For $15, plus tax, I rented a lane (#11), just as one might reserve a lane at a bowling ally.  At first, I had the entire "public" range to myself, at about 11:30 a.m. on this Friday morning.  There is also a newer "members only" range.  My own glasses were deemed sufficient for eye protection, and I'd brought my own ear protection.  My ammo was inspected to make sure that it was at least partially "jacketed."  Lead in the environment is partially controlled by this check.  I also brought 18 targets that I'd printed at home.  I also brought six of my pistols, .22LR (2), 9mm (2), .38 Spl., and .357 Magnum.  Now that I've done this once, I'm likely to want to stop in again when I get the itch to shoot and have the time.  But the cost of ammo is a huge deterrent to this hobby.  Every 9mm bullet fired is like throwing away $0.25.  Fortunately, Dad left me nearly a 1000 rounds of .22LR, for which he paid $0.79 for boxes of 50.  Today, those would cost $0.18 per shot instead of less than $0.02.   My best gun, the S&W 686+ was amazingly accurate.

Following a day on my feet baking with another one shopping and shooting, and my muscles were sore on day three.

"Communication Manager?"

Joseph Williams invited me in for an "annual review" on December 5th.  But it was not like any review I'd had before.  There were no real kudos, nor any constructive criticism either.  Joseph had two main points to make.  First, he didn't believe that he needed a "Technology Manager," but did need a "Communication Manager."  A meeting on January 13th will explore this further.  He also proposed teaching changes in the Spreadsheets area, but these changes could not become reality until September 2016. 

The  Benefits of Hospitality

On Christmas Eve we took the initiative to pay a visit to our newest neighbors, kitty-corner northwest of us at the newest house on our block.  Miladin (from Montenegro) and Kelly (from China) have a third grade son Maksim who attends Medina Elementary.  They lived in Sammamish before moving here.  He worked for Microsoft but now works for Facebook in Seattle.  She works for a tech startup also in Seattle on Eastlake.  They had heard about the good schools in Bellevue and wanted to move closer to Seattle. Their employment status explains how they can afford their multi-million dollar new home.  No doubt the sale of their former home helped. 

It was amazing to see how they warmed to visitors who dropped in on them out of the blue.  We'd see them sitting in their dining room with the lights off in the rest of the big house.  They seemed lonely.  But they warmed to us immediately. Nathanael, Jean, Nancy and I all went over together with a Christmas photo of our family (see below).  We also included a house warming gift of Liberty Orchards candy.  My family are not drinkers, but I sure enjoyed three shots of their Serbian Plum Brandy and glasses of red wine.  How was I to know they would just refill any glass I emptied?  It reminded me of Mr. Martini in It's a Wonderful Life.  What a wonderful thing to get off on the right foot with new neighbors.