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1. Lent is going great, thanks for asking. We are on Day 3, so it better be. I used a $20 bill to pay for gas on Wednesday, and I’ll likely spend another $20 on more today (took a trip to the coast in between), but that’s the only cash outflow so far. I am on the hook this weekend for allowances, $3 to Slightly Older Princess for an extra vacuuming job, $5 to the church collection plate (a personal commitment above our usual contribution), and $2 to a friend who sells organic eggs. Luckily I’m about to cash a $40 check. Everything else will wait until payday next Friday. If I need gas again before then, I may be taking back cans.

2. My brother and my two nieces, ages 7 and 5, were in town this week. We had a wonderful visit. Went to McDowell Creek Falls and the Brass Ring carousel museum, shopped at Frogs & Pollywogs, watched Barbie movies. You know how it goes.

My nieces are bilingual and live in a large California city. “Everyone in Oregon speaks mostly English,” they marveled to my brother, who, ever quick with the comeback, said, “As opposed to where we live, where nobody does.”

3. One thing we did not do while they were here was go to the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Races at St. Martin’s Episcopal. I was sorry to miss that, but instead we had a big dinner at our house, with my dad and inlaws as additional guests. We had a giant pot of spaghetti, sauce made with Italian sausage and some of our garden vegetables, salad, cottage cheese and a huge pan of garlic bread. I baked one of our apple pies for dessert. That oughta qualify for Fat Tuesday.

4. I survived the installation of my temporary crown, although my jaw has been throbbing on and off since then. The permanent one goes in on Tuesday. It would be just my luck to have them pry off the temporary and find an oozing green mass of infection. I may put the Mayo Clinic on standby.

5. Comments around the newsroom this morning touched briefly on the Tiger Woods apology. It seemed sincere enough, and I for one am fine with the guy moving on with his life. I can’t help but think the same thing I do every time some big public figure is caught with his pants down, though: If they love the playboy life so much, why do they bother getting married? They could have all the women they want, and a lot less personal criticism, if they just didn’t make any wedding vows. Then they could truly be as selfish as they appear to be.

6. Speaking of both newsrooms and carousels, we’re having an ongoing debate with the boss over whether to keep the “carousel” at the top of our website, where the day’s top stories appear. In a carousel rotation, three or so stories revolve, showing a different headline and photograph every 10 seconds or so. If you don’t want to wait, you click on the 1-2-3  icon at the top that moves it to the next frame.

The boss hates it. He wants just one main “top” story. Carousels take too long, he says, and every time he’s on the page, whatever he thinks should be the one top story is never showing. The online editor says that’s just the way most websites are done, and most readers know how to navigate it. What say you, gentle readers?

7. Seeing as how, in spite of both the groundhog and the laws of physics regarding February in the Pacific Northwest, it is sunny outside, I am going to skip item 7 and go outside for my walk to the bank to prep for allowances, gas money, etc. I will be back when it starts raining.