Watery concoctions that have lost their souls

This weekend, in the process of getting things back in order after my parents visit combined with making preperations for our upcoming journey to Utah, I got the chance to go to a spot that I used to frequent when I lived in Belltown, El Diablo Cafe in in Upper Queen Anne. I used to love heading up there on Sunday mornings for thier authentically brewed Cuban Coffee. Before heading into the store, however, I noticed a new (to me) establishment, Wink Cupcakes. They were closing up, so I bought Carrie a Peanut Butter cupcake and a Vanilla one for myself (Carrie proclaimed hers to be "the best cupcake that (she) ever had!"). I went into El Diablo to get my drink - a Cuban Coffee, and was a bit disappointed; whereas their Cuban Coffees used to be a rich, frothy brew full of flavor, this one was a watery concoction that seemed to have lost its soul.

Speaking of watery concoctions that have lost their souls...

I went driving around Queen Anne and, in the course, of such, got the chance to think a bit. It seems that neighborhoods here in Seattle have become clones of each other. Slowly but surely, older apartment buildings are being replaced with the brick, glass and brushed concrete of condominiums, neighborhood-specific shops are closing down, and chains, both local and national, are moving in, and the population that served to lend a genuine color to the local scenes are being replaced with haughty, bleached out yuppies, soccer moms and older professionals. My old haunts of Ballard, Greenwood, Fremont, Greenlake, Wallingford, Belltown and Capitol Hill have fallen by the wayside; Columbia City and the Central District are in the process of becomming agresssively getrified themselves, and I'm sure that someone has thier eye on Georgetown and Beacon Hill. Or not. I can only hope that the latter two communities are able to retain thier working class and (in the case of Georgetown) industrial flair for a few more generations. Or years, even.




Finally....


I've started a new blog that is dedicated to my somewhat varied (as in quality) writings. Please be warned that there is rough language on this site. Without further ado, I give to you C.A.'s Cafe!!!

Excuse Me!!!

Saturday morning, I went to the bakery to pick up coffee and treats for Carrie and myself. If you've ever been to Columbia City Bakery, you'll know that after 9 or so on the weekends the place is packed. The line for coffee and treats was almost going out the door, and all of the tables were full.


So, you would think that people, being cognizant of the fact that space was at a premium, would behave accordingly and not expect the sea of people to automagically part at their merest approach, wouldn't you?


Into the pictrure comes stereotypical passive-aggressive bearded slacker Seattle guy. He's taking his order of coffee and scones to the high-top where his generously smiling girlfriend is waiting for him. He is about to pass in front of the couple who are in line ahead of me. Does he utter those magical words that have served as the sociospatial lubricant for generations - "Excuse me"? NO! He simply waves his food in the general direction of the table, and, not even looking at the people that he's pushing his way past, proceeds to - push his way past the people whose mere existence he can't be bothered to acknowledge.


Time passes. The couple ahead of me is served. My order is taken. I stand to the side to wait for coffee. Meanwhile, Mr.Stereotypical passive-aggressive bearded slacker Seattle guy, along with his girlfriend, Ms. I'm obviously the better socially adjusted of the two of us, finish their meal. He, avoiding my gaze, pushes his way past me and seems genuinely puzzled as to both why he is tripping over my unmoving size 13 foot and why he needs to exert something other than a cursory amount of force to make his way past my mostly unyielding elbow. She, for her part, smiles as if to say “Yes, I am with him, please don’t hold it too much against me”, gives me a quick and quiet “Excuse me” as she works her way by, and I gladly stand back to accommodate her passing. He glares at me, as if mad that I dare to accede to her spoken request whilst not doing the same for his unspoken one.


So - they leave. But if you think that’s the end of the story- fear not! For here comes Ms. Stereotypical passive-aggressive I live in a trendy gentrified neighborhood and you are just a visitor here Seattle older woman! C’mon – didn’t you know that there’s a table open, and this gal has to eat? Sure, I may be 6’0 and 230 pounds, but be sure that she will make sure that all 5’6, 140 lbs of her will somehow find a way to attempt to violate the first law of physics with your self before she even thinks about giving you a dirty look.


*Sigh*


Since when did saying “Excuse me” become passé? Is it because saying those two little words could be considered being tantamount to admitting that you are not in total control of the space around you,? Or have people just become that damn lazy and inconsiderate? Okay, okay – I’ll not tar all of humanity with the same brush – it just seemed to me, on that day in Columbia City, that certain individuals were going out of their way to be rude.


At least that didn’t color my entire weekend. Since Carrie wanted to clean the house in preparation for my parents’ visit, I elected to take los Gemelos out for a ride. When I came back two hours later, the house was sparkling clean, and the mama was beaming, happy with her progress. Sunday, I went for a run around Green Lake (2.8 miles in 27 minutes 6 seconds), and then, meeting a friend for the Top Pot 5k, walked for 3.1 miles around the same body of water. I came home, tired, but feeling otherwise pretty good, and spent the rest of the day as a pretty quiet day with Carrie and the kids.


Two more days to go!

Almost 34

One day passes and we're closer to 34 weeks. At this point, we're thinking that each day that passes with the kids in the womb means perhaps 2-3 days that they won't have to spend in the NICU of they are born before 38 weeks. Of course, if they make it that far, then we might not have to worry about the NICU thing - and be able to take both of our beautiful boys home with us.

Yeah, that's us being greedy :)

Of course, Carrie is going through a lot of stress right now. Her blood pressure is yo-yo'ing like crazy, she has headaches, and the physical pressures of having two human beings in her can be too much to bear at some point. We both realize that, in seeing the benefits to her health, the decision to induce could be made and enacted sooner than later.

Still, we can hope. We both have faith that our sons will come out and be just fine in the end.

I stayed with Carrie again last night at the hospital. Before making my way home, I went on my longest run / walk ever. I'll not say how long this took me. On the other hand - maybe I will. 66.5 minutes really isn't too bad for this distance, seeing as how I actually ran up all the hills and walked four times after each of those sprints.

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This run took me from First Hill to Capitol Hill to Belltown (skirting along lower Queen Anne in the process) to Pioneer Square to Downtown Seattle to Cascade. I tripped once and ruined my running gloves catching myself. But I made it in the end :)

33 going on 34 (hopefully)

There was the possibility that Carrie would be induced today, but her blood pressure results have come back as being relatively unchanged, so (for now) we are focusing on a new goal: 34 weeks :) Neither one of us thinks that the pregnancy will last much past that point, even if it reaches that point.

We are so looking forward to seeing our two boys! We've had the names picked out for the two of them ever since before we found out what the genders were. Our place is (mostly) ready, and we are awaiting the arrival of our two beautiful baby boys!

Here's hoping for 33!

There was a scare n Friday morning concerning both the length of time between and duration / severity of Carrie’s contractions. Things had gotten to the point to where the doctors put her on the drug of last resort –Magnesium Sulfate. The side effects were tolerable for a little while, but after a few hours, she started to really notice her own wooziness and lightheadedness, and experienced some shortness of breath during the night.

Right now, we are thinking that it’s a matter of days, not weeks. We’re hoping to make it one more day to her 33 week mark; it would be really great if she could make it to 34 weeks. But that’s really out of our hands, at this point.

I’ve been staying at the hospital during the nights; poor Axia has had to pretty much fend for herself these days. I’m really grateful to our friends and neighbors for pitching in and helping us out.

Twas the days before...

I decided to take Wednesday off as a "Charlie - only" sanity day. I figure that I'll be plenty busy during the holidays and the next few pre- and post-baby months, so I should take the opportunity to get these days in while I still can. I visited Carrie briefly in the hospital, then went downtown to see "Avatar", which was a pretty amazing movie, not just because of the 3D or special effects, but also because the acting was (mostly) believable, and the storyline was pretty decent, if not a little hammy and predictable at times.

I had another visit with Carrie after the movie, and our good friend Refugio came in for an hour or so, during which time we exchanged gifts. After I left the hospital and came home, I followed a good movie,"Avatar", with a truly bad one, "GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra". Ughh!

After an early morning visit to the hospital, I made the rounds doing some last-minute shopping:

• Cafe Verite / Cupcake Royale in Madrona
• Trader Joes in Madison Valley / Capitol Hill
• Whole Foods in Cascade / Downtown
• Bob's Meat Locker in Columbia City

At Bob's, I had to wait for about 45 minutes before the butcher took my order because of the long line. A couple of times, people attempted to jump the queue, and let me tell you, hell hath no fury like Christmas shoppers who have been waiting in line when others attempt to get in front of them.

So...

I went home, and started making our Christmas dinner - Beef Bourgninon with Collard Greens, with an appetizer of cheese curds and olives, and fig and eggnog cupcakes for desert (no, I didn't make these...). I was able to get quite a few things done while waiting for the beef dish to cook. I then took the dishes to Carrie in the hospital, where we sat, ate, talked, and just had a generally good time.

I know the hospital might not have been the best place to spend Christmas - but we did have a very special day, since we were together and eagerly awaiting the arrival of the next two members of our family.

Hopefully, Carrie will be home on Monday. She'll still be on bedrest, but at least she'll be here with me, and not at Swedish. I'd like that very much!

33

33 is the title of the very first episode of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series. It deals with the civilian fleet, who is fleeing from the carnage wrecked upon their (now) nearly extinct human civilization by the biomechanical Cylons, having to deal with continual attacks by said Cylons that occur every 33 minutes.

33 is also how long it took me to run 5 kilometers this morning in the 25th annual Jingle Bell Run. :)

The run was exausting, but very much worth it. Right towards the very end, we had to climb two blocks up a very steep hill prior to coasting downwards to the finish line. Not so immediately afterwords, I journeyed to see Carrie, who snapped these pics of me in all my glory:

 

This is my very first organized 5k run. For me, it's the culmination of events that had started 15 years ago. When I was in the Navy, I was an avid runner (more so than I am currently), and I was training for a 5k across the Golden Gate bridge. I suffered my very first attack of MS, however, and that pretty much kept me from doing any serious physical activity for a number of months as I had to learn how to walk and use my temporarily paralyzed left side anew. So, for me, this run represents something of both a victory and a commitment - a victory over the ailments of my past, and a commitment to my future physical health.

Now, it's off to take a much-deserved hot shower, take a much-deserved load off my feet, and grab a quick bite to eat before heading back to Swedish this evening.

The Day Before

One of  the good things about working in the tech industry is that, if you have the right setup, you can work from home on occasion. Varolii issues laptops to its employees, and the VPN connection is usually very reliable; more often than not, the only chokepoint is my own wireless network; thankfully, since we dumped Clearwire (whose service in both Leschi and mid-Beacon Hill has never been that great in the first place) in favor of Qwest DSL, we don't have much of a problem in that area.

I bring up the above so as to set the stage for the meat of my post today. I elected to work from home because I promised Carrie that I would pick up our Thanksgiving turkey this morning from Bob's Quality Meats in Columbia City so that I could dunk it into a quick-brine solution for overnight. Before I could do that, however, I had to go to a doctor's appointment in Belltown. After that, I would have to make my way to Columbia City, pick up the turkey, then schlep it back home in time to call in for a 11:00 AM meeting and get a few hours of work in before breaking to prep for T-Bird day.

Having accomplished all of my work-related goals for today, I'm content to sign off and spend the evening with Carrie getting things readiy for a wonderful feast tomorrow.

If I, for some reason, don't say it tomorrow - Happy Thankgiving!

What we did during our (long) weekend

On Wednesday (the day before Carrie and I went to Utah), I had to take Axia  to be boarded at a place in Kent, Holiday Kennels. Seeing as how we'd be busy that night going to a three-hour class for future parents of multiples, I planned to take Carrie into work, then drop Axia off, then head to work myself a few hours late. Seeing as how the kennel didn't open for drop-offs until later, I elected to go for my very first downtown run along the waterfront.

First leg:

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I went to Downtown Cups, my second favorite cafe in Seattle, and the one to which I've been going for the longest time; I started going there ever since I started working in Seattle back in 2005, while I still lived in Silverdale.

Second leg:

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I did some stretches, and then went to Caffe Bella, my favorite cafe in Seattle, and the fist one that I visited just about every morning when I moved to Belltown in 2006.  In fact, the owner was kind enough to let Carrie and I host a get-together for friends and family on the night before our wedding over a year ago.

As I mentioned before, Carrie and I went to a three hour class for future parents of Multiples at Swedish. Although we didn't learn many new things  tonight (this class is part of a five-week series), we got a chance to be put in touch with other parents who were in the same situation as we are. I'm hoping that we'll be able to find one or more other couples with whom we can trade support.

Thursday through Sunday, Carrie and I were in Utah to visit her family and go to a baby shower which had been put together by Carla, my sister in law. The day that we flew in, Carla, Rus (my father in-law) and Rod (my brother in-law) all went out to eat at Red Iguana, which is easily one of the three best Mexican Restaurants that I've ever eaten at, and has, hands down, the best moles I've ever had. The place opens at 11 for lunch; we arrived at 11:20 to a packed establishment and eight tables ahead of us on the waiting list. The place is simply that good, and if you ever get out to Salt Lake City, I highly recommend making a special visit.


Richfield, Utah is a small town of about 6,000 people 1-1/2 hours south of Salt Lake City. I've been there once before earlier in the year, and things haven't changed much. We stayed at my parent in-law's place for the duration of the visit. Thursday and Friday were pretty much our days to relax, although Carrie and I did prepare some kick-ass slow cooked rubbed ribs and squash Friday night. Saturday was the baby shower, during which we got a ton of baby gear from Carrie's family and friends in Utah; after having met relative upon relative, I escaped with Rus, with whom I spent the next two hours driving around the countryside and generally B-S'ing with before we returned home.


On Sunday, Rus, Carla, Carrie and I drove back into SLC to meet Rod for brunch at Red Rock Brewing Company in downtown SLC. As brunches go, it was fine; as Microbrewerys go, I've seen better in Seattle.


So, we're both back in town now, Axia is resting safe and soundly back home, and life, as it is, has returned back to normal.


And I cannot wait to meet my two precious children!

Le fin de le fin de semaine

This weekend was the first non-painting weekend in a long time (ad the first of at least two to boot!), but that doesn't mean that Carrie and I were any less busy.  On Saturday, we went to an EMOMS consignment sale in Bellevue where we found a ton of used baby clothing for a decent price. Initially the two of us were a bit conflicted about getting consignment anything for our children - after all, we want the best for our precious ones, and part of that involves a degree of environmental stewardship which leads us to want to get organic everything for  them.

But - families hand down clothing and the like to subsequent generations all the time, and each piece of used clothing or furniture reduces our own environmental footprint even more than if we were to buy all new organic clothing and eco-friendly furniture, since we are not consuming newly-made goods.

After the massive consignment sale, we then made our way to another consignment place in Madison Park called Sugarlump, and Birth and Beyond, a maternity boutique store. It was at the latter place that we decided to go with the G-Diapers system. We spend more up front for inserts and pants, but the cloth prefolds themselves are washable, so we don't end up having to spend $50/week for diapers, which I think is worth a little up-front pain (plus, we're not contributing as much to landfills, which is also a nice added bonus).

We also shopped at Target that day for more baby things, and ended our time out relaxing at Stellar Pizza in Georgetown. While goggling the directions, I noticed that (1) it was within easy running distance, and (2) there was a cafe right down the road. So, on Sunday morning,we went shopping for ingrediants so that Carrie could make a batch of her kick-ass chili.

I'm looking forward to next weekend; Carrie and I will be in Utah to see family and go to a baby shower being hosted by her sister. When we get back - I think that I'll have a major announcement! :)

...and the painting continues...

It seems as if the painting will never end...

I went into this weekend with the intention of fully finishing both the trim in the living room and the entire hallway; however, after having spent most of the day putting two coats of primer and finishing 3/4 of the hallway prior to running out of paint, I had to concede (yet again) that this entire endeavor was going to take a while.  Things are getting done, though, and I should feel grateful for that.

This morning (Sunday), after my run around Greenlake, Carrie and I went to Cyndy's along Aurora for breakfast with her long-time friend, John. We then went shopping for maternity clothes, and became grreatly preturbed that two of the three major department stores in Northgate - Macy's and Nordstrom - didn't even have a maternity section (the young lady at Macy's that we asked didn't even know what "Maternity" meant!!!), leaving JC Penny's the only department store there that did indeed have a section.  Of course, we went to Target and Motherhood, but there selections seem to be limiting after a while.

Oh - and my run...

One of my goals for this year has been to do the entire inner Greenlake run without stopping. It wasn't the easiest thing to do, but I did it! Seeing as how I ran 2.15 miles a couple of days ago, and 2/74 today without stopping, I'm thinking that running  the 2 miles from the light rail station to my house should be no problem whatsoever at this point.

Life as it is...

A couple of weeks ago, Carrie and I finally took the plunge, made the trip to Lowes, and bought a plethora of painting supplies in the vainglorious assumption that we would be able to prime and paint over 1000 square feet of wall space in a single three-day weekend. Expansion bolts, cheap hardware, generally shoddy shelving and curtain rod installation and time spent on masking and edging said 1000 square feet of wall space quickly brought our rather high hopes skidding earthwards,  and that was before a scary and tense night in the hospital brought on by Carrie going into the initial stages of appendicitis and her recovery from such.

We had spent the next week laying low while Carrie recovered from her surgery, and, as she took her tentative first steps to a life which is for now normal (meaning that she, as the mother of twins, can only be expected to not feel sick or unwell roughly the same percentage of the time as  Carrie-the-not-expectant-mother-of-twins could be expected to feel sick or unwell), we enlisted the aid of friends to help us in our endeavours.

Thankfully, many of them came through for us, and for the past couple of weeks at least two of them have been helping us prime and paint our living room, and prime (at least the high-hiding prime, since the previous owners chose a rather bold colour palette that I can best describe as "Mexican Taqueria"). However, we had to once again readjust our expectations of many things downwards. We were able to get a single coat of paint on the living room walls, we didn't get any trim work done, and the hallway and kitchen are still crying out for attention. Meanwhile, we've decided to re-paint the kids room a slightly less aggressive shade of green (one that does not induce epileptic seizures in otherwise un-challenged individuals), and we've come to the conclusion that, since neither one of us does this for a living, we should opt on the side of sanity and cut ourselves some slack when it comes to how the paint looks on the walls.

So - add a slowly progressing painting project into the many things that we as new homeowners need to get done.  I was going to seal the deck and prune the trees, but the former can wait while it's too late for the latter. I've got to put my personal efforts into "acquiring" a set of sawhorses (Lowes or that nicely-placed set in the common alleyway behind our house will suffice), taking the doors down, resanding them both, refinishing one while repainting the other, and  - oh - the Baby Project awaits.

But it's all good. I mean, I feel much more satisfaction doing these things as a homeowner and knowing that we're investing our time and hearts into something that we'll get the emotional benefit of for as long as we choose to have it rather than doing the same in an apartment and having to get the owner's permission to effect our desires upon our living space. Regardless of how long this process takes - I'll be holding that thought in my heart.

In other news...

A couple of weekends ago, I injured my foot while gallivanting about our backyard sans footwear (a folly I normally from which I normally refrain). I spent the next week or so healing, and then after my drive down to Oregon to attend a training seminar, I spent the next couple of weeks knee-deep in housework. This morning, for the very first time in three weeks, I ran my usual route.


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I made it from Orcas to Mrytle to Graham - 1.5 miles - without stopping,but the uphill grade on the way northwards from Myrtle back to Orcas, proved just a bit much for me, and I had to walk for a couple of blocks before running the rest of the way back to Orcas. Still, I think that I did rather well for not having ran for the past three weeks.

Concerning running:

I've a couple of personal challenges that I'd like to take on before the year lets out:

• A lap around Greenlake (Inner): About 3 miles
• A lap around Seward Park: I think that this is around 2 miles
• Going Northward on Queen Anne Ave.: Not very far (maybe a mile), but all uphill.
  

Labor Day weekend

The long weekend started out innocuously enough. Saturday morning, we arose to a meal of buttermilk pancakes and scrambled eggs, then we went about prepping the baby's room for painting.

Along with removing all of the doors and light fixtures, we had to remove the blinds, curtain rods, and shelves that the previous owners had left behind.  Around this time came my first point of contention with them: not only did they use a system that was a bear to remove, but they used cheap hardware in the form of brass flathead screws that was a pain to remove. I ended up having to tear the shelf rods from the walls, leaving behind hugte holes and tears in the drywall that required the generous application of spackle.

So- stuff removed, bare wood surfaces sanded (they are getting painted as well), and walls washed. Time for the primer - and point of contention #2: the ceiling in both the kids' room and our bedroom has this rather unsightly popcorn texture to it; that means that I'll have to put not one, but two generous coats of primer just to fill in the uneven parts.

Despite all this, things were swimming along smoothly enough until Carrie started having severe abdominal pains during the afternoon.  It turns out that she was in the early stages of appendicitis, and needed to be taken to the ER so that she could get an appendectomy. We were both very fearful, not just because of the fact that she needed surgery, but also because we were unsure of the effect that the anesthesia and any subsequent pain medication would have on the twins. All three individuals made it past the surgery okay, though, and they are back home resting and recovering. Today (Tuesday), she's up and walking around, although with a bit of difficulty alternating between standing up and sitting  / laying down. Still, she's in considerably less discomfort than she was, and that's saying a lot, I think!

In other news:

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I had made an abbreviated version of this run earlier,but I hadn't realized that, by cutting out the run from Orcas to Dawson, I was cheating myself out of .3 mile. The extra distance didn't take that much longer to do, and I felt a lot better once I got to Columbia City Bakery. Lest ye wonder why I take the time to run down there, Carrie and I love thier pastries., breads and sandwiches, and their Torta Rustica is a treat that, if you can get a hold of it, is something to be treasured alongside a fine wine. If Carrie can't come with me, then I'l run to the bakery, get a espresso and pastry, pick up something for Carrie, and walk back. Why walk? Well, I do live on Beacon Hill!

My weekend - first time on a new run - more mashups - second playlist of 2009

On Saturday, Carrie and I (after a nice hearty breakfast of grilled chicken sausage and eggs) went into Ranier Valley in Seattle so that we could go to a sale being held by Kate Spade, featuring her organics line of baby clothes. Now this was quite an event, since ordinarily this line of clothes sells for beucoup dineros in her retail stores, and this weekly sale was featuring many of her leftover and discontinued styles for wholesale prices; additionally, they were firre-selling everything at half off, so Carrie and I walked out of there having spent $130.00 for what could easily have been $500 worth of clothes.

Like I had mentioned, this was being held in Ranier Valley, which is a neighborhood just south of the trendier Columbia City business district, which happens to be where our favorite butcher, bakery, farmers market and diner is located at. Ranier Valley itself, however, is strictly a working-class neighborhood that has unfortunately suffered the effects of urban blight and neglect. So the neighborhood has its own set of problems; however, it's not an entirely bad place, and there are more than a few fine establishments there, so to hear well-off people complain about having to drive into the "Ghetto" in order to get their discounted Kate Spade Organics baby clothes was more than a little sickening. If these people felt so strongly about having to suffer the presence of the less fortunate while they themselves fill thier minivans and SUV's with discounted boutique baby clothes, they should have saved themselves the drive and paid retail price at a mall in the exurbs.

But that's just me. And I digress.

When we had first looked at what was then our future house together, Carrie and I fell in love with the place, but we knew that a few things had to be changed, chief amongst them the color scheme. The previous owners definitely had thier own sense of style and asthetics, which is fine, but it's not ours. So, we went down to Lowes with a basic idea of what needed to be changed, got a few paint samples, took them back home, and put them on our walls. Sunday, satisfied that we had made the right choices, we went back to Lowes and bought four gallons of primer and five gallons of paint so that we can paint the living room, kitchen, hallway and kids room. We'll also be painting our front door as well, so hopefully, the weather this weekend will cooperate and be decent enough for us to leave everything open so that we can air the place out without freezing to death.

Run to Columbia City Bakery

Saturday morning, I ran to the bakery to pick up my daily quad shot of espresso with vanilla and some breakfast items for Carrie. It took me 14 minutes to run down there, about 25 minutes to make my way back up. Going down was much easier than coming back up - we do live on Beacon Hill... :)


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All the way there and back again...

A few weeks ahead of schedule, I managed to make it all the way from Orcas to Columbian Way on Beacon Avenue South. It's 1.2 miles round trip, and it took me about 12 minutes to do it - but hey, that's a start, and considering that I've just taken up running in the past month for the first time in six years, I think that it's a pretty signifigant accomplishment for me. Meaning I'm pretty proud of myself :)


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Doin' th' Runnin' Man

Well - gotta get into shape. I've come to realize that my cardiovascular health has deteriorated a bit since I stopped working out regularly last Fall (that was when we gave up our memberships at 24 Hour Fitness and embarked on our ill-fated Wii Fitness experiment), so - despite the fact that I absolutely despise doing it, and the fact that it makes both my shins and knees feel like holy hell after I'm done with it - I've decided to take up running in the mornings, at least until I can get a used bike and start riding it part of the way to work.

Let me back up...

Carrie and I bought a Wii Fit back last November, thinking that we were going to save on Gym memberships. Thing is - due to the size of our apartment, only one of us could work out at a time, and that also meant that the other person either couldn't watch the TV, or, if they didn't want to watch TV in the first place, they were subjected to the noise of the console. In either case, neither one of us saw the benefit in using it after about a month, so we ended up joining an expensive gym in Madison Park, and then we enrolled in the Samraya Center when we started our house hunt; we knew that we were moving pretty far away from Madison Park, so we quit the gym, but we were - and still are - committed to the yoga.

Okay, back to the present -

Since Beacon Avenue South has a very nice median with a walkway, I've decided to use that instead of doing either the Greenlake or Seward Park thing.

Here is my first trek - .7 miles one way, ~1.5 round trip. It's pretty good, since I can pace myself and build up to running the entire route slowly. I'm shooting for running to Dawson, walking to Ferdinand, running to and from Columbian to Dawson, walking to Brandon, and then sprinting the rest of the way to Orcas. Each week, I'd like to eliminate a walking route from the route until, at the end of the month, I'm running the entire 1.r5 mile route.


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So, if I can do this by September, here is what I'd like to do for that month - a slightly longer route:

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Now, assuming that I can run the entire first course, I should be able to run all the way from Orcas to Myrtle, do a walking turn around, walk to Holly, run to Graham, walk to Spencer, then kick it to Orcas. I eliminate one walk per week until I can do the entire run without a break.

Hopefully, by this time, I'll have a bike that I can ride to and from Orcas to the new Light Rail station along Beacon:

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If I don't have a bike - it probably won't be too big a deal anyway, since it's only 2 miles, and I should be able to jog that distance, and not get too sweaty - it will be October, and I can do the jog on the way back home, so that I can take a shower if need be.