Shopping, New Vacuum Cleaner, and new Black Lagoon
So Mom took me shopping again this weekend. Mom's first stop was Farm and Fleet, which she said needed to be done first due to it only being possible to get there going into Onalaska (and Mom had plenty to say about the stupidity of that particular choice of route design). She went to get some kind of metal hitch thing for Dad, but I walked away with not only a new vacuum cleaner (since I was getting sick of the old one I've been using to clean house) but two new pairs of shoes, which knocked the other major item I needed off the list. Next stop was Best Buy, where I looked at computers. I'm mainly aiming for a laptop this time around rather than the desktop I've been using for so long, and Mom says I should talk to Ann, the family's resident computer expert, about a good choice of computer. Once we left Best Buy, Mom dropped me off at Barnes and Noble, where I bought the Draconomicon, Monster Manual 2, and Arcane Power for 4E, along with Elder Evils for 3.5. Also bought were volumes 5 and 6 of Black Lagoon, the first of which wraps up the Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise arc and the second of which goes through the Greenback Jane arc and into the arc that hasn't been animated yet, "El Baile De La Muerte," a.k.a. "Roberta Goes Fucking Crazy." Roberta actually looks kinda hot without the maid outfit, but that moment in the Lovelace Armory where she's swearing revenge for her master and it's intercut with that damn creepy wolf...chills, man, chills. I would absolutely love that scene to be done with an epic version of Roberta's theme from the anime, with chorus, organ, the whole nine yards. Since from Bao's little assessment about the look on her face (the look of someone ready to die), this arc looks to be the swan song for our Killer Maid From Hell.
After leaving Barnes and Noble, we went to Woodman's for our usual grocery shopping. Mom had me fill out a list the last time she was here, so a number of items, particularly cleaning stuff, got added to my list this time around. We then stopped at Burger King for a bite to eat, since Mom didn't feel like going to McDonalds. It's actually been a while since I had a decent burger, so this was rather welcome. It was about this time that traffic was starting to get really bad and Mom was getting very cranky due to the stupid drivers we had to deal with and because of two family-related things that she's definitely not looking forward to, so needless to say, we were both glad to get the hell out of La Crosse. After getting home, we got my stuff into the house and then Mom headed home, since I said I could take it from here. The regular putting-stuff-away thing went off without much of a hitch, but as usual when I take home a new piece of expensive equipment, I had to put the vacuum cleaner together. Fortunately, this was relatively simple -- all I needed to do for this particular piece was put the three main pieces together and screw in four screws into their proper place, then get it set up. It wasn't like my computer chair, which was an absolute pain in the ass to put together when Dad and I brought it in. I did run into one problem where the Power Brush Tool caddy turned out to be upside down, which led to one of the screws at the top not screwing in right, but I took care of that with little problem once I figured out what the hell was going on. One of the reasons I chose this vacuum, the Dirt Devil Vision, was not only the price (I saw a number of vacuums on sale, at least a few of them in the high triple-digit range), but the fact that it doesn't need bags -- it uses a dirt container that's similar to the one that my little hand-vac uses, and which can be detached and emptied into the trash when you're done with it. I'll be getting a ton of mileage out of this puppy.
After leaving Barnes and Noble, we went to Woodman's for our usual grocery shopping. Mom had me fill out a list the last time she was here, so a number of items, particularly cleaning stuff, got added to my list this time around. We then stopped at Burger King for a bite to eat, since Mom didn't feel like going to McDonalds. It's actually been a while since I had a decent burger, so this was rather welcome. It was about this time that traffic was starting to get really bad and Mom was getting very cranky due to the stupid drivers we had to deal with and because of two family-related things that she's definitely not looking forward to, so needless to say, we were both glad to get the hell out of La Crosse. After getting home, we got my stuff into the house and then Mom headed home, since I said I could take it from here. The regular putting-stuff-away thing went off without much of a hitch, but as usual when I take home a new piece of expensive equipment, I had to put the vacuum cleaner together. Fortunately, this was relatively simple -- all I needed to do for this particular piece was put the three main pieces together and screw in four screws into their proper place, then get it set up. It wasn't like my computer chair, which was an absolute pain in the ass to put together when Dad and I brought it in. I did run into one problem where the Power Brush Tool caddy turned out to be upside down, which led to one of the screws at the top not screwing in right, but I took care of that with little problem once I figured out what the hell was going on. One of the reasons I chose this vacuum, the Dirt Devil Vision, was not only the price (I saw a number of vacuums on sale, at least a few of them in the high triple-digit range), but the fact that it doesn't need bags -- it uses a dirt container that's similar to the one that my little hand-vac uses, and which can be detached and emptied into the trash when you're done with it. I'll be getting a ton of mileage out of this puppy.