Memorial Weekend Ride - 702 miles

We woke up Saturday, looked outside at the rain and went back to bed. Sunday we woke up, looked outside at the rain and went out for an adventure anyway. We stopped by Starbucks for a coffee at 7:30AM and then gassed up for the fun.

Here is the "What the HELL ARE WE DOING" look - it was pouring and there was no end in sight. Notice the bulky look - I had on my Gore-Tex rain liners and under that Gerber electric gear - yes heated clothing my friends.


Off we went. It was only 15 minutes later that I had to pull over and try to adjust my gloves because they had been worn the "normal way" and rain was running down off my jacket right into my sleeve. Then we were off again.

When it is cold and wet outside and you are breathing in a confined area, fog tends to form. Our helmets were fogging up and no amount of venting was helping (besides, my vent kept spraying water into my mouth). The constant - pull visor up wipe inside with wet glove and quickly slam almost shut- routine was not working either. We stopped again at a drugstore to see if they had any anti-fog stuff. They did and it sort of worked for a little while. Off we went again.

5 minutes later I realized that my gloves were not actually waterproof. I was completely drenched. We made it to Mount Vernon where we spied a Harley Dealer that was open Sundays (a rare thing for a motorcycle dealer). Of course, it was only 9AM so we ended up having to wait in a McDonald's for an hour until the place opened. It was still pouring. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom with the hot air dryer, but it didn't do much good. Lesson - once you are wet you will be cold all day, especially if your wrists stay soggy. We went to the Harley dealer and bought gloves and anti-fog stuff for the helmets. Off we went again.

By the time we reached the border, it was lightly drizzling and my new gloves (although they were branded with a big Harley logo) were working well. We crossed over into Canada and accelerated to 100KM an hour :). It was turning out to be a lovely day - kind of. We stopped to look at some cows. Why? Well, because they were RUNNING. Yes, I saw Canadian cows running - really. John doesn't believe me, but I swear it's true. We took pictures - they wouldn't run for the camera.

John and the cows


They wouldn't run and they wouldn't come to the fence.


Apparently it is a thing - you are supposed to have a shot with the bird in it.


Ready to move


But there are ominous clouds ahead in the mountains...


Stay tuned for part 2 in which Robin and John see wildlife and more...

Random Friday Stuff

I am behind on my blog....this is random Friday stuff from...Friday. It is now Wednesday, almost Friday again.

This is my cube....there are many like it, but this one is mine....


My cube from the other side - notice the decorative lights so everyone can find me...



We went to see XMEN III on Friday night at the Cinerama. We had tickets already so all we had to do was stand in line for a seat. The line went all the way down the block, turned the corner, and almost turned the next corner. It didn't matter - we got great seats in the balcony just were we like to sit.

The Line


More of the Line


Inside - where it's twilight and the camera doesn't work so well.


Oh - this one is even worse - but you can see the GIANT curtain behind which is the GIANT screen.


I liked the movie. Of course, I liked all of the XMEN movies, so there you go.

Crumpets at 7AM

John and I walked down to the market this morning and ate crumpets and groats for breakfast before work. I had ham and egg on my crumpet - John had strawberry jam on his and we shared a bowl of groats with steamed skim milk and currents. John left before me and went to work. I bought fruit, veggies and flowers, walked home and worked from there. Nice day.

I got thrown out of the golf club

I finally got a chance today to go play golf with the group from work that goes every Wednesday. It's been raining on and off all day and I almost backed out, but I had no idea when I would be able to go again, so I pulled on my raincoat and headed out. I arrived at Trilogy Golf Club eager to step on to the pristine grounds and whack away with my hand-me-down club set that is only missing a 4-iron (John threw it in a pond on a frustrating golf outing of his own).

I met my co-workers in the parking lot and the five of us headed into the pro shop. There were not many other golfers around due to the weather so they were going to let us all go as one group and we could tee off immediately except....

"Do you have any rain pants?" the guy behind the counter said.

"No," I replied. I wasn't really worried about it though because we were getting a cart (which is covered) and it was actually quite sunny at the time.

"Do any of you have rain pants she can borrow?" he asked the guys I was playing with. None of them did and I was about to explain to the guy that I would be quite all right with what I had on. After all, one guy in our group had on shorts and two others had on flimsy track suit pants - they were surely in need of rain pants too.

"Well, I need you in something besides denim," he said, with a very concerned expression.

"Oh!" I can only imagine the look on my face as I suddenly realized that the guy was not trying to make sure I was comfortable, he was telling me I was not dressed appropriately for their establishment.

"I'm sorry, I had no idea that there was a dress code," I said. He smiled and came around the counter to lead me to the small selection of ladies clothing they had. "We just got these in, they are very nice," he said as he showed me a selection of light lilac skirts and rain pants. "I can give you a 10% discount if you want." The price tag said $45. Now I don't know about most of you, but I can't see myself running around in lilac rain pants, much less paying $45 for the privilege. Thankfully he left me to think in peace and I decided to tell my co-workers that I would just join them next week.

Why they thought faded blue shorts and track pants were ok, but my jeans weren't is beyond me, but rules are rules. I guess he didn't notice that under my raincoat I had on a collar-less shirt, which according to the little hidden section of ther webiste called "Attire" is also a definite no-no.

OK - so they didn't really THROW me out, but I didn't get to play. It had never occured to me that in Seattle of all places, where people wear jeans to the opera, I wouldn't be allowed to wear jeans on a golf course.

Getting my eyes fixed

I have finally made an appointment to have lasik. I am going to Vancouver, BC to get it done because it's about $1400 less than it is here in Seattle and their technology is ahead of ours. After June 15th - no more contacts or glasses. I wonder what it will be like to be able to see first thing in the morning when I wake up. I usually stumble around until I find my glasses. On second thought, I look terrible in the morning...

What's with mangoes anyway?

In making the mango salsa last night I discovered that I do not understand mango physiology. We never ate mangoes while growing up and I have never actually seen anyone else cut one - so how is it supposed to be done? I think my mango wasn't quite ripe enough. It was mushy on the outer layer and then rock hard in the middle. It was also kind-of stringy in texture. It was quite beguiling. Turns out that the 1/2 that I managed to get out of it was the perfect amount though - any more than that would have overwhelmed the whole salsa.

So - anyone out there have mango tips?

oops - I fell

I forgot...no, I neglegted to mention that I kind of fell over on my motorcycle yesterday. Ok - I dumped it. Hill + wheel turned + stopping = fall over. Nothing hurts - I always ride with full gear on and I managed only to scrape up my right panier and break my right mirror. A nice tourist just off the cruise ship from Alaska helped me lift the bike up. :)

Is that a FAN in your bathtub?

Why yes, that is a fan in my bathtub, and a couch, loveseat, mattress & boxsprings in my kitchen. As part of our massive Spring Clean campaign we had the carpets cleaned today - everything had to be off of the carpeted areas of the house (or in a closet). This was quite an accomplishment.



Rub-a-dub-dub junk in the tub


And more junk


Even the front hallway is full!


Oh - it's worth it in the end!

After we got home this evening and unloaded the furniture from the kitchen John put together the new table and chairs (yes, we finally said screw it and got a table). He had a few problems with the legs...


Meanwhile I was experimenting in the kitchen. We had avocado, tomato and mango that were ripe so I made kind-of curried shrimp with salsa and brown rice. I rarely measure so this is just an estimation of what I did.

Shrimp:
1/2 t cinnamon
1 t curry powder
1 t cayenne
a few splashes of red wine vinegar
juice from a tangerine
Mix over peeled shrimp (about 20) and let marinate while you chop up all the salsa ingredients. To cook: either grill them (which would be best) or saute in a frying pan if you are too lazy to put them on to skewers.

Salsa:
4 seeded tomatoes, chopped
2 small avocados, chopped
1/2 red onion , diced
2 jalapenos, diced
1 roasted yellow bell pepper, chopped
1/2 a mango, chopped
3/4 cup cilantro, diced
salt, pepper
lime juice
Mix it all together (use a rubber spatula so you don't end up smooshing it all) and that's about it.

Brown Rice:
Uh...water, brown rice, salt

It was muy deliscioso.

Tips From Chef M

Thursday night we had an event in the club room here in the condo - Chef M, a resident here at The Vine did a cooking demo featuring fresh summer salads. It was fabulous. We had White Bean and Tuna salad, Vietnamese Chicken Salad, and Crab Towers with Avacado & Hearts of Palm and Gazpacho Salsa.

Here are a few pictures:

About the Hair

Ok so random shots - one from 2 weeks ago with hair longer and blonder. The other from Friday night - darker and shorter.

Counting the Minutes

Yesterday it took me 58 minutes to get from the Pro Club in Bellevue to our place on my motorcycle - really bad traffic day. I know this because every time I start my motorcycle the clock starts counting the minutes. It is not supposed to do this. It is also not supposed to re-set the trip odometer to exactly 100 miles every time I start the bike. This is a bit of a problem because, like most motorcycles, mine does not have a gas gauge - it does have a low fuel light - unlike my last one - but I still am not sure when it will come on because I have no idea how far I have ridden since I last filled the tank. I think I will get this fixed soon.

45 minutes after I arrived home I departed in a swanky black dress, stockings and heels and walked down to the Starbucks to pick up John. On the way a car full of guys yelled and hooted at me and another guy on the sidewalk told me I was sexual harassment and then made noises after I had passed, and a couple of oh babys. I looked pretty good I think. I picked John up and we went to El Gaucho and sat in the bar for red wine and steak sandwiches. I was a brilliant evening. They actually have a "Feeling decadent" cocktail section in the menu in which the cocktails - for a SINGLE DRINK are between $100 and $450. Swanky indeed.

Nothing Much

I dyed my hair on Friday - it's dark. I decided not to be a ditzy semi-blonde anymore.

Cinco de Mayo

I drank beer. I ate tacos. I ate chips. Those of you who have been following my progress will know that this is quite a momentous occasion. I also bought a new pair of jeans because my others are all too big. I am at this moment sitting in my new size 8 jeans - and I have to go run later to get rid of all of yesterday's sins. :) Damn that beer was good.

TV Land

Saturday I happened to be reading the paper and spotted a tiny little add that said “open casting call for a new show on the Travel Channel based on the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die". Since we own a copy of the book (thanks Mom!) and we fit the demographic they were looking for and we are just..well, kind of weird, we decided to go.

First, we had to fill out the applications. This was a HUGE task. There were six pages of questions that were pretty difficult to answer. The whole time we spent filling the things out I kept trying to figure out what they wanted - are they looking for someone worldly, naive, timid, tough, what? What exactly do they think the "perfect type" would be to send on a four month round-the-world journey? I don't know. Here is a sample from the application:

• Tell us something funny about you that people would be surprised to learn?
  I really love playing Dance Dance Revolution and I am a closet Bollywood fan.
• What is the wildest thing you’ve ever done? What made you do it?
  Skydiving classes. I actually did 11 jumps and was scared to death every single time I stepped into the doorway. The first time was because I just wanted to try it, after that I loved the feeling of freefall and the calm under the canopy, not to mention the challenge of conquering my fears.
• What are you passionate about? Learning. I consider myself a life-long learner and my curiosity drives me to learn more weather it’s about new technology, ancient geological formations, or a new way to cook – there’s always more!
• What is your biggest pet peeve? People who are loud and stupidly obnoxious in public.
• Use five words to describe your partner: Intelligent, curious, passionate, future-forward, open
• What qualities to you admire the most in your partner? His ability to analyze things and figure out the way they work. Whether it’s something mechanical, a fictional plot, a piece of software, or interrelated parts of the body he can see each piece and the way it fits into the other. Also his ability to put people at ease, to make me laugh, and to adapt to tough situations.
• What qualities to you admire the least in your partner? He can’t always overcome the urge to tell me how to do things the “right way” when all I am trying to do is have fun.

Yeah - it went on and on like that for six pages. These are the kinds of questions that are MUCH tougher than you think - really! You try it! John's answers were much better than mine.
We arrived at the actual casting call last night at around 5pm. It was being held at some weird hotel above the highway between downtown and Capital Hill - no man's land. We got there (on our motorcycles of course) and ended up circling the place trying to find parking - finally parked in the hotel garage and walked out of the EXIT door. The door opened to a weird little courtyard and there was a gate leading to the street - which was locked. We tried getting back in the garage - also locked. We walked around to the second level of the terrace - you guessed it - locked again. I was getting worried – here we were trying to convince some TV people to take us on a round-the-world tour and we couldn’t even get in the stinking hotel. We wandered around like this in the freaky little multi-level dilapidated courtyard until we found a door that was open. We were then on the 4th floor of the hotel - after walking down long twisty hallways we managed to find the elevator and go down to the lobby. They had us sign in at a table downstairs and then go back up to the "waiting area" where several other couples were biding their time before going in to face the camera.

We found quite a lot to look at to occupy ourselves. There was the 40 something pony-tailed intellectual and his wife, who was wearing a skirt and stripped knee socks. The early 20's couple on their way to a concert of some kind who had just a few piercings - enough to make them look "edgy" and a definite “no big deal” attitude. There was Mr. Slick and his wife - the couple who went in right before us who "dressed up" for the occasion with his greased back hair and a suit jacket with jeans. The extremely self-absorbed guy who talked on his phone the entire time about all of the important things he was doing and totally ignored his wife - who was totally ignoring him. The scribblers - so called because they were frantically trying to answer all of those application questions - they hadn't done it before coming in. And finally - the 30 something couple with the 2-year old (I am still not sure what they were thinking - the application talked about you having to LEAVE your kids for 4 months - they couldn't even leave the kid long enough for the interview). John said at one point as he looked around the room. “Well, for people who want to go around the world and meet new people we sure are an anti-social bunch”. It was true – no one talked to anyone but their partner.

After about 30 minutes, they called our names, took a picture of us, and led us downstairs where we waited again. When they finally called us in they ushered us to two chairs in front of a camera and told us to get “really lovey and close because it looks good on camera.” They also told us to keep the energy up and project our voices while answering the questions. By this time, John’s heart was beating so loud that I could hear it – really! They told us to state our name, age, and where we were from and then started asking us questions:
• What do you do?
• How did you meet?
• Who wears the pants in the family?
• Who will crack under the pressure first?
• Give us an example of a recent fight you had and what happened..
• Why would our audience fins you interesting – how would they relate to you?
It was a little awkward and I can’t honestly remember most of what we said. I have no idea what we looked like on the camera – some things may be better left unknown. After the interview we were told that if the casting director was interested they would call us in a week or two. I don’t think the phone is going to be ringing – but it was an interesting experience anyway!

Random Surf of Craig's List

Have you ever done a random suf of Craig's list? I wonder what the hell people are thinking when they put these things up for sale.
For example:

This is described as, "It is a gorgeous color and a nice fit"

or this:

It's supposed to be a skirt - yours for only $10.

These are the BEST though - only $40


Oh - A HAT to match my shoes and the kind of purple jacket.


I think I will buy all four and wear them together - what do you think?