Aspen, $20 soft pretzel, boom, robot
We finally had a weekend with what used to be typical Florida winter weather with mild temps in the mid 70’s. On Saturday while Ali was out on a run with her girlfriends I worked around the house. I did some more Camaro prep work in the garage.
In order to house two vehicles in the garage I am going need to utilize space very efficiently. One thing needed to help clear the far wall was relocating the garage fridge to the near wall. The only problem was I had a wire shelf on that wall which was too low to allow the fridge to fit underneath. So I remounted the shelf about 6 inches higher to address the problem. After doing so I rolled the fridge over, it slid under the higher shelf quite nicely. I still have one large rolling wire shelf unit on that far wall which is going to have to find a new home. After that I plan to install some permanent high shelves on the concrete wall so I still have some degree of storage in the garage.
Ali had a ballet performance Saturday afternoon. I didn’t attend it since we agreed I would go see it on Sunday instead. By the time Ali got home it was time to head right back out to the Pet Lover’s Ball, the high brow fund raiser put on by the Humane Society.
Last year was the first year I went to the event. They made a few changes to the event this year, some good, some not so good. Last year everybody had an assigned seat at a table. This year there were two classes of ball attendees, the upper class table dwellers and the lower class people (us) that had no assigned seating and instead just milled around.
The tables were corded off to create a clear visible barrier between the VIP’s and not so VIP’s. The food stations were scattered around the area. As a non-VIP you grabbed your plate and then had to circle to find a place to eat it. They had precious few high top tables sprinkled around for the low life’s to eat at but none were available. Ali and I wound up eating out on the pool deck.
The food itself was very good and very plentiful just like last year. There was a big change this year which was a huge positive, it was an OPEN bar! Last year they gave you two drink tickets, meaning you could get two drinks on the house, after that you were dipping into your pocket. I think the positive of the open bar outweighed the negative of the segregated eating arrangements. I had a mix of alcohol that included a cosmopolitan, Beck’s beer and saki.
The saki was particularly interesting. I never had it before, it’s served warm and in tiny little cups. The taste was unlike anything I tasted before, it had a very organic feel to it. Someone warned me that if I never had saki before I should not over indulge so I kept it to one cup. The combination of alcohol definitely helped lighten my mood which admittedly was not great on the way to the event.
Just like last year, the ball was filled with women primped to the max. The botox was fresh, the cleavage was spilling out everywhere and there were more cougars than in a zoo. It was entertaining just to scan the room.
This event is a fund raiser more than anything. Ali and I perused the various silent auction items. Last year we threw a bid on something just for shits and giggles, of course it was outbid. This year we saw another package that intrigued us, a two night stay in Aspen, a little hard shell carry on piece of luggage and dog watching from some high end dog sitting service. Ali asked if she should bid on it. I said sure, knowing we would never win with a $300 bid.
Well as the evening went on I kept drinking and Ali kept updating our bid. By the end of the auction our bid had nearly doubled up to $570 and we were now the winners. My feeling were mixed about the win. I’ve never been to Aspen and on the way to the ball one of the things we discussed was how we are very restricted on where we travel because we are both very hesitant to leave the dogs, especially Nicki. Sadie would be fine being kenneled, she loves everyone. I wasn’t thrilled spending the money of course and the last thing we need is another bag. We have bags barfing out of our closet already.
Ali was excited to win and excited to travel. We will probably wind up going during non-snow season since neither of us are skiers.
On Saturday one of my projects was fixing our under the sink RO system. It stopped producing water. After doing some investigation I assumed the main RO cartridge needed to be replaced. There are three cartridges in the RO system, a pre-filter, a post-filter and the RO cartridge. I had just replaced the pre and post filter a few months back but the main RO cartridge had not been replaced yet. So it was a logical conclusion that it was now time.
These cartridges are very expensive, the RO cartridge alone was over $70. I had Ali grab one on her way home from running Saturday. I installed the cartridge, waited a few hours and then was frustrated to see I still did not have water.
On Sunday I did some more investigation, leaving the new RO cartridge in place but replacing the other two with the blank canisters that are used for cleaning the unit. The water flowed freely. Son of a bitch, the other filters are bad. So off to Home Depot I went to get the other two cartridges which cost another $45. So after $100 + of new cartridges the RO system is flowing once again.
Like I said, I agreed to go to Ali’s ballet performance on Sunday. It was being held outside in Cambier Park in conjunction with some big art festival. Ali wanted to leave early so we had time to walk around and look at art. Before we left we got into a bit of an argument about it.
Ali said that maybe we could find some nice art to hang on our mostly barren walls. Our walls have been mostly barren since they were repainted. I told Ali that our spare room has a TON of stuff piled in it that was on the walls, maybe we could first get what we want out of that pile back up first before we go and buy some overpriced piece of art? That stuff had been sitting in the spare room for months, untouched. Well Ali didn’t appreciate me complaining about it and carried the chip on her shoulder for awhile.
As we got into downtown Naples it became obvious that the art festival was a big event. We drove the entire height of the parking garage without finding an open space. My refusal to be a parking space monger cost us a couple spots but I refused to sit there with my turn signal on for 5 minutes while an old geezer finally backs out of a spot. We eventually lucked into finding a spot that was only a block from the festival.
The street was lined with exhibitors on either side of the street, the walkway was jammed with people, mostly old ones. Ali and I were in the vast minority of people under 65 years old from the looks of it. Some of the art we saw was nice although most of what I liked were simply blown up pictures. Of course there were no deals to be had anywhere. If you go to a Naples Art Festival to buy art you probably can afford to wipe your ass with $20 bills.
Speaking of $20, that is exactly how much we spent on food. $20 bought us two soft pretzels and two 10-12 ounce cups of lemonade. No that isn’t a misprint. I think I was too much in shock to react appropriately when the vendor asked for payment. The appropriate response would have been “$20???? Are you f’ing crazy? No thanks” followed by us walking away in a huff. Instead I numbly handed over the Andrew Jackson even as I registered the transaction as the most ridiculously overpriced food purchase of my entire life.
I noticed that this food stand and all of the other food stands had no posted prices. Perhaps this was to be more inline with the high brow atmosphere of an art festival. You know, if you have to ask what it costs, you can’t afford it. To have that apply to carnival junk food is a bit over the top for me. I’m still angry with myself for actually paying that much for food.
So after walking around eating the world’s most expensive soft pretzel and seeing nothing that seemed worth the money to me, we headed to the stage where Ali would perform. Her routine was the same one they learned last year so it was easy for Ali to pick it up again. They actually did two sets so I saw the performance twice. Ali did a good job in her role.
After getting home I fired up the new grill for the first time and made some burgers on it for me and the dogs. It seemed to do a nice job and actually burned much hotter than the old one. Sunday night around 10:15 I was startled by a huge noise that rattled the entire house. It only took a few moments for me to realize it was the sonic boom from the space shuttle. I don’t ever recall the noise being quite that big or the impact on the house being that severe.
I saw Tiger’s press conference on Friday. Well I listened to the entire thing on the radio and then saw video clips later. After hearing his robotic, rehearsed speech I am 100% sure that he is well on his way to no longer desiring to have sex with the scores of hot women that land on his doorstep, not. It’s all about damage control and little else in my opinion. Sure I’m sure he is sorry he got caught. Don’t get me wrong, I am far from the moral police. If Tiger wants to bang a different woman every night that’s fine with me. Just don’t try to bamboozle the public about who you really are.