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This morning I received a surprise invitation for lady_curmudgeon and myself to join datahawk and ottr for brunch-type foods at a restaurant in the area. I'd never been there and Curmudgeon wanted to get out of the house, so we readily accepted. We made good time to Wheaton, where the restaurant was... and then I had an attack of the Self Doubts, which lead us to leave the restaurant and pursue the other location, which is not where we were to meet up with our friends. Thankfully we were only a little ways away when the call was returned and the address verified.

We met up outside the door to the restaurant and that's when the trap was sprung - Data and Ottr handed Curmudgeon and I some wrapped-up gifts. SURPRISE PRESENTS! Unacceptable. My revenge will be without warning.

Inside things were hectic, obviously it's a pretty popular place. We made our orders, drank coffee and kibitzed while we waited for the food. It wasn't long before Curmudgeon and I were pressured to open our presents. To my complete delight and surprise I received season 2 and season 3 of Robot Chicken, and Curmudgeon got two boxed seasons of Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Pretty cool!

After our meal we made a stop at Fry's Electronics. While there we discovered that Ottr wasn't going to get his Nintendo DS from them as their inventory was completely ravaged last week, prior to Christmas. We also learned that there's an AirSoft pistol made to look like my Sigma SW40F. Pretty darn neat, and it puts the BBs out at something akin to 315fps. Not bad, though I've no idea if it's CO2 operated or what (Edit @2133: It's a spring!). While in the toy aisle I found a metal Slinky in excellent condition (the last one I bought from there was completely twisted and ruined, but I never got around to returning it). We also wandered around the store to pick up a set of USB extension cables for Mudgeon's computer. On the way to the check-out line I had a minor altercation with the father of a young boy -- the kid (around 8 or 9) was tromping around and, as he went past, kicked over the toy trains on display next to me. I made a sharp comment and told the kid to pick it up, which brought his dad over with an attitude, demanding to know if I "was his father?!" I said nope - but the boy's being incredibly rude by not picking up what he's knocked over, at which point I gestured to the wreckage of the display. I was surprised to see the dad turn to the boy and ask if he'd knocked it over. A mumbled "I don't know," was met with the father asking again, more strongly, "Did you knock it over?" The kid admitted yes, he had. "Then pick it up!" And within a few seconds the display was put back to half-assed rights and the family continued on their way. Good enough for me.

Since Ottr didn't have anything to buy and the hunt for a Nintendo DS was now officially on our group parted ways, with Data and Ottr heading off to shop at my retail nemesis (Best Buy) while I checked out with Curmudgeon. Shortly after that we were home and I tore apart the passenger-side wiper arm on my Expedition. It had frozen in place on Friday and didn't seem interested in moving anymore. I found that luckily I hadn't stripped the splines on the motor shaft, the arm had just come loose. I cleaned up the connection point with a bit of paper towel, jammed it back in place and tightened the nut down. A flick of the wiper control later and I had proof that all was once again right with the world. It's good to have windshield wipers! Especially with all the wacky weather we're having...