photos: first snow of the season

Went on a little walkabout Saturday night during the snowfall.

Stopit

Parkit

Walkit

Drinkit

cRooKiT

Play golf on city streets on Saturday October 18th

Nine holes, nine bars.

Seattle's Fifth Biannual Urban Golf Tournament/Bar Crawl is next Saturday October 18th, around Capitol Hill neighborhood. Check Seattlest's write up on the July event to get a sense of how not-serious this goes down.

The deets:

Meet at Cal Anderson Park at 2pm Saturday October 18th

Bring $3, or your golf ball from the previous tournament to play for free

Bring a golf club (Goodwill has cheap ones)

Bring cash for the bar crawl part

Dress appropriately for the seriousness of the event

Maps, rules and golf balls will be provided

Players will be assigned a tee time in groups of 8 - 10


RSVP to greensmaster@seattleurbangolf.com. It's not necessary, but it helps give the organizers an accurate ball count.

This is a 21+ event. These Scottish girls will have to stick with St. Andrews

Who wants to play?

photo: lauralemur

Movie at Cal Anderson Park on Sunday

Northwest Film Forum will be showing a movie outdoors at Cal Anderson Park on Sunday July 20th as part of the Imagine Capitol Hill sustainability festival. It took some sleuthing to find the name of the film and surprise! It is a bike movie. Or maybe not such a surprise: the movie is part of Seattle Bike-In, an annual event in it's third year of promoting alternative transportation in the city.

Showing at dusk is A Sunday in Hell, a 1976 Danish flick about a brutal bike race: the French Paris-Roubaix spring classic, notorious for the hellish paves or cobbled roads of the north "which are no longer used for civilised traffic but only for transporting cattle - and for cycle races." IMDB commenters indicate the movie is not subtitled so unless you understand "En Forårsdag i Helvede," the sound volume won't matter much.

A Sunday in Hell is preceded by a musical lineup including Steve Arntson, who plays concertina, Medieval Woman, and SEAHORSE.

Ducky Debrief

geek, girl, and a hippo
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

So that was fun! A few lessons learned:

• Smaller goes faster
• Weighted-bottom ducks suck
• Normal sized ducks get stuck
• Wear flip flops (see next)
• Plan to nudge your ducky along
• Hippos don't float as well as ducks
• Get a smaller duck
• Sharpies work great for dressing up the duck

Rubber Ducky Regatta (reggae) tonight

Bring your rubber ducky to Cal Anderson Park tonight by 7pm and join the Rubber Duck Regatta in the fountain. The wizard-of-fun Corprew (organizer of the eclipse sing-along on Teletubby Hill in February) is at it again, pulling together free and silly and fun sh*t in the neighborhood park/third place.
The rules:
1. Ducks get put into the fountain.
2. Ducks float downstream through all the rocks and bricks.
3. Eventually a duck reaches the end.

Get in the mood: sing and dance in a giant tub along with me and Ernie and all our Sesame Street friends. C'mon, you know you wanna.
"Duck, rubber duck, duck, rubber duck, duck..."

Dodgeball And a Third Place

dodgeball night
Originally uploaded by JeanineAnderson

Grownups play pickup games of dodgeball on Friday nights at Cal Anderson Park. Cal Anderson Park is a true third place: a third space after home and work to establish a sense of community and of place. It is one of my favorite spots on the hill because there is always something going on at the park.

Friday night I happened across the weekly dodgeball game. The mix was about 5% girls to 95% boys. They were having some serious fun! I want to play too, but I suck at throwing. I'd be a good blocker though!

What else makes Cal Anderson Park a "third place?" Any day, any time, people gather and sit and talk and eat and drink and read and talk some more. Besides the outdoor-living-room type of park use, all sorts of unofficial, inclusive, and socially engaging activities take place at the park: bicycle polo, a marching band playing at 1 a.m., a big group of folks singing "total eclipse of the heart" on Teletubby Hill during the lunar eclipse, people practicing their hooping and dancing. And, of course, dog walking and playground playing.

Cal Anderson Park is a gem and is our third place for many of us Capitol Hill residents.

A Seattle version of The Amazing Race: wanna play?

Here's your best chance to be on The Amazing Race tv show. Only, without the cameras. And you don't need your passport. And it only lasts 2 hours. And you stay in one neighborhood, in Seattle. And you won't be on tv. But it's probably as close as any of us will ever get. It's on Capitol Hill in Seattle and it happens May 31st. No auditions needed -- just an entrance fee, which goes to a good cause: the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings.

The Seattle Inner City Outings Search Party 2008 scavenger hunt will start off in Cal Anderson Park and threatens to cover the entire Capitol Hill neighborhood. Participants can expect a lot of running around while finding answers to clues and participating in wacky activities for points. The event is timed for a hard stop and late arrivals will have points deducted. Last year's scavenger hunt was held in Ballard and activities included finding the Latin name for a tree, stuffing a sleeping bag with one hand, playing croquet, and creating a haiku from sign rubbings. (Read more about 2007's event here and here.)

So who wants to race amazingly? Maybe even in costume, or at least coordinated accessories. (Think same-colored bandanas if costumes are too scary for you.) It is going to be too fun. I promise.

total eclipse (of the heart)

You can see the total lunar eclipse tonight if skies are clear. In the Pacific time zone the total phase starts at 7:01 and will last about 50 minutes. If communal viewing is your thing you've got two options in Seattle.

Sing-along:
Bring these lyrics to the Cal Anderson Park to karaoke with the masses. You know the tune. "Turn around, bright eyes. Every now and then I fall apart..." Clear skies not required. Deep emoting is. [via line out].

Ohh-and-ahh-along:
The Seattle Astronomical Society will hold a public party for observation of the total lunar eclipse on Wednesday, Feb. 20, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Club members will set up telescopes just north of the Green Lake Small Craft Center, at 5900 West Green Lake Way North. [via cl] I wonder: is the sharing of a telescope viewpiece like borrowing someone's lipstick? Should one bring a discreet packet antibacterial wipes?

Eavesdropping at Cal Anderson Park

Eight-year-old by the playground: "This is the most kids I've ever seen here before." Adult: "Everyone comes out when the sun does."

Walkers: "I'm not going to put up with his crap any more."

Cyclist on cell phone: "Where are you?"

Walker to dog: "NOOOOoo! Get out of the water! Out!"

On the lawn, swinging lasso-fashion something that looks like a 2 foot rope with hefty knots on each end: "So how do you play this game, exactly?"

Sunny. Presidents' Day. 50+ degrees. Seattle. Ahhh.

p.s. if you have rose bushes Presidents' Day is the recommended day to prune for optimal health and bloom.