Who gets the door knob

Originally uploaded by dieselboii.

With Gotham Tavern now closed and the Ripe Empire looking to keep Clark/Lewis afloat, I wonder who will end up with the cool dog doorknob at the tavern in North Portland. I see the Gotham parking signs have been taken, yet the dog remains. Or, maybe they have been marketting the space to a doggy daycare outfit.

I just heard an ad on the radio for Fred Meyer. Now through August 5 if you buy a pair of Converse All Stars Fred Meyer will donate a buck to your school district. I think that’s awesome! That’s two of my favorite things in the world, Chuck Taylors and money for schools. I don’t really need another pair of Chucks right now, but my girlfriend and I are going to buy some anyway and I don’t even have kids that go to school. I sure can use the karma points though.

Since most of my family lives on the other side of the state, I tend to make some long trips. Since I sometimes make them alone, and this does not sit well with Mister Fishbones, I have considered signing up for Triple A.

I was googling about, looking for more information about AAA (and hoping they were not the spawn of Satan) when I came across an article about the Better World Club, sort of like the Working Assets equivalent of Triple A. I checked out the differences between the two, and then I remembered that I can also sign up for Roadside Assistance on my cell phone, and it got me wondering, so now I’m all conflicted.

I’ve read about some Triple A policies and such, and I’ve read the comparison between Triple A and BWC, whom I like because they’re local and they seem to offer all the stuff AAA does for at least the same price if not less, and they have other options that I like (carbon offsets, hybrid car discounts, etc).

So what it comes down to is this: Should I sign up for AAA? Better World? My cell provider’s roadside assistance? I do want to sign up for one, it would be nice to know I’m not completely stranded, not to mention the worry it would save Mister Fishbones. Have you had one of these services? Do you like it? Is there some reason not to sign up for one or definitely sign up for the other? Please give me your personal experience in the comments.

Today I ventured a little out of my comfort zone (east of 82nd) to go golfing with a friend. On our way to the course while stopped at a light a man in a car next to us rolled his window down and proceeded to ask me if I wanted to sell my car. Lets get something straight before I go any further.. I do not own a fancy car. I don’t have a big spoiler on it and it’s not a bumpin’ hoopty either.

Needless to say I was caught a little off guard by the proposal. At first I thought maybe it was someone I knew but I realized quickly that it wasn’t. My friends only comment was something like “These Gypsies drive me crazy, always trying to scam people..” I didn’t realize we had Gypsies in Portland and come to think of it I don’t even know what a Gypsy really is.. According to my friend it’s a person that is trying to make a buck at your expense.

Gypsie or not, I thought it was pretty stupid. If I wanted to sell my car there would be a freaking sign on it. Even if there was a sign on it I wouldn’t sell it to you on the corner of 102nd and Glisan while stopped at a light. I guess this incident just confirms my distaste for the outskirts of town..

I found this article on the Oregonian’s website talking about different ways people try to save a buck or two in their daily lives. It got me thinking.. What do you do to save a buck? Personally I feel like I find ways to spend rather than save. I feel like I’ve gotten that part of life down pretty well. I do know people that regularly do some pretty crazy stuff to save some money though. Maybe I feel like my time is more valuable than the effort it would take to wait in line for gas or go to the bottle return line at Fred’s.. I do find it interesting to hear what others do though. Who knows.. Maybe as I grow older I will adopt some of these practices. Here are some of my favorites from the article:

– Using scrap paper from junk mail as printer paper..
– Washing and re-using paper towels..
– Dumping trash in the local grocery store dumpsters.

The thing thats odd to me is the people who do this are usually people that have considerable amounts of cash at their disposal. My Parents are a perfect example. They are retired and doing just fine.. Yet my Dad insists on doing whatever it takes to avoid paying a garbage bill. He reguarly finds new places to dump the trash as long as it doesn’t involve him putting a can out on the curb.. You have to pay for that! Am I missing a valuable lesson?

After a weekend of speculation, fueled by Ian Furness’ reporting that Portland was looking into trading for Jamaal Magloire, it’s official. As of the two o’clock hour today, Jamaal Magloire is a Blazer.

Portland, continuing perhaps the single most exciting off-season in years, made it’s seventh trade of the summer and traded away Steve Blake, a useful and serviceable PG, and two relative non-entities (Brian Skinner and Ha Seung-Jin) to the Bucks in exchange for Jamaal Magloire, a 28 year-old former All-Star.
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To the dude in the red Beemer that stopped to yell at me as I passed in front of him on my bike on my way to work this morning:

Yes, that was totally my fault, I deserved to be yelled at, and I’ll try to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Thanks for not splattering me all over your windshield.

Originally uploaded by PAgent

That large sphere hovering over Pioneer Courthouse Square isn’t a UFO, it’s a ‘Parabouncer’. The good folks from Snapple are on tour promoting Snapple White Tea, and the Parabouncer is part of the show. If you wish to, you can strap into the harness dangling under the Parabouncer and see what it feels like to be practically weightless. Looks like fun!

It made me pretty happy when I got online this morning to see that we will be experiencing more of this wonderful cooler weather throughout the week. I’ve always thought that tempuratures in the mid 70’s to low 80’s is what suits Portland best anyway. I would be happy if it stayed this way all summer but the extended forecast is already predicting a return to warmer weather by Saturday and Sunday. There was no specifics on what “warmer” is going to be though.

I am going to take advantage of this day by working on my golf game. The 65 I shot last time (9 holes) was a little embarassing and definitely needs some improvement. But I am thinking this weather will bring out the Tiger inside.. Possibly reducing my score by at least 10 strokes.

I just bypassed an Albertson’s yesterday in favor of the WinCo across the street. Turns out, i’m probably not the only one making that decision. That store – at 1350 N.E. 122nd Ave. (along with a second PDX store at 4140 S.E. 82nd Ave) will be closing by September, according to an announcement Friday. Also closing: a Beaverton store at 1295 N.W. 185th Ave, and two more down in Salem.

(I’d kind of predicted the closure in this earlier post asking where people grocery shopped – Albertson’s never came up, although many other stores did.)

I have to admit that Albertson’s never crossed my radar much – first, I was put off by the annoying Patricia Heaton commercials, then irritated when their uptight corporate parent forbid the sale of an issue of Seventeen magazine ’cause it had (gasp) illustrations of female genitalia in a health article meant to educate girls.

But the job losses – an estimated 700, according to the BizJournal article – sting nonetheless. And since this leaves only eight remaining Albertsons in PDX proper, how much longer can we expect to see the rest stay open?