So I Did Something About It

A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from my ISP advising me of a "preferred" customer sale at a certain consumer electronics company that uses a big yellow price tag as its logo. I planned on going, I even did my research and I knew exactly what I wanted to buy. I waited until the weekend and cased the joint so that I knew exactly where what I wanted to buy was and I knew which brand and model I wanted. Later that week, a friend of mine who at the moment just so happens to be sunning herself on a South American cruise and will be receiving her belated Christmas bonus next month (an all expense-paid trip to the Dominican Republic), asked me to get together and study for the final exam. I hesitated. I knew there was a reason why I couldn't get together with her on the day, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I realized later that it was because of the sale. It all worked out in the end, we had a study session and I zipped over to the sale and got what I wanted - sort of. I ended up getting a better model for a little more money and was pleased as punch when I walked out of the store. Even though I got hosed on the additional memory card purchase (hosed in the sense that I hadn't budgeted for the card, but actually got a good deal on it) I went home and started tinkering with my new digital camera. Nothing fancy, just a Samsung 5 megapixel for a hobby photog. The thing is, I'm crap at taking pictures. I took a few good ones, most of which Ali made me promise to delete and then when I wanted to upload the photos to my hard drive, the camera software didn't install properly and my drive wouldn't recognize the USB cable. I didn't have time for this, I had an exam to study for and I wasn't about to shlep back to the store for advice. Instead, I asked one of the IT guys at work for some help. I had already uninstalled and reinstalled the camera driver like 3 times on my own, so on Monday morning when the IT guy said "Just buy a card reader. You can get 'em for about 30 bucks", I felt really stupid. I didn't buy a card reader, partly because I wasn't going back to the store until after the exam and I might as well get some help from them at the same time, and partly because Samsung said I didn't need one. Fast forward to last Wednesday: Ali and I went to the store and explained the situation. They told us to bring the camera back and speak to one of their tech guys. Heck, I'd already paid for parking and I'd be damned if I was going to pay twice. Time for my elephant brain to come up with a solution. How to get from the store to my flat and back again before the end of the hour of parking I had paid for. Three seconds later, the solution was clear. So we sped back to my flat and grabbed the camera and the USB cable. When we got back to the store we were ignored for a good ten minutes but then finally we got to speak to a tech. I figured they'd have the software so I didn't bring mine. Big mistake. I told the tech everything I had done and he was so patient with me and my stupid questions that I figured I just had to be patient like him. So after work the next day, I reinstalled everything from scratch and voila, the camera driver decided to co-operate.

So that brings me to this: Dax Watches Movies now includes photos - something I swore I would never do on this blog. And I start it off with this - a photo of the most-traveled mapbook in the world. I was given this booklet by Lola as a prize for the best songlist submitted. Now that I've enjoyed it, in a stunning example of linear thinking, I've decided to send it back to Malaysia to someone who really wanted it, and had a really good song list as well. Besides, Lainie is quite proud to stalk Lola. Now that the mapbook is in the post, I can only hope that Lainie passes it on when she's done with it, but no official arrangements have been made.

It's been a big day for a couple of other reasons as well. The biggest, I guess is that Ali met Sissy and Enzo for the first time today. After a dog shift (06:30 - 14:30 on a Saturday), we trekked out to Sissy's for dinner. I got Baby all ready for the big day. I washed her good this afternoon, but evidently not good enough. There were spots on the passenger window. Enzo explained that it was because I was washing the Jeep incorrectly and that I should do it as I had seen my neighbour do to his Lincoln this morning. Wash one side, rinse. Wash the bonnet, rinse. Wash the other side, rinse. Wash the boot, rinse. Wash the roof, rinse. Wash the rims and tyres, rinse. Fair enough. Somewhere along the journey, Baby hit 4000 km. I think it was just as we pulled into Sissy's driveway and then left again because we had arrived too early. I had my camera with me and should have taken a photo, but I missed the moment. Come on 5000!

We came back a half hour later and started with wine, and I thought I was going to get into some trouble here, but it worked out. We had barbecued pork, roast pork, pasta with onions and ham which I'm going to have to try and make later, and roasted vegetables. As an added bonus, Dionisio (Enzo's baby brother) handed around some nice cheeses. Ali nearly shit herself. She loves cheese and these two offerings, aged Fontina and Sardo, were so good. For dessert, we had Baci ice cream (eeeee!) with brandy on top. Everybody so nice! Ali had been afraid to meet Enzo because she knew he's a hunter and that he has rifles in the house. A little later, I asked Ali if she wanted to see the guns. She said yes, and it turns out she has a bit of a blood lust. Maybe more than a bit.

Dionisio took some photos of Ali aiming a few rifles. I thought he had a digital camera, so I didn't bother taking any photos with mine. I wish I had, because he had a film camera. As Enzo helped her aim the guns (from the wrong end of the barrel!), I blocked Ali's finger from the trigger because well, this is how you end up on the front page. She really scored some points with Enzo when she looked down the sights and said, "You make a good target". After a few more rifles, I asked Ali if she was scared. She said, "Actually, I'm a little excited". As it is, she now has a standing invitation from Enzo to go shooting any time. I think somebody has to explain the concept of recoil first.

So apart from a few cutting questions, and a few more to suss her out a bit, Enzo and Sissy were really easy on her. For her part, Ali really liked the kinfolk. On the way home, I told her that it was probably more important to be honest than to be polite on this question, but she didn't change her answer and convinced me that she wasn't just being polite. She started to get drowsy at about 6:30 so we left at 8:00. We hit the city by 8:30 and were back downtown by 8:40. Ali was home in time to get enough sleep and start another dog shift tomorrow. Another first for Baby (and for me I suppose) was that I ran my first red. Nothing deliberate, like a paparazzo or anything. I was just following the guy in front through and forgot to check what colour the light was. It turned red as he entered the intersection and was clearly red when Baby entered. I didn't accelerate to clear the intersection, but I did keep an eye on the cross traffic. It was easy because it was one way. It was early enough that none of them had begun to advance, but I did get few angry horns. I decided that I should probably grab a coffee and get home as quickly and as safely as possible. I did it.