There are at least two things I use a cell phone for that it wasn't designed for:

1) As a phone directory when I make a land-line call.
2) On those rare occasions that we lose electrical power, the time display comes in handy to reset all the clocks around the apartment when the power comes back on.

On the subject of cell phones, I have a mystery on my hands. For the greater part of this year, I've had the need to be in phone contact during the day, so on weekdays, I've transferred our home phone to our cell phone so I won't miss calls while I'm online or outside. It's worked perfectly. For the past week, however, three calls have not transferred to the cell phone. After carrying the cell phone around all day, I'll start to make a call on the home phone and discover a voicemail message. Three times this past week, and only three times this year, I've discovered a voicemail message left while the home phone was transferred to the cell phone. The big mystery is that in each of the three incidences, it's been the same, local phone number. I've ruled out the possibilities that it's the time of day, or that it's the day of the week, or that it's where I am when the call comes in. There's no record of a "missed call" on the cell phone - besides, if that were the case, the message would be in the cell phone's voicemail, not the home phone's. I see no other possibility except that, for reasons I can't guess, it's the phone number itself that prevents it from transferring. Why would that be, though?

On a different subject, I took Lynn to Ikea again today. On our way back we stopped by Kubota Garden. It was the first time either one of us had been to Kubota. We were both in awe of its beauty. Lynn and I sat on the "Mountainside," next to "The Lookout" and meditated together. It may now be one of my favorite of Seattle's parks. I am amazed that I had never even heard of this 20 acre park before today. Granted, it's in a neighborhood that I don't visit on a regular basis, and I don't usually make trips to gardens, but I used to drive route 106, and I've known people who have lived in the area - why haven't I known that this place existed?

When we went to Masalisa on June 12, Lynn and Phillip bought a large take-home bag of herbal Wu Wei blend and split it. Phillip also bought a small bag of lichee red.

Today, I dipped into the herbal Wu Wei blend, which the Masalisa web site describes as: "A harmonious blend of hibiscus petals, orange Zest, lemon balm, cloves, lavender, licorice root and sweetleaf. The beautiful amethyst infusion is naturally sweet, tart and spicy with a citrus encore." I love it!

My 2004 Tea/Tisane Log

1. yerba maté, 1 January
2. genmaicha, 9 January
3. South African Rooibos (with honey crystals), 10 January
4. chamomile lemon herb, 15 January
5. Northwest blackberry, 17-19 January
6. lime herbal teasan, 6 February
7. aged Earl Grey, 17 February
8. black cherry tea (organic Ceylon tea with black cherry flavor), 5 March
9. black tea blend (organic), iced, 17 March
10. oolong, 19 March
11. iced green tea with apple, peach, ginger, and elderberry juices, 21 March
12. artificially flavored "raspberry tea", iced, packed with dyes, preservatives, and possibly tea, 24 March
13. True Blueberry™ herb tea, 19 April
14. raspberry yerba maté (iced), 6 May
15. white (with orange blosson and ginger), iced, 14 May
16. Morning Dew™ (organic Chinese green), 19 May
17. chai tea latte (iced), 20 May
18. black with apricot, 9 June
19. "The Fire" herbal blend, 12 June
20. Ginger Cameronian (iced), 25 June
21. herbal Wu Wei blend, 2 July

I went to a Flexcar get-together this evening. The email I received told the that the Capitol Hill get-together would be at Tully's Coffee at "824 Pike Street." Right away, I thought that was a little odd - 824 Pike Street is Downtown, next to The Convention Street, not technically Capitol Hill. But, I figured, maybe it was the closest spot to Capitol Hill that Flexcar could get.

I found a great parking spot, on 8th Avenue, right off of Pike - but couldn't find a Tully's. In fact, I couldn't find anything with the address of 824 Pike Street.

Then I remembered the Tully's farther up Pike Street - at the corner of Broadway and Pike. That really is Capitol Hill, and it wasn't far away.

I drove up Pike Street to the Tully's at 824 East Pike Street, and arrived at the Flexcar get-together five minutes late. (It was a half-hour meeting.) I didn't know who to blame. Did Flexcar get it wrong, or did I write it down wrong?

I got home and re-read the email. I hadn't written it down wrong.

I then used the Store Locator at the Tully's web site. It turned out that it was Tully's that got it wrong. They list that store as "824 Pike Street (Capitol Hill)." If I went to Tully's more often, or if I spent more time in that area (Broadway, south of Seattle Central Community College, at the border of Capitol Hill and First Hill), I probably wouldn't have even looked at the address - but I did, and I wound up in the wrong place.

I sent a gentle email to Tully's Customer Service.

The Flexcar get-together was fun, informative, profitable (I got a $10 credit just for being there), and lasted an hour and a half.

The battle against adware is not going well. I'm getting tired of saying "I hate computers."

Late last night, I finished Moonraker. If I had any morals, I'd dismiss it as being violent and sexist (although the "girl" in this one saved the day by coming up with a much better solution than Bond did) - but these are exciting and well-written books. It had a great car chase and a heck of a game of bridge.

Moonraker had the first "Bond moment" I've run across in these first three novel. You know what a Bond moment is: The bad guy has James Bond tied up, and all he has to do it kill him, but instead the villain tells Bond every detail of his plan and then leaves him alone to escape.

What I need is some way to carry a little notebook around with me. But in hot weather like this, I don't wear a jacket, and blue jeans don't have pockets big enough for a notebook. In this notebook, I would jot down things I wonder about, so I could look up the answer later on the internet. Fortunately, my pockets are usually full of scraps of paper - receipts, ticket stubs, and such.

I was driving Phillip home this afternoon when David Bowie started singing "Young Americans" from the radio speakers. It occurred to me that, although I love that song, I've never known what it was about. The lyrics go by too fast, but they sure sound good. I should look it up on the internet.

At the next red light, I pulled a scrap of paper and a pen from my pocket and wrote down "Young Americans." I worried a bit that the driver of the Land Rover ahead of us was thinking that I was writing down her license number.

From what I've learned on the internet, "Young Americans" is a social commentary on young people following an American dream that's just beyond reach. It's a tribute to American soul music, and a nod to the Beatles' "Day In The Life."

The lyrics are wonderful, by the way - plenty of word play and double meanings.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across the web site of the Congress for the New Urbanism. The site features a Flash tour which contains a nice definition of a neighborhood. Part of it says: "Many daily needs should be supplied within [a] five-minute walk."

I used to consider Broadway an ideal neighborhood. Everything was here, within walking distance. Now Fred Meyer is leaving. Where are we going to buy printer ink? Stationery? (Maybe the Seattle Central Community College bookstore, but that's a lengthy walk, even for me.) DVDs? Plants? Art supplies? Paint?

There's also Bartell's and Rite Aid drug stores, but their inventory is limited. (They don't carry printer ink at all.)

Now it looks like Bartell's (next door to QFC) is leaving. The windows are papered over. Signs say "STORE CLOSED," and nothing says anything about moving or reopening.

What is the future for Broadway?

I haven't done a "song stuck in my head" post in a long while.

The song stuck in my head today is 500 Miles by Hedy West. Today, I have a pretty good idea why. Yesterday, Phillip and Lynn and I saw Fahrenheit 9/11. I started thinking of a similar (in spirit) documentary: Hearts and Minds, which featured the song in my head right now. I may have seen Hearts and Minds once, and it was a long, long time ago. I remember it being a great, powerful film.

Fahrenheit 9/11 was also a great, powerful film. It was, frankly, better than I was expecting. I mean, I'm a big fan of Michael Moore and all, but this one went way beyond his usual comic (genius) commentary, and into some truly shocking territory.

We saw it at The Neptune, and it was a full house. It's been said that this is a film that preaches to the choir, and that's alright with me. The fact that tickets for this film are selling out everywhere (even Kansas, noted the folks in the seats ahead of us) is a demonstration that the anti-Bush, anti-war point of view expressed by Michael Moore is commonplace. That makes me feel good.