“List on the 3s:” Sorry, no list today…

“List on the 3s” is my semi-regular feature where, on any dare that includes a number 3, I come up with a list of some sort. And then I do it again on the next date which has a 3 in it.  This all works gloriously — except for those times, of course, when it doesn’t.

Hey all — I’m really sorry about this, but I’m afraid I simply don’t have a list ready for June 30.  I feel kind of ashamed that this is the first time that I’m missing a genuine List on the 3s — I know I haven’t been blogging so much lately, but I thought that I could, at the very least, keep up with this. I hope you can forgive me this time; things were just really, really busy and hectic today.

Seven Reasons That Shiny Didn’t Come Up With A “List on the 3s” for Today

7. I had to spend my lunch hour returning a wrong-sized toiet seat to Home Depot. I suppose you can call me fortunate for having a Home Depot so close to work. I know I feel that way…  But when we bought a replacement yesterday at the Home Depot closer to home, we completely were off on out measurements, opting for the 18.5″ rather than the 16.5″ one. Fortunately, they include a ruler on the side of the box! So I didn’t even have to open it to realize the mistake of my ways. The exchange was simple. But while I was in Home Depot, I had to btowse for 45 minutes.

6. I had to change my cel phone plan. I blame TequilaCon for this one. The day before I left I opted for the text message and Internet plan, thinking that I would likely not use text messaging, twittering or the like after the weekend. Color me wrong! Once I realized how I could email photos from my phone directly to Flickr, I became addicted to the technology. And since I have now become a textaholic, I needed to make some adjustments so I didn’t get charged up the wazoo with extraneous overages. Fortunately, I have a provider which allows such changes to be made without affecting one’s contractual obligations to the company…

5. My father-in-law called and might be dropping into town for July 4 weekend — surprise! Living in the DC area is an amazing thing when July 4 rolls around. We’re planning on heading to the National Mall with the family and a couple hundred thousand of our closest friends. But socKs’s dad realized that if he can get a cheap flight, he might as well come up as well! Which immediately put socKs and myself into cleaning mode. (Who am I kidding? Her mostly.)  We’ll see what happens…

4. The Mole was on tonight. Dude — best show so far.  What a psychological thriller of a reality show. I still miss Anderson Cooper, but John Kelley is really growing on me. Whom I think is the mole changes several times an episode.

3. I had to install a new timer for our outside porch light. I may not be the most electrician-ish person out there, but I did install our original timer for the outside light. That was about six years ago, and something somewhere died since then.  We tried changing the bulb; no luck. So I bought a new timer (This time a digital one rather than the dial kind) in case the issue was the switch itself. So — I followed the direction — turned off the circuit breaker, uninstalled the old timer, put the new one in, turned the breaker back on, and — nothing.  Still didn’t work. And while I was fanagling with it a bit, I touched the metal of the switch and felt a bit tingly. Whoops… Fortunately, my dad may be able to help out with it this weekend. I really hope it’s not the inside, 30-year old wiring…

2. I had to calm down a freaked-out Avi who suffered the ghostly effects of his music stopping and starting. This was a weird one: While I was troubleshooting the new timer-switch, we heard some crying/moaning upstairs. socKs went to check on him and found him hysterical about something with the music he was listening to. She calmed him down by changing the album on his faux-pod. (That’s what we call his Sansa music player with speaker dock.)

And then it happened again — with a new album! I went upstairs, and he was crying that he didn’t want the music to just stop and start again. I had no idea what he was talking about; he has CDs that skip, but MP3s?  I told him that it would be okay.

Then he said he couldn’t sleep because his digital clock was flashing 12:00.  So I reset it.

Then it hit me: What I believed to be the circuit breaker for the front hall and outside lamp also included his room upstairs — immediately over the front hall!  While I was doing my installation I was cutting power to his room. Hence the skipping MP3 player. Me dork…

1. I just couldn’t think of anything original and list-like. I mean, come on! It’s a Monday. I can hardly cope as it is…