Wow, another month has rolled by sans blog entry. Oh well, I guess I was busy. But hell, it’s “summer” here, I’m settling in to my job, my routine and the city itself, I guess.

My job continues to stress me, but it’s in spurts. Last week, for instance, was almost painfully slow as I was stuck between projects. But most of that stress is just figuring out first-hand what happens when something goes awry or can’t be completed in the given allotment of time– and knowing what to expect next time it happens. In short, it’s getting much easier as the weeks pass.

The band has a name — The Fast Takers, and our myspace page is up and loaded with some quickly cut basement demos. We’re setting up our first shows for July, and I can’t wait to get back out on the live music circuit.

I completed another bike, this time rebuilding my old Miyata fixie into a 1×7 commuter. I’ve come to the realization that multi-speed bicycles are pretty fucking handy. And I plan to get out of the neighborhood on some longer rides around my new metropolis, and a single gear wasn’t going to cut it.

Speaking of bikes, I’ve begun collecting kid-sized models (like this Schwinn Pixie) with the intention of building a Zoobomb-worthy ride. What the hell, right? I certainly enjoyed my days of bombing parking ramps on skateboards, so a large hill on a tiny bike sounds fucking awesome. And lord knows I don’t have enough frivolous bike projects going on right now.

I also bought some lumber and built a workbench in the basement, partially due to the huge amount of random bike parts hanging around our spare bedroom. And yeah, I followed the Make Magazine plans pretty much verbaitim, so what? All told, it was about $35 of supplies and a few hours of working on the most rickey excuse for a cutting surface ever: an old door set atop two barstools. Regardless, it came together pretty well, and I look forward to actually starting to use it. My year in Arizona afforded me no such amenities, since my apartment was so overcrowded. This is a huge improvement. I even plan to screen print some posters in the distant future…

We had some visitors from Wisconsin for the Memorial Day weekend, which prompted some nice seaside camping at Cape Lookout. The second and third days brought us near Mt. Hood, where things were considerably colder. We had a good time, despite being surrounded by every stereotyped holiday car camper you can imagine.

Last week was “fleet week”, where we play host to a fuckload of sailors and ships and stuff. I got to see one of the big ones cruise down the river for the first time, raising all the drawbridges along the way. Kinda neat. They were all lined up on the west end of the river with their support tents and trucks ‘n crap, and Lisa and I actually managed to get a warning (hey, at least it was friendly) from security dudes for taking camera phone pics from the Burnside bridge at 2am– laaaaaame. Like my 1.3 mp camera (at night, even!) is gonna reveal anything to the baddies of the world. Blah.