The last week or so was some pretty cold & gloomy weather for July, so it was a welcome change to see things perk up over the weekend. And I managed to take pretty good advantage of it!
I’ve been on this schedule over the summer where I work an extra hour a day to get every other Friday off. It really is quite handy to have 3-day weekends in the summertime. I don’t know yet if I’m going to keep it up into the fall & winter…the dark seems to dampen my ability to get up even an extra half-hour early.
So Friday was a pleasant day with C; not getting anything done, really, but enjoying each other’s company. And checking out bikes. He picked up a bike he’d ordered a while ago, something he can ride around town, do errands with & such. It had to be specially ordered because he’s pretty darn tall. While he was getting set up, I took a test ride on a Kona Ute…OMG I totally want one. It rode so comfortably, and it has so much freaking “cargo space” we could probably get rid of our car. 🙂 Apparently the ’09 is going to come with some slightly better gear, and it’s going to take me a while to save up for it, so there we are. (Bikehugger review: I concur.)
My friend Joe in Seattle is moving to Denver at the end of August; Kat organized a little get-together with the 3 of us on Saturday. Originally it was to have been canoing from the UW rental on Lake Washington, but for some reason we thought that might not be available because of Seafair. (Bleh, Seafair.) That turned the day into a play-it-by-ear adventure, though!
Here’s the map. (7.3 miles!) We started at Kat’s downtown. Lunch was at Charlie’s on Capitol Hill, which is where the writer’s group used to meet once upon a time. (That’s how Kat & I met Joe.) Dinner was at Little Thai in the U District. In between those points: plenty of wandering, including the lovely Arboretum and the swampy islands just north of the 520. We saw an otter & something heron-like, plus lots of boat. They caught a bit of the Blue Angels out of the window at Charlie’s…I was facing the other way, so all I got was the noise. All along, lots of wonderfully random aimless conversation; I’m terribly disappointed that Joe is moving, but that’s life. Also, I need to hang out more with Kat.
I had been planning to stay over, because of the craptacular Olympia express bus schedule, but C offered to pick me up in Tacoma. Turned out to be a good thing, too, because I SLEPT in on Sunday. Again, nothing really got done except some dishes & laundry, but CBA came down to visit & the 3 of us went on a big rambly bike ride. About 11 miles, taken pretty slowly. Then Once Upon a Time in China, along with L who dropped by about a half-hour in. (I wrote about the movie a little bit over at Shelley’s.)
This week is supposed to be sunny & hot. I’m okay with that, really. It is August, after all, and I’m happy for it to be August right now. I’ll definitely be getting out on the bike!
Oh, and Kat got a new camera and is taking fan-freaking-tastic pictures. She’s only posted a few so far; I’m hoping she’ll put up the shots from Saturday sometime soon. I forgot my camera & was very annoyed about it, but Kat’s pictures should make up for that.