B-day

[drcpunk]

So, after a lobster dinner on Monday, followed by leftover yummy steak Tuesday, toady, I dined on half priced sushi and sashimi, which mnemex decided ranked as an on-my-birthday birthday dinner and treated me to.

Then, we went to hear blackholly read a marvellous story. We slipped out after that (well, not as quickly or gracefully as that sounds -- the place was packed), and went to Veniero's for dessert. Lemonade is in season there, and it's quite good.

Heading for the Union Square Station, mnemex headed into Staples, me trailing behind, and we looked at the Tungsten C Palms, starting to drool. mnemex asked what I thought about having one as a present. I had, simultaneously, been considering the possibility of buying him one for his birthday. So, we decided to buy each other the magi's gift of something like that.

This hit a couple of snags. First, there was only one salesperson on duty, and he was helping someone else. Then, he didn't know what a Tungsten C was, this being his third day on the job. So, we showed him the boxes, and he said that his manager would have to get a couple, at least, once she'd finished talking to the police.

The police? Oh, yes, it seemed the store had been robbed. mnemex had wondered about this, given a shattered glass case which no longer held model pdas. We asked when the robbery had happened, and the salesperson said, "About half an hour ago."

His manager filled the police in. It's like this same group comes in all the time, sometimes sends a couple of runners in to check the place out, and if they like what they're told, voila, a robbery. We asked if she had time to get a couple of Tungstens for us, and she agreed.

She came back quickly, saying she only had one left, so we took it up to the register, along with a folding keyboard for the one I'll eventually buy for mnemex. No, not all of the Tungsten Cs had been robbed, but it's a very popular item.

We asked the clerks at the register how often the place got robbed. One said once a day, but the other said a couple of times a week, which sounds more logical. It seems to be basically a case of folks walking in, breaking glass, grabbing stuff, and casually walking out, or folks walking in, breaking glass, and leaving, with or without stuff, and a second wave robbing, now that the glass is broken.

I do wish the Tungsten -also- took batteries, but what the hey.