Seattle (Day 6): It's all about your attitude...

New York has its delis, Chicago has its pizza, Los Angeles has great Mexican food, and Seattle has, well, its coffee. I suppose it is alright to be elitist about something you do very well. And I guess it's just about the only city where you can walk into a Starbucks and still feel the pride of buying local. Having thus successfully avoided the chain so far, I grabbed an iced coffee from a local cafe after a full day of walking. After sleeping in until about 8:30, I headed downtown, whereupon I stumbled into a Steinway shop. For those of you know what item Steinway sells, you can understand why I was such a sucker and walked in. Anyway, the salesman was extremely friendly and offered me the opportunity to try out their finest model, whose selling price was....get this....$107,000!!!! Wow. It was probably the most expensive item I've ever touched! Later in the morning I boarded the Elliot Bay Ferry to Bainbridge Island, a small island across the bay from Seattle. The island was not terribly interesting, but the boat ride provided spectacular views of the city!!! Following that, I walked through Pioneer Square, Pike's Market, and Belltown. Right now, I'm pretty tired so I'm relaxing a bit before heading up to Volunteer Park for sunset tonight!

A New Garage!!!

So after several days and countless hours of blood, sweat, and more sweat, the garage is finally finished. Now instead of being the proud owner of a dark and dirty garbage heap in the back of the house, I am now the proud owner of a functioning music practice room! Should be tons of fun. Or else in the words of Jake Blues, "We're gettin' the band back together!"
Anyway, in honor of finishing this huge project, I've decided to post some of the "highlights" from the endeavor.
10. Providing sufficient electric power to a room configured for a single light bulb.
9. Finding a rat skeleton from what appears to be the 1980s.
8. Lugging 1600 sq. ft. of carpeting and padding from Century City in my Honda Civic. Yes, it took two trips.
7. Slicing my fingers multiple times on a carpet blade. Ouch!!!
6. Manipulating how in the world to attach a carpet to a cement floor! (It turned out that double-sided carpet tape was the only thing that did the trick).
5. Over 400 screws put into place by a low-powered, often dying, battery operated drill.
4. Having a garage door that now takes actual muscles to lift.
3. Spending three hours worrying about how to crack a padlock which locked the door open, only to realize that simply screwing off the hinge did the trick completely.
2. Taking two showers every day during construction
1. Having an amazing looking, amazing sounding bona-fide practice room (without ticking off the neighbors)!!!