The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We woke up this morning and noticed people running on highway 99 instead of the usual traffic, so Milo and I naturally had to check it out. Turns out it was the Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Marathon, that apparently at least 27,000 knew about it – just not us. Since I’ve never wanted to walk along the always-busy highway 99, this was a good chance since the road was closed for the marathon. We walked along side the runners up to Fremont, then down to the waterfront (at almost the same speed as some of the runners). The runners went through the 99 tunnel that goes under part of Seattle, but Milo and I walked above it. The part of the map shown here is where we walked for 2 or 3 hours, which is only part of the full course.

It was fun to have people cheering the runners on and to hear 5 or 6 different bands that were set up and playing at different points on the course. Here’s some links to the latest news of the marathon if your interested.

I have now entered a new era…. personalized radio on my phone steamed over the air (thankfully I have an all-you-can-eat data plan)

I was recently at the Mashable Media Summit 2010 conference in New York where I was given a free Motorola Backflip, which is based on Google’s Android operating system for phones. I don’t like the keyboard and the camera is very slow, but there are a bunch of fun applications I can run on the phone. Also, my old Windows Mobile 6.1 phone has sorta died, so I’m trying to get the most from the Backflip. One of the fun applications is the Pandora music player. I setup a station based on Gnarles Barkeley so it automatically finds music like that (Zune, iPod, Spotify, Last.FM all have similar features). It’s geeky, but fun. Pictured here is my phone with a song from Oasis playing.  

I am waiting for Microsoft to ship Windows Phone 7 so I can get a phone with Zune on it. I’ll be able to do the same cool thing as I do with Pandora, but more. Plus I can load it up with all of the music I own too. Until then

I love walking around cities to see how they tick and to just see the sights as a tourist. This week, while staying at the W Hotel on Lexington in New York and walking to the Microsoft office I get to walk past the Waldorf Astoria hotel, the Sacks Fifth Avenue store, the Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall. But just as interesting are the mess of people and taxis all buzzing around dodging each other. It’s certainly more vibrant (or at least busy) than Seattle, but not as clean. There’s always something new to see though.