Nom de Plume

Yesterday, Steve and I were talking about how there are tons of dog grooming places–and how they’re always horrendously named.

Here are just a few:

Hair of the Dog
Dog Parlor
Yapper Dog Parlor
Laundered Beast
Poodle Palace

It’s not that the names are so bad–it’s that they’re always cutesy and eminently forgettable. Even when I had a dog and we took her to the dog grooming place, it was always referred to as, “Hey, let’s go to the dog place.”

So, any other bad names you can think of?

If anyone asks me, I will vehemently deny that all this rain is oppressive. Instead, I will insist that I rather like it.

Truth to tell, I’m not sure I don’t–but I’m antsy, antsy, antsy. Could be the weather, could also be because I still have my move hanging over my head. There’s something to be said for a clean break.

I go back to Boise this Saturday. Mike has a conference at the University of Washington starting Friday, so he’s going to drive back with me. Mikey and Zia hit the open road. Dana wants to have a goodbye party on Saturday, but I really don’t want to hang around that long. Maybe an early party on Wednesday? Dana? Any thoughts? Naturally, I need a party–if for no other reason than to be able to say, “Oh! But you shouldn’t have!”

Steve is about to kill himself because of the weather here.

I suspect it’s not going to get any better.

And, as though three days in a U-Haul weren’t enough, he decided that we needed to go on a road trip today. Snohomish was an interesting little town, chock full of antiques. I should backtrack here, and say that this trip was designed around our pretty much immediate need for a couch. A cheap, not-too-gross couch. (This is also why we went to Fremont yesterday.)

Naturally, we didn’t find one, although I did see a lamp I liked. Alas, with a $475 price tag, it was ever-so-slightly out of my price range.

We hit some furniture stores on the way back, where we were hustled by salespeople desperate for the end of the month sale. And then, we went to a consignment store around the corner, and found the perfect couch.

I mean, it was perfect. Deep orange, slim enough to fit through the door, and with an ultra-groovy coffeeshop feel.

And it was fifty bucks.

The only hitch in the plan was that a woman was paying for it.

But, as Scarlett said, Tomorrow is another day.

It would have been nice to have a digital camera, and that way I could have documented the road trip up here, and our subsequent ensconcing in the Green Lake/Greenwood area.

Failing that, let me just say that we are both absolutely nuts about this neighborhood. Restaurants, coffeeshops, an antique store that relies heavily on Romanian antiquariats (sp? Mom?) and a Starbucks with mismatched tables a la Flying M all make me feel right at home. The apartment itself was last remodeled in the 50s, and has the unfortunate color combinations to prove it, but is HUGE. Lots and lots of space. Steve and I wasted all day trying to find a place to buy a couch, and ended up walking around in Fremont. We bought nothing, but had a great time. Great Thai, too.

Steve wants to buy a houseboat.

(I think the reason he told me about his grandfather living in a purple bus was to make me feel grateful for his restraint.)

I should really log off and go home. I realized as soon as I sat down that I have Steve’s phone in my backpack.

Road trips are fun for the first 300 miles. We’re in Woodland, CA–and have something like 741 miles to go. The fog was so dense last night that we were going 35 miles an hour. It’s not that much better rigth now. Steve is bugging my to go–but, as you know, I get shaky if I don’t check my e-mail for more than 4 hours, so here we are in Starbucks.

It’s the afternoon before we take off. The U-Haul is almost completely packed, and I had to run up to a cafe to make a couple of last minute client changes on a project. Steve was left with the boxes, oh darn, but I suppose I should really get back now ….

I’m pretty bummed that Dean didn’t do all that well in the Iowa Caucus.

I’m sitting in the Starbucks in Santa Monica, having succumbed to purchasing a T-Mobile monthly wireless account. I should have known that it wouldn’t all be a free ride. Sigh. Also, sending mail from Outlook using my smtp mail server is somewhat problematic. In other words, it seems to work half the time, and not work the other half. Any technical gurus who may be reading this … have any solutions?

Got in yesterday afternoon along with two Very Large Suitcases. We have an enormous amount of packing to do before we’re ready to hit the road. Still not sure if we’re going to leave Wednesday or Thursday. But the month-to-month apartment in Green Lake is ours, so we’ll have a place to move into right away. That’s a load off the mind.

On the plane ride down here, I caught up on the New Yorkers and Atlantic Monthlies that have been piling up in the living room for weeks. Some really good articles/stories, and I saved a few of the stories, thinking S would enjoy me pretending to be a book on tape. His car stereo is fixed, so he didn’t greet this plan with the appropriate enthusiasm.

Last night on NPR, the City Club of SF had some IMF bigwig speak. It was obvious he leaned towards the Republican, but it made me want to understand economics better.

Other than that, it’s early in the morning, and I still have a ton to do because, naturally, I’ve left it to the last minute. Dana is driving me to the airport in a few hours. I’m really starting to freak out….

You know, I don’t really care WHO wins the next Presidential election–as long as it’s not Bush.
Other than that, I am leaning towards Dean.

Meanwhile, Bush is claiming that his tax cuts have, and will continue, to turn the economy around. Hmmm, let’s see. Anti-terrorism measures have replaced diplomacy, the national deficit is higher than Bush in his college days and the dollar’s value continues to plummet.