Heading out tomorrow night on a red-eye home to Florida. Gonna spend a long weekend on the beach with my entire family, aunts, uncles, and cousins included. From there I'm flying back West to Oakland to see Sally and make a jaunt to Yellowstone. It is going to be great.
I am so ready for a vacation.
Things are booming at the garden. Click the photo above to go to Flickr and see what's growing!
The laptop that I use every day at work, which belongs to the U of O and contains everything job-related that I do, in addition to all of our archived organizational documents, was stolen on Monday.
From a parked locked car at a trailhead when I was only gone for about 30 minutes.
Yeah.
Painful lessons learned:
* NEVER EVER EVER LEAVE ANYTHING OF VALUE IN YOUR CAR AT A TRAILHEAD EVER. EVER. I knew this, but now I KNOW it.
* Back up your files weekly. Not monthly, not yearly, WEEKLY.
* The show must go on. Projects don't stop for you to feel bad about your misfortune.
Needless to say, things may be even slower around here for a while.
A nice angle: looking over at Mt Adams (WA) from partway up Tom McCall Point, Rowena Crest.
(yeah, the color balance is off, bite me.)
So there's an Obama campaign office in the building where I work, and this has made things something of a zoo the last few weeks: volunteers in and out at all hours, making the.same.scripted.call.all.day and thinking that I, too, work for Obama and might know if he is coming to Hood River and if so when and could I get them an in with him?
I'm all, I WISH.
We've got this life-sized cardboard cutout of Obama here at the office, and people move him around during the day. Nothing like walking around a corner only to find yourself face-to-face with an awkwardly smiling man holding fake glasses. I am going to get my picture taken with him soon.
The new My Morning Jacket: what do you think?
So it turns out that when you work 55+ hours a week and have a big garden and a hiking habit you don't get a lot of blogging time in.
Dang.
I did, however, read and love this: 75 Skills Every Man Should Master.
There's some thoroughly useless shit in there, but also some great tips. I wish women's magazines published pieces like this.
Some of my favorites:
19. Approach a woman out of his league. Ever have a shoeshine from a guy you really admire? He works hard enough that he doesn't have to tell stupid jokes; he doesn't stare at your legs; he knows things you don't, but he doesn't talk about them every minute; he doesn't scrape or apologize for his status or his job or the way he is dressed; he does his job confidently and with a quiet relish. That stuff is wildly inviting. Act like that guy.20. Sew a button.
28. Play go fish with a kid. You don't crush kids. You talk their ear off, make an event out of it, tell them stories about when you were a kid this or in Vegas that. You have to play their game, too, even though they may have been playing only for weeks. Observe. Teach them without once offering a lesson. And don't be afraid to win. They can handle it.
29. Understand quantum physics well enough that he can accept that a quarter might, at some point, pass straight through the table when dropped. Sometimes the laws of physics aren't laws at all. Read The Quantum World: Quantum Physics for Everyone, by Kenneth W. Ford.
58. Avoid boredom. You have enough to eat. You can move. This must be acknowledged as a kind of freedom. You don't always have to buy things, put things in your mouth, or be delighted.
Oh man, leave it to Liz to unearth this amazing piece of work from the glory days of high school 2000-2001! There's really only 4 people in the world who will find this funny or get any of the jokes. But I am one of them.
Liz's description:
This is a script that I made (with penciled in additions after running it by Sarah) for a video Sarah and I were planning for Jeff and Andrew (Jeff and Andrew being our Chicago boys, for those who need a refresher). It was going to be filmed at our high school's morning announcements format, since Sarah and I were both "anchors" for the broadcast and could have snuck in our own tape for a mini-session if need be. We also made an episode of The Real World: Arcadia.
LIZ: I'm Liz
SARAH: And I'm Sarah.
LIZ: And we're reporting live from... (we hadn't determined the location).
SARAH: Teachers: please do not allow any students carrying canes with gold handles into your classrooms. The canes are believed to be possessed and may cause strange behaviors. These behaviors include the urge to sit alone in the dark or the urge to listen to the Oh Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack repeatedly.
LIZ: Scary huh? Watch out... because "Toby's a Killer!"
Devin brings in a paper
LIZ: This just in! All flights to California have been canceled for the next five years!
SARAH: In related news, all flights to Florida from the Chicago area are being sold for one, yes, ONE dollar a piece! Grab 'em while they're still hot!
LIZ: Students planning to attend the trip to Chicago during Christmas Break need to see Mr. Schudel to sign up for the "Persuading Your Parents" class.
SARAH: There is a mysterious man parked in the student parking lot every day after school. He's been seen wearing a leather jacket and driving an extremely LOUD black car. If you have any information about this man or who he might be stalking, go to the security officer ASAP!
LIZ: The principals would like to remind students that there is to be NO incense burning at our high school.
LIZ: By the way, Sarah, did you know these are Jeff's rings?
SARAH: No, really?
SARAH: A new study shows that eating beef with give you mad cow disease.
Devin brings in another paper
LIZ: This just in! Another study shows that eating salmon will give you iodine poisoning. Guess we'll just have to stick to chicken!
SARAH: I see.
LIZ: In other news, we have an update on our injured player from last week's football game. He came away with one... two... TWO broken ribs!!
SARAH: Today's lunch menu includes Bootlegger's pizza, Mountain Dew, enough pepper to shower in and a pack of Big Red chewing gum.
LIZ: The nurse's office will be closed today due to the fact that the sick bed's mattress has mysteriously shifted off the frame.
SARAH: Good times! Finally, would the real Great Dalmudi please stand up?
LIZ: Well, that's all for today. Coming up next is another episode of the Real World Arcadia!