It has been one year since my last post. Wow, I’ve really let this place go. Too much has happened in the past year to recap it all here, and I have to get ready to leave for a trip to NY today, so I’ll just mention the most recent major event: Kat and I adopted a cat.

We adopted (and renamed) Abby at ASAP here in Santa Barbara. We’d been planning it for a while, and just fell in love with her as soon as she finally managed to get our attention. She’s four years old, and we’ve had her for two months now. She’s wonderful.

And now, pictures! [Click them to see bigger]

…who watches over you.

Make a little birdhouse in your soul.

That is all.

A post!

At about 11:45PM PT Thanksgiving night, Staples Black Friday deals went live on the site. I’d been planning for this for a while, and placed my three orders. I realized I forgot to use a coupon on one of them, so I placed a fourth for the same items with the plan to return the first one. Then I saw another deal on FatWallet, and placed one more order…

The next morning, Staples opened at 6 AM. That was too early for me. I ended up getting up at 6:45, and was there by 7. Three more purchases, and I was back home. I waited in line twice. The first time, I had the cashier ring up two separate transactions, keeping the free-after-rewards batteries away from the coupon because that would reduce the rewards amount. Brought my stuff to the car, back in for another purchase with another coupon.

One of the items in the order I placed twice was a desk. It worked out pretty well, since when I tried to put it together one of the pieces was damaged. A support bracket was missing the threading for a screw. When I brought the extra one back for return, they were nice enough to swap out the bad part for me. I didn’t actually get anything on Cyber Monday, but while I was there today, I took advantage of some of those deals that were going all week. Another 40 batteries, and some other stuff, using a coupon I got in the mail from OfficeMax. That coupon rings up as a competitor’s price guarantee, so if done right (as a price match on a different item) doesn’t reduce the battery rewards.

All but one of the rebates on my items were Staples Easy Rebates. Just fill it out online, nothing to mail in. I just had to cut out one UPC and mail one rebate in.

Net cost, after all rebates, rewards and coupons: $53.16. For this:

That includes the desk it’s all sitting on.

I’m interrupting posts about my baseball trip to tell all of you to go vote for Evan and Morgan in the Gap casting call. Go vote now! You can vote every day from now until November 17th. Vote often!

How can you not?
    

This was an absolutely unbelievable game to go to. The Angels took the lead first, Red Sox took it back with a 5 run inning, fell behind again, and then eventually tied it up on a bases loaded 2-out walk in the bottom of the 9th by Nick Green, and won 9-8 on an Alex Gonzalez walk-off single. Incredible. Apparently, Nick Green should have struck out twice in that plate appearance, but it was hard to tell from where I was at that point in the game. Front row, on the field.

Before the game, I took the guided tour of Fenway. I mostly wanted to get up to the Green Monster seats, but the whole tour was very well done. The tour started out in the Red Sox team store, which was absolutely huge. This picture is only a small section of it, the place was insane.

From there, we went into Fenway to the Budweiser Roof Deck seats.

Then it was to the seats right behind the plate, and from there to the Green Monster. The view from the Monster is pretty cool.

After the tour, before the game, I met up with Byron, and we went to Boston Beer Works. We had a drink while waiting for a table, but ended up just leaving instead of eating there. We were second on the list at that point, but wanted to go into the park instead. I had a Blueberry Ale, which actually had blueberries in it. They would float up and down in the beer because of the carbon dioxide they were giving off.

I got a nice picture of the red bleacher seat, marking the longest home run in Fenway history. It was a 502 foot shot by Ted Williams.

I really wanted to get my standard stadium shot, too. The upper deck at Fenway are exclusive sections, though, and tickets weren’t that easy to come by. They wouldn’t let me up there during the first game. I eventually found a pavilion standing room only ticket on Craigslist for face value ($25), so I bought it. I actually left the park to go pick it up, and used it to get back in. It’s the first time I’ve ever bought two tickets for myself for the same game, but it was worth it.

As always, here’s the whole set of images.

This will be the last shirt in the T-Shirt a Day Challenge. I have a handful more that I could wear, but not nearly enough to make it through another month, so I’m going to end it here.

Yes, that’s a Gameboy playing a DS Lite.

Purchase location: shirt.woot
Purchase date: October 24, 2008.

 

Today’s shirt comes to you courtesy of the fact that I don’t plan to leave the house today. I don’t think I could wear it in public, at least not without a jacket covering it up. It’s a shame, because I like the front of it a lot. It’s also too bit for me.

I bought it at a concert in Pittsburgh when I was in college, at the Igloo (Civic Arena, now Mellon Arena). Thanks to Google, I was able to track down the exact date: March 6, 1999. I’ve had this shirt just about 10 years, and probably worn it no more than a half dozen times. You can still get one at The Offspring’s store, here.

For those of you who have no idea what this is about, here you go:

I drive more like the people he’s getting mad at in the song than the guy singing it. Still love it.

Save the clock tower! Save the clock tower. Mayor Wilson is sponsoring an initiative to replace that clock. Thirty years ago, lightning struck that clock tower and the clock hasn’t run since. We at the Hill Valley Preservation Society think it should be preserved exactly the way it is as part of our history and heritage.

(Here you go, lady. There’s a quarter.)

Purchase location: Snorg Tees
Purchase date: May 14, 2008.

It’s that time of year again. (Feel free to skip ahead to 1:10 in the video. If you can’t see it in your feed reader, click through.)