The Geeky Brit

So my lovely wife recently took me to the Grand Canyon to recouperate a little.

It was really awesome, and I highly recomend visiting if you ever get the chance.

But be warned, the hikes are pretty deadly this time of year. Even for those of us that mightconsider ourselves pretty fit. The rangers were telling us that this time of year they do 4-5 rescues a day! The altitude (7000 ft) coupled with the summer temperatures (100F at the rim, and 20 degrees warmer in the canyon), means that unless you are prepared and trained it is very easy to come a cropper. Take this ladies story: A woman who had placed 31 in the Boston marathon, died in the canyon in 2004 due to heat exhaustion and dehydration….

Anyway, here as some of the photos of my trip:

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So I got home today expecting to find Harry after Amazon.com’s mess up, and true to their word, there is my copy awaiting me.

It has a rather fetching box that reads “Attention Muggles: Do not deliver or open until July 21st!”. Glad to see amazon.com’s sense of fun shining through.

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On Saturday, because of my Harry Potter misery, I went looking for a Wii in the local stores. And would you “Adam and Eve” it I found one at Target!

Its great, its so much fun, its intuitive, and it has brought me great joy. I got the Wii (including Wii Sports) and Wii Play (with second controller). My brother in law and I had a blast yesterday playing for a number of hours. I think Wii Tennis and Wii Bowling are my favorite of the games that got bundled.

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So my buddy and I were having concerns on Friday that we would not receive our pre-ordered ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ books. Mr Crabapples reserved a copy with Borders, whereas I had ordered it through Amazon.com for delivery.

I had phoned Amazon.com, and was assured it would be with me on Saturday between 7am and 7pm. Mr C was not so lucky, as he could not find his order, and Borders told him they had no record of his purchase. I ended up expecting that I would receive the book, and be a number of chapters in before he managed to find one in a store somewhere. Of course, it had to happen. Amazon.com failed to deliver the book to me. At 8.30pm (I gave them a good chance) I called, and was informed that indeed it would not be delivered, and that I was entitled to a full refund, and a free copy of the book to be delivered on Monday. I was very disappointed, especially as I walked by copies on the shelves of local stores, as I trundled around town looking for something else.

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