round peg, square hole

On my way home from work last Friday I was opining to X just how disastrous I think work cubicles are in the running history of the human race. Just like building on swamp land, getting involved in a Ponzi scheme, or voting for Bush in 2004, I recognize that at some point people must have thought it a good idea. Probably at some point in the late 70s or early 80s there was an inept decision made, with best intentions, by some company in Cleveland to change the office floor space from wide-open swathes to manmade caves of misery. There is absolutely no benefit to the cubicle live that I can discern. What I once again noticed this morning, and something that’s bothered me since being here, is that while walking around the joint you notice just how many people have mirrors mounted on their desks so they can see who’s either passing by or violating their space. Life through a mirror? Of course, there’s never been a cubicle designed that allows its hibernator/prisoner to actually look outward into the World – look at the damn wall. The wall!

L. is at her clay-thing camp this week and gave me a call this morning to let me know she’d made it into Falls Church on her bike. The camp hours aren’t the greatest (11a-3p) so we took a bike ride yesterday afternoon and covered the route, rules of the road, and any other questions she might have. I think that by the end of the week she’ll feel well chuffed at having been out and about on her own during these rides into town. The roads all have sidewalks and the route is about 95% residential – no worries.

Is my vacation here yet? Where is it?

The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn’t end any time soon - David Carr

t

ready. shuffle.

We managed to get G’s birthday in order on Saturday: cake, invites, balloons, helium, streamers, and pinata! Oh, and kids. I love piles of kids.

His haul of stuff from various folk consisted primarily of cash, gift cards, and Pokemon schwag. There has been resurgence (some might say a plague) of Pokemon in the commune over the last few weeks. The boys have gone wonky. H. picked out two massive, special packages of cards as a gift - they are apparently the Holy Grail containing lost cards of yore. I think I saw H. fighting off hordes near the collector card section of Target with nothing more than a whip and fedora. Who knows? The real question is this: what does a ready stash of money and a gift card really lead to? This: can we go to Target? Can we go now? How about now? Now? Target? Now? When can we go? I’ll get to that soon enough.

The Eleven rode our bikes to the Dupont Circle Farmers Market yesterday morning – blowing out the carb on her new, fancy bike. It’s about an hour-and-half roundtrip with flowers, veg, and other goodies as a break in the middle. We only end up riding on city streets for about a ¼ mile on either end of the bike path. Very nice. I toted home the goods in my trailer and managed to survive the double hills of death near the end our the ride. We’re planning on loading up the trailer with kit and riding out to the Maryland countryside for a camping experiment next weekend.

On to Target. After we get back from trying to revive X’s laptop yesterday I finally took the boys and their piles o’ loot to Target. It’s about a ten minute drive and the excitement in the backseat was beyond containment. I might as well have been toting around a couple of children speaking a foreign language; for some reason, they felt a burning desire to address me with plans, stories, and Pokemon history. Here’s a summary, see what you can do with it. Nevermind who’s actually speaking, it’s irrelevant…I didn’t even know.

“We need a Silcoon from the EX deck because his health in the Pearl series is the best. It’s wicked good to evolve into Cascoon. Oscar has a Wurmple, which we don’t have, but we’ve got a super deck that Henry built. I built it. Henry built it. It’s widely known that Oscar has the most powerful deck in all of Arlington. Mantyke, which we need evolves into a Mantine if we have Remoraid present in the trainer's party. Hey Todd. Do you know what we love about EX? Kadabra immediately evolves to a Fire Alakazam when traded, and Oscar will trade one. You know why I can get cards from Oscar? He pretends not to want something, like a Seadra, but he really does. Anyway. I pretend I don’t want it, either. My Dusclops can’t evolve to a Dusknoir during a trade unless I have the Reaper Cloth – I don’t have the Reaper Cloth. I always get the cards from Oscar in the end. We just got the Dubious Disc so we can trade the Porygon2 and get and evolved Porygon-Z tomorrow. I finally got my Bulbasaur to evolve…well it was Bulbasaur at level 16, now it’s Ivysaur….I evolved it finally, at level 32 to Venusaur. Are we there yet?”

Yes.

T

current events

There was a lovely in-studio performance on Augie March photo at the top and then select listen (128k mp3) to launch it in iTunes and listen to the three-song set. They’ve been around the block for some time (they’re Australian, that’s a block…) but their music is new to me. After a bit of the interview between songs it became obvious why I’d switched on to the sound, it was right there, he said it – Big Star. There’s some Big Star, some Americana , a twist of Belle and Sebastian, and a pinch of lovely pop going on throughout. They’d come to the station in the morning after a late night at the Varsity Theatre in Dinkytown and hit the road afterwards to head west in a van that could probably be best described as shitty - the live of a minor touring band. That’s commitment. You can disregard all that blabbing and just enjoy the music.

X has been a-lookin’ for a bicycle of late. Wandering into bike shops leads to three basic effects:

1. You will always find yourself drawn to the most expensive bike.

2. You find out there’s way too much you don’t know actually understand about bikes.

3. You decide to shop some more. See #1 and #2.

At the first shop she found a beautiful 2007 Specialized TriCross that cost a pretty (very pretty) penny. It was the most expensive of the bikes suited to her needs. We didn’t understand much about bikes – there’s a lot to know. She decided to shop some more. After a few stops on Wednesday evening (REI and a horrible shop in Falls Church) she had more bikes swimming in her head but no bike at home. This morning she calls en route to Dr. Sam (the chiropractor) and tells me about a few other makes and models she’s found on-line. Since I want nothing but more bike goobley-gook in my head I do a little research and find another local shop that carries the Specialized TriCross she adores. As an aside, the TriCross is in the same utopian part of her mind that was occupied by Georgetown Law three years ago: nice, pretty, expensive, and the only real option – even as one flitters around comparing other suitors. Once her mind is made up it’s a done deal. She’ll smile sweetly at George Mason Law or some Bianchi bike but it’s merely a sham. Anyway, the local shop has the older 2006 TriCross still advertised on-line so I give them a call on the off chance they have them in stock. The very nice woman at the shop here in Vienna tip-types into the computer and tells me that, unfortunately (or not!), there’s only one left in the company inventory (there are four stores in N. Virginia). I learn it’s at the shop out in Ashburn and it’s a 56cm frame. I say Bingo! X is out near Ashburn as we speak and her size for the TriCross is…a 56cm. You see, Dr. Sam (the chiropractor) has his office out near Dulles which is just down the road from Ashburn…and that’s about 30 miles from where we live. There’s only one bike, it’s the right size, it’s 30 miles away, and she’s wandering around out yonder.

She now has a very nice bicycle in the back of the van and is homeward bound. I’m happy she has a bike; I’m most impressed with my work. Up top.

T.