My First Woot-Off

Well, today is the day I have been eagerly waiting for: my very first Woot-Off. I wanted very much to buy the Phillips Ipod Dock Speakers, alas my state was entered as "Alabama" rather than Wisconsin, so I missed out on that one. On the way to class I happened to miss out on headphones and a $5 HP webcam. Inevitably whenever I leave, an amazing new product that I could actually use goes up. Cait debated getting the $80 8gb IPod but missed out on it by the time she made up her mind. I really wanted the Digital Photo Frame for $50 but decided that I would do my best to hold out for a Bag of Crap. I have been patiently waiting for it. I can't really start my paper until another lame item shows up. So I will wait, hiding in the shadows until BOOM! I get what I want.

UPDATE: I managed to get a pair of Bluetooth headsets and an HP webcam. I got something else, too, but I can't say what it was since part of it is going to Liz when she gets back!

I am slightly depressed that Liz is not here to share this exciting event with me. On another note, Cait and I went out to Lake Mendota and took a picture with the giant Statue of Liberty.

Random tidbits

Today I enjoyed a delicious lunch at Five Guys which featured potatoes from Sugar City, Idaho. These potatoes yielded perhaps the most delicious batch of fries yet. Anyway, I noticed that all of the "window seats" were taken by firefighters. Guess what they drove to get to lunch? The fire truck! It was parked outside as these men consumed oversized portions of heaven proceeded by gulps of delicious Pepsi, or "nectar," as my dad calls it. I'll add the picture I took later this week. Yeah, I know, I'm a creeper.

Whilst at Memorial Library I decided to rent a laptop so that I could go up to my tower and work without the sound of keys clicking around me and phones vibrating against the desks. They only had one available, a *gasp* Mac. I'll give it a try. I'm still using a desktop since the laptop was just returned. But in 11 minutes, it will be mine. All mine...for three days.

I ran across an update to Professor Hawk's blog that I like. Classicists will enjoy this more than everyone else, but have at it: Cicero.

The Wii interface reminds me of Macs. I do so enjoy the Wii, however, I don't think I'm ready to switch from a PC to a Mac, and I don't think I want to. I want to be able to play Age of Empires and Age of Mythology and avoid Safari. I am not a Mac person, which is why renting this laptop will be somewhat of an experiment. I'll let you know how it goes.

Wii FTW? Yes, FTW.

So, today I acquired a Wii. I know, I know, I said before that it was the one platform I was completely uninterested in. Well, I made a mistake. I love N64, and for me, the Wii is simply a newer version of my once-beloved N64. Mikel was amazing and sold me his Wii with two remotes and a nunchuck for $240, along with Wii Sports and Wii Play. Needless to say, I played it for several hours until my mom wanted to watch Judge Judy. In case you don't know, we only have one television at home with video game capabilities. Mikel even gave me two Gamecube games (yet another system I told myself I would never buy) but I lack a Gamecube memory card or controller to play them. I'll ask him about getting those later. For now, I'm plenty happy playing the same 14 mingames over and over. Though I do long for Super Mario Galaxy.....it reminds me of hooking up our N64 for the first time, and dreading how complicated the entire installation and interface would be since Sega was no walk in the park to hook up. Of course, N64 didn't require unhooking our TV antenna and there is no "lobby" area (Sega also lacked one, but we thought N64 might have one that would leave us confused for some reason). Funny story, when XBOX was the gift a few years ago, my dad, brother, and I saw my mom on TV buying the system at Wal-Mart. Fox 6 was showing how crazy stores were on Black Friday that year, and there was my mom, fighting off other moms, to buy us an XBOX. Of course, when she got home we made her give it to us right away so that we could play it. She was reluctant and denied even buying it, but they ran the story again that night and sure enough, there she was!

I went and saw Quantum of Solace with Yvonne yesterday, and have to admit that Daniel Craig is somewhat attractive for an old guy. I was disappointed that there was a general lack of cool objects used by 007, though I was impressed with the movie theater's popcorn. Delicious, as always.

I want to mention that while driving back home for Thanksgiving I saw a falling star. Not just a shooting star, but a falling star. It was definitely headed toward Earth. I love the annual meteor showers, but am not into them enough to bother becoming interested in astronomy; all I know is that the bigger ones are in December/January and August. This random little star was both cute and lovely.

If you love me, you will consider buying me one of these things for my 21st birthday, which is December 9th:

- Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
- Champagne (any variety)
- Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Wii)
- An iPod charger so I can charge it without my computer
- A real popcorn popper
- Books
- Anything romantic
- Cute earrings

This list (which may be added to as I think of new things) will also serve as my Christmas list, which will be reposted for Christmas once I can think of all the things I might desire for Jesus' birthday!

Madison is my hot hot sex

Recently, things have been amazing! Since I'm helping out a MHR class at 11:30, I'm going to summarize why I've been so pleased:

• I feel like everyone at work is really starting to get how we do things. Leases seem to be running smoothly now, and my team is on top for the second week in a row!
• I am making bank with all of the leases I've gotten, despite showing a ton of properties on the east side :)
  
• Liz and I cleaned the common spaces (living room, kitchen, dining area) and it is a much more pleasant place to be.
• Someone put new batteries in the remote. Yay!
• I went to Wal-Mart with Liz and bought two movies for $5 each - Big Daddy and Along Came Polly, as well as a new package of socks, brake fluid, and plastic for the windows. mmmm....new socks....
• I nearly completed a crossword during class yesterday. The Herald features stumpers sometimes, and I rocked this one in the face.
• I put the plastic on my windows - energy savings here I come!
• I am making mashed potatoes for lunch
• I added brake fluid to my car all by myself in the dark!
• Beth's birthday is coming up
• I have no more exams until finals! And one of my finals is a take-home final!
  

And best of all....

• When I decided to watch Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl, I noticed that this DVD, which I purchased at the DVD/Media Exchange store on State Street, had two discs: presumably a movie disc and a special features disc. I proceeded to place the disc which looked more like the actual movie into my PS2, though both had "Disc 1" printed on them. What happened? Well, it seems that my movie came with both the first AND second Pirates of the Carribean movies! Someone probably exchanged it and forgot to put the special features disc back in! Two movies in one case for $5 - amazing.
  

My dogs are super cute - even Widget, who has asthma and how much I hate cable

Before I begin, I have to mention that today is my mom's birthday. Of course, she's away in California with my aunt and Grandma, so we aren't going to do anything special other than call her and wish her a happy birthday, but it's still an occasion to acknowledge. I wish I could have gone with her since I haven't been out to California or Albuquerque since Ronnie and I started dating five years ago. Sometimes I feel like she's being selfish going out by herself and not even inviting us to come see our own family, but then I remember how expensive it is. But still. We weren't even invited to my Grandpa's military funeral in Albuquerque. Not even invited. Elizabeth secretly bought her own plane ticket and fly out and was reprimanded. It just doesn't seem right.

I brushed Widget's mangy fur today and I was pleasantly surprised. He looks as soft as he did when he when we first got him! All it took was a simple brushing. Now's he's cutie again!

I'm still excited about our new TV. It's a Toshiba Regza. Even though we only have regular broadcast channels, we now have a ton more. Four times as many, actually. We went from having eight channels to having 32 or so. We now have a weather channel and some of the MPTV (Milwaukee's PBS) channels are weather and traffic channels. My dad is entertaining because he often watches them like they're regular programs. I'm extremely relieved that we aren't getting cable at my apartment next year. I hated having to pay for it last year (my portion was about $20/mo for about 9 months - or about $180 total). It's just like drinking - I never really got into it, and thus I don't have much interest in it. I wouldn't buy a bottle just because, which is why paying for TV I didn't watch was just as asinine. This wasn't meant to be a rant about paying for cable, but it is now. Here goes: I tried to stick up for myself. I tried to say that we didn't need cable, citing the potential for distraction in addition to the cost as reasons for not getting it. All I was met with were comments suggesting that not having cable would mean the end for some. Realizing that there was no way to get out of having it, I went along. And then I realized that at least half of us living there lack cable at home and could probably have done without it. I would have liked to have known that $180 ago. So it goes. Regardless, next year we have all decided to use our money for better things and also have the option to chose our ISP, meaning we actually have an option this time around.

I was thinking about gossip the other day. It's kind of crazy how much gossip goes on. I also started thinking about specific kinds of gossip, like celebrity gossip. I wonder, does an interest in gossip bigger (for lack of a better word) than one's self cause one to gossip less than normal about one's daily life, or does it lack an effect? Alternatively, it could be observed that an interest in celebrity gossip, for example, is spurred by an interest in personal gossip, or vice-versa. Either way, it would be interesting to research.

I decided to join AnswerBag.com so that I could answer random questions. One that I chose to answer asked me to determine my magical dwarf name. Since I was bored enough, I took the time to figure it out (lol about three seconds). You take the first two letters of your first name, the last two of your last name, and then add the middle letter of your middle name (if you have an even number of letters, you take the one that makes the most sense). Mine, since I know everyone is dying to know, would be Merdy. Ronnie's would be Roeyr. The funny part is that these actually sound like names that might come up in DnD, if one could actually pronounce Ronnie's magical dwarf name. Katie K's would be Kaons. Some don't work out too well, like Steph's: Stsey (I would pronounce it like the tsetse fly) or many of the examples to follow. My mom's would be Shrdy, my dad's Grrdo or Grrdr. Steven's would be Strdv. Sounds kind of Norse. Or maybe Russian. Tom's would be Tokia and Dianah's would be Dikye. Elizabeth's would be Elern or Liern depending on whether or not she went by her full name or nickname. Anyone else remember JTT? Hot stuff back in the 90's. Anyway, his name would be Joasy. If you went by his birth name, however, it would be Jossy. What dumb fun. Anyway, my sn on Answer Bag is 'future archaeologist'. Look me up :)

That's about it for now, I believe. I have to finish cleaning the house tomorrow and I have another 10 miles to bike tomorrow at 8:15 am! Yay for getting in shape! :)