Today has been a weird day.

It started out ordinarily enough: it’s payday, so I paid bills and dealt with home business. I let Pea skip worksheets (we have been doing them daily) and dance practice, and we went for sushi. That was delightful, because I’d forgotten one of the servers had put aside some of her daughter’s things she’d outgrown (beads, a new beanie baby, that sort of thing) for Pea, who was completely thrilled. The owner brought Pea mochi for dessert, and it was a good experience. We walked out feeling awesome.

(Contrast this to what happened at our other standby payday place: I miss you, Byways, but given that I mailed my post to your corporate address and still never heard anything back, well — I guess we are quits now. And it sucks, because Pea still asks about going and I have to make excuses.)

But afterward, we went to the toy store, where I surreptitiously grabbed gifts to be wrapped (for Pea’s birthday) while Pea browsed. This is always fun, because I have to do things so quickly that I forget what I’ve gotten her, and it’s a pleasant surprise for me when she unwraps her gifts, too.

Then we went to a drive-through on our way to Audubon. There was a film crew (well, a scruffy video guy and the talent) with a camera pointed at the cars in the drive through. Like staring down the windshield while I’m paying pointed at the cars. It was creepy and invasive, even though, when I asked, they said they were not filming us. (“Good, because I don’t consent.”)

It turns out they were doing reactions to Mayor Bloomberg’s desire to downsize soft drink sizes. If you Google this, apparently it’s a big story and people have lots of opinions. I have no clue. This is news in Portland? Anyway, if they lied and were taping, I’m the one in the really great blue hat.

But we had a good time at Audubon. We saw birds, but we saw more rodents. Lots of rats and they had to take up the feeders because the rats were/are eating the birdseed tailings. There were baby rats — lots and lots of baby rats — and they were kind of cute. Still, rats. I suggested they use the rats to feed the birds of prey and save a few dollars, but you would have thought I suggested PETA serve steak tartare.

Then we got home. Finally. After traffic. I took out our recycling and found, in a collective bin, a huge amount of original, signed receipts from a bar in downtown Portland, about 70 blocks away and across the river. There were time cards. Orders from vendors. Lots and lots of very drunken signatures. (Some people really do not tip their servers well — shame on them!)

I called the neighborhood watch lady (who is, unlike Batty, very nice) and together we pulled the receipts and such out of the recycling bin and into a 30 gallon paper trash bag — which we filled.

I called the non-emergency number for the police and a couple of hours later, a uniformed officer responded. After some investigation, it turned out that one of the bar owners, who lives here, thought it was an appropriate way of disposing of all of that information — names, last 4 of credit cards, time slips, vendor receipts, and so forth. He said so in front of the cop and was kind of pissy about it. All I can say is…wow. The cop, after they left, apparently spoke to him for a while longer, which was hopefully long enough to convince him that a shredder might be in order.

Later, Batty was snippy to Pea, and I later caught her saying something rude about me when I went out to clean the hummingbird feeder (her back was to me, I heard her say my name, and then I waved at the person she was talking to). I have no energy for that woman.

Tomorrow, I think we’ll stay home. If it’s a weird day, then at least it’ll be my own doing.