Of flats and friends and flying men

Wow, it's been a packed last forty-eight hours!

On Tuesday night, Otis and I took a little ride on the Burke-Gilman out to Matthews Beach. (Maybe we'll repeat the exercise tonight, only heading towards Shilshole.) My bike was rolling fine the whole trip.

But yesterday morning, on the way to school, all of a sudden my rear tire was flat! I didn't go over any obvious debris and there was no pop - it was round, and then it was not round. I had to call Otis to pick me up and drop me off at campus before she went to work at Hi-Lai's, and it has been so busy since then that I just got to fixing that flat a little while ago.

I had to bus home (which was actually very easy) to meet Angela and Lyle, who were paying a little visit from Boston. While waiting for Otis, we raided their local storage unit and now, yes, we have more stuff. I accept it because it meets the criterion of merely holding other stuff: we got a hallway shelf/coat rack and some shelving for my closet. We also got cool and yummy summer drinks at the local Evil S when otis came home.

That fun lasted right up until when we had to leave to visit Otis's grandma; we satyed and chatted with her right up until it was time to leave for dinner before Superman Returns. We had a great meal at Bamboo Garden, with Jimbo5, Dingo, Johnbai, and surprise (dinner) guests Claymation and Emmy. After eating, we walked over to Imax and stood in a too-long line in a too-hot room for too long a time, until we could take our seats with our plastic goggles for the big-screen, semi-3D extravaganza. That gave plenty of time for us to be met by Soapy and new gal pal Ya-El (no relation to Kal); Mighty Mel (bearing plenty of concessions); JagGirl (who requested the record show that she arrived at 6:48 pm for a planned 6:00 pm rendezvous, much earlier than not quite as tardy as she usually does; and Mystery Man, a friend of Emmy who made a last-minute subsitute for the under-the-weather MaryBee.

My response to the movie itself was lukewarm; perhaps my expectations were too high. There were some awesome moments (particularly the early action sequences) and I had a good time, but much of the film seemed meandering and not very interesting. One reviewer I read today summed it up nicely: Not enough Superman, too much Returns.

Oh, and the 3D segments still looked like Viewmaster slides to me.

So, today was just teaching and cleaning and fixing flat time. I got to use a Twilight Zone episode in class this morning; it worked and was a lot of fun. I also got a phone message in the middle of my class from JustJon in the middle of his bike ride; apparently he is back on the saddle again. And the RSVPs are coming in for the Saturday SOS.

As Nacho Libre said, my life is good. Really good!