For finishing the coffee table I’m building (look for pictures soon), I bought an electric sander. We use them extensively at work, and the Porter-Cable’s seem to hold up under near-constant use. I’ll let you know how things go. Thanks to mom & dad for another great birthday gift.

The Enormous Room was fun & tasty, as expected. I guess when you only have one dish (meat and vegetarian versions available), you can focus on preparing it very well.

Well, I played in the Scrabble tournament on Saturday in Somerville – you can see some pictures and (not many) results here. Though it doesn’t say it, I played in Division C and went 4-1 (same as the winner of the division, but my point spread was smaller). I came in second, and won $12 (I made a buck on the day, after the $11 entrance fee). Not bad, for my first Scrabble tournament.

I learned how to drive a stick-shift car today (cheers to Laura), so I’m all set to go test-drive for a new car. Oh, the excitement!

I went last night to a meeting of the Lexington Area Scrabble Club. They were quite hospitable, and I had a good time. Some differences between their competitive games and a living room game include:

• Only two people play at once.
• Use of a chess clock to impose a time limit on games to 50 minutes (25 minutes per player). Penalty of 10 points per minute over the limit.
• They use a dictionary from the National Scrabble Association as their official word list
• Challenging someone’s play and being wrong results in a lost turn. Same if your word is challenged off the board.

To make it easier for newcomers, the Lexington Club (and many others) eases some of these rules – overtime penalties aren’t enforced, challenges don’t lose you a turn (but they still do your opponent), and you get to refer to a cheat sheet of all the acceptable two- and three-letter words.

I did okay – 1 win, 2 losses – and met some nice folks. I’m usually climbing on Thursdays, so I might not make it back for a while, but it’s possible I’ll play in a small tournament tomorrow. We’ll see.

My bag finally returned itself to me (I truly believe American Airlines had little to do with it), and all is right in the world. Well, except for the whole war thing, which stinks of something (or someone) rotten.

While in the Seattle, I revisited a great woodworking store. You can see them on the web here, but you should really see the store in person – it’s really quite breathtaking. Nice folks who work there, too.

Random thought for the day: instead of printing warnings on the cartons (it’s been shown that pretty much everyone who smokes knows the dangers, and even overestimates them), we should make cigarettes or the cartons or both bright neon colors. It’s hard to look cool while holding a hot pink smoking thing.

Seattle’s great – it’s practically spring here! The cherry trees are in bloom, and everything is so green. It’s sunny, 60° and beautiful.

How’s Boston these days?

Do you think eating mall food court Chinese restaurant orange chicken has the same vitamin C content as some orange juice? According to this recipe, the orange (zest) is optional anyway. There goes that plan to stay healthy…

A midday-Monday Catch-22 for you:

I drive my brother’s car to work. He doesn’t use it during the week, so I pay him for the mileage, commute to work, and then return it on the weekends. According to Somerville (where I live), I have to register a car in Somerville to park it there. According to Cambridge (where he lives), you have to register the car in Cambridge to park it there. Well, what happens when we share the car?

According to Somerville, I should call Cambridge and “see if they can do anything” for me. According to Cambridge? Call Somerville. Gee, thanks guys, you’re too sweet.