We finally settled our issue with Budget Rental Car. When we were in Hawaii the car locked itself with the keys inside while we got gas and we needed a replacement key. We called Budget’s Emergency number and they basically told us to call the local office and hung up on us. We then called the local office and they were shorthanded so they told us to take a cab ride down to Kona and get it at $80 round trip. Finally, they agreed to send the keys up for $40 and we had no other alternative so we had to agree. It was not our fault they were shorthanded… We tried explaining to them that the car locked itself and it was not us who locked the doors. We also tested the car numerous other times to see if it would do the same thing and sometimes it did and other times it did not. The electrical system in that car was really messed up. The keyless entry almost never worked too. However, we were promised that the car would be checked out by a mechanic by this evil Budget woman. Of course, that was a big lie, so it was never checked out. When we emailed Budget customer service about all this they said it was basically too bad that it happened but they could not do anything about it. So, we were very angry since we were treated badly as customers, not to mention the verbal abuse I took from the rude Budget woman in Kona, so we contacted the Better Business Bureau. All of a sudden Budget is interested in “the spirit of customer service” and we end up with a partial refund plus the $40 taxi ride for the car keys. Of course, we will never use Budget again… After our experience with American Airlines we will also never use them again. We are quite glad to have gotten rid of our American Airlines travel vouchers on our last trip to Hawaii.

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Hooray. Today we drained the waterbed and threw out the water mattress. It was really disgusting. It was really like sludge with weird chunks in it. When we finally got it to the dumpster it busted open and water started gushing out from the foam stabilizer inside. Fortunately, we were able to get it into the dumpster with only our legs and feet getting soaked from it. Joy. Then, we deconstructed the bed frame and headboard and put them in the mouse house aka storage room. Fortunately, we took pictures of the bed and plan to sell it to someone. Anyone want a waterbed minus the water mattress? I will even throw in my autograph for free. That alone is worth the $200 we are asking. Any takers?
We are also getting rid of crap on eBay to make more room and to get rid of clutter. We are also talking about never getting another waterbed or regular mattress ever again. Another waterbed will just leak and explode and a regular mattress will have nasty bed bugs in it and just be like a giant piece of carpet that you sleep on that makes you sneeze. Nasty. We will just sleep on air. It seems safer and cleaner all around. Besides, our bed cannot catch on fire or float away. The worst case scenario is that it pops and we have to buy a new one for $50.

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Woohoo! Our waterbed gushed out 3 inches of water! It is a big geyser now. We just got back from Target where we purchased an air mattress. At least it will be dry…

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My new weight lifting gloves are working out great! I was able to squat with weights that are 10-15 lbs. heavier than I used last time simply because my hands were not aching from the bumpy barbells. Yay. We just had an absolutely brutal leg workout. I scored bonus points for carrying Brian back from the gym to the apartment. It is only 3/10 of a mile but it was easy. Yay for making large muscle and strength gains.

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Big excitement today. We went to the post office after Brian finished at school so we could send our half.com sales. A very interesting couple was in front of us. It was a man and a woman (married) who had been married so long that they looked like each other down to the texture of their hair. Frankly, the man would have made a more attractive woman than the woman did. After that most interesting experience we went to Target to buy random items like dish soap (because I am too cool to buy it at the grocery store…or something), water filters, and other stuff that we needed. Then, we needed to head down to the City Center mall downtown to buy some new weight lifting gloves for me. Of course, City Center is the only place that stocks Harbinger so it necessitated a visit… The bus ride down was quite interesting. Some weird old guy got on the bus and started randomly pulling out change and preventing other people from getting on the bus. Then he took his taped up cane and sat down on the bus and ate a hamburger. That smelled just dandy. I smelled it before I saw it. Yuck. Also, you are not supposed to eat or drink on the bus… However, that did not stop a guy from arguing with a bus driver about being on a power trip over not allowing him to bring his open container drink on the bus. The guy probably would have spilled it all over the floor. It also seems that half of the Columbus ghetto decided to ride the bus today. That is always an interesting bunch…

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The other day we received a flyer in the mail from Time Warner cable TV. Normally, we would not pay any attention to such things since we do not own a TV. However, this flyer was rather interesting. A quote from the flyer reads, “Help achieve a victory for Adult Literacy. Get cable TV.” Great. Since when does TV (cable or no cable) help acheive adult literacy? Hilarious…

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We decided to go to the North Market today. We stopped off at the ATM in Giant Eagle (grocery store) to get some cash. We were second in line. I thought that would mean that we would be in and out quickly. I did notice that the manager or assistant manager of Giant Eagle was helping a person with a mullet haircut at the ATM. Apparently, this fellow was illiterate. He was not only illiterate but he could not understand that you had to take money out in increments of $20. He wanted to take out $10 and said that his account should have at least $10 in it. Of course, this was not his bank so he would also have to pay a $2 service charge. He could not understand why $22 could not be debited from his bank account that held $10. The manager person (Brian says he is a bag boy, I think he was too nice to be a bag boy, whatever…). Anyway, this illiterate person just stands there at the ATM trying to argue at the bag boy/manager trying to understand this situation using what minuscule amount of logical capabilities he had. As we were leaving, I commented about the person and Brian said that the illiterate person was mentally challenged. I really just think the person took many drugs and his brain is fried…

After that lovely experience, we went to the bus stop to take a trip to the North Market. Some weird person randomly says, “Sure is a long wait, isn’t it?” to us. We ignore him, as he is a random weird Ohioan that we have no social or intellectual interest in. I spot a weird woman go out of her way to pick up a penny on the sidewalk. The bus finally comes and we head down High St.

We arrive in the Arena District at the North Market and all of the local farmers have set up little tents outside of the building. We looked around and it seems as though the 30+ farmers only grow corn and tomatoes. Great. We did not buy any of it as we already had locally grown tomatoes at home and the corn did not look so hot. The place was filled with stupid Ohioans and we had to wait for them to move since they seemed to enjoy just standing in the middle of walkways. We got inside the building and walked around looking at everything. We noticed that they had a disproportionately large sections of meat compared with everything else. We stopped to look at the cheese shop, the Vietnamese shop, and various other little shops. We ate a lemon fraiche from Jeni’s Ice Cream. After a while, we decided to leave. I always seem to want to remember the North Market as being better than it really is.

Then we walked north on High St. to where the Happy Greek is located and caught a bus going north. We got on the bus and saw three vacant seats. Then we noticed that they had tape over them. I could not tell why at first but I later figured out that someone poo-pooed on the seat. Great. Finally were able to move to the back of the bus to sit in poo-free seats. Yay. Of course, this was after being thrown about the bus by the driver who liked to drive double the speed limit, cut off cars, and tail them. I asked Brian if this was supposed to be the *New Express #2 Bus*. He laughed because I am very funny. We then arrived home safely and still in time to workout at 2 PM.

We went to the gym and I started out on the elliptical trainer watching some inane news program on TV. I had the remote on the elliptical with me. Then, some girl walked in and bothered me while I was working out. She asked if it was possible to watch tennis. Then she channel surfs to find tennis announcing each channel, as “that’s not tennis” and making me annoyed. I jumped off the elliptical trainer to get away from her and went to start on the weight workout. Two of her little friends came in, they started yelling across the workout room, and then they did 3 minutes of cardio and then worked out with 5 lb. weights. Why bother? Then one of the friends took the workout cleaner so I waited for her to return with it. She came back and attempted to start a conversation with me. Annoying… I avoided it and took the bottle from her. Why would I want to talk to her? Creepy. As I was doing my weight workout, I could see out of the corner of my eye that tennis TV girl was just lying on a mat watching TV. Go home; this is a gym, not a living room. She reminded me of the fat guy who was laying on a mat watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer while his girlfriend and her friend attempted to manage a shoddy workout. Of course, those same idiots brought a large dog into the workout room and attached it to the leg extension machine. Great. Fortunately, I turned them in and they had to leave the workout room. Funny, I have not seen them in there since…

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The weird South American single man with no apparent friends or family moved out several months ago. His cooking smells were horrid but he was very quiet. It seems we have a new neighbor next door now. He is a college age guy that appears to have no friends and we hope it stays that way. He does, however, have cable internet. Hopefully, this means that he stays home enough to substantiate the cost of having broadband. He also has his TV on almost constantly. We hear it everytime we leave the apartment. He reminded Brian of “Jimmy Jet and his TV Set” by Shel Silverstein. However, outside of that, he seems to be almost silent. This is a good thing… His family helped him move in and our eyes nearly exploded after we had to look at his shirtless father whose chest hair resembled a large male gorilla…

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Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

We have broadband! No more of that terrible narrow band dial-up! I do not have to wait for pages to load any longer. Yay, I rejoice and celebrate! I am rather giddy about having fast internet again. It would seem that I missed it more than I thought. Pathetic, yes, perhaps…

I am starving, more later…

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Our power has been out for several hours. Fun! It finally came back on just as we arrived home from the grocery store sometime after midnight. Our building was completely dark so it was difficult to see to even walk inside or outside of the building. In addition, a very loud concert at the Schottenstein Center across the river was going on and bouncing off the river making for a very loud evening. Also, weird people speaking ebonics (my refusal to capitalize ebonics is also part of my refusal to acknowledge it as a language) and talking about “busting a cap.” I had no idea what this meant so I asked Brian and he said that it referred to shooting someone. Considering that we live in a very quiet and nice apartment complex, I was quite surprised to learn this. Fortunately, the “bust a cap” folks left in the “hoopty car” (another learned phrase). I am quite afraid that I have no future as a linguist who studies ebonics…

Over the last few days or so I have read all the Harry Potter books for the first time. I enjoyed them quite a bit. I am quite ready for the seventh book to come out. Rowling says that she wrote the last chapter of the last book when she wrote the first book so I expect her to finish it all by next week. Seriously, how long can it take to churn out a 700+ page book? It is fiction, so she does not have to do fact checking. Write faster, day and night, I say!

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We finally got out of the apartment today! We decided to go see the movie, March of the Penguins, a French released documentary on the mating rituals of the Emperor Penguins of Antarctica. It was quite interesting and fascinating. Now, Brian wishes to visit the Antarctic and climb the highest mountain with some sort of adventure guide. I suggested that one of the Emperor Penguins might be a cheaper guide. He has not yet agreed to this…

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Given that a large number of hits to this site are from Palestinian sources we would like to extend a welcome (unless your intentions are malicious) to you. We are interested in world politics and are very interested to know what the Palestinian views are on various world events. Do feel free to post…

Last night, Brian and I were discussing Catholic communions and how they believe that the bread is really the body of Christ and the wine really is the blood of Christ. I wanted to know what exactly makes them believe this because quite simply they would be cannibals if it was *really* the body and blood of Christ and also Christ had a limited surface area and a limited blood supply. So, Brian suggested that we go into a Catholic chat room and ask someone. We went into one and found a random Catholic girl to ask and she answered that the priests, bishops, etc. are all direct descendents of the Apostles and can turn wine into blood and bread into Jesus flesh. Then she attempted to flirt with Brian. That was humorous. Does anyone else have any thoughts or insight concerning Catholic communion?

I am also reading The Life and Times of Margery Kempe by Louis Collis. It is a rather hilarious true story about Margery Kempe who lived in the 15th century and believed that she was sent by God to be a saint. She had many bouts of insanity, was a neglectful mother of 14 children, and was called a heretic numerous times. I have not yet finished but it is incredibly humorous thus far. It is also one of the reasons why I have a renewed interest in Catholic beliefs and ridiculous rituals.

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Our main computer is going crazy. It seems to enjoy not booting up properly and not giving me log files of the dump. After spending all night being annoyed with it, I finally did a System Restore. Something is very wrong with using Microsoft products to fix Microsoft problems. And it is not as though I fixed it. Really, it is just like going back in time to correct a problem. You did not fix the problem or avoid it, you simply did something (who knows what something) to fix some random and obscure problem. I detest Microsoft!

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Parental units and Mexican tour bus riders take note:

“…some men will travel through many countries, going always to the best hotels, meeting the same idle rich whom they would meet at home, conversing on the same topics upon which they converse at their own dinner table. When they return, their only feeling is one of relief at having done with the boredom of expensive locomotio. Other men wherever they go see what is characteristic, make the acquaintance of people who typify the locality, observe whatever is of interest either historically or socially, eat the food of the country, learn its manners and its language, and come home with a new stock of pleasant thoughts for winter evenings.” -Bertrand Russell

We have begun our travel section with the above quote… More travel content is coming soon. Also, the photo galleries are up.

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