Ride Home 12/9

We have a housewarming/holiday party, so I'm giving myself exactly 15 minutes to write this post. I apologize in advance for its crapulence (that word doesn't mean what I want it to mean). Just a quick update on buttons: we're kicking ass. I've had to order more. If we scale this enterprise up, perhaps buttons can be the new "green jobs" and can be the means by which we revive our economy. Or not.
I left work later than usual, but the campus event that I attended drew many motorists to the area and the roads were sort of clogged with considerable car traffic, some of it out of state. Always fun to watch drivers not realize that a parked car is about 300 feet in front of them and they're just going to have to get back in the left lane anyway.
At Mass and Wisconsin, I rode behind a woman bike commuter and she was pretty great. Well-lighted, fenders, rack and Ortlieb. She wins. Maybe it was one of you? I wanted to say something, but was diverged when she rode onto the sidewalk and I rode through the red at the bottom of the hill.
The intersection of Mass and 22nd and Florida is something of a disaster. I normally ride through and pass the stopped cars on the right and then ride across in the crosswalk, in front of the Masaryk statue (I have complicated thoughts on the man that I won't share with you), and then across the other crosswalk to wait at the red to cross to Q. Yesterday for some reason, I decided that I would ride between the two lanes of traffic, which would have been fine had not the light turned green at the exact moment I was passing between the front two cars. The driver on the right gunned it and I sort of really push it in order to make it across the the crosswalk, so I kind of cut him off. My bad.
 Tons of traffic on Q. Car traffic impedes bicyclists, bike lanes or not. At one point I was even cut off by a limousine. Another example of the 1% causes 99% of my commute problems. Ok, maybe this is the only example I've even given, but you get my point. Also, it's sort of weird that FedEx removed the turn signals from their vans to save weight for the holiday season. That has to be true since otherwise the driver would have used it, right? I'm sorry if I offended any of the pedestrians when I said "you're f-ing kidding me, right" maybe a little too loudly. I forget that other people can hear me.
3 minutes to go.
11th street continues to be my best route home. I still wish it was better. At least it's predictable, in that I'll know that the bike lanes will be predictably blocked pretty much every block. Maybe by a van.
There's a shop that I pass every day called Bricks for Kidz.  That's also the name of my youth summer basketball camp.
The valet parking situation at 11th and Penn is a mess. Ban valet parking. Ban everything. Boo. (This is my actual ANC campaign platform)
I'd like it if the Capitol paths were better lighted. You know, so people could use them and see. I'm sure that they can't be because they'll diminish from the domey splendor.
Ok, my time's out. Bon weekend.