stating the obvious

I do this. I don't like that I do this, but I do it.

I think I get it from my mother, who is Colonel Obvious (higher ranking than Captain Obvious, according to Wikipedia). The best example of this (most annoying when I was younger, but funny to me now) is the inevitable conversation that ensues whenever watching a movie or a TV show with my mother. Sooner or later, the implausibility (or unlikelihood, or absurdity) of a particular plot line will get to her and she just has to blurt out something like "Why doesn't he just CALL her? That would solve the whole problem!" "But Mom, that wouldn't be funny, and then the show wouldn't be very interesting."

However, I now find myself doing this.

If you watch the show 30 Rock, and you happened to watch it on Thursday, I'd be curious to hear if you had the same thought I did about the Jenna-poisoning-Kenneth storyline:

Brief recap: Lutz gets injured. A cute EMT shows up and tells Jenna he's her biggest fan. He has all her albums, he reads her blog, he loves her (And he's not even gay!). But after he disappears without leaving his name (he did give his phone number to injured Lutz [to give to Jenna], who unfortunately ate the slip of paper [apparently his head injury made him a little loopy]), Jenna begins scheming ways to find him again. The smartest plan she can come up with is to exploit Kenneth's strawberry allergy in hopes that Cute EMT will show up when 911 is called.

I was entertained by the episode, but the Colonel-Obvious's-Daughter part of me kept wondering why Jenna didn't just write about Cute EMT on her blog, which he admitted to reading religiously? He could leave her a comment, and they could get in touch that way. Duh. Of course, the disbelief-suspending part of me realized that anaphylactic shock clearly makes for better television, but every time Jenna whined "How will I ever fiiiiiiiind him again??" I kind of had to grit my teeth a little.

And, okay, I might have yelled at the TV after the third scene where Kenneth is writhing on the floor, clutching his throat and gagging.

Am I turning into my mother? Like most people who ask themselves this question, I really hope not. But if I am, I suppose there are worse qualities I could have inherited.

I can't believe I actually wrote a big, long blog about a freaking iPod

(I wanted my blog to be more ordinary, and now I just feel shallow. Forgive me.)

 

Both the husband and I enjoy music, although he on a larger scale than I. While he is searching eBay for a perfect deal on surround sound speakers and endlessly tweaking the settings on the stereo receiver, I am perfecting my iTunes playlists, researching iPods, and contemplating the best brand of earbuds for sound quality.

 

I've been pining for a new iPod for awhile now. The used one we purchased last summer has turned out not to be worth the money it saved us. The sound is distorted at times, the volume level keeps getting worse, and recently the click wheel has been acting up. I have been sucking it up and dealing with it (no small feat, considering I listen to it constantly—while working out, while driving, and all day while working), but last week I caved and started looking into the cheapest way to get a new one.

 

Thanks to some patience and some clever eBay bidding, I found a brand-new 4th generation 8 GB nano for about 2/3rd of the retail price (a total which technically is about equal to my share of some yet-unspent Christmas money from months ago...so when you play little mind games with yourself, you can believe it was basically free. Not that that matters, but it did something to ease my "Is this expense necessary or frivolous?" internal battle over the little 1.5" X 3.5" piece of machinery). It arrived on Wednesday—a little purple gem nestled in bubble wrap and a clear plastic box inside a bubble envelope. Resisting the urge to tear it open with my teeth and start using it right away, I decided to be patient and wait until its accessories (specifically, the hard case) arrive. Meanwhile I let it spend a day plugged into iTunes, charging its battery and loading itself with music I would be enjoying (clearly! and loudly!) all too soon.

 

Fast forward to last night. Wait, I should back up a little. Several years ago when I got my first iPod (a 2 GB 2nd generation nano that now belongs to Craig), I became enthralled with the Apple-brand earbuds. Until then, I had hated earbuds—they hurt my ears, they always fell out, the sound was crap, etc.—and opted for headphones. But all that changed once I discovered the bonafide, name-brand, meant-for-my-iPod-and-my-iPod-was-meant-for-them earbuds. I don't know what it is, but the sound quality is phenomenal through those little guys. They retail for around $30 (!!??!), but they come standard with any new iPod. So imagine how crushed I was when I discovered that Obie (the 20+ lb spaz cat from outer space) had chewed through the cord. Since then, I have been making do with lesser earbuds, on the prowl for a generic set that can deliver the same quality (to no avail).

 

End sidenote.

 

Fast forward to last night. I'm checking my email and a flash of brilliant purple catches my eye. I glance over to see my new little toy sitting there patiently on top of the computer tower. I think it actually winked at me. So I thought, to heck with it. Case or no case, I'm going to unplug this girl and take her for a spin. I reached for my new (and long-awaited) pair of Apple-brand earbuds and flick the wheel to a favorite old song ("Inside Out" by Eve 6). To my surprise, the intro is only playing in my right ear. Desperate to find a reason other than the inevitable one I'm dreading, I think to myself, "Maybe the song starts this way. I'll bet it does. This is the acoustic part—once the drums kick in, I'm sure I'll get sound through both speakers."

 

Nope.

 

With a sick feeling in my heart, I slowly look down at the cord and discover what I had most feared—there's a spot where the outer rubber coating is broken and there are wires sticking out. Whether the cat is to blame or this injury was there (but unnoticed) when I opened the box, I don't know. But once I could bear to look over at him, I swear that cat was trying just a little too hard to look cute and innocent.

 

To be honest, I am a little embarrassed at how sad this made me. I just wanted to enjoy the superior sound quality of my new toy (and fully appreciate the difference between it and the broken-down, janked-up one I'd been using for the past year), and now I'd have to wait even longer.

 

Thankfully, I found some factory-sealed Apple earbuds on eBay for $7.99 (Why I never thought to look there before, I don't know), so now it's just a matter of waiting for the mail to get here. Meanwhile, my little purple treasure sits there, waiting much more patiently than I for her full potential to be realized and appreciated.

 

Soon, little one. Soon.

Okay, I need to use this thing.

I feel like this blog has an identity crisis. When I decided to retire my old blog and make a switch, part of my goal was to be a little less serious--a little more "ordinary life," a little less "all my personal inner thoughts out there." So many of my friends have awesome, this-is-my-daily-life blogs, and I love reading them. I want to be like that! So here's my attempt. We'll see how it goes.

I discovered (/created) a new drink over the weekend. I was at the liquor store, trying to find the fixins for pomegranate martinis (i.e. vodka + cointreau + pomegranate juice). That goal was thwarted. Thwart #1: cointreau apparently costs about one million dollars for a teeny-tiny bottle. My desire to contribute a quality beverage to Saturday's girls' night could have overcome my penny-pincher side, but then came Thwart #2: The store didn't have any pomegranate juice. The guy was like, "Try Kroger or Meijer." I thought to myself, "Buddy, I've got places to go--I intend to finish this errand in one stop. I'm not going to the freaking grocery store." They did, however, have pomegranate liqueur. I have had this before, and it's quite yummy. So, I decided to give it a try--nix the cointreau (Yay! That crap's expensive anyway), get vodka and pomegranate liqueur. However, the pomegranate juice was the non-alcoholic ingredient in this whole blissful concoction--substituting liqueur in its place is just a recipe for quick drunkenness (not my goal). I needed a water-downer substitute. So, I grabbed some club soda and got the frick out of there.

The result? Tasty! A fizzy, fruity martini. However, I'm wondering if it would be better to eliminate the vodka altogether. I tried making it with a small amount of each (vodka and liqueur, which has about half the alcohol of liquor), but it didn't have much flavor, so I ended up adding more and more of the pomegranate liqueur until it tasted "right." However, I'm afraid that upped the booze content a bit too much--these are yummy, but you can really only enjoy one.

Any advice? I'm thinking that maybe adding a fruit juice (either instead of or in addition to the club soda) might be a non-inebriating way to add some flavor, but I'm not sure what fruits go well with pomegranate. I know cointreau has an orange flavor, so maybe orange juice? Okay, that's the end of everyday blog #1 :)