Buster Benson

I haven’t ever worn it though.

They just opened in the space next door to Tavolata and the place is looking great and super comfortable. I could hang out there all day! In fact, I pretty much did today.

I told Kellianne that I felt like my longer hair was Floppy Central and that I wanted a new look. After tossing a few ideas around she came up with something great and original and I love it. It’s like Mt. Fuji with tidal waves and little rocks on the shore. It goes with my half-Japanese ancestry perfectly.

And I also love the Kevin Murphy Sticky.Business product which will replace my dwindling Davines.

And I also love all the people that work there… I can tell that this place is gonna go places!

I had a religious experience involving ducks here.

There were a lot of things flying and floating around in the air of this town. It’s proximity to Seattle, along with the mix of scenic rivers and valleys with good weather and uncontrolled air space make it a prime place for hanging out in the air, as we did this last weekend at The Airial Balloon Company.

Bob’s bi-color corn is sweet like candy.

This place only has 6 things on the menu: three sandwiches, beans, hot links, and soda. Simple and delicious.

Daniel Spils tipped me off onto this place and I stepped into it yesterday to check it out. It was immediately described to me as a fashion, art, music boutique by Megan (the friendly owner who I knew previously because she made my burning hot air balloon at Torpedo Screenprinting a couple months ago). I immediately liked the place and want to watch it evolve. There are rumors of tacos too, which I might have to find out about somehow.

Dawn was talking about this last week at The Hideout so I got excited about it and went with her today to try my hand at the tracks (I tried but failed to convince anyone else to go though… their loss!).

I came out strong, winning $9.50 on my first race (off a $2 bet for Maximum Buzz) and then $5 more off my second race (also a $2 Exacta Box bet). From there, though, Fortuna looked the other way and I slowly returned all proceeds to the booker (plus a couple extra bucks for beer, popcorn, and a hotdog). In the end, I was still $1 ahead, which is enough to win some games of Jeopardy.

Almost more entertaining than the horses was the enormous crowd of elderly ladies in red hats and purple outfits. Upon investigation, they told us that they were part of an international coalition of 50 year old plus women who “did fun things together” called the Red Hat Society. We met the local “queen mother” and it was quite delightful. They were very friendly… maybe TOO friendly. Later in the day we witnessed a red hat lady fashion show, and a raffle that gave away 5 $100 gift certificates to the on-site red hat lady store (where you could buy red and purple ANYTHINGS).

Some obscure television station was there recording the races, and the camera man liked us and claims that we had a few moments of camera time while we chomped on popcorn and gawked at the red hat ladies.

I remarked several times that Emerald Downs seemed like another world. A world of Simpson clouds, red hat ladies, horses, bugle players, money coming from nowhere, and stressful anticipation for your horse. It was a nice little vacation in Auburn.

Jen Graves wrote a slog post about the opening night.

This place just opened today. A few of us snuck in around 4:30 and we were our waitress’s first customers. First impressions: quite favorable.

• Happy hour had $2 pilsners in nice tall glasses
• Interesting upstairs, interesting entrance (from a parking lot)
• Granada blue bathrooms and entry hallway
• Big windows
• Nice booths
• High ceilings

It’ll be interesting to see which demographic this place attracts. In the short time we were there, the Gary Manuel girls took a booth, then us nerds, and some businessy plaid-shirts-tucked-into slacks guys came in. It’s right in the best part of Capitol Hill, and only 1.5 blocks from our office, so we’ll definitely be back to watch the narrative unfold.