One of the fun things about listening to all my music on my Zune, is discovering albums and songs that I didn't know I had.

I have a medium sized jazz collection that I knew nothing about. Looking back, I vaguely remember receiving a few Jazz box sets for gifts. Although I never listened to them I apparently ripped them into the computer. Jazz regularly pops up on random play.

I have a fair number of songs from obscure bands that posted free songs on the internet.

I have much more Eurythimcs and Corey Hart than I would have thought. Until today, its been at least five years since I listed to either. They both give me flash backs to high school.

I've had a Zune mp3 player for a while now. All my music is on it. It's been ages since I've listened to any of my older music. In fact, I don't musch like my older music. It's unsettling being irritated by songs I know I used to love.

I know my tastes have changed, matured, in many ways. In depth news magazines used to bore me to death, now I skim through them every day. I used to listen to retro 80's and Art Bell style talk radio. Now I listen to NPR and some college music radio.

Sigh. And I'm only 36. It makes me wonder what I'll be like when I'm 46.

Earin couldn't make it on Saturday. She text messaged us that the plans had changed, she would now show up on Sunday.

On Sunday, Earn showed up with a mini-van and 3 guys. She loaded up about a 3rd of her stuff and left. She said she would be back in about 30 minutes. That didn't happen. RO and I messaged her, but she didn't respond to the messages.

RO went through her remaining stuff. He said most of it was garbage. The valuables were things that she had bought through RO, or RO had given her as a gift. After RO pointed that out, we figured she is never comming back for the rest.

I'm going to do a dump run tonight. We may try and sell the valuble furniture, or we may keep it.

I got a text message from Earin

"Will be there on sat @ 11 am to pick up stuff plz dont b there"

What the hell? How do I react to that. I can't wait to tell RO.

More news about Earin. Much of Earnins stuff is still at our place-- a bed and dresser, desk, table, boxes, tv, armour. RO called Earin's sister to try and figure out what to do with all of it.

Earin's sister was not aware that Earin had just abandoned us. She also said that Earin lost her job. During the first week of training, Earin was fired.

From what we understand she already as anew job and has moved in with her girl friend. But, the two of them have a very rocky relationship.

I hope Earin will be ok.

Ryan is in a new band. They are an Irish Drinking & Pirate songs band. Last night was their first gig. RO and I went. It was fun, if a little weird. I've had "Kiss me I'm Shit Faced" running through my head all morning.

Ryan is in a new band. They are an Irish Drinking & Pirate songs band. Last night was their first gig. RO and I went. It was fun, if a little weird. I've had "Kiss me I'm Shit Faced" running through my head all morning.

Last Saturday was the store's one year anniversary. We had a martini party to celebrate. It was fun. Many people showed up.

Next Saturday is our big sale. It will be interesting to see how much we've grown since last year.

Over lunch we were discussing Alaska, and how many who move to Alaska only do so because they need to escape something in the lower 48. One co-worker said that it's not uncommon for bars to post signs like "No photographs allowed." because their patrons do not want to be known.

The lead to... "What happens outside of Alaska stays outside of Alaska." It's the anti-Las Vegas.

They caught my gas thief!

He is in his early 20's. His parents kicked him out of their house because he was constantly stealing things. Rather than completely lose control of him, they let him live in a shack in their back yard.

He has promised to make resitution, but the police doubt anything will come of that. He has no job and no real means of supporting himself.

I also heard some of the neighborhood gossip from the cop. The neighbor who noticed the gas thief has been trying to clean up our street. Not that our street is high crime. Basically he's been calling the police when a house has too many cars parked in front of it. He also wants to have street lights installed.

And now you know the rest of the story.

We changed the keys to the house yesterday. Between the gas theft and Eavin, RO and I have been thinking about security. Many people have had a set of our home keys-- three contrators, old house cleaners, old room mates, the previous owners-- so we felt it was time to change the locks.

After we changed the locks, RO went out and had duplicates made. Of course they don't work.

I told my neighbour about the gas theft. He told me he was very glad to know that-- for weeks now he's suspected that someone has been siphoning gas from his truck.

On Saturday, while RO and I were at the store, Earin took much of her stuff. Only the big pieces of her furninture are left. RO and I have decided to change the locks. At this point too many people have or have had keys.

Gas Theft.

This morning around 5:30am, I heard a loud banging at the front door. It was a neighbor. He told me that someone tried to steal gas from my truck! The neighbor said he scared them off.

I went outside and took a look at my truck. Gas was dripping out of it and into a gas can underneath. I thanked the neighbor. We chatted a bit and he drove off.

I called 911 and reported the incident. While I was on the phone, the neighbor drove back and said he spotted the theives and got the license plate number! I relayed the info to the police.

After a while, the police showed up and took my information. We looked around the tank and couldn't see any obvious damage. I poured some of the gas from the can into the truck. It poured out of a few very well drilled holes in the truck's tank-- damage spotted.

The officer told me these thieves were not that bright. The proper way to steal gas is to put a tray or can under the vehicle, punch a hole and then leave. After ten or fifteen minutes you return to collect the gas. That way no one sees a stranger hanging around a neighbor's vehicle.

Around 7:30am I called to have my truck towed to the service center. The towing company told me to call back after 8:00am. Rather than wait I decided to risk the drive. The service center was only five miles away. Worst-case, I'd run out of gas and need a tow.

I actually enjoyed the ride. I kept telling my truck "Come on baby, you can make it. I love you. I know you can do it." The truck drove smoothly despite the empty tank. We made it without hitch.

As it turns out, I was the second gas-tank-puncture the service center had that morning.

I got a small loaner car and headed home. On my way back I retraced the route to the service center. You could see the trail of dripping gas left by the truck. Bigger at stop signs. Smaller when going fast.

It's the end of Jan now. RO is down in Las Vegas for the week. He's at the World Furniture Market buying for the store. Part of me wishes I was there. The other half of me is very happy being up in Seattle. I don't enjoy buying at all. On top of that, the time off is kind of nice. I forgot how much I like puttering around, doing my own thing.

January has hit the store hard. Sales this year are less than half of what they were last year-- and we just opened up last year!

Fortunatly we have some money left over from Christmas, so if this keeps up, we will be ok for a couple of months.

So Earin just left for her new job without saying good bye. She get's every 2nd weekend off, so hopefully we will get to see her then.

I'm tempted to move her stuff into the garage and find a paying room mate right away.

Earin has started receiving mail from Check-Masters and other fast-cash places. I hope she's not in too much trouble.

We've had another storm. Last night it took me three and a half hours to get home. I kept getting stuck half way up the hill behind cars that couldn't make it all the way, or were abandoned. It was very frustrating after the fourth hill.

Many drivers were frustrated. I overheard a couple of shouting matches between stuck and unstuck drivers.

Right now I am very happy that I sprung for 4x4. I had few problems dealing with the hills.

Earin isn't a great a room mate as we had hoped. She has only paid one month of rent since mid October-- she's had a number of ligitamite finiancial problems since she moved in, but I am still disappointed.

She's starting a new job next week and will be traveling a lot. The new job pays well, so hopefully she can catch up.

I'm officially a middle manager at my day job. It's affecting the way that I work. I'm trying harder to look like a good roll model-- though blogging at work obviously doesn't fit in that category.

The weather forcast says another bad storm hits tonight. This winter has had three bad storms so far. We are starting to label our past project deadlines by the related storm-- we worked on that during the flood. Jesse and I completed that during the snow storm. That was due during the windstorm, but we had to punt it to the new year.

Conversations I want to remember...

"I hate this Seattle weather"

"Then move to California. They have nice weather."

"Oh dear Lord no! My sister lives there. and that state is not big enough for the two of us."

I'm back. It was a good trip, but I'm glad it's over. I spent too much time with too many kids. They are very nice kids, but after you spend time with 12 or 13 of them, it get's old.

The friday after Christmas was my mom's family Christmas get together. In any year only about a 3rd of the cousins make it. Still, I talked to many people that I hadn't seen in over ten years.

On New Years Eve I drove back to Toronto to see my old friends. They are almost all married and with children.

Pancakes-- New Years Eve morning I had pancakes and sausage for breakfast. That evening I drove up to G&J's for dinner. There kids were sick, and not eating anything so they served them comfort food, pancakes and sausage, to encourage them to eat. So, I had my 2nd meal of pancakes and sausage in a row.

New Years day I drove over to J&J's, for brunch. Wouldn't you know it, but J&J made pancakes and sausage. I felt gross after my third straight meal of them.

Other than that, the kids are growing big. I only get to see them once a year, so I really notice the difference.

Toronto-- It's still growing. A huge number of hi-rise condo's have sprung up in the ten years since I left-- many along the Young Street subway. It's feels weird to see the miles and miles of new hi-rise buildings.

Christmas day was uneventful. RO and I went to his family.

They are very competative. At least three times over Christmas, we all put money in a pot and bet on a competion... 1st when his oldest sister would arrive. She is always late. 2nd, we played musical chairs for money. 3rd was the outcome of a football game.

It's very different than my family. My family never gambles. When we play games, it's only for fun.

On the 26th we opened the store and put on a big sale. So far it seems to be working. I always get nervous about sales. It costs a couple thousand dollars to promote a sale, so it would hurt if the sale wasn't successfull.

On the 27th I flew back to Ontario to spend a week with my family and old friends. It was the first time I've flown first class. I liked it-- short lines and big chairs.

I spend the first night at Liam's. We had a great dinner together and went out for a couple of drinks. Liam is doing well despite his responsibilites. His sister had a child. then started using drugs and got caught. Child Services took the boy away from her. Rather than let his seven year old nephew be left to Child Services or adopted by a stranger (Not many good parents want seven year old boys) Liam adopted his nephew. It's been a lot of work and money and Liam has given up much to raise his nephew well. I'm proud of him for it. He's got guts.

I'm at my parents now. It's very different here. Very quiet. Peaceful. But, I know I will get bored in a day or so.

Thankfully my parents have Internet and Satelite TV.

It's Christmas Eve at the store. We've had a good December. Not as great as we had hoped, but more than enough to keep us out of trouble.

It's actually quiet today. For some reasons weekends at the store have been more quiet than week days. Maybe it's because we are not in a mall.

RO and I have been working hard. I'm looking forward to a day off.

We have power again. Finally. That cat's were a bit weirded out and much of the food in the fridge has gone bad. But, other than that nothing is wrong that a good cleaning won't take care of.

Some of the old buildings in downtown Kent have gone up in flames. Rumor has it that the roof was being re-tarred, something caught on fire.

Four days and still no power!

At first living in a log cabin without power was kind of charming. But it's starting to get old. We can't cook. We have to hang out at friends or go to restaurants.

It's cold. Last night two of the cats snuggled up with us in bed. One has learnt to crawl under the sheets for more heat.

I still don't have power, but the storm only did minor damage. Everyone is ok.

Wind gusts were up to 80 miles per hour. A few trees fell around our house, but they missed the homes. I feel like I've dodged a bullet. Some of the braches that fell were big but nothing big fell on the house or our vehicles.

As I said, we still don't have power. We do have hot water though. At least we can take warm showers.

RO and I just got back from a couple of days on Orcas Island. We stayed at a nice resort that was felt like it was run by enviromentalists, aging hippies and lesbians.

Monday night was open mic night. The restaurant chef got up and did a "Tofu Rap." He rapped about the joys of tofu and the evils of eating meat.

We also soked in the hot tubs and lounged around the sauna.

For the first time in a long time, the store's finances don't scare me. Christmas sales are going good. They are not as great as we had hoped, but they are still strong enough that we can pay our bills and have some money left over for a few special projects.

Another plus is that the store has been open for a year. We can now look back a year to see how much we've grown and estimate how much we will sell in a given month-- it makes budgeting much easier.

Last night we saw "V for Vendetta" It's a good movie about a man, known only as V, who attacks future totalitarian England. It's marred by a few inconcistencies-- V can do a little too much for a man on the lam, but other than that it's a fun couple of hours.

Another ThanksGiving has come and gone. RO and I had dinner at Matt and Sandy's.

On Sunday I made split pea soup with the ham left over from Thanks giving. We didn't do much on Sunday. It felt good to rest.

And Dolly the cat is back again.

Yesterday was RO's birthday. He basically had two birthday parties. One at the Store on Saturday, and a smaller party last night at our place. Both were fun. Though he drank more at the Saturday party and was very hung over on Sunday.

We all so started a batch of beer on Sunday. We haven't made beer in a long time. I'm looking forward to it.

Dolly the cat has left us again. Hopefully she will come back.

Last weekend the store had a big sale. It went very well which is a big relief for RO and I. Money has been tight and we had to spend a couple thousand to advertise. Things would have been bad if no one showed up.

But, they are not bad. They are very good. We had our 2nd best day ever.

Last night RO and I went to see the Pet Shop Boys. It was an unexpected gift from Matt and Sandy. They had four tickets, two of them were free because a friend of Sandy can sometimes gives him free tickets.

We had a lot of fun. It was the first time we really went out in a long time. RO drank too much, so he's a bit hung over this morning.

That cat came back...

Dolly returned home. Earin said Dolly wasn't fixed, so there is a possibility that Dolly is pregnant. I hope not.

I lost Earin's cat. I feel a little bad. Earin doesn't hold it against me-- she wasn't that attached to the cat.

The cat, Dolly, was very skittish. I rarely saw her. Occasionally she would race out to the middle of the room, look around, and then run away.

Friday evening while I was cooking, I left the back door open. Dolly saw me and then fled through the open door. We haven't seen her since.

Earin wasn't very attached to Dolly. She never intended to get her in the first place. Earin was at a pet store, a mother and daughter where also there, trying to sell their kittens. The store didn't want them because the kittens were too young. One of the kittens, Dolly, escaped. Earin helped recapture Dolly, but when she turned around the mother and daughter were gone. And thus Dolly moved in with Earin.

At my day job, I have just become a middle manager. It's a different challege. The people who report to me are good, smart and hard working, so the change shouldn't bee to difficult.

At the store RO is stressing out. Christmas is arriving. We put up much money for Christmas, so that's kind of stressfull.

C2 is back from Iraq for a week. Things seem to be going well for him. He's trying to get a job in Baghdad-- more money.

Things appear to be going well for him.

We are having dinner tonight.

C2 mentioned that almost nothing has changed in Seattle. I wonder what he was expecting?

Eavan is good for RO and I. She's forcing us to clean and organize. She said the house doesn't feel like a home and she's going to change that.

Sunday afternoon we cleaned out the bar (Yes, the house has a bar room) We moved the crap out, dusted everything, turned on the neon and celebrated with bloody mary's

After that, RO and went out and bought house plants.

Side trip... on the way back from Home Depot, we drove past a new winery-- Castle Bridge. It was a nice little winery. Very small. I hope they make it. They have their work cut out for them.

Earin has moved in. It's kind of nice. I think she's more clean than RO or I, so she should be a good influence on us.

My blog is six years old. Happy Birthday Blog!

Over the weekend, RO and I cleaned. For the first time in months the house smells fresh. Every surface in the house used to be covered with a layer of brick-a-brack and dust. We now have space.

Earin is moving in this week. We still have to clean her rooms.

Last night RO and I had dinner with T, who is an old friend of RO's. T is dating Portelo, who, years ago, I used to have lunch with. It was weird seeing Portelo again. I didn't recognize him at first.

I got tested for HIV today-- it came back negative.

The test only takes 20 minutes. That suprized me. Five years ago it took a week. I had mentally prepared myself for getting tested, then waiting a week and then hearing the results. So when the counselor said "This will only take 20 minutes" my heart skipped a beat. It was good that I would know so soon, but I just wasn't prepared to know then. I know RO and I have been good, but I haven't been tested in a long time and I just couldn't remove those small doubts.

Last night the Seattle Times took RO and I on a dinner cruise around Seattle. They do this to thank their advertisers.

I kind of like be schmoozed by a large company. The dinner was ok. A very corny magician was the entertrainment. He had a few great tricks, but his stage talk was tire some.

Every day RO checks for a reply from his daughter. MySpace says she has read his letter. She still hasn't replied.

Sunday night RO and I went to a March Of Dimes fund raiser. It was a silent auction plus a dinner.

I've been to these sort of events before. The food is always good, and no one checks for tickets at the door. I've got this eurge to look up another such event and go to it without paying, just to see what happens.

RO found his daughter on MySpace.

RO is divorced and has two children. The divorce was very ugly. The end result was that he hasn't been able to talk to his kids in years. His wife has completly cut off contact between RO and the children.

Last Sunday he googled the names of his daughter and son and he stumbled upon his daugther's MySpace site.

He sent her an email message. No word back yet.

RO and I worked all weekend-- our two best employees both had Sunday off and we always work Saturdays since that's the busiest day.

At the end of Sunday RO remarked that he was tired. We have both grown fond of taking Sundays off.

We had a relaxing weekend.

Friday night was a party at Matt & Sandy's. I think RO had a bit much to drink-- he was very chatty the whole night.

Saturday night Matt, RO and I watched Posidon at our place. I don't really recommend the new Posidon. It had good special effects, but I just didn't care. You could just tell that characters were going to die, or live, according to what the writer wanted to make you feel. So the whole movie felt forced.

Sunday night we watch Night Watch. A weird horror/action flick from Russia. I didn't really enjoy it either. I will say the cinematography was great. However it tried to do to much and ended up not excelling at anything.

I've been under the weather this week-- bloated, nausia and tired. So, I haven't got as much done this week as I wanted. I hate that.

RO and I got XBox Live. So, most every night we've been playing Halo against people from around the world. We've learnt that we suck. I mentioned that to a co-worker who plays lots of Halo. He said that Halo 2 has been out for a year and a half, so most everyone on XBox live is very experienced.

Oh well. I should be doing something more productive anyways.

August is a tight month for the store. Sales are way down-- about half of what they need to be. I'm not too woried yet. I know many people are away on vacation. On top of that, the Christmas season starts soon.

But, the store doesn't have a lot of cash at exactly the time when we need cash. Christmas Merchandise starts arriving in late september, and we wonn't get it unless we pay for it.

At work (my day job, not the store) we have free coffee, milk, chocolate milk, juice and pop. We also have access to a refrigerator and a microwave. This has prompted us to invent free, office-gourmet beverages.

First the basics...

Office-Gourmet Espresso: Brew one cup of triple strenght coffee.

Office-Gourmet Steamed Milk: Microwave a cup of milk for one or two minutes, depending on how crappy your office microwave is.

Now we can combine the basics to create a variety of wonderful free beverages...

Office-Gourmet Latte: Combine three quarters of a cup of steamed milk with one quarter cup of espresso.

Office-Gourmet Mocha: Same as a Latte, but substitute chocolate milk for regular milk.

Office-Gourmet Iced Latte: Make a cup of Office-Gourmet Espresso and put it in the freezer for an hour. Make sure you put lots of napikns under the cup because people tend to rummage around the freezer and knock things over. Pour over ice with regular milk.

Over the weekend, RO and I shopped for the store. I don't enjoy buying. RO is good at it.

Buying is a lot of work. We spent two days walking up and down the isles. We had sore feet and backs at the end of both days.

I'm a little worried-- several vendors mentioned that the show was much more quiet than usual. It's possible the economy is softening. It's also possible that the Seattle show is dieing and the vendors are putting more effort into the Las Vegas show.

We had a "Gays-of-Renton" progressive potluck. Drinks and appatizers at the guys next door, salad and main course at our place, desserts and liquors at the guys on the top of the hill.

It was very fun, though having to move from house to house made the evening a bit more structured that I'd like.

The other problem was that we had a drink or two at everyone's house. Normally I limit my self to one or two, total, a night. Everyone was tipsy by the end of the night. I had a hangover the next day.

So, Boone is moving out. There were some tensions between RO and he. Quite frankly they spend too much time together and the transition from RO as boss at the store to RO as friend at home didn't always work well.

My agreement with Boone was that he would pay rent, or do a lot of cleaning. Well, mostly he didn't pay rent and only did a half assed job at cleaning. Well, yesterday I came home and the house was clean! Very clean! Boone did a great job of cleaning!

I have mixed feelings about this. I am very happy that Boone cleaned the house. I am also annoyed at him for doing so many half assed cleaning jobs over the past year.

At lease my home is clean.

Eavan, an old friend of RO's is moving in. I'm looking forward to it. She will provide a nice balance to our house.

I've had an ear infection all week. I probably got it from swimming last weekend. It's getting better, but I'm tired of aching.

bleah.

For the first time in weeks, RO and I took Sunday off to just veg.

In the morning we had breakfast with Mac and Joe. It was good to see them.

Lincon Park was nearby, so RO and I went there after breakfast.

We layed in the grass and walked along the water front. Matt and Sandy joined us later on. It was just what the doctor ordered. We chatted, drank, ate and walked around the park.

Matt and Sandy have two very cute toy dogs. They attracted lots of attention.

Lincon Park has a heated salt water pool-- they take in salt water from the Sound, filter, clorinate and then heat it. Next time I go to Lincon park, I'm going to swim.

At work we are near the end of a 3 year project. Hopefully we will be done by November. I remember two and a half year ago when I was in one of the first planning meetings. A sister team to mine was in the same meeting. They had detailed plans with specific schedules, performances and tolerances. It went on for pages. The had put a lot of thought into their plans and had very lofty goals and a very concrete schedule.

My goals and schedule were fluffy and filled about half a page. When I compared the two plans I felt ill. If the sister team could fufill half of of their goals, then they would be way ahead. I thought I'd have to work my ass off just to not fail by comparison.

Of course, three years later my project is almost done. Their project has serious problems and I'm helping out.

Mailing money to Iraq.

Every now and then C2 will mail me a check for a couple thousand dollars along with instructions-- cash the check into $100.00 bills. Not $20.00's. They have to be $100.00 bills. Then I'm to take the money, place it in the pages of a magazine and mail the magazine to him via regular mail.

I'm not sure of the legality of this. I don't think anything is wrong, but at the same time it feels weird. He uses the cash to buy things in Iraq saying that Iraqis don't take cheque or credit card and that the dinar is so untrusted that you can get much better deals using $100.00 bills.

Usually it only takes a week for my magazine to get to Iraq.

This last time, I mailed the magazine at the end of June. By mid July the magainze still hadn't arrived. We were both feeling nervous. Did someone steal it? Was C2 out two thousand dollars? Did I write the wrong address on the envelope? It makes you feel ill. Our emails began with "Did you get it yet?" or "It's not here yet. Are you sure it was mailed correctly?" Unintentionally we emailing each other less often.

Today, thankfully, more than a month later, the magazine arrived. I'm not sure I'll do this for him again.

C2 is fond of discussing hypothetical how-much-of-a-friend-are-you questions. Things like "Would you give me a kidney if I needed it?" or "If my car broke down 100 miles away, would you pick me up? How about 500 or 1000 miles?" I think he has a new question... "What would you do if you mailed me some cash and the envelope never arrived?" What if it was $20.00? Or $100.00? Or $1000.00?

RO and I bought some board games so that we have something to do in the evening other than watching TV.

The Chinese Checkers board is terrible. The colours are wrong. The pieces are two shades of red, two shades of green and two shades of blue. Under medium light it's hard to tell which house a piece belongs to. Was that a dark red piece? Or a light red piece with some shadow on it?

On top of that, the house colours, yellow, purple, red, green, blue and white, don't match the colours of the pieces.

RO and I were frustrated before the game even started. So we put the game away and watched TV.

Last night RO and I went over to Matt and Sandy's for dinner and a movie. We watched Virus. What a bad movie. It wasn't even fun-bad.

RO and I went on a wine tour of Eastern WA. It was a bus tour with 40 others, including Matt.

We did stop at one great winery-- Apex Cellars. The others were nice, but not exceptional.

My parents left this morning. They have a wedding in Winnipeg this Saturday so they are off RVing across half the continent.

I actually enjoyed their visit. I wish I could have spent more time with them, but that didn't work out. Oh well. I'll see them at Christmas.

My parents really like the store.

Over the weekend it was Kent Cornucopia Days-- a large street fair. The fair ran right past our store. It created a lot of traffic for us. We doubled our usual weekend sales.

There were some problems though. The midway attracted lots off teenagers till late in the night. Saturday night a bunch of teenagers were walking behind our store when two of them started fighting. RO and I were just pulling in and saw it all happen. RO started honking his horn and I got out and shouted at them. They quickly disbursted. One of them grabbed a fountain pump that was laying behind the store. I shouted for him to drop it. He did and walked off.

We went out of dinner. When we came back more teenagers were hanging out behind the store. They weren't doing anything wrong, but we got them to leave. I don't want dozens of people hanging out behind the store. There is no reason to be there.

RO and I spent Saturday night at the store. Nothing happened during the night.

My parents are in town. I love my parents very much, but we are very different people. In their hearts they are good tolerant people, but I know they are uncomortable around gay people, so I wonder how they feel about staying at my house with three gay men.

I know my dad get's quiet when anything gayish pops up in the conversation.

Last night, our neighbour Ross came over for dinner. Ross and his partner live four houses down from RO and I, yet we rarely see them.

Ross is a train engineer. He told us that trains regularly run over people. We are in a bad stretch right now. In the last three months as many people of died from train accidents in our state as usually die in a year.

Many of them are suicides. Some of them are stupidity. If there are two sets tracks side by side people forget that trains don't always travel along the right track. He told us about a lady who put some pennies down on the right track, then stepped back to the left track where Ross promptly ran into her.

So, RO couldn't take all of Sunday off. He had to to open up the store and to fix up some displays.

RO and I met up for lunch. You could see that he was tired. Lunch started off nice, but both of us ended up with the runs.

So, it was a crappy day off. And then Boone called from the store. They had just finished a very large sale-- as much as we normally sell in five days. Within seconds I could feel my stress and tension fade away. It was like an instant vacation.

I didn't think I was that motivated by money, but knowing that July will probably be a strong month for the store helps.

RO and I are getting mentally tired,

Originally we planned on taking Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off. Then a large vendor for the store shipped us three palates of furniture. We scheduled delivery for Wednesday, so that we could leave for our trip Wednesday afternoon.

Well, there were missed calls and miscommunication between the truck driver and our wharehouse. We didn't get the shipment. It took a day and a half of calling around to find out where our furniture was, and to reschedule delivery for Friday.

So, instead of a nice short vacation, RO and I had three days of stress.

We are going to take Sunday off.

Of course, the down side to owning a store is that there are quiet days. Very quiet days. The kind of days where you sell less than what you need to pay your bills. Although, we knew it would be quiet this week. Many people take vacation this week and we're not a vacation destination-- yet.

We did have three different couples from California drop by our store for a little gift shopping.

One of the fun parts of owning a store is that some of our customers are very interesting and I get to chat with them.

On Sunday a lady who is a medic for the U.S. Coast guard dropped in. She told us some of here tales of riding ice breakers up to the Arctic and down to the Antarctic. RO said he was jealous of her. The lady told him to not be. Yes, sometimes she experienced wonders that very few people will ever see. But, most of the time you are very bored. You can't get away from the ship or shipmates for weeks. And if there is an emergency, real help can be thousands of miles away.

I'm on vacation next week. Not a fully real vacation since I'll spend lots of time doing the books at the store. But, I'll get a few days off from my day job. Plus, RO and I can sneek away next Wed and Thurday-- two of our store's quieter days. We really need that. RO and I have only had a handful of days off since the store opened.

My mind is already leaving my job. I'm having problems focusing on anything but sunshine.

One of my co-workers is working on his doctorate of theology. I asked him about the Landmark Forum and Sandy. This is how he responded...

Wow -- I looked at their "syllabus." That may be the oddest combination of self-help and poststructuralism that I've ever seen. (Actually, the only such combination that I've seen; but it's still pretty odd.)

At seminary they teach us to be wary of giving advice -- we're supposed to operate on the assumption that most people already know the answers to their problems, they just might need some help drawing it out. In that spirit, I think your statements that you can't make your friend "normal" again (and I would agree with that; you can't "fix" people, they have to fix themselves) and that you don't want to just cut him loose, imply your answer: the third option is to put up with it.

At the risk of slipping into advice-giving, my experience suggests that there's a decent chance he'll get over it -- it sounds like right now he has the fervor of a new convert; that usually fades over time. And who knows, he might actually retain something valuable from it -- most of these programs have some good insights buried in all of the hype. If you ride it out, I think there's a good chance you'll get your friend back again. And if not... it was his choice, not yours.

Matt and Sandy have plit up. Matt spent last night at my place.

A couple of weeks ago, Sandy attended the Landmark Forum, a cultish organization that's is a descendant of EST. The forum radicly changed his personality. Before he was laid back and sweet. Now he's obnoxious. He says whatever he wants, even if it's rude, and then dismisses it all with "But I don't mean that as a judgement" Then, if you don't respond with respect, he accuses you of judging him and cuts the conversation off. Of course, we just don't get it, but we could if we attended that Landmark Forum.

Bleah. I wonder where this will go.

Last night RO and I watched "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory." What a strange movie. Mostly art for art's sake. RO called it "Pink Floyd for Children." Afterwards we came up with a morel-of-the-story; don't break the rules, if you do, make sure you can cover your ass. Otherwise you won't win the lotery.

RO and I took Saturday off-- the first day we've had off in months. We went with Steven, Vic and some of their friends to the Freemont Solstice day parade. We had a blast. Freemont is an differnt place-- locals call Freemont the center of the universe. It's 60's hippy meets modern grunge, meets Seattle money.

Pics at rooktook

I'm starting to get tired. Having two full time jobs is wearing me down.

The stress at my day job is increasing. This fall we hope to finish a three year project. My manager has let out subtle hints like "If you ever wanted to work over time, now is the time to do it."

Then there is the store. The cash the store goes through is unsettling. Advertising works, but is expensive. All of our income goes to paying bills. We'd be in big trouble if anything went wrong. Our fixed monthly costs have grown way beyond what I can support.

Don't get me wrong, the store isn't going under-- so far sales in June have been excellent. But as RO said after he sold a expensive chandelier, "Yea! We can pay our bills!" Its frustrating to sell so many luxury goods, yet have no cash left to show for it.

To calm my nerves I think about "Black Friday" the day after Thanksgiving when most stores (supposedly) become profitibale.

I am still stiff and sore.

The truck trailer was 60 feet long and full of furniture. We hired six guys to help us and got it all unpacked in about two hours. Then, we spent the rest of the day unpacking and stacking everything.

We got the warehouse keys this morning. On our way to pick up the keys, the truck driver called ans said "I'm in Seattle. Can I drop off early?"

This was cutting it too close.

It's been a very stressful week. Last week, we thought we had a warehouse-- the landlord was going to finalize the lease all we had to do was sign and pay up. In anticipation of the warehouse, RO started the shipment on a transport truck full of furniture that had been waiting for the go ahead for about a month. The truck is going to arrive this Saturday.

Then the landlord just stopped talking to us.

So, Tuesday and Wednesday Mark and I busted our butts trying to find another warehouse before Saturday.

Fortunately, last night, the leasing agent called us and said he heard from the land lord-- death in the family. We are signing the lease today.

Weird nature moment... This morning while I was standing and peeing off the edge of the back deck a humming bird flew up to, well, my penis, and watched me pee. It felt weird to be stared down by a humming bird. Any other body part and that would have been a beautiful nature moment. After a few second the bird flew off.

Well, she quit. Or we helped her quit. Or something like that. On Saturday I met with her. She brought along a list of things that would allow her to continue working at the store. We talked for a while more and agreed to meet again on Sunday.

I took the list back to RO. The list was not outlandish, but not pratical either. We are a small company with a small budget. We can't bend over backwards to accomodate a part time employee. At the end of the day RO is the store. He is the best designer. He is the boss. He can be a hard-ass, but that's because he's the one responsible for the sucess of the store.

RO and I decide we could not give her that much flexibility. We also heard that she told some other employees that she was going to quit.

On Sunday I met with her again. I told her our decision and that I heard she was considering quiting. I said I supported that decision.

She asked for a letter of reference. I will give her one.

The other day I helped a guy who ran out of gas. A run down Bronko was stalled on the off ramp by my place.

I pulled over and asked the guy if he needed help. The driver was a big black guy. Yes, "Am I going to get mugged" thoughts ran through my brain. He told me he ran out of gas. I offered to drive him to the closest gas station.

The trip was uneventful. His name was Zak. He's a student from western washington. He thanked me a lot and then we parted ways.

We are having our first HR issues at the store. One of the employees is very senstative and takes everything personally. RO on the other hand, needs to get things done and he can't always handle the employees with kid gloves.

This is frustrating for RO and I. We both like her. But, we can't always and constatnly praise and reaffirm her. Sometimes we need the employees to do their job, and to not break out in tears if we try to correct a mistakes. (A $500.00 check wasn't signed. Candles which leave oil and fragrance were set on and stained an expensive wool rug. Medium sized vase left in the middle of walk way, where RO tripped on it.) I think we are dealing with her professionally, but I don't know how soft we need to go.

It's getting to the point where RO is uncomfortable around her, beause he's afraid that he's going to say something that will set her off.

May is turning into a tight month for the store. We half expected that-- tax returns are just starting to get back to people.

There has also been some construction outside the store. They blocked the street off on Saturday. Fortunatly the construction company was nice enough to put up a large reader lighted sign saying we were open.

It was a mixed weekend at the store.

The Good... On Saturday our employees showed us that they know the store better than we do... I was trying to find the price for some untagged merchandise. I asked SB if she know the price. She said "No, but we could look it up in the computer." When I went over to one of the computers SB said "Race Ya!" Within two seconds she found the price. I was still looking for the "Find Product" button.

The Good II. During the week, LP set aside some jewlery for a customer. LP had Saturday off. On Saturday, RO and Boone we trying to find the merchandise and couldn't. The followed LP's directions, but couldn't find the bag. RO and Boone started arguing with each other over who had misplaced the jewlery. SB got tired of their bickering so she took LP's directions and found the jewlery no problem. She opened up the cabinet and pulled a bag. She turned to RO and said "Is this it?" RO said no, but it was similar to that. SB turned back to the cabinet and pulled out another bag. "Is this it?" This time it was.

The Bad. On Sunday the closed the street in front of the store for repaving. It killed the day. You could only get to the store by parking far away and then walking. So, we closed early.

b-anne came over for dinner last night. A couple weeks ago she visited India for a vacation. She brought photos of the trip.

The thing that struck me the most is how colourful India is-- People dress in bright saturated colours every day.

Recently Bush has called himself "the Decider" I find it kind of funny that "A Decider" is "a machine that always halts"

Tommy Boy came is in Seattle for work. Friday night and Saturday night RO and I had dinner with him. We had a great time. We spent way too much on food, but we still had a great time.

I'm going to write more about dinners and the small fortune we paid for them. That will be posted on Eats

It was interesting and awkward explaining Tommy to RO. I've known Tommy for years and have met him in person once. So, when I told RO about Tommy, his guard went up. RO wasn't sure he could trust me, or what my intentions were. Was I lying? Was I being honest? Fortunatly things worked out well. Tommy and RO hit it off. Now we are planning to spend next Mardi Gras in Louisiana with Tommy and M.

Last night we went to the Muckelshoot Casino. S goes there every year to comemorate her dad's death. Her dad used to gamble a lot at the Muckelshoot.

We had a good dinner. Afterwards RO played some blackjack and S played the slots. I guess S's dad was with us in spirit because they both won about $30.00

Last night we went to the Muckelshoot Casino. S goes there every year to comemorate her dad's death. Her dad used to gamble a lot at the Muckelshoot.

We had a good dinner. Afterwards RO played some blackjack and S played the slots. I guess S's dad was with us in spirit because they both won about $30.00

Last night we went to the Muckelshoot Casino. S goes there every year to comemorate her dad's death. Her dad used to gamble a lot at the Muckelshoot.

We had a good dinner. Afterwards RO played some blackjack and S played the slots. I guess S's dad was with us in spirit because they both won about $30.00

Last night we went to the Muckelshoot Casino. S goes there every year to comemorate her dad's death. Her dad used to gamble a lot at the Muckelshoot.

We had a good dinner. Afterwards RO played some blackjack and S played the slots. I guess S's dad was with us in spirit because they both won about $30.00

It's not that I want to remain anonymous. I know I don't have that. Google Analytics tells me where my visitors come from, down to about the zip code. From what I see, many of my friends drop in from time to time.

My problem is that search engines work. If say "Luscious Breasts", for the next week or so my hit count will double thanks to all the people looking for said body part.

One third of the people who find the store's website get their by searching for it. If I mention the store directly on this blog, then a good portion of those people will stumble upon this blog. And I'm not sure I want my customers reading my blog.

> It would be good to know about ths shop in case I'd ever stop off in Canada on my
> way to .... the North Pole.

Lol. The store is South of Seattle. There is a link to off to the right, under the Links section. I don't like calling it out to much from this blog since people googling for the store would end up here.

I talked to Ryan today. He's burnt out of his job making video games. He's quit and is going to do some soul searching. He's thought about becomming a bartender, a mechanic, contractor and many other things.

We took out an ad in a big local newspaper. We mulled over it for a long time. The annual contract with the newspaper is big bucks-- as big as a new car. Black and white ads once a month are like Kia's. Color ads every week are BMW's.

Well, the ad works. It came out today and today is very busy. We know it's working because several of the customers have mentioned it.

We still need more people. We have one new guy helping in the back room. For the most part he's working out well. With one catch-- he sometimes smells. RO is going to have a chat with him.

I've been catching up on the books. We have an automated payroll system that automatically writes cheques out to the employees. It adds a copy of my signature to each cheque. It's weird seeing my signature on dozens of cheques that I never wrote. If I died or went away, I would live on in computers.

Today is the first day in the past two weeks that I don't feel bloated. Yeah!

Spring has hit Seattle. The birds are birds everywhere. Every morning RO and I have breakfast outside. In the past few days the number of birds is noticably greater.

All week RO and I have been a bit under the weather. We feel bloated and gassy. Bleah.

RO and I spent a long weekend at the Chrysalis Inn & Spa. It was our first time off since New Years day.

It was very relaxing. We ate a lot, hiked the around the hills, ate some more, got massaged, drank and slept. An almost perfect weekend.

Almost perfect because Monday evening, we ate some bad raw oysters. Today RO and I are a bit under the weather. I just need to drink lots of water to flush it out of the system.

Matt's grandmother is getting better.

Other than that, it was a busy weekend. I did manage to do a lot of organizing in the office.

Sunday night RO and I had dinner with Mac and Joe. It's the first time we've seen them since last fall. We had dinenr at CI Shenanigans in Tacoma. It's a great restaurant. It's on the water front and it's built with stadium seating so every table has a good view.

Mac and Joe are doing fine. They've both just switched jobs. Since they moved, their commute was about 90 minutes one way. At their new jobs the commute is down to 15 or 20 minutes.

Matt's grandmother is very sick-- pneumonia. The last time I saw here, last summer, she was a fit, sprightly, intelligent, active, 90yo woman.