GLAAD Media Awards Saturday, House Defacing Party Sunday

I'm still amazed to have witnessed the magic of Robin Williams from less than 40 feet away (even if his face was covered by a big speaker as viewed from our unfortunately-sited table.) excessor covered the event fairly thoroughly here, so I'll just fill in some odds and ends.

( Hollywood in Baghdad-by-the-Bay )

I got home late and the alcohol and excess carbs kept me awake until 3, which made for a slow start Sunday. I was an hour late to the pool-and-painting party at John and Mark's (who were also our hosts at the GLAAD awards.) They are demolishing their main house (which doesn't have a lot to recommend it) to replace it with a nice new one, and allowed their party guests to decorate it as they chose for the remainder of its existence. peppabear, who I knew I'd meet in the flesh someday, did one of the better pieces -- see the gallery here. Ran into several people I knew by face from the gym but had never actually talked to.

Tomorrow we move furniture and things for the flooring installation -- eek.

Sharp dealing and prosperous cheats

I'm getting a little stressed out. Our flooring company is trying to pad their bill now that the install is scheduled to start tomorrow. The arrangement had been somewhat vague, and we paid them half the estimate based on personal knowledge of the salesman, who then resigned and told us to "be careful." Now the company owner wants $1,000 extra to remove the old carpet, another $1,000 to remove and reuse the old baseboard, etc. This is why I hate dealing with anyone unknown.

This phenomenon, BTW, is very common in any industry where the frequency of purchase is low and the value of transactions are high, and it's exacerbated if the product is complex and hard to compare with similar offerings (not a commodity, in other words.) The seller has a huge information advantage and is tempted to cheat, because the normal restraint of damage to reputation only slowly or never catches up to the benefits of cheating. Other transaction types where this is common: real estate, car sales, medicine, marriage (just kidding about marriage!) It also points out that what keeps fairness in the vast majority of our daily transactions is not legal enforcement or government oversight, but the ongoing nature of our relationships.