Noriyuki “Pat” Morita, 1932-2005.

What happens when your mother buys new printer cartridges for her broken printer? She gets to laugh at herself, especially when she replaces the broken printer with a new one from a different brand.

The boxes were opened because my mother thought the ink might have been the problem with the printer. She was assured by an Epson tech that if she wrapped the cartridges in plastic they’d be kept in working condition.

So, for free —

(Two) boxes of Epson Black Ink, Cartridge #T0321-20.

The best thing about having only one sibling, and having that sibling live off the continent, is that whenever the parents are looking to get rid of furniture and you want it, you know that you’re much more likely to get it than the sister who’d have to pay mucho buckos to get it shipped to the middle of the Pacific.

Either that or my parents just like me more.

(Okay, so I don’t actually get the big brown leather sofa until summer and I’m going to have to rent a van from Enterprise to move it … it’s a big leather sofa!!!!!)

(And it’s super comfy).

According to CNN.com, a guy named William Swanberg “stole up to $200,000 worth of the brick sets pilfered from [Target] stores in Oregon, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California” and then resold the pieces on the ‘net.

How did he do that? Through Bricklink. The name looked familar and I checked my filed orders — sure enough, I’ve placed four orders with him for my Hogwarts project (the last in early August). Thankfully, I’ve recieved them. His store is now unlisted (not surprising since his inventory just got hauled away).

HT: Cham.

Update: Bricklink members talk about the arrest on the discussion forums. I’m less of the “I for one, will sleep a little better tonight knowing that another liar, cheat and thief is off the street” crowd and more the “he use to tell me he couldn’t lower prices because he wasn’t making enough money” crowd … (I know, I’m a horrible person).

… but I don’t think I’d hire him. Track record and all, you understand.

Black Wednesday was actually pretty good — the Indy was slow, probably a side-effect of the numerous new pizza shops opening in our area. I did encounter a few corporate drivers who looked like they’d been in trench-warfare, so I’m guessing most of the day’s business went to them.

I took five runs during the day. I showed up at work a little before 11, and I was out a little before two. Most folks tipped me about five bucks — some a bit more, some a bit less. A big shout out to the bitch at the ugly-office-furniture-warehouse on York Road who gave me a buck and change on a thirty-plus dollar order. Alternatively, a big shout out to the bearded fat guy at the right-wing news management outlet who tipped me five-fifty on a fourteen-fifty order. You rock!

Night was busier at the franchise, even with five drivers it was pretty much in and back out, mostly with two or more deliveries at a time. Although the rush died out about eight, orders continued to straggle in and I wound up not getting off the road until about fifteen minutes after we’d closed. I didn’t wind up leaving until nearly eleven, and my tips exceeded expectations.

Friday is going to be slow. The biggest fear I have is that encamped retail folks will order out for their lunch and I’ll have to make my way through a horde of shopping zombies both in the stores and in the parking lots. This is why they make double-barrelled shotguns, but can I carry one? Nooooo.