The motorcycle.

Years ago Steven left his motorcycle in my garage. This spring, I've decided to revive the cycle, and start riding.

The years of neglect have taken there toll. The battery was bulging with corrosion and it took me over an hour to figure out how to remove it. This will be a fun challenge.

Hiking with bib

Bib and I hiked to coal creek falls today. I've been hiking there once a week by myself or with the dog. But bib wants to get into shape, so I invited him along.

He is clearly out of shape; he had to rest several times on the way up.  I think I was like that once. Now I can almost jog up cougar mountain to get to the falls. I recall that my first time needed plenty of rest breaks

I enjoyed my time with bib. I'll invite him again next week..

"I refuse to buy more than seven bottles of cheap wine in a week." I said that. It makes me sound like a heavy drinker. In my defense, six people help drink that wine. But still...

The Simple Pleasures of a Bonfire....

The twenty year old me would be horrified with the forty year old me.

Horrified? Maybe I mean profoundly bored. When I was twenty I dreamt of travel and never settling down. I didn't have great career aspirations. Yet hear I am at forty. I own a house in the suburbs. On weekends I take care of the yard. I like it that way.

Until last year, the yard was unruly and taken over by black berries-- viscous ugly vines. Over the winter I've got rid of the vines. Now it's wonderful space again. Kind of like park or camp ground.

This past weekend we made a fire pit and have been burning the fallen branches and other debris. I'm amazed at how much there is to burn and how pleasant it is to sit by the fire and with a beer and watch the debris go up in smoke.

Andie & Erik were married on Saturday. It was a fast wedding-- they met about six months ago. Two weeks ago we received the wedding invitation via email. Now they are married. I have to admire the minimalist efficiency they applied to their wedding.

The reception was wonderful. They rented a penthouse suite at a good hotel and held the reception in the suite's common area.

Is facebook taking over my blog? Maybe. There are still many things I'd discuss on this blog that I wouldn't discuss with my friends.

Spring is hitting Seattle. It's still raining a lot, but the grass is growing and the daffodils are blooming.

RO is having a bad time with insomnia. He has no problem falling asleep, but he wakes up at around 2am and stays awake till 5. Herbs, melatonin and sleeping pills don't seem to make a difference.

Mom is out of the hospital and doing well. Her heart still acts up from time to time, but mostly she's OK. She's seeing a good specialist this week.

RO and I have started regularly having drinks with the neighbors, Clem & Bates. It's a low key affair. Much easier than dinner. With dinner RO wants to clean, polish and put on a fancy dinner. But drinks-- just come over and we'll pour.

Last night, RO and I had dinner with Bib. It was good to see him. He brought over a Kahlua pie for dessert. We hate the whole thing and got so stuffed that our stomaches ached.

Mom has been to the hospital. Last Wednesday she found that her pulse would race to 150 beats per minute if she did any thing but lay down. She stayed in the local hospital for a few days. She is out and ok now. In a few days she is going to a heart specialist. They are considering a pacemaker for her. 

We were burgled.

I want to say we were robbed, but the police officer corrected me twice. Robbing happens inperson. Burgling happens when you are away from home.

Tuesday evening I came home from work. RO was relaxing. I started cooking. After maybe an hour, I went to our bedroom. Drawers were emptied out all over the bed and floor.

It really confused me. I went back to RO and asked him if he was looking for something in the bedroom.

He said "No."

I said. "This is important. Please come to the bedroom."

At that point it started to dawn on me that someone broke into our house. When RO saw the bedroom he realized the same thing. We called 911 and took a look around the house. Yo's room was also turned over. But the living room and office were untouched.

As near as we can tell, the theif took an Xbox 360, a watch and some cash. The weird part is that the thief left many valuables behind-- alcohol, art, jewelry, clothes, tools, a camera, laptops.

When the police officer came, he carefully took pictures and tried to get fingerprints. He mentioned that there were 3 other breakins in our neighborhood that day. They all had the same MO-- electronics and cash were taken, nothing else. The officer suspects it's a local school kid.

I'm not sure how I feel. It could have been much worse, it took an hour to clean up and I will miss the Xbox, but that's it. RO didn't take it well. He got very drunk and hasn't slept well since then.

I am going to get an alarm.

Yo. How he lives is interesting.

Sometimes he rents booths at trade shows and street fairs to sell dips, jerky and pet combs. He also sells them on eBay.

Sometimes he does head hunting for hospitals and clinics. Suppose a hospital needs a temporary RN for a few days or weeks. Yo will find one.

Sometimes he does teeth whitening. Spas will hire him to come in for a day to do on-site teeth whitening. Apparently it only takes a hundred bucks of equipment and no training to do UV teeth whitening. Any one can do it. But if you put the equipment on a nice cart, and dress up in a white lab coat, then spa customers will pay big bucks for it.

Two more things about the roomie.

He and his girl friend like to drink. Now, I've started drinking much more. For the past few nights, the four of us have polished off two bottles of wine a night.

He also sleeps around a lot. He has a friend who is a woman who also sleeps around. I hesitate to call her a girl friend. But they are friends, they also have sex together, but they aren't in a relationship. They both date other people on the side and then tell each other about it.

If Yo knows the girl is on a date he likes to text her nasty messages and send her pics of his dick.

The new roomie-- Yo.

What do I have to say about Yo? He's a friend of RO. He once owned a store near ours, which is how we met him. Yo's store closed. Now he works part time for our store.

After that, I really don't know much about Yo. He appears to be struggling... getting back on his feat after closing his store. That worries me. We've had a succession of roomates who have been struggling to get back on their feet. It always ends bad.

We have a new roommate. He has a very friendly dog, though the dog has spooked our cat. After the dog moved in, the cat stayed on our bed for two days before she finally resumed eating, drinking and using the litter box.

Bib was over for dinner last night. He's doing well, though he still runs himself down too much. He is staying home far too much because he's constantly worried about what people think.

It's been quiet here.

Back at home, my parents neighbor died. She baby sat me when I was growing up. When I was a teen, I baby sat her kids. I'll probably fly there for the funeral.

Merry Xmas everyone.

It's been a good holiday. RO got to see his son again-- first time in 13 years. He is very happy. I'm sure it's much for him to process as well.

We spent much of the day at RO's sister. Ate too much. Drank too much. Played party games. Argued about party game rules. But, we had much fun in the process.

LS & DR spent the day with us. They had no holiday plans.

The old people in my life are getting old. DR is 82. My neighbor M, is also in her mid eighties. Both of them are starting to forget things. Is unfortunate to see women who two years ago were so bright and active slowly slip into dementia.

I'm trying to figure out what my real job is at my day job. My offical title is 'lead' I have half a dozen people working for me.


Todate I've got by by being a good role-model and coaching them around that.


Now, some of my employees are *very* smart, and *very* hard working. I can't be a good role model for them. With a little more experience they will easily surpase my skills. Then where do I fit in?

Clem and Bates held there holiday party in a train car, a restored dome care from the '40s. Good food, good people. And, since Clem and Bates were hosting, there was too much alcohol.

Last night we had dinner with our neighbors, Clem & Bates. As usual, the food was wonderful and we drank too much.

Predinner martini's I always refuse to have more than one, yet Bates makes it happen.

"Oh no thank you. I don't want another martini."

"But I have have half a martini left in the shaker. Please take it!"

"Oh... all right."

Yeah, I'm weak that way.

Dinner is served with several bottles of wine. Then after dinner...

"No more wine for me thanks."

"OK! Let's switch to port."

Even if I am full, bloated, past of the point of nausea, if you put a jigger of port in front of me, I will drink it.

Earin is talking to us again. Earin was our roommate a few years ago. She got behind on her rent and then moved out before paying up.

Earin works near the store and stopped in. When she saw me she sat down next to me and said she wanted to make amends and pay me back-- in the new year.

I am writing this post from my cell phone. My day job bought me a fancy new phone and I am getting addicted to it. But, I am not using it productively. I am checking Facebook every 10 minutes and work email non stop.



Thanksgiving was nice. We had dinner with family.



Today is black Friday . Sales at the store are stong. I won't get my hopes up though.