Wanna Trade?

I read a book review that got me to thinking...

In "One Red Paperclip," Kyle MacDonald tells the true story of how he came up with an idea on the lines of a game called "Bigger and Better." This is a combination of a scavenger hunt and trick-or-treating. He posted on Craig's List, offering to trade a paper clip for something that he could eventually swap for a house.

Over the next year, he made more than a dozen trades. He swapped a camp stove for a generator, then an "instant party," a snowmobile, a trip to British Columbia, a cargo van, a recording contract, a year's rent on a duplex in Phoenix, an afternoon with Alive Cooper, a KISS snow globe, a small role in a Corbin Bernsen movie. In July 2006, he made his final trade, swapping the movie role for a small house in Saskatchewan!

Sooooooo, who wants to trade? I have a cool pen here. It's orange, it says "Cingular Wireless" on it, with the Cingular logo. The best part is that it has a white string on it, so you can wear the pen around your neck! All the cool kids are wearing them now.

Cleo is playing "Vanna White" and displaying the pen for your viewing pleasure. Any takers?

Alligators, Earthquakes, and Pot, Oh My!

In local news, we've had

• An elusive, escaped alligator named Reggie. The 7 1/2 foot alligator had been hiding and escaping alligator handlers for 18 months. People gathered at the lake daily, looking for him. He was finally captured, whisked away by police escort, and put in the zoo. A couple of days ago, he escaped from the zoo, climbing the 7-foot mesh fence. They found him nearby and added a mesh fence to cover to his exhibit area.
• Two local earthquakes. On August 9, we woke up to a 1:00 am earthquake. We turned on the radio and heard local callers and newsmen calling in to report what they felt. Then we turned on the TV and read the scroll across the bottom of the screen. We always want to know 2 things right away: how big was it and where was it centered. The August 9 quake was 4.5 and centered about 10 miles from my house. Today, August 16, around 12:25 pm, I thought I felt a huge crash, as if a box fell in the house, or a truck was barreling down the street. I thought maybe my cat had knocked over something. Ten minutes later, "breaking news" reported a 3.5 quake, centered in the same area as the one a week ago.
• Marijuana plants confiscated. About 20 miles from my house, authorities found 5000 marijuana plants, valued at $10 million dollars. Yes, you math geeks, that's $2000 per plant. I wonder how/where they'll destroy the plants.
• Murder trial. Each day for weeks, our local newspaper has been filled with details of a local murder trial. The victim and her accused husband lived on my friend's street. It happened 16 years ago and they finally have enough evidence to put the husband on trial. It's interesting to read about the trial, knowing some of the witnesses and all of the locations mentioned. My friend swears that he buried her in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart that was being built at the time.

So who wants to come visit?

Cat day afternoons of summer

Here's my Cleo, catching a few z-z-z-z's and yawning, on my desk. I caught her with my cell phone camera. Cleo and I nap every afternoon. I don't sleep on the desk, however.

Here's my Hollywood Bowl schedule for this summer. We picked the concerts that we wanted to see and then emailed our list to various friends. Each couple wanted to come to a different concert with us, so we ended up with 6 concerts. Because we bought so many, we got a 7th concert for free.

1. John Williams conducting movie music. We already went to this one. When the first few notes of the Star Wars theme started, audience members lifted up their lighted light sabers and waved them in time to the music.

2. Bernstein (West Side Story), Aaron Copland (Gore Vidal, in a wheelchair, narrated some excerpts from Abraham Lincoln's famous documents during "Lincoln Portrait"), Gershwin (An American in Paris)

3. South Pacific with Reba McEntire

4. Sgt. Pepper's at 40-A Beatles Celebration, special guest Cheap Trick

5. Jump, Jive, and Swing! with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

My friend's son is in the band. Last time we saw them, we went backstage for a meet and greet.

6. Hall and Oates

7. The Big Picture-A celebration of 95 years of Paramount Pictures with scenes projected on the big screen while the orchestra plays the music.

We're also going to a few Dodger games this summer. Tonight's concert in the park nearby features Captain Cardiac and the Coronaries who play music from the 50's and 60's.

That about winds up the summer. There's a hot-air balloon festival and race close-by on Labor Day weekend that I want to go to, also.

P.S. We bought some new patio furniture today. We borrowed my friend's son's truck to bring it home. He's a teenager. Duh. There was no gas in the truck; only fumes.