Editor's Note: This post was mostly written on Monday, but it is now Tuesday owing to staying up too late watching The West Wing yesterday and forgetting to hit send, my apologies.

You know, yesterday I thought I would get a head start on writing this, opened it up, typed the heading. And then? I thought I should organize my photos, so I installed Darktable. Big mistake. Anyways, I am once again writing this on Monday.

What I've Been Up To

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a job interview last week for some part-time work that I figured could fill my time while being slightly more fulfilling than volunteering (on account of being paid). I actually had a second interview, which I think went pretty well. I suspect the standards for this job are not especially high, but there were still enough applicants for them to close off the applications and for the interviewer to say she was swamped, so I am a bit nervous.

Chophouse Row Adventure

On Thursday I wanted to go to Sugar Bakery to get sandwiches for lunch, but there was some police publicity event going on outside and there were just a bunch of cops and a camera crew blocking the entrance, so we ended up going to Tailwind Cafe. I forgot how good this place is. They have decent coffee and good food for very reasonable prices, a rarity in Capitol Hill. Didn't get a picture of my food but we also got this frozen lemonade that was very cute, very cold, and very sour.

hand holding a small glass of red slush with a little dried orange in it. there's a paper straw sticking out that is probably three times the size of the glass.

There's this place in Chophouse Row that I've heard about a few times with regard to perfume called Atelier Madrona, but every time I try to look for it, it has eluded me. NOT THIS TIME THOUGH! After wandering around for a while, we found their upstairs office, which seemed pretty closed to the public, but then on our way out, we just happened to discover that they had a new downstairs self-serve perfume bar, which seems pretty cool! It's sort of pricey, but I feel like perfume always is, and it's not that crazy.

perfume bar with big upside down bottles and a number of example perfumes sitting in wooden trays
sign for the custom scent bar with example bottles and prices ranging from $22 for a travel sized perfume to $175 for 100ml bottle.

That night was also one of my friends' birthdays (happy bday heather!!) so in the evening I donned my most unbearable pairs of fly goggles and headed over to the party location, where we discovered we were DOUBLE BOOKED with a Revolutionary Communist Party meeting??? Only in Seattle.

Volunteer Park

Friday I spent some time walking around 15th ave and Volunteer park. It was a pretty chill day, and I also had my second interview. As far as I know it went well, but I am still waiting to hear back. As a side note, the houses near Volunteer Park are absolutely insane. It's bizarre to me that we have mansions like this housing a single family in close proximity to homeless people begging on the street, but I suppose that is the great contradiction of Seattle. I don't know if I've been to many other cities with the same jarring contrast between abject poverty and mind-bending opulence, though I suppose the insides of the high-rises in downtowns are all probably pretty fancy.

massive mansion near volunteer park, with soaring columns and wrought iron lamp fixtures

Bird Watching

I am still pretty new to this camera, so when posted asking people to go bird watching I was like heck yeah! Turns out, I don't really know how to take pictures of birds, but the outing was fun! I did get some very cute bunny pics.

duck sitting in a pond surrounded by perfectly concentric ripples, photographed through grass
two ducks swimming in a lake that has been color-shifted a bit so the ducks are more red and the water is a sort of jell-o green
ivy colored building by the center for urban horticulture in front of a blue cloudy sky
delectable looking tomatoes behind a fence, with a "do not pick vegetables and fruit" sign in the foreground blurred out of focus
cute baby bunny sitting on the ground
scrungly brown bird sitting on a sunflower plant, staring directly at the camera

As an aside, on my way back I was struck by the beauty of Interlaken Park. It's such a weird area, I don't even know where the "park" is. But just biking through it is so pretty, it's quite dark so the light coming through the trees is very dramatic. Cars tend to zoom by though, so it's a bit scary to fully enjoy.

photo taken in interlaken park of the highway and mountains, as well as showing a gramophone in someones window
sun beaming through the leaves next to a fence and a telephone pole, there is a road sign saying "road work ahead"
photo of interlaken park road, a man is rapidly lime scootering towards my location
sun-drenched photo of a house sign nailed up high in a tree, the leaves around it are glowing.

Garage Sale

Sunday was the Capitol Hill Garage Sale!! Imagine me actually going to an event I advertise in this newsletter? This may be a first! Anyways it was fun, a bit overwhelming actually owing to the hundreds of vendors all packed next to eachother selling mostly random stuff. There were a few cool vendors, though, including my favorite local artist !

photo of a flipper devices busy box with a 'price randomizer' declaring i need to pay 67000 dollars. too rich for my blood.
sign reading "divorce sale, just like my ex it must go!!"
black tote bag embroidered with "happy cat" and a bunch of cute kitties
christmas tree with a bunch of stickers on it, which as i learned include the anxiety monster, adhd monster, and autism monster.
kairu coffee both brewing up some samples. mine was extremely good but cost $30 for a tiny jar so didn't buy any this time.
very cute display from a local wood artist with a bunch of birdhouses that say "Fruit market" and have nails for mounting a fruit, allegedly attracts certain birds. One has an orange half stuck in it.
bee sitting on a purple ribbon
photo showing the overall bustling nature of the garage sale

Some highlights included a magic trick from the incredible Lizzie Feir,

woman shuffling a deck of cards while a man in green sunglasses stares directly into the camera

and finding an artist selling Jimothy stickers! People will forget about Jimothy, but he will live on my bestickered bicycle forever...

man sitting on a bench with big white glasses looking at a table full of jimothy artwork.

After rummaging around the garage sale for a while, we headed to Kajiken nearby for food. I hadn't been there in a while and forgot how filling it was with the raw egg yolk and all the meat. A nice treat, but one that should be enjoyed sparingly, I think.

I Saw the Signs

poster for the belltown blast showing a bunch of artists on saturday august 15
poster for summer music series fremont fridays after party at the fremont social stage, friday july 24th (wow this is old)
sticker sheet that reads "make your butt heard" with a bunch of american flag stickers that say "i sharted"
poster for the luddite club that reads "do you yearn for whimsy? join the luddite club" meeetings every monday at 2pm. next one is August 24 at the cap hill library meeting room!
draw the block art market at paper pushers 1200 5th ave august 22nd 12-5pm
Thursdays at the Stimson-Green Mansion poster showing events happening in august. Next one is a history lecture august 20th at 7:30pm about the mansion's architect
Beat lab poster showing an event for making beats at the cathy hillenbrand room august 15th
bumper sticker reading "honk if ya think the industrial revolution and its consequencs have been a disaster for the human race!", a quote by the UNABOMBER??
poster for chessclub 8year anniversary tournament at stoup brewing sunday august 23rd at noon
poster awarding deluxe bar and grill the perfect pint award from guiness in december 1997, huge flex.

What's Coming Up

Struggling once again this week to find things to do. That was in fact part of the allure of this newsletter, but I suspect I need to waddle harder, faster.

  • Chess Club 8th anniversary tournament - at Stoup Brewing Sunday Aug 23 from Noon-4pm

    • I'm not particularly good at chess, but I miss seeing chess club around Capitol Hill at Linda's Tavern. Perhaps this can fill the void.

  • Seattle Central Go Club - Wednesday at 7. I want to go this week!!

  • Bicycle Advisory Board bike ride - Looking at my calendar I was intrigued by this one, an official city government board is doing a bike ride starting in Capitol Hill Today at 5:30

  • Center City Cinema showing Fame - This Friday at 7:30 at the Freeway Park ( a place I frankly didn't really know was a park )

Best of the Net

Thank you for reading, and I apologize again for the delay in publishing. I am sure you were all eagerly waiting with bated breath. Have a great week!