Yvette's Inner Geek Blog

This is my 101st blog entry on this blog. Woo hoo!

I am having another night-before-leaving-for-a-trip frustrated apathy session. Even though I made a list of what needs to be packed for my 8:30am flight tomorrow (meaning that I will have to get up at 5:30am) , I'm still struggling to make it all happen.

My biggest hurdle that I just need to get past? I wanted to just take a carry-on suitcase. But I have slightly too much stuff to take, plus I'd have to rethink my toiletry liquids that normally just get thrown into checked luggage. Would it be easier if I were a guy and didn't have to worry about all the extra stuff that even not-too-girly girls have to worry about? Who knows.

I'm flying to New York, then taking a taxi to my aunt's house in Brooklyn. From there, we'll be driving upstate to a friend's house for the night and most of Sunday. Then it's back to Brooklyn where I'll work remotely on Monday (and hopefully catch Heroes that night), attend a seminar in Manhattan on Tuesday, and then leave on Wednesday.

I need dress shoes and clothes, as well as jeans and sneakers and t-shirts and sweaters (polar fleece and lighter, slightly more dressy sweaters). Plus toiletries and undergarments, a laptop, books for the 5-hour flights... and also some of my company's products to give to my aunt and her family.

Still, I think it's ridiculous that I can't just fit everything into one small suitcase and my laptop backpack. Well, I'm not getting any less sleepy and I've managed to procrastinate a good 25 minutes away just by convincing myself to turn on my computer and check this week's weather.

Phoebe (who is growing into a teenaged cat) is sleeping in front of me on my desk and not helping. She looks so cozy... 

Posted by Yvette at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Personal

Ben, this one's for you.

Yay, I figured out how to embed video with the stupid pared-down version of Movable Type through Yahoo webhosting! However, workarounds are not a good solution. But I will work with them for now.

Posted by Yvette at 07:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Gaming | Geeky

Did I forget to mention that the main catalyst for cleaning a large portion of our house this weekend (hey, it's a big house so we didn't get to all of it) was because we planned to have company over for the premiere of Heroes? Well, my coworker Laura came over a little after seven and we ate pizza and drank root beer like typical Utahns (or maybe Ben had a real beer, I don't know) and watched Antiques Roadshow as a prelude.

It was a "goldmine" edition of AR where most people are flabbergasted that their stuff, like a Civil War era silk flag emblazoned with an eagle, is worth $75,000-85,000. And there was a woman with outrageous pins and other decorations all over her hat and shirt. And a guy with a NASCAR t-shirt. Dude, is that really how you want the whole world of AR followers to see you? In your McDonald's-sponsored racing fanboy gear? Whatever. I'm not saying you should wear pearls. Well, actually, I think that you can wear whatever you want. Because then it's a topic of conversation and ridicule with my friends at home!

We (okay, me mostly) were giddy with excitement and anticipation for Chapter One of the Second Season of Heroes, and it did not dissapoint.  I think it was good that they had a break to work on some aspects of the writing... there were some twists and turns that kept me quiet and not calling out sarcastic or snotty remarks. The worst part of the whole hour was the very end, when the big "To Be Continued" came up on the screen. As Cathy so commonly says: Ack!  

Laura left at the first commercial break of Journeyman, which the commercials made out to be Quantum Leap with less quirky humor and less needs-suspension-of-disbelief-sci-fi and a less cute main character. Ben and I watched it all the way through, and I liked it. It was different with flashbacks to the nineties, not the fifties, though. And of course the fact that we have very little idea of why this guy (uh.... so memorable that I forgot his name) is being sent back into the past to alter other people's lives and possibly cheat on his 2007 wife with with his fiancee who died in 1999 or so. Weird. I bet there's a lot of fanfic already brewing on that show.

Next Monday, I will be staying in Brooklyn with my aunt and her family. I'm attending a one-day seminar on Tuesday for work in Manhattan, so wheeee! I'll get some more Delta miles and maybe learn me sumthin' good about email marketing and writing for the web. I've visited her in NYC when I was a kid and did some of the tourist things, so I don't care too much about that.

But I haven't asked what kind of TV my aunt has... though I can only assume that it's not a big-screen with an HD Receiver of Entertainment Glory. I know that Heroes will be just as good on the small screen, though maybe with a little less mind-boggling Entertainment Glory. I'll have to learn to live with that. 

Posted by Yvette at 07:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Friends & Relationships | Geeky

Wow, in my nerding out about weather in that last post, I forgot the two main reasons I pulled up a new entry for today, the most important day of September this year.

Two reasons:

1. Monique's birthday! Happy Birthday, sis!  Welcome to the mid-to-late twenties!

2. The new season of Heroes premieres tonight!  Eek! Too excited! 

I've been pestering my poor coworker Laura every day to ask if it's September 24th yet. She's coming over tonight to geek out with us and maybe eat some pizza. I can't wait! 

Until then, that paycheck-earning process known as work is calling me from afar. I try not to listen, but then it turns into this high-pitched whining noise and the neighborhood dogs start barking and it's just a mess.   

Posted by Yvette at 07:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: TV & Movies

A nice cold front came through the Utah Valley on Saturday, and Ben and I celebrated with a big hip-hip-hurrah! It's Fall! It's also been cloudy all weekend and raining on and off, which is weird. We were (are?) in a drought throughout the summer with the hottest, dryest July on record... many days topped 100 degrees (F). That reminded me of the summer I spent studying near Madrid, when the local thermometers touched 40 degrees Celsius and the apartment where I was living with an older couple and another American student didn't have air conditioning I said "Never again." Well, I haven't been to Spain since, but I didn't expect Spain heat in Utah. At least we have air conditioning.

Weather? Who cares about weather! Talk about something else.

Like how I went to a summer camp in Dayton, Ohio when I was fifteen and met a girl who desperately wanted to be a meteorologist. At the same time, our early-eighties TV at home only went up to channel 39, which incidentally was the Weather Channel. I learned early on in life that the Weather Channel was a much better predictor of a snow day than the local weather. But the local news is what I had to watch at butt-ass-early-o-clock in the morning to see if my school was closed. Hooray for Northeastern Ohio Lake Effect snow!

I think the point of all this is that I woke up shivering, since we'd left a couple windows cracked for fresh air as we cleaned all day yesterday (with some impressive results late in the game).

There's still a lot more cleaning and organizing to be done, but maybe now that the kitchen/dining room/living room area is tidy and clean (like with real all-purpose cleaner and everything) the rest of the house will be easier to maintain. Ben is still working on the family room in the basement... I'd say that nearly half of that is clean. The rest is Ben's personal disaster area, but he's taken his  precious time away from the last throes of fantasy baseball and even turned off the attention-demanding sights and sounds of Harvery Birdman Volume 1 on DVD ("Why watch it for free when you could pay for it?" as the insert says).

I am hoping that Ben and I can keep the place clean (if not cleaner) through the holidays. I want to have people over (a small gathering of friends, not a "party", Ben, even though you're turning <censored> this year) around our October birthdays. Then my aunt and uncle are coming to visit at the end of October, and then we'll probably be taking a trip home to NE Ohio to visit various parental units and other relatives and someone will probably have to come in to make sure that the cats haven't eaten each other, and then it's already Thanksgiving time and then Christmas and then holy shit 2008.

Wow, is it really Fall already? 

Posted by Yvette at 07:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Box of Chocolates | Friends & Relationships | Personal

My sister Monique went to Germany for a nerdoscience conference, and then bought a Eurail pass and went to Italy for the first time. She spent a year in college studying in Paris, and is not new to traveling alone or in Europe. So after her conference, she traveled through Milan and into Venice, where she stayed at a hostel. I hadn't heard from her in a few days, and was starting to worry... then received a note that she was alive. With some interesting notes about Venice, if you ever plan to travel there.

She said it was okay for me to post her email message, so here you go.

----

So here is the skinny, my dear sister.

As you know, I wouldn't have believed it if you had told me I would feel this way, but Venice is RIGHT UP THERE with my list of least favorite cities. Next to ... I dunno... Sacremento, which was totally dead when I was there briefly with <ex-boyfriend>.

I checked out of my hostel after about 3 hours total of sleep, took the early train at 10:30am from Venice to Milano Centrale... and it was delayed an hour and a half.  So it's a good thing I didn't pick a later train or something because of how often I have heard that this kind of thing happens... at least I was sitting in the train (air conditioned, with a FREE toilet) on the tracks while we were delayed for this hour and a half. The train station would have driven me nuts. And as you know I never figured out how to work the phones with my phone card... still haven't... so here I am, paying 9,90 euro for internet for 24 hours at the airport so I can feel connected.

The story from last night which I didn't have the time or energy to tell you was that I almost got into a fist fight at a pizzeria last night with a waiter who told me AFTER I finished eating my 14,50 euro meal that there was a 25 euro minimum for credit cards. There was a big American Express sign on the wall and no mention of a minimum... so I argued. Got nowhere, but luckily I had a 20 euro bill... The waiter was like "i have to work, and the card company takes a percentage" or something like that. !!! I had a major adrenaline rush and was fighting off tears as I was rushing through Venice in no particular direction.. at 8pm... with nothing to do.

Then I went into the only food store I found there, which understandably was ridiculously busy. I didn't have an alarm clock so I was looking for one and thought I'd ask a cute clerk who was loading shelves. No such luck... he was cold as ice. I swear, they were even nicer in freakin' Paris, which is known for being rude!

Yeah... so I'm tired. And it's 5:10pm and boarding for my flight for Amsterdam isn't another 3 hours. I can't even TELL YOU how relieved I am to be on the internet....

----

I spent a year as an exchange student in Norway many years ago (when I was 17) and at the end of the year, traveled with a bunch of the Rotary Club exchange students living in Norway around Europe (a chaperoned trip). We spent a day in Venice, and I remember the mega-touristy feel of the city and how stinky the water was. And that I probably wouldn't put it on the top of my list of places where I'd like to again. So keep all this in mind if you feel like you want to see Venice. Go to Norway instead. It's beautiful!

Posted by Yvette at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Tags: Around Town & Beyond | Friends & Relationships

Our house is a mess. This is due partially to the fact that there is always a work (or works) in progess, such as assembling furniture, painting or hanging things on the walls, electrical work, etc. We bought a Craftsman tool organizer for the garage over a year ago, because I foolishly thought that having a large, delightful organizational tool would encourage Ben to put his tools back after using them.

He does have a few tools there, but most of them are scattered around the house. I did have a few basic tools of my own before we lived together, but Ben quickly laid claim to them by hiding and losing them. It got to the point (while we were still living in a two-bedroom apartment) that I decided I had to purchase my own tools, label them with my name in indelible marker, and keep them hidden.

And so I have a nice ratchet screwdriver with all the bits I could ever need, a hammer, a small plier set, a tiny screwdriver set, a measuring tape, and a smattering of nail, screws and picture hanging hardware. Not much, but I can always find what I need... unless Ben has lost all of his 8,435 screwdrivers and begs me to use mine. I threaten his life if I don't get the tool back immediately. Yet, somehow, my measuring tape has disappeared and yesterday my multi-bit ratchet screwdriver was also missing.

I think we were assembling my sheves and I refused to continue until he brought back my screwdriver. He grumbled but went to look for it and, miraculously, found it. This brings me to yesterday's Quip of the Day.

"Ben, can I ask you an honest question?"

"No."

"Do you think someday you'll ever be more organized?"

"Do you think someday you'll stop bleeding when I stab you in the eye with this screwdriver?"

And we busted up laughing. Sometimes his answers to my questions allow his should've-been-an-improv-player personality to shine through. He was worried when I said I was going to blog that comment that it might be interpreted as domestic abuse. I would like to assure the world that there was no stabbing involved, in my eye or elsewhere.  It was only a stab at humor (yuk yuk). 

Posted by Yvette at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Friends & Relationships

In the past few weeks, Ben and I have taken a combined three trips to the new IKEA in the Southern Suburbia of Salt Lake City. We were overwhelmed the first time we went there (and someone was a little cranky about being there at all, but I'm not going to name names), but wrote down a lot of product numbers and went home to think about it. It was such a refreshing change of scenery than the standard furniture stores (boring, expensive, mostly not our style) and Target selections. It was even cool to see alternative stuff to Bed Bath and Beyond (though I'm still not sick of their selections, since I bring a little home with me each time I go.... 20% off at a time with the frequent coupons).

I ended up choosing this (desperately needed) shelving unit for my office:

So today I cleaned up my office a little and made space to assemble the almost-five-feet-tall-and-wide unit. Well, it wasn't quite enough space with the current placement of my desk. But Ben helped  and everything turned out well. I then spent a good chunk of time sorting through the piles of crap laying around the room and feeling giddy with delight while organizing. I think I got lazy on my OCD, so just organizing now makes my adrenaline rush. Nice.

Meanwhile, Ben has been downstairs in the semi-finished portion of the basement fixing MORE idiot wiring in the house. This time, we decided to move the TV to the wall where there is a light switch, and then remembered that the outlet there was actually connected to the light switch that also controls the overhead lights.

So he fixed that with only one trip to Home Depot. He also reported that the wiring scenario behind the light switch was not up to code and he fixed that too, whatever the problem was. All I know is that he had wire clippers and pliers and said at one point, "I'm going to turn the power back on now in the basement. If you hear screaming, please take me to the emergency room." 

I guess he felt he had to say that, considering last week when I was not interested in taking him to the emergency room, even if he needed it. 

We've been very busy and handy around the house today. And no injuries so far. I also put together some accessory drawers for my new shelves (kind of a pain to put together, but they look really nice and I sure do like drawers). Ben also made a screen (from scratch!) for our basement family room window. He's kicking himself for not doing it a year ago, considering how easy it was to do. Oh well. Now we can have some fresh air down there and not risk losing our kitties to the big, bad world. Or letting any mosquitos inside that are infected with the West Nile virus. Not that there's any water in the area!

I really think that I'm incapable of writing short posts. Is all of what I said important? Probably not, but bandwidth is not an issue for me, so.... I guess it stays. 

Posted by Yvette at 09:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Around Town & Beyond | House & Home | Personal

The Heinlein Archives are now available online. They've already been slashdotted, but I figured I'd share the link anyway. Also, for some reason, I thought they were simply "available online." Silly me.... everything is "available to purchase online!"

Incidentally, it was thanks to my friend Sam Gordon that I decided to pick up Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" several years ago, with which I learned to grok the influential mainstream beginnings of the literary sci-fi genre. Also that Heinlein extended some pretty crazy chauvinism in his writing and "Dorcas" is a real name.

Posted by Yvette at 08:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Geeky | Reading, Writing & Books

Okay, rather than forward this email on to all of my friends, I'll just post it here. I'd love to give credit to someone, but no name was attached.

*** 

I have 2 large dogs.  Recently, I was buying a large bag of Purina dog food at Wal-Mart and was in line to check out.  The woman behind me asked if I have a dog.  Duh!!  On impulse, I told her "No, I am starting on the Purina Diet again.  Although I probably shouldn't because I ended up in the hospital the last time.  I'd lost 50 lbs. before I woke up in the intensive care ward with tubes coming out of me and an IV in both arms." 

I went on to tell her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry.  The food is nutritionally complete, so I was going to try it again.  (By now, practically everyone in line was enthralled with my story, particularly a tall guy who was standing behind the woman.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me.  I told her, "No, I was sitting in the street licking my butt when a car hit me."  I thought the guy behind her was going to need help as he staggered to the door laughing.

***

Incidentally, I was just at Petsmart yesterday to buy some more cat food for our cats. Loki had been having some issues that are probably related to a sensitive digestive system (I'll spare you the details) and the vet shoved some Hill's Prescription Diet I/D on us... which seemed to help. But because this new vet that we've gone to a couple times seems to be sponsored by Science Diet, I did some internet research (yay!) and was given the obvious advice to look at the ingredients on the bags of food before I buy.

It turns out that the more expensive stuff, like Science Diet, has mostly corn meal and chicken by-product and pork by-product in it. Also, that stuff called "powdered cellulose?" Sawdust!  Always good for fiber.

The cheaper (though not the cheapest) Purina One cat food seemed to be the better bet, because it actually listed chicken by itself as an ingredient. And brewer's rice had a higher billing on the  Purina ingredients list than it did on the comparable Science Diet mixes (I was specifically looking for mixes that are good for urinary tract health and sensitive stomachs/hairball control).  Rice is one of those binding foods that I eat when I'm a little... um... loose in the intestines. So rice makes sense in a cat food for a cat with a sensitive stomach.

Here is a photo from last Thanksgiving of Loki happily splayed out on my sister's lap. Also, it's an adorable shot of Monique!  She's much more photogenic than I am.

I'm also posting this because I miss her... and she's at the tail end of a tiring trip to Europe. Boo hoo, right? Well, she had some brainy conference to attend in Germany last week and spent the past couple days making her way (via Eurail and hostels) through Milan and Venice. She reported this afternoon that Italy is terrifyingly devoid of the internets. I was happy to hear from her after several days of not even an email... which is quite unusual for her, and I was starting to worry. But now I know that everything is fine so I feel better.

Posted by Yvette at 03:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Box of Chocolates | Friends & Relationships | My 3 Cats

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Just click here if you're a skeptic and need to know WHY you should talk like a pirate today. My friend Carole sent me this yesterday, in preparation for today's festivities:

My favorite part?  The "avast" key!  Yargh, it be good fun, it be.

In non-pirate news, I have another softball game tonight. I don't really have the option of not going, since co-ed teams are always short on girls (though luckily we haven't had to forfeit any games this year because of not enough girls... though it's been close)

Ben tried making a comeback last Wednesday and did a nice job pitching. He can't throw overhand because of an old shoulder dislocation problem (what a baby, I know) so pitching is really the best spot for him. And he has really perfected his underhand throw to first base... so much so that when he threw someone out, a guy from the other team's dugout said (loud enough for me to hear at second base) "Wow!  Did you SEE that guy's underhand?!?"

And then, while at bat, Ben re-injured his quad muscle while running to first base. He didn't fight too much when I made him give up the base to a base runner (who scored a run, which Ben could have done if his leg wasn't bum). I had already told him that I wasn't going to spend another evening at the emergency room... that if he injured himself again, I would only drive him to the hospital and mayve pick him up when he was done. Luckily for him, he didn't need to go to the hospital again.

Meanwhile, I played with sheer mediocrity at second base. But I generally have fun, so at least there's that!

We have a double-header tonight at 6, and then the last double-header of the season next week. Playoffs are in October, but we're the last team in the league right now... so I doubt we'll play in them.  The teams we play against are mostly there to have fun, which is different from the league we used to play in Cincinnati. Last week was the most fun we've had, because the team we played against was first in the league... so they didn't have to play very hard and totally weren't jerks about it. If I were on a winning team, that's how I'd be, too.

I hear my inner voice telling me to go to work again. Damn voice. But at least today it's saying "Get yer booty to work!  And smartly, me lass!"

Rrrrrrrr! 

Posted by Yvette at 07:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Around Town & Beyond | Box of Chocolates | Geeky

Posted by Yvette at 08:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Geeky

At this point, I think it's going to be a while before I bring back the forum. Several reasons have led me to this decision, like the time it will take to manage it and, a little more philosophically, why I would even want an innergeek.us forum in the first place.

I'm sorry if you've been checking the website every day, just waiting in anticipation for the return of the forum. Also if you're waiting for the next Geek Test update.

I know that it's been a few years, and already the test has entered the era of internet antiquity. There have been three versions, much like there have been three Indiana Jones movies. The fourth has been in the making for a while... and hopefully it will be as awesome as we are hoping.

Feel free to leave your comments here on this post, or send me a flame mail or just an "I'm so disappointed" email like the ones like this, to which I just don't know how to respond: 

--- 

Subject: forum!

Dude, what's up with the forum? I emailed you about it over a month ago, and you said it should be up within a week...

---

Subject: Pedantic Criticism of the Geek Test

Specifically, this item:

"Linux is the only worthwhile OS"

This shortchanges BSD geeks, Lisp Machine geeks, aficionados of even more obscure operating systems, and Andrew Tenenbaum.  It also ignores the growing popularity of OS X among Unix geeks.  Could use an update and some elaboration.

--- 

Of course, there are plenty that remind me why I continue to feel responsibility for the test, like these:

Subject: Geek Test Additions

Dear Geekmaster,

We find that the, otherwise mind-bogglingly superior, Geek Test lacks a few statements.

We have, mostly for self-enrichment and to amuse ourselves, composed some suggestions for a few additional things that should earn us a higher geek-ratio.

We would be extremely honoured to have our stuff added to the test, should you find it worthy. We consider the attached document open source, so feel free to use it at your leisure.

Sincerely,
Søren and Karen
Geeks of Denmark

---

Subject: Fan Mail!

Yvette -
 
I took your test (the geek test) several years ago.  It was so much fun (I think I was ~35-40% geek)!  I just stumbled across it on some forum or another and didn't realize there was a blog attached to it.  Then, a couple of months ago, I bought the book "She's Such a Geek," and after I finshed all the essays I wanted to read more, so I googled the book title looking for some geek girl forums, and came across yours via the post about your entry for the book.  So, I started reading your blog and realized you were the same person who had made the geek test all those years ago (or, it seems like a long time ago!).  So, I just wanted to tell you that you have indirectly picked up a fan due to your entry for "She's Such a Geek."  And I love the blog - it definitely resonates with me!
 
Thanks for the geek reading material!
 
Jennifer

---

That last one really gave me the warm fuzzies. Almost enough to respond to the other people who have emailed me recently about using the test on their various sites or creating their own versions. If you've written me an email like that recently, I will be responding in the near future. Thanks for asking in the first place, though.  

Posted by Yvette at 07:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Geek Test & innergeek.us

I just got this email. I wonder how far I might get this year in NaNoWriMo, or if I'll go to more than one local gathering of fellow NaNoWriMoers. November is National Novel Writing Month and it's what, 6 weeks away? Shit. I want to write. I want the discipline it takes, but I'm scared of failure (again).

 ----

From: NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison
Subject: [NaNoWriMo :: Utah :: Elsewhere] NaNoWriMo is on the horizon!

Hello everyone,

Yes November is getting closer and that means great nano fun!  Its time to start thinking of your story and putting down some notes.  Also people have started to post on the forums so your welcome to join in.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you with this years nano.

<Liaison's name censored >

This email is being sent to you by your local NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison using a blind mail forwarding system. Municipal Liaisons are never given direct access to your contact information. To stop receiving emails from NaNoWriMo, simply log into your account on the site, and de-select the option to receive emails. Happy noveling!

Posted by Yvette at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Reading, Writing & Books

I just returned, very late last night, from a 4-day jaunt to the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

And by "jaunt", I of course mean 4-day business trip to teach classes at the annual Archiver's Scrapfest convention for crazed and curious scrapbookers all over the country. Archiver's already took down the information from their website, so I guess you'll have to wait anxiously until next summer to read more details about the event. Or maybe I'll get around to posting them here.

I'm still waking up a little and need to go into work, where I damn well better get some comp time. I stayed until after 7pm finishing stuff at work on Wednesday that had to be done before I left. I woke up at 5:00am on Thusday to catch my flight out, and Ben picked me up from the airport last night (he also drive me on Thursday, what a champ) and I walked in the door at 1am. Now it's Monday again. Bleh.

The highlight of my daily morning mall experience was Caribou Coffee. I was first introduced to the awesome Starbucks Alternative of the North when Liz, Becki W. and I drove to Toronto on Spring Break many years ago, when I wasn't quite 21 and could drink at the bars in Ontario and at the Second City theater, and where we perfected our Ontarionian dialect (i.e. the difference between American dollars and Canadian "DOLE-ers").

Otherwise, the mall was just a super-sized mall. With locals speaking in the adorable Minnesotan-close-to-Ontario-dialect. With a little amusement park in the center and lots of nice places to eat, like the Twin City Grill, a Ruby Tuesday that was under construction and where the poor waitress took 20 minutes to figure out which of the three total items we ordered belonged on which credit card, P.B. Loco with lots of really weird and somewhat delicious Peanut Butter creations, the Magic Pan Crepe Stand with fabulous French Crepes made by authentic Hispanic employees, and tons of Fast Food options of which we tried on Thai place that served the blandest Thai food ever. And that was my culinary experience at MoA.

I also went shopping during some down time, and found a couple of cool things at Nordstrom Rack (to my surprise, because I really didn't feel like shopping when my coworker and I first went in) and some other stores. For the most part, they were the same stores you find everywhere else at every other mall, and I think I satisfied my need to ever visit the Mall of America again. Ben was happy to hear that. I never really had an urge to go there in the first place, but whatever. Who knows, I might even end up going back to teach classes again next year.

One really great thing that came out of the trip was getting to know my coworker. She just started in the Sales department as a Sales Assistant about a month ago, and I work in Marketing, so we hadn't really talked much before. We had to share a hotel room (luckily we each had our own bed) and we got along very well. Hopefully we'll even hang out for non-work-related purposes in the future.

Posted by Yvette at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Around Town & Beyond | Friends & Relationships

I went to RC WIlley yesterday evening, which is a furniture store chain (with appliances, electronics, etc.) here in Utah and other nearby states. The sales people swarm like mosquitoes to get their blood commissions. But I had an expiring gift card, so I had to go in.

After long discussions over time with Ben about which TV stand to buy for our rear-projection big screen that we purchased several months ago (and love watching, sometimes to the point of tears it's so wonderful... I'm talking about you, NBC's Heroes), we finally agreed to purchase the stand that was made for our TV. It's the end of the TV stand season, apparently, because I read somewhere online that many stores have them on clearance.

So I walked in and up to a sales guy in electronics and told him what I wanted. But I had seen it online for $100 cheaper because they're going out of style for next year's model, so could he do anything about the price? He said he would check and walked over to his manager, presumably. Then he came back and said that they could take $50 off.... and I said I'd take it. Because with shipping, the onilne stand would have been just as much anyway.

But. And there's always a but like this when something is going well, right? The only TV stand in that model that RC Willey has anywhere, including all of their warehouses, was the one on display. The one with a big scratch on the front. Forget it, and also, dammit. Ben and I finally agreed upon a piece of furniture (a huuuuuuge deal.... we're also still trying to find a decent couch to replace the one that I received from my parents when I went to college... the one that's almost as old as I am and yes, you'd think that we'd have replaced it by now). Oh well.

For now, the TV will stay on the coffee table that Ben received from his parents when he moved into his first apartment... the one that used to hold his Commodore 64. The DVD player, cable box, Wii and topless modded Xbox (Ben doesn't want to replace the lid for some reason unbeknownst to me) will continue to sit on the carpet until we find that TV stand somewhere else or, probably, change our minds and pursue a different one.

The problem was that I still had a $30 gift card to use before it expired yesterday. That was from a billing problem we had, and the girl who issued it wrote 9-3-2006 on it by mistake, even though it was issued in March 2007. I was prepared to fight the cashier if necessary. I had another gift card for a forgotten amount, procured through some crap "cash rebate" promotion that earned us another gift card 6 months after buying the TV in the first place.

So I called Ben (who stayed home to clean the storage room because he didn't need to go because we knew exactly what we were going to buy) and we decided to purchase a second DVD player. One that upconverts. So now we can move our old one up to the still-quite-nice-but-not-HD 27" tube TV. That will be nice.

Ben did some quick review research of the models available and we decided on the Sony DVP-NS77H and are pleased after testing it with portions of Pixar's Cars and Star Wars Episode 3. Though it still didn't make the Padme/Anakin "So love has blinded you?" balcony scene tolerable.

I think this player will hold us over until the HD format war is finished and prices come down on the HD players and DVDs.

Enough about TV stuff. I need to get moving and get to work. I'm still sick... though it's mostly in my chest now. I have a pretty bad cough. Bad enough for Ben to go out and buy me some Robitussin, which has been helping. Though I hate artificially cherry flavored anything, and that's the only flavor Robitussin has. Well, I don't like artificially fruit flavored anything, really, so I'd probably lose out no matter what the fruit. I don't even like Jolly Ranchers. Anyway, Ben reported that all the cough syrup is available on the shelves, even though labels clearly state alcohol levels up to 10% on the bottle. WTF?

No wonder kids are experimenting with cough syrup these days. But they still can't buy 0.5% alcohol O'Douls beer until they're 21, and all Claritin-D purchases are recorded on the Big Brother file to monitor illegal drug manufacturing (which can probably look worse if you've also got severe allergies). Not that it's ever affected me directly, but I'm glad there aren't any holes in our government's drug rules and policies.

Who am I to complain? I got my cough syrup and I'm expectorating as expected.

Posted by Yvette at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Around Town & Beyond | Geeky