2026.2.1. REI run club - party pace

2/1, Sunday. Drizzle. I signed up REI's weekly >party pace run at 10am. The main reason is that this partical event promises a brunch and a documentary film The Life We Have after the run. Also, I could get out of bed at a reasonable hour and get some excercise, when the weather is lousy for a hike.

I arrived on time, a lot of people already. This series of event is capped at 99. But no one is checking registration. Need to sign a waiver (but no one is checking), and they want your birthday (no idea why, so I told them that I put down a fake birthday). A table from Brooks Running (see photo), we were encouraged to try their running shoes. So I put one pair on, and left mine on Brooks' shelf. There's another table recruting members. I forgot which organization it is. Julia told us the route, and we were supposed to turn around at Julie's Landing, and the screening will start at 11am. She and a few others in REI labeled running vests were employees who would herd us. We were not given any label. All kinds of people, including parents pushing strollers with baby onboard. It was in a party mood.

We started running. The Brooks shoes feel very good running (very cushy), but a bit strange standing and walking (the thick sole thins out towards the toes, so I feel that I'm wearing a wide platform heel). Once on WestLake ave, I was lagging behind. On streets with traffic lights, I could catch up with the front, where they waited for red light. Soon, I took off my shell. It was still drizzling, but I was generating more steam than the sky. Walking at times, running at times. I realized that I'm really out of shape. At some point, seeing runners running towards me (turned around), but I never saw where Julie's Landing was. There were still runner going forward, so I followed. All the way wondering where is my turn-around point. But my phone is in my shell pocket, now in my backpack (under a rain cover), so I didn't check sooner. I ran over Fremont Bridge, and down to the north side of Lake Union. There, I think I definitely ran too far. Got out my phone to check where Julie's Landing is. By then, I probably already did 5K one way. I really didn't expect so many runners out on a drizzling day. Yes, all along, both directions, I saw runners.

I returned to REI at 11:20pm. The guy from Brooks was packing up. I asked him for my shoes, and he said he gave them to REI. So someone knows one person is missing. Do they think I stole the shoes? We both went into the stores and inquire about my shoes. No one knew about it. We went to the classroom where the movie was screening, and dragged an employee out. He went to some employee-only area, and I waited. The Brooks guy returned to his shoes. He and Julia showed up with my shoes. Julia didn't seem to care, didn't say anything at all. The guy commented that I did a good run. Now that I put on my own shoes, I could feel that Brooks shoes had a lot more support. Returned the shoes to the Brooks guy. He was so apologetic. It was 11:30 now, and the store feels too hot, especially the screening classroom (full of people). No more food.

Some take-aways:

• I need to track my location always, cannot depend on the organizers. They may not care, and it's difficult for them to tell which runners are in their group, which ones are not, without giving us labels.
• I may need to run more to get in shape. I will try my new On shoes: bought over a year ago but never used. Now that I know their 5k route, I may join again, or I can just run in the gym of my building (which I never went in).
• Hikers/runners eat a lot. If you are late, there'll be no food left.

2026.1.31. Ideation with Abigail Platters + The Wild Party - a musical

1/31, Saturday. The 3rd art workshop this week at Art Love Salon. Abrigail Platters prepared a presentation. However, it took half an hour to get her laptop probably projected to this large display. She recommended a few books on illustration. Commented on a solo exhibition of hers and how she developed her paintings.

Our first excercise is come up with 25 compositions, 1 minute each. So fast, that our brains haven't get to the criticising stage. Some of those minutes, she would have suggestions: imaging you are view from low, draw in Van Gogh's style, then Picasso's style, stormy weather, ...

2nd excercise is mark 4 favorite out of these 25, and discuss with her. Then we pick one, and make more compositions using this idea. I picked the camp fire with a hiker. Moved the subject from center to lower left, and then, move the fire out way out, added a mug for the hiker. She also recommended looking at Morgan Weistling's painting with lights. If I were to elaborate this painting, will be adding fireflies and maybe glowing mushrooms as fire ember. Maybe a bit of silouette to hint the distant mountains.

The Wild Party is a musical by Andrew Lippa (both lyrics and music, and I like both, what a talent!). The plot is simple, a estranged couple throws a party. Guests arrive, they flirt. Jealousy. Finally a gun fired. It's in the 20s, all jazz and big bang swing - my favorite.

No stage, excellent acting, good singing and fun orchestra. I very much enjoyed it. I especially like An Old-Fashioned Love Story by Madelaine the lesbian. Super funny, great acting. This is my first time attending Sound Theatre Company. I may go to their shows in the future, if they play in a theatre that I can walk to.

2026.1.29. Blindfold sculpting with Garima Tripathi + Seattle Times Pictures of 2025.

1/29, Thursday. A short workshop at Art Love Salon. This one is very fun. Our teacher today is Garima Tripathi. She prepared clay, sponge, towel and even an apron for everyone. Most importantly an eye mask. We put on the mask, followed her instructions: eye sockets in the middle of the face, now the nose, ... She walked around and pointing our mistakes: for example, my right eye was too low. We didn't take off the mask until the whole face was made. Then, we got to look at our own creation. Last, we put on eye mask again to add hair, or whatever. I put on a mustache to fill the space between the nose and upper lip. Otherwise, it looked unnatural. I also put a hat on my head. Didn't get to take my clay head home. We dumped all our heads into a plastic bag, which she'll kneel them together for her next blindfold class.

At 7pm, Seattle Times hosts "Pictures of the Year" at the central library. A large turn-out. Very nice photos. 4 people talked. 2 are editors, 2 are reporters. It also celebrated one lady who's retiring soon. She's been with the Times for 28 years! And during these years, she has documented many local events. The teardown of Kingdom is a sight to behold. Another interesting photo she showed was Jeff Bezos lying on a book shelf full of books! A junior reporter (only 2 years young at the Times) talked about her journey. An editor talked about the effort to cover the flooding end of 2025. Q&A afterwards, and 2 photos in nice print were given away as a surprise. I really enjoyed the talks and the photos. I don't even read Seattle Times. Maybe I should!

2026.1.29. Coffee tasting at Amazon

1/29, Thursday. Just by chance, I walked by Amazon HQ on my way home from Wholefoods. Saw this new painting on their stairs.

Just across the 7th ave, saw a queue and a few pop-up canopies. It turns out it's coffee tasting. The line in front of Caffe Vita is the longest, because it's made to order with 7 options. I tried their Cardi Rose Late (cardimon and rose water, with non-dairy milk). It was tasty. Another station is dishing out mango tea, and coffee. Cold though. One station has hot brew from 3 different origins: Mexico, Quatemala, Africa. I didn't visit them all. My tolerance of caffeine is quite low.

2026.1.28. Watercolor Illustration with Brandon Vosika

1/28, Wednesday. Another workshop at Art Love Salon. This time is illustration, ink and paint with Brandon Vosika. We were to draw outlines using ink, then fill in some space with watercolor. He encourages us to exaggerate and insert multiple elements into a design.

Here's what I made, using his toy Mickey Mouse, a snoopy from an old magazine and some Google searched images. I didn't plan this when I started drawing Mickey. Brandon also showed us some zines that he made. One is on mustard, one is horses, one on Jazz musicians, and a larger one of more complicated images.

It happens that the following event is their weekly Salon Social, with food and music. As we were cleaning our tables, the staff was setting up flowers and appetizers. So I stayed on, as well as a few others. The lady in this photo is one of the students of today's workshop. She bought the horse zine from Brandon. It's the cutest. More people filed in as time goes on.

2026.1.27. Pamila Jayapal speaks at Town Hall.

1/27, Tuesday, 6pm. Congresswoman Jayapal held a town hall at Town Hall Seattle. She's very energetic, clear spoken. Very likeable. She talked about what project she's working on and will be taking on. I'm surprised that there was no security check when I entered. Quite lot of people, many photographers walking around (are they also security guards?). Long queue during Q&A. She's very courteous, noting down the questions and answered them one by one. I very much appreciate the effort that she and her team made to connect with her constituent.

2026.1.26. Art from Ashes - Music of Rememberance

1/26, Monday. Music Of Rememberance performed at the recital hall of Benaroya, in commenmeration of the liberation of Auschwitz or the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (1/27). Mina Miller, founder of MOR, introduced the project, and talked briefly about the Holocaust, and before each piece of today's program. 6 million Jews, 300k disabled, 200k Romas, many thousand of gay men. At the writing of this blog, I found that Germany criminalized homosexuality until the 80s. Also, no mention of 5-6 million Soviet POWs + civilians were systematically killed during WWII.

• Humoresque, Op. 101, no 7, Anton Dvorak
  Mikhail Shmidt on violin (my favorite in Seattle Symphony), Christina Valdes on piano
• Anthem of the Republic of Shkid, Karel Hasler
  The NW Boychoir
• Vedem, music by Lori Laitman, libretto by David Mason, commissioned by MOR
  Vedem is a secret magazine in the Terezin camp of teenage boys
  Martin Bakari as tenor, Vanessa Isiguen as soprano, The NW Boychoir.

I very much enjoyed the first 2 short pieces, and liked the speaker. The new work Vedem is just okay, both the lyrics and the music. The message is loud and clear: remember us, we are just like you. Very important. We shouldn't forget the atrocity we commited and are able to commit.

2026.1.25. Here, there are the blueberries - a play

1/25, Sunday. A preview of Here, There are Blueberries at Seattle Rep. A very powerful play. Hightly recommend it.

The plot: an anonymous donor sent in a photo album of SS officers and workers in the Auschwitz Camp to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. The curators debated whether and how to exhibit these photos. Seemingly innocent young girls at a field trip eating blueberries, doctors, construction laborers, farmers, children of the SS officers, ... All normal people doing his/her job, keeping the killing machine running. It questions our humanity. Will I be the same? In order to keep my livelihood, not to lose my job, will I refuse to see the big picture? This Karl Höcker album is real.

No intermission. Simple stage set, but use a lot of projections. I was 2 minutes late, and wasn't let in until maybe 10 minute passed. The house was 80-90% full tonight. At the lobby, Museum of Holocaust had a table of some reproduction of their exhibits. Some reproduction of the photos mentioned in the play are also displayed in the lobby.

2026.1.24. Rooster (or Arc) Mountain

1/24, Saturday. We've been having a dry spell. No rain for 2 weeks, but chilly. 3 of us and a dog met at 6am, still kinda dark. Waiting for 2 others to show up: one dropped online, one never communicated or showed up.

We parked at the end of Middle Fork Snoqualish River road (Snoqualmie Lake/Taylor River Trail #1002). The last mile or so (NF 5600) was unpaved. Note, Google Map was incorrectly marking a closure between Mailbox and Granite Creek TH.

The road actually continues and in decent condition after the yellow gate. Good view of the 2 subpeaks of Garfield, and the creek (Taylor River? These 2 photos were taken on our way out). About a mile in, there was a large down tree blocking the road. Evidence of at least one attempt to cut that log into smaller chuncks. After this down tree, at a turn, saw this locked A-frame, no windows but was covered with solar roof on one side. Almost 4 miles of roadwalk. Only the last ~0.5 mile had snow, and was decommissioned.

Then, we scrambled up on the right side of a creek bed towards the north ridge of Cockerel Point. A couple of steep sections. The snow is packed down, with ice axe and spikes, it's quite safe. I actually slipped on one step, and later I discovered that I put my spikes wrong.

Once attained the ridge, we continued on the ridge. This ridge is narrow. This year, not much snow. So we can hold on to the rocks. Followed this ridge for a while, until it eases down a little bit to a flat area. Now we could see an obvious way to reach our objective, even though it was now hidden behind the trees.

The western ridge of Rooster/Arc is flatter, covered with snow. Just stay on the south side, so you don't fall over.

The very last bit is rocks. The trip report I read suggested using ropes. Our trip leader brought one. Really no need. Now devoid of snow, it's fun and quite safe to scramble. Steep but with cracks at reachable distances. The rocks are pretty solid. One of us had to hold the dog at some point.

The view on the summit is fantastic. Could see the highrises in Seattle to the west and Olympic Mountains. To the north and east are Alpine Wilderness. 2 lakes: Mowich + Marten. Good that we are a small group, and we can spread out a bit. Sunny, no wind. No one else in sight. Took a long lunch break.

Coming down, we continued on the west ridge further, into the woods. It's much easier than the ridge north Cockerel Point. Then we scrambled down. We stayed in the wood in the upper half (steeper), and got out to the open snow at the lower half. Then into the woods again, eventually hit the decommissioned road that we walked on.

On the long road walk to the car, we saw a guy sitting by the road and his tripod eating something. Near the parking lot, saw a large family. Not sure if they were fishing. This road walk is all in the shade now. Felt colder than on the summit.

Back in Seattle still in daylight! Total about 11 miles, 4000'. I brought crampons and snowshoes with me, and an extra puffy and too much food.

2026.1.23. Movie Night at the Mansion

1/23, Friday, 7pm. Free movie at Stimson-Green Mansion, where Washington Trust for Historical Preservation is housed. Clue was selected for tonight. A murder mystery in an old mansion. Very fit. Free popcorn and cookies. I bought a drink as a support. The movie is fun, but silly.

Before the movie, I checked out all the open rooms. After the movie, a few of us stayed behind for a short tour. Our guide, Abby, is very entertaining. This old intercom, a dumb-waiter, the sore keeping string at the billiad room. Finger prints of the brick layers on the patio. Clothes wallpaper. People in the painting. Stories of the owner: they had 2 black bear cubs for a year. When this house was donated, the key to the gun closet was missing. It was picked by some bored teenager...

Before I walked uphill to Stimson-Green, went to see breakdance before the monthly downtown art walk at Art Love Solon. A long wait, at least more food than usual. More people than usual, and the crowd joined the dance when I left.

2026.1.22. Copy Abstraction workshop with Sarah Bixler

1/22, Thursday, noon. About 10 students today at this Salon Studio. Today's workshop starts at noon instead of 1pm, so Sarah made the first few of us cut and arrange 2 different colors on a tableau, as an excercise of thinking about shapes, while waiting for others to show up. Here're all the different takes.

Then we were to take 3 colored pencils, and draw a triangle of 9 mixed colors. Last, pick a painting, and try to copy it with limited color, by drawing shape first. Abstract elements:

• Shapes: round, rectangular, triangle
• Values: dark, mid, light
• Edges: soft, hard
• Colors: warm/cold, neutral/saturated

This is my result.

2026.1.21. Tiger 3-2

1/21, Wednesday. Sunny. I timed my bus ride over Lake Washington at sunrise, but I was in the cloud over the water. But the forecast is correct. Sunny. Good view. Today, I wore a 12 lb vest, 20% slower than last week. My shoulders hurt. Saw other hikers with weighted vest too. They seemed to be comfortable.

Continued to Tiger 2. On the way, had to sit down for some meetings at work. Saw more people than last week. My return bus was 10 minute late, and Google Map told me that my bus had left.

2026.1.18. Snow Lake snowshoe

1/18, Sunday. Today's snowshoeing is carrying snowshoe all the way! Consolidated snow.

We followed some ski track, more of less to the left of the creek. On the way, saw many pretty snow mounts. Shiny crystals. Less people. Saw a group practicing avalanche search.

Source Lake is not completely frozen.

Continued up. This is a slope that could have avalanche danger. Snow is quite packed and stable. It's been sunny for a few days. Looking down, the cloud hanging down in the valley, pretty.

Reached a plateau, many skiers here, and some are still going up, on very steep slopes. Very pretty here.

We continued towards the edge where we could see Snow Lake below. Found a spot to eat lunch. Even without wind, it gets cold quickly once you stop moving.

On the way back, took the summer Snow Lake trail. It's higher than the creek, along a 30-40 degree slope. Avalanche prone. A lot of people, some carried their skis on their back. Narrow trail, but well trodden. Otherwise, I wouldn't like to take this trail in winter. Walked through some avalanche debri. All the way, no sunshine. Crossed a few side creeks: semi frozen. The ski area was in fog. The car said 30F. It was not yet 3pm!

Snoqualmie ski resort charges a parking fee (unless you have ski pass) since last winter. So had to walk a bit on the road. When we came back, saw many cars ilegally parked on the side of the road, right under "no parking" signs. Not sure if they'll get tickets. Back in Seattle, it was still sunny.

2026.1.16-17. Sculpture workship with Elijah Evenson

1/16-17, 1-4pm. Another Salon Studio. We were given a block of clay, a shaping wooden tool, knife, and a wooden stand with wire. Our model is 3 photos of some kestrel.

Towards the end of first day, our birds were taking shape. The 2nd afternoon is just making it better. The lady behind me put a hat on to her bird. Another one's bird had many horns. Most are like me, trying to make it realistic. See mine, vs. our instructor's work.

2nd afternoon, 4 more people join the group, with a tour guide. Some snacks were laid out.