uninteresting :: rich

paulie got married

so…after the initial trip from hell, we arrived in st. augustine, FL, for paul & heather’s wedding. we were pretty beat, so we went to the ceremony, then took a nap, went to the reception, then took a nap, went out for drinks, then went to bed early. it was a good time, though. it was a small, intimate wedding held at the Old City House bed ‘n breakfast.

we planned to stay in town through the weekend, thinking perhaps some other people would as well…turns out, *everyone* split the next morning. so we decided to do the town right, and checked into the Cedar House Inn bed & breakfast.

think antique, victorian, frilly, lacey, southern…conservative. the stay was a pretty trippy experience, one we vowed not to repeat until we’re old & decrepit.

the town of st augustine was equally exciting. actually, we were grasping to find things to do. we went to a thrift store. and a flea market. and played pool. you get the idea. but the one big highlight was the alligator farm, which was *awesome* (see the pics).

like most cities in the south, the population wasn’t very diverse - mostly white, some black. we sighted asians 3 times. our desperation peaked on the last night, when we had dinner at Acapulco’s for 1) the cultural diversity (they actually employed hispanics) and 2) a meal that didn’t come with fries.

the “1gb memory stick pro duo” is officially the hardest thing to buy (for a fair price) ever. it’s the highest capacity memory stick for use with the PSP. every gadget or accessory i’ve ever REALLY wanted i could get, through one channel or another - online, retail or used.

i’ve been trying to get one the past 6 wks or so to no avail - every online & retail store is sold out and the ones on ebay are way marked up. even the old standby craigslist hasn’t been able to turn any up. i’ve placed 2 online orders for it, only to cancel after the stores told me they didn’t really have any available.

i’m kicking myself, because it would’ve been easy to see the demand for this coming and to have stocked up and made a bundle off the situation.

last Wednesday we left work early to head to JFK for a flight to Jacksonville for Paul & Heather’s wedding. it was one of those days when, in hindsight, you realize the universe has been conspiring against you.

as usual, we took the subway to the Howard Beach station where you transfer to the nifty new AirTran tram that recently replaced the free shuttle buses to the airport. so we each pay the $5 AirTran fee and once inside they tell you the service is down and that we have to take a shuttle bus.

ok, not that big a deal. we get on the bus, and it’s pretty packed with people. at the next stop there’s a ton of people waiting for the bus, and i’m thinking that we’re gonna have to skip them, because there’s no way they’d fit…but no, he stops and every single person squeezes on board. the driver argues with a passenger because he can’t see the rearview mirror; the passenger says he has nowhere to move. twice the driver closes the rear bus doors on people and starts driving off while they’re still getting out.

the passengers were no help, either. everyone was so concerned about their own flights, distracting the driver with questions about their specific flight while he’s trying to manuever the overfilled bus. at a stoplight, the people in the front egged him on to run the light so that they could catch their flight.

we finally get off, frazzled. we get to Delta ticketing. i’m able to check-in just fine. Amo’s ticket was a buddy pass purchased by my mom, who said it was an e-ticket that didn’t require a hardcopy. the ticketing agent says it’s not an e-ticket and we realize that she’s not going to let Amo travel. a full-fare ticket is over $400. freak out, sadness. Amo’d spent so much time shopping to the right outfit to wear at the wedding. after a bit, we decide i may as well go ahead on my own. so i go back to the ticketing agent, and she says it’s too late for me to make the flight!

a little more freaking out, realizing that neither of us are going. we wander around aimlessly a bit, and decide to go home. of course, it’s not without more annoyances - the airtran is still down and there are no signs indicating how to get to the subway. then on the subway home, we’re at a standstill for about 20 mins because of a police investigation.

fast forward - next morning, we get up at 3:15am and cab it to the airport. we now have a hardcopy of Amo’s ticket (which my mom scanned in and emailed to me from Shanghai) AND we purchased a full-fare ticket (which turned out to be $230 online) as a backup. we checkin at the ticketing agent using Amo’s standby reservation just fine (this agent had no idea why Amo was held up the day before…very frustrating) and we’re at the gate a good hour and a half early.

we sit, relaxing, sleeping. all is good this time. we’re standby, so we board after everyone else is already on the plane. finally we’re ready to board, and they stop me right at the entrance to the gate. turns out, my standby coupon says ‘flight coupon required’ - which means the ticketing agent was supposed to have me pay for my ticket upon checkin…but she hadn’t mentioned it. and i can’t pay for it at the gate entrance. “sorry, you should’ve known this. i can’t let you fly” was the annoying response from woman.

i try to lead life at a relaxing pace. i don’t like to rush, or to be rushed. but there are times in life when time is of the essence. this was one of those times.

the plane is taking off in about 5 minutes. everyone is on board. i drop my bags, tell Amo to wait, and run as fast as possible back through the terminal all the way back to the ticketing desk. i pay for my ticket, run all the way back (even thru security check) and get back to the gate just in time to get on the plane.

at last, we were on our way to the wedding. as a side note, there was a couple behind us that saw us being held up - we discovered later that they were wedding guests, too!

for the past few months i’ve been scheming to install a washer/dryer at home. my baby made the excellent suggestion a long time ago, which led me to start looking into combo washer/dryers (the kind that wash AND dry in the same unit). there isn’t a whole lot of info on them, so a buying decision wasn’t clear. also, i wasn’t sure if i needed to upgrade my electrical outlets to 220v, or if i needed to install a vent, or if any additional plumbing work was needed. the lack of clear product info and all these potential extra costs put a hamper on things (pun intended).

anyways, last weekend it finally became a reality. i found a used LG WD3274 on craigslist (with 3 yrs warranty left) for $675 (a good 1/2 off retail). i rented a zipcar for 2 hrs, and with the help of my bro got it moved into my apt no problemo. a trip to Home Depot later i had the plumbing parts i needed, which i installed myself (impressive, yes).

so here it is, snug as a bug where the dishwasher used to be:

just a random art idea that i thought would be cool…what if someone made what appeared to be a full length mirror, but really it was a high-resolution LCD display that had a camera behind it facing you. so when you’re standing in front of it, you see yourself in high-def, and your movements are reflected on the screen, just like a mirror. i wonder if it’d feel/look like a real mirror?

you’d probably have to stand in a very specific spot so that your eyes are exactly at the level of the camera, so that the right perspective is displayed. i’m sure there’s some technical stuff someone could figure out. and you wouldn’t be able to move your head all up/down/left/right, unless the camera was following you from behind the mirror. but standing in that one spot, i wonder…