Even in Kyoto

This morning I took the bus up to the old location of Espresso Vivace for breakfast. I sat at one of the granite counters that wrap around the edge of the coffeeshop, ate an almond croissant and drank a latte, and looked out of the windows between reading passages of Life is a Miracle. It is a good book and perhaps I'll re-read it at some other point. I kind of want to add in some ifs, ands, and buts, but at the same time it is refreshingly articulate and humble--proper, to use Berry's own term. He writes about coming to know a place and the long time it takes to learn the stories of a place, which is a fitting subject for me while I ponder how I relate to Seattle and to Arizona.

From there, I walked north, down along Broadway, passing by new Condominium Complexes (Brix is such a displeasing name) and old apartment buildings and trying to put my finger on what I like and what I dislike. For a while I thought about how much I appreciate the moss that gradually creeps up everything over time. That's a substance that is not cultivated but lends appearance. Eventually I reached Le Fournil and remembered the time when that section of road was abandoned and the Flower Lady sold flowers out of the back of a truck instead of the concrete shop. At Eastlake and Boyer I turned right and walked the familiar path between my house and the boathouse (the Pocock Center), and observed in that neighborhood several new houses that seemed fitting in their landscape. Perhaps it was the eaves, or the carefully chosen surfacing material, or the placement of windows, or the size of the projects, or the green between houses--I don't know for sure.

This afternoon, I'll travel out to the airport, and then travel back to Tempe, where I'll pretend I'm ready to resume some other aspect of my life.

Part way through the ride, I devised a useful map.

98.1 miles round trip by my odometer, with a low temperature of -2 degrees celsius. Beautiful, screaming hills, mountains, prickly pear shimmering like emeralds in the sunlight. Lots of ravens and a few turkeys.

For my father, a coffeeshop in Patagonia. No bike parking (but no theft either), for here, not whole wheat, asked if whole milk was okay, and I'm not sure what kind of coffee. No latte art, but good foam. I'm holding a lucky penny; we passed up the other thirteen cents.

I use a wee moka pot every single morning to make myself a latte with breakfast (one could say I'm perhaps a wee bit addicted, but who cares?). I love the thing. But its little rubber gasket is starting to fall apart in a bad way, leading to all sorts of leakage and spilling. My question to you, dear readers, is: do you think I'd be able to find a replacement at a hardware store? If not there, where?

I'm hoping my wee moka pot will have a fate similar to my father's, which has kept him company for years and years. This one's not even a year old yet, but is beginning to show a bit of wear. That's what I get for buying a cheap one.

Yesterday I decided I needed to get out of the house, so I caught the bus to downtown Phoenix to stop by a few of my favorite haunts. The bus ride there was a bit more interesting than usual--we passed by a large, black plume of smoke and a pretty serious-looking accident. The guy in the seat across from me snored quite heavily, but there weren't any crazy bums on that ride so things were all right.

The market was somewhat crowded--it had rained during the night and cooled down to 77 degrees in the morning, and the cool air inspired many others to travel to the market as well. I believe the rain came from remnants of the hurricane that hit Mexico pretty hard. Around here it was a welcome relief, although temperatures will rise again through the end of the week. Ahh, rain.

Anyway. I bought a loaf of sandwich bread and some peaches and apples, and then walked up to the Phoenix Burton Barr Public Library. The top floor is closed for recarpeting, but that wasn't my purpose in going anyway; I wanted to see if I could find any good Phoenix-area bike maps, as part of the grand project of making my own Moleskine Bike Travel Book for the Phoenix area. One of the reference librarians in the geography department showed me a few of the decent maps in the collections, but unfortunately I don't think they offer any free maps. I might end up buying copies of the maps that were available, though, because they provide more street-level detail than most of the regional bike maps. Next I just have to figure out how many I need to buy and how to modify them to fit on book pages. Either that or I need to keep looking at maps. I did learn the name of the company that has produced most of the area bikes maps, so I might also check with them to see if they can offer any book-formatted options. Obviously my budget's pretty limited, but I'm willing to spend some money if needed.

So that was nice. Afterwards, I hopped back on the bus up to Lux to drink some halfway decent coffee and eat a cupcake. Sometimes I feel like going there makes me aware of how dissatisfying things in Tempe are, which is discouraging. The reprieve is nice, though, and I don't think I should become complacent about mediocrity. I also grabbed a delicious tomato-mozzarella-basil sandwich from Pane Bianco.

I also just looked up the location of a local record store, Stinkweeds, and noted that it was just a short distance north of Lux, so I decided to try walking there. Lo and behold, I found it tucked amongst a small set of other local shops just a half-mile north of Lux. I wish I had realized that sooner because I've been haphazardly looking for a nice record store for a while now. As an added bonus, there's a super-nice clothing store next door that carries alternative clothing labels (including some local stuff!): clothes that actually looks cool and nice for a reasonable price! They weren't cheap, but were affordable. Heartening, I tell you.

The owner of Stinkweeds was working the register and told me that she's actually the Executive Director of Local First Arizona, which used to be known as Arizona Chain Reaction. It's an association and directory of Arizona-owned and operated businesses, and is designed to promote supporting them instead of the Wal-Marts and Targets and Urban Outfitters of the world. So yeah, that was pretty cool and I'll definitely be going back. If I could afford the commute I'd be tempted to relocate to a liveable pocket of Phoenix to get out of the half-assed strip-mall that is Tempe. Stinkweeds used to have a location near downtown Tempe but moved out because the soul of Tempe has been gutted out by malls and developers. What is worse, the institutional memory at ASU is short-term, so not so many students know or care about supporting local culture. A few businesses have stuck things out, but many more have been forced to close or relocate.

After that, it was back home to put together some food for a party at my advisor's house--she hosted a float-in movie (movie-watching from the pool), which was wonderful. It felt like being surrounded by an extended family, with kids running around and splashing in the pool while we all talked and ate too much delicious food.

It has already been a lovely day, and it's not even 1:00 yet. Before it got too hot, K, M and I went on a nice, long, not-too-strenuous ride through the nicer parts of Scottsdale, and stopped for coffee at La Grande Orange. Things were a bit busy there, but the mid-ride latte really hit the spot and I felt pretty good by the end of the ride. It was nice to not feel exhausted by the time I got home.

After that, I did a few small home-improvement projects and got to put my shiny new drill to use (ah, how I love power tools). My kitchen towel rack is now firmly reattached to the wall, and I also put up one of those magnetic strips to hold my kitchen knives, which had previously been homeless. I have also been getting supplies together to build my bike ceiling suspension system, although I just discovered that I'm going to need to make another trip to the hardware store before I can install the finalized version. Some parts don't fit together quite as nicely as I'd hoped. Go figure. I also need a stud sensor before I start putting holes in things.

I just love having the time, energy, and inclination to devote to these sorts of projects. If I'm feeling really ambitious, I might even work on a few sewing projects this afternoon.

As a random aside, my father once pointed out to me that my mother really likes to hang things from little hooks/etc. I clearly share that trait with her. It's amusing to notice things like that about myself.

I went to Three Roots this morning to write for a while and then meet up with S to talk about insects and science. At some point, I went up to the front counter and noticed a guy who looked really familiar. When I finally put two and two together, I realized that he worked at one of the bike shops where J and I looked at bikes a few weeks ago. It was weird. He told me the bike shop was his weekend job. I told him that I studied ants and he told me an ant story. It was better than most because it involved Costa Rica. Just remember, everybody has an ant story. Then I said I had to get back to work and awkwardly left.

Earlier, I also overheard a conversation about the bike co-op that I failed to find a few weekends ago, and got a bit more information about when I should try to go to it. Maybe I'll try to go again this weekend. We shall see.

notlostonme just gave me the most awesome gift evar. However, you, internets, (or blagoblag), don't get to see it quite yet. I have to get it all set up in the proper place and then you can see it. I know, you're on the edge of your seat and you can hardly wait, but you will have to take a deep breath and wait until Thursday.

Secondly, whenever there's the slightest rumor of snow, Seattle shuts down. It never fails to amuse me, although it almost failed to amuse me this evening. I had hoped to quickly catch the bus downtown back to Montlake, but had no such luck (silly me), so I ended up waiting in downtown Seattle in the snow for 1 1/2 hours and FINALLY caught a back-route bus. Fortunately, things at home had worked out so I didn't have to cook dinner or inconvenience anybody. I think I'm just about ready for some Australian summer now.

Thirdly, I ate some delicious [cup]cake this afternoon with popcultureicon and talked shop about computers and photography, which was splendid. Seattlites interested in photography should go visit the Henry Art Gallery and see the stuff on exhibit. Ahh, photography. Also, for the record, I sadly did not enjoy the red velvet cupcake from Cupcake Royale as much as I had hoped to enjoy it. Apparently I don't like cream cheese frosting on my cupcake. Thank goodness I ate a Kate (choc w/vanilla frosting) as well. One works up an appetite when one is rowing ludicrous amounts. Oh, and I got a free latte out of the whole deal. I'm just that amazing.

Fourthly, I now have a copy of the Me and You and Everyone We Know soundtrack. I know, you're jealous.

Fifthly, last night I had dinner with annikusrex and W and C. For some reason, it put me in one of those states where I feel like I have to try too hard to make a good impression because I don't have a whole lot in common with the other people present. The cool part of dinner was that it was an awesome cooking experience for W, who, from the sounds of it, is just beginning to learn the real thrill of cooking.

When my dad completed the Seattle-to-Portland, he passed by a cycling club called the Pastry Powered T(o)uring Machines (LOL nerd jokes), whose motto is: "We live to eat and we bike to eat more!" The more I think about it, the more I believe I would fit right in.

Distance: 70 miles
Starting temperature: approximately 68 degrees (there was some debate over this and I didn't have a thermometer)
Total time: 4 hours, 45 minutes
Time on bike: 4 hours, 2 minutes
Lowest bib number: 5 (spotted by M)
Highest bib number: 783 (spotted by me)

Total number of OTHER mountain bikes seen: 3
Number of riders in our gang: 5
Coffeeshop at end: Red Cup (I wouldn't visit it again)
Number of cupcakes eaten: 1

It was a fun day. I'm a bit tired. The other bikers were great and very patient because I just can't go as fast up the hills. That's the longest ride I've ever done.

Now it's time to take a nap. Whee!

I should prolly update with happenings before I forget all of them.

( travels and such )

I just learned that the ONLY barista at the coffeeshop by my house who knows what he is doing is leaving tomorrow. This spells the end of decent espresso in downtown Tempe. Only crap coffee is left. Srsly crap coffee. This is a complete and utter disaster.

I am forlorn.

And my fave barista says that he has *tried* to train the other baristas, but they just go right back to their old habits. I consider this to be a sign of a serious attitude problem, which I've gotten hints of before. Inasmuch as I like 3 Roots, there's a strange pervasive attitude here. The place tries to be nice, but it isn't quite nice, and it also isn't quite snotty, either (which honestly I wouldn't mind--many of the best coffeeshops are the ones that aren't friendly right away, but that warm up after a person becomes a repeat customer). The hippy/hipster element is nice, but it just isn't quite sincere, and there's no commitment to good quality stuff. I HATE carelessness.

I started patronizing this place when they first opened, before they had a whole lot of business. I stopped for quite a while for the same reasons as outlined above, then started coming over here again because there were glimmers of reform. But now? Forget it. I will just have to find somewhere else.