Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Moved in, two weeks

We moved in two weeks ago with the help of all the climbing crew. I promptly disappeared to West Virginny and Cecilia ran off to visit cousins in Regular Virginny. Now everything is pretty much in place, except the dining room, and the place is kick ass. Slowly we are accumulating craigslist furniture to fill up the empty spaces and replace worn out things, like chairs and coffee tables. I'll post some pictures later when it's more nice.

Bikes are doing well - the Nishiki is up and running with a super-stealth new chain and rear gear cluster. The indexing works, if you count working as not shifting down to the lowest gear (I got a 7 speed to replace a 6 speed, but I'm still only able to use 6 speeds). I rode to work for the first time in a long time today and it was great, especially the part where I nearly rear-ended a car turning left who stopped for a pedestrian. I like to think the cop on the corner was impressed with my lightning fast brake reflexes.

I finished Season 4 of The Wire which I highly recommend to everyone but my parents. Baltimore is really like this, people. They are filming season 5 but somehow the first episodes are already available for download through the bitorrent things. Last weekend in Portland I introduced Cam and Linh to the magical wonderness that is Azureus. They had been just getting dvds from the library! Imagine! Now they are watching Season 1 of the Wire and downloading all the Rick James singles they can handle. It's just like Venture Communism!

Oh yeah, the bikes. Well the blue Peugeot is getting a custom-made seatpost shim courtesy of Sean, and then when its proper tires arrive it will be all ready to put up on the old Ebay. The white Peugeot has its stem and I think I just have to file down a notch on the brake cable hanger in order to set up the front brake and be on my merry way. Having a bike stand and plenty of room in the basement has just been fantastic.

Linh is a graphic designer and has her own website now. She makes the COOLEST STUFF. Somehow we have similar sensibilities (Marimekko, Orla Kiely) despite not having seen eachother for 7 years! Cam is also doing well and starting work for the Governor of Oregon next week. And Caitilin bought a house with another college friend of ours, and is planting it all up since she is a landscape architect. She also has chickens! And a Nishiki of her own. We had a totally fun time on Saturday going to the Farmer's Market and buying picnic food, then heading out to the Gorge and hiking and wading and traversing up a slot canyon. My shoes got pretty wet but boy was it fun. Then yummy pizza at Ken's Artisan, where 9 million fixies whizzed by, along with a stiff breeze. We also visited Stumptown Coffee twice, which has the best coffee in the world. No fooling, NPR says so. They are super serious and super hip. Fortunately, they make a little zine on how to get the most out of your french press/cafetiere/etc (no drip coffemakers for them!) so I can try to recreate the awesomeness at home, if not the post-punk hipster atmosphere. I came home with a bag of beans and promptly ordered an appropriate grinder from the Internet. Bientot le vrai café. If you would like to order beans from them, you can do so here: http://buystumptowncoffee.com/

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