I finally got my computer room cleaned out and ordered a desk, lateral and bookshelf. They were delivered today. Knowing there was no way I would ever get all that shit assembled, I hired my mom’s friend Tony to do it. (He’s out of work and can use the cash.)

I get home for lunch and there’s furniture bits all over the driveway. Tony is saying the “L” won’t go the way I want. I said the advertisement said it would. He said it won’t. Okay, I trust him.

I come home from work and it’s mainly put together in the room. First, IT’S HUGE! Way too big for my tiny room. But, that’s my fault, not Bush’s. Then, I read the poorly illustrated instruction book and notice that if you happened to start looking at the instructions on page 29 instead of page 1, you get the instructions for how to put the desk together in the direction I wanted. No idea how they expected someone to know to jump forward to page 29. Tony’s offered to reassemble the whole damn thing, but I’m trying to decide.

You see, it’s a piece of shit. I knew it wasn’t going to be high-class top of the line furniture, but I wasn’t expecting plastic feet (on large heavy furniture), peeling drawer handles and doors that are held together with tiny, thin bits of cardboard. *sigh*

I’ve looked for a desk I like for years and finally found one that looked like I wanted…and now I’m wondering if I should send it back…and wondering how one sends back a room full of assembled furniture!

Last weekend I went on a trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. It was fun…and scenic. More photos.

..try not to pee.

When I came home for lunch today, I saw this photo on flickr. Imagine my amusement when I went to the bank and saw this sign. My stick figure, however, seems to be doing a different kind of dance.

Completely and totally clueless.

I went to Washington DC again last weekend. It was a fun weekend of hanging out with friends, sightseeing and going to a panda’s birthday party. Oh, and sweating. Lots of sweating.

1. Take all the pillows off your bed and stack them on the vanity.
2. Take clean sheets out of the dryer and stack them on the pillows
   
   
   
3. Put the bottom sheet on the bed – just go around any cat lumps you might encounter.
   
   
   
4. Tease the cat lump by lifting up the covers and trying to take pictures of it. Then drop the covers back down and scare the cat lump by grabbing it.
   

5. Put the top sheet and blanket on the bed.
6. Wait for the cat lump to emerge from under the sheets
7. Enjoy the “clean sheets” cat dance.
   

8. The dancing will go on for as long as it needs to.
   

9. There is no stopping it. Just accept it.
   
   
   
10. Leave the room and wait for the dance to be over. The sooner you leave, the sooner it will be over.
    

11. After the dancing is done, put the bedspread on. Do not do this before the dancing ends as the dancing requires extensive use of claws. The bedspread does not like claws.
    

12. Put clean pillow cases on the pillows and put them back on the bed.

Here’s a bad video of the dance.

Do you have a flickr account with oodles and oodles of pictures? (Well, who doesn’t?) A cautionary tale from Zeldman: be sure to renew on time.

What to read something that will piss you off on many levels? Check out this New York Times article:

Among the many superlatives associated with Hurricane Katrina can now be added this one: it produced one of the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to $2 billion.

The mobile homes, costing $34,500 each, were supposed to provide temporary housing to hurricane victims. But after Louisiana officials balked at installing them inland, FEMA had no use for them. Nearly half, or about 10,000, of the $860 million worth of units now sit at an airfield in Arkansas, where FEMA is paying $250,000 a month to store them.

I drove to Galveston yesterday. I’m not entirely sure why. It was damn hot and humid, so I quickly got back into the car and drove home. Total trip time with stops? 10 hours. Pictures are here.

I took part in the June 21st Day in the Life project for a flickr group. You can see the full set of photos here.