Late Night Eats: Taco Gringos

taco gringos, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

Nearly every Wednesday, we hang out at the office late, invite folks over, and hack on things. Pretty much every week, the where-do-we-get-food conversation kicks in just as all the restaurants close, leaving us with a hungry walk home. This week however, we remembered Taco Gringos, the new hole in the wall on Olive Way. We trekked over and found out that not only are they open until 2, they're excellent eats.

The sign says two bucks gets a taco in Vegetarian, Beef, or Chorizo, but I've read on the Interwebs that fillings vary by day (one choice is always vegetarian) and that's why it is written in chalk. One more dollar gets you a bottle of fine mexican soda or a canned fanta. The tacos are indeed small but they are seriously awesome, come with a lime slice and optional salsa.

how about a game of chess?

purplecrow, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

I don't play chess much any more, but a hippie man named purplecrow has been hanging out down at Stumptown with a chess set and some fairly solid game.

Purplecrow (one word he tells me) likes to wager, and will put up his shiny silver dollar against your preferably purple trinkets. I lost a purple flashlight and a squash cake.

Think you have skills? Head over to 611 E Pine. He's the guy wearing the Alpaca fur.

does this bell ring?

does this bell ring?, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

I've probably seen it before, but today is the day I noticed this bell on the corner of Boylston and Howell. Has anyone ever heard it ring?

david schmaeder @ officenomads

david schmaeder @ officenomads, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

If you've picked up this week's stranger, you may have read David Schmaeder's Last Days column on Office Nomads. I can confirm (with photographic evidence) he didn't just phone it in. I even got a chance to try some of the very gatorade like Sport Beans he brought in for us all to try.

New HDTV channels.

RTN?, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

If you don't have cable, but are itching for TV, it looks like there are a couple new HDTV channels you can pick up with your rabbit ears on your new digital set.

13-2 has started broadcasting a 24 hour weather channel, complete with news ticker and live (ish) meteorologists (or maybe they just read the weather, who knows). It is more entertaining than the 5-2 24 hour weather, and features their super duper 5 pole doppler view.

7-2 has started stopped its part-time airport, part-time space needle webcam, and started pushing out RTN, a retro-television channel full of Mission Impossible and Perry Mason reruns. The Info button still says it's the airport, but here's one hibernator that hopes this change sticks.

I'm not sure if it is just the cold weather, or Canadaland is gearing up for the 2009 digital switch, but I just started picking up channel 12-1 too. I've heard the Daily Show is aired on this one, but I haven't been able to catch it yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If not, I hope they'll at least broadcast curling so I can start yelling SWEEP! at the television again.

The streets are all icy and the potholes are all frozen, here's one more excuse to stay inside.

Chelada!

budweiser and clamato, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

QFC weirds me out. Budweiser and Clamato.. Seriously?

Boylston Avenue's incarcerated park

fence, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

A long time ago (1992?), I lived in The Porter Apartments in a studio overlooking this grassy park and the SCCC parking garage. It wasn't really much of a park, and pretty much every day when I woke up, I would look out my window and there would be some destitute drunk peeing behind the steps of the garage, or sitting, drinking a bottle of thunderbird in a plain brown bag. It was kind of depressing, but it was life in the city.

As neighborhood parks go, it was a sad affair. There would be the occasional dog walker or napper mid-day, but it wasn't a place anyone spent much time. The best that could be said, is it was an accessible patch of grass that you could go stand in, a break from the concrete.

Now it is just a jailed lawn. I'm not sure when the fence went up, but every now and then I see a mattress, or a big pile of trash trapped behind the bars, doing it's time. Waiting for parole.

new bike rack!

new bike rack!, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

If you ride your bike to Stumptown, Rudy's or the Capitol Hill pawn shop, you'll know that the bike rack is -always- full. Thanks to the City Bike Program, we've got another rail rack!

I've heard different stories on how long these take to install (they're done by the roads people and are low priority), but Stumptown says they called about this last week, and it's already in place. yay SDOT!

sustainable capitol hill @ office nomads

sustainable capitol hill @ office nomads, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

I stopped in to Office Nomads today for some coffee and BS, and saw this on the event board.

Sustainable Capitol Hill doesn't have a webpage to link to, but I've been assured there is a communications committee working on it.

There isn't a set agenda other than potlucking and a general meeting (what we see on the board).

I don't know much about Sustainable Capitol Hill, so I asked Susan at Office Nomads about it.

Organizationally, Sustainable Capitol Hill is an email list (sustcaphill@gmail.com) and a lot of meetings. There are monthly meetings, and committee meetings. If you're interested in joining up, you apparently just mail the list saying you're interested or show up to a meeting.

The email list is about 90 people, the general meetings usually have about 20 people. Since this is a potluck, and potlucks mean food, I would expect to see a bigger turnout.

A quick rundown of the Committees included

Mapping Committee - cartography of the hill. landmark trees, historical buildings, neat stuff on the hill. put it all on a map.

Friends of Recycling committee - Working with the city to get buildings to improve their recycling efforts

Imagine Capitol Hill committee - organizing a summer festival!

Communications committee - working on the website

Arts and Crafts committee - Tank tops to totes.

SCCC median rehab committee - working to replant the median at SCCC that is currently full of rocks and other non-growing things.

there are other committees planned, but we didn't get into them, if you want to know more, stop by and check it out!

Update!: The Sustainable Capitol Hill website is now up!

spicy teriyaki at teriyaki & wok

spicy teriyaki, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

Not all spicy teriyaki is created equal. Too many places forget that spicy doesn't necessarily mean hot-with-no-flavor, and most overlook the salad or complicate things unnecessarily with un-needed vegetables.

Teriyaki & Wok on Broadway hits the mark with the best spicy teriyaki in the neighborhood. Ample portions, a homemade glaze that has just the right amounts of ginger and pepper, and a fresh salad with miso to cut through the heat. A plate and a drink will put you back about $10.

Also, if you're pimpin the flexcar, they've got 6 spots in their lot.

land use

notice, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

I noticed the big sign a couple weeks ago, but they've put up all these bright yellow signs, and I actually stopped to take a look. It looks like they're not only tearing down the house with all the stuff in the yard, but the two to the north of it as well. The flyer shows they're leaving the fenced off parking area alone. 6 stories of multi-family dwellings. Right next to trashcan Tashkent park. Maybe they'll chip in a few bucks to fix pan's pipe.

bird sanctuary

bird sanctuary, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

Did you know there's a neighborhood bird sanctuary on Boylston? I called the number on the sign, but I got the answering machine for the Boylston Howell Apartments. They told me if it was an emergency, I should dial 911. It wasn't.

Seattle Museum of the Mysteries

wizard, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

There is a paranormal museum on Broadway. It has been there for years, and I have walked by it hundreds of times, but I have never been inside. Maybe it's the little wizard guy that stops me, or maybe it's the bigfoot at the bottom of the stairs, perhaps it is because it is so close to the start and end of my journey. Whatever the reason, I have decided that at some point this year, I will descend the stairs and check it out. If nothing else, they have an Oxygen Bar. Just how much does Oxygen retail for?

segways

segway enhanced parking cop, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

Segways trip me out. Do you remember the hype about "It" and "Gidget" and all the noise where they were going to have to redesign the sidewalks since everyone would want one? Well... so far, I haven't really seen it. Everyone looks like a tool on them, people wear helmets at walking speeds, and they don't actually go very far.

The first time I saw a parking meter attendant on one of these things, I actually thought it was a pretty cool idea. The parking meters were full of change, this thing could carry a load, and they could come up to the meter, empty the bucket into a semi-safe container, and zip to the next meter a little quicker than walking with one of those bag lady carts. That was in like... 2003 or something.

The other day I saw this ticket writing parking cop riding up the street. Since the meters are just sticker dispenser / credit card boxes, I wondered what the deal was. This guy is all dressed up in fancy safety gear, wearing a helmet, and trying really hard to look not-a-tool, but I don't really see the utility of getting a person who writes prints tickets to move at the speed of sound brisk walking pace that the segway provides. It's not like they don't write parking tickets around here because the wardens are too slow is it?

Anyway, I haven't seen it lately. The regular ticket writer around here walks.

update: I just spoke with one of the meter cops, and he told me they are currently training on them and we should expect to see more around in the coming months.

another neighborhood blog.

Hi. I'm mattw, and I have a few other spots on the Internet where I write stuff down, but they're either technical or personal and they're totally neglected. I have a flickr stream, but that's a general purpose dumping ground. I'm hoping I can make 8blockwalk interesting to people in the neighborhood, and if not, it will simply act as a place for me to further categorize the things that go on in my life, or more to the point, *around my life*.

The neighborhood where I live and work is Capitol Hill, Seattle. My daily grind spans two area codes, 98102 (where I live) and 98122 (where I work). It's really only about a 10 minute walk (if I'm going slow), or a 3 minute ride (if I'm on my electric bike). I don't drive, and haven't for 15 years, but if I did, I'm sure it would take half an hour at a minimum to get to work and park.

Interestingly enough, things happen in this short span of time, and if I'm lucky, I can capture those things with my camera, or write them down here.

Regardless, here we go...