Government Doing Good Things

I took this picture on (yes, you guessed it) a rainy day while waiting for household hazardous waste to be unloaded from the trunk of my car.

I love the bright display of fun things Metro workers have assembled. And I love even more that my tax dollars go toward funding a service like this. Cleaning out a 72-year-old house comes with a lot of household hazardous waste. (From the future, I can tell you that it took six trips to clear it all.) I appreciate that I have a place to bring so many things that would otherwise end up in the garbage.

There is a 35-gallon per day limit. I can attest that the trunk of a Honda Civic will fit less than 35-gallons. The signage at the transfer station is great, and when you pull into the covered area, workers remove and sort everything as you sit in your car.

And when it’s time to leave, there are no fees to pay. Good government at work.

F&F Christmas Present Assembled

Matt and I put together my LEGO car. I like when assembling LEGO things to have two people, one to hand over the needed item and one to place the needed item.

Matt was the hander, I was the placer.

It was pretty cool to see everything come together. And when we were done, we disassembled the car, packaged everything back up, and then I dropped it off in a free box for someone else to enjoy.

Kiriki Crow Sampler Completed

Another blackwork embroidery done. Here’s my completed sampler:

And here is where you can buy your own.

Making all those small, short stitches is very calming. I like using the lazy daisy as fancy frame embellishments.

The sampler bonus was this cute bat stuffed animal, which will stay in this format until someone cleans out my estate.

My next project will be something of my own design, and I’m quite excited to start!

Redbox Innards

I really liked Redbox, and was sad to see it go out of business. Besides keeping people in blockbusters, they often had a good amount of independent films. And the prices were so very low.

Most kiosks have been removed but, for some reason, this one outside the Walgreens near me is still there. It’s been there long enough for some miscreants to see if there are any DVDs remaining.

I’m not sure if there were any left when they opened it up, but it’s interesting to see how many disks a kiosk could hold.

Academy Awards at the Kiggins

Laurie, Kelly, and I watched the Academy Awards at the Kiggins Theater in Vancouver, and boy, was that the correct choice. There were prizes! Laurie won!

And so did I!

The Kiggins gave everyone a raffle ticket with a nominee on it; if your nominee won, you got a prize. And then, because turnout was a bit light, we got extra tickets.

After each award was given and the broadcast went to commercial, the Kiggins people had the gift certificate donor come up and talk about their Main Street Business, and then hand out the award. It was like we had our own awards ceremony, and we also got to learn a ton about downtown Vancouver businesses.

I won because the person who really won wasn’t there, and I had best sound in a different category, and they gave me the prize, which was to a music store. A woman offered to trade her prize (a comic book store) and I did. So now I have $50 to spend!

Us after the show.

We also played the Happiest Oscar Viewer game. It was the kind of Oscars where I wasn’t overly excited for many categories, so I wasn’t happy very often. But also wasn’t annoyed.

Also, this quote from David Chen was spot on and made me laugh.

Books Read in February 2025

*book group selection | bolded means favorite

Picture Book

*The Dream Catcher by Marcelo Verdad
*Chooch Helped by Andrea L. Rogers and Rebecca Lee Kunz
*Aloha Everything by Kaylin Melia George and Mae Waite
*An Etrog from Across the Sea by Deborah Bodin Cohen, Kerry M. Olitzky, and Stacey Dressen McQueen

Early Reader

*Vacation: Three-and-a-Half Stories by Ame Dyckman and Mark Teague

Middle Grade

*Continental Drifter by Kathy MacLeod
*Popcorn by Rob Harrell
*Finn and Ezra’s Bar Mitzvah Time Loop by Joshua S. Levy
*Lunar Boy by Jacinta Wibowo and Jessica Wibowo
*Just Shy of Ordinary by A.J. Sass
*Black Star by Kwame Alexander
*Johnny, the Sea, and Me by Melba Escobar, Elizabeth Builes, and Sara Lissa Paulson

Young Adult

Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson
*Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham
*Navigating With You by Jeremy Whitley, Casio Ribeiro, Nikki Fox, and Micah Myers
*Time and Time Again by Chatham Greenfield
*Canto Contigo by Jonny Garza Villa
*Night Owls by A.R. Vishny
*Trajectory by Cambria Gordon

Young Nonfiction

Information Now: A Graphic Guide to Student Research by Matt Upson, Colin Michael Hall, and Kevin Cannon
*Call Me Roberto!: Roberto Clemente Goes to Bat for Latinos by Nathalie Alonso and Rudy Gutierrez
*Wings of an Eagle: The Gold Medal Dreams of Billy Mills by Billy Mills, Donna Janell Bowman, and S.D. Nelson
*Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall by Lynn Brunelle and Jason Chin
*John the Skeleton by Triinu Laan and Marja-Liisa Plats
*Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller by Breanna J. McDaniel and April Harrison
*Amazing Abe: How Abraham Cahan’s Newspaper Gave a Voice to Jewish Immigrants by Norman H. Finkelstein and Vesper Stamper
*Coretta: The Autobiography of Mrs. Coretta Scott King by Coretta Scott King and Ekua Holmes
*Home by Isabelle Simler and Vineet Lal

Advice Column Question

I grabbed this so I could read it to Matt, because I knew he would laugh. He did.

I also laughed. I like how the writer is getting ahead of themselves. The couple has been seeing each other for three months, and this writer has them past the alter and at the reception. But I also think the writer is humorous and could probably do a great toast.

Movie Quiz February 2025

It was another fun night at the Movie Quiz. There were lots of things to do with the number two (names of sequels, for instance) and the word “and” (Thelma and Louise, for example)

Battleship Cinematic Universe did pretty well considering we were a team of two.

In the realm of names, I enjoyed that the roster included “All Out of Bubblegum” (regulars) plus “I Have Come Here to Chew Bubble Gum and Kick Ass, and I’m All Out of Ass Kicking Ability”

Other names I enjoyed:

  • Brutalist Intermission Escape Plan
  • They Shoot Tesla’s Don’t They?
  • Eat, Pray, Love, Die, Repeat