Yes, I am still enjoying saying, writing and thinking the words "President Obama". I may not agree with all his policies (though I am liking the first 11 days). And, yes, I may still have the sneaking suspicion that we'll have to revisit the economic stimulus approach. But I am still digging the words "President Obama" which, in my mind equate to , "You know, being thought of as the crazy, drunk bully down the street has been getting pretty old. Let's try sanity and a clean shirt and see how that feels."

In other local news, I recently was told by a Starbucks barista that it was against company policy to put Starbucks coffee in a Cafe Ladro branded thermal cup. Yeah, how irritating is that? I pointed out that Cafe Ladro was always more than happy to put their (much better tasting) coffee in my crappy Starbucks branded (substandard) cup. Leaving aside why I was at Starbucks (I was off my usual circuit carrying a box full of ski rack and just really needed a coffee, I swear)

Here's what sticks in my craw about this - Starbucks can no longer be thought of as a coffee shop. It's a store full of vaguely coffee-related accessories with some coffee on the side, to make the store smell nice. And most of the vaguely coffee-related accessories are Starbucks-branded, certainly their cups are. So if your profits are coming from branded material, why not be willing to put the coffee loss-leader product in any cup that comes in the door and not be such an irritating jerk about it? I must say as an aside that the barista was very nice and broke policy for me. So what's Starbucks achieving by irritating me, embarrassing an employee and selling me coffee? I'll tell you. I was running errands today and rather than stop for a (substandard) coffee, I went out of my way to go to my local Ladro. Nice one. I'm not missing those stores you're closing in Seattle.

In hyper local news, like in my front yard, I succeeded in assembling and installing a ski rack on the Yakima roof rack on my car. One important pointer, if you are short, you will need to stand in the door on the undercarriage of your car to get to the far-side of the rack. So be sure to do this on a day when your yard is super muddy. That way you maximize the mud you muck up your car interior with. C'mon, you know it was overdo for some interior cleaning. And you really feel like you accomplished something at the end of that.

So to recap - Big up President Obama, Starbuck still sux, and ski-rack mud shows your commitment to an active lifestyle.