I just returned from seeing Bruce Almighty. Apparently it was a popular time to take the family out to see a movie, because the place was overrun with people. I guess with tomorrow being a holiday, it's easier to get everyone together and go out. From the perspective of someone who's used to being able to walk right into a movie, it sucked. I think all those people should stay home.

Changing gears entirely, everything out here is in bloom now. The tulips came up quite a while ago, but now a lot of the bushes and flowering trees are showing their colors. It's very pretty. Here's something I thought was funny. Okay, because Seattle has a year-round growing season, there are plants to take advantage of that -- moss being the most prolific. Anyway, the other day I woke up to the sound of a pump running and weird swishing sound. The place I live had hired a service that climbs up on your roof and scrubs all the moss out from between the roofing tiles and washes it off the roof. Weird. Sure it makes sense, the stuff is insidious. As a plus to this service, they also clean out the gutters, which, after a year of rain, tend to get pretty full of twigs and leaves.

Another thing they do is -- and this really surprised me when I walked out of my apartment and said, "Why does the sidewalk look so white?" -- blast the sidewalks with high-pressure water to clean all the moss off. It was really funky to see it all clean and pristine. And it's very weird that there are services that do this. Sure, it makes sense, but, come on, that's weird.

"Hey, Bill. Pleased to meet you. What did you say you do for a living?"

"Oh, I'm a moss blaster. I blast moss."

Wouldn't that be a weird conversation?

Anyway, that just struck me as odd.

Later.