++ POPSCICLES ON A HOT DAY, ok not hot for the rest of the united states, but hot for seattle and hot for my office, which sits up on the third floor of an old car dealership, which has no air conditioning and minimal cross ventilation, means popscicles on the company! so yummy and cold. sailing was fun yesterday. i didn't much do anything other than free-load a ride around lake union for the entire three and a half hours we were out on the boat. no wait, i take that back. i got to go spot for half of the race. aka, sit out on the front ofthe boat and make sure we don't hit any other boats, hence the name "duck dodge". its actually really sweet, the race. there are about 70 boats racing around this little bay and everyone is trying to be as fast as they can without hitting anyone else. luckily we only managed to barely scrape by a boat. nothing major. i didn't see anyone ram into another boat either. i did however see a guy who had transformed his kayak and put a bicycle contraption strapped to the kayak. we were racing around and he was riding his bicycle...on water! it was amazing! and what really made it was on the front of his bike/kayak/contraption, there was a milk crate and his dog was riding in it! picture middle of the lake. 70 boats whizzing around left and right, in and out, between each other, a guy on a bicycle with his dog in it, many other people in kayaks and canoes and then this little float barge, maybe no bigger than 8'x12' wide, with four people sitting on chairs around a table eating dinner by candlelight! amazing! the best part was the float had a gas burner underneath the table so everyone's legs would stay warm. there was a tablecloth on the table, there was vase with a flower on the table, there was a little makeshift grill and they were sitting there floating around eating dinner! oh yeah and everyone is rich...obviously otherwise they wouldn't be out there i suppose. but some of the boats are geogeous! dave's boat was about 45 feet long and he says it could hold as many as 30 people. huge. oh and to get to the race on lake union (which is really a small bay) we had to go under a bridge which had to raise for us to fit under. we tooted our air horn and up went the bridge. pretty spiffy. next week i hear is a costume party for duck dodge. i think everyone will be clothed in disco wear, racing around a lake! hilarious! ++