I sent two Geocaching Travel Bugs into the wild this afternoon. I designed them to be siblings with similar, but different goals. "Soy Latte" wants to visit coffee houses. "Genmaicha" wants to visit tea houses. I dropped them both into the same cache in Volunteer Park.

It is traditional with Travel Bugs to attach an item fitting the theme of the goal - so, obviously, I needed something dealing with tea and something dealing with coffee. Phillip gave me the idea of refrigerator magnets. I had already considered that, actually, but it was a great suggestion.

On my way home from work last Thursday, I stopped into Bartell Drugs. No refrigerator magnets of any kind. Then I stopped into Rite Aid. No refrigerator magnets. Then I stopped into QFC. The only refrigerator magnets they had were practical, plastic clips. (Where do you find decorative refrigerator magnets? Have they gone out of fashion?) At QFC, I found a cheap tea ball, which would work for Genmaicha - but couldn't find anything similar for Soy Latte. I knew I could find something better than a tea ball, however.

I wanted whatever I attached to my Travel Bugs to be small, so it could fit into most caches - except, of course, micros. It is also advised that the attached item be cheap and not too attractive, to discourage cachers from keeping it.

This morning, I looked in Urban Outfitters, Bulldog News, QFC (again), Starbucks, and Bailey Coy Books. Even in this coffee-crazy culture, I couldn't find any coffee-related trinkets.

Phillip and I went to the vets office this morning to pick up Gladden's medicine, which I had accidentally left behind last weekend. Along the way, we found a cache.

After the vet's office, we stopped into Fred Meyer. Still no refrigerator magnets. We found the same tea ball I'd seen at QFC (they're both owned by Kroger, after all) and Phillip persuaded me that it would be perfect for Genmaicha. But I still could not find anything small, cheap, and coffee related. We went to the toy section, because I thought of a child's kitchen set. No such luck. (Don't children play house anymore?)

We tried to find another cache near Fred Meyer, the one we had tried the day Phillip had the allergic reaction, but still couldn't find it. (When I tried to log our second "Did Not Find" tonight, I learned that the cache had been muggled and disabled.) We did, however, find a totem pole in the park and remembered that it's the subject of a locationless cache. No one had logged it before, so our trip to the park wasn't a total loss.

Phillip suggested the cooking store in University Village. The problem with that was that The University of Washington was having its commencement ceremonies, and traffic in the area would be impossible.

We went to Larry's Market, but couldn't find anything for Soy Latte. We went to Target, and couldn't find anything. I was getting frustrated. This is Seattle, latte land, after all. Why is there nothing coffee related except mugs, coffee pots, espresso makers, and filters? Where are the magnets? The coffee spoons? The demitasse cups? The play house sets?

Then Phillip suggested Value Village. While I was looking at cooking supplies there, Phillip, in the next aisle over, found the perfect thing - a small, metal espresso cup for 99 cents.

(As I was writing that last paragraph, I got an email. Someone has picked up "Soy Latte." It's travelling.)

So Genmaicha was launched with a tea ball, and Soy Latte was launched with an espresso cup.

I got a phone call at about 4:00 this afternoon. It was my upstairs boss, telling me that she'd been contacted by the clinic I'd interviewed with, asking for a reference for me. She gave them a great, detailed endorsement of me.

About ten minutes later, I got another call. This one was from the new clinic. They offered me the job. I start on the 27th.

I am excited.

This morning, before I left for work, I looked at some locationless caches. I found one that asks for "suspension bridges for pedestrians only." I immediately thought of that pedestrian bridge over Westlake Avenue. I checked, and no one had logged it. (There was a geocacher in The Czech Republic who got away with logging a pedestrian bridge, long enough ago that the owner should have caught it, which is obviously not a suspension bridge. I thought it was amusing.)

I logged the bridge this evening. I had never been on the bridge before, and had never taken a close look at it. I was surprised to learn that it doesn't connect one side of Westlake to the other. Rather, it connects a parking lot on the east side of Westlake with a set of stairs leading up the hill to Dexter Avenue.

When we upgraded to Opera 8, the post feature of Blogger no longer worked correctly. I couldn't spellcheck or preview posts. There was a weird double text window effect. I wrote to Blogger support. Starting with this post, I can now check my spelling and preview my posts before clicking "Publish."

I didn't write a post last night because, after the celebratory beer, and after coming down from the earlier stress, I was wiped out. I did stay up late to watch "Storytellers: Coldplay" on VH1, though.

I was more nervous about the followup interview yesterday than I was before the initial interview. There was more of a feeling of importance. Things are getting serious when they want you to interview again. The interview yesterday was a lot more relaxed, however - like meeting with friends.

The only way I'm not going to get this job is if someone else did a better interview.

Sometimes, when I get bored with the movie I'm watching, I focus my attention on the extras in the background - say, the out-of-focus couple sitting at the table behind the stars of the movie. I imagine that whatever they're talking about, the story of whatever happened before they got to the restaurant, is more interesting than the story the movie is telling me. I imagine that all the extras have stories of their own.

This never happens when I watch a Krzysztof Kieslowski film. For one thing, I never get bored watching a Kieslowski film. For another thing, I always know that the extras do have stories of their own. Furthermore, I know that I will probably know the stories of the extras, sooner or later. Those extra stories may come forward later in the film, or they may show up in a film of their own. Nothing is truly random in a Kieslowski film.

I just got through watching The Decalogue: Four. A Kieslowski film is a complicated story told in a simple manner.

When we were geocaching Friday night, Phillip observed, "There goes one of the last sevens to drive through the U District." I remembered that this morning. Then I saw a 49 heading north.

I stayed up late Saturday night watching Sideways (also borrowed from Broadway Video). As I watched it, I couldn't figure out why it's getting such enthusiastically good reviews. I enjoyed it, but I didn't see anything special about the film. Then I kept thinking about it on Sunday, and suddenly the film seemed a lot better in hindsight.

Yesterday morning, I wrote a small announcement for The Tidings (our church newsletter) for our July Centralites At Play mini-golf adventure. Phillip and I have decided on July 23rd for the date, but we haven't decided on the place. (Interurban Golf is looking like where it's going to be, though.)

Phillip and I checked out another mini-golf course yesterday afternoon. This one was at the Family Fun Center in Tukwilla. The center had two 18-hole courses to choose from. We decided afterwards that we chose the less interesting one. Both courses had things to recommend it - but we're still liking Interurban the best out of all the courses we've tried.

Yesterday morning, I watched The Decalogue: Two, and then yesterday evening I watched The Decalogue: Three. I'm liking the series very much - so far, they're bleak and sad, but well written. I love the believable twist endings.