Salamander
Fire Walking

The Professor surprised me Friday by suggesting we head to the beach (about a two hour drive) for the day on Saturday. This past weekend marked the one year anniversary that we went to the same beach during his first visit. The forecast was for overcast with showers, which is a great time to go to the shore, so far as we're both concened. It scares the sunbathers off the beach, and makes for quiet walks and good shelling. We went, spent time scouring the beach, walking through a small preserve, sitting in the drizzle watching the bathing suited sun-worshippers scurry back to the safety of their cars, and just spending time together. It was time much needed and well spent. Of course, driving back in the evening, I discovered why they were calling for overcast with showers, as the remains of a tropical storm wound its way up the east coast and dumped six inches of rain on me as I drove home.

Sunday I got the proverbial bee up my butt about the project I'd been wanting to do for a while, burning CD's of many of my old LP's that are not available on CD. I had everything I needed for the project except the receiver to connect the turntable to my computer's sound card. My sisters gave me cash for my birthday, and I intended to put the cash toward that purpose. Technically, I don't need a receiver for this job, just an amplifier, but I'd never seen an amplifier-only for a sound system, so I was resigned to getting a receiver and using the amplifier portion of that.

The first store we stopped at had a somewhat knowledgeable guy there who assured us that amplifier-only components were available, and suggested we try a rather classy but more completely stocked store in the area. When we stopped there, I found a guy who actually understood what I was looking for, who informed me that what I wanted wasn't an amplifier, but a pre-amplifier that would work on the milli-volt output of the turntable. He didn't have any, but suggested yet another store, known for having project items such as this. This next store, of course, had no idea what I was talking about. Back to square one.

I should mention at this point that the amplifier would have set me back $200, give or take. This pre-amp would have cost $30-40 bucks. It had become my mission and madness to find this elusive pre-amp.

We tried another handful of stores, all with the same "huh?" results when we asked the salesman. I was beginning to despair. And then, on a whim, we stopped by Circuit City on the way home. Let it be said that the Professor does not care for Circuit City. I've had good luck in my dealings with them, but the last time I'd purchased anything there was seven years ago. We poked around, I found another item (a case for my Sprint phone that Sprint themselves didn't have in stock) and THEN ... The Professor walked up to me with a small box in hand. MY PRE-AMPLIFIER! For $40.00!

So now I have everything I need to finally convert my old beloved LP's to CD form. Now all I need to do is learn to run the software, and I'm in like Flynn.

As a side note, yesterday The Professor finally got around to washing the pan I'd broiled fish in last Wednesday on Sunday night. He was complaining how difficult the pan was to wash, and maybe I shouldn't make fish that way anymore. I observed that difficulty in washing might have something to do with the length of time the pan is allowed to season. There wasn't much griping after that. I've no idea if he actually got the idea, but we shall see.

He obviously didn't hold the crack against me, since last night was very nice. Which is all I have to say about that.