Shop, Dine & Ride

Seattle has this great underground bus tunnel that runs throughout all of downtown, where buses roam without the traffic above ground. I rode buses through this tunnel for a year when I worked in the International District/Pioneer Square area for Amazon and loved it. It was the one time that I felt like a hip city dweller---walking down the hill, over I-5 and its morning traffic, grabbing a latte somewhere and then walking through Nordstrom's to go down below to catch any bus entering the tunnel...only to pop me out in the midst of the International District. Enough reminiscing.

This bus tunnel is going to be closed for TWO years beginning September 24th to make way for the fancy schmancy new Light Rail project, which will link the 14 miles between downtown Seattle and SeaTac Airport. Know what this means? All those buses that went through the tunnel are now going to be rerouted up top and traffic will be fun in the downtown area.

Anyway, I just learned about the new Shop, Dine & Ride program where commuters can get discounts on local stores and restaurants. All that's needed is a valid ticket pass, transfer ticket, ticket or ferry pass along with the coupon. Sweet. The full list of stores and restaurants will appear on the site tomorrow. A new guide will be published every six months until the tunnel reopens in two years. There'll be a kick-off party tomorrow from 11:30 am-1:30 pm at the Westlake Park in downtown Seattle. Check it out!

Seven Nites & stupid drivers

Just found a pretty cool website where you can search for Happy Hours in Seattle---SevenNites.com. AND it's supposedly pretty up-to-date. Coolio.

I witnessed the most asinine driver this morning. I was on a 2-lane road in Capitol Hill and there was a garbage truck blocking the lane I was in. Now, theoretically, it's cool to go to the other lane a) if there are no cars there, and b) there's room to go somewhere to in front of the garbage truck. This black car moves out and can't go anywhere because there are already 2 cars in front of the truck--stopped because there's a red light. Instead of realizing his mistake and backing up, the car just sits there. Eventually, a car comes facing him in the other lane and the lady starts honking her horn yelling "Get out of my lane!". He starts yelling back and tells her to move back as if it was her fault that he's in the wrong lane facing the wrong direction. Ridonkulous. I should note that there was *plenty* of room for him to back off. They continue to yell at each other until the light turns green, the cars move forward and he moves back into my lane, giving her the finger as he passes her. How asinine and stupid. I can't believe there are drivers like this that exist in the world.

Episode III - Backstroke of the West

I just came across this hilarious blog post that shows screenshots of Star Wars, Revenge of the Sith getting badly translated into Chinese---and then translated back into English for the subtitles. My favorite is "I was just made by the Presbyterian Church"---likely, Jedi Council was translated into Chinese and then back into English as Presbyterian Church

Coldplay in Concert

Coldplay in Concert
Originally uploaded by moohaha.

Saw Coldplay last night with Archana, Seema, Karen, Jigna, Matt, Sri, Aileen & Mike. They sounded great in concert and played a lot of crowd favorites. It was my first time watching a concert at the White River Amphitheatre which is way out in the middle of nowhere somewhere between Auburn and Enumclaw. I must say, the traffic to get out of the concert in the puny little 2 lanes they have opened up SUCKS. It took 2 hours to get home (1 hour of which was getting out of the parking lot alone).

Paragliding!

Here I am, just having taken off
Originally uploaded by moohaha.

I ended up not going to Vancouver over the weekend...and instead, went paragliding with Jigna & Matt last minute instead! It was an amazing experience and a beautiful day to do it. We started off by taking a hike up Tiger Mountain (which took longer than we had expected!) and finally arriving at the top to see a bunch of paragliders hanging out ready to take off. Of course, with it being the first time, all 3 of us took tandem flights and it was overall really easy. The feeling was amazing and it was exhilirating. And of course, the view was spectacular. Check out a short compilation of photos taken between the 3 of us that day.

28!

Asayo, me, Jigna & Archana
Originally uploaded by moohaha.

I turned 28 last Thursday (and it was my dad and Pierre's birthday too--Happy Birthday!). Really chill and awesome birthday this year. Matt went all out and took me to the most wonderful restaurant for dinner--Crush. It was such an interesting juxtaposition of the modern decor within the walls of a Victorian-style house. The food was absolutely tasty with lots of attention to detail. Scrumptious. This restaurant is located in the least expected part of town--near the intersection of 23rd & Madison, which, for those of you who don't live in Seattle, is a neighborhood that doesn't quite ring "nice restaurants". Crush takes a risk by planting itself there and it has succeeded. I almost didn't feel like I was in a Seattle restaurant when I looked around and saw 75% of the male patrons wearing a sports jacket or suit. Very hip, great food.

The next night, I had an awesome dinner with some close friends at one of my favorite pizza joints, Via Tribunali. I reserved the back room and it was overall fun. See the rest of the photos from my birthday this year.

Less than a week before....

Wow. So---I'm going to this wedding in Vancouver, B.C. this weekend with Matt. We already booked the hotel, planned it, etc. Tonight, just before leaving work, I get a mass email from the best man which says (leaving out names for privacy):

Hi Everyone,

I regret to inform you that the wedding between John Doe and Jane Doe will not take place. John and Jane sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. All gifts that were received will be returned.

Thank you very much for your understanding.

Damn. This is a first for me--that is, having a wedding that I'm planning on attending cancel just 5 days before! Crazy. I'm dying to know what happened...how horrible it must be for them to be dealing with this right now. Sheesh.

Anyway, bummer for me--because I made the hotel reservations via Hotwire.com, I can't cancel and get my money back. So it looks like Matt and I are going to Vancouver afterall this weekend! Haha. Silly me...getting tickets via Hotwire...not even thinking that there's a possibility that the wedding could be cancelled. Man. I hope my friend's doing okay. Must suck right now.

Kansas & the Seattle Summer

Sorry, the time between my blogs gets longer and longer. You know why? It's finally SUMMER here in Seattle. Yes, it's August. Yes, summer's already 2/3 over in most of the country. But here in Seattle, summer arrived just a couple weeks ago. I'm now wearing skirts and flip flops daily and complaining nonstop about how hot my condo gets. Summer is short lived here but makes living here all worth it. I even got sunburnt a couple days ago when I was out at Whidbey Island on a team outing---sunburn! in Seattle? Anyway, on to what's been happenin' in the last few weeks....

As you can see from my last post, I went back to Kansas for my 10 year high school reunion which was actually a ton of fun. Matt got to meet my parents and I got to see many people that I haven't seen in, well, ten years. And it was indeed ridiculously hot there--110+ everyday and it was unbearable. I'd forgotten the feeling of preferring to walk inside an air-conditioned mall rather than strolling out in the sun on the Plaza. The reunion itself was much fun and I loved seeing people and hearing their stories. For the most part, people were the same (except for Mark Wertzberger who shocked me with his current profession as a pro-wrestler living in Hollywood---talk about being far from Kansas). We all shared some fun stories, had some drinks, gave each other hugs...what you would expect at a reunion.

The rest of the trip was also really enjoyable, with Matt getting along and bonding with my parents and exploring Kansas together. The first day, Matt and I strolled around downtown Lawrence, which I personally haven't done in a very long time...especially on a hot summer day. In recent years, my trips home have mainly been in the winter for the holidays...so it felt great to go into Penny Annie's and get a sherbert freeze and then smell the candles at Waxman Candles and then get some caffeine at the Java Break...and end the day with a beer at Free State Brewery. We had a wonderful meal with the Krauses Friday night and then introduced Matt to the Chinese dim sum culture of Kansas City which was quite funny to Matt when he realized he was the only white guy in a restaurant in the middle of Kansas. (we later realized that all the white patrons were sitting in a separate room near the front--what a hoot!) After Matt and my father played golf on Sunday, we headed to Kansas City to check out Cabela's, which is like the REI of the Midwest and Great Plains...but specializes in hunting. To give you a sense of this place, the first sign we saw upon walking in said "Attention - For you and your family's safety, please check all firewarms at greeter's desk before entry. Thank you" There was more stuffed game in that place than I had ever seen in my life -- deer, moose, goat, turkey, you name it. It was insane.

The weekend had to end with drama as our flight back to Seattle via Phoenix (we flew America West) was delayed by more than 2 hours because the tarmac in Phoenix was more than 120 degrees and our plane was stuck because the air was too thin for liftoff! I hadn't ever heard of it being too hot to fly. As a result, Matt and I got stuck in Phoenix overnight and couldn't get back to work until afternoon the next day.

Anyway, the weekend has ended and I'm praying for the night to cool a bit. It's been a wonderful Seattle Summer weekend with Whidbey Island on Friday, boating around Lake Union & Lake Washington with friends yesterday, and the Gary's Seafair party today to check out the Blue Angels and Hydroplane Races. Ciao.