Perils of Caffeine in the Evening

Not much time for
serious blogging this morning - trying to catch up from not working a
lick last weekend. I promise I’ll be all over it tonight. Here are some
shots from the Perrysburg (OH) Memorial Day Parade.
My grandfather used to drive in the red Monza-car group of Shriners.
When I was in high school, I marched with the band out to the cemetery
for the memorial observance that served as the boundary between school
and summer vacation, so I used to like this parade.

I’m thinking the guy on the right is saluting the wrong flagpole.

Well, I’m sitting at SeaTac airport, and the laptop seems to be
behaving.  I’ve had it on for about 45 minutes.  Must be the
air conditioning in here - it was in the mid-80s in the house yesterday
when I was having difficulties.  I panic-ordered a replacement
cooling fan on eBay, and it turns out the bastards will only ship to my
home address (I had requested delivery at my client’s in
Milwaukee).  Oh, yeah.  I’m flying to Detroit today and will
drive to my Mom’s for the rest of the weekend.  Monday night, I’ll
fly to Milwaukee to work through Friday.  It’s gorgeous in Seattle
right now, and it’s going to be one of those
pound-my-head-against-the-window departures as I question my sanity for
ever leaving.

On the plus side, my Atlanta brother and his wife are flying up, and
we’ll attend (weather permitting) what we’re hoping will be an
old-fashioned small town Memorial Day parade Monday.  If this
thing holds together, I’ll post from Ohio.

OK, here’s how much I love you
guys. This afternoon (of course, the Friday afternoon before a
3-day weekend, 15 hours before I leave for a weekend in Toledo and a
week’s toil in Milwaukee) my laptop starts siezing up. I believe
the cooling fan is busted, cuz it works ok for about 5 minutes, then
goes all Grandpa Simpson on me. My solution? You see
it in the adjacent picture: the little bugger is sitting atop an
impromptu sofa of icepacks from the freezer, usually used to nurse our
athletic owies. Seems to be working. I excel at high-tech solutions. Tell your friends. Remember that Paul Theroux book called The Mosquito Coast? Where a guy (played by Harrison Ford in a movie version)’s raison d’etre was to construct a mammoth ice machine in the jungle? I need me one of them.

OK, here’s how much I love you
guys. This afternoon (of course, the Friday afternoon before a
3-day weekend, 15 hours before I leave for a weekend in Toledo and a
week’s toil in Milwaukee) my laptop starts siezing up. I believe
the cooling fan is busted, cuz it works ok for about 5 minutes, then
goes all Grandpa Simpson on me. My solution? You see
it in the adjacent picture: the little bugger is sitting atop an
impromptu sofa of icepacks from the freezer, usually used to nurse our
athletic owies. Seems to be working. I excel at high-tech solutions. Tell your friends. Remember that Paul Theroux book called The Mosquito Coast? Where a guy (played by Harrison Ford in a movie version)’s raison d’etre was to construct a mammoth ice machine in the jungle? I need me one of them.

Kathy’s started another Random 10 for Friday.  Put your mp3 on shuffle and list the first 10 songs with place names.  Here’s my dumpster-dive:

• Train From Kansas City - Neko Case - The Tigers Have Spoken
  
• The Girl From Ipanema - Getz/Gilberto
  
• Sing Sing Sing - Benny Goodman  (unless he doesn’t mean the prison)
  
• Corpus Christi Carol - Jeff Buckley - Grace
  
• Birmingham - Amanda Marshall
  
• Pay Back Africa - Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra - Who Is This America?
  
• Neptune Pools - Sunset Valley - The New Speed
  
• In France They Kiss On Main Street - Joni Mitchell - Hissing Of Summer Lawns
  
• Raoul And The Kings Of Spain - Tears For Fears
  
• Madagascar - Garaj Mahal - Live In Northern California
  
• Paris Finale - Santana - Viva Santana - The Wild, the Innocent & The E Street Shuffle
  
• The E Street Shuffle - Bruce Springsteen -
  
• Who Discovered America? - Ozomatli - Street Signs
  
• N.Y. - The Doves - The Last Broadcast
  
• St. Louis Blues - OSU Marching Band
  
• The Hong Kong Triad - Thievery Corporation - the Mirror Conspiracy

We’re about to dive into the 2-hour season finale of Lost, almost entirely because Mrs. Perils has a crush on Sayid. I’m only watching to maintain cultural contact with my spouse. It has nothing to do with Kate.  See you in a cuppla hours.

(update) OK, that’s over. There was a point where a group of the crash survivors (none of the hot women, thank god) were out to sea in a sailing raft they’d fashioned, and they consulted a primitive radar device Sayid had salvaged from the wreckage of the plane.  A blip appeared, and remained on the screen.  After an interminable period of gape-jawed portent, someone said, “There’s something out there.”  The show is set in the tropics, but nonetheless moves at a fairly glacial pace. Mrs. Perils, having become impatient with the pacing, and the fact that Sayid was with the land party and not on the raft, exclaimed, “No SHIT.  It’s fucking Moby Dick, and he ain’t using his runnin’ lights!”

See you in September.

We walked to the grocery store last weekend, and encountered some photo ops. As we passed a bus stop on Meridian, I saw the forlorn shoe below in the parking strip. I tried to imagine the Quasimodo gait with which its owner ran for the bus wearing only its mate.

In this other pic, I’m accommodating a pair of my sycophants (psychopants?)

As we exited the store, we encountered this display for Mad Housewife wine. We thought it would appeal a lot more to its target market if each bottle came with a Ginsu knife.

Here’s
a picture from my seat at the Yankees-Mariners game last Tuesday. 
Derek Jeter’s at the plate.  Carl Pavano pitched a masterful
complete game for the Yankees and won 6-0.  One highlight was a
line-drive home run by Alex Rodriguez into the left field stands, just
a laser shot that probably didn’t go above 20-25 feet in the air.

The picture is actually two photos stitched together (with software).

Rexroth’s Daughter asked me last week to report on how dinner was at Etta’s Seafood Grill. 
Etta’s is one of 4 restaurants run by chef Tom Douglas, and is located
at the end of the Pike Place Market.  I had Dungeness crab cakes,
one of the signature dishes there, and my friends each had a tasty
looking halibut dish.  I have to say I prefer the crab cakes at
Chinook’s (an Anthony’s restaurant).  I think it’s a matter of
philosophy.  The Chinook’s offering is almost 100% crab
meat.  Etta’s is not stingy with crab, it just has a certain
amount of savory additive that gives it a distinctive flavor and
texture.  I like it fine, not complaining. I just like me the
unadorned crabmeat. The merlot from l’Ecole No 41 vineyard was good enough that we chose not to spoil its aftertaste with any beer at Safeco.

Does anyone ever wonder why prices for everything seem to be going through the roof, but the government continues to insist that inflation is “tepid” or “benign”?  Here’s last week’s news from the WSJ:

 The Labor Department’s consumer price index rose 0.5% in April, largely due to a spike in energy prices, which made their biggest increase in two years, after increasing 0.6% in March. But the core index, which excludes food and energy items, was flat, after climbing 0.4% in March. Wall Street called for a 0.4% increase in the overall CPI, and a 0.2% gain in the core.  The report eased concerns that prices were accelerating too rapidly, suggesting the Federal Reserve won’t need to raise interest rates more aggressively to contain inflation.

So, they throw out everything whose price skyrocketed - gasoline, food, housing, health care, air travel, tequila - and rest their beleagured eyes on this “core” market basket of shit nobody would be caught dead buying, and the economic sector they represent:

• 
  
  Postum (food & staples)


• 
  
  Perry Como retrospective on DVD (entertainment)


• 
  
  AMC Pacer GlasPak conversion kit (automotive)


• 
  
  Wooden replacement handles for Ronco fondue forks (consumer goods)


• 
  
  Multiuser CP/M operating system license for the DEC Rainbow (technology)


• 
  
  A Call To Service: My Vision For A Better America by John Kerry (hardback) (media)

I think the hardest part about being a government economist would be not running down the halls shreiking with laughter.

We
walked up to Phinney Ridge to visit a new bookstore, and stopped to
photograph some odd stuff that we encountered.  Above is another
in what’s becoming a collection of pictures I have of outrageously
tricked out VWs.  The sign below is evocative of the X-Files
episode of the same name, although I believe it’s synctactically
incorrect (should be “La Chupacabra”?)  I was strangely drawn to
the Space Needle lamp, but it wasn’t for sale.