Twice today I have been moved to laughter, all while working essentialy 12 hours.
The first was reading a letter to the editor from one of the always opinionated realatively old-timers in the local small circulation paper (local at work, not home) I thought it was funny not just for what/how it was put, but that it started out small, and just seemed to grow. Maybe it is because I am familiar with the writer and can picture him saying the words. But I am in the mood for sharing.

The second was when I arrived home at approximately 8:15, and saw Carl’s pumpkin offerings.

The following is reprinted from the Sammamish Reporter 10/31/2008 Letters to the Editor

More retail needed in Sammamish

Seven years of promises and more promises, and I have not seen any retail stores coming up here on the Plateau so that we do not have to run 20 miles round trip to get a pair of socks or some shoes.

You would think making it out the door in the morning 5 minutes earlier would not be a problem.
5 minutes is the difference between being in front of or behind the school bus.
5 minutes later really means 15 minutes later.
Now – I am all for school buses, they have a great potential to reduce driving or drop-off traffic. And this particular school bus is taking the kids probably 1-5 miles, depending on your pick-up location, along roads that are busy and do not have sidewalks, or reasonable alternatives.

Today I even got another potential delay when the garbage truck, also following this route, pulled into the line waiting behind the bus. Often the garbage trucks are as slow or slower than the school bus. Lack of said space along the road. Although I think they should plan their routes to avoid the arterials until after rush hour. Luckily the garbage truck did a semi-3-point turn and backed down a road, before we had reached the point where the bus stops pick-ups, so no real time loss.

Finally got to the next turn, where I drop the bus. It is a free right-turn yield lane kind of turn. At this point I stopped, only to almost be passed/rear-ended/side-swiped by a high-school student in a slightly lowered shiny black pick-em-up truck. I was stopped only because the person in the car in front of me had not quite figured out that she really could drive forward because the left turners in the road we were turning to were blocking all possible traffic from reaching our little lane. But you can never be too careful, so she carefully checked it all out, while I was just about crunched by a newbie driver that probably did understand the lights, and assumed everyone else did too.

In the last 1-1/2 miles of my 25 mile commute there are three high schools, two school districts and a catholic high school. Usually I only deal with real traffic from the first I encounter, as they are all coming from my direction to reach the high school. Since there is a split between the two school districts, there is only a small amount of true school traffic in the 3/4 mile between them. Now that the catholic school (a big one) has opened in between them, it should get interesting. But to be honest I have not gotten stuck in a jam with them … yet (1st year).

OK – I made it to work, and now need coffee.

I would like to get rid of two trees in our backyard.
They are too big for the space (we have 5 in a postage stamp).
One of them is a sewage sucker, with our side sewer being the source.
I have received 3 quotes (called 5, but two did not respond)
$2200, $1000, $1900. Hmmmmm.
The first quote was the first, and floored me a bit. The guy seemed sincere, and I had one good personal reference, but he kept pointing out potential problems (access) so I was a bit worried about increases or not being able to perform.
The second quote, the lowest, was very tempting. But I didn’t really know much about them so I checked the state and BBB sites. No real problems (violations) showed up on the state, but the BBB has a no recommend based on four complaints, some of which were resolved.
The third quote, requested after finding the No recommend, is close to the first, but the fellow seemed really knowledgable and spoke about how he could get the project accomplished (instead of problems). No bad hits on state or L&I site, so …..

Decisions, decisions. I need to get this done before the winds pick up and the tree folks get busy.

Not that Carl is not my friend, but we have been watching and listening to the World Series pretty much by ourselves. We finally managed to get together in SUNNY Seattle with our baseball buds in time for the game. But then the game was being played at the end of fall/beginning of winter in SOGGY Philadelphia. Suspended, and they sure took their time making the decision. It looked like Seattle City Soccer League tournament, which is the best deal for playing soccer, but tests spectators ability to withstand cold and rain. 

Can’t wait until next year when the World Series will be a week later. This is silly – it is not going to be good baseball if you play in the really cold and wet and possibly snowy situations.

Anyway – on the friend front it was good, and good food as well.
Our hope? TB to win the suspended game and the 1st game in Tampa, and then then for game 7 – choose your favorite.

We did our quick trip north today.
Shopping, voting, soccer, frisbee and flag football.
That pretty much sums up our time in Vancouver.
Oh – and seeing how turned around I could get at Ashlan’s dorm.

The dorm has lots of angles. I guess they do that to make it interesting, or some math major was trying to figure out how to cut a pie into five pieces with a straight edge and a string (something like that).
Here are a few pics of her dorm suite.
When you walk into the suite there are 10 doors to choose from! (really only 9, since you just came in one of them.) Oh but turn around quickly and try to go back out the way you came in. Which door would you choose? I would probably go for the one with the Exit sign, but that would be wrong. Yes it does exit you from the room, onto a stairwell. It’s even the same stairwell you just climbed. It’s just in a different place on the stairwell than you used to get to the door that allowed you to enter the suite. –

5 doors

3 more doors

These suites are considerably different than my MSU rooms.
There are 6 pod bays that each house one girl. Cozy would be a good word.

1 person

Then there is the common area – kitchen/dining/living room. Cozy would be a good word here as well. They even have a cute triangular balcony (remember the angle thing). But I don’t think all six could get on the balcony at once, even if they were all standing up. It appears to function as a recyle area and cell phone quiet space.

common pod

kitchen pod

Anyway, a good trip with minimal border waits, dry roads and only a few other drivers.

Today is errand day.
Revolves around banking and then buying – and focus on travel north.
We are openning some new accounts to better manage what we have. Since they want us both to sign, Saturday bank hours are helpful, but limited.
Being generally green – we walk – return a DVD, post some letters and the bank (one that has been recently bought out by Chase). Open the account, figure how to split the money we already had in an old account, blah, blah, blah – when do the automatic withdrawals happen, what checks are outstanding, blah, blah, blah need a check for the next big contribution to education – finally out. On to Trader Joes for goodies to go north.

North – did we get any funny money while we were at the bank? No! Did we get money to fuel the trip? No! How much longer are those banking hours, and when will football traffic really hit (Notre Dame – so it probably won’t matter how badly the home team is playing). 

Not quite so green as we need to get to the bank so we won’t be quite destitute in the great white north. !$100 gets us $120! Unexpected. I thought the teller had said $100 in twenties, not $120. Then, since we have the car now, fuel for both the car and Carl, and a pumpkin for soup on Wednesday.

Still a bit of afternoon left – time to do some more things that need to be done. Tomorrow will be travel fun. (Main reason for the trip is to take the girl her absentee ballot, let her vote and we bring it back.)

Michigan 21 – Michigan State 21 (don’t know the time left in the game)

We were gifted with about 5 pounds of concord grapes by a friend.
So on-line I went to find what I could do with these grapes – recipes for sorbet.

MMMM sounds good – late night last night, but about 4 pounds has been made into sorbet and is in the freezer. The other pound has been made ready for freezing, but couldn’t fit in our maker … maybe tonight.

Thanks to all for their kind words yesterday.
We finished the day by trying a new restaurant – mmm so tasty, and a wonderful glass of wine (as it turned out sponsored by my carpooler who separately showed up for dinner), and pumpkin pot-de-creme for dessert. Had me pining for my mothers pot-de-creme served in demitasse cups with little spoons. I need that recipe, but can’t imagine having it without the cups.
The good tidings have spilled over into today – foggy start turned sunny and warm (60) and clear.

I guess that is not the best term, but I have been regifted.

1st – Rey checked out a CD that I had wanted to hear, from the library, in his name. I did have to pick it up as he was 500 miles away. But, he did the real work. And I suppose it was really the 2nd gift because he also let me know about the movie that the CD is from, Once. (I really enjoyed this movie, and may have mentioned it before. But if I have not – rent it – it is a chic flick with music I really enjoyed. Carl did not watch the movie (not a chic), but listened from another room and enjoyed it too.) [Did i close all my parentheses?]

The 2nd/3rd regifting is that Carl got me the CD for my very own. I was listening to it on my way to work – nice way to start the day.

Weather alert – cold fog – first scraping of the season, and the little yellow “it’s cold outside” idiot light came on for the first time as well.

Or was it, “Are you still here?”
That was my second wake-up call this morning.
I woke up with C and he got up, I rolled over for just a moment.
Then the fateful words.

One of those 10 minutes and I am out of the house. Made it to work with 10 minutes to spare, but didn’t exactly feel like I hit the ground running. And yes I did get my teeth brushed in those 10 minutes.