final answer

For our Mother's Day brunch (without our mothers), my companion and I decided to visit Smith.  To our vegetarian surprise, the delicious veggie omelette was no longer on the menu!  Craving eggs and hashbrowns, we quickly paid for our coffees and left.  Coincidentally, this was the second Capitol Hill restaurant I abandoned this week.  On Thursday, I left Than Brothers on Thursday after waiting 25 minutes for veggie pho.  After being told "it was on its way!" at least 3 times, I finally gave up when I heard a server admit to another table that they were out of veggie broth.

I certainly don't think that I have a constitutional right to a decent vegetarian dish at every restaurant, but I admit that I'm surprised by the neo-Capitol Hill trend of meat-centric menus.  Doesn't it make business sense to offer at least one or two veggie entrees that are comparable in size and flavor to the meaty choices (e.g., Honey Hole, Annapurna, Bimbo's)?

After an action packed dinner at Bimbo's tonight -- foie gras protesters at Quinn's! -- my crew headed up Pike to Madison.  One of my companions spotted a stray credit card on the ground and passed it to me.  Having had my own credit card stolen (and fraudulently used) before, I immediately called the number on the back of the card:

1) "Welcome to no-name phone banking!"  Navigated multiple menus, found human, gave credit card number, but "oh, that's a debit card!  I need to transfer you."

2) "Welcome to Chase!"  Navigated multiple menus, found human, gave debit card number, but "oh, that's a Washington Mutual debit card!  I need to transfer you."

3) Me: "NO.  I'm done.  Please tell WaMu that I will immediately cut up the card when I get home.  Good bye."

So, if you are a woman who lost your WaMu debit card tonight on Madison, please know that it's safely destroyed.  I'm sorry that I didn't have the patience to follow through.  But you might want to consider getting a new bank.

This is the 3rd or 4th tour bus that has maneuvered around the traffic circle at 18th and Republican this morning.

Last night's CHS meet up at Vermillion was a hit! A handful of brave souls brought mix CDs of their favorite Capitol Hill-inspired songs and then exchanged CDs by drawing names out of a cup (or was it a helmet?). There were a few common artists (e.g., Tom Waits, various Ben Gibbard projects) but no common song or artist across all albums. We realized that we're all fairly greedy and decided that at the next exchange we should bring multiple copies of our mix in order to get more in return. In the meantime, we'll have to exchange our playlists instead:

Title: Running Up That Hill (prepared by Final Answer)

1. Formed a Band (Art Brut)
2. One More Time (French Kicks)
3. Dogs of Ba, remix (Mirah)
4. Metal Beds (S)
5. Convenient Parking (Modest Mouse)
6. Posse on Broadway, remix (Diplo)
7. Spectacle (Anna Oxygen)
8. Parentheses (Blow)
9. Fishing the Sky (The Appleseed Cast)
10. The Postman (The American Analog Set)
11. 1969 (Boards of Canada)
12. Southside Revival (Blue Scholars)
13. Dance (ESG)
14. Amour Du Sol (Yelle)
15. Kids (MGMT)
16. (This Is) the Dream of Evan and Chan (Dntel)
17. Plea From a Cat Named Virtute (The Weakerthans)
18. Running Up That Hill (Chromatics)
19. About a Girl (Nirvana)

Frankly, I often think it would be quite easy to never leave Capitol Hill. (For this exercise, let's pretend we don't work; which unfortunately, may be true for many of us.) Hillsters have just about everything within walking distance. Despite this, I make 3 regular exceptions. What are yours?

1) Dosas. Capitol Hill has North Indian food covered, but to my knowledge there are only two places in the Seattle metro area that serve yummy South Indian dosas -- Malabar in the U-District and Udupi Palace (!!!) in Bellevue. Yes, Bellevue.

2) Yarn. I've written about this before. Still no change.

3) Haircut. My cutter/stylist moved from Capitol Hill to Ballard and I liked her so much that I continue to make the schlep out west.

I was going to write a hillku about this, but I have absolutely nothing to say. Does anyone know the story? Who is this guy? What is he standing in front of?

I was thinking about my Capitol Hill soundtrack and thought it would be fun to put together a collective playlist -- one that only includes songs with specific references to Capitol Hill, or albums or artists with close ties to the hill.  

1) The most obvious one is Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Posse on Broadway," which was also covered on the new Diplo/Santogold album.  

2) Any song from Modest Mouse's "Lonesome Crowded West."  The inside cover art includes a photo of an apartment building near Republican and Belmont.

What else?

It's Snow (Work) Day #3 for me and time to get out of the house and into a cafe (Fuel!).  Assuming that fellow CHSers are populating other neighborhood cafes, perhaps we can provide pertinent cafe information to our friends who are considering venturing out:

1. is it open?
2. overall density (average # of people per table)
3. dominant winter clothing style
4. laptop to people ratio
5. most unique prop or activity
6. music (christmas vs. other)

Fuel (9:45am):

1. Open!  Only business open on 19th, so far.
2. 15 customers / 10 "tables" = 1.5 (cavets: counted window counter and window seats each as one table; a few people in line may not be staying)
3. Warm casual (jeans, hats and boots)
4. 5 laptops : 15 people = 1:3
5. (tie) a) hipster couple pulled their suitcase down the middle of 19th using a rope and a blue IKEA bag (are they walking to SeaTac?); and b) the Fuel barista scraped the ice out of the pet water bowl outside and replaced it with fresh, warmer water
6. non-Christmas (e.g., Ratatat)

Seattle is currently under a Winter Storm Warning (!) for Saturday night.  If this actually happens, this will be the third year in a row in which Seattle has had a significant storm on Hanukkah Eve*.  A brief history:

December 14, 2006:  This storm brought both hurricane-force wind and flooding and was officially (seriously) dubbed the Hanukkah Eve Windstorm of 2006 by the National Weather Service.  

December 3, 2007: This was the wettest day in Seattle history, courtesy of our friend Pineapple Express.

December 20, 2008: ???

*The term "Hanukkah Eve" can be tricky.  Since the day starts at sundown on a traditional Hebrew calendar, Hanukkah actually begins the evening before the date it says on your calendar (assuming it's not a Hebrew one).  That means that Hanukkah Eve is 2 days before whatever the calendar says.

As I mentioned on hillku today, my fellow Metro commuters and I had a quick but lovely view of Mt. Rainier this morning.  It was one of those rare cold and clear mornings in Seattle, and even the most seasoned Seattle resident seems to get excited when they catch a glimpse of The Mountain.  Obviously, our hilly geography can make these sightings difficult on Capitol Hill, so where do you go to stare at our favorite volcano?