Friday, August 5th, 2011!

Funny how when I wrote the date above, in my head I was saying it with the announcer voice of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart...

Anywhoodle, since my little neck fiasco I haven't been cranking on my boat as much, but I also took two weeks off to play with my lovely lady Aimee while she was back in town for her break from work in Alaska. We went to the drive-in with my 4Runner, ate lots of food, went horseback riding and hiking, shooting and looting (well, not THAT much looting), looked at some artwork downtown (WAY cool Mad-Houses on Capitol Hill), and I spent a bunch of time looking for a new car...

But now that I'm more on the road to recovery and I'm back to sleeping alone, I'm spending Sunday-Thursday working on my boat at the shipyard, and working at InnerSea Discoveries as a sub-full-time "Special Project Support Lead" - which means I have a desk, computer, phone, and an ever-growing inbox goodies to sort through, most all pertaining to the maintenance and ongoing improvements of our 8 vessels.

In more recent news (as in, the last few hours) I finally dragged my photo gear out of storage for a short 30-minute headshot session with my high-school girlfriend Vickie (she needed a photo for her medical school applications). Although not the creative, multi-light, super-action shots that I'd normally be jonesing for, it was good to get the gear out and play a little. Perhaps I'll leave the gear on board for some slacklining shots with the truck?

On the boat side of things, I've got the pilothouse in place, with all metalwork tacked at 4" intervals and prepped for stitching Sunday afternoon. No windows have been cut yet, as I still need to fill in the existing windows and deck penetrations before I can start doing the fun stuff. There is still a significant amount of metalwork to be done, including a safety rail system, lazerette hatch reconfiguration, deck strengthening (to prevent oil-canning), interior bulkhead and furniture anchors, and abandoned random holes that seemingly litter the boat (it will be much, much sleeker when I'm done though!). Living aboard in the Fall is seeming less and less likely every day, but we'll just have to see. Anywho, below are some photos from the past month or so!

First Seattle Fourth of July!

Well, after seven years of living in Seattle, I finally found myself IN Seattle for the 4th of July, one of my most favorite holidays! I went sailing with my dad and some friends of his on Augusta for the afternoon, then in the evening I trekked through insane downtown traffic to the marina where I used to keep Rafiki, and where Katy and Charlie have their houseboat (think block party on the water: it was nuts! : ) Charlie and I took (thinking of a name...Rafiki II?) my 12' Hobie sailboat out into the turmoil and fun of Lake Union and barely made it back before the police shut down the lake for the fireworks, and in the process we took on water-balloon fire from unknown enemy craft, no shots were returned. I then spent a bit of time at another houseboat mooching off their 3-story height, and chatting with a nice fellow from Bangkok, who his uncle introduced as "Big." Whether it was the proximity to the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat and the associated Tom Hanks connection, my misunderstanding, or some other reference, I may never know. But Big seemed to have quite an interest in photography, and he was really stoked to be in the USA for a few months (he'd already been to New York, and was telling me how cool it was, and I was jealous... : )
Back in M-F land, I had a good day at the boat today, and successfully raised and tack welded the roof section in on my pilothouse, ending the mean streak that put me on a daily dose of ibuprofen last week. Whose yo daddy, I say!