Our First Par-tay

Kat is the president of - and I am a non-participating member of - the Inter-urban Runners' Club, a regional club of distance runners. They have an annual chili cookoff party that also incorporates their officer elections and the "Underwear Run," which is pretty much what it sounds like. Since we have both been wanting to throw a party at our house, we agreed to host this year's cookoff.

Now, this is my first experience with an IRC chili cookoff, but I am told they are normally loaded with chili selections and other good eats. I have to take this on faith. This year we had three chilis, one of which was Kat's, three appetizers, which were ours, two other chilis, two dishes of cornbread, a salad, and some slaw. Oh, and someone brought a box of chicken from Church's. Foodwise, it was a bit of a disappointment.

Other than that, our first party was a success. (Almost) everyone brought beer, there were almost enough chairs to go around, and much conversation was had. I did feel a little left out, since the two main topics of conversation were distance running and home ownership, of which the former I have very little experience, and the latter I have none.

Still, it was fun to have non-family adults over, and it was also a successful "election," in which everyone held their current posts.

Hopefully the next party is wilder, has more chilis, and is in celebration of the impending birth of our child.

 A bunch of runners. Not pictured: a fat guy with a Canon.

 Insert your own joke about five guys stripping in my den here:

 Yes, the women who ran in the Underwear Run wore tanks and boxers. No, that wasn't cool.

Can't speak for the guys, but the big grin on K's face is partially due to the better part of a bottle of Malibu and assorted bottles of pumpkin brews. And her belief in my statement that I would never, ever publish this photo on the web. Sucker. Drunk sucker.

Everything in its place...

After living in our rental house for almost three years, I have finally organized the storage closet in our family room (aka The Man Cave).

This seems like a small goal, and in the long term, it is. However, this room typically has items stuffed into it rather than placed into it. It was about time to get things straightened out.

Now, besides having everything organized and easy to grab, we have oodles of free space.

Games and Such

So it's only a big deal if you're me, but I finally moved the video game systems that I wanted to from the living room into my "Man Cave."

In total, I have 6: X-Box, Playstation 2, NES, Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, and a modern reboot of an Atari, a small joystick with several Atari games saved within.

They were all taking up space in our living room, and I wanted them out of the way. It took the death of our DVD player/home theater amp - yes, I ignored my own devout belief in component systems for the ease of replacing parts - to change the setup of our home theater.

Now, everything except the X-Box is in my Man Cave.

No, I don't have a Wii, an X-Box 360, nor a Playstation 3, as I don't have the time, let alone the money, to dedicate to new systems. One day...

Run, Fatboy, Run

I ran the 2010 Seafair Torchlight Run, along with Katherine and  Paula, employee of Spy Comics, local purveyor of all things comic book.

My knee had recently been operated upon. Due likely to some shitty new work shoes, my right foot was in pain I can only describe in a string of profanities. I was fatter than the last Torchlight Run. I had to stop and walk a few times.

Nonetheless, I beat my previous time by 6 seconds.

What can I say? I rule. Period.

Flaming Geyser

After passing the signs for Flaming Geyser State Park several times on local highways, I became determined to visit this place with one of the most intriguing names ever.

Even after our neighbor busted my bubble by informing me that the geyser was fairly unremarkable, I was excited to see the park.

On the fifth of July, we managed to visit the park. It was worth the trip. The "geyser" is a vent of methane gas from a long-abandoned coal mining operation, which was once lit on fire, and which burns to this day. The flame used to go up to nine feet in the air, but now is only a few inches high. I can only assume that in the relatively near future, it will disappear completely.

There is another "geyser" which consists of a methane leak in a stream, causing a bubbling effect, but the trails to this geyser were closed due to recent flooding.

Although several trails had been wiped out in floods, the park was an enjoyable spot. There are trails, picnic sites, a model airplane flying pasture, and several spots to go fly fishing or tubing on the Green River. We hope to go back soon on a hot day to float the river. Two cars would be helpful; anyone who wants to come, let us know!

The bowl of stone that houses the Flaming Geyser.

Eat your heart out, Yellowstone.

The stream that runs alongside the geyser before it ends in the Green River.

State parks always bring out the gangsta in me. Midwest Side represent!

A picnic site under water. Although there had been recent flooding, the algae and other water plants in this pool suggest it has been flooded for quite a while. Hopefully the guy who picked this spot lost his job.

I wish I was a fly fisherman. And I mean professionally.

The bridge into/out of the park. I liked it. Don't know why.

My bad...

Ooops...make that 932 movies. I have one I forgot to enter.

I won't be updating anymore, but I wanted to be current as of today. I missed a DVD that had literally fallen through the cracks.

The best thing in my life is my DVD collection. Period.

This fact gives me no joy.

931 and Counting

At long last, the inventory of my movies on DVD has been completed. 931 films in all, sorted (thanks to help from my brilliant spouse) by title, director, genre, sub-genre, boxed set, run time, rating, and release date.

You probably think that this is either a heinous amount of movies or a piddling amount, depending on which end of the spectrum you find yourself on.

Next up: TV shows on DVD and VHS films.

That noise you here is my wife beaming with pride.

Picnic...check!

Before our last trip to Seattle to attend the Emerald City Comic-Con, I packed a picnic lunch in our picnic "box" (a fancy picnic backpack we got last Christmas), and we stopped at Kerry Park in the Queen Anne neighborhood to eat lunch.

Kerry Park is a very small strip of land on Queen Anne Hill overlooking all of Downtown Seattle. From our vantage point we say many Seattle icons in one spot: Mt. Rainier, the Space Needle, Puget Sound, ferries, and Alki Beach. Quite a view, and a grand place to have a picnic The weather was also perfect at that time. it was a wee hazy, but for the most part the sky was blue and the sun was shining.

Lots to do...

Okay, so I created a list of 30 things I wanted to accomplish before I turned 30. I got most things on the list done in time, but had a few left over.

Some items I just didn't get around to. Some things were interrupted by my inconvenient cancer, my job, and the fact that I didn't create my list until three months after my 29th birthday.

Even after giving myself an extension to the end of the year, I had a few bits and pieces to finish up on my list. To that end, I have decided to create a new list.

While the trend is to create these to-do lists by the decade (30 before 30, 40 before 40, etc.), I am going to create and attempt to accomplish a list for each year. While I am currently also working on a 40 before 40 list, I am going to begin work immediately on a 31 before 31 list. This list will begin with the few remaining items from my 30 before 30.

I have learned my lesson, though. I am going to make this list more doable in the time alloted. On the annual lists, I think a good rule of thumb will be to keep it simple. This year you'll see a lot of museum visits and things like that.

Wish me luck!