Juuly 3rd thru the 9th, 2005Previous Week | Archive Index | Current Blog | Next Week Ikea in My Kia So, breakfast, coffee cause they (moms and dads (not plural, but an ethnic colloquialism)) drink it, and time to decide what to do with the day. One of us was feeling not up to the winery that was suggested before, so instead we went to Ikea. All the way out there. I myself like Ikea, but man, that place is exhausting. I got some new dining room chairs, and a lamp, and some odds and ends. At home, we put it all together... and the lamp didn't work. Dad took it apart, and  discovered a piece was missing. An electric piece. Oh well, back it goes. Then we had dinner. Then my landlord, who is Chinese, came over to get some help on some writing. By the time that was done, Dad, poor guy, was working. There's some big project coming up and the folks in India are moving forward. He'll be visiting there for a few weeks soon. But one by one we sort of dozed off, on account of the long day and little sleep. Crash!
Monday July 4th, 2005, American Independance Day Happy 4th of July! Is there a better way to celebrate the 4th than with some Peet's Coffee, a cheesy egg fritatta, and a walk around Greenlake? Maybe. But that's what we did. Ma used my brandly new frying pan, which I bought on account of it's being oven safe, to make some kinda egg cottage cheese tomato and other veggies baked thing. Quite good, quite good. We clipped around GL pretty fast this time. It wasn't TOO crowded, but it was definetly more populace than it had been. A beautiful day. So, we got back home, had left over chicken, and it was off to Chateau Ste. Michelle.
Or, at least I tried to, though it was tough with all the fireworks going off outside. Tuesday July 5th - Friday July 8th, 2005 It's Only 8 AMBecause I had to take mom to the airport so early, I have already accomplished many things. I created a task list, took out the trash and the recyclables, Did all the dishes, mopped the kitchen floor, vaccumed the upstairs, stairs, and my office, dusted, cleaned up my office closet, and wrote in this blog. Of course, you are seeing this much later than 8, because I am not done updating the blog, what with all the URLs and pictures to insert. And still to go, I have my JOB to do (couple projects to finish), the laundry to fold, and other miscellaneous. Let's just say, this could be one heck of a day.
It's Called Irony
A Music Game Puzzle Thing
Seattle to Portland, Day One Woke up at the BCoD to put things together for the STP, a two day, 200 mile bike ride down to our tax-dodging friends on the border. Got the car ready for Awesome Gem who was to be our driver. Then my neighboir and I hopped on our wittle bicycles and rode over to the U-Dub stadium for the official start... and off we went. The first 25 miles or so, to the first food stop, was A OK fine fun and dandy. I had various aches and pains and things, but plenty o' drugs helped with that. All over the counter, friends. The next 25 miles or so where also pretty good. I don't like to use real names in ye olde blog, so I'll pretend my neighbor's name is Steve, and so his nickname for the ride was Lance SteveStrong. He took off on every hill, and I just spent time catching up. Training? Me? No, other than that bike ride a month ago, I had not written since last year's STP-- and it showed. Lordy. The third quarter was toughish. Greg SteveMond got ahead of me, but was cool and waited for me at the penultimate water stop. In the last quarter, he got ahead again, but at the last water stop I couldn't stop on account of momentum, so I trudged ahead, and got my, what, 85th wind, and powerer to the end prtty hard. Felt good. there's 101 miles for ya. Have a nice day. Awesome Gem picked us up and drove us to our Motel room in Olympia. I there performed the most difficult task of my life: Getting out of shower. Holy moly was I tired. Then drove to a Shari's or Shoni's for dinner-- pasta for me. Back at the motel, it was sleep, though fitful, as aches and pains did battle the seratonin. Previous Week | Archive Index | Current Blog | Next Week |
This had been recommended to us by a few people, and since my mom and dad are wine snobs, it was a good idea. We got there, ma and pa hit the tasting bar, and I sat down with a book and fell alseep. But they woke me for the mini tour. We started in the bottling section, and went backwards to the fermenting and filtering rooms, the casks room, and then a mini-lesson in wine appreciation. First hold it up to the light and look at the edge. You want a clear edge, not brown or yellow or some other color. Next, swirl it around to oxygenate it a bit and take a big sniff. Try to identify dfifferent flavors in the nose, which the wine picks up from the oak-barrels it's aged in. These barrels are all hand-made, and run from $400 to $800 depending on the type of oak and how long the wood is cured. After the nose, swirl it again and watch the film that runs down the class. Look for the thickness of the film from the top edge of the swirl until it runs down in thin rivulets. This thickness (not the rivulets) will be longer for sweeter wines and shorter for less sweet. Now take a sip, and hold the wine on your tongue to identify where the flavor is-- tip, sides, or back. Then swallow. Now you're a wine snob.
We got back and home and the timing was such that soon we had to take dad to the airport (he need to get home so he could make and early meeting the next day), which we did after returning the lamp to 
Yeah, I got a lot done that Tuesday... and who knows what else the rest of the weak. And sure, I am breaking form, lumping all these days together and ye olde blog. And it would seem, Bukkhead, my lad, if you were not busy doing lots of things, surely you had time to update the blog? And if you were busy, surely you remember something? Well... I remember coffee on Tuesday night, and then some blurry parts that left me grinning so big the top of my head nearly fell off. I remember going to the chiropractor the next morning... playing