Check out the announcement and shiny new group on Facebook.

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For those of you without Facebook:

Time: 09 March · 18:00 – 21:00
Location: West Coast Armory Indoor Range
13216 SE 32nd Street
Bellevue, WA

Seattle Geek Shootout is a safe, non-partisan, and fun environment to practice your aim (or try for the very first time) with other Puget Sound people involved in startups and technology.

GunUp.com is kindly sponsoring this event by covering lanes fees for the first 30 participants to show up at the range. You can bring your own guns & ammo or rent there ($15) and purchase ammo.

Afterwards we will likely meet up at a nearby watering hole.

Please feel free to invite friends of similar caliber (pun intended). :-) Add yourself to the “Seattle Geek Shootout” group on Facebook to receive invitations to future events.

http://www.gunup.com/

http://www.westcoastarmory.com/

WHERE: Wades Eastside Guns and Outdoor Range
13570 Bel-Red Road, Bellevue, WA 98005
WHEN: Tuesday, March 10th at 7pm, until we abandon ship for beer (Wades closes at 10pm)
COST: Lane rental is $15 for the first person, $10 for each additional on the lane up to three people. Gun rental is as little as $8, or bring your own. Targets are $.25 – $1 each, depending on size.
WHY: Who doesn’t like to blow stuff up? All geeks are welcome, whether Republicans, Democrats, marksmen, n00bs, or anything in between.

So before you leave for Austin, come get your cowboy on with us. Please RSVP with a comment so I know how many people to plan for. Also, please use the #SGS1 hashtag on Twitter to pass the word along, and feel free to bring a friend!

UPDATE: SGS1 has come and gone, and it was a lot of fun! 13 people showed up, and we had a blast.

If you’ve be interested in giving Seattle Geek Shootout another go, please leave a comment. I’ve be happy to organize another one, perhaps on a Monday, when the range is a little less crowded.

So, I was considering today the awesomeness of sandwiches available in Seattle, especially near my office on Capitol Hill, and decided to share with you my top picks (in no particular order).

• The Romozzager from The Honey Hole: Roma tomatoes, mozzarella slices, a dash of balsamic vinegar, romaine lettuce, mayonnaise, salt and pepper on a fresh French roll ($4.05)
• The B.E.T. from Crave: Bacon, escarole, yellow tomatoes, and delicious goat cheese ($7.50)
• Chicken Salad Sandwich from Mia’s Off Broadway Cafe: So good. The perfect chicken salad, with raisins, and balsamic vinegar ($6.25)
• Lemongrass Steak from The Baguette Box: grilled organic ‘strawberry mountain’ lemongrass steak with carrots and some rutabaga-like veggie called jicama that I love ($7.50)

What are your favourite sandwiches in Seattle (or elsewhere)?

Saturday, I rode from my place to the University District to get some lights and a gear problem looked at. I rode to Gasworks park to meet my friends Erica and Eva, and a bike festival was going on in the park. Not seriously, I took that as a good omen of my newly determined hardcore hobby. Turns out, Eva just got a bike too, and needed a bike buddy! Perfect. After a bit, Erica went to go sailboating (as people are want to do in these parts) and Eva and I fetched her bike from Phinney Ridge and headed downtown to meet up with other friends for The Dark Knight at The Big Picture. After that, I rode from Belltown to Justin’s place in lower Queen Anne, and even ran into (not literally) Andy along the way. Biking is great! All was well. I was feeling really prepped for Monday’s commute.

So, along rolls Monday. My ride into work is swell. I scoff at a hipster on a fixie along my way (internally, anyhow). I feel like a hardcore bike commuter. I got up Pine Street! Booyah!

(Warning: graphic description of DOOM)

Ride home: not so much. Down on Westlake I attempt crossing the SLUT tracks (South Lake Union Trolley, for those not in Seattle) and totally biff it into the street. TOTALLY BIFF IT. FIRST DAY. OMG. A hipster on a fixie comes to my rescue. IRONY. I peel myself off the pavement and into the timely #17 bus (Patron Saint of all Wonderful Bus Lines). The pain… oh the pain… like a good geek, I twitter to keep my mind off the stinging as oxygen starts hitting raw areas on my legs. Noticing high heeled girls on the bus giving me looks, my attention is brought to the fact that blood is making two little paths down my leg from my knee. The pain. Off the bus. Pain. Up the hill. Pain. Limp into the condo. Pain. Gingerly, I peel my clothes off and lower myself into the tub, then realize that my left leg is lacerated in several places on my thigh, and my knee looks like a large peeled blood grapefruit (but with real blood). I also sport a huge oval grease mark intersecting with the deepest part of the wound on my left knee. My right leg looks like it has gills. There’s more bruises starting to show up than unknown relatives after a lottery win.

I pour that stinging anti-bacteria stuff all over, and hold back on crying like a baby. I nearly loose it when I realize I have to dig the grease out of my knee unless I want an impromptu involuntary tattoo. This was the really painful part, especially because it seemed to take forever. I clean a sharp pair of scissors and scrape as much of the grease out of my wound as I can stand to, then sit in the tub, whimpering a bit. My kitty meows and tries to comfort me from the edge, fearing water yet very obviously concerned. Oh yeah, I’m a hardcore biker. Riiiight. I’m also Barack Obama.

Can’t wait for Day 5 – but I think I’m wearing pants instead of shorts tomorrow.

MORAL(s) OF THE STORY:

1.) The SLUT is a cruel mistress, and not to be trusted. If you must cross the tracks, try to hit it at a ninety degree angle exactly. I was close, but not close enough, and my tire got lodged in the track. Newtonian physics does the rest.

2.) Always carry change for the bus. Don’t leave home without it.

3.) Like Han Solo says, “Don’t get cocky, kid!”

4.) Don’t judge the hipster on the fixie. They don’t all hit drivers with U-locks in the back of the head.