Frustrating Friday

Friday was a busy day, one that I had been looking forward to for a long time: the day we would get ourselves a new TV. A widescreen. An LCD. Not a big honkin' one, but it would be bigger than the one we've been using. Hey, now we would finally be able to see our widescreen DVDs in their full glory.

It's been a while coming. A major sticking point, frankly, was my wife, who seemed dubious about the idea. Lately, though, she has fully come on board in favor of it. Last week, we got a new cabinet for the thing to stand on, and we worked together to put it together one night last week (except for the two drawers; that's to be done this weekend). All was in readiness: On Friday night, we would be watching a movie on our new TV.

Instead, we watched a movie on our old TV. It's a simple story, which I will get to ... eventually.

Our first stop Friday was at a place where we may get some new upstairs windows installed this summer. On the way there, I talked to my wife about a major purchase we will make in the next year or two: a new/different car. For a while, I had been thinking about doing it this year. Later, I decided to put it off until 2009 or so.

One reason: The model I am leaning towards the most (a Prius) gets remodeled in 2009, with a expected jump in gas mileage. The little Mazda I've been driving for the last five years does fine with gas (32-35 mpg), but I'd like better. The Mazda also has some major disadvantages. One of the biggest is the size of its trunk. (That's the boot, if you're in England.) Next time, I've said to myself many times, I'll get a hatchback with more cargo room yet good gas mileage.

Anyway, we looked over the windows, got some brochures and asked questions, and then we headed off to Iron Mountain. First stop was lunch (Arby's). Then we got the new cables the new TV will need. Then we visited my mom. Finally, we hit the store to get the TV.

The model we wanted wasn't in stock, but they had the next size down, and it had the same specs I liked in the bigger one. OK, we can go with that--it's not that much smaller. They brought it up on a big cart--I was surprised how big the package was. The credit card went through, we got our receipt, and I drove up to the front door to load it for the trip home.

Uhh, did I mention the lack of trunk space in the Mazda? How about the small back seat? The big TV box would no way fit in the trunk. Not enough clearance, even with the rear seats folded down. So we tried loading it crosswise in the back seat. That was a no-go, too. The door opening just wasn't big enough, and I wondered whether the box would even fit lengthwise if we ever could get it past the edge of the seat.

In short, no way my car could ever take that box home, and I didn't want to take the TV out of the box. Do they deliver? The loader guy went in to check. No they don't. So we agreed that he would wheel the big thing back inside, over to the customer service desk, and I'd cancel the purchase.

That was disappointing. After we got home, I checked some online TV retailers. Places like Best Buy and Circuit City don't deliver up here (which is, after all, on the other side of the earth). ("You can't get there from here." The nearest stores for both is Green Bay, about 125 miles away.)

Some places do, though. To my surprise, Amazon does deliver--and to my greater surprise, the webpage says "Free shipping"!

So how about that? That's the way we decided to go. Once we get it inside the house the house, we'll have no problems. The trick is getting it to the other side of the earth. We'll let UPS take care of that little problem.

***
A few other things to report. I suppose you heard that Brett Favre has decided to retire after so many years as quarterback of the Green Bay Packers. It's been a long, fun ride for Packer fans. Now it will be a lot more fun for Packers' opponents, who never could rest easy in a game, even if their team was winning, wondering how Favre is going to beat them ... this time.

I've only seen Favre one time in person. It was in August 2004, when David and I drove down to see a Packers practice. It's always a spectacle. They have bleachers set up alongside the sidewalk, on the other side of a chain-link fence from the practice field, and those seats are always filled during a practice ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Favre-Practice-8-04.jpg[/IMG]

Here is No. 4, coming out to the practice, talking with coaches...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Favre-Brett1-8-04.jpg[/IMG]

... and waiting for his turn to run plays ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Favre-Brett2-8-04.jpg[/IMG]

I've got some other thoughts about Favre's decision, but I'll save them for Vox, which is evolving into a spot for my essays and thoughts and ruminations on various things. (The other day, I wrote about Gary Gygax's death and my miniscule part in the worlds he created.)

I'm also working on a piece (for here) about the "naughty meme" that circulated around Efx2blogs last month--and my wife's score when she took it. A photo entry coming up has the working title "party animals."

Our new cat is doing very well. My wife says it's time we come up with a name for her. She likes "Venus" because Venus is the Roman goddess of love--she's a very loving little cat (My wife was inspired by a song played on the local moldies radio station.)--or "Charlie" because of her charcoal color.

I'm holding out for "Aphrodite," who is the [I]Greek [/I]goddess of love--the Romans apparently stole a lot of Aphrodite's traditions for Venus, way back when.

They say that one gaze from Aphrodite would cause any man to fall in love with her. Well, that fits our new kitty to a T. She loves to snuggle in my arms and purr and make her little cat noises. Plus, the various paintings of Aphrodite (and Venus, for that matter) show her with a full, voluptuous figure. That's our kitty, too. She's a lot of cat.

My wife doesn't care that much for "Aphrodite." "It's too long," she said.

We had expected a struggle to give her the antibiotics (three times a day) she had to take following her spaying operation. But guess what? She seems to like the stuff! We fill the eyedropper with the pink medicine, she sniffs it, starts licking the end of the eyedropper, and we get it into her mouth and squeeze the bulb. Yum-yum! ...
[IMG]http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b289/drdog/Kitty-Eyedropper-3-08.jpg[/IMG]

That job is over--the final dose was given today.