elephantine

a b and an e

Minimalistic from Cooper Hewitt.

Today I had a bowl of instant soup that was "Vegetal" flavored. Yes, Pat, I'd like to solve the puzzle.

sweet friday

Lots of sweetness in Creature Comforts' photostream.

So I've been wanting to expand my good-board-games-for-two collection, and I might have done so tonight, except for this one little problem. And that problem was a gangly teenage kid drifting around the aisle, talking to himself. Or maybe he was talking at me?

Either way.

As soon as I heard him cry out, "Andbeforeyouknowit! Iron Man is gonna..." to himself/no one/me, I ran out of the aisle and looked for other things to occupy myself with, like mountainous amounts of candy corn. (A few minutes after that, an announcement about Iron Man came over the PA system. So maybe he was on to something after all.)

dreamy

Flagrante delícia: yum yum yum.

Last night I had a dream that my mom paid Radiohead $100 to call me up on the phone. I was absolutely ecstatic about this, and tried to think of interesting things to ask them.

Me: "So, Thom, what's your middle name?"
Thom: "Middle name? What's that?"
Me: "Oh, that's right. British people don't have middle names."

And this wasn't sarcastic. For whatever reason, that was the truth – the British simply didn't believe in middle names.

After that, they sang me some songs over the phone, and it was pretty much the best dream I've had in a while.

james unlimited

Finally, something to do with those annoying flaps: Netflix Origami.

Something just a tad peculiar happened this evening: I was standing in Safeway, browsing the magazines, looking at a cover of James Franco next to the words, "…the next James Dean." Meanwhile, James Blunt was the song playing overhead. And guess what our checker's name was? That's right. James.

o thursday

Photography from Mondino.

So, um, does this look like a dog costume to you? (I really hope they don't fix the photo, or I'm going to look like an imbecile.)

wooden and felty

Cuteness from Romp.

Went to the Seahawks game tonight, although I'm not too ashamed to say that I started reading New Yorker fiction on my iPhone after a while. When we were leaving, we walked about five stories down this huge, winding ramp, and all of a sudden a guy in a wheelchair came speeding past everyone, taking full advantage of the slope with a huge grin on his face. I imagine that he was thinking something like, "Later, suckers!"

joyeux

Hey, whaddya know, it's my birthday! Fancy that.

Today I turned 23 on the 23rd. Hope it'll be a good year.

i love radiohead.

Oh, YES. I saw Radiohead tonight in concert. As in, my favorite band. As in, I actually know most of the lyrics. This was the set list (from memory, mind you, but I think it's right):

1. 15 Step
2. Reckoner
3. Optimistic
4. There There
5. All I Need
6. Pyramid Song
7. Talk Show Host
8. The National Anthem
9. The Gloaming
10. Videotape
11. Lucky
12. Faust Arp
13. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
14. Climbing up the Walls
15. Dollars and Cents
16. Nude
17. Bodysnatchers

The show was everything I had hoped for. There was an encore, but Stefan & I left as it was starting, and for a hell of a good reason: it took us THREE HOURS to drive the 40 miles out there. (So you can only imagine how awful it would have been to leave with the masses.) As we ran out to the car, the rain started coming down faster, but even with soaked hair clinging to my face and an empty stomach and malfunctioning eardrums, all the wonderfulness was not dampened a bit.

swimmin' with the fishies

Last night we ventured down to the fish ladder at the Ballard Locks to see a plethora of Chinook salmon. I loved how demanding this sign was ("Understand it, damn it!") and the redundancy of its subsequent inquiry. I also admired a funny little sign directing the way to the fish ladder. It would be severely entertaining to see an fish hop up a set of stairs. Or, wait – is that fish dancing?

While we were there, a little boy leaned over the railing and screamed, "EW! Soapy water!" (It was, in fact, not soapy.) This interested his little sister greatly, for she immediately yelled back in a baby doll voice, "Andy, why did you say "EW"?" I later spotted them by the roses, chasing a neon soccer ball.

what rhymes with bicycle?

After weeks of looking, I found the right one. Meet my shiny new friend, the 700c Draft, bluish gray, 27 pounds. A bit retro, too: it has a grand total of one speed. After swapping the straight handlebars for curved ones, it'll be perfect.

And I just love the description over at Bike Emory: "Who Rides a Draft? You appreciate simplicity in your life and have an eye for smooth lines and aesthetics." Yup, they got me. Spot on.