My First IRL Auction AKA How we came to own another motorcycle

Oh, today. You started early. Jer and I drove out to Renton and arrived at the auction location at 8am sharp. I asked the man guarding the gate how it worked, this King County Vehicle Auction, and he told me to follow everyone else to the trailer and sign up. We'd be given a number and then we could bid.

So we did.

Our objects of interest were the five motorcycles up for auction. Five 2004 Honda ST1300's. Four green, one dark blue. They were all grouped together, outside the trailer. We looked for obvious problems -- scratches, missing pieces, cosmetic flaws. And we ranked what we liked. Jer's friend who is very knowledgeable about these bikes since he drives a similar model joined us. We stood around and I tried to force strategy on the proceedings.

There was no strategy. It was mostly like, well, if you like it you should bid on it. Yeah, okay.

While the guys stood around kicking tires, I wandered through the lot and looked at the Prius up for auction, the buses, and assorted vehicle and vehicle accessories. I wasn't tempted, thankfully.

Maybe tempted a little.

Hours passed. Hours and hours. Bidding began at 9am for lot 1. We were lot 351 or so. So three hours later Jer was waving his bidding number and the auction men were shouting and pointing and we sort of strategically ended up owing King County some money. It was strange. For the previous many hours we'd watched men of every persuasion straddling the bikes, wistfully revving the engines, and punching one another on the arms in a jocular fashion. We figured bidding would be crazy. It was only a little crazy.

The other four bikes sold to two other bidders. We were the only single winner of a motorcycle.

Everything was fine until we got it to the gas station. And then the key broke off in the gas tank lock.

Two hours later and a locksmith who made house calls -- or even gas station calls -- we were home.

Verdict? So far so good. It runs. It was a screaming deal. And it had the fewest miles of all the bikes. Time and a full inspection will tell the rest.

And now I can finally sleep.

"This movie represents what is best in all people."

On the Set of Atlas Shrugged: 53 Years in the Making

I'm excited to see what they do with this.

If you can't see the video embedded in this post, click here.

Overheard

On the bus ride home, three college-aged guys sat across from me. They carried Best Buy bags.

The guys spent the whole trip talking about a friend who'd been asked out to dinner by a stripper, totally unprovoked.

Guy 1: So, what about you. Would you go?
Guy 2: Like, if the stripper asked me?
Guy 1 nods.
Guy 2: (considers) Would I have to pay?
Guy 1: For sex?
Guy 2: For dinner.
Guy 1: Why wouldn't you pay?
Guy 2: She's the one with a job.

Aaaand stay classy, metro transit.

Weird, Cool, Worth Watching - A Different Side of Mike Rowe

I got this video from Get Rich Slowly. It's twenty minutes long and I love it.

If you can't see the video embedded in the post, you can view it here.

Yo, words

It's been a long week. My reward is a Dogfish Head Punkin Ale straight from the fridge.

The weather turned; it's raining. I'm inside, warm and comfy, watching stupid television. Just the way I like it.

I love Seattle. I love my house. I love my neighborhood. I love working in downtown Seattle. I feel very lucky to be here.

But you don't want to read about that.

Time is doing its speeding up thing again. I'm taking stuff too seriously that doesn't mean a thing. I'm watching the stock market too closely. I'm reading a lot about game theory and accountability and not about vampires or warlocks or anything fun.

Today was the first day in over a week I haven't dosed myself with cough syrup. That deserves a mention.

Have a great weekend!

A Hot Toddy Convert

The only Hot Toddy I ever had was not very good. I might as well have drunk a Tylenol Cold and Flu. It was heavy on lemon, sugar and boiling water, light on complexity.

Tonight I decided to make my own. I used the Hot Toddy Recipe #1 from my diffordsguide -- recipe linked here. I made my own sugar syrup by following the directions in the diffordsguide to Cocktails #7 book -- I dissolved two cups of sugar into one cup of simmering water. I also squeezed a real lemon instead of trying to use juice from a bottle, and I used Glenlivet for the Scotch since that's what we had.

The end result is extremely tasty and soothing, particularly if you're under the weather like I am. I highly recommend it.

See how much sense I make as the Nyquil kicks in

So I'm back from my business trip. To sum it up: I ate too much, I caught a cold, and the hotel room was very nice. There are also a lot of toll roads around the Chicago area, if you were wondering.

The first night we ate at Ditka's and I had a marinated chipotle skirt steak and an iced tea. The guys ordered huge steaks and martinis and the cherry cobbler. I was still trying to be good. Then the next night we ate at Fuddrucker's and I gave up all pretenses of goodness as I spilled liquid cheese on my pants. Then the last night we ate at a German restaurant and I enjoyed some wienerschniztel with a fried egg on top, as well as Bitches' Brew by Dogfish Head.

On the first night I awoke in the huge bed -- through the French doors of my suite -- around midnight with a sore throat. Since then I've been downing orange juice, cough syrup, and assorted lozenges and trying not to breathe on people or things. So that's been fun.

A final noteworthy mention is this is the first time I've ever flown without checking a bag. (It was also my first full body scan in the O'Hare airport. Whoo hoo!) The Tom Binh Tri-Star bag worked perfectly and I was especially impressed by the packing cubes. I can see it getting a bit heavy over time, but with the backpack strap option or the Absolute Strap option it's not too hard to go back and forth between carrying methods.