Sam’s sucks, Mario, 2 more, Repaired

So on the way home from work on Friday I stopped at Sam’s Club to get some bulk items we were running low on.  My first stop was in the video game aisle where I picked up Super Mario Galaxy which is supposedly one of the best games out there for the Wii. So after picking up my items I head to the checkout to pay for the stuff.  It’s a bit annoying, when you buy video games you pay for them at the checkout but then have to go wait in line at the customer service desk to pick them up so that is what I did, waited 5 minutes, got the game and headed for the door.  Sam’s has this incredibly annoying policy of having a person at the door check your receipt to make sure you aren’t stealing stuff.  It’s ridiculous, something my Dad would never endure, of course he would never set foot into a Sam’s Club to begin with.  So anyway I hand the door guy my receipt and he counts my items.  I am impatiently waiting for him to hand me back the receipt when he stops and counts again.  He says “You have 14 items, the receipt says 13, you have to go over there…” pointing back to the customer service desk I just had left. I immediately got very angry and protested as I saw a line 5 deep at the customer service desk.  “I just came from there, why do I need to go stand back in line for a mistake by your clerk”  The guy said that was the only spot where they can fix it.  I stared at him in disbelief for a moment and then angrily went over to the desk with a scowl on my face.  Monday morning QB style, I should have taken the 40 pound bag of softener salt I wasn’t charged for and dropped it on the floor and walked out.  Damn that would have been perfect.

So after waiting another 5 minutes or so I get to talk to the same clerk that I did to pick up the video game.  I immediately start griping to her, saying how it was crazy to make customers go back into another line and wait when Sam’s clerks f’s something up.  She apologized and agreed with me.  She ran the 5 dollar transaction for the salt and I went back to Mr Door checkout man.  I flash him the receipt and say “Here!”  Nope the delays are not over.  Now he has to take the information on both receipts and transcribe it to an error log he has sitting on a stool by the door.  There were maybe a half dozen other entries already on it.  I was incredibly annoyed.  I love all the “stuff” Sam’s has at decent prices.  I HATE dealing with the store.  You almost feel like you just slept with a whore when you walk out of that place.

So my mood was plenty miserable after that cluster f.  Luckily I had a traffic jam to pile on to the bad feelings.  Traffic was gridlocked all the way up to the interstate.  It took me at least 45 minutes to travel the 14 miles to my house.   When I opened the garage door and saw Ali wasn’t back yet from ballet I was even more annoyed.  Evidently she got caught up in the same traffic nightmare on her way back.  

Late Friday night after we watched our Friday night tivo-fest I popped in Super Mario Galaxy to give it a try.  Immediately I was almost embarrassed by how juvenile the game is.  The dialogue that pops up in the chat bubbles with mushroom people, talking stars and other silly looking characters is at a 6 year old’s reading level.  However it doesn’t change the fact that the game is a buffet for your senses.  Playing the game requires using the nunchuk.  You control direction with the nunchuk in the left hand and do things like jump and shoot star bullets with the right hand. It seems a bit awkward at first, especially because there is no conventional camera angles you are in space so conventional physics don’t always apply.  The bottom line is it is fun.  They do a nice job of incorporating the free flowing ability of the controllers into the game.  I have discovered 3 or 4 galaxies so far and entered the zone where Mario gets to transform into a bee.    It’s two player mode is kind of different.  It’s really like one and a half player mode.  If a second player wants to join in they get the ability to take over the star shooting part of the challenge which could be helpful as things get real hectic.  It’s great fun, even if it is geared for kids with only one digit in their age.

On Saturday I was very busy.  I had a string of technical successes that made me feel good.  I replaced the brush motor on my one ailing Roomba to bring it back to life.  Ripping the Roomba apart into various little pieces and putting it back together and having it still work made me feel good, much like the rush I got during my pc/printer repair tech days.  Then I swapped out my old Directv receiver and card with a used one I bought off ebay.  At first I thought it could be as simple as moving my existing card over to the new receiver.  That didn’t work and I had to get customer service involved.  After about 15 minutes on the phone I was up and running, so much for a $90 charge to have a tech come out and do the same thing.  The final tech success was getting the HDTV antenna in place for optimal reception, allowing me to get clear HDTV on several stations.  I spent some time watching the Winter X-Games in HDTV.  Wow, the detail is pretty amazing, it looked great. It makes me anxious to upgrade my 6 year old Sony projection to a more modern, 16:9 big screen.

The weather this weekend was cooler.  I mowed and weed whacked the property on Saturday and hardly broke a sweat.  As I was riding around on the mower I took a moment to think it was sort of wild that I was out mowing grass at the end of January, only in Florida…

Sunday was a decent day.  Ali had to do some stuff related to her race for a good chunk of the morning.  I played housemaid for much of the morning as I stripped the bed, washed the sheets, swept the floors, folded laundry and emptied the dishwasher.  Sometimes I get annoyed that I wind up having to do these sort of chores, sometimes I don’t mind.  I didn’t mind too much on Sunday. 

I had Ali buzz my hair down on Sunday afternoon.  I look like I am right out of the Marine Corp once again.  Late Sunday afternoon we went back to the track to run again.  We ran an extra lap, making the total distance a little more than 2 1/4 miles.  I felt pretty good during the run and more importantly don’t feel too bad today.  Ali actually signed us up to run the largest 5k in the area in mid-February.  It should be fun.  It feels good to get out there running with Ali again.

I helped make dinner Sunday night.  “Making dinner” basically meant working the microwave and stirring a pot of mac n cheese so the noodles didn’t stick.  It was hardly cooking but Ali appreciated the effort anyway. Sunday night Ali and I played some Wii tennis.  Ali later took the Wii fitness test and checked in at 51 years old in Wii age.  It was a big improvement from her initial test that calculated her Wii age at 68.  I later took the test and flashed a disappointing 40.  Two of the challenges were boxing which sucks.  I don’t know what it is but boxing is the one game where my controller movements don’t seem to translate to the screen accurately.