Sara and I did some planning via phone and email. I was amused to see our different note taking styles join together. I’m on the left, Sara’s on the right.
Category: To Occupy my Time
DEN and MSP
Though the Denver Airport is not nearly as charming as the Portland Airport, it does have a Ben and Jerry’s. And tornado shelters. I stopped at B&J for a scoop and some hot fudge. And then I looked out on the beautiful day and contemplated how the scrap of paper with the number 302 came to be sitting on my table. I bet there’s a story there.
I got very excited because the Minneapolis airport has the round luggage carousals. Then I got excited to see Sara and Shawn.
Interesting people on my flight.
Dude. What the hell is that?
This was the question I didn’t ask, but rather took a picture on the sly. Although I didn’t have to be that sly because while the mouth and nose are free, the eyes are covered.
The flight attendant wanted answers too. “I gotta ask.” she said eventually.
The guy said it was called the Ostrich and that they were really popular.
“I fly all the time,” she said, “and I have never seen anything like that.”
When I got to Minneapolis, I said to Sara and Shawn, “I gotta show you the thing the guy on my flight was wearing. It was weird.”
“What if it was that Ostrich thing in the SkyMall catalog” Sara said. It was! And we both marveled at the craziness.
Since the SkyMall catalog doesn’t exist anymore in flight, I’ve included this link, so you can purchase your own. But people are going to stare.
This woman spent the entire PDX to DEN flight going over song lyrics. I assume she was a singer. She had this “You sing the songs of Taylor Dane” printout that was very interesting to me. But I can’t find an example of it with quick googling.
Things to do while waiting for your flight.
Wonder if the company in charge of the Jantzen Beach redevelopment planned from the beginning to lose the historic carousel. Get grumpy. 
Walk the secret hallway between the D-E and the A-B-C gates. Enjoy how deserted it is. 
Covertly watch this mother and son entertain themselves pre-flight, by taking pictures. Enjoy how the son narrates his thought process as to why he was taking the pictures.
Awesome clock at PDX
I procrastinated a lot getting ready for my vacation, at one point thinking, “Why am I going somewhere else? It’s so much work!” But I eventually got around to getting everything done and by the time I found myself at the airport (thanks Matt, for dropping me off) and made it through security, my mood rapidly improved. PDX is awesome! They had a piano player right outside of security and his cheery take on “Ode to Joy” calmed my frazzled nerves. And I noticed this amazing clock! It’s a tremendous specimen and I had a great time studying all the details.
Then I found the poster with the explanations. 
Also, the Portland Airport has Cafe Yumm! I love Cafe Yumm and bought an Edamame Bowl to eat on my flight.
Peal those shrimp! Peal them like bells.
A-hem. Can we have the copy editor at the Oregonian reinstated? Please?
Oddly specific fundraising mailer
I worked in the library at both colleges I attended for undergraduate work. UMass is pretty persistent in the fundraising, despite the fact that I only made one donation once, to the history department. It was weird to see the tagline “Happiness is…a job at the library.”
Yes it is, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give you any money.
Friday Project and how to stay cool in the heat.
The Friday Project this week was hemming two pair of new pants I bought. I found great tutorials here and here. I also took up the shoulders in a shirt I purchased. 
It’s hot, especially for Portland. If I can keep the heat out, our house is pretty okay. Here’s how I attempted to keep it at bay.
This is the only south-facing window in our house. If I close the curtains, it helps a lot. Antares doesn’t mind the heat, though. He will happily sleep on the sunny side of the curtain. 
Why heat up the big oven to cook your pie crust, when you can instead use your toaster oven? 
Laundry! Dried outside. In about 10 minutes. I washed ALL of my bedding. 
Which is the better value the large avocado or the small one?
For some time now I’ve wanted to crunch the numbers on this equation. The avocado on the left costs $1.25. The one on the right costs $0.99. Let’s break this down. 
Here we can see that the pits are similarly sized.
The large is 2.75 ounces bigger than the small.
Overall, the large avocado gives us 6.5 ounces for $1.25, while the small gives us 4 ounces for $0.99.
Crunching the numbers: Large is $0.19/oz
Small is: $0.25/oz.
Large is the better deal.
However, I also conducted a taste test, and I liked the taste of the smaller avocado better. Someday I should do a blind taste test.
Summer Friday Project: vacation planning
I already had a basic sketch of when we would be where. Now I know where we will stay in our travels outside of Minneapolis. And I have interesting things marked onto index cards in the towns we will travel through. It’s time to get excited about vacation!