rickvs

Saw the Pink Floyd laser light show last night -- it was better than I expected. They did not play the entire synced-up _Wizard of Oz_ / "Dark Side of the Moon" thing, but we got quite a few clips from the film interspersed with the laser stuff before they proceeded with selections from "The Wall". I shall never look at munchkins the same way again -- and do you know, I believe there may have been people in attendance who were not entirely ...sober :>

Tonight, we're heading out to see Styx. I'll post about it later, and also about the ongoing discussion Rachal and I are having about our neighbor's son. We're spending quite a bit of time with him (more even than with his mother, my former co-worker), and are not sure about how much we're supposed to be his friends, how much his mentors, and how much surrogate parents. It's certain that anything his mother says rolls right off him, but Rachal seems to have made some headway with him regarding the pursuit of his GED, and perhaps college classes. Time will tell; he's usually pleasant company and I know his living situation (sleeping in the living room of a one-bedroom apartment, without his own door to shut behind him) can get stressful.

Headed back to bed now, to rest up for tonight's show.

Seen around my friends' journals. If you can pop me on any of these, please do.

1) Name a CD you own that no-one else on your friends list does.

The soundtrack to the first _Rush Hour_ movie.

2) Name a book you own that no-one else on your friends list does.

"The Ophiuchi Hotline", by John Varley.

3) Name a movie you own on DVD/VHS/whatever that no-one else on your friends list does.

_The Ice Pirates_.

4) Name a place that you have visited that no-one else on your friends list has.

Backstage at Disneyland -- which, oddly enough, is accessible at several points without passing through any locked doors. Just sayin'.

We had a belligerent customer come into our store this week. First I heard her, she was loud and stuck in a loop: "I am *not* playing! You've been working on my sign for three months, and you don't have it ready? I want my money! I'm NOT PLAYING!"... Lather, rinse, repeat for about half an hour.

Our sales manager isn't allowed to cut a refund check without our store owner there, so we couldn't help her in the manner she wished to be helped. Irate Customer seemed to think that if she kept the volume up, we'd eventually cry "hold, enough" and dig into our own wallets, or something. Turns out this customer had never returned calls from the original salesperson, trying to confirm the size of her sign ...then she showed up expecting it to be complete, all seventy-six dollars of it. So when she yelled that our sales manager would have to call 911 to get her to leave ...that's exactly what happened :/

Saturday night, we went to see "Greater Tuna" with its original cast. Quite the funny show, but perhaps not as child-safe as the parents in front of us were hoping. Then we had a late dinner at Texas Land and Cattle Company, so we got to watch some of the fireworks Six Flags was shooting off nearby. I had very tasty ribs there, but I think they're what disagreed with me starting about four-thirty this morning. Without going into details, my body's spent the day bailing out everything I've eaten recently, and Rachal's been taking very good care of me.

And, the second instance of "Tuna": I'm watching Bill Parcell's Cowboys get spanked by the Minnesota Vikings in their season opener.

Rachal's looking forward to starting her new job this week. She'll be teaching chemistry to freshman at a college in Hurst ...a bit of a drive, but at least she's doing something she likes. She's somewhat nervous about teaching a lecture class in addition to two labs, but I think she'll get more comfortable after the first couple.

We're looking forward to watching Greater Tuna on stage in a week or so, if the performance date doesn't conflict with her work schedule. We'll have to wait for the radio station to call back to let us know when the tickets are for ...which kinda brings me to another question:

Anybody out there in the habit of selling used DVDs? Do you have any feedback on who gives the most for them? I've won a handful of movies which will probably stay in their cellophane wrappers indefinitely if I don't sell them to *somebody* or another.

One of the radio contests I play posed this trivia question two days ago:

"Q: What will 63 percent of women still do after they get married?"

(Winning answer: "Take their husband's last name." A lower percentage than I would have guessed, but that's not pertinent to the point I'm after).

Another radio station (owned by the same big corporation) had this question this morning:

"Q: What will 37 percent of women *not* do after they get married?"

...Yeah, I'm thinking these DJs might read the same wire services for their contests, or something :>

In related news, I have, for the first time, won two radio contests in the same day. If anybody wants to go to the Dallas Boat Show this weekend, drop me a line.

DO NOT CLICK THE JOURNAL ENTRIES THAT SAY "This is very interesting..."

Sorry for the trouble.

Rick

The radio station whose contests I enter most frequently has a game on Friday that is fairly easy to win ...if you can get through their phone lines. You call them with a one-line joke, and if none of the DJs knows the punchline, you get whatever DVD or gift certificate they're giving away that day.

The game starts at the same time each morning, so just as the closing bars of the last song were playing, I hit the speed-dial on my phone, and asked the call screener if it was too early to call in with my joke. He told me to go ahead -- so I told my joke, and he said, "...Nice." And hung up.

I immediately started grumbling to myself -- "My joke wasn't good enough for them, hm? I know they're busy, but at least they could drop the hammer politely..."

A few minutes later, I had a nasty thought and checked my cell phone's call record.

I had called the wrong radio station.

(stolen from robkaiote)

Comment on this post with something you would LIKE to do with me SOMEDAY.

It's been a nice twenty-four hours. rachalvs and I went to a park in Lewisville and ate a picnic dinner near the water. Then we woke up early enough to have breakfast together this morning. Quite a pleasant time was had, and the weekend isn't even properly started :>

So, I just won passes to go see a band called Blue October, and I've never heard of them. Decent chance we'll stay home -- but has anyone else out there seen them live?

In other news, the unpacking continues apace, little thanks to me. (Yay, Rachal! Take a break when you need to). It's nice to have our own space, and once the cats got over their initial "what did we ever do to you" reaction -- and started to recognize furniture from Nashville -- they now seem on board also.