Beth's Contradictory Brain

Rest of the Weekend

Friday we finally got things worked out with LA-Z Boy. Apparently it was a delivery mistake and not the crazy sales ladies. They had canceled out the order after Nerdstar called Thursday, so we stopped by Friday and resigned the paperwork and were guaranteed Sunday delivery.

Yep, we have a new sofa. Of course, then the delivery guys fleeced us for $25 cash to take the old one away. Not wanting to hassle with it, we paid it.

Saturday we had some fun. I've been wanting to try river kayaking for quite a while. I found a place over in Maryland that offers classes. I thought that would be a cool thing to do for this 4th weekend since we didn't go out of town or anything. Thankfully it was cloudy and about 80 and not hot and sunny! It was really nice to be out on the river. The instructor was nice and there were about ten other people in the class.

One good thing to learn is that you should start out paddling against the current, that way when you're tired and on your way back to where you started, you can mostly just float. I knew about currents and such in rivers, but man, it was still tiring. One of the frustrating things about being with a group was not being able to really rest when I needed to. If it had been just Nerdstar and I, we would have been out there for about two hours instead of over three, and at a slower pace. But, I know it's always good to take a class before trying something new, though.

I'm not as sore as I thought I'd be today, but my left arm is still pretty weak from too much use! Maybe eventually I'll find us some cheap used kayaks.

The best part of yesterday was going for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Houston's. We even had some good key lime pie!

Today the sofa was delivered and our other goal is to go wash the dog. There's a self wash place close to here that's really cool. And the shampoo and conditioner they have there is really good stuff.

Orders Update

As was expected, Nerdstar finally got her orders to go to her annual training Thursday. Ugh. But even better, someone decided to sign her up for additional training the following week out in California. So now if both sets of orders stand, she'll be gone for almost a month. To say I've been pissy about the whole thing is probably an understatement. And I've done a good job of making Nerdstar miserable about the whole thing. I think I go through the stages of grief about the whole ting - denial, anger, etc.

Her AT this year is in Hawaii, and we talked a lot about me flying out to meet her and hang out. But since the actual orders have taken so long to come through - I just don't think I want to spend a small fortune on airfare. Plus the hassle of finding somewhere for Ramen to stay and all that.

We're hoping (but not optimistic) that her second set of orders can at least be rescheduled. With any luck we'll find out Tuesday, you know, before she leaves Wednesday. That training takes place in Monterrey, CA. If she can't get that rescheduled I will meet her out there. We were in Monterrey a few years ago and I really like it there.

I'm sure most people would take Hawaii over Monterrey, but I'm not really the Hawaii type. She's not really looking forward to being there either. The whole trip is going to be a nightmare dealing with her commander. And I've told her under no circumstances can she have fun without me. One of her goals is to get an updated status on her process of being medically discharged. It's taking a long time to go that route, but she really doesn't have a better way to get out of the military.

Rant

I'm so tired of feeling nickel and dimed and ripped off in this damn city.

We went out to eat last week, parked in the nearest parking garage, took our ticket with us to the restaurant. The waiter said we didn't need validation on the ticket - just our receipt, which is kinda how I remembered it working last time we went and didn't take the receipt with us. Of course, we go to leave the garage and the attendant says we have to have the ticket stamped, NOT the receipt. Fuckers. It was $3 buck, but frustrating.

Last Wednesday night we went to LA-Z Boy a couple of blocks away and found a sofa we liked that was comfy, even if in a color we didn't like. So we went back Thursday to purchase it. It was easier to buy my new car. The ladies there just couldn't seem to get their heads out of their butts. They were very nice, just incompetent on the computers. Fine. Then the terms of the sale kept differing from the promotions advertised on the signs in the store. Fine. When we left we were under the impression the sofa would be delivered Tuesday. Nope. When Nerdstar called they said it wasn't scheduled - why not? you said it was when we left the store - so they scheduled it for today. Again, nope. They said they'd schedule it for Sunday. At that point, I'm all fuck em. If they can't get their shit together, they can't have my money. So, she called them back and canceled the whole thing. Now we just have to see if they actually refund the $350 we had to put down.

Now, what sucks is we have to start over looking for a new sofa. I tried their website hoping we could purchase it online and avoid the dumbfucks - that particular sofa isn't for sale online, of course. We could to do a different store location and start over with them. Maybe. The next closest store is at least 30 minutes away.

I wish these events were out of the ordinary, but they don't seem to be.

Waitstaff at all the different places we eat can be hit or miss. Too often it feels like we're invisible.

Ugh.

Funny Stuff

Ryan at Rambling Rhodes has been one of the most consistently funny dudes I've read over time. His IMs with Caroline are great stuff.

Ryan says: We should totally open an amusement park called "IMworld."

Go read the whole entry!

Gays in Wisconsin

Wisconsin gay couples who marry outside state could face penalty and jail time.

What bullshit.

Comments

For reasons unknown to me, comments aren't working on my site. It says they're all questionable content. I don't know how to tweak it and make it work. Bleh.

Update... ok, comments should be working now.

Wall E

We went to see it tonight and I really, really enjoyed it. I have no idea how Pixar makes you forget completely that you're watching animation. Not only did I forget the robot wasn't a real robot, I forgot he was even animated. Sigh. It's a lovely movie.

Oh yeah. And when you go see it, the Pixar short film before it is fantastic. And if you want to know how Nerdstar feels about food - think of her when you watch the bunny.

And since no one writes a better review than Lileks - just go read his.

Heh!

Cartoon

Another Weekend

Friday evening for dinner we met up with this couple we first met down in Austin who moved here before we did. The wife is Korean and the husband a white dude. Their little boy is such a cutie.

Later things got rocky, Nerdstar and I had one of our rare but unnerving "how do we make this relationship work or not work" conversations. I don't write much about our relationship, partly because I'm not at all sure how to make some of it make any sense. It mostly works for us, we've mostly had the same problems all 9 years, which I hear is normal. We tend to have troubles with the same things all couples have trouble with - communication and money. But we have more fun that not. If only she loved me as much as she loves food.... (one of these days I'll write out a list of all the times she exhibits a deep and profound love of food that I've never seen her display over me).

That made work Saturday rather rough. I was in no mood to be nice to sick dumbasses.

Then we did some lunch and shopping.

Last night we met up with a new member of her reserve unit that recently moved to the DC area and his wife and little boy. The wife is Chinese and is going to be in Beijing as a translator at the Olympics, how cool is that? It's always tricky when I'm with her around her army peeps, but we don't worry about it too much. A few weeks ago we even went out on a boat with her commander's commander. That woman knew exactly how to do "don't ask/don't tell." Most people mess up the don't ask part because they're unaware that even asking if you're married, or have kids, or who you live with can be tricky questions for gay people and could in some way "out" them.

Today was more shopping. It turned into an expensive weekend, but it's all stuff we need.

We've also been watching "I Love the New Millenium" on VH1 - simple pleasures.

No real plans for the 4th. It sounds like it would be cool to be down on the National Mall for all the events and fireworks, but it's really a long, hot day down there, so I'm not sure we'd be up to it. We thought about going out of town, but it looks very likely Nerdstar's going to have to go to Hawaii again next month for her annual training with her army unit. Ugh. More on that later.

Hope your weekend was a good one!!

Recent Reads

I think I heard about Stephen Pressfield on Instapundit. I picked up two of his books at the library a few weeks ago - Killing Romel and The Afghan Campaign. They're historical fiction. Killing Romel was about the British desert special forces who were tasked with (obviously) killing Romel. I really enjoyed the book. He didn't glorify the military or make it seem overly glorious - quite the opposite. Then there was the aspect of writing about trying to do anything in the desert. As much as I love to travel, I've never had a real desire to see the great deserts of the world. I asked Nerdstar if she got a sense of the desert in her travels to and in Iraq, but she said not really. Although she did become at least a little familiar with sand everywhere.

While reading The Afghan Campaign, which is about Alexander's conquest of Afghanistan, I also read The Places in Between that Nerdstar had picked up on one of her travels. The Places In Between is Scotsman Rory Stewarts tale of walking through Afghanistan in the winter of 2002/2003. It was really cool reading about the same country thousands of years apart. Mostly, it hasn't changed much. And they both had sad endings.

All three books are really good reads. Learning about different places/times by reading is second only to actual travel, and sometimes it's even better.