Spokane Weekend!

I am in Spokane for a few days on business. I just checked into my room and was hoping for a "room with a view" because I knew that the hotel was right on the Spokane River and I got it. The picture at the right is a view of the light reflecting off the river from the window in my room.

I have some notes and thoughts about my trip here but more on that later. Right now there is a beer somewhere in this town with my name on it.

4000 Songs!

I combined the music from my version of iTunes at work and the version on my laptop today. I ended up with 4,100 songs exactly. I have been in the 3,000 song range for what has seemed like a really long time and was growing more and more anxious to surpass the 4,000 song mark so when it happened today, I was elated! So you may be asking yourself, which song set me over the mark? Well, it was my favorite Beatles song so I felt compelled to share the lyrics here.

A Little Help From My Friends

What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song,
And I’ll try not to sing out of key.

I get by with a little help from my friends,
I get high with a little help from my friends,
Going to try with a little help from my friends.

What do I do when my love is away.
(does it worry you to be alone)
How do I feel by the end of the day
(are you sad because you’re on your own)

No I get by with a little help from my friends,
I get high with a little help from my friends,
Going to try with a little help from my friends.

Do you need anybody,
I need somebody to love.
Could it be anybody,
I want somebody to love.

Would you believe in a love at first sight,
Yes I’m certain that it happens all the time.
What do you see when you turn out the light,
I can’t tell you, but I know it’s mine.

Oh I get by with a little help from my friends,
Do you need anybody,
I just need someone to love,
Could it be anybody,
I want somebody to love.

I get by with a little help from my friends,
Yes I get by with a little help from my friends,
With a little help from my friends.

Say WA!

Washington State Tourism just launched a new campaign (Say WA) and I HATE IT! I also hate the changes that they have made to their website. What used to be an easily navigated and very informative website is now just filled with picture of *WA moments* that are beautiful but completely uninformative. AAARRGH!

Birthday Calculator

I received an email from a friend this morning with a link to a Birthday Calculator. I played around with it a little bit this morning and here are a few tidbits that it came up with for me.

• You were born on a Wednesday, under the astrological sign Leo.
• The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2441895.5.
• You are 392 months old.
• You are 1,707 weeks old.
• You are 11,948 days old.
• You are 286,764 hours old.
• You are 17,205,882 minutes old.
• You are 1,032,352,979 seconds old.
• Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 4.67632093933464 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)
• Your birthstone is Peridot. The Mystical properties of Peridot include helping dreams become reality.

Then toward the bottom of the page I saw a link to find out what your name says about you, so I clicked on it and learned the following.

Your number is: 3

The characteristics of #3 are: Expression, verbalization, socialization, the arts, the joy of living.

An Expression of 3 produces a quest for destiny with words along a variety of lines that may include writing, speaking, singing, acting or teaching; our entertainers, writers, litigators, teachers, salesmen, and composers. You also have the destiny to sell yourself or sell just about any product that comes along. You are imaginative in your presentation, and you may have creative talents in the arts, although these are more likely to be latent. You are an optimistic person that seems ever enthusiastic about life and living. You are friendly, loving and social, and people like you because you are charming and such a good conversationalist. Your ability to communicate may often inspire others. It is your role in life to inspire and motivate; to raise the spirits of those around you.

Your Soul Urge number is: 6. A Soul Urge number of 6 means: With a number 6 Soul Urge, you would like to be appreciated for your ability to handle responsibility. Your home and family are likely to be a strong focus for you, perhaps the strongest focus of your life. Friendship, love, and affection are high on your list of priorities for a happy life. You have a lot of diplomatic tendencies in your makeup, as you a able to rectify and balance situations with an innate skill. You like working with people rather than by yourself. It is extremely important for you to have harmony in your environment at all times.

Your Inner Dream number is: 6. An Inner Dream number of 6 means: You dream of guiding and fostering the perfect family in the perfect home. You crave the devotion from offspring and a loving spouse. You picture yourself in the center of a successful domestic unit.

Okay, enough hocus-pocus for today, back to work.

More Adventures with Laundry!

Last night was laundry night again! While standing at the counter folding my laundry I decided that I would post this comment. I then wondered why I have such an interest in posting entries about laundry and finally came to the conclusion that it is because I dislike doing laundry that I feel the need to write about it and share it.

Anyway... I arrived at the Laundromat last night and it was PACKED. I have never seen so many people jammed into that place. Well evidentially they were closed for Easter and everyone was catching up. So we (Bean was with me, of course) had to search high and low for an empty machine and ended up with machines on both the upper and lower levels. This isn't so bad because there are only 4 steps separating the levels, except when you go to use one of those wheeled carts that they have at the Laundromat, they don't do so well on the stairs. Despite all of the chaos and people we got our laundry done in 90 minutes.

No Rainman or Naked Men sightings!

Quote for Today

"It is not the number of breaths you take

that gives you life,

but how many moments take your breath away."

--Anonymous

=====

I have had a few moments in the last few days that have truly taken my breath away and as a result this quote has been stuck in my head. Living an authentic life is not always easy, but definitely worth it because genuine moments with others are truly priceless.

My nephew has arrived!

John Howard

March 14, 2006 at 10:40 p.m.

6 lbs. 3.5 oz., 20 inches long

Proof that I have seen too many romantic movies!

The line from Sleepless in Seattle comes to mind... "You don't want to be in love, you want to be in love in a movie" and apparently I do with these results but I thought this was a super easy quiz/trivia bit.

Movie Couples Quiz You scored 10 out of 10 Take the Movie Couples Quiz at Quizopolis.com

Academy Award Winning Pictures

I decided in January that I wanted to watch all of the movies that have ever been awarded the "Best Picture" Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (otherwise known as 'The Academy'). I scanned the listing and marked the movies that I had already seen but that only accounted for 25% of the overall list. I located the rest of the movies at the library and one by one I am knocking them off the list.

I watched two of them this weekend (The Best Years of Our Lives and Going My Way) and realized that this venture is turning to require a bit more patience than I anticipated. Some of these movies are not very good. So far I have seen 39% of them. I have seen the movies in BOLD. I will continue to update my progress.

1927/28 - Wings
1928/29 - The Broadway Melody
1929/30 - All Quiet on the Western Front
1930/31 - Cimarron
1931/32 - Grand Hotel
1932/33 - Cavalcade
1934 - It Happened One Night
1935 - Mutiny on the Bounty
1936 - The Great Ziegfeld
1937 - The Life of Emile Zola
1938 - You Can't Take It with You
1939 - Gone with the Wind
1940 - Rebecca
1941 - How Green Was My Valley
1942 - Mrs. Miniver
1943 - Casablanca
1944 - Going My Way
1945 - The Lost Weekend
1946 - The Best Years of Our Lives
1947 - Gentleman's Agreement
1948 - Hamlet
1949 - All the King's Men
1950 - All about Eve
1951 - An American in Paris
1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth
1953 - From Here to Eternity
1954 - On the Waterfront
1955 - Marty
1956 - Around the World in 80 Days
1957 - The Bridge on the River Kwai
1958 - Gigi
1959 - Ben-Hur
1960 - The Apartment
1961 - West Side Story
1962 - Lawrence of Arabia
1963 - Tom Jones
1964 - My Fair Lady
1965 - The Sound of Music
1966 - A Man for All Seasons
1967 - In the Heat of the Night
1968 - Oliver!
1969 - Midnight Cowboy
1970 - Patton
1971 - The French Connection
1972 - The Godfather
1973 - The Sting
1974 - The Godfather Part II
1975 - One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976 - Rocky
1977 - Annie Hall
1978 - The Deer Hunter
1979 - Kramer vs. Kramer
1980 - Ordinary People
1981 - Chariots of Fire
1982 - Gandhi
1983 - Terms of Endearment
1984 - Amadeus
1985 - Out of Africa
1986 - Platoon
1987 - The Last Emperor
1988 - Rain Man
1989 - Driving Miss Daisy
1990 - Dances With Wolves
1991 - The Silence of the Lambs
1992 - Unforgiven
1993 - Schindler's List
1994 - Forrest Gump
1995 - Braveheart
1996 - The English Patient
1997 - Titanic
1998 - Shakespeare in Love
1999 - American Beauty
2000 - Gladiator
2001 - A Beautiful Mind
2002 - Chicago
2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2004 - Million Dollar Baby
2005 - Crash

Easter Bunny Name

Easter Bunny Name Your Easter Bunny Name is Snuggles Cottonball Get Your Easter Bunny Name at Quizopolis.com

Adventures with Laundry

A few months back I was doing laundry at the neighborhood laundromat when I observed what I deemed very strange behavior from one of the other customers. My clothes were tumbling around the dryer and I was sitting against the window reading a book when I noticed a man moving down the row of dryers and stopping at each dryer along the day. When he stopped, he stared into the dryer and mouthed numbers with his lips. After a 10 or so seconds he would move on to the next dryer. He went up and down each aisle of the Laundromat and when he had finished, he started all over again. I nicknamed him the *Rainman of the Laundromat.* I had forgotten about this story until I was doing laundry with my friend Bean a few weeks ago and she asked if I saw the Rainman anymore. It took me a moment to remember and then told her, "No, laundry here is pretty boring, nothing exciting ever happens." I guess now I can consider those my famous last words...

I was with my friend Bean again last night and we had literally a TON of laundry. Earlier in the evening we had crammed it all into 10 super-sized washers and then load by load moved it to the super-size dryers. We had about 15 minutes to kill until the first dryer was done, so we stepped outside. It was a beautiful evening and as I was sitting on one of the outdoor chairs on the sidewalk in front of the Laundromat when Bean pointed to a man standing inside and she was laughing so hard that she could not get the words out. When I turned around I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a man standing in front of one of the washing machines in his underwear and a sweater. I was dying. Of course we tried to get the camera phone out super quick, but were not quick enough because before we knew it he was seated and it just wasn't as funny.

After regaining our composure we went back inside to begin the task of folding the TON of laundry. We were spying to see if we could get a picture of the man in his underwear but all we got was the photo above and all you can see his legs. Then about halfway through the first dryer-full of laundry we heard the woman that works at the Laundromat ask the underwear bearing man to cover up. He began yelling, "THE DOG PISSED ON MY PANTS!" and whenever she replied with any sort of comment he just repeated his statement over and over again. Finally the disruption caused Bean and I to walk over and watch. When he saw us he looked at Bean and said, "What are you looking at Bitch!" And then he began pounding on the windows with his fists and throwing things. The laundromat clerk came downstairs and asked if she could stay with us because she was frightened. We told her that we were calling the police and affirmed to her that she didn't deserve to be spoken to in the manner. Bean picked up her cell phone and called the police who took their sweet time getting there (10+ minutes). The police made him remove his wet pants from the dryer and put them on and then gather the rest of his things and leave. They instructed him to never come back. We finished up our laundry and headed home.

I wonder what will happen next time I do laundry....

Washington State Barbies

Received via email from my brother and I have tried to trace the source and can't seem to find it.

Seattle Barbie: This modern day homemaker Barbie is available with a Mercedes 4WD SUV, a Prada handbag and matching Nike Yoga ensemble. She has a masters degree and double-majored, but has the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom with Ken's generous salary. Comes with Percocet prescription and Botox. Starbucks mug and traffic-jamming Blackberry internet/cell phone device sold separately. Husband Ken is into fishing, golfing, baseball and is often "working late." Available at all Seattle-area Starbucks retailers.

Bellevue Barbie: This princess Barbie is only sold at Nordstrom. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade handbags, your choice of a BMW convertible or Hummer H2 and a long-haired foreign lapdog named "Honey." Also available is her cookie-cutter development dream house. Available with or without tummy tuck, facelift, and breast augmentation. Workaholic, cheating husband, Ken, comes with a Porsche.

Tacoma Barbie: This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, switchblade, '78 El Camino with dark tinted windows, and a meth lab kit. This model is available only after dark and can only be purchased with cash - preferably small bills, unless you're a cop, then we don't know what you're talking about. Boyfriend Ken is in jail. Available at many pawn shops.

Everett Barbie: This tobacco chewing, brassy-haired Barbie comes with a pair of high-heeled sandals with one broken heel from the time she chased Beer Gut Ken out of Auburn Barbie's trailer. Her ensemble includes low-rise acid-washed jeans, fake fingernails, strawberry lip gloss and a see-through halter top. Purchase her Mustang convertible separately and get a Confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free. Boyfriend Ken is in treatment. Available at Army Navy Surplus.

Monroe Barbie: This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans 2 sizes too small, steel-toed cowboy boots, a classic Metallica 'T' shirt and a Tweedy Bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has fake fingernails, a six pack of Budweiser, and a Hank Williams, Jr. CD set. She can spit over a distance of 6 feet and kick mullet-haired Ken's ass when she is drunk. Also available is the gold-toned cubic zirconium ring that Ken gave her after another one of his "episodes" with his boss's daughter. Comes with Barbie's Dream Double Wide Trailer. Available at Wal-Mart.

Puyallup Barbie: Pregnant at purchase, this Barbie comes with a stroller and bus pass. Also included is a G.E.D. and a completely filled out food stamps form. Construction worker Ken and his '82 Caddy are optional. Available at Value Village.

Vashon Island Barbie: This Barbie is made out of recycled plastic and tofu. She has long straight brown hair, archless feet, hairy armpits, no make-up, and Birkenstocks with white socks. She does not want, or need, a Ken doll. If you purchase the optional Subaru wagon, you will receive a free rainbow flag sticker. Available at REI.

Olympia Barbie: This versatile doll can be easily converted from Barbie to Ken by simply adding or removing snap on parts. Walks to work. Likes to "experiment," but will never commit. This model is being phased out and is only available from the manufacturer.