Now I started this post about 5 times over the weekend. It started on Friday, so I will tip you as to what day each segments was written. Let's start with Friday's humble beginning.

 

My butt was dragging this morning (Friday) and I have no great excuse. I got a decent night sleep and felt fine. It was my Friday to work, but because of a scheduling conflict, I was working from home today. Yeah, I am a bit more productive at the office than at home.

 

Here was one of my interruptions, I noted a sizeable collection of gonkers in the back yard reminding me that I should clean them up. Devin and I have become poopologists over the years of owning so many dogs. We can, with uncanny certainty, look at a pile and tell you which dog it came from and what ailment they might be experiencing.

 

Poopology has its occupational hazards. You see in the 12,945 experiences of picking up gonkers, I have only stepped in the stuff about 12 times making my SIG (Stepped In Gonkers) ratio .001. However in analyzing the numbers I had discovered that for some reason the incidents of steppage occurs more often after I have purchased new shoes. Today I had new White Tennis Shoes. (Yes Douglas, the ones you can see from space in those satellite photos.) Somehow, I missed the 7 loads and kept my Tennies clean. Life is good.

 

I am home today (Friday) because we (We, I am here alone) are waiting for the Appliance guy to come one more time (This will be the 5th) to say the last rites for our one year old dryer. It has not worked properly since the purchase and the people at Lowes and Samsung have been boneheads. Our last recourse was to buy a new dryer. Then Lowe (couldn't resist) and Behold, Lowe's called and is sending a senior tech to make a final determination about replacement. I am hoping senior is referring to how high the food chain he is and not a chronological aging reference.

 

The window of arrival was 8:00am to 12:00. At 11:51am, Ladislov arrived. Now I am not sure but I think Ladislov must mean "I hate my job." in Slovakian. He was not the happiest tech in the world. The good news was he only took about 18 minutes to tell us that the dryer can not be fixed. He is the 5th person to do so, remember. His efficiency allowed me to be at the closing of the market. (More about the closing later.

 

After running a few errands like picking up Man Child, and getting a hair cut, it was time to take our friends (and readers and members of the Salve Lucrum Portfolio) Butch and Debbie to see the Anaheim Ducks play the Calgary Flames.

 

Now this story starts about 3 weeks ago when we went to the Gala Fundraiser for our high school Santa Margarita Cahtolic HS. One of the items for bid were 4 tickets to a Ducks Game AND an autograph session with Teemu Selanne. Teemu is known as the Finish Flash, because of his speed and agility on the ice.

 

Devin and I are not big hockey fans. As a matter of fact I don't understand a damn about the rules. We had decent seats for the game and Debbie was doing her best to explain the rules to me, but then I would look up and loose the puck and all I could see was a bunch of guys skating fast.

 

After what seemed like 3.2 hours, we were 6 minutes into the first period. I had more fun watching Deb as she watched the game. I went before the game started and ordered a couple of authentic Jersey's for the Ducks with Selanne name and number attached. They would be ready after the game. My plan was to pick up the Jersey, one for Deb and one for Jack, go down stairs to our appointed spot and have Teemu sign the Jersey and get a photo.

 

So we watched the game and wouldn't you know it, it was Friday during Lent. I watched thousands of rude people shoving hot dogs and Philly steak sandwiches in their pie holes while Devin and I foraged for something not containing meat. We lucked out and found veggie pizzas.

 

After the game we made our way down into the bowels of the stadium and patiently waited for our pictures and autographs. We were told that Teemu was taking a shower and he would be right out. I suggested he brush his teeth as well. He arrived moments later.

 

What a great great guy. He not only signed our Jerseys, but he gave us a grand tour of the locker room, and medical facility, and training room, and equipment room (we all scored some pucks. Did you know they keep the pucks frozen so they have less friction on the ice?) What a great guy. He took lots of photos with us and really made us feel special.

 

I still don't understand the sport, but at the end of the night, in my very best Fin, I said "Skitoksia", meaning thank you. He seemed genuinely impressed that I used his native language. (Thank you Google on my iPhone).

 

Saturday, we got up early and headed to Long Beach to pick up another friend, reader, and member of the Salve Lucrum Portfolio, Dennis. He and I along with John K and Dana S. proudly call ourselves the Fish Whisperers and we attempt an annual pilgrimage to some fish filled corner of the world to flail away with our fly fishing gear and a multi-day death by fishing marathon. We have been to lands end in Mexico catching bone fish and all the way North to Jasper National Park Canada in search of beautiful Brook Trout and Pike.

 

Well Dennis and I were headed to the Pasadena Fly Fishing Expo. I had never been so I did not know what to expect. It was a bunch of old white guys running around taking about how long their leaders were. It was very detailed and I found a lot of it interesting, but these were really die hard fisher people.

 

I could not understand why more young people were not in attendance. What could be more exciting that standing around a table with 9 strangers as you watch an old guy cut a 16th of an inch of feather and attach it to a number 18 hook with thread so thin, you had to imagine that he was actually wrapping the hook with something. If you are not a fisherman, a size 18 hook is about the length of your little finger nail or smaller.

 

After a couple of good presentations and walking the show twice, we decided to call it an afternoon and head back to our neighborhood. Devin and I were hosting an evening for Butch and Deb and Dennis and Jerene and two more folk who do not want to be mentioned in the blog, at Hanna's so Dennis and I stopped in to pre order the wine for the evening so it could breath a while. Dave and Kyle (evil bartenders) insisted that Dennis and I enjoy a scotch while we chose the wine. As to not offend these kind gentleman, we acquiesced and forced down some Glenlivet.

 

Then it was home to show everyone the progress with Jack's bedroom and the Garage. More drinking occurred and then we were off to Hanna's for yet another wonderful evening. We were in the Davino Room and the team of Rachel and Andrea looked after us. Everyone had a great time and after trying to calculate the tip about 4 times, Rachel stepped in and did the business.

 

This morning (Sunday) we made it to breakfast at the club with the guys. The excesses of the night before made me not feel all that bad that I could not play golf as I was going to head home and help Jack Man with an English assignment. You see his assignment was to explain if Odysseus was a good or bad leader by using literary devices such as simile, rhetoric, or personification as laid out by Homer in The Odyssey.

 

As it turned out, daughter ended up taking the English assignment and the film assignment. I was commandeered by the boss lady to begin putting our garage back in order. The shelves were just about done so we could put things away. One part of my assignment was to make a stool. No it has nothing to do with gonkers. That would be sick. I actually had to build something that others would sit on. Lord, the stress.

 

Of the 16 screws, I got 14 of them on really good.

 

We had to run to storage and get some of our kitchen stuff back to the house so we could store them in the garage. If your not going to use something for four or five years, it is much more convenient to not use in your won garage and not some storage place, right?

 

After a long day of moving boxes and stuff and playing with tools, Devin made a delicious pasta casserole.

 

Then it was blog time. By the welcome back Tim T who had not been reading the blog, but now had a new iPhone 4S so should be enjoying every post of the Salve Lucrum Blog.

 

Now let's talk about the market.