Lee.org

I went to Ikea over the weekend with PPG. Our goal: a couple more CF bulbs and an Ikea can opener. It was a real challenge for us to be IN and OUT as quick as possible since, traditionally, shopping at Ikea is more a lifestyle choice than a shopping decision. I’m happy to say that we succeeded!

We were in and out of Ikea in 15 minutes :-).

You know that area of Ikea where you have to wait for your big items to come out of the back warehouse? Do other people call it “purgatory” too? Both PPG and I called it that before we even met each other.

I got some 15 watt CF bulbs that don’t have “looks more like an incandescent” shields on them. The big fixture in the front hall could use a little more brightness. So I swapped out the 11 watt bulbs for 15 watts. They’re great. Bright, white, natural, and way cheaper than incandescents.

I’ve replacing light fixtures all over the house. Usually I replace a 100 watt incandescent with a 75 watt inc. and an 11 watt fl. on a splitter. It gives more light, it comes on instantly and uses less electricity. Happy day.

It was initially a pain to organize but I’m so glad that I finally got to see Robot Stories with friends! The initial plan was to see it on opening night at The Cinema Village theater in NYC. I had sent out emails and organized so that about 5 friends and I would go to the 7:40 show. River was a late comer so he tried to get a ticket online. But it was sold out. It’s a good thing he emailed me that because I didn’t have tickets yet! I was going to go all the way into the city and meet for dinner just to find out I couldn’t get into the show! Both shows were sold out on opening night so we had to reschedule. Another round of invites went out for the Wednesday 7:40 show. Glenn, Shara, Jim D, Marian, and Marah said “yes”.

What a great evening! It started out with a minor miracle… I found a place to park on 3rd between 11th & 12th. But I realized that I didn’t have any quarters for the meter. A guy parked right next to me so I got out and asked to buy quarters from him. I looked in my wallet and frowned as I noticed that all I had were $20s. He gave me a quarter… yes, that’s right gave me a quarter and suggested that I use the 15 minutes to find more quarters. :-)

I got some quarters at a costume & magic shop right nearby (I’ll have to go back, they had fun things). I walked to the theater and noticed that there was free street parking right in front of the theater starting at 6pm. At 5:40, no one had shown up so I fetched my car and sat in it ’til 6. I parked right in front of the theater!

Glenn showed up at 6 and we met in front of the theater. We walked to the restaurant and met up with Marian and Marah. Dinner was just peachy. The talk was really nice. It’s nice to be social! We went off to the theater and met Jim in front. In we went. We were there 10 minutes before showtime and the theater was packed! There were only about 180 seats or so but.. it was packed! We found 6 seats in the first and second row.

George W. gave an interview on the NBC program Meet the Press. Here is a transcript of the interview with my comments.

Transcript with comments (long).

You’ve seen those TV commercials for the past 20 years talking about “Catalog, Pueblo Colorado” but never bothered to write away to them. Well they are all online and they are all in HTML and/or PDF format at The Federal Citizen Information Center. And it’s all free! A lot of the guides are pretty much common sense and you’ll often find just more of the same crap you see everywhere else. Crap like how you should check your tire pressure, and antifreeze weekly (yeah, I check mine every Sunday afternoon like clockwork). But I’ve found a nugget or two of information there. Enjoy.
2-7-04

In order to get and propagate “the fastest spreading internet worm in history”, each and every victim has to actively click on a suspicious looking attachment. Sympathy level = low.

I still think it’s pretty funny (though wrong, of course) that SCO is getting hammered.

Friday afternoon I was getting ready to go out to meet the Eleventh President when I got a message from my neighbor saying that the email mailing list I’ve been trying to get started for the last 11 months (yes, I said 11 months) was voted down by [insert vulgarities here]. Mulling this over the weekend I was considering how I could resign with the most effectiveness over this issue.
To clean this part of the weekend up quickly, I got a message from him Sunday afternoon saying that it wasn’t dead, the board was just too busy talking about more important matters at the meeting to deal with the mailing list. We’ll see.

11 months!

But I digress on describing YAGW.

Friday at 6 (actually 6:20 b/c I had to cool off after getting the above bad news) I met with the Eleventh President at Moghul in Morristown. The meal was exquisite. Not inexpensive but worth it, right down to the aromatic rice. We proceeded to a party in New Brunswick with friends of the Eleventh President. PPG was there too! Mutual friends! It was a very young crowd… 21-25 or so, a college pad. They had DanceDanceRevolution on Xbox downstairs. We tried it out and I really got into the groove with it. the Eleventh President and some others also played. We had a blast!

I went back with PPG at 4am. Late!

Saturday, we went in to NYC. PPG got a facial and her hair cut from 4-6. I bought the very last two cases of Marilyn Merlot 1996 and Marilyn Merlot 1997 from my wine supplier in the city. The owner told me that he had 2 cases of 1994 just last week and he sold them to a guy from Pennsylvania for $40/bottle or something. Those are $150 bottles! ARG! Well, I gave him my phone number in case he gets more… I also spent a while talking to the Eleventh President using my bluetooth headset. It was fun getting mistaken for a lunatic on the streets; I was standing outside, hands at my sides, wearing a hat that covers the earpiece and talking to NO ONE. A couple people gave me strange looks. I pointed to my ear and they feigned understanding. ;-)

I picked up PPG. We found each other by cell phone… I never actually found out where exactly her spa was. When I dropped her off, she didn’t know exactly how to get there so I had just dropped her off and she walked the last 1/4-2 blocks, feeling her way. Now when picking her up, I stopped at a corner near where I dropped her off. She was on foot; she told me the street corner she had just passed and the one she was approaching. I checked my map and figured out where she was. I guided her in by map. “Ok, at the next intersection, turn right and walk 1 block. [step, step, step, step...] Ok now look to your left and smile. Wave.”

We went off to Toys in Babeland for accoutrements. And then pizza. Thin, perfect New York Pizza. Ahhh. I took one bite and told PPG that I didn’t -need- any more. But of course I finished both slices!

Then it was off to a party at Gatsby’s in the Village. It was someone’s birthday. The someone seemed very nice. She just turned 22. Much of this crowd is starting to become familiar to me. That’s good.

11pm: off to Paddles. But I was so gosh darn tired that I couldn’t go in. PPG had a play date so I insisted that she go in while I stayed in the car basking in the quiet, playing with my cell phone and happily vegging out for a while. It was really quite nice actually. (it also didn’t hurt that her lack of a penis got her in for free while it costs $25 to get mine in.) Her date was a no-show so we ended up leaving just after midnight. Home. Sleep. Good.

Next morning: movies! PPG, River and myself made it to a 4:05 showing of Big Fish in Piscataway. We all got something out of it and liked it a lot. It’s an excellent story and very well done.

After the movie, the three of us went to Four Seasons Thai restaurant in Piscataway (1353 Stelton Road 732-819-8787). Low on atmosphere, excellent authentic food, low prices, highly recommended. From there, we all split up and went home. And they all lived happily ever after.

VITO Dialer is a good little $10 program integrates with my Pocket PC Contacts list. It sends dialing commands from my PocketPC to my cell phone via infrared (or bluetooth if my PocketPC had it). So now I don’t have to copy phone numbers from my PocketPC in my left hand to my phone in my right hand while driving with my knee. And that’s a good thing. Their site has a couple other good PocketPC –> cell phone products. I’m gonna check ‘em out.