I want to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why else even be here?
~Steve Jobs, 1955-2011
Midnight Madness
Why, you might ask, does UKs campus look like a refugee camp? Maybe the President is coming to talk? A Nobel Laureate?
Try the first basketball practice of the season.
Yes, practice. Not game.
Rupp Arena doesn’t allow people to camp out in front of it until 3 days before the event. So everyone camps out across the street for the first few days, so they can get a camping spot in front of Rupp as soon as they open it up for camping. This is all to get in line at 2am the day before for free event tickets.
It’s called Midnight Madness. They introduce the team. Coach Cal is there. It is a VERY. BIG. DEAL.
Go Cats.
Apartment Hike #2 (Part B)
…continued from Part A.
Before we continue, did you know that September 17 is Constitution Day?
Chrissy did. And did you know that Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution? Now you do.
From the Inner Sunset we headed into Cole Valley for some uphill. Way, way uphill. Running sounded like a good idea, so that’s what we did.
It was easy. And by easy I mean painful. Ferg also figured out that skipping uphill is basically impossible. From here, it was time for steps…which we also ran up.
These took us to…
Stop #5: Michelle and Dave’s, Mount Sutro.
Dave and Michelle (and Cooper, their dog) had an amazing view and a RIDICULOUS amount of delicious food at their house. It was fantastic. We arrived sweaty and out of breath, and ended up hanging out there longer than the allotted 30 minutes due to some coordination problems with two other hikers who wanted to meet up (after about an hour we realized that they were waiting for us at Michelle and Dave’s old house across town. Whoops.) We decided to meet up with them at the next stop.
Fully fueled on pulled pork, mac and cheese, and brownies, we finally hit the road again. This next stretch would be one of the longer ones of the day. Road sodas in hand, we left Mount Sutro and headed down into…a forest.
Yes, really. This little jungle is nestled right behind Michelle and Dave’s, and is home to the only mountain biking trail inside the city (we actually had to let a few bikers pass by.) We emerged from the forest for yet another hill…
…and a few more stairs…
…to the top of Tank Hill, for a pretty fantastic cityscape.
(Note: Tank Hill was actually a hill for a water tank, not an army tank.)
At this point we were pretty far behind schedule, so we had to get our move on. After a handstand attempt at the spot where the water tank used to be…
…we headed downhill (finally) toward Upper Market and passed a minibus that, like Chrissy, understood the importance of Constitution Day.
We successfully completed our first crossing of Market (the main drag you can see in the picture above from the top of Tank Hill)…
…and managed to find a ledge to set the camera on autoshoot and posed for a full group shot. From here, it was down through Noe Valley to…
Stop #6: Summer and Ryan’s, The Mission
This stop resulted in 2 more hikers, 2 dogs, and a Katy Perry dance party. But 30 minutes later we were on our way again, through the Mission to…
W-K MARKET! The same stop we made last year.
Cutty bang time. This year tasted a lot better, for some reason.* We continued through the Mission without encountering A SINGLE bacon wrapped hot dog cart (a miracle)…
…successfully completed our first freeway crossing…
…and hiked up to the top of Potrero Hill to…
Stop #7: Ferg’s, Potrero Hill
Quick stop, we met up with 3 new hikers (and acquired another dog) and headed downhill (thank God)…
…to freeway crossing #2. Completed our second freeway crossing successfully, with some people showcasing their parkour skills down into SOMA. Counting strollers was long gone, but a few hikers were so happy to be on flat ground again that they just kept on skipping.
As dusk fell, we headed into downtown, crossed Market Street for a second time, passed City Hall…
…and marched straight into the Tenderloin to our old favorite hang out, Harrington’s Pub: where people smoke inside and dogs are welcome (which worked out great for us). We asked a lady in the bar to take a group shot.
Apparently she’d been hanging out at the bar for a while. But to be honest, it was probably better than any of us could do at that point. We finished up our drinks and hit the road again, where we saw…another double decker red bus. Why these things run through the Tenderloin I will never understand. This meant only one thing:
Time for The Outsider, another Tenderloin gem. From here we put on our blinders and made our way up the final hill to our FINAL STOP!
Stop #8: Sherwin & Peterson’s, the Tendernob
Victory. Pizza and football for everyone.
Finishing time: 8:30pm
Lessons Learned: Carl is the fastest skipper in the group; they won’t let you in to a marijuana store “just to go pee”
Flora and Fauna: Max, Lani, Cooper, and Huey.
*UPDATE: The Cutty Bang was on ice this year. General consensus is that’s why it was so much better.
Apartment Hike #2: Skip the City (Part A)
Like, literally.
Some fortunate people with calves like this had an advantage:
Most of us did not. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Location: San Francisco
Distance: 14.04 m
Entry Fee: A good attitude, willingness to walk up hills
Apartment Hike #2 was a massive success…no thanks to me. A huge HUGE thank you goes out to Molly, Peterson, and Ferg for making this happen. And, of course, all of the hosts. Without you, there would be no Urban Apartment Hiking.
ROUTE:
ROOLS:
- 30 minutes at each house
- Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog Carts–duh
- Red Double Decker Tour Buses = chug a beer at the nearest bar. 5 minutes max.
- Bay Quackers Duck Bus = shot of the warmest garbage tequila on the dusty bottom shelf from the nearest bar
- Every time you see a stroller, you get to tell someone to skip. That person has to skip until the next stroller is spotted, and the skipping gets passed along to someone else.
AND WE WERE OFF!
Stop #1: T. Dude and Eden’s, The Richmond. Newly engaged. Champagne for everyone.
Eden couldn’t join, but was gracious enough to host. Their new apartment is awesome. We left the first stop with almost 20 people in tow…21 if you count the one in utero (Summer is a TROOPER).
Pat and Foster skipped through the park…
…and right into our first Red Double Decker bus.
Which landed us in Yancy’s at 10:45am. Sherwin (attempted to) skip through the door.
On our way to stop #2, we saw Red Double Decker Bus #2…but decided to hold off on our second bar stop until after we had hit all the stops on our Inner Sunset lineup.
Stops #2 (Telleen, where we were provided with delicious fresh fruit), #3 (Molly, who made some fantastic cookies), and #4 (the Hesslers, who provided a wide range of delicacies) were all within 4 blocks of each other in the Inner Sunset. And that’s exactly how it went: boom boom boom.
Then we hit the road again…
…and walked the 3 blocks down to the Blackthorn Tavern for the second bus stop. Lara skipped.
(Gold star to anyone who can identify the origin of the yellow sunglasses.)
At this point we were halfway through our stops but had only been hiking for about 2 hours. And it had all been flat. We were fully fueled and ready to attack the upcoming hills. Things were about to get a lot gnarlier…especially for skipping.
Infinite Sadness
This look. Every morning when I leave for work. Abandonment. Hopelessness.
So sad. So, so sad.
Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.
Just a month and a half after her first attempt, 62-year-old Diana Nyad tried again to complete a cage-less swim from Havana to Florida, only to be stopped 40 hours and 92 miles in (just 11 miles short of the 103 mile goal) by Man ‘o War and Box Jellyfish stings. She says she’s learned to respect the ocean and won’t try again. I have trouble believing her.
A few pics here. Pretty gnarly.
Hradčanská
Sorry for the lack of activity up in these parts, last week was a busy week: I was in Louisville for the annual Idea Festival (yes, Cesar Milan was there, and no, I didn’t get to hear his talk…but I did pass him walking down the street with his dog), and Paul turned 30 (I got him a new iPod nano and a book on canning and making preserves. Because he’s been talking about it for months. Yes, for reals.)
So anyway, random, but in thinking about how old we’re all getting, it crossed my mind this weekend that 7 years ago this month I took my enormous green suitcase (“the size of a house”, according to my friend Jen) and hopped on a plane to move to Prague. 7 YEARS AGO. What.
I was thinking about getting old and different phases of life…but writing about deep thoughts isn’t really my forte. Then yesterday, serendipitously, out of the blue, my college roommate Margaret sent me the link of her cousin’s blog (her cousin is a travel writer), where I found a nice little post that pretty much sums it all up. And coincidentally happens to be about Prague…though it could be about anywhere. So I will let her deal with the sap.
Enjoy.
San Frantastico
Another urban hike down.
Everyone survived.
Report to follow.
Going, going, back back…
Guess where I’m flying to after work today…
…and, in addition to celebrating the engagement of four of my friends (2 + 2), guess what’s going on while I’m there…
Oh yeah. Back to our roots. Urban hiking. Get ready.
Beet it
…and they’re arriving. Our garden finally started producing vegetables during the month that Paul was in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, Paul was gone during that month, and I don’t like beets. So I gave this one to Marsha.
We also have baby watermelons, gallons of tomatoes, peppers, carrots (which Paul thought was parsley, so he picked it too early), cabbage, broccoli (which went bad because I wasn’t sure how to pick it), colonel mint, and strawberries. The blueberry and raspberry plants are also growing OK, but probably won’t produce any fruit until next year.
RIP corn, lavender, the blackberry plant that Spike ate, and Paul’s edamame that he planted on bald spots IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAWN (a landscaper unexpectedly cleaned up our back yard last week and mowed over them. That’s what you get.)
Recipes to follow.
Rambulatory Ambulatory 