From the election to picture printing - 11/3 - 11/16
Ugh, I was doing pretty well for a while, but now I have to get some catchup done again. Thing is, I'm not sure how much has really happened over the past couple of weeks... I'll see what I can come up with as I go along.
Monday, November 3
I really don't remember anything about this day. Given that November 4 was Election Day (a holiday for me), I couldn't really get anything started at work without the samples spoiling in the fridge over the layoff, so I didn't get a whole lot done but cleanup.
Tuesday, November 4
We got up around the normal time on Election Day, and left the house around 7 to head to the polls. Around 7:15, we approached the polling place (the community center), and noticed two things: there was nowhere to park, and there was a line of about 30 people coming out of the building. I found a spot next to the baseball field, and we walked over to the building. I supposed that the problem might be people not knowing which of the three precincts covered by this building they lived in... uh, not so much:
Poll worker: "Excuse me, sir - what precinct do you live in?"
falcon815: "40."
Poll worker: *winces* "Sorry. That's the line that's coming out of the building."
We ended up having to wait for an hour to vote. I ended up only voting in the presidential election and a handful of local things; I refused to cast a ballot for a candidate when there was no opposition, and most of the state/county-level positions from our district / county were incumbents running unopposed.
[ELECTION STUFF HERE - FEEL FREE TO SKIP IF YOU DON'T CARE]
I voted for Obama. I'd feel a lot more comfortable with the 'Democrats in control of legislative + executive branches' thing if the House majority leader were a bit more sane, and I'm really not keen on the redistribution-speak or the idea of mandatory community service, but the election came down to something entirely different for me.
Issues aside, if you give me the choice between a candidate that gives the impression of applying careful thought to what he says and does, and a candidate that looks at the situation and immediately tells you what he'd do, I'll take the one that'll sit back and think a little first. I don't think he can come through on even half of the things he campaigned on (and he admitted as much in his election day speech - "we may not get there in one year, or even one term" isn't the kind of language he was using on the campaign trail), but if he just uses his brain and considers the consequences of potential decisions, that's enough for me after the last few years.
[Note to Republicans: I realize it didn't matter in the grand scheme of the election, but I think you could learn a lot from what happened in Indiana. There are two critical reasons why you did not win this state, and considering the vote difference (~13,000, last I checked), either one of them could have easily swung the state - normally a Republican stronghold - to your side.
First off, pay attention to us. I realize this may seem petty, but people in 'flyover country' love it when you act like you give a damn about them. The fact that Obama was trying and you weren't said a lot about what you thought about the people of this state. Keep in mind that we're not exactly straight-ticket kind of people; this has been a Republican rock in presidential elections, but we're not shy about voting in Democrats for House seats, Senate seats, and governorships around here. But we do have to feel like you care first.
Secondly, run a campaign that's worth something. For example, a lot of people are unhappy with our current governor, Mitch Daniels. His rash of privatization has put the state in good financial shape for the moment, but a lot of people are concerned as to what's going to happen down the road. He's also strongarmed some other unpopular legislation through (DST, etc.) Funny, then, that he won re-election by 20%, isn't it? It's not that he ran a great campaign (he didn't), or that he is popular (he isn't), it's that his opponent ran a campaign that was so obviously empty of value that even some people who hated Mitch couldn't bring themselves to vote for her. Negativity isn't necessarily a bad thing in campaigning, but no matter which party you are, you've got to demonstrate some sort of reasoning behind your negativity. Show your own alternative plan to get your message across. Otherwise, you'll just turn people off.]
[YOU ARE NOW ENTERING AN ELECTION-FREE ZONE. HAVE A NICE WHATEVER.]
Anyway. Once we were finished voting, I drove aquahaute up to work, and proceeded to run some errands around town. It wasn't much of a Blockbuster type of day, so I went over to Fry's for the first time in a few months. Ended up spending most of my time in the HD-DVD/Blu-ray section, checking out what was on sale and what I'd be interested in picking up. Found a cheapish Blu-ray for my father-in-law, but not much else. It was a fun hour of looking around, though.
From there... I forget what I did next. I don't think I went to Lafayette Square at that point, but maybe I did. The Sears is going out of business there, so I wanted to see what was up with the pricing. Everything was 20% off, so most everything was still sitting on the shelf, untouched, especially in the video game section. I imagine once it hits 40 or 50%, that stuff will be gone - we'll probably have to go there soon.
Steve and Barry's was still around, though they had signs up that indicated that their franchise is closing 100 or so stores. That'd be a killer for Lafayette Square - S&B's is right next to Sears, and there would be nothing left on that side of the mall but the food court if they went out.
Next up, I went back up to the northwest side to pick up aquahaute for lunch. I think we went to Panera on 86th by 465. Tasty, though my bread bowl was a bit overdone. I dropped her back off at work 45 minutes later... and I really don't remember what I did in the afternoon. With no more real goals in mind for shopping and the like, I think I just went to a couple more places and looked around - I just don't know where.
Picked her up at 4:30 and went home. We ended up lazing around and staying up late, waiting for election returns. I know I played some Rock Band for a little bit, and I think I poked at Penny Arcade Episode 2, but most of the evening was focused around watching Indiana's results come in (since the national results were never really in question). That was fun, even if we didn't get enough sleep. ^_^
Wednesday, November 5
I remember little about this day - pretty much the entire morning at work was election discussion, and the afternoon was a blur of work.
At home, I got a random package on my doorstep. Back in August, I took a day off work to build up some Gamestop/Blockbuster credit (mostly using the Wii games DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity, and Bust-A-Move Bash). At that time, Blockbuster was running a contest; spend $25 in a single purchase, and be entered to win a Wii (one per store), with the chance of a couple of lesser prizes as well. I made a handful of qualifying purchases that day, including our little USB video camera. Anyway, the random box on my doorstep that day was a second prize - a 17-piece set of DS Lite accessories. Not something I need, but since we got a DS Lite for my brother-in-law for Christmas, it was nice to get; I'll just wrap it up and give it to him. ^_^_v
Thursday, November 6 and Friday, November 7
Not recalling much. The only thing I can remember is that on Thursday, while leaving work, Ken told me, "there was a phone call for you from some woman; she tried to call twice, but Mira didn't say who it was." Very helpful. I asked aquahaute; wasn't her. I called my mother (the only other woman I could think of who'd be trying to reach me at work); wasn't her either. I decided that if it was important enough, the person would call back.
Luckily, they did the next day around 8 AM; it was the dentist's office. I'd scheduled my appointment for Columbus Day ( which didn't work out), and asked them to watch for an appointment on Veteran's Day when I canceled. A 4:00 appointment opened up, and I got it. Whee for not going 10 months between cleanings!
(Mira finally remembered around 10:30 AM on Friday to tell me someone had tried to call on Thursday. But, again, she only told me it was "some woman". I guarantee you that if I hadn't taken at least the name of someone who'd tried to call her, she would have jumped down my throat. I let it go; there was no point in bringing that up.)
Saturday, November 8
aquahaute and I went down to Columbus to visit my parents and my grandmother, who was in town; also, we visited pawnshops, of course.
We visited Mom and Grandma first; Dad was out at the Visitor's Center giving an architectural tour. I finally got to meet Max, Mom and Dad's new dog, while I was there. He's awfully cute; a black-and-white cocker spaniel that kinda looks like an English Springer spaniel. He is very energetic, and quite spoiled already. Grandma's dog, Bitsy, a Westie, was there too. She was quite polite and well-behaved, especially when compared to Max.
We chatted for a bit, and played with the dogs, then headed off to the Visitor's Center to pick up Dad. Found a gift for my mother-in-law while we were there (though we're full up on gifts for her for Christmas, it was too good to pass up). Once Dad got done with his tour, the five of us went to Johnny Carino's for lunch. A quick stop and visit at Mom and Dad's place later, we were off to the pawnshops.
Von's didn't have a whole lot to speak of, and for that matter, Granny Bea's wasn't terribly interesting either. However, there was one nifty thing at Granny Bea's; a guitar-and-game bundle of Guitar Hero: World Tour for 360 for $50. That's a really good price for just the guitar, and that's pretty much the only reason we bought it. After checking into the achievements and tracklist of World Tour, we decided it wasn't worth hacking through Neversoft overcharting to get to the one or two songs we actually cared about, and traded the game in to Gamestop for $35 in credit. But hey, $15 for a pretty good wireless guitar? Sure!
I also bought a copy of A Christmas Story on HD-DVD for $10 at Granny Bea's. Not a bad price.
Sunday, November 9
Um... I watched a good chunk of Colts/Steelers...
Monday, November 10
See also: Monday, November 3. Day before holiday is also holiday.
Tuesday, November 11
I went out and did some shopping in the morning after aquahaute took off for work. Meijer yielded tasties, Gamestop yielded store credit and a new discount card, and Target yielded... pretty much nothing interesting. I did some cleaning around the house, had my dental appointment at 4, then beat feet back home after being detained longer than I expected both at the dentist's and at my Mom's place. Didn't get home 'til 7 or so; can't remember much after that.
Wednesday, November 12
Work was a blur. I went back out as soon as we got home; we needed some supplies for supper. When I got back, I asked if anything good had come in the mail. The answer was a definitive yes, as I got news that I'd won a Wii from the Blockbuster contest. ^_^_v That pretty much made the night.
Thursday, November 13 - Friday, November 14
Not remembering a whole lot. I scanned and e-mailed in my affidavit of eligibility for winning the Blockbuster contest, and ordered some stuff from Amazon (some for aquahaute, some for my mother).
At one point on Friday, the temperature of the air blowing out of the vents over my desk was 52 degrees. I like it cold, but that was a little overboard.
Friday was a pretty bad day for her, but I'll let her cover that. Things are getting, ah, interesting where she is, including a delicious slice of irony.
Saturday, November 15
We spent the early afternoon shopping after eating lunch at Panera. She found some cozy pants at Kohl's for $2 after a coupon, and I got something for Dad at Hallmark. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon cleaning; I was mostly downstairs, she was mostly upstairs. greenphoenix217 called in the late afternoon / early evening, and we chatted for a while. It was good to hear from her again.
In the evening, aquahaute hurried through uploading wedding pictures to Walgreens' website; they had a promotion going where you could get up to 250 4"x6" prints for 10 cents a print. After some initial worry about whether or not they'd refuse to print our pictures due to copyright issues (since some were clearly taken by a professional photographer), she remembered that she had a copy of the contract that they signed with our photographer. It states clearly in the contract that we have the rights to reproduce the pictures, so we submitted our order (246 prints) online, then immediately headed up to Walgreens to discuss with the photo clerk. When we got there...
aquahaute and falcon815: *waits at photo counter*
Photo clerk: *comes back from doing something at the front of the store* "How can I help you?"
aquahaute: "I just submitted an order online for 246 prints of pictures from our wedding. Some of them were taken by a professional photographer."
Clerk: "Mmhmm." *checks computer* "Last name of Robinson?"
aquahaute: "Yeah." *takes out contract* "I have a copy of our contract with the photographer."
Clerk: *eyes widen*
aquahaute: "Here's the relevant paragraph, where it says we have the rights to print the pictures."
Clerk: *nods vigorously*
aquahaute: "And I wrote the order number and other relevant information here at the top of the first page."
Clerk: *continues nodding excitedly* "Great! Thanks a lot. If you ever need to print other stuff from your wedding, just tell us that we have this on file."
So, after some initial worry, that turned out to be incredibly painless. ^_^
Sunday, November 16
In the morning, aquahaute went to pick up her pictures. The same photo clerk was there at 9 AM, which was surprising, but she remembered Andrea; "Hey, I remember you, you were awesome!" :D
Since dextersdad canceled on me, I spent most of the afternoon either watching football or spending time in the craft room while aquahaute worked on the wedding scrapbook. Colts game was fun; watching some of her ideas and work was also fun. She spent most of the day in the craft room - I spent some time cooking and playing Crisis Core on my PSP.
There. That turned out longer than I expected, and pretty much takes care of things for now.
Monday, November 3
I really don't remember anything about this day. Given that November 4 was Election Day (a holiday for me), I couldn't really get anything started at work without the samples spoiling in the fridge over the layoff, so I didn't get a whole lot done but cleanup.
Tuesday, November 4
We got up around the normal time on Election Day, and left the house around 7 to head to the polls. Around 7:15, we approached the polling place (the community center), and noticed two things: there was nowhere to park, and there was a line of about 30 people coming out of the building. I found a spot next to the baseball field, and we walked over to the building. I supposed that the problem might be people not knowing which of the three precincts covered by this building they lived in... uh, not so much:
Poll worker: "Excuse me, sir - what precinct do you live in?"
falcon815: "40."
Poll worker: *winces* "Sorry. That's the line that's coming out of the building."
We ended up having to wait for an hour to vote. I ended up only voting in the presidential election and a handful of local things; I refused to cast a ballot for a candidate when there was no opposition, and most of the state/county-level positions from our district / county were incumbents running unopposed.
[ELECTION STUFF HERE - FEEL FREE TO SKIP IF YOU DON'T CARE]
I voted for Obama. I'd feel a lot more comfortable with the 'Democrats in control of legislative + executive branches' thing if the House majority leader were a bit more sane, and I'm really not keen on the redistribution-speak or the idea of mandatory community service, but the election came down to something entirely different for me.
Issues aside, if you give me the choice between a candidate that gives the impression of applying careful thought to what he says and does, and a candidate that looks at the situation and immediately tells you what he'd do, I'll take the one that'll sit back and think a little first. I don't think he can come through on even half of the things he campaigned on (and he admitted as much in his election day speech - "we may not get there in one year, or even one term" isn't the kind of language he was using on the campaign trail), but if he just uses his brain and considers the consequences of potential decisions, that's enough for me after the last few years.
[Note to Republicans: I realize it didn't matter in the grand scheme of the election, but I think you could learn a lot from what happened in Indiana. There are two critical reasons why you did not win this state, and considering the vote difference (~13,000, last I checked), either one of them could have easily swung the state - normally a Republican stronghold - to your side.
First off, pay attention to us. I realize this may seem petty, but people in 'flyover country' love it when you act like you give a damn about them. The fact that Obama was trying and you weren't said a lot about what you thought about the people of this state. Keep in mind that we're not exactly straight-ticket kind of people; this has been a Republican rock in presidential elections, but we're not shy about voting in Democrats for House seats, Senate seats, and governorships around here. But we do have to feel like you care first.
Secondly, run a campaign that's worth something. For example, a lot of people are unhappy with our current governor, Mitch Daniels. His rash of privatization has put the state in good financial shape for the moment, but a lot of people are concerned as to what's going to happen down the road. He's also strongarmed some other unpopular legislation through (DST, etc.) Funny, then, that he won re-election by 20%, isn't it? It's not that he ran a great campaign (he didn't), or that he is popular (he isn't), it's that his opponent ran a campaign that was so obviously empty of value that even some people who hated Mitch couldn't bring themselves to vote for her. Negativity isn't necessarily a bad thing in campaigning, but no matter which party you are, you've got to demonstrate some sort of reasoning behind your negativity. Show your own alternative plan to get your message across. Otherwise, you'll just turn people off.]
[YOU ARE NOW ENTERING AN ELECTION-FREE ZONE. HAVE A NICE WHATEVER.]
Anyway. Once we were finished voting, I drove aquahaute up to work, and proceeded to run some errands around town. It wasn't much of a Blockbuster type of day, so I went over to Fry's for the first time in a few months. Ended up spending most of my time in the HD-DVD/Blu-ray section, checking out what was on sale and what I'd be interested in picking up. Found a cheapish Blu-ray for my father-in-law, but not much else. It was a fun hour of looking around, though.
From there... I forget what I did next. I don't think I went to Lafayette Square at that point, but maybe I did. The Sears is going out of business there, so I wanted to see what was up with the pricing. Everything was 20% off, so most everything was still sitting on the shelf, untouched, especially in the video game section. I imagine once it hits 40 or 50%, that stuff will be gone - we'll probably have to go there soon.
Steve and Barry's was still around, though they had signs up that indicated that their franchise is closing 100 or so stores. That'd be a killer for Lafayette Square - S&B's is right next to Sears, and there would be nothing left on that side of the mall but the food court if they went out.
Next up, I went back up to the northwest side to pick up aquahaute for lunch. I think we went to Panera on 86th by 465. Tasty, though my bread bowl was a bit overdone. I dropped her back off at work 45 minutes later... and I really don't remember what I did in the afternoon. With no more real goals in mind for shopping and the like, I think I just went to a couple more places and looked around - I just don't know where.
Picked her up at 4:30 and went home. We ended up lazing around and staying up late, waiting for election returns. I know I played some Rock Band for a little bit, and I think I poked at Penny Arcade Episode 2, but most of the evening was focused around watching Indiana's results come in (since the national results were never really in question). That was fun, even if we didn't get enough sleep. ^_^
Wednesday, November 5
I remember little about this day - pretty much the entire morning at work was election discussion, and the afternoon was a blur of work.
At home, I got a random package on my doorstep. Back in August, I took a day off work to build up some Gamestop/Blockbuster credit (mostly using the Wii games DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Code Lyoko: Quest for Infinity, and Bust-A-Move Bash). At that time, Blockbuster was running a contest; spend $25 in a single purchase, and be entered to win a Wii (one per store), with the chance of a couple of lesser prizes as well. I made a handful of qualifying purchases that day, including our little USB video camera. Anyway, the random box on my doorstep that day was a second prize - a 17-piece set of DS Lite accessories. Not something I need, but since we got a DS Lite for my brother-in-law for Christmas, it was nice to get; I'll just wrap it up and give it to him. ^_^_v
Thursday, November 6 and Friday, November 7
Not recalling much. The only thing I can remember is that on Thursday, while leaving work, Ken told me, "there was a phone call for you from some woman; she tried to call twice, but Mira didn't say who it was." Very helpful. I asked aquahaute; wasn't her. I called my mother (the only other woman I could think of who'd be trying to reach me at work); wasn't her either. I decided that if it was important enough, the person would call back.
Luckily, they did the next day around 8 AM; it was the dentist's office. I'd scheduled my appointment for Columbus Day ( which didn't work out), and asked them to watch for an appointment on Veteran's Day when I canceled. A 4:00 appointment opened up, and I got it. Whee for not going 10 months between cleanings!
(Mira finally remembered around 10:30 AM on Friday to tell me someone had tried to call on Thursday. But, again, she only told me it was "some woman". I guarantee you that if I hadn't taken at least the name of someone who'd tried to call her, she would have jumped down my throat. I let it go; there was no point in bringing that up.)
Saturday, November 8
aquahaute and I went down to Columbus to visit my parents and my grandmother, who was in town; also, we visited pawnshops, of course.
We visited Mom and Grandma first; Dad was out at the Visitor's Center giving an architectural tour. I finally got to meet Max, Mom and Dad's new dog, while I was there. He's awfully cute; a black-and-white cocker spaniel that kinda looks like an English Springer spaniel. He is very energetic, and quite spoiled already. Grandma's dog, Bitsy, a Westie, was there too. She was quite polite and well-behaved, especially when compared to Max.
We chatted for a bit, and played with the dogs, then headed off to the Visitor's Center to pick up Dad. Found a gift for my mother-in-law while we were there (though we're full up on gifts for her for Christmas, it was too good to pass up). Once Dad got done with his tour, the five of us went to Johnny Carino's for lunch. A quick stop and visit at Mom and Dad's place later, we were off to the pawnshops.
Von's didn't have a whole lot to speak of, and for that matter, Granny Bea's wasn't terribly interesting either. However, there was one nifty thing at Granny Bea's; a guitar-and-game bundle of Guitar Hero: World Tour for 360 for $50. That's a really good price for just the guitar, and that's pretty much the only reason we bought it. After checking into the achievements and tracklist of World Tour, we decided it wasn't worth hacking through Neversoft overcharting to get to the one or two songs we actually cared about, and traded the game in to Gamestop for $35 in credit. But hey, $15 for a pretty good wireless guitar? Sure!
I also bought a copy of A Christmas Story on HD-DVD for $10 at Granny Bea's. Not a bad price.
Sunday, November 9
Um... I watched a good chunk of Colts/Steelers...
Monday, November 10
See also: Monday, November 3. Day before holiday is also holiday.
Tuesday, November 11
I went out and did some shopping in the morning after aquahaute took off for work. Meijer yielded tasties, Gamestop yielded store credit and a new discount card, and Target yielded... pretty much nothing interesting. I did some cleaning around the house, had my dental appointment at 4, then beat feet back home after being detained longer than I expected both at the dentist's and at my Mom's place. Didn't get home 'til 7 or so; can't remember much after that.
Wednesday, November 12
Work was a blur. I went back out as soon as we got home; we needed some supplies for supper. When I got back, I asked if anything good had come in the mail. The answer was a definitive yes, as I got news that I'd won a Wii from the Blockbuster contest. ^_^_v That pretty much made the night.
Thursday, November 13 - Friday, November 14
Not remembering a whole lot. I scanned and e-mailed in my affidavit of eligibility for winning the Blockbuster contest, and ordered some stuff from Amazon (some for aquahaute, some for my mother).
At one point on Friday, the temperature of the air blowing out of the vents over my desk was 52 degrees. I like it cold, but that was a little overboard.
Friday was a pretty bad day for her, but I'll let her cover that. Things are getting, ah, interesting where she is, including a delicious slice of irony.
Saturday, November 15
We spent the early afternoon shopping after eating lunch at Panera. She found some cozy pants at Kohl's for $2 after a coupon, and I got something for Dad at Hallmark. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon cleaning; I was mostly downstairs, she was mostly upstairs. greenphoenix217 called in the late afternoon / early evening, and we chatted for a while. It was good to hear from her again.
In the evening, aquahaute hurried through uploading wedding pictures to Walgreens' website; they had a promotion going where you could get up to 250 4"x6" prints for 10 cents a print. After some initial worry about whether or not they'd refuse to print our pictures due to copyright issues (since some were clearly taken by a professional photographer), she remembered that she had a copy of the contract that they signed with our photographer. It states clearly in the contract that we have the rights to reproduce the pictures, so we submitted our order (246 prints) online, then immediately headed up to Walgreens to discuss with the photo clerk. When we got there...
aquahaute and falcon815: *waits at photo counter*
Photo clerk: *comes back from doing something at the front of the store* "How can I help you?"
aquahaute: "I just submitted an order online for 246 prints of pictures from our wedding. Some of them were taken by a professional photographer."
Clerk: "Mmhmm." *checks computer* "Last name of Robinson?"
aquahaute: "Yeah." *takes out contract* "I have a copy of our contract with the photographer."
Clerk: *eyes widen*
aquahaute: "Here's the relevant paragraph, where it says we have the rights to print the pictures."
Clerk: *nods vigorously*
aquahaute: "And I wrote the order number and other relevant information here at the top of the first page."
Clerk: *continues nodding excitedly* "Great! Thanks a lot. If you ever need to print other stuff from your wedding, just tell us that we have this on file."
So, after some initial worry, that turned out to be incredibly painless. ^_^
Sunday, November 16
In the morning, aquahaute went to pick up her pictures. The same photo clerk was there at 9 AM, which was surprising, but she remembered Andrea; "Hey, I remember you, you were awesome!" :D
Since dextersdad canceled on me, I spent most of the afternoon either watching football or spending time in the craft room while aquahaute worked on the wedding scrapbook. Colts game was fun; watching some of her ideas and work was also fun. She spent most of the day in the craft room - I spent some time cooking and playing Crisis Core on my PSP.
There. That turned out longer than I expected, and pretty much takes care of things for now.