I sat down to write a post for this blog last night, but discovered that I was just too tired. So, I went to bed. In about an hour and a half, I will be in Volunteer Park, starting the annual AIDS walk. It looks like it's going to rain. It poured down rain during last year's AIDS walk.

Yoga class started yesterday evening. It seemed like I'd been away forever. (That's why I couldn't write last night.) Yesterday, a coworker asked me how long the break (in the yoga class session) had been. I couldn't remember, and I guessed at least two months. In reality, it had been only one month. In this session, we're focusing on the Bhagavad Gita.

Yoga felt good yesterday, especially after the day I had at work. The struggle to have me accept the job at the satellite clinic continues, and it continues to get stronger. Yesterday, I was given a new offer to think over: That I work in both clinics - in the satellite clinic every morning, go to lunch, and then work in the main clinic. I have political reasons against that plan.

As I read through Phillip's new prize book, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (which is a great book, by the way), I realize three things: There are a lot of books on the list that I've read, there are even more books on the list that I've heard of of but have never read, and there are very, very few books on list that I've never heard of. I don't know which one amazes me the most.

I am the back-up person in our satellite clinic, filling in whenever the regular front desk person is not there, and I don't like working there. Not many people know that, except for my immediate supervisor. It's not an intolerable situation, working at the satellite position, and it actually has some good points. It's just not for me. It's too slowly paced, for one thing: A busy day for them is 15 patients during the four hours it is open each weekday. (Contrast that to 100+ patients in the main clinic's eight hour day.) It's too isolated, for another thing: The front desk is jokingly referred to as the "fish bowl." It is an enclosed booth literally in the middle of one of the medical center's less active hallways. The waiting room is around the corner and down another hall. The clinic rooms are through a doorway to the left. It's just me and the pharmacist (who I like talking to) in that little booth, with occasional visits from patients, lost people asking for directions, and the nurse who picks up the check-in paperwork. I prefer a little more action, and a little more interaction.

Yesterday brought the announcement that the regular front desk person at that satellite clinic is leaving. She likes working there a lot, but she's returning to school to further her education. My supervisor, of course, offered me the first chance for the job. She was not surprised when I turned down the offer. Until a new person is hired, however, I will be filling in there often.

The front desk person at that satellite clinic was not there today, and she won't be there tomorrow. She's wisely taking care of some things before her medical benefits expire. I worked there today, and I'll work there tomorrow. I'll be working there a lot in the future. Today, the nurse suggested that I take the job, and the pharmacist practically begged me to. I had a handy excuse, one that allowed me to politely refuse: The position is only 70% full time.

Here are some interesting words I've learned while reading:

almendros (almond trees)
axila (armpit)
llaves (keys)
óxido (rust)
párroco (parish priest)
sacerdote (priest)
salón de billar (billard hall)
vagón (railway car)
vagón de tercera clase (third class railway car)

I'm especially fond of this sentence:

El pueblo flotaba en el calor. (The town floated in the heat.)

Yesterday, Phillip got hooked on Lost.

He watched the first half of the pilot on Sunday while I logged our finds. Then he put the DVD away.

When I got up yesterday morning, Phillip was watching episode 4: "Walkabout" (one of my favorite episodes). I watched the rest of it with him, as well as the next episode. Then Phillip put the DVD away, told me he was going back to bed, and suggested that I go do some geocaching, if I wanted to. I asked him if he was sure he didn't want to help find our 350th cache. "It's just a number," he answered, and went to bed.

I did some solo geocaching in The Arboretum, and did a lot of walking. I looked for four and found three. The fourth cache I went after, the one I didn't find, was a longshot, I figured. The description said it was easier to find with a boat. Some people have found it, however, without a boat. I tried for it boat-less, and tried a long time to find it, but wasn't too disappointed to log a DNF. We are now at 351 finds.

When I came home, Phillip was playing Neopets. I did some reading. Phillip then went back to bed. (It was an oven in our apartment.) I logged our three Finds and one DNF. I surfed the internet. I read. I solved a logic puzzle. I did a lot of things that I didn't really need to do.

Phillip got up yesterday, early evening. He suggested we go do something. We had dinner at the International House Of Pancakes. Over dinner, we discussed our theories about Lost. (I was at an advantage, since I've seen all 24 episodes, and Phillip had seen only five, so I had to hold my thoughts back at times.)

I also decided that IHOP has one of the strangest menus in town. It was not an entirely new thought. I chose the popcorn shrimp basket, which came with the puzzling combination of french fries and garlic bread. On the other side of the menu was a T-bone steak for $13.99 - to which you can add popcorn shrimp for $1.99 more. Two items below that was "T-Bone Steak & Popcorn Shrimp" for $15.99.

After dinner, we make a quick stop at the grocery store, and then we went home. As soon as we got home, Phillip put in the next Lost DVD. We watched episodes 6, 7, and 8 together. Then I suggested that Phillip watch the next episode - "Solitary" - before we went to bed, because, I explained, it's such a turning point in the story. After we watched that one, Phillip said, "OK, just one more," and we watched episode 10. At the dramatic climax of that episode, Phillip said, "Oh, no, no, we can't end it like that." So, we watched episode 11. At the end of episode 11, Phillip said, "Let's finish off the disc," and we watched episode 12. At the end of episode 12, it was 1:00 in the morning, and I had to get to bed. I told Phillip to keep watching, but he decided that he was done for the night, too.

I went to bed at 1:00. My alarm woke my up at 5:30. I am tired this morning.

This morning, Phillip and I went to the Henry Art Gallery. Free admission to the Henry is one of the better benefits of being UW employees. We were both especially fond of the works by Byron Kim and Maya Lin. We also both agreed with what Lynn told us yesterday - that "The Laughing Monks" installation by Akio Takamori was a disappointment.

I often forget that Phillip likes abstract art (such as Byron Kim) - and then I wonder why that aspect of him surprises me.

After the Henry, we stopped off at the library to pick up Phillip's Literary Basket. Inside a purple plastic basket, he got a pound of Starbucks coffee (Phillip doesn't drink coffee), a box of Celestial Seasoning Mint Magic tea (Phillip absolutely hates mint, and I'm not fond of mint tea), a $10 Starbucks gift card (I pointed out that Starbucks sells other things besides coffee), a box of chocolate covered raspberries, a "My Library" cup which matches mine, and a hardcover copy of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.

After we left the library, we went home, picked up our geocaching gear, and drove to Mercer Island. I'd recently solved a puzzle cache, and I wanted to go log it. When we got to the cache, we found a geocaching couple searching for it. They had less than ten finds, and were impressed by our 343 finds. We found the cache together, and that was all they had time for. We, however, went on to look for, and find, four other Mercer Island geocaches. Our find total is now 348. We plan on finding our 350th tomorrow.

Before reaching that first geocache, as we drove over the bridge, Phillip told me that, except for when my parents lived on the north end of the island, he'd never been on Mercer Island. I told him that all I knew of the southern end of the island was when I used to drive busses there, about twenty years ago. I told him about a little strip mall in the southern end that had always been a slight mystery to me. It wasn't exactly run-down, I explained, but it was definitely not upscale. It contained a grocery store, a drug store, and a few discount stores. The mystery, to me, was what a mall like that was doing in a generally upscale neighborhood. "Maybe Mercer Island isn't as affluent as it seems," I remarked. "Well, the hired staff has to shop somewhere," Phillip replied, and instantly my mystery was solved. Phillip then said that he'd like to see that mall. I told him that I wasn't sure if I could remember where it is, and I didn't even know if it was still there. In-between our first and second cache, we drove by the mall. It had improved quite a bit since last I saw it. After our second find, Phillip wanted to find a bathroom. So, we went to the mall. We found a little pizza restaurant - mostly takeout, but with a few tables. I had a garden salad, Phillip had barbecued chicken wings, and then we continued geocaching.

Yesterday, Phillip and I went to Wallingford, planning to meet Lynn there for tea and a movie. We arrived a half-hour ahead of our meeting time, so I suggested we walk over to the Wallingford Center and browse the shops there. Along the way, however, we discovered Not A Number, a sort of mini-Archie McPhee, with a fondness for anti-Bush items. (By the way, the name is a reference to the TV series "The Prisoner.") We didn't make it to the Wallingford Center.

Lynn showed up right on time, and the three of us had tea at Teahouse Kuan Yin. After the tea had run out, we still about 45 minutes until the movie started, so we browsed the shops in the Wallingford Center. While we bought our tickets to see Little Miss Sunshine (a funny little film - not great, but not bad), we were surprised by Michael and Scott who just happened to get in line behind us.

After the movie, Scott and Michael took off, and Phillip and I drove Lynn home. The plan from there was to go to the Henry Art Gallery (Lynn had seen the show already), but Phillip decided that he was tired, so we went home.

It was a fun morning and afternoon. I liked the company, and I like Wallingford. For the rest of the day, Phillip played Neopets online. I read a little, and watched MirrorMask, which Phillip had borrowed from the library. (Visually, I liked the film, but the story was just another "world of light being taken over by the dark until a little girl saves it" type story.)

After Phillip logged off, I checked the phone for messages. The Capitol Hill Branch Library had called. Phillip has won the "Summer Reading for Adults" Literary Basket. The library had closed when we got the message, so we'll go pick it up today.