Weekend Aftermath

Saturday started out with a list of chores[1], some of them household and some of them wedding related. We actually made a list. First stop - Costco. I should have stopped after that.

Like most men I know, I need to organize the garage. The first order of business is to get rid of Steve's gas-powered scooter and its box. The second is to get some shelves so that I can reclaim a small portion of space and keep more than a few boxes and motorcycles. After his accident, Steve doesn't really want the scooter any more, and he'd left the receipt from Costco and box at my house when he moved. Costco has a pretty good prices on some sturdy metal shelves and it's nearby, so it was the first destination.

I'm not sure what it is about shopping that makes people stick their collective head up their ass, but Costco seems to encourage it. It could be that I haven't looked closely enough, but there may be a gigantic tube of lube just inside the door to aid with insertion. In any case, I was pushing around one of the large palette carts with 150lbs of shelving on it, and people kept jumping in front of me and stopping. After a while, I lost the will to stop. Only my dislike of dealing with people kept me from breaking someone off at the ankles and dealing with the subsequent drama.

Disaster narrowly diverted, we returned home, unloaded and reloaded the car, and departed once again. Destination: REI.

We dropped Ambo's bike off at the on-site bike shop and debated with the counter guy about just what kind of service it needed.[2] We also bought a bike rack for the garage and new tires and tubes for my sadly neglected bike. Ok, so that bit was boring. The only thing of note was the parking lot. This particular REI has a very small lot. The difference in distance from really far and really close is all of 50 feet. Yet, when looking for parking, there was a backup because an idiot in a 3-series was waiting for another car to pull out of a close spot. I drove around and found parking 10 feet further from the front door. The Horror.

Since it was down the street, we stopped in downtown San Carlos for some taquerria. Mmm. Afterwards we walked around a bit and went into some jewellers. The first one we walked into didn't really have anything like what we were looking for, and the women behind the counter basically ignored us. The woman at the second shop was much more accomodating and had a ring close to what we want. She had some titanium mens' rings as well, but recommended that we purchase mine online. I can't decide between an anodized titanium ring and a tungsten and platinum ring.

We passed an antique store on the way back to the car, which we went into.[3] We stopped at a Hallmark and bought Leia slave girl and Darth Vader Christmas ornaments.

One of the last things on the list was to get (or at least look at) a tuxedo for me. First, we had to stop at BevMo and get some booze.

I was pertty certain that there was a Men's Wearhouse at the local mall (there isn't) so we stopped by. The mall was truly the last straw. You could hear my will snap and my sanity run out like so much water. We made a quick exit[4] and headed to finish the last of the chores at Michael's. We passed the Men's Wearhouse on our way out.[5]

After Michael's (nothing of interest happened there) I made myself a drink and played World of Warcraft for too long. I deserved it -- We'd completed almost everything on the list other than the laundry, and even then we made a pretty big dent in the piles of dirty laundry.

Sunday was less interesting ... and I need to actually do some work now, so maybe later.

[1] Actually, it started with me waking up and making some pancakes and coffee.

[2] The answer, quite clearly, is a lot.

[3] It was my idea, even. I am not very smart.

[4] Well as quick as one can make when leaving the mall. I managed to block an intersection while I was at it and get yelled at by some old guy in a minivan, too. Hot.

[5] We also passed a guy who looked very hard-core rocker, other than the Mervyn's bag in his hand. I would have expected Hot Topic at least.