An interesting story about a Chinese couple that are refusing to abandon their house is spreading in the sphere, read the (translated) interview with house owner Wu Ping, comments and the nytimes article.

Mercer Island Loop
Yesterday I biked around Mercer Island for the first time. The sun was finally shining again and it turned out to be a very enjoyable easy ride with good views, interesting houses, smooth curvy roads and few cars. Much better than my attempt to commute Seattle-Kirkland by bike on Google's Alternative Transportation Day earlier the same week. That time it was raining and when I finally got home I realized I'd left the apartment keys at work... Anyway, the Mercer loop is about 15 miles and accessible from both Seattle and the Bellevue side thanks to the I-90 bike lanes. Directions here.

Boten Anna
Several American friends independently mentioned a pop song called 'Boten Anna' to me in the last couple of weeks. Turns out this song was a really popular in Scandinavia last summer and apparently it's still being played in bars. The lyrics are hilarious and the video below has English subtitles.

If you want to know more there's a detailed wikipedia article here.

Finally a somewhat sunny weekend in Seattle!
After several rainy weekends and a very wet attempt to bike around Lake Washington on Saturday the nice weather on Sunday was a great surprise. Some friends and I spent the whole day outdoors, running around Green lake, hiking up the Rattlesnake trail and playing soccer in Gasworks park. Not bad.

The hiking turned out to be the highlight of the day. I had never hiked this trail before but it was very rewarding considering the short drive and quick hike. From the top of the trail one gets a good view of the lake, Mount Si and North Bend.

The Rattlesnake trail is about 35 minutes from Seattle (I-90 exit 32, see map). The hike is easy and takes about 1 hour round-trip.

Go Gadget, Go! Last week we launced the Google Talk Gadget. Try it out here! Update: check out the cool firefox sidebar hack!