I got rid of Lincoln

I got him as a present perhaps 8 years ago.  He's been with me through 2 homes and three jobs.  There isn't much need for bookends any more.  I put him on the bookshelf in our condo laundry room wiht a little stickie on him with "free" written on it.  2 days later he was gone.  Goodbye, Mr. Lincoln.

Is This Unpatriotic?

I gave away a
Lincoln bookend because I have
no more than five books.

Memorial to Aidan Tam on the Southeast corner of Hill and Colorado in Pasadena

A 7 year old boy who was hit by a car on or about June 1, 2014, and died....RIP Aidan Tam

A Sliver of Light, Shane Bauer, Jashua Fattal, & Sarah Shourd (2014)

I polished off another book.  James, read this one.

It is about 3 youngish Americans hiking in Iraq who are beckoned over the border into Iran and are essentially kidnapped and held in prison for years.  The book is written by the three hikers and details their experiences in the prison and then also Sarah's efforts, once she was released, to spring her comrades.

The parts I found interesting and inspiring were the projects the hikers gave themselves in prison to make productive use of their time.  They read very dense books, created a timeline from the beginning of time to the present, memorized multiplication tables, learned Farsi, and other interesting stuff.

Our Adventure today

We did a downtown etc train adventure today.  We took the stroller out with us but used it primarily cart stuff, not the young fella.

There's supposedly serious renovation going on at Union Station.  Shops and and underground apartments or condos are going in.  The old part of the station is now covered and not viewable by the public.  Are they working on it?  You, reader, will know if you're reading this many years from now....

We walked by the Roybal federal courthouse and the swiss cheese men out in front.  I used to work in this building 1997-1998.  In law school I clerked an agency within a government unit that represented the inmates on death row.












This one is a new Caltrans building to the south of City Hall.  It's new and looks like a very neat, green building...

There's a used books store at 453 S. Spring called The Last Bookstore.  I bought 2 books.  One is written by a "federal court practitioner" that gives biographies on Federal Judges. The other is an old Norman Mailer hard cover book from 1967 with the original jacket cover that, it turns out, was panned by Goodreads critics. Pages and dustcover are both discolored, somewhere between offwhite and yellow.  Taoski got a cookbook on Italian food.  Total cost: $20+. 

You can call it Hip Hipster, urban, anything you want.  I call it fun, cheap, productive, inspiring and educational.  It's much better to have your nose stuck in a book than glued to a gadget.

Then we took the purple line to the Expo line and hit the Natural History Museum. Our yearly membership is just about up so we're squeezing all the juice and pulp we can out of that orange.  We drew a lizard, saw the dinosaur skeletons, and put a butterfly puzzle together in the members room that turned into a nice group effort with another family.

Total steps so far today at 6:10pm: 17,000+

Our place is up for sale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP4vj_PuRck

Kudos to real estate agent, Shannon Chang.  I almost don't want sell it now.  Almost.