My "Charlies Angels" Lunch Hour

I had an interesting lunch hour this past Monday.
On my lunch hour I went to the bank to make my car payment. The bank is on a corner and has a little alley-like driveway that runs behind the bank and is a driveway to the parking lot from the side street as well as bank employee parking. On my walking into the bank I saw a man walking out of the alley way towards the front of the bank, and he was acting a little crazy mumbling to himself and as I got closer it looked like he was carrying a knife but I wasnt really sure. I just kept an eye on him, not sure if he was crazy or planning on robbing someone at the ATM, and intended to tell the security guard inside the bank.
I get inside the bank, and the security guard thats normally inside the entrance isn't there so I thought I would tell the teller. There was no one in line so I was able to go straight to the teller, when I got up there EVERYONE was at the window facing the alley and one woman was CRYING "he's beating up my car!" and someone else was on the phone calling 911 and was telling them that he had a knife, so I took care of my car payment and the teller told me that he was back there just beating on one of the employees car. As I left another customer was walking out at the same time I was, so I felt a bit more comfortable leaving just in case the crazy guy was no longer in the alley and was now in the parking lot.
But, this was no ordinary customer I was walking out with. This was an absolute idiot. He goes over to the alley way and yells at the guy "Hey, theyre calling the cops on you in there" because the last thing we want to do is get a violent crazy person off the streets. We want to give them warning so that they can get away. I get in my car and leave and as Im pulling out of the parking lot I see crazy guy cross the street and run down another side stret. For some reason I decide that I CAN NOT let this guy get away and that I should follow him so I turn around so I can go down the side street that he's now running down. After I turn around I see one of the tellers from the bank crossing the street to run after him. She was a small woman and he could run fast and I just didnt think that it was a good idea for her to be following him on foot in case he decided to turn around and come after her, so I rolled down my window and told her where he was and to meet me on the corner and we'd follow him. Once she got in the car she used my cell phone to call back to the bank and tell them that we were following the crazy guy and where we were so that they could tell the police once they showed up. We stayed within eyesight of crazy guy, but not sol close that we couldnt get away quickly if he decided to come towards us. He was in a small shopping center, opening the door to a bar and then kicking it over and over again. As soon as he heard the police siren he took off running. As he started to take off, I was able to grab a pic with my camera phone....

Yes, he is shirtless in red track pants with a backwards ball cap.
There were 2 police cars as well as 2 officers onn foot who chased him down the street about a block, under the overpass for a major street, Howe Avenue, up the embankment and when the bank teller and I drove down the street and turned around we saw that the police had stopped traffic on Howe Avenue and were arresting him in the middle of the street. As I took the teller back to the bank she told me that the womans car he was beating on was a good friend of hers who was also one of the branch managers and that shed just gone through a bad divorce and as a gift to herself once the divorce was finalized she bought a brand new Mercedes just a couple of weeks prior and now it had been vandalized by a crazy shirtless man. I gave the teller all of my contact info in the event that the police needed to talk to me for any reason. I havent heard anything yet from the police or from the woman who's car was vandalized, but will update you if I do.
I got back to work a little late and when I told my boss why she said, "Nessa, you're like Charlies Angels, chasing down bad guys on your lunch break!" She said that in her version of the story, I'm tossing my hair like Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith.

In other news - one week from today I will be in Oregon visiting the grandparents. I am looking forward to this trip like you wouldnt believe. Five days to relax on my grandparents property. Their house sits on top of a small mountain (technically, I think its just a really big hill, but my ears pop going up the driveway, so I call it a mountain), 50 acres of which is theirs. The nearest town is about 10 miles away and I think its population is about 2,500. While there, I'm hoping grandma will help me perfect my ability to make butterballs. Butterball soup is a recipe that my great grandmother, and probably her mother before her, used to make. As the name suggests, it definitely is not the healthiest of soups, but it is so yummy. I'll post the recipe after I get it from her. I don't know the exact quantities, but you mix together bread crumbs, melted butter, egg, salt, and I believe either a tad of cinnamon or clove and make little walnut sized dumplings out of them, then cook them in chicken broth. The original recipe had them in a chicken noodle soup and included the recipe for home made egg noodles, but grandma generally leaves out the noodles. Somewhere between now and next Wednesday night I have to find the time to do laundry for the trip as well as decide which crochet projects I'll be taking with me. I have quite a few going right now - some Ugg-like baby booties from Candy Babies by Candi Jensen and a baby afghan for an expectant friend, an afghan for my friend in Salt Lake City (I don't think I'll be taking that with me - theres 6 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun), the Crazy Aunt Purl Poncho (it's the pink and black one) by The Crochet Dude as well as another Crochet Dude design... Do Your Vest, just to name a few. Seriously, The Crochet Dude, his designs are amazing. I strongly recommend them. I'm thinking that to save on space in the suitcase I'll just take the booties or the baby ghan, or something small like that, and if I finish them while I'm there I guess I'll just have to explore the greater Portland area's LYS's. Although granny isn't into the fiber arts I know that she does like craft stores and she told me that she plans on resting up the days prior to my visit so that she feels well enough to do some serious shopping. Now that I think about it, since she's lost her hair from the chemotherapy, I may need to make a hat and matching scarf to take to her as a gift. I saw, and fondled, some GORGEOUS baby alpaca yarn the other day.....