Wednesday, February 23, 2005

It's Only Money

A few months ago Debby announced that it was time for me to start researching new dishwashers. Ok, no problem, grabbed the Consumer Reports buying guide and totally ignored it. Sunday she said lets go to Sears and look at dishwashers as they are having a President's Day sale. So we dragged the kids on a rainy afternoon and found a very helpful salesman and bought close to the top of the line Kitchen Aid model that was on floor sample closeout. The one minor detail was that the new unit is white and our appliances are black. Debby said she didn't care as she wanted to get a new range at some point anyway. After a brief pause, I figured what the hell, part of the sale includes zero interest financing through Sears for one year and what better way to bank some spousal brownie points then get all new appliances in one fell swoop. Our current range is a double oven with a stove top in the middle. It came with the house and has been perfectly fine for the last 7 years except that baking is a challenge in the top oven as the bottom of everything burns and the tops remain undercooked. So I knew it was time. Again helpful salesman directed us to a new self-cleaning range (that was delivered today) and a combination microwave oven and baking oven to go above the new range. Our current microwave is a hand me down from my uncle and the kids hate it enough to have given us a coupon at Christmas to replace it with a new one. I wanted the combo oven because when Debby bakes for the holidays she usually has both top and bottom going and I surely did not want to downgrade functionality. So an hour and a couple of thousand dollars later we had all new white appliances. The dishwasher and microwave combo are being installed on Friday. It's pretty exciting since I have never purchased these items before and a bit spontaneous as I did only 5 minutes of dishwasher research and absolutely none for the oven and range. But Debby is happy and that is the most important thing to me. Now, if I can get the kids to pay for the $850.00 microwave combo.

Voices

When I write I have my voice running through my mind composing what I will say. Mostly it is a good thing as it lets me formulate what I am going to say. However hearing this same voice while kissing the porcelain god is really annoying. I had a bout with barfing the other night brought on by either bad food or stomach flu. No matter which one, it was painful and not what I had in mind at 3:00am at the end of an otherwise wonderful three-and-a-half day weekend. I found myself with a gut pain that I had not felt in the two years since hacking up my guts in the shower at the Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai. That was by far the worst abdominal pain I have ever felt. In fact I had just mentioned to my cousin Kevin (Fury.com) on Saturday that I haven't barfed since China. He was looking a tad car sick after I picked him and Rachel up at Burbank airport and I said, "You'd better not poot in my Cruiser." He didn't and said he hadn't been sick in years and I said the same thing and obviously jinxed myself.

Anyway, back to that voice in my head. I try to write things that I would want to read so I compose in my head first and if I get more than a few sentences then I can sit at one of many keyboards and write away. So it's three in the morning and I am waiting, no begging to barf to alleviate the pain I am in and what pops into my mind? Blogging about barfing...blogging about this barfing...how F-ed up is that? It's bad enough to be as sick as dog in the middle of the night, shivering on the floor in front of the toilet. But when the self narration in me starts thinking of writing the play-by-play, something aint right. I suppose I was/am conscious of the fact that I had not posted in over a week and that my goal is to write more. But I also want to post quality stuff or at least content that is not written just because its been a while. But with all the disease running through my body at the time I couldn't believe that blogging crossed my mind. Talk about being sick.

Monday, February 07, 2005

Dear Microsoft, GET OVER IT!

Wired News: Hide Your IPod, Here Comes Bill