I wonder how many other mundane blog's have this exact same title (Note: I changed the title - this first part was written prior to adding everything after "or"). I'm sure lots of people that you have no interest in reading about have busy months occasionally. Fortunately for me, you either don't exist or do have an interest in reading about my busy month.
I'll start off with the fact that I bought a house. This makes any month above average in busyness.
Of course, with buying a new house comes moving. We didn't hire movers, instead opting to bribe our friends with promises of "free beer" and "free pizza." Little did they know it was in the "free as in speech" variety, and not "free as in beer." (Sorry - lame Internet joke; everybody did get tangible pizza and beer!).
Of course, there was all of the normal unpacking and realizing that we didn't have stuff that we just sort of assumed we had. The first thing I did was to hook up the sound system, which was a bit problematic because I'm not one for cable management, and there were an s-ton of wires hanging out.
This led us to realize that we needed a TV stand. This is great until we realized that I have something like 7 components not including the TV. The situation (all those playing the Jersey Shore drinking game now have to take a shot) was further exacerbated by the fact that my center channel speaker is two feet wide and 8 inches tall (and 14 inches deep for those keeping track at home). You've probably never looked for a stand that has a place to put a center channel speaker that is that large, but let me tell you, it greatly reduces your options.
Being the schmuck that I am, I went to Best Buy to look at some stands. Of course, I sort of gravitated toward their Magnolia section, which contains their outrageously overprice items and saw a beauty of a stand - it even matched the color of my speakers exactly. However, upon looking at the price tag I realized that we might have to figure something else out.
I asked the associate that revived me after viewing the price of that unit what else he had. I was pretty specific (no open backs - I hate cable management), and aside from the $1500 stand I had just seen, there was one other stand for $600. It didn't match as well and it might not fit everything, so I had to consult the future-wife.
She liked it OK but we kept looking (also, I would have had to sand down part of the stand to fit in the speaker). Her parents' belong to Direct Buy which is a way to get name brand furniture for less, somehow. They didn't have the stand, of course, so we kept looking.
We tried looking at some different styles. I saw an entertainment center at Wal-Mart and tried to convince myself that this was the one we should get. It wasn't a bad stand per se, but it was from Wal Mart.
I swallowed my pride and told the almost-wife that this is the one we should get. She was at work so she didn't get my email, and in the meantime, I happened upon the website of a now defunct high-end local electronics retailer MyerEmco. They were going out of business and they just happened to carry the brand of stand I liked so much originally.
They consolidated all of their merchandise into the Bailey's Crossroad store on the previous day, so I knew if I wanted to check out their stuff, I would have to do it ASAP. The problem was that it's like an hour trip to get there in traffic. I was about 5 minutes away from not going because "what are the chances they would have what I want?", but I sucked it up and went anyway.
I walked around the store and saw several nice stands, but they weren't big enough and they were displays, so they had scratches and wear on them. I had given up looking and started to walk around the store for other fun items that I didn't need (the store is a cornucopia of fun stuff for a tech guy like myself), but also couldn't pass up at these clearance prices.
Discouraged but not surprised, I made one final lap around the store before I was going to leave. It was then, much like Ralphie from A Christmas Story, I noticed a box in the back of the store. I went over and noticed it was the brand that I liked and in the color that I needed.
My heart started racing.
I pulled out my phone and looked up the model number. This wasn't exactly the stand that I saw several days earlier, but it was very similar to it, and best of all, it would fit all of my components.
I flagged down an associate and asked him how much. He told me $650 - less than half the retail price, and I told him I would take it (without even consulting the budget-master-to-be!).
I came back the next day with a truck and a buddy, took it home, set it up, and then set up my kegerator (Sam Adam's Boston Lager on tap). Until I'm ready to pick up my pinball machine, my place is now done (except, of course, for everything else).
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