Friday Night Miscellany

Hola darlings! I had my last summer PTO day today, and it sure was gorgeous outside! Sunny, low dew point, and 80 degrees. I actually watered the lawn out back, it was so dry it was lying down flat and I want to cut it tomorrow, so I had to get it standing back up. Only way to do that is to water... I rearranged the front room today and got the new lap top moved from the kitchen table to the desk overlooking the front window and the fireplace. Whew - what a chore that is, shoving heavy furniture around - and I moved the 8 foot tall curio cabinet! That baby hasn't been moved in probably 10 years! First, everything had to come out of it, a job in and of itself just trying to find places to stash the stuff it holds, geez! Then I had to remove the glass shelves; then I "walked" the empty hulk over from one side of the room to the other. Took 20 minutes just to do the "walking" about 15 feet. It was worth the sweat equity though, it looks real nice in its new position. After bumping and shoving the rest of the furniture around, positioning the desk just so, dusting, vacuuming, and beginning the laborious process of rearranging the accessories and artwork to fit the new furniture configuration, I ran out of steam. Then I had to run upstairs and clean up and make myself presentable - scrubbing off, hair, make-up, clean clothes. A friend was coming by shortly after 6 to pick me up. She was shopping for her very first computer, she wanted a laptop, and she wanted me along for security I think, more than anything else. Also I can be very intimidating, particularly when I put on my glasses... When we were out at dinner a few weeks ago I mentioned the purchase of my new Toshiba laptop and the fantastic price I got it for, and she went WOW! That got her thinking she could afford one herself. As she didn't have much knowledge of laptops (neither did I, before I started shopping for one over a year ago), I scouted the ads for her and searched around online, and found a couple of good deals. She got a crash course in what is included and what is not in a sale price "basic" laptop. We went and inspected a laptop in person tonight, she checked out the keyboard (important to people who make their living doing lots of typing, like yours truly), we got a detailed list of the specs and went through them, she got answers to the questions she had about "what is this" and "what is that" from a knowledgeable manager, and she closed the deal! She's going wireless so we also picked up a router for her. Now all she has to do is get DSL. I showed her how to shop online for discounted software (she wants Microsoft Works) and we're practically good to go! I got her set-up for a net cost of a little over $500 (she does have to apply for a $100 rebate on the computer) including the $90 or so she'll have to pop for the Microsoft Works. Last night when she went to a place that shall remain nameless that was offering some months free financing in addition to a good sale price on a "brand name" laptop, they tried to job her for $1,000 for basically the same set-up we got tonight, scaring the crap out of her talking about anti-virus protection and security and extended service contracts. Did you know that viruses can grow inside of a computer while it's sitting in its box, unplugged and never used? Neither did I. That's what the sales kid at the unnamed store told my friend last night. Ohmygoddess! So, tomorrow, the curio cabinet glass sides, shelves and mirrored back get thororoughly cleaned, the shelves put back in, and the contents dusted and/or washed before being replaced, including my precious collection of pink elephants. A good time to rotate things out and pack some stuff away. I also unpacked and set up the new HDTV that arrived a few days ago. Can't get the damn menu feature to work right and channel 4 is coming in positively crappy, but as every other channel is coming in perfectly clear it must have something to do with the channel 4 transmission. The Brewers beat the Cubs AGAIN tonight at Miller Park, whoopppeeee! If we win tomorrow and the Mets lose that means we're in the play-offs for the first time in 26 years! This city is excited. Poop noodle little Milwaukee with 636,000 people generated over 3,000,000 in attendance this year, cha ching! Just a few things to mention tonight, I'm tired and it's way past bedtime! What the hell is this b.s. about Sarah Palin, ex-mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, charging rape victims for their rape kits (used by the police to gather evidence of sexual assault). Fifi the Alaskan Attack Dog strikes again! What the hell - am I living in an alternate universe where the police charge the victims to do their job??? Weird, very very weird. The night terrors taken one step beyond. Yeah, I "see" things in my bedroom almost every night, but I've never eaten a cat... Methane gas bubbling up from underneath "Arctic lakes" were either a symptom of or cause of the end of the last Ice Age, around 13,000 years ago (11,000 BCE, give or take a few thousand years). Guess all the hot air coming out of Washington these days is just speeding up our current melting of the ice caps. Will archaeologists soon uncover an archaic version of Washington, D.C. or the Kremlin, the poor suckers petrified in their seats forever with their mouths open, pumping out the last bits of hot air in their beings, as massive floods of water and mud swept down upon them... 14,300 year old poop proves the Bering land bridge theory of when man first arrived in the new world is full of crap... On that note, darlings, I'm calling it a night. Sweet dreams.