my weekend, and then some...
Yes, I know it's Tuesday -- lately, my time management skills have gone straight to hell. Anyway, more after the cut(s), for those who care to read:
Friday, 9/5
A fairly uneventful day, overall, mostly looking forward to the trip down Cincy way to spend time with nuclearmse at Harvest Days. I managed to leave work early like I had hoped, met up with iaredsum, and we headed for katerinfg's place to unload the entertainment center from her van before heading out. That damn piece of furniture was heavy as hell, but we managed to get it into the garage relatively unscathed (I hope?).
After some delay getting on the road due to packing and last-minute shopping (of course, as katerinfg put it, "if it wasn't for the last minute, I'd never get anything done"), we were on our way. The trip was uneventful, if a bit wet, and there was a stretch of I-71 between Columbus and Cincy where the storm front exactly paralleled the highway. We arrived in one piece shortly after 11:00pm, and immediately crashed (the good kind of crash, not the SCREECH, BANG kind) for the night. nuclearmse's cats seem to like me.
Saturday, 9/6
Woke up early to be able to get nuclearmse on site for her class set-up, but apparently not early enough :-(. With multiple delays in the hunt for breakfast and foam for the Tavern Brawl, I was glad that Google overestimated the amount of time it would take to get from "casa de nuclearmse" to the site. We were able to get there with about 30 minutes before her class time, and after a whirlwind setup, found... no students. Meh.
All was not lost, as this allowed better setup time for the youth point activities. It was a fun, sunny day, mostly assisting at youth point cat herding. I got my butt kicked at mancala, but also got to enjoy Fairhaven's "meat, meat, & more meat" fest (eating well is the best revenge?). Did little bits of site crying to exercise my heraldic muscles, enjoyed a portion of the pre-court commedia, a reasonably short court featuring the presentation of what looked to be a cubic buttload of scroll cases constructed by ladyvonkulp, nuclearmse, and others, and then (following the aforementioned protein-fest), headed back to nuclearmse's place to bed down for the night. We were invited to an off-site party, but were all too wiped to attend.
Sunday, 9/7
Had to get a fairly early start, as katerinfg was cleared to return to work, and her shift started at 2:30pm today. nuclearmse was still pretty wiped from the event, sinuses, and allergies, so I let her sleep late while I unloaded her car with assistance from katerinfg. A kiss for the road from nuclearmse, and we were on our way. As katerinfg already noted, southwest Ohio is distinctly Burger King-deficient, so we stopped at McD's for a quick breakfast.
All things considered, we made great time, having gotten on the road shortly after 8:00am, with me being dropped off and in my house by 12:15pm. I called my sweetie to let her know I was home safe, called iaredsum to thank him for watching Charlie, and related to both of them what I had discovered when I walked in the door.
Apparently, some time between when iaredsum arrived in the morning, and when I arrived at lunch time, Charlie decided he wanted dessert. I had a Rubbermaid tub with some of my Pennsic gear and non-perishable foodstuffs sitting on the kitchen floor, without a lid on it. Items in that tub included a baggie of smoked Russian tea and various jars of spices from Auntie Arwen, and a number of boxed single-serve fruit pies. Charlie had removed a jar of smoked black pepper from the tub, which iaredsum found on the floor, thankfully unopened, when he arrived.
After his departure, Charlie decided to see what else might be available to eat, so he grabbed the Russian smoked tea. Thankfully, unbrewed tea leaves were not to his liking, and while he ripped a small hole in the bag, I was able to salvage most of the contents. When he reached the apple pie, however, now THIS was a success. I found the remnants of the box, shredded into pieces no more than 1/2" on a side, neatly stacked in a pile in the dining room, with nary a crumb of the contents to be found. I wanted to be angry at him, but was appreciative of the fact that at least he didn't make a mess. I swear, if that dog ever develops an opposable thumb, I am SO screwed.
Also a special shoutout to iaredsum for taking the time to replenish my dog food supply, which was far above and beyond the call of what was expected. I love having fellow dog-owning friends.
The remainder of the afternoon was largely occupied by a nap, since I was apparently more tired from the prior day than I thought. When I awoke, I decided to take a trek downtown for dinner and a shot at getting a ticket to the WWE Unforgiven pay-per-view that was taking place at the Q.
For those who don't know, I'm a fan of pro wrestling, and have been since the pre-Wrestlemania days. It's staged, sure, but it still takes athletic talent and acting talent that I can appreciate. I was going to just get a ticket from the box office, since they started at $25, but again, my scalper-fu was strong. I was approached by on gentleman offering to sell me a $150 ringside seat for $200, but when I indicated that was too rich for my blood, the next offer (from a different seller) was a $65 mid-level seat at face value. Nope, still a little too much. He dropped the price to $45, and I was sold.
Off to dinner at Local Heroes, a decent sports bar on E 9 near Progressive Field, and then back to the arena for the event. A fun time, mostly decent matches, but a fairly long night, as I didn't get home until slightly after midnight.
Monday, 9/8
I was feeling a little under the weather today, so I decided to call off sick from work. I think it was also lingering weekend exhaustion.
My initial intention was to run some light errands, including doing some research legwork on a replacement for my cell phone. I don't necessarily NEED one, but I've passed my "New Every Two" anniversary with Verizon, and the Motorola Q I have is getting a little long in the tooth.
I also hoped to get over to Best Buy and use the $105 in accumulated RewardZone certificates and gift card that I had acquired to defer some of the cost of a West Wing boxed set that I'd been wanting for a while, since the retail cost is $230. Unfortunately, in hunting around the house, while I located the gift card, I couldn't find the damn RewardZone certs. Worse, I found the paper they were attached to, which indicated they expired 9/6. CRAP.
Anywho, I went off on my quest for phone info, stopping first at the Verizon Wireless store, where I hoped to check out an XV6800 smartphone, which features the newer version of Windows Mobile, a touchscreen (larger than my current non-touch), and a slide-out keyboard. Unfortunately, while Verizon had one on display, it was not charged, and they had no means of plugging it in for me. Yeah, that was useful.
In the interest of trying to gain SOMETHING from the day, I moseyed over to Circuit City, where I found their Verizon kiosk manned by a very helpful salesman named Tony. Not only was he willing to unbox an XV6800 so that I could work with it, but he also extolled the virtues of the newer Blackberry devices. While I've not been much of a fan of the Church of Crackberry in the past, it seems like some of their newer stuff might be worthy of consideration. The pricepoints are lower, the capabilities are good, I just need to convince myself that I'm not going from the dark side to the darker side. Dammit, Google, can you release a decent phone running Android, already?
Once I was done there, I made a quick stop (okay, a not quick stop) at Micro Center, just to browse, then went over to Half Price Books for a little bit, since it wasn't lunch time yet. I found a humor book in their $1 clearance section called "May Contain Nuts", which quickly became mine. Funny stuff.
I then went over to Roly Poly, and discovered just how good their lunches are. I actually picked up two combos (I love the Entertainment coupons), eating one this day and saving on for the next day's lunch. nuclearmse told me she's familiar with their offerings, and I think I'll (well?) be going back soon.
When I got home I was still more than a bit frustrated with not finding those RewardZone certificates, so I took another look through the stack where I last saw them. Sure enough, there they were in all their expired glory.
I figured I'd try to call the store and plead my case for an exception, at which point the next roadblock got thrown in my way -- every extension of their main IVR line went to a "this line is not in service" message. So, back I went to the store.
Upon arrival there, the MOD and Customer Service folks were actually quite helpful and courteous, getting me in touch with the appropriate back-end folks who were able to arrange a re-issue of the certificates with a three-month expiration window. Unfortunately, getting the certificates, even electronically, will take a week to ten days, so my purchase will have to wait :-(. Ah well, this allows me to pay off Dragon*Con bills before incurring new debt.
Back home, dinner, laundry, and an unfortunate perusal of a letter from Northeast Shores Development Corporation -- apparently, someone complained about the condition of the peeling paint on my house (why in the name of the goddess the former owner tried to paint the fiber-cement shingles is beyond me). NSDC is willing to work with me to correct this before the city fines me, but I guess my exterior work projects are now prioritized. A goodnight phone conversation with nuclearmse (after her call woke me... whoops!) made me feel better, though (as it usually does).
Friday, 9/5
A fairly uneventful day, overall, mostly looking forward to the trip down Cincy way to spend time with nuclearmse at Harvest Days. I managed to leave work early like I had hoped, met up with iaredsum, and we headed for katerinfg's place to unload the entertainment center from her van before heading out. That damn piece of furniture was heavy as hell, but we managed to get it into the garage relatively unscathed (I hope?).
After some delay getting on the road due to packing and last-minute shopping (of course, as katerinfg put it, "if it wasn't for the last minute, I'd never get anything done"), we were on our way. The trip was uneventful, if a bit wet, and there was a stretch of I-71 between Columbus and Cincy where the storm front exactly paralleled the highway. We arrived in one piece shortly after 11:00pm, and immediately crashed (the good kind of crash, not the SCREECH, BANG kind) for the night. nuclearmse's cats seem to like me.
Saturday, 9/6
Woke up early to be able to get nuclearmse on site for her class set-up, but apparently not early enough :-(. With multiple delays in the hunt for breakfast and foam for the Tavern Brawl, I was glad that Google overestimated the amount of time it would take to get from "casa de nuclearmse" to the site. We were able to get there with about 30 minutes before her class time, and after a whirlwind setup, found... no students. Meh.
All was not lost, as this allowed better setup time for the youth point activities. It was a fun, sunny day, mostly assisting at youth point cat herding. I got my butt kicked at mancala, but also got to enjoy Fairhaven's "meat, meat, & more meat" fest (eating well is the best revenge?). Did little bits of site crying to exercise my heraldic muscles, enjoyed a portion of the pre-court commedia, a reasonably short court featuring the presentation of what looked to be a cubic buttload of scroll cases constructed by ladyvonkulp, nuclearmse, and others, and then (following the aforementioned protein-fest), headed back to nuclearmse's place to bed down for the night. We were invited to an off-site party, but were all too wiped to attend.
Sunday, 9/7
Had to get a fairly early start, as katerinfg was cleared to return to work, and her shift started at 2:30pm today. nuclearmse was still pretty wiped from the event, sinuses, and allergies, so I let her sleep late while I unloaded her car with assistance from katerinfg. A kiss for the road from nuclearmse, and we were on our way. As katerinfg already noted, southwest Ohio is distinctly Burger King-deficient, so we stopped at McD's for a quick breakfast.
All things considered, we made great time, having gotten on the road shortly after 8:00am, with me being dropped off and in my house by 12:15pm. I called my sweetie to let her know I was home safe, called iaredsum to thank him for watching Charlie, and related to both of them what I had discovered when I walked in the door.
Apparently, some time between when iaredsum arrived in the morning, and when I arrived at lunch time, Charlie decided he wanted dessert. I had a Rubbermaid tub with some of my Pennsic gear and non-perishable foodstuffs sitting on the kitchen floor, without a lid on it. Items in that tub included a baggie of smoked Russian tea and various jars of spices from Auntie Arwen, and a number of boxed single-serve fruit pies. Charlie had removed a jar of smoked black pepper from the tub, which iaredsum found on the floor, thankfully unopened, when he arrived.
After his departure, Charlie decided to see what else might be available to eat, so he grabbed the Russian smoked tea. Thankfully, unbrewed tea leaves were not to his liking, and while he ripped a small hole in the bag, I was able to salvage most of the contents. When he reached the apple pie, however, now THIS was a success. I found the remnants of the box, shredded into pieces no more than 1/2" on a side, neatly stacked in a pile in the dining room, with nary a crumb of the contents to be found. I wanted to be angry at him, but was appreciative of the fact that at least he didn't make a mess. I swear, if that dog ever develops an opposable thumb, I am SO screwed.
Also a special shoutout to iaredsum for taking the time to replenish my dog food supply, which was far above and beyond the call of what was expected. I love having fellow dog-owning friends.
The remainder of the afternoon was largely occupied by a nap, since I was apparently more tired from the prior day than I thought. When I awoke, I decided to take a trek downtown for dinner and a shot at getting a ticket to the WWE Unforgiven pay-per-view that was taking place at the Q.
For those who don't know, I'm a fan of pro wrestling, and have been since the pre-Wrestlemania days. It's staged, sure, but it still takes athletic talent and acting talent that I can appreciate. I was going to just get a ticket from the box office, since they started at $25, but again, my scalper-fu was strong. I was approached by on gentleman offering to sell me a $150 ringside seat for $200, but when I indicated that was too rich for my blood, the next offer (from a different seller) was a $65 mid-level seat at face value. Nope, still a little too much. He dropped the price to $45, and I was sold.
Off to dinner at Local Heroes, a decent sports bar on E 9 near Progressive Field, and then back to the arena for the event. A fun time, mostly decent matches, but a fairly long night, as I didn't get home until slightly after midnight.
Monday, 9/8
I was feeling a little under the weather today, so I decided to call off sick from work. I think it was also lingering weekend exhaustion.
My initial intention was to run some light errands, including doing some research legwork on a replacement for my cell phone. I don't necessarily NEED one, but I've passed my "New Every Two" anniversary with Verizon, and the Motorola Q I have is getting a little long in the tooth.
I also hoped to get over to Best Buy and use the $105 in accumulated RewardZone certificates and gift card that I had acquired to defer some of the cost of a West Wing boxed set that I'd been wanting for a while, since the retail cost is $230. Unfortunately, in hunting around the house, while I located the gift card, I couldn't find the damn RewardZone certs. Worse, I found the paper they were attached to, which indicated they expired 9/6. CRAP.
Anywho, I went off on my quest for phone info, stopping first at the Verizon Wireless store, where I hoped to check out an XV6800 smartphone, which features the newer version of Windows Mobile, a touchscreen (larger than my current non-touch), and a slide-out keyboard. Unfortunately, while Verizon had one on display, it was not charged, and they had no means of plugging it in for me. Yeah, that was useful.
In the interest of trying to gain SOMETHING from the day, I moseyed over to Circuit City, where I found their Verizon kiosk manned by a very helpful salesman named Tony. Not only was he willing to unbox an XV6800 so that I could work with it, but he also extolled the virtues of the newer Blackberry devices. While I've not been much of a fan of the Church of Crackberry in the past, it seems like some of their newer stuff might be worthy of consideration. The pricepoints are lower, the capabilities are good, I just need to convince myself that I'm not going from the dark side to the darker side. Dammit, Google, can you release a decent phone running Android, already?
Once I was done there, I made a quick stop (okay, a not quick stop) at Micro Center, just to browse, then went over to Half Price Books for a little bit, since it wasn't lunch time yet. I found a humor book in their $1 clearance section called "May Contain Nuts", which quickly became mine. Funny stuff.
I then went over to Roly Poly, and discovered just how good their lunches are. I actually picked up two combos (I love the Entertainment coupons), eating one this day and saving on for the next day's lunch. nuclearmse told me she's familiar with their offerings, and I think I'll (well?) be going back soon.
When I got home I was still more than a bit frustrated with not finding those RewardZone certificates, so I took another look through the stack where I last saw them. Sure enough, there they were in all their expired glory.
I figured I'd try to call the store and plead my case for an exception, at which point the next roadblock got thrown in my way -- every extension of their main IVR line went to a "this line is not in service" message. So, back I went to the store.
Upon arrival there, the MOD and Customer Service folks were actually quite helpful and courteous, getting me in touch with the appropriate back-end folks who were able to arrange a re-issue of the certificates with a three-month expiration window. Unfortunately, getting the certificates, even electronically, will take a week to ten days, so my purchase will have to wait :-(. Ah well, this allows me to pay off Dragon*Con bills before incurring new debt.
Back home, dinner, laundry, and an unfortunate perusal of a letter from Northeast Shores Development Corporation -- apparently, someone complained about the condition of the peeling paint on my house (why in the name of the goddess the former owner tried to paint the fiber-cement shingles is beyond me). NSDC is willing to work with me to correct this before the city fines me, but I guess my exterior work projects are now prioritized. A goodnight phone conversation with nuclearmse (after her call woke me... whoops!) made me feel better, though (as it usually does).