Ballgame August 31

The Mariners, without Ichiro, without Beltre, without Branyan, without Griffey, a pretty pathetic lineup. Everyone in the Angels lineup was outhitting anyone in the Mariner batting order. Not surprising, then, that the score was 10-0, with the M's managing 3 hits. The high water mark was inning #1, when they loaded the bases on 2 walks and a single, but then didn't score. The grandkids, however, were oblivious and seemed to have a great time!

Garlic!

It wasn't Gilroy, but it was pretty good. Sarah and I took in the Chehalis Garlic Festival on Sunday. Lots of food, featuring garlic of course, and lots of crafts, some garlicky and some not. A lot of people, but not a huge crowd (an advantage of Chehalis, I think). We had garlic fries, garlic pasta and, best of all, a garlic beef sandwich. That sandwich, wet and messy, filled with beef redolent of garlic and herbs, was one of the best I've ever had. It seriously rivaled the Italian Beef sandwiches of Chicago, which is high praise. It was a simple thing, a piece of French bread, thick slabs of beef and a rich, tangy and garlicky au jus running all over it. Simple, but excellent. Worth another trip to Chehalis for next year's festival.

Sarah tried to find the person in the garlic suit to get her picture taken with him/her, but after we first came in (you can see the person in the background of the top picture) we never saw garlic guy again.

.... Car

Well, my car overheated on Saturday and when I had it towed into the shop, I found out I had a blown head gasket. Essentially, the engine is trash. I asked the mechanic how much to repair that, and he said he didn't know, no one had ever done it. So, its a new engine, $4,000 and 2 weeks without a car. Oh, and if anyone is keeping track, August has not been a great month, to be nice about it.

Apartment Repairs

The balconies on the upper apartments of my building have been a little shakey for a while, and now the owner is doing some repairs. Unfortunately, even though I live on the ground floor and have no balcony, my apartment is impacted because the floor joists in the second floor can only be reached via my ceiling. So, my front bedroom is torn up. I had to empty 3/4 of the room, which has filled my living room, really the only available space, with stuff. I hate it!!!

Added on Thursday, 8/13--the repairs were supposed to be done Friday, tomorrow, but today one of the workmen told me that they won't finish until at least Monday. I thought they were behind because the ceiling in my room hasn't been finished yet. There's still bare beams visible, only some of the drywall is up. They need to put up more drywall, and then they need to tape and then paint and texture. Monday may be optimistic. I'm going to call the landlord tomorrow and negotiate some further reduction in my rent for August--I would suggest rent free for the month, but that's optimistic too I think.

Added on Thursday 8/20 (!!!)--finally finished today. Almost a week late and more excuses than you can imagine.