Apparently our wedding pics are far easier to view here.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v448/outrace/Wedding/?start=all

Our wedding.

Our wedding pics can be seen at:

http://liberated-man.blogspot.com

Posterity

It's been a LONG time since I posted anything here on this side of our lives. Posterity says I need to do an update.

One: The house has been up for sale for some time. $525K is way too much to even get a nibble in this market. I'm going to miss this house.

Two: We're moving to Vancouver, BC, Canada on July 1.

Three: We'll be married in Vancouver by 5:30 PM on July 3, 2008. It will also be our 8th anniversary as a dedicated couple. Pictures will follow if I can find someone who can shoot.

Weekend report

We had 'open house' all weekend trying to sell the albatross. Saturday was apparently decent with 8 or 9 viewings. We got no report on Sunday. Still no offers.

For the Saturday open house, Ed and I took a load of stuff up to our storage unit on the border. Thrilling.

For the Sunday open house, Ed went to the library to work and I took a shake down cruise on the motorcycle. Raining and 37F in the mountains. 54F and blowing 40+ in the high desert. Now I know everything will work for the trip in 3 weeks.

House for sale!

The house went on the market yesterday. It's valued at far less than we wanted to get for it and the probability is that it won't even bring our asking price. Such is life.

I'm going to miss the place. I'll miss it's completion. To be honest, I wanted to be able to entertain friends here in a place made perfect for lots of fun, happy people. That won't happen now. Time to move on and move forward in a slightly different direction.

Full pics at http://andreshomescapes.blogspot.com

Partial crosspost from Motocancer

Back in the middle of '05, Ed applied to the Canadian government for Permanent Residency. He was granted Permanent Resident status in October of '07. He can become a Canadian in three years. (Ed is not a US citizen.)

Now, this is where I let the cat out of the bag. Ed's been offered a terrific position in Vancouver, Canada. I can't tell you exactly what the position is until the final paperwork is signed, but I can say it will be seen as pivotal in his career. Yeah, this is a big deal for us.

So the facts are that we'll be moving to Vancouver in July. We're selling the house, getting rid of a lot of stuff, and will be moving to a place that's roughly half the size of what we have now.

We're both looking forward to it.

Clumsy with a Saturn.

We awoke this morning to the doorbell. Yeah, I guess we should have been out of bed already by 8:30, but what's a poor 'retired' guy and his hubby gonna do on a lazy Tuesday.

Well, I found out what my day would consist of.

Some guy in a Saturn backed into the 4x4 that holds up my mailbox (and my neighbors). Snapped it right off at ground level. Both mailboxes were lying in the driveway.

Ok, so I didn't get my pants on early enough to answer the door, but our neighbor across the street watched it happen, as did the construction crew across the street (who I know peripherally, oddly enough).

I was contacted by my neighbor via email with a license plate number. Then the construction crew told me he'd left a note on my adjacent neighbor's door (but he hasn't been in the house for 7 months).

So I spent part of my day digging a new post-hole, burying and cutting a new 4x4, and transferring the boxes themselves. EXACTLY what I woke up thinking I'd do today. NOT! For some odd reason, I'm tired.

I left a message at the number he provided. His bill is gonna be 3 hours at $60/hr plus $10 for the post. Total of $190. We'll see how that works out.

Crackers in the package.

I've recently started drinking beer. I drink one, and only one, and it's generally with dinner when we're out at a restaurant. I'm not a beer-o-phile (or whatever beer-o-philes call themselves when they want to pretend beer is important.) I generally just want a beer that's extremely drinkable without a hoppy or bitter aftertaste.

I want a beer that quenches my thirst. I don't need (or want) a "beer experience".

Obviously I'm leading up to something here. Yesterday, I bought a 15 pack of Budweiser 16oz bottles of beer. It'll probably take me a month to drink them all. But, here's the kicker.

The beer bottles are shaped like bowling pins. Yeah, really. Bowling pins.

OMG - I'm gonna be drinking ButtWiper from bowling pins. I guess it's something I'll have to do in the closet. My inner redneck needs to stay hidden.

Just one more quick rant.

I surf lots of blogs. Bloggers who put music on their blog should be shot.

Somebody asked why.

It's intrusive. It's rude. People might want to look into your little slice of life, but we don't want you to bang on our door and download your personal selection of what you think your life is, as expressed by somebody who we don't care about at midnight while surfing.

And then there's some piece of music you STOLE from somebody.

There's the general stereotype that sites with music almost never mention anyone or any activity that isn't completely self centered. Well, sometimes it's moms blogging about how incredible their little offspring is and will be. Get over it. If you're lucky, your kid will be normal.

Yeah, blogs tend to be personal and rather like diaries, but jeepers, doesn't anybody know anybody besides themselves? Funny, I don't generally hear music on blogs that require reading and thought.

That's why.

A bit of a rant on sociability.

It's the nature of our situation here in Seattle that we often meet new people in social settings. We're not social butterflies, but we're introduced to new people on a pretty regular basis. These meetings generally take place in restaurants.

It amazes me how bad people are at social conversation.

Ed and I tend to ask the new people at the table about their lives. What do they do? What activities or interests have they? Generally people answer these questions with side information that allows us to segue down another path. The objective is to get these people to open up and feel comfy at the table. Ed is the best at this, but it's a tactic I've used for years to make folks feel they're in a pleasant setting. After all, dinner without conversation is just a restaurant review by consensus.

People seldom have difficulty talking about themselves and their lives.

Within a few minutes, Ed and I let the conversation rest for a while. No sense in making the new folks feel like they're being probed by aliens.

What amazes me is that about 2/3 of the people we meet don't have the courtesy, decency, or social skills to turn the conversation around and learn something about us. When I say "let the conversation rest", I mean it takes a nap more than half of the time!

So what's up people? Do you not understand that basic social courtesy suggests you ask us a few questions? Do you not care who you're sharing a table with?

If this is how people are in common social settings, is there any wonder blind dates go so badly?

An active weekend.

Ed and I did our usual weekend maintenance stuff most of Saturday, then we went out to dinner with a friend. The friend's boyfriend was visiting from Boston and it was nice to finally meet his S.O. I'm going to guess that the age difference between them is approximately equal to the age difference between Ed and I. With 20 years difference in our ages, Ed is occasionally 'older' than I. It's funny how that works sometimes.

On Sunday morning, Ed woke up and announced he wanted a Filipino breakfast, so we went back to our new Filipino restaurant and had 'silog'. Basically, this is garlic fried rice, two eggs, and whichever meat you choose. As an example, tapsilog would add thinly sliced beefsteak that has been pan fried. Tucilog would add marinated pork. Longsilog adds short little sweet sausages (Longanisa sausages). Ed makes spamsilog at home quite often. Yes, it's made with fried Spam.

Anyway, after a heavy brunch cum lunch, we lazed around the house most of Sunday afternoon. Nice weekend.

Spoiled Rotten

I spent all day doing errands and running to the doctor in Ed's new car. We both like it, we really do. It's small, maneuverable, zippy. There's just one little thing....

It doesn't have power windows or power door locks and we're spoiled. When we leave the car, we actually have to lock it...by hand. We have to reach across the car to unlock the door for a passenger.... and we have to roll the windows up and down by hand. Primitive.

We'll get through it....

Ed's new wheels.

Ed's been thinking about a new set of wheels since he murdered his sedan. Truth is, he really didn't like parking or driving the big car in Seattle, and he hates driving my full sized pickup anywhere except the freeway.

So he's been looking for deals and he found one a gently used 2007 Hyundai Hatchback. It's the right size for him. It's a car he's familiar with. The price was exceptional and I mean exceptional.

We spent most of Saturday buying it. I drove it home. It's a surprisingly comfortable and quiet car. Absolutely no frills, but I like driving it. Ed loves it. It's his new toy.

Here are the pics. Click to enlarge.

Late January, 08

It's been a strange few days on the health front, but the life front has been great.

Ed and I spent a nice quiet day at home on Saturday and then he announced, "I want Filipino food for dinner." Suddenly I anticipated making adobo, but he said we were going out to a new place he'd found online. We actually have a pretty good Filipino place in town so I was a little confused. Seems Ed found a place that's got a pretty wide variety of foods with a Filipino core. No, they don't make Filipino fettucini alfredo, but they do have normal f-a on the menu. Apparently the chef comes from a commercial base and knows not everyone wants to eat 'strange grub'. From our standpoint, I eat a wider variety of Filipino food than Ed does.

Anyway, I've found the ultimate guy food. I had this same thing when we were in Vancouver and the better/fresher version at this restaurant really got me hooked. It's pork hock fried in a pan. Skin and fat remain on so you get 'chicharrones with tender meat'. Yeah, hard, crispy pork rinds with a thin layer of fat and about 1/4 inch of tender pork. That's it. No sauce, very little spice. (Seems like just a little salt and vinegar before frying.) This stuff makes bacon seem dull and I really like bacon. Really. (For some reason, I'm not worried about my cholesterol.) It's called Lechon Kawali.

So here's the strange part about the restaurant. It's in the 'eclectic' part of town (as Ed says). I say it's purely ethnic. Black, Mexican, Filipino largely. Obviously within the target market but not something Seattle's Birkenstock crowd will drive their Subaru wagon to. It's right next to a construction site. It apparently used to be a burger joint. Conversely, it's NICELY decorated inside (Huh?). And then, as we switch back to the odd, there are big TVs everyone can see while they eat. They play the Filipino channel and a horrible show called Wowowee (Wow Wow Wee). What a train wreck. Makes Sabado Gigante look like fine art. I honestly don't know a single Filipino who likes Wowowee. Really. It's trash. It's one of those things you watch because it's in your language. Sorry to put it this way, but it's immigrant garbage. Target marketed for people trapped in their linguistic ghetto. Somehow I remember some of that....... The place was paradoxical. Location and TV were horrible and detracted from the positives. The interior and food presentation were terrific. The tastes were wonderful. Service verged on 'apathetic teenage daughter'. I know we'll go back. The food was great.

And then came Sunday: Ed really needed to work with his mice. Sunday is a good day to do that because there's nobody in the lab. He can harvest what he needs and not be interrupted by other users of the mouse room and other facilities. He pulled a good solid 8 hours doing what he needed to do and eventually came home. In the meantime I had a very good day physically and spent most of it puttering around and then I rode the motorcycle a couple of miles up the road and then home again. Technically no big deal, but psychologically important and physically expository. Truly important to my mental health, self image, and confidence. Ed was quite pleased I'd ridden the FJR. The temp was only about 40 and he was worried I'd gotten cold, but feeling cold was the least of my concerns. Funny thing is, I don't remember the temp at all. It was a dry and sunny day and I was on two wheels. I was back in the land of the living. It made me a little emotional after I put the monster back on the center stand.

Monday:Nothing major.

Tuesday: I was supposed to see a doctor this morning about a problem with the "terminus of my digestive tract" (I'll leave it at that.) I arrived for my appointment only to discover it'd been cancelled by my referring doctor's scheduler. No phone call, no email, no contact. I wasn't happy but I didn't go nuts and have anybody slain. It apparently has been rescheduled for Thursday morning at 8:45. If the docs eventually do what I want them to do, I'll be in for a day of outpatient surgery with some recovery time. I just consider this issue to be a 'quality of life' thing I don't want to deal with any more. The problem is that I'm going to have to convince the docs to do something besides look, think, and wait. I really dislike these procrastinators.

Oddly, I'm as weak as a kitten today. My last labs showed I was becoming slightly anemic. I wonder if that's progressing.

So, we're staying active.

The worst movie on the planet.

First off, Ed and I don't agree on this review. Ed was perfectly satisfied with the film and wants to rent the second feature to this pig.

We rented and watched "Grindhouse - Planet Fear". It's a Rodriguez/Tarantino film. I dunno what these two were smoking and snorting when they directed.

It's a gore/slasher/high techish "homage" to apparently every movie ever made. It's shot in/for 2007 with digitized Super-8 film quality whenever the directors smoked a big enough joint.

Yeah, it's the equivalent of taking EVERY ingredient and EVERY spice and every "everything" in your entire kitchen (no poisons) and putting it in a giant pot for a long boil. Now force feed it to your family. What the hell did you just cook? Is it dinner? Technically I guess it has nutritional value, but why would you serve something like that?

Just because you CAN, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

Quite honestly, and without exaggeration, this was the worst movie I've ever seen. Train wreck bad. Look away bad. Leave the room bad. Turn it off bad. The only reason I watched the whole thing is because I genuinely couldn't believe it continued to be so bad.

Life proceeds

It's been a long time since I wrote anything here about us. It seems as if our lives just stopped some time ago.

Life doesn't stop.

So, some bummer stuff first. Nothing horrible, but not fun anyway.

We had some local flooding in the area about 45 days ago. It rains a lot in Seattle in the winter, but normal runoff handles the load under normal conditions. Unfortunately, it rained A LOT for a long period of time around here and we had some water issues. Two problems cropped up from this.

First, our drainage field filled up and water began to seep under our back door and flooded our downstairs. Yeah, downstairs is carpeted and finished. We have some damage and mildew. We're still trying to deal with it.

The second issue came from inexperience / inattention on Ed's part while driving his car to work. See, there was a sign about a mile down the road that said "Water over roadway." Traffic was avoiding the deep stuff in the right lane, but Ed just kept on driving.

BMWs don't ford water over 2 feet deep.

Basically, he sucked straight water directly into the engine. Hydraulic lock occurred. Pistons broke, rods bent, the crank probably twisted a degree or two. The car was toast. I think Ed learned a thing or two about the relative inexpense of comprehensive automobile insurance. He had none. The financial loss, while limited, was virtually total. Several thousand dollars were lost because of a puddle.

But that's the bad stuff. Into each life a little rain must fall. Literally.

The good stuff. We're still making progress on the house. It's obviously quite slow right now, but we inch along whenever it's possible. It'll get done.

Ed's career and experiments are going well. He can finally see the end of his data gathering and plan for the big number crunch / paper.

I went out to see my brother and his hubby in Dallas a few short months ago. It was good to be able to connect with them at their place, and I took the time to visit with some of my old motorcycling friends. It was nice to see the old guard and meet several new folks.

I had dinner with the two friends with whom I motorcycled into Canada. Wow, it looks like I haven't written about that. I should be shot!

See, I have two adventurous friends from Dallas who are long time motorcyclists. They decided they were going to ride from Dallas to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Yeah, that's 10,000 miles plus for each of them. Here's a link to the primer of the story.

Anyway, arrangements were made and we hauled butt from my house. 4 days, 1600 miles round trip, and some great scenery en-route.

Departure pic. Click to make it larger. From left to right, that's Tim, Brad, then me.

We had a good time on the trip. We also had a wonderful time at dinner with their wives, Tim's family, and another friend (female pilot, motorcycle racer, fun person.)

Anyway, I'll write more as I think of things and as life moves forward.

The Seattle 100

The 2007 Seattle 100 was held yesterday (Saturday, July 28). Total donations for the event, including the auction at the awards ceremony was slightly more than $143,000.

Total contributions made thru me were $1435 or roughly 1% of total donations. Donations came from the TSBA, the Yahoo Group gaysportbikeriders", NEAR_500 (northeast EX500 racers), friends, some ex-coworkers, and Michelin thru Island Racing and SB Motorsports. I want to thank each and every one of you for your contributions and assistance.

As far as the event itself, Jake Holden, Chaz Davies, Danny Eslick, and Ben Spies were in attendance. They put on one heck of a skills show for an hour after lunch. Each of them started out on borrowed equipment and Danny managed to impress everyone with his supermotard skills. The boy's not afraid of anything! We watched him pitch it WAY sideways and simply catch it with his knee!

Ben confirmed the research into MotoGP.
Chaz talked about his MotoGP ride at Laguna.
Jake told us he was having fun working for MJ.
Danny was just Danny. Engaging, charming, completely off the hook.

(Danny's "Monster Drink" Arai, the one he'd worn all day, went for $2200 in open bidding.)

For me, it was a good day. I started out with an enormous dose of chemo (40 mg of Dexamethasone - a corticosteroid). Yeah, it was on my schedule, so I took it.

I spent a large part of the day flogging the FJR1300 on track. There's one hella difference between the R1 and the FJR! The FJR has thrust...... lots of it. It also changes direction nicely for a moto-manatee. The problem is that you can't really tip it over without SERIOUSLY dragging pegs. It's not a bike that likes to let you hang off. I also had problems with powertrain slack and an extremely loose throttle cable (too much slack). My solution was to load the powertrain and control corner speed with the rear brake. Tedious but effective. There was still a lot of dragging, but less jerking.

Suspension and tires were box-stock. The BT020s worked adequately at the lean angles I was achieving. Yes, I went to the edge of the tire, but I could have done more with different rubber and higher pegs.

ABS - never used it but it was a good confidence booster. Running a big monster into a corner is invigorating.

Ok, so I was in Group 100. The newbie - slowbie group. OMG I'd forgotten how clueless this group can be! There's a video of one of my shorter sessions..... You'll be amazed at some of the lines and actions. You'll also be amazed that I didn't kill the kid at about 8:15. You may also enjoy what happened to the R1 guy I was chewing on for a few laps.

Anyway, I ran several sessions and quit a bit early. I was (and still am) having some kidney and spleen pain. Dunno why.

Did I mention I left the bags on all day? I must have been perfect to draft!

Here's the video.
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v876148hFmkgtC2

Pardon the stylistic clash of the FJR and the suit.... Click to make it larger.

Two quick pics.

Here are two quick pics from my recent track day. Click on them if you want them to be larger.

The two happiest days in a man's life......

The two happiest days in a man's life are the day when he buys his first boat and the day when he sells his first boat.

Ed and I are happy men today. We sold our boat.

Don't misunderstand. We liked the boat when it was on the water, but it was never on the water enough. It was a pain to launch, it was a pain to take home. Ed didn't / wouldn't / couldn't do it alone, and 'flying solo' wasn't my cuppa.

Fishing might have gotten me out there a bit more..... but then the fish would have cost us $50 a pound instead of $12 at the store. Ed doesn't like fish anyway.

Maybe we just need another sport/touring motorcycle. Someday.

Click on the pics if you wanna see them larger.

Pacific track day with 2Fast

I'm back from the trackday at Pacific Raceways..... Interesting day:

2-FAST is the trackday org out here and they're pretty efficient. They have 42 people on staff including LOTS of instructors for one-on-one time. I took advantage of the "pickup truck ride around" and the chief instructor provided corner by corner information on entry, apex, exit, and speeds. Then I did a follow the leader for part of our first session. It's an interesting track, but it's probably the most dangerous I've ever run. I mean DANGEROUS.

Let's start an R1 lap at the exit of the last corner....their "bus stop". It's a 35mph dogleg. Slow down, flick right, open the throttle and keep the nose down........

Bend right around a concrete wall and slap 2nd gear at the apex. 104 mph and it's blind...... And it's concrete on the other side of the track too.

Onto the front straight and keep banging gears to "the chute". It's so dangerous they don't allow passing in "the chute", so if you're lucky you get a clean lap and you can keep banging gears. Why is the chute so dangerous? Well, it's a chicane with apex marking cones ON TOP OF CONCRETE WALLS. Not a place you wanna stuff some newbie.

So "the chute" can be taken at about a bazillion mph...... like 155 estimated if the walls don't scare you and you can pull on the bars that hard.

Then you head toward a turn-in cone at the left side of the track, again on a concrete wall, and flip the bike hard right toward the apex marker cone on top of a concrete wall...... at a GPS indicated 163 miles an hour. (Speedo would be about 175.)

I should mention that these walls aren't off the side of the track. They ARE the side of the track from the bus-stop to T1. Basically, I spent part of my day aiming the R1 directly at the edge of a concrete wall at 163 miles an hour.

Ok, as soon as you leave the concrete corridor, you're greeted with an open, long, and wide entry into T2, which is a nicely banked 180 degree left hander that's double apexed if you're really hauling (but since I was on old style Michelin street tires (early Pilots), I sorta took most of the cornering kinda timidly until later in the day.)

Exit T2 and bang a gear when it's time, over the top of the blind rise to a downhill that rivals anything except Road Atlanta. Holy Moley!.... and it's decreasing radius! (But it's nicely banked and almost nobody ever crashes there.) Ok, hard right thru T2 down the short straight (about like the straight between T7 and T8 at Oak Hill), then left into T3 which is an increasing radius corner..... so I let the R1 eat..... It loves the fuel/air mixture I was feeding it...

Up the hill, pretty much a straight shot up the winding 'back straight', left, right.... one more gear over the rise and ....... virtually airborn.... the front is up and the rear weighs just about nothin'.... and then you see it..... T5, deceptive as heck...... requires a very wide left hand setup followed by a hard right, left, followed by a psuedo-double apexed T6 to the right. This is followed closely by T7 which is a leftie and then bang a couple of gears on the uphill to T8.

T8 is a very wide and pretty fast corner that enters onto the line up area for the drag track. There's a MONSTER dip on the inside of it, so if you stay wide you can easily set up for another 180 left hander - T9. Run wide at the exit to set up for the bus-stop (T10)...flick right and repeat!

------

It's been 2 years, 2 months since I was on a racetrack. My last time was the RS trackday at Hallett in March (I think) of 2005. Yeah, it's been a while.

26 months is a long time. My skillset was absent this morning. Physical skills were gone, and certainly the physical changes brought on by chemotherapy didn't help. (I'll give an example later.) Basically I'd forgotten how to move around on the motorcycle and forgotten what the motorcycle would/could do if I misbehaved.

And so, I rode like a wussy for my first three sessions. And yet, at the end of each of these sessions I was exhausted and really couldn't breathe. I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack at the end of the first session...... so I relaxed for about 10 minutes and figured out I wasn't gonna inconvenience the guys in the pits around me.....

Session two was much more relaxed.....and I felt better, but still not good. Session three was pretty decent.... and the rest of the day was tiring but not exhausting...... The secret? Relaxation on the track. Speeds went up, lap times went down, and I felt better at the end of each session. Progress.

BUT, here's how I ended my day. Much of the skillset had returned but I discovered I've lost the sensitivity I used to have in my feet/calves......

I came into T8 hotter than I'd ever done before.... and made a pretty bad mistake. I turned left and entered T8 at just under 100mph. Trouble was, I apexed WAY too early.

This single error put me thru the dip at ~100 and pointed me at a vicious looking tire wall. So the bike was horribly upset (the dip is bad) and I'm headed off the pavement, tipped left and freaked out...... and so, just as I used to do if I blew T2 at TWS, I applied a bit of rear brake to make the back end come around and steer the bike left.....

.....and the rear end came around....... A LOT!.....and I'm as sideways as I ever wanna be at just about 90 (I'm on the front brake too, but I'm tipped in.) So I let off and the bike snaps back into line violently..... and I'm still looking at tire wall with a little bit of loose topped hard pack in front of it. Not good. Too much speed, not enough distance.... simple math.

So I do the rear brake thing AGAIN, hoping for less sliding...... and she goes back to the same attitude...... FLOCK! Off the brake again, violent snap again. But I'm pointed at the runoff now, pretty much up-track from where this all started, and I'm down to about 40 so I just surrendered. I ran the R1 into the gravel, checked over my left shoulder for traffic and took the pit exit because I was virtually there.... travelling slowly with seat foam and vinyl sucked up my bum.....

I was DONE. No sense in continuing to ride tired and stupid. It was fun and educational.

I have to accept all of the blame for this incident, but it breaks down to: mental error(s), physical issues, and my choice of tire.... Pacific is a left handed track, I was aimed left and the tire was a street Pilot - pre dual compound.... the surface of the left side was absolutely gooey when I got to the pits. No more street tires on the track unless I'm escorting the Pope. Ed and my oncologist would have killed me if I'd hit that dadgum wall!

Here's something from the day after:

I REALLY lost the back end of the R1 in my last session, last corner of the day. Well, today while I was putting the bike back in street trim, I looked at the tire and realized it still had the slide marks on it...... DUH! So I whipped out my some measuring tools and confirmed what my eyes suggested.

1) The slide marks are about 1 + 1/4 inch wide.

2) The marks go off the left edge of the tire.

3) The marks go all the way around the tire.

4) The marks lie at angles from ~30 to ~45 degrees from the path of travel.

I think that qualifies as a lurid slide.

I guess I have to give credit to Michelin for creating a street tire that returns from a slide in a relatively non-violent manner.But in my mind's eye, I can't imagine what that must have looked like.... (I finally got the vinyl and seat foam out of my puckered arse this morning......)

Now some pics. Click to make larger if you want.

Alaska

It's funny. There's something going on in the foreground of my daily activities but I haven't mentioned it here. It's odd that I've not gone public with this opportunity, primarily because I spend some time every day planning for it or acting on it.

Two friends of mine, Brad and Tim, have planned a trip from Dallas to Prudhoe Bay on the north shore of Alaska. Yeah, that's one hell of a trip in an airplane and these guys are gonna do it on motorcycles!

Don't bother to map it. Yahoo says it's 10,400 miles round trip. Yup, TEN THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED MILES. Nuts! (Actually, I admire their moxie.)

So here's the deal. They're going to use my house in Seattle as a way-station. They'll ride their motorcycles up here from Dallas, fly back to Dallas and return here two weeks later to "re-start" from here. On their return, they'll pass thru here again and continue the next day on their way back to Dallas. The Prudhoe Bay to Dallas leg is gonna be 5200 miles with nothing more than overnight stops. Ride, sleep, ride, sleep, repeat.

Of course, since they're friends, they've asked me to come along. Ed was stupid enough to say I could go. (Yes, I asked him when he wasn't really paying attention and he consented. "Sure dear, sounds like it would be fun for you.)

So I have permission, but my adult side says "No Freaking Way". I'm not prepared to do eleven days on the road and 6200 miles round trip. The physical burden, not to mention the financial burden would be insane to tackle at this juncture. It would be an adventure and a feather in my cap, but the potential for misery and catastrophe looms large. I'm gonna be as smart as I can while still being a participant.

So, I'm gonna do about 1600 miles round-trip. I'll ride from Seattle to the beginning of the ALCAN Highway in a nice little place called Dawson Creek in British Columbia, Canada. I'll stay overnight with the guys, and then come back home. Total trip, just under 4 days. I think it'll be a good way to get back to being a real motorcyclist.

The casting couch.

Ok, so I went to read for the movie part. Two pages, about 10 lines read. Did it twice.

They picked NONE of us. AHAHhahahahahahahaha!

It's OK, there's not much return in doing movies for free.

The Seattle 100

I signed up to participate in the Seattle 100. http://www.2-fast.org/seattle-100.html

Then I sent out some donation solicitations to a few of the motorcycle organizations I belong to. Lo-and-behold, I got the basic $500 obligation for the event sponsored within two days.

On Friday, I opened a special account just for the event and I'm asking people to provide their donations now. I hope to avoid the "PBS Donation Syndrome" by doing this. Essentially, if people aren't able to meet their comittments to me, I'll have additional time to solicit other parties prior to the event.

I have other donation requests out there. Hopefully some of them will come thru.

Addendum: I've been lucky enough to receive full tire sponsorship for the event from SB Motorsports in Puyallup, WA. Michelin's RULE!

Newspaper interview and an audition.

Odd weekend for me. I was interviewed (2.5 hours) for the Seattle University school paper on Sat. We'll see how that comes out. I did a favor for a young motorcyclist one day some time ago and he contacted me about the interview last week. It's sorta odd how little things like that happen.

On another completely odd subject, I sent a headshot to an ad on craigslist to audition for a part in a student movie.... No big deal, it's a freebie for them and a lark for me..... but they DO wanna audition me today. Will advise.

House progress

Ed and I made good progress on the house this weekend. We finished the fan installation and lighting in the new bathroom. All the ceiling work required that required that we paint the ceiling after the holes were cut and prior to final installation.

So, the room is going to be "Guacamole" green with oak cabinets and dark countertops. Yeah, the name "Guacamole" is probably making some of you wonder about our sanity, but the color really works in this room.

Pics will follow when we finish. I wanna be done by the end of the month.

Visit from Ray and Ron

Our Dallas friends Ray and Ron were up in Vancouver on vacation and decided to buzz down to Seattle for the day to visit us. It was a nice sunny day so it turned out pretty perfect.

We went to several local tourist spots. The Seattle Art Museum Olympic Scupture Garden, Pike Place Market, Jose Rizal Park and the Space Needle. We walked a lot, obviously. Then we gave them the tour of the house and ate Philippine mangoes before we took them back to their bus.

All in all, a very nice Sunday.

View of downtown from Jose Rizal Park

Beautiful day.

It was a wonderful afternoon. I rode the R1 down to Fry's and back. I know that doesn't sound like much, but I enjoyed it none the less.

Wow, it's February already.

I can't believe we haven't posted anything here. Holidays were fine, nothing special. We did what we wanted to do within the limits of my endurance. It was actually sorta pleasant to just 'hang' for the holidays.

As far as working on the house, we're doing that slowly.... very slowly. Progress is being made. Much of the electrical is installed, plumbing is started. I just need to start feeling well enough to keep going and we'll be off to the races.

Ed's been painting. The green glitter wall is now 'Orange Cream' and the shared wall between the main room and the sun room is now 'Heavy Cream'. No, we're not on a food binge..... it's just what the manufacturer calls them.

By the way. I cancelled the order for the Kawasaki Concours. I really don't need another $14K toy I'll seldom use. Maybe in another year I can justify it, but not right now. I'll spend the money on the house and get some ROI. Then Ed and I will figure out where life is taking us before I get another toy.

Back to work.

Ed and I resumed heavy duty activities in the house. I got a couple of smaller projects finished in the garage and then started a rewire job and some framing for the future bathroom. Ed prepped the main room and the old sparkly green megawall, then painted its' first coat. We're trying to like the color..... it's just a hella change..... textured sparkling seafoam green has become "orange creme". It changes the room on so many levels, I don't think we know whether it's right or wrong. Time will tell.

38 to 42

Temps today were 38 to 42. Weather was dry and I rode the R1 to work. Glorioski, I'd forgotten how different it is to scoot to the office instead of caging it. In spite of the cold and the need to suit-up before and after mounting, I still prefer scooting. I'm not even gonna try to explain why. It's just different. More satisfying. Less of a drone. A remover of tedium. Now I just need to try it in the wet once or twice.

Somehow the Concours pops into the picture again. It'll make a much better commuter than the R1. Much.

Holidays are here.

The holidays are here. My brain is clear. Life is good. I think I'll ride the motorcycle to work in the morning. It's supposed to be in the upper 30's. Yippee.

Motorcycling in Seattle

So I went for a ride this morning..... It was about 28 degrees, maybe a bit less. It was just supposed to be a quick run to the coffee shop to meet my buddy Jay and see if any of the poseurs show up.

Turned out I was the only one who went. Something about ice on the streets seems to freak people out. Hell, it's not like the ice was everywhere. It was only in the spots where one might expect it, and it was easily seen. There were only a couple of creepy parts and they were all close to the house. No biggie.

Anyway, I had no problem getting back on the steed. Muscle memory seems to still be there. My only input error was an over-application of the front brake.... not a lockup, just a "wow, these sure are responsive" kinda thing. I corrected as quickly as my goolies hit the back of the tank!

PNW Storms

You've been reading about the storms in the Pacific North West. Yeah, we got them. Our power was off for about 18 hours. Typical scenario though..... the weather here is so mild that anything extreme snaps off all the trees and the power lines go down. It didn't really qualify for a "toad strangler" back in the midwest.

Rick and Gary

My brother Rick and his hubby Gary were here for the weekend. It was good to see them again. Last time we visited was right after the elephant arrived and things were a bit stressful. This time we just looked at a couple of books of childhood photos, laughed a lot, spent decent time together eating too much food, and having Ed killed us all at Scrabble. I guess it'll be our turn to fly down there next time.

New rings.

I had a little accident yesterday with a power tool. It smashed my hand and my ring pretty well. The little ordeal precipitated a conversation between Ed and I.

We came to the conclusion that 6.5 years together as a loyal, happy, dedicated couple, we're as married as two people can possibly be without the sanction of the state or the church. Neither of us is religious, so the church holds no power over us, and the state is......well, the USA. Every possible piece of legal work has been done to make one another equivalent to a spouse, so the state is taken care of. We could go to Canada for a license and a ceremony but there are practical issues involved right now.

We're married. So, we went out and bought new rings today.

Anniversary

November 15 was the 6th anniversary of Ed and I moving in under the same roof. It's sort of our tertiary anniversary, but it's a milestone none the less.

This weekend

We got the catalytic converters replaced on Ed's car this weekend. The dealer told us we were on the verge of cat failure and O2 sensor failure, and that's why the car stumbled and stalled when the temps got low. Trouble was, the dealer wanted $4400 for new cats and sensors. A local shop did the deed for $1000 and the car seems to run OK. Ed thinks it's not quite as powerful as it was, but since he's never (and I mean never) stomped on the gas pedal in his car, he might not be a good judge.

I have a small worry that the local shop might not have done something right...... simple price/value/correctness concern, but we'll see what comes of it.

In any case, it was a productive weekend. House cleaning, garage cleaning, car repair, just "stuff".

Oh, the main pump on the hot tub failed. Looks like it's locked up. Guess I'll have to attend to that in the middle of winter. Yippee. C'est la vie.

Good people

Ok, so I ordered the Kawasaki and told the good folks at D&H Cycles in Cullman, Alabama I might need to unwind the deal if the cancer and chemo thing didn't work out.

Since then, I've gotten two very nice signed cards from their staff with psalms and good thoughts. I'm not a religious man, but it seems to me these are decent folk who are just doing what they see as the right thing. You have to give credit to people who follow their beliefs and who support others.

I don't know of another dealership on the planet that would do this. That's why I still trade with a dealer in Alabama and I'm in Seattle. Some things have value.

Looking into the near future.

I ordered a new Kawasaki 1400 Sport Tourer last week. Confirmation came in the mail this weekend. Sometime about April or May I'll have to go down to Alabama and ride the poor little thing back up to Seattle. You know I'm gonna hate that.

Maybe if I can put it off until late May, I can take a more northern route than the I-10 corridor. Been there, done that. The last time I changed routes, I was hauling an 18' trailer full of furniture behind my pickup. Won't quite be the same on two wheels.

Good weekend....

Friday night dinner at Santorini. Saturday was a nice roaring fire in the fireplace with a decent Caberet-Sauvignon to further warm the soul. And of course, romance..... coming up on 6 years living under the same roof.... and we still love each other enough to be romantic..... unplanned, enjoying the fruits of life and appreciating what we give one another. Just me and Ed and some fermented grapes and some burning logs. Simple. Wonderful. Elemental. Us.

House progress

So, let me say that my outlook on projects is improving. I'm ready to tackle the house on a limited basis, working until I get tired and then waiting to move forward another inch.

This weekend, Ed and I removed all the tack-strips and cleaned up all the floors a bit.... no more need to watch where you walk and be afraid of exposed staples. It's a relief and the floors actually look less ugly. We also relocated the cabinets so I can get the plumbing in behind the sinks, move the electrical supplies, and generally get going on the rough stuff.

Layout went well and all the holes are drilled thru the floor to connect to supply and drain lines. It's going to be a bit tricky adding supply lines for the toilet and tub, but a teeny bit of tear-out in the back wall should solve the issue easily enough.

Wiring in this room is going to be 'too much fun'. I'll keep you posted.

And the rains came.

Seattle has been seattle-esque for the last two days. Thankfully it was an effective test of my tarp system for the boat. Everything seems dry AND well ventilated. I'll be doing some winterizing this weekend so I'll check for mold and mildew now while it's still manageable.

Damn, I wish I could ride my motorcycle. I'm getting the urge to be stupid. Hopefully I can remain in my "adult" state and keep off.

Anyway, besides winterizing the boat, I have to plumb and lay underlayment below and behind the new cabinets. I'm gonna need Ed's help moving the cabinets, but the rest should go AOK if I'm patient with myself.

Progress

Ed and I layed out a plan to make some progress on the upstairs bathroom. Underlayment was purchased and we're gonna set things in motion. I certainly feel well enough to get some work done at least a couple of hours every day, so the going will be slow, but it'll certainly be faster than we're going now. Photos will follow of course.

Ed's closet.

Ed opened his closet door to his mom on Sunday. It went well, and Ed's happy as a clam in deep mud. His brothers and dad don't have any idea, but mom was the big step.

I'm so proud of him!

The out of towners.

My brother Rick and his husband Gary came up to visit us this weekend. They've never been to Seattle and it'd been a year since we'd seen one another.

We had perfectly clear skies on Friday after they landed, and they got to see Seattle in all its sparkling beauty. I think they were impressed. Rick, Gary and I ignored the elephant in the room almost all afternoon, and then Ed got home and we went to Salty's for dinner.

I crashed right after dinner. Apparently the three of them talked about the elephant at length. I know it helped Ed immensely.

Sunday morning included a little session that had my brother and I talking about the elephant. My view was that the elephant exists and reality suggests we have to deal with it. Wailing about the elephant doesn't make it any less real, and in fact, it tends to make the elephant appear larger and smellier than he is.

Anyway, we sent the boys off back to Dallas on Sunday. They want to come back soon, and certainly they're more than welcome. I look forward to seeing them sometime before the elephant sits on my chest.

Ed's new toy.

Ed finally made a logical choice with regard to the Prius. SELL IT! It was $530 a month he was spending on something he never drove. Seriously, he was only driving it about 100 miles a month. Yeah, a HUNDRED miles a month. So he decided to cash-out of the nerdmobile and only spend his reserve on another car. Here are a few pics of what we picked up. Hellova way to go get groceries! Oh, it's a 740i.

The fleet is in.

Ed and I bought a boat. It's a 19' bowrider runabout with a 5.8 liter I/O (351 Cleveland V8). Here's a pic of our captain. Click on the pic to see his smiling face almost full sized.

"Before and After" time

This is the guest bedroom. Not 100 percent finished, but 99.5 ain't bad.

Picture time

Click on the pics and they should get larger.

This is the "fiberglass pond" and surround. Pardon the yard!












ROGER. "Valiant protector of the thermostat."




The sun room. Sorry, no "before" shots. This room used to look like it belonged in the garage.

Night shots under the lights.

BFR

BFR stands for Big Freaking Racoon. He walked across the deck yesterday afternoon......I thought he was a dog! It's not often you hear footsteps and discover a stripe-tailed bandito padding across your comfort zone.

Hopefully there will be more pics this weekend. The sunroom and the guest bedroom should be finished by then.

Contemplation

Yesterday was the worst travel day in my entire life. I've been on the road for more than 25 years and yesterday took the cake.

On Wednesday, I awoke to a full day of exciting activities with customers, having been asked to babysit a problem-child during a sales walk thru. I dilligently patted this guy on his little head and made him feel like his little project was the most important thing on my agenda. Yippee...

Then I had a quick dinner and got on a United flight to Boston via San Fransisco. Full. Sitting next to an overweight moose with an IQ of about 7. (Seriously, the arm rest for the row in front of us was in the UP position. Bullwinkle decided to push the buttons to see if he could get the channels to change on the TV. I'm not shitting you.)

Then I switched planes in SF to head to Boston. Guess what? There were twenty 12 year olds on a field trip to the national Scrabble tournament on board. I took a melatonin and still didn't get any sleep. 12 year old girls go to the bathroom CONSTANTLY.

So I arrived in Boston at 7:00 AM with enough time to get my luggage, rent a car, check in, shower, and get to the class I was there to take. Class was supposed to start at 10:00 AM and I arrived at the office at 9:45.

Then I discovered that we wouldn't be starting until 11 to 11:30 because the other student was running late. OK, shit happens.

Class consisted of NOTHING. No printed materials, no curriculum, no diagrams, no powerpoint presentation, NOTHING. "You guys play around with the machine and let me know if you have any questions." is not a class. This bullshit lasted until 5 PM when I declared myself DONE.

I was exhausted, so I ate and went to bed at 7 PM. My body clock got me up at 3:30 AM Boston time, so I did emails and generally worked for about an hour, then I got ready and went to the airport so I could avoid all the inbound rush-hour traffic headed for Boston. I had breakfast in the airport and boarded my plane home at 8:30 AM Boston time. We departed a few minutes after the scheduled 9 am departure for Chicago.

Guess what? I was sitting aisle next to the two fattest lesbians I've ever seen. These girls were HUGE. I mean "seatbelt extension" huge. Yeah, both armrests were up in our row because they couldn't fit in thier seats with the armrests down. My body is 15 inches wide at the hips. I had 14 inches to sit in. No, the girls weren't just going to Chicago. They were going all the way to Seattle and there were no empty seats on the plane. This was gonna suck.

Thank goodness they were nice and sorta fun. Otherwise I would have had to deflate one of them.

Ok, yadda yadda, off to Chicago we go. Landing, taxi in, get off, stretch my cramped legs, and then back on the plane to play "Sardine Boy" with the tunas.

Moulded earphones in my ears, trying to zone out so I can survive the crush, I hear the captain announce that we'd levelled off at 36,ooo feet and that he was turning off the seatbelt sign... Pleasant music lulling me to sleep..... la la la la la......and then the voice of a professional (but stressed) flight attendant:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it's obvious that the smoke alarms are all going off and that the cabin is filling with smoke. I need EVERYONE to start feeling the floor, walls, and ceiling of the aircraft and let a crew person know if you feel anything hot."

I wasn't in Kansas any more.

The FA was right. Every alarm in the airplane was screaming and I couldn't see the pilot's door from the 31st row.

FUCK. This is it. We're 7 miles from the nearest water hose and this fucking 757 is on fire. FUCK. This is gonna suck. I'm gonna die some time in the next 5 minutes and it's not gonna be quick or painless. I also can't call Ed to say good-bye. THIS SUCKS!

The pilot called a MAYDAY and shut off all the power to everything in the rear. He put us on the ground in Rochester, MN in about 10 minutes flat. By that time, the smoke had dissipated and it looked like we weren't gonna die.

5+ hours later, United flew in another 757 that flew us to Denver. Then we sat on the ground while they changed crews and did paperwork. We arrived in Seattle some 8+ hours late, exhausted and traumatized.

United's response? A $50 voucher for future flights on United. I'm not kidding.......

FUCK UNITED AIRLINES. I'll never fly their bankrupt POS airline again, and I'll do everything I can to make sure nobody does.

Yes, it's been a while......

......but we've been busy. Time for more before and after shots. This is the media room now. It was the master bedroom. Can you imagine?!

The best laid plans......

Ok, so we went to buy carpeting for the media room on February 25th. Today is March 16 and they installed the carpet right around noon today. Yeah, three weeks to get carpeting!

As the installer was vacuuming the carpet before he left, I heard "Oh no!", and then "Gee, it looks like we'll be seeing you again soon to do this job over again."

NOT FUN.

Looks like there's a flaw in the carpet. It's two feet long, up to three inches wide, and permanent. Now we get to wait for the seller to contact us, send a "mill rep", and then determine what they're going to do about it. The installers seem to think the carpet should be completely replaced.

THIS SUCKS!

We're basically 3 weeks into this. Now I have to make sure I have time off to let an inspector in, then negotiate with the seller about a solution, then start the whole process of ordering and installing all over again!

If you've ever had new carpet installed around new paint, we have at least 1/2 day of "touch up" to do on the walls and the doors. We can't even start that until we come to some determination of our solution.

THIS DOUBLE SUCKS.

At this point, we're not gonna discuss who the nationwide vendor is. If we don't get satisfaction, we'll be happy to tell the world. More on this later.

Change of plans!

Ok, so we pulled up the carpet and the padding from the living room for transplantation into the media room. Two problems reared their ugly heads.

One, the padding was sorta old and laden with sand. (Why sand?)
Two, the carpet had some interesting stains on the underside. They were mostly in the far corner of the room and against the far wall..... Hmmm.... I guess the previous owners had pets at some point.

So, the hardwood floor underneath the carpet can be resurrected because it's in decent shape (despite the cat/dog piss stains), but there's no way I'm gonna transplant bad carpet into a fresh room!

In any case, the change of plans turned into a complete rethink of the media room. The dark green wall paint we chose was based on the dark green carpet. Since we no longer needed to re-use the carpet, we could change the wall color.

SO..... we repainted the entire room and ordered a brownish copper colored carpet. Black miniblinds and curtains will block the sunlight, and the screen surround, media center (rack), wall unit, tables, and chairs will all be black. Thus, we have a room that's sorta medium saddle leather color with black features. I'll post pics as soon as the carpeting gets installed. I promise.

It's been forever......

...since I last posted here. I've been busy.

Ed and I have been finishing the media room. I bought new doors for the closet but I haven't hung them. We pulled up the carpet and the padding, as well as removed all the staples and crap from underneath it. The floors in that room aren't in very good shape, but they're red oak none the less...... so we pulled up the dark green crap from the living room for 'transplanting' into the media room.

The floors in the living room are resurrectable and we've gotten bids at $3.50 per square foot to have them redone by a pro. Looks like a plan.

Anyway, we're going to put the dark green carpet down in the media room this weekend, hang and paint the doors, trim the screen, and refinish all of the trimwork that needs touchup. I wanna get that room DONE so we can move forward.

Ed has a plan to do the guest bedroom next. I can't say I blame him, but I need to finish the ceiling project in the sun room and get the walls in the living room painted. The painting projects are jobs Ed can do. We just need to concentrate on getting our paint coverage more even.

So, it looks like we'll be moving back into the "future bathroom" instead of being in the "guest bedroom".

After we get the living room, the guest bedroom, and the media room finished, we can start hanging enough of our artwork to clear out the downstairs bedroom. Then we can live down there and finish the upstairs.

Oh, we also moved the hot tub on Sunday so it's closer to the deck. Now I have to build a short walkway from the deck to the tub. Yippee!

Pictures will follow soon.

The Oddest Thing.....

Something pretty unusual happened today as I stood in the kitchen looking out over our vast holdings (mess of a backyard).

We have hummingbirds (that's not the odd part, we have a hummingbird feeder so we know they exist) and a male I'd never seen before flitted into view.

The odd part was that he hovered between the feeder (hanging below the eaves) and an adjacent cheezy lantern I haven't taken down yet. He looked from one item to the next as if to say, "Bob told me to come over here for a good meal, but which one of these joints was he talking about?"

Yeah, I realize that's anthropomorphism at its worst, but it honestly seemed that he was confused. (It was sorta like I feel sometimes.)

After a good 5 seconds making up his little birdbrain, he buzzed toward the lantern first, realized his mistake, and then zipped over to the feeder. The little pig stayed for 3 big gulps and then flew off again. I've seen him 3 or 4 times since. Maybe he likes the food but doesn't care for the decor or the service.

SAT/SUN Feb 4/5

Saturday it rained, so we spent half the day shopping for stuff, half a day working on the media room, and the evening watching NunSense 2 an the local musical comedy troupe half a mile from the house. Everything was good.

Sunday was sunny, so I worked Ed's ass off outside. Installation of a deck light, shoveling compost, replanting bulbs, and spraying weed killer took up most of the morning. Our Dallas friend Chris flew into town and we did lunch with him, and later we had dinner with our local buddy Ming at Pomodoro (good stuff). Later, Ed went out galavanting with Chris. They were out late, but didn't get into any trouble.

Progress happens one foot at a time.

Today.....

....I fixed the leak in my truck cab lamp (or at least I serviced it, I dunno for sure if it's fixed). I used a hair dryer to dry the carpeting in the truck. Hopefully I did a good enough job to prevent mold and mildew.

Then I went up on the roof to figure out why the kitchen fireplace is always full of water. Oddly, there was a tile on top of the opening, but the tile was below grade, so rain would just puddle up there and run down the inside of the chimney. Gravity is an amazing thing. My solution? I cemented the tile to the chimney and covered the fresh cement work with plastic so it can set up correctly. While I was up there, I also taped and trimmed the HVAC outlets to prevent drips. Preventive maintenance.

I registered the R1. $212.25

Oh, and I sprayed some of that high dollar brush killer. I'll let you know if it works.

EDIT - The high dollar brush killer won't work. It started raining again. Damn!

Rain, Rain, Go AWAY!

A bazillion inches of rain have fallen this week. We're something like 5 inches above the norm for January. Yeah, +5" in a single month!

We've found the source of the wet spot in the downstairs office. It's the fireplace. Someday when it stops raining, I'll put a tile on the opening to the kitchen fireplace since this seems to be the source. Unfortunately, a steel roof and incessant rain make it impossible to go up on the roof.

I've also discovered that the seal for the bed light at the back of my truck's cab leaks like a sieve. I'll probably spend part of tomorrow with a hair dryer inside the truck so the carpet won't get mildewy. Obviously I have to fix the leak.

The pilot light went out in the water heater overnight. This is the second time this has happened since we moved in. I have to get that thing moved and properly vented this weekend. Yippee.

We planted herbs by the front door last weekend..... Ed checked to see if we had shoots yet. Horticulture isn't his thing.

January 28/29

Ok, so what did we do this weekend.

I made Ed get up in the 18" high attic to string cabling for the media room. The whole claustrophobia thing kept me from trying to crawl thru spaces too tight for a grown adult. We got it done with lots of cooperation and calm heads. Then I connected some of the items, but it's still not running. Maybe I'll do that Sunday.

Ed primered the ceiling in the sunroom. Since the sunroom was added to the front of the house, and half of its ceiling is actually the old redwood eaves of the roof, the redwood leeches thru the primer/paint to make sorta a brownish yuck colored paint. This was Ed's third coat of primer. We'll migrate to the high coverage white next and see what happens there.

The sun came out a bit in the afternoon so I cleared and raked the area inside the curve of the walkway to the front door. Despite the relatively small size of the space, I ended up with about 5 wheelbarrows full of organic matter that I dumped in front of the house by the bus stop. (I'm in the process of turning that area into a flower garden. I just have to build a small perimeter wall around it.)

Afterward, I changed the front entry light from industrial halogen spots to a nice three headed spot.

Then we went to the Asian and Fabulous - Miss Gay API Pageant with our buddy Jay. What a fucking train wreck! Late, Lame, and LOOOOOONG. Hell, even the Dragon Dancers from the local Kung Fu Shaolin group went on FOREVER. Their drummer sounded like he was inspired by the drum solo in Iron Butterfly's Inna Gadda Da Vita. What is it about drag queens that inspires them to drink and get loaded before they perform?

Anyway, we left early and went to the grand opening of Cafe Metropolitain in Cap Hill. It was OK. Decent place to hang with friends.

Sunday was sorta relaxing. We took a walk around our 'hood, then came back and planted herbs in the front entry planter. I also transplanted some bulbs we found growing there.

Then there was lunch at Mr Villas Restaurant. Certainly adequate CalMex food. Pretty damned expensive for lunch.

We cut holes and strung wiring for the recessed lighting until after it got dark. One of the holes ended up in a place that won't work, so we have to patch the ceiling and change locations about 6 inches.

Ahhh, the trials and tribulations of home improvement!

Sunshine!

Ok, so the rain finally stopped. Hell, we didn't even set a record at 28 consecutive days..... We needed 33 and came up 5 short.

The sun was out today with a vengeance. Naturally, I spent the day deep inside a hospital's mammo suite setting up computers in the dark. Reality bites. I should have been out riding scooter. (I came home a bit early so I could spray some miserable plantlife to make it DIE. Spraying the stuff while it rains is useless. It has to sit on the leaves for a while before it works, and the rain sorta prevents that.)

Seattle weather isn't really as depressing as people assume it is. Most of the time, we see the sun part of the day. It seems that the sun is up from sunrise until about 8:30 AM. Then it turns gray and possibly rainy. Does it depress me? Not really. Does it make me enjoy the sun more than usual? Probably. Even Ed was extolling the virtues of sunshine a couple of days ago, and that's unusual for him.

I miss riding my motorcycle. I'm afraid I'll lose my skills... Yeah, like totally. ;-)

Before and after pics

Here are a couple of before and after pics of the front of the house. We'll be doing this kinda thing a lot in this blog.

Life in Seattle

Ok, it's the new year. Well, actually it's January 20th so we're starting off a bit late. Let me get you up to date.

Ed and I moved to Seattle sometime in early November. Ed got a position as a research scientist at the University of Washington and Andre left his old employer for an opportunity with another medical connectivity provider.

We'd been looking at houses for some time over the internet and had been shocked by the prices and the absence of good real estate agents. (We still haven't found a good one, even though ours eventually turned out to be adequate for the task at hand.)

We originally set a price threshold at 350K for a house, but once we arrived, I discovered I didn't want to live in any of the places we'd found. Ed would have moved into any number of them because he demands so little, but I tend to have higher expectations of my domicile.

So we drove around looking at damned expensive places and didn't like any of them. Then Ed stumbled across this house........



We looked at it and thought it was interesting. Certainly we could see the potential in the place (or at least I could). We made an offer, they countered, and we finally came to an agreement.

Roughly 4 times the price of our house in Texas!!

Now, let me say that the two guys who lived in the house before us had been there for 17 years. They were a gay couple involved in what I believe to be a triangular relationship. Cool, whatever floats your boat... but these guys never got the decorator gene. The place was/is hideous.

Green sparkly paint on the common area main wall. Green peas and cream vomit colored exterior. Green steel roof. DARK green plush carpet in the common area (covering the 1958 oak floors). Brown sculptured pile carpet in the bedrooms. Pink flowers on the wallpaper in the kitchen. Burgundy formica in the kitchen contrasts strongly with the off-white floor, off-white cabinets, and green carpet/green walls of the adjoining areas. Yeah, they had burgundy leather furniture in "greenland".

MotoBio is open

MotoBio is online!

MotoBio is the blog of two guys.... one is a Motorcyclist, the other is a Biologist. This is the story of their adventures in life together.