mdlbear | Saturday wrap-up (Reply)

After my walk -- a pretty reasonable one -- I did a little shopping. I started with Guitar Center, because I wanted to have a look at a lightweight polyfoam case that they had on sale for $50. This is about half the price of a superficially similar gig bag at Guitar Showcase, so I figured it was worth a trip. Besides, it was the first time since they moved to their new location that I had time and they had any parking.

I should know better than to go in there. It's loud enough to interfere with conversation, and the sales droid who latched on to me was highly annoying. Hint: don't ask somebody looking at guitar cases "Do you know what kind of guitar you have?" Look, you idiot -- don't you think I know what kind of guitar I have? And he seemed totally baffled at my annoyance, too, even after I reminded him of what he'd said. Apparently "do you know" is just his way of starting a question, with no intrinsic meaning to him.

I poked around in different parts of the store, fled when some moron cranked the volume on something up to 11, and got a different salesdroid when I took a second look at the case. Unlike other RoadRunner cases, it doesn't have backpack straps or an adequate front pocket, so it's not an improvement over what I have now.

As I said, I should know better than to go in there. Still, they do have good loss leaders from time.

Next stop was Central Computing, which didn't have anything I wanted, then BevMo, which for once had a reasonable supply of Boomsma Oude Genever. They rarely have more than one bottle in stock, so I bought two.

Finally, I went to the bank to get cash for the Dickens Fair tomorrow, and finished up at the Container Store. Picked up a couple of things there, but the one I was particularly after was a flower-shaped tea strainer called "Audrey". It says so right on the box. I mean, with a name like that... I bought three -- two for us and one for the flower_cat's cousin Audrey. I'll probably have to get a few more next week.

Went out for another shopping expedition -- this time with the Cat -- after lunch. Mainly Trader Joe's for a case of "two-buck Chuck". (eta: the Shiraz, this time.) It's moderately drinkable, and makes excellent cooking wine. We also hit the British shop, which yielded a DVD and some marmalade.