what's the frequency?

slugs: only a couple more in Busby's fur (it's gross, but not as gross as slugs on the #$%#@ ceiling), so I'm calling it a win in the slug department.

full lunar eclipse: So cool! I didn't need to worry about not being able to see it due to work OR weather because when I arrived at the branch the sky was clear and the staff was already in full discussion on how we would all take turns to run outside and look at it. We told every patron. When the eclipse began we had to go stand in the back alley and look over a brick wall between some bushes (the moon was low) but by the time it got to full eclipse-edness (what's the right word? coverage? that's not it either.) it was high in the sky and had moved out of the alley and over the street. I saw a good bit of it -- so lovely! (although I know some people found it creepy and disturbing.) later that night I looked outside and the sky had started to cloud up again, but there was a rainbow all around the full, non-eclipsed moon. I know this is probably a symbol of hideous bad luck to sailors or something, but it was so pretty! (rainbow 'round moon/ death by a spoon? choke on doubloons? pecked to death by loons? devoured by baboons? ... these rhymes are all so ridiculous I must conclude that it's good luck instead.)

claim jumpers, lemonade hustlers and other junior badasses:

1. Claim Jumper restaurant: let me just say this was not my idea, but I warmed to it as a kind of Indiana Jones-style adventure into unknown territory. My reasonable questions (would we be required/ allowed to pan for gold? Did we need to supply our own gold pan and pickaxe, or would they have them there? could I legally shoot someone who tried to take our table?) were met with what I thought were firmer NOs than strictly necessary, but I remained undaunted! Some observations...
a) situated in the middle of a GIANT parking lot, the sidewalks were clearly designed by someone who had never used one. They were strewn here and there and led not to other sidewalks, but to awkward shrubberies and vast expanses of More Parking Lot. Getting to the restaurant was sort of like getting to the goblin castle in the movie Labyrinth. (only no David Bowie at the end.)
b) Waitstaff not nearly grizzled enough! (for acceptable level of grizzledness see: cast of Deadwood.)
c) Too much Elton John, not enough player piano.
d) bathrooms disappointingly named "women" and "men." I was expecting "whores" and "hoopleheads" at the very least! (I would have written many outraged letters.)
e) not one, but TWO kinds of antler chandelier (moose and deer)! plastic log chairs, pictures of various '49ers on the wall, but essentially a suburban mall parking lot upscale Red Robin. (so much potential, wasted!)

2. Lemonade Hustlers: I worked at a branch very near my house last week, so I got to come home for lunch (huzzah!) This time, there were some adorable urchins selling lemonade right on the sidewalk in front of my car. (it's near my house, but not so near my house that I can walk there and back on my lunch break.) Anyway, I thought "hooray! I will cross "buy lemonade from adorable lemonade urchins" off of my to do list." So I go up to their stand (a cooler with a hand-written cardboard sign in front) and see what's what. There is a girl and a boy at the cooler (appear to be siblings) and another boy relegated to the grass behind the sidewalk. I made the mistake of thinking they were adorable lemonade urchins when they were, in fact, a well-oiled lemonade-con machine. I was not their magnanimous change-purse patron, but a hapless patsy. The sign said Lemonade, .25 (drawing of people drinking lemonade) .25. Now, I would think this meant .25 for a cup of lemonade (which turned out to be Crystal Lite -- I should have known RIGHT THEN), but oh, no, explained the little girl (or cleverly disguised felon), that's .25 for half a cup, and .50 for a full cup. I went ahead and sprung for the full cup, which she poured out herself after handing my change over to her brother. Of course she only poured it a tiny bit over half way, but it's not like I'm going to get into an argument about how much Crystal Lite is in my cup. (if it had been real lemonade, I would have taken her to small claims court.) I think I will stick to giving money to buskers.

3. sk8 or die!: at the park two little girls (probably 7, if I had to guess) were skateboarding down the middle of the street that runs on the north, long side of the park. There's no sidewalk in the park, so they were in the street and kind of wobbling their way across to the side.They were by no means expert and were sort of hanging on to each other as they picked up a little speed. A car came up behind them, slowed to a crawl and gave them a hugely wide berth in order to get around them. Despite that courtesy (they were in the middle of the road!), dark haired skater girl flipped the driver off in the British fashion (you know -- the peace sign except with the bent fingers toward herself) -- so funny coming from this little girl! I hope that she's just a natural badass and not a tiny person with rage issues. Needless to say I did not let them see me laugh lest they beat me up with their skateboards.