December 21st thru the 27th, 2003

But it was not a wasted trip. I enjoyed the ferry rides and the drive. On my way back I went and got a prescription for Vicodin filled. The dentist gave it to me not for the pain of the extraction itself, but for the process, which involved his standing on my jaw to get out the root. I still say he is a good man, but I can barely open my mouth, my jaw is so sore.

Back home, I put a few Duraflame logs on the fire, took some Vicodin, watched The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, and Delicatessen, and ate left overs. The Cook is probably one of the strangest movie I have ever seen, but I am very glad I watched it. Its not quite surreal, not quite a parable... And Delicatessen is just a funky little French flick from the same director who gave us Amélie and Alien: Resurrection.

The link I provided to Duraflame, just so you know, send you to a website that has the sound of a fire playing in the background. I've had it on all day. I like background noises-- one of my most prized posessions is the Stereo Sound Soother, which is in my bedroom, not in here where I type all this up. So having this "roaring" fire going is kind nice.

Bowling was not happy. While I bowled above or at my average every game (170 something, 160 something, and 145) our team still lost all four points. This was the last match of the season, and we were up against the team in second. Those four points put them in first, and left us in second or third, depending on how the other teams did. Here's the thing: only one guy on the other team showed up. His teammate's had "pre-bowled," and the scores were pretty good-- the guy with a 160 average had bowled a 230 in one of his games and the girl with the 100 average managed a 130 in one of hers. Pretty convenient. I can't complain too much though-- if I had not bowled so incredibly awfully last week we would have locked first before we even got this far. Oh well-- next season starts in a few weeks.

Got the US Cellular deal out the door.

R called and we went to Ikea-- her to return some things and to get some accoutrements for her apartment, me to look for rubber ducks shelves. In the returns line, I spotted a rubber ducks, and told the cashier I collected them-- he promptly ripped it off the register and gave it to me. She is now the coolest cashier in the whole world. IN the store itself, I found no shelves, but ended up buying some speaker stands, and found some excellent pieces of cardboard to augment my present shelves-- that should do nicely for the next 100 new ducks or so.

Coffee at SBC-- a smaller gathering of the regulars. We ate at Guaymas afterwards, and then I went to T's house to crash so I could take her to the airport in the morning. I forgot to bring a toothbrush, so we went to a nearby drugstore and I got a Crest Racing Car Spin Brush.

Ate some pancakes.

Made some shelves for the ducks-- my bathroom was overflowing.

Went to R's later for some real duck. To eat it. With my mouth. We played Jenga, Bullsh*t, and Two-deck Hearts. I was the big winner in Bull#$% (one game) and the big loser in Hearts.

Did some serious work on my Rubber Duck website. Its nearly finished.

Off to Bothell to hang out with the Jez clan via their good friend and mine R. This is a family of mostly women, some pregant, most of them with children, most of those children girls. There was so much estrogen in the air my nipples got sore. One of the women who does not have children seems to enjoy plucking infants from her sisters and plopping them in my lap. But I'm good for it: babies are better than electric blankets, and so I was very warm as we all sat and watched Rabbit Proof Fence.

After a shower it was time to head south of town for some duck hunting, thanks to a hot tip from N. Cost Plus World Market had the usual suspects but they did produce one season duck: it was the only one of its kind there and one wonders if it was providence that supplied me with it. One wonders so much, one is tempted to write a very bad poem about it:

Check out the duck page (when it's done) to see what I got. After it was back North to meet N and G to pay for a ticket to the Lord of the Rings even though I couldn't attend because I had promised another friend I would go to a group dance lesson. And so I did, over at DanceSport in Lake City, which was a lot of fun. Ballroom dancing. Salsa, Swing, and so forth. After that a spot of dinner at a diner across the street and then Ro and I spent an evening in front of my TV joking about underwear and beefy thighs.