in our neighborhood. The Seattle fire department is now going to be patroling in our neighborhood & I've never been so happy to ride out tonight's fall rainstorm. Hard to light a match in the wind and rain.

I've been busy tonight: beef bones have been roasting, and are now simmering in water for beef stock. Tomorrow I have the day off. I only hope some moron with a lit match doesn't spoil it for me tonight.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0.02 (floor of coffeeshop, parking meter)

Saving log - $8 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0.17 (2 nickels, 7 pennies on sidewalk, road, bus floor) + yesterday $0.05 (various sidewalks)

Not much has been going on - sister got the dutch oven, the no-knead bread recipe with other stuff - a Bad Cat day calendar and a little pocket planning calendar with a plastic cover for rain, and a recipe pamphlet that we got for the beef. Sister is interested in making a similar thing to give to her CSA and farmer's market customers.

Work is getting very, very busy ... and that's nice. Election day was yesterday - I live about 5 blocks from one of the mayoral candidates. Thankfully, Seattle's low key about political publicity. If it snows, beware, that street is one of the least plowable in the city.

Monday
Saving log - $0 tip box + $35 drp
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0.11 (parking meter, sidewalk)

Sunday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.88 coffee, bagel + $9 tea, apple, oatmeal bar, magazine
Found money - $0.18 (sidewalk, coffeeshop floor)

Found a 5 cent euro on Sunday. I figured I'd count it - after all, the exchange rate of the euro: dollar was 1.47:1. In other words, the 5 cent euro is worth a hair over 7 cents.

I-bond rates also came out today. The fixed rate is 0.3%. Better than 0.1%, but not enough to think about buying more. The variable rate, though, is much better on this 6 month go around - a bit over 3%.

Took a walk at noon and discovered an ING Direct/Shareholder branch on King Street. For laughs I went in and chatted with the receptionist, who told me that there were plans for it to turn into an ING cafe.

Final Jackie Handey thought: We are now back on "Standard" time, coming from "Daylight Saving" time. Count the number of months of each. Standard = November, December, January, February, 1-2wks March. Daylight = 2-3wks March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October. Since we are in Daylight Saving time for longer than Standard time, isn't Daylight Saving really Standard?

All in all, this picture sums up the conflicting signs on the economy. Its a real picture, fyi.

Friday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0.01 (sidewalk)

Thursday
Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee, $10 snack foods
Found money - $0.22 (road, bus floor, Safeway floor)

Took money off the 403B table and rebalanced back to the 60 yr old man portfolio - cash, bonds, gov bonds, equal small parts of: large cap, small cap, mid cap, international, value. Saw my changes yesterday.

Saw that my transfer agent bought the $300 worth of SYY; it was bought along with the re-invested dividend.

Found out that the fire from last weekend was arson. When I tried to shortcut through the Taproot parking lot, I found that the back parking lot was all fenced in along with the fronts.

Behaved myself during the parade of work potlucks today, and I contributed with fruit snacky items.

V.I. (kitty) and I are having a nice time. So far, she's been hitting the litter box with me. I have changed a couple of things - I've shut the bedroom and home office door during the day, so no "surprises" in those rooms. I've also made the living room quiet - most of her "surprises" are left underneath coffee table, desk, behind the couch. Quiet, shadowy places. DH loves to have the radio on during the day and I suspect that loud human noises and bustle startles her. Most of all, when I hear her use the box, I quietly and quickly get a greenie from the bag and reward her as she walks past. I also play with her for at least an hour in the evening.

Sunday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $3.88 coffee, bagel + $16 conveyor belt sushi pigout
Found money - $0.11 (coffeehouse floor, gutter)

Saturday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $14 breakfast + $6 Halloween hat + $21 miscellaneous
Found money - $0.39 (sidewalk, gas station parking pad, carpet)

Friday
Saving log - $9 tip box
Spending log - $1.75 coffee
Found money - $0.04 (road, sidewalk, under picnic table)

Still having reasonable luck finding change despite the leaves on the ground. This weekend was a do or die time to "do" something for Halloween - I usually say I don't have a creative idea for Halloween in the two weeks before but then pull something off. This time, still nothing. I'm going with a funny hat (keeping the price tag on for the Minnie Pearl fans out there) and be done with it.

Finding the funny hat meant heading to the Goodwill, change hunting all the way. You might have noted that I expected, and was disappointed, that the Goodwill parking lot would be a rich source of found money, and I have mused about the mystery. When I walked into Goodwill, I found a cheap, funny, fuzzy hat, but also a partial resolution to the mystery: Goodwill's inside carpet was the rich source of found money. Goodwill was extremely busy with shoppers; they made a mess of the racks and floors; and the only person who was watching the floor was me. At first blush, if people drop change in response to distractions, the Goodwill store is a primo study site to explore. But for now - easy dime and five pennies. With the other change found in other spots - Seattle has provided me with $6.54 since mid-July.

Later at the Fred Meyer, I bought another item for the months to come: a clip-on, five-pattern, 1/2 mile visible bright flashing pedestrian light. $6, but when I walk home in December, that car is gonna see me.

The other delight I've seen at Fred Meyer are the definite price reductions for food. For example, I needed some luna/clif bars for breakfast - last year at this time they went, cheapest, @ $0.99/bar. Now - $0.79/bar. I've now been seeing produce for under $1.00/lb and canned tuna at $0.65/6 oz can. I've not kept up my price book for the last couple of years (too depressing). I might restart it now.

A bit of our neighborhood news made even some of the national news (at least I heard that it made the morning ABC news). Our neighborhood lost 4 businesses Friday to fire - 2 places I ate at semi-regularly, 1 I drank coffee at every so often. The phinneywood blog has the fire pictures. Arson investigation is ongoing. Mine is from the back. That cooked area at the top is where the roof line was.

Sunday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $3.88 coffee, bagel + $26 vitamins, bath salts, apple
Found money - $0

Saturday
Saving log - $0
Spending log - $12 coffee, breakfast + $16 various yard sale finds in the neighborhood
Found money - $.10 carpet of breakfast place + $.01 crosswalk

It was this year version of the Greenwood Yard Sale - it used to be held in April, but ever since last year when it hailed the day of the yard sale, the neighborhood re-set the time to September.

I don't whether it was due to the recession or that it was such a nice day that a lot more people participated (what? not going to the new Bravern mall), but the pickings were very good. I got a map from the Senior Center just up the street and began. I was specifically looking for a dutch oven for my sister, but I got:
2 bars of homemade soap (senior center) - $1
4 homemade brownies (senior center bake sale) - $1
1 metal bowl - $2
1 encyclopedia of container gardening - $1
4 burly patio chairs, 2 cushions - $7 (one had a strap out)
1 fold out patio table - $4

I could have gotten a foam cheesehead, a dehydrator, 2 bread machines, boodles of TVs (ha ha), a couple of flat screen monitors, a Bell & Howard film projector (got a flashback to second grade on that one).

We are in the process of getting rid of our ancient, flimsy patio chairs. Here's are two of the yard sale chairs. Stripping and repainting a patio table is in my future somehow.


In addition, we are going to give sister the smaller of one of our dutch ovens - we have two cast iron ones, each burly enough to make the NYT no knead bread recipe. I got the dutch oven that we're planning to give her from in a thrift store in Tucson for $10... made a lot of great meals in it.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $12 coffee, breakfast + $41 cat toys, collar, treats + $17 id, camera case

Sometimes you just have to have a spendy day. At least it was fun stuff. We used another PAWS coupon for some cat spending - the cat pillow was appreciated, the new collar, not so much. V.I. must have had an attachment to her old collar even though there was a cat claw embedded in it. Hers? I don't think we will ever know.

I also made a stop at Office Depot and solved a problem that has been nagging me since the long walk/jogs on the weekends. Its inconvenient, but necessary, to carry the remnants of my wallet as I jog - need at the very least, my bus pass, driver's license, a bit of money, key, and if I buy an apple or have a bit of tea at the end, I need a place to put the change. My running pants have one rudimentary pocket. I've been jogging in my jacket with the pockets to get one, but it does get mighty warm during. I originally thought about a wrist wallet ($15), but never pulled the trigger. Today I just went with a very simple ID pocket on a cloth lanyard ($4) and see if that works.

I leave you with a non-financial picture.

The harbinger

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $278 beef + $26 dinner, drinks
Found money - $0

Delivered the beef money to our organizer, and it turns out she lives in the neighborhood, but on the opposite end (She: SW edge, me: NE)

But she does live close to the site that a neighborhood arsonist hit last night. Said arsonist has hit several times in the last two months, using the usual - crap that the homeowner/renter left lying around. The latest fire was started in a backyard garbage can.

Policemen are handing out flyers, but the only one I've seen is the one shown in the neighborhood blog, Phinneywood. I asked DH to check around our yard and lock up our storage shed. I had a spare gym lock and key. Not Fort Knox, but at least it makes us not the patsy of the block.

Not exactly a personal finance topic. But staying safe and unburnt saves money in its own special way.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.64 coffee + $3 tomatoes, peaches + $1.80 coffee
Found money - $0.27 (road, 2 ft from traffic island) + $0.01 (floor of Safeway)

I learned a very important fact today.

Not that coffee costs 16 cents less in my neighborhood than it does downtown; and not that I can spot 2 pennies and a quarter on the road from my bus seat, stop at the next stop and walk to the change and pick it up. (I'm committed to coin rescue...or perhaps I should just be committed.)

Nope, I learned these days that the bigger brick & mortar banks (like JP Morgan Chased) will charge you a $3 fee for the privilege of moving money to an internet-based bank like ING. The reason why I read it and did not experience it first hand was that I, by shear luck, hit upon the right way to transfer. Always, always, always get ING to pull out the money from the brick & mortar bank. Never tell the brick & mortar bank to push it out. $3 ain't that much - or its 9 weeks of change hunting.

I also learned that my secret downtown Post Office office is in danger of being shut down. The list. In Seattle, you can wait in line for a couple hours at the gigantic feedlot at 3rd and Union site, or you can go to the little, intimate, general store PO in the Old Federal Building. Which would you pick? Time to let the secret out and mail my Drp payment from there and sign the list.

Tuesday
Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $0
Found money - $0

Wednesday
Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.83 iced coffee
Found money - $0.01 (Fred Meyer parking lot, close in)

Instead of complaining, might just as well let our neighborhood grocery store sign tell the tale.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $2 brat dinner + $1 donation to Make A Wish + $2 Thai iced tea
Found money - $0.01 (sidewalk, between audience chairs and a wastebasket)

Went and saw this year's Greenwood's Seafair parade. The price was right - free - and the dinner, hosted by the grocery store, price was right also - $2 bought me a brat heavy with onions, a bag of chips and a bottle of water. A few parade pictures to entertain you.

To keep this an actual financial diary, I note here that the recession is never too far away ...


Our old friends the police motorcycle drill team were there, as was the usual mix of classic cars, bands, grocery cart drill team, a couple of floats, the vendors, the Seafair pirates. I thought I'd show a couple of more interesting snaps.

Fascinating, or alarming? Discuss.


My favorites tonight were the Mexican vaqueros. Their control of their horses was fantastic.


And the fact that vaqueros planned ahead, or in this case, behind...


It was a warm night, a long (time and blocks) parade. The folks in red were interesting to me - they scurried alongside the band, squirting water into the players, and pulling out a band member or two that was about to succumb to heat exhaustion. FWIW - the band played the Colonel Bogey March. For all you movie fans out there, it was a tad too appropriate.


Couldn't resist the littlest member of the baby unit of the drill team. I have a thing for the blurry action shot. About this time I found that penny, my change for the day.

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1 apple

I'm not into using Twitter for a lot of stuff - I'm a newbie on a cell phone and I can't afford unlimited text messaging - but I found that both the Seattle Police Department and Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) twitter. Turns out that my neighborhood is a hotbed of crime - one of our neighborhood banks (rhymes with yank of chimerica) was robbed several times last month.

At least the next time bus transit breaks down due to a shooting or snow, I'll be ready.

Time to monitor how quickly the minutes disappear and plan accordingly.

Found out in the Phinneywood blog (a blog about our local neighborhood) that our street is getting a sidewalk all the way up until our block.

Our neighborhood is infamous for never getting sidewalks, despite being a part of Seattle since 1952(!), so I have to assume that this sidewalk construction initiative is one of those "shovel ready" projects in the stimulus package.

If only it reached one more block. I'm a taxpayer, too!

Wednesday
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $15 groceries

Thursday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $20 dinner

The week I've found 1 penny on a clean sidewalk, 1 penny on the crosswalk right at the curb with a cigarette butt three feet away, and 2 pennies at the foot of a tree near several cigarette butts. All in downtown Seattle.

Nothing to see here, just testing the hypothesis, move along....

Today was the day of the Greenwood Art Walk. We did a bit of walking, and saw some very pretty stuff. The only picture that really turned out were these amazing gold and brass wire baskets in a neighborhood Taoist space.


But really, what made me smile were the couple of yard sales and allied sales happening all along Greenwood Avenue today.

I took a pass on this one, but it just made me laugh out loud that someone conceived that two nouns - "Kansas City Chiefs" and "crockpot" - could be brought together.

Not only brought together, but after conception, somebody had to buy off on making more than one, and to advertise them. I'm guessing that they were quite the thing for beef bqq for those Arrowhead tailgate parties in the 70s.

However, I did bite on another item that made me smile. Who would possibly use a Beetle Bailey cloth wallet?


Yeah, me. For $9.50.

I bought this bad girl in a little tent kiosk on Greenwood that sold great cloth purses. I have too many purses, frankly, so I have to use what I have. But this was handmade by a woman who somehow found Beetle Bailey comic cloth, someone again had print Beetle Bailey comic cloth, and someone had to figure that Beetle Bailey printed comic cloth would sell well enough to justify the whole thing. Given that chain of crazy decisions, how could you walk away?

You might remember the too expensively priced near-shack that I sometimes walked past. To refresh your memory on previous posts...

Part 1

Part 2

I walked past it again last week. They got rid of the fence, but now the hedge is sprouting...


Along with an exciting yellow sign...


So let's recap, shall we?

Feb 2008 - 499K
April 2008 - $445K
July 2008 - $395K

then no sign, seller has given up.

May 2009 - probable teardown.

Can't say that this will be fantastic either. The lot isn't big enough to support much of anything except a house with a yard.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $12 breakfast + $10 bath salts and apple

I overheard this night as I walked through the Summer Streets program: "If you don't want to learn about memoir, try using our teleporter ... or study alien spores and brains."
(from the guy out in front of Greenwood's Space Travel Company - its a front for a non-profit writer's group).

Made me smile.

Again, I jogged the 3 miles, aka the mock 5K. Also did it in 47 minutes, jogging all the way, so it wasn't a fluke that I did it. Also my hips felt far, far better than last week. I could actually walk back home after the jog - much slower and took much longer than 47 minutes.

Planted purple carrots in an orange po- um, CONTAINER. Who says p-um, CONTAINER gardeners don't have a sense of humor.

Read an article in the New York Times today whose tone saddened me a bit. I'm not frugal as a competitive sport. I'm frugal because greater amounts of savings makes me comfortable in my place in society, and I'd rather have the money rather than greater amounts of branded stuff. I'm quiet about my saving in real life. If times get much worse, its really best not to brag about what you saved.

Monday
Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $20 chiropractor + $2 conditioner

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $.75 paper

The Seattle Post Intelligencer published its last edition today. I picked up a commemorative copy at the Safeway today. The top section had a series of lovely pieces of Seattle and PI history, so ...

would the bastard who stole it from the lunchroom bring it back or ELSE I will have to curse their Final Four picks. And trust me, I can and will make sure that you not only will not win, but that you will be the laughingstock of the basketball pool.

I mean it, man.

On a serious note, I'm saddened and a tad scared about the PI closing. Its supposed to live on as an online outlet w/blogs, twitters, commentary, but somebody has to physically go out, do the legwork, take names, write the story and do all of those things that afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Blogs reflect the news. If there is no reported news, we reflect nothing.

But we'll see.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $12 breakfast + $42 pet supplies + $29 clothes

I feel so contrarian these days. I've been frugal when everyone has been spending like mad, and now I've been spending when everyone else's wallet has snapped shut. Thank me in a few months - shopping's kind of fun when no one else is doing it.

I didn't do a super long walk, just a little jog and a walk along 85th to 15th NW. I went to Petco and got kitty shampoo, 2 finger toothbrushes, a roll of Paws away (double sided tape that inhibits scratching), litter odor neutralizer, and 2 cat toys.

Then I hit the Macy's of thrift stores - Value Village - and picked up a small bowl, a small metal colander, a large cast iron platter/candle shelf thingee, 1 pair of jeans (tossed out a pair last week), 3 spring knit tops. All for $28 and change. I was a tad surprised to find that towels were going for $2.99 apiece...new ones are $4.99, so you might as well get them new. Nothing like cheaping out and getting athlete's foot or something.

I'd like to get some large pots or some ceramic flats - I'd like to grow some lettuce and a few flowers this year in pots on the patio. Seattle has a good climate for lettuce, usually, so the plan is sow the seed densely, let it grow out for about 6 weeks, mow, then rinse and repeat.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.35 coffee, bagel + $3 hot dog + $6 batteries & box of creamy tomato soup

Very quiet non-work day. Walked about 2/3 of the way around Green Lake, then headed up to Greenwood Avenue for the ATM, and a stop to get AA batteries for the digital camera, or about 4 miles.

Found .26 in the Fred Meyer parking lot (a quarter and a penny). I managed to also find another quarter last night also. Last night I heard on NPR about a family of 5 who managed to save $1000 worth of sidewalk change in about a year. I'm not sure whether they are walking in a city where parking lots are paved with change or many people have holes in their pockets or whether with 3 small children their helpers are low to the ground - $1000 is a lot of sidewalk change. Good for them, but your mileage may vary!

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $32 kitten chow + $35 groceries

Freakin' icy again today, so I burned another PTO day at work. Our work hours have been around 11-3, the car deals with snow better than ice and slush, and then there is the 2-3 hr evening commute. I did the critical time tasks yesterday, I had the PTO time, and tomorrow's Christmas Eve.

But DH and I were productive: Morgan went to the neighborhood vet. She's a girl, no chip, 6-7 months old (the vet showed us her baby molars), no scar or tattoo indicating she was spayed, no feline leukemia, and at 5 pounds with a little fat on the lower underside, she was just a teeny bit overfed. Not obese, just back off the food a bit and don't worry about the shortchanging the kitten development. The vet opined that no kitty just eats what s/he needs then stops with an eternal buffet in the food bowl. He suggested a decent premium brand kitten food, but only 2 feedings at 1/8 c each. In other words, 2 tablespoons. The big bag of dry kitten/cat food is going to last awhile.

"She's a blank slate," the vet said.

Today Morgan got her battery of shots: rabies, distemper, leukemia. DH bought the shots, I'll buy the spaying and chipping...which we'll do in January.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.50 coffee, bagel + $11 ground coffee + $22 groceries

The cold front hit Saturday night here in Seattle. I don't think we even hit freezing today. Only walked about two miles maybe today, to 70th Street and Greenwood then back. If the sidewalks were walked on it wasn't too bad, but as soon as you hit a shady untraveled patch, it was killer. This is my third winter I've pulled out my Yaktrax.

Seattle's a funny place when it comes to winter. With so many transplanted mid-westerners (like me), you think we'd take the reins and sand our walks. Nope. Much more fun to complain like the natives and wait for the ice to melt. Which it won't for at least 3-4 days.

Got home fairly early so I made my lunch and snack for tomorrow. I expect that it will be quiet at work tomorrow - the fundraising temp staff's last day was Friday.

Spending log - $15 gloves, hoodie + $21 groceries

Realized as I began my six mile walk that it was far colder than I was dressed, so I picked up gloves and a medium (cut large) grey hoodie at Walgreens. It was a toasty warm hoodie, but it also seems to be lucky in another way: I found change on the sidewalk within a block of putting it on. I also found 11 cents as I cut through the Safeway. Basic gray lucky recession hoodie.

On my walk toward Fremont I saw this performance:

Coming back, I walked past them again. No babies in the baby buggies, all had enigmatic smiles.

The second performance? My blog. For laughs, I put in my blog address into Typealyzer - which analyzes your blog according to Myers-Briggs.

My blog: ESFP.
Me: INFP.

They got the feeling, perceiving bit right. I'm flattered a bit - I just don't think of myself as a performer in any sort of way. Typealyzer seems to do a very quick analysis. I think its checking for verbs and active/passive voice on the first screen of posts it sees. Methinks for laughs I'll bore you all with a couple of heavy duty analysis type posts and see if it changes thinks a bit.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $8 lunch + $.60 apple + $70 laptop memory

Yeah, I know, blogging from work. Ay yi yi! I'm doing it only because the memory on my laptop completely gave up the ghost after I posted last night...maybe the memory did it in memory of the jumper. I bought 2 of my memory (has two slots) for $70.

Voted today. I got there at 7 am, and gutsy me, voted using an electronic ballot. I'm very lucky with electronic devices, and I was when I finally got on, but a word to the wise, if you see the person in front of you poring over the voters guide while you are waiting to vote electronically, do not hesitate but go back and get a paper ballot. Voter guides and electronic ballots DO NOT mix. Electronic balloting works best if you have your list and go boom, boom, boom.

But the 20 minute wait had its charms. It was, supposedly the last time we will have polls in King County. This, and then vote by mail like nearly every other county in Wa state. Of course they said that two years ago. We'll see. I like to go to the polls, it breaks up the routine.

The charm was people watching, especially the provisional ballot meltdown line. There's always someone crying, "it always happens every time, you miss me from the voter rolls, you hate me and my kind and..." I stopped listening after a bit. My advice to the crier is to vote more often than every four years. Every year in September & November there seems to be something to vote for. Do it often enough and you work bugs out - you get your voter card, you know your precinct, and best of all, you know all the usual suspects who work the polls.

Oh yeah, got my free coffee afterward.

Saving log - $0 tip box + $40 DRP1 + $100 DRP2
Spending log - $17 brunch (for 2)

We finished a brunch card, so we got a free entree this morning. Top of the month we paid the rent, and I figured out how much to put into DRPs. Funny how when I send a bit of money to the transfer agents I get bummed if their stock prices go up.

Seattle is wearing its November soggy togs, but the leaves are much better this year than usual. Hard to find small change through the leaves.


But along my walk, I've been noticing the signs of the times. Exhibit 1: a bit of paranoia. He's had this sign for years, but the sign itself is a fresh version.


There's that word "layaway" again, this time out in front of a hip Seattle boutique.


Not a funny or a repent sign in front of this church, more of a "we've all lost money together" vibe.


This condo was for sale for the longest time with no bites. Now its time for a different tack.

A different sign had "only 3 left". There were 6 "townhomes" (why can't anyone say house anymore?). A 50% closing rate is decent, but belies the urgency of the "only". It always pays to do the math.

The lack of a sign is the sign here, yet the sign post remains. A bit of schaudenfruede here - the sign had a price of the princely sum of "$750,000". If I'm asking for 3/4 of mil, the least I could get is a perfect picture window (note the plastic). Back to the picture. No sign, so did the house get sold? Unlikely - why keep the sign post? Rented out - perhaps, because there were fresh items in the window. Owners give up for the selling season? Probably. See ya next spring.


Our final exhibit. It made me laugh. I'm fairly sure, based on the placement and expression of the various characters, the bar is advertising to Democrats. Alcohol is the universal solvent - equally useful in both celebration and condolence. Can get them coming and going, as grandpa used to say.

Saturday
Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $13 brunch + $5 grocery (produce) + $5 night trip

On Saturday night, DH and I took the night Seattle Trolley Tour. Its run by MEHVA - cost was $5 for a 3 hour tour. It was very fun and historic ... however, you will be sitting on a historic bus/trolley for 3 hrs, so a word to the wise: there is a certain amount of stamina required. Again, MEHVA - a non-profit - collects buses and trolleys, but to keep them in good condition, they must be driven around. They would be driven around anyway, so MEHVA charges the rest of us to ride along.

Our chariot for the evening - a circa 1940 trolley. This trolley runs completely on electricity: two poles attached to the roof of the trolley run along a double electric track about 25 ft above the ground.


Since we could only go where the double electric track still exists, and the 68 yr old trolley doesn't have enough of a counterbalance to handle the top of Queen Anne Hill, our itinerary was: from 2nd & Main, Beacon Hill, International District, Pioneer Square, Pike Market, Belltown, lower Queen Anne Hill, then back downtown, Eastlake, over to the University District, Montlake, Capitol Hill, then 2nd & Main again.

It was the perfect time to try out the night landscape setting on my new camera ... so let me re-phrase that: its the perfect time for me to inflict night camera pictures onto my blog readers.

Inside the trolley - they went all out and maintained the old placards, too. Hmmm, I should look into that.


King Street Station - where the Amtrak goes. I seem to remember that this station is also being renovated.


Hey, who let the Alaskans in? (N.B: Washington state is the closest in the lower 48 to Alaska).


Close up of some neon on Stewart St.


I apologize right now - no tripod, no sharp night pictures of the Seattle skyline. Maybe next year. You'll have to settle with the artistically blurry ones.

One of the layovers - this one in Queen Anne. At our layover in the University District, we were swarmed by college students who were fascinated because the trolley looks so different. It warms my heart that they were interested. DH and I suspect that we had a couple of college stowaways riding from the U-District back to downtown. Touching that we were cool enough that they would do it.


The Saturday night action on the street. We were stared at and waved to numerous times. Funny story - as the trolley was navigating through Queen Anne, a young couple got to the driver's side of their car. I suspect that they were hitting two social events last night because when the young man got to the car, he took off his shirt to change presumably for the second event. The middle-aged woman watching him in the trolley began to shriek with laughter. I still think she owes the bus driver a big tip.


In short, cheap, fun, historic, green. What's not to like?

Friday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $4.50 groceries + $40 weekend money

Saturday
Saving log - $0 tip box + $100 Drp
Spending log - $5 latte & 3 tea cookies + $15 groceries

Yesterday I along with several other co workers went on a volunteer project - painting hallways. Those of you who are budding gym rats will appreciate that painting walls with a roller is all lats. Because I was stiff and sore from yesterday (not to mention was working out lungfuls of paint fumes), I took it easy this afternoon, walked a little bit, and spent a nice 40 minute break with a green tea latte and a couple of cookies.

Lately I've noticed other symptoms of recession - several local businesses that I frequent now promote coupons and have punch cards. I use punch cards as much as the next person - religious with a few, not so religious with most. My only tip on how to use punch cards (and their cousins, gift cards) is to store them in a business card carrier, rather than busting your wallet. And when you fill your business card carrier, its time to clean it out of the punch cards you don't use. Anybody trade cards?

The final thing that I've really noticed is the proliferation of water-filled dog bowls in front of businesses on Greenwood Ave. Dog bowls started first with some of the coffee shops around, signaling a dog-friendly business. Today I saw a dog treat dispenser beside the dog bowl in front of one coffee shop (okay the one I stopped at), a high end silvery dog bowl in front of a sidewalk ad listing spa services, and a large tupperware bowl full of water in front of a hair salon. No dog bowl in front of the business you'd expect a dog bowl in front of - a pet food store.

So what gives with all the dog bowls? I can kind of see it if you are setting a dog bowl in front of an in and out service. Tie up your dog and give him something to drink while he waits for you. But the one in front of the spa? Hmmm. That could be a long wait. Maybe its smart - the dog stops for the water, forcing its owner (the tail) to stop and read the signs about what the business does.

The dog treat dispenser definitely picks up the game. Its a modified bubble gum machine. Treats are .25 apiece, with a sign that plaintively tells the owner not to hide this fact from the dog.

Well, if the dog had its own allowance...

Saturday
Saving log - $0 tip box + $35 drp
Spending log - $15 brunch/coffee + $12 produce

Sunday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $3.25 coffee & bagel + $4 latte & cookie

This morning we stopped into our local Sunday coffeehouse, expecting a fairly quiet coffee and Sunday newspaper reading. People were swinging from the rafters! We asked what was up ...

Owner: We got refugees from the Tully's Coffee across the street (87th/Greenwood). They closed.

Us: Huh? That was quick.

And it was quick - Wednesday nothing was amiss. The notice went up on Thursday. By Saturday they were closed. By Sunday, you can see the newspaper shroud along all the windows. About as fast as the Alaska Deli downtown...although at Tully's least there was a note.

There seems to be a spectra of closure styles.

You have the never-ending closure style of the Oriental rug stores in Pioneer Square. It wouldn't surprise me if those stores have only two signs - an Everything Must Go Sign and a Grand Opening sign - and the owner flips a coin to determine which one they put up for the month.

You have the political statement closure: a news-worthy proprietor who is retiring or the rent's going up. I call it a political closure because it usually takes several months with some local ain't-it-a-shame or shed-a-light-on-other-issues press. I lump the Starbucks closures in that category. Anybody go to that Starbucks on Dexter and Aurora? Its on the list.

You have the clear must get out by the end of the month sale and closure. My CD place was one of those. Burn off as much inventory in that last month as you can, with the goal of leaving only dirty carpet on the first.

To me, the oddballs are the really quick closures. Last year, the Denny's in Ballard closed with incredible speed and no particular warning. One Saturday we ate there, the next Saturday that Denny's sign was down, and the place was boarded up. Now this Tully's. Perhaps it makes a little bit of sense when a multi-branch company does it - they move the inventory out within a few hours, leaving cricket chirps behind.

But the Alaska Deli? Still a mystery - it was in the midst of construction, but it had been in the midst for a month or two, it was clearly marked Open with clear sidewalks. Frankly, with all the construction guys swarming around it should have been doing the business of its life. May 30, it was selling coffee; June 2 the door was locked. The extra mystery is that the Alaska Deli's stock is still mostly there even now. (this pic was taken in early July)


I'm probably reading too much into these quick closures. But a business has some sort of relationship with its neighborhood, and its customers. Do these quick closures tell us that we don't care or that we might care too much?

Savings log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.50 coffee + $11 lunch + $4 dinner for two.

Not much is happening at work in these past two days. But this morning I walked to my stop and found this:


Which means only one thing - the Greenwood Seafair Parade. DH joined for a bit this year - I sprung for Greenwood Market $2 brat special for each of us: brat, potato chips, bottled water. The parade suffered a bit from timing issues, as in "when the (*&)(*& is this starting?". I told DH the only way to make it go faster was to walk backwards along the route. Most of my pictures are blurry, of which I will now bore you forthwith.

The motorcycle drill team:


The QFC shopping cart drill team:


The Seafair Pirates are now equal opportunity. A little something for the three guys who are reading - besides, we are a family blog.


And finally, keepin' it fiscal:


Bonus points that adults would dress up as checks and tax forms.

Saving log - $0
Spending log - $50 clothes + $30 groceries

This weekend I walked about 4 mi each day. My itineraries:

Saturday - Golden Gardens/ Shilshole Marina/ top of the Burke Gilman along Skyview Ave/ Hiram Chittenden Locks/Fish Ladder/ Market St in Ballard

Sunday - north on Greenwood Ave/ 105th to Northgate/ Mineral Springs Park/ Northgate Mall

Didn't find any change on the sidewalk, but there was no admission to get into any of the parks, the fish ladder, or the Locks. So they were both nice, cheap urban hikes. I will still have to think about the ultimate destination. If its to a mall, then there's the thought of shopping. It sounds so dang obvious, but if you want to avoid spending discretionary money, you have to avoid going shopping.