Long Weekend

Marc got a $100 gift certificate to Scott's Seafood in Walnut Creek, so he took me there for dinner Thursday night. I got a 2 pound whole Maine lobster which cost $48. It was amazing. I don't think I've ever seen a lobster so big. I felt kind of guilty eating it, like Homer Simpson did when he ate Pinchy. I even had a bib on that said, "Let's get cracking!" It was really, really yummy. Marc took a picture of me getting ready to eat it:

Marc had a filet, and for dessert he got creme brulee and I had bananas foster. Both were really good, and we ended up having to pay $40 on top of the $100 gift certificate! It was worth it though.

I took Friday off, and we got up early and left the house at 6 am to drive up to Tahoe to ski. What should have been a 3-hour drive ended up taking us 5 hours because it was snowing pretty badly, and we had to stop multiple times to put on chains and to clear the ice from the windshield. To add to our troubles, we ended up getting lost and going a half-hour out of our way. We did finally get to Northstar and got about 4 hours worth of skiing in, which turned out to be enough, because we were pretty tired by the end. The skiing was fantastic though, because the snow was nice, deep powder, not icy at all like it normally is in the spring. It snowed almost the whole time we were there.

The drive home took almost just as long, because we had to stop again to put on chains, and it started to snow pretty badly at some parts. Marc and I trying to put on chains together turned out to be somewhat of a fiasco. We don't work well together as a team - I like to take charge, and Marc doesn't respond well to bossiness, haha.

Saturday we slept in pretty late, and basically woke up, had lunch, and took Bandit sheep herding. I was hoping to get a little improvement in before our clinic next weekend (Jan is hosting a clinic with another trainer, who will be working one-on-one with us, along with a bunch of other dogs - it costs $25 to spectate, in case anyone is interested). He's still not listening to me very well, which is pretty frustrating, because it feels like we're starting back from square one.

Saturday night we had dinner with Vicki and Deepali at Rigatoni's, and then we rented Closer. Kenny came over too, to watch the movie. It wasn't bad, but fairly depressing. Julia Roberts' lips seem to get bigger and bigger as she gets older.

Sunday we didn't do much. Ran a few fish store errands and then bummed around. We watched some episodes of "The Contender" on TiVo, which I'm really starting to get into. I also watched some of "Showdogs Moms and Dads" which is pretty funny. There's one lady on there who has the most annoying manner of speaking.

And finally, I have one small rant. So, our house came with a washer and dryer. Obviously, since it came with the house, we didn't get a really fancy model or anything. Our dryer basically has 3 heat settings: Regular, Medium, and No Heat. Most good dryers have a No Heat, Low, Medium, and High setting. You can see where my frustration lies. WHAT THE FUCK is the difference between Regular and Medium? Is it only to me that this is completely not intuitive?

It boggles my mind that they didn't think to put either Regular and Low or Regular and High. I have no idea if Medium is less heat than Regular, or more heat. The only logical conclusion I can deduce is that because Medium is between Regular and No Heat on the dial, then it must be lower heat than Regular. But who knows, if they're stupid enough to use no logic in labelling these things, then who's to say they used any logic in positioning them?

I mean, I don't get who the brain trust was that designed this. In most things, Regular and Medium mean the same thing - order "regular" fries and they give you the medium size. Regular implies middle-of-the-road, neither high nor low. So it makes no sense to have two settings that imply the same goddamn thing! And no, it doesn't say anywhere in the instruction booklet what's what. Arg arg arg.

I am going to write the manufacturer a letter tomorrow.