Yesterday, according to AdBusters, was "Buy Nothing Day." We did, however, buy a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke from our independent corner grocery store. We declared it "Do Nothing Day." We did, however, make a quick find on a geocache we logged as a "Did Not Find" last weekend. We also cleaned the kitchen. I also went to yoga class.

There were only five people in yoga class yesterday. Three of the students were first-time drop-ins. It made for a good class. Lisa seemed to be pleased with the progress I've made toward aligning my back properly. Yesterday, she concentrated on getting me to hold my shoulders back.

I'm happy that my parents have moved in with my brother and his wife. I think the four of them are a good match. They share the same taste in eclectic esoterica. After an enjoyable Thanksgiving of Stan Boreson, Balderdash, raccoons, and Train Simulator, Phillip and I went home and watched the thirtieth anniversary show of Prairie Home Companion on PBS. That's when it hit me: A day with my parents and Dave and Marji is like a real-life Prairie Home Companion.

There's a medium-sized residential/commercial building being constructed at the corner of Boren & Madison. As I was riding in on the bus this morning, I noticed that someone had spray-painted, over the architectural drawing on display, the words "NO SPRAWL." I wonder what the graffiti "artist" had meant to say. Do they know what the word "sprawl" means? (It seems to me that a mixed-use, multi-residential building in an urban area is the exact opposite of sprawl.) Or is it some form of sarcasm that I'm missing?

I did a quick account of our six caches this morning. I counted the number of "Found"s, "Did Not Find"s, and Notes (not left by us) that each cache has acquired on geocaching.com, as of this morning. There are some surprising numbers. Phillip and I are especially intrigued by the high number of finds for our puzzle cache - "U.T." (We conclude that geocachers are exchanging information.) Then there's our remote, rural cache: "The Girls."

A note about the difficulty rating: The first number is how difficult it is to find the cache's hiding spot (from 1 to 5), and the second number is how difficult it is to get to the cache.

"1st Hill, 1st Cache" was listed on May 7. It has a difficulty rating of 1/1. It has 43 "Found"s, 9 "Did Not Find"s, and 4 Notes.

"Get Christie, Love" was listed on May 30. It's a 2.5/1. It has 22 Founds, 18 DNFs, and 6 Notes.

"I Can See The Dawghouse From Here!" August 6. 1/2. 29 Founds. 7 DNFs. 1 Note.

"U.T." September 3. 3/1. 21 Founds. 1 Did Not Finds. 0 Notes.

"The Girls" was listed on September 4. It's a 2.5/2. Just 1 Found, 0 Did Not Finds, and 0 Notes.

"White Noise" November 11. 2/1. 5 Founds. 9 DNFs. 3 Notes.

I enjoy completing the consumer surveys that arrive in my email inbox - don't misunderstand me. I feel proud to let companies know that we are not their typical consumers. The problem is that the surveys tend to be written as if we are typical consumers, and the multiple choice answers don't leave much room for alternative voices to be heard. How often do you buy paper towels for your kitchen? D: Less than once a month. (How about less than once a year?) On your last vacation, which hotel chain did you stay in? E: Other (How about independent?) How many miles do you drive to and from work in a typical week? C: Less than 50 (How about zero?) And so on.

I don't like shopping carts. The following came to me while we were shopping in Ikea with Lynn: shopping carts are like SUVs. Some people do need something as big as a shopping cart, but too often, shopping carts are used by people who don't really need them. I was nearly run into several times by shopping carts coming around a corner - aisle-blocking behemoths that contained a picture frame or a frying pan and nothing else.