Celebratory Weekend(s)
Jan. 12th, 2014 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aSo Kimberly won a prize for her artwork this last week. It was from the 10x10 Wellness Campaign for Alameda County. Kimberly had submitted a lovely collage of a pink cherry blossom tree which I thought was terrific ... and it won.
The prime coolness is that her collage is going to appear on a bus, BART train, or billboard. The secondary coolness is that she got a pretty big Visa gift card as a prize. The third coolness is that there was an award ceremony on Saturday night, which we attended.
The award ceremony was at the Oakland Asian Culture Center on Saturday, starting at 5.30. This was tremendously convenient because I had my RPG group at Endgame on Saturday afternoon, and it's literally 3 blocks away. So I finished at Endgame, packed everything up, and walked over to the Culture Center. I've never been that before, but it's got a really nice indoor plaza with a fountain. I took a picture of it; I'll have to post it to FB if it came out.
Anywho, all of the artwork from two related contests was in the Center. So we looked at it all, then sat down with a few of Kimberly's friends for dinner, then the awards were given out. People complemented Kimberly (and both of her friends) on their art throughout the night. It was quite nice.
It was a tiring day, though. I was in Oakland from 1-8 or so, and I'm recovering from a cold that I picked up last weekend. I actually biked in to Endgame and felt a little sick from the effort when I got in, so I guess I'm not totally better yet. At the end of the day, I was just tired, not sick.
Today, Kimberly and I celebrated by going down to IHOP in Emeryville for a celebratory lunch, then going to Target for some celebratory spending. We were both pretty tired after that! Then it was home and having some celebratory pizza for dinner. I still feel overly full from all that food. With the fall now gone, I need to lose the Holiday-10 that I picked up in November and December. More biking and less sweets are required!
At Target I picked up some new jeans and a new overshirt. Kimberly was generous enough to split up her prize money afterward, and I've since spent some of mine on Amazon books, and am considering if I want to make any more Endgame purchases. (I *just* made some post-Christmas purchases at Endgame Saturday afternoon: the newest Alea game and the newest Kingdoms supplement.)
All around a very nice weekend!
I never wrote about my biking adventures on the previous weekend, so a quick synopsis: I wanted to go on a big biking trip to celebrate (a continuing theme!) the completion of Designers & Dragons. So back on the previous Saturday I biked up to Hilltop Mall (for lunch) and from there to Point Pinole.
It's a beautiful place that looks out on San Pablo Bay and at some points you can turn 180 degrees around, and see the Bay all around you (since it's got Bay to the west and north).
There was a bit of trouble when I lost my biking computer, it apparently having bounced off on one of the dirt roads. I rode back over the last mile or two I'd ridden looking for it then walked back over that same amount ... and found it just as I was going over the last bit. Whew! I was literally within 10 feet of giving up. (That was adventure #1)
Unfortunately, a bit later I hit a huge honking nail, and though it may not have pierced my super-tough tires (for Telegraph Avenue riding), it definitely did cause my tire to puncture itself on my rims. This was a bit of a problem (and adventure #2) because Point Pinole is way out in the middle of nowhere.
Fortunately there are AC Transit busses that run out there. I hiked a few miles to get out of Point Pinole, found one, figured out to use its bike rack, and then took it back to San Pablo which is full of bike shops. There, I had them fix my innertube AND my brakes (which were worn out) AND my rim liner (which had probably caused two punctures, including this one). They did it while I waited, but I did have to sit around waiting for 45 minutes or so.
None of that spoiled my fun, as it had been a glorious day for riding. I eventually was able to bike home and the sky to the west was pleasantly pink. The only downside was that I'm not sure the bike shop fixed the tire without repuncturing it, as the tire was low next time I rode, about two and a half days later. Maybe they just didn't fill it enough; I dunno. I'll find out NEXT time I ride. (At this point it's been three and a half days since I last put air in the tires, so if I walked out to the garage right now I could see how it looked, but I'm too overfed and lazy for that right now.)
(Oh, and the other downside was I came down with a cold the next day ... leading to a tired week and this weekend; so it goes.)
The prime coolness is that her collage is going to appear on a bus, BART train, or billboard. The secondary coolness is that she got a pretty big Visa gift card as a prize. The third coolness is that there was an award ceremony on Saturday night, which we attended.
The award ceremony was at the Oakland Asian Culture Center on Saturday, starting at 5.30. This was tremendously convenient because I had my RPG group at Endgame on Saturday afternoon, and it's literally 3 blocks away. So I finished at Endgame, packed everything up, and walked over to the Culture Center. I've never been that before, but it's got a really nice indoor plaza with a fountain. I took a picture of it; I'll have to post it to FB if it came out.
Anywho, all of the artwork from two related contests was in the Center. So we looked at it all, then sat down with a few of Kimberly's friends for dinner, then the awards were given out. People complemented Kimberly (and both of her friends) on their art throughout the night. It was quite nice.
It was a tiring day, though. I was in Oakland from 1-8 or so, and I'm recovering from a cold that I picked up last weekend. I actually biked in to Endgame and felt a little sick from the effort when I got in, so I guess I'm not totally better yet. At the end of the day, I was just tired, not sick.
Today, Kimberly and I celebrated by going down to IHOP in Emeryville for a celebratory lunch, then going to Target for some celebratory spending. We were both pretty tired after that! Then it was home and having some celebratory pizza for dinner. I still feel overly full from all that food. With the fall now gone, I need to lose the Holiday-10 that I picked up in November and December. More biking and less sweets are required!
At Target I picked up some new jeans and a new overshirt. Kimberly was generous enough to split up her prize money afterward, and I've since spent some of mine on Amazon books, and am considering if I want to make any more Endgame purchases. (I *just* made some post-Christmas purchases at Endgame Saturday afternoon: the newest Alea game and the newest Kingdoms supplement.)
All around a very nice weekend!
I never wrote about my biking adventures on the previous weekend, so a quick synopsis: I wanted to go on a big biking trip to celebrate (a continuing theme!) the completion of Designers & Dragons. So back on the previous Saturday I biked up to Hilltop Mall (for lunch) and from there to Point Pinole.
It's a beautiful place that looks out on San Pablo Bay and at some points you can turn 180 degrees around, and see the Bay all around you (since it's got Bay to the west and north).
There was a bit of trouble when I lost my biking computer, it apparently having bounced off on one of the dirt roads. I rode back over the last mile or two I'd ridden looking for it then walked back over that same amount ... and found it just as I was going over the last bit. Whew! I was literally within 10 feet of giving up. (That was adventure #1)
Unfortunately, a bit later I hit a huge honking nail, and though it may not have pierced my super-tough tires (for Telegraph Avenue riding), it definitely did cause my tire to puncture itself on my rims. This was a bit of a problem (and adventure #2) because Point Pinole is way out in the middle of nowhere.
Fortunately there are AC Transit busses that run out there. I hiked a few miles to get out of Point Pinole, found one, figured out to use its bike rack, and then took it back to San Pablo which is full of bike shops. There, I had them fix my innertube AND my brakes (which were worn out) AND my rim liner (which had probably caused two punctures, including this one). They did it while I waited, but I did have to sit around waiting for 45 minutes or so.
None of that spoiled my fun, as it had been a glorious day for riding. I eventually was able to bike home and the sky to the west was pleasantly pink. The only downside was that I'm not sure the bike shop fixed the tire without repuncturing it, as the tire was low next time I rode, about two and a half days later. Maybe they just didn't fill it enough; I dunno. I'll find out NEXT time I ride. (At this point it's been three and a half days since I last put air in the tires, so if I walked out to the garage right now I could see how it looked, but I'm too overfed and lazy for that right now.)
(Oh, and the other downside was I came down with a cold the next day ... leading to a tired week and this weekend; so it goes.)