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These are deeply fascinating me right now.

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Going back to work after a weekend of being with with good friends is a lot like leaving a convention. It's sad to think that I don't get to see these people as often as I'd like to and that I'm going back to the mundane world again. It was so nice having posicat around Friday and Saturday, and then geeking with he and samiitiger and tybis Sunday afternoon and evening. They're all such good people.

We've introduced two more people to Baptist Man. It's almost silly how many times we've watched this low-budget little VHS tape that we bought on a lark at Salvation Army. I've also been exposed to Heroes thanks to Posi's MythTV box (Which I'm really quite impressed by, by the way. It makes me want to build my own.). And speaking of videos, the group of us all spent a little while being amused by a few titles while on a reciprocal trip to the one we took in DeKalb, though I think the hardware we found was more interesting to most of us.

Other fun things of note from the weekend include wooisme, Posi, and myself chancing upon a CompUSA in the midst of a going out of business sale. I borrowed Posi's cell phone, took orders from my parents and friends for hard drives, DVD spindles, and DVD burners, and spent a grand total of over four-hundred dollars there, about three-quarters of which I'm being reimbursed for. I was really hoping to find a KVM switch, but those seemed to have moved quickly. I did pick up a DVD burner for myself, along with a USB floppy drive, and a USB card reader for Andrea to use with our cameras. Or, I tried to.

We got to the car with our belongings and, as I was rooting through the tech to find something to look at on the trip, I realized that the floppy drive was not there. I went back in to the store and talked to the clerk who checked us out. He looked around behind the counter and couldn't locate it. I went back out to the car one more time to make sure I hadn't missed it, but it was, in fact, gone.

Posi and I went back into the store, which had become significantly busier since we were got there. I think we must have been lucky enough to get there near opening. I talked to the clerk again, after waiting in line for about twenty minutes, and told him that I definitely didn't have the floppy drive. He looked around again, and then recruited another guy to help look. He went into the back room for a minute, came back out, and discussed with the other three clerks behind the counter who all began looking for the floppy drive. Just when I had begun to think that my suspicion that it had mistakenly ended up in someone else's bag had been confirmed, the first clerk reached under the counter and produced the box. "Oh, here it is." Apparently, whatever trans-dimensional void had briefly swallowed the thing up had decided to release it.

That was fine enough for me and we continued on our way. It wasn't until the next stop, the used bookstore that Moira and wyldekyttin had visited a couple weeks ago, that I looked for another toy to occupy my attention and found that the card reader must have been relegated to that same gadget-hungry void that my floppy drive had only narrowly been rescued from. Well, bugger. At that point we decided that it just wasn't worth going back. Fortunately, Posi managed to get in touch with Tybis and ask him to pick one up for me on their way through later on. Thanks Tybis!

The bookstore, The Frugal Muse, was a thing of beauty. It wasn't on the level of John King books in Detroit, but then, very little is. It's probably about the biggest used book store I can think of around these parts, and it's a very well stocked one. My mate and I ended up with a few choice finds, and the three of us spent a very pleasant forty-five minutes or so browsing the selections. Ah, to have more money, and more space, and many, many more shelves....

I have other things to spend money on before bookshelves though. Things such as tires. serinthia and I, during our lunch outing to deposit monies received for hardware in my bank, noted that one of the tires on my truck was low. In the course of inflating it back to spec, I realized that, though I'd known for some time that they were pretty bald, I hadn't known the full extent of the issue. In fact, on one of the front tires, there were some scratches that actually expose a few slivers of steel belting. Tires for the trucklet just got bumped up a few priority levels. I'm not really surprised; I've put a lot of miles on those wheels. Now I'm just debating between spending way too much money on new ones, or just putting it up on jackstands and taking the rims down to Ed's Used Tires this weekend for replacements. No, they wouldn't match, but having tires on a vehicle that actually match is certainly more the exception than the rule for me.

*mrrfs* I'm hungry. Chinese buffet last night kept me stuffed 'till lunchtime today, and I had a few of the freebie bagels from work, but I could use something yummy for dinner. Fortunately, I have a wonder of a raccoon-girl for a mate who's probably planning on cooking up just such a thing tonight. Whee! Raccoon girls seem to be very nice creatures as a whole, and that definitely includes the one who's driving me home right now. I don't know if I've adequately expressed in this space how nice it's been to have her as a travelling companion and chauffeur, but it is very much appreciated! As much as I'm hoping that it ends soon and she finds employment that's more local and more permanent, It's not often that one gets to work and commute with a good friend and I'm grateful for the opportunity. Thank you serinthia!