Tone Parsons

I took yesterday off so I could be there when the furniture store delivered our new beds.

I had expected to get up at 6:30 to wake the kids for school, but work had different plans for me. The phone started ringing at 4:10 am because there was a problem at work. By 5:30 am, the problem was solved and there was no point in going back to bed.

I called the delivery phone number at 8:00am to find out when they’d show up with the beds. They gave me a 2 hour window: between 9:30 and 11:30.

At 11:29, the truck pulled up (isn’t that always the way?).

They set my youngest son’s bed up first, as we had already moved his old one down to the guest room (the old one is a very good bed, but it’s too big for his room). Then they hit the master bedroom.

I guess I should have warned them in advance. The mattress we had in there is more than a little heavy. We had a king size Simmons Beautyrest World Class Holmes. It was 17.5″ (44.45 cm) deep and weighed in at nearly 500 pounds (226.8kg, or a quarter of a ton!). They grunted that they had never seen a mattress so heavy before as they struggled to haul it out the door.

After they set the new one up, we made it up and gave it the litmus test (no… there was no wild hot monkey love… just a nap). Of course, my eldest woke me about 40 minutes later because he had some paperwork for drivers ed that needed to be signed, so I didn’t get much of a nap.

After signing the papers, getting and serving dinner (mmmm… take-out Chinese!!), and doing the other various things I do in the evenings (play a game on the PC, watch a DVD, etc), I finally stumbled my tired butt off to bed.

It’s much firmer than the old one. I was afraid it might be too firm, but fell asleep quickly anyway. When I woke up this morning, I noticed one thing immediately: my back wasn’t bothering me much.

It still feels pretty good… and that’s an amazing thing, as it’s been there every day, reminding me of it’s presence by sending sharp pains up and down my body, for the past few years. Today, it actually feels somewhat loose, and is causing very little discomfort.

YAY!!!

Hopefully I feel this way tomorrow morning. If so, I’ll claim victory for the decision (and forget the fact that we just tossed out a 2 year old $3,500 bed).

My mother and father in-law will be here on Friday or Saturday.

Of course, we’ve been preparing for their extended stay for a while. Shampooing carpets, buying furnature for them, etc.

This weekend’s shopping: lamps and beds and spreads (oh my!).

I picked up a couple of table lamps on clearance (they were $59.99 but I found them for $9.98!). These are so retro they’re cool again (and the glass base… no plastic here… glows). I also found a totally funky floor lamp for the downstairs TV room (to give a warm glow to the place).

We also had to buy a bed.

We went to the mattress store where we purchased our bed from (a Simmons Beautyrest Holmes… and a total piece of crap) and looked around for a while. After 40 minutes of lying on one bed, then another, we went across the street to Northwest Bedding. The first bed I laid on there (the Rosevelt) was wonderful! We ordered one for our room (king size) and one for my youngest son’s room (full size). We’re going to take the queen size from his room and put it in the guest room (it’s a damn fine bed, and this will give him a little more walking space in his room).

The price on the beds was pretty good (it was still damned expensive), but we got both of them for less than we paid for the old bed (again… I hate that damn thing! It’s only 2 years old and the sleeping surface is totally failing).

Then, I went out and got bedding for the full and queen.

The guest room is going with the red plaid, and my son gets the blue strips (sorry… no floral or paisley prints!).

Oh… and for those of you who are waiting for the lastest news on my plans to rule the world with an iron fist… I have no news.  I do, however, have a somewhat woody scent (from all the smoke that was blown up my ass).

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

It also happens to be my 16th wedding anniversary.

Our first date was on November 6, 1987 (yes… I remember these kinds of things :-)). I had attempted to ask her out on 3 other occasions (apparently I wasn’t quite clear, as she didn’t realize I was asking her out). Finally, someone else clued her in and the we finally went on a date.

Our first date was pretty simple. We stopped and grabbed a bite to eat and then went to C.J. Timothy’s Comedy Underground (which is now called O’Dority’s Irish Pub, and doesn’t do comedy shows any more). A good time was had and we continued to date for a few years.

Finally, we tied the knot on May 5, 1990.

So… HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, Angie!! Lets hit the Outback Steakhouse and eat large slabs of dead cow and wash it down with cold pints of Fosters (Oi! We’ll bog in and hit the turps!)

🙂

Tomorrow I begin my plan to rule the world with an iron fist.

Today, I’m hiding under my desk in the fetal position.

If it can go wrong, today was apparently the day for it to do so.

On a bright note… I did get the server I’ve been working on for the past two days finished up. This means that I no longer have a HP DL380 G4 with redundant power supplies and fan kit running like a jet engine about a foot behind my head.

Seriously… that’ll drive you mad after a few hours.