Trudging around Ann Arbor, gleefully!

There was a flurry of activity just after breakfast on this brisk morning, as Olivia's team of "snow men" turned up with their equipment. In the summer months they mow the lawn; in winter they clear the paved areas of snow. No phone call needed; it snowed over the holidays, so here they are! They probably aren't used to excited Aussies peering through the window and photographing them as they work, though. Driveway cleared, it was off to the mall (Briarwood), hopefully to buy a few US-themed T-shirts in the post-Christmas sales, and to find somewhere nice for lunch!

Day 5 photos:

In come the snow blowers!

Santa's seal of approval?

Too much eggnog?

Definitely too much eggnog

More party animals at the mall

This cute snowman was built the day before by Max & Erma's wait staff.
(They had the boss's permission; it had been a slow day.) He was right outside our window table.

I amused them all by going outside in shirtsleeves to take more photographs of him!
Everyone kept asking - all day: "Aren't you cold?"

Dinner with the Kaleidoscopes (Jeff and his wife, of Kaleidoscope Books). Jeff brought pomegranate ale!

Ironman goes shopping?

Ironman browsing at Kings Comics, Sydney. Shoplifters beware!






Ironman: the new security guard at at Kings Comics?

"Ironman 2", coming to DVD near you soon!

So cool!

My new 25cm diameter Dyson "air multiplier" - a metallic blue bladeless fan for the lounge room that my poor ol' ducted air conditioning just cannot reach on a sweltering summer's day. Only problem was that I had to venture out into the heat to buy it.

The pretty blue colour matches the couch, it goes well with all the "Star Trek" decor - and the dog is terrified of all that cold air coming from seemingly nowhere!

I originally saw them in Brisbane, in the New Year sales at David Jones, but decided to see if my local Good Guys had one today. The blue is 25cm diameter, but it matched the couch so beautifully. There's also a 30cm diameter version in either white or gunmetal.

Central to my shopping habits

Returning to Central Station after a night on the town - or, at least, a night buying the week's latest batch of new comics, books, DVDs and toys. It was fun meeting up with Nathan so we could swap anecdotes about bargains from the days of yore.

Maria in town

My friend, Maria, from Brisbane, was in town for a fleeting visit, so we took the opportunity to do over the Sydney CBD shops before she had to board her airport-bound train.

It was just like the good ol' days.

Being the lead-up to Christmas, we also took in the sights of David Jones' traditional Christmas windows...



These windows are such an important, nostalgic part of Christmas in Sydney. A trip to the city in the festive season without visiting the DJs windows is just... not done!

Sunday's magic number: 95.6 - ho ho ho hum.

Dragon between bargains

Today was my third annual school fundraising shopping trip. As in previous years, I was almost the token male - only one other male shopper, plus the male bus driver.

What did I buy this year? Well, nothing at all for the first two stops, but then I really let my hair down: a few Christmas gifts, a cushion that was a perfect match for last year's doona cover, a Christmas ht featuring a "crashed Santa", three tubs of delectable gelato, and lots of Christmas edible goodies (which I again must try not to eat before Christmas). And the gorgeous, large, pewter dragon (pictured above), my huge extravagance.

The customer is always... annoyingly right!

I was so angry, but I stood my ground and I won!

Maybe I had something to prove after Wednesday's frustrating photo ID defeat, but I've always said that everyone should devote some time towards serving the general public at some time in their lives. I'm giving the Target checkout guy the full benefit of my doubt: maybe he's new and he didn't know about "the customer is always right" adage, or maybe he was on a toilet break when that bit got mentioned during training.

I left for the city yesterday in short sleeves. It was a gorgeous, sunny, spring day - but, in the concrete and steel canyons of our CBD, it was a little breezy, and I began to realise I was going to need to buy myself something light, yet long-sleeved, for returning home.

Finding everything else I'd been looking for (I had one purchase which had taken me to Dymocks' Broadway Centre shopping centre, on the site of the old Grace Bros department store. It was quite a nostalgic walk, past buildings that were removed (no more Tooth & Co brewery), or being removed (no more St Barnabus's church), since my days at teachers' college in Ultimo in the late 70s).

I found a light jacket I wanted to buy. It was a great price, $29.88, marked down to $19.88. But a sign said, "Buy any second item and get the second one for a further 50% off." The second jacket I found had a $29.86 price tag, with a markdown sticker of $15.86. Being of average size, I rarely find "el cheapo" clothing bargains in my size!

My problem was that that the first item rang up at its original price, and I had to prompt the guy to check the price, and then the second jacket would only scan at its high price.

"This isn't part of the sale," he said.

Huh? Even if the price tag was wrong, every item in the store was part of the sale; the sign said so. And then he elaborated, "A customer has changed the sticker from another item."

Again, and louder?: "Huh?"

Was he saying that I changed the ticket? Isn't there some rule about wrongly priced items, and similiarly, about sales signs that are incorrect?

The checkout guy was not budging so I told him he could keep the lot, including the $35 DVD I had on the counter, too. Then I had a second thought. There was another identical jacket, although of smaller size, back on the rack - and would he believe me if it had the same prices marked on it? Off I stormed, returning with a victorious grin.

Suddenly, it was no problem for him to adjust manually the price tags at the computerised cash register. I got 50% off the second jacket's reduced price, and a further 50% of the remaining amount as an apology.

Now that's bargain shopping! I'm glad I didn't have to stick by my guns and walk out jacketless (and DVDless). It was getting chilly out there on Broadway.

Shopping for Apples

I'm just home from the Apple Retail Store in the CBD with my new laptop (and next week, I collect my iPhone!).



Well, the bank account wasn't looking too bad and, since I've spent a number of recent days uploading photos to Facebook, I'm hitting the "rolling beachball of death" way too often on my now-antiquated, lampshade-base iMac. I was told it'll be tricky (plus over $500) to get the memory upgraded sufficiently to take the latest operating system upgrade. And even then, no promises.

So... a laptop was becoming an essential requirement. It'll be able to handle all the new capabilities, and the iMac can take up the slack on simpler things. I may even take the even older PowerMac dinosaur into school/work and stick a few games on it for the students - we are a PC-only school. (Ick.)

Simultaneously, my first mobile phone is on its last legs; my original phone plan ran out last month, so I went for a double act today; I have a few days to master the laptop, before I collect the iPhone next week.

I also got a new scanner/printer, and the new-fangled "Time Capsule", which allows care-free full back-ups. Yippee.

When you enter the big Apple Store (in the CBD) intending to buy, they sign you up for "personal shopping" experience. I was booked in for two appointments: the laptop purchase, which I could do immediately, and the iPhone purchase, and I elected to make the iPhone appointment for next Thursday. It would be too bamboozling to buy too much hardware at once!

Now I have time, theoretically, to investigate the various plans available, and to find out how many ID points I'll need, since I don't drive and my passport has expired, and I can never prove who I am - even to post a parcel overseas - these days.

I'll probably buy the iPhone outright, but at the Apple Store they have an upstairs area where all the providers (Telstra, Optus, etc) are available to help you switch into a new plan when you buy the phone.

Jack lives here

Well, Jack seems happy to live anywhere I happen to be; such is the loyalty of a Jack Russell terrier. He really is a wonderful little traveller. He seems to eagerly anticipate each leg of the journey and, even after wandering for hours on his lead and harness through various country town centres, or around the perimeter of Lake Burley Griffin on a warm afternoon, he always seems ready to do it all again, gleefully, at the next pitstop. (Even when those nasty swans keeping chasing one all around the lake and honking at one to make one want to bark... and get one into big trouble from the Master's housemate!)



Pet-friendly bed 'n' breakfast venues usually request that dogs not be left alone in the accommodation, and in summer it's impossible to leave an animal alone in a stationary car for even a few minutes, so having a dog on holiday can be a burden at times - ie. no trips to the cinema, and only brief sojourns into air-conditioned shopping arcades, while one human waits outside with the four-legged "child" - but mostly it's a joy to take Jack on vacation.

On nights when he's quite tired, we are usually able to leave him in the car outside a restaurant and have something more substantial than fast food, or sidewalk cafe fare. We left Jack outside a pizza restaurant last night, and he was still wrapped in his blanket when we got back. He hadn't even moved to peek out the window to see how far away we were going to be! It does take a lot to make a Jack Russell tired, but there have been a few times when we've achieved such a feat.

Seeing stars? Call a toe truck!

Ouch. I just dropped a boxed set of the first eight "Star Trek" movies on VHS on my foot. Strangely, there was no immediate pain... until I retrieved the heavy giftbox had a closer look at my injury - and saw that the corner of the box had landed right on the edge of the big toe nail on my left foot.

Now there is pain! And blood. I've applied a makeshift tight bandage with an Elastiplast and a piece of material, but I'm really not game to have another look yet.

Guess what was on the shopping list I made this morning, that I will now not be able to complete (until my housemate arrives home from a week's vacation tonight)? Yes, I needed to restock Dettol antiseptic, since the old bottle I tossed a few weeks ago was almost empty, and the last dregs had turned to jelly in the bottom of the bottle. Ick. (Mind you, at this point I'd apply 1998 vintage Dettol jelly if I could guarantee my toe will be infection free as it recovers.

I needed to shop badly. The only food in the house at the moment is a punnet of strawberries I put into a bowl of Boronia marsala this morning. I think I might just drain them now and drink the marinade.

Ouch, ouch, ouch.

I just know I'm gonna lose the nail...

(And stop looking at me that way, Jack. It might be Saturday afternoon, and beautiful weather outside, but no walkies today! For reasons that should be obvious.)

Guilt trips

Yesterday, I was out of the house for a full twelve hours: my second annual school fundraising shopping trip. Like last year, I was saved by being the token male by the presence of one other male shopper, and the bus driver. It was the second trip for me - and just as much fun as last year - but the 15th or so annual trip for the staff organisers!

What did I buy? A few Christmas gifts, two pair of shoes, some low-priced baking trays, a new doona cover, and lots of Christmas edible goodies (which I must now try not to eat before Christmas).

And how's NaNoWriMo, ie (Inter)National Novel Writing Month, going? Mmmmm. Bad question. I was so tired on Thursday night, after a day's work and the Star Trek Meetup, but desperately tried to meet my daily word count. I then tried to record my day's word count on the official website, but the site was running so slowly I gave up. Friday came and went, Saturday I was shopping all day, and today the burden of not achieving my totals for Thursday, friday and Saturday weighed heavily.

What a disaster. Can I salvage my dignity and get some writing done? At this point, it's not looking good. And while on a frustrating roll...

Sunday's magic number: 92.0 - slightly down on last week, which is good. I guess. This is where the diet gets really frustrating; I've cut down my food intake by such a lot, my clothes are fitting much better, I don't get breathless tying my shoelaces anymore, and I walk everywhere - and yet my body is content to stay stable at this mass. I've heard all the advice on the radio: I should be alternating my brisk daily walks with swimming (ick), or using a rowing machine (yuk). I'm resisting such drastic action, and hoping that the kgs will slooooowly keep coming off. But I still thought it would be faster progress for all the things I've given up.

Lounging around

Today I went shopping for a new lounge suite. The old lounges (a three-seater with foldaway bed and a matching two-seater) have done almost eight years service here, and several years back at my old home unit. It had quite bold geometric designs on it originally and then, as the material became shabby, I bought lounge covers and the second set is just about worn out now.

When a lounge suite makes such a significant contribution to a house's decor, not to mention the significant inroads into one's savings/credit account, it can be quite daunting.

Add to that the need to complement essential existing room contents, such as; DVDs; CDs; a full-size blue mannequin dressed in Andorian ambassadorial robes; widescreen TV - that sort of everyday thing.

Add to that a Jack Russell terrier, who plays "mountain goat" on the existing furniture without fear or favour, and sheds white fur onto most materials that are within two rooms' proximity.

I settled for a made-to-order large corner suite, covered with a liquid-repelling, "ocean blue", thick, corduroy material - with recliners built-in. The foldaway bed will be hidden inside a matching coffee table, hopefully extending the life of the lounge. It also will come with two cube-shaped storage ottomans.

I'm looking forward to its arrival, but not to the many sleepy nights spent trying to watch DVDs that make meee sooooo sleeee.........

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

Doin' the rounds

Thursday afternoon, and I'm once again heading into the Sydney CBD after work, to "do over" my favourite haunts for books, comics, toys and so on. This particular dash around the city shops (and last week's) felt rather odd: the Mid City Center, in the Pitt Street Mall, has been totally vacated for major renovations, and that means no more HMV Megastore, no more Hobbyco (moved to the Queen Victoria Building, I believe), no more kebab shop (I used to enjoy chatting to the woman who ran this for many years, even though my recent dieting attempts meant I did not frequent it as often), no more Oporto Portuguese-style chicken - and no more (relatively new) Krispy Kreme donut kiosk! Of course, I only went to Krispy Kreme for their takeaway coffee. Ho ho.

It was a light night all round. No Star Trek stuff (although a batch of new mail order: "Star Trek: The Next Generation" action figures arrived at the front door this morning). But Galaxy Bookshop did have a Region 4 DVD set of the "Heroes" Season One and, as I've had a curiosity about this show, which has only increased with George Takei (Star Trek's Mr Sulu) joining the cast, and recurring nasty boy Zachary Quinto being announced as the future Young Spock in JJ Abrams' new "Star Trek" movie, it's become a "must have" purchase.

I started wandering back to the train station about 7.30pm, feeling strong about resisting the urge to buy any edibles more substantial than orange-flavoured Strepsils' throat lozenges. Although the diet is going well - I'm eating very little for my last meal of the day, although I'm "maintaining the engine" regularly as the day wears on - I must confess I often miss curling up in a McDonalds' to check out my purchases while I eat. Actually, I feel like I'm saving a lot of money, too; my "top up" treats tend to be apples, or rice crackers with Vegemite, whereas years ago I'd have splurged on a giant size Mars Bar, or a Crunchie.

But I'm also missing the social act of eating a normal evening meal. Very much. In the good ol' days, especially when Brisbanites, Maria and Peter, were living in Sydney, and joined me for my weekly jaunts into the city, or before that when a group of shop assistants and customers from Comic Kingdom would head off for drinks. One could munch away and talk to friends at the same time. Sometimes my pilgrimages into the city can be quite lonely, even though I see friendly faces throughout the night.

The Fantastic Four and the slippery slope

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

A super power would have been very useful for my trip to Westfield Penrith Plaza, today, to see "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer". I originally planned to see a different film, but my friend was unavailable, so I saved up "Shrek the Third" and "Pirates 3" for next week and decided to enjoy a solo FF fix.

I took my usual shortcut, realizing only at the last minute that (a) it was probably going to be muddy or flooded at the end of the shortcut, and (b) I was wearing the wrong (white fabric) shoes. As I stood at the muddy, sloping edge of my shortcut, pondering whether to leap, or take a detour through perhaps worse conditions, I felt myself sliding helplessly towards oblivion. Splat!

With both hands, one arm, and one buttock cheek now thickly covered in fresh mud, I continued on to the Plaza. After a quick clean-up in the rest room (which thankfully had both paper towels and full-length mirrors), I secured my cinema ticket and filled in some time - shopping, of course - before the film started.

I really enjoyed the movie. It has received some very mixed reviews but, in my view, if you liked the first film, then this is more of the same. Some great lines, very likable characters, and amazing special effects, especially the Silver Surfer himself, and the Fantasticar. And some clever script seeding - in that the FF's power-swapping phenomenon was put to very good use (giving Michael Chiklis a little screen time as human-looking Ben Grimm), and Doctor Doom was able to be resurrected so easily, as both Doom and Julian McMahon (son of a former Australian Prime Minister, no less).

And it's heaps better than the quickie "Fantastic Four" movie that was made, but never released, in 1994. I once saw a bootleg copy from eBay, something I don't usually condone, but there was no other way to see it and I'd been quite intrigued by the casting - and the costumes, which were the same blue/white ones I'd used when we did "Perfect Botch" (a live convention game show) as the Fantastic Four in the 80s. Mind you, to give the 1994 film its due, in a list of the "50 Top Comic Movies of All Time (...and Some So Bad You've Just Got to See Them)", Wizard magazine ranked this film higher than "Batman & Robin", "Steel", "Virus" and "Red Sonja", all of which did get a theatrical release.


Michael Bailey Smith as The Thing, Rebecca Staab as Invisible Woman, Alex Hyde-White as Mr Fantastic
and the former "Boy Who Could Fly", Jay Underwood, as the Human Torch.

This pic has autographs from Smith, Staab and Joseph Culp, who played Dr Doom. The signatures were collected as a surprise for me from Glenn Ford of The Phantom Zone comic shop, who attended the big US comic convention that promoted the movie, with the actors unaware that there was no intention by the producers, including Roger Corman and Bernd Eichinger, to actually release it.

Here's the trailer Glenn Ford would have seen at the convention:


(The trailer's soundtrack lifts music from "Battle Beyond the Stars".)


So will the real Mr Fantastic please stand up?

Infinitas!

I spent the day in Parramatta today, browsing around in the Westfield centre, plus The Phantom Zone, JB HiFi - and I finally remembered how to find Infinitas Bookshop, a science fiction specialist, again.

Although they didn't have anything I needed today, I had an enjoyable chat with the shop assistants in Infinitas; we were swapping geeky book-collecting anecdotes. It was so reassuring to know I wasn't the only Star Trek fan who stresses about the best way to store my Star Trek novels correctly. One of the staff even had a photo on the computer of her custom modified IKEA shelving units, filled with a very orderly collection of Star Trek novels. Very impressive.

When I moved here in 2000, I had to shelve the Star Trek hardcovers separately, to maximise space. A few years later, I had to resign myself to making a double layer of the Star Trek paperback novels in order to constrain the collection to one room. Recently, I had to start filling horizonal gaps above the double rows. Sigh...

Murphy's Laws of school book fairs

1. First sale of the day - an 80 cent pencil - will inevitably be countered by a crisp $50 note.

2. If you put a signature on the item's price sticker at a school book fair, in an attempt to prevent shoplifting, the child will inevitably have a single ten cent coin to pay for a $10 item. Or even a $25 item. (These kids have expensive tastes. And a totally unrealistic idea of the value of money. They also believe that if you keep buying items that give you change, you'll never run out of money.)

3. If a student hands you a bunch of 16 shiny $1 coins, and it looks like he raided Mum's money box, he probably did. (And why was he so desperate to purchase a personal burglar alarm, anyway?)

4. If someone sees you sneaking a look at the EFTPOS machine manual, they'll suddenly demand you test it out on their card. Dammit. ("Go use the Ready Teller across the road please, these instructions are too obscure, okay?")

5. Of course, you're supposed to charge up the EFTPOS machine the night before. (Thanks for not telling me, Book Fair company.)

6. Stationery is still way more exciting than books, even on Day 3 of a Book Fair.

7. Tired teachers only make addition errors in front of the parents, not little students, who wouldn't notice anyway.

8. Today's grandparents are younger than most of the teachers. (Welcome to the middle ages.) But they are quite generous (Ka-ching! Ka-ching! - sound of cash register).

9. A major computer system changeover shall occur on the same day as the takings of the annual Book Fair must be finalised. It will also be the last day of term, and only one day before a public holiday.

10. The final tearful request for a $1 scented eraser will be announced precisely ten minutes after the van, full of all the cabinets of product, leaves the school grounds. (A prediction: just you see if I'm right.)

Advance stationery fair?

We are having a book fair at my school this week, so every spare hour of each day sees me patrolling the school library with a three-litre ice cream container in the crook of my arm, selling stationery to students who wander into the library and attempt to "buy" a book for under $1.

It's great that Scholastic have seen to it that there is an amazing range of novelty pencils, pens, erasers, highlighters, bookmarks and sharpeners to satisfy those holes burning in some kids' pockets, but I eagerly await Grandparents' Day (tomorrow) and the hope that (a) today's grandpas and grandmas are ovely-generous when spoiling their grandchildren, and (b) that no child uses all of their grandparents' money to buy even more novelty pencils, pens, erasers, highlighters, bookmarks and sharpeners.

Someone, please buy a book!

Easter fast approaching

With my Thursday nights - and weekly trips into the CBD - such an entrenched part of my life, it's always a shock when Thursday comes around yet again. Life's little treadmill.

I smell... poo!

I arrived home tonight from my traditional, weekly, buying trip in Sydney's CBD - and it was one of those rare nights when there was nothing on my want list at Galaxy Bookshop or HMV - and the shipment hadn't turned up at Kings Comics, so I came home empty-handed.

Jack was let out into the yard for mere seconds (to do those doggy things that need to be done) and then as I entered the hallway, I could smell... poo. Really stinky poo. But not necessarily dog poo. This was... like something had died - but perhaps while covered in poo.

I checked my shoes, but they were fine. The smell was extremely intense in the hall, but not all the time. I picked up several items, expecting to find something unpleasant, but no. Whenever the smell returned, it was very intense but, then, it vanished again.

Maybe it was coming from the air-conditioning duct? Was there a dead animal up there? No. The smell wasn't in the bedroom, or the spare room, or anywhere else. Then, suddenly, it was in the bedroom.

Ah, it was Jack himself! He was covered, up both sides of the neck, in cat poo! Somehow he'd manage to find and roll in it, in the few seconds he was out the back after my arrival home. It's the Jack Russell way: smell like your prey! And no wonder the smell kept moving; the more Jack tried to help me find the source of the revolting smell, the more he was wafting it around in all the places I was inspecting. (The house does have a resident ghost, you know, but she smells of fish, and she's been here longer than the dog, so I knew it wasn't one of her irregular visitations.)

Jack has now had a semi-bath (at 10pm), been doused in aromatic incense water, and had 20-year-old Avon talc rubbed into his fur (I hope he's not allergic to people talc). But he still smells worse than a cat's litter tray.

Almost as bad as the day he rolled in goose poo on a friend's relative's farm, and turned himself into an intensely-green Jack Russell terrier with absolutely no friends whatsoever.

Be grateful this blogspot has no Smell-o-Vision facility. Thanks, Jacko. Thanks for, ugh, sharing.

What the market will bear

A colleague from the Playtrek action figure collectors' mail group recently announced he would be visiting the Star Trek Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton, and was there anything anyone wanted?

While browsing on Flickr a few months ago, I'd found this picture but the product item has never turned up on the STE web shopping page. As an Andorian from way back, I simply must have one - and I heard today that my friend's mission has been successful!

It will be my third Star Trek beanie character from the Star Trek Experience. When the idea factory released a batch of "alien bean" toys (what some places were calling "Meanie Beanies"), I collected the whole set of the idea factory's Vulcan, Andorian, Mugato, Gorn, Ferengi and the Klingon targ beanies locally - plus the separately-available idea factory(trilling) tribble, which contains a microchip that causes the tribble to scream as if it has been exposed to a Klingon (as in "The Trouble with Tribbles"). But... my favourite beanie would have to be their tie-in to the movie "Star Trek: Insurrection": the cute little Ba'ku rhyl, exclusively available from the STE. The rhyl, or palm pet as it was referred to in the film, resembles a cross between a fuzzy brown caterpillar and a baby seal - and fits, as you might expect, in the palm of one's hand. As before, a colleague from the Playtrek action figure collectors' mail group helped me out, and the toys turned out to be very hard to find elsewhere.

About a year ago, the Experience's online store was having a sale and I noticed a new ST beanie had become available: a facsimile Beanie Bear in white fabric, embossed with tiny sparkly stars, and a large blue United Federation of Planets insignia embroidered on his back. He was marked down to only a few dollars - quite a bargain! I did order several other large items with the bear but when a huge box arrived from the US by airmail, I literally dove into a sea of foam peanuts, searching for my beanie in every corner, to no avail. A quick email to STE saw a replacement bear winging its way but, instead of that box arriving, I received a card from Australian Customs. If I was prepared to pay many, many dollars (about $AU 60, IIRC), I could have my little white bear.

Why had my UFP bear earned the ire of Australian Customs? Because the Customs Declaration Sticker stated that the package contained: "One beanie bear". Someone assumed he contained food - as in real beans - and new changes to Customs law meant that the demand for payment was applied to the importer: moi! Thankfully, another email and a few phone calls resolved the situation, but the amount of money that the STE spent delivering me that replacement bear turned out to be quite significant!

But UFP Bear is lonely; he's separated from all the other Trek beans - and sits forlornly on one of two miniature metal chairs (actual set miniatures from the hit Australian film, "Moulin Rouge!"), but he will soon be joined by a blue, antennaed Andorian beanie bear dressed like Shran (from "Star Trek: Enterprise") in kinky leathers! I hope my Playmates colleague is careful filling out the declaration for Customs.


UFP Bear lets the Ba'ku rhyl mind a seat for a currently-immigrating Andorian bear.