It's been raining often here. August is usually bone dry. The rain isn't supposed to return to Seattle until late September or early October.

Oh well...

RO and I are building Trellis's and Arbours in the front yard. Yesterday's work was cut short by the rain. So we used the time to plan things out.

As I grow older, I find that I have less patience for "Just get in there and do the work. Deal with the problems as them come up." style. It can be so wasteful.

Trouble at the store...



That's cement pouring out of the toilet at the store.

One of our sales people was in the back doing some paperwork. She heard gurgling in the bathroom. When she opened the door she saw cement pouring out of the toilet.

There is construction going on behind the store. The crew found an old sewage pipe that they thought was no longer in use so they decided to fill it up with cement.

You can figure out the rest.

Thankfully our sales lady heard the cement pouring early enough that there is not much damage to the inside of the store. Also, thankfully the construction crew decided to pour a lot of cement down the sewage line. It would have been very bad if they poured enough to block up the line, but not enough to fill the toilets.

The construction foreman is being very nice to us. They have offered to replace our sewer lines.

Our neighbours, Clem and Ross, are having a big party this weekend. People from all around the world will be there. RO and I are hosting some of the friends.

I'm looking forward to it.

We had dinner with Clem and Ross on Wednesday evening. It was good to see them. They are considering selling the house and buying a condo. As much as they enjoy their house, they both work long hours and the house is a lot of maintenance.

To those of you who got here by googeling "Carpenter Ants" "Hear Them" and "Borax," this is for you...

For everyone else, a while back my house, the roof above my bed, was infested by carpenter ants. At night we could hear them scurrying around, eating the insulation.

We tried many things, starting off gentle; vacuuming them out, flea bombs, borax and sugar. That didn't work.

We solved the problem with gallons of strong ant killer. "Bayer Powerforce" if you want to know the brand. We've been spraying about a gallon a week of the stuff around the house; into every crack and crevice and all around the base.

Finally, after the fourth spraying they stopped. I'm sure the soil and wood around our house is now very toxic. But we don't have any small kids or pets that play in that area.

I'm very happy this worked. The professionals were quoting us thousands of dollars to fix the problem. I can't afford that right now.

My sofa bed is gone. Long live the sofa bed.

I've had this particular sofa bed since 1994-- two homes and one country ago. There were many memories in it, but ultimatly, it became a piece of old furniture that we didn't want to use and that was taking up too much space. RO has never liked the sofa bed and has wanted me to get rid of it for years.

I put an ad on Craigslist; free sofa bed if you move it yourself. In the first two hours there was only one response; a nice Mexican family. They came, they looked at it and immediatly said "Yes."

Even though the sofa bed is heavy, it wasn't difficult to get it out of the house. The hard part was tieing it to the top of their SUV. Their winches kept getting jammed. In the end we cut the straps off the winches and tied the straps with knots.

The weather has been wonderful here in Seattle. Last night RO and I went to the beach to swim and watch the sun set-- nice and relaxing.

My day job is very full. A project that I picked up in the spring has become very important. However, finishing it as well as many people want means that I will have to take resources away from my other projects. That sends alarm bells off in my head, because the surest way to get nothing done is to keep hopping between projects and never finish anything off.

So, is my new project just trendy, or is it of vital long term importance? That's a hard call.

Today is my last day alone. I feel like it's my last day of vacation. I'm cleaning up the house a little bit, but mostly I'm loafing; watching TV, eating crap food playing with the computer. I'm enjoying this time off with no expectations and no strings.

This week I've slept soundly every night. I haven't done that in months.

I did fix the drain in the fridge.

RO arrives back at 9:30 tomorrow morning. Back to reality then.

RO is away shopping for the store. My parents have left. For the first time in a long time, I'm spending my evengings alone. I'm enjoying it very much.

Last night I watched lots of TV and only my favourite shows. No negotiating over what shows to watch.

I found that I'm a little nervous in the dark. Any unexpected creak or groan makes me jump out of bed to investigate.

Aside from that, I am sleeping well. RO frequently wakes up in the middle of the night. If he gets out of bed, or fidgets, or turns over, it often wakes me up. With RO gone, I am sleeping through the night.

I do miss RO. I'm glad he'll be back soon.

My parents are back in town. Last week they left for a tour around the Olympic Peninsula. They spent five days seeing the sights.

My parents traveled with my uncle and aunt who brought along their dog-- a little shih tzu. They dog is very well behaved, but it prohibited them from traveling deep into the park.

Dogs are not allowed in Olympic National Park, not because of what dogs do to the park, but because of what the park can do to the dogs. My uncle and aunt tried to sneak the dog into the park in a little puppie bag, however the wild life did not take kindly to the dog. The elk were very aggresive around the dog. They act as if they are around lone coyoties or wolves.

Aside from that, the spent a few days in at Port Townsend and Port Angeles and a day along the Ocean proper.

My parents stumbled uppon what they described as a "welfare" RV park. Usually when you go to an RV park, the park is clean and full of nice RV's and trailers. People with RV's and trailers are generally not poor (because the can afford the RV in the first place) so they have high expectations of their parks.

This park was different. The manager at the gate told them so. "You probably don't want to stay here. There is another park two miles down the road." My parents had to drive through the park to turn around. The trailers were covered with moss and mold and looked poorly maintained as if they had been there for years.

This is not the first time they've run into these types of parks. I'd like to learn more about them. I don't understand the thinking. If you are poor, why would you choose to live in the middle of nowhere? There are services, no place to get cheap food, no way to get a day job. Maybe they live off the land. If that is the case, then why would they live in an RV park?

I see that Red Bricks is enjoying his new career. I hope he keeps writing about it. I can learn from him.

Yesterday he wrote how, in management, the big dogs hang out with the big dogs. They don't go to the puppy pen. I've vaguely known that for a while. But I haven't heard it expressed so clearly before.

My boss likes to say it a different, less eloquent way-- dealing with the leaf nodes (puppies) doesn't scale. There are too many of them. And what then are their bosses paid for?

Anyways, I hope to read more of Red Brick's take on his new job.

My day job took us white water rafting. I think RO is a little jealous.

While the trip was very fun, the day was long and I now feel that I've done enough white water rafting to last me a few years.

One of my co-workers injured him self. He probably broke his foot though I don't know the details. I saw it happen. It was one of those fluke accidents where you twist something wrong and pop!

My parents are still here. My uncle and aunt just left. Over the weekend a cousin and his wife were over. It's been a very family week.

I love them all very much, but I am looking forward to getting back to my routine.

We've been keeping busy seeing the sights and attractions of Seattle; the water front, the Smith Tower, the Underground Tour, Snoqualmie Falls, The Hyak Tunnel, Tweedys.. The list goes on.

This past weekend was Kent Cornucopia Days-- the local street fair. It was a *very* busy weekend for our store because it is located right in the middle activities.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday RO put, me and my parents to work around the store. The days were long. Hell, RO and I slept over at the store Friday and Saturday night. Why did we do that? Security. The store is on the path between the rides and the street fair. Many rowdy teenagers show up during the evening so RO and I like to stay around to make sure nothing goes wrong.

Though it's not always under our control. Saturday night a teenager was shot about three blocks from the store.

Aside from that, it was a very successfull weekend for the store. Sales were significatly up over last year.

I have my bear skin rug. My parents brought it along for their trip accross the country to my place. It is beautiful. It sits on the floor in front of the fireplace.

The fur is excellent quality. This bear was very healthy when it died.

My parents and an uncle and aunt of mine will be in town soon. So, RO and I are cleaning up the place. We hired a gardener to clean up the front yard and a carpet cleaner to deep clean the carpets.

It's soo much work to make your family think you always live in a clean and beautiful home.

It was a busy weekend for RO and I.

Friday and Saturday, we dug a hole for a new pond.

Saturday evening we went to Bear & Behr's place for a BBQ. It was a big event.

Sunday evening we went to Steven's for dinner. He invited about a dozen people over. Steven is still on the rebound from his last relationship. Also, it looks like RO and he have patched things up. This is good as we'll be able to spend more time together.

Last night RO and I saw Cyndi Lauper, the B-52's, Rosie O'Donnel and a few other... uh... up and comming artists whose names escape me. Let me look... Joan Armatrading and some guy who used to be on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

I was surpised how good the B-52's were. Especially since I've never been a fan. Yeah they had a couple of fun songs back in the 80's, but, now, twenty years later, they sound and perform great.

Cyndi Lauper was also excellent. She is a great musician, but not the best speaker. Her stories between songs tended to ramble on. Her performance was almost perfect. Although at one point she screwed up the lyrics to "Time after Time." The band had a good laugh at that and Cyndi apologized to the audience, especially to anyone who was proposing marrage at the time.

RO and Steven had lunch. Steven is going through a tough time right now. He and his boy friend have split. He is very shaken.

This past year has been tumultous for him His Father died. A great friend died. He ended his five year relationship with Vic. He was laid off from work. Found a nother job at the same company, then quit and decided to work for himself.

I'm going to rave about the Roomba a little more.

I'm supprised how much dirt the Roomba picks up considering how small it is.

The Roomba has forced RO and I to pick up a bit more. The Roomba really can't vacuum a floor that is covered with dirty laundry-- no one can. So, to help the Roomba along, RO and I had to pick the bedroom, the living room, the bathroom... you get the picture.

It returns to it's charging station after it's finished with a room. That's very nice.

It's short enough to vacuum under beds.

I bought a Roomba; a vacuuming robot. So far it's very nice. Just set it down and hit clean. Thirty minutes later that room has been vacuumed.

This house isn't the most Roomba friendly. There are three or four paces where the Roomba can be trapped. But, you can program the Roomba to stay away from those.

That and any other complaints are offset by the fact it does the vacuuming for me.

C2 said I'm getting very domestic. He's right.