...or make a bet that depends on the city to finish a project on time. You see, this summer our city began a "beautification project" on the main road that passes by our neighborhood. Among the updates classified as "beautification" are:

1. Narrow the road from 4 lanes to 2 then back to 4 then back to 2 so that it's as confusing as possible
2. New light posts
3. New benches and planters
4. Rip out the old mature trees, leave the street treeless for about 4 months and then add new young trees and plants,
5. A new "decorative arch" that spans Maclay Street at the city limit.

This arch has been the subject of much entertainment in our house. It started out as 2 matching metal frames and eventually turned into 2 matching mission style towers. Then the work stopped for a while. We assumed they needed to let the stucco set. Finally they added a rather industrial bridge-looking metal arch over the street. It sat like this for quite a while and J and I began discussing whether or not the arch was finished. J believed it was since it seemed all the elements were there, though somewhat shabby. I believed it wasn't because I hoped that they wouldn't leave it so shabby. Obviously the only way to handle the situation was to make a bet with the following terms: the city would do more work before Thanksgiving indicating that the arch was not complete and the loser will buy the winner a delicious treat from Cold Stone Creamery.

Thanksgiving loomed closer without any work done and I saw my yummy treat moving farther from my grasp. Finally Thanksgiving came and I had to face the fact that I lost the bet. Then wouldn't you guess this last Monday, the first normal weekday after Thanksgiving, the crew was out there again working on the arch! They gave it a nice new colorful coat of paint and added finishing touches.

It just goes to show you, never bank a Cold Stone treat on the project schedule of a city!