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.