Testy Chef

I finally had a chance to try out the Testy Chef Cafe in Maple Valley yesterday. It was delightful. Great cheddar on the club sandwich, special that day. I didn't realize the building was right on the river. Small and cozy, and very quick service. Great red checkered tablecloths. No one seemed too testy the day that I visited.

obama

I watched his speech (from yesterday) tonight to get excited. I have been a Hillary supporter, and so I wanted to be able to feel good about the transfer of allegiance. He is an awesome and inspiring speaker. Communication is very important to me. It was also great to watch some highlights-- lowlights-- of McCain's speech and contrast that. Wow. It's like watching someone who's never held office before or stood in front of a crowd, who doesn't believe in what he's saying, and who looks O-L-D.

I believe Obama can win.

I can't wait to stay up late in November and watch it happen.

sustainability

Did you know that by 2040, only 22% of the houses in the US will have children in them? So we don't really need any more suburban traditional homes. We need housing choice and options. And walkable neighborhoods. And good pedestrian streetscapes.

next Japanese Gulch fundraiser

We are on for a happy hour at the Diamond Knot Brewery in Harbour Pointe. Friday the 27th, tentatively from 5pm to 8pm. Hopefully we will raise another few thousand for land acquisition in the gulch.

when a Rosehill discussion is good...

Council was pretty good tonight (I did have to leave early because of the aforementioned hives). We did more of an abstract analysis of priorities for the Rosehill siting. It's nice to take a step back and just talk concepts. Its hard when its an either/or site decision, and preconceived ideas of what's included start to cloud my opinion. Today was valuable. Part of the consensus was a big green space, open public park. that's good because that will just be nice, and it's useful for the festival and events that happen now. Any real constructed plaza may end up being closer to the building, tied more to connecting usage of space in the building with the outside.
Of course, everyone agreed on making the visual connections and preserving views of the waterfront. I think it may actually end up on the back SE corner. Wouldn't be such a bad thing. But I like hiding the parking more. Pedestrian streetscapes are important, I want the kind of close connection that the Lincoln courtyard has to connect to the community center site.

I wonder if we're off-base on the large greenspace. Jane Jacobs says people don't like and won't use big generic empty spaces. Maybe if we have different elements to break it up in ways....

allergies totally suck

don't ever get hives. You won't like it, trust me. They are pretty much gone now, thank goodness. YUCK

next food network star

is awesome. I am a sucker for lots of competitive reality tv, and this one is fun. I didn't like the winner of the last one (her show is annoying, all about cooking food with low-fat type replacements for ingredients. Yogurt for cream cheese... give me cream cheese any day).

so, The Next Food Network Star just started last night. Plenty of people look pretty incompetent. But they automatically were talking while they were cooking, even though that wasn't the competition. It's just like that commercial where there's a dinner party and the woman cooking is talking to her entire dinner party about the meal.

The woman who got cut totally deserved it. Couldn't even really speak at all whenever she was in front of people. And there's another woman who is still in who has gorgeous clothes and shoes, but keeps talking about community outreach and food. WTF?