Christmas wishes.

Hey, I could just have a nice Christmasy blog today (Merry Christmas!) but I think I'll just do the normal meanderings, since no one else is....

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Nice inventory management, if I do say so myself.

I have 3 each left of Ticket to Ride, Ticket to Ride: Europe, Carcassonne, and Settlers of Catan.

The store feels almost untouched -- probably because I was receiving shipments every day of the week. We have matched last year in sales, with six days to go. We will beat last year overall. I won't be able to zero out my credit cards, but having six straight months of higher than last year sales is worth it.

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Common Table gets robbed.

I wonder if this falls under the rubric of "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished."

The very people, one would think, that the place is trying to help.

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I've got the remember that number: 1,459 licensed real estate agents in Deschutes County.
"Realtors Get Real." Bulletin, 12/25/11.

And then compare it to the total number of houses sold this year. It can't be good.

I suspect that a handful of agents are reaping the benefits of all the others' efforts.

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It seems to me that the steady progress toward a 4 year campus in Bend is a model that the city and county should be following on other projects.

Sure, it isn't fast enough. But I think it's going to happen, because it needs to happen. A second city out at Juniper Ridge? Doesn't need to happen, and probably won't. Juniper Ridge could have been a modest "industrial park" success, instead of a grandiose failure.

A four year campus is taking much too long -- but in the face of overwhelming problems, it still seems to be trending that way. And it's much more feasible, with a solid foundation, than throwing money at land and spending huge bucks on plans that never come to fruition.

I wish the city would just take care of business, one step at a time, instead of constantly overreaching.

I'd prefer they use the money they are using to fight the state over the Urban Growth Boundary, the money they spent on useless buses, the money they spent on plans for Juniper Ridge that will never happen, the money they are spending on having the best of all (read: most expensive) option for the water system; the constant drain of studies that just tell them what they want to think anyway; the money they have wasted getting the handicap ramps wrong; and on and on...

...and spend it on having a real Mirror Pond again. You know, small, achievable goals.

Nah.

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