For Del

Yesterday while buying an AV cable for my Ipod at the Apple Store at the Christinana Mall, I was able to confirm with the clerk that there (as I correctly assumed) was a higher ratio of men to women working at my apple store; however, the clerk I was speaking with assured me that the few women that did work there were “Incredibly cute. More so than at normal stores.”

And, just as a side note, the Apple AV cable that lets you hook up your video Ipod to your TV to play videos ROCKS. I was able to watch season 2.5 of BSG yesterday. Oh, I love my Ipod.

To recap

This week I received several movies from Netflix:

First, Netflix delivered Robots. If you haven’t seen Robots yet, go get it. It was WONDERFUL. I was hooked at “Eye of the Tiger”.

Then, I got Shopgirl. How lovely! This is defintely not a guy movie. However, a first date with one of my ex’s was remarkably similar to Mirabelle’s first date with Jeremy. Eerily similar. I highly recommend this movie. It also receives two thumbs up.

Friday, I got Domino. Everything I read about this movie said it was HORRID. And I guess it’s just my taste in bad action movies, but I liked it. When she knocks out the ringleader of the sorority? Priceless. “Have you ever had a nose job?” HA! And knocking out Brian Austin Green? Oh, I had to watch that twice. It was a bit hard to follow, and some people (Lucy Liu) were horribly mis-cast, but all in all, I’d watch it again. Jason was horrified when I told him that.

But will it do my taxes?

As several of my friends have recently gotten hitched or are about to be hitched, just for the heck of it I went to the Girls Best Friend website. Just to check to see what my sweetie would be budgeting (if he were following their guidelines) for an engagement ring, I put in my yearly salary to find out what two months would be. If I were proposing to myself using their guidelines, I would be receiving a twelve thousand dollar ring.

Yeah, I laughed, too.

Dude, what the heck would a ring like that do? What would a ring that expensive be MADE OF? Would the whole ring be a diamond? Jason could buy me a CAR for that! Or, Jason could pay off the majority of my credit debt. Good lord!

Has anyone actually FOLLOWED that guideline? You would have to know you’re getting engaged when you’re like five years old to be able to budget that amount of money. What I want to know is, who came up with that guideline and what was the real purpose?

Holy cow. Just to set the record straight, I am a) not expecting a twelve thousand dollar ring because it’s just absurd and b) not expecting any kind of ring at any point in the near or somewhat near future.

Observations

1) It is not easy to get to Kentucky. Flying there is a very large pain in the ass. Apparently, people in Philly do not want to go to Kentucky.

2) It always amazes me how people dress, when I travel. This week I’ve been in KY, OH, New York City, and Boston. I am constantly amused by the ways people express themselves in fashion.

3) I sat next to an honest-to-god yuppie today. I am assuming his name was Biff, and that he was from a wealthy-ish family. He was dressed in a pair of chinos, loafers without socks, a polo tshirt and a blue sportcoat. He also was wearing his sunglasses on a string, appealingly enough. And, I think he was younger than I am. He kept trying to engage the girl he was sitting next to on the other side in conversation, and she wasn’t too willing to engage back.

4) Airtran airways is not as much fun as Southwest.

5) Six month olds without great trunk control make the BEST solid gold dancers, hands down.

6) Trading spaces is an amusing show to watch with four people, especially when those four people know quite a bit about house remodeling. (”ooh, Ty, that’s a good idea!” “Genevive, that’s a stupid name you have. Orange again?”)

7) Smoothie King is the greatest place EVER. We need one up here.

That is SUCH a nice pocket protector you have there!

Oh, is that how it will happen?

‘What will your obituary say?’ at QuizGalaxy.com

Thanks, FP!

Vacation Pics

Pics from the vaca in the Poconos. Blogger finally stopped having a hissy and let me post them.

Obviously, we’re entering the Land of Love. Duh!

More views of the Land of Love.

Our pool. Tasteful, no?

Vacationers, a portrait. Yes, that DOES happen to be a mirrored headboard and round bed we’re sitting upon. Aren’t you jealous?

Our Champagne Tub, a special treat for my friend Rusty.

Poconos Vacation recap

Last week, my sweetie and I took a mini-vacation to the Poconos (Ceasars Pocono Palace, no less) for a couple of days. We had originally planned to go to Vegas, however at the time we were booking, plane tickets and rooms were hideously expensive, and my frequent flyer miles would only take one of us to our intended destination. For that one person, it would have been great, but that other person would have been very bored. So, Jason asked me where I wanted to go. I said Charlottesville, VA. We ended up in the Poconos instead(there were mountains, though, so it wasn’t a total loss). The room and resort, pictured below, reminded both of us of a 70’s porn palace, but we actually had a really good time. Jason tried to teach me to play golf (but as most of you who’ve actually met me are aware, I am a clumsy nightmare unable to go anywhere without breaking or running into anything) and the golfing didn’t go so well. Jason resorted to repeating “Well, at least it went FORWARD!” He was actually a really good teacher for golf, which suprised me as Jason doesn’t have the most patience when it comes to teaching things to people. I think part of it had to do with him being only somewhat good, not really good. Jason is really good with computers. When he tries to teach me about computers…he gets frustrated that I don’t pick up on it as quickly as he did.

Anyway, moving on. Golf was ok. I got bored after a while, because I was absolutely horrible. We ended up grouping up with two older gentlemen who were regulars at the Pocono Palace. They were a trip. They were actually pretty good, but had a sense of humor about it.

We also played ping pong, pool, shuffleboard (I couldn’t believe it either) arcade games and mini golf. During the dinners (think cruise-ship seating) we met a fabulous couple from nearby the resort, and ate with them for two out of our three dinners. The last night we were there, our foursome met a honeymooning copule from Texas (Texas! In the Poconos!) who were also quite entertaining.

So to anyone thinking of taking a kind of close to home vacation (if you’re in the northeast, anyway) I’d recommend the Pocono Palace. It may look campy, but it is rather charming.

Editor’s Note: Blogger is being very pissy about uploading photos, so what you see is what you get for this particular post. I’ll try to post more later.

Ah, Vacation

Jason, lying in repose with several happy cats, while playing Call of Duty 2 for Xbox 360.

The Poseidon Adventure, part four

So the cat ranch didn’t fare so well last week with all the rain:

This is the finished part of the basement. The water has already soaked through the padding in the carpet, and has begun to soak into the carpet on top.

This is the unfinished half of my basement. The stuff in the back (the kitty litter container lid) is FLOATING.

In this picture you might not be able to tell, but the water is about three inches high.

When I was still living in my house in Elkton, my basement flooded there three times. The first, the cleanout valve in my front yard had been backed over by the previous renters’ moving truck, causing the cleanout to separate from the pipes leading out of the house. The second time, hurricane Isabel hit, and my sump pump’s battery back up died (the power was out, causing the battery backup to turn on). The third time, it was just a really rainy week. Only one of those times (the hurricane) caused me to claim in insurance wise.

I’m having to claim now, and it looks like it might not be covered, because it’s seeping in through the foundation. We have an insurance adjustor coming out tomorrow, to assess if it’s a covered loss.

I immediately called a restoration service, as my insurance company dicked me around with “we’ve got so many claims, I don’t know if we’ll be able to get to you in time”. The boys from Diamond Restoration ROCK. They’re courteous, sweet, and fair. When they told me they didn’t think this would be a covered loss and I’d have to eat the cost myself (about $5000 worth of renovation, just to remove the water, set up fans and dehumidifiers and spray anti-mold spray.) they worked out a payment plan with the owner.

This fucking sucks, friends. The restoration boys couldn’t find a drainage system (apparently my french drains aren’t french drains) so I will have to have one installed, which means completely unfinishing the finished portion of the basement, resealing the walls, re-doing the french drain and maybe installing a sump pump.

Mother fucker.