I turned in my PBCs (personal business commitments) for 2005 today. Mel reviewed them, and accepted them “as is.” I entered them into the “PBC tool.” All set for another year. I had brief discussions with Cassandra and Jennifer about the new ICD process, and the DIV Qlib database, which gives me error accessing the server copy. I made a local replica, on which I was able to do what I needed without errors. Weird. I sent Randy a note with the requested audit schedule for the WIM/TUM project.
I stopped at Sam’s Club on the way home with the intention of just looking at their portable DVD players, and picking up some “paper products.” They were down to only one player — they used to have three. It was “okay,” but it was an 8-inch screen, and I’m looking for something a little bigger than that. I moved on to my shopping.
I bought a two-loaf (because I had to) package of 3 grams of fiber bread, tasted a Cheese Con Queso quesadilla advertising the cheese (which was out of this world), tasted a one-half inch by three-fourths inch square of turtle cheese cake, passed on a sample of some deep-fried cod (mostly because there wasn’t a piece ready), and sampled a little plastic cup of some mini-squares cinnamon cereal. But I digress.
I bought that 1000-roll package of toilet paper, and the 500-box package of tissues, the 250-bar package of soap bars (Lever 2000), and a 48-bag (no exaggeration on this one) box of Cape Code 40% Reduced Fat Potato Chips.
At the register, there was a couple in front of me that had that mega-roll package of toilet paper, and that was it. I thought, “They are going to go home and shit for days.” Then, I wondered what people thought I’d be doing for days with all this toilet paper and tissue. Oh well. It’s probably about an 8-10 months supply for me. It’s not like the shit (no pun intended) goes bad.
After that, I stopped at Food Lion and picked up cucumbers, celery, sliced mushrooms, skim milk, extra sharp cheddar cheese, and a CPK Sicilian Pizza, which I’d never seen before. It looked good in the picture on the cover.
Robert was there when I got home, and had just taken out the other CPK pizza (White Pizza), that we had planned to cook. I showed him the new Sicilian one, and we decided to cook both, since they were thin crust, and he could eat the leftovers over the weekend at his work, if we had some left.
While they cooked, I peeled a cucumber, diced up some more onion, cut up some cherry tomatoes, and made us a salad to have with the pizza.
As it turned out, we both liked the White Pizza best, and we did have just a couple of pieces left over, which Robert decided not to take to work. We wrapped them up in tinfoil and refrigerated them.
We took a ride to Best Buy, then to Circuit City, and finally to Sears to check out portable DVD players. I wasn’t impressed with the selection at Best Buy, was less impressed with the customer service (which was basically none). The displays had no DVDs in them, and no one was around to ask for help.
Circuit City had the best variety, but there were two of them that looked to pretty much have the same function, but one of them was about $360 and the other one was close to $600. We asked a sales guy what the difference was, and basically, he didn’t have any idea. “I certainly don’t see $250 worth of difference,” he said. Neither did I. He said about the $360 one, that they had just got those in, because a lot of people were asking for that particular brand and model.
Sears’ choice was pathetic, as was the “help.” We walked to the portable DVD player section, which was adjacent to the TV section, and there were about 4 salesmen in the area — all of whom were watching the NC State NCAA game, none of whom even looked up at us as we walked by and through their section. Once Robert got near one of the cash register areas, behind which were two of the salesmen, one of them did come out from behind the counter to show us where the players were. Again, not an impressive selection at all.
We had made a few notes of brands and prices, and I will comparison shop on the Internet tomorrow or Sunday. I’m in no rush for this thing. Oh yeah, in Best Buy, I also took a gander at the iPods. I’m itching to spend some of my bonus money, which is coming in my 03/31 paycheck.
Once home, we watched What in the “bleep” do we know? on DVD, which Robert had rented from Visart.
Movie Synopsis: Amanda (Marlee Matlin) finds herself in a fantastic Alice in Wonderland experience when her daily, uninspired life literally begins to unravel, revealing the uncertain world of the quantum field hidden behind what we consider to be our normal, waking reality.
She is literally plunged into a swirl of chaotic occurrences, while the characters she encounters on this odyssey reveal the deeper, hidden knowledge she doesn’t even realize she has asked for. Like every hero, Amanda is thrown into crisis, questioning the fundamental premises of her life — that the reality she has believed in about how men are, how relationships with others should be, and how her emotions are affecting her work isn’t reality at all!
As Amanda learns to relax into the experience, she conquers her fears, gains wisdom, and wins the keys to the great secrets of the ages, all in the most entertaining way. She is then no longer the victim of circumstances, but she is on the way to being the creative force in her life. Her life will never be the same.
Overall, I’d have to say that while this movie was interesting, it nowhere near lived up to the hype I’ve heard about it. And I can’t believe that the site from which I clipped the synopsis categorized the genre of this movie as Comedy.
I think The Elegant Universe, which can be viewed in its entirety online, and which I can’t recommend enough was much, much better. My thoughts about it, from when I viewed it, are in this live journal entry.
After the movie, I put in the first DVD of the four-DVD set of the first season of Will & Grace, which I haven’t looked at it since it arrived after buying it from www.stealitback.com on Christmas day last year. I have never been an auction site type person, have never bought anything on e-Bay even, but I put a bid on that DVD set on 12/22/04, and “won” on 12/25/04. I received the set right before the end of the year, and haven’t yet looked at it.
The very first episode was most interesting, as Karen hadn’t yet settled into her accent. We watched the first three episodes, and shared a lot of laughs. It was a nice evening all around.