November 26, 2002

           Miami 6:33 a.m., a sunny day on South Beach. I got the usual runaround from Beepermania, but also got my new page or a now whole month’s free service which amounts to a free two dollars. They did not reimburse me for the two weeks they were out of service and the cost of traveling over there twice. This town must be ripe for the plucking. Jamie left for her mother still Friday. My Thanksgiving is forfeited to building the project 21 display cases in a marathon before her return Friday evening after work. I'm glad we didn't contract these cases out. The complications would've bankrupted us.
           I'm reading “Search for Columbus”. Historians amaze me. There are claims he was British, French, Swedish, and even Chinese. (National Geographic, Volume 181, Number 1, January 1992, Washington, DC)

           Daily gripe. People with food allergies that eat in public restaurants. Particularly when they don't speak the same language as the staff. I guess I'm saying people with shellfish allergy may be shouldn't be in a Chinese seafood restaurant in the first place. Maybe I'm wrong, but do these people think that Chinese restaurant staff should be responsible for correctly diagnosing the customer's medical conditions? Maybe they think it should be included in the new waitress’ welcome aboard chat?

           [Author's note: Jamie regularly visits her mother in Homestead, Florida. We've learned to work on the toothpick cases,only when she is not around. For reasons known only to Frank, his books call it Project 22, the counting of one million objects. Today our equity stands at me, $1800, Frank, $450. If nothing else, Frank and I are getting better at building cases. The prototype took 20 hours of direct labor; the second case took 10 hours, then case number 3 just 8 hours.
           Jamie works one long shift, 12 to 15 hours per week, at Churchill's and takes home twice what I do, and I work a 40 hour five day week.]