Music Gel

Last night I talked about how Facebook's changing things. But it's not the first. One of the other things I've been noticing in the past few years is iTunes. A few years ago, I loaded in all of my old music, well, all of it back to high school when I made the switch from cassettes to CDs. Suddenly, the entire catalog of my owned music (and Lori's, too) was at my fingertips.

And then since then as we've gathered new music, whether it's a song one of us loves and buys off of iTunes or a new CD Rachel receives of children's music. So music is now a shared thing, too. We build smart playlists to segregate as needed, but in the end, it's one large collective. I was looking at it last night. I'm not sure I would have realized the power of iTunes without the iPod that my last employer gave me. It's a neat little thing, 80 gigs. I am amazed every time I take it out of its protective plastic case and how small it is. And yet, looking at all the music we own, it comes to less than half. 27 gigs, to be more exact.

Growing up, my parents music was all on LPs. They rarely played them in our presence and because of how complicated and likely to be damaged, we didn't really play their records. A time or two we'd look at the covers, but we didn't really know their music. There was the AM radio station that we'd listen to the in car, but it was all transitory, I don't think my parents were buying new music, but I'm not sure the music on there was new or had been in decades, so maybe my parents owned it already. Music just wasn't as big a part of our lives growing up. But ever since I got my first Time-Life FM radio in sixth grade, music became a part of mine. (I still mourn for the passing of radio stations KPLZ and KHIT.)

So now, we listen to music all the time, but not the radio. iTunes at home and now Pandora, Pandora at work, iPod in the cars. And Rachel's exposed to it. Not just whatever the radio decides to play, but because we have such a back catalog, it's less new than old, but it's a wide mix. And so Rachel's going to have a much wider level of appreciation than we did. Sort of. Because for now it will still be within the constraints of what we liked. But she has her own playlist and every time she hears something she likes, she asks us to add. And her list is varied, including modern stuff as well as things like The Beatles. It's pretty cool, really.

But it sure will be interesting when she gets to the point where she's discovering her own taste in music. She'll probably have a few computers of her own at that point, but it still seems like there will still be comingling of music. And music, too, becomes a shared thing across generations.

...

And that's my thoughts for the night and yet I'm short some words. Darn. Watching Firefly. Just saw the episode where the captain got married. Some funny stuff. Is a shame it got canceled.

Whelp, a full day meeting tomorrow. More about the strategy of our group. Primary author ended up being someone who's leaving the group at the end of the month to re-take the job they had a few years ago before they left to the job they had before the one they have now. In all that time they'd never been able to re-fill it, so they convinced him to come back to it. That's an interesting roundabout. I hear he's even trying to get his old desk back. He'd been in that area of the building for something like fourteen years so I guess, well, I don't know what I guess, but I can see how he might want to go back there, I guess that was a really good fit for him and this new thing we're doing is so amorphous and unstructured that it doesn't work so well for everyone.

I just know it's a smaller group and a small room on the fourth floor. I'm not sure what the day's going to be like, but, well, we'll see. I hope it's a good thing. My plan, at least right now, is to sit back and be a little quieter. That will be tough, but I think I need to save it for something bigger. This is just strategy, framework, This isn't the actual work. Let's save it for the chance to be creative, innovative and bring new stuff to light.

The Facebook Family

I hid a few people tonight on Facebook (including a relative) and unfriended someone from high school. Their language annoyed me. Sure, they've got freedom of speech, but I've also got the freedom to not have to subject myself to it. There was a time when Twitter and Facebook was all just me and a few friends having a lark. I'm not sure that I changed any when Lori signed up for an account, but I know with the addition of former pastors and then current pastors, current church friends and finally my own parents, I did change my tone. And now today, the 14-year-old son of friends in our small group just got his bright shiny new Facebook account, makes me wonder if there's anything else I'm going to need to think twice before posting. This time, I don't think there is. I'd like to think I'm being mostly authentic. Maybe a more upbeat and positive version of myself, but one that's true and one that's safe for a 14-year-old to see. Considering the things we were talking about when I was 14, I'm pretty confident there's nothing I need to think twice about in anything I post, but it still gave me pause for a moment tonight.

A Lot of Settlin' Going On

And then it was Friday. Friday, Friday, hello Friday. I can't believe it's already nearly 11 pm. It's nearly no longer Friday. How many times am I going to say Friday? Not sure. Maybe that's enough for now.

Watching Firefly. A very interesting concept. I am glad I'm watching it now as a really long miniseries and not in the messed-up out of order method the FOX Network showed the episodes in. It's been fun, it's quite funny. And it's great getting to see more of Colonel John Casey beating people up while Chuck is on reruns.

Today was an interesting day.

In Plain Sight

There were seven or eight of them standing around. You could almost call it a half circle. Loosely. Their posture seemed slightly menacing, or at least adversarial. Could they be? No, probably just his imagination. They were standing on a gravel patch, mostly shaded by the large leafy tree in the corner. Behind them, a two-story brick building and with two large garage doors, closed. In front of one, a white cargo van. A typical non-descript Ford Econoline. Several small scrapes along the right side, but you'd expect that, it was obviously a work truck. The upper floor of the building had wide windows and he could see people looking out, he turned to look at what they were looking at. The building must have offered a wonderful viewpoint of the lawn of that section of the cemetery and the valley and the city below to the east. To the left of the building was a lazy gravel path leading to stairs made of railroad ties and ending at the top at a fence of poles with looped chain at the top. Where the path met the fence, a small sign hung from the chains. He imagined that it must say something like "Staff Only" or "Please do not enter." Something probably attempting to be respectful, but in only a few words.

He didn't recognize anyone in the group, but they weren't looking for him. He pulled up the collar of his coat and strode into their midst, nodding, and proceeding north parallel to the building. There was another gravel path leading up on the other side of the building and the flat gravel path gave way to a narrow gravel driveway flanked by two large rocks and quickly disappearing into a thicket of trees. It was no wonder the van had scrapes. As he reached the tree line, he made a furtive glance back but it didn't appear like anyone was following him. They didn't belong here anymore than he did, but apparently their presence was unrelated to him. There was a quick turn and then another. It seemed inconvenient, but it was obvious that it was all done to mask the gravel drive as it connected with the paved road between the different parts of the cemetery.

But First, A Rant

Ok, so let me get this straight... or let me see if I can... So Google has an operating system called Android that it's giving away free to computer manufacturers, primarily for use on cell phones. Motorola is really lazy and calls their first offering the "Droid"

Verizon picks up and offers the Motorola phone. But then decides to brand their entire line of Android phones with the Droid moniker. So in addition to Droid, there's Droid Eris and Droid Incredible. That's some sloppy branding. Perhaps they should have branded the Motorola device as Droid Moto or Droid Prime or something.

But... and this is what gets me to the point of actually bothering with a rant.

Secret Agent Man

I got a nod today. A pretty cool nod. A double-nod if you will. An opportunity came up and a lot of people wanted it, but the powers that be thought to maybe toss it my way. It's a visibility-raising opportunity. That's a given. Whatever else is involved, well, I'm not sure yet. It kind of plays out. At the very least, I'll be a consultant, a listening ear. It's interesting, it's almost like a double-agent, except that everyone knows why I'm going to be there. Maybe you could call me a liason or a something.

We've run out of stuff on the DVR. Which is fine, we have Firefly and Serenity to watch. It's taking us awhile, but we finally finished the first episode of Firefly. I gotta hand it to Joss, he does a great job of creating worlds that are more fully formed out of the gate than some. And of course now Glee is on. I probably have to agree that I am technically watching it. I don't watch the show, but I didn't leave the room when Lori turned it on, so I guess I have to admit that I'm watching this episode. And yes, it is funny, and not just the Sue parts, but mostly the Sue parts.

Today was a bit of a challenge.

It Was Like The Difference Between Day and Another Day

I feel like I ought to write tonight. It's been awhile, I've gotten out of the habit, after doing so well for so long. It was a really interesting as far as weather went. The day started gray and rainy. It would rain a little bit, stop, start again. Sometimes light, sometimes downright torrential. At one point, I looked out, saw that the grill was completely dry, and then as I watched, big huge raindrops splatted and in less than a minute, it was soaked again.

But, by the time it was time for our Memorial Day grill, the weather turned. Suddenly, it was bright and sunny. Like an entirely different day. We thought for a second that the grill had run out of fuel but it had actually just blown out. We had burgers, steak, hotdogs. I asked Pandora to play stuff based on John Phillip Sousa, but of course, it also started playing John Williams, including Star Wars. Which Corey immediately gave the thumbs up.

Tick Tock

One year when when my dad went to Japan (which he did yearly as part of his Naval Reserve requirements), he came back with a really fascinating watch for me, all kinds of timers and alarms and stuff. Really advanced for its time and really way too much for the young child I was at the time. And all too quickly, the watch was re-appropriated by my dad for his own use.

Years later, I ended up with a really nice gold Timex analog quartz watch. I'm not exactly sure of its provenance, but I think it was my grandfather's. I think it was a peace offering for the appropriated watch, or maybe it was just the passing on of a legacy heirloom. It was the kind that when something broke, you paid to have it fixed. And over the years, boy did I. I don't know if I had the watch in high school, but I wore it constantly in college and for a number of years in my post-college life.

Abrupt Ending

Darn it all. I forgot to write at all last night. And I was in the 40s for non-stop writing. Argh.

So, yeah... LOST ended its run last night. I think the most telling thing I learned that if I could do it all over again -- I would have had warm chocolate chip cookies instead of popcorn.

It's really weird, but I don't feel like talking about what I thought of the finale. In fact, I don't even feel like telling people what I think about anything. Of course, this is something I'm going to post anyhow, so maybe I'm hypocritical. Or just severely confused.

Yeah, it seems really weird. After the episode, I didn't even go on Facebook, and didn't even really go on today, except to briefly accept a friend request and to send an email to my small group. It's like I've lost interest in seeing what people think or telling people what I think. It just all feels inconsequential. It's like, ok, now what? It was a big deal and there were weeks where I felt like I simply passed times between episodes. And now it's all over and done with.

Life goes on.

Maybe it was the escapism, the mystery, I don't know. But now it's done. Dare I say maybe now there's an unfilled void? A unsatisfactory lack of closure? The knowledge that this universe, this world, is over and I still don't get it? Gee, look at that, maybe there's more to this than I realized.

But I guess I don't want there to be. So... changing gears. To what? The danged bookcase. So I thought I was all done. I don't know how many coats, but I finally finished the large pieces and I was ready to start building. Only as I brought in the pieces, it didn't feel like there was enough pieces. And then I realized, that's because there was more. The five pieces I had completed had started with some painting done from earlier, but these new three pieces hadn't been touched at all. Three more stinking 6 footlong pieces that needed to be painted on all six sides. Argh. And then also, I used up all the paint. So had to have Lori get another $40 gallon of paint. The good news is the pieces I brought in, Lori thinks they look really good against the wall color. So, maybe a few more weekends of painting and I'll be able to bring all those pieces in. Of course, the instructions are nowhere to be found. God Bless Ikea for posting all their instructions online. Granted, I couldn't open the file, but I believe that's an easy fix.

Today was a good day. After staying up late, I slept in, had to work hard to try to get there on time and almost made. I can't remember what prevented me, but it was only two minutes late. But then I forgot there was something I had to get done by 9, so I ran to get that done, only to find out that I now needed them done by 1 pm instead.

I can't remember where the morning went. I think there was a lot of catching up on email, a couple of meetings. Lunch, a nice walk outside, and then the 1 pm meeting, over by 1:05 (well, the meeting went on for another hour without me), a lot of work that afternoon and then a couple more good meetings with my teams and then another hour that passed very quickly.

Then home, did some chores to help around the house (call me strange, but it makes me feel productive) and then a nice dinner with the family, then helped Ben get ready for bed while Lori helped Rachel get ready for bed, fast-forward a little bit and we're here.

I think this is going to be a great week. Some good stuff going on at work, the weather's improving to where I can do more walking outside and I don't know, I'm just feeling good. But there's some stuff I'm not doing well on. Most notably the diet. This is a real struggle. I pretty much am stuck where I am. I've now been doing the Wii Fit for over 400 days and I've lost only 13 pounds. When I lost the 27 pounds shortly after moving here, I was doing a lot more walking outside. It would be nice to do that again, but it's a little more difficult now.

Handul of Frosting

Watching Sherlock Holmes right now. So far, a bit bored. I'm wondering when it's going to get good. I assume it does. I've heard it is.

Today started rather early. Early for a Saturday. Rachel has a sign on her door that says she's not to wake us up before 8, but her first visit in was at 10 minutes to seven. I don't know how many visits there were, but she was hungry, lonely, she wasn't interested in what I suggested she eat and she also wanted to let me know my breath was bad.

She was finally accepting of a jello and fruit cup, but she brought it without the bowl, and then a separate trip back with the bowl which she set down noisily on the foot of the bed. It's amazing that Lori slept through the whole thing, waking up about an hour later.

I wasn't able to pull myself out of bed right away and by the time I stumbled downstairs I found Lori and Rachel cleaning up the living room. Ben has a lot of toys in the corner of the room and we didn't pick them up last night and they were strewn everywhere. That boy plays far and wide.

We had a bit of quiet day around the house. I can't really even remember how the morning went, beyond some laundry.. folding and putting away. And then just as quickly, it was time to go over to Corey and Gilda's for Corey's birthday party. That was a pretty nice time. Often when we're out, Lori's responsible for the children. Getting them food, getting them fed, entertaining them. It's often entirely on her. Today I ended up helping Rachel get her plate set, then got her a chair so she could kneel at the kitchen counter. (A wise move, another child spilled red kool-aid on their carpet. Their parents were so frustrated, brought in their own cleaning products from their car.) So then I stayed in the kitchen with Rachel to keep her company and because I don't like crowds. Eventually Ben joined me. Except when he's hurt and seeking comfort, if he has a choice, he chooses me over Lori. I feel guilty about that sometimes, except when I see how quickly he runs to her when he gets hurt. She is the protector.

A nice party, a bunch of church friends I know. After the cake (which, while we were singing, Ben grabbed at, coming away with a handful of frosting), we headed back home and put Ben down for his nap. Again, not sure really how the afternoon was spent. Pretty relaxing. I guess I did a little cleaning in the laundry room, but not too much. The room has stayed much, much cleaner since Carol's death. Cash doesn't make the same kind of mess that Carol did. It was pretty quiet around the house... Rachel spent time in her room while Ben napped.

Dinner was all on our own so I opted for pizza and thousand island dressing and soda. Good stuff. Then some exercising. Felt good, I hadn't done some of those exercises in awhile.

Ok, that was funny. A fight involving apparently a early European taser or something?

It's been nice having a three day weekend. Especially since there's still a third of it left. And the LOST Series finale to look forward to tomorrow night.

Ok, some of these special effects are now looking pretty particular. But I'm still bored by the overall story. Ha. The boat just sank. Sorry if that spoils anything.

I just learned tonight that many libraries have passes to cultural events that you can check out just like you check out a book. Oddly, most of the King County ones are in Bellevue, but apparently we can also get stuff from the Pierce County library as well. That's pretty cool. Between the two, there's a good variety of museums and children's museums.

As I sit here, Lori's hard at work on invitations for Rachel's birthday party. She's put a lot of work on them, part of a whole theme she's putting together for the party. I'm not sure Rachel will be able to even fully appreciate it, but Lori is seeming to have a lot of fun bringing it all together, so that may ultimately be the most important part. She's been buying pieces here and there, very excited to show me the different pieces, how she's saved money on a particular part of it, how she's had to go to a number of different stores, but how it's all coming together. Fun watching her pursue a project like this.

One Man's Hobby

Well, hello there.

I am behind schedule. More on that in a bit.

It's been a day. A weird day.

Work was one of those non-descript days where you're not sure where the time went. There was a meeting I didn't need to be at, several I canceled, and my family joined me for lunch. Lori and I spent much of the lunch disagreeing about the value of coupons. I say that they are an evil form of marketing, advertising that tries to get you to buy things you didn't know you wanted. If I were more environmentally friendly, I would say they were a waste of trees, too. And since nothing is free, I say companies that produce or accept coupons charge more for their products in order to recoup the costs for designing, printing, accepting, processing, mailing, processing, sending checks, etc., etc., etc., and that I'd rather they just charge less. Of course, in many stores (but surprisingly not Wal*Mart) companies also pay for shelf placement, so you're paying for that, too. This all started because someone on Facebook had said they loved coupons and seeing the discount at the bottom of the receipt. Well, I said they should just charge less and then I followed up with a little bit longer argument as the conversation went on against coupons. To the point where her husband came on and I think was getting all bent out of shape saying I was criticizing her. I wasn't, I explained. But then later after Lori and I had our discussion, I went back and deleted my posts. It took our conversation for me to figure out the problem.

Wham, Bam, No Thank You Ma'am

So, yeah, it's raining this morning. Cool. I want some exercise, so I drive to Fred Meyer and I walk around for about 15 minutes and then buy some gum. Even though I resynced my phone and it seemed to add a bunch of songs and I could even see them on the phone when I treated it like a drive attached to my computer, it was still refusing to play. I haven't had time to look tonight to see if counted all the skips as plays or as skips. I hope not.

So I buy some gum, get back in the car and head towards work. I'm sitting at a stop light and then *thump*. Seriously? Are you serious? Really? I look in the rearview mirror and I can see she's still on the phone even. Ugh. I get out, pull out my phone and snap a photo of her license plate and send it to Lori's phone. She's getting out at that point and I ask for her insurance. Of course, she doesn't have it, or doesn't have it with her in the car. Of course. So I demand her license which she hands over quickly. My hands are shaking but I manage to quickly get a pen and find something to write on. I had to write her license number down twice because I wasn't sure it was going to be legible. Then I get back in my car and start the car and then the light turns red so I'm stuck there for an entire cycle. I see her still standing between the two cars and then crouching down.

A(nother) New Day...?

I feel good. This stupid computer, I notice, is still having problems with the g key. And the n key looks like it's going to be next. It's slowly moving to the right. Argh. Annoying. I wonder if I took it in if it would be something they could easily repair.

Watching Chuck. Annoyed to see that Shaw might still be alive.

Today was a great day. I got up, read my book instead of watching TV. Walked before work, read some Reader's Digest. Work was good, had a number of meetings, met with people, got stuff done. Submitted requests, pushed things forward. Even reached out to someone in Australia who put me in contact with someone in Canada. I guess I shouldn't act like I'd like to see something happen unless I'm ready to work on an international side project. I guess I'm ready to work an on international side project?

Where the Wild Winds Blow

I am on the Wii Fit doing Free Step. I have 25 minutes left and then I'll do another 30 minutes. Today is day 401 of using the Wii Fit every single day. In all that time, I've only managed to lose 14 pounds. I do not think that the Wii Fit is to blame. Most days, I do 90 minutes of free step. I think that Free Step alone is not enough. I think that I need to get back into the habit of also doing yoga and strength and balance exercises if I really want to see results. The problem is that Free Step is easy. I can watch TV or play on the computer while I do it. And I can do it while Lori's down here. So often in the evenings I do Free Step while she rides the exercise bike and we watch TV.

But there are some other reasons for such a cruddy showing after 401 days. Most notably, it's the really poor eating habits I have. There is always good stuff around and I have absolutely no will power. There was a time where I was blogging everything I was eating and another time where I was sending it all to Lori, a kind of accountability thing. That was cool. There was also a time where I was tweeting every time I avoided eating something not good for me. But then I got yelled at for using Social Media too much while I was at work. They didn't understand that you can call up Digsby and spend 5 seconds typing and post a Twitter update, but it was easier just to stop than try to tell them they were wrong and I wasn't. Because they had a point, it was all about perception. Anyhow, I can't blame them for my lack of weight loss.

A-plus Day

What a great day. I woke up at 6 something, heard Ben making noise, went back to bed. Woke up again at 7, heard Ben making noise and realized I probably wouldn't be able to get back to sleep and so I ought to get up. I did, and then I went down to do my body test. I guess I wasn't really ready to get up yet because I sat on the couch and petted Cash for a long time. By the time I did finally get back upstairs to get Ben out of bed, it was nearly 8. He was just in there holding on to the edge of his crib and jumping up and down, happy as can be.

So, got him up and started on breakfast. Took me awhile to get to my own, but eventually did. Happy that we had maple oatmeal. Love that stuff. Eat it every single day at work, it was nice having it here. Waffles and cereal just didn't sound good. I did some chores and got some laundry started. That was a task that would ultimately take all day to get done, but we all have fresh towels and sheets on our beds which is awesome. I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped, but I still got some stuff done. It was a chore-filled day. Among other things, Lori cleaned all the bathrooms, too. And the weather was awesome so we had all the windows open. Fresh air, absolutely silent neighborhood, just fantastic.

Drivel

Ha ha. Almost forgot my 750 words. Since this is day 36 in a row, that would have been a shame. So let's see how quickly I can rip off some drivel. I would have never used that word if it weren't for Steve Martin's book "Pure Drivel" that I own a copy of. Very good. Thanks to my wife I also have an early copy of the "L.A. Story" script. Sadly, I'm not sure of its exact location at the moment. I suspect it's in a box at work. I should buy a safe to keep it in or something.

Yeah, today was a good day. I woke up just before 5 am and realized I wasn't going back to sleep. I probably could have gone downstairs, turned on Soundscapes and gone back to sleep, but Comcast has had a bad habit lately of putting those annoying tests of the Emergency Broadcast System in at really poor times. Usually it's when I'm just about to drift off to sleep on those rare nights where I end up sleeping downstairs because I'm having trouble sleeping in my own bed. Sometimes the fan is just too loud.

Ben2

I wonder if I'm limiting the value of doing these at night. I guess one of the goals is that to do free-form writing, first thing in the morning, you get everything out of your head so that you're freed up to be creative throughout the day. I wonder if I'm not freeing up anything, or if I'm giving my brain license go elsewhere while sleeping. If that's the case, then maybe I should stop -- a recent dream was far too close to home about my insecurities at work.

Anyhow, the big news of the day, that's why you're here. Our little guy turned two today. It was quite a bit of a non-starter. I took the day off, I like to do that when it's a family birthday, but Rachel still had school, so we didn't go anywhere special. We went to Target and Borders with Ben and bought his birthday presents, that's how behind we've been lately. But, the good news was that he showed absolute delight at something that we would have never considered. For one thing, it's 12-36 months. So while he fits right in the middle, it seemed a bit childish. But he giggled and laughed at what little of it he could interact with while it was still all wrapped up, so, yeah, he'll receive that on Sunday at his official family party.

Respect Mah Authoritah

Boy, parenting is a challenge. At Rachel's school, there's a thing called the "Think Chair" A student needs to sit in that chair to think about what they've done if they've been disobedient. Lately, apparently that's not been enough and a number of students have also found themselves missing recess.

That was Rachel the last two weeks, a number of think chair moments and missed recesses. The most recent parenting course -- the one that isn't "God's Way" (dun dun dun) -- says a problem and its correction (if correction occurs) stays where it happened. That is, we don't repunish when she gets home. But, we've still talked to her because it didn't seem like it was actually working. And after that, the next day Lori got a thumb's up from the teacher when she went to pick up Rachel. There were some good days.

Until today.

And Then It Was Done

It's been a great day and I don't feel like writing. I got up this morning, exercised, got some laundry started, went to work, stopped for gas. Think it's a rip-off. If you automatically get three cents off for using your Fred Meyer card, and then it offers you 10 cents off but then only gives you seven cents off, that's a rip-off. I hate buying gas. Such a waste of time and money. I cannot wait until I have my hybrid or electric car. The cool thing is that since it'll be awhile, that's just time for them to get better and more powerful.

Work today was pretty good. I had to tell people "no" on stuff, others "maybe" and still others "maybe." I worked hard, didn't get too much further behind, got in a nice walk, had a few interesting conversations, not too many meetings, and then it was over very quickly.

Weekend Schmeekend

I wanted to sleep in today.  That didn't happen.  I had forgotten to turn off my alarm, so it went off at its usual time.  I did go back to sleep for a little while, but it's not the same thing.  I woke up a few times after that.  And then it was too late to exercise this morning.  It was a calm morning.  I can't remember if Ben sat in his high chair or at the table, but he's been sitting at the table a lot more lately.  It's pretty cool.  Though I have to say none of them worked as well as the very first time I tried it where he sat there for nearly an hour eating.  Hmmm... the g key is not working too well tonight.  Suddenly, every word has a g in it.  One of these days I need to have this laptop looked into.  Usually if there's a problem key, it's the s key but not tonight.  Having a non-working s key is much worse.  End up signing all my emails "Jame"  Derrr.

Finally, it was off to Fred Meyer for the kids and I.  Mother's Day gifts.  It was a random trip, going all over the store and back, including a bathroom trip.  She's getting so good at taking care of her business all by herself but she still asks if I can take her into the men's room, which I rarely do anymore, unless the bathrooms seem sketchy.  So like any fast food restaurant or Best Buy or Home Depot.  I love Best Buy and Home Depot, but they have amazingly poor bathrooms.  Although if you don't count gas stations, I think one of the worst bathrooms I'd been in ever was Toys R Us in Santa Monica.  It wasn't so much dirty as scary with all the graffiti on the walls.  Anyhow, this is an unpleasant tangent.