Thanks given

Buy well
Now that we've all given thanks (yes this is a delayed post-Thanksgiving post) for the nice people in our lives and the option of overeating, we can get down to the business of buying stuff. Let the restoration of consumer confidence begin with you. You must need something or at least have an undeniable want. How is the economy to grow unless everyone finds a need for more stuff than they needed last year? Come on people. My mutual funds are lagging. Get with the program. If you're out of ideas, just send me some money (I have a PayPal account) and I'll go buy some socks or gum or something. Let's get the frenzy back.

I left my [shopping] cart in San Francisco

A right wing view of downtown SF

To give thanks this year we flew Allegiant Airlines direct from Bellingham to Oakland for Thanksgiving in San Francisco. Yes, Allegiant -- the bargain airline that serves little Bellingham because it's an easy way to get at the many more Canadians that live near here (in Canada) than Bellinghamsters. And because Canadians have Thanksgiving in October (before Halloween -- it's crazy), it was fairly easy to get seats.

Good burritos at Chino's

First order of business in SF: reunite with a good SF burrito (where taquerias melt the cheese in the tortilla-steamer). With that business settled (at Chino's on Balboa) we jumped into three and half days of visiting, eating (some more), walking up and down hills, and playing some Scrabble. We also had some odd jobs to take care of such as foraging for lost tennis balls at JP Murphy playground (to take home for our dog) and venturing downtown for a taste of black-Friday madness (our children made us do it).

Ella, Kristin, & Ivy try on pants
at Nike Town, SF.

Kristin and I did manage to sneak in a date -- a morning coffee at a newish Jewish cafe near Jeanne's house (where we were staying) in the Inner Sunset District. At the Old Jerusalem Cafe we joined one other customer (an aspiring author/compulsive notebook scribbler) and an eager barrista. Eager barrista insisted we order his specialty -- an americano with some steamed milk. Maybe it was because he'd never seen us before that he explained the potential of this beverage to please as if he himself had invented heated liquid.

Candles a bit droopy at the Old
Jerusalem Cafe (which has new
hours, by the way).

But it was no time to deny anyone their pride. It was still Thanksgiving weekend. But, the coffee was only okay. My nugget of wisdom for the barrista: Just because you have a big mug doesn't mean you should fill it. I've always tended towards smaller cup sizes myself.

Thanks taking
The return to Bellingham started off smoothly enough. An easy drive across the Bay Bridge, light bags filled with little more than three pairs of underwear and a bunch of weather-worn tennis balls. When we got to the Allegiant Airlines counter we were met by the baggage nazi -- sizing frame in one hand, roll of hot pink approval-tape in the other. No fitty, no tapey, you checky, you pay. Ella, Ivy, and Jack's bags all just made it. Kristin and I, who have the same exact bag, were one inch too tall. We'd been caught in Allegiant's post-thanksgiving extra revenue net -- with many other dumbfounded and now-bitter passengers. There's more to this story but, if you want the more complete rant you can read a google-docs copy of my letter to Allegiant. But, for this blog, I'll let this lesson live on as...

Travel tip No. 2

Sorry... too big. $35
(times two) on the
credit card. Next.

To continue with Sporadigram's Travel Tip series, today's tip is simply that  while Allegiant Airlines seems to be a perfectly functional and potentially cheap way to get to and leave from Bellingham, you need to know and accept ahead of time that it's a total game. And with all games, you win some and you loose some. If you're expecting traditional customer service, you're just gonna get hurt.

And, as an update, I did get an immediate reply (by e-mail) to the letter I mailed to tell me that my letter had been received and that it would be answered within 60 days.  Will I get my money back? Will sanity be restored to an industry that's lost its way? Will I feel whole again? Stay tuned.



The new "-genic"

         Is that a play button or am I about to get my teeth
         cleaned?

So maybe it's not enough to write a letter. Maybe what it takes these days is a video. The contemporary visual signal of having something to say is the video freeze-frame with the play-button arrow superimposed on the soon-to-be-talking head. And, setting up that image probably requires some attention to detail to make it "videogenic" -- at least a little more attention than was paid to a recent link that Senator Patty Murray's office e-mailed recently. The play-button looks more like a form of censorship or a hastily added beak.  Oh well. Just another real issue for our legislators to worry about and need money to perfect.


'tis the season

With December now underway we found ourselves this week at the Port of Bellingam Holiday Festival.  Ella, Ivy, and the rest of the Whatcom Middle School 8th Grade Orchestra performed a festive Friday lunch-time concert for parents and many others who, for the most part, arrived in 20-passenger vans from assorted group-living facilities.

The Port's annual holiday festival is also host to a large gingerbread house contest. Ella, Ivy, and Talia entered and won the 4th-8th grade category (showing no mercy towards their 4th-7th grade peers) with the culmination of their effort, "Gnome Home." The victory was even more impressive because the competition included not one but two gingerbread yurts (because, after all, what's a mushroom house but a naturally occurring yurt for tiny gnomes?).

Gnome Home.

 The Shire: Why Hobbits never leave home.

In addition to  judged categories, the gingerbread house contest includes a People's Choice Award given at the end of the festival. While my one allotted vote went to Gnome Home, I was strangely drawn to another entry: The Shire. It just felt like home somehow and I was compelled to give it support.

Sporadigram censored!
It's true. I forgot to mention this last time. While I was attempting to write a little blog, hooked up to free wi-fi in the lobby of the Niagara Marriott, I was informed that my attempt to access Sporadigram had been "successfully" blocked by the services of Puresight.com because of inappropriate material. I have tried (inconclusively) to figure out what I've typed or pictured that the purifying filters of Puresight have caught and rejected but, in some way, it's kind of fun to think that someone (or at least some piece of software) classifies me as a danger to society.