3.5 Time Outs: The Vice Chest

Thanks once again to our host, Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who likes lawn tools.  I think he’s serious about that.

Click and be amazed.

1.

Vice is on my mind this week, as I head out to Las Vegas to drink mudslides go on a very spiritual retreat with a group of NFP-lovin’using, mostly-Catholic ladies (and a few spouses).  I’m also going to spend a few days with my dad and stepmom*, and have lunch with one of my favorite Orcas Island Fire & Rescue diesel-genius people.

SuperHusband is staying home to suffer mind the children.  He’s going to pawn part of that job off on our unsuspecting friends.

2.

So, vices.  We inherited one of these:

But we didn’t really need an ice box, what with already owning a big white electric-powered refrigerator.  Also, the ice wagon hasn’t come to our block in ages.  So we store other things in it.

3.

Which is how we started calling it the “Vice Chest”.  Because at first we stored our liquor in it.

Then we had a child, and needed to store the liquor up high out of reach, and my brother gave us a television.  And after a few years of owning a TV, it occurred to us that the magic box was not strictly limited to playing home videos (original purpose) or Raffi (new best friend).  Rather than sitting home bored out of our minds because you really can’t take a toddler and a newborn to the symphony or the jazz club or art house cinema, and you really can’t do a whole lot else useful with a baby, toddler, and one on the way making you puke all hours . . .  we could acquire a DVD player, and watch something other than hand-me-down Raffi videos.

And that buying a DVD — even at full retail — was cheaper than hiring a babysitter.

So the Vice Chest went from storing liquor to storing DVD’s.  The name still fit.

3.5

And then I rearranged a year or so ago, and the Vice Chest moved to our bedroom, and all it held was old extension cords behind the top left door, and the poor piece of furniture was moping for lack of a mission.  Until this spring I discovered the new controlled substance in our home, and now it holds

***

Well that’s all for today.  Tuesday is Link Day for all topics, help yourself if you are so inclined.   Post as many as you want, but only one per comment or the spam dragon will eat you up and I’ll never even know.  Have a great week!

 

*Not as much my stepmom this round, because she has a sideline gig** cashiering at the World Series of Poker.  My dad says it sounds like crickets in there.  Literally.  Silence and the squeak of chips.

**Technically her profession is running medical laboratories.  And then for fun in the winter she works for H&R block doing taxes.  We could basically say she is an exceedingly resourceful and hard-working fun hog.

6 thoughts on “3.5 Time Outs: The Vice Chest

  1. Oh, that’s just evil!
    A recent discussion of mine WRT theology was focused on the “vice list.” I thought your post might be a version of that. And yet, maybe it is.
    Also evil- I still think it is unfair that I’m missing the chance to meet you. If I had three clones, I could be everywhere I’d like to be this weekend, but alas, I don’t.
    I have no clue where the 3.5 is going. I will be AFK for a good while, my DH may have to come find the answer for me next Tuesday.

    1. The answer is hidden in a thread started by momtimesfour, but I forget exactly where (what forum, what folder, what date? I dunno). (How’s that for cruel?) But you can ask me later, I’ll tell you.

      My kids and I are plotting a road trip to western Kansas in 2013 or 2014 (I sold them by mentioning there’d be prize-winning bunnies), and then rendezvous with the spouse in Denver for the western tour. So it’s not impossible. Be warned: I do 95% of my travel purely in my imagination.

      This is the first time I’ve made the retreat, and mostly I only managed it because a) I was neither pregnant nor nursing nor significantly ailing b) my dad lives there, so it’s a double-hitter, and plus if I didn’t go to LV, when exactly was I going to go, and c) I mentioned it exactly when Jon’s boss was giving out bonuses, so there was actually travel money to be used if I claimed it before some other expense popped up.

      I will concede LV is 90% more appealing than the Chicago airport, and 90% less holy than the time the Archbishop gave the retreat talk.

  2. I make trips in my imagination, too. Particularly the one to South Carolina. So I get it. 🙂 Please stay with us- in your imagination or otherwise. We have plenty of room.
    Right- I made it to Chicago because of family nearby. That settles it- the next retreat will be in South Carolina, Atlanta, or such.
    Well, momtimesfour gives some clue as to what it might be. I will just have to wait.

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