Well, the days are getting shorter and cloudier in Seattle, and a chill has entered the air. It feels like spring was just yesterday, but once again autumn seems to be upon us (September 22 will be the official start). Now that it's cooler and a bit grayer on average, I will try my best to keep finding interesting things going on, it always seems like Seattleites try to pack an entire year of activities into three months, then go into quiet hibernation in the winter.

In local bird news, it seems like the neighborhood pigeons have discovered my balcony. They seem to think they can't eat out of the hanging bird feeder, but are providing a valuable service by cleaning out my gutter a little bit. That corner sure looks sketchy, though.

Two pigeons sitting on a gutter in front of a wooden fence.

Week summary

  • Summer coming to an end

  • Overcast coffee earlgrey lavender matcha monday

  • Farmers market dog on tuesday

What I've Been Up To

This week, like most weeks, was split up broadly into the early week and the weekend, with most of my boring work days sandwiched in between.

Monday - Capitol Hill Adventures

Monday, girlgoose and I headed to Overcast Coffee (on 12th) to read and get out of the house. She was waffling at what to get off the menu but the barista mentioned they could put the earl grey lavender syrup in any drink, so she got it in matcha, and it was really good!

Hand with pink nails holding a very green matcha latte

Walking around, we ended up spotting this wild vintage shop, which had so much cool old stuff in it, but particularly this globe, which is the most beautiful globe I have ever seen. I almost bought it the next day but girlgoose reminded me that I currently have no income and buying a $300 globe is likely an irresponsible choice. The entire thing was this magnificent blue, with shiny brass structural pieces, and the countries were (as far as I could see from outside) all inlaid with different stones, giving it a beautiful patchwork effect. I still think about it every day. Maybe I should just go get it...1

Photo taken through a shop window of a very pretty globe. It's deep blue with stone inlays for every country that you can see.

For dinner Monday, some friends and I went to Busan Jeong, a pork soup place on Broadway. I am hesitant to write about it here because there was already a long line out the door that we had to wait in, but the soup was extremely delicious. Certainly the most unctuous pork bone broth I have ever had, putting tonkotsu ramen to shame2. The place was also fairly inexpensive, with super friendly waitstaff. I would love to go back, sort of salivating just thinking about it. Shoutout to Michelle for organizing the outing and helping us make sense of the menu!

Picture of a bowl of thick white soup with chunks of meat next to a small plate of oil and a bowl of rice.

Tuesday! Elliott bay, and Farmers Market Dog

I have a dirty little secret. For months, perhaps at this point years, I have been going to Elliot Bay Book Company, and every time I buy something, they give me a little card. After a period of time that I would prefer not to contemplate too deeply, I built up a collection of over a dozen of these little cards. On Tuesday, I finally got them all combined into two cards, about 1 and 3/4 , amounting to a dollar amount of about $35. I then promptly "reinvested" the money into a bunch of tiny cubes, which were DEEPLY DISCOUNTED from their insane sticker price of $60 to a mere $30. They are a fun desk toy, but having bought them I have to say the magnets are surprisingly weak for what you pay. Oh, also on the way home, we saw one of the funniest dogs Ive ever seen. It's like a mullet, business in the front, party in the back.

voxellated business goose made of small magnetic cubes
small voxel bee sitting on top of a city made of colorful magnet cubes
brown dog on a leash with well trimmed curly hair on it's head and legs but fluffy straightened hair on its torso so it looks like a sheep

For the rest of the week, I mostly holed up inside, neglecting my reporting duties as I studied for the CCNA and worked on , one amusing thing of note to me was that I made grapes into cubes and called them grubes. Nobody cared, but I was overjoyed.

business goose🪿's avatar

grubes

grape cubes

RETVRN TO PORTLAND

For those of you keeping track at home, yes this is in fact my second trip to Portland in 3 weeks. This is a concerning trend, perhaps soon I will be more comfortable in Portlandia than in Seattleia. Anyways, Saturday girlgoose and I woke up very nearly missed our train to Portland, but ended up getting there in the end. The trip was longer than I remember, I think because the double decker trains go a little bit slower. On the bright side, they had a nice old man with the Parks Department narrating every town we rolled by.

Immediately after arriving, we were starving so we went to this food truck called Bing Mi and got these little Chinese Crepe Sandwiches. They were really good, though kind of awkward to eat in the same way as a burrito is if you haven't done it enough times, and I did get a single mouthful of aluminum foil. We tried to go to Muji, and were excited by a sign offering 20% off storewide, and then immediately disappointed upon closely examining the text under the asterisk. Ended up not buying anything and hopping on a bus to Coava Roasters, where the Tsubamesanjo event was going on3.

The event itself was fun, though much smaller than I had expected for a "fair". Especially by the initial entrance, it just seemed like a little cafe with a few vendors set up. That being said, the stuff they were selling was quite nice (also fairly expensive), and I really liked the special drinks Coava was making for the event. Other than this photo of the menu, though, I basically completely failed to take any pictures of the fair. Oops!

coffee menu for coava including japan fair specials like the red shiso mocha, which is what i ordered

After walking about 30 minutes back to the hotel and checking in, we were pretty tired from lugging around suitcases, so we rested for a bit then headed out for dinner. I was entranced by this place called Dimo's Apizza, because in Seattle my favorite pizza place is Dino's Tomato Pie. Their pizza was pretty good, I felt the crust was strong but overall the pizza and the salad were too cheesy for me, so I found it all a bit hard to eat. Loved this Radler I got there, though, very refreshing.

picture of a radler can sitting next to a glass full of the liquid that was in the radler can, girlgoose in the background.
salad
tricolor pizza with burned crispy edges and basil leaves. turned out to be wayy too salty for me to eat a lot, pecorino romano strikes again.

The next day, we didn't really know what to do, so girlgoose got a nail appointment, I hung out at Heart Coffee and drank my little pour over while studying for the CCNA and doodling. Afterwards, we wandered around Portland for a while, and got The Whole Bowl, which we both coincidentally have a soft spot in our hearts for (it was the first place I ate in the PNW when I visited with my family many years ago). My photography game was pretty weak on account of enjoying the natural beauty of the city. I felt like Heart had good coffee, but lacked in soul as far as their decor went. Anyways, here's a Portland waddlin photo dump, including a few pictures from the train.

picture of a green building labeled freighthouse square
what seems to be an old decrepit pink elephant car wash sign
no smoking sign from the amtrak train
massive neon sign behind some trees that says "LOANS"
street photo showing "Caballero, Bao Bao, and Project Matcha" all lined up
photo of a tree lined sidewalk in portland with a row of storefronts, the closest one labeled "Some thing cycles"
Interior photo of Dimos Apizza, someone is ordering at the register and there's big paddles for Order and Pickup.
wall covered in names of people on something that almost looks like license plates.
store with artist, designer and drafting supplies in portland, sadly closed
some flowers sitting in a little vase cast a shadow on the wall behind them
top down photo of a pour over in an amber carafe and a small white cup, they sit on a butcher-knife shaped board with a hole in the corner
drawings of frogs
neon sign for tip top cleaners
film edited photo of goose (swan?) terracotta pots they sold at a garden store

I Saw the Signs

screenprinted red sign with a depiction of the buddha and text "give not the fucks"
we're dtf your car (determined to fix)
Some signs on a pole in portland
sams burger and fries walk over for lunch $9.50 burger meal sign
piece of paper reading "Hi look at me im a fucking dork who paints over everyone's stickers 'cause i have no artistic talent and my life fucking sucks!!", on top of two or three other copies of the same paper that have been painted over in gray metallic paint

What's Coming Up

I don't know! Feeling very starved for events these days!

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Janitors scrub the "Tsar Bomba" at the Sarov museum. To keep it from becoming a dirty bomb, I imagine.

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Sorry for publishing late again! I assure you this post was basically done Monday afternoon, it's always the finishing that kills me.