I worked from home today, waiting for the “microhood” installer to arrive. He called at about 8:45 saying he’d received my voicemail message yesterday, but hadn’t confirmed that my microwave had actually arrived at Sears. He asked for a number off the receipt, which I didn’t have. After we hung up, I found the receipt in my trunk and called him back and left a message with it.
After lunchtime, he called to tell me he’d be here somewhere between 5 and 6PM, and would call if he could get here earlier as he worked through his schedule for the day.
At 3:00, I ran to the Blockbuster on Six Forks and Lassiter, and rented both copies of Mame for the Sunday night viewing at Jay’s. Actually, one version is called “Mame,” and the other version is called, “Auntie Mame.”
Michael E. told me three things about the Lucy version: 1) (the one thing everyone seems to know) “they used so much vaseline on the lens (to make Lucy look younger) that you can hardly see what’s going on, 2) Lucille Ball wrote into her contract for Mame that she got to keep all the jewelry used in it when it was done filming, and 3) the scene in a Japenese Garden was filmed in the Arboretum in Pasadena.
I also stopped at the Harris Teeter right near the Blockbuster and bought pork chops for dinner, and some vegetables.
Once home I chopped up a lot of salad vegetables, and when starting to prepare the glaze for the pork chops, discovered that I’d missed an item on my list — frozen apple juice concentrate. I ran out to the Food Lion at 4:30.
Robert arrived at about 5:40, and the microwave installer still hadn’t arrived. He called him for me, and found out he was running about 40 minutes behind.
I went ahead and cooked. The dinner was pretty good, but the pork chops were over-cooked. I know better for next time. They were still pretty decent.
The installer, Larry, arrived mid-meal, and went to work on the installation. He had to add an electric outlet in the cabinet above the stove. The color of this microwave was billed as “bisque,” which can (supposedly) substitute for almond. Well, folks, hate to tell you but bisque is a better substitution for white. Good thing I don’t care about those kind of things. Besides, now I have a white dishwasher and white microwave. When the (almond) stove and fridge go out, I’ll replace them with white. They’re both 17 years old, but I’ve had no problems with either of them.
We had an interesting conversation with the installer while he was there. He’s also an electrician (a “general electrician”). We talked about electricity, steel in microwaves, and my brother being electocuted while flying a kite (Go, Ben!) using “Christmas string” — with a foil (good conductor!) thread twisted in with a green and red one.
During this time, Robert and I also had a short conversation about Mame, and I brought out the (some) “questionable questions” that we are to consider before the meeting.
We were going to drive to Sears to pick up my gas grill, but just before we left, while musing if the box would fit in my car, I remembered that it was coming already assembled. We bagged that idea.
Instead, we took a ride out to the new mall in North Raleigh, which neither of us had ever been to. It’s alright, but not being a shopper, and especially not being a mall shopper, I would never ride out there for anything. I’ll bet I’ve only been to Crabtree Valley Mall twice in about 3 years, and it’s just up the road.
After MMMMMMMMMMing, we couldn’t sleep, as the new neighbors had their stereo blasting, with the base reverberating throughout my place. Finally, after about an hour-and-a-half (at about 12:10), I went next door and asked them if they could turn the music down. They said, “Oh yeah; sorry about that buddy. T-J! TURN THE MUSIC DOWN!”
It got totally quiet after that. “TJ” either went to headphones or turned it very low or completely off. We were still a little wound and couldn’t sleep. So, we MMMMMMMMMMed again, and about three minutes after that Robert was snoring, ever so lightly. Good. He has to get up at 7AM to be at work in Chapel Hill for 8:00.