high and low, it all evens out

Oh dear. I am deep into the planning on the Sooper Sekrit Projekt, happy as a pig in poo, as an old Australian coworker used to say. I'm like a kid fixated on a new toy -- all other thoughts have been swept from my brain. I am Ralphie and this is my Red Ryder BB gun. It won't stay secret much longer, I can tell you that much. I'm fit to bust with blabbing about it, but I don't want to start too soon for fear of burning you all out on it before we've even begun.

In other, less bouncy news, we decided to let our reservation for the Nissan Leaf go. That's a pretty big disappointment since we've invested a lot of time and a (refundable) deposit into being one of the first owners of this amazing car. Sal's been following the progress on the Leaf for years now, we saw the demo of it at OMSI, we were on the reservation list in the first 5 minutes it opened up, signed up for the pilot program that would allow an auditing agency to track usage and other vectors in exchange for a credit on the charging station installation, have researched all the various incentives and rebates we'd qualify for, and we've been talking to City departments about permits for getting the charging station installed on our sidewalk strip (since it's a right-of-way).

We had our on-site assessment a couple of weeks ago with a representative from the organization that has the grant for the pilot program and then with the contractor who would be installing our charging station. And although they were excited for our participation since we'd be representative of urban dwellers with no off-site parking, the fact that ours is an elevated lot presented a problem. (As we feared.) In order to run the line, they'd have to bore through the retaining wall and do a bunch of additional work to install the station.

So we've had a sinking feeling for the last couple of weeks while we waited for the boring contractor to give us an estimate on drilling through to run the line. We knew it wouldn't be cheap. Would, in all likelihood, be astronomical. And we were right, unfortunately. The estimate came in on Monday: $10,000. And that includes the $1,200 credit for the charging station installation.

Portland is one of six cities participating in a joint federal-manufacturer program to intall charging stations throughout the city. Which means we could take the car to a charging station instead, just like we take our cars to a gas station now. But even though the Leaf has a fast charge option (which is one of the many great things about the car) that only takes 30 minutes, it will only charge 80% on the fast charge (compared to the 6 hours it takes for the regular charge to 100%). Which means it's just not viable for us, at least not right now.

Pretty bummed about that. But we're hopeful that there'll be a solution that works for us in a few years and in the meantime, be glad that the cars we have run well despite being older (the Camry is 10 years old, the Prius is 9 years old), get good mileage, and that we're less car dependent than we've ever been. On the scale of problems to have, this isn't really one.

lunch, Paris slimline:

• quickie sweet & sour pork: jasmine rice and leftover roast pork drizzled with sweet and sour sauce
• kale sauteed with garlic
• molded egg
• gala apple slices
• dark chocolate covered raisins

This is a classic example of bento being kind of magic. I stood before my fridge last night, wondering what the heck I was going to pack for lunch today besides a hard boiled egg and some apple slices. I had a smidge of jasmine rice leftover from last week's lunch and figured, well, I could include that with some sweet and sour sauce for a bit of flavor. And then I remembered we had some pork roast leftover from this weekend, and ta da! Sweet and sour pork! With the tiny bit of leftover sauteed kale from last week, I soon had a nicely packed bento and good, well-rounded lunch.