Like most of you we have a blue plastic rolling bin for paper, glass and metal products and a green bin for garbage. A giant truck comes once a week and picks up the green bin and every other week picks up the blue recycle bin.

Seems simple enough. It should not require a check-off chart on the wall.

It is easier to go outside before the truck arrives and see if our neighbors, the Smiths, have their blue box out.

This does put a burden on our unsuspecting neighbor but it does save keeping track.

Then they went on a trip to Hawaii without asking my permission and there was no box out there. Of any color.

So I figured it was probably green only and Elsbeth, just trying to be helpful, reminded me to take out the blue bin also. I pointed out that that would be next week and then she said, "No, " I was wrong and then said, "Wanna bet?"

So, without telling her about the neighbors not having any box out yet, I answered smugly, "Sure. How about a million bucks?"

She jumped on that and with a grin said, "You are on."

And then she said she knew they were out of town. I hastily got the blue box out there just in time.

Now she has embarked on a plan to collect. It is bound to be painful and take a long time. Maybe a hundred years.

This week she dragged me to Fred Meyer for some groceries and suggested I might enjoy just sitting on a bench as she would be busy for a while using part of her winnings in the ladies' ready-to-wear department.

So I sat there staring at shoppers walking by.

I was squirming for half an hour when she finally appeared with a pleased look on her face, opened a bag right there and modeled a new jacket.

She also had a pair of pants and a sweater and explained how little it cost me for everything, and pointed out that now I only owed her $999,965.00.

Meet Ken Peterson

After he and his wife Darcy bought and remodeled the old Georgian style Klopfenstein estate on Three Tree Point, they decided to go all the way and move their commercial printing business from South Park to Olde Burien.

Then to further integrate their life in the Highline community they enrolled their 7-year-old Cody in St. Francis Elementary School in Seahurst. They also have a 2-year-old son named Ryan.

Ken is an avid fisherman and when not keeping a hands-on approach to running the busy print shop, he will most likely be found seeking salmon out front of their home during fishing season.

Ken's company, Color Printing Systems, boasts some huge modern presses and employs 24 full-time, serving notable customers like Comcast and Costco.