9 - 5

holy crap! this was one of the most fun events i have been a part of yet. the 2nd annual 9-5 scavenger hunt was clever and extremely well organized with over 150 items on the manifest along with some time sensitive check points. i joined up with ross, krystal and payton who i always seem to run into at these kinds of things and it was perfect because i had no team and this was definitely a race where numbers had an advantage.

within the first two hours we had completed a lot of the photographic check points which included shots of neighborhood street signs or businesses with the names of the neighborhood in it. bartenders holding the spoke cards, fortune cookies, toothpicks, stealing white crayons out of the boxes and anticipating a child's sorrow etc. right after purchasing 47 cans of tomato paste in greenwood we were stopping at the am/pm and jack in the box on aurora for some hot sauce and artificial sweetener packets when payton got hit by a car coming out of the parking lot and tacoed his front wheel. luckily he was not injured at all but we had to be at our first check point in an hour! the guy that hit him was really apologetic and slightly intoxicated so he agreed to drive payton to my house where i had a spare front wheel for him AND the first checkpoint was at the colonnade which is half a block from my back door.

since we were already close to a few more of the neighborhoods we smashed up 80th to the lake city sign which ross had remembered being conveniently intersecting with roosevelt. we got our lake city neighborhood shot and bombed down roosevelt all the way to my house picking up some coffee cups and energy drink cans along the way. roosevelt felt like a dream compared to 80th with 25 cans of tomato paste in your bag. it was really more the awkwardness and the poking that bugged me as opposed to the weight. but if you have ever ridden southbound on roosevelt for 5 miles its a relaxing jaunt regardless.

we got to my house with about 20 minutes until we had to be at the colonnade so we gathered up the things i had. fake flowers, a seattle pi front page, fake tattoos, balls, dolls, seashells, pine cones, driftwood, and a million other things. there were many advantages for us with my house being so centrally located and directly on the route. we ended up leaving everything there for the south end portion of the ride to be picked up later.

after the colonnade we split up into two groups. krystal and i hit lower queen anne, south lake union and downtown while the boys got capitol hill and sodo. we got both of the designated clock photos, one of the pemco clock and one of the starbucks clock at 1:30 am. after we hit all of our spots we rode back to my house to drop stuff off and see what else we could scrounge together. my neighbor giles rolled through the alley and poked his head in to see that we were frantically pulling shit apart. he was a big help and we went to his place for a golf ball and he had a missouri quarter which was one item with a higher point value. he also loaded us up with snack bars and cookies. it was perfect. and the house next to his was getting demolished so we found the bricks and cinder blocks we needed as well.

the 2nd meet up was at the marginal way skate park. we regrouped with the guys but decided it would be best to split up again for the final stretch. ross rode to the south park bridge to write down the vietnamese translation of a warning sign. ross and krystal rode to georgetown and hit up a grocery store for a few of the last items. i was selected to ride to laurelhurst which was the only neighborhood we had left. i stopped at the house and grabbed everything i could. abandoning the couch cushions for the teammates to follow. after that it was basically burke gillman all day and riding back to gas works as the sun was coming up and the birds madly chirping was a wonderful experience.

i was the first of my team to arrive and started counting the points that i had and anything else i could remember. we had to have our manifests in by 5:11 sharp and the time was nearing rapidly. the rest of the crew rolled up with about 6 minutes left and we tallied everything up and handed it in. ryan and melissa had provided a beautiful hot breakfast buffet and i only wish that i wasn't so caffeinated and excited because i would have enjoyed it much more. regardless it was awesome watching the sun rise over our magnificent city from gasworks.

to our surprise we ended up coming in 2nd place. it was not announced at the race but when the placements were posted on go means go i got a text from ross saying that his friend brendan had seen it. brendan lives in portland so it was funny that none of us heard about it first but it was a very pleasent surprise. the winning team had brought in 96 cans of tuna, which upped the ante on our 47 cans of tomato paste. but if it really was boiled down to the wire i think that their 1969 moonwalk pi front page would win over our 2008 obama election pi front page. they also were able to find copies of boys life magazine which we knew had no chance in finding.

all in all it was such a blast! thank you to ryan, melissa and go means go! and check out the photos that greg took. a night of epic proportions! i was so amped i could not go to sleep until 9ish but it was definitely worth it. ross took most of the photos so if i get a hold of those i will be sure to post em.

simply gratuitous

wsi x part ii

i thought i would have more to add but i think this picture sums it up.
more here and here.

i also forgot to mention that mustache outrageous! (andre, rowdy, and mike) took the wsi polo championship belts surprising the entire polo community and creating one of the biggest uproars i had seen in awhile. the last time i was in pdx vitamin water seemed to have stumbled across the triple crown and this awkward dude was giving it out too everyone. naturally they were back for more and had just assumed that a pdx team would win it all (hah!). they brought a mother load of the stuff for the winning team and had even more to be delivered. mustache outrageous! fit as much as they could into the polo caravan and will have an endless supply the next time they are in pdx. dave took some great photos:

special thanks to case and claire for housing us and brewing coffee every morning, schiable for the most epic van ride of my existence, and to kelsey and evan for the scavenged ride back home where we passed the fuck out and were no help whatsoever.

oh, and to all the talented and not so talented strippers of pdx. you are awesome.

wsi x part i

the ride up to portland laid the foundation for how the weekend would end up. shag carpet. seven bikes and six people surrounded in the most authentic orange shag carpet. the smell of shit and wet cigarettes. uncontrollable giggling, a dq dilly bar and rap music. plus i found myself sleeping face down in shag carpet every night. just like the good old days. 

i completely overpacked because it said it would be raining hard the whole weekend, which was not entirely untrue, but i definitely did not need six pairs of socks. and whenever it got too bad we just found the nearest strip club to camp out in. there are plenty in portland and i must say that they do not lack in variety. it was pretty hilarious to be surrounded by such a sausagefest and get totally broed out. right up there with the rest of those dollar collar fools.

portland is so fucking flat! SO flat. man, it was such a breeze. even in the rain it was still very mild and more tolerable then seattle. but i would not want to live there because i would just eat and drink (cheap as shit) and go to strip clubs and ride around ballard x 100 and never actually get anything done. oh and everyone is super nice but even the people that live there don't know where anything is if you ask them for directions and perfect strangers will let you borrow their u-lock because they have to work all weekend and just make sure to give it to this one dude at polo on monday.

i was not particularly thrilled the morning of the main race because i was hoping to have ridden around portland more to get a better grip on things. everywhere i had been so far was either a bar or a food cart. this quickly changed as i realized exactly how many people were in the same boat. along the way we ended up riding with multiple groups just trying to get from one place to the next. veronica and i ended up completing all five manifests and only missed a few spots. our timing was nothing to brag about but the fact that we did that well blows my mind. and of course they made us climb the two major hills that portland has to offer. 

the first of which was mount taber which is similar to interlocken and was a climb that was rewarding at the top. a nice ride equipped with a nice view and all. the second hill was just completely annoying and pointless and reminded me of the counterbalance but instead of an architecturally stimulating yuppy neighborhood it was just a dumb condo yuppy neighborhood. after the main race and some polo watching we rode from 62nd ne down sandy ave and over the burnside bridge into downtown for the awards ceremony. this is about 5 miles of unnoticeably downhill pavement that is slightly comparable to aurora. it was definitely the most enjoyable ride of the weekend because it felt like that summer ride that seattle has yet to provide me. 

in the whopping six pictures i took the whole weekend i managed to capture keanu.  more to come later.