Yesterday, Lauren and I went to Toby's Dinner Theatre for her birthday and saw Happy Days, the musical. I was never a big fan of the series but had seen enough of it to get the inside jokes and references to the old sitcom. A few of the groaners included not seeing Chuck for a few years now, the Fonz not being the same since he jumped the shark and Richie commenting on his usual ability to solve problems in just one-half hour. Lauren was enchanted. She was watching for our server, Elena, in the ensemble numbers (she was actually pretty good singing and dancing with enthusiasm). Lauren had her birthday announced before the show and got souvenir etched glasses with the name of the show.

Today was a mixed bag. The good news - I believe we've got a buyer for our house that was willing to pay our asking price. We've also got a prospect on a new house although it's a probable short sale, meaning the asking price is below the existing mortgage which requires the mortgage company's approval of the sale price. The not so good news - shopping day at the Safeway. I was thrilled to see no register manned by UOAS. The only cashier was a very pretty young woman who was not so prettily chewing gum with her mouth open. I had one interaction with her before purchasing my groceries that went like this:

Me: Can you tell me where the ant spray is?
Pretty But Brainless (PBB): I think it's right over there (pointing vaguely and then exasperatedly leading me there.)
PBB (yelling at the bag boy): Hey Charles! Is this stuff good for ants?
Me: No, I'm pretty sure it kills them (can clearly labeled "Ant Spray" with a dead ant lying on its back with its feet sticking up in the air lying next to a cartoon tombstone).

We'll see if this young lady becomes my new tormentor.


Two Replies to Odds & Ends

Scott Hardie | June 1, 2011
Good luck with the house. It's been an ordeal.

Happy Days is still a thing? Eating at Cheeburger Cheeburger last week, I wondered how much longer 1950s nostalgia would last, as generational shifts slowly take their toll on our collective memory. But then, it's been almost seventy years since the Holocaust, and joking about it is still career poison no matter how much of a reputation you have for outrageous statements, so apparently the strong connotations carried by these topics aren't going to start fading from our shared memory any time soon.

Jackie Mason | June 11, 2011
[hidden by author request]


Web Junkie

Steve West scours the Web searching for interest or absurdity and then shakes his head ruefully when he finds it. Read more »

Woman Attacks Karaoke Singer

A woman attacked a karaoke singer while he was singing Coldplay. A similar thing happened to me once. I was pretty drunk and I started a fight with some guy singing Dave Matthews. Go »

Driftwood Horses

I walk along the beach and I see firewood and that opening scene from Jaws. This lady sees Go »

All Aboard The Idiot Train

I swear that lately, I feel like the proverbial snowball that inexorably turns into an avalanche. Yesterday, I was unloading the van of the last of the grass needed to complete the front yard landscaping. Only 170 square feet so it wouldn't take long. Go »

Great Moments In Sign Hacking

If only I had had my camera... The Washington Beltway is similar to other major national highways in that it has several LED signs displaying messages to commuters. Silver alerts, orange alerts, missing children BOLOs, etc. Go »

It's My Honor to Be Her Father

I just returned from Lauren"s surprise wedding shower. She was completely awed. She came on the pretense of picking up a couch for her apartment in North Dakota. Go »

Darth Vader Is Alive And Well And Living In My Toaster

So we got this gift from a mother-in law who shall remain nameless; a "super-mega-nuclear look at me long enough and your face will melt like that guy in Raiders toaster. There was nothing wrong with our existing toaster but when she saw it on QVC, my nameless mother-in-law had one of those have to have it moments. I've nicknamed the toaster Darth Vader because regardless of the setting, it turns the bread to the dark side every time. Go »