Middle of the week randomness...

It's been a busy week, and today and tomorrow are going to be even more busy -- because super early Friday morning, we leave for a week in Maui. (Seriously, I have to be up SOOOO early to catch my flight to Hawaii... can I have some sympathy? Anything? Anyone?? *chirping crickets* No? Nothing?? Sigh... I suppose I don't deserve any... :))

I was planning on squeezing in a few extra-strenuous workouts this week, in some kind of vain attempt to assuage the insecurity I feel when faced with lying on the beach in a swimsuit. And since I knew Rick was leaving for a work event in Las Vegas Sunday morning, I figured I'd have plenty of alone time to pop in an Insanity DVD and flail about my living room like a crazy person. Rick's flight left early Sunday morning, which meant he was packed and ready to go Saturday night... so his suitcase was lying on standby on the bedroom floor. That's probably something I should've remembered when I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom... since I usually get up at least once in the middle of the night, I have the route to and from the bathroom mapped out to the point that I can groggily walk back and forth in the dark without bumping into anything. Except, of course, when something that isn't usually on the floor (suitcase) is on the floor. And then there IS a chance that I might smack my foot into it with a bit too much force...

Not that anyone wanted to see pictures of my feet... but I DID manage to match my nail polish to my bruise. I like to be color-coordinated...

Needless to say, I haven't been working out the last few days. I actually thought I'd broken something when I got up on Sunday morning, because I could hardly walk on my foot. I spent all day on the couch, with my foot up on a pillow, popping Advil. But by Monday, it felt about 50 percent better... and by Tuesday, I could walk like a normal person again. (At least without a shoe on -- wearing a shoe still hurts a bit...)

Lucky for me, I can wear lots of flip flops in Hawaii... unlucky for me, I didn't get to work off that last pound or two I hoped to get rid of before donning a swimsuit. Oh well... I SUPPOSE I'll just grin and bear it... ;)

Hopefully I'll be back soon with some Maui pictures -- which I promise will be nicer to look at than my feet...

The tale of two televisions and a troll...

My friend Faisal has superpowers.

Besides making up awesome words like "comfortability" and somehow managing to add them to our English-language lexicon, he also has the uncanny ability of finding amazingly good deals on all sorts of electronic gadgets and doohickeys.

And a few days ago, he told Rick about a great deal he'd found on televisions. To be more specific -- brand new, giant 70" televisions, for about 60 percent less than what they'd be priced at a regular store. And, since Rick has been wanting a huge TV to replace the puny little 50-something inch television we've had for the last few years, he figured we should take advantage of the great price.

But, as with all great deals, there was a catch -- the TVs were in St. Louis. And if we wanted one, we'd have to go pick one up.

Quickly, a plan was devised... it was so simple -- we wanted a TV, and Faisal wanted a TV, but neither of us has a car large enough to hold two 70" televisions, especially televisions that needed to be hauled all the way back from St. Louis. So we decided we'd just rent a car -- a minivan would do the trick, we figured. We'd rent the car, drive down to St. Louis, pick up the TVs, drive back to Chicago, unload the TVs at our respective condos, and then return the rental. Simple.

I'm not generally one to believe in "signs"... I think that when things happen, they just HAPPEN, and they don't necessarily mean anything. But maybe I should've been paying more attention...

Friday night, Rick and I got into our car so we could head up to Faisal's, with the intention of eating dinner at our usual fish and chips spot and then driving to Midway to pick up a rental car (renting from the airport assured a one-day rental -- otherwise, we would've had to keep the car all weekend). We drove through the narrow passageways in our underground garage, up the concrete ramp, and hit the button to open the door. Click... Nothing happened. Click... Still nothing happened. CLICK... The door wouldn't move. Rick called the doorman, who assured us that they were aware of the broken door, and the maintenance man (who had already gone home for the day -- why do we not a have a maintenance man who lives HERE at the condo building??) was on the way. And in case you're wondering -- yes, that ONE door is the only way to drive in or out of our garage. (I felt especially sorry for all the people returning home from their work weeks... fighting through Chicago rush-hour traffic... finally arriving at the comfort of home for the weekend... only to be thwarted by a broken garage door.)

Was it a sign? Or just a broken door?

So our plans for dinner/picking up a rental car were tweaked (we ended up ordering pizza and just waiting for the door to be fixed). But eventually we picked up Faisal and made it down to Midway, where, tape measure in hand, we wandered the rental car lot looking for a vehicle that would be sufficient for the two boxed television sets we'd be hauling. We hoped to find a van with seats that could be stowed in the floor (or removed altogether), with enough room for the two TVs... and three people. We ended up settling on a minivan -- of all the vehicles on the lot, it had the absolute MOST cargo space... although according to the measurements, it would be a tight fit to get the boxes in with the three of us in the van. But we were confident.

Okay, a couple of us were confident, and one of us was a negative, pessimistic, prophet of doom. I won't say who was who...

Bright and early Saturday morning (waaaaaaay too early Saturday morning), we were on the road in our rented minivan, stocked with everything we might need for the day -- Rick brought some rope, just in case the boxes didn't quite fit and we needed to drive home with the door open and tied down. Faisal also brought some rope. And a few knives, in case the boxes needed to be cut apart to fit in the car better. He also had some tape. Rope, knives, and tape... in a duffel bag. There was some nervous joking about not doing anything to warrant the police pulling us over... because no doubt they would've taken the terrorist-y looking guy (with his kidnapper's starter kit) into custody, while making sure the white people were okay. (Disclaimer: I would not have said that if Faisal himself had not made the same joke while we were driving... Also, Faisal is awesome... if anyone ever thinks otherwise, I will be forced to seek you out and change your mind... I'll probably bring rope, knives and tape...)

On a good day ("good" being decent weather and no traffic), the drive to St. Louis takes around four and a half hours. But a couple hours into our drive, we hit rain... and I don't mean a nice, gentle shower -- I mean a monsoon-like downpour that was falling so hard we could barely talk to each other in the van because the noise was so loud. I haven't seen rain like that in a long time -- we used to get downpours like that in Texas now and then, but I haven't been out in anything like it in years. And it is NOT conducive to stress-free driving on the interstate.

Another sign??

Ah well, we were already on the way, so no matter. The drive ended up taking about six hours when all was said and done, but we finally arrived at the warehouse to pick up the TVs. Faisal went inside to announce our arrival, we pulled the van around to a loading dock, and we opened the back door. This was it -- the moment of truth. The moment when those two giant televisions would be manhandled into the back of the van, angled whichever way would work best, and we'd see that all would be well -- two TVs and three people in a minivan. No problem. Everything would work out just fine...

Except... yeah, of course they didn't fit the way we'd hoped they would. The prophet of doom was right. They FIT -- but they only fit flat on the floor, stacked on top of each other, with ALL the back seats stowed away. Which meant two people could sit up front just fine... and one person... well... the only space was the floor between the TV boxes and the front seats. I immediately assessed the situation... it wasn't a HUGE amount of space, but a person could fit there without completely contorting into some strange position. Yeah, we had a five-hour drive ahead of us... but we also had a pillow and a blanket and a big stash of snacks (thanks to Faisal's foresight). I made the decision -- I decided to settle in. That floor was MINE.

It was a bit awkward at first -- my vantage point on the floor was so low, and Rick and Faisal seemed five times taller than usual. I'll admit I felt a bit like someone's pet... I wondered if that's the way dogs feel when they're being carted around in a vehicle... I even felt slightly car sick at first, because I could hardly see over the dashboard and it was difficult to get my bearings. And someone may have compared me to a "troll"... which was then clarified as "fairy tale troll." Because that's better somehow... (Actually, now that I think about it, I should have forced Rick and Faisal to answer a riddle before they were allowed to unload their television sets... apparently I'm not a very good fairy tale troll...)

The rest of the journey went surprisingly well. It really wasn't so bad to curl up in my little minivan fort... not that I'd do it very often... but if I had to do it again for some reason, I wouldn't have a problem with it. We were able to unload the TVs and haul them up to our respective condos without issue, too. And now, as I type, I am watching my huge 70" television, which was ridiculously cheap, but acquired with some amount of effort. Although honestly, I think knowing that we put so much effort into it makes it even better.

So you see? There's no such thing as a "sign." :) 

 I could do this aaaaaaaall day...

Friday randomness...

1. I think I jinxed the Yankees by writing about them in my last post, because they lost the next game... I did, however, send Eric a text message during the third game to ask for extra Yankee voodoo with the addition of Connor drool -- that totally did the trick, by the way, because the Yankees managed to tie the game in the ninth inning and then won in the 12th. But last night, I forgot about calling in a request for Connor-drool-powered voodoo, and we LOST in the 13th inning. What is it with these low-scoring tie games that keep going into extra innings?? Eric, if you're reading -- get Connor ready for some serious voodoo tonight. I want the Yankees to be up by, oh, say, TEN runs in the fifth inning...

2. Confession: I have not watched any of the presidential/vice presidential debates. In fact, I've been really discouraged by politics in general lately. I think one of the things that bothers me the most is the inability (or unwillingness) of people on both sides of the issues to even attempt to see the point of view of the other side. Until people can sit down and say, "hmmm... I don't agree with you, but I can see why you might feel that way. How about we compromise with ABC?" I don't see how anything will ever truly change. Because all that seems to happen NOW is that one side will say, "you're an idiot" and the other side will say, "well YOU'RE a moron" and that's as far as the discussion moves. Compounding the issue is the ever-present anonymity of the internet -- sitting behind a computer screen apparently negates the "treat others with respect" filter that most people try to employ when interacting in person. Hiding behind usernames and avatars, people turn into angry, senseless, immature seventh graders. And all of these people (well, some of them, anyway) will be voting in November. Yay.

3. Has it occurred to anyone else that Christmas is barely more than two months away?? (How does this time of year always manage to sneak up on me?) Fortunately, I have yet to see a holiday-themed commercial or red-and-green-bedecked department store, even though I could swear the commercials start earlier and earlier every year. (And, granted, I haven't been to a department store since Rick and I hit up Macy's on Michigan Avenue a few weeks ago... but I think I'll stay away from any stores until after Halloween... that way I can at least PRETEND that they waited until November before bringing out the decorations...)

4. Riff has gotten into the habit of kneading blankets before he curls up on them to nap. He never used to do that -- he would just find a good spot and lie down. But now, you'd think he was making bread dough... or possibly homemade pasta... and he won't curl up in that spot until all of the imaginary ingredients have been well-mixed. It's pretty adorable, actually...

5. And now I'm off to jump on the treadmill for a while, before our weekly fish and chips meeting with Faisal... (Seriously -- we go to the Duke of Perth so often that we really ought to have our own table... and our food should be ready as soon as we sit down... and every third visit should be free. Just saying...) Hope everyone has a good weekend!

I swear I'm not hiding...

So SOMEbody in this house (I won't say who, but there are only two of us who live here, so feel free to guess) was giving me a hard time earlier about my lack of blog posts. I know, I know -- I've been such a blog slacker lately. Sometimes I'll start writing about something, and then get distracted by a million other things that I need to do. And "blog" tends to fall at the bottom of my list... especially since I'm not one of those super-popular bloggers who actually gets paid for what they do. Until someone starts giving me money, I'll probably remain the Unpredictably Sporadic Blogger...

But here's a good topic:

the Yankees won the AL East and are in the playoffs!!!

They won their first game against Baltimore last night, which was tied at 2 until the 9th inning. And then the Yankees scored five runs. Sabathia pitched ALMOST the entire game -- Girardi took him out for the final out of the ninth inning. Now, granted, he'd allowed a double so there was one guy on base, but still -- we had a five run lead and only needed ONE more out. I think he could've done it. But I guess Girardi is more cautious than I would've been. This is why I'm not the manager of a baseball team. (Sure, Lisa -- THIS is why you're not the manager of a baseball team...)

And on that note, I'm off to do something I'm actually good at -- cook. Hope everyone had a good weekend...