A Bridge Too Far... er, Low

Most of Corvallis has already heard about the truck driver who miscalculated the height of the forklift on the back of his truck and smashed into the cross beams on the Marys River Bridge. The bridge needs to be repaired before ODOT will deem it safe to use again; the current estimate is that it the bridge will be closed for the next 10 to 14 days.

This is already a bottleneck area for traffic crossing from South Corvallis into North, and now all traffic will be routed circuitously over the bypass to Highway 34, then back into downtown over the Van Buren Bridge. If you can avoid this drive entirely, you really should, especially at rush hour. However, there are a couple other ways to get from South Corvallis to North, depending on which direction you are headed. Shhhh... don't tell anyone else.

The first method is to swing west through Avery Park. The downside is that the speed limit is appropriately slow for a park and there are speed bumps throughout. However, if you are heading toward the middle or west parts of town, this isn't a bad route. Plus, it's purty.

The black X is the closed bridge. The red route is the official detour. The blue route is my little cheat route. Please ignore the lack of art skill. That's what you get for 2 minutes of effort.

If you are traveling north from Monroe or Eugene, or if you don't mind a longer, scenic detour simply to avoid the bottleneck stop-and-go stress, you can veer west on Airport Road and head north into town via Bellfountain and then SW 53rd Street. It's a bit out of the way, but straight roads with higher speed limits. If your destination is campus or points west, it's not a bad alternative. (I considered doing another custom map, but decided against it.)

Boys & Girls Clique

While I was on vacation, I received an email from a local resident (hereafter referred to as "S") who has been trying to resolve an issue with the Albany Boys & Girls Club and the Albany Democrat-Herald. S and her family are being ignored and dismissed, to the detriment of her grandsons (more on that in a moment) and other kids in the Albany area, but this situation may creep into surrounding towns, including Corvallis.

The Boys & Girls Club is a nifty organization that provides sports programs, homework assistance, after-school care and computer training, as well as games and activities for kids from kindergarten through the teen years. Membership costs are amazingly low, in the $40-per-year range, with additional fees for some programs, but there are scholarships for those who just can't afford it otherwise. Their mission statement includes this compelling statement: Every child deserves equal access to community programs and resources.

Well, S has two grandsons who want to play football. However, the Albany Boys & Girls Club has dumped their all-inclusive football program in favor of the more discriminatory Pop Warner football program, which only permits kids who fit in a narrow "age-weight matrix" to play in the league. The organization claims that this is to ensure safety of all the kids in the league, but the Corvallis Boys & Girls Club manages to find room for all kids. Safety concerns are addressed by matching kids up with positions that suit them best, rather than excluding kids entirely.

Like the rest of the family, S's grandsons are quite tall, and height-weight proportionate. The 12-year-old is 5' 7" and 135 pounds. The 11-year-old is 5' 5" and 145 pounds. They're tall boys, but they are well within their healthy weight range. The 12-year-old was offered an overflow spot on a team of larger boys, but the 11-year-old was denied entirely. His older brother declined the overflow league in an act of protest; if his younger brother can't play, he won't play either. Both boys can play in Corvallis, but isn't that sort of beside the point of having a Boys & Girls Club in each town?

While trying to address this issue, both S and her son M, the father of the boys, wrote letters to the Democrat-Herald. The newspaper called S to ask if she would mind terribly if only M's letter was published, since they both addressed the same issue. She said that was fine, assuming the letter would be treated as most letters to the editor. Instead, it was buried in the sports section. Subsequent letters from several family members have also gone unpublished. Of course, the DH is a major sponsor of the Albany club. Hmmmm.

A woman named Jean Smith wrote into the DH the following week crowing about how her grandson had also been rejected for his weight, but had made the decision to diet and exercise until he met the weight limits. She didn't say what size he was to start with, but S's grandsons are not even tipping the scales into the overweight category. Yeah. Pressuring healthy adolescents to lose weight is a fantastic idea. Maybe we can drive those anorexia numbers up yet!

S. did receive a brief response from Ryan Graves, executive director of the Albany B&G Club, promising to consider her comments. I emailed both Graves and John Radetich, athletic director, and received no response whatsoever. I also sent an email to Steve Bason, CEO of the Corvallis B&G Club, and Robert Thornberg, associate director of athletics, urging them to reject any proposal to switch the Corvallis football program over to Pop Warner.

This isn't the NFL. It's not the NCAA. It's not even high school. It's a program for elementary and junior high kids, which should inherently be inclusive. What a shame that the Albany Boys & Girls Club doesn't mind leaving kids behind.

Addendum: At 4 p.m. this afternoon, I received this response from Mr. Bason at the Corvallis Boys & Girls Club:

The Corvallis Club will be staying with the Club football program and not Pop Warner.

Building Blocks of Democracy

In my dream utopia, everyone votes. Not only do people willingly vote, but they educate themselves about the candidates and issues and vote willfully and knowledgeably. Yep, even the ones who vote for things I personally can't comprehend. Sadly, too many people never bother to register or don't update their voter registration when they move, let alone study up and make the effort to vote. Too many others vote reflexively, popping chads next to whichever candidate or issue has been endorsed by their favorite political party or newspaper or Joe Blow down the street who says everyone should vote his way.

So here in the real world, I was excited to hear about the Building Votes program in an email from Clinton Downs. Rather than paraphrase, I'll just quote him directly:

"The Building Votes program is trying to solve the problem of low voter turnout by having folks like you and I go out and register our neighbors to vote. Basically, you adopt your block or apartment building and just take an hour to make sure they are registered to vote, and then an hour in November to remind them to actually turn in their ballots. Quick, easy, non-partisan and lots of fun."

This is a much better idea than asking the grumpy people at the DMV to register voters. They do it because it's part of their job. But you can register your neighbors because a) you actually care about democracy and the upcoming election and b) they're your neighbors, man! They aren't some unknown quantity, people wandering up to your voter registration table in front of the Circle K thinking that they're signing a petition to ban cottage cheese or something. These are people who (hopefully) smile and wave as they pass by on the sidewalk, or in my case, smile while they toss cigarette butts on my lawn.

I especially like that the Building Votes volunteers revisit the issue by reminding people to vote in November. Since all Oregon voting is now done by mail, it's easy to let that deadline slip past without notice.

There's a Building Votes training session this Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. at the Benton Center, 757 NW Polk Ave, right behind Borders bookstore on NW 9th Street. Training lasts about an hour. If you're interested, please send an email to corvallis@buildingvotes.org or call 541-908-0913. Mr. Downs has promised pizza and Hawaiian punch. See? Democracy comes with perks!

Where there's smoke...

... there's a burning field.

Yesterday, smoke flooded into much of Corvallis from burning fescue fields in Polk County. We awoke to smoke and briefly thought that there might be a local forest fire, because grass fields are only supposed to be burned when weather conditions dictate air flow is headed away from populated areas. The Gazette-Times confirmed this morning that this was indeed the case, but the wind shifted toward town after the fields were lit.

Burning fields is common in this part of Oregon, since it's an effective way to clear grass crop residue while leaving the root system intact and ensuring a solid grass seed yield. However, it's a nuisance and potential health problem for asthmatics and those with grass allergies (yours truly included). Oregon's current levels are a major improvement from 10 years ago, as only 40,000 acres can be burned each year -- a significant decrease from the peak of 250-300,000 acres annually burned until a phasedown that brought burning down to current levels in 1998. Yesterday's incident was remarkable precisely because it has become a rarity.

However, field burning in Oregon (and elsewhere) may soon be banned entirely. The Environmental Protection Agency is adopting tougher air quality standards based on evidence that smoky air leads to greater rates of death and illness. There are alternatives, mainly bundling up the grass residue and selling it as straw for livestock, but the farmers are still fighting for the right to burn.

As far as I'm concerned, if it comes down to a choice between allowing limited field burning and having farmers bring in more Monsanto genetically-modified Roundup-tolerant bentgrass, I'd opt for the field burning.

Blogging from Beyond?

Corvallis resident Dave Gore, founder and Chairman of the Board of Ashbrook Independent School, has launched a new company that promises to maintain websites for "many generations" to ensure that websites can now outlast their creators. The idea is similar to any other endowment, where a sum is paid up front, invested, and then the yield (or a portion thereof) withdrawn each year to cover the costs of hosting the website.

Arkhold Endowed Websites charges an initial fee of $2,500, which buys you 1 GB of storage space and 5 GB of bandwith for an undefined period of time. It's a neat gimmick. Kudos to Mr. Gore for the innovative idea. But it's a giant ripoff.

First of all, if you want to include your own domain name, you will have to cough up an additional $450 endowment to maintain the domain name registration. Arkhold charges $25 for registration for a single year. At GoDaddy.com, domain registration is never higher than $8.95 per year, with discounts for multiple domains, additional years or addresses that end in .info, .biz or .us.

In addition, Arkhold sets aside 40% of the initial fee to use for corporate taxes and startup expenses, leaving only $1,500 to be used for the actual investment. The company projects a yield of $60 per year to cover hosting costs. Ignoring the numerous free websites available, assuming we want to create a site free of ads (or only using ads that benefit us, not the hosting company), there are still cheaper, better alternatives. Using GoDaddy as an example again, simply because I really, really like them, their Economy Plan costs under $40 per year if you purchase two years at a time, and includes 5 GB of storage space and a whopping 250 GB of bandwidth.

"But those companies don't offer to host my website for all eternity!"

Neither does Arkhold. The technical specifications page states the period of time purchased is "as described elsewhere," so I went searching for something more definite. I was disappointed; Arkhold is very careful to hedge all bets against promising a set period of time. In addition to the repeated reference to "an indefinite" amount of time, I found a reference to "many lifetimes" in the proposed contract, with an immediate disclaimer that the length of time was not guaranteed.
Even more concerning is the following line item in the published contract:

2.3. By submitting content to Arkhold, Client grants Arkhold a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce and publish the content.

Yikes! I understand Arkhold needs permission to publish the content, but "royalty-free reproduction" can be interpreted as allowing the company to use what customers create in advertising. Maybe my brilliant attorney brother can clarify this one for me, just to make sure I'm not butchering the legalese.

Frankly, I find it irritating enough that there are pictures and mentions of me on websites that haven't been updated in ten years by well-meaning friends who probably no longer remember their passwords. Thanks to archive.org, many websites live on in perpetuity for free. While I like the concept better than the website that promises to send letters to relatives in case of rapture, I can think of better ways to spend $2,500.

Write-in campaign for sheriff announced

Today, Corporal Rich Riffle of the Benton County Sheriff Department announced that he will run against Diana Simpson for sheriff in the fall election. It is past the deadline for Riffle's name to appear on the ballot, so he will wage a write-in campaign.

Jack Burright was apparently fired last week. Burright still has thousands of dollars of donations that he can either refund to donors or contribute to another campaign, but he has not made any motion to push that money toward Riffle's campaign.

The anti-Simpson crowd is already frothing at the mouth with glee, happy to have "anyone but Simpson" entering the race. Too bad that Riffle will probably still lose, simply because write-in campaigns take additional effort on the part of voters, who are inherently lazy (as evidenced by our lousy voter turnout, even with the convenience of our nifty mail-in ballots). Tim Smith, who created the anti-Simpson website, will assuredly chalk the loss up to the "conspiracy" in Benton County that he keeps ranting about.

Oh well. I don't know enough about Riffle yet to make my own decison, but I do agree that having a choice is generally beneficial for voters. I just hope Riffle's decision to enter the race wasn't based on the same vehement anti-Simpson rhetoric that the Burright fans keep spouting.

We're number uh... well, we're really not sure.

U.S. News & World Report released their annual university rankings today, and Oregon State University was relegated to the third tier. The third and fourth tier schools are not given actual numbers, but are arranged alphabetically and banished to the kiddie table at Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, OSU is receiving accolades for being a top research school, with "more than twice the research enterprises of all the other state universities combined," according to Rich Holdren, OSU senior associate vice president for research. Our little school is one of only two universities in the nation designated a land, sea, space and sun grant university, along with Cornell, which was #12 on the U.S. News & World Report rankings.

Reflecting this focus on science and research, PC Magazine recently ranked transparent transistors, developed by an Oregon State electronics engineer, as #6 on a list of "Coolest technologies you've never heard of."

In another numberless ranking, Oregon State also made the list of top 100 gay-friendly campuses in the nation published by The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students. We didn't make the top 20; those schools get numbers. But still, we could be #21!

Oregon State may not be granted a specific number, but it's still safe to say that the school is definitely not rank.

Back! And backlogged...

It was nice to get away, even if this was a relatively minor vacation. Still, it's nice to come back to the land of trees, breezes and still-blooming flowers after spending time in a hot, brown, dry climate for a few days.

I'm currently wading through the news I missed, made more difficult by my ongoing frustration with the Gazette-Times' unwillingness or inability to make the best of the news space they are allotted. As most small papers do, the GT sells advertising space first, which determines the "news hole" for a specific day. Sometimes, the news hole is very limited, so the GT skimps on national and international news in favor of local news, to better compete with papers that offer better global coverage, such as the Oregonian.

This makes sense most of the time. Corvallis is no backwater town, nor is it a suburb of a larger city. Local news needs a venue. Hey, it's what keeps this blog going. Even newspaper sections like Lifestyles and Food and whatnot serve a purpose.

However, with all the issues of actual importance to cover, especially with the glut of international crises rising to the surface, it bugs the heck out of me to see the GT publishing pictures of their employees and their pets in a matchmaker contest in the main section of the newspaper. Isn't this the sort of party game put on by employers for their company picnics? Are the reporters really not able to find actual news? I almost prefer it when the GT publishes an AP Wire story and cuts off the last paragraph in mid-sentence.

After these messages... we'll be right back.

The Corvallist will be down until I return to town a week from now. Hooray for vacations!

Corvallist Awards: Best Pizza

I'm going to alienate some of my readers with a bold statement: There is no pizza that can compare to real New York pizza. I'm not talking about the "New York style pizza" touted by restaurants around the globe; I mean authentic, paper-thin, malleable, drippy, greasy, fold-it-in-half pizza found in tiny shops throughout New York and neighboring states. If you can pick up a slice without it drooping precariously toward the floor, it's just not the real thing. If it has more than a topping or two, sparsely dotted across the surface, it's poseur pizza. None of those newfangled toppings, either. The last time I was in New York and dared ask for pineapple, the guy behind the counter actually asked, "You want what now? Nah, nah, we don't do that crap here." Beautiful.

There. Now you know my bias right up front, so you can take my pizza rankings with whatever size grain of salt you would like. That being said, Corvallis has some decent pizza. Let's cover the highs and lows, shall we?

Corvallist's personal fave: Cirello's Pizza, which calls itself New York style, but the crust is really too thick and the toppings too plentiful. No matter. What they do, they do extremely well. I may just lobby the restaurant and ask them to create a Corvallist special: linguica, broccoli, pineapple, artichoke hearts and extra garlic.

Best place to sit and have a slice: American Dream Pizza, either downtown or by campus. Their restaurants are typical Corvallis funky style, with amateur artist-decorated furniture, painted pizza boxes and weird stuff. They offer single slices for a good price and you can fold the pizza in half if you want. But the crusts taste like straight flour, so they miss the mark a bit.

Best place to bring the kid's softball team: Woodstocks Pizza. Also the best place to eat pizza, have a beer and get your laundry done at the same time. Corvallis is home to the original Woodstocks, which has now spread to several California college towns. Their wheat crust is fantastic, but their pizzas are best eaten fresh, not delivered.

Best cheapskate pizza/Best pizza when you're impaired: Pizza Pipeline. Yep, it's a chain. But they don't serve typical chain pizzeria cardboard pies. Considering you can get an extra large two-topping pizza with two large drinks for $12.99, this is the perfect option when you're scraping pennies out of the couch to buy dinner for your friends. Bonus: Their cheesy garlic "Tricky Stix" are actually quite good.

Best pizza from a non-pizza-centric restaurant: Izzy's Pizza. Izzy's is a buffet-style restaurant, but they also make a great pan-style pizza. I am generally not a pan pizza fan, but Izzy's has the best crusts in town. Their Western Barbeque Chicken pizza is amazing.

Pizza I have not tried yet that will probably be ridiculously pretentious: Intaba's. I like Intaba's okay, but when I have a hankering for pizza, I don't really want goat cheese, chipotle glaze, toasted walnuts or tempeh chorizo. It's too damned complicated to be pizza.

And finally...

Worst pizza in town, if not worst pizza anywhere: Pizza Peddler, formerly Brand X Pizza. Not sure if this place is even open anymore, but it's the first time I've thrown away an entire pizza after three bites.

I'm not a fan of Domino's, Little Caesar's or Pizza Hut, so they're not included with separate reviews. Similarly, Figaro's, Papa John's and other take and bake places are left off the list. If I'm going to pick up the pizza and bake it myself, I'd rather just make my own.

On Vanishing and Voyeurism

The Corvallist tends to slow down when the day job picks up. I'm putting in extra work in preparation for a brief vacation next week, so haven't had time to write anything worthwhile.

For now, check out the webcams at Oregon State University. Be sure to click one of the "Time Lapse MPEGs" just for fun. There used to be webcams showing downtown Corvallis and the Riverfront, but it appears they are showing still shots from early July.

A brief message

According to an online skivvies outlet, today was the third annual National Underwear Day. Have to give the company credit for trying to create a national holiday as a marketing tool. In honor of the holiday, I thought I'd post an update about Oregon's most infamous panty raider, Sung Koo Kim.

When Brooke Wilberger vanished from the parking lot of a Corvallis apartment complex in May 2004, investigators quickly turned their attention to Kim, who had recently been arrested for stealing women's underwear from dorm rooms and college laundromats around the state. When police searched Kim's home, they found more than 3,000 pairs of pilfered panties, in addition to a computer full of violence-themed porn and some evidence that Kim was overly interested in an OSU athlete who resembled Wilberger. Kim actually had an alibi of sorts: financial transactions were made from his home computer within minutes of Wilberger's disappearance, and three hours later, he appeared on security camera footage at a store in Tigard, 90 miles away from Corvallis.

Kim was considered a "person of interest" until February 2005, when police finally admitted they had no evidence that he was involved. Later the same year, Joel Patrick Courtney was arrested for kidnapping and murdering Wilberger. But Kim was still considered dangerous, and remained in jail until his trial this year.

Last week, Kim was sentenced to 11 years in prison for theft, burglary and child pornography. I really think this guy needs treatment that he probably won't receive in prison. There was an interesting article in the Oregonian this past weekend about Kim's mother and her goal to become an advocate for the mentally ill. She discussed the Korean taboos around mental illness and shared her own shame and guilt over the situation. It's worth a read.

Dennis Erickson's Error

From 1999 to 2003, Coach Dennis Erickson helped change the little team that couldn't into the powerhouse that could. In 1999, the Beavers ended a 28-year streak of losing seasons with a 7-5 season, ending the year with their first bowl game in a whopping 36 years. In 2000, the team blew everyone away with an 11-1 record and a brutal victory over Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.

The team slipped a bit over the next two years, but faith in Erickson was high. Unfortunately for the Beavers, Erickson decided to head for greener pastures (and a greener bank account) and left OSU to coach the San Francisco 49ers. Much like David Caruso's ill-fated decision to leave NYPD Blue after a single season, Erickson's choice proved nearly fatal to his career. After two tragic years with the 49ers, he was fired.

After two years of unemployment, Dennis Erickson has been rehired by the University of Idaho, where he started his football coaching career in 1982. It's sort of like working at McDonald's during college, then becoming a hotshot stockbroker, then ending up back at McDonald's after a market crash. And now he says it was a mistake to leave the Beavers.

"It was a dumb move, and it was stupid. I regret leaving Oregon State."

Can I get a "Duh" from the crowd?

That's okay. I like Mike Riley, the current coach. A friend from Manitoba informed me that Riley took the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to two Grey Cup wins during his hiatus from OSU. Let's hope he helps the Beavers rise above the troubles of the past few years.

Stack of Surprises

After last night's concert, I can honestly say I understand why Blue Oyster Cult is doomed to the county fair and casino circuit. While they were passable when performing "Burnin' For You," their performance of "Godzilla" was disappointing enough that we left and wandered around the fairgrounds. The major exception was the bassist, Richie Castellano, whose solo showed that his talents are being wasted. He pulled off a riff that would've impressed Les Claypool.

A friend suggested that they would probably be better playing in a small indoor club, rather than outside while it was still light outside. "It's pretty sad when the flashing lights on the corndog stand are more impressive than the band's light show." But really, I think the band just needed a LOT more cowbell.

The rest of the fair was pretty much the same as every other year. This is the first time I didn't ride the Zipper, mainly because the line was too long. The mullet count was disappointingly low, but we did see a lot of "farmer burns," those deeply dark reddish-brown tans that people develop when they're working outside all summer long. The fair food gets stranger every year. This year someone added "pork chop on a stick" in addition to deep-fried Oreos. The one carnie I spoke to was complaining bitterly about the cold weather, compared to his home in North Carolina. It was 82° yesterday.

While wandering around, we ended up at the other stage, where a local band called The Stack was doing its best to be heard over the BOC sound system. They were fantastic! I don't even mean "fantastic for a high school band." They started playing as a cover band a couple years ago while still students at Corvallis High School, and have won most local Battle of the Bands competitions they've entered, including at the State Fair in 2004. They now primarily play original music and have sold more than 500 copies of their self-produced CD and the release party for their second CD will be August 11th at the Oddfellows Hall downtown. If we had known, we would've skipped the other show entirely.

Do we get first dibs?

It was announced today that SIGA Technologies, a biotech firm with research facilities in Corvallis, will receive $4.8 million in federal funds over the next three years to further research and clinical trials in the quest for an effective smallpox treatment. The grant was awarded by the National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research program.

Smallpox was officially eradicated in the 1970s, but after the anthrax attacks in 2001 (which remain unsolved), concerns about anthrax, smallpox and other agents being used in widescale bioterrorism attacks prompted the Centers for Disease Control and several private companies to ramp up research into preventative, curative and palliative therapies. SIGA has already completed the first round of human safety clinical trials for one of their anti-smallpox retroviral agents.

Smallpox may have been the most successful biological warfare agent in history, although largely unintentional. With this research being conducted right here in Corvallis, maybe we'll be spared the fate of the Aztecs.

Fairest of them all

The Benton County Fair returns to Corvallis beginning today, in all its cheesy small town glory. I tend to think of Corvallis as being fairly cosmopolitan for a small town, but I'm happy that we still have a county fair, chock full of corn dogs and cotton candy, tractor pulls, 4H Club sheep-raisin' contests, rusty rides and honest-to-goodness toothless carnies who occasionally smell like beer as early as noon. Not all of them are stereotypical wonders, but there are a couple.

At the time I'm writing this, it's too late to take advantage of "Kids' Day" where kids get in free, but fairgoers of all ages can get in for free on Friday, as long as they show up by 3 p.m. Otherwise, admission is $8 for adults, $5 for kids 6 to 12, $3 for senior citizens and kids under 6 are free all the time. Ride coupons cost more every year, but a "ride all day" wristband costs around $23, which will keep the kids busy while you hang out at the beer garden.

As is the case every year, we end up with the Oregon State Fair musical rejects, most notably Johnny Limbo and the Lugnuts, who might as well have an apartment in town. But this Friday, Blue Oyster Cult will be performing on the main stage.

In addition to all the quilt-judging and barrel-racing competitions, there are several contests and events for all ages, ranging from karaoke to watermelon seed-spitting to the fiddle contest on Saturday. I'm not sure if local boy wonder Alex Hargreaves will be there this year, but it is absolutely worth stopping by to hear this kid play if he shows up. In addition, if you want to see just how those wacky editorials in the Gazette-Times are dreamed up, the editorial board will be holding their meeting at the fairgrounds on Thursday morning at 11 a.m.

Once again, transportation to the fair is completely free on the Corvallis Trolley, which saves the parking fee and spares the epic trek through the dust desert when you show up later in the day.

I'll probably be there Saturday. Keep an eye out for me... I'll be the one angrily trying to knock down those blasted milk bottles for the fourth or fifth time while trying to keep cotton candy out of my hair.

The 22nd Terrace of Purgatory

I always loved Dante's description of the afterlife, with its Circles of Hell and especially the Terraces of Purgatory beyond. The word terrace conjures up a lovely outdoor patio setting with white lattice and vines and maybe a bougainvillea. That doesn't sound so terrible, right?

Today, upon discovering that my vehicle registration was about to expire, I made the cross-town trek to the edge of the Corvallis map and the terrace of purgatory that is the Department of Motor Vehicles. I stepped in the door and was bestowed with the almighty number 22. I glanced at the wall and discovered that they had just called number 5.

Why is it that the DMV only has copies of Ladies' Home Journal and Good Housekeeping? I think I spotted an ancient National Geographic across the room, but I don't think the gentleman reading it would've swapped a story about Tibet for "Can this marriage be saved?" I did like the display of license plates encircling the room, especially the one from Jordan with the funky Arabic numbers right above the Western-style numbers. I was starting to count them, but was called before I could finish and post the total.

It really wasn't all bad. The people working at the Corvallis DMV were genuinely friendly and helpful, once my number was finally called. I also was kindly informed that I could've saved myself the drive and renewed my registration online. D'oh!

Since the DMV relocated to the outer reaches and sold their former, more convenient building to the Salbasgeon Suites to be used as a meeting hall (and check out the mood lighting they added!), it's nice to discover that there is a much easier route than the one I took this morning. That probably wasn't much help to the lady who drew number 57 as we were leaving, though.