Now that Anny’s my roommate, we spend a lot of time together shopping, eating, talking, playing video games, or watching Twin Peaks. One evening we drove up to the Northgate mall for some item or another, and encountered this dual rainbow. Rainbows became extra fascinating once I found out [what they really are][1]. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow

On my May trip to Tokyo, I discovered the [ANA Uniform Collection][1]. Someone at All Nippon Airways recognizes the buying power of figure-geeks, and knows how to exploit it. They hired a respected figure sculptor to create this set of stewardess models, the finest set of blind-box trading figures I’ve ever seen. The figures were released as a limited set, available only on the web (with exorbitant shipping) or at ANA’s shop in Narita International Airport. They happened to be released during my trip; I did not intend to ignore the opportunity for cute, high-quality, limited-edition figures. On my way out of Japan, I spent about two hours trying to find the shop in the airport, finally finding it, and being told that the figures were sold out. That was the main disappointment of my otherwise lovely trip. I casually checked eBay over the next couple of months, watching the silly prices people were asking for individual figures from the set, and the absurd prices they were asking for full sets. Finally, though, one seller was offering them for a reasonable price, and I bid. Some days later, this attractively postmarked box arrived. It was full of knockoffs. I’d been fooled by a fake garage kit, but I never conceived that someone would bootleg 400-yen trading figures. The quality of the figures was deplorable, but these curs went to great lengths to print and glue accurate reproductions of the original _blind boxes_. The seller claimed not to know they were fake, and reimbursed most of my money. I then found a legitimate-seeming hobby shop online, called them to confirm that they actually went into the ANA shop in the airport to buy their figures, and bought a box and a half. Now my desk is populated by tiny stewardesses, which is all that really matters. [1]: http://acedia.web.infoseek.co.jp/toy/ana01.html

Ann always called this man-over-bike type of sign an “extreme stunt” sign, which makes sense if you consider them part of the same picture. Our trip to Canada, only the fourth country I’ve ever visited, was commemorated by a 12-pack of Canadian Dr. Pepper, a fine beverage indeed. I wish the United States could recognize the value of using actual sugar in a drink we invented, right here in our country, to contain sugar. Corn syrup is a vile thing, and I’m rather tired of being considered ignorant of its difference from real sugar. I suppose it doesn’t matter, though, now that I’ve reduced my intake to one casual pop per week. :D

Canada was full of fascinating signage. We were rather disappointed to realize that this guy was not a real guy, kind of like the cardboard security guards at the windows of the self-storage place in Green Bay.