America has a no problem. We want to say it when we shouldnt and dont say it when we should. It may be universal but I can only speak for America. Actually I can only speak for myself so lets put it that way. I have a no problem. This is should be treated like every other disease. Because of my no problem, I am overworked, underpaid and gaining weight. We have so many reasons to NOT say no. Or excuses rather. Let me give an example I saw recently...

In line to satisfy another addiction at my place of work, an egregiously overweight woman has just ordered. By overweight, I mean she can go 3.5 stones easy. The transaction was something like this.

"Would you like whipped cream?" the non-barista asks.
"Oh, I guess." 3.5 stones replies.
The non-barista hands her a Super Big Gulp sized mocha blended ice cream drink, with whipcream oozing from the slurpee top. At this, the woman sees me and, as she lifts the straw to her lips states, "I am SO tired today."

If you are tired, have a double shot, have a vivarin, something other than a pacific ocean of sugar and fat in a cup. Say no. Deny yourself. I am in need of this advice as well. A pint of Hagen Daaz coffee IC before bed isnt showing the best will power.

The rest of the day, Morrissey and Marr haunted my psyche - "Fat girl with a mocha, I know, I know...it's serious."

blast.

In line at Safeway when the patron behind me flaunted his true colors in a somewhat less than obvious (to him) but still very egregious manner.

In our local store, the Duvall, Washington store to be precise, some troop of Boy/Girl Scouts/Brownies/Youth Group/Young Taxidermists what-have-you's went through the store and meticulously taped coupons on various items. I can see the poor things, cooped up in a sweatshop (or what passes for one in Carnation/Duvall--A dairy) cutting out coupon after coupon to take to the Safeway and tape to containers of oil, Bisquick, and any manner of other goods.

When said item is brought to the counter, the clerk asks "Do you wish to donate, or use the coupon?" I figure I didn't come in with it, and someone put in some hard work to get it there...Ok so actually I feel the eyes of the clerk looking down her crooked, and warted green nose with a look of contempt while all the shame of childhood, buried thinly behind a glass ego, wells up inside me and I scream "Donate! Donate! What ELSE would I do?!?! DONATE!"

Not so the patron behind me. As he hefts his bag of dog food unto the scanner and the question is asked "Would you like to donate, or use the coupon?" the stammered answer belies the true motives of his heart.

"I, er, uh....I uh... I think THIS TIME, I'll use it."

Yeah right buddy. Like anyone of us think that you actually DONATED last time.

Around the same time, I heard a thousand scouts cry out with the pain of paper cuts. A thousand cuts, for the cash value of less that 1/100 of a cent. A thousand cries for 35 cents off...

blast.

As an Ice Cream afficianado, I am not partial to Cold Stone Creamery. The ic is too sticky, though I will concede that it is probably on purpose as it allows them to knead the cream to add the coveted mix-ins.

Everytime I go in, I opt for the smaller size and they attempt to upsell me to the larger. "Would you like to get 50% more for just 50 cents," they proclaim. This is all good except for the MIR.

Yes, the MIR. The Mix-In Ratio. The ratio of Mix-In's to Ice cream. Since the entire concept of the Cold Stone Creamery, Marbleslab Creamery, Cold Rock Creamery what have you, revolves around the Mix-In, I would think more attention would be paid to the MIR.

Since the Ice Cream itself is sub par (too much emmulsifier not enough butterfat), the MIR is the sole reason to come in. When I respond "yes" to the upsell, I expect the MIR to remain constant, but in fact, it goes down.

I now have 50% more cream to the same amount of whatever I asked to blend in. Thus, in order to maintain a constant MIR, I also need to purchase an upgrade on the Mix-In. Now I am standing square at a buck for the entire upsell, and I could have bought 2 pints of creamy, un-mix-in-adulturated Hagen Daaz. Mmm... Coffee Hagen Daaz. Now THERE is an IC to be prod of.

blast.

I pack a lunch everyday for work. Brown bag. And, truth be told, it has not varied very much since grammer school. I may get a Pepsi instead of Capri Sun these days but other than that, basically the same.

I have made an attempt to cut out trans fats however. That means anything Hostess has been dropped in favor of something far less tasty.

And now, with 3 kids at home, my lunchs tend towards the juvenille. Fruit leather, celery, Goldfish or other cracker... In our attempt to purge the trans fats, we've even evaluated our kiddie cracker choices. Wheat Thins seem to be on the cutting edge of the revolt against trans fats so that was the carb content of my lunch today.

Which brings me to my point, and I'll be brief here. The Wheat Thins box reads "0g Trans Fat" and just below it "Even Better Taste". So...why the trans fats in the first place?

If you are in the market for a pair of boots, might I recommend Frye boots?

Not only are they handcrafted and solid, their committment to their product is stellar. My pair developed a click when I walked after about a year of use. Since they were outside the Zappos.com one year warranty, I contacted Frye directly.

They asked me to send in the boots. They found that they had a broken shank so promptly sent me a new pair. The only thing I can rant about here is that I have to go through the arduous process of training new boots.

Try em. Not only are they well made, they're pretty cool lookin' too.

Bear with me on this... I'm going to lose much of my non-Northwest audience on this, but if you can, think of your own local government mis-spending. This can apply anywhere.

Here is the sitch. Every day I drive across the road on the map above. This road is slated for a $1.5 million project. The river, as you can see on the valley floor, has a tendency to flood. 4-5 times a year we lose the use of the road and have to go through the town of Duvall. Annoying to be sure, but what can you say about natue? Deal.

King County's response, lets raise the road. Great. All for it. However, it seems like this less-than-a-bandaid...i'll let King County explain it.

King County is planning to raise two portions of NE 124th Street in the Snoqualamie River Valley this summer to REDUCE the RISK of the roadway being covered by water during floods.

-and-

On both the east and west sides of Novelty Bridge, NE 124th Street has low sections that are covered by floodwaters several times each year. Raising these sections by 14 inches will keep the road above water EXCEPT when the river is cresting durning a major flood...

-so-

No promises, in fact, we get the guarantee that we will still have flooding and road closures. We are trying to reduce (diminish the extent) the risk (possibility of loss)... You tell me. Look at the pictures and tell me what 14 inches will give us.

Blast.

As has been established, I live in the Northwest. Seattle-ish. Birthplace of Starbucks coffee. At once, the savior and death knell of the coffee industry. Spanning the globe with it's brand of family friendly snobbery, allowing even the indiscriminate to be bone fide hoi polloi. Now, you too can be an elitist.

The concept was and is brilliant. I too fall sway to the plush chairs, the somewhat less than a roar of a propane flame, the warm and inviting colors. While at the same time taking espresso to the masses, it has killed the craft.

Can we still call them barista's? What do they have over the guy who pushes the button to fill a shake cup at any of the 4-corners of fast food locations in your town? I'm all for consistency (my Americano is the same in Seattle, Turlock, or Tokyo), but I'm even more for artistic expression through shot pull. Grind, temperature, pack, etc... All these have been left in the dust of consistency.

Let's save the idea of tipping the "barista" for another post and get on to what spawned this entry, though less compelling now that I think about it. Oh well.

This weekend I went through the Starbucks drive-through. Most drive-throughs have a nice awning to shelter the driver from the rain when paying and receiving food. Why not at the ordering station? I still get water on the fake wood paneling of the mini-van (yet another post) when ordering. I've concluded the awning is strictly for the employee and possibly considered a benefit in HR terms.

So I love coffee. I even love the ice-creamy-powdered drinks. And I will patronize the majors. But if you can find a stand that pulls a real shot, and if its good...tip. And tip well. The craft is dying. The crema is breaking.

Who's the elitist now?

Blast.

Well, by know you know that we have changed clocks once again. Either, you are one of the fortunate unfortunates that forgot or didnt know, or one of the unfortunate fortunates who did. If you fall into the former category, you learned or remembered by some slighly embarrasing moment but you did get the normal amount of sleep. If the later, you are rewarded for your diligence by being robbed of an hour of sleep.

But what hour did you lose? Was is Midnight? Far too important an hour to lose. As the boundary between days, Midnight is the most important time of a given day, though most of us pay her respect by sleeping through it. No, Midnight will not give up her status. Think about if she was the double hour. When it came time to set the clocks back, would we advance a full day in one hour? Hola Wells. Como estas?

And any time that is actual productive time is out. 5:00, 6:00... Especially when you play with Eastern and Pacific times... Skipping 6 in NY, and 6 in Seattle.... That gives us an unfair advantage. NY jumps ahead 3 hours before us and are working an hour earlier before we even have the chance to respond. Maybe not. My head is spinning.

So we need an hour that is neither self-important, nor productive. Those pesky time zones factor in some trouble so what are we left with?

2:00. Perhaps the least important hour of the day. We've decided that 2:00 in the am is worth skipping all together. Of couse she gets her revenge by subjecting us to two 2:00am's in the Fall. But we've found a way to make that a party in that bars that normally close at 2:00, get a bonus hour. So it still works in our favor and not in hers.

Want to know more? I dont know why you would. But here...
Daylight Saving Time

And BTW, it's Daylight Saving Time not Daylight Savings Time. "Saving' modifies "time" not "daylight".

Speaking of time, I just wasted 20 minutes. Should have written this in the missing hour.

Blast.

I live in the cattle pastures. Really. The area is prone to flooding as the Snoqualamie River spills over its banks, cleaning the farms, permeating the air with the Eau de Dairy. This has little to do with my point other than it is the place where the RX-7 and 280Z's go to die.

The thing about sports cars, especially convertible sports cars, is that you have to make a tremendous committment decision when making the inital purchase. You have to decide if you are going to have this car for the short term (3-5 years) or the long term (20-30 years). There is nothing inbeween. Either way you are committing to serious cash outlay.

A functional car can be written off as functional, even when style moves on. A sports car, however, unless vintage, is either new or crap. Thats it. And the less you spend initially, the sooner it needs to be replaced. The Miata (and I could be wrong on this but you be the judge), the poor man's daughters first car, has a 3-5 year shelf life max. Beyond that, it looks like the car your daddy bought you when you were in high school. Sell the car and lose the perm.

The problem is that it looks like you are hanging on to the dream Uncle Rico. You were cool when you bought it but when the cooler car came out, you lost all stock in Coolness Inc. And when 3,4,5 sometimes 15 new versions have come out and you are still driving the 89 Plymouth Laser (turbocharged)... I'm sorry. Its time to hang it up.

Talk to me.