4 posts tagged “gary”
Okay, okay.. so I'm a couple days late on this one, but I've been super busy. So here's my post detailing my day on Saturday.
We woke up rather late - around 1 if I remember correctly, and I decided I wanted to do something that day, so I contacted Sam about going out and doing something.. We decided to do the Flour Mill, but then also decided to go to wal-mart and the dollar store too, since she needed to look for a few things. So, I got dressed in my short black skirt and my Schroedinger shirt, and went to make pancakes while we waited for Sam to get to our apartment. Sam got there, we scarfed down breakfast super fast, and then ran out.. We decided to go to the Flour Mill first. We went to Wonders of the World and looked around for a good half hour before I got three pieces of stone that look like they go together to form a Sun Stone from Okami.. They're black/charcoal, and have a gold on them. it looks like if someone was making pancakes out of pyrite and scraped the last of the batter onto these stones. I'm not even kidding. I also ended up getting a hematite ring to replace the one that broke when I was like.. 8. I had my first one for a long time before it broke, and I was ecstatic to see that they sold some just like mine. In the end I ended up going with one with a squared edge rather than a rounded edge like the one I originally had, but I'm quite happy with it, and it's living happily on my left thumb most days.
Next we went over to the bead shop across the hallway from Wonders of the World, and I got SO much cool stuff. Let's see, I got - a hair comb with holes at the top so you can add designs to it, a glass bottle which has become a chainmaille wrapped glitter dust necklace that I hope to sell, two awesome cat girl bells, several copper leaves, a neat shell medallion that's all pitted and shibby, some plain round copper beads, a very cool copper tube bead, several emerald ash borer wings, some HUGE coins that make an awesome noise - I just used all but one of them on an anklet I just made... I feel like I might be forgetting something, but I can't remember what.. I'll update this if I realize I'm actually forgetting something. So yeah, that was pretty much super awesome.
On our way to the dollar store, we decided on a whim to check out this neat place here that always has HUGE statues out front.. turns out it's a place where you can go to buy outdoor furniture, miscellaneous outdoor Neat Stuff, etc.. I saw a HUGE and extremely awesome steampunk carriage and steampunk UFO essentially.. I have pictures up on my mobile me account and I'll see about putting some up here at some point.. this thing has to be seen to be believed. I spent almost all of the 25 minutes or so we spent there just completely drooling over the UFO. Turns out it had been bought by a guy named Fast Freddy, who's a race car driver.. he actually traded a race car for it. The UFO on its own was originally about 6,500$ USD, and the guy also picked up several accompanying pieces. Sadly, the (store?) was going out of business... which meant half off on everything.. sadly, we didn't begin to have any money to spend after spending almost 20$ at the Flour Mill. Oh well.. there wasn't anything there I wanted as much as that UFO. While talking to one of the people that worked there, I found out also that the thing apparently comes from japan, and the people at their shop weld the whole thing together etc.. interesting. It's a limited run though.. I think only four are being made IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. So help me, if I'm ever a millionaire...
On the way to the dollar store (or as I note later, it was actually to Taco Bell, but I'm too lazy to change my previous references) we decided to go see Sam's sister Sue and meet all their animals.. Sadly Sue wasn't feeling well enough for visitors, and someone else was sleeping on their couch, so we didn't go inside... We did get to meet the animals though. There's a big dog I don't remember the name of who's kinda sweet, and an absolutely neurotic chihuahua mix called Zeus (yes, I get the irony), and there is a HUGE cat named Garfield, who only is made to look even bigger by his long, long coat.. I mean seriously - Bentley used to be my measuring stick for a big cat.. now I think Garfield may have taken that position. This cat is so big that if you're holding him at regular cat holding height, he'll obstruct your view. I mean seriously.. this is a cat who has a face as big as my ENTIRE PALM. There's also another cat, who I feel really horrible for not remembering the name of.. he's an absolute sweetheart. He's another stupidly long haired cat, who is kindof a Persian blue colour, but he's got a regular cat face. Anyway, we were only there for a few minutes, but she lives literally down the street from the statuary place, so..
After that, we started off to Dollar Store again, and noticed a store called Hippie Chic on the other side of the street, and Sam and I commented to each other how we should go there some time. Realizing that we wouldn't at all remember to, Sam flipped around and we paid a visit. Which was apparently a very good idea. The lady who runs it (Genie IIRC) was very nice, and was instantly fascinated by my chainmaille anklet.. She said she'd very much like to get some of my work in there soon. I'll be emailing her at some point in the next couple weeks (she was burglarized three nights prior and everything was up in the air because of it) to see about selling her some pieces to sell in the shop! Exciting!
After looking around for a little bit (she has some fun stuff!) and communing with the local stoner, we headed off again. ...and we decided we were hungry. Well, actually we decided we were hungry on the way to the Dollar Store now that I think of it and we were on our way to Taco Bell. But anyway, back to the point.. we were leaving Hippie Chic and headed for Taco Bell. We finally got there without any more distractions, and... I KID YOU NOT, it was PACKED with people in business suits. Like, lines out to the door, no place to sit PACKED. It was bizzare. Gary took a picture to be captioned "Worst wedding reception. Ever." (though we have no idea what it was really for), and took off to check out the Skipper's restaurant, since none of us had ever been there before.
I swear, there was *literally* Otaku Funk in that restaurant. It hit us as soon as we walked in the door, and I *actually* staggered because it was so strong. Not only that, once we fought our way through the dense fog of Otaku Funk (which I have to say was impressive, since there were only like five people in the restaurant, including the employees) we found out that it was incredibly expensive. And I kid you not, it looked like a depressing *old* McDonald's that they whitewashed the inside of and put a couple pieces of sea paraphernalia on the wall. For that price, so help me I expect a WAITER.
So after about four minutes of battling the Otaku Funk, we gave in and went to McDonald's. Sam was nice enough to get our meals, and Gary and I both got double fish fillet meals, which are MADE OF AWESOME. Seriously. But enough about that. We sat around and talked for about 20 minutes - mostly about parenting. Now, this topic might seem strange considering it's coming from Sam - who is violently opposed to children in general - and me and Gary, who aren't really planning on having any for a long time... but there were these kids. There were four of them, and two of them were ungodly terrors. They ran around the restaurant barefoot - screaming intermittently - while their parents were doing fuck all. I seriously have no idea why people have four children if they don't think they can keep them from being ungodly terrors. To top it off, one of the children would just run over to our side of the restaurant and just stand... and stare... and stare... ugh.
I'm pretty sure we went somewhere here for a minute or two, but I can't remember what, so.. moving on!
Anyway, once we finished our meal (fortunately without killing any parents or children) we finally made it to the Dollar Store. We looked around a bit for a few things, and curio ended up swiping (aka buying but without me realizing it) a warmer that I expressed interest in, as well as a couple tea lights for it, as well as a couple organizational things she needed for her new old job.* We ended up finding something to giggle at.. I found some candles that I SWEAR I will buy at some point.. I think they're supposed to be seashells, and given that they're blue and yellow and pink, I can't imagine that they're what I think they look like.. but.... well... they look like vaginae. Seriously. They even have a little round pearl where a clit would be. I am so totally not joking. I swear we were both on the verge of uproarious laughter.
After that (yes, I know this paragraph starter is getting old, but I swear I'm almost done with this post...) we zipped over to the wal-mart that's right next door and ended up walking around for about 40 minutes.. had to find some shirts for Chris and some undershirts for Sam, and I idly looked through the underwear and lingerie while she did that.. it would seem that they actually DO carry halfway sexy designs in stores.. I will have to check this out quite soon, considering what I'm currently wearing. VS can't design underwear that lasts for crap anymore. Then we went over to the craft area, where Sam had me (to my great confusion) pick out a scented oil I liked.. I ended up with an industrial size bottle of lavender, since it reminds me of mom. The trip culminated in Gary and I totally losing Sam and then helping her pick out some canisters.
On the way home, we were talking about something (hell if I remember what though) that ended in Sam finding out that I'd never been to a brick and mortar sex shop before** and deciding to take me and Gary to one.*** There's this place called Castle - apparently I'd been going past it for months thinking it was one of those kids birthday party theme zone kind of things.
Totally. Not.
Castle IS pretty awesome though. It's well lit and totally not skeezy (to steal Sam's term), and it was very quiet. They have a nice lingerie section, a rather large set of bins with lube samples (DUDE, they sell SAMPLES? I am so financially screwed now..), another couple bins smattered around the place with condom samples, a huge DVD section (though I mostly ignored it and walked right through to the Great Wall of Toys), the aforementioned Great Wall of Toys, EVEN MORE toys, a games/gag gifts/etc etc section..
I would just like to note how incredibly odd it is to feel like you're in a video rental store, and look over to see porn playing on the TV that would otherwise have movie trailers playing on it. I mean, there's just something incredibly surreal about that. In other news, going to a sex shop with some of your best friends is an absolutely hilarious experience. I swear we were laughing so hard we were red. Especially when it came to the gifts and games section - where we found such gems as erotic fortune cookies (with such messages as Mi Fook Yu etc..) and the ever awesome game of Dirty Minds.
I also found something absolutely gorgeous while I was there. They have corsets that actually have decent construction! There was one in particular that caught my eye. The back ties up with ribbon, and the front either hooks or buttons together (It's been a few days so my memory is fuzzy) in a GORGEOUS iridescent blood red fabric with black accents. There's also a gorgeous, gorgeous bra and panty set that goes along with it. Obnoxiously though, the whole set is either 90 or 100$ put together. I just remember the corset was 60$.Also obnoxiously, I don't begin to have that kind of money. Grr. If this hippie Chic thing pans out and becomes a Thing, I'm definitely going to be getting it. Here's hoping that they still have it several weeks from now when I'll know.
Finally we headed home where curio dropped us off with our loot, and Gary and I went exploring a little before bed. I slept extremely well that night..
*She ended up getting hired back from the job she had several months ago, and all of her desk stuff disappeared.
**Not due to any active avoidance.. I just always think of it about three seconds before we're going to pass one.
***I probably forgot to mention this earlier - Gary was with us the whole time.
Driving down Sprague on the way back from costco, I looked over at Ms. Kitty's sign (a sex shoppe here) which touted Sarah Palin blowup dolls being in stock.
Me: "I am inherently disturbed by this... on so many levels."
Gary: "I wonder if there's a string to pull that makes her say "You Betcha!"
Since I'm tired, and he was writing an email to his mom anyway, I asked him if I could just post his email. So, here it is:
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Thought I'd give you a quick heads-up on the latest happenings here. First, we've already gotten our taxes done for 2008 and should be getting our return by the end of the month (e-filing with direct deposit for the win!). We'll be putting some of that toward the cost of moving (which I'll get to in a moment), and using a fair chunk of it to pay down our debt.
Second, we had a fun day today. Our upstairs neighbor's hot water heater broke and started leaking into our apartment at around 2 in the morning. It was coming through the ceiling fast enough that it was filling up our two 9x13" baking dishes in just over 2 hours, so Ash and I didn't get much sleep as we tried to keep the apartment from flooding. Maintenance showed up bright and early, thankfully, and started ripping out the soaked drywall and insulation. It took until about 2 in the afternoon before they tracked the problem down to the water heater upstairs and got it drained. Now we've got missing ceiling in the kitchen, holes in the closet wall, paneling ripped off of the back of the kitchen cabinets, soaked carpets in the living room and closet, and a giant fan blowing on the soaked wood that we're not allowed to turn off until Monday so that everything will dry out. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my weekend. On the plus side, we're getting our carpet steam cleaned to remove the excess water that seeped into it over the 12 hours it took to stop the leak.
After that joyous escapade, we decided to fast-track our plans to move out of this place and into a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment at a nearby complex called the Beau Rivage. It's about 15 minutes from here, which means I'll have a bit more of a commute in the morning, but it's still fairly close to the office and whatnot. I took a rental application up this afternoon to get the approval process started, with the goal of moving in just after mid-February. If/when we're approved, we'll put a hold on the apartment at the end of the month, which will guarantee it for 2 weeks, and then move in mid-month. Since we'll be paying for the entire month of February at this place anyway, I figured having 2 weeks to get everything moved to the new apartment would be much easier on us than moving in at the end of the month and having to make a mad scramble to get everything moved around before we got kicked out of the studio here.
I don't remember how much we told you about this place, but they have night-time security (yay!), free basic cable (which means our internet bill goes down), thermostats in each room (makes for better energy usage), and the second floor apartments have a really nice-sized deck. It's in a more secluded area by the river, just downstream from a really neat dam (Ash has been going nuts over how nice the surrounding area is, not to mention the complex itself). I'm so giddy at the prospect of having an actual bedroom with a door that's completely separate from the computers and art supplies and TV that I can barely stand myself. We'll have 1,015 square feet compared to the 480 square feet we have in here. We could fit three or four of our studios into this one apartment! They also face the sun so it won't be a freaking cave all day long like this place is.
Curiously, nobody in programming had their raises applied to the first paycheck of 2009; Brock is looking into why for us, but even if the raise has been delayed for some reason, it won't impact our ability to afford the new apartment (we'll have to be more careful than we would otherwise, but it's still perfectly doable). I've been very thorough and very careful about the math on this because there's a lot of changes to expenses and income going on at the same time, and it's something we've been planning idly for several months now... the minor catastrophe today was just the final kick in the pants (your discretion as to where that kick was landed...) we needed to get in gear and make it happen.
So, we've got 30 days to pack and 2 weeks to move if all goes well. We'll be notifying the current apartment manager here that we intend to move out at the end of February as soon as we get approval from the Beau Rivage. Busy busy, but for now, I'm going to go crash... got next to no sleep last night and had a hell of a day today. Crappy crappy weekend, but things are looking up!
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so yeah.
Let's see how long it is now:
I'm jealous.. He's got super thick hair.. I have long hair, but it's not thick at all.
