Toast, Moot

Reservations please?

Our washing machine finally gave up the ghost yesterday and we figured we couldn’t go too long being stinky. So, Little Miss Consumer Reports did all the research and found the mostest bestest washing machine to keep our clothes clean and fluffy. Finding someone that would sell it to us was a different matter altogether.

Using my mad internets skillz, I tried to find a local store that carried the model we were looking for and had it in stock. Sears seemed a likely candidate, and sure enough, after plugging in my zip code, the website told me the item was “In Stock” and “Available for in-store pickup”. Sounded great… until I got to the checkout page that looked like this:

Notice the area inside the reddish oval: “In stock The earliest available data is: Apr 16 2007”. But, that would mean “out of stock”, wouldn’t it?

I’m not sure how they define “in stock” other than incorrectly. I’m reminded of Jerry Seinfeld’s routine on car rental agencies…

You know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them.

In fairness, a similar message appeared regardless of which washer I picked. But, I don’t think that makes me feel any better, or gets my clothes any cleaner.

Enough already

Look, I’m not an American Idol fan or anything, but since I got married I’m now contractually obligated to at least pay attention to it. I often wish that the American [Idol] public had as much interest in local and national political elections, but I don’t think that’ll ever be possible… unless they allow voting by text message.

What makes me angry is the new found popularity of people who suck. Howard Stern, degenerate extraordinaire and overall bad influence on everyone, and other groups have been urging people to vote for the worst contestants on American Idol to keep them annoying everyone week after week. Thanks everyone for your help. You’ve taken a bad show and made it a whole lot worse because we just don’t have enough crappy entertainment on TV.

Long haired hippie people

So, last week I found out that a friend of a friend had taken up an offer to buy a dilapidated sailboat that had been sitting in a marina in Puerto Vallarta. Since last November he and his wife have been living on the “Tupo” and sailing up and down the Pacific coast of Mexico.

Their blog JanetAndEric.com is a record of their travails of fixing up the boat, learning to sail, and living the “cruiser’s” life on the Mexican Riviera.

It almost makes me want to quit my job, grab Dena and Cisco, buy a boat, and never look back…

…almost.