Qualified Perceptions

So, mjperson has occasionally complained that while he does appreciate the sweaters I make him, he keeps putting them on backwards. I look at him askance for this, because you can generally tell which is the front and which is the back by looking at where the shoulder seam hits the collar, and which side the collar dips down on. But I will agree that this is a more complex observation than "where is the tag?"

However, they sell tags for handknit sweaters! All the examples say things like "Made with Love by Laura" or "Handknit for You" (or "Kid's Name"), but you can get them to say whatever you want. I got these. :)

mjperson was telling me that the Safety Office was recently causing a fuss because of all the radon his observatory had. (This was a surreal start to the story, because how can a building that the roof comes off all the time have that much radon?) His reaction was similar to mine - what radon? All the radon in the underground storage areas, they said. What underground storage areas?

So, it turns out that right next to the G____ R W______ Astrophysical Observatory (look at me being Victorian to avoid Google-indexing), there is a G____ R W______ Geophysical Observatory. A what? They point their telescopes at the ground? But no! It is an UNDERGROUND SCIENCE BUNKER with seismographs in it. Except that it is actually a SECRET ABANDONED UNDERGROUND SCIENCE BUNKER, because apparently the guy who ran it retired twenty years ago and they forgot to assign someone else.

All I can think about is SECRET ABANDONED UNDERGROUND SCIENCE BUNKER. Why are there not teenagers exploring it with flashlights and shaky-cam movie recorders? Are there zombies? Or giant tunnel worms with big teeth? There must be a plot down there!

So, last post had the Tragic Death of the iPad. (Though it actually worked surprisingly well for all the broken glass). Many people encouraged me to take it to the Apple Store and throw myself on their mercy to replace it, so that's what I did Thursday.

mjperson came with me as moral support and because he had a question for them too. As it turns out, he ended up kind of being my minder, to cover both my noodleheadedness and what he considered to be insufficient mercy-throwing.

"You didn't say it was only two weeks old."
"Three weeks by now. And that was just the guy I was making the appointment with! I'll tell the actual guy!"
"I don't think you're very good at this."

Then, with the actual guy, I did not leap in quickly enough to say that it was two weeks old, so Mike leaped in to point it out. Later:

"You're *really* not very good at this. I mean, we practiced and everything! You just can't bring yourself to say 'it's only two weeks old, can you replace it?'"
"I was going to! I just... hadn't gotten there yet. I *did* say it was a birthday present! And he could tell how old it was from looking up the serial number. But... yeah. I just can't bring myself to say 'can I please have a new one for free?'"

But they gave me a new one for free anyway! Hooray for them! I got the feeling that there was an unofficial policy of "one user damage replacement for new device, per user *ever*" and I have used mine.

Then there was this bit towards the end:

Guy: "Is this your address? (51 Ibbetson Street...)"
Me: "Yes."
Mike: "That isn't your address."
Me: "Yes it is."
Mike: "No it isn't."
Me: "... er. Yes, that's my old address. I, um, I did live there for fifteen years, it still looks right."

So now Mike gets to claim that he rescued me from both not getting my iPad replaced, and from not being able to find my way home afterwards because I don't know where I live. But, I have a new iPad, so he can claim that he rescued me from being eaten by bears and defeated an alien invasion at the mall, and we're both happy.

So, this evening, mjperson and I went to Chipotle again before the Comet run. Some of you may remember the last time and the Great Confusion about how many tacos "tacos" is, and that the canonical answer is "three".

I can now order tacos, it turns out. But Mike can no longer order two tacos, because now he knows that he's paying for three tacos, and paying for three but only getting two is Wasteful.

"Can I have two tacos... argh, no, better make it three."

Then he eats two tacos, and picks unhappily at the third.

It amuses me that I break in exactly the opposite direction than he does, and it should surprise no one who knows the both of us that I break by Not Understanding and he breaks when his Reality Denial is Thwarted.

Angelina's is getting weird.

mjperson:"I'd like to order some subs for takeout. [...] A regular hamburger sub, with onions and ketchup."
"Would you like the hamburger raw or cooked?"
"...Cooked, please."

Number 2 in what I keep thinking ought to be a series: Posts that mjperson ought to have made.

Here's a very short blog post by Steven Levitt.

The punch line is cute. But... he doesn't know how his third-grade daughter is supposed to know what the colors of the rainbow are? SHE'S SUPPOSED TO KNOW BECAUSE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE TEACHING HER THAT!

What are the Great Lakes? I might give him a pass on that not being part of the standard curriculum for your small child. I learned my states, but not my Great Lakes, as a little bitty kid. (mjperson, as a little bitty kid, did learn them, but he's from New York and I'm from California.). I learned "Thirty days has September" before I can remember, but I think davehenry told me about knuckle-counting.

But not teaching your kid *colors* is a dereliction of duty. I mean, come *on*. Isn't that like the first thing ever, when you're teaching them words?

"Who is it that doesn't like Christopher's?"
"That would be Charles."
"Ahah! He's not here, so we could go to Christopher's."
"Oh, wait. Charles doesn't like Kaya. That would be me who doesn't like Christopher's."