Dogsitting

A friend of mine stepped out of town and so I get the opportunity to borrow a couple of dogs off and on for a couple of days. It's awesome! It's like at the Unicon Halloween holiday party, where I could run the extinguish-the-candle-via-squirt-gun activity for the zillions of kids (I suspect it's a sign of a good company that so many of the staff have families) and then, when they get bored with squirting inanimate objects and instead start squirting one another, I could give them back to their respective parental units.






What do books, dogs, DVDs, and Hummers have in common? They're all fun to borrow.

Service

Today's homily was about serice, how to be of service to others, the meaning in service, and the healthful perspective service can bring. Karma isn't the word for it, but there's nonetheless something to it.

I met up with Katie's family for pre-church coffee. Speaking of perspective, having your Sunday best clothes thoroughly licked by dogs puts it perspective. Demonstrating respect for the experience by dressing up seems like the right way to go about it. But it's not about the clothes.

Deposited my newspapers for recycling at church. I wonder what kind of return they get on the recycled newspaper. Not sure. But gives me a place to put it, and the collection policy there is broader -- includes random other paper, juunk mail, magazines -- than it is at the neighborhood collection point. I'm still just a wee bit irked that the apartment complex doesn't itself collect recyclables, especially since there's apparently a market for at least newspaper recycling. Add that high on the list of things to look for in my next apartment.

Dragging the laptop to a cafe to do some work.

Road Rage

I took a walk this evening. Walked the canal over to Dobson, stopped off at Sonic for a milkshake, and then moseyed along the block to Safeway where I wandered the aisles for a good long while not really finding anything I wanted. Finally settled on a chunk of mozzarella cheese.

On the walk home from there some kids decided it would be fun to chuck eggs at me from their car. Nailed me a good one.

I figure they're probably more troubled than I am.

Maybe I should move to a nicer neighborhood. I suspect this sort of thing doesn't happen in Tempe.

Sometimes

Sometimes, when I'm feeling down, I go to a grocery store parking lot and herd errant shopping carts into their corrals.

And sometimes, that helps.

Wallace and Grommit: Curse of the Were Rabit

I watched Wallace and Grommit this evening, courtesy of Netflix. Kind of cute.

Stewardship Sunday

There's a lot of stewardship in life. There's the saw about how we do not inherit from our parents, we borrow from our children. Most work is stewardship -- my time and resources at work are those of my employer, and I apply them as a steward of the company's resources and efforts.

Arizona State Fair and Foo Fighters

I caught the tail end of the Foo Fighters concert this evening at the Arizona State Fair. I think I missed their playing "Times Like These", which is too bad, of all their songs I think it's the one I'm most familiar with and best like. (True to form, however, I don't know the words.)

The cutest aspect by far of the fair was the children's farm exhibit wherein kids could peddle toy tractors to plow a field painted onto the floor, sow seeds and harvest plastic vegetables from a box of dirt, pick plastic oranges attached to wooden tries, and milk fake cows. And, for those tuckered out from all that farm work, there's even a farm porch complete with rocking chairs. So charming.

The fresh roasted corn was delicious.

There were free blood pressure screenings. I'm a little concerned that mine measured in at 140/90. Will have to mention that to the doctor next appointment.

Frank Kush 5K

I ran the Frank Kush 5K this morning, finishing 76th with a time of 25:48. My results are listed as "Andrea Petro" thanks to my excellent entry form penmanship.

It was a beautiful morning for a run.

A good evening

I left work on time this afternoon, got a haircut at my favorite barber shop, complete with the straight razor touchups on the edges. Somehow very satisfying.

I baked a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dinner, with a side of soup.

Caught up with a friend on the phone, that was fun. Shower with relaxing body wash.

All in all a pretty good evening, but somehow still can't sleep. Hoping the the Advil PM helps with that. Some dire warnings on the product packaging.

Climbing Walls

Working harder at climbing the wall doesn't help if you're climbing the wrong wall.

Sins of the Fathers

I read Lawrence Block's Sins of the Fathers this evening, the first Matthew Scudder novel. Dark, very dark.

Burnt black biscuits

I appreciate the efforts of the folks at Pillsbury kitchens, but their toasters must be less exuberant than mine. Baking the frozen biscuits as prescribed burned them black.

Pirates 2

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (Dead Man's Chest) at the AMC Ahwatukee last night. Ahwatukee is a local name with similar fun properties to "Wauwatosa", I suppose. Anyway, the movie was pretty fun. I hadn't seen it because I refused on principle to go to the movie alone and I couldn't seem to drum up any interest. Most of the fun of seeing the first Pirates was the crowd I saw it with. But I really like popcorn and the movie was pretty good. The little kids crawling around under the seats during the movie was kind of cute too. Not sure I'd want to take kids so young to this movie, but what do I know.

The joke goes after the first Pirates movie we came back to the house and were so giddy with piratical excitement we went to download that pirate song, "A Pirate's Life for Me". And entered "pirate music" into the music swapping engine of the week, and back came a result set of a million entries, because, hehe, it's all pirated.

Traffic getting there was awful. I mean, I suppose it was normal, but it wasn't the non-traffic I prefer. Sometimes I really miss the similicity of the not-owning-a-car, walk-to-work lifestyle. Google Maps said it would take 15 minutes to get there, it took me more like 50 and I didn't manage to get into the right parking lot, just one that was close enough I could walk there. Missed some of the beginning, and that's always annoying. Better to get it all from the start, and ideally to catch a few previews first. Chalk it up to an off night, I suppose, but the whole driving thing is a stress source. I keep telling myself I'm getting better at it.

I've optimized my living location for short commute to work. The Sunday WSJ article on happiness advises this, that commutes tend to be a significant source of lost time, stress, and chaos. I think I could stand to live a few miles further west, though, in more of a Tempe area. More coolness per square inch over there.

Desert Botanical Garden Afternoon

This afternoon I went to the Desert Botanical Garden for lunch and to peruse the gardens. I think of it as my virtual yard in this apartment in Arizona lifestyle. It was Native American Recognition Day -- though I didn't see anyone I knew. The monarch butterfly greenhouse was amazing.

Lunch on the patio, a chicken chutney with a strawberry-adorned salad, was pretty tasty, and lemonade staved off the thirst of another bright beautiful Arizona day.

Errands

Parents still in town today, being parents. Cereal on the porch reading the Sunday paper at breakfast. Joe's Real Barbeque for lunch. We went to CostCo to stock up on water, Fry's to stock up on foodstuffs, Ikea for a bookshelf for my stray books. It's been a great weekend, getting so much done. I have groceries!