Hey everybody. I figured what with me having a few spare moments here at work, I'd update you on all the whatnots and such of this past weekend. As you probably know by now, Friday was Megan's last day at work. Considering the fact that we don't have enough savings to keep going for too long, we're both fairly non-worried about the whole thing. We brought our tithing up to date on Sunday and we figure things will work out if we do what we're supposed to and put in our own efforts. So it'll be interesting to see how this will all shake out.
So I got a call from Megan on Friday right before we were both about to leave work. She had arranged with her parents to go out to dinner and a movie. We left right after work and drove to Glendale where we all met up. We went out to dinner Caramba's, which is a Mexican restaurant I'd never been to. The food was pretty good. By the time we were all done, we still had time to kill before heading to the dollar theater. We dropped by a K-Mart near the theater to kill a few minutes. I hadn't been in a K-Mart since the one in Thatcher was going out of business and was selling CD's for $5. Come to find out, K-Mart is almost exactly like Wal-Mart except nobody shops there. That's actually a major plus for K-Mart. I would say that this would be the start of a new shopping trend for me...if only I knew where a K-Mart was. Question: do you know where the K-Mart is in your neighborhood, and if so, have you ever been inside? Yeah, I didn't think so.
After K-Mart, we made our way to the dollar theater. The dollar theater in Glendale is a lot nicer than the one in Mesa. It looks like the inside of a spaceship built by aliens with a fascination for disco. We had chosen to go see the new X-Files movie. Actually, Megan and I kinda wanted to see it more than our other options, and since Richard and Carol had no strong opinion on the matter, we all shuffled in to X-Files. The X-Files movie was, admittedly, a bit odd and not super great for people who aren't already fans of the show. They don't really explain who the characters are or why they do what they do. So if you don't know anything about the show, all you get is a movie about organ harvesting and body transplants, which is kind of disturbing. Plus there's a whole side-plot of priest molestation and whatnot. It's a dark movie. In retrospect, I think Megan and I enjoyed the movie a lot more than we would have otherwise because her parents hated it. We probably would've been better off if we had all gone to see Kung-Fu Panda, but whaddaya do?
When we went to bed on Friday night, I was afraid that I might have nightmares about organ harvesting and body transplants, but I didn't. Megan had a dream with a headless body in it, so that was the worst of it. But enough with the decapitation and whatnot. Last week my Atari 2600 decided to give up on me. We had all the in-laws over for dinner and I had gotten some of the brothers-in-law into the entertainment room to play some 4-player Warlords. The old 2600 just wasn't getting any juice and try as I might, nothing was happening. It had been having issued with a loose power jack for a while, but on that particular day there was nothing I could do to get it going. I had wanted to fix it all week, but we were house-sitting and I didn't get the chance. So on Saturday I drove Megan all around looking for an Atari part. I picked up a spare power supply earlier in the week, but that didn't help anything, so I knew it was the jack.
I took the Atari apart (which was surprisingly simple) and unsoldered (desoldered? reverse-soldered?) the jack from the circuit board. It's basically a mono 3.5mm headphone jack with three terminals on the bottom. I would have though that someone might carry such an animal, but nobody did. We went to two Radio Shacks and we even dropped by Fry's, but to no avail. I then realized that I should've started at the dungeon of geeks, because they have dead consoles all over the store and they are usually more than happy to part them out.
So I dropped into the dungeon of geeks and Megan went into the hoochie fashion center next door. The geek on command basically talked to me like I was an idiot. He told me to go wire the power supply directly to the circuit board. When I asked him how (because it's two wires coming from the power supply going into three holes on the board). He told me not to worry about the third hole because it's for the ground, which is not important because the powers supply is only 9 volts. He said he'd seen many Atari's wired this way. I must say, however, that he was wrong about the third hole. It isn't for the ground. It actually completes the circuit. Inside the jack is a little spring that compresses when the power supply is plugged in, completing the circuit and allowing the Atari to get juice. I officially know more about how to power an Atari than the geek in command. I don't know whether to be proud or to punish myself.
Anyway, when we got home I tried wiring the power supply directly to the board at least 6 different ways (I really should've used a multimeter and done it right the first time, but I don't have such things at my disposal). I got nothing every single time, which worried me a bit. I felt like a surgeon whose patient was flatlining on the operating table. It was like House except...you know...watchable. Before too long BJ and Shannon came over to drop off Megan's old bed (which is going into our spare oom so that when people like Paul come and spend the night they'll get an actual bed to sleep on) and whisk us away to the Hansen family get-together.
All of Megan's fam that live in the valley got together in Glendale for a labor day weekend pot luck. My attempts to watch a little college football were not fruitful, but there were only two sports fans among us (me and BJ) so needless to say, we didn't win out. The food was good and we had a pretty good time. For most of the time we were there all I could think about were the two wiring configurations I hadn't tried on the Atari (configurations that I would've tried first if I had thought about what I was doing before the soldering iron got hot. Oh, and I should also probably mention that I burnt myself with the soldering iron, and I also burnt Megan as well when she was holding a wire for me. I've been using a soldering iron since I was 12 and I've never had such back luck with it). BJ and Shannon didn't stay at the shindig too long, and they were our ride. So I got home in plenty of time to fix the Atari. I wired it up one more time, this time bypassing the hole for the spring-loaded circuit completer bit. I really didn't expect it to work, but it was my last option. When I plugged it in the board didn't fry, much to my surprise, and when I pushed the power switch the old machine came back to life. I could've wet myself I was so surprised and excited. I was actually pretty proud of myself despite the fact that I could've done it right the first time if I had really thought about it and not been so clumsy with the soldering iron. But I guess you live and learn. The next time I pull an Atari apart, I should have a much better idea of what I'm actually doing. So there ya go.
On Sunday Megan and I went to church as usual. We're really settling into the ward quite nicely. We forgot to bring our tithing check to church, so we slipped out before Sunday School and picked it up. I miss Sunday School a lot these days. I'm usually in the clerk's office requesting and pushing membership records. I got our tithing into the envelope and into the hands of a member of the bishopric. Then I sat down and did a little clerk work. I'm starting to get the hang of a few things now, so that's good.
After church I got the chance to do something I'd never done before and probably won't be doing too often: count tithing. I've seen Dad in the clerk's office working on tithing more than a few times, so it was a little weird to be doing it myself. I was entering the tithing amounts in the computer and Brother Powell (a member of our bishopric) was opening and sorting the envelopes. It was a little weird to enter my own tithing, but I guess I should get used to it.
After tithing, Megan and I headed over to her former roommate, Janae's, for dinner. They were supposed to have a couple other people over, but Megan and I were the only ones who showed up. So we got to chow down on a good pork tenderloin and some good cornbread. There was apparantly a salad too, but that sort of food is invisible to me, much in the same way that Taco Bell is. I just found out two days ago that I have a Taco Bell less than a half mile from my house. I wouldn't normally take note of this because when I see a Taco Bell, I don't see something that says, "There's food that you can eat here." I guess it's the same with salads. I just don't see it as a viable food source, so it is basically invisible to me.
On Monday Megan and I slept in for quite a while. Megan is doing this coupon saving thing so we can get our food cheap (it's tied in to a website where they help you maximize your coupons) so she was up and clipping coupons and I took the time to put some more Atari games on disk. So what ended up happening was that I was in my pajamas for most of the morning and into the afternoon. I got pretty much all the games I could think to put on a disk and Megan got us some cheap groceries, so that was a success.
We decided we had to get out of the house because for one, it's lame to be inside all day on labor day and secondly, I get a headache if I go a day without seeing the outside world. We dropped by DI, but they were closed because of the Holiday, so we had to go to Savers. I tell you, DI is so much better than most thrift stores. But we found a couple blank tapes (I'm constantly collecting blank cassette tapes so Megan and I can have music to drive to) and the USB cable we needed so Megan and I don't have to swap one cable between two printers. So our thrifting was a success. We also dropped by the reptile store. That's always a good time. They still have plenty of African Spurred tortoises, and Megan and I still want to get a couple. Turbo isn't doing too great these days and he's about half as big as he should be. I love that guy, but I really worry about him sometimes. Anyway, if Megan and I weren't tightening the ol' belt we could've easily picked out the two tortoises we would've taken home. But things being what they are, we just window shopped. Luckily the reptile store provides some of the best window shopping in the universe, so that's good.
When we got home, Megan and I decided to have us a little backyard weenie roast for dinner. We fired up the fire pit and burned away another good section of one of our dead trees. It was nice to be sitting in my own back yard with a good fire going and my wife at my side. The married life is so much better than the single life was. We had our hot dogs and the best smores I've ever had in my life and watched the fire die down to coals. All in all it was a fantastic weekend.
Oh, one last thing I'll mention: I finished my summer baseball reading. I read "Shoeless Joe" by W.P. Kinsella and "The Natural" by Bernard Malamud. I finished "Shoeless Joe" last week, and I was very impressed. The story seems even less probable in the book than it does in the movie, which makes it all the more magical. Also, the writer Ray picks up is J.D. Salinger, not the fictional Terrence Mann. It makes a big difference.
As for "The Natural," which I just finished today, the dust is still settling on that one. As you must know, the book ends way differently than the movie does. The movie is all about redemption, but the book is all about disillusion and the fall of heroes. Honestly, I found the book fairly depressing in the end. We have so few true heroes in baseball now and I don't need to be reminded of the impurities of the sport and its athletes. But I can't say the book wasn't well-written and I do feel differently about how the movie ends now that I've read the book. It would be like seeing the movie version of "The Count of Monte Cristo" and getting the message that you can get caught up in revenge and your life will turn out just fine and then you read the book and get the message that a person seeking revenge will never be at peace and will never be happy. It's a night and day difference. I think I have to watch "Field of Dreams" and "The Natural" now and compare them to their respective books. So there ya go, baseball books and their movie versions.
Anyway, I think that's all you need to know about this last weekend. Even if it isn't I'm going to stop because Megan and I are going to watch Monk now.