Time to Get Sirius

Well, the Radio Shack Marketing Dept. should be proud--I caught the tail-end of a commercial on Saturday, talking about a special Thanksgiving weekend deal involving sale price, rebate, free accessory, etc. if one bought a Sirius radio system. Actually, the seed of interest was planted this year at the Mid-South Fair when I started information-gathering about this service. Sometimes you just get so tired of hearing radio DJ's do stupid improv comments up until the last .0382 second prior to the first lyric of the song.

So, I had questions (and a checkbook), and they had answers. The deal was that I got $200 worth of Sirius "Orbiter" equipment for $130, and I get to mail off for another $30 rebate. Installation and activation still to follow, but I'm very much looking forward to our next road trip, when we get to listen to the same station the entire time. Nothing like "Old Skool Rap" (channel 43) for 6 uninterrupted hours.

And for those of you who think this was driven by the ability to tune into shock jock Howard Stern, or NHL hockey, or Hot Jamz (channel 50), I am reminded of the immortal words of Tweety Bird--"He don't know me vewwy well, do he?"

AOL: What a R-I-P

You know what I find absolutely hilarious? America Online is running these TV ads talking up their "free" anti-virus software as a benefit for members. Now, viruses are a problem--no doubt about it. But come on.....Don't act as if you and your executive team are sitting around, thinking about what an incredible value your service is and how you can further increase members' benefits. You've got the most expensive ISP on the market, and you seem to increase rates with certain regularity ($19.95 to $21.95 to $23.90)......so the fact that you're throwing some crumbs to your 12 bazillion members isn't that big of a deal to me. IMHO, you're just trying to rationalize your $300/yr fee for your "Internet Surfing and Email for Dummies" cartoon interface.

Shopping and Eating and Golfing, Oh My!

I was feeling kind bad since I hadn't made the time to blog since Wednesday, and then I scooted on over to the cyberworld's authority on Blogging, Jeff Rushing's blog. Neither has he. I'm not trying to be like a liberal and place blame for my actions (or lack thereof) on somebody else, but the fact still remains that somebody else besides me was SO busy doing other stuff. OK, that's rationalization if there ever has been, but oh well.

Wednesday afternoon found Leah and I, as planned, seeing Shall We Dance at the Wolfchase Galleria. It was pretty typical of romantic comedies, without the "guy meets girl, girl and guy have a big fight, guy and girl get back together" sub-plot. Lunch was at Buffalo Wild Wings, and then we headed over to browse the huge lobby (otherwise known as the mall) prior to our 2:45 show time. Some perky woman at the entrance to one store said, "I have a gift for you!". A $25 gift card if we spend $100. So....the net result is that we still spend $75. I guess it's the female "save money by buying things" logic. No thank you.

Thursday consisted of calling my Dad and step-mom in Louisville to wish them a happy turkey day. Then off to serve the procrastinators and the "I have no life" shoppers at Kroger. After shooing out all of the customers and shutting down the place (a rare occurrence in 24-hour supermarket), it was off to Leah's grandmother's for a nuked version of Thanksgiving dinner version 1. Then to my Aunt Linda's for Thanksgiving dinner version 2.

Friday morning I took the opportunity to begin some tasks around the house. First on the list was the ceremonial last lawn-mower trip around the yard. While doing so, I noticed what a sunny, beautiful day it was shaping up to be. Hmmm........Maybe a good day for golf! So I called Bill (co-worker and frequent co-member of foursome) to see if he was up for it. Our favorite local municipal courses all gave us no promising information (looks like everybody had the same idea we did), so we settled for a subdivision-nestled course we affectionately refer to as "Goofy Golf"--Cordova Club, a daily fee course that is incredibly convenient but intensely cruel. Throw a punishing course together with the fact that I haven't played in a few months, and you have a perfect recipe for disaster. Ugh. One day someone is going to explain the allure of this game. I played horribly. I was frustrated most of the day. Discouraged. Angry. Yet, for some reason, I'll play again. I want to do better. Which will take time, money for instruction, etc. This enigma is hard to explain--but ask anyone who plays it.

Thanksgiving Eve

Well, it's Thanksgiving Eve. I told Leah that I wanted to stay as far away from the grocery store as possible. If this were the ACT, I'd give you the following analogy:

Tonight:Kroger::Friday:Wal-Mart

For the college-entrance test uninitiated, this would be read as "Tonight is to Kroger as Friday is to Wal-Mart." IOW, you know how every Tom, Dick, and Harry (or at least their wives) will be at Wal-Mart on Friday shopping? In all likelihood, similar volumes will exist at Kroger this evening (see also: procrastination), complaining because the only poultry choices remaining are the 23 lb frozen turkey (that doesn't have time to thaw), and cornish hens.

Leah took the day off, and I'm at work til noon. I think we're off to see a movie--in all probability, Shall We Dance with Richard Gere and J-Lo. Wanna know why? Glad you asked. Because we will see it for FREE!! You see, when you work for the largest Blockbuster franchisee, movie studios wanna stay on your good side. Hence, free passes to see their movie. I suppose the theory is that it will end up meaning more in their coffers when it goes to video. But I don't really care about that.....It's all about saving me 15 bucks at the box office!!!

And then it's back to the kitchen to put on my Martha Stewart apron (OK, that's a bad analogy right now) and make chess squares for tomorrow. Requested by my mom-in-law. It's an old family recipe that my great-great grandmother gave to my grandfather right before she died, and he hid it in an old safe that only 2 people had the combination to. Wait, or was it out of a church cookbook. Yeah, maybe that's it.

An Arm and a (Chicken) Leg

The following thought occurred to me the other day......Of course, I, of analytical and mathematical mind, find this fact quite disturbing. So much so, I'm thinking of packing my bags and taking my campaign on the road!!!!

Why is it that retail food establishments delight in charging for extra insert condiment or topping here, yet this very premise won't allow them to DISCOUNT me if I leave stuff off??

I understand the principle....If my burrito at Taco Bell is supposed to have a scoop of beans, a scoop of beef, a tong-full of tomatoes, and a squirt of sour cream, and I ask for EXTRA beef, then my choice is effectively costing them more money. No prob.

So, why can't I get a discount for leaving OFF what you would gladly charge me EXTRA for? If I say, "No beans, extra beef," wouldn't that be a push?? Maybe if you didn't have to buy so much sauce because your $6/hour drive-thru cashier gives 32 packets of sauce to people with two tacos and cinnamon crisps, you would see my point. But oh well.

Just charge me my $.30 extra and give me my drink cup, and I'll be out of your way.

Weekend Update (and I'm Not Singing Cajun)

Finished a pretty jam-packed weekend, but had a smidgen of relaxation and otherwise recreational activity to go with it.

Friday night found Leah and I hanging with my frequent Spades partner Joe, along with his wife (which happens to be my cousin Kristi, sister of Steve). It was off to Buffalo Wild Wings (which is a total coincidence, based on my last post) , which was the multiple choice restaurant answer that Kristi preferred since we had talked about it earlier in the week. Not-so-coincidentally, we arrived before 7:00PM, allowing Joe and me to enjoy a happy hour special which supported the St. Louis economy (see also: Anheuser-Busch). I was sort of afraid of the crowd, since the Tigers were to be playing football on ESPN2, but we were able to find a table which, although blocked from the big screen by our "we don't even think about where the table is in relation to the t.v. even though we're in a sports bar" wives, allowed us to grab a gameplayer and match play-calling wits with other BWW patrons.

Saturday found an early start....Leah was hawking her Longaberger wares at an Open House/Holiday Shopping thing at a local church. Discovery Toys, Pampered Chef, Southern Living Home (I think that's what they call it), Tasty Gourmet, etc. all participated. So I got to play the part of truck-loader, and then the companion/table-minder, kinda like the old man at the flea market that's always behind the table clipping his toenails or hand-carving a walking stick.

After getting home, I caught a little bit of college football (saw some Auburn guy put a nasty, uncalled for, helmet-to-helmet hit on a receiver) while Leah took a nap, and the we got ready to go to the Orpheum for the Auction gala. Grabbed a parallel parking spot (gosh, I love free parking), and while maneuvering the Honda Accord into the spot, I received unsolicited assistance from an onlooker who seemed to be a, uh, let's see.....how would the liberals describe him?......a "transient." (I'd hate to use the term "homeless", for fear it might hurt his feelings). Of course, after exiting the car, he said that he "Really hated to ask" but wondered if I might "spare a few dollars so he could get something to eat." Gosh, I do love downtown!

The auction itself was pretty cool.......the silent auction sprawled over the entire place, including the commodious backstage area. We unsuccessfully bid on a few items, but hey, given a choice of an autographed Peyton Manning football or being able to pay the mortgage, sue me for choosing the latter. Assuming that the live auction would be just as fruitless (and being bothered by the plethora of people that made walking 10 feet an adventure), we headed out early.

Sunday found 5 hours of servitude for Barney H. Kroger, and then I watched the remainder of the "Let's find another way to lose a home game" Titans. My pre-season prediction was 9-7 and no playoffs. They would now have to go 6-1 to reach that mark, including road games against Indy, Jacksonville, Houston.......as well as home games against Denver and the Chiefs. Fat chance. Time to contemplate a high draft pick, and go ahead and plan January golf in the Carribean, boys!! After homemade fajitas, we settled onto the couch and watched the romantic comedy Chasing Liberty. Typical cheesy ending, but somewhat entertaining. Just glad I didn't pay $15.00 for movie tickets. I'm not into movie reviews like my ole buddy Jeff, but out of 5 stars, I'd give it 2 1/2. Plus Mandy Moore is adorable.

Time to Get Dressed Up and Pretend!!

Saturday night, Leah and I will be attending the Orpheum Theatre's 26th Annual Gala, which is a fundraiser for the beautiful landmark in downtown Memphis. Before you go thinking that the purchase of 2 $75 tickets must indicate a life of reasonable affluence, please know that, uh, nevermind. Think what you wish.

My company donates autographed memorabilia (movie posters, set items, etc) to the event, so I'm guessing that's why the tickets were made available. Nevertheless, we're looking forward to schmoozing with people much richer than we'll ever be, and who, if you don't believe how important/cultured/refined/snooty they are, will happily engage you conversation asserting so if you only ask. And if you wanna see their Jaguar/Mercedes/Hummer, it's probably parked outside, taking up 3 spaces. But hey, it might land us in "Snob Illustrated" aka RSVP Magazine, the local "anybody's who's anybody is at the parties that really matter" publication.

The funny thing about this is that recently, Leah said, "I'm ready go to another event where we get dressed up and stuff." Being that our weekend night attire rarely exceeds casual (hey, El Porton and Buffalo Wild Wings are for the common people!), we'll definitely be out of our element. But we'll try our hardest to pretend......you know, hold the wine glass the right way, dab the corner of our mouth with the small little napkin, and eat the quarter-sized quiche in 4 bites instead of one.

I'm Really Trying.....Well, Almost

So I haven't posted in, let's see.....awhile. Honestly, I recently started a "travelogue" type entry (made famous by conservative CNN infiltrate Jeff Rushing) which told of my elaborate anniversary surprise extravaganza with Leah to Nashville. I clicked "Save" and you know what I got? Some ugly "Sorry...Blogger is down for routine maintenance; This outage will last XXX hours" message (so it was UP when I logged on, but DOWN when I saved). I know what you're thinking--something along the lines of "Dipstick......you shouldn't be doing this stuff at 3 AM and you wouldn't run into to those problems." Wrong. It was 2:00 on a Friday afternoon. I hit the "Back" button on my browser, in an effort to salvage my ingenious, candid, and entertaining post. No such luck. Blank. Zilch. Suddenly my valiant efforts were down the drain, forever lost.

So I've been a bit gun-shy, perhaps. Or lazy. Or both. But now I've turned over a new leaf, and I'm a blogging machine in overdrive. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I Couldn't Have Said It Better....

One of the many reasons that I'm proud to say that I voted for George W Bush in '00 and most certainly will tomorrow. From a conversation string on a right-leaning website, this guy voted for Algore then but plans a vote for "W" tomorrow. A VERY well-spoken piece, in my opinion.

"In my humble opinion, the accomplishments made by this administration in regards to the War On Terror have been nothing short of astounding.

In just over 3 years, Bush has managed to completely transform what was formerly a defensive strategy into an offensive one. The results of which cannot be debated--excepting of course the army of pessimistic cynics who simply refuse to relent any credit towards Bush.

I voted for Gore in 2000 and up until that fateful September morning, I had never really considered Bush a very "capable" President. Oh how wrong...how very very wrong I was. No matter what happens tomorrow, it will have been my absolute pleasure to vote for this man.

Thank you President Bush, for everything you've done. This grateful citizen will never forget. "