Thursday, 26 May 2011
For the second time this month, I took the day off work and, once again, had a very full day. Allow me to blitz through it:
While Jennifer drove Owen to school, I breakfasted and showered and tried to keep Isla from eating toilet paper (I failed). Then the three of us took off to first drop off four bags of stuff-we-don’t-want at the Goodwill. When I pulled up to the drop-off zone, there was a woman idling her car in front of me. The sign clearly says, “pull up to line to alert attendant,” but this lady either couldn’t read or thought that pulling up to a line meant parking 5 feet from it. So I spun around to the front of the store, dropped Jennifer off, then came back to see someone else had told the woman to pull forward.
We next plopped down $200 at CostCo to buy paper towels, zip-loc bags, and more toilet paper for Isla to eat. One employee was passing out samples of Coke (which seems as necessary as offering pamphlets entitled “Have you heard of Disney?”). The Coke was advertised as having “real cane sugar,” like the original formula. Unlike the original, however, there was no hint of cocaine. I took the sample, which probably marks the first time in about 10 years that I’ve drunk straight-up Coke. It tasted better than I remember Coke tasting, but still only marginally better than THAT CRAP FROM KARA’S PARTY, so I declined to buy any.
After stopping home to drop off our groceries and eat lunch, we drove to the chiropractor’s office. Jennifer went in to get some body work, and I stayed in the waiting area with Isla and read The Age of Reason (told ya’ I was going to). When a lady there saw Isla playing with my wife’s check card she said, “Oh, she’s gonna love shopping one day,” ’cause, you know, all girls looove to shop. Jennifer quickly retorted, “No, she doesn’t like shopping.” And that’s one of my favorite qualities in my wife: she never turns down the opportunity to argue. I, on the other hand, resemble this animal:
Then, with a half hour to burn, we decided to just go for a walk right there. A few blocks away, we came upon a bunch of boxes in someone’s front lawn. There was a lot of slightly interesting items, and I took an old newspaper from the day Kennedy was killed (John, not Bobby). Jennifer grabbed some old magazines. Then we walked over to Snuffy’s Diner. The owner said Snuffy’s was closed due to computer failure (yikes – talk about addicted to the computer – couldn’t they just take cash or checks only?), but he did allow us to use his restroom. This worked out great, because that’s all we wanted to do. The restroom was through the kitchen, down some nasty stairs, and in a dungeon that would make an excellent house of torture.
Next, we walked across the street to Owen’s school where his class, and all the other Kindergarten classes, put on a patriotic program in celebration of Memorial Day. Owen’s class gave details on Mt. Rushmore and the men whose faces are enshrined there. Owen said, “There are four famous Presidents on the mountain.” Then his class sang This Land is Your Land, which I told Owen later is absolutely my favorite up-with-America song. Later, all four classes sang a song in closing.
After the program, we enjoyed the fruit snacks (with whipped cream!) provided, then bolted down to Burnsville to get our hair “done.” There, my sister regaled us with tales about my family during my Uncle’s death and funeral last week (let’s just say nothing was that surprising), and then we walked to another store to buy Owen new shoes. Another customer at the store, noticing Owen running around in his new shoes, said: “He’s got a lot of energy.” I agreed, then she looked at her two daughters and said, “I don’t have a son, so I guess I don’t know what that’s like.” That’s right, you don’t have a son, just two pretty, pretty princesses.
We ate dinner, cleaned up a little bit and then – just when I thought the day was over – I realized I had lost our garage door opener somewhere. This is a bigger deal than you might think because 1) the other garage door opener is broken, and 2) there is no way to get into the garage apart from the car door. I managed to fix the broken opener and then the manager, responding to a call I’d made earlier, said that someone from another apartment had found our opener on the ground. So I walked over and retrieved it. Problem solved.
Jennifer and I concluded the day by watching three episodes of The Big Bang Theory, which we are currently receiving from Netflix.
Friday, 27 May 2011
So, I wrote to Representative Tim Kelly a couple of weeks ago. He’s a Republican from Goodhue County. I wrote to thank him for voting against bringing the anti-marriage amendment bill to the House floor. I told him I appreciated that he let common sense and his conscience trump his party’s policy.
He wrote back thanking me and gave me the link to the testimony he provided and asked that, if I liked it, to share it with others. So, here it is:
Second, I mentioned a while back that a video we posted on Youtube that employed fair-use snippets of Star Wars‘ music had been removed. Well, I guess it’s been reinstated. Have a look:
Third, grades from the semester were posted yesterday. As I indicated above, I was too busy to look at them yesterday (or, when I had a few minutes, I forgot). Anyway, in what may be the least-surprising news I’ve offered at this blog…I got an A. Yay, me!