your boat to an event like this?) Many families were out too, little kids in life jackets tossing water balloons at frat boys, bikin-clad girls and even pale white guys in their thirties. Most boats were well-stocked with water balloons and other sorts of water battle implements and so staying dry was not an option. One boat sported a gas-powered pump and hose which drenched our boat (Cramer is in th emarket for a new phone). Lake Washington was warm and the swim was tremendous all day. The air show had been impressive from the beach the day before, when one could see the formations and tricks of the Blue Angels as they intended, but from our spot on the water this day, the planes would fly directly over us, incredibly close and incredibly loud. Two short video clips of the planes (turn on the sound!):
Of course these videos are a little shaky because I'm holding a small camera, following an incredibly fast-moving object and I'm on a bobbing boat. The noise was incredible. You get the idea.
Photos of day two: Scantily-clad boys and girls everywhere. In addition to the bunny ears, she's wearing furry orange pasties.
WARNING: NOT A LIFESAVING DEVICE
When worn upside-down with the legs through the arms (or wearing two through the crotch as the Hawk is doing here), a PFD makes a fantastic diaper which makes floating in a sitting position positively effortless.
Under the bridge, Husky Stadium off in the distance
Boat bottleneck in the shipping canal. So many boats.
They raised the drawbridge for us (pay no attention to that sailboat up ahead)
Downtown Seattle across Lake Union on the way back to the boat ramp
I apologize, but the pun-lover in me could not resist photographing these two vessels side-by-side, named Labrador and Retriever.
I never mentioned here that a few weeks back over the July 4th holiday I was given the honor of officiating Sam and Jennifer's wedding. I am so happy that this group of friends has embraced the practice of becoming ministers and marrying each other...to each other. It just makes sense that instead of hiring a complete stranger to perform the ceremony, one would prefer to work with a long-time friend who knows each person individually and as a couple. I had the pleasure of knowing both Sam and Jen before they met and also the extreme pleasure of watching them grow together and now finally seal the deal. It was great to see many old friends from Jackson and Davis too. Thanks to Sam and Jen for being wonderful folks and wonderful hosts (thanks, parents!) and for a fantastic weekend.
Being the minister, I didn't get a chance to take many photos, especially, obviously, of the ceremony itself. So here are some images I did capture in the downtime.
The wedding was at Sugar Bowl Resort in the Lake Tahoe area. They basically rented out the whole place, so that even though Lake Tahoe had likely swelled to its most crowded state of the year over the July 4th holiday, we were nicely insulated in our own green island. Here's a shot from our balcony.
Another balcony shot, looking down on the lawn where the ceremony would be held and the deck where the reception would be held.
Jen and her nephew Isaac, relaxing for conversation after the rehearsal dinner. Later, Isaac was a rock-star participant in the ceremony, delivering the rings to my hand with only a bit of encouragement from his parents on one end and me, Jen & Sam on the other.
Slightly sauced and very joyful parents after the rehearsal dinner. Both families were extremely gracious and a genuine good time to hang out with.
Sam & Jen post-ceremony, looking rather serious. Dan Stone off to the side looking like their bodyguard.
This morning we awoke in a hotel room in Denver, the wake-up call scheduled for a mere ten minutes before we were expected to meet the airport shuttle downstairs. Shuttle at 6:40, call at 6:30. We made it down there in great time, which was not really a surprise since we hadn't settled into our room until after midnight so we were still packed. We had just driven about two hours from Laramie, Wyoming where we visited our dear friend Anthony for the weekend to witness his graduation from law school at the University of Wyoming. We made it a priority to attend Anthony's graduation because he is a great friend who accomplished a great feat. Over the past three years we shared many conversations on the phone and occasionally in person where he expressed his love of and devotion to his goal - and to the intricacies of the law he was learning. I recall talking to Anthony at length about legal scenarios involving shooting at turkeys but killing family members, creative copyright law (such as the student who apparently created and the sold the Nike logo for $30 decades ago) and of course, about the empire of storage units he plans to eventually create. I admit that Laramie is not an ideal destination, not somehwere I would pay to visit on my own, but Anthony will be first to tell you that it is an ideal locale in which to learn and study. The winters feature days on end of sub-zero temperatures and biting winds. Little to no social scene exists (unless you consider livestock your friends) and the terrain is basically a high cold desert plateau. So you bundle up, attend class, and then study indoors the rest of the time to evade the arctic winds.Some members of Anthony's family attended and they were a joy to meet or reacquaint with and we are all intensely proud of his achievement. (Of course, taking a weekend trip to the high desert in the middle of nowhere also helps us secure a friendly attorney once he passes the Bar.)It was a speedy trip - we flew out late Friday night and came back early this morning - but well worth the time spent with friends. Some highlights:
Anthony receiving his Juris Doctorate hood. I apologize for the shaky camera work but the shouting friends nearby created come vibrations. We arrived a bit late and were forced to sit in the back with all of the crying babes.
Ant relaxing at the reception
Ant affixing our graduation gift. The helmet reads, "Quid Pro Quo" which I understand translates to, "Something for Something." Indeed. He sacrificed a lot for this degree.
Matt at the Cowboy Bar with ladies dancing on the bar behind him.
Anthony delivering his closing arguments to a riveted jury
Well, today I attended my orientation day at Whole Foods. Loads of information. Most of it was common sense, some information about the job and the company. Despite my misgivings coming from a cooperative grocery background, as far as corporations go, I could do worse. And they're all extremely nice and intelligent people - though I sometimes felt the sense that they had the swirly-eyed, "Just join us and you'll understand," drink the Kool-Aid mentality. I'll give them credit for admitting in the propaganda videos that they are indeed in it for the money. Is that why I'm in it too? Oh yeah, and natural organic foods are kinda groovy too. And wow, they make a killer burger there at the grill.Saturday we drove up to Mt. Vernon to attend the month-long Skagit Valley Tulip Festival and the weekend-long Mt. Vernon Street Fair. Interesting arts & crafts abounded and we stopped in to the Skagit Valley Food Co-op. This was a beautiful grocery store - it held that graceful balance between hippie co-op, community market and family grocer. Not too nice, not too funky, but just right. They make their own soups and salad dressings and had fantastic prices. Nice work, hippies!After the fair and some corn dogs - MMM! We drove out to check out the fields of fully blooming daffodils and the tulips just beginning to get going. Field of daffodils
Tulips gettin' sexy
Me gettin' sexy
Tulips and Cascades
Then on Sunday we met some friends at the track to bet on some ponies. This was both of our first time at the races and we're defnitely going back, though we both came out with less cash. Not too much money, and well worth the sunny afternoon entertainment. The final race - I won twenty-five bucks on this one. Still in the hole overall but a nice end to the day.
View of Rainier from our seats at the track. We're both still thrilled to see sights like this and realize that we live here now.
Ahh, springtime. Pretty fantastic around here today. Took a walk over to the UW campus to check out the emerging cherry blossoms. Take a look: Looking out over the plaza. It's Saturday and the grounds were packed with people taking photos, picnicking and getting married. We walked by three different wedding parties, all of whom looked barely 18 years old.
Bird just a little bit bigger than my thumb
Blossoms
Last weekend we drove down to Bend, Oregon to meet friends, get a final day out on the mountain at Mt. Bachelor and celebrate Kenley's birthday. Friends (and dogs) on a hike.
Friends caught in a UFO tractor beam near Tumalo Falls. Look at the agony on their faces! The humanity!
Still seeking employment, so we're both getting our résumés out there like mad. I have gotten pretty good at composing cover letters. Maybe I should offer to sell my cover letter writing services? They're obviously not THAT good since there's still no job. We fell over when we finally got our taxes put together and saw what we owe. Seems we managed to bump up a bracket without witholding remotely enough - even without the freelance work I did. Deep breath... Ahhh, cherry blossoms.
