At U-HAUL

As I stood in line waiting to pick up our U-Haul truck, an employee and a manager were discussing a problem. The employee explained that a truck came in yesterday with 3/4 of a tank, and this morning it had 1/8 of a tank. Evidently people have been siphoning gas out of their trucks during the night. A woman in front of me was listening to their conversation and said this:

WOMAN: You'd better not give me a truck with bad gas mileage.

MANAGER: No Ma'am, we've been having a problem with people siphoning the gas. It came in with 3/4 tank and now it's down to 1/8.

WOMAN: Well I ain't paying for no gas hog.

She obviously doesn't drive a lot of U-Hauls. I was impressed with the manager's patience. For the record, Aileen and I got about 6 miles to the gallon with our truck.

Special Thanks

Ben and Lisa not only treated us to the rad Switchfoot concert, but all kinds of fun things in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Ben took me golfing for an afternoon whilst the women went shopping. So double thanks to Ben for taking me golfing AND avoiding the shopping. We got paired with a 9-year-old boy and his father. There are few things more humbling than being out-golfed by a 9-year-old. Seriously, that kid was amazing. I did manage to avoid hitting any cars on the nearby highway, though. So hurray for that.




Amongst other fun and entertaining things we got treated to was the Seattle Aquarium. Lots of fishes, and seals, and sharks, and other aquatic-type animals. I find sea creatures very soothing. It was a good time. Thanks Ben and Lisa for all your hospitality and generosity! We had a blast.

Mike and Aileen Concert Series Part 2

Now that we're without full-time jobs, we find ourselves to be the recipients of multiple acts of benevolence and generosity. While visiting friends in Washington last week, Ben and Lisa Mitchell treated us to a totally radical Switchfoot concert at the Puyallup Fair. It was pretty amazing, and much bigger than the Skillet concert blogged about previously. They sang a lot of their older songs, which I liked. They also jumped in the air a lot and did other various rock-and-roll-type maneuvers. So that was neat. At one point in the concert Jon Foreman (lead singer) walked into the middle of the crowd while singing. A crazy groupie girl attacked him, but he kept his composure nicely. I took a picture of him. The cool thing about this picture is that I unknowingly captured our friend Peter Bradley, who went to the same concert with some other friends, in the Grandstands in the background. I didn't realize it until we looked at the pictures 3 days later.

A Rare Perk of Moving

In preparation for our venture to Bolivia, Aileen and I find ourselves moving all our junk for the 4th time within the last year. Moving is a pain, and the more I do it the more embittered I become towards the whole experience. Frankly, I have a bad attitude. But this move had a rare moment of glorious rapture. We own a pair of dumpy love seats that were given to me during college. They weren't always dumpy, but after 4 years in a house with 8 college guys it had taken its licks. One of these sofas was in particularly bad shape, as the last time I sat in it she cracked right down the middle, leaving me seated in close proximity to the floor. And feeling a little fat. With the move and all, we decided it was time she be put down.

Here comes the glorious part: rather than navigating the cumbersome furnishing through 2 narrow doorways and down the stairs of our 4-plex, I convinced Aileen to let me open the sliding door and throw the thing over our 2nd story balcony and into the back yard. A short-cut. I know this may sound stupid, but I derive a great deal of pleasure from throwing things off of buildings. I've found that the amount of pleasure experienced is directly related to the distance of the fall multiplied by the mass of the object (Xjoy = Distance x Mass). In this case, the fall wasn't all that far, but a sofa is by far the biggest thing I've thrown out of a building. Aileen was the lookout (to make sure we didn't squash any unsuspecting neighbor kids) and I was the chucker. Needless to say, we had a good time. I'd post a picture, but I didn't take one... Sorry. I promise if anything else goes over the balcony it will be better documented.