The Illiterate

top ten update

After three stress-filled weeks off, I

sartorial inelegance, four-year-old division

This, I

lost (and found)

My father died last Monday, after a short and mercifully pain-free bout with–or, more accurately, surrender to–colon cancer. He was lucid to almost the very end, thank goodness, and had time to say good-bye to everyone. Right now I

top ten non-update

Moving and other issues have finally caught up to us bigtime, so there is no top ten update this week. Since the only new song is Weird Al making pocket protector jokes, this is no great loss.

So far, everything about the move has gone smoothly. Except, that is, that the first movers we hired to load the truck never showed up and didn’t answer their phone, so we had to hire somebody else at the last minute (if you’re ever moving to or around the Tri-Cities, stick with Help-U-Move–they’re the best). Just as well, since it gave us more time to get things ready (though it did cost a lot more).

But now the truck is full, and after doing a bunch of cleaning and other odds and ends we’ll be heading to Seattle this afternoon. Tomorrow a bunch of nice people from Nice Moves will come and nicely take everything out of our nice truck, and we’ll be moved. But we won’t have any internet until Friday, so unless we spend long hours in a Starbucks or some such place we’ll be offline until then–except for JSM, who goes back to Cali on Wednesday and will be able to connect in her hotel. Maybe by then we’ll have enough stuff unpacked that I can take a break and do the top ten again.

Isn’t that what he’s been doing?

“Bush Urges Un Action on North Korea”

– headline on buzzle.com.

why I will never read the bob dylan encyclopedia

From a New York Times piece on Twyla Tharpe

impromptu

We made a quick, seat-of-the-pants house-hunting/visiting trip over to Seattle this weekend. Drove by several places, looked at 2, then returned to look at one again. It is way way south in southest Seattle, nearly Rainier Beach but not quite, around MLK and Othello where a light rail station will be. This time, a major criteria was the bus/train commute for me – a new concept that I am excited about.

Living in Seattle before, I generally worked from home, drove occasionally to clients, and was out of town extensively. Not so, this time, but the bus looks easy enough (Principessa C has kindly offered to give me bus lessons – RJM has tried in the past, but they have not stuck). We aren’t quite ready to go completely car-free yet, but living once again in a city with decent public transportation will allow us to drive the Prius less. (It’s worth another post to get into what it’s like to be a single-car family on the east side – or to be environmentally conscious over here…)

I am generally drawn to older homes, the lovely bungalows of the ’20s – ’40s, gracious victorians, that sort of thing. This new place is just that – brand new. It won’t be finished until after next weekend. I am perhaps overwhelmed by the shiny of it – a kitchen no one else has cooked in, double-paned windows that actually open, efficiently designed and highly usable spaces. I think we’ll like it.

news porn

For all of those who can’t get enough of other people’s pain in their daily news diet, CNN, in a story about a baby abduction in Missouri, provides this helpful description of a video accompanying the story: “Watch a grandmother tearfully describe the family’s agony — 1:11″. To be followed, of course, by “Watch Nancy Grace browbeat the tearful grandmother to the point of heart attack –18:22″.

top ten update

Though I haven

big news

Lots of big news over here, some quite bad, some quite good. The best news though – we are moving back to Seattle! The projected timeframe is by mid-October, and definitely by the end of October. Sweet, damp Seattle area! Oh, your mossy green mossiness has been calling to me!

Jaq is going to work for Prometheus Energy and RJM is transferring to the Kent post office.