rants and raves

rants:

to the very naturally beautiful and classy looking women living near 12th and Pike (probably in the fancy new condos), who are extremely uptight, even robotic acting - your children are waaaay to reserved and docile than what seems natural. it's creepy!

to the militant bicyclist who spit on my delivery van - i'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that i actually didn't give you enough room, even though i'm pretty sure i did because i'm totally cool with riders like you who are following the law. i'm not friendly feeling towards riders who think they are above traffic laws downtown, and think they should be allowed to get away with a hell of a lot more than cars/trucks. the crazy thing about you was how suicidal you acted - twice going around to the left side in order veer in FRONT OF ME to "cut off" my huge van with your tender human body. FYI bicyclists: guys like this make drivers extremely unwilling to go the extra mile to accommodate you. i tried to talk to the guy but he was so busy trying to spit on my van that he couldn't even look at me. call me a fucking bitch or whatever - don't try to race me then throw yourself in front of my van! what an idiot. is it worth your life to "teach me a lesson"? normally i give bikers a wide berth i'm not sure anything would have been wide enough for you.
and shit... i don't even own a car.

to the lady who slammed on her brakes with 5 cars behind her on a dark highway-thanks for almost killing all of us to save a possum that none of us could see. i swerved to miss you and then saw the animal too late (i hit it)- but i kept my course because IT'S SAFER THAT WAY.

raves:

to the people of conway washington, for having the quirkiest photo ops i've seen lately - the dirtiest, hairiest hermit farmer standing like a statue in his field, the 3 longhorn cattle posing next to the road, and the hedge in the shape of a giant cupcake.

to the nice folks at volunteer park cafe who sometimes give me free cherry-chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

to my roommates, who upon finding out that i was moving, gave me a $150 gift certificate to iboats.com for being "the most easy-going and tolerant roommate ever." how sweet!
(i'm considering buying the "spot" gps emergency locator)

secret rave to all the guys at my work. i get to work with 10 cute, smart and funny guys every day. they are awesome. i will miss them when i quit this summer.

bookmark this

damn, blogger has a tiny icon on it's new blogpost page where if you accidentally hit it, it converts all your text to hindi. took me a while to figure out what i'd done. for a minute there i succumbed (succame?) to the fear that the terrorists had infiltrated blogger!!! oh no! (for all i know it could have been arabic).

anyway, bookmark this page if you want to see again. easy url to remember, but FYI i'm making it un-google-able. i'm still getting a ton of hits from kids in various countries seeking out goldslick. and every now and then somebody stalks a friend of mine. lame!

more pics will be up on flickr sometime this week. (bowling, sailing, etc.)

my peeps are the coolest!

i hang out with the coolest people in the world - boat people! friday night our new little cruising club met up and talked boats, saturday fish and i had a GREAT SAIL in puget sound, then watched dvds in the vberth before sleeping. sunday we worked on the boat, i hung out with nan a bit, then i met fish, the kayak twins, new friends danielle and her roommate hilary (tall ship sailor) at sunset bowl, where adrian and lia had been bowling and drinking for 17 hours straight. right now they are in their 24th hour of bowling - celebrating the last days of Sunset Bowl, a ballard institution and the last bowling alley in the immediate seattle area. maybe all of seattle proper. In a week it gets demolished. Probably for more fucking yuppie condos... who knows.

Here's pics and vids from my weekend. They are a bit long, but i'm actually IN THEM. the first has a lot of references to personal jokes. the 2nd is one of the last games of bowling being played, with adrian and lia taking a time out for burgers and white russians.

wine vs. sail (no brainer)

I work for one of the most popular high-end wine distributors in the Northwest, and tomorrow there is a tasting at Wild Ginger. Tomorrow is also supposed to be very sunny, and Fish wants to go sailing...
I get plenty of free wine anyway. It tastes even better Out There.

queen of comedy of errors

what i did today:

procrastinated the adventure involved in getting out to my boat to pump out the bilge, by chatting it up with nan for a few hours. rain did not stop, so i finally left around 1:30pm.

borrowed her truck, with my new 2pc clamshell dinghy in the back. almost forgot oars.

drove to ferry dock, rode ferry, planned on having biscuits and gravy in the lounge but the lounge was closed. went back below to read "Voyage" by Sterling Hayden. so far i think this book should be called "the good ship PENIS" instead.

disembarked ferry, (sun shining in kitsap! yay) drove to store, sandwiches way overpriced so i bought soup and bread. plus 4 harvest grain protein bars because they were on sale and i NEVER pass up a protein bar on sale, unless atkins or larabar makes it. gross. couldn't find duct tape (for boat repairs, OBVIOUSLY). asked clerk and he said aisle 10 so put soup in truck and went back in for duct tape. and spoon.

drove to boat launch, ate soup and surveyed the situation. rain and wind starts again. ugh. back down boat ramp, unload boat. holy cow the half i sit in is way heavy and i can't get the tailgate to open (how did Fish do that when i went to buy this thing?) sticking my fingers in exposed tailgate latch mechanism starts to seem dangerous. i get the fucker out anyway.

figure out how to install bolts, lay oars in boat and realize I DONT HAVE A PFD! way to go kim! i look around to see if there's an easy human/boater target to either A. ask to borrow a pfd for a few hours or B. (deeply shamed) ask for a ride to my boat. no targets. i'm going anyway.

park truck after figuring out what to take, attaching keys to my belt loop, and putting my WORK cell in my pocket, not my personal cell! definitely leaving that extra wool sweater behind in case i end up in the drink and have no warm clothes.

get in boat, place oars in oarlock. oh yeah i guess the pins to keep the oarlocks in their little plastic holes really ARE important, now that i'm in the GD boat and needing to use it. i got nuthin. dude said a paperclip would even work. all i have is the ties off my thrift store gil seaboots. they're pulled out pronto and then i fashion 2 makeshift seizings to keep these oars in place. they barely suffice.

heading out into the wind!! yay! gusts up to 25 i think. sustained 15kts, mostly. there's almost no room to sit on the rowing side, and i have to keep my legs flat in front of me and resting on the seat to row over them. row row row don't get blown into that boat! row row try to MAKE way, not LOSE it! arms burning, tie up to that abandoned mooring to rest? no way!

row row make it to boat, tie up. oh crap there's a COMBO LOCK on the hatch. i forgot about that. it's been 2 months since i saw and bought this boat. and of course the seller's phone number is on my PERSONAL cell. i call Fish to see if he remembers anything. "16 something? that's all i got" then suddenly i remember he wrote it down where i could find it.

I'm in! it looks great. no standing water except maybe an inch in the bilge. 4 gallons pumped out fast. sit and look at interior. how cool that i have my own boat! it's roomy, dry, and generally clean below. I like it. PFD's! mini-bolts! keyring! wire and wirecutters! yay i can magyver some better oarlock securing thingies.

secure halyards (ah, peace and quiet) check all voids, duct tape repair, lock up (and oh the lock is just for show. the hatch is completely removable regardless, i now see).

don pfd, climb into dinghy, try bolt on one side and keyring on other oar. keyring is folding within 4 strokes. tie back up to boat and go ahead with full on magyvering.

now it's sunny and there's a rainbow over the harbor. watch wind and realize it's not going to get any lighter. row into wind 1/3 of the way, row beam-to wind 1/3rd of way, drift to dock during the last leg, resting arms.

lift heavy ass dinghy half into truck, over tailgate, get the hell outta there, get stuck in weekend ferry traffic for a few hours, read more phallus-obsessed Voyage, chat via phone with my favorite Ryan (Danforth Downs) about the now confirmed death of our beloved Robert "Krunch" Duckstein and TSC '08, drop truck off, visit Fish and look at pics of Kayak Twins' newest interest ("Kayak Twins on Tour" link to right). That being a Pacific Seacraft 37, I think.

Buy gas, splurge on some Haagen Dazs and Fanta orange (i don't work mondays). damn the viaduct is closed AGAIN - lessening my chances of being the meat in a concrete sandwich...and...and I'm HOME! too tired to take shower yet here i sit typing a novel about my day. go figure.

Zinestuff

OK so I've had a box of my 3rd issue printed for a few weeks now, but I haven't sent them out. The quality of print is more poor than the first two. Mostly it doesn't do justice to the beautiful photos submitted. That's the worst part. I think eventually I will reprint all the issues anyway. But I should just go ahead and send these out.

So what I really need is someone to work with. Randy G was gracious and so generous to help me out with the 2nd issue, but I could never give her an accurate timeline for when I would be done with my part, and when her part would begin. I know that indecision and procrastination is a problem of mine, but it's becoming alarmingly clear just HOW MUCH of a problem it is. I want to say that the spring sunshine and other stuff I've been happy about lately has got me charged up, but I don't want to believe that I'm really going to do something - I want to be DOING it. Replace "want" with "AM" goddamit KIM!

Another thing I'm realizing is that there are ways that I am codependent. Romantically, I need a little more attention than I previously thought I did. (in other words, I'm not as badass independent and strong as i always thought) Project-wise, I think I need an assistant editor. Random spurts of motivation were prompted whenever I'd get a donation and someone saying "it's really great that you're doing this!" but my issues are so far and few between that people are forgetting about the zine i think. what do i expect? it's at least 6 months between every issue. at least i can say that i love the content in every one. picture quality aside, the pictures themselves and the content has been 100 percent my desired outcome. i still love reading each submission.

but i'm thinking i need to develop the online presence if i'm going to take so long between issues.

in other news, i want to go work for the san diego maritime museum, possibly aboard californian, starting this fall or winter. if anyone reading this has inside tips, please let me know. i want to move to cali next winter and of course i'd rather be sailing than anything else.

i put a bunch of lady pics by Logan up on my flickr. totally illegal probably. check 'em out tho. if Logan or anyone complains, i'll remove them.

more pics of jay's place to come.

oh yeah 5 of us went to eat at Kingfish Cafe last weekend. AWESOME. fried green tomatoes, best mac & cheese i've ever had, hush puppies, crab & catfish cakes, vegetarian griddlecakes, jambalaya and after all that not even with 5 people could we finish the enormous SINGLE piece of red velvet cake for dessert. i highly recommend this place!

Frozen Dead Guy Days

A small town in Colorado really knows how to make winter fun. They have a festival to celebrate the fact that some dude died and was cryogenically frozen and is stored in a Tuff Shed in town:

click here if the video doesn't load

Jay's Place in Hilo

In 100 days, J. Fitzgerald has cleared part of his 3 acres off the grid outside Hilo, built this little cabin by hand, including installing a pump, generator, kitchen and ferrocement water holding tank that catches water off the roof. There's also a pond with fish and a little wooden walkway that leads to this gate. There's fish in the pond, and taro growing around the pond. There's also taro growing in the gray water runoff area, plus a banana plant. The following video is taken from the back porch.

i'm back

i went to the big island of hawaii last week. i saw humpback whales, i snorkeled, ate a lot, including passionfruit, a passionfruit milkshake at Ken's in Hilo, and best of all was the passionfruit cheesecake at the Ke'ei cafe in Kona. the most interesting day was visiting jay fitzgerald at his cabin between Hilo and the kilauea caldera. i'll post pics and vids of that soon. my friend fishers' family is wonderful. his mom is very generous and loving, his niece hux is the cutest thing ever, and the rest of the family was very nice to be around.

yeah i know i sound like a 10 year old telling the class about my vacation.
more later.

hawaii in a nutshell

what everyone wants

holy cow THIS PAGE is the best find in months.
sone reads it and i only found it because she called me and asked me if i'd posted the feb 3rd entry. LoL.

when nick fell for pj

in an interview nick cave did for The Guardian recently, he relates the moment he fell in love with PJ Harvey (she later broke his heart):

"Fucking hell! That's a one-take video. Nothing is rehearsed at all except we sit on this 'love seat'. We didn't know each other well, and this thing happens while we're making the video. There's a certain awkwardness, and afterwards it's like, oh..." So you were beginning the relationship in this three-minute video? "Yeah, exactly."



the only time he can quit his focus on her is the few seconds where she goes to stand behind him, and then when she starts caressing him from behind you see him blink and become totally distracted again. it's intense and beautiful.

where i was, where i'm going, and other ppl's vids

i used to walk this road and beach every day on my way to work at kualoa ranch, back in 2000 and 2001, before i moved to waikiki.



cheesy japanese promo vid for the ranch. if you're a LOST fan you'll recognize the backdrops for every island hiking scene. i used to lead hikes through this valley, take kids fishing, ride horseback topless, ride my mt. bike, pick guava and passionfruit...



ok so i don't get to go to my old haunts next week, but i AM going to the Big Island! should be fun.

Hammertime

If it tastes like caramel

play this video for an audio track to my blog. there's no actual video. just music.




HOT CHIP seems to be following me EVERYWHERE.

I'm sitting in a cafe, Sunday morning - Firehouse Cafe in Ballard, right by the Sloop Tavern, Lockspot - home of the "Deadliest Catch" drinkers, and the Ballard Locks. Right up the street from Shilshole Marina and right down the street from Cupcake Royale and Hattie's Hat - Neko Case's old workplace. I'm less than a block from Brian and Nanette's place and maybe 2 blocks from Adrian's. In fact Adrian's roommate works here but she's not here this morning. Fish is doing epoxy work on his boat about a mile away, and I'm here to work out the kinks in Jack Tar 3. Apparently I either need to learn how to "embed" fonts in my PDF's, or just accept the ugly fonts installed on my computer.

This morning is good, because it's Sunday before 9am, and it seems that this city barely moves at this time. I had the streets to myself, and in Ballard that's really nice.

But back to the Hot Chip. Hot Chip is a band. A good band, mostly. A lot of electronics and a soothing lead singer. But it's not really soothing music, like the Shins or Postal Service. It's usually pretty upbeat. Anyway, they just came out with a new album; Made in the Dark, and Seattle has gone nuts for it. KEXP plays it constantly, Rudy's Barbershop was playing it, half the cafes and bars in town play it. IT'S EVERYWHERE! It's kinda driving me crazy. Hot Chip isn't a band I'd listen to over and over again, all day, but I have few escapes from it these days.

blah blah blah
This last week at work was difficult at times. Still pulling 11-12 hour days. Our new warehouse helper is Awesome. His birthday is today so he had a gathering at Paddy Coyne's pub last night. Interesting crowd for sure. Let's see I'll nickname him PickBoy, because he picks in the warehouse and he's a few years younger than the rest of us. So PickBoy grew up in the same suburb I did, and went to a rival high school. He went to teach snowboarding in Germany and met a sweet young German girl and they've been married 8 years! Impressive for two young folks these days. And neither of them want kids, which I think is kinda cool too. Anyway she's really fun, and then I met his sister-in-law who looked really polished but then I noticed she had big ol' fancy plugs in her stretched out earlobes. I told her that surprised me and she said she's going for her MBA at the UW, so I guess she's adopting that more businesslike look, but that she and her husband (PickBoy's brother) own Deep Roots, a tattoo and piercing place in the UDistrict. We talked tats for a bit before I met some English sailor friends of PickBoy - Sean and his wife have sailed all over the place. Greek Islands, even!! Man I'd love to sail there. Eventually PickBoy got really drunk and Fish and I took off, leaving Rick to shmooze with all the cute girls that had joined the group.

Earlier in the day Thad, Bri and Nan and I all worked on sanding Fish's bottom blisters. Sounds worse than it was, but still plenty of very fine ablative bottompaint dust coating my clothing. Fish and I also went to happy hour with the sailing group. There we met a new member, Will, who just returned from Thailand after living there for a few years. Will had that calm stature and focused way of speaking and listening that comes from being far far away from America for an extended period of time. There was also some schmuck who was totally new and must have googled to find potential clients for his new invention, splice nut, which is a plastic doohickey that pretty much works for putting a splice in braided line the same way wire shrouds are gripped by those stay-lock things. He arrived, looked anxious, passed out his card to everyone, hung out for a bit, then took off first. Several of us jokingly tried to pawn his cards off to each other. Ken V told stories about people who scuttle their boats during storms and refloat them, rather than hauling out. He said people still do it today. I'll have to google that to believe it. We also talked about how boats are surprisingly pretty cheap in Florida, Baja, and even SoCal, because couples travel long distance and arrive at one of those ending points and often say "FUCK THIS!" even to the extent of anchoring them offshore and abandoning them!!! Unbelievable. We laughed about how a lot of sailors arriving in Baja have to choose between their wife and their boat.

Oh yeah yesterday morning I also took Nan to breakfast at Volunteer Park Cafe.
for $33 we had a latte, an americano, a toasted baguette with brie and apple, a toasted sandwich of prosciutto and poached egg, the incredible carmelized banana brioche french toast with vanilla bean custard, and a piece each of chocolate bundt and lemon bundt cakes to go. The cafe is full of sunlight and it all made for a really nice birthday breakfast for Nan.

I just tried to find a link to that hot chip song and found a million fans' blog posts with the same title i used for this one! JEEZ!

stand up for something already

i've been thinking about the changes at my workplace. it's a small company and the main people running it have been there 5 out of the 7 years it has existed. it was like a family until J was fired. the way i see it, there may have been legitimate concerns with his management style, but nobody asked him to change and he was not given warning. and nobody else stepped up to manage anything, ever. J is intelligent, a hard worker, and very much the alpha male type, so he stepped up and took care of everything he could, as best as he could. where others fell short, he filled in. where he fell short, nobody filled in.

the other drivers and i liked him very much. i was disappointed that while everyone was confused and thinking it was a bad idea to fire him, including those who'd been there 5 years or more, NOBODY said "this is unacceptable" or "this is a terrible thing and i'm very confused and dismayed by this"

nobody except me.
yeah i'll toot my own fucking horn even though i later decided to stay. i told the other drivers we might be able to get the pres to reconsider if we all quit. they had acted like they appreciated J so much, yet they did nothing. of course now they are upset on a daily basis with how things are being run. in my opinion, they have no right to complain. i don't get upset. i knew shit was going to fall apart there. J was the glue that held everything together. first i get upset, then i realize what my healthy limits are and i will work to those limits and no further. i've been working 11 hour days for 2 weeks. my limit is 12 hours. if it gets to that point i will say "i'm sorry, i have to go home now" and clock out. there's only so much i can carry. if my back hurts or i'm physically exhausted i'll just slow down. if slowing down pushes me past a 12 hour day that doesn' t mean i'm staying late to make up for being slower. i know my limits and i know what appropriate expectations are between an employee and an employer.

i will say, though, that J inspired the kind of teamwork and loyalty that made me push my limits for the sake of the team. J made me want to help the other drivers and him. with him being fired the dynamic at this company has changed entirely. how can a healthy "family" exist if a member is forced out without being given a chance? how can i trust that other weird decisions won't be made? do i really have to go back to thinking of my coworkers as just people i work with... who are ultimately only going to look out for themselves regardless of the good people around them getting fucked over? i hate that. it's everywhere and i thought it wasn't at this company. but i'm such an idealistic fool.

i want to scream this at these people: THANK GOD you weren't around 80 years ago when workers rights, unions, human rights, etc, were being fought for, because not a damn thing would have changed.

Bumper 2 Bumper

Today the SUN SHONE DOWN on Seattle! The wee folks stumbling blindly between the skyscrapers lifted their heads to the sky like new blooms in spring but it was so bright that we all ended up exhausted from squinting. Overheard most on the street: "I shoulda brought my sunglasses!"

I ate a gyro at Pike Place Market after delivering there. I carried seven 30-40 pound boxes up 2 flights of stairs at the market. I deserved a gyro!

Later, in the large office of a famous local restaurateur, I commented to the accountant on how it's nice that there's always a platter of fresh sushi or hummos and pita or something like that in their office. She said "The boss said we were all getting too fat, so he decided to provide the snacks from that point on."

And since I work in a field that includes a lot of pretty people, I feel it's my duty to put in my vote for Hottest Local Chef-Owners.
The main chef at Boom Noodle
The guy who runs Joe Bar. DAMN. Carhaarts, even!

Now for the best part of this post: Today I observed bumper stickers. Most were the typical political (liberal) type so often seen in Seattle. Actually they all were. That's all you really see around here, except those supposedly less obnoxious rear window transfers that tell everyone what college you went too. Today was Vanderbilt, Brown, etc. Oh and KEXP stickers too. So here's my list of most common stickers that I saw today, to least common. But the least common is definitely the kicker.... although if you click on this link you'll see a lot of other popular stickers around here and some extras.

1. NO WAR
2. War IS Terrorism
3. John Kerry for President
4. No War for Oil
5. Obama
6. It Takes a Village Idiot
7. a picture of the jesus fish with the word "Duped" inside, and the words "In Case of Rapture" around it.

and the least common but definitely one that stuck in my brain:

My SUV gets 9 miles per soldier.

politics at Mama's

watch sexy waitress Amelia, semi sober Daddy J, Nickl and myself listening to Dick G. explain why the dems might not win.

There Will Be Drinking. And Sailing. Soon.

So I decided to stick around at my current delivery job for awhile. I miss my boss, though. We all do. When he was with us we'd go out at least one or two Fridays per month, after the workweek was finished, and inevitably we'd all get plastered on whiskey shots. So this past Friday we decided to all go out anyway, and Judd met us at Mama's Mexican Kitchen in Belltown, where a hot waitress flirted with the boys and even sat on Nickl's lap in order to give him a memory to file away in his "Spank Bank." Judd of course asked her how old she thought he was. She said 36 (he's 41). And Rick proceeded to tell her just about anything he thought she wanted to hear. It was pretty amusing. She was nice and we tipped her well.

We then joined Fish and the Kayak Twins at the Red Door in Fremont and proceeded to get more wasted. Well actually I didn't because as usual I played Designated Driver. Don't get me wrong, I love to drink, but others often have a more relaxed definition of Drunk Driving. When you consider that I was by far the most sober, maybe not completely sober, but still the most of the 4 in our car, and successfully avoided 2 close calls caused by other drivers, I'm glad I was sober.

We took Daddy J home and hung out a bit there with Stella and Sherri and a Band of Horses while Nickl and J drank the rest of the Jameson's that J had given me for Stella-sitting. Nickl and J were totally wasted and Fish spent the entire time wrestling a stuffed monkey out of Stella's puppy jaws. Then we took Nickl home. It was a fun night.

Saturday night Fish and I went to see There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day Lewis is one of the best actors alive. Not much of a plot, but an excellent character study/old time saga. I think I expected something more action packed. It was like those long epic dramas with lots of poignant moments that you will never take the time to watch again. The review I read concluded that it was a tale of "Prophets versus Profits" which is a catchy phrase but not very accurate. Lewis's character was a real money-driven asshole 90% of the time but he was fucking over a few innocent people, not the so called prophet in the movie. The preview led me to believe there was major feuding between he and someone else over oil, but that's not really valid. No big Gangs of New York style feuding. Lewis is so good that for 158 minutes I believe that he really is this character, and not just acting. He's amazing. I can't say enough about him perfecting his art.

Today the Kayak Twins, Fish and I motored the future Miss White Cloud through the locks and under a few bridges in order to get to the yard where she will be hauled out tomorrow. Soon there will be a de-naming process (I will not mention the current name) but it's a bit confusing because some resources say to use urine to wash away the old and some say to use red wine AKA Blood of a Virgin, but then there's an issue of red stains. Fish is researching all of this to the nth degree. No matter what the baptising of White Cloud is not too far away and that will be a huge upgrade for the participants (champagne).

We then went out for lunch at Hattie's Hat (former employer of Neko Case!) and had some yummy food.

See all the pics here.

Stelllaaaaa!

last week:

my most excellent boss got fired without warning

15 minutes after hearing this i put in my 2 weeks notice

for a couple of days, people at the company tried to convince me to stay

i decided to stick around a while longer to see how it goes

i house-sat for my now ex-boss, actually mostly dogsitting his and his girlfriend's beautiful chocolate lab pup named Stella (see picture)

i attended a seminar on standing rigging at the boat show

i bought a 26 foot sailboat for really cheap- it needs new keel bolts in order to sail

i hosted a small superbowl/puppybowl party at my boss's house

i watched tv, made french toast & bacon, baked bread, cuddled w/fish and stella, and picked up a lot of dog poo

made friends with new boss from portland - he was raised by buddhist monks (sort of)