About 11:15 BP and I made the trek out to get Harry Potter. The Little Puddin was supposed to go with us but was too tired, but wanted us to bring him back chicken nuggets and a small Frosty from Wendy’s later. Sheesh.
We were going to Meijer’s (a Midwest type of WalMart, blu) but BP said “Let’s go to WalMart and get it.” I hate WalMart. I feel the same way about that store as Allie does (read her comment in the Sparky post about “phone machines.”)
Anyway we got there and there was a long line down the middle of the store. WalMart had a shitty set-up (but what else is new): They had people go to the head of the line and ask the woman for a bracelet. Those with bracelets could buy the book. She gave us both a red “Gryffindor” ala the Lance Armstrong LIVE bracelets. She eyed us suspiciously and snipped, “The bracelets are only for people buying books .” I told her, “We’re buying two books.” She begrudgingly handed over two bracelets and looked at us as if we were lying. She also gave us promo HP posters, promo bookmarks and flyers.
We moved away and I wanted to go stand in line, but BP said, “I hate lines (well who doesn’t?) After the Air Force I promised myself I wouldn’t stand in another long line.”
Me: “But it’s Harry!”
He wanted to look at electronics so we went to the other ended of the store and looked at electronics.
About 5 ‘til 12 I said, “Let’s go stand in line!” We went over to the line and it had grown three times longer. We were now standing near the cash registers 25 -28. Over the loud speaker, a voice came on, “Here’s how we’ll do this. People with bracelets. Starting at the bracelet table I will take three groups of ten over to registers 25, 26 and 29. You will wait in line and the cashier will ring up your book!”
Then we saw three huge skids come rolling down another aisle on way to the registers. I swear I couldn’t help myself. When a skid came rolling by I shouted, “GRYFFINDOR LIVES!!!!!” This bitch two people in front of us, turned around and glared at me. AT ME! Can you imagine? This was supposed to be a Happy Event.
Then I got a scathingly brilliant idea.
Me: Don, the registers are right there. (By this time the groups of ten had been escorted.) The people have no other identification except the same bracelets WE have. Let’s just nonchalantly get out of line and go over in a register line. We won’t have to wait more than a few minutes!
BP: (looks around) Nah.
Me: Come on. Or else we’ll be here until 2 am!
BP: Nah. Let’s just wait. The line looks like it’s moving fast.
Me: (disgusted) What’s the worst that can happen? An eighty year old Greeter comes over and kicks our assses out? If that happens you throw him to the floor and I’ll kick him in the nuts.
BP: Puddin! No! Let’s just wait in line like good lil soldiers.
Me: Damn, Don. You told me such stories about your wild escapades when you were younger and now you’re all conventional and afraid of a WalMart Greeter.
BP: (laughs) I didn’t realize you were such a rebel.
Me: God, we’re such old farts.
Well, we waited in line and it did move fairly fast. At the winding ‘round part of the line, a kept seeing a huge bearded young man wearing a red shirt with a picture of the Buddha on it. The writing said, “RUB MY TUMMY FOR LUCK.” I really considered doing it.
Long story short. We bought two regular books and the special big dollar illustrated book set in a box. We got out of there about 10 til 1, and Wendy’s was closed, so LP had to settle for two plain cheeseburgers, fries and a Sprite. I was in bed at two, and I’m up now because I promised a friend I’d go to Panera Bread and to garage sales with her this morning. Why did I do that?
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Harry
My hometown of Crawfordsville, Indiana has a Harry Potter connection.
Story
My brother-in-law works for Donnelly's and he said that during the printing of all the Harry Potter books security was tighter than Fort Knox.
My sister Connie called last night (she and her oldest son are WILD about Harry):
"A friend who works in a bookstore just called and said in a conspiratorial voice, 'Guess what we got into the store today? HARRY!!! But my manager put a big black curtain around the boxes with a sign that read: WARNING! LOOK AWAY! EMPLOYEES CAUGHT EVEN LOOKING AT THE BOXES WILL BE SENT TO AZKABAN.' " haha
Story
My brother-in-law works for Donnelly's and he said that during the printing of all the Harry Potter books security was tighter than Fort Knox.
My sister Connie called last night (she and her oldest son are WILD about Harry):
"A friend who works in a bookstore just called and said in a conspiratorial voice, 'Guess what we got into the store today? HARRY!!! But my manager put a big black curtain around the boxes with a sign that read: WARNING! LOOK AWAY! EMPLOYEES CAUGHT EVEN LOOKING AT THE BOXES WILL BE SENT TO AZKABAN.' " haha
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Home
I got home at 11:30 pm yesterday—that wasn’t bad but our meetings ended at 3 so one of the attendees and I walked around downtown Pittsburgh for a few hours the went back to the hotel to hang out until 6 when we headed for the airport. To occupy ourselves, I bought a copy of Real Simple magazine, and my friend bought a Stephen King book . . Lilse something or other, which she pronounced “crap” after reading the first three chapters.
Back to Pittsburgh . . . the parts we saw were actually lovely. The view from the ball park of the skyline was very spectacular. There’s one building that looks kind of glassy and castle-y.
I actually enjoyed the Pittsburgh Pirates game! (they lost--the final score was 8-10, and the Rockies got FIVE runs in the first innings alone) It was a beautiful night, we had excellent, excellent seats and I had a foot long hotdog with peppers and onions, a beer, cotton candy, some of some guy’s nachos and a $3.00 bottle of water! They also gave us free baseball caps which I gave to LP when I got home. Sitting in back of us was this all-American family: mother, father and two cute little boys who were kept very busy recording the stats of every player and every move of the game. On our row, people were continually standing up, leaving to go pee, get food, stretch, etc. and the littlest kid—probably aged seven—once said under his breath, but loud enough for me to hear—“aw, c’mon, sit down and enjoy the game whys don’t cha.” I glanced back and winked at him and he turned red. So cute he was!
I hotel was nice, and I loved the mattress and told BP that we have to buy one for our bed at home. I had to share a room, which I hate to do but it was only for one night and I held in a fart until I couldn’t do it anymore so I went into the bathroom and cut loose. I’m sure you wanted to know that.
If you ever want to have a pleasant flight, fly from Indianapolis to Pittsburgh and back. Not one child on either flight. Not one obnoxious person, no one even trying to engage you in conversation—just a quiet, relaxing short flight.
By the way, the meeting itself sucked and was so boring and unnecessary and I sat through the whole thing thinking about all I could have gotten accomplished had I stayed home and worked in the office. I did, however, meet a new York dude by the name of “Rocco” who regaled us all with stories growing up and getting chased around the house by a hockey stick-wielding mother. Funny stories. Thanks, Rocco, for bringing fun into a boring ass meeting.
Back to Pittsburgh . . . the parts we saw were actually lovely. The view from the ball park of the skyline was very spectacular. There’s one building that looks kind of glassy and castle-y.
I actually enjoyed the Pittsburgh Pirates game! (they lost--the final score was 8-10, and the Rockies got FIVE runs in the first innings alone) It was a beautiful night, we had excellent, excellent seats and I had a foot long hotdog with peppers and onions, a beer, cotton candy, some of some guy’s nachos and a $3.00 bottle of water! They also gave us free baseball caps which I gave to LP when I got home. Sitting in back of us was this all-American family: mother, father and two cute little boys who were kept very busy recording the stats of every player and every move of the game. On our row, people were continually standing up, leaving to go pee, get food, stretch, etc. and the littlest kid—probably aged seven—once said under his breath, but loud enough for me to hear—“aw, c’mon, sit down and enjoy the game whys don’t cha.” I glanced back and winked at him and he turned red. So cute he was!
I hotel was nice, and I loved the mattress and told BP that we have to buy one for our bed at home. I had to share a room, which I hate to do but it was only for one night and I held in a fart until I couldn’t do it anymore so I went into the bathroom and cut loose. I’m sure you wanted to know that.
If you ever want to have a pleasant flight, fly from Indianapolis to Pittsburgh and back. Not one child on either flight. Not one obnoxious person, no one even trying to engage you in conversation—just a quiet, relaxing short flight.
By the way, the meeting itself sucked and was so boring and unnecessary and I sat through the whole thing thinking about all I could have gotten accomplished had I stayed home and worked in the office. I did, however, meet a new York dude by the name of “Rocco” who regaled us all with stories growing up and getting chased around the house by a hockey stick-wielding mother. Funny stories. Thanks, Rocco, for bringing fun into a boring ass meeting.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
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