Yesterday was the faculty/staff picnic to kick off the year. I skipped, of course, but two of my coleagues called me from the event, telling me to come and show up. I said 'no' because I had to go to the frame shop to get my Guatamalan paintings framed.

Back in Guatemala, I was shopping for painting in Panajachel; one of the types of paintings they sell is an overhead shot of Mayans working, either in the field or at the market. So you see all the vegegtables or fruits that they're picking, you see the shoulders of the Mayans in their traditional costumes; occasionaly a worker will look up at the artist.

So I found a couple of paintings that I really, really liked: one was a fruit market, and the other was a flower market. I thought my Mama might like them. There are tons of artists that copy this form; the two I picked out were real oil paintings with texture and blending. You can see the mangos turning from green to red.

The lady would not come down to two for Q300. I wasn't going to pay more, especially since I was out of money. So I hemmed and hawed, and said I really like them, they're really nice, but . . . I needed to get out of the shop. So I said, maybe I'll be back, I have to ask "la mujer." I'm going to go talk to the little woman.

So I left the shop and started walking down the street, and I saw three women from my group. They asked me what was going on, and promptly volunteered, each of them, to be "la mujer." Besides, they wanted to see these paintings. Since they couldn't all three be "la mujer," E decided to do it; besides, we could chat in French.

So we went back into the shop all together, speaking French. The others poked around, and were a stressfull distraction to the shop keeper. We hemmed, we hawed, and in the end E decided there were three that she like as well; one was a flower harvest, and the other was a corn harvest. There was also a coffee been harvest, but she decided she could live without it.

So I want two, E wants two. L chimes in, and asks the shopkeeper if we could have all for for Q600; she agreed, and we were all happy, since I got the original Q300 price that I wanted.

So now I'm back in Seattle, and going to the frame shop is my excuse for not going to the faculty/staff picnic. I find me a frame shop in Seattle that's open on Saturday until 7pm; I pack the canvasses in to the car and I'm on my way.

When I get there, this blonde guy just starts pulling the samples off the wall, just pulling and pulling, he might have pulled two dozen samples off the wall. I just kept saying, no, something simpler, something simpler, something smaller, something simpler. Smaller. Simpler.

Finally, we found something I liked, and he measured and punched his calculator, and said Ok, that will be $103.

Ok, I said.

So times two, that will be $206, he says.

Yikes!

I agreed, but told him that in Guatemala, I haggled the price down to under $50 for both paintings.

He said, wow, you have good haggling skills!

I said, yah, but they're not going to help me today, are they?

No.

So I paid my deposit and left. I'll pick them up in two weeks.

After that I drove north to meet my friends at the Crest to see Harry Potter III. As I get off the freeway, I notice there's some congestion due to a car that's smoking out of control.

Is that R? Hey R!

So my friend's car is smoking, and I got his attention. I though about just arriving to the movie on time, but . . . . So I turned the car around and offered my services.

We don't need anything, says R, AAA is on their way.

I ask, what you doing this far north?

He says, we were on our way to the Crest to see "Control Room."

Oh! I was going to meet my friends to see Harry Potter!

Well, he says, if I need you, I'll know where to find you.

So I got back in the car and headed back to the Crest. Of course, I honked at R when I passed them again, and then pointed and laughed. He waved back.

Finally, I got to the Crest; my friends were waiting for me with my ticket. How was the faculty/staff picnic?

Yech, it was awful, you should be glad you missed it.

They're right.