I work with a charming young man who recently turned 20. He’s in college, and seems ‘hip’ to the pop culture of today. So you can imagine my shock and awe upon learning he had never seen The Princess Bride. Okay, I realize the film came out the same year he was born. But hasn’t this movie become embedded into American popular culture?? How is this possible? He hadn’t even HEARD of it!! He thought I was talking about some crappy Anne Hathaway movie!

Perhaps our tastes are just too disparate. He thought it a travesty that I hadn’t seen The Fantastic Four, a film I determined to be standard play-to-the-lowest-common-denominator filmmaking and not worth my time. At any rate, in 20 years will anyone care about The Fantastic Four? I doubt it.

So I’m boggled. He does want to see Stardust, a film that is said to be closest to The Princess Bride in genre, so that’s good. I haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t judge, but I’m hoping it will be good.

Is there really such a generation gap in only eight years? I think of all the things my little brother and sister have lived with that I didn’t when I was a kid, and I start to think that maybe my generation (those born in the late 70’s/early 80’s) was at the tail end of one generation, and kids from the late 80’s/early 90’s are the start of another. Microwaves, computers, vcrs (now dvds), cable television (now satellite), the Internet. Cable television just started to be a big deal when I was a kid, seven or eight years old. I can remember when we bought a vcr, a couple years after they came out - wow, we can watch a movie at home! I remember buying the microwave, and we didn’t have a computer until I was 12 or so, and didn’t have one with a GUI and a mouse until late high school. Didn’t have internet until my senior year. I didn’t have a CD player until my senior year either. Cassettes, baby!

Geez, this makes me feel old and curmudgeonly. I guess it only gets worse.

So the bicyclists in Portland are all up in arms about being ticketed for such violations as rolling through stop signs. (That’s “failure to come to a full and complete stop” last time I checked, and I have been pulled over for it while driving a car.)

You know what I have to say? Boo-hoo to you. Here’s what I don’t get. Bicycle groups and their activists get all worked up that they don’t get the same respect on the roads, that car drivers aren’t respectful, that cops target them, etc etc.

What I have to say is this. Every time I drive through Portland I have to assume that the bicyclists I see will break the law, because nine out of ten that I share the road with do break the law. They don’t stop at stop signs or stop lights, they don’t yield for pedestrians. In short, they ignore the traffic laws that I have to follow, and which they are also required BY LAW to follow as well. I have to assume that a bicyclist coming up to a four way stop is going to blow on through, and I have to wait for them to avoid hitting them.

I read about how these mass bicycle rides get upset because police won’t let them block green lights for opposing traffic - since when did being on a bicycle make you special enough to ignore red lights?

When more riders than not start following basic traffic laws, the same traffic laws I have to follow in a car, then I will start respecting them as a group. I do respect them on the roads, as I do all folks I share the roads with. But I’ll slam them as a bunch of whiny lawbreakers on my blog with impunity.

So you got ticketed rolling through a stop sign. Boo hoo. That’s the law, whether you like it or not. It’s not a question of fairness, you broke the law and deserved the ticket.

As a pedestrian, I hate bicyclists. I’ve never been run over by a car, but I have been sideswiped by a guy on a bike. And he didn’t stop to see if I was okay. For a group that gets all up in arms about their rights on the roads, bicyclists have next to no respect for peds. I’ve never seen a bicyclist yield to pedestrians, something they are also required to do by law, just like cars.

So, in short… it’s definitely a subject that makes me rant. All I want is to see this group start following the law, the traffic laws all drivers and riders ON THE ROAD have to follow. Don’t whine about your traffic ticket. Understand that YOU BROKE THE LAW and deserve that ticket.

I made raspberry jam the other day. My mom and brother and sister picked the berries, and I drove down to their house to make jam for me and for them. It’s delicious…

I want to do more canning and preserving this summer. I never did a lot before because of space constraints… where to store said jars of food? But now that we have a basement,  I can do a lot more.

We have a pear tree in the backyard so I might can pears. I definitely want to make blackberry jam when the berries are ripe, and salsa and pickles too.

It seems like canning and preserving is becoming a lost art. I hope to keep it alive a little longer. There is something really rewarding about it.

I’m into week 2 of my new job and still loving it! I’m also coming home totally whupped, since I tend to throw myself into work wholeheartedly. I’m learning to moderate…

I bought some shoes today from Art & Sole, an independent shoe shop on Interstate Ave (right up from the New Seasons). I purchased a pair of Naot sandals, which I am thinking I will love a great deal. I can wear sandals to my new job (provided my toes look nice, anyway), and I am SO excited about this. The service was terrific, and while the selection is small, they had just what I was looking for. Go visit them, and shop local!

In the “not-so-local” files, don’t the clothes at Hippy Chix Shop look great? I am totally digging their plus size options. Must exercise control!!

Anyway, that’s what I’m up to. We put in our (small) garden a few days ago, some tomatoes and zucchini and peppers. DH hung some flower baskets on our porch (pansies and fuschias) which now look so pretty and make our house so nice looking. I’ve been planting summer bulbs and seeding beds with lupines and nasturtiums. We also bought a wisteria for the back porch. I think it’ll be awesome climbing on the porch.

Piccies soon, I promise.

I have a new job! I’m leaving my current job with a certain large beauty store (which has been mentioned here many times since I love shopping there) and moving to a smaller skin care boutique. It’s in the same mall, but they have a location downtown too. I will be the new assistant manager.

I’m very excited! It means a pay raise, and the store is more intimate and less full of crazy people. I haven’t posted any crazy client stories, but I have at least one a day, and more on weekends. Women can be real b*tches sometimes.

Anyway, I sign paperwork today and will start training on my days off/before my works shifts next week, and I’ll go full time on April 30.