It seems that everywhere I turn there is nothing but bad news in the world. Do I need to list the problems? No, I would imagine I don’t need to, anyone who is remotely connected to the internet, tv, or any other news media is well aware of the plethora of tragedies, disasters, and general malaise. In order to cope here’s what I’ve been doing:

1) You may remember my bitch about the crappy iced latte at McDonalds. Well, I found a cheap and high quality alternative: the double tall hot mocha at Costco for $1. I was initially wary, especially since I watched them procure it from a machine without any tamping, grinding, or messing with portafilters. Images of a really horrible burnt latte coming out of an ancient machine at the 7-11 off the freeway came to mind. I’m not even a mocha fan but, well, I was at Costco to get eyeglasses (another really awesome service) and the weather had taken a terrible plunge for the worst. It went from sunny, 80 degrees, pantingly hot temps all the way to raining, 60 degrees, soaking wet pant legs, cold in a matter of hours. This hurts one’s phyche. This means when one is baby-sitting little kids the ‘waste a ton of time’ outside option is out.Therefore, after spending three hours rolling around on the floor with a two-year-old and a 7 month old playing trains, coaching on how to crawl, and reading cardboard books I felt a mocha was deserved. The verdict: not too sweet, rich espresso taste, the whip cream tasted real and wasn’t sweetened. Delicious. (Incidentally, I went to a fancy pants eye frame shop on Fremont hoping to find hip but classy glasses. They came up short. Costco had some of the same frames for 50-60% less AND their hardware prices were much cheaper. Huge score).

2) There’s been a lot of grief aimed at homeowners in Seattle lately: our property taxes are going up, our utilities are going to sky rocket, we’re slowly losing our property values like the rest of the country. Top it off with a 20 cent plastic bag fee that is allegedly going into place January ‘09 (unless they can get it on the ballot–my feelings on this are mixed) and everyone is feeling kinda beat down. So, what little thing did I do to make myself feel like I was shaving down my costs? I downsized my garbage service. Upon further inspection I realized I was paying top dollar for the biggest garbage bin available–despite only dragging the can to the curb every other week. With my militant recycling and painstaking yard waste separation (unlike a lot of locals I actually put in food waste in addition to yard waste) we just don’t have a whole lot to throw out. Yay for minimizing my impact on the world and not filling up landfills! (OK, stop patting yourself on the back you bleeding heart liberal). Therefore, I bumped myself down a garbage can notch and am paying 1/2 of what I once was for garbage service. Depending on how it goes, I can bump down to the “baby bin” which something like 12 oz. We’ll see…we’ll see.

3) Watching the Olympics until way too late and not getting enough sleep. Maybe it’s to avoid the tragedies of our world today, maybe it’s the new flat screen, or maybe it’s because I’m caught up in all the little dramas…but I’ve never watched the Olympics this much in the past. At 11pm I find myself zoning in on male diving champions, transfixed by the newly added bmx biking, and getting all sucked in when Lolo tragically hits a hurdle and misses her chance at getting a medal. Look at how cute Michael Phelps is! Does he have a gf? I find myself googling this question along with millions of other women around the country. How could ice cold Russian-born, American gymnast Nastia Luikin (pronounced Nasty-uh by some announcers) score higher in gymnastics then the super adorable Shawn Johnson? But at least both of them are old enough to compete instead of being super sneaky and putting their best 14 year olds into the competition. Olympics drama keeps me up well into the night.

4) Walking around the Seward park peninsula (3 miles total) as often as I can on my home from work.

5) Eating copious amounts of tomatoes…tons and tons. All from my garden.