No iPhone... Yet

I was planning on trying to get one of the new iPhones on Friday, thinking the insanity wouldn't be as much this time, but I soon learned that was definitely not the case. Friday morning on my way to work I stopped at the AT&T store near my house. As I drove up I didn't see a line, but it turns out I was just approaching from the opposite direction as the line was going. I got out of my car and started toward the store when I saw the line, which at first looked to be close to my patience level, but as I walked toward the corner of the building and found the line turned and kept going for a ways, I just got back in my car and went to work. At lunch I stopped in another store and was not surprised to find they didn't have any, but the guy said they'd be getting more in the coming days. Saturday morning I went back to the store near my house just before they opened at 9. There was only one person there, who had already been told they didn't have any in stock there. Other people walking up had reports of absurd waits at the stores that did have stock. I stuck around until they opened and decided instead of waiting or checking in every day I would do direct fulfillment, where the send the phone to that store in 7 to 10 days. With some luck I'll have it this Friday or Saturday. I did play with a live demo of the new version of the iPhone in the store.
I went back home and putzed for a little bit before getting on my bike to do a charity ride. The flier I had must have been a misprint because it said first bike out at 11, when it was really last bike out at 11, so when I got there at 11:10 they were just about to leave. The ride was pretty nice, nothing I haven't done innumerable times before. The fourth stop in Lago Vista was the only one I really hadn't been to, and it was down a ways off the main road, so I wasn't sure if I was headed the right direction. I got there at 1 and was getting hungry, so I was glad to see the Lions Club was selling BBQ, which wasn't bad. At the final stop at Carlos and Charlie's I was kind of surprised not to find my co-worker who rides with the group that put the event on and was the one who told me about it. He showed up later, having stopped for a long lunch in Marble Falls. I did pretty well in the "Scrabble Scramble," but wound up just outside of prize range. I stuck around there until 5, didn't get home until 6, quickly cleaned up a bit, changed and jumped in the car to get to a friend's surprise birthday party. I got there much later than I had hoped- right at 7 when she was supposed to arrive. As I was walking from my car to their house I saw a car pulling up that I thought might have been hers. Turns out it was her car and I kind of ruined the surprise, but at that point she already pretty much knew what was going on from all of her friends' cars parked in the street. The party was good, I enjoyed myself. The food was good as it always is at their parties. It didn't get quite as crazy as the last party of theirs I went to, but it was pretty rowdy. I finally left after 2 and got home about 3:30 and went straight to bed.
I woke up at 8 Sunday, read for a bit and otherwise did nothing until about 10 when I went to the theater to see Hellboy 2, which I really enjoyed. I went from there to my company's summer party. I had never been to the place, near the airport and kind of hard to get to, but the company party had been there the previous two years as well. People who had been to those parties as well grumbled some that the party should go somewhere else. That and the oppressive heat probably kept a lot of people away, as turnout wasn't great. There were mostly families with young children, and some couples. After lunch, which was just okay, I was looking forward to riding the zip line. It turns out it wasn't really engineered and they imposed an age/weight limit because their stopping mechanism wasn't meant for much more than 100 pounds. After being denied on the zip line, I was thinking about going home but decided to change into my swim trunks and jump in the pool. The pool was cool but not too cold and it felt great after sweating in the nearly 100 degree heat. I left about 5 and went home and watched the drag race. I fell asleep on the couch about 7 and woke up at 8:30, watched drag racing until about 10:30 and read until I fell asleep about 11.