Sunday June 29th, 2008

So I was all excited about my weekend and it was for nothing. I mean we were out and about but nothing special. Friday night I decided to something special for my husband since he finally bought our tv for the living room and Astro ( the one and only television provider in all of Malaysia...talk about a monopoly!) came out to the house and hooked up our service. By the way, the reason it took so long for us to get a television for our living room is because Jim is in charge of the LG warehouse and they promised him a discount by buying direct from them, so it took about 2 months for them to provide a list of models we could choose from and then Jim had to comparison shop in the mall for the best deal. Once he paid them, they delivered the tv right to him and he brought it home in the back of his HOOPTie ( that's what I'm calling it now since it's been in the shop more times than I've been to the doctor. ) While the installers were in the house I had them move our other tv from the guest bedroom to our master bedroom ( don't worry if we get a good deal on an extra tv we still have the wiring in that room so our guests can watch tv.) but when I asked them to do the extra work, the installation fee damn near tripled! It was a flat rate for the extra decoder box and then to move the box we already had that cost twice as much and then for some reason because the tv downstairs is larger, it needed a lightning bolt protection something or other which was about the same price as moving our original satellite box. Of course since the installer was an independent contractor he wanted cash but I wasn't expecting all of the additional costs so while they were doing there work I ran up to mall to use the ATM just to find that both machines ( only 2 in the entire mall ) were out of order so I had to forge my husband's signature on a check. Hopefully it will not bounce considering the episode of the stolen check from our wallet. So anyway, that was the long version, the short version is I made Jim lasagna and brownies for his reward and later on Friday night I came up to George's to visit with Sim. Exciting...huh?

So Saturday came and instead of waiting until Sunday, Jim went up to City Golf for a couple of hours. I was planning on meeting him up there but after I did some laundry and cooked my new favorite ramen noodle dish I was full and sleepy so I took a nap. When I woke up, for no reason at all I was irritated, I don't know if it's because when I walked around the house I could tell what room Jim had been in, or the construction noises that are continuous around our house or if Oso's barking at all the noise was bothering me, but needless to say I wasn't in the greatest of moods and Jim knew right away to tread carefully around me. He suggested we go to Outback for dinner down in the Village since we haven't been there yet. Their menu is slightly different than the restaurants in the States, like instead of real bacon they serve beef bacon which totally changes the flavor of the food. And as usual when we ordered soup and salad to start with, they brought everything out at the same time. The odd thing was while we were eating dinner we could hear like a flock of birds above us and all of a sudden one fell from the trees smack into the pavement. At first I didn't pay it any attention until I noticed that it didn't get up and fly away. It's back was turned to me and for a moment it looked like it was headless but Jim pointed out that it probably broke its neck when it fell and that's why its head was at an awkward position. Since it fell on the pathway leading up the entrance of Bangsar Village mall a security guard came over with a piece of plastic and picked it up and threw it into some bushes. I felt so bad for the bird and even after we finished dinner, went to Dinty's and shot some pool, checked out a gym ( which we joined, for some reason Jim has put on 7 lbs since we moved into our house, I think it's from eating curry for lunch.) the bird was still on the sidewalk fluttering about trying to fly away while a kitten was stalking nearby. So sad, if I had the heart I would have put it out of it's misery.

So now it's Sunday and we awoke to a very gloomy, overcast day. It's been raining off and on all day. We did manage to make it to Mid-Valley mall ( the location of my robbery) because I needed a vacumn cleaner. I've decided that my house is too big to try and sweep everyday considering that Oso sheds and it's a pain in the butt to try to get it all up. Jim also decided that I need wireless headphones for the tv downstairs. Because our house is made up mostly of concrete, marble and tile floors, there is an echo through the house and when I came home from George's the other night he could hear the Asian Food Channel upstairs as though he was watching it in our bedroom. The cool thing about the mall is the parking garages, they have car washes in the parking garage so while you shop your car is getting cleaned and afterwards they will park it for you...pretty cool, why hasn't anyone in the States thought of this? I also bought a new Ipod since I can't find my other one, which makes me angry because Jim gave it to me for a birthday present and had it engraved. Hopefully I will be able to transfer my music library into the new device. Jim also got his hair cut and the place we went to was definitely a first for us. It advertised a haircut for 13 Ringitt in 13 minutes. When you walked in there was a machine that you fed your money into, much like a change machine, once you did that you received a ticket and you sat on a sensored bench. Depending on the number of people waiting for a haircut, there was a traffic light that signaled the wait time. If the light was green, it meant that your wait time was nothing. If the light was yellow, you'll have to wait 5-10 min. If the light was red, your wait time was 15 min. or more. If you didn't purchase a ticket you couldn't sit on the bench because then you would throw off the wait time which was displayed in the window of the salon for other customers to see passing by. They even advertised an air wash shampoo system which was basically them applying a vacumn cleaner to your head to get rid of all the cut hairs. Great idea for a salon especially for customers like Jim who just want to get their hair cut, no conversation, no shampoo ( he doesn't appreciate the neck massages like I do ) and get the heck out of there. I wish I would have brought my camera, I'm sure he'll go back next time he needs a haircut.

After that we came home, went to George's because I thought Sim was working but she wasn't ( She called in on a family emergency which was taking her mom to see Beauty and the Beast on ice.), Jim went home early and I talked to some of my family because I've been out of touch for a while because of my internet connections. So I am attempting to write as frequently as I was before but don't get your hopes up, I've just been inspired lately and I hate to disappoint.