Here in Seattle, Monday sucks—drizzle, cold, gray. It’s the kind of morning that gives Seattle a reputation for serial killers and suicide.
But Saturday, as Eli points out, was gorgeous. People went nuts for the sun. They lolled in the park like walruses, they rode their bikes and ate ice cream and tried to pack as much summer into that one day as possible.
I’m trying to get over this pissy morning by remembering Saturday: I ran into some friends, we bought some beer and champagne and chips, then played two-story doubles badminton: two people up on a balcony, two people running around like crazy on a gravel parking lot below. We played like that for hours.
It was awesome.
What’d you do on Saturday? My temporary, weather-related depression would like to know.
I was sick and spent most of the day in bed.
I sat at Cal Anderson Park for 7 hours watching a softball tournament while getting sufficiently sunburned. Then I went home and had some friends over to grill and drink Rainier as the sun set.
Im sure im in the minority but Blog posts bemoaning the end of summer in April are insipid at best
Stop whining and move to California already.
I planned and planted my community garden plot while my husband went hiking. We then retired to the balcony with a few limey gin-and-tonics.
shut up @3! Get back in the cellar.
This should have been titled “Boring Report” also.
Went wine tasting out in Woodinville, then had happy hour salad and sliders at Bennett’s in Mercer Island. Finished it off with my wife and a few friends on my neighbor’s deck in upper Fremont, drinking Prosecco and watching the sun set over Ballard.
@3, you’re new here; these posts will be a constant drumbeat on Slog until July.
We ate tacos in White Center at the bitchin’ La Fondita truck, and the shopped for records in West Seattle. Scored a nice copy of “The Sound of Sexy Soul” by the Delphonics”, “Dilo (Ugh!) by Perez Prado on original RCA Victor, and an early Waylon Jennings I didn’t have. Mrs. Fnarf got a sweet Jacques Brel on Canadian Philips and Dusty Springfield’s second LP. A lovely day.
The park was actually nicer on Sunday, as there were more birds and fewer shirtless yahoos and triplewide strollers — the curse of Green Lake. A few raindrops never hurt anyone.
I like this idea! Collectively, we can make our Saturday experiences stretch out a little bit. OK, so on Saturday I had all the windows opened in the apartment while I baked cookies in the morning. I packed a lunch and rode my bike (in a t-shirt!!!) to Volunteer park where a friend and I made sandwiches, ate cheese, and drank wine out of a water bottle. It was so warm on the grass, and the flowers all smelled fantastic. Also, we were barefoot. Oh, and I took the cookies to a friend’s house after that, and their front door was wide open. Just like in summer.
I actually got a little bit of color on my shoulders from sitting in the sun watching a softball game. I also played with an adorable puppy. It was a good day.
Went to the U-District farmer’s market as usual (still no asparagus? Damn!), dropped Mrs. Hernandez off at a mid-day birthday party, rolled over to a friend’s place for banh mi and work in his garden, picked up Mrs. Hernandez, went home and opened all the windows, walked down to City People’s for some dirt and lettuce seeds, then back over to the U-District for drinks and tacos. Finished off by having a few friends over until the wee hours of the morning. Glorious, glorious day.
Watched the Procession of the Species. Awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS3uNsv_A…
Took a long walk down to the Saturday market in the U-District. Bought some strawberry wine, hazelnut oil, and hazelnut flour. Then we made smoothies.
And they’ll continue even after July. It’s a Seattle tradition to declare the end of summer the first cloudy day we have after July 4. It may very well be the number one thing I can’t stand about this city.
I took my kid to hunt spring spheres.
@13, you put flour in your smoothies?
A general walkabout kind of day…Cal Anderson, Bluebird ice cream, Delaurenti’s, Frank’s Produce. And I think I witnessed this vertically enhanced badminton match. Must say, I admired the game’s style and verve.
My wife and I hopped on our scooters and rode up to Lynnwood for a motorcycle open house and BBQ, took off from there and got happily lost on back roads, ended up in Edmonds for some cheesecake pomegranate ice cream and a latte, walked along the beach for a while, rode south and got happily lost again, ended up at Seattle Cycle’s anniversary sale, bought some new safety gear, headed out to dinner at Aladdin Falafel in the U District, and then stayed up until 3:00 AM playing Portal 2.
It was a busy day.
I spent a while in Urgent Care for a staph infection, but then I wandered around for a bit at Cal Anderson to make myself feel better. Walked to Half Price books, bought some books, went home.
Saturday involved a trip to the hardware store, followed by several hours of serious yard work, followed by an hour of lounging in said yard with a book and a beer. The late afternoon included guitar practice, a walk downtown to ACT for a show, then a walk back up the hill to a birthday party at Vermillion, a veggie corndog at The Unicorn, and finally a walk home to bed.
And Sunday’s weather was just what I needed to get me through six hours of Spring Cleaning, so truth be told, it was a Perfect Weekend all around.
The tulip fields were lovely.
long bike ride!
Sat in front of the computer for 12 hours, churning out a population forecast for Skagit County. Inserted clipart of a tulip in the draft report.
Spent the day hungover at work, but I did enjoy seeing the kiddies having pony rides next to a flaccid inflatable bunny while I was heading to the office.
Woke up early after a night of drinking to finish Stendhal’s Red and the Black. Brunch at Roxy’s, started Graham Greene’s Orient Express in Cal Anderson, reading at EBB, two scoops at Molly Moon’s, watched Humpday.
Fishing on the north Sunshine Skyway Pier in Tampa bay. Got a magnificent sunburn, caught two croakers, and saw a manta ray cruise by. Whole snapper for dinner at the best strip mall Thai place in St. Petersburg.
Hosted an egg hunt for my neighborhood, some of which contained tiny severed arms or Lincoln heads, lay in the grass in Discovery Park with my husband’s head on my lap and read a book, had beers on a friend’s warm west-facing deck and watched the sun set. I THOUGHT it was sublime, but now that I know that I missed out on vertical badminton I am all discontentedness!
I spent Saturday with friends in NYC at their annual Seder Masochism – S&M Leather Passover dinner. Along with the great food and rather decent kosher wine, we beat each other with leeks.
Based on the everyone else’s sorry-assed passtimes, I claim best weekend!
Walked 21 dogs
We worked in the garden, planting dahlia bulbs and pulling weeds then went to a Mariner’s game. Perfect Spring day.
Watched my son’s team win their soccer game. Then roasted a chicken with forty cloves of garlic, vermouth, rosemary, and balsamic vinegar to be served with some asparagus and a baguette I baked earlier in the day. And, I played guitar out on the deck and sipped some Blanton’s while the chicken roasted.
Damn. Y’all had some nice weekends: chicken and bourbon, a manta ray, kids, puppies, beer, decks, flogging each other with leeks… Sloggers know how to have a good time.
Thanks. This is cheering me right up.
(I don’t live in Seattle, I live in Vancouver, as in the Canadian version, but we had a fantastic Saturday too!) I walked down Commercial Drive for an hour before heading to the Vancouver Crisis Centre for a shift on the phones answering calls from people who called 1-800-SUICIDE or our local distress line. It was strange sitting next to a window streaming in sunlight while talking to a young woman about the pros and cons of killing herself. The fantastic weather made the shift go by pretty quickly though!
Sat at the restaurant I work at wondering where all you fuckers were at!
But then we started in earlier than usual on our “team building” shots of bourbon and loitered out front watching all that pale newly exposed skin pass by.
…the same thing I do every Saturday; PLAN TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!
worked in the garden most of the day, then took a nice long walk. It was great.
Dude, it’s sweet that 1) people in Seattle all think Saturday was basically a major national holiday and thus ask questions like “What’d you do Saturday!?!?” and 2) that that happened on Saturday and now that it’s Monday I can bear to be inside working on a computer because I don’t want to go outside, anyway.
Saturday, I had beer for lunch while pulling weeds with a hub wrench.
I went to the anime convention downtown, which was mostly indoors but included that wonderfully sunny park area above the freeway. I lazed around outside for a good hour watching the thousands and thousands of happy costumed yahoos. There were nerdy dance parties. It was uttterly fabulous.
I was at Olympia’s brilliant, gorgeous, celebratory Procession of the Species with 35,000 other people! Great samba dancing and drumming, brilliant costumes, everyone all cheerful and helpful…it was the best one ever.
@Fnarf, no, I haven’t decided what to use the flour for. I put frozen blueberries, strawberries, grapes, raspberries and blood orange juice in my smoothie.
I used the hazelnut oil in my stovetop popcorn popper (which made super tasty popcorn, I might add!)
I went for a bike ride, then visited a museum I’d never heard of in twelve years of living in this town, then drove to a small-town roller derby with some friends. Not a bad day at all.