The mice will play. If my wife and kids are the cat, and I am the mouse, my idea of playing must be pretty boring. So far this weekend I stripped the beds and took the sheets to the laundromat, figuring that the bigger machines would be more efficient than the ones at the apartment complex. While the laundry was washing, I visited a few stores in the strap mall near the laundromat, including the Ace Hardware, the used book store/comic book store, and an antique store or two.
Visiting the antique stores with my wife is sometimes frustrating. I don't mind looking at the furniture, but I admit I couldn't tell a Duncan Phyfe from a Duncan Hines. I might have a little better luck telling a Chippendale table from a Chippendales dancer, but only because I happen to think the Patrick Swayze/Chris Farely sketch is the funniest 6 minutes in the history of the world.
I just happen to have a respect for some of the older furniture made from actual WOOD, and not MDF or particle board. If it's a got a few nicks or scratches, that is just proof of love.
After looking at furniture in antique stores, my wife and I usually drift apart. She is much more interested in the knick-knack type things than I am. I will look for pyrex to add to my wife collection, and sometimes, oil lamps. I guess you could say I am turning into an oil lamp collector...we have 9 or 10 of them, including two strictly functional plain glass ones from the hard ware store. I like the oil lamps because they come in many different designs, styles and colors, and if push comes to shove, (other than my two nicest)they do have a functional use.
It was my first time visiting this particular antique store, and I was quite impressed by the oil lamps selection they had in stock...probably 25-30 really decent lamps, with 5 or 6 calling my name. I did not listen to their calling though. While we are in the apartment, there is no room for the oil lamps to be displayed, and so it doesn't make sense to buy lamps right now just to put them in storage and break them.
Today, I went out to run a few other errands...not because I really needed anything, but I needed some excuse to make me take a shower and leave the apartment for a while. Went to Petco to look at rodents, because the wife and I are still stalling the kids on actually getting one. I think we have all but decided on getting them a couple of dwarf hamsters. Regular hamsters don't coexist well together, guinea pigs get too big to have a cage from them in the apartment, and gerbils reminded my wife too much of mice.
Following Petco, I swung over to Ranch and Home. It wasn't my first time, but the previous trips, in the midst of the Christmas Shopping season, the hustle and bustle was not conducive to proper gun browsing. Looking at their gun counter, I did stop to a little bit of fondling, and added two more possible guns to the 'Sidearm for my wife' list.
First, they had a pretty Kimber Stainless II in 9mm that I HAD to look at. I had thought a 1911 in 9mm might be an ideal full-size gun for my wife, but having not ever seen many of them in stock, I had mentally crossed it off my list. Well, put it back on the list. I liked the feel of this gun, and might even add one to MY list. Yes, the weight is a bit heavy, but if anything, I think it would reduce felt recoil to much less than she gets of of the .380's she likes.
Second, I got to place my hands on a gun I had never handled before, a Browning Hi Power. There is no doubt that side by side, the Kimber was the much more attractive gun. The Browning felt better in my hand, but was awfully stiff...I had to pull back on the slide while pushing down on the slide release to get it to let go. I'm sure that would loosen up a bit over time, but it might put the wife off the gun initially. It's not surprising I like the feel of the Browning...I love my CZ-75, and the Browning and the CZ are noted for a fair amount of similarity.
The Browning also felt lighter, although it's ability to hold more rounds might make it heavier when ready for use. The grip actually felt smaller than the Kimber. Ranch and Home was asking the same price for both guns; right on 899.99. This made them considerably more expensive than the other three options already on my list. Ace is asking $550 for the Taurus 1911 in .45, $410 for the Ruger SR9, and only $340 for the Walther PK380. Then again, they 'felt' like nicer guns.
My other big thing for the weekend was indulging in some old-school geekery...I have watched 21 episodes of Robotech streaming through the Wii on netflix. The animation is just as good as I remembered it being, although I did notice that they tended to recycle stuff a lot more than I noticed as a teenager.
There is a chance my wife might be coming home Monday night(yay!) as opposed to Tuesday, so I guess I should probably get cleaning at some point(boo!)
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