La Jour de Merde, (so far at least)

Somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00 this morning the power went out.  Fortunately I have an alarm clock with a backup battery and I had set my cell phone’s alarm.

I’m also glad that I have a gas stove, or I would have been drinking cold coffee this morning.  And the water was still hot, so I was able to brush my teeth and take my shower.  Inconvenient, but not a real hardship.

It wasn’t until about noon when my day went completely topsy-turvey.  I got a voicemail from my roommate telling me he had just got home from a doctor’s appointment to find the house had been broken into.  First, and (knock on wood) hopefully last, time this has happened in the 20 years I’ve lived here.

We think that they were interrupted because all they got was my roommate’s iPad and some jewelry.  It looks like they were in the middle of going through his room when he returned home, and had no time to go through the rest of the house.  When he came in, his inside bedroom door was wide open, as were both the back doors (I have an enclosed back porch).

They got in through the bathroom window, which I had left wide open.  I usually do this (but no longer will) because it opens up into the enclosed porch.  I also left the porch door unlocked, though I did lock the house door.  Now, the weird thing here is that they had to take out the screen to get in the bathroom window, and the screen is nowhere to be found.  They stole that also.

I told my roommate to go ahead and call the police, went down to the office to tell them what happened and headed right home.  A police officer came and then a CSU person showed up.

This part was actually quite interesting.  With a homicide they may tape off the entire crime scene, but in this case she let me follow her around, watch, ask questions and learn.  I had to stay out of her pictures, but got to watch her pull a shoe print off the bathtub.  You can see the footprint tape in the light spot of the picture if you look hard (and click on it to make it bigger).

I would have gotten better pictures, but I brought my good camera to school (thank God) and had only my cell phone camera for pictures.   But at least I learned that a good fingerprint is actually better than DNA, although (unlike on TV) they are hard to come by.  Most people, especially when they are moving around an unfamiliar house, don’t put their fingers down on something and pick them up without moving them a little bit, thereby smudging the print.  She told me that when she is drinking something, puts down her glass and it has a nice clean print on it, she’ll just look at it and think “Why can’t I ever get that at work?”  I also found out that brushed metal sucks for fingerprinting, glass and porcelain are the best.  Oh, and they actually do have shoe print and tire track databases,

Anyway, it was interesting, the bathroom window now has a pipe in it to keep the window from opening more than 3” and I’m going to be locking both back doors when I leave for work from now on.

Oh, and the power finally came back on around 3:15, just about 12 hours after it went out.  Which, by the way, is probably why my house got broken into today.   The CSI says that happens when power goes out, no alarms, look for an easy in and bada-bim, bada-boom.  No more easy ins here.

Saving money

I went to Barnes & Noble to get the 11^th season of C.S.I., and to use the $10 gift certificate I got at school last year.

They had several copies there, priced at a whopping $79 (with the 10% discount they were currently offering it would have been $71)

The clerk said something about having it shipped to my house, that I missed because I was trying to restart my heart from sticker-shock.  I mumbled something about just taking it with me as she clicked away on the computer.  Before I could tell her that I really didn’t want to pay for shipping since I was already there, she said “If you don’t mind waiting a week, we can ship it to your house for $44.”

It took only a millisecond for my brain to go from “another $44 bucks to wait for it?” to “It’s less if I have it mailed to my house?”  Fortunately, what came out of my mouth was the later, and the clerk confirmed it.  So I asked if it would be the same if I just ordered it online.  “Yes, but then you would miss out on chatting with me.”

Bonus points for the quick comeback.

My figuring is that the company knows the more people they can get to order from the warehouse, the less shelf space they need to keep, and pay for, in the expensive prime locations they put their stores. 

Either way, with the $10 gift certificate, I got an $80 DVD for just over $35.  Do yourself the same favor next time you’re shopping there.  If you can wait, get it delivered.

Greatest compliment ever.

… Student came into 3rd period today and said to me:

… “You’re looking like Grissom today.”

 

 

Laughed out loud.

.... One of the things I love about CSI (the original) is how they weave humor into a TV show about murder, rape and other crimes.  Today I was watching a newly downloaded episode (A Space Oddity) and it made me laugh out loud.  Literally.

.... The first few minutes of CSI they introduce the story, Grissom was famous for pulling off a cute little pun right before cutting to the credits.  In this episode two of the minor characters meet at a Star Trek convention, although they call it Astro Quest and they make no direct reference to the Star Trek characters.

.... The murder takes place on the bridge of the imaginary spaceship, a set brought along for the convention.  The two minor characters immediately identify themselves as CSI, secure the scene and call the regular Police Detective, guy named Jim Brass.  Hodges, the CSI calling Brass simply tells him that there is a situation at the convention.  When Brass asks him what it's all about, Hodges relplies:

He's dead, Jim!

Being both a CSI and Star Trek fan probably helped. 

Lucky 7

Here's a picture of the bird feeder I mentioned in the previous post, it hangs from the SE corner of the house, in the back.

I was going through my old CDs, the ones with my pictures on them, and found some interesting photos. You'll see them show up here and there over the next little while. But the other picture here is one with a good story. For several years, I got to take our students to the Utah State Math Contest, where students from all the secondary schools get to compete with each other. We're allowed up to 4 students per grade, so the most I ever had to deal with was 12 Jr. High kids. This time the contest was up in Logan at the Utah State University. Pretty much it consists of us escorting the students up there, getting them to the testing area, socializing with the other teachers for a couple hours, and then just making sure all the kids get back. Not hard work. Anyway, to the picture. When the test was over and we headed back to the bus, this CSI truck was in the parking lot, so I decided to have a student get a picture of me standing next to it. You can see the kids walking by, and one of them asked what CSI stood for (this was several years ago, before the CSI series were as well known as they are now). So I told them, Crime Scene Investigation. So they asked what crime I was investigating. (Ok, if your immediate reaction is that I corrected them and let them know I was a teacher, you get no blog karma points. Go away, or I shall have to taunt you a second time...) Yeah, I told them there was a murder on campus, and when they asked me what happened I simply told them that I couldn't say anything about it because it's an open investigation. I heard them walking away mumbling 'murder' and 'cool'. Yeah, I'm bad.

Lucky 7. I just got the Battlecruiser registered and as I was sticking the 7 (for July) on the plate it occurred to me that all 3 of my LTD's registrations are now due in July. Good think it's in the summer when I have the time to get them all inspected, and to get a part time job to raise the money to pay for them all......