transparent discrepancy

for our wedding ceremony, lyds had an interest in getting a 3-piece string trio to play while guests made their way to seats and for her walk down the aisle. such a happening was a childhood dream of hers, and one she's interested in making a reality this august.

through diligent search, a local group was found, and contacted. lyds estimated the total playtime would be 20-30 minutes. they could start playing 15 minutes before the ceremony, and then for 15 minutes (if needed) as people made their way away from their seats.

i cannot remember the exact price quote she got, but given the amount of effort they had to put in, it seemed rather unreasonable. yes, they would have to charge a fair amount in order to take the gig; they can't say yes and then get offered something big they can charge more for and lose out, after all, but i decided to get a little sneaky.

i fired off an email from my account, and made a request for a trio for a dinner party. same play time, just for a dinner party.

my quote came back several hundred dollars less.

there is an oddity in the world that suppliers, entertainers and the like feel they can jack up their prices just because the word "wedding" is attached to an event.

'tis bullshit.

i didn't call the trio out on their obvious asshole move, but neither will we be using them.

and i'm seriously considering telling anyone else we use for anything we're having a family reunion. when they show up and see they've been lied to?

oh well.

(ps--if you are planning on coming to the wedding? try and get your hotel on priceline. it's proving to have much better rates than the "special wedding party rate" the hotels have offered us)

My Kitties are Chris Cooper

At the end of the movie American Beauty, Chris Cooper's marine colonel murders Kevin Spacey's character. This happens after Cooper's homosexual advance is spurned by Spacey, an advance that exposes the inner nature of many overtly angry homophobes: that they themselves are gay and use anger to blanket such feelings. Outside of Hollywood, we've seen this pattern repeated in Right-Wing senators and Ultra-Conservative Religious figures.

If you are unaware, Lyds and I have two kitties, Simon and Pandora. They're both female, even though Simon is gender confused and thinks he's a boy. Regardless, these two female kitties engage daily in a ritual not unlike the rage of a closet case being discovered.

Many times upon waking from a nap, a nap usually taken while snuggled up together, they decide to help one another clean the area they themselves cannot alone: their face. Each begins to lick the other's noggin, and all is well for a minute or so. They're happy, relaxed... but almost immediately after a few cleaning licks have taken place, they always, always, always engage in an all out hiss-fight, with back-bent ears and snarling mouths.

I could be wrong, but I'm guessing they're closeted lesbians, and as they fully wake up from their naps and realize what they're in the middle of doing, Christian Kitty Guilt hits them full force and causes them to lash out at one another. "You tricked me! I'm no lesbian! I would never lick another female kitty when in my right mind!"

I'm going to ask the government for a million dollar grant to study homosexual animal guilt.