Ends and Odds

A few random items that don't deserve a post of their own:

• One thing that K. didn't mention yesterday is that Grandpa also wrote the combination to his safe on the wall inside one of the closets. Now, we have no idea what happened to the safe -- I still have fantasies that we will stumble across it under a floorboard or somesuch, and that it will be filled with gold and diamonds -- but it is nowhere to be found. If you happen to have a safe that you found recently, try 74-41-58-0 as the combination. If it works, we'll split the treasures with you.
  
  
• Last February, in one of my few weekends home during my 50,00o-miles-in-three-months ordeal on the academic job market, K. and I went to see the film In Good Company. In one scene in the movie, Topher Grace and Scarlett Johansson are having some kind of meaningful conversation in the driveway of Dennis Quaid's home. At this point, K. leaned over to me and whispered "Look! They have a parking lot next to their house!" At the time we laughed and joked about how she had been living in big cities so long that she didn't know about the driveways that houses outside of big cities have, but it turned out she was rather prescient, as we ended up buying a house which is in fact next door to a municipal parking lot. When we bought the house, we realized that this had its plusses and its minuses -- one one hand it will be awfully convenient for when (if?) we throw parties, or other events where our three car carport and one car garage cannot fit everyone. On the other hand, it can be noisy at times, especially at 8 in the morning when we are trying to sleep in but all the lawyers and municipal workers are starting to show up for work -- which won't be a problem once we start jobs, but can be annoying while we are slackers living off unemployment. The other night, though, we discovered another downside -- teenagers drinking in the parking lot late at night. At some point in the middle of the night they started screaming ("who has the tequila?!?") and talking loudly on their cell phones and throwing beer bottles into dumpsters (haven't they heard of recycling?). I was awake enough to be disturbed, but asleep enough to not be able to do anything about it, but K. dragged herself to the window to yell at them to be quiet, which they eventually did. This is the first time it has happened in a month of living here, which is a rate I can probably deal with, but I may program the police into speed dial just in case.
  
  
• Yesterday we set a new record of spending at our friendly neighborhood Lowes. We bought a bunch of supplies for the tiling project y'all convinced us to tackle, some appliances, a third attempt at a paint color for the den, and random other tools including a stud finder. I just have to say that the fifteen year old in me is still not tired of making jokes using the stud finder, whereas K. seemed to get tired of them before I even started. Oh well.