the Red Bull Soapbox derby yesterday

I had always thought that the idea of a soapbox race was all fictional, like something that was in the Little Rascals movies and then other movies copied the idea. A Hollywood myth, as much as the renegade cop who gets the bad guys and destroys a city block in the process. But here is a REAL soapbox race and it was really fun to see!!!

This was in San Francisco's Dolores Park - the RedBull Soapbox derby. There were about 60,000 people on the hillside watching the race below or the huge monitors around the park. Racers were judged on the skit or dance routine they did before getting into their car, along with the creativity of their car design as well as their racing time.

The names of the three teams I have here are "Thick and Thin" with a pizza theme, "Fully Operational" with a Death Star theme, and "The Winos" from Napa valley.

Good times during the economic crash

We went out for a morning walk at 6:30 am today. There were clear skies over the Pacific, a bright moon in the sky with a dazzling play of white on the water. Sparkling lights from tankers moving slowly on the horizon. And I feel rich in spite of the fact that the economic world is tumbling down around us. I find myself standing in the kitchen looking at my old beat up refrigerator, "Well at least I have this refrigerator. My old pal the fridge. I don't know where that water leak is coming from but by god I'm keeping this fridge." Or getting on the bus I think, "this bus pass is great. Forty five bucks and I get to ride the bus every day. At least I've got this bus pass." And there's an upside to working in the entertainment business, because people still go to movies during hard times. Oddly enough, if you look it up, things like movies, tobacco, cosmetics, soda, and footwear all do well in a recession. Go figure. Each of those adds up to a fun night on the town - and then some jogging.

http://news.briefing.com/GeneralContent/Investor/Active/ArticlePopup/ArticlePopup.aspx?ArticleId=NS20071101121538TakingStock

Cheaper shelves through recycling

I had been wanting to build four shelves in the closet, but lumber can be pricey. In an effort to get in the recession/depression/full-financial-apocolypse mindset, I found another source for my wood. There was a yard sale up the street and a really big old stereo speaker set that didn't sell, and was left on the street with a big "FREE" sign on it. I don't need a big speaker, who does really? But the wood gave me an idea. I took it home, carefully popped the sides off with a hammer, sanded it down and the 1972 speaker set became four new shelves. I used the backs of two speakers and the sides of one big one. Braces beneath the shelves were made from some old wood I had got from a yard sale down the street a couple months before - also with the 'FREE' sign on them.

FREE shelves!! yay! Now I can put all my "too-small" clothes somewhere. Useful, right?

Craigslist. Rocks.

Lastnight we bought a used piano keyboard off Craigslist. Picked it up in Oakland, super friendly people, and now I have a keyboard of my own. Thanks to Anna for letting me borrow hers, for uh, six or eight months. In the last month we've sold plastic bins, dining chairs, luggage, a drying rack, bubble wrap, and a refrigerator through Craigslist. Never a weirdo, everyone polite and on time. One or two flakes, but nothing devastating. This is the coolest thing ever.

We have ten things listed for sale now, and chances are we'll sell most of it this way. Anyone else have any luck with Craigslist? It's the ultimate recycler.

Living with robots

One of the continuing "moving in" goals this weekend was to clear enough floor space so that we could run the vacuumming robot. Yes, we live with a robot named Roomba. We started him up this weekend and let him do the bedroom. Ok, how filthy-yuppie are we for sitting on the bed and watching him clean? For over an hour. While we sip coffee and lift our feet away from the floor when he buzzes under the bed. I'm watching my vacuum for fun.

But, the trial run was a huge success, he did a nice job on the bedroom and got into places you'd never go with a vacuum like under the bed, and at some point he disappeared into the closet and we could hear dust and little bits of stuff rattling around inside him. So he found something in there he liked. Next we set him up in the hallway and closed the doors to the rooms, except left the bathroom door open to see if he could get over the threshold and into there. It took a couple of tries, but he finally jumped over it and got in there. He knew there was dirt in there and he was getting it no matter what.

He's incredibly determined, and got stuck under a chair in his next room. He really really wanted to get under there, kept trying and finally made it most of the way under, where he got stuck. Then he made the "uh oh" sound that he makes when he's in trouble, and beeped a string of five beeps to get our attention. I now know how Luke Skywalker could listen to string of beeps from R2 and respond with "No Artoo, I'd rather not do that". I know now that five beeps mean "Help, my wheels are being pushed up into my body and I can't move." Three beeps means "Help, one of my wheels is off the ground."

We had a dog once that would chase bottle rockets down, step on them and bite them. The fireworks would then, of course, burn his mouth and spray his face with sparks. He'd bite them even harder, rinse out his mouth with water, and get ready for the next one to fly his way. Roomba is a lot like that puppy. I find myself thinking "What's it going to take for you to learn???" I ended up jamming eight shoes under the sides of chairs to keep him from going under there again. I'm sure in time, my response to five beeps will be, "Well maybe you should have thought about that before you went under there, dumbass." At this rate he's going to earn himself a new name. Here's the first few options that come to mind : "Rascal", "Trouble", "Diggity", "Scrappy". Any ideas?

Finding the floor

Apparently there is a wood floor under the boxes. I found it yesterday and made Ellen come over to take a look. It's fascinating. It runs from one pile of boxes across the small open space, to the next pile of boxes.

Yesterday was a miserable/glorious day of sorting boxes that ended with neatly stacked shelves in the garage, boxes all numbered and cataloged, with room to move in the apartment. And an incredibly sore back and low blood sugar brain freeze. I should be giving the guy at the drive through window the update each time I go there for dinner after 9pm. "Hey man, got through the dining room boxes today! Cataloged another 15 in the garage too!"

"That's fantastic, Steve, you're really going to be glad you are using Excel for the cataloging. Remember to select all, then sort the table. Here's the Coke and the fries. See you next week."

There was a moment when I ran out of packing tape yesterday - Yes, I hear you thinking "packing tape? but you're already moved in, aren't you?" and the answer is: big boxes ÷ small boxes = sane closet. Anyway, running out of packing tape. Can't move forward to the next task. Walk down to the grocery store three blocks away for more packing tape, unshowered, crazy "around the house" shirt that looks like an eskimo party shirt, torn jeans with fabric flap on the knee, scowling. And now I'm walking among the happy Sunday afternoon shoppers at Safeway. I think I was quick enough to be out before the manager could catch me. But that was the low point in the day.

Garage sale is a few weeks away, anyone need an insulated lunchbag? How about a tall, thin, bamboo standing lamp? This is the preview sale, any takers?

The Maze of Cardboard

The apartment is stacks of cardboard that shift and change every day. We can't find the salad spinner, we can't find the water filter, some furniture doesn't fit where we had hoped. That thing is happening where important paperwork is beginning to scurry around the house while we're not looking - you find a bill on the mantle, some mortgage paperwork in the guest room wedged between two boxes in a stack, and an important receipt is at large. I found the remotes for the DVD player in the file boxes, laying on top of the "credit report" files.

Your brain is pulling apart trying to figure out why there's so much mismatch in your life. It's like a dream/nightmare. I would not be surprised if my fifth grade teacher walked out of the kitchen and handed me an otter.

This weekend we'll push through most of it and get some sanity back. For now we're just happy the kitchen is functional and we've had some fun dinners at home.