Weekend to Get Stuff Done

This seems to be the weekend to be productive, based on my own activities and the activities of some of my friends.

Saturday morning I watched the final season of Drawn Together. That's a pretty funny show, and I will have to pick up the DVDs when they're on sale. Went and met up with a couple at Ikea and picked up a few things for the kitchen as well. Enjoyed some fondue for an early dinner at their house. It makes me want to dig out the fondue pot I have and start trying out some recipes.

Later that evening I met with some folks who originally could not go to see Rocky Horror in Greenbelt and we had a bite to eat before heading to the show. The show was fun as usual, I absolutely loved it, and this time because it was the final night, the actors reacted a bit more to the audience, which made it hilarious. After all was said and done, the actors acknowledged their director and three audience members they used as plants for audience participation. Boy did I learn a lot of good lines from them :-D

For whatever reason after that, I was basically wired the rest of the night and did not fall asleep until about 2:30 in the morning. I woke up at 10:10, so it was a bit too late to go to church, oops. However, one of my friends was having a memorial service for her dog later on so I went to that instead. The service was nice and very sweet. She admitted later that this is one of the first times she got closure like that for a companion animal. I had lunch with her with a few other acquaintances before coming back to watch the football games. The Ravens won, which made me very happy. The 'skins also won, barely.

During the games I was also cleaning up the apartment; not only general cleaning, but extra scrubbing as well. The stove got a major degreasing because I discovered that under the drip pans there was a lot of junk that needed to be vacuumed out and then with a little 409 I got the whole bottom part cleaned out. It isn't easy because the stove top does not lift up like most modern stoves. I also got the house picked up, organized, vacuumed, and then scrubbed down the bathroom. The place is going to look good when the parents arrive in a few weeks.

Now I am sitting back waiting for chicken to finish baking for dinner. After that, who knows. I can't wait for tomorrow night, meeting up for dinner with Fredo and then we're going to see Tina Turner in concert. That should be an awesome show.

Merry Christmas to Me

Today has been a day of errands, I picked up packages at the UPS store and went shopping for JH. I tried Modells because I heard they were having a sale, but they didn't have the items I wanted. So I was heading for the parkway to go into Baltimore when I decided to try the Sports Authority to find what I was looking for. I found what I was looking for, and I know he will like it, I'm not saying what it is here since he reads this blog ;-)

If you're a Baltimore Ravens fan, the Sports Authority in Laurel (and probably other ones as well) have a 30% off sale on all Ravens merchandise, including jerseys, from what I saw, you're looking at being able to buy an authentic for $70 and a replica for $52.50. The sale runs through Jan 1, so if you need a last minute gift, or you just want something for yourself, consider buying in the next week. I may see if I can score a coupon from them for after Xmas for even further savings.

Anyway, so I then dropped by the Bottom Dollar because I knew they had a sale on frozen veggies, 1lb bags for 50 cents so I stocked up since I should be eating more veggies anyway. I grabbed a few other staples and headed out the door.

I decided to make a stop at REI to check out prices on a Coleman stove. First of all, I need a gas burner so I can use my wok; second, I love camping, and I grew up with my parents always using their Coleman propane stove, in fact, they still have it 25+ years later because those things are meant to last. My only criteria was that it has to be Propane, I will not use one of those "dual fuel" stoves. Target had a Coleman propane stove for $43, and it was pretty nice, in fact, REI had the same one for $46. However, they also had a different model stove on sale for $39, guess which one I picked up? The best part? The Coleman website is selling this particular stove for $64.49. So I scored a deal and as soon as I get my hands on a new tent and sleeping bag, I'll be all set to camp again.

Now that the dishes are done and the steak is ready to be turned into a burrito, it's time to finish here. Tonight I'll be seeing JH for dinner and then going to a holiday party. Tomorrow I'll be visiting my cousin and some of her kids and grandkids.

Customers and Retail Folk Suck...

...or why it took 4 stores to find vacuum cleaner bags!

Seriously, Thursday night was the errand run from Hell. I went and got my bike from the shop, got my Camelbak and then headed to Target to get vacuum bags for the vacuum cleaner that Joshua gave me. Eureka Type U vacuum bag was what I was looking for.

I get to Target and I locate the bags...that's great...except both of the packs have been opened up. I threw them back onto the shelf and walked out of there. I'm sure they weren't poisoned or anything, but seriously, who the fuck opens up a pack of vacuum bags in the store?! They're all marked with the brand name and bag type that they fit. They could have still been good, but it was the principle of the thing, I shouldn't have to buy products that may have been tampered with.

So it's off to K-Mart. No bags for my vacuum cleaner; on the shelf spot where the bags should have been was a completely different set of bags. So clearly some stocker can't read, or they just don't give a shit.

Next it's off to Giant, and this is a long shot because Giant is a supermarket. No bags for my vacuum.

Finally, I go to the Safeway, and they have my bags. Hurrah, right? Wrong. This Safeway is hell when it comes to trying to get through their checkout lines because they always seem to be understaffed. You can go in there and you will find only four out of ten lanes open, and the lines extend to at least 1/3 of the aisle back. So I get the lovely pleasure of waiting, waiting, and waiting before I can finally get out of there and go home. By the time I got home, it was wayyyyyyy too late to even think of trying to clean my house...unless I wanted to piss off my neighbors.

At least I got my damn bags, I bought six of them just so I don't have to deal with that again for at least another year.