One of the highlights of last night’s CHS happy hour was meeting a fellow CHSer who used to be an intra-apartment neighbor. We actually became aware of this through a post on CHS! This led to a conversation about how we meet our apartment neighbors. I know that Seattleites have a bad reputation for avoiding eye contact, but we CHSers are a friendly bunch*, so I assume most of us have met at least a few neighbors.

For me, the ice breaker has been having a newspaper subscription. At both of my last 2 apartments, the first people I met were fellow newspaper subscribers. Since so few of us remain, we must stick together.

*As we discovered at happy hour, the majority of CHS readers/writers have roots in the Midwest and, thus, have amazing small-talk capabilities.

My cycling companion and I spotted this typical pre-sharrow on Sunday. Lots of sharrows are finding their way onto Capitol Hill to advertise the presence of bikes on popular arterials.

Sharrows don’t actually *do* anything. The Seattle DOT website states that both motorists and bicyclists should “follow the rules of the road as if there were no sharrows.” Got that? Sharrows “do not designate a particular part of the roadway for the use of bicyclists.” That said, my guess is that the vast majority of cyclists and motorists DO think that sharrows indicate where cyclists should ride. I did.

This is why the placement of these pre-sharrows, most notably those coming downhill on 10th and Harvard, is terrifying! Note the deep grooves in the pavement on either side of this sharrow — grooves that no sane road-bike-riding cyclist would go near. Yet some sharrows are being placed near or even ON TOP of these grooves. So now cyclists will: a) ride on top of sharrow and risk crashing, b) avoid sharrow and risk pissing off driver who thinks cyclist should be on top of sharrow, or c) avoid sharrow and encounter understanding driver.

I hope that C is the correct answer.

Here are the lovely felines of Capitol Hill!  Thanks to everyone for sending me pics of their adorable kitties!

A few days ago I posed a question to a runner, “How many Obama signs do you think are on your running route?”  The answer: 30, possibly 31, on a 4 mile Fancy/Miller/CD run.  Some micro-analysis proved to be more interesting, though, since a few blocks had more concentrated yard signage than others.  This made me wonder: “Which 1 block stretch on Capitol Hill has the highest number of visible Obama signs?” 

A few rules:

• The sign can be in the yard, in a window, etc, but it must be visible from the sidewalk.
• Bumper stickers on cars don’t count.
• Multiple signs at a single dwelling unit count separately.

So CHSers, which block is it?

(To be fair, we can use these same rules to ask: “Does any 1 block stretch of Capitol Hill have a McCain sign?”)

This is just a sampling of the lovely felines living among us on Capitol Hill.  So cute!

The kitteh pics are starting to roll in, but I need MORE (please)!  Send ’em my way at: [email protected].  THANKS!

p.s. We’ll expand to Hillpups and/or Hillcritters next, promise.

It’s no secret that I love cats.  And from recent CHS comments, it sounds like lots of Capitol Hill folks love cats too.  So, in an effort to wipe away some of the bad energy from yesterday’s post, I propose an arts and crafts project.  Send me pics of your kitties and I will put together a super cute (or super tacky) collage of the CHS Hillcats!  Email: [email protected].

A friend recently pointed out her frustration with the windows at Insomniax.  The cafe has two large series of windows facing 15th, each with the store’s name in arching letters across multiple panes.  Not too long ago, one of the signs was replaced and is now an OCD nightmare.  On one sign, the letters lie entirely on one side of the a pane; on the other sign, the letters N and A were placed on TOP to the panes! 

I’m not entirely sure about this blog’s history with Shop Rite (sorry, CHS — I didn’t have time to fully vet you), but I’d like to open a new chapter.  I have been to Shop Rite 3 times in the past 4 days, and I love it.  Loads of wacky contact paper — check.  A mop bucket — check.  A yarn stash — (OMG) check!  Heck, even the guys who worked there picked up on the fact that I was moving and let me take all of the cardboard boxes I could carry.  Is there something that I’m missing?  Do *we* love Shop Rite?  Hate it?

Our friend Matt at Urbnlivn posted a link to a site poking fun at Cap Hill condos: Cheapshit Condos!

Dissing those triangle porches at the Braeburn? Loves it!