Pimp My Bathroom

Greetings! This blog is a running timeline of my 2 month "break" from the working world and to provide some insight to the ever popular question: "WHAT are you going to do for 2 months?". I am spending far less time on the couch than some of you might think but the couch is where I do all computer work, hence the name of the blog. Cheers!

Below is a summary from my first week off. I will be posting at least every other day from here on out so stay tuned and keep checking the blog...


Day 1: July 18, 2005
Today is the first official day of my 2 month leave of absence from work. I spent the majority of the day cleaning up and recovering from the birthday weekend. After a 2 chicken taco lunch at Malena's in Ballard (one of my favorite taquerias in Seattle), I hit the Ballard Market to get some goods for an evening BBQ to finish of the last of the beer from the party kegs. Shopping at 1:00 in the afternoon is a strange experience. I felt really out of place without a child in the cart or someone tugging at my pants. However, the offered assistance from the employees stocking the shelves was plentiful. I think this had more to do with them being bored than me being without child. I think I will stick to shopping during the evening rush...more my speed.

Day 2: July 19, 2005
This morning around 9:00 a loud noise accompanied with the shaking of the house began. This is usually an indication that my jackass neighbor is up to something. This guy has been working on his house for 3 years now...without living in it. On this particular morning not one of his 3 white vans were present which means that he wasn't present...thank god. Apparently, he has decided to jackhammer the sidewalk. The sidewalk looked perfectly fine to me. Perfectly fine when it wasn't covered by rock from his rock wall slide 2 years ago or by the no parking signs that I kept having to put back on his side of the street during his 4 month rock wall repair project this past winter. I expected to look out to find 2 guys jackhammering the sidewalk with a hand jackhammer. Low and behold, he had rented a mini Bobcat jackhammer thing. This piece of equipment was amazing. They had the entire 40 foot sidewalk jackhammered in 15 minutes top. Today was the day I discovered that if and when I ever have a jackhammering project, I will be renting a Bobcat.

Later in the day...
I had to make a dreaded trip to U Village to go to the Apple store. The Villagio, as I refer to it, was overcrowded with moms, nannies and the like. However, I made my second big discovery of the day. The bathrooms! I had no idea how pimped these "public" restrooms are. Personal stalls with their own sinks. And we're not talking plain jane stalls here. Granite, wood, the whole nine yards. I bet the productivity in the workplace would go up (or down) if we had bathrooms as nice as these. I think I will be making another trip to U Village in the near future...and I'll be sure to drink plenty of water on the way there.

Day 3: July 20, 2005
After my morning dose of caffeine at Herkimer on Greenwood Ave., I headed downtown for an AIA Honor Awards committee meeting. We met at the "red wall" at the City Hall on 4th Ave. to check it out as possible gallery space. This was my maiden voyage to City Hall in its completed status. The plaza on 4th Ave. was surprisingly empty and lifeless. Granted there was still a half hour to official lunch time, but it was such nice weather. I explored for a bit as I was early and noticed an odd thing about the plaza. The water feature seems to be such a prominent element of the space and yet it was not running. I wondered if it was broken (doubtful) or if it has something to do with the non-drought we are having (doubtful again since the water is being recycled). Upon further investigation I found out that this fountain is rarely on and there is some speculation that it is only turned on for "show". Too bad. The messiness of Getty Center meets Guggenheim Bilbao meets high-tech office building could benefit from a soothing water element that actually runs. Followed the tour off with a lunch at Matt's in the Market. Nothing beats a cornmeal crusted catfish sandwich at their lunch counter on a beautiful day. Life is good.

Day 4: July 21, 2005
Today was a big day. I edited 45 minutes worth of video in to a 2 minute video for our entry in to The Amazing Race. Yes, I am crazy and we (my friend Shiney and I) will most likely not get called back, but at least I learned a bit about iMovie. It is a super simple (and fun!) movie editing program. I was able to make an entire movie with music and text in 6 hours without ever touching the software before today. The movie turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. It gets mailed on Monday...

Well, off to Ashland for a long weekend. Until then.......