This week's Ledger

PLUS:

• Having a good reason to not watch Lost on Thursday.
• Getting Sports Illustrated gifts. For some reason, I forgot to change the credit card info (my new address) on the auto-renewal for my subscription (why SI doesn't link the cc info to the mailing info is another story). My subscription "lapsed" for a week before I got to the bottom of it. However, that made me a "new" customer, and I was entitled to the gifts one gets when you sign up. So I'm the proud owner of a new fleece pullover and a t-shirt. You could choose your favorite NFL team, so I'm probably the only person in Maryland, and quite possibly the only person in the free world, who was shipped an Atlanta Falcons garment package. Much more practical than an football phone. The only issue I missed was the swimsuit issue, but I've heard rumors that you can easily find pictures of scantily clad women on the interwebs.
• Seeing some live theatre. Last night, I went to the downtown area to see Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead. The play was very entertaining (I had read it in college) and it was sparingly and effectively staged. I had forgotten how skillfully the play engages in wordplay, and what it has to say about predestination and the state of "being."
• I've often bitched about the lack of southern hospitality here, where most strangers act like you have oozing sores and are wearing a coat covered in Anthrax. However, last night, while parking on the street and trying to figure out the legality (and cost) of such parking, I asked a group of strangers walking by if they knew the dealio. They were helpful, friendly and nice, and even welcomed me to the state. Now, if they could just get a part time job bagging groceries.
• I parallel parked like a fucking champ in the space mentioned above. Haven't had the chance to do that in years, and the skillz haven't eroded.

MINUS:

• I'm sure there are roads in Baghdad that are smoother than some of the thoroughfares here. Trying to drink a cup of java while driving down town is like an epileptic chihuahua attempting to drink from a garden hose at 50 feet away.
• 2 weeks ago, I took a suggestion on a local steakhouse for a dinner meeting with an old business associate. Part of the reason for visiting that establishment was to check it out for a larger business meeting the following week, when I would be bringing several clients. The first meeting went well. The food was outstanding and the service was top notch. However, when we went for the other meeting early last week, it was a debacle. Two steaks had to be sent back, the service was inattentive and slow, the "wedge" salads didn't resemble an actual "wedge" (like they had during my previous visit) and the server's explanation was that "sometime the lettuce doesn't come that way." I complained to the manager, and they took off some desserts and a round of drinks, but I was aghast at the wide delta in the quality between my two visits. To top it off, the server had the gall to bring me my check and explain the deductions, and add, with an eye roll, that she didn't put the tip on the bill yet (which she probably would have already done, given the size of my party) because "evidently, you thought the service wasn't good." Yikes.
• I went downtown early this week for a trade show, and wound up parking at a hotel's pay lot by the convention center. Nothing wrong with that per se, except that the parking spaces (like many here in the state) are painted to accommodate a Schwinn, not an automobile. When I returned, there were cars on either side of me, and I was about one order of fries from having to climb up the hood of my vehicle and enter through the sunroof.
• Despite the great company and intellectual stimulation at the play, there was a snafu. The little plastic cup they gave me for my shiraz evidently had a small leak in it, and now there is a stain on my pants leg. And of course, it was one of the rare occasions when I chose to wear lighter colored pants and not black. We'll see how Dual Power Spray and Wash works on the demon grape.
• Finally, as many of you know, I've been extraordinarily happy with all the recent technological additions to my arsenal the past few months. GPS, iPod, XM Radio. However, last night I get in the car and the XM is inexplicably fucked up. No signal coming through, and all my preset "favorites" are missing. I'm trying to drive across town and figure this out. When I get on the phone with XM, I go through a voice activated messaging system. I'm using a hands free headset, but every time I start to say something to get to the right department, the GPS voice blurts out "turn left in .5 miles" or some other command, and the phone mic picks this up and transfers to me to another unwanted department. I finally stop and get the right person, who resets the signal. (During this conversation, I have a choice of actually hearing the person helping me and then hearing the feedback of my own comments, or barely hearing her instructions above a whisper level). This would have worked immediately, had the unit not turned itself off "FM modulation." I have no idea how or why this happened, with my car and the radio off, parked outside from Friday to Saturday. I'll get worried if I get in the car today, try to turn the radio on again, and it says to me "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."