"And in the middle of negotiations...."

Maryanne and I have negotiated an offer on the house we looked at in Stoughton, and if all goes well, we'll be closing on April 30. Maryanne is so excited I can hardly stand it; I'm a little more subdued, to say the least. We'll have to see how the whole home-ownership thing goes.

Crikey!

Friday night, after a trip to Stoughton to look at a house, Maryanne and I returned to Madison and went to Outback for dinner. Neither one of us had ever been to one before, so we decided to give it a try. When we arrived there was over an hour wait to be seated, but we decided to wait. We were glad that we did. The food was excellent and the service spectacular. Our waiter, Jimmy, was friendly and checked on us frequently. Our dinners came with soup, and sometime after Jimmy had cleared the bowls, he said our food would be out in a minute and a half. It was probably ten minutes more before Jimmy returned, this time to apologize for our food taking so long, and asking if the manager had been by to talk to us. We answered no, and he returned to the kitchen. Our food arrived shortly after that.

The manager arrived sometime after we had begun eating, and made sure everything was satisfactory. We both said the food was excellent. The manager then said that she, as well as Outback in general, had very high standards, and that the amount of time that it took for our food wasn't up to those standards. She asked us to save room for dessert. Maryanne responded, "I'm not sure I'm going to finish this!" Dessert to go was offered, and the manager departed.

Jimmy returned shortly after to take our dessert orders. We had settled on cheesecake, thinking we'd be able to stick it in the freezer. Jimmy informed us they were out of cheesecake. Maryanne being visibly disappointed, he offered gift cards for dessert instead, and he left.

The manager returned next, and explained the cheesecake situation. Apparently they still had some, but it was all frozen, and she offered that. We accepted, and she went to the kitchen to get it. When she returned, she had a large to-go container with the cheesecake, and small styrofoam cups with toppings. She had given us half a cheesecake! On top of that, she gave us a gift card for a free "Bloomin' Onion."

Not once through the entire evening had we thought there was a problem, much less complained of one. Yet the staff at Outback bent over backwards to rectify a situation they thought needed remedying. While the prices were a little on the pricey side, the service we received guaranteed we'll return sometime.

Finished....

Today I was able to finish The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne's use of language shines through in a brilliantly written story. And even if I was a little disappointed by the ending, it was still a satisfying conclusion.

What this....

Here's an interesting list of underappreciated movies worth watching.

Superficial stepping stone....

Even in the bastion of liberality known as California, there glimmers a small light of common sense. Interestingly enough, it's on the campus of USC.

The Scarlet Letter

Today I started on The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Having already read A Wonder Book, I'm familiar with Hawthorne's writing style, but it will be interesting to see what he does with an original story. I don't know how long it's going to take me to get through this one. It's a little over 200 pages, the Reader's Digest edition, featuring some illustrations that look like watercolored woodcuts. The writing flows well, though, despite Hawthorne's use of archaic language for dialog.

Which reminds me... I need to find a good copy of Tanglewood Tales!

Concession....

More op/ed goodness from John R. Lott, Jr.

Done....

Today I was able to finish Jane Austen's Emma. It was a quicker read than I thought. While portions of it were entertaining, even amusing, the rest of it smacked of the kind of "slice of life" literature that doesn't engage the reader. I hope that in its day it was a much better read, when the effects of class, social status, manners, and impropriety were more relevant than they are today. While the writing was well executed --indeed, the dialog was brilliantly executed-- it will be a long time before I pick up another Jane Austen novel.

Shenanigans....

More tasteless shenanigans from those whack-jobs at PETA.

Searchin'....

The past two nights have been spent looking at houses. We haven't found a real winner yet, but it has been an interesting process so far. It's given us a chance to see what's on the market, and what we like and dislike.

Off target....

Read this scathing op/ed piece from John R. Lott, Jr.

Happy birthday....

Today would have been Dad's 57th birthday.

Long day....

Saturday was a very busy day.

The morning began with a haircut for Maryanne and a visit to the health club. After that we returned home to get cleaned up before heading out again to meet with a realtor. It was a very productive visit.

After that we had to stop at Cara's house, so that Maryanne could pay for some Girl Scout cookies. It was a longer visit than I expected, and it eventually led to a visit at Kim's as well.

Then it was off to some scrapbooking store that was having a sale. The store was incredibly crowded, and eventually I decided I would wait outside. By this time it was almost four o'clock, and we were finally able to have the lunch we had talked about three hours earlier. We went to Denny's, and the service was quite pokey. After we were done there we went to another scrapbook store at the much-lauded Greenway Station. I must admit that by this time I was loosing interest in the scrapbooking thing.

Our next stop redeemed things as we stopped at Half Price Books, where I was able to sell a few things as well as pick up a few things. We still needed to do our grocery shopping on the way home, so after a stop at Woodman's we finally got home around 7:30.

It was an exhausting day, and thus we declined an invitation to meet some people downtown.

Conspiracy....

Democratic Senators may have schemed to purposely delay U.S. Circuit Court nominations, perhaps with the intent of affecting the outcomes of certain cases.

A long slog ahead....

After breezing through Dave Barry's Guide to Life, an omnibus of four smaller books, I have decided to start on Jane Austen's Emma. It's the Everyman's Library edition, and weighs in at 495 pages. It may take me a while to get through this one.

The white stuff....

It's astonishing how some snow can turn Madison's already moronic drivers into bigger dumbasses than usual.

Asking for it....

I was wondering if something like this was ever going to happen.

Geeky....

Saturday was this month's Dungeons & Dragons day. We originally scheduled for four o'clock due to a previous commitment that Jenni had, but she basically ditched it and we were able to start a little early.

I was DMing the group through The Sunless Citadel, and we had to complete the second half. I recapped the first half, and off we went. The second half has more combat, so there wasn't a good place to stop and pause for dinner. We didn't eat until around eleven. Not our latest night, by far, but still a late night.

It's good to be able to do some roleplaying on a regular basis. I'm adjusting to the 3rd Edition rules as we go along. Maryanne is becoming more enthusiastic as we go along, as well. I hope that trend continues.

Next on the list will be The Forge of Fury for April. And trying to get everyone up to speed and modify things to fit my campaign world. That may prove to be a bit of a challenge.

Whack-jobs....

This is probably the most disturbing picture you'll see today, courtesy, of course, of the whack-jobs at PETA.

Knight errantry....

I was able to finish Don Quixote today. It was not a quick read by any stretch of the imagination, being over a thousand pages. Nonetheless, it was very good. The translation was as faithful as possible while still making sense in English; there were some 17th-century Spanish idioms that would not have translated well. It was very entertaining, being amusing as well as moving. For anyone who's been wondering about tackling it, I recommend giving it a try.

The Grave Digger....

It's probably old news by now that Gilbert Brown was cut by the Packers recently. He certainly wasn't the most versatile player, but he did what he did, and giving it his best, did it well. Throughout his tenure in the NFL he was extremely faithful to the Packers, something I greatly admire.

Victimized again....

This gives me a nice warm, fuzzy feeling about Madison police.

Armed and responsible....

Now why can't we get Wisconsin to do this?

Evil incarnate....

If you support the Second Amendment, you should read this. Have I ever mentioned I hate Dianne Feinstein?

Doctors recommend....

Here is an interesting Op/Ed piece on the issue of concealed-carry, written by a doctor.

"Meet the heartland...."

This is an interesting read.

Narnia on film....

I'll want to read the books first, and then hope Disney doesn't fuck it all up somehow.

Oy....

If The Passion of the Christ has you down, this might help lighten things up.

A different story....

On Sunday, Maryanne and I went with some friends to see The Passion of the Christ, the somewhat controversial film by Mel Gibson. After seeing the movie, I can see why some people would get themselves worked up over it, but would also add that those people probably wouldn't be very rational to begin with. The only way I see this movie causing feelings of anti-Semitism is if a person is already predisposed to be so.

The movie is rather graphic. But as I told Maryanne, and later Amy, it's just a dramatic, graphic representation of a story we already know.

Well, most of us know it. As it turns out, most of the people we went to the movie went weren't very familiar with the story, as demonstrated when they mentioned they wished the movie would have contained more background, so they knew what was going on. Maryanne commented that they probably didn't see the same movie she and I did. I have to agree with her.