2005-07-30 [New Format]

Okay, I've made it through one week of blogging... does anyone care? Is anyone even paying attention? Probably not. Anyhow, as I am a lazy fellow, I've decided to switch things up a little bit in terms of how I'll be blogging. I'm going to drop the mundane details [what time I woke up, got to work, etc.] and just stick with reporting on the days 'highlights'. Lets get started, shall we?

In the morning, I got Shannon to make bacon and eggs for breakfast. Truth be told, she's really good at it. I can never get bacon right, and can't make an over easy egg to save my life. It was a good way to start the day.

Every year at the beginning of the football season, I like to get the new player sideline hat to wear during the season. Well, it doesn't look like I'm going to be up in Buffalo until the first game is played [9/11], so I asked my dad to pick one up for me. I also asked him to pick me up a throwback hat. Every team in the NFL can have a third uniform outside of their traditional 'home' and 'away' gear. The Bills hadn't had one before, and this year they chose to make their third uniform a throwback one in the style of their 1960's uniforms. A conversation I had with Guy later in the day makes me think that my dad just ordered the online from them Bills' pro shop and is having them shipped to me.

The FedEx saga finally came to a close today, in the least possible convenient way to me, of course. The representative I spoke with last night who assured me the package would go out for delivery today called me in the morning, and she proceeded to then tell me the exact opposite was true. The only way I could get Dan's stereo now was to go the FedEx facility outside of Philadelphia and pick it up. The bastards were claiming they made three attempts to deliver, and I guess it was my word against theirs. In the end, what could I really do? I wasn't the one who paid to have it shipped, so it's not like I could try and get money back. I'll you one thing though, I sure as shit will never ship anything via FedEx.

Tom and Betsy moved into Greenville place together today, and since Tom has helped me the last 3 or 4 times that I've moved [and the fact that he's my best friend] I went to help him out. Now, no one likes to help someone move, but I have to say that this was the easiest move I've ever participated in. Granted, I showed up a couple of hours late because of the FedEx fiasco, but there wasn't a whole lot of heavy lifting going on. In fact, it seemed to me there was a lot more to do back at Tom's Pinebrook place, but he said that he could handle it, so I headed for home [I wasn't feeling so great].

I also met one of Betsy's sisters and her dad for the first time. They seemed nice, her Dad brought everyone lunch, some subs from Pathmark. They weren’t bad at all. I actually felt bad eating it because like I said before, we really didn't do a whole hell of a lot.

Shannon had plans for a girl’s night out, so I was pretty much left on my own for the rest of the day. I was going to head back down to Newark, but I wasn't feeling so well. Something I ate must have really disagreed with me, and let's just say I spent a little more time that usual in the bathroom. Afterwards, I napped for a few hours, never mustering up the desire to leave the apartment.

After my nap, I was up until about 2 in the morning, here is a quick rundown of my activities in the hours before I went back to sleep: I played some more Pikmin 2, a lot more in fact. I logged into UltimateBet, and finally played for real money. I played in 2 'sit and go' $20 buy in tournaments. Out of ten, I placed 6th in the first one and 4th in the second one, one place out of winning money. I played better and better as I went along, and I can't help but feel that I might have been better off if had done a few practice tournaments for free first. I'll have to practice more before I play for money again. Finally, just before going to bed, I watch the first episode of the second season of "The L Word", which I had downloaded a while ago. It's an... interesting show [on Showtime] about lesbians living in L.A. Say that three times fast.

Well, I don't know that it was any shorter of a blog entry today... but for now, it's over!

2005-07-29

I get up at 7:15, I eat, shower, shave, check my my e-mail and yada yada yada I'm out the door around 8:00. Traffic is light and I get in by 8:40. Lockheed let's me flex my time during the week, and I usually arrange it so I only have to work for 6 hours on Fridays. I work through lunch and head for home at 2:40.

Today I take 202 all the way home since I've got a few errands I want to run. I go to CompUSA to get a sales circular, and then over to Best Buy to pick up a copy of Half-Life 2. I used the sales circular from CompUSA to have then price match it down to $20, and the reason I buy it at Best Buy is to have points put on to my Reward Zone membership. As for why it's taken me so long to get Half-Life 2, well I've been waiting on a graphics card upgrade, which I may have taken care of today. Before heading home, I pop in and out of the Concord Mall.

I end up getting home around 4:30, and Shannon gets home at 5:30. She waits for her mom to show up, they're going to check out a country club for a possible reception site. It's getting close to 6 when they leave, so I check the status of the FedEx I've been waiting for for over a week now, and it still hasn't changed since Wednesday. So I call FedEx to make sure it's going to be delivred tonight as promised. Well, the people I talk to are of little to know help, saying it looks like it was not dispatched, that no message seems to have gotten to the dispatch to send it out tonight, that the dispatch is now closed so they can't check the status, they package may still show up tonight, and that I'll get a call in the morning with updates.

So I'm stuck at home again waiting for FedEx just in case they show up. I finish off the leftover stir fry from Monday for dinner, and watch some TV and play Pikmin 2 all night. FedEx, of course, never showed up. At some point, CHarles and James inquire about playing some poker, but we can't get enough people together to play. Shannon gets home, saying the country club was nice, but shes thinks we're going to go with Hilton, so the search for a reception hall may finally be over. Not much else happened on Friday (that I can recall, anyhow).

2005-07-28

I get up at 5; Thursdays are early mornings for me so I can get into work to backup some databases. I check my e-mail, as well as the status of the woot-off that is still going on from yesterday. I send Tom a quick message over AIM to let him know to not come over until 6:30 tonight since Shannon will be late in getting home. I get dressed and brush my teeth, figuring on taking a shower when I get home, and I'm out the door at 5:25. There's no traffic this early in the morning, and I get to work by 6.

While at work, I call FedEx to see what’s up with Dan's speakers, which I still haven’t gotten and there have been no further attempts to deliver them. Ideally, I'd have liked to have them sent to the giant FedEx facility next door where I could pick them up, but since FexEd Ground is handling the package, that apparently isn't an option. Whatever. They say that the package should be delivered tomorrow evening, sometime after 6:00 p.m. We'll see what happens.

I also have fun on the phone with some idiot Best Buy online support guy. I made a pre-order for something, but accidentally set my shipping address for my mom's house in Ohio. After a few e-mails, I got the shipping address corrected, but there is still sales tax on the order. I had to explain the situation to this guy at least three times before he understood what I was asking him to do. He was not able to correct the problem, and forwarded my request onto "level 2" support, from who I should get an e-mail response in the next day or 2.

I bail from work at 2:30, and hit some unexpectedly bad traffic a few miles up from where 476 hits 95. The radio man tells me there's an accident southbound on 95 that’s causing the delays, so I hop off an exit early and make my way via some back roads towards Industrial Highway to bypass the jam up. My route takes me through scenic downtown Chester, PA, which was a highly frightening experience [let's just say that I was glad to be driving behind a cop car through most of it.]

Before going home, I stop off to get some supplies for tonight's dinner with Tom and Betsy, some corn on the cob and potatoes for mashing, a bottle of coke and a 4-pack of 16 oz Yuengling cans, one of which I'll need for the beer can chicken which will be the main course. I end up getting home around 4:00, which is 45 minutes later than I was expecting thanks to the bad traffic I ran into earlier.

It's a beautiful day outside, so I turn off the AC and open all of the windows and the patio door. The place is a mess, so I'll have to spend the rest of the time before our guests arrive cleaning up the joint. In addition, I have to prep dinner, load and start the dishwasher, gather up the trash, and light up the grill [something that makes me very nervous now that I have recently found out that we're not supposed be doing it according to our lease]. I am also out of clean underwear, so I have to throw a few loads of laundry in as well. Needless to say, I'm fairly busy over the next couple of hours getting ready/stuff together [though I do manage to catch PTI live while working].

Shannon gets home around 5:45 and immediately sets about getting some cookies made; she's going to make cookie ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Tom and Betsy show up around 6:45, and dinner is finally ready around 7:15. We chit chat and enjoy dinner, afterwards we [as couples] play each other in Trivial Pursuit DVD edition. Shannon and I make a miraculous comeback to steal the victory. After that, we watch some world championship eating competition on ESPN and chit chat some more, before Tom and Betsy head out shortly after 9:00.

Now it's time finish cleaning up after dinner, I load up and start the dishwasher again, gather up the stinky trash [chicken bones and corn cobs], and put the grill away. Mt dad called a few times while Tom and Betsy were here, so I call him back to check in and see what's up. After that I call up Jeff to chat and tell him to return my Sopranos season 2 DVDs that he’s had for a while when he comes up next weekend.

During the call, Shannon informs me that she’s not feeling so hot, and instructs me to get her some Pepto. So I get dressed and head over to CVS, wrapping up my call with Jeff on the way. I get home, give Shannon her medicine, and we watch the first half hour of "The Fugitive" before heading to bed.

2005-07-27

Got up on time today, at 6:00. Open up a box of Honey Nut Chex for breakfast, to replace the box of Reese's Puffs I finished yesterday. I clean up a few dishes, then go to grab a shower. I must have forgotten to open that valve that directs the water back down into the tub [instead of out of the shower head] yesterday, because as I turn on the water, I spray myself in the back of the head with cold water.

After I shower, I replace the batteries in my shower radio and do a light bit of internet surfing. Woot.com is having a woot-off today, which just means they're selling several items in succession as fast as they can sell out of them [they usually only have one item a day, I may have mentioned that before]. I'm hoping a remote control T-Rex shows up at some point, they usually do in woot-offs but I've missed it the last few times. I get dressed and brush my teeth, then check my e-mail and gather up my satellite radio boom box before head out to work at 6:45.

I get to work around 7:25 [traffic is pretty good this early in the morning] and toil through the day until about 5:45. A long day at work, with 2 downers: First, I'm told I can't have the satellite radio in my area, because apparently the antenna can somehow broadcast classified info from the computers without even being connected to them. Right. Second, the reason I put in the effort to get to work early today was so that I could [hopefully] make it to Christiana by 6:00 to meet with Shannon and her mom to look at the Hilton for a possible reception site. Leaving this late, there's no way I'll make it, but there wasn't much I could do, I always end up staying past 5 on Wednesdays do to some weekly tasks I have to carry out.

Traffic is light on the way home, I need gas so I decide to roll by the comic store [new comics come in on Wednesdays] and then head over to BJ's for cheap gas. I get into Newport around 6:40, and stop off at the bank to deposit the ticket monies owed to my father before going to Comicmania. After I'm done there, as I’m head back to 95 and then onto BJ's, I try getting a hold of Shannon to see if they're still at the Hilton and/or if she wants to get some fast food for dinner. I call her phone several times, but she doesn't pick up, so I end up calling her dad to get her mom's cell number. He gets it for me, and asks that if I make it to BJ's, to look for a light-up palm tree that we had seen there a few weeks ago.

I get a hold of Shannon and her mom who are in fact still at the Hilton, and head over there to check it out. I get there just after 7 and just as a big storm starts to roll in. The place is pretty nice, but so is every other place we've been to. I think we'll end up having a great time no matter what, my main concern these days being actually getting a place booked before we run out options completely. After we're done, Shannon tells me she's headed back home with her mom to discuss the options for the reception, and hints that I should go with them. Not really having a good excuse not to, I agree. On the way, I was going to stop for gas, but I eyeball it and figure I can make it to the house in Newark and back to BJ's without any problems [I hope].

It starts pouring while I'm on 95, and traffic slows to a crawl. I decide to call my mom, as I haven't talked to her in about a week. While talking, I bring up that Shannon's parents might ask about what she can contribute financially towards the wedding tonight. She basically repeats what she told me the last time we talked and confirms what I've been telling Shannon lately: they will be glad to help out, but being this far out from the actual wedding and not knowing where we're going to have the reception [or how much will be needed], she can't really give any concrete numbers. I get to Shannon's parents' and sit outside for a few minutes, still chatting with mom about a few potential problems that might come up with the wedding.

I head inside around 7:30, and watch some Discovery channel programming with Shannon's dad until Shannon and her mom get home, bringing some KFC with them for dinner. Everyone eats, and one of the shows on Discovery leads Shannon's dad to talk about a guy he knows who has master his chi, and can do some pretty crazy stuff with his body. By the time we're all done eating, its 8:30, and I have to go if I'm going to make it to BJ's before it closes. So I head out, not one word about the reception ever being spoken.

On the way to BJ's I call dad to check in, and end up talking to Guy for a while. He's going to be in Ocean City, NJ starting Sunday, and he wants me to either come up and visit him during the week or convince dad to let him drive his own car down so he can visit me. I'm not sure I'm able to do either, and as I'm wrapping up talking to my dad [and pumping gas], Shannon calls so I conference her in. Dad and I spout nonsense at her for a couple of minutes before everyone hangs up and I head into BJ's 2 minutes before they close to look for the palm tree. They're out, but they do have light up flamingos, which Shannon says will have to do so I pick one up and then head back home.

On the way home, I call Jeff to say "hi" and then I call Tom to confirm that he and Betsy are still coming up tomorrow. They are, but Betsy it not keen on chicken with bones in it, and I as I was planning on making beer can chicken for dinner I’ll have to make an alternate dish for Betsy. Home, I check my e-mail and the woot-off, which I'm surprised to find hasn't moved more than 2 or 3 items since I left work. While waiting for Shannon to get home, I finish reading "Lion, Witch..." and then settle in to watch PTI. I'm disappoint to find that what got Tivo'ed instead were innings 11-13 of a baseball game.

I start watching the of the Yankees game that’s on ESPN instead, answering the phone when Shannon calls to let me know she's on her way home. She's mildly upset, having spent most of the time since I left talking about the reception with her parents. I guess there was some yelling and disagreements going one, and we're still not any closer to picking a place. I tell her I'll talk to her when she gets home, and go back to watching the game.

The next thing I know, Shannon is waking me up and telling me to go to bed, which I do...

2005-07-26

Feeling extremely lazy today, I flip off the alarm as soon as it goes off, then roll over and go back to sleep until 7:30. I get up, eat breakfast, shower, check e-mail get dressed and head out the door around 8:00. Traffic is light until I get off of 95 and onto 476, where traffic is gridlocked. Not wanting to sit around forever, I take the first exit before actually merging into the mess and then make a tiny bit or backwards progress to route 252, which I decide to take all the way up to King of Prussia. This proves to be a bad choice, as traffic is heavy enough along the initial 2 lane stretch of the road [up to route 30] that I don't make it up to work until 9:15.

It's another busy day at work; I do manage to take a few minutes during lunch to begin reading "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" for the first time in preparation for the movie that comes out this winter. I end up leaving work around 5:45 and traffic is again light so I get back home around 6:30.

Shannon is sleeping in bed, and I bother her for a little bit poking at her and stripping her clothes off. I inquire if she’s feeling better from yesterday, and make subtle hints about going to the gym. I don't really want to go to the gym, and apparently she either hadn't thought about it or didn't want to go her self, because we end up sitting in front of the TV to watch a TiVo'ed episode of "Hogan Knows Best". While watching the show, I heat up leftovers from yesterday for dinner.

Once we're done eating, Shannon wants to watch movie, so she pops in "The Manchurian Candidate" [the more recent version]. Before we can get the movie properly started, my dad calls asking where his money is [I inform him I collected the last of it yesterday] and I have fiddle around with our wireless router for a bit to get it working. The router has been really annoying/frustrating lately, as our connections to it seem to just drop out at least twice a day, and I have to unplug it for about 30 seconds to get it working again. Today was a bit different as I ended up having to unplug all of our routers and the cable modem for a while before the problem sorted itself out. Maybe if I switch the channel it broadcasts on, the performance will improve?

Anyhow, after I'm done with that I heat up the remainder of the shrimp I purchased Saturday night, and we start to watch the movie. It's o.k., but not great [or as good as Collateral was the other day] and eventually I decide to log into UltimateBet while I half concentrate on the movie. Eventually it ends, Shannon tells me she really liked it, especially the new twist ending [she had watched the original Sinatra version a few weeks earlier].

I continue to play poker, while watching today's episodes of “Around the Horn” and PTI. I had decided yesterday to TiVo "Around the Horn" today to give it a try, but I end up not really liking it so I remove it from the recording schedule. When PTI ends, I wrap up my poker session [I was a big winner today] and then install the Google Toolbar on my laptop and desktop, as I had discover at work today that there is now a version out for FireFox. I check my e-mail, ytmnd, and open up some torrents to begin downloading the new episode of "Entourage" and "Six Feet Under".

When I’m done on the computer, I go to get ready for bed, but Shannon needs some help before I can settle in. A box from Dell had arrived today for Shannon to send her laptop in for service, and I tell her how to remove the hard drive and advise her on what not to send in with the laptop [why send in any peripherals if you don't have to?] After that, I get back into reading The Lion... and I end up getting more than half way through the book before I call it quits around midnight. Granted, it's a pretty short book, with large type and writing geared towards kids. But the story is O.K. and I have 6 more books in the series to go after I'm done with it before I'm fished with the whole Narnia saga.

2005-07-25

I get up just before 6 [I like to hear the Howard Stern show in its entirety, if possible], and eat some breakfast. Feeling rather lethargic, I climb back into bed when I'm done and then sleep until 7:30. During my extended siesta, I have a strange dream where I'm Terrell Owens' new manager/agent and I resolve his current contract issues. I only mention this because I usually have no dream recall whatsoever.

Awake for good, I jump in the shower, make my lunches for the week [buffalo turkey and provolone cheese wraps], check my e-mail, and get dressed. Before finally departing for work, I write a quick note to the FedEx guy instructing him to call me before not delivering Dan's stereo again and stick it on the door.

Tragedy strikes on the way to the car, just as I lean over to open the lobby door all of the soil spills out of Mr. Cactus Head's pot. I was going to bring him into work, but instead I bring him back up to the apartment.

Traffic isn't bad on the way to work until I hit the Blue Route, where it takes 1/2 hour to travel the first 5 miles. Traffic eases up again after that, and I make it into work at 9:20. I keep fairly busy at work, which is not uncommon lately. The time goes by quickly, but I’m still feeling kind funky from yesterday's drinking exercises and allergy attacks. I leave work around 5:40, and get home around 6:25 thanks to some light traffic.

Home, I prod at Shannon for a bit [not that way, you sickos] and head into the kitchen. Shannon left a mess from making cookies the other day, so I clean that up/load and start the dishwasher. After that, Shannon and I discuss some of our options for 'Save the Date' cards and wedding invitations.

Now it's time watch some PTI, during which I do prep work for and begin cooking dinner. Shannon mentions that her stomach’s not feeling too good, and runs into the bedroom when I bring out the raw chicken to cut it up. I bring her a ginger ale and go back to finish cooking. Shannon's sleeping when I’m finished, so I make myself a plate [chicken and broccoli stir fir and some rice] and eat while watching a retrospective of the Bills' 2004 season. Shannon wanders out from the bedroom just as I finish eating, looking upset that I ate without her. I explain that I didn't wake to wake her if she was sick, and ask her is wants some food. She declines, so I get her some Ritz crackers and more ginger ale.

I play some more Pikmin 2 while Shannon goes over the list of people we're inviting to the wedding. She eventually wanders off to the office/bedroom, and I continue to play. Once I'm done, I go into the kitchen, empty the dishwasher and clean up from my dinner making activities. I throw some ice cream on top of the cookies Shannon made and sit down to watch the RAW that has been recording. It's not a very good show this week, so midway through I sign into UltimateBet and play poker for a bit.

Once RAW is over, I head for bed where Shannon and I annoy each other for a bit before we fall asleep.

2005-07-24

Shannon wakes me up around 4 or 5 in the morning, my sleep apnea noise is bugging her, so I grab my pillow and head out to the couch, stopping for some O.J. along the way. It's about 10 o'clock when Shannon emerges from the bedroom to sit on top of me/wake me up. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking "we should go to church", but I don't say anything because I don't really want to go. Shannon never says anything about it either, so I guess she didn't really want to either. What good Christians we are!

I pester Shannon about making the chocolate chip cookies that she was planning to make for our company that never showed up yesterday, as I'm hungry. While she gets to work on that, I wander into the office and peel about a month and half worth of days off of my page a day calendar. I had sworn off ever buying page a day calendars a long time ago as I'm just too lazy to attend to them every day [pathetic I know] but people keep giving them to me as gifts. My current calendar is "The Onion: AD NAUSEAM" which I got from Jeff for Christmas and/or my birthday. It's actually rather amusing. Anyhow, what's motivated me to catch up with it this morning is that I was planning on logging the day's activities on the back of the peel offs so I can accurately reflect what is going on in my blog later on.

While I sit on the couch reading through the various pages, Shannon comes in and turns on the non-Eddie Murphy, old-timey version of "Doctor Doolittle". I half watch it with her until they bring out some sort of 2 headed llama, and then I decide that the movie is just too lame to bother with. So I log onto UltimateBet for some more free poker. I horribly at first, losing all of my free chips rather quickly. I get replenished for free and play a little more smartly with my new stack and end up doing about as well as I have the previous few days. While I play, I continue to half concentrate on Doolittle, which really is an awful movie in my estimation. The songs are terrible, the plot rambles on endlessly and veers off in the most random directions, and then you're presented with an ending that provides no closure whatsoever. I don't know if the were setting it up for a sequel [did they do that in the old days?] or just gave up or what.

Movie over and poker bug scratched for now, I start playing some Pikmin 2 while Shannon gets ready to go out. I don't play for long, as Shannon gets on my case that we have to be ready to go so we can make it our friends' house before the "Pampered Chef" party that is being held there is supposed to begin. I pause my game and then jump the shower. Amidst getting ready, I sit down at the computer to check my e-mail and for any new woot.com or ytmnd.com activity.

Woot.com is a daily deal site, the sell one item every day at a deeply discounted price. Occasionally you find something interesting/worth buying. Ytmnd.com ["You're The Man Now Dog" - spoken by Sean Connery in "Finding Forrester"] is an amusing website. You should go check it out. It consists of various sub sites that do fun stuff with various images and sound bytes that usually relate to whatever's hot in pop culture today or whatever themed fad is popular on ytmnd.com. [NOTE: Do NOT go there if you do not want the new Harry Potter book spoiled]. It's hard described what goes on there exactly; you just have to check it out for yourself. Some fun ytmnd links:
http://yourethemannowdog.ytmnd.com/
http://sexmap.ytmnd.com/
http://vaderfortune.ytmnd.com/
http://vadercoaster.ytmnd.com/
http://tcruiseko.ytmnd.com/

Moving right along, we're both finally ready to go so we head on over to Cassie and Corey's house. I wasn't too thrilled about going, and I was trying to remember why I had agreed to in the first place. I think was interested in the kitchen gadgetry, but when it comes down to it, I wasn't really comfortable with the idea of spending the afternoon with a bunch of strange women. And we don't really need any new kitchen gadgetry. The stuff that Pampered Chef sells is pretty expensive, you can buy the same quality stuff [if not better] at a Bed Bath and Beyond [which sends out several handy 20% off coupons every month]. Luckily for me, Cassie's husband Corey was there.

I don't know Corey so well; we've only hung out a few times and always with our significant others. He and his friend Dan were hanging out in the basement playing darts and drinking some O.J. and rum concoctions. Not having anything else to do, I joined in the drinking and had about 5 or 6 tall glasses of the rum mixture, getting a fairly decent buzz on while bullshitting with the guys. They were admittedly not very good at darts, so the game they had going on when I arrived never really ended over the course of the next few hours. Corey's a nice guy; I always surprise myself when I remember that he's a few years younger than we are. And his friend Dan is a pretty cool dude too.

So while drinking and watching them play, I was also assaulted by their dog, Reggie. Reggie is an 8 month old lab-golden retriever mix, and he is a pretty big dog already. He weighs in at 80 pounds, and the vet says he's probably going to get a bit bigger, gaining another few inches in height and another 40 or 50 pounds. Being as young a dog as he is, Reggie is hyper and likes to do all of the normal puppy stuff like jumping up and play biting and licking and slobbering etc. The only problem with this is that since he's a really big dog already, it's a bit much to take as you really get covered in drool and knocked around when he plays with you. Corey kept him in line for the most part with a water spray bottle. He seems like a pretty good dog that will be fine in few years when he gets to that age where dogs mellow out.

The one problem I had being in the basement with the dog was that my allergies began to kick up over the course of the afternoon. Nothing too bad, certainly not as bad as it would have been if they had cats, but enough to make me sneeze with some regularity.

Eventually the party up stairs was wrapping up, as Shannon was beginning to make excursions into the basement to smuggle us snacks and laugh at how "drunk" I was. Whatever. At some point, Corey insisted we stay over for dinner, and since I was having a good time [and I'm not one to turn down free anything] we agreed. We had some steaks, fries, green beans and corn on the cob. After dinner we went into the living room where I quickly fell asleep from a combination of feeling full, still a little buzzed, and congested from my allergies.

I was woken up and we left Cassie and Corey's around 7:00. I felt kind of funky from my allergies and the drinking, so I wanted to go home. But Shannon wanted to go by her parent’s house for a bit first, so we headed over that way. She hadn't seen her family in a while since they've been vacationing on their boat, so I didn't put up a big fuss. Along the way, I remembered that I had to still collect monies from Tom, and since I hadn’t heard from him and his place was on the way, I gave him a call. He was on his way to the movies, and I was just a tad upset that he hadn't tried to contact me at all during the day, as there was now no way that I was going to get the monies today. He tried to delay getting me the money till Thursday, but I reminded him that my dad needed this money about 3 weeks ago, and in the end he grudgingly agreed to drop it by our apartment tomorrow.

We get to Shannon's parent's house and say hello to everyone, and then plop down on the couch while they watch a rerun of "Cold Case". Being around their dog, Bear Bear, doesn't do much to help my allergies, so I'm hoping we don't stay long once the show is over. Her parents and sister have some dinner while watching the show, and I grab a small bowl of baked beans for "dessert". With the show almost over, her dad heads out to go down to the Tap Room, but before he does, I give him a few mortar fireworks that I had promised him a couple of weeks ago. I head back inside to get Shannon as "Cold Case" is now over, and she gets up to go. Progress is stalled, however as she and her mom pick this time to have a half hour conversation in front of the door about god knows what. Defeated, I go back to the couch and watch some TV movie about Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis until they finish. We head for home about 9:30.

We get home, and I set the TiVo to record the west coast showing of the Martin and Lewis thing, and then get back to my paused game of Pikmin. I playing until I can get to a point where I can save, and then it's time to head for bed. Just as I get settled in bed, Shannon comes in the room and decides that it's time pull off all of the sheets and fluff the mattress pad. So I crankily help her with that, and jump into bed and go to sleep.

Let's see how this goes...

I'm going to try to do a daily blog of my activities. No promises of how long I'll keep this up or how thorough I'll be.

Got up today around 8, and slide out of bed. Shannon sleeps in late on weekends [like a slug], and it gives me some free time to fart around on my own. How do I take advantage of it? Why, by cleaning the apartment of course! I like to think that we both want to keep a clean apartment, but we don't seem to manage most of the time. I wash up some dishes and load the dishwasher, and then go through the mail we've accumulated during the week. After that I collect up most of the trash in the apartment and then put it by the door so we can take it out later.

Having cleaned up as much as I care to for now, I sneak back into the bedroom to collect the remainder of the comics I bought on Wednesday but haven't read yet. Before reading them, I watch the one episode I have left of an anime series called "Wolf's Rain". That puts me roughly halfway through the 26 episode series, and I debate to myself for a while whether I want to spend money I don't really have on the remaining 3 DVDs or if I just want to rent them. The series definitely isn't good enough that I'd want to keep the DVDs, and I probably wouldn't get as much back as I paid for them as I would when selling them on eBay. I guess I'll have to rent the last 3 at some point... even though the series isn't great, I'm a completist and I'm curious as to how it ends. What drew me to it in the first place was something I read about it being created by the same guys who did the phenomenal "Cowboy Bebop" series. That is only half-true, it turns out that it's drawn by the same animation studio and has some of the same voice talent, but that's about it. There's another series from the same director of Bebop [who's name escapes me right now] called Samurai Champloo that I want to check out, but securing the first DVD is proving difficult right now.

After Wolf's rain, I read a few comics the latest issues of Conan, Authority: Revolution, Astonishing X-Men and House of M. All good reads. Shannon's still asleep, so I flip on Sports Center [there's no good TV on in the summer] for a bit and end up watching "Best Week Ever" on VH1. Shannon gets up around 10, she wants to go to Lowe's for some gardening paraphernalia. I finish up whatever I was watching, go empty the dishwasher, and heat up our leftovers from last night. We went to EAT [Border Cafe] and I had some Steak and Shrimp fajitas and Shannon had soft tacos. Yummy breakfast! After that I grab a shower and get ready to run out.

Before we go, I decide to put a call into FedEx. Our friend Dan's leaving for Japan soon, and he shipped me his stereo and speakers for safe keeping while he works over there for a couple of years. It will be a weird techno-reunion for his stereo and my TV, which we bought on the same day in the Kirkwood Highway Best Buy. It was sometime during our sophomore year at Drexel. Anyhow, FedEx had tried twice to deliver the stereo while we were at work on Wednesday and Thursday. On Fridays, I get out early so I was home by 2pm yesterday, and pretty sure I'd be there to get the package, except it never showed up. So I call FedEx, and they say it went out for delivery yesterday, but that the delivery was never actually attempted. The lady on the phone gives me the tracking number, and tells me its out for delivery again today. I tell Shannon I want to wait around for it, so she can go to the store without me, but she doesn't want to go alone, so we decide to wait.

Stumped for ideas on what to do while we wait for FedEx, I grab her laptop and go and pull some episodes of Six Feet Under off my computer that I had downloaded. I chat with Jeff, Val, MB and my old girlfriend Stacey for a bit while I transfer the files. When that's done, I go to head back to the living room, but I bump Shannon's laptop with my knee and it powers down. When I turn it back on, it has an error code that says the computer is overheating, and that she should call Dell. So she does, getting through to tech support in India. They're sending a box so she can send the laptop back, Dell is going to replace the fan and heat sink.

In the meantime we put on some reality crap on VH1, and I log into UltimateBet.com and play some limit Hold 'Em on their free tables. I plan to play for some real money eventually, after I am more practiced at my poker game. Time wastes on, I go way down in my chip count, they way back up, and I eventually finish with about the same amount I started out with. Still no FedEx, so I start playing Pikmin 2 on my GameCube. I fool around with that for a while [it's a fun, cute little game], but Shannon gets restless and tells me to check the FedEx status online. I tell her that there will be no updated status until they deliver the packages, but I indulge her and check anyhow. To my surprise [and dismay] the status had been updated. It said that a delivery had been attempted again today around 2:30 [It was sometime between 3 and 4 at this point], and that we weren't here. Well this, of course, is complete bullshit, as we've been here all freaking afternoon waiting for the bastard and he never came by. Shannon went downstairs to check for a door tag [the was none] and I called FedEx. I explained what happened, and I'm pissed because we've been waiting for this package, and I tell the lady on the phone to have the driver call me. She pages him or whatever, and we're back to the waiting game.

Shannon naps for a bit and I flip around the channels for a bit. Eventually I call back to see what the story is, and this time the person I talk to tells me it could but up to 48 hours before I get a call. Great. What a bunch of useless assholes. I decide it's no longer worth it to wait, and we get on the road to get Shannon's gardening stuff around 5 p.m. On the road, I get a hold of Tom to see what he's up to and see if he wants to hang out tonight. I haven't seen him in a while, and I need to hook up with him this weekend to collect some money he's got that he and few other guys have been delinquent on getting to me. He says he's at a BBQ with Betsy, and he'll call me when they're finished.

We stop by BJ's to gas up Shannon's car, and then go to the Home Depot next door to get Shannon's gardening stuff. We're there for a bit, and I cajole her into getting me a cactus that I plan to bring to work. It's pretty cool looking, with a green "stem" and a fluorescent pink and orange "head" part. I think it's called a grafted cactus or something like that. The head part looks so much like a head that I christen my new cactus "Mr. Cactus-head". We head on back home, and on the way Betsy calls me to see what we want to do with her and Tom tonight. Nobody has any good ideas, so I invite them over to hang out and watch a movie or something. She says she'll check with Tom and call me back. We decide to stop at the Acme on the way home for dinner supplies for us, and entertaining supplies for our guests. While we're there, Betsy calls back and tells me they've decided to stay in tonight, as they've been in the car all day. I ask to talk to Tom to remind him that I need to see him to collect the money weekend [it's owed to my Dad], and he says he'll be sure to hook up with me tomorrow. Slightly bummed that we'll be solo this evening, we finish up our shopping and head home.

At home, I cook dinner [Italian sausage patties and some fries] and we go sit on the porch and eat. After that, I heat up a few of the shrimp I forgot we bought at Acme, and we settle in to watch one of the movies Shannon's got in from Blockbuster online, "Collateral" with Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox. It's a pretty decent movie, but I totally call who number five on the list ends up being about 20 minutes into the movie [you'll get it if you've seen the movie]. When the movie wraps up, I head back to the kitchen to clean up again, this time from our dinner mess. What a great way to bookend the day. Then I sit down in the living room, flip on Sports Center, and blog it up for about an hour.

Shannon's just headed for bed, so I guess I'm headed after her, nudge nudge, wink wink.