"Main Stage Dusk," one of several stitched panoramas by Seattlest Flickr pool member Andrew G Davis. It'd be easy to bitch and complain about certain aspects of the Capitol Hill Block Party. Sure, it attracts a bevy of tools who by the end of the night are barely-standing drunken douchebags. And yes, you have to put up with the poorly-scripted political pablum in between acts. Plus, in the aftermath, there's all that garbage. But......

--when you're doing a backstroke in the crystal clear waters of Lake Wenatchee.......

Holy Jeezits, what an outstanding weekend! On Friday, we knocked off early, rounded up the wife and in-laws, bought a bag of tacos, and headed to Richmond Beach in Shoreline. The picnic tables were warm, the tacos messy and delicious. We watched people play or take naps. We watched a pale, red-headed girl turn lobster red while playing Frisbee with her negligent mother. Saturday, we drove out to Snoqualmie Falls. We'd never been there, so......

HUGE AMOUNTS OF CHEESE: The Cheese Festival is upon us! This is one of our top three favorite events of the year (#2: our birthday, #3: Christmas). Several reasons: a city block full of cheese, friendly vendors, wholesale prices on bottles in the wine garden (don't buy the red wine that says "bacon" three times in its description, we made that mistake last year), and (it bears repeating) a city block full of cheese. 10......

READING: This weekend, 2008 Seattle Reads author Dinaw Mengestu is making the rounds to the city's libraries to read from The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. This novel about immigrant life in D.C. has gotten so much love from so many corners that we're kind of ashamed we haven't read it already. If you don't want to purchase this book, sign up now on the Holds list at the library: we're currently Hold #424.......

Ahh spring. So wonderful and yet so fickle. Thankfully for us, spring was fully sprung Saturday when we took the wife up to Lopez Island to celebrate her birthday by riding in the annual Tour de Lopez. We’d never been to Lopez, but we’ve spent some time on Orcas and San Juan, so we were a bit leery of riding our bike around any of the San Juans. They are, after all, islands and they......

Saturday, Tera will give herself a VIP tour at the opening of Aritzia. She will follow this potentially hectic event by introducing a friend to her newest wine obsession - Twisted Cork. Sunday she will trek to Qwest and root for Chicago, uh, eh, oops...Seattle. Yes, root for the Seahawks. Jack's heading to the Showbox proper tonight to see Canadian indie pop band Stars. Sunday, he's hoping to see Rex Grossman slip into old......

We've already mentioned this weekend's Pyramid Alehouse Snowed In Party, featuring the Presidents of the USA (tonight) and the Dandy Warhols (tomorrow). Tonight, there's also Black Dice bringing their wall o' noise to the Vera Project. A lot of shows tomorrow night, starting with MTV-buzzworthy Minus the Bear, along with Helio Sequence and Grand Archives, at the Showbox. There's also Seattlest's favorite kick-ass female foursome the Trucks at the High Dive, and the lush pop-folk......