[The actual ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland on display in the Smithsonian. I've seen them several times. They are right next to Seinfeld's "puffy shirt".]
Had a nice little Sunday today. We went to Home Depot, but not to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. We didn't have time.
Actually, I was dreading this trip, but it turned out to not be so bad. We just picked out a bunch of materials with a contractor. S wants to have some work done on our house before we move in. In particular, we're completely redoing the bathroom in the master bedroom. S is the one who really wants to get it done -- I'm pretty indifferent (admittedly it will be cool when it's done) -- so she's taking the lead. She wanted me to go to Home Depot with her, so I did (and I missed most the Giants / Packers game), as part of an ongoing compromise. We go about things differently sometimes, so we're trying to meet in the middle.
See, I'm a man of leisure. My hobbies are a big part of me, so my free time is very important. I really don't want to spend it looking at tile, picking out a coloring scheme, and finding the toilet with the best feng shui. I understand there is an aspect of maintenance in life, and that sometimes you have to do these things, but I do them only when I absolutely must. If this means I have an ugly bathroom, so be it. I'm OK with that. But S isn't. Having a nice bathroom is important to her and since it's important to her and it's my bathroom too, she wants it to be important to me, and therein lies the need for compromise. What it boils down to is that I'm going to have to make a few more Home Depot trips than I normally would, and she's going to have to not hold it against me if sometimes I stay home and play online Scrabble for hours while she's out searching for the prefect ottoman.
[An apropos scene from "Old School". I'm usually not that into stupid comedies, but I thought this movie was pretty funny.]
Speaking of online Scrabble, I've gotten really into this game Words With Friends. It's not quite Scrabble, but pretty close. The biggest difference is that the bonus for playing all seven tiles is only 35 points in Words as opposed to 50 in Scrabble. This means that memorizing a bunch of obscure seven-lettered words is less valuable in Words. For most people this is probably a good thing, but for me it's a bad thing. Still, I'm damn good at Words. I've played five different friends multiple games and have yet to lose. However, my friend BJ is a very strong player as well, and we've had several close games (we have one going right now). If we keep playing he's going to beat me soon. There's enough randomness in the game that you simply can't win every time against a competent opponent.
In sporting news, I've been doing some (very) low stakes gambling on the NFL playoffs. I've been nailing it. Last week I took the Broncos both against the spread and straight up on the money line. That alone put me in the black for the week. My bets this week: 49ers (money line), Saints-49ers over (46.5 points), Patriots (-13.5), Texans (money line and +7.5), and Giants (money line and +7.5). That's seven bets and six of them hit, three of which were money lines (e.g., netted me more than I bet), for a profit of 114%! That is a-ok. Now, of course, two good weeks don't really mean much. In the long run, almost all gamblers lose (that's why gambling is possible), but there are a few people, Vegas sharps, who can barely win enough to consistently turn a profit. I have a dream that I could be one of these people. (I mean if there are two things I know, it's math and sports.) I'm probably too risk-averse to ever seriously raise the stakes (which is not a bad thing), but I like to think that if I did I'd be one of the rare winners.
Alright, that just about puts a bow on this post. There was talk of watching Moneyball later, so S and I might do that. It's a baseball movie, but S doesn't mind because it has one of the sexiest men of all-time in it . Ladies, you know who I'm talking about, Jonah Hill.
Until next time...
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