Brian got a summer job!

He's going to work for King County Metro (the transit system of Seattle). Focusing on downtown and South Lake Union, he'll work to get residents, developers, businesses, and Seattlites to use public transportation.

For all of the planning jobs, he's been interviewing against all of his classmates. There's a limited number of planning students and planning internships. It's been totally awkward for me.
Me: "Hi, Bob, classmate of Brian. What's new?"
Bob: "Oh, just classes. And I've been interview for internships."
Me: "What kind of jobs are you looking for?"
Bob: "Only exactly the same as Brian is looking for. Oh, and I've already interviewed with them and it went really well. I'm excited."
Me: "Oh. Um, how about those Mariners?"
Bob: crickets....

Dos fotos mas!

Cinco de barcos

Saturday was opening day. For boating season. With a parade of boats. Presented by the Seattle Yacht Club.

What visuals does that bring to mind? Perfect blond children in sailing outfits? Big yachts with waiters and servants? Formal events on Nantucket?

Well, yes and no. Lots of yachts and photogenic people. But tons o'fun. I guess I didn't really know what a parade of boats looked like. The boats go from Portage Bay (teeny bit east of Lake Union) to Lake Washington through the Ship Canal near UW. They finish by going through a "path" in Lake Washington surrounded by boats (like a parade route).

Kind of like this:

() () () () () () () () ()boats () () () () () () ()
______________________________
parade route
_______________________________
() () () () () () () () () ()boats () () () () () ()

Totally fun. The boats are judged somehow and they all put on some kind of show. Costumes, music, decorated boats, colorful sailboats, lots of lip-synching to the Beatles and Elvis, cute kids, even a few bands on boats.

!!!

We showed up to Neumo's last night around 10pm to see !!! (chk chk chk) only to find out that they didn't go on until 11:30pm. I'm a wuss on school nights and I get tired. So we had a beer and hung out with my friend Barrie (who is awesome and fun and loves great music and knitting and, boys, is single).

I didn't know much about the band, but had heard a few songs on the radio. Good, but not amazing. Seeing them live is totally different. A veritable rock and roll dance party. Lights and dancing and cowbells and super-charismatic boys and drums and dancing and jumping and sweating. We danced all night. Brian described it as "tribal."

If they're coming to town, go see them. And bring your dancing friends. Here !!! for more info.
May 14- 930 Club- Washington DC
May 16- Bowery Ballroom- NYC (sold out)
May 30- Studio B- Brooklyn

Our commutes to work/school were not fun today. The bridge we take from Capitol Hill to UW is out. A water main break caused a huge sinkhole right in front of the bridge. And it swallowed two cars. More breaking news here!

Happily, my work is pretty forgiving. However, Brian's law professor (his presentation was due today) was not as forgiving. I haven't heard the full story yet (will report back). I think it involves Brian and James (hipster James, not runner James) in dress shirts running to campus from the busted bridge. That's about 2 miles (3+ from our house)! hee hee

Not much new to report. Add comments to make our lives exiting!

I've been volunteering at the climbing gym every week for a group of Montessori kids. It's a group of about 8 nine-year-old girls. Today we practiced falling and using your feet to stop your fall. Awesome. They were climbing an overhanging wall, tied into the "wrong" rope for that climb. Then I told them to let go (most of them couldn't climb very high, it's hard). Then they swung away from the wall for about 10 feet. And they loved it. Loved every second of it. Even the girls who are usually afraid of heights.

Fuel for champions.

"I'm gonna get you, suckas!" - Melissa

Aren't they adorable! This is Ben and Melissa on Whidbey Island. They just finished running 26.2 miles. Very quickly.

We were professional spectators, seeing them at the 1, 5, 13, 17, 19, 26 mile markers. The morning clouds burned off and it was a beautiful day for a run.

And the rumors are true. A bald eagle circled Melissa as she finished the race.

Quiz night. In your pjs.

I just found the coolest thing on my Ipod. Maybe you have already found it, you tech-savvy geek. Go under games. Click the music quiz. Tah-da! It plays a snippet of a song. Then you pick the title of that song from a short list. Play it on the bus or metro. When you get one correct, try not to cheer out loud.

I'm also hooked to ESPN Baseball Today podcast. 15-20 minutes of baseball highlights from the day. The beginning is pretty cheesy, with SportsCenter-ish sound effects. And they l-u-v A-Rod (groan). But overall, makes me look forward to my morning commute.

Melissa and Ben are coming!

Two of our friends from DC are visiting this weekend. They're running the Whidbey Island Marathon on Sunday. It's their first marathon and they've been training for months. They're awesomely fast- excellent 5K and 10K times. It should be a beautiful course and the forecast is for 52F/42F and partly cloudy .

Bring it on, Seattle. We'll show 'em the Space Needle, Linda's, Pike Place, and Volunteer Park. Yay!

Here are the glorious cherry blossoms at UW. I took this photo during break as the trees were coming to their peak. It was fun to see all the people taking photos, and when school started lots of people were hanging out and playing there. It was very crowded, imagine the scene above with 300 people. Anyway, I love the cherry blossoms, here they are! Brian