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A busy weekend
Sooo tired.
The weekend was more busy than I'd expected. After receiving the new head unit and XM tuner for the car last week, I was able to schedule the install for Saturday. I'd planned on heading to the installer, dropping the car off, then hoofing it over to the nearby Target and maybe even walking over to Reston Town Center while I waited.
I got to the installer at about 9:30, plenty of time before they opened at 10, just to try to be the first person in there. Turns out there were some other jobs from the previous day they were gonna do, but since mine was the easiest thing on the schedule so far, they'd probably do that first. Groovy!
I walked to the other side of 7100 to the Target there. Just as I entered my cellphone rang. it was Whitetail. Turns out he was heading down to a gun show at the Dulles Expo Center. I gave him directions to where I was and he swung by and picked me up.
The gun show was..well..a gun show. Lots of stuff, new and old, plenty of accessories. I often found myself wishing I had a ton of cash to blow on stuff there. I picked up an Otis cleaning kit that I've not been able to find locally as well as some ammunition for the Kahr that'll be the "official" CC gun. Heck, I fell absolutely in love with a Sig Equinox there, just because of how amazingly comfortable it was to hold. If only I'd found $850 laying around in the parking lot..I'd have gotten the thing.
We went over to Famous Dave's for some food. Gotta love the bbq there. I called the installer and found out my car had been ready since 12:30. Another trip into the expo center, then Whitetail drove me back to pickup my car.
Yay for a properly functioning cd player! The new unit sounds really nice. It's got no problem with any of the CDR's I've burned full of mp3 files. I've yet to use the front aux input, but that'll be nice for plugging a little flash player into.
Among the other mail Saturday was the notice that the CC permit had been approved. I'll head down to the courthouse to pick that up today.
Saturday evening I went to the XM website to activate the radio. That ended up being kind of a pain. First, the site is too dumb to recognize Firefox. Trying to sign up, I was presented with a notice that the site only worked with IE and Netscape. Feh. So I fired up IE, filled out the first screen of info, then the 2nd screen with the radio ID and such, and then got presented with some kind of error. It sounded like the coding on the site couldn't figure out where I was in the whole process. Bleah! Okay, closed the browser, cleared the cache, and tried again, only to have it get unhappy after I filled out the first screen because it had found "a similar email address in use." yeesh! So much for easy web activation. I called the 800 number, started using the automated system, then inexplicably got transferred to a human operator. Eh. Okay, though the silly activation fee is $5 more for talking to an actual human.
Anyhoo, after repeating information a couple times to the call center rep (I'm guessing he was new at the job. Even tried to sell a standalone xm receiver "you can use it in your car!...oh..you're registering a car receiver aren't you?") I got through the process. Annoyingly, they didn't seem to want to cut some slack on the registration fee, even though it's their cruddy site design that was the only reason I didn't activate online.
Once that was done, it was off to sit in the car listening to the preview channel until the radio updated and realized it was allowed to let me listen to real stuff. That took 10 or 15 minutes. Now I get to decide which stations to set as presets. Definite ones are the 80's station, one of the classical ones, one of the alternative channels, DC area traffic, and probably the 'down tempo' as well.
Sunday was a gorgeous day and a typical one at the barn. I love seeing the horses in their spring coats, looking all sleek and glossy. As I was driving up the road from the barn on the way home, I passed a Park Police officer riding along the side of the road. Sometime in the past few years, the Park Police got a huge percheron. He might be a percheron mix, but if he is, he got absolutely none of his non-perch parent's body. The guy is massive and handsome as heck. I first saw him a few years back, watching an officer trot him along the road in front of the barn. Two things struck me that day: First was that the 2 month training the Park Police give their mounted officers isn't nearly enough. (We all cringed, waiting for the officer to fall off that day, he was so freakin stiff in the saddle). The second was that I want that horse. He's not only a draft and gorgeous, but has such a smooth rangey movement that it must be a joy to sit to his trot. I can only imagine how his canter must be. He also has an air about him that seems to say "Yeah, I'm good lookin and I know it" while still being an easygoing friendly draft type.
Between all the standing and walking around Saturday, the barn on Sunday, and all the plant sex going on, I'm tired 'n bleary eyed today. I can't wait to get home tonight for a short nap.
The weekend was more busy than I'd expected. After receiving the new head unit and XM tuner for the car last week, I was able to schedule the install for Saturday. I'd planned on heading to the installer, dropping the car off, then hoofing it over to the nearby Target and maybe even walking over to Reston Town Center while I waited.
I got to the installer at about 9:30, plenty of time before they opened at 10, just to try to be the first person in there. Turns out there were some other jobs from the previous day they were gonna do, but since mine was the easiest thing on the schedule so far, they'd probably do that first. Groovy!
I walked to the other side of 7100 to the Target there. Just as I entered my cellphone rang. it was Whitetail. Turns out he was heading down to a gun show at the Dulles Expo Center. I gave him directions to where I was and he swung by and picked me up.
The gun show was..well..a gun show. Lots of stuff, new and old, plenty of accessories. I often found myself wishing I had a ton of cash to blow on stuff there. I picked up an Otis cleaning kit that I've not been able to find locally as well as some ammunition for the Kahr that'll be the "official" CC gun. Heck, I fell absolutely in love with a Sig Equinox there, just because of how amazingly comfortable it was to hold. If only I'd found $850 laying around in the parking lot..I'd have gotten the thing.
We went over to Famous Dave's for some food. Gotta love the bbq there. I called the installer and found out my car had been ready since 12:30. Another trip into the expo center, then Whitetail drove me back to pickup my car.
Yay for a properly functioning cd player! The new unit sounds really nice. It's got no problem with any of the CDR's I've burned full of mp3 files. I've yet to use the front aux input, but that'll be nice for plugging a little flash player into.
Among the other mail Saturday was the notice that the CC permit had been approved. I'll head down to the courthouse to pick that up today.
Saturday evening I went to the XM website to activate the radio. That ended up being kind of a pain. First, the site is too dumb to recognize Firefox. Trying to sign up, I was presented with a notice that the site only worked with IE and Netscape. Feh. So I fired up IE, filled out the first screen of info, then the 2nd screen with the radio ID and such, and then got presented with some kind of error. It sounded like the coding on the site couldn't figure out where I was in the whole process. Bleah! Okay, closed the browser, cleared the cache, and tried again, only to have it get unhappy after I filled out the first screen because it had found "a similar email address in use." yeesh! So much for easy web activation. I called the 800 number, started using the automated system, then inexplicably got transferred to a human operator. Eh. Okay, though the silly activation fee is $5 more for talking to an actual human.
Anyhoo, after repeating information a couple times to the call center rep (I'm guessing he was new at the job. Even tried to sell a standalone xm receiver "you can use it in your car!...oh..you're registering a car receiver aren't you?") I got through the process. Annoyingly, they didn't seem to want to cut some slack on the registration fee, even though it's their cruddy site design that was the only reason I didn't activate online.
Once that was done, it was off to sit in the car listening to the preview channel until the radio updated and realized it was allowed to let me listen to real stuff. That took 10 or 15 minutes. Now I get to decide which stations to set as presets. Definite ones are the 80's station, one of the classical ones, one of the alternative channels, DC area traffic, and probably the 'down tempo' as well.
Sunday was a gorgeous day and a typical one at the barn. I love seeing the horses in their spring coats, looking all sleek and glossy. As I was driving up the road from the barn on the way home, I passed a Park Police officer riding along the side of the road. Sometime in the past few years, the Park Police got a huge percheron. He might be a percheron mix, but if he is, he got absolutely none of his non-perch parent's body. The guy is massive and handsome as heck. I first saw him a few years back, watching an officer trot him along the road in front of the barn. Two things struck me that day: First was that the 2 month training the Park Police give their mounted officers isn't nearly enough. (We all cringed, waiting for the officer to fall off that day, he was so freakin stiff in the saddle). The second was that I want that horse. He's not only a draft and gorgeous, but has such a smooth rangey movement that it must be a joy to sit to his trot. I can only imagine how his canter must be. He also has an air about him that seems to say "Yeah, I'm good lookin and I know it" while still being an easygoing friendly draft type.
Between all the standing and walking around Saturday, the barn on Sunday, and all the plant sex going on, I'm tired 'n bleary eyed today. I can't wait to get home tonight for a short nap.