Smarty Pants

Georgetown, the forever up and coming district south of downtown Seattle, is dotted with gems as well as sourgrapes (remember CP Thai post).

I had happened upon a website for a funky restaurant in Georgetown named Smarty Pants. It's a bar that does lunch during the day and the menu of great sounding sammiches made it a must try. My coworkers had eaten there before and agreed that their sammiches were really good...and huge.

I went for lunch one afternoon with one of my coworkers ( the same person who experienced CP Thai with me) and it was busy. Loud punk music played happily in the background while an eclectic group of people chowed down on their lunch. Everyone from Polo wearing business guy to tattooed bass player dude filled Smarty Pants at lunch time.

The only table available was outside - it was cold. I put my hood up on my hoodie and grabbed a couple of menus while my coworker grabbed us a couple of glasses of water...it just seemed like the casual thing to do. Self serve anyone?

The servers were dressed in black with the studded motorcycle belt and boots. Mohawks hung wimpishly, probably from a heavy night of barhopping from the night before. And these were just the girls...The guys looked like they worked in an old school garage.

They took our order promptly then disappeared....

and disappeared...

was this going to be a repeat of CP Thai? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so I over react. It wasn't THAT bad. It did take quite a while to get our food but at least when it did arrive it was hot and so freakin tastey that it was worth the wait.

I can't remember what my coworker had but I had biscuits and gravy and it was really good. It was vegetarian with mushrooms (I'm not a fan), but it was ok, I just pushed them aside and ate the rest. Very tastey.

So we had a good lunch and went off around the opposite way from which we came to go around the other side of the block. There was a second hand shop that had some cute stuff outside and low and behold - what do they have outside? A vintage girl bike with a basket!!!!! I nearly wet myself. I thought, even if it's like $50 I'd call up my husband to see if I could buy it. I look at the price tag and my dreams were quickly dashed to the cracked Georgetown sidewalk. $375. For a rusty old bike. Give me a break.

I must have ADD or something...

Rigdzin Ling Trinity Alps Fire Update

As most people know, California has been dealing with several wildfires. One in particular is of personal concern for me.

The North American seat of Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, Rigdzin Ling, is in the Trinity Alps where there's a few fires burning.

Candy has been giving all of the affiliated centers regular updates including some photos which I will share in this blog. I think that it is important to share these images and story so I hope that Candy will approve. I am sure she has more on her mind than dealing with an email from me asking if it's ok.

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July 21, 2008

Dear sangha,

We awoke this morning to a crystal blue sky and no wind, very favorable conditions for this fire at the moment on our side of the ridge, allowing it to slowly move down the mountain. The fire fighters have bull dozed and cut a tapestry of fire breaks on our hill that encircles the Gonpa like a protection circle, and their hope is that the fire burns down to these breaks, leaving all structures intact and removing the fire fuel from the forest floor. The fire gently encircled one small cabin that was above the line and left it intact. Some of our staff was up there in the night and when they looked into the structure, they found a note that said something like, "We've done all we can. God bless."

I watched a fire crew from Montana walk up our hill a couple of hours ago, all in a perfectly straight line, dressed in bright yellow, wearing hardhats and carrying shovels, maddocks, and other tools. It would not have surprised me to hear, "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work we go." resounding in the air as they marched through the forest. It was quite a vision. I found this same group of fire men and women gathered in front of the prayer wheels last night at the end of a long day, wanting their pictures taken, so we obliged.

The helicopter that was flying yesterday has transmission problems we hear and is grounded at the moment which is quite unfortunate, as the fire the other side of the ridge from us is more active. I've been told that the turnaround time for this helicopter from one load of water to the next load of water was two minutes. They call that "cowboy flying." It was quite stunning to see.

I have included a few photos again and have sent them in a smaller file which might be easier to access. You can enlarge them on your end. It will help give a visual context of what we are seeing from the Gonpa.

These next days are quite crucial. They are not going to be so relaxed with people coming and going out of the area now. Please continue to pray for all the people and animals in Junction City and the neighboring forest.

Love,

Candy

Mandela

Happy 90th birthday Nelson Mandela!

In His Own Words:

On reconciliation (on acceptance of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, shared with then President FW de Klerk):

"The value of our shared reward will and must be measured by the joyful peace which will triumph, because the common humanity that bonds both black and white into one human race, will have said to each one of us that we shall all live like the children of paradise...

"But there are still some within our country who wrongly believe they can make a contribution to the cause of justice and peace by clinging to the shibboleths [dogmas] that have been proved to spell nothing but disaster.

"It remains our hope that these, too, will be blessed with sufficient reason to realise that history will not be denied and that the new society cannot be created by reproducing the repugnant past, however refined or enticingly repackaged."

The Story of India

This BBC documentary was one of the most in depth programs I have watched on a country in a long time, yet it was engaging and left me wanting more.

This six-part series detailed the 10,000 year history of India with amazing stories presented by Michael Wood and imagery like the Taj Mahal pictured to the left.

The explanation of India's diverse religious history from Brahman and Buddhism to Hindu, Muslim and Sikh was enlightening and gave me a better understanding of how these powerful religions dominated the country.

After thousands of years, India is finally coming of age as part of the technology era. There is a strange yet alluring balance of both old and new. The traditions are strong and deeply ingrained in the culture which, for a Westerner, totally fascinates me, yet India is quickly gaining as a tech super power in the world.

It is exciting to see how a culture can lovingly hold on to the past as they run towards the future with complete confidence.

Danish Cargo Bike Culture

Zakkaliciousness has some great photo sets on Flickr, including the Copenhagen Cycle Chic and Danish Cargo Bike Culture sets that are used on the blogs Copenhagen Cycle Chic and Copenhagenize.

The thought of having a cargo bike to ride the kids around in only adds to my want of biking/living in a bike friendly Euro town like Copenhagen.

See what happens when I'm overly productive at work in the morning? I end up spending my afternoons dreaming of living in Copenhagen riding bikes!!!

I wonder how much a cargo bike costs....

Victoria Classic

My latest obsession! Why are my tastes so expensive? I love the Velorbis Victoria Classic and I really want it. Do you want to know how much it costs? Are you sitting down?

$1749

With that little reality check I stopped to wonder if what I am obsessed with is the groovy cool bike or actually the idea of the bike.

In all reality, where am I going to ride it? Up Hwy 99 to Top Foods? Or around the corner to the 7-11? Because, even though I live in Edmonds, it's not like I live in the really cute downtown area let alone a sweet little village where I can joyfully ride along without a care in the world. Can you say "urban sprawl"? And then I'd have to spend 10 minutes locking the damn thing up so that no one steals it! UGH...

So now I dream of living in a European town where I can ride my Victoria Classic that I bought at The Dutch Bike Co. in Seattle and look like one of those fabulous Danish girls with wind in their blonde hair, in heels and a summer dress on their way to pick up flowers and lunch.

Good thing I am a Buddhist who realizes the impermanence and dream-like quality of reality (to a severly limited extent!!). Otherwise I would truly be suffering right about now! 

So to be completely honest, I am perfectly happy where I am right now, it's just fun to indulge myself in the desire realm every so often. For my simple basic understanding is that it is ok to want or have really fabulous things. It's the level of attachment to the want of them that creates the suffering - Ah! Materialism, who'd have it!! I will! I will!