• 12:57 AM
  You know what a turtle is? Same thing.

Today's interaction with the alien world contained:

[at 3 am] One of my neighbors is watching TV just loud enough for the bass to be heard in my room. It's quiet enough that I can't tell which neighbor, or what they're watching. All I know is it isn't music. Sometimes during the day the TV is BLASTING the news or some other talk show. I don't know why you'd want to watch plain old TV that loud. Some people like their music loud - perhaps others really like to FEEL the 6 o' clock news pumpin'!

Phone call from Qwest: "Hello sir, I'm calling about your residential line account. I see here a note that you've already paid. Sorry for this call, goodbye. *click*"
Wow, that was easy. A benefit of getting the bill paying done!

Phone call from Mr. Noname: "Hello, is there a Beauregard there?" "There's no one by that name here." "Sorry." *click*
There's probably no one by that name in this whole neighborhood. Then again, I knew a Beau when I was in elementary school. "Where's Doug?" "He's at Bo's house." "Who?" "You know... Beeyoo."

As I was walking out of the building, my building manager came running out after me. "Hello! One of the other residents lost his key, so we're re-keying the doorway. Here's the new key.. (to Helen) do you need one?" [her]: "No..I have the code." "Shh! Okay! Well we're going to be reprogramming the garage door too, so I'll tell you how to do that when I figure it out." "Should I give back the key I have?" "No, keep it.. throw it away if you like."

So that thing up there is the moon. On the left, the blue dome is the "roll-on deodorant building".

For dinner, tried to go to Red Mill, but it closed at 9, so we (Helen and I, since she is treating me basically every single time I eat somewhere that isn't my house) went to Red Robin, since it was next best thing, alphabetically. We went to the one on the waterfront, which has an extremely wacky Aeronautics theme, including a flying saucer. I wonder if they have a flying saucer cleaning schedule.

Out the window from dinner. That's The Spirit Of Seattle, and that's a bottle of ketchup.

On our way to dinner we ran into a railroad crossing just as a train approached. Near the waterfront is a major grain offloading point, so there are many trains carrying wheat 'n such between here and wherever wheat comes from. Canada, apparently, since many, many of the cars said CANADA in that cool Canada logo font they have and then had a big stylized wheat logo next to it. Every once in a while there would be a black, hostile tank car with no graffiti on it, labeled DIESEL FUEL or PETROLEUM PRODUCTS or LIQUEFIED SULFUR. I'd take my tagging somewhere less explosive looking, too. Trains are amazingly long, we realized, sitting there. Boxcar, wheat, wheat, Canada, lumber, lumber, lumber, lumber, black tank car full of molten plutonium, boxcar with the door hanging open, illegal immigrants, wheat, wheat, wheat, logs, the end.