Was It A Belated Gift Or A Really Early One?

The other day Kathleen informed me that she’d gotten something in the mail for me and that we should meet for lunch sometime this week. I mentioned that there are a lot of places to eat around the comic shop, so we agreed to meet in that area today, giving me the opportunity to have lunch, get my belated Christmas/birthday present from her, and hit the comic shop for this week’s new books.
So that’s what we did.
The belated gift was a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style, something that I’d suggested a while back.
Yes, I am enough of a nerd that I would suggest a writing reference book as a potential gift for me.
Anyway, it makes perfect sense; it’s something I’ve wanted for a while but was unlikely to ever get around to buying for myself.
So I am legitimately thankful for it, and have to say that as gifts go it’s several orders of magnitude better than a fish.
At 5 someone representing the new owners will be at the office to discuss the leasing options, so I’ll be heading down there to let them know that I’ll be opting for the month to month option.
On Monday I’m going to be checking out some houses with David. There’s one in particular that looks really promising, so I hope it looks good when I’m actually there.Not much else is going on, and Kathleen and I sat around talking so long after eating lunch that I actually started to get hungry again, so I think I’ll tend to that

And It's Especially True For MY Family

Prior to getting the letter about the closing of the buy-back, I’d been in touch with my realtor yesterday afternoon.
After sending him an e-mail with what I’m looking for, he set me up to receive listings that match my criteria via e-mail. Looking through the first one I got today I found several possibilities. Most of them are three bedroom townhomes, which would be cool, as I’d like to have space for an office/studio and still have a guest bedroom available.
Sure, I never have guests, but things can change (or so I’ve heard). Maybe my mom will come out to visit or something.
This morning I headed off to Wal-Mart to look for the Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron DVD. I also picked up the Ghost Rider DVD. I’d been undecided about that one. The movie was okay, but I didn’t know whether it warranted buying the DVD, but once I saw it on the shelf I said, “Screw it,” and picked it up.
I also grabbed a copy of Not Another Teen Movie, as it was in the 2 for $11 bin and was therefore impossible to pass up. Granted, I can see the movie on Comedy Central pretty much any time that they aren’t airing some Blue Collar Comedy thing – which isn’t often – but I couldn’t not buy it when it was so cheap.
While I was there I saw a 46” 1080p LCD TV for about $1,300. I almost went for it, even though I don’t have any immediate need or use for it, and it’s just one other thing that I’ll have to move.
I mean, I’m never going to have HD service while I’m here, so it would just be sitting around unused until I move.
On the other hand, LCD prices have, by many accounts, bottomed out, so they’re not going to get any cheaper, and I would be prepared for when I have moved somewhere that I can/will get HD service.
While I was at home it occurred to me that I could use it as a huge computer monitor. There’s no room for it on my desk, so it would have to be paired up with Munin. The thought of this ginormous TV on my kitchen counter struck me as terribly amusing, and so I laughed at the idea for an inordinate amount of time (I’m still chuckling now).
Now that the settlement is so close, I’m kind of eager to get on with finding a new place, but the thought of how much money I could save if I were to keep renting for a while is pretty tempting, though I suspect that I would end up not saving that money anyway, and who knows what will have happened to the market if I wait.
Still, the prospect of signing a six month lease and at least trying to sock away the money I’d been paying above the rent amount is kind of appealing.
(Theoretically, in the course of six months I could sock away over four grand. Possibly more, considering that I’ll likely have my car paid off within the next few months.)
So I don’t know.
I just booked a flight home for the end of July. It was a little pricier than usual. I ended up going straight through Northwest because the prices on the travel sites were way up there, and I had a coupon for $75 from when I ended up missing my flight back in October and my brother and I got stuck in Detroit over night which I could only use if I booked through Northwest.
I also had to reserve a car so that I can get around while I’m there, as my mom doesn’t have a car.
It’s going to be strange going home and not actually going home, but instead going to my mom’s apartment. And of course, it’ll be strange not having my dad there.
While I’m there we’ll be going to some sort of family reunion. It’s my dad’s side of the family, and, more specifically, his mother’s family.
I’m sure it’ll be terribly exciting.
The biggest problem with family reunions? Lousy place to meet chicks.

A Thing Of Beauty

Last week I ordered all of the available trade paperback collections of Fables.
Today they arrived, and, collectively, they are a thing of beauty.
See?



I still need to pick up one more trade to have everything up to the point at which I started buying the monthly comic, but if it's available now (it wasn't when I ordered), I'll pick it up on Wednesday when I go to the comic shop.
I also got a letter today informing me that the buy-back of my condo will be going through a lot sooner than anticipated - at the end of this month.
That means I have to start moving a lot faster on the purchase of a new place, though I will apparently be able to rent my place on a month to month basis from the new owners.
Even paying the higher price for month to month, I'll still be saving over $600 a month with not having to pay the mortgages and condo fees.

Sign Here, Here, And Here, Initial Here, Sign Here...

There was a representative from the condo developer (along with a Notary Public) who came by today to answer people’s questions about the buy-back and to accept completed purchase agreements (once they’d been notarized).
I went down there shortly after she was supposed to have arrived, found that she wasn’t there, found that all of the comfortable seats were taken up by three women and the two kids of one of the women, sat down, and waited.
While I waited I checked out one of the women there, an attractive young woman who teaches Civics to 8th graders, from what I heard from the conversation she was having with not at all attractive woman.
Apparently the teacher is planning to rent a room from her mother post-buy-back. This isn’t an option for the ogre she was talking to, who is “living in sin” with her boyfriend, as her mother just discovered, and so has a strained relationship with her parents.
Eventually their conversation dried up, and I sat there watching some mindless show on The Disney Channel, which was on for the benefit – I’m assuming – of the two kids.
On the show that was on, a girl was trying to win a bet with her brother that involved her getting some “punk rock” guy to ask her out. In the course of her attempts to win his affection, though, the girl had come to have real feelings for the “punk rock” guy, and did not know what to do. Meanwhile, her mother, not knowing about the bet, was alarmed by the girl’s sudden change in appearance, as she became a “punk rock” girl to attract the “punk rock” guy’s attention, and about the fact that she was acquiring new friends, such as the “punk rock” guy.
Along the way, we were learning that we can’t always judge people by their appearances (as long as they’re good-looking anyway), as “punk rock” guy, despite looking “scary,” was, in fact, a very nice, level-headed, polite young man.
Sadly, the woman from the condo developer arrived before I could see the conclusion, so I guess I’ll never get to know how it worked out, or if it did work out. What if everything went horribly astray? What if there was no satisfactory conclusion that was heartwarming, entertaining, and educational? What if those loose ends never got tied up?
Meh.
(By the way, I put “punk rock” in quotes, as, 30 years later, I don’t think there are many true punks around. Anyway, I bet the kid listens to Avril Lavigne and thinks that makes him “edgy.” As for his look, he was basically just dressed like your standard emo kid. No safety pin piercings, no visible track marks, and he was far too well-groomed. Overall he was about as scary as Hello Kitty. Sid Vicious would have popped out his eyes and skull-fucked him.)
The chick from the condo developer was, based on her looks, kind of cute, but was pushed over the top to hotness by her kick-ass rack.
Very nice indeed.
Of course, she looked to be one of those chicks who’s thick in a good way now, but one day, in her late 20s or early 30s, if she’s not careful, the dam may very burst and the thickness will just expand and expand.
The Notary was not nearly so cute, though she did say, “Wow, that’s a great picture!” when I gave her my driver’s license to verify my ID.
I was like, okay, thanks, but yeah, it’s really not.
(Note: The Notary and the women from the condo developer were both married. Didn’t get a look at the teacher’s ring finger, but I’m thinking not, though she no doubt at least has a boyfriend. By the way, I would classify her as “dainty.” She was kind of tiny and cute, and had on this really girly skirt [As opposed to a manly skirt?] that was really, really wrinkled, and didn’t really go with the sort of business-style white blouse she was wearing. She did have nice shoes, but the woman from the condo developer had sexier ones and a much better outfit, going the whole “power suit” route.)
In any case, almost before she could introduce herself the cranky old German guy ambushed the woman from the condo developer and kept asking the same questions over and over again, either not understanding her perfectly clear answers, or simply not accepting them.
I saw the teacher rolling her eyes, and eventually she sort of edged the German guy out, as she was there to actually get her papers (they hadn’t been mailed to her, apparently) and needed to be somewhere else.
I had already signed and initialed most everything, so all I really needed to do was get it notarized, get copies made, and hand them over to the woman from the condo developer and her kick-ass rack (and sexy shoes).
Accomplishing that, I came home and began writing this.
I didn’t do too much beyond that today. I went to the comic shop and picked up this week’s comics for Scott and myself, and did some content writing work that Kathleen called me to ask me to do yesterday when I was right in the middle of trying to make dinner.
In any case, the work week is nearly upon me.
We’ll be sans Scott tomorrow and Friday, as he’s in some sort of training this week.
And on that note, I’ll bring this entry to a close.

A Mother Of A Day

First of all, Happy Mother’s Day to all the good mothers out there, like my mother, and hell, even the bad mothers out there, like Shaft.
Shortly after getting up today I called my mother, only to be rushed off the phone and told that she would call me back, as my brother Brad had called first.
Once she called back we talked about the usual things, and had our standard Sunday conversation, one that goes very much like this:

My Mother: What are you doing today?
Me: Probably nothing.

It brought to mind something I just read yesterday.
Several years ago a company called Paradox Press (a division of DC Comics) began putting out a series of “Big Books” that contained all sorts of facts and stories about particular subjects, done in standard comic form by a variety of artists.
Some of them included The Big Book of Conspiracies, The Big Book of Death, The Big Book of Scandal, and, the one I was reading yesterday, The Big Book of Weirdos (sic).
One such weirdo was a British aristocrat who was famous for doing nothing.
In his whole life, he never really did anything. He even spent a significant portion of the last part of his life just lying in bed not doing anything.
I’ve already done a lot more than he ever did, but that may just be a function of my not being a wealthy aristocrat, but one passage of his story in particular stood out for me: The less he did, the less he wanted to do.
That pretty well sums it up. The more of my life that’s been spent not doing the things I never felt especially inclined to do, the more I’ve become disinclined to do things.
And one of those things I’m disinclined to do? Pursue this topic any further.
Yesterday I got my purchase agreement for the buy-back in the mail. I’ve got to sign it and get it notarized, and then within 180 the deal should, presumably, go through, and I will no longer own this place.
In the meantime I need to get cracking on finding a new place.
I asked Brian just how bad the “bad” areas of Leesburg are, and he said that for me, it probably wouldn’t be too bad. My car might get broken into, which would be a hassle, and I’m sure there’s probably a lot of noise and domestic disturbances going on, so overall it would probably be too irritating, but the thing is, the prices on places in the bad areas are pretty damned tempting.
Of course, so are some of the prices in places like Maryland and West Virginia, though I really don’t want to move further away from work now that work is going to be moving closer to where I am now.
(Right now I’ve got a Ninja Talker yammering in my ear. Somewhere in one of the buildings in the immediate area there is a girl in her teens or early twenties who talks like this? Having a conversation? On the phone? Her conversation is reverberating around the parking lot and coming in through my window and making it sound like she’s in the room with me, but I can’t spot where she actually is located. Not quite as irritating as the two birds who were apparently practicing their Vaudeville act right outside my window at 6:30 this morning.)
Yesterday at work was another slow day, and in addition to reading the aforementioned Big Book, I also borrowed Night at the Museum from Scott and watched it on my laptop.
It was pretty entertaining, though I have to say that I found it pretty unbelievable.
I mean, a smart, beautiful woman like Carla Gugino’s character who’s actually single? As if.
Speaking of smart, attractive women who aren’t single because this is the real world, the other day I caught a glimpse of the no longer mentioned (because she’s far too into sports, is married, and I almost never see her anymore) Flame Chick (so called because she had shoes and a jacket that featured embroidered flames on them) the other day and noted that she’s gotten some ink done on her arm.
It made me sigh, as she is one of the very few attractive women I’ve ever encountered at work, and so it was a shame that she’s so into sports (which just can’t help but be a deal-breaker...though there never would have been a “deal”to begin with because I’m Jon) and is no longer single (if she ever was when I saw her around).
Oh well.
(Ninja Talker seems to have wrapped things up, but New Dog is still pissed about having been left alone 6 hours ago and so is still barking about it. I will not miss this place when I move.)
It is, necessarily, kind of a slow news day today, so I will leave those of you – if there are any of you apart from Scott – who are interested in comics-related stuff with the following links to sites I’ve been spending a lot of time on lately.
First up is Polite Dissent, which is a blog maintained by a doctor and comics fan who often writes interesting examinations of the use of medicine in comics, among other things.
Next up is Comics Should Be Good, which actually seems to have moved here, and more specifically, the entries on Comic Urban Legends. Very entertaining stuff.
And for the rest of you, here’s a link to something totally unrelated to comics, but still entertaining (It’s possibly NSFW, depending on whether or not anyone is looking over your shoulder, and is not for the easily offended, but if you are easily offended you have no business being here in the first place, so piss of and go be offended somewhere else. Or don’t. What do I care? You’re a weirdo who has some sick need to seek out things that will shock your sensibilities and offend you so that you can get some kind of righteous indignation-based boner [or its female equivalent], so what you do or don’t do is of no concern to me, you uptight, wadded-panty freak.)

A Prisoner In My Own Home (Plus: Rambling, Pointless Thoughts On Spider-Man 3!)

So I’m waiting for the person(s) from the condo developer to come and inspect my place, but have no idea when that’s going to happen.
I hate having to be on someone else’s schedule, and I wish I’d been given a specific time.
I hate the whole “be home between now and September” kind of thing. Tell me when you’re going to be here, then be here at that time. It really shouldn’t be all that difficult.
At the very least, give a timeframe, not this be home all day crap.
And sure, normally it wouldn’t be an issue, but there are actually a few things that I need to do out in the world today, so it would be nice to know when it’s safe to leave.
Admittedly, I could have just left a key at the office with my authorization to enter, but I want to be here for it.
*Sigh*
I guess I should say a little more about Spider-Man 3.
The biggest problem I had with it was the amount of time he spent without his mask. It was even worse this time around than it was in the last movie.
This was made even more irritating by the amount of time Venom spent without his mask.
The other big problem was the rather ambitious nature of the movie. Three villains? Even in a 2+ hour movie, that means giving short shrift to each villain, particularly given all of the other plot threads that the story was woven together from (pun sort of intended).
The Venom story didn’t get nearly enough time to develop properly, and the Sandman storyline just sort of dropped off for a while before reappearing at the end.
I’m sure a lot of people were put off by how much time was devoted to Spidey’s personal life and all of the teary-eyed moments, but the angst of his personal life has pretty much always been a trademark of Spider-Man since his creation, so there’s not much validity to that complaint.
My final complaint is that there weren’t really enough “incidental” Spider-Man scenes, the random thwarted muggings and various rescues that happen in the course of a regular day and in between major super-villain battles, though that’s a complaint I have about most super hero movies.
But that does bring us to the action, which was all very good. No complaints at all on that front, though the fights just weren’t as cool as the fights in 2. I mean, Spidey and Doc Ock fighting on the side of a building? Easily beats out the high speed aerial chase through narrow alleys (which was still very cool).
As for the performances, Tobey Maguire, as per usual, seemed to be sort of sleepwalking through the role, but still managed to do a decent job.
Kirsten Dunst, in my mind, has only been playing someone with red hair who happens to be named Mary Jane Watson; she hasn’t ever been Mary Jane. She just lacks the spark. Still, it’s never been a deal-breaker. I will say that her wardrobe this time around was rather frumpy. She actually looked her best in her waitress uniform.
Thomas Haden Church did a great job as the Sandman (The whole “birth of Sandman” sequence in which he struggles to reassemble himself after the accident that transformed him into living sand was one of my favorites in the movie. I will say that the people conducting the experiment that caused the transformation was probably the best-looking group of scientists ever assembled. I really doubt that in all the world there are that many good looking scientists.), and the Sandman effects were very well done.
Topher Grace did his best work as Eddie Brock, though he was also a serviceable Venom. Of course, Venom was mostly effects (hence the constant need to remove the mask in order to give Grace something to do), but he did get in some good lines.
Naturally I loved the Bruce Campbell cameo, though I still think his cameo in 2 beats this one by a very slim margin.
Not much needs to be said about J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson beyond mentioning that he was pitch-perfect as always. The man was born to play that part.
Bryce Dallas Howard made an amazing Gwen Stacy. She was, as I mentioned to Scott, a total Dodson, which is to say that she looked like a character illustrated by Terry and Rachel Dodson brought to life. In fact, she looked exactly like Gwen Stacy as illustrated by the Dodsons in a Spider-Man story that had been the first place I’d ever taken note of their work.
Of course, I will say that she had some padding added either to her clothes or to herself to make her look so buxom, as I’ve seen her sans clothes and at that time she was decidedly less zaftig.
One thing I found sort of interesting about the casting is that Kirsten Dunst, a blonde, plays a redhead, while Bryce Dallas Howard, a redhead, plays a blonde.
Bringing Gwen into the franchise at all at this late date was kind of interesting choice, though, as in the comics world Gwen was Peter’s first love, and, like Mary Jane in the first movie, she was thrown off a bridge by the Green Goblin, though unlike MJ, Gwen didn’t survive.
I can’t say I really approved of Gwen’s treatment in the movie. Not in how she was handled as a character – that was fine, and Ms. Howard played her well – but in how she was treated by the other characters. She really wasn’t much more than an object to be coveted or used by the people around her.
Which leads me to the effect that the black suit had on Peter as it destroyed his inhibitions and turned him into a creature of nearly pure Id.
For the most part it led to throwaway moments of Sam Raimi silliness (a la Hercules or Xena), but in some cases it led to some very interesting moments.
Basically, what’s fun about having a hero under the influence of something that weakens his inhibitions is that you get to see him do and say things that you always wished he would do or say but knew that he couldn’t because, well, he’s the hero, and heroes just don’t (or at least shouldn’t) act that way.
In that spirit, the best line of the movie came with Peter standing over a defeated (in more ways than one) Harry Osborn and taunting him by saying, “Oh, look at little Goblin Jr. Are you gonna cry?”
Anyway, that’s my considerably lengthier take on the movie. I could go on even more, but I’ll spare us all and stop here.
Ugh, I really hate sitting here waiting, wondering if I could make it to the comic book store, Best Buy, and Super Target and still get back here in time, or thinking about leaving a note saying, “Back at X.”
*Sigh*

The Hot Girls Of The Service Industry

So it was another unintentionally late night last night as I struggled to sleep.
I woke up this morning at around 9:30. Normally when I get up I throw on a pair of shorts and grab whatever shirt is handy in the hamper (AKA my bedroom floor), but since I was going to have to be in the shower by 10 in order to get on the road in time to meet up with Scott, I decided to call the shirt a miss and sat down to check my mail and read the news, and etc.
Naturally, because I was sitting there shirtless, there was a knock at the door.
I scrambled to get to the door while throwing on a shirt, hoping that it was the UPS guy, as I’d heard what sounded like the squeal a UPS truck makes shortly before the knock.
My hopes were answered, as it was the UPS guy delivering my new tablet.
I’d called the company I bought it from on Friday to ask what was up with me not getting a tracking number and ultimately was told that they didn’t have any idea why I hadn’t gotten one, and would get back to me after contacting the warehouse, which they had tried, and failed, to do while I was on hold.
I never got the tracking number, but that’s sort of irrelevant now.
(The tablet is huge, by the way. Good thing I didn’t buy the 9x12.)
Of course, I couldn’t play with the tablet at all, as I had to shower and get ready.
While I was on the road my phone rang, which was kind of a hassle, as it was in my pocket, so I had to struggle to get it out, answer it, and try not to crash into any of the too-slowly moving traffic all around me.
It was my mom calling to tell me that my niece Jourdan, who’d had her tonsils removed last week, had been brought to the Marquette hospital because she was still bleeding from the surgery.
I assume she’s doing okay, as I haven’t heard anything further, though I did just try calling my mom and she wasn’t home. Still, if there were any problems someone would let me know.
And then Scott, Stacy, and I went to see Spider-Man 3. I’ll write more about it in another post, but the short answer is that I liked it, but 2 was better.
While I was there, I found out afterwards when checking my voicemail, Kathleen had called to say that if I wanted we could meet for dinner, as she’d read about me buying her presents yesterday.
It was after 3 by the time I’d gotten home.
I hooked up the new tablet and played around with it for a bit, then got to work on picking my comics up off the floor and putting them away (I need at least two more boxes to contain them all, I think. I didn’t even bother trying to organize them; I just boxed what I could, put the boxes in the closet, and piled the rest on top of the boxes.), and then Kathleen called to tell me where we were going to meet. She suggested two places. I went with the one I’d never been to.
So we met for dinner and I gave her the gifts I’d gotten her – one of those instant cell phone charger dealies and, as a bit of a gag, a flask, which I suggested she take along on trips to visit her family – and we ate. I had the Chicken Picatta, which was much better than the Chicken Picatta I’d made once (though mine wasn’t bad).
After dinner I came home and saw that I had an e-mail from the homeowner who’s been dealing with the condo developer on our behalf saying that we’ll all be getting purchase offers in the mail this week and that the buy-back is going through.
So that was cool.
Now I have to try to find a new place to live. Oh well, I’ve got time; the deal will take 180 days from the signing of the purchase agreement.
There were some unusually attractive girls at the places I went to today. The girl working the ticket counter at the theater was very cute, and pretty much all of the girls working at the restaurant were cute, with some really exceptional ones thrown into the mix, though who knows how old any of them were.
(As we were going out the door I spotted someone going in – followed inevitably by her dorky, mildly retarded-looking boyfriend – who looked to have been produced in the Jon’s Dream Girl Factory. Petite, dark hair, big, expressive eyes, nice rack, nice ass.)
Of course, that there were cute girls all around made no real difference because I am, after all, Jon, but it was still noteworthy given how unusual it is to see that many in one day (let alone one place).
As is always the case, though, Kathleen sparked some interest from the girl who brought out our food. She was all, “That nail polish is awesome!”
Sure, it seemed innocent enough, but after the girl left Kathleen said, “She wants me.”
She always gets all the hot girl action when we’re out together, and nobody ever says anything about the color of my nails.
*Sigh*
And, minus the examination of the movie, that was pretty much my day.

The Sunday Fester

I haven’t been sleeping especially well lately, finding that, while I feel tired, I just can’t get comfortable at night and so I toss and turn for a couple of hours, wake up multiple times while it’s still dark out, wake up again about an hour before I would normally get up, then fall back to sleep and get up a half hour to an hour after the time I normally get up.
I am then tired all day and anticipate falling asleep easily owing to a certain amount of exhaustion, only to repeat the same cycle.
I suppose I could talk to my doctor about it…if I had one.
Actually getting a doctor is one of those things I’ve been meaning to do for a while, but have never bothered because, frankly, I haven’t seen any real reason. I almost never get sick (and when I do it’s generally just a mild cold that runs its course quickly), and despite a few minor complaints here and there (as evidenced by yesterday’s entry), I don’t really have any sort of ailments that demand medical attention.
And if suddenly get violently ill or something there’s always urgent care.
It’s certainly not like I’m opposed to seeking out medical assistance for specific problems. I mean, I’ve got a dentist, an eye doctor, and a chiropractor, but somehow it hasn’t seemed necessary to acquire a general practitioner.
And I doubt that it will any time soon, as I’m sure the sleeping thing will pass. Even if it doesn’t, I do manage to sleep on work nights, so it’s not really that big of a deal.
In any case, after waking up at around 10 this morning I did the usual dicking around before showering and shaving.
Shaving was a pain, as I’d done my usual Sunday festering yesterday, and as a result had not shaved.
Normally I shave with an electric razor, but that loses its effectiveness if I go more than one day without shaving, so today I had to do it the old-fashioned way, which is kind of a hassle (compared to the electric at least).
Once all of that was out of the way it was time to head out into the world. I was going to stop at Super Target to pick up a few Super-Target-y things, then go to Shoppers for groceries, but, forgetting the lesson I’d learned last week about why I shouldn’t, I decided to do all of my shopping there.
Oh well.
Among my purchases were some belated birthday presents for Kathleen. Now the question is whether I’ll see her and be able to give them to her this week, or if I’ll just give them to Brian on Thursday.
I haven’t seen Spider-Man 3 yet, as Scott and I are planning to catch a matinee tomorrow.
So far the reviews have been mixed, but on the other hand it apparently broke box office records over the weekend, and on the other other hand I don’t care what reviewers think anyway.
I got a letter the other day informing me that someone from the condo developer will be stopping by to inspect my unit (hehehehe) on Wednesday.
Not sure what’s up with that, as we did not achieve the required unanimous acceptance of the buy-back offer by the deadline, forcing the developer (who is in negotiations to sell off the project as an apartment complex) to go back to the drawing board.
It’s to their advantage to own all of the units if they want to sell the complex off, so I don’t’ really know what they’re going to do next.
While I don’t know what this means for my future, I do know that it means that I’m going to have to do something about the comic books piled up all over my floor.
As mentioned, yesterday I did the usual Sunday Fester, which consists of not showering, not getting properly dressed, not going anywhere, and generally sitting around doing not much of anything.
I did watch The Life of Brian, and the That Yellow Bastard segment from the Sin City special edition DVD, though, by way of doing something.
I also ordered a pizza.
So that was exciting.
Last night’s episode of The Simpsons featured Homer becoming a volunteer firefighter, which naturally made me think of Brian, who has recently moved his Becoming a Firefighter blog over to Blogger. My link to it has been updated to the new URL.
I suppose there’s enough time left in the day that I should try to do something constructive (like maybe pick up all my comic books and put them away), so I guess I’ll get to it.

Pre-Emptive Comeback: No, You're A Girl!

The other day when I was at Super Target I found myself buying moisturizer for my face, ultra healing lotion for my elbows, and super mega extra strength dandruff shampoo.
As I considered these items, I thought, “Dryness…it’s a real problem for me.” Then I thought about it some more and concluded, “Thank god I don’t have a vagina.”
“But Jon,” you say, in an effort to prove your worth as a sarcastic dick, “you bought moisturizer for your face, therefore you do have a vagina. Or else your gay.”
(By the way, you say “your” instead of “you’re” because, in addition to being a sarcastic dick, your grammar sucks.)
To which I respond, “Hey, if not wanting the skin of my face to constantly flake off like the lead-based paint on the side of an old weather-beaten barn makes me gay then change my name to William and call me Three Dollar Bill.”
(Actually, don’t do that; I get enough crap in my life without having to add a stupid nickname to the mix.)
In any case, I’m sure that my efforts will be for naught and that I will continue to flake like a perpetually shaken snow globe and that my elbows will retain a texture that can best be described as sandleather (like sandpaper, only with leather), so it’s a pointless endeavor anyway.
Guess I’m just not cut out to be gay or a woman, or even a metrosexual (which is basically just gay and in denial).
On a few other fronts, it looks like there were two hold-outs on the buy-back offer.
Dumbasses. Not sure what’s going to happen now; the condo developer is actually in negotiations to sell the whole project, and are now scrambling to come up with a new strategy, since they needed to buy back all 58 units.
It’s been a week since I ordered my graphics tablet and I haven’t received it or even so much as a tracking number. I e-mailed them once, with no response. Guess I’ll have to call. I’m surprised I’m having difficulty; the company had a 4 and a half (out of 5) rating on PriceWatch.
In any case, I suppose that I should pretend to do some work, seeing as how they’re paying me to be here.

spf factor nipple clamp

I woke up a little late this morning, but not too bad considering how late it was by the time I finally got to sleep last night.
After puttering around/sitting on my ass for a while I got ready and headed out into the world. My first stop was the bank, where I deposited a rebate check and a check from having recently exercised some stock options. The latter check was considerably larger than the former, and as I looked at my receipt showing my current balance, my eyes goggled a bit. Even factoring in the subtraction of my mortgage payments and a few other outstanding debits, it was still a substantial balance.
Which is what made going into my next stop scary; it was Best Buy.
I was in Best Buy with a several thousand dollars at my disposal. That is a scary thought.
I’d gone in strictly for the purposes of buying a USB hub, but those intentions were made well before I realized just how much money I was going to have in my account.
Still, I managed to remind myself that there would be little point in buying, say, an HDTV, or something similar, and that it’s been my intention to put most of the money into my high-yield savings account, with the hope that, somewhere along the line, it will go towards a down payment on a new place.
(Deadline to respond to the buy-back offer is this week. If it goes through, the deal will be final 180 days from the receipt of the last letter. Last count, as of yesterday, was 52 out of 58 received.)
So I managed to walk out of there without dropping a few grand, and in fact, only spent $20 beyond what I’d intended to spend.
(Monty Python’s Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life on DVD for $10 each? Impossible to pass up.)
From there it was off to the grocery store, and then home again where, thanks to the fact that I remembered to buy butter, I had those grilled cheese sandwiches I was supposed to have for lunch last week.
And that’s been my exciting day so far.
Oh, and the title of this post is a search term that led someone here that was just crying out to be shared.

Meeting Of The So-Called Minds

So last night after work I went to the homeowner’s meeting in which we discussed the buy-back offer.
Everything was proceeding nicely. We were presented with a recap, got a little more information about the condo developer’s situation, learned that of the 58 owners there had, at that point, been a confirmed 42 who had accepted the offer, and we learned a little more about what the consequences of not accepting the offer could be.
We then found out that area real estate developers are, naturally, very interested in the fact that there may soon be 58 potential home buyers on the market, and so there’s a lot of opportunity for us to get some great deals, particularly if we were to purchase en masse.
For example, a nearby development is prepared to hold an open house just for us and is offering 6% off the purchase price along with a variety of incentives.
A friend of the woman who’s been doing all the legwork for us, including brokering the offer, was given the floor to speak about some of the opportunities, as he was a realtor and could provide us with a good perspective on the situation.
That’s when things fell apart.
This old German crank started bitching about being “solicited,” and how he came to hear about the buy-back and didn’t want to hear about anything else.
He seemed to think that the realtor was actually representing area developers and/or our condo developer, and thought that this was some sort of attempt to pressure us into taking the deal. That he was concerned about this seemed odd, given that he stated that he actually had accepted the deal and was all for us accepting it.
No amount of talk could convince him that he was an idiot that he had misinterpreted what was happening, and refused to shut up and let the realtor talk even though the rest of us were interested in hearing what the realtor had to say.
He also went off on some rambling rant about mediators and lawyers, but finally shut up after it was stated – and restated – that it’s too late in the game and that if we try to push any harder the developer will just rescind the offer and we’ll be hosed.
Basically he was just a jackass who liked the sound of his own voice. It kind of went like this:

Us: What do you want?
Him: I want to have my say!
Us: Okay, what do you have to say?
Him: That I want to be heard!
Us: Heard saying what?
Him: That I want to have my say!

You get the idea.
The only other thing we learned is that the one old biddy hold-out is doing so because she recently invested $5,000 in putting in new floors and doesn’t want to lose that investment.
We have to hope that she’ll come to understand that she’ll lose even more if she doesn’t agree.
Of course, she didn’t bother to attend either meeting, so that doesn’t bode well.
The cute music teacher was there and she smelled really nice. At one point she leaned forward in her chair and I got a glimpse of her underwear. They were teal and didn’t appear to be very sexy, being along the lines of 100% cotton granny panties.
Just thought I’d mention that.
After the meeting I went home and watched Earl and The Office, then it was off to bed, where I slept for about two hours, woke up for over two hours, then slept for just under four before getting up and coming in to work, where I ended up spending $442, $140 of that inadvertently.
The $342 was spent on a new graphics tablet.
I went with the 6x11 even though, at $60 more, the 9x12 would have been a bargain. I just don’t have the desktop real estate for the 9x12, though, and the 6x11 has the advantage of sharing my monitor’s aspect ratio, and it’s still much bigger than my current 4x5. And being newer it has all the bells and whistles.
The other $140 was spent when Scott accidentally ordered a copy of Adobe Studio 8 when attempting to see if his student discount allows him to purchase more than one copy of it. Since he was investigating that possibility on my behalf, I figured I might as well just buy it from him.
On the topic of buying things, yesterday the back issues I’d ordered came in the mail, which was cool.
As for the bags and boards I ordered a while back, I’d gotten an e-mail from them saying that they were on backorder for 2-3 weeks. That was a month ago, so I sent them an e-mail canceling my order.
Now I need to find another supplier to order from.
Hopefully whatever company I order from will actually have a supply of what they’re selling in stock.
It’s going to be a long day, as is evidenced by the fact that it’s already been a long day and I still have over 8 hours to go.